To What End - Tracking and Assessing Community Engagement Across Universities

This is a presentation from the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) Conference in Omaha, Nebraska on October 12, 2015

Clinical and neuroanatomical signatures of tissue pathology in frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Relating clinical symptoms to neuroanatomical profiles of brain damage and ultimately to tissue pathology is a key challenge in the field of neurodegenerative disease and particularly relevant to the heterogeneous disorders that comprise the frontotemporal lobar degeneration spectrum. Here we present a retrospective analysis of clinical, neuropsychological and neuroimaging (volumetric and voxel-based morphometric) features in a pathologically ascertained cohort of 95 cases of frontotemporal lobar degeneration classified according to contemporary neuropathological criteria. Forty-eight cases (51%) had TDP-43 pathology, 42 (44%) had tau pathology and five (5%) had fused-in-sarcoma pathology. Certain relatively specific clinicopathological associations were identified. Semantic dementia was predominantly associated with TDP-43 type C pathology; frontotemporal dementia and motoneuron disease with TDP-43 type B pathology; young-onset behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia with FUS pathology; and the progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome with progressive supranuclear palsy pathology. Progressive non-fluent aphasia was most commonly associated with tau pathology. However, the most common clinical syndrome (behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia) was pathologically heterogeneous; while pathologically proven Pick's disease and corticobasal degeneration were clinically heterogeneous, and TDP-43 type A pathology was associated with similar clinical features in cases with and without progranulin mutations. Volumetric magnetic resonance imaging, voxel-based morphometry and cluster analyses of the pathological groups here suggested a neuroanatomical framework underpinning this clinical and pathological diversity. Frontotemporal lobar degeneration-associated pathologies segregated based on their cerebral atrophy profiles, according to the following scheme: asymmetric, relatively localized (predominantly temporal lobe) atrophy (TDP-43 type C); relatively symmetric, relatively localized (predominantly temporal lobe) atrophy (microtubule-associated protein tau mutations); strongly asymmetric, distributed atrophy (Pick's disease); relatively symmetric, predominantly extratemporal atrophy (corticobasal degeneration, fused-in-sarcoma pathology). TDP-43 type A pathology was associated with substantial individual variation; however, within this group progranulin mutations were associated with strongly asymmetric, distributed hemispheric atrophy. We interpret the findings in terms of emerging network models of neurodegenerative disease: the neuroanatomical specificity of particular frontotemporal lobar degeneration pathologies may depend on an interaction of disease-specific and network-specific factors

Quantifying antibiotics and their metabolites in the environment via UPLC-MS/MS

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major global topic, concerning the increasing pathogenic tolerance to antibiotics. Antibiotics are becoming less effective over time as microbes develop resistance to their mechanisms of attack. This effect can be accelerated by factors such as inappropriate usage, extensive agricultural use, or long-term exposure to sub-therapeutic concentrations. Therefore, it is important to understand how antibiotics are being prescribed and used within different communities, and how they behave once introduced into the environment

Helibacter pylori and gastroduodenal disease

Helicobacter pylori infection is now recognised to produce antral gastritis and possibly to be an aetiological factor contributing to duodenal ulceration. It has a number of virulence factors which could be relevant to the induction of inflammation and ulceration, but further work is needed to elucidate which of these factors is clinically relevant. There are a number of diagnostic tests for this organism, and the optimal combination of tests, in different clinical settings, is yet to be determined. The optimal drug regimen for the eradication of H. pylori is uncertain, but acceptable cure rates can be achieved with a combination of antibiotics and bismuth salts. New agents are being developed and assessed. Other important questions still to be answered relate to the epidemiology of this organism and its relationship, if any, to gastric cancer

The susceptibility of helicobacter pylori to the rifamycin, rifaximin

Forty strains of Helicobacter pylori had an MIC50 of 4 mg/L of the non-absorbably antibiotic, rifaximin. Neither synergy nor antagonism was demonstrated when the drug was combined with ampicillin, metronidazole and omeprazole and the rate of spontaneous mutation was less than 1 in 102. With these in-vitro characteristics, rifaximin should now be assessed for clinical efficacy. © 1995 The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Pathogenic mechanisms of acid-related diseases: Helicobacter and other spiral organisms

Colonization by Helicobacter pylori is causally related to duodenal ulceration. There is also suggestive evidence that patients who develop malignancy in the upper gastrointestinal tract are more likely to be colonized by the organisms, although to date there is no suggestion of a causal link. H. pylori possess a number of potential virulence factors that singly or together could contribute to gastric inflammation. Evidence from the past year casts doubt on the production of a mucinase enzyme by H. pylori, but has strengthened the role of the organism's urease enzyme as a virulence factor. The current belief is that the urease, by producing ammonia and altering the pH, affects the quality of the mucus barrier, altering its structure. Also, the ammonia can act as a direct cytotoxin for the gastric cells. Further work has strengthened the possible role of a proteinaceous cytotoxin produced by H. pylori as another possible virulence factor by demonstrating that cytotoxin-producing bacteria are more likely to be isolated from patients with ulceration. Further information has been gained about the surface properties of H. pylori and its production of inflammatory mediators, each of which could be important for colonization and stimulation of inflammation, respectively. Finally, there is an increasing appreciation of other mucosa-associated bacteria both in humans and other animals that may induce inflammation in the stomach

Helicobacter pylori: its role in gastric disease

Helicobacter pylori: its role in gastric diseas