Background: Bronchiectasis is a chronic pulmonary disorder which is prevalent among Australian First Nations people in the Northern Territory (NT). Current guidelines recommend physiotherapy as part of multi-disciplinary management of children with bronchiectasis, however in our setting, involvement of physiotherapy remains unknown. We thus undertook a retrospective chart audit to examine physiotherapy management of First Nations children (<18 years) from remote First Nations communities in the Top End of the NT at the index bronchiectasis diagnosis and 12 months following diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The aim of this study was to systematically synthesise the global evidence on the prevalence of persistent symptoms in a general post COVID-19 population.
Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted using multiple electronic databases (MEDLINE and The Cochrane Library, Scopus, CINAHL, and medRxiv) until January 2022. Studies with at least 100 people with confirmed or self-reported COVID-19 symptoms at ≥28 days following infection onset were included.
Introduction: Sarcopenia is a progressive loss in muscle mass, strength and function, the adverse consequences of which are severe, affecting quality of life and placing an increasing burden on social and healthcare systems. Vitamin D status is known to be associated with markers of sarcopenia, namely muscle mass, strength and function. Also, resistance exercise training (RET) is currently the only proven intervention to treat sarcopenia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectra of naphthalene diimide molecules with increasing degrees of thionation show distinct and systematic changes in the C 1s → π manifold. However, interpretation of such spectra is difficult using experimental data alone, due to the limitation in experimental NEXAFS resolution. In this work, we have calculated the NEXAFS spectra of naphthalene diimide molecules with increasing degrees of thionation using the density functional theory-based eXcited electron and Core Hole approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe connectivity-based hierarchy (CBH) protocol for computing accurate reaction enthalpies developed by Sengupta and Raghavachari is tested for fast ab initio methods (PBEh-3c, HF-3c, and HF/STO-3G), tight-binding density functional theory (DFT) methods (GFN-xTB, DFTB, and DFTB-D3), and neglect-of-diatomic-differential-overlap (NDDO)-based semiempirical methods (AM1, PM3, PM6, PM6-DH+, PM6-D2, PM6-D3H+, PM6-D3H4X, PM7, and OM2) using the same set of 25 reactions as in the original study. For the CBH-2 scheme, which reflects the change in the immediate chemical environment of all of the heavy atoms, the respective mean unsigned error relative to G4 for PBEh-3c, HF-3c, HF/STO-3G, GFN-xTB, DFTB-D3, DFTB, PM3, AM1, PM6, PM6-DH+, PM6-D3, PM6-D3H+, PM6-D3H4X, PM7, and OM2 are 1.9, 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSolid tumours vary in sensitivity to the vascular disrupting agent combretastatin A-4 3--phosphate (CA4P), but underlying factors are poorly understood. The signaling sphingolipid, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), promotes vascular barrier integrity by promoting assembly of VE-cadherin/β-catenin complexes. We tested the hypothesis that tumour pre-treatment with S1P would render tumours less susceptible to CA4P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2018
Here, we systematically study the effect of fluorination on the performance of all-polymer solar cells by employing a naphthalene diimide (NDI)-based polymer acceptor with thiophene-flanked phenyl co-monomer. Fluorination of the phenyl co-monomer with either two or four fluorine units is used to create a series of acceptor polymers with either no fluorination (PNDITPhT), bifluorination (PNDITF2T), or tetrafluorination (PNDITF4T). In blends with the donor polymer PTB7-Th, fluorination results in an increase in power conversion efficiency from 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 2,11-cembranoid family of natural products has been used as inspiration for the synthesis of a structurally simplified, functionally diverse library of octahydroisobenzofuran-based compounds designed to augment a typical medicinal chemistry library screen. Ring-closing metathesis, lactonisation and SmI2 -mediated methods were exemplified and applied to the installation of a third ring to mimic the nine-membered ring of the 2,11-cembranoids. The library was assessed for aqueous solubility and permeability, with a chemical-space analysis performed for comparison to the family of cembranoid natural products and a sample set of a screening library.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrontline anticancer therapies such as chemotherapy and irradiation often slow tumor growth, but tumor regrowth and spread to distant sites usually occurs after the conclusion of treatment. We recently showed that macrophages could be used to deliver large quantities of a hypoxia-regulated, prostate-specific oncolytic virus (OV) to prostate tumors. In the current study, we show that administration of such OV-armed macrophages 48 hours after chemotherapy (docetaxel) or tumor irradiation abolished the posttreatment regrowth of primary prostate tumors in mice and their spread to the lungs for up to 27 or 40 days, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 2,11-cyclized cembranoids are isolated from marine invertebrates of Octocorallia species. They are a very interesting class of natural products sharing a common oxatricyclo[6.6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVascular-disrupting agents (VDAs) such as combretastatin A4 phosphate (CA4P) selectively disrupt blood vessels in tumors and induce tumor necrosis. However, tumors rapidly repopulate after treatment with such compounds. Here, we show that CA4P-induced vessel narrowing, hypoxia, and hemorrhagic necrosis in murine mammary tumors were accompanied by elevated tumor levels of the chemokine CXCL12 and infiltration by proangiogenic TIE2-expressing macrophages (TEMs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngiopoietin 2 (ANGPT2) is a proangiogenic cytokine whose expression is often upregulated by endothelial cells in tumors. Expression of its receptor, TIE2, defines a highly proangiogenic subpopulation of myeloid cells in circulation and tumors called TIE2-expressing monocytes/macrophages (TEMs). Genetic depletion of TEMs markedly reduces tumor angiogenesis in various tumor models, emphasizing their essential role in driving tumor progression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFApproximately 60,000 patients in the United States are waiting for a kidney transplant due to genetic, immunologic and environmentally caused kidney failure. Adult human renal stem cells could offer opportunities for autologous transplant and repair of damaged organs. Current data suggest that there are multiple progenitor types in the kidney with distinct localizations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Angiogenesis and haemostasis are closely linked within tumours with many haemostatic proteins regulating tumour angiogenesis. Indeed we previously identified a fragment of human fibrinogen, fibrinogen E-fragment (FgnE) with potent anti-angiogenic properties in vitro and cytotoxic effects on tumour vessels in vivo. We therefore investigated which region of FgnE was mediating vessel cytotoxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdministration of recombinant human relaxin (rhRLX) to conscious, chronically instrumented rats increases GFR and effective renal plasma flow (ERPF) and decreases effective renal vascular resistance (ERVR) with no significant change in mean arterial pressure. The Munich Wistar albino rat shows progressive chronic nephrosis with age and therefore was used to determine the functional and histologic consequences of rhRLX on matrix remodeling in the kidney of older rats. RLX-infused rats showed increased GFR and ERPF with decreased ERVR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProteasomes have long been known to mediate the degradation of polyubiquitinated proteins in the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Additionally, proteasomes have been identified as participating in cellular degradative pathways involving the endomembrane system. In conjunction with the endoplasmic reticulum, proteasomes serve as a quality control mechanism for disposing of malfolded newly synthesized proteins, while on the endocytic pathway they serve to facilitate the degradation of key signaling and nutrient receptors as well as the destruction of phagocytosed pathogens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Rab7 GTPase is a key regulator of late endocytic membrane transport and autophagy. Rab7 exerts temporal and spatial control over late endocytic membrane transport through interactions with various effector proteins. Among Rab7 effectors, the hVPS34/p150 phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) 3-kinase complex serves to regulate late endosomal phosphatidylinositol signaling that is important for protein sorting and intraluminal vesicle sequestration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRab7 is a key regulatory protein governing early to late endocytic membrane transport. In this study the proteasome alpha-subunit XAPC7 (also known as PSMA7, RC6-1, and HSPC in mammals) was identified to interact specifically with Rab7 and was recruited to multivesicular late endosomes through this interaction. The protein interaction domains were localized to the C terminus of XAPC7 and the N terminus of Rab7.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRegulation of membrane trafficking requires the concerted actions of rab proteins, their effectors and several phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinases. Rab7 is required for late endosomal transport and here we establish that the phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase hVPS34 and its adaptor protein p150 are rab7 interacting partners. The hVPS34/p150 complex colocalized with rab7 on late endosomes and hVPS34 activity was dependent on nucleotide cycling of rab7.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Aging Hum Dev
June 1992
Present day psychological studies of aging had their origins in attempts to study, in fundamental terms, performances of people in later middle-age relevant to capacity for industrial work. From these beginnings fundamental psychological knowledge of aging has expanded rapidly during the last forty years. Application of this knowledge to practical problems presents a challenge and a wide field of opportunity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Histochem Cytochem
May 1990
Immunoelectron microscopy, using post-embedding immunohistochemistry with colloidal gold, was performed on renal samples from forensic autopsies. We confirmed that electron-dense deposits seen in alcohol abuse-related mesangial nephritis correspond to immunoglobulins, as has been shown previously by others in idiopathic cases. We investigated seven control samples and 13 specimens from individuals with evidence of alcohol abuse, six of whom had mesangial nephritis with IgA deposition.
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