Psychological interventions influence patients' attitudes and beliefs about their chronic pain.

Background: Patients' changing attitudes and beliefs about pain are considered as improvements in the treatment of chronic pain. Multidisciplinary approaches to pain allow modifications of coping strategies of patients, from passive to active. Methods: We investigate how two therapeutic treatments impact patients' attitudes and beliefs regarding pain, as measured with the Survey of Pain Attitudes (SOPA). We allocated 415 patients with chronic pain either to psychoeducation combined with physiotherapy, self-hypnosis combined with self-care learning, or to control groups. Pain intensity, global impression of change, and beliefs and attitudes regarding pain were assessed before and after treatment. Results: Our main results showed a significant effect of psychoeducation/physiotherapy on control, harm, and medical cure SOPA subscales; and a significant effect of self-hypnosis/self-care on control, disability and medical cure subscales. Correlation results showed that pain perception was negatively associated with control, while positively associated with disability, and a belief that hurt signifies harm. Patients' impression of improvement was associated with greater control, lower disability, and lower belief that hurt signifies harm. Conclusions: The present study showed that self-hypnosis/self-care and psychoeducation/physiotherapy were associated with patients' evolution of coping strategies from passive to active, allowing them to reduce pain perception and improve their global impression of treatment effectiveness. Keywords: Chronic pain, Hypnosis, Psychoeducation, Coping, Pain belief

Community-associated Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Pediatric Patients

Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections increased from 2000 to 2003 in hospitalized pediatric patients in Houston. CA-MRSA was associated with greater illness than was infection with methicillin-susceptible strains. Children with CA-MRSA were younger and mostly African American. Of MRSA isolates, 4.5% had the inducible macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B phenotype

Nucleotide excision repair–induced H2A ubiquitination is dependent on MDC1 and RNF8 and reveals a universal DNA damage response

The epigenetic mark indicative of DNA UV damage or double-strand breaks is achieved via a common pathway regardless of the cause of damage

Stochastic and reversible assembly of a multiprotein DNA repair complex ensures accurate target site recognition and efficient repair

Computational modeling and quantitative analysis show that although accumulation of repair complexes can take hours, the individual components rapidly exchange between the nucleoplasm and DNA damage sites

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Cent scientifiques répliquent à SEA (Suppression des Expériences sur l’Animal vivant) et dénoncent sa désinformation

La lutte contre la maltraitance animale est sans conteste une cause moralement juste. Mais elle ne justifie en rien la désinformation à laquelle certaines associations qui s’en réclament ont recours pour remettre en question l’usage de l’expérimentation animale en recherche

Mercury immune toxicity in harbour seals: Links to in vitro toxicity

Background Mercury is known to bioaccumulate and to magnify in marine mammals, which is a cause of great concern in terms of their general health. In particular, the immune system is known to be susceptible to long-term mercury exposure. The aims of the present study were (1) to determine the mercury level in the blood of free-ranging harbour seals from the North Sea and (2) to examine the link between methylmercury in vitro exposure and immune functions using seal and human mitogen-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (T-lymphocytes). Methods Total mercury was analysed in the blood of 22 harbour seals. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from seals (n = 11) and from humans (n = 9). Stimulated lymphocytes of both species were exposed to functional tests (proliferation, metabolic activity, radioactive precursor incorporation) under increasing doses of methylmercury (0.1 to 10 µM). The expression of cytokines (IL-2; IL-4 and TGF-beta was investigated in seal lymphocytes by RT-PCR and by real time quantitative PCR (n = 5) at methylmercury concentrations of 0.2 and 1 µM. Finally, proteomics analysis was attempted on human lymphocytes (cytoplasmic fraction) in order to identify biochemical pathways of toxicity at concentration of 1 µM (n = 3). Results The results showed that the number of seal lymphocytes, viability, metabolic activity, DNA and RNA synthesis were reduced in vitro, suggesting deleterious effects of methylmercury concentrations naturally encountered in free-ranging seals. Similar results were found for human lymphocytes. Functional tests showed that a 1 µM concentration was the critical concentration above which lymphocyte activity, proliferation and survival were compromised. The expression of IL-2 and TGF-beta mRNA was weaker in exposed seal lymphocytes compared to control cells (0.2 and 1 µM). Proteomics showed some variation in the protein expression profile (e.g. vimentin)

Molecular characterization of CDSP 34, a chloroplastic protein induced by water deficit inSolanum tuberosumL. plants, and regulation ofCDSP 34expression by ABA and high illumination

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