SAT0583-HPR - Differences between service providers and users when defining feasible optimal NHS occupational therapy treatment for patients with thumb base OA : results from a Delphi study

Background: The OTTER (OsTeoarthritis Thumb ThERapy) trial is a two-year developmental study for a full randomised controlled trial (RCT) into the clinical and cost effectiveness of an occupational therapy and splint intervention for thumb base OA. To develop an optimal package of care for evaluation within a multi-centre RCT, the views of both clinicians and patients are crucial. Objectives: To conduct a Delphi study to obtain agreement between both patients with thumb base OA and AHPs concerning the most appropriate optimal NHS OT programme, splint and placebo splint intervention to use in the RCT. Methods: The Delphi panel consisted of 63 AHPs experienced in treating adults with thumb base OA, and 7 patients with thumb base OA. The panel were asked to rate how much they agreed or disagreed about what optimal NHS OT care for thumb base OA should include, and what method(s) of delivery (individual one-to-one, group, patient leaflets, or telephone advice) they deemed were more appropriate. The Delphi study comprised 3 rounds. A seven-point Likert-type scale was used. Pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied in order to reach a final number of statements which, in turn, created the desired tool. Group differences were analysed using Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: Between-groups analyses showed significant differences in the ratings of overall importance of items to be included in an optimal NHS OT consultation (Table 1). Conclusions: AHPs and patients differed in their views about the importance of including ‘Education for Family/Significant Others/Carers’, ‘NHS Clinic Procedures’, ‘Prognosis Advice’, ‘Referral to other Health Care Professional’, ‘Sleep Assessment and Management’ and ‘Treatment Options’ in an optimal NHS OT consultation, and in the methods of delivery used in the consultation. AHPs placed significantly less importance than patients on ‘One-to-One Contact’, ‘Leaflets’ and ‘Telephone Advice’. These findings demonstrate the importance of consulting with patients at an early stage in developing an intervention

Polymers for Improving the In Vivo Transduction Efficiency of AAV2 Vectors

Background: Adeno-associated virus has attracted great attention as vehicle for body-wide gene delivery. However, for the successful treatment of a disease such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy infusion of very large amounts of vectors is required. This not only raises questions about the technical feasibility of the large scale production but also about the overall safety of the approach. One way to overcome these problems would be to find strategies able to increase the in vivo efficiency. Methodology: Here, we investigated whether polymers can act as adjuvants to increase the in vivo efficiency of AAV2. Our strategy consisted in the pre-injection of polymers before intravenous administration of mice with AAV2 encoding a murine secreted alkaline phosphatase (mSeAP). The transgene expression, vector biodistribution and tissue transduction were studied by quantification of the mSeAP protein and real time PCR. The injection of polyinosinic acid and polylysine resulted in an increase of plasmatic mSeAP of 2- and 12-fold, respectively. Interestingly, polyinosinic acid pre-injection significantly reduced the neutralizing antibody titer raised against AAV2. Conclusions: Our results show that the pre-injection of polymers can improve the overall transduction efficiency of systemically administered AAV2 and reduce the humoral response against the capsid proteins

Integration of ENCODE RNAseq and eCLIP Data Sets

During the last decade, the study of mRNA decay has largely benefited from an increasing number of high-throughput assays that emerged from developments in next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies as well as mass spectrometry. While assay-specific data analysis is often reported and software made available many researchers struggle with the overwhelming challenge of integrating data from diverse assays, different sources, and of different formats.We here use Python, R, and bash to analyze and integrate RNAseq and eCLIP data publicly available from ENCODE. Annotation is performed with biomart, motif analysis with MEME and finally a functional enrichment analysis using DAVID. This analysis is centered on KHSRP eCLIP data from K562 cell as well as RNAseq data from KHSRP knockdown and respective mock controls

AGEpy: a Python package for computational biology

Summary: AGEpy is a Python package focused on the transformation of interpretable data into biological meaning. It is designed to support high-throughput analysis of pre-processed biological data using either local Python based processing or Python based API calls to local or remote servers. In this application note we describe its different Python modules as well as its command line accessible tools aDiff, abed, blasto, david, and obo2tsv.Availability: The open source AGEpy Python package is freely available at: https://github.com/mpg-age-bioinformatics/AGEpy.Contact: jorge.boucas{at}age.mpg.d

Cytoscape Automation: empowering workflow-based network analysis

Cytoscape is one of the most successful network biology analysis and visualization tools, but because of its interactive nature, its role in creating reproducible, scalable, and novel workflows has been limited. We describe Cytoscape Automation (CA), which marries Cytoscape to highly productive workflow systems, for example, Python/R in Jupyter/RStudio. We expose over 270 Cytoscape core functions and 34 Cytoscape apps as REST-callable functions with standardized JSON interfaces backed by Swagger documentation. Independent projects to create and publish Python/R native CA interface libraries have reached an advanced stage, and a number of automation workflows are already published

Circular RNAs in the ageing African turquoise killifish

CircRNAs are a subgroup of RNAs which form a circular molecule. During the splicing process the 3’ splice donor loops back to form a covalent bond with an upstream 5’ splice acceptor instead of the downstream 5’ acceptor. The majority of circRNAs are non-coding splice isoforms of protein coding genes showing tissue and time specific expression. Because circRNAs have no 5’ cap nor 3’ poly-A tail, they degrade slower than their linear host genes. Only few studies were able to show a specific function for circRNAs.In this work we sequenced 23 samples from three tissues (brain, muscle, and gut) at three (two for gut) time points throughout the life of the naturally short-lived African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri). We identified 1810 unique circRNAs, half of which are conserved with humans and mice. With this study we provide a comprehensive atlas to the circRNA landscape in the ageing African turquoise killifish, which serves as a novel resource to the circRNA as well as the ageing community

Patterns of response by sociodemographic characteristics and recruitment methods for women in UK population surveys and cohort studies

Women are an important public health focus, because they are more likely to experience some social determinants of disease, and they influence family health. Little research has explored the sociodemographic representativeness of women in research studies. We examined the representativeness of female respondents across four sociodemographic factors in UK population surveys and cohort studies. Six UK population-based health surveys (from 2009–2013) and eight Medical Research Council cohort studies (from 1991 to 2014) were included. Percentages of women respondents by age, income/occupation, education status, and ethnicity were compared against contemporary population estimates. Women age

The effects of flavanone-rich citrus juice on cognitive function and cerebral blood flow: an acute, randomised, placebo-controlled cross-over trial in healthy, young adults

A plausible mechanism underlying flavonoid-associated cognitive effects is increased cerebral blood flow (CBF). However, behavioural and CBF effects following flavanone-rich juice consumption have not been explored. The aim of this study was to investigate whether consumption of flavanone-rich juice is associated with acute cognitive benefits and increased regional CBF in healthy, young adults. An acute, single-blind, randomised, cross-over design was applied with two 500-ml drink conditions - high-flavanone (HF; 70·5 mg) drink and an energy-, and vitamin C- matched, zero-flavanone control. A total of twenty-four healthy young adults aged 18-30 years underwent cognitive testing at baseline and 2-h after drink consumption. A further sixteen, healthy, young adults were recruited for functional MRI assessment, whereby CBF was measured with arterial spin labelling during conscious resting state at baseline as well as 2 and 5 h after drink consumption. The HF drink was associated with significantly increased regional perfusion in the inferior and middle right frontal gyrus at 2 h relative to baseline and the control drink. In addition, the HF drink was associated with significantly improved performance on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test at 2 h relative to baseline and the control drink, but no effects were observed on any other behavioural cognitive tests. These results demonstrate that consumption of flavanone-rich citrus juice in quantities commonly consumed can acutely enhance blood flow to the brain in healthy, young adults. However, further studies are required to establish a direct causal link between increased CBF and enhanced behavioural outcomes following citrus juice ingestion