Validation of TPX2 as a potential therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer cells.

Purpose: The targeting protein for Xklp2 (TPX2) has recently gained attention as a putative oncogene possibly amplified in several human malignancies, including pancreatic adenocarcinoma. In this work, we sought to evaluate the copy number and expression of TPX2 in pancreatic cancer cell lines and tumor tissues and to further explore the potential of TPX2 as a therapeutic target.

Experimental Design: The DNA copy number and expression of the TPX2 gene were surveyed in pancreatic cancer cell lines and tumor tissues and compared with those of immortalized normal pancreatic ductal cells and normal pancreatic tissues.

Cdc42 antagonizes Rho1 activity at adherens junctions to limit epithelial cell apical tension.

In epithelia, cells are arranged in an orderly pattern with a defined orientation and shape. Cadherin containing apical adherens junctions (AJs) and the associated actomyosin cytoskeleton likely contribute to epithelial cell shape by providing apical tension. The Rho guanosine triphosphatases are well known regulators of cell junction formation, maintenance, and function.

Therapist behavior as a predictor of black and white caregiver responsiveness in multisystemic therapy.

This study examined whether (a) therapist behaviors thought to enhance family treatment predicted caregiver in-session responses, and (b) caregiver race, racial match between caregiver and therapist, and family financial hardship moderated the relationships between therapist and caregiver behavior. Observers coded caregiver and therapist behavior during one session of multisystemic therapy for substance abusing adolescents. Therapist teaching, focusing on strengths, making reinforcing statements, problem solving, and dealing with practical family needs predicted caregiver engagement and/or positive response, regardless of race, racial match, or financial hardship.

A novel role for plasmin-mediated degradation of opsonizing antibody in the evasion of host immunity by virulent, but not attenuated, Francisella tularensis.

Opsonization by Abs represents a critical component of the host immune response against many pathogens. The mechanisms by which virulent microbes evade this protective response are not completely understood. In disease mediated by Francisella tularensis, Ab can effectively protect against infections with attenuated strains, for example, LVS, but not virulent strains such as SchuS4.

Australian surveillance for avian influenza viruses in wild birds between July 2005 and June 2007.

Objective: To identify and gain an understanding of the influenza viruses circulating in wild birds in Australia.

Design: A total of 16,303 swabs and 3782 blood samples were collected and analysed for avian influenza (AI) viruses from 16,420 wild birds in Australia between July 2005 and June 2007. Anseriformes and Charadriiformes were primarily targeted.

Distinct functions for Rho1 in maintaining adherens junctions and apical tension in remodeling epithelia.

Maintenance and remodeling of adherens junctions (AJs) and cell shape in epithelia are necessary for the development of functional epithelia and are commonly altered during cancer progression/metastasis. Although formation of nascent AJs has received much attention, whether shared mechanisms are responsible for the maintenance and remodeling of AJs in dynamic epithelia, particularly in vivo, is not clear. Using clonal analysis in the postmitotic Drosophila melanogaster pupal eye epithelium, we demonstrate that Rho1 is required to maintain AJ integrity independent of its role in sustaining apical cell tension.

Changes in visceral adipose tissue mitochondrial content with type 2 diabetes and daily voluntary wheel running in OLETF rats.

Using the hyperphagic, obese, Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rat, we sought to determine if progression to type 2 diabetes alters visceral white adipose tissue (WAT) mitochondrial content and if these changes are modified through prevention of type 2 diabetes with daily exercise. At 4 weeks of age, OLETF rats began voluntary wheel running (OLETF-EX) while additional OLETF rats (OLETF-SED) and Long-Evans Tokushima Otsuka (LETO-SED) rats served as obese and lean sedentary controls, respectively, for 13, 20 and 40 weeks of age (n = 6-8 for each group at each age). OLETF-SED animals displayed insulin resistance at 13 and 20 weeks and type 2 diabetes by 40 weeks.

Effectiveness of educational intervention on the congruence of prostate and rectal contouring as compared with a gold standard in three-dimensional radiotherapy for prostate.

Purpose: To examine effects of a teaching intervention on precise delineation of the prostate and rectum during planning of three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) for prostate cancer.

Methods And Materials: A pretest, posttest, randomized controlled group design was used. During pretest all participants contoured prostate and rectum on planning CT.

Induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in primary airway epithelial cells from patients with asthma by transforming growth factor-beta1.

Rationale: Airway remodeling in asthma is associated with the accumulation of fibroblasts, the primary cell responsible for synthesis and secretion of extracellular matrix proteins. The process by which the number of fibroblasts increases in asthma is poorly understood, but epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) may play a significant role.

Objectives: To evaluate whether EMT occurs in primary airway epithelial cells (AECs), the mechanisms involved, and if this process is altered in asthmatic AECs.

BMP-7 does not protect against bleomycin-induced lung or skin fibrosis.

Bone morphogenic protein (BMP)-7 is a member of the BMP family which are structurally and functionally related, and part of the TGFbeta super family of growth factors. BMP-7 has been reported to inhibit renal fibrosis and TGFbeta1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), in part through negative interactions with TGFbeta1 induced Smad 2/3 activation. We utilized in vivo bleomycin-induced fibrosis models in the skin and lung to determine the potential therapeutic effect of BMP-7.

An evidence-based protocol for nurse retention.

Registered nurse turnover can drastically affect the quality of patient care while costing more than 1 billion dollars. The ongoing nursing shortage makes it hard to replace nurses, necessitating a novel approach to reduce nurse turnover. The authors discuss an evidence-based protocol that improves organizational commitment among nurses as a way to retain nurses through facilitating autonomy, improving communication, and offering recognition and rewards to nursing staff.

Pdx-1-driven overexpression of aurora a kinase induces mild ductal dysplasia of pancreatic ducts near islets in transgenic mice.

Objectives: To further explore the oncogenic activity of Aurora A kinase while attempting to develop a useful mouse model for pancreatic cancer, Aurora A kinase was targeted to pancreatic duodenal homeobox gene-1 (Pdx-1)-positive cells.

Methods: Aurora A kinase overexpression was targeted to mouse pancreas tissues using the Pdx-1 promoter in a transgenic model. The pancreas tissues of 7- to 11-month-old transgenic animals were evaluated for metastatic adenocarcinomas, preinvasive ductal neoplasia, or other histological anomalies.

Negative effects of chronic oral chlorpromazine and olanzapine treatment on the performance of tasks designed to assess spatial learning and working memory in rats.

Learning potential and memory capacity are factors that strongly predict the level of rehabilitation and the long-term functional outcome in patients with schizophrenia. Unfortunately, however, the effects of antipsychotic drugs (i.e.

Tubulin-associated proteins: Aurora and Polo-like kinases as therapeutic targets in cancer.

Tubulin is a very important target for cancer-fighting therapies; therefore, the cancer research community continues to adopt new ways of developing the therapeutic potential of tubulin and tubulin-associated proteins. Two families of tubulin-associated kinases, Aurora and Polo-like, have received significant attention regarding how they contribute to tumorigenesis and can be targeted with selective small molecule inhibitors. Aurora and Polo-like kinases play essential roles in centrosome separation, chromosome alignment and segregation, and cytokinesis.

Purification of a herpes-like virus from abalone (Haliotis spp.) with ganglioneuritis and detection by transmission electron microscopy.

A herpes-like virus was for the first time purified from abalone diagnosed with ganglioneuritis. Pleuropedal ganglia, pedal nerve cords, head and epipodial tissue was collected and homogenized from abalone populations exhibiting high mortality and clinical signs consistent with herpes-virus like ganglioneuritis. Following ultracentrifugation by sucrose gradient prepared in sea-water, the purified virus was negatively stained and examined under a transmission electron microscope.

Airway modeling and remodeling in the pathogenesis of asthma.

Purpose Of Review: Asthma remains a severe health problem since current therapies are directed to suppressing, rather than preventing or reversing, the primary disease process. Clearly, a greater understanding of the pathogenesis of asthma is critical to the development of better therapeutic modalities. In this review, we discuss the recent advancements in research targeting the role of airway remodeling in asthma.

Holiday and school-term sleep patterns of Australian adolescents.

The holiday and school-term sleep patterns of 310 Australian senior school students were surveyed in a longitudinal study, along with self-reported sleep quality, mood, daytime functioning, grades and circadian preference. Evidence was found that with the impact of school schedule, students accrued a significant sleep debt, obtaining insufficient sleep for their needs and reporting lowered mood and daytime functioning. Support was found for the hypothesis that trait circadian preference mediates mood, daytime functioning and academic grades through its effect on sleep variables at school time.

Differing Src signaling levels have distinct outcomes in Drosophila.

High levels of Src activity are found in a broad spectrum of cancers. The roles of Src and its negative regulator Csk have been extensively studied, although results have often proved contradictory or the relevance to whole organisms is unclear. In Drosophila, overexpression of either Src orthologue resulted in apoptotic cell death, but paradoxically, reducing dCsk activity led to over-proliferation and tissue overgrowth.

Protracted effects of chronic oral haloperidol and risperidone on nerve growth factor, cholinergic neurons, and spatial reference learning in rats.

The primary therapeutic agents used for schizophrenia, antipsychotic drugs, ameliorate psychotic symptoms; however, their chronic effects on cognition (or the physiologic processes of the brain that support cognition) are largely unknown. The purpose of this rodent study was to extend our previous work on this subject by investigating persistent effects (i.e.

In situ reductive dechlorination of chlorinated ethenes in high nitrate groundwater.

In situ bioremediation using carbohydrate was evaluated as an in situ treatment alternative for trichloroethene (TCE) and cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cDCE) in groundwater containing high nitrate concentrations. Upon addition of carbohydrate to groundwater, sequential reduction of electron acceptors was observed, where nitrate was reduced early in the pilot test, followed by sulfate and TCE. Reduction of cDCE to vinyl chloride and ethene occurred in conjunction with increased iron and manganese, and increased methane concentrations, approximately 7 months into the evaluation period, following depletion of nitrate and sulfate.

The scopolamine-reversal paradigm in rats and monkeys: the importance of computer-assisted operant-conditioning memory tasks for screening drug candidates.

Rationale: The scopolamine-reversal model is enjoying a resurgence of interest in clinical studies as a reversible pharmacological model for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The cognitive impairment associated with scopolamine is similar to that in AD. The scopolamine model is not simply a cholinergic model, as it can be reversed by drugs that are noncholinergic cognition-enhancing agents.

Role of fiber diameter in adhesion and proliferation of NIH 3T3 fibroblast on electrospun polycaprolactone scaffolds.

The goal of the current study was to find the quantitative relationship between electrospun polycaprolactone scaffold fiber diameter and NIH 3T3 fibroblast adhesion and growth kinetics. By varying 3 important process parameters--solution concentration, voltage, and collector screen distance--different average fiber diameters ranging from 117 to 1,647 nm were obtained. Although 117 nm represented the lowest possible fiber diameter obtainable, these fibers had beads in them.

Exercise and diet induced weight loss improves measures of oxidative stress and insulin sensitivity in adults with characteristics of the metabolic syndrome.

Obesity and insulin resistance (IR) increase the risk for coronary heart disease; however, much of this risk is not attributable to traditional risk factors. We sought to determine whether weight loss associated with supervised aerobic exercise beneficially alters biomarkers of oxidative stress and whether these alterations are associated with improvements in measures of insulin resistance. Twenty-five sedentary and overweight to obese [body mass index (BMI) = 33.

Horseback riding as therapy for children with cerebral palsy: is there evidence of its effectiveness?

A systematic review of the literature on horseback riding therapy as an intervention for children with cerebral palsy (CP) was carried out. The terms horse, riding, hippotherapy, horseback riding therapy, equine movement therapy, and cerebral palsy were searched in electronic databases and hand searched. Retrieved articles were rated for methodological quality using PEDro scoring to assess the internal validity of randomized trials and the Newcastle Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale to assess cohort studies.