Trends in use of sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) in Australia in the era of increased evidence of their cardiovascular benefits (2014–2022)

Purpose: To investigate trends in SGLT2i and GLP-1RA use in Australia in the era of increased evidence of their cardiovascular benefits. Methods: We used national dispensing claims for a 10% random sample of Australians to estimate the number of prevalent and new users (no dispensing in the prior year) of SGLT2i or GLP-1RA per month from January 2014 to July 2022. We assessed prescriber specialty and prior use of other antidiabetic and cardiovascular medicines as a proxy for evidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular conditions, respectively. Results: We found a large increase in the number of prevalent users (216-fold for SGLT2i; 11-fold for GLP-1RA); in July 2022 approximately 250,000 Australians were dispensed SGLT2i and 120,000 GLP-1RA. Most new users of SGLT2i or GLP-1RA had evidence of both T2D and cardiovascular conditions, although from 2022 onwards, approximately one in five new users of SGLT2i did not have T2D. The proportion of new users initiating SGLT2i by cardiologists increased after 2021, reaching 10.0% of initiations in July 2022. Among new users with evidence of cardiovascular conditions, empagliflozin was the most commonly prescribed SGLT2i, while dulaglutide or semaglutide was the most common GLP-1RA. Conclusion: SGLT2i and GLP-1RA use is increasing in Australia, particularly in populations with higher cardiovascular risk. The increased use of SGLT2i among people without evidence of T2D suggests that best-evidence medicines are adopted in Australia across specialties, aligning with new evidence and expanding indications

Construction of expression vectors carrying mouse peroxisomal protein gene (PeP) with GST and Flag labels

The aim of this study was to construct expression vectors carrying mouse peroxisomal protein gene (PEP-cDNA) in prokaryotic and mammalian expression vectors in chimeric cDNA types, encompassingGST and FLAG with PEP-cDNA. PEP-cDNA was sub-cloned in pGEX6p2 prokaryotic expression vector in order to label this gene with GST to purify PEP protein for further biochemical analysis and identifying related proteins thereafter. FLAG-PEP recombinant DNA was produced and sub-cloned inpUcD3 eukaryotic expression vector to express tagged-PEP protein for transient transfection analysis and identifying intracellular localization of PEP protein in future experiments. PEP-cDNA was amplifiedin different PCR reactions using pEGFP-PEP vector and 2 sets of primers introducing specific restriction sites at the ends of PEP. PCR products with BamHI/SalI restriction sites were treated by restriction enzymes and inserted into the pGEX6p2, downstream of GST tag. PEP-cDNA containingBamHI/ApaI restriction sites and FLAG gene (which amplified using pUcD3-FLAG-PEX3 vector) were used as templates in secondary PCR for amplifying FLAG-PEP recombinant DNA. FLAG-PEP fragment was treated by enzymatic digestion and inserted into the pUcD3 eukaryotic expression vector.pGEX6p2-PEP and pUcD3-FLAG-PEP constructed vectors were transformed into the one shot TOP10 and JM105 bacterial competent cells, respectively. Positive colonies were selected for plasmid preparation. Results confirmed correct amplification of the expected products. PEP-cDNA in both PCRreactions encompasses 630 bp. FLAG fragment containing designed sites was 77 bp and FLAG-PEP fragment was 700 bp. Sequencing of constructed vectors confirmed that PEP-cDNA was tagged appropriately and inserted free of mutation and in frame with GST and FLAG

Adjuvant S-1 chemotherapy after curative resection of gastric cancer in Chinese patients: assessment of treatment tolerability and associated risk factors

published_or_final_versio

Spectroellipsometric study of sol–gel derived potassium sodium strontium barium niobate films

Author name used in this publication: C. L. MakAuthor name used in this publication: B. LaiAuthor name used in this publication: K. H. WongAuthor name used in this publication: C. L. Choy2000-2001 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Ellipsometric spectra and growth of MgO thin films by pulsed laser deposition

2002-2003 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

The influence of groundwater abstraction on interpreting climate controls and extreme recharge events from well hydrographs in semi-arid South Africa

There is a scarcity of long-term groundwater hydrographs from sub-Saharan Africa to investigate groundwater sustainability, processes and controls. This paper presents an analysis of 21 hydrographs from semi-arid South Africa. Hydrographs from 1980 to 2000 were converted to standardised groundwater level indices and rationalised into four types (C1–C4) using hierarchical cluster analysis. Mean hydrographs for each type were cross-correlated with standardised precipitation and streamflow indices. Relationships with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) were also investigated. The four hydrograph types show a transition of autocorrelation over increasing timescales and increasingly subdued responses to rainfall. Type C1 strongly relates to rainfall, responding in most years, whereas C4 notably responds to only a single extreme event in 2000 and has limited relationship with rainfall. Types C2, C3 and C4 have stronger statistical relationships with standardised streamflow than standardised rainfall. C3 and C4 changes are significantly (p < 0.05) correlated to the mean wet season ENSO anomaly, indicating a tendency for substantial or minimal recharge to occur during extreme negative and positive ENSO years, respectively. The range of different hydrograph types, sometimes within only a few kilometres of each other, appears to be a result of abstraction interference and cannot be confidently attributed to variations in climate or hydrogeological setting. It is possible that high groundwater abstraction near C3/C4 sites masks frequent small-scale recharge events observed at C1/C2 sites, resulting in extreme events associated with negative ENSO years being more visible in the time series

Properties of Galaxies in and around Voids

Two surveys for intrinsically faint galaxies towards nearby voids have been conducted at the MPI f\"ur Astronomie, Heidelberg. One selected targets from a new diameter limited ($\Phi \ge 5''$) catalog with morphological criteria while the other used digitized objective prism Schmidt plates to select mainly HII dwarf galaxies. For some 450 galaxies, redshifts and other optical data were obtained. We studied the spatial distribution of the sample objects, their luminosity function, and their intrinsic properties. Most of the galaxies belong to already well known sheets and filaments. But we found about a dozen highly isolated galaxies in each sample (nearest neighborhood distance $\ge 3 h_{75}^{-1} Mpc$). These tend to populate additional structures and are not distributed homogeneously throughout the voids. As our results on 'void galaxies' still suffer from small sample statistics, I also tried to combine similar existing surveys of nearby voids to get further hints on the larger structure and on the luminosity function of the isolated galaxies. No differences in the luminosity function of sheet and void galaxies could be found. The optical and infrared properties of both samples are in the normal range for samples dominated by late-type dwarfs. Follow-up HI studies show that the isolated dwarfs in both samples have unusual high amount of neutral gas for a given luminosity.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, latex, to appear in the proceedings of the 'Ringberg workshop on Large Scale Structure', hold Sep. 23-28, 199

Studying Cat (Felis catus) Diabetes: Beware of the Acromegalic Imposter

Naturally occurring diabetes mellitus (DM) is common in domestic cats (Felis catus). It has been proposed as a model for human Type 2 DM given many shared features. Small case studies demonstrate feline DM also occurs as a result of insulin resistance due to a somatotrophinoma. The current study estimates the prevalence of hypersomatotropism or acromegaly in the largest cohort of diabetic cats to date, evaluates clinical presentation and ease of recognition. Diabetic cats were screened for hypersomatotropism using serum total insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1; radioimmunoassay), followed by further evaluation of a subset of cases with suggestive IGF-1 (>1000 ng/ml) through pituitary imaging and/ or histopathology. Clinicians indicated pre-test suspicion for hypersomatotropism. In total 1221 diabetic cats were screened; 319 (26.1%) demonstrated a serum IGF-1>1000 ng/ml (95% confidence interval: 23.6-28.6%). Of these cats a subset of 63 (20%) underwent pituitary imaging and 56/63 (89%) had a pituitary tumour on computed tomography; an additional three on magnetic resonance imaging and one on necropsy. These data suggest a positive predictive value of serum IGF-1 for hypersomatotropism of 95% (95% confidence interval: 90-100%), thus suggesting the overall hypersomatotropism prevalence among UK diabetic cats to be 24.8% (95% confidence interval: 21.2-28.6%). Only 24% of clinicians indicated a strong pre-test suspicion; most hypersomatotropism cats did not display typical phenotypical acromegaly signs. The current data suggest hypersomatotropism screening should be considered when studying diabetic cats and opportunities exist for comparative acromegaly research, especially in light of the many detected communalities with the human disease