Healthy children are more likely to die of influenza A virus (IAV) infection than healthy adults. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the impact of young age on the development of life-threatening IAV infection. We report increased mortality in juvenile mice compared with adult mice at each infectious dose of IAV.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConcern has been raised regarding the public health risks from refillable bulk-soap dispensers because they provide an environment for potentially pathogenic bacteria to grow. This study surveyed the microbial quality of open refillable bulk soap in four different food establishment types in three states. Two hundred ninety-six samples of bulk soap were collected from food service establishments in Arizona, New Jersey, and Ohio.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfluenza A virus (IAV) is a significant cause of life-threatening lower respiratory tract infections in children. Antiviral therapy is the mainstay of treatment, but its effectiveness in this age group has been questioned. In addition, damage inflicted on the lungs by the immune response to the virus may be as important to the development of severe lung injury during IAV infection as the cytotoxic effects of the virus itself.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe literature on hand washing, while extensive, often contains conflicting data, and key variables are only superficially studied or not studied at all. Some hand washing recommendations are made without scientific support, and agreement between recommendations is limited. The influence of key variables such as soap volume, lather time, water temperature, and product formulation on hand washing efficacy was investigated in the present study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Inter-professional collaboration is an integral component of a successful healthcare team. We sought to evaluate the impact of nursing student participation in a one-day intensive inter-professional education (IPE) training session with surgical interns on participant attitudes toward inter-professional collaboration.
Methods: Following IRB approval, pre and post IPE session survey responses were compared to determine the impact on participant attitudes toward inter-professional collaboration.
The type III intermediate filament protein vimentin was once thought to function mainly as a static structural protein in the cytoskeleton of cells of mesenchymal origin. Now, however, vimentin is known to form a dynamic, flexible network that plays an important role in a number of signaling pathways. Here, we describe various methods that have been developed to investigate the cellular functions of the vimentin protein and intermediate filament network, including chemical disruption, photoactivation and photoconversion, biolayer interferometry, soluble bead binding assay, three-dimensional substrate experiments, collagen gel contraction, optical-tweezer active microrheology, and force spectrum microscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEffective hand hygiene is essential to prevent the spread of pathogens on produce farms and reduce foodborne illness. The U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActivation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and subsequent maturation of IL-1β have been implicated in acute lung injury (ALI), resulting in inflammation and fibrosis. We investigated the role of vimentin, a type III intermediate filament, in this process using three well-characterized murine models of ALI known to require NLRP3 inflammasome activation. We demonstrate that central pathophysiologic events in ALI (inflammation, IL-1β levels, endothelial and alveolar epithelial barrier permeability, remodelling and fibrosis) are attenuated in the lungs of Vim(-/-) mice challenged with LPS, bleomycin and asbestos.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Alcohol-based hand rubs (ABHR) range in alcohol concentration from 60-95% and are available in a variety of delivery formats, such as rinses, gels, and foams. Recent studies suggest that some ABHR foams dry too slowly, thereby encouraging the use of inadequate volumes. This study investigates the influence of product volume, delivery format, and alcohol concentration on dry-time and antimicrobial efficacy of ABHR foams, gels and rinses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Given recent advances in hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment, health systems must ensure that patients with a positive HCV antibody receive timely determination of their HCV status through viral testing. At the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, viral testing was completed within six months of the first instance of a positive HCV antibody test for only 45% of patients. Beginning in 2008, three sequential improvements were implemented to close this care gap.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfect Control Hosp Epidemiol
October 2014
We captured 3-dimensional accelerometry data from the wrists of 116 healthcare professionals as they performed hand hygiene (HH). We then used these data to train a k-nearest-neighbors classifier to recognize specific aspects of HH technique (ie, fingertip scrub) and measure the duration of HH events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Respir Cell Mol Biol
January 2014
There is an accumulation of evidence in the literature demonstrating the integral role of vimentin intermediate filaments (IFs) in the progression of lung cancers. Vimentin IF proteins have been implicated in many aspects of cancer initiation and progression, including tumorigenesis, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and the metastatic spread of cancer. Specifically, vimentin IFs have been recognized as an essential component regulating EMT, major signal transduction pathways involved in EMT and tumor progression, cell migration and invasion, the positioning and anchorage of organelles, such as mitochondria, and cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfect Control Hosp Epidemiol
March 2013
In vivo efficacies of 2 alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) products (gel and foam) were evaluated at a volume of 1.1 mL. Both met US Food and Drug Administration log(10) reduction requirements after a single application and 10 consecutive applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNuclear lamin B1 (LB1) is a major structural component of the nucleus that appears to be involved in the regulation of many nuclear functions. The results of this study demonstrate that LB1 expression in WI-38 cells decreases during cellular senescence. Premature senescence induced by oncogenic Ras also decreases LB1 expression through a retinoblastoma protein (pRb)-dependent mechanism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe lamins are major determinants of nuclear shape and chromatin organization and these features are frequently altered in prostate cancer (CaP). Human CaP cell lines frequently have nuclear lobulations, which are enriched in A-type lamins but lack B-type lamins and have been defined as lamin B-deficient microdomains (LDMDs). LDMD frequency is correlated with CaP cell line aggressiveness and increased cell motility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe nuclear envelope (NE) is a double membrane physical barrier, which separates the nucleus from the cytoplasm. Underlying the NE are the nuclear lamins, which in combination with inner nuclear membrane proteins form the lamina. The lamina is crucial for maintaining the structural integrity of the nucleus and for positioning of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) within the NE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVimentin intermediate filaments (VIF) extend throughout the rear and perinuclear regions of migrating fibroblasts, but only nonfilamentous vimentin particles are present in lamellipodial regions. In contrast, VIF networks extend to the entire cell periphery in serum-starved or nonmotile fibroblasts. Upon serum addition or activation of Rac1, VIF are rapidly phosphorylated at Ser-38, a p21-activated kinase phosphorylation site.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe nucleoporin Nup153 is known to play pivotal roles in nuclear import and export in interphase cells and as the cell transitions into mitosis, Nup153 is involved in nuclear envelope breakdown. In this study, we demonstrate that the interaction of Nup153 with the spindle assembly checkpoint protein Mad1 is important in the regulation of the spindle checkpoint. Overexpression of human Nup153 in HeLa cells leads to the appearance of multinucleated cells and induces the formation of multipolar spindles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report a gold nanoparticle-templated high density lipoprotein (HDL AuNP) platform for gene therapy that combines lipid-based nucleic acid transfection strategies with HDL biomimicry. For proof-of-concept, HDL AuNPs are shown to adsorb antisense cholesterylated DNA. The conjugates are internalized by human cells, can be tracked within cells using transmission electron microscopy, and regulate target gene expression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients' feedback about their perianesthesia experience at an acute care 609-bed teaching hospital in Washington, DC, indicated that pain management was an area in need of improvement. A nonexperimental descriptive study related to pain management was conducted in the perianesthesia areas to assess the knowledge and attitudes of health care providers. McCaffrey and Ferrell's 38-item self-report questionnaire was given to anesthesia providers, preoperative nurses, Phase I nurses, and Phase II nurses (N=138).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntermediate filament (IF) dynamics during organelle transport and their role in organelle movement were studied using Xenopus laevis melanophores. In these cells, pigment granules (melanosomes) move along microtubules and microfilaments, toward and away from the cell periphery in response to alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) and melatonin, respectively. In this study we show that melanophores possess a complex network of vimentin IFs which interact with melanosomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of stents has been a major advancement over balloon angioplasty, improving vessel revascularization in obstructive coronary artery disease. The development of drug-eluting stents (DES) was the next breakthrough, designed to prevent the development of neointimal hyperplasia (restenosis) following percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). Several DES are currently in various stages of clinical development; these DES use different stent platforms, different antiproliferative drugs and different polymeric coatings that carry the drugs and control their delivery kinetics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe nuclear lamins function in the regulation of replication, transcription, and epigenetic modifications of chromatin. However, the mechanisms responsible for these lamin functions are poorly understood. We demonstrate that A- and B-type lamins form separate, but interacting, stable meshworks in the lamina and have different mobilities in the nucleoplasm as determined by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolymer coatings are essential for local delivery of drug from the stent platform. In designing a DES, it is critical to balance the hydrophilic and hydrophobic components of the polymer system to obtain optimal biocompatibility, while maintaining controlled drug elution. This study investigates the impact of polymer composition of the BioLinx polymer blend on in vitro biocompatibility, as measured by monocytic adhesion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study provides insights into the role of nuclear lamins in DNA replication. Our data demonstrate that the Ig-fold motif located in the lamin C terminus binds directly to proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), the processivity factor necessary for the chain elongation phase of DNA replication. We find that the introduction of a mutation in the Ig-fold, which alters its structure and causes human muscular dystrophy, inhibits PCNA binding.
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