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- McCall, Matthew B B, et al.
(författare)
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Persistence of full-length caspase-12 and its relation to malaria in West and Central African populations
- 2010
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Ingår i: European Cytokine Network. - 1148-5493 .- 1952-4005. ; 21:2, s. 77-83
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background. The full-length (L-) variant of caspase-12 is believed to predispose to sepsis. It has been replaced in the genome of most human populations by the (S-) variant, which leads to premature termination of translation. Strikingly, the L-allele is still widely prevalent in African populations, presumably due to a counterbalancing selective force specific to this continent, for which malaria is a prime candidate.Methods. We investigated associations between caspase-12 genotype and malarial parameters in three West-African populations, in studies encompassing immunological, clinical and obstetric data. Results. The caspase-12 L-allele was found at frequencies of 11-34%. Plasmodium falciparum-stimulated mononuclear cells from S/L heterozygote donors produced stronger interferon-γ and interleukin-10 responses than S/S homozygotes (p = 0.011 and p = 0.023 in uninfected and infected donors respectively). Nevertheless, we found no association between caspase-12 genotype and either the presentation of severe malaria or individual clinical parameters in sick children. Amongst pregnant women, the caspase-12 genotype did not influence peripheral or placental malaria infection, or basic obstetric parameters. Interestingly, perinatal mortality was more frequent in children of both S/S and L/L than S/L mothers, independent of placental P. falciparum-infection.Conclusion. We find little clinical or epidemiological evidence that malaria has contributed to the persistence of functional caspase-12 in Africa, suggesting either that alternative selective forces are at work or that genetic drift underlies its current global distribution.
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- Di Fatta, G., et al.
(författare)
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Preface
- 2011
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Ingår i: IEEE International Conference on Data Mining. Proceedings. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 1550-4786. ; , s. xlviii-xlvix
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 4. |
- De Smedt, R H, et al.
(författare)
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Coping with adverse drug events in patients with heart failure : Exploring the role of medication beliefs and perceptions.
- 2012
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Ingår i: Psychology and Health. - London : Routledge. - 0887-0446 .- 1476-8321. ; 27:5, s. 570-587
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study describes coping strategies that patients with heart failure (HF) use to manage adverse drug events (ADEs). The included coping strategies were social support seeking, information seeking, non-adherence and taking alleviating medication. The role of beliefs about medication and ADE perceptions in explaining these coping strategies was assessed using the Self-Regulation Model. We performed a cross-sectional study including 250 HF patients who experienced an ADE. Patients completed validated questionnaires assessing their coping strategies, ADE perceptions and medication beliefs. Social support (60%) and information seeking (32%) were the most commonly used strategies to cope with ADEs. Non-adherence was reported by 7% of the patients. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that demographics, clinical factors and medication beliefs explained only a small amount of the variance in coping strategies, whereas ADE perceptions explained a substantial amount of variance. Path analysis showed that patients' perceptions about the timeline, consequences and controllability of ADEs by the health care provider were directly related to their coping behaviour. The effect of patients' medication beliefs on their coping strategies was consistent with mediation through their ADE perceptions. Our results support the value of the Self-Regulation Model in understanding patients' coping behaviour with regard to ADEs.
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- Sentchilo, Vladimir, et al.
(författare)
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Community-wide plasmid gene mobilization and selection
- 2013
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Ingår i: The ISME Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1751-7362 .- 1751-7370. ; 7:6, s. 1173-1186
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plasmids have long been recognized as an important driver of DNA exchange and genetic innovation in prokaryotes. The success of plasmids has been attributed to their independent replication from the host's chromosome and their frequent self-transfer. It is thought that plasmids accumulate, rearrange and distribute nonessential genes, which may provide an advantage for host proliferation under selective conditions. In order to test this hypothesis independently of biases from culture selection, we study the plasmid metagenome from microbial communities in two activated sludge systems, one of which receives mostly household and the other chemical industry wastewater. We find that plasmids from activated sludge microbial communities carry among the largest proportion of unknown gene pools so far detected in metagenomic DNA, confirming their presumed role of DNA innovators. At a system level both plasmid metagenomes were dominated by functions associated with replication and transposition, and contained a wide variety of antibiotic and heavy metal resistances. Plasmid families were very different in the two metagenomes and grouped in deep-branching new families compared with known plasmid replicons. A number of abundant plasmid replicons could be completely assembled directly from the metagenome, providing insight in plasmid composition without culturing bias. Functionally, the two metagenomes strongly differed in several ways, including a greater abundance of genes for carbohydrate metabolism in the industrial and of general defense factors in the household activated sludge plasmid metagenome. This suggests that plasmids not only contribute to the adaptation of single individual prokaryotic species, but of the prokaryotic community as a whole under local selective conditions.
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