Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD): Promoting International Awareness through Ambassadors and Collaboration

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are a group of health conditions caused by the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy.  Alcohol use by pregnant women is a global public health issue with lifelong consequences to the baby.  In Brazil, despite educational campaigns on the problems of drinking while pregnant, many women continue to drink regardless of their pregnancy status. Currently, nursing curricula do not include in-depth information around FASD.  Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the need for the inclusion of alcohol and FASD education in Brazil by incorporating a role for the student nurse as an FASD prevention ambassador.  Student nurse ambassadors can promote FASD prevention through educating fellow students and nursing professional. An infographic to provide FASD facts for patients, nursing students, and nursing staff has been developed.  Because nurses are key figures in providing patient care, they are ideal advocates for FASD prevention

Detection of a MicroRNA Signal in an In Vivo Expression Set of mRNAs

Background. microRNAs (miRNAs) are approximately 21 nucleotide non-coding transcripts capable of regulating gene expression. The most widely studied mechanism of regulation involves binding of a miRNA to the target mRNA. As a result, translation of the target mRNA is inhibited and the mRNA may be destabilized. The inhibitory effects of miRNAs have been linked to diverse cellular processes including malignant proliferation, apoptosis, development, differentiation, and metabolic processes. We asked whether endogenous fluctuations in a set of mRNA and miRNA profiles contain correlated changes that are statistically distinguishable from the many other fluctuations in the data set. Methodology/Principal Findings. RNA was extracted from 12 human primary brain tumor biopsies. These samples were used to determine genome-wide mRN

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Depressed Adolescents

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an effective intervention for treating a multitude of psychiatric disorders. Through delivery with a multidisciplinary team that emphasizes the supportive role of the PMH-APN, CBT can be used as an effective way to improve resilience and health promotion in adolescents diagnosed with depression

Detection of a microRNA signal in an in vivo expression set of mRNAs.

BackgroundmicroRNAs (miRNAs) are approximately 21 nucleotide non-coding transcripts capable of regulating gene expression. The most widely studied mechanism of regulation involves binding of a miRNA to the target mRNA. As a result, translation of the target mRNA is inhibited and the mRNA may be destabilized. The inhibitory effects of miRNAs have been linked to diverse cellular processes including malignant proliferation, apoptosis, development, differentiation, and metabolic processes. We asked whether endogenous fluctuations in a set of mRNA and miRNA profiles contain correlated changes that are statistically distinguishable from the many other fluctuations in the data set.Methodology/principal findingsRNA was extracted from 12 human primary brain tumor biopsies. These samples were used to determine genome-wide mRNA expression levels by microarray analysis and a miRNA profile by real-time reverse transcription PCR. Correlation coefficients were determined for all possible mRNA-miRNA pairs and the distribution of these correlations compared to the random distribution. An excess of high positive and negative correlation pairs were observed at the tails of these distributions. Most of these highest correlation pairs do not contain sufficiently complementary sequences to predict a target relationship; nor do they lie in physical proximity to each other. However, by examining pairs in which the significance of the correlation coefficients is modestly relaxed, negative correlations do tend to predict targets and positive correlations tend to predict physically proximate pairs. A subset of high correlation pairs were experimentally validated by over-expressing or suppressing a miRNA and measuring the correlated mRNAs.Conclusions/significanceSufficient information exists within a set of tumor samples to detect endogenous correlations between miRNA and mRNA levels. Based on the validations the causal arrow for these correlations is likely to be directed from the miRNAs to the mRNAs. From these data sets, we inferred and validated a tumor suppression pathway linked to miR-181c