Antifibrinolytic drugs are used extensively for on-demand treatment of severe acute bleeding. Controlling fibrinolysis may also be an effective strategy to prevent or lessen chronic recurring bleeding in bleeding disorders such as hemophilia A (HA), but current antifibrinolytics have unfavorable pharmacokinetic profiles. Here, we developed a long-lasting antifibrinolytic using small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting plasminogen packaged in clinically used lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and tested it to determine whether reducing plasmin activity in animal models of HA could decrease bleeding frequency and severity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly fatal metastatic disease associated with robust activation of the coagulation and fibrinolytic systems. However, the potential contribution of the primary fibrinolytic protease plasminogen to PDAC disease progression has remained largely undefined. Mice bearing C57Bl/6-derived KPC (KRas , TRP53 ) tumors displayed evidence of plasmin activity in the form of high plasmin-antiplasmin complexes and high plasmin generation potential relative to mice without tumors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Staphylococcus aureus is a common gram-positive bacterium that is the causative agent for several human diseases, including sepsis. A key virulence mechanism is pathogen binding to host fibrinogen through the C-terminal region of the γ-chain. Previous work demonstrated that Fgg mice expressing mutant fibrinogen γ lacking a S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe blood-clotting protein fibrin(ogen) plays a critical role in host defense against invading pathogens, particularly against peritoneal infection by the Gram-positive microbe Staphylococcus aureus. Here, we tested the hypothesis that direct binding between fibrin(ogen) and S. aureus is a component of the primary host antimicrobial response mechanism and prevention of secondary microbe dissemination from the peritoneal cavity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is an increasing shortage of primary care physicians in the U.S. The difficult task of addressing patients' sociocultural needs is one reason residents do not pursue primary care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To describe the pattern of hydroxychloroquine use and examine the association between hydroxychloroquine use and clinical outcomes arising from changes in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s recommendation during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Design: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis.
Setting And Participants: We included hospitalised adult patients at Northwell Health hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 infections between 1 March 2020 and 11 May 2020.
Obesity promotes a chronic inflammatory and hypercoagulable state that drives cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and several cancers. Elevated thrombin activity underlies obesity-linked thromboembolic events, but the mechanistic links between the thrombin/fibrin(ogen) axis and obesity-associated pathologies are incompletely understood. In this work, immunohistochemical studies identified extravascular fibrin deposits within white adipose tissue and liver as distinct features of mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) as well as obese patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Decreased production of cathelicidin antimicrobial protein-18 (hCAP18) has been proposed to be a key mechanism linking decreased 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25D) levels with adverse outcomes among critically ill patients. However, few studies in humans have directly assessed plasma hCAP18 levels, and no study has evaluated the association between hCAP18 levels and adverse outcomes among critically ill patients.
Methods: We performed a single-center, prospective cohort study among 121 critically ill patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) between 2008 and 2012.