Oral versus intravenous iron therapy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and iron deficiency with and without anemia in Germany - a real-world evidence analysis.

Background: Iron-deficiency anemia and iron deficiency are common comorbidities associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) resulting in impaired quality of life and high health care costs. Intravenous iron has shown clinical benefit compared to oral iron therapy.

Aim: This study aimed to compare health care outcomes and costs after oral vs intravenous iron treatment for IBD patients with iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia (ID/A) in Germany.

Cost-effectiveness of omalizumab add-on to standard-of-care therapy in patients with uncontrolled severe allergic asthma in a Brazilian healthcare setting.

Objective: Omalizumab add-on to standard-of-care therapy has proven to be efficacious in severe asthma patients for whom exacerbations cannot be controlled otherwise. Moreover, evidence from different healthcare settings suggests reduced healthcare resource utilization with omalizumab. Based on these findings, this study aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the addition of omalizumab to standard-of-care therapy in patients with uncontrolled severe allergic asthma in a Brazilian healthcare setting.

Systematic Literature Review of DPP-4 Inhibitors in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Renal Impairment.

Introduction: Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors are widely used in the management of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and renal impairment (RI). A systematic literature review was performed to compare the efficacy and safety of DPP-4 inhibitors in patients with T2DM and RI.

Methods: We searched EMBASE, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (cut-off, June 2015) to identify ≥12-week, randomized, placebo-controlled trials on DPP-4 inhibitors in ≥50 patients with T2DM and RI.

Prolactin-induced protein as a potential therapy response marker of adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients.

Many studies are dedicated to exploring the molecular mechanisms of chemotherapy-resistance in breast cancer (BC). Some of them are focused on searching for candidate genes responsible for this process. The aim of this study was typing the candidate genes associated with the response to standard chemotherapy in the case of invasive ductal carcinoma.

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Hypoglycemia Perspectives Questionnaire in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the factor structure and psychometric characteristics of the Hypoglycemia Perspectives Questionnaire (HPQ) assessing experience and perceptions of hypoglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: HPQ was administered to adults with T2DM in a clinical sample from Cyprus (HYPO-Cyprus, n = 500) and a community sample in the United States (US, n = 1257) from the 2011 US National Health and Wellness Survey. Demographic and clinical data were collected.

Clinical trial simulation methods for estimating the impact of DPP-4 inhibitors on cardiovascular disease.

Introduction: Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors are a class of oral antidiabetic agents for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, which lower blood glucose without causing severe hypoglycemia. However, the first cardiovascular (CV) safety trials have only recently reported their results, and our understanding of these therapies remains incomplete. Using clinical trial simulations, we estimated the effectiveness of DPP-4 inhibitors in preventing major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in a population like that enrolled in the SAVOR-TIMI (the Saxagliptin Assessment of Vascular Outcomes Recorded in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus - Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction) 53 trial.

Pulse pressure and stroke risk: development and validation of a new stroke risk model.

Objective: This study aims to develop and validate a stroke risk model incorporating pulse pressure (PP) as a potential risk factor. Recent evidence suggests that PP, defined as the difference between systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), could be an incremental risk factor beyond SBP.

Methods: Electronic health records (EHRs) of hypertensive patients from a US integrated health delivery system were analyzed (January 2004 to May 2012).

Is addition of vasodilators to loop diuretics of value in the care of hospitalized acute heart failure patients? Real-world evidence from a retrospective analysis of a large United States hospital database.

Background: Current guidelines recommend the use of intravenous (IV) vasodilators in addition to IV loop diuretics for the treatment of acute heart failure (AHF) patients without hypotension. The evidence basis for these recommendations is limited.

Methods And Results: Hospital billing records for 82,808 AHF patients in the United States were analyzed.

Cost-effectiveness of metformin plus vildagliptin compared with metformin plus sulphonylurea for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a Portuguese healthcare system perspective.

Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of vildagliptin plus metformin vs generic sulphonylurea plus metformin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, not controlled with metformin, from a Portuguese healthcare system perspective.

Methods: A cost-effectiveness model was constructed using risk equations from the UK Prospective Diabetes Study Outcomes Model with a 10,000-patient cohort and a lifetime horizon. The model predicted microvascular and macrovascular complications and mortality in yearly cycles.

Resource utilization and costs following hospitalization of patients with chronic heart failure in the US.

Background: Despite advances in its management and the identification of preventable risk factors, heart failure (HF) is a growing health problem in the US. The objective of this study was to describe treatment patterns, medical resource utilization and costs following hospitalization for chronic HF for patients stratified by age.

Methods: Patients with at least one hospitalization with chronic HF were identified in a US commercial insurance claims database from 2004-2008.

Costs associated with cardiovascular events in patients with hypertension in US managed care settings.

Study quantified incremental cost of cardiovascular (CV) events in 6 high-risk and compelling indication subgroups: post-myocardial infarction (MI), diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, elderly, chronic kidney disease, and prior stroke. Based on claims data from privately insured individuals with 2+ hypertension (HTN) diagnoses in 2004-2006, we estimated regression-adjusted per-member-per-month healthcare costs after CVE. Costs were compared between patients with and without a CV events, and before and after CV events in each subgroup.

The Cdc42 effector IRSp53 generates filopodia by coupling membrane protrusion with actin dynamics.

The Cdc42 effector IRSp53 is a strong inducer of filopodia formation and consists of an Src homology domain 3 (SH3), a potential WW-binding motif, a partial-Cdc42/Rac interacting binding region motif, and an Inverse-Bin-Amphiphysins-Rvs (I-BAR) domain. We show that IRSp53 interacts directly with neuronal Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (N-WASP) via its SH3 domain and furthermore that N-WASP is required for filopodia formation as IRSp53 failed to induce filopodia formation in N-WASP knock-out (KO) fibroblasts. IRSp53-induced filopodia formation can be reconstituted in N-WASP KO fibroblasts by full-length N-WASP, by N-WASPDeltaWA (a mutant unable to activate the Arp2/3 complex), and by N-WASPH208D (a mutant unable to bind Cdc42).

Development and validation of a disease-targeted quality of life instrument in chronic hepatitis B: the hepatitis B quality of life instrument, version 1.0.

Unlabelled: Despite the increasing realization that health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important outcome in chronic HBV infection, there are no validated, disease-targeted instruments currently available. We sought to develop and validate the first disease-targeted HRQOL instrument in noncirrhotic HBV: the Hepatitis B Quality of Life instrument, version 1.0 (HBQOL v1.

grb2 heterozygosity rescues embryonic lethality but not tumorigenesis in pten+/- mice.

PTEN is a tumor suppressor gene implicated in both sporadic cancers and inherited tumor-prone syndromes. Here we show that pten+/- mice display a partially penetrant embryonic lethality. This lethality is associated with defects in both neural and placental development.

Integration of semaphorin-2A/MAB-20, ephrin-4, and UNC-129 TGF-beta signaling pathways regulates sorting of distinct sensory rays in C. elegans.

Semaphorins and ephrins are axon guidance cues. In C. elegans, semaphorin-2a/mab-20 and ephrin-4/efn-4/mab-26 also regulate cell sorting to form distinct rays in the male tail.

The WRP component of the WAVE-1 complex attenuates Rac-mediated signalling.

WAVE-1, which is also known as Scar, is a scaffolding protein that directs actin reorganization by relaying signals from the GTPase Rac to the Arp2/3 complex. Although the molecular details of WAVE activation by Rac have been described, the mechanisms by which these signals are terminated remain unknown. Here we have used tandem mass spectrometry to identify previously unknown components of the WAVE signalling network including WRP, a Rac-selective GTPase-activating protein.

Sprouty2 inhibits the Ras/MAP kinase pathway by inhibiting the activation of Raf.

Several genetic studies in Drosophila have shown that the dSprouty (dSpry) protein inhibits the Ras/mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway induced by various activated receptor tyrosine kinase receptors, most notably those of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR). Currently, the mode of action of dSpry is unknown, and the point of inhibition remains controversial. There are at least four mammalian Spry isoforms that have been shown to co-express preferentially with FGFRs as compared with EGFRs.