Interventions to prevent spontaneous preterm birth in high-risk women with singleton pregnancy: A systematic review and network meta-analysis

© 2019 The Cochrane Collaboration. This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To compare the efficacy of current, relevant interventions to prevent preterm birth in women with singleton pregnancy and high individual risk of spontaneous preterm birth. We will consider interventions for women with a history of spontaneous preterm birth or short cervical length and women with asymptomatic vaginal infections

HIV Prevention in Care and Treatment Settings: Baseline Risk Behaviors among HIV Patients in Kenya, Namibia, and Tanzania.

HIV care and treatment settings provide an opportunity to reach people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) with prevention messages and services. Population-based surveys in sub-Saharan Africa have identified HIV risk behaviors among PLHIV, yet data are limited regarding HIV risk behaviors of PLHIV in clinical care. This paper describes the baseline sociodemographic, HIV transmission risk behaviors, and clinical data of a study evaluating an HIV prevention intervention package for HIV care and treatment clinics in Africa. The study was a longitudinal group-randomized trial in 9 intervention clinics and 9 comparison clinics in Kenya, Namibia, and Tanzania (N = 3538). Baseline participants were mostly female, married, had less than a primary education, and were relatively recently diagnosed with HIV. Fifty-two percent of participants had a partner of negative or unknown status, 24% were not using condoms consistently, and 11% reported STI symptoms in the last 6 months. There were differences in demographic and HIV transmission risk variables by country, indicating the need to consider local context in designing studies and using caution when generalizing findings across African countries. Baseline data from this study indicate that participants were often engaging in HIV transmission risk behaviors, which supports the need for prevention with PLHIV (PwP). TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01256463

Does urbanization explain differences in interactions between an insect herbivore and its natural enemies and mutualists?

Urbanization can alter the composition of arthropod communities. However, little is known about how urbanization affects ecological interactions. Using experimental colonies of the black bean aphid Aphis fabae Scopoli reared on Vicia faba L, we asked if patterns of predator-prey, host-parasitoid and ant-aphid mutualisms varied along an urbanization gradient across a large town in southern England. We recorded the presence of naturally occurring predators, parasitoid wasps and mutualistic ants together with aphid abundance. We examined how biotic (green areas and plant richness) and abiotic features (impervious surfaces and distance to town center) affected (1) aphid colony size, (2) the likelihood of finding predators, mutualistic ants and aphid mummies (indicating the presence of parasitoids), and (3) how the interplay among these factors affected patterns of parasitoid attack, predator abundance, mutualistic interactions and aphid abundance. The best model to predict aphid abundance was the number of mutualistic ants attending the colonies. Aphid predators responded negatively to both the proportion of impervious surfaces and to the number of mutualistic ants farming the colonies, and positively to aphid population size, whereas parasitized aphids were found in colonies with higher numbers of aphids and ants. The number of mutualistic ants attending was positively associated with aphid colony size and negatively with the number of aphid predators. Our findings suggest that for insect-natural enemy interactions, urbanization may affect some groups, while not influencing others, and that local effects (mutualists, host plant presence) will also be key determinants of how urban ecological communities are formed

Induction of WNT11 by hypoxia and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α regulates cell proliferation, migration and invasion

Changes in cellular oxygen tension play important roles in physiological processes including development and pathological processes such as tumor promotion. The cellular adaptations to sustained hypoxia are mediated by hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) to regulate downstream target gene expression. With hypoxia, the stabilized HIF-α and aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT, also known as HIF-β) heterodimer bind to hypoxia response elements (HREs) and regulate expression of target genes. Here, we report that WNT11 is induced by hypoxia in many cell types, and that transcription of WNT11 is regulated primarily by HIF-1α. We observed induced WNT11 expression in the hypoxic area of allograft tumors. In addition, in mice bearing orthotopic malignant gliomas, inhibition with bevacizumab of vascular endothelial growth factor, which is an important stimulus for angiogenesis, increased nuclear HIF-1α and HIF-2α, and expression of WNT11. Gain- and loss-of-function approaches revealed that WNT11 stimulates proliferation, migration and invasion of cancer-derived cells, and increases activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and 9. Since tumor hypoxia has been proposed to increase tumor aggressiveness, these data suggest WNT11 as a possible target for cancer therapies, especially for tumors treated with antiangiogenic therapy

Unravelling the relationship between animal growth and immune response during micro-parasitic infections

Background: Both host genetic potentials for growth and disease resistance, as well as nutrition are known to affect responses of individuals challenged with micro-parasites, but their interactive effects are difficult to predict from experimental studies alone. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here, a mathematical model is proposed to explore the hypothesis that a host's response to pathogen challenge largely depends on the interaction between a host's genetic capacities for growth or disease resistance and the nutritional environment. As might be expected, the model predicts that if nutritional availability is high, hosts with higher growth capacities will also grow faster under micro-parasitic challenge, and more resistant animals will exhibit a more effective immune response. Growth capacity has little effect on immune response and resistance capacity has little effect on achieved growth. However, the influence of host genetics on phenotypic performance changes drastically if nutrient availability is scarce. In this case achieved growth and immune response depend simultaneously on both capacities for growth and disease resistance. A higher growth capacity (achieved e.g. through genetic selection) would be detrimental for the animal's ability to cope with pathogens and greater resistance may reduce growth in the short-term. Significance: Our model can thus explain contradicting outcomes of genetic selection observed in experimental studies and provides the necessary biological background for understanding the influence of selection and/or changes in the nutritional environment on phenotypic growth and immune response. © 2009 Doeschl-Wilson et al

Acute human self-poisoning with bispyribac-containing herbicide Nominee (R): a prospective observational study

Introduction. Self-poisoning with herbicides is an important reason for hospital admission and death in Asia. Although some herbicides have a well-described toxicity profile in humans, many of the newer compounds rely on extrapolation from animal results as no published literature on clinical outcomes of human self-poisoning has been described. One example of these compounds is bispyribac, a selective herbicide used in rice and wheat cultivation that is marketed in two containers, one containing bispyribac 400 g/L with a solvent and the other the surfactant, polyethylene glycol. We present the first case series of acute human self-poisoning with an herbicide product containing bispyribac. Methods. Clinical data for all patients who presented with acute poisoning from a bispyribac-containing herbicide (Nominee (R)) to two general hospitals in Sri Lanka from June 2002 to January 2009 were collected prospectively. Admission and serial blood samples were collected from consenting patients to confirm exposure and to study the toxicokinetics of bispyribac, respectively. Results. One hundred ten patients with a history of bispyribac ingestion presented after a median time of 4 h post-ingestion. There were three deaths at 15, 6, and 5 h post-ingestion because of asystolic cardiac arrest. All three patients had reduced Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) (3, 12, and 13, respectively) of whom the former two had co-ingested ethanol and developed tonic-clonic seizures. Admission blood sample was obtained from the former two of these patients but bispyribac was detected in only one of these patients. The other patient presented 2.5 h post-ingestion with a GCS of 12 but bispyribac was not detected. Excluding the patient with undetectable bispyribac, a conservative estimate of the case fatality ratio at 1.81% (95% confidence interval 0.32-5.8) can be made. The majority of the remaining patients had self-limiting upper gastrointestinal symptoms and eight patients had an abnormal GCS on presentation to hospital. The overall median hospital stay was 3 days. Bispyribac was not detectable on admission in 21 patients; in the remaining patients, the median plasma concentration was 50.55 mu g/mL (interquartile range 1.28-116.5; n = 32). The peak concentration was noted around 3 h post-ingestion and plasma bispyribac concentration did not predict the severity of poisoning. Conclusion. The majority of patients developed self-resolving symptoms and were successfully managed in rural general hospitals without transfer to larger tertiary hospitals. Patients who died developed significant poisoning within 6 h and plasma bispyribac concentrations did not appear to predict mortality. The lack of correlation between bispyribac outcomes and the available plasma concentrations may be because of exposure to nonbispyribac components or other undefined factors. Clinical outcomes from acute self-poisoning with bispyribac-containing herbicides appear to be relatively more favorable than other commonly used herbicides