Somatic intronic microsatellite loci differentiate glioblastoma from lower-grade gliomas

Genomic studies of glioma sub-types have amassed new disease specific mutations, yet these only partially explain how mutations are linked to predisposition or progression. We hypothesized that microsatellite variation could expand the understanding of glioma etiology. Furthermore, germline markers for gliomas are typically undetectable; therefore we also hypothesize that the predictability of cancer-associated microsatellite loci in germline DNA may support the current hypothesis of a glioma cell of origin. In this study, “normal” germline exome sequenced DNA from the 1000 Genomes Project (n=390) were compared with exome sequences from germlines of subjects with WHO grade II and III lower-grade glioma (LGG, n=136) and WHO grade IV glioblastoma (GBM, n=252) from The Cancer Genome Atlas to identify microsatellite loci non-randomly associated with glioma. From germline data, we identified 48 GBM-specific loci, 42 Lower-grade glioma specific loci and 29 loci that distinguish GBM from LGG (p≤ 0.01). We then attempted to distinguish WHO grade II glioma (n=67) from GBM resulting in 8 informative loci. Significantly, in all glioma grades, comparisons between tumor and matched germline sequences demonstrated no significant differences in these variants (p≥ 0.01). Therefore, these microsatellite loci are considered to be components of grade-specific signatures for glioma which distinguish germline sequences of individuals with cancer from those of individuals that are “normal”. In order to better understand the significance of these loci, we identified biological processes enriched in genes with these variants. Most strikingly, six helicase genes were enriched in the GBM cohort (p≤ 1.0 x10-3). The preservation of these glioma-specific loci could therefore serve as valuable diagnostic and therapeutic markers; especially since the heterogeneity of tumor cell populations can obscure the identification of mutations preceding a metastatic phenotype

Vaccine Wastage Assessment After Introduction of Open Vial Policy in Surat Municipal Corporation Area of India

Background: As per the vaccine management policy of the Government of India all vaccine vials opened for an immunization session were discarded at the end of that session, irrespective of the type of vaccine or the number of doses remaining in the vial prior to 2013. Subsequently, open vial policy (OVP) was introduced in 2013 and should reduce both vaccine wastage as well as governmental healthcare costs for immunization. This study evaluates the vaccine wastage after introduction of the OVP and its comparison with the previous study of vaccine wastage in Surat city before implementation of OVP. It needs to mention that the vaccine policy for this period under comparison was uniform except for the OVP. Methods: Information regarding vaccine doses consumed and children vaccinated during immunization sessions of 24 urban health centers (UHCs) of Surat city were retrieved for the period of January 1st, 2014 to March 31st, 2014. The data were analyzed to estimate vaccine wastage rate (WR) and vaccine wastage factor (WF). In order to assess the impact of OVP, vaccine WR of this study was compared with that of previous study conducted in Surat city during January 1st, 2012 to March 31st, 2012. Results: The vaccine WR for oral polio vaccine (OPV) has decreased from 25% to 13.62%, while the WRs for DPT, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the pentavalent vaccine combinedly have decreased from 17.94% to 8.05%. Thus, by implementation of OVP, an estimated 747 727 doses of OPV and 343 725 doses of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus toxoid vaccine (DPT), HBV and the pentavalent vaccines combinedly have been saved in Surat city of India in a year. Conclusion: The implementation of the OVP in Surat city has led to a significant lowering in the vaccine wastage, leading to savings due to lower vaccine requirement

Antioxidant plants and diabetes mellitus

The incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM) is increasing rapidly and it is expected to increase by 2030. Other than currently available therapeutic options, there are a lot of herbal medicines, which have been recommended for its treatment. Herbal medicines have long been used for the treatment of DM because of the advantage usually having no or less side-effects. Most of these plants have antioxidant activities and hence, prevent or treat hard curable diseases, other than having the property of combating the toxicity of toxic or other drugs. In this review other than presenting new findings of DM, the plants, which are used and have been evaluated scientifically for the treatment of DM are introduced

Performance and Analysis of Spectrum Sharing in Cognitive Radio using Common Control Channel

Abstract — Spectrum requirement is the biggest issue in the field of communication. Because of new technology and applications expansion bandwidth becomes more crucial. Many methods and techniques are used to solve this problem. One of them is bandwidth sharing cognitive radio technique. This paper shows bandwidth sharing in cognitive radio using common control channel. For this purpose after spectrum sensing, actual work spectrum sharing is done. New secondary user comes into the network and checks spectrum availability by using one of the spectrum sensing techniques, if spectrum is free than spectrum sharing technique assigns available channel to new user without harming existing primary users. This is done through first come first serve bases. Priority is given to the primary users. If existing spectrum band contains secondary users and new primary user comes into the network when no more spectrum band is free then one of the secondary user needs to vacant the band and that spectrum band is allocated to new primary user. In this paper simulation results have been described which gives exact idea of spectrum sharing. Index Terms — bandwidth sharing, cognitive radio (CR), spectrum mobility I

Differentially expressed regulatory genes and their up-regulated targets.

<p>Differentially expressed regulatory genes and their up-regulated targets.</p

Characterizing the Genetic Basis for Nicotine Induced Cancer Development: A Transcriptome Sequencing Study

<div><p>Nicotine is a known risk factor for cancer development and has been shown to alter gene expression in cells and tissue upon exposure. We used Illumina® Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology to gain unbiased biological insight into the transcriptome of normal epithelial cells (MCF-10A) to nicotine exposure. We generated expression data from 54,699 transcripts using triplicates of control and nicotine stressed cells. As a result, we identified 138 differentially expressed transcripts, including 39 uncharacterized genes. Additionally, 173 transcripts that are primarily associated with DNA replication, recombination, and repair showed evidence for alternative splicing. We discovered the greatest nicotine stress response by HPCAL4 (up-regulated by 4.71 fold) and NPAS3 (down-regulated by -2.73 fold); both are genes that have not been previously implicated in nicotine exposure but are linked to cancer. We also discovered significant down-regulation (-2.3 fold) and alternative splicing of NEAT1 (lncRNA) that may have an important, yet undiscovered regulatory role. Gene ontology analysis revealed nicotine exposure influenced genes involved in cellular and metabolic processes. This study reveals previously unknown consequences of nicotine stress on the transcriptome of normal breast epithelial cells and provides insight into the underlying biological influence of nicotine on normal cells, marking the foundation for future studies.</p></div

Topmost alternatively spliced genes in nicotine stressed cells (sqrt(JS) >0.8).

<p>Topmost alternatively spliced genes in nicotine stressed cells (sqrt(JS) >0.8).</p