Rhinovirus Infection Induces Degradation of Antimicrobial Peptides and Secondary Bacterial Infection in COPD

RATIONALE: COPD exacerbations are associated with both virus (mostly rhinovirus) and bacterial infections but it is not known whether rhinovirus infections precipitate secondary bacterial infections. OBJECTIVES: To investigate relationships between rhinovirus infection and bacterial infection and the role of antimicrobial peptides in COPD exacerbations. METHODS: We infected subjects with moderate COPD and smokers and non-smokers with normal lung function with rhinovirus. Induced sputum was collected before and repeatedly following rhinovirus infection and virus and bacterial loads measured with quantitative PCR and culture. The antimicrobial peptides secretory leukoprotease inhibitor (SLPI), elafin, pentraxin, LL-37, α-defensins and β-defensin-2, and the protease neutrophil elastase were measured in sputum supernatants. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Following rhinovirus infection, secondary bacterial infection was detected in 60% of COPD subjects, 9.5% of smokers and 10% of non-smokers (P<0.001). Sputum virus load peaked on days 5-9 and bacterial load on day 15. Sputum neutrophil elastase was significantly increased and SLPI and elafin significantly reduced following rhinovirus infection exclusively in COPD subjects with secondary bacterial infections, and SLPI and elafin levels correlated inversely with bacterial load. CONCLUSIONS: Rhinovirus infections are frequently followed by secondary bacterial infections in COPD and cleavage of the antimicrobial peptides SLPI and elafin by virus-induced neutrophil elastase may precipitate these secondary bacterial infections. Therapy targeting neutrophil elastase or enhancing innate immunity may be useful novel therapies for prevention of secondary bacterial infections in virus-induced COPD exacerbations

LOCAL REGIMES: Does Globalization Challenge the "Growth Machine"&quest;

This article explores the possible impacts that globalization might have upon the nature of local governments and the economic development policies that they adopt. We begin by outlining the theory of how "corporate regimes" dominate most urban centers, why they implement skewed economic development policies, and why globalization appears to be exacerbating these problems. Research on state-and-local economic development outside urban centers indicates that several types of business development exist and that they differ significantly in their implications for improving conditions in a community. This suggests that other types of corporate regimes are possible. The logic of globalization points toward the need to establish more progressive corporate regimes willing to implement some of the reforms advocated by critics of the "growth machine." Copyright 2001 by The Policy Studies Organization.

Charter Schools and Urban Regimes in Neoliberal Context: Making Workers and New Spaces in Metropolitan Atlanta

In this article, we demonstrate the neoliberalism and multiscalar economic perspective of the charter school movement in Atlanta, Georgia, through examination of news articles and editorials about charter schools in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" from 1998 to 2004. We posit three interrelated dynamics which explain the editorial board's interest in charter schools as part of a broader urban regime agenda. First, charter schools represent part of a neoliberal shift in education that parallels shifts in urban governance, emphasizing flexibility, public-private partnerships, and 'market'-oriented consumer choice and accountability. Second, the newspaper is issuing a challenge to educational structures, to adopt more neoliberal policies and shed a bureaucratic, liberal governance framework. Finally, we find critical evidence that the charter school movement draws on a multiscalar discourse which simultaneously references responsiveness to local, neighborhood needs, and at the same time highlights the economic imperatives of a global, competitive city to differentially skill students/workers in order to capture mobile and fractured (global) capital. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors. Journal Compilation (c) 2006 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd..