Expressed sequence tag analysis of adult human optic nerve for NEIBank: Identification of cell type and tissue markers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The optic nerve is a pure white matter central nervous system (CNS) tract with an isolated blood supply, and is widely used in physiological studies of white matter response to various insults. We examined the gene expression profile of human optic nerve (ON) and, through the NEIBANK online resource, to provide a resource of sequenced verified cDNA clones. An un-normalized cDNA library was constructed from pooled human ON tissues and was used in expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis. Location of an abundant oligodendrocyte marker was examined by immunofluorescence. Quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western analysis were used to compare levels of expression for key calcium channel protein genes and protein product in primate and rodent ON.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our analyses revealed a profile similar in many respects to other white matter related tissues, but significantly different from previously available ON cDNA libraries. The previous libraries were found to include specific markers for other eye tissues, suggesting contamination. Immune/inflammatory markers were abundant in the new ON library. The oligodendrocyte marker QKI was abundant at the EST level. Immunofluorescence revealed that this protein is a useful oligodendrocyte cell-type marker in rodent and primate ONs. L-type calcium channel EST abundance was found to be particularly low. A qRT-PCR-based comparative mammalian species analysis reveals that L-type calcium channel expression levels are significantly lower in primate than in rodent ON, which may help account for the class-specific difference in responsiveness to calcium channel blocking agents. Several known eye disease genes are abundantly expressed in ON. Many genes associated with normal axonal function, mRNAs associated with axonal transport, inflammation and neuroprotection are observed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that the new cDNA library is a faithful representation of human ON and EST data provide an initial overview of gene expression patterns in this tissue. The data provide clues for tissue-specific and species-specific properties of human ON that will help in design of therapeutic models.</p

Food activities and identity maintenance in old age: a systematic review and meta-synthesis

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Objectives: Services provided to older people should be developed based on active ageing policies. Nutrition is one aspect of active ageing, but little is known about how food activities contribute to psychological well-being in later life. This is a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative research that answers the question ‘What is known about the relationship between food activities and the maintenance of identities in old age?’

'A light in a very dark place' : The role of a voluntary organisation providing support for those affected by encephalitis

Voluntary organisations are seen as contributing to the ‘democratisation’ of health and social care. Little, however, is written about their role and this paper, by focusing on the work of The Encephalitis Society, provides insights into the challenges facing voluntary organisations as they manage twin roles as service providers and advocates, of people with neurological disorders. Two studies are presented: a review conducted by the Society, focusing on patient’s experiences of neurological services; and an external evaluation of the Society’s current provision. The first, based on a postal survey of its members affected by encephalitis (n = 339), illustrates the Society’s advocacy role. The survey provided support for the Association of British Neurologists’ recommendation for nationally agreed standards of care. The second study, a postal survey of recent contacts (n = 76) and in-depth telephone interviews (n = 22), illustrates the Society’s value role as a service provider and supports its role in helping rehabilitate affected individuals and their families. These studies provided the Society with information for policy and service development. Importantly, providing the basis of informed action and partnership with stakeholders and informing the organisation’s sense of purpose, in the changing context of welfare provision in the UK

EST-PAC a web package for EST annotation and protein sequence prediction

With the decreasing cost of DNA sequencing technology and the vast diversity of biological resources, researchers increasingly face the basic challenge of annotating a larger number of expressed sequences tags (EST) from a variety of species. This typically consists of a series of repetitive tasks, which should be automated and easy to use. The results of these annotation tasks need to be stored and organized in a consistent way. All these operations should be self-installing, platform independent, easy to customize and amenable to using distributed bioinformatics resources available on the Internet. In order to address these issues, we present EST-PAC a web oriented multi-platform software package for expressed sequences tag (EST) annotation. EST-PAC provides a solution for the administration of EST and protein sequence annotations accessible through a web interface. Three aspects of EST annotation are automated: 1) searching local or remote biological databases for sequence similarities using Blast services, 2) predicting protein coding sequence from EST data and, 3) annotating predicted protein sequences with functional domain predictions. In practice, EST-PAC integrates the BLASTALL suite, EST-Scan2 and HMMER in a relational database system accessible through a simple web interface. EST-PAC also takes advantage of the relational database to allow consistent storage, powerful queries of results and, management of the annotation process. The system allows users to customize annotation strategies and provides an open-source data-management environment for research and education in bioinformatics

The utilisation of health research in policy-making: Concepts, examples and methods of assessment

The importance of health research utilisation in policy-making, and of understanding the mechanisms involved, is increasingly recognised. Recent reports calling for more resources to improve health in developing countries, and global pressures for accountability, draw greater attention to research-informed policy-making. Key utilisation issues have been described for at least twenty years, but the growing focus on health research systems creates additional dimensions. The utilisation of health research in policy-making should contribute to policies that may eventually lead to desired outcomes, including health gains. In this article, exploration of these issues is combined with a review of various forms of policy-making. When this is linked to analysis of different types of health research, it assists in building a comprehensive account of the diverse meanings of research utilisation. Previous studies report methods and conceptual frameworks that have been applied, if with varying degrees of success, to record utilisation in policy-making. These studies reveal various examples of research impact within a general picture of underutilisation. Factors potentially enhancing utilisation can be identified by exploration of: priority setting; activities of the health research system at the interface between research and policy-making; and the role of the recipients, or 'receptors', of health research. An interfaces and receptors model provides a framework for analysis. Recommendations about possible methods for assessing health research utilisation follow identification of the purposes of such assessments. Our conclusion is that research utilisation can be better understood, and enhanced, by developing assessment methods informed by conceptual analysis and review of previous studies

Mechanism of the Very Efficient Quenching of Tryptophan Fluorescence in Human γD- and γS-Crystallins: The γ-Crystallin Fold May Have Evolved To Protect Tryptophan Residues from Ultraviolet Photodamage†

Proteins exposed to UV radiation are subject to irreversible photodamage through covalent modification of tryptophans (Trps) and other UV-absorbing amino acids. Crystallins, the major protein components of the vertebrate eye lens that maintain lens transparency, are exposed to ambient UV radiation throughout life. The duplicated β-sheet Greek key domains of β- and γ-crystallins in humans and all other vertebrates each have two conserved buried Trps. Experiments and computation showed that the fluorescence of these Trps in human γD-crystallin is very efficiently quenched in the native state by electrostatically enabled electron transfer to a backbone amide [Chen et al. (2006) Biochemistry 45, 11552−11563]. This dispersal of the excited state energy would be expected to minimize protein damage from covalent scission of the excited Trp ring. We report here both experiments and computation showing that the same fast electron transfer mechanism is operating in a different crystallin, human γS-crystallin. Examination of solved structures of other crystallins reveals that the Trp conformation, as well as favorably oriented bound waters, and the proximity of the backbone carbonyl oxygen of the n − 3 residues before the quenched Trps (residue n), are conserved in most crystallins. These results indicate that fast charge transfer quenching is an evolved property of this protein fold, probably protecting it from UV-induced photodamage. This UV resistance may have contributed to the selection of the Greek key fold as the major lens protein in all vertebrates.National Eye Institute (Grant EY 015834

Experiences of integrated care for dementia from family and carer perspectives: A framework analysis of massive open online course discussion board posts

Background Integrated Care for dementia is an increasingly popular approach to supporting people with dementia, bringing services together to form a single cohesive provision for service users. This approach is still in its infancy but has the potential to improve the management of dementia, social care and to enhance the patient experience. Aims To understand views and experiences of integrated health and social care for dementia from the perspective of carers, families, healthcare professionals and researchers. Methods Crowdsourcing views and experiences from 'Bridging the Dementia Divide', a massive open online course at the University of Derby, provide a rich source of qualitative data from carers, families and healthcare professionals. We analysed 847 massive open online course discussion board posts using a Framework Analysis approach. Results Participants described how Integrated Care for dementia should be person-centred and holistic, involving a multidisciplinary team of health and social care practitioners, as well as the patient, the family and the wider community. The establishment of Integrated Care for dementia was viewed positively.N/