Publications by authors named "Virginia Grant"

Kinetic stabilization of amyloidogenic immunoglobulin light chains (LCs) through small molecule binding may become the first treatment for the proteinopathy component of light chain amyloidosis (AL). Kinetic stabilizers selectively bind to the native state over the misfolding transition state, slowing denaturation. Prior λ full-length LC dimer (FL LC) kinetic stabilizers exhibited considerable plasma protein binding.

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Many patients with multiple myeloma (MM) initially respond to treatment with modern combination regimens including immunomodulatory agents (lenalidomide and pomalidomide) and proteasome inhibitors. However, some patients lack an initial response to therapy (i.e.

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Background Somatosensory stimulation may have a positive impact on recovery of motor function by maintaining cortical representation of the hand and acting to prime the motor system for movement. Objective Determine the efficacy of somatosensory stimulation on upper limb motor function after stroke. Methods Five electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, PEDro and OT Seeker) were searched from inception to October 2016.

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Manipulation of body weight set point may be an effective weight loss and maintenance strategy as the homeostatic mechanism governing energy balance remains intact even in obese conditions and counters the effort to lose weight. However, how the set point is determined is not well understood. We show that a single injection of rapamycin (RAP), an mTOR inhibitor, is sufficient to shift the set point in rats.

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It is well established that wheel running in rats produces conditioned taste avoidance; that is, rats that run in wheels after consuming a novel-tasting solution later consume less of that solution than rats that do not run. In experiment 1, we found that wheel running also produces conditioned disgust reactions, indicated by gapes elicited by both the taste and context that were experienced before running. Experiment 2 showed that the conditioned disgust reactions were likely not due to running itself but to a by-product of running, the rocking of the wheel that occurs when the running stops.

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Continuing studies on tetrahydroquinoline glucocorticoid receptor anti-inflammatory agents lead to the identification of several tetrahydroquinolin-3-yl carbamates that exhibited steroid-like activity in in vitro transrepression assays with reduced transactivation of phosphoenol pyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), a key enzyme in the gluconeogenesis pathway.

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Hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a marked feature of anorexia nervosa. Using a modified version of the activity-based animal model of anorexia nervosa, we examine whether factors known to affect HPA axis activity influence the development of activity-based anorexia (ABA). Male and female rats were subjected to maternal separation or handling procedures during the first two postnatal weeks and tested in a mild version of the ABA paradigm, comprised of 2-hr daily running wheel access followed by 1-hr food access, either in adolescence or adulthood.

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Running activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, increasing the release of stress hormones known to exert anorexic effects. HPA axis reactivity is strongly influenced by early postnatal manipulations, including removal of pups from the dam for short (handling) or prolonged (maternal separation) durations during the preweaning period. The authors examined the effects of handling and maternal separation on food intake, body weight loss, and running rates of young adult male and female rats in the activity-based anorexia (ABA) paradigm.

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The rewarding effect of wheel running is hypothesized to be mediated by endogenous opioids. Thus, prior experience with wheel running might be expected to affect the reward value of an opiate drug like morphine. In three similar experiments to test this idea, 10 rats (wheel-morphine group) were confined in running wheels for 2 h on each of eight consecutive days during the first phase; the 10 in the cage-morphine group were confined in small metal cages.

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