Heme regulates exocrine peptidase precursor genes in zebrafish.

We previously determined that yquem harbors a mutation in the gene encoding uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase (UROD), the fifth enzyme in heme biosynthesis, and established zebrafish yquem (yqe(tp61)) as a vertebrate model for human hepatoery-thropoietic porphyria (HEP). Here we report that six exocrine peptidase precursor genes, carboxypeptidase A, trypsin precursor, trypsin like, chymotrypsinogen B1, chymotrypsinogen 1-like, and elastase 2 like, are downregulated in yquem/urod (-/-), identified initially by microarray analysis of yquem/urod zebrafish and, subsequently, confirmed by in situ hybridization. We then determined downregulation of these six zymogens specifically in the exocrine pancreas of sauternes (sau(tb223)) larvae, carrying a mutation in the gene encoding delta-amino-levulinate synthase (ALAS2), the first enzyme in heme biosynthesis.

A strategy to develop advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

Objective: To establish statewide medication, disease management, and other clinical programs to serve as advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) training sites for the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy, and to guarantee year-round support for the programs by providing pharmacy students with the necessary competencies to carry a significant proportion of each program's workload.

Methods: Partnerships with pharmacies willing to use students to expand their scope of clinical practice or support existing programs were established. Partners were asked to choose the clinical program(s) they wished implemented or supported and were guaranteed that APPE students would contribute to carrying each program's clinical service workload for 48 week/year under the supervision of the partners' pharmacists.

In vitro cell culture infectivity assay for human noroviruses.

Human noroviruses cause severe, self-limiting gastroenteritis that typically lasts 24-48 hours. Because of the lack of suitable tissue culture or animal models, the true nature of norovirus pathogenesis remains unknown. We show, for the first time, that noroviruses can infect and replicate in a physiologically relevant 3-dimensional (3-D), organoid model of human small intestinal epithelium.

An introductory pharmacy practice experience emphasizing student-administered vaccinations.

Objective: To introduce a requirement for second-professional year (P2) and third-professional year (P3) students to administer vaccinations to adults in community pharmacy-based immunization clinics.

Design: Second-professional year students were trained to administer influenza, pneumococcal, and other vaccinations to adults following the American Pharmacists Association's standards. All P2 students in fall 2004 and all P2 and P3 students in fall 2005 were assigned to 2 community pharmacy-based immunization clinics in the metropolitan Denver area under the supervision of immunization-certified staff pharmacists.

A comparison of pharmacy students' confidence and test performance.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to estimate student retention of knowledge regarding the management of patients with hypertension and dyslipidemia, measure student clinical confidence, and identify the relationship between clinical confidence and actual performance on a knowledge assessment test.

Methods: This was a sequential cross-sectional study to evaluate knowledge retention and clinical confidence of second-year pharmacy students. To measure student clinical confidence, a 12-item clinical confidence questionnaire was administered.

An assessment system for mapping CAPE outcomes in an advanced pharmacy practice experience program.

Objective: To implement and evaluate an assessment system based on the 1998 Center for the Advancement of Pharmaceutical Education's (CAPE) Outcomes for students in advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs).

Description: The system requires each preceptor to create a summative assessment tool by choosing the most important 20-30 CAPE competencies and sub-elements necessary for his/her pharmacy practice with each to be scored by him/her on a 4-point scale from "exceeds expectations" to "below expectations." Students' grades are determined by an examination committee based on the preceptors' assessments.

Cleland's and Grayson's ligaments of the hand: a morphometrical investigation.

The cutaneous ligaments of the human digits are delicate functional structures essential for normal skin stability during digital movements. These ligaments extend bilaterally between the phalanx and the finger dermis, either posteriorly (Cleland's ligaments) or anteriorly (Grayson's ligaments) to the digital neurovascular bundles. We have performed a series of detailed anatomical dissections of the human digits so as to investigate morphometrically Cleland's and Grayson's ligaments and their topographic arrangements.

Epidermal growth factor intralesional infiltrations can prevent amputation in patients with advanced diabetic foot wounds.

This study examined if a series of epidermal growth factor (EGF) local infiltrations can enhance the healing process of complicated diabetic wounds. Twenty-nine in-hospital patients with diabetic neuropathic or ischaemic lesions with high risk of amputation were treated in a non controlled pilot study conducted at the National Institute of Angiology, Havana. Lesions, classified as Wagner's grade 3 or 4, included ulcers > or = 20 cm2 for > or = 25 days or amputation residual bases > or = 30 cm2 for > or = 15 days, healing refractory despite comprehensive wound care.

Diazeniumdiolate ions as leaving groups in anomeric displacement reactions: a protection-deprotection strategy for ionic diazeniumdiolates.

Diazeniumdiolate ions [R2N-N(O)=N-O-] are of growing interest pharmacologically for their ability to generate up to two molar equivalents of bioactive nitric oxide (NO) spontaneously on protonating the amino nitrogen. Accordingly, their stability increases as the pH is raised. Here we show that the corresponding beta-glucosides [R2N-N(O)=N-O-Glc] decreased in stability with pH; when R2N was diethylamino, the rate equation was kobs = ko + kOH- [OH-], where ko = 7.

Vaccinia virus H3L envelope protein is a major target of neutralizing antibodies in humans and elicits protection against lethal challenge in mice.

The smallpox vaccine is the prototypic vaccine, yet the viral targets critical for vaccine-mediated protection remain unclear in humans. We have produced protein microarrays of a near-complete vaccinia proteome and used them to determine the major antigen specificities of the human humoral immune response to the smallpox vaccine (Dryvax). H3L, an intracellular mature virion envelope protein, was consistently recognized by high-titer antibodies in the majority of human donors, particularly after secondary immunization.

Similar medication compliance and control of dyslipidemia with simvastatin or atorvastatin in a staff-model HMO medical clinic.

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to determine medication compliance rates and dyslipidemia control in a patient population receiving simvastatin or atorvastatin (statins) in a unique staff-model health maintenance organization (HMO). The secondary objective of this study was to measure the effect of gender and statin regimen on the success rate of dylipidemia control and medication compliance.

Methods: This was a retrospective chart review conducted for patients with a diagnosis of dyslipidemia who received monotherapy with a statin for cholesterol reduction.

Automated methods for multiplexed pathogen detection.

Detection of pathogenic microorganisms in environmental samples is a difficult process. Concentration of the organisms of interest also co-concentrates inhibitors of many end-point detection methods, notably, nucleic acid methods. In addition, sensitive, highly multiplexed pathogen detection continues to be problematic.

HIV prevention programs of nongovernmental organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean: the Global AIDS Intervention Network project.

Objective: The objective of this paper is to describe HIV prevention programs conducted by nongovernmental organizations (NGO) that are meeting this challenge.

Methods: One NGO undertaking HIV prevention programs was evaluated in each of the 23 countries participating in the Global AIDS Intervention Network (GAIN) Project throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. A two-stage selection process was used: (1) a search in databases and other information sources; (2) identification of NGOs that were best established and most actively engaged in HIV prevention activity.

Validating a computerized neuropsychological test battery for mixed ethnic lupus patients.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) often show cognitive impairment on traditional neuropsychological tests; however, many of these tests are unsuitable for use with mixed ethnic populations. Computer-administered cognitive tests are promising, but have not been validated against traditional tests or with predominantly Hispanic samples. We gave 67 lupus patients a computer-administered test battery (Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics--ANAM) and a battery of traditional neuropsychological tests.

Sugar-modified conjugated diene analogues of adenosine and uridine: synthesis, interaction with S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine hydrolase, and antiviral and cytostatic effects.

Moffatt oxidation of 2',3'-O-isopropylideneuridine (1a) and treatment of the crude 5'-aldehyde with formylmethylene-stabilized Wittig reagent gave the vinylogously extended 7'-aldehyde2a. Condensation of 2a with ethoxycarbonyl- or dibromomethylene phosphorane reagents gave the conjugated dienes 6a and 4a, respectively. Deacetonization gave diene ester 7a [5'(E),7'(E); with s-trans conformation] and dibromodiene 5a [5'(E)], respectively.

Neuropsychiatric syndromes in lupus: prevalence using standardized definitions.

Objective: The San Antonio Lupus Study of Neuropsychiatric Disease is a longitudinal study designed to characterize the spectrum of and important risk factors for specific neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) syndromes.

Methods: Subjects must meet criteria for SLE and must be at least 18 years of age. A standardized medical history, neurologic, rheumatologic, and psychiatric examinations, computerized neuropsychological evaluation, and serologic testing are performed.

Retinol concentrations in capillary dried blood spots from healthy volunteers: method validation.

Background: Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a major public health problem in the developing world, leading to >3 million eye-related problems in preschool children. Nearly 250 million children have subclinical VAD, resulting in a 23% increase in childhood mortality. Difficulties in obtaining samples to assess VAD have hampered the detection, intervention, and surveillance of VAD.

Doubly homologated dihalovinyl and acetylene analogues of adenosine: synthesis, interaction with S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine hydrolase, and antiviral and cytostatic effects.

Treatment of the 6-aldehyde derived by Moffatt oxidation of 3-O-benzoyl-1,2-O-isopropylidene-alpha-D-ribo-hexofuranose (2c) with the dibromo- or bromofluoromethylene Wittig reagents generated in situ with tetrabromomethane or tribromofluoromethane, triphenylphosphine, and zinc gave the dihalomethyleneheptofuranose analogues 3b and 3d, respectively. Acetolysis, coupling with adenine, and deprotection gave 9-(7,7-dibromo-5,6, 7-trideoxy-beta-D-ribo-hept-6-enofuranosyl)adenine (5a) or its bromofluoro analogue 5b. Treatment of 5a with excess butyllithium provided the acetylenic derivative 9-(5,6, 7-trideoxy-beta-D-ribo-hept-6-ynofuranosyl)adenine (6).

Aging, physical activity, insulin-like growth factor I, and body composition in Guatemalan women.

Aging is associated with diminished secretion of growth hormone and the major endogenous mediator of growth hormone action, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). Aging is also associated with decreased physical activity. Alterations in body composition characteristic of the aging process (increased fat mass and decreased lean body mass) may be related to the decline in anabolic effects of IGF-I with aging, decreased physical activity, or both.

Nutritional status indicators and their interactions in rural Guatemalan elderly: a study in San Pedro Ayampuc.

Anthropometry and body-composition measures, hematologic and biochemical measures of nutritional status, and helminthic infection were studied in the population of elderly persons (> or = 60 y of age) in a rural village in Guatemala that was 65% Mayan (indigenous) and 35% ladino (European). The population had low levels of literacy and formal education. The elderly persons were much shorter and lighter than reference populations.

Sensory modulation and behavioral choice during feeding in the Australian frog, Cyclorana novaehollandiae.

This study investigates how visual and tactile sensory information, as well as biomechanical effects due to differences in physical characteristics of the prey, influence feeding behavior in the frog Cyclorana novaehollandiae. Video motion analysis was used to quantify movement patterns produced when feeding on five prey types (termites, waxworms, crickets, mice and earthworms). Twelve kinematic variables differed significantly among prey types, and twelve variables were correlated with prey characteristics (including mass, length, height and velocity of movement).

A comparison of body fat estimates using anthropometry and bioelectrical impedance analysis with distinct prediction equations in elderly persons in the Republic of Guatemala.

Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) has been proposed as a technique to estimate body composition. Its application has extended beyond the clinical setting, however, it remains to be determined if the BIA prediction formulas published to date provide comparable body composition estimates in elderly populations. The objective of this study was to compare the estimates of body fat derived from published prediction equations in a developing country's population such as Guatemala.

[Relationship between plasmatic lipids and fat soluble vitamins in Guatemalan periurban elderly].

The levels of plasmatic lipids and fat liposoluble vitamins were measured in 107 elderlies (29% males, 71% females) who were residents of a poor periurban neighborhood of Guatemala City. The age ranged between 60-103 years (means +/- sd 69 +/- 8). The mean and sd for the plasmatic levels of lipids and vitamins were (ranges in parenthesis): cholesterol 220 +/- 42 mg/dl (128 to 428); triglycerides: 189 +/- 92 mg/dl (54 to 513); retinol 50 +/- 16 ug/dl (4.