The Hebrew version of the Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report (JAMAR)

The Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report (JAMAR) is a new parent/patient reported outcome measure that enables a thorough assessment of the disease status in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). We report the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the parent and patient versions of the JAMAR in the Hebrew language. The reading comprehension of the questionnaire was tested in ten JIA parents and patients. Each participating centre was asked to collect demographic, clinical data, and the JAMAR in 100 consecutive JIA patients or all consecutive patients seen in a 6-month period and to administer the JAMAR to 100 healthy children and their parents. The statistical validation phase explored descriptive statistics and the psychometric issues of the JAMAR: the three Likert assumptions, floor/ceiling effects, internal consistency, Cronbach\u2019s alpha, interscale correlations, and construct validity (convergent and discriminant validity). A total of 116 JIA patients (17.2% systemic, 56% oligoarticular, 20.7% RF negative poly-arthritis, and 6.1% other categories) and 98 healthy children were enrolled in two centres. The JAMAR components discriminated well healthy subjects from JIA patients. All JAMAR components revealed good psychometric performances. In conclusion, the Hebrew version of the JAMAR is a valid tool for the assessment of children with JIA and is suitable for use both in routine clinical practice and in clinical research

Disease activity, overweight, physical activity and screen time in a cohort of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Physical activity is an important part of children's health and social development. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) can lead to decreased physical activity and quality of life. This study characterised clinical aspects, physical activity rates, obesity, and screen time in a group of JIA patients

Biophysical characterization of the unstructured cytoplasmic domain of the human neuronal adhesion protein neuroligin 3

Cholinesterase-like adhesion molecules (CLAMs) are a family of neuronal cell adhesion molecules with important roles in synaptogenesis, and in maintaining structural and functional integrity of the nervous system. Our earlier study on the cytoplasmic domain of one of these CLAMs, the Drosophila protein, gliotactin, showed that it is intrinsically unstructured in vitro. Bioinformatic analysis suggested that the cytoplasmic domains of other CLAMs are also intrinsically unstructured, even though they bear no sequence homology to each other or to any known protein. In this study, we overexpress and purify the cytoplasmic domain of human neuroligin 3, notwithstanding its high sensitivity to the Escherichia coli endogenous proteases that cause its rapid degradation. Using bioinformatic analysis, sensitivity to proteases, size exclusion chromatography, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, analytical ultracentrifugation, small angle x-ray scattering, circular dichroism, electron spin resonance, and nuclear magnetic resonance, we show that the cytoplasmic domain of human neuroligin 3 is intrinsically unstructured. However, several of these techniques indicate that it is not fully extended, but becomes significantly more extended under denaturing conditions