Comprehensive data-driven analysis of the impact of chemoinformatic structure on the genome-wide biological response profiles of cancer cells to 1159 drugs

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Alzheimer's disease pathology explains association between dementia with Lewy bodies and APOE-ε4/TOMM40 long poly-T repeat allele variants.

Introduction: The role of TOMM40-APOE 19q13.3 region variants is well documented in Alzheimer's disease (AD) but remains contentious in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). Methods: We dissected genetic profiles within the TOMM40-APOE region in 451 individuals from four European brain banks, including DLB and PDD cases with/without neuropathological evidence of AD-related pathology and healthy controls. Results: TOMM40-L/APOE-ε4 alleles were associated with DLB (OR TOMM40 -L = 3.61; P value = 3.23 × 10-9; OR APOE -ε4 = 3.75; P value = 4.90 × 10-10) and earlier age at onset of DLB (HR TOMM40 -L = 1.33, P value = .031; HR APOE -ε4 = 1.46, P value = .004), but not with PDD. The TOMM40-L/APOE-ε4 effect was most pronounced in DLB individuals with concomitant AD pathology (OR TOMM40 -L = 4.40, P value = 1.15 × 10-6; OR APOE -ε4 = 5.65, P value = 2.97 × 10-8) but was not significant in DLB without AD. Meta-analyses combining all APOE-ε4 data in DLB confirmed our findings (ORDLB = 2.93, P value = 3.78 × 10-99; ORDLB+AD = 5.36, P value = 1.56 × 10-47). Discussion: APOE-ε4/TOMM40-L alleles increase susceptibility and risk of earlier DLB onset, an effect explained by concomitant AD-related pathology. These findings have important implications in future drug discovery and development efforts in DLB

Effect of Cytoskeletal Disruption on Mechanotransduction of Hydrostatic Pressure by C3H10T1/2 Murine Fibroblasts

Cyclic hydrostatic pressure of physiological magnitude (< 10 MPa) stimulates chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells, but mechanotransduction mechanisms are not well understood. It was hypothesized that an intact cytoskeleton would be required for uninhibited mechanotransduction of hydrostatic pressure. Therefore we examined the effects of drugs which selectively interfere with actin and tubulin polymerization on pressure-induced upregulation of aggrecan and col2a1 (type II collagen) mRNA expression. C3H10T1/2 cells were cultured as pellets in either 4µM cytochalasin D or 4µM nocodazole and subjected to 3 days of cyclic hydrostatic compression (1 Hz, 5 MPa, 2 h per day). Phalloidin staining and indirect immunostaining with anti α-tubulin antibody confirmed disruption of microfilament and microtubule assemblies, respectively. Real time RT-PCR revealed that both drugs substantially lowered the basal level of aggrecan and col2a1 mRNA, but that neither drug prevented a pressure-stimulated increase in gene expression relative to the altered basal state. Thus upregulation of macromolecular gene expression by cyclic hydrostatic pressure did not require a completely intact cytoskeleton

Routine versus on demand removal of the syndesmotic screw; a protocol for an international randomised controlled trial (RODEO-trial)

Background: Syndesmotic injuries are common and their incidence is rising. In case of surgical fixation of the syndesmosis a metal syndesmotic screw is used most often. It is however unclear whether this screw needs to be removed routinely after the syndesmosis has healed. Traditionally the screw is removed after six to 12 weeks as it is thought to hamper ankle functional and to be a source of pain. Some studies however suggest this is only the case in a minority of patients. We therefore aim to investigate the effect of retaining the syndesmotic screw on functional outcome. Design: This is a pragmatic international multicentre randomised controlled trial in patients with an acute syndesmotic injury for which a metallic syndesmotic screw was placed. Patients will be randomised to either routine removal of the syndesmotic screw or removal on demand. Primary outcome is functional recovery at 12 months measured with the Olerud-Molander Score. Secondary outcomes are quality of life, pain and costs. In total 194 patients will be needed to demonstrate non-inferiority between the two interventions at 80% power and a significance level of 0.025 including 15% loss to follow-up. Discussion: If removal on demand of the syndesmotic screw is non-inferior to routine removal in terms of functional outcome, this will offer a strong argument to adopt this as standard practice of care. This means that patients will not have to undergo a secondary procedure, leading to less complications and subsequent lower costs.Peer reviewe

Extrapolating from model organisms in pharmacology

In this chapter we explore the process of extrapolating causal claims from model organisms to humans in pharmacology. We describe and compare four strategies of extrapolation: enumerative induction, comparative process tracing, phylogenetic reasoning, and robustness reasoning. We argue that evidence of mechanisms plays a crucial role in several strategies for extrapolation and in the underlying logic of extrapolation: the more directly a strategy establishes mechanistic similarities between a model and humans, the more reliable the extrapolation. We present case studies from the research on atherosclerosis and the development of statins, that illustrate these strategies and the role of mechanistic evidence in extrapolation

Routine versus on demand removal of the syndesmotic screw; a protocol for an international randomised controlled trial (RODEO-trial) (vol 19, 35, 2018)

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Genome-wide analysis of genetic correlation in dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Open Access funded by Wellcome TrustThe similarities between dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and both Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are many and range from clinical presentation, to neuropathological characteristics, to more recently identified, genetic determinants of risk. Because of these overlapping features, diagnosing DLB is challenging and has clinical implications since some therapeutic agents that are applicable in other diseases have adverse effects in DLB. Having shown that DLB shares some genetic risk with PD and AD, we have now quantified the amount of sharing through the application of genetic correlation estimates, and show that, from a purely genetic perspective, and excluding the strong association at the APOE locus, DLB is equally correlated to AD and PD.Rita Guerreiro and Jose Bras are supported by Research Fellowships from the Alzheimer's Society. This work was supported in part by a Parkinson's UK Innovation Award (K-1204) in collaboration with the Lewy Body Society and by the Wellcome Trust/MRC Joint Call in Neurodegeneration award (WT089698) to the UK Parkinson's Disease Consortium whose members are from the UCL Institute of Neurology, the University of Sheffield, and the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee and by an anonymous Foundation. The authors would like to acknowledge Elena Lorenzo for her technical assistance. This study was supported in part by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and InnovationSAF2006-10126 (2006–2009) and SAF2010-22329-C02-01 (2011–2013) and SAF2013-47939-R (2013–2015) to Pau Pastor and by the UTE project FIMA to Pau Pastor. They acknowledge the Oxford Brain Bank, supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC), Brains for Dementia Research (BDR) (Alzheimer Society and Alzheimer Research UK), Autistica UK, and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. The sample collection and database of the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort was funded by Stichting Dioraphte and Stichting VUMC fonds. Glenda M. Halliday is a Senior Principal Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. For the neuropathologically confirmed samples from Australia, brain tissue was received from the Sydney Brain Bank, which is supported by Neuroscience Research Australia, the University of New South Wales, and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. This study was also partially funded by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Ontario Research Fund. The Nottingham Genetics Group is supported by ARUK and The Big Lottery Fund. The effort from Columbia University was supported by the Taub Institute, the Panasci Fund, the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, and NIH grants NS060113 (Lorraine Clark), P50AG008702 (P.I. Scott Small), P50NS038370 (P.I. R. Burke), and UL1TR000040 (P.I. H. Ginsberg). Owen A. Ross is supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, NINDS R01# NS078086. The Mayo Clinic Jacksonville is a Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence (NINDS P50 #NS072187) and is supported by the Mangurian Foundation for Lewy body research. This work has received support from The Queen Square Brain Bank at the UCL Institute of Neurology. Some of the tissue samples studies were provided by the MRC London Neurodegenerative Diseases Brain Bank and the Brains for Dementia Research project (funded by Alzheimer's Society and ARUK). This research was supported in part by the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, the Queen Square Dementia Biomedical Research Unit, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Dementia Biomedical Research Unit and Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College Hospital, London. This work was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services; project AG000951-12. Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges for this article was provided by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council