Therapeutic Potential of Conjugated siRNAs for the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a severe psychiatric syndrome with very-high socioeconomic impact worldwide (Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 Collaborators, 2015). This is attributable to three main factors: (i) MDD is a highly prevalent disorder in the general population, (ii) depressive episodes have long duration and occur during active periods of adult life, resulting in very large labor costs, and (iii) standard MDD treatments have limited efficacy, leaving a high percentage of patients with incomplete responses and poor quality of life, thus increasing suicide risk (Rush et al, 2006).Peer reviewe

Comparing research investment to United Kingdom institutions and published outputs for tuberculosis, HIV and malaria: A systematic analysis across 1997-2013

Background: The "Unfinished Agenda" of infectious diseases is of great importance to policymakers and research funding agencies that require ongoing research evidence on their effective management. Journal publications help effectively share and disseminate research results to inform policy and practice. We assess research investments to United Kingdom institutions in HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and analyse these by numbers of publications and citations and by disease and type of science. Methods: Information on infection-related research investments awarded to United Kingdom institutions across 1997-2010 were sourced from funding agencies and individually categorised by disease and type of science. Publications were sourced from the Scopus database via keyword searches and filtered to include only publications relating to human disease and containing a United Kingdom-based first and/or last author. Data were matched by disease and type of science categories. Investment (United Kingdom pounds) and publications were compared to generate an 'investment per publication' metric; similarly, an 'investment per citation' metric was also developed as a measure of the usefulness of research. Results: Total research investment for all three diseases was £1.4 billion, and was greatest for HIV (£651.4 million), followed by malaria (£518.7 million) and tuberculosis (£239.1 million). There were 17,271 included publications, with 9,322 for HIV, 4,451 for malaria, and 3,498 for tuberculosis. HIV publications received the most citations (254,949), followed by malaria (148,559) and tuberculosis (100,244). According to UK pound per publication, tuberculosis (£50,691) appeared the most productive for investment, compared to HIV (£61,971) and malaria (£94,483). By type of science, public health research was most productive for HIV (£27,296) and tuberculosis (£22,273), while phase I-III trials were most productive for malaria (£60,491). According to UK pound per citation, tuberculosis (£1,797) was the most productive area for investment, compared to HIV (£2,265) and malaria (£2,834). Public health research was the most productive type of science for HIV (£2,265) and tuberculosis (£1,797), whereas phase I-III trials were most productive for malaria (£1,713). Conclusions: When comparing total publications and citations with research investment to United Kingdom institutions, tuberculosis research appears to perform best in terms of efficiency. There were more public health-related publications and citations for HIV and tuberculosis than other types of science. These findings demonstrate the diversity of research funding and outputs, and provide new evidence to inform research investment strategies for policymakers, funders, academic institutions, and healthcare organizations.Infectious Disease Research Networ

Indicators of injury recovery identified by patients, family members and clinicians

Introduction A focus on what is important to patients has been recognized as an essential pillar in care to ensure safe patient care that focuses on outcomes identified as important by patients. Despite this, asking trauma patients and their families what they consider should be the priorities of care and recovery has been neglected. Methods Adult trauma patients admitted to two centers in Australia for ≥24 h for the treatment of physical injury, and family members of injured patients and clinicians caring for injured patients were invited to participate. Individual interviews were conducted with the patient and family members prior to hospital discharge, and again one and three months post discharge. Individual interviews or focus groups were conducted with clinicians at one point in time. Content analysis of all transcripts was undertaken to determine the indicators of successful recovery over time. Results Participants in the three stakeholder groups were enrolled (patients − 33; family members—22; clinicians—40). Indicators of recovery focused on five main categories including returning to work, resuming family roles, achieving independence, recapturing normality and achieving comfort. Other categories that were less frequently identified included maintaining one’s household, restoring emotional stability, cosmetic considerations and appearance, realignment of life goals, psychological recovery and development of self. Indicators of recovery after physical injury were similar across the three stakeholder groups, although with greater detail identified by patients. In addition, indicators evolved over time with increasing recognition of the importance of the overall impact of the injury in general and on activities of daily living and an unfolding appreciation that life could not be taken for granted. Conclusions Description of the indicators of recovery after traumatic injury that matter to patients, family members and clinicians enable an understanding of similarities and differences. Further testing in a broader cohort of participants is essential to identify patient reported outcome measures that might be used in trauma care and associated research

National disability-adjusted life years(DALYs) for 257 diseases and injuries in Ethiopia, 1990–2015: findings from the global burden of disease study 2015

Background: Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) provide a summary measure of health and can be a critical input to guide health systems, investments, and priority-setting in Ethiopia. We aimed to determine the leading causes of premature mortality and disability using DALYs and describe the relative burden of disease and injuries in Ethiopia. Methods: We used results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 (GBD 2015) for non-fatal disease burden, cause-specific mortality, and all-cause mortality to derive age-standardized DALYs by sex for Ethiopia for each year. We calculated DALYs by summing years of life lost due to premature mortality (YLLs) and years lived with disability (YLDs) for each age group and sex. Causes of death by age, sex, and year were measured mainly using Causes of Death Ensemble modeling. To estimate YLDs, a Bayesian meta-regression method was used. We reported DALY rates per 100,000 for communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) disorders, non-communicable diseases, and injuries, with 95% uncertainty intervals (UI) for Ethiopia. Results: Non-communicable diseases caused 23,118.1 (95% UI, 17,124.4–30,579.6), CMNN disorders resulted in 20,200.7 (95% UI, 16,532.2–24,917.9), and injuries caused 3781 (95% UI, 2642.9–5500.6) age-standardized DALYs per 100,000 in Ethiopia in 2015. Lower respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, and tuberculosis were the top three leading causes of DALYs in 2015, accounting for 2998 (95% UI, 2173.7–4029), 2592.5 (95% UI, 1850.7–3495.1), and 2562.9 (95% UI, 1466.1–4220.7) DALYs per 100,000, respectively. Ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease were the fourth and fifth leading causes of age-standardized DALYs, with rates of 2535.7 (95% UI, 1603.7–3843.2) and 2159.9 (95% UI, 1369.7–3216.3) per 100,000, respectively. The following causes showed a reduction of 60% or more over the last 25 years: lower respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, neonatal encephalopathy, preterm birth complications, meningitis, malaria, protein-energy malnutrition, iron-deficiency anemia, measles, war and legal intervention, and maternal hemorrhage

Interventions to promote referral, uptake and adherence to pulmonary rehabilitation for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To determine the effectiveness of interventions to increase patient referral, uptake, and adherence to pulmonary rehabilitation programmes, for patients with COPD