Anti-MJ/NXP-2 antibodies are the most common specifcity in a cohort of adult caucasian patients with dermatomyositis

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Years of dermatology experience and geographic region are associated with outlier performance of excision or destruction for nonmelanoma skin cancer

Introduction Treatments for nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) include excision (surgical removal) and destruction (cryotherapy or curettage with or without electrodesiccation) in addition to other methods. Although cure rates are similar between excision and destruction for low-risk NMSCs, excision is substantially more expensive. Performing destruction when appropriate can reduce costs while providing comparable cure rate and cosmesis. Objective To identify characteristics associated with exclusive (outlier) performance of excision or destruction for NMSC. Methods The study consisted of malignant excision and destruction procedures submitted by dermatologists to Medicare in 2019. Proportions of services for each method were analyzed with respect to geographic region, years of dermatology experience, median income of the practice zip code, and rural-urban commuting area (RUCA) code. Results Fewer years of experience predicted a higher proportion of excisions (R2 = 0.7, p < .001) and higher odds of outlier excision performance. Outlier performance of excision was associated with practicing in the South, Midwest, and West, whereas outlier performance of destruction was associated with practicing in the Northeast and Midwest. Conclusions Dermatologists with less experience or in certain geographic regions performed more malignant excision relative to destruction. As the older population of dermatologists retires, the cost of care for NMSC may increase

The C-terminal half of human Ago2 binds to multiple GW-rich regions of GW182 and requires GW182 to mediate silencing

MicroRNA (miRNA)-mediated silencing is a post-transcriptional mechanism that regulates translation of mRNAs primarily via their 3′-UTR. Ago2 binds miRNA directly and is the core component of miRNA-induced silencing complex. GW182 is another important factor in miRNA-mediated silencing, and its interaction with Ago2 is evolutionarily conserved. However, the GW182-Ago2 interaction in humans has not been characterized thoroughly, and the role of GW182 in the mammalian miRNA pathway remains unclear. In the current study, we generated a set of GST-, green fluorescence protein (GFP)-, or 3xFlag-tagged deletion constructs of GW182 and Ago2 to further analyze GW182-Ago2 interactions. The C-terminal half of Ago2 interacted with four nonoverlapping GW-rich regions of GW182, and this interaction recruited Ago2 to GWB. Furthermore, the interaction with GW182 was observed in all four human Ago proteins. Most interestingly, tethering the C-terminal half of Ago2 to the 3′-UTR of reporter mRNA recapitulated translational repression comparable to that of tethered Ago2, and this repression was greatly impaired upon GW182 knockdown. In comparison, the N-terminal half of Ago2 did not bind GW182 and did not retain the repression function of Ago2. Our data strongly support a model in which Ago2 recruits GW182 to the 3′-UTR of mRNA to mediate silencing, and suggest that GW182 may contribute to enhancement in translational repression by interacting with multiple Ago proteins from multiple miRNA target sites in the same or adjacent 3′UTR