Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status in Relation to Serum Biomarkers in the Black Women’s Health Study

Lower neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with higher cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Black women have a higher CVD risk and are more likely to live in poor neighborhoods than white women. We examined the association of neighborhood SES with several CVD biomarkers using data from the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS), a follow-up study of US black women reporting high levels of education and income. Blood specimens of 418 BWHS participants were assayed for C-reactive protein (CRP), hemoglobin A1C (hgA1C), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. US Census block group data were linked to the women’s addresses to reflect neighborhood SES. Multivariable-adjusted mixed linear regression models that adjusted for person-level SES and for cardiovascular risk factors were used to assess CRP, hgA1C, and HDL levels in relation to quintiles of neighborhood SES. Women living in the poorest neighborhoods had the least favorable biomarker levels. As neighborhood SES increased, CRP decreased (P for trend = 0.01), hgA1C decreased (P for trend = 0.07), and HDL increased (P for trend = 0.19). These associations were present within strata of individual educational level. The present findings suggest that neighborhood environments may affect physiological processes within residents independently of individual SES

Characterization the Effects of Structure and Energetics of Intermolecular Interactions on the Oligomerization of Peptides in Aqueous 2, 2, 2-Trifluoroethanol via Circular Dichroism and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

[[abstract]]Intermolecular interactions are of fundamental importance to fully comprehend a wide range of protein behaviors such as oligomerization, folding and recognition. Two peptides, NPY [18-36] and NPY [15-29], segmented from human neuropeptide Y (hNPY), were synthesized in this work to study the interaction between species. Information about intermolecular interactions was extracted from their oligomerizing behaviors. The results from CD and NMR showed that the addition of 2, 2, 2-trifluoroeth-anol (TFE) induces a stable helix in each peptides and an extended helix in NPY [18-36], formed between residues 30-36. Pulsed field gradient NMR data revealed that NPY [15-29] forms a larger oligomer at lower temperatures and continuously dissociates into the monomeric form with increasing temperature. NPY [18-36] was also found to undergo an enhanced interaction with TFE and a more favorable self-association at higher temperatures. We characterized the changes of oligomerized states with respect to temperature to infer the effects of entropy and interaction energy on the association-dissociation equilibrium. As shown by NPY [15-29], deletion of helical secondary structure or residues from the C-terminal segment may disrupt the solvation by TFE and results in entropy increase as the oligomer dissociates. Unlike that in NPY [15-29], the extended helix in NPY [18-36] improves the binding of TFE, and as a result, entropy is gained via the transfer of the TFE cluster from the interface between monomeric peptides into the bulk solvent. This observation suggests that the oligomerized state may be modulated by the entropy and energetics contributed by helical segments in the oligomerization process.[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]紙本[[booktype]]電子版[[countrycodes]]US