Results of a phase I-II study of fenretinide and rituximab for patients with indolent B-cell lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma.

Fenretinide, a synthetic retinoid, induces apoptotic cell death in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) and acts synergistically with rituximab in preclinical models. We report results from a phase I-II study of fenretinide with rituximab for B-NHLs. Eligible diagnoses included indolent B-NHL or mantle cell lymphoma. The phase I design de-escalated from fenretinide at 900 mg/

Estimating Loss to Follow-Up in HIV-Infected Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy: The Effect of the Competing Risk of Death in Zambia and Switzerland

BACKGROUND: Loss to follow-up (LTFU) is common in antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes. Mortality is a competing risk (CR) for LTFU; however, it is often overlooked in cohort analyses. We examined how the CR of death affected LTFU estimates in Zambia and Switzerland. METHODS AND FINDINGS: HIV-infected patients aged ≥18 years who started ART 2004-2008 in observational cohorts in Zambia and Switzerland were included. We compared standard Kaplan-Meier curves with CR cumulative incidence. We calculated hazard ratios for LTFU across CD4 cell count strata using cause-specific Cox models, or Fine and Gray subdistribution models, adjusting for age, gender, body mass index and clinical stage. 89,339 patients from Zambia and 1,860 patients from Switzerland were included. 12,237 patients (13.7%) in Zambia and 129 patients (6.9%) in Switzerland were LTFU and 8,498 (9.5%) and 29 patients (1.6%), respectively, died. In Zambia, the probability of LTFU was overestimated in Kaplan-Meier curves: estimates at 3.5 years were 29.3% for patients starting ART with CD4 cells <100 cells/µl and 15.4% among patients starting with ≥350 cells/µL. The estimates from CR cumulative incidence were 22.9% and 13.6%, respectively. Little difference was found between naïve and CR analyses in Switzerland since only few patients died. The results from Cox and Fine and Gray models were similar: in Zambia the risk of loss to follow-up and death increased with decreasing CD4 counts at the start of ART, whereas in Switzerland there was a trend in the opposite direction, with patients with higher CD4 cell counts more likely to be lost to follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: In ART programmes in low-income settings the competing risk of death can substantially bias standard analyses of LTFU. The CD4 cell count and other prognostic factors may be differentially associated with LTFU in low-income and high-income settings

Impact of Common Diabetes Risk Variant in MTNR1B

The risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is increased by abnormalities in sleep quantity and quality, circadian alignment, and melatonin regulation. A common genetic variant in a receptor for the circadian-regulated hormone melatonin (MTNR1B) is associated with increased fasting blood glucose and risk of T2D, but whether sleep or circadian disruption mediates this risk is unknown. We aimed to test if MTNR1B diabetes risk variant rs10830963 associates with measures of sleep or circadian physiology in intensive in-laboratory protocols (n = 58–96) or cross-sectional studies with sleep quantity and quality and timing measures from self-report (n = 4,307–10,332), actigraphy (n = 1,513), or polysomnography (n = 3,021). In the in-laboratory studies, we found a significant association with a substantially longer duration of elevated melatonin levels (41 min) and delayed circadian phase of dim-light melatonin offset (1.37 h), partially mediated through delayed offset of melatonin synthesis. Furthermore, increased T2D risk in MTNR1B risk allele carriers was more pronounced in early risers versus late risers as determined by 7 days of actigraphy. Our results provide the surprising insight that the MTNR1B risk allele influences dynamics of melatonin secretion, generating a novel hypothesis that the MTNR1B risk allele may extend the duration of endogenous melatonin production later into the morning and that early waking may magnify the diabetes risk conferred by the risk allele

Embryonic globins of the marsupial the Tammar Wallaby (Macropus Eugenii): bird like and mammal like.

Examines the characterization and sequencing of the embryonic globins of the Tammar Wallaby. Determination of the provisional phylogenetic tree of beta-like globins; Description of the Tammar Wallaby; Properties of the embryonic type blood of the Tammar.Holland, Robert A.B.; Gooley, Andrew A.; Hope, Rory M

One gene, many proteins

The release of the sequence of the human genome in early 2000 generated enormous excitement with the promise of rapid identification of the gene products responsible for cellular function. What has become apparent is that knowledge of the DNA sequence of the gene that is involved in a particular metabolic process is insufficient to predict its function, expression and activity. The very numbers illustrate this difference – it is estimated that there are 22,000 to 25,000 known genes in the human genome but there are probably greater than 1,000,000 proteins in the human proteome. This discrepancy has extended the focus of proteomics to the analysis and understanding of the modifications that occur to proteins both during and after translation of the gene. As we move further into understanding protein function it is becoming increasingly obvious that many of the changes associated with disease and differentiation are to do with the modifications to the proteins rather than only to do with the regulation of the expression of the gene. The main difficulty which has slowed the understanding of the biological role of these protein modifications has been the perception that the analysis of these alterations is difficult and is best left to the limited number of experts in each field. However, the reality is that the increasing availability of sample preparation, mass spectrometric and bioinformatic tools specifically designed for the analysis of post-translational modifications, is enabling the function of these instruments of biological diversity to be explored

A Sydney proteome story

This is the story of the experience of a multidisciplinary group at Macquarie University in Sydney as we participated in, and impacted upon, major currents that washed through protein science as the field of Proteomics emerged. The large scale analysis of proteins became possible. This is not a history of the field. Instead we have tried to encapsulate the stimulating personal ride we had transiting from conventional academe, to a Major National Research Facility, to the formation of Proteomics company Proteome Systems Ltd. There were lots of blind alleys, wrong directions, but we also got some things right and our efforts, along with those of many other groups around the world, did change the face of protein science. While the transformation is by no means yet complete, protein science is very different from the field in the 1990s. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: 20. years of Proteomics in memory of Viatliano Pallini. Guest Editors: Luca Bini, Juan J. Calvete, Natacha Turck, Denis Hochstrasser and Jean-Charles Sanchez.11 page(s

Cellulose-binding modules from extracellular matrix proteins of Dictyostelium discoideum stalk and sheath

12 page(s