A prospective, multicenter, noninterventional study of Optive Plus(®) in the treatment of patients with dry eye: the prolipid study.

Objective: The aim was to evaluate the efficacy of Optive Plus(®), an artificial tear containing castor oil, in patients with dry eye, in a routine clinical setting.

Methods: This was a prospective, noninterventional study of patients with dry eye who switched from a prior therapy or who were naïve to treatment (n=1,209). Patients were issued Optive Plus(®) artificial tears.

Bimatoprost/timolol fixed combination versus latanoprost in treatment-naïve glaucoma patients at high risk of progression: a pilot study.

Objective: To compare a fixed combination of 0.03% bimatoprost and 0.5% timolol (BTFC) with latanoprost monotherapy (LM) in treatment-naïve patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and risk factors for glaucomatous progression.

A combined analysis of five observational studies evaluating the efficacy and tolerability of bimatoprost/timolol fixed combination in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a fixed combination of bimatoprost 0.03% and timolol (BTFC) in a clinical setting, in a large sample of patients with primary open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension and insufficient intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering on prior therapy.

Methods: Patient data were combined (n = 5556) from five multicenter, observational, non-controlled, open-label studies throughout Europe.

Conformational variation between allelic variants of cell-surface ovine prion protein.

The distribution of prion infectivity and PrPSc between peripheral lymphoid tissues suggests their possible haematogenic spread during the progression of natural scrapie in susceptible sheep. Since ovine PBMCs (peripheral blood mononuclear cells) express PrPC, they have the potential to carry or harbour disease-associated forms of PrP. To detect the possible presence of disease-associated PrP on the surface of blood cells, an understanding is required of the conformations that normal ovine cell-surface PrPC may adopt.

Detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, ovine scrapie prion-related protein (PrPSc) and normal PrPc by monoclonal antibodies raised to copper-refolded prion protein.

Prion-related protein (PrP) is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked cell-surface protein expressed by a wide variety of cells, including those of the nervous system and the immune system. Several functions of normal cellular PrP (PrPc) have been proposed that may be associated with the capacity of this protein to bind copper. In the present study, we describe the generation of a panel of monoclonal antibodies raised to copper-refolded PrP, which may be used to analyse the normal and disease-associated forms of this protein.