11 research outputs found
Effect of an audiovisual message for tetanus booster vaccination broadcast in the waiting room
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>General practitioners (GPs) often lack time and resources to invest in health education; audiovisual messages broadcast in the waiting room may be a useful educational tool. This work was designed to assess the effect of a message inviting patients to ask for a tetanus booster vaccination.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A quasi experimental study was conducted in a Belgian medical practice consisting of 6 GPs and 4 waiting rooms (total: 20,000 contacts/year). A tetanus booster vaccination audiovisual message was continuously broadcast for 6 months in 2 randomly selected waiting rooms (intervention group - 3 GPs) while the other 2 waiting rooms remained unequipped (control group - 3 GPs). At the end of the 6-month period, the number of vaccine adult-doses delivered by local pharmacies in response to GPs' prescriptions was recorded. As a reference, the same data were also collected retrospectively for the general practice during the same 6-month period of the previous year.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During the 6-month reference period where no audiovisual message was broadcast in the 4 waiting rooms, the number of prescriptions presented for tetanus vaccines was respectively 52 (0.44%) in the intervention group and 33 (0.38%) in the control group (p = 0.50). By contrast, during the 6-month study period, the number of prescriptions differed between the two groups (p < 0.0001), rising significantly to 91 (0.79%) in the intervention group (p = 0.0005) while remaining constant in the control group (0.38% vs 0.39%; p = 0.90).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Broadcasting an audiovisual health education message in the GPs' waiting room was associated with a significant increase in the number of adult tetanus booster vaccination prescriptions delivered by local pharmacies.</p
A molecular mechanism for Wnt ligand-specific signaling
Wnt signaling is key to many developmental, physiological, and disease processes in which cells seem able to discriminate between multiple Wnt ligands. This selective Wnt recognition or "decoding" capacity has remained enigmatic because Wnt/Frizzled interactions are largely incompatible with monospecific recognition. Gpr124 and Reck enable brain endothelial cells to selectively respond to Wnt7.We show that Reck binds with low micromolar affinity to the intrinsically disordered linker region of Wnt7. Availability of Reck-bound Wnt7 for Frizzled signaling relies on the interaction between Gpr124 and Dishevelled. Through polymerization, Dishevelled recruits Gpr124 and the associated Reck-bound Wnt7 into dynamic Wnt/Frizzled/Lrp5/6 signalosomes, resulting in increased local concentrations of Wnt7 available for Frizzled signaling. This work provides mechanistic insights into the Wnt decoding capacities of vertebrate cells and unravels structural determinants of the functional diversification of Wnt family members.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Television-based health promotion in general practice waiting rooms in London: a cross-sectional study evaluating patients’ knowledge and intentions to access dental services
Randomized controlled trial on promoting influenza vaccination in general practice waiting rooms
Acetylation of conserved DVL-1 lysines regulates its nuclear translocation and binding to gene promoters in triple-negative breast cancer
Wnt/β-catenin signaling regulates VE-cadherin-mediated anastomosis of brain capillaries by counteracting S1pr1 signaling
Adhesion G protein-coupled receptors: opportunities for drug discovery
The seminal discovery of the novel activation mechanism of Adhesion GPCRs (aGPCRs)1,2, together with their strong and growing links to disease from human genetics and pre-clinical research, has prompted a rapid reconsideration of this unique family of receptors for classical drug discovery. However, while acknowledged as a sub-family of GPCRs by the IUPHAR3, these receptors are anything but classical with their complex gene structures, large multi-domain N-termini, autocatalytic cleavage and tethered ligands. Initially thought to have a purely structural role, the increasing functional complexity of this GPCR sub-family and the many, potentially unique mechanisms of modulation challenges the way we have perceived this protein class until now. Significantly, if 50% of non-sensory GPCRs are unexploited as drug targets4, this figure reaches 100% for aGPCRs so the potential to develop novel therapies could be substantial5. Here, we discuss the unique opportunities and challenges brought by aGPCRs in the context of drug discovery programs naturally starting with target identification then extending to target validation, assay building and safety considerations