Digital Commons Network^™

Metabolic Interplay Between Astrocytes And Neurons Regulates Endocannabinoid Action, Andreu Viader, Jacqueline L. Blankman, Peng Zhong, Xiaojie Liu, Joel E. Scholsburg, Christopher M. Joslyn, Qing-Song Liu, Aaron J. Tomarchio, Aron H. Lichtman, Dana E. Selley, Laura J. Sim-Selley, Benjamin F. Cravatt

Pharmacology and Toxicology Publications

The endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) is a retrograde lipid messenger that modulates synaptic function, neurophysiology, and behavior. 2-AG signaling is terminated by enzymatic hydrolysis—a reaction that is principally performed by monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL). MAGL is broadly expressed throughout the nervous system, and the contributions of different brain cell types to the regulation of 2-AG activityin vivo remain poorly understood. Here, we genetically dissect the cellular anatomy of MAGL-mediated 2-AG metabolism in the brain and show that neurons and astrocytescoordinately regulate 2-AG content and endocannabinoid-dependent forms of synaptic plasticity and behavior. We also find that astrocytic MAGL is mainly responsible …

Differing Roles Of Autophagy In Hiv-Associated Neurocognitive Impairment And Encephalitis With Implications For Morphine Co-Exposure, Seth M. Dever, Myosotys Rodriguez, Jessica Lapierre, Blair N. Costin, Nazira El-Hage

Pharmacology and Toxicology Publications

We investigated the role of autophagy in HIV-infected subjects with neurocognitive impairment (NCI) ± HIV encephalitis (HIVE), many of which had a history of polysubstance abuse/dependence, using post-mortem brain tissues to determine whether differences in autophagy related factors may be more associated with NCI or NCI-encephalitis. Using qRT-PCR, we detected significant differences in gene expression levels with SQSTM1, LAMP1 higher in HIV-infected subjects without NCI while ATG5, SQSTM1 were then lower in HIV infection/NCI and ATG7, SQSTM1 being higher in NCI-HIVE. Immunohistochemical labeling of these autophagy associated proteins (also including Beclin 1 and LC3B) in Iba1-positive microglial cells showed generally …

The Predictive Value Of The Proliferation Marker Ki-67 In Patients With Fulminant Hepatic Failure, Ashesh P. Shah, Md, Upasana Joneja, Md, David Walls, Md, John Farber, Md

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Resident's Posters

INTRODUCTION

In the United States, acute liver failure (ALF) affects an estimated 2,000 people per year and accounts for 6% of all liver transplants. Without transplantation, however, less than 50% of patients survive with medical management alone. Early identification of patients with survivable AFL is important to guiding their management and early referral to transplantation.

Studies have shown that the current prognostic scoring systems used for FHF, including the King’s College Criteria (KCC) and the Model for End- Stage Liver Disease (MELD), have poor sensitivity and negative predictive value for predicting outcome, highlighting a need for more accurate predictive models. …

A Critical Role For The Host Mediator Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor In The Pathogenesis Of Malarial Anemia, M. A. Mcdevitt, J. Xie, S. Ganapathy-Kanniappan, J. Griffith, A. Liu, C. Mcdonald, P. Thuma, V. R. Gordeuk, C. N. Metz, R. Mitchell, J. Keefer, J. David, L. Leng, R. Bucala

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Metabolic Resting-State Brain Networks In Health And Disease, P. G. Spetsieris, J. H. Ko, C. C. Tang, A. Nazem, W. Sako, S. Peng, Y. Ma, V. Dhawan, D. Eidelberg

Journal Articles

The delineation of resting state networks (RSNs) in the human brain relies on the analysis of temporal fluctuations in functional MRI signal, representing a small fraction of total neuronal activity. Here, we used metabolic PET, which maps nonfluctuating signals related to total activity, to identify and validate reproducible RSN topographies in healthy and disease populations. In healthy subjects, the dominant (first component) metabolic RSN was topographically similar to the default mode network (DMN). In contrast, in Parkinson's disease (PD), this RSN was subordinated to an independent disease-related pattern. Network functionality was assessed by quantifying metabolic RSN expression in cerebral blood …

Parkinson's Disease-Related Spatial Covariance Pattern Identified With Resting-State Functional Mri, T. Wu, Y. Ma, Z. Zheng, S. Peng, X. Wu, D. Eidelberg, P. Chan

Journal Articles

In this study, we sought to identify a disease-related spatial covariance pattern of spontaneous neural activity in Parkinson's disease using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Time-series data were acquired in 58 patients with early to moderate stage Parkinson's disease and 54 healthy controls, and analyzed by Scaled Subprofile Model Principal Component Analysis toolbox. A split-sample analysis was also performed in a derivation sample of 28 patients and 28 control subjects and validated in a prospective testing sample of 30 patients and 26 control subjects. The topographic pattern of neural activity in Parkinson's disease was characterized by decreased activity in …

High-Density Genotyping Of Immune Loci In Koreans And Europeans Identifies Eight New Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk Loci, K. Kim, S. Y. Bang, H. S. Lee, S. K. Cho, C. B. Choi, Y. K. Sung, T. H. Kim, P. K. Gregersen, S. C. Bae, +32 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

OBJECTIVE: A highly polygenic aetiology and high degree of allele-sharing between ancestries have been well elucidated in genetic studies of rheumatoid arthritis. Recently, the high-density genotyping array Immunochip for immune disease loci identified 14 new rheumatoid arthritis risk loci among individuals of European ancestry. Here, we aimed to identify new rheumatoid arthritis risk loci using Korean-specific Immunochip data. METHODS: We analysed Korean rheumatoid arthritis case-control samples using the Immunochip and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) array to search for new risk alleles of rheumatoid arthritis with anticitrullinated peptide antibodies. To increase power, we performed a meta-analysis of Korean data with previously …

Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Hla 8.1 Ancestral Haplotype Alleles As Major Genetic Risk Factors For Myositis Phenotypes, F. W. Miller, W. Chen, T. P. O'Hanlon, R. G. Cooper, J. Vencovsky, L. G. Rider, K. Danko, A. Lee, P. K. Gregersen, C. I. Amos, +17 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Autoimmune muscle diseases (myositis) comprise a group of complex phenotypes influenced by genetic and environmental factors. To identify genetic risk factors in patients of European ancestry, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of the major myositis phenotypes in a total of 1710 cases, which included 705 adult dermatomyositis, 473 juvenile dermatomyositis, 532 polymyositis and 202 adult dermatomyositis, juvenile dermatomyositis or polymyositis patients with anti-histidyl-tRNA synthetase (anti-Jo-1) autoantibodies, and compared them with 4724 controls. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms showing strong associations (P10-8) in GWAS were identified in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region for all myositis phenotypes together, as well as for …

A Genetic Study On C5-Traf1 And Progression Of Joint Damage In Rheumatoid Arthritis, H. W. Van Steenbergen, L. Rodriguez-Rodriguez, E. Berglin, A. Zhernakova, R. Knevel, J. Ivorra-Cortes, T. W. J. Huizinga, B. Fernandez-Gutierrez, P. K. Gregersen, A. H. M. Van Der Helm-Van Mil, +1 Additional Author

Journal Articles

Introduction: The severity of joint damage progression in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is heritable. Several genetic variants have been identified, but together explain only part of the total genetic effect. Variants in Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Interleukin-10 (IL-10), C5-TRAF1, and Fc-receptor-like-3 (FCRL3) have been described to associate with radiographic progression, but results of different studies were incongruent. We aimed to clarify associations of these variants with radiographic progression by evaluating six independent cohorts. Methods: In total 5,895 sets of radiographs of 2,493 RA-patients included in six different independent datasets from the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and North-America were studied in relation to rs1800795 (IL-6), …

Differential Expression Analysis Of Rna Sequencing Data By Incorporating Non-Exonic Mapped Reads, Hung-I Harry Chen, Yuanhang Liu, Yi Zou, Zhao Lai, Devanand Sarkar, Yufei Huang, Yidong Chen

Human and Molecular Genetics Publications

Background

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a powerful tool for genome-wide expression profiling of biological samples with the advantage of high-throughput and high resolution. There are many existing algorithms nowadays for quantifying expression levels and detecting differential gene expression, but none of them takes the misaligned reads that are mapped to non-exonic regions into account. We developed a novel algorithm, XBSeq, where a statistical model was established based on the assumption that observed signals are the convolution of true expression signals and sequencing noises. The mapped reads in non-exonic regions are considered as sequencing noises, which follows a Poisson distribution. Given …

Depletion Of The Chromatin Remodeler Chd4 Sensitizes Aml Blasts To Genotoxic Agents And Reduces Tumor Formation, Justin Sperlazza, Mohamed Rahmani, Jason Beckta, Mandy Aust, Elisa Hawkins, Shou Zhen Wang, Sheng Zu Zhu, Shreya Podder, Catherine Dumur, Kellie Archer, Steven Grant, Gordon D. Ginder

Human and Molecular Genetics Publications

Chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 4 (CHD4) is an ATPase that alters the phasing of nucleosomes on DNA and has recently been implicated in DNA double-stranded break (DSB) repair. Here, we show that depletion of CHD4 in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) blasts induces a global relaxation of chromatin that renders cells more susceptible to DSB formation, while concurrently impeding their repair. Furthermore, CHD4 depletion renders AML blasts more sensitive both in vitro and in vivo to genotoxic agents used in clinical therapy: daunorubicin (DNR) and cytarabine (ara-C). Sensitization to DNR and ara-C is mediated in part by activation of the ataxia-telangiectasia …

Evaluation Of Methyl-Binding Domain Based Enrichment Approaches Revisited, Karolina A. Aberg, Linying Xie, Robin F. Chan, Min Zhao, Ashutosh K. Pandey, Gaurav Kumar, Shaunna L. Clark, Edwin J. C. G. Van Den Oord

Human and Molecular Genetics Publications

Methyl-binding domain (MBD) enrichment followed by deep sequencing (MBD-seq), is a robust and cost efficient approach for methylome-wide association studies (MWAS). MBD-seq has been demonstrated to be capable of identifying differentially methylated regions, detecting previously reported robust associations and producing findings that replicate with other technologies such as targeted pyrosequencing of bisulfite converted DNA. There are several kits commercially available that can be used for MBD enrichment. Our previous work has involved MethylMiner (Life Technologies, Foster City, CA, USA) that we chose after careful investigation of its properties. However, in a recent evaluation of five commercially available MBD-enrichment kits the …

Tumor-Specific Expression And Detection Of A Cest Reporter Gene, Il Minn, Amnon Bar-Shir, Keerthi Yarlagadda, Jeff W. M. Bulte, Paul B. Fisher, Hao Wang, Assaf A. Gilad, Martin G. Pomper

Human and Molecular Genetics Publications

Purpose

To develop an imaging tool that enables the detection of malignant tissue with enhanced specificity using the exquisite spatial resolution of MRI.

Methods

Two mammalian gene expression vectors were created for the expression of the lysine-rich protein (LRP) under the control of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter and the progression elevated gene-3 promoter (PEG-3 promoter) for constitutive and tumor-specific expression of LRP, respectively. Using those vectors, stable cell lines of rat 9L glioma, 9LCMV-LRP and 9LPEG-LRP, were established and tested for CEST contrast in vitro and in vivo.

Results

9LPEG-LRP cells showed increased CEST contrast compared with 9L cells …

Genetic Risks To Nicotine Dependence Predict Negative Mood And Affect In Current Non-Smokers, Xiangning Chen, Steven H. Aggen, Jingchun Chen, Lingxi Li, Kenneth S. Kendler, Melissa Blank, Thomas Eissenberg

Human and Molecular Genetics Publications

Nicotine is the psychoactive agent involved in nicotine dependence. However, nicotine as a drug, and its effects on human psychology are largely under-investigated in genetic studies. In this study, we recruited 208 current non-smokers to evaluate the effect of nicotine and its relationship to genetic risks to nicotine dependence. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as measurement invariance testing, were conducted to evaluate the latent factor structures of the POMS, PANAS and DEN questionnaires across 3 nicotine doses. Structural models were used to examine the effects of nicotine and their relationship to genetic risks of nicotine dependence. We found …

Tumor-Specific Expression And Detection Of A Cest Reporter Gene, Il Minn, Amnon Bar-Shir, Keerthi Yarlagadda, Jeff W. M. Bulte, Paul B. Fisher, Hao Wang, Assaf A. Gilad, Martin G. Pomper

Human and Molecular Genetics Publications

Purpose

To develop an imaging tool that enables the detection of malignant tissue with enhanced specificity using the exquisite spatial resolution of MRI.

Methods

Two mammalian gene expression vectors were created for the expression of the lysine-rich protein (LRP) under the control of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter and the progression elevated gene-3 promoter (PEG-3 promoter) for constitutive and tumor-specific expression of LRP, respectively. Using those vectors, stable cell lines of rat 9L glioma, 9LCMV-LRP and 9LPEG-LRP, were established and tested for CEST contrast in vitro and in vivo.

Results

9LPEG-LRP cells showed increased CEST contrast compared with 9L cells …

Comparison Of Effects Of P53 Null And Gain-Of-Function Mutations On Salivary Tumors In Mmtv-Hras Transgenic Mice, Dadi Jiang, Catherine I. Dumur, H. Davis Massey, Viswanathan Ramakrishnan, Mark A. Subler, Jolene J. Windle

Human and Molecular Genetics Publications

p53 is an important tumor suppressor gene which is mutated in ~50% of all human cancers. Some of these mutants appear to have acquired novel functions beyond merely losing wild-type functions. To investigate these gain-of-function effects in vivo, we generated mice of three different genotypes: MMTV-Hras/p53+/+, MMTV-Hras/p53-/-, and MMTV-Hras/p53R172H/R172H. Salivary tumors from these mice were characterized with regard to age of tumor onset, tumor growth rates, cell cycle distribution, apoptotic levels, tumor histopathology, as well as response to doxorubicin treatment. Microarray analysis was also performed to profile gene expression. The MMTV-Hras/p53-/- and …

The Brighter (And Evolutionarily Older) Face Of The Metabolic Syndrome: Evidence From Trypanosoma Cruzi Infection In Cd-1 Mice, W. Brima, D. J. Eden, S. F. Mehdi, M. Bravo, M. M. Wiese, J. Stein, V. Almonte, D. Zhao, J. Roth, F. Nagajyothi, +5 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Infection with Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan parasite that causes Chagas disease, results in chronic infection that leads to cardiomyopathy with increased mortality and morbidity in endemic regions. In a companion study, our group found that a high-fat diet (HFD) protected mice from T. cruzi-induced myocardial damage and significantly reduced post-infection mortality during acute T. cruzi infection. METHODS: In the present study metabolic syndrome was induced prior to T. cruzi infection by feeding a high fat diet. Also, mice were treated with anti-diabetic drug metformin. RESULTS: In the present study, the lethality of T. cruzi (Brazil strain) infection in CD-1 …

Effects Of Levodopa On Regional Cerebral Metabolism And Blood Flow, J. H. Ko, R. P. Lerner, D. Eidelberg

Journal Articles

Levodopa (l-dopa) has been at the forefront of antiparkinsonian therapy for a half century. Recent advances in functional brain imaging have contributed substantially to the understanding of the effects of l-dopa and other dopaminergic treatment on the activity of abnormal motor and cognitive brain circuits in Parkinson's disease patients. Progress has also been made in understanding the functional pathology of dyskinesias, a common side effect of l-dopa treatment, at both regional and network levels. Here, we review these studies, focusing mainly on the new mechanistic insights provided by metabolic brain imaging and network analysis. (c) 2014 International Parkinson and Movement …

The Visual Perception Of Natural Motion: Abnormal Task-Related Neural Activity In Dyt1 Dystonia, W. Sako, K. Fujita, A. Vo, J. C. Rucker, J. R. Rizzo, M. Niethammer, M. Carbon, S. B. Bressman, A. M. Ulug, D. Eidelberg

Journal Articles

Although primary dystonia is defined by its characteristic motor manifestations, non-motor signs and symptoms have increasingly been recognized in this disorder. Recent neuroimaging studies have related the motor features of primary dystonia to connectivity changes in cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathways. It is not known, however, whether the non-motor manifestations of the disorder are associated with similar circuit abnormalities. To explore this possibility, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study primary dystonia and healthy volunteer subjects while they performed a motion perception task in which elliptical target trajectories were visually tracked on a computer screen. Prior functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of …

Maternal Antibodies And Developing Blood-Brain Barrier, C. Kowal, A. Athanassiou, H. Chen, B. Diamond

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Modular Analysis Of Peripheral Blood Gene Expression In Rheumatoid Arthritis Captures Reproducible Gene Expression Changes In Tumor Necrosis Factor Responders, M. Oswald, M. E. Curran, S. L. Lamberth, R. M. Townsend, J. D. Hamilton, D. N. Chernoff, M. Kern, C. M. Pond, A. Lee, P. K. Gregersen, +3 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Objective. To establish whether the analysis of whole-blood gene expression is useful in predicting or monitoring response to anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. Whole-blood RNA (using a PAXgene system to stabilize whole-blood RNA in the collection tube) was obtained at baseline and at 14 weeks from 3 independent cohorts, consisting of a combined total of 240 RA patients who were beginning therapy with anti-TNF. We used an approach to gene expression analysis that is based on modular patterns of gene expression, or modules. Results. Good and moderate responders according to the European League …

Partitioning Heritability By Functional Annotation Using Genome-Wide Association Summary Statistics, H. K. Finucane, B. Bulik-Sullivan, A. Gusev, G. Trynka, Y. Reshef, P. R. Loh, V. Anttila, S. Purcell, E. Stahl, A. L. Price, +12 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Recent work has demonstrated that some functional categories of the genome contribute disproportionately to the heritability of complex diseases. Here we analyze a broad set of functional elements, including cell type-specific elements, to estimate their polygenic contributions to heritability in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 17 complex diseases and traits with an average sample size of 73,599. To enable this analysis, we introduce a new method, stratified LD score regression, for partitioning heritability from GWAS summary statistics while accounting for linked markers. This new method is computationally tractable at very large sample sizes and leverages genome-wide information. Our findings include …

Tlr-9 And Il-15 Synergy Promotes The In Vitro Clonal Expansion Of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia B Cells, P. K. A. Mongini, R. Gupta, E. Boyle, J. Nieto, H. Lee, J. Stein, J. Bandovic, T. Stankovic, J. Barrientos, J. E. Kolitz, S. L. Allen, K. Rai, C. C. Chu, N. Chiorazzi

Journal Articles

Clinical progression of B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) reflects the clone's Ag receptor (BCR) and involves stroma-dependent B-CLL growth within lymphoid tissue. Uniformly elevated expression of TLR-9, occasional MYD88 mutations, and BCR specificity for DNA or Ags physically linked to DNA together suggest that TLR-9 signaling is important in driving B-CLL growth in patients. Nevertheless, reports of apoptosis after B-CLL exposure to CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) raised questions about a central role for TLR-9. Because normal memory B cells proliferate vigorously to ODN+IL-15, a cytokine found in stromal cells of bone marrow, lymph nodes, and spleen, we examined whether this …

Genome-Wide Association Study Of Late-Onset Myasthenia Gravis: Confirmation Of Tnfrsf11a, And Identification Of Zbtb10 And Three Distinct Hla Associations, M. F. Seldin, O. K. Alkhairy, A. T. Lee, J. A. Lamb, J. Sussman, R. Pirskanen-Matell, F. Piehl, J. J. Verschuuren, P. K. Gregersen, L. Hammarstrom, +9 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

To investigate the genetics of late-onset myasthenia gravis (LOMG), we conducted a genome-wide association study imputation of >6 million SNPs in 532 LOMG cases (anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibody positive, onset age >/=50 years) and 2,128 controls matched for sex and population substructure. The data confirm reported TNFRSF11A associations [rs4574025, P = 3.9x10-07, odds ratio (OR) = 1.42] and identify a novel candidate gene, ZBTB10, achieving genome-wide significance (rs6998967, P = 8.9x10-10, OR = 0.53). Several other SNPs showed suggestive significance including rs2476601 (P = 6.5x10-06, OR =1.62) encoding the PTPN22 R620W variant noted in early-onset MG (EOMG) and other autoimmune …

International Genome-Wide Meta-Analysis Identifies New Primary Biliary Cirrhosis Risk Loci And Targetable Pathogenic Pathways, H. J. Cordell, Y. Han, G. F. Mells, Y. Li, G. M. Hirschfield, C. S. Greene, G. Xie, B. D. Juran, K. A. Siminovitch, P. Gregersen, +14 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a classical autoimmune liver disease for which effective immunomodulatory therapy is lacking. Here we perform meta-analyses of discovery data sets from genome-wide association studies of European subjects (n=2,764 cases and 10,475 controls) followed by validation genotyping in an independent cohort (n=3,716 cases and 4,261 controls). We discover and validate six previously unknown risk loci for PBC (Pcombined10(-8)) and used pathway analysis to identify JAK-STAT/IL12/IL27 signalling and cytokine-cytokine pathways, for which relevant therapies exist.

Sustaining The Rheumatology Research Enterprise, A. Davidson, D. Polsky

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Tyk2 Protein-Coding Variants Protect Against Rheumatoid Arthritis And Autoimmunity, With No Evidence Of Major Pleiotropic Effects On Non-Autoimmune Complex Traits, D. Diogo, L. Bastarache, K. P. Liao, R. R. Graham, R. S. Fulton, J. D. Greenberg, S. Eyre, A. Lee, P. K. Gregersen, R. M. Plenge, +44 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Despite the success of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in detecting a large number of loci for complex phenotypes such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) susceptibility, the lack of information on the causal genes leaves important challenges to interpret GWAS results in the context of the disease biology. Here, we genetically fine-map the RA risk locus at 19p13 to define causal variants, and explore the pleiotropic effects of these same variants in other complex traits. First, we combined Immunochip dense genotyping (n = 23,092 case/control samples), Exomechip genotyping (n = 18,409 case/control samples) and targeted exon-sequencing (n = 2,236 case/controls samples) to …

Widespread Non-Additive And Interaction Effects Within Hla Loci Modulate The Risk Of Autoimmune Diseases, T. Lencz, A. J. Deutsch, B. Han, X. Hu, Y. Okada, S. Eyre, M. Knapp, A. Zhernakova, P. K. Gregersen, S. Raychaudhuri, +27 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes confer substantial risk for autoimmune diseases on a log-additive scale. Here we speculated that differences in autoantigen-binding repertoires between a heterozygote's two expressed HLA variants might result in additional non-additive risk effects. We tested the non-additive disease contributions of classical HLA alleles in patients and matched controls for five common autoimmune diseases: rheumatoid arthritis (ncases = 5,337), type 1 diabetes (T1D; ncases = 5,567), psoriasis vulgaris (ncases = 3,089), idiopathic achalasia (ncases = 727) and celiac disease (ncases = 11,115). In four of the five diseases, we observed highly significant, non-additive dominance effects (rheumatoid arthritis, …

Pioglitazone In Early Parkinson's Disease: A Phase 2, Multicentre, Double-Blind, Randomised Trial, T. Simuni, K. Kieburtz, B. Tilley, J. J. Elm, B. Ravina, D. Babcock, M. Emborg, Andrew Feigin, R. Zweig, Parkinson Ninds Exploratory Trials, +38 Additinal Authoris

Journal Articles

Background A systematic assessment of potential disease-modifying compounds for Parkinson's disease concluded that pioglitazone could hold promise for the treatment of patients with this disease. We assessed the effect of pioglitazone on the progression of Parkinson's disease in a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled, futility clinical trial. Methods Participants with the diagnosis of early Parkinson's disease on a stable regimen of 1 mg/day rasagiline or 10 mg/day selegiline were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to 15 mg/day pioglitazone, 45 mg/day pioglitazone, or placebo. Investigators were masked to the treatment assignment. Only the statistical centre and the central pharmacy knew the treatment name associated with …

Respiratory Particle Deposition Probability Due To Sedimentation With Variable Gravity And Electrostatic Forces, Ioannis Haranas, Ioannis Gkigkitzis, George D. Zouganelis, Maria K. Haranas, Samantha Kirk

Physics and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this paper, we study the effects of the acceleration gravity on the sedimentation deposition probability, as well as the aerosol deposition rate on the surface of the Earth and Mars, but also aboard a spacecraft in orbit around Earth and Mars as well for particles with density ρ_p = 1300 kg/m³, diameters d_p = 1, 3, 5 µm and residence times t = 0.0272, 0.2 s respectively. For particles of diameter 1 µm we find that, on the surface of Earth and Mars the deposition probabilities are higher at the poles when compared to the …