Impact of obstructive sleep apnea on the occurrence of restenosis after elective percutaneous coronary intervention in ischemic heart disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Rationale</p> <p>There is growing evidence that obstructive sleep apnea is associated with coronary artery disease. However, there are no data on the course of coronary stenosis after percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>To determine whether sleep apnea is associated with increased late lumen loss and restenosis after percutaneous coronary intervention.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>78 patients with coronary artery disease who underwent elective percutaneous coronary intervention were divided in 2 groups: 43 patients with an apnea hypopnea – Index < 10/h (group I) and 35 pt. with obstructive sleep apnea and an AHI > 10/h (group II). Late lumen loss, a marker of restenosis, was determined using quantitative coronary angiography after 6.9 ± 3.1 months.</p> <p>Main results</p> <p>Angiographic restenosis (>50% luminal diameter), was present in 6 (14%) of group I and in 9 (25%) of group II (p = 0.11). Late lumen loss was significant higher in pt. with an AHI > 10/h (0.7 ± 0.69 mm vs. 0.38 ± 0.37 mm, p = 0.01). Among these 35 patients, 21(60%) used their CPAP devices regularly. There was a marginally lower late lumen loss in treated patients, nevertheless, this difference did not reach statistical significance (0.57 ± 0.47 mm vs. 0.99 ± 0.86 mm, p = 0.08). There was no difference in late lumen loss between treated patients and the group I (p = 0.206).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In summary, patients with OSA and coronary artery disease have a higher degree of late lumen loss, which is a marker of restenosis and vessel remodeling after elective percutaneous intervention.</p

Variability and Action Mechanism of a Family of Anticomplement Proteins in Ixodes ricinus

Background: Ticks are blood feeding arachnids that characteristically take a long blood meal. They must therefore counteract host defence mechanisms such as hemostasis, inflammation and the immune response. This is achieved by expressing batteries of salivary proteins coded by multigene families. Methodology/Principal Findings: We report the in-depth analysis of a tick multigene family and describe five new anticomplement proteins in ixodes ricinus. Compared to previously described Ixodes anticomplement proteins, these segregated into a new phylogenetic group or subfamily. These proteins have a novel action mechanism as they specifically bind to properdin, leading to the inhibition of C3 convertase and the alternative complement pathway. An excess of non-synonymous over synonymous changes indicated that coding sequences had undergone diversifying selection. Diversification was not associated with structural, biochemical o, functional diversity, adaptation to host species or stage specificity but rather to differences in antigenicity. Conclusion/Significance: Anticomplement proteins from I. ricinus are the first inhibitors that specifically target a positive regulator of complement, properdin. They may provide new tools for the investigation of role of properdin in physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms. They may also be useful in disorders affecting the alternative complement pathway, Looking for and detecting the different selection pressures involved will help in understanding the evolution of multigene families and hematophagy in arthropods. © 2008 Couveur et al.Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Functional genomics of the horn fly, Haematobia irritans (Linnaeus, 1758)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The horn fly, <it>Haematobia irritans </it>(Linnaeus, 1758) (Diptera: Muscidae) is one of the most important ectoparasites of pastured cattle. Horn flies infestations reduce cattle weight gain and milk production. Additionally, horn flies are mechanical vectors of different pathogens that cause disease in cattle. The aim of this study was to conduct a functional genomics study in female horn flies using Expressed Sequence Tags (EST) analysis and RNA interference (RNAi).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A cDNA library was made from whole abdominal tissues collected from partially fed adult female horn flies. High quality horn fly ESTs (2,160) were sequenced and assembled into 992 unigenes (178 contigs and 814 singlets) representing molecular functions such as serine proteases, cell metabolism, mitochondrial function, transcription and translation, transport, chromatin structure, vitellogenesis, cytoskeleton, DNA replication, cell response to stress and infection, cell proliferation and cell-cell interactions, intracellular trafficking and secretion, and development. Functional analyses were conducted using RNAi for the first time in horn flies. Gene knockdown by RNAi resulted in higher horn fly mortality (protease inhibitor functional group), reduced oviposition (vitellogenin, ferritin and vATPase groups) or both (immune response and 5'-NUC groups) when compared to controls. Silencing of ubiquitination ESTs did not affect horn fly mortality and ovisposition while gene knockdown in the ferritin and vATPse functional groups reduced mortality when compared to controls.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results advanced the molecular characterization of this important ectoparasite and suggested candidate protective antigens for the development of vaccines for the control of horn fly infestations.</p

Prenatal exposures and exposomics of asthma

This review examines the causal investigation of preclinical development of childhood asthma using exposomic tools. We examine the current state of knowledge regarding early-life exposure to non-biogenic indoor air pollution and the developmental modulation of the immune system. We examine how metabolomics technologies could aid not only in the biomarker identification of a particular asthma phenotype, but also the mechanisms underlying the immunopathologic process. Within such a framework, we propose alternate components of exposomic investigation of asthma in which, the exposome represents a reiterative investigative process of targeted biomarker identification, validation through computational systems biology and physical sampling of environmental medi