33 research outputs found

    Neurotrophic Effect of Citrus 5-Hydroxy-3,6,7,8,3′,4′-Hexamethoxyflavone: Promotion of Neurite Outgrowth via cAMP/PKA/CREB Pathway in PC12 Cells

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    5-Hydroxy-3,6,7,8,3′,4′-hexamethoxyflavone (5-OH-HxMF), a hydroxylated polymethoxyflavone, is found exclusively in the Citrus genus, particularly in the peels of sweet orange. In this research, we report the first investigation of the neurotrophic effects and mechanism of 5-OH-HxMF in PC12 pheochromocytoma cells. We found that 5-OH-HxMF can effectively induce PC12 neurite outgrowth accompanied with the expression of neuronal differentiation marker protein growth-associated protein-43(GAP-43). 5-OH-HxMF caused the enhancement of cyclic AMP response element binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation, c-fos gene expression and CRE-mediated transcription, which was inhibited by 2-naphthol AS-E phosphate (KG-501), a specific antagonist for the CREB-CBP complex formation. Moreover, 5-OH-HxMF-induced both CRE transcription activity and neurite outgrowth were inhibited by adenylate cyclase and protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor, but not MEK1/2, protein kinase C (PKC), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) or calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK) inhibitor. Consistently, 5-OH-HxMF treatment increased the intracellular cAMP level and downstream component, PKA activity. We also found that addition of K252a, a TrKA antagonist, significantly inhibited NGF- but not 5-OH-HxMF-induced neurite outgrowth. These results reveal for the first time that 5-OH-HxMF is an effective neurotrophic agent and its effect is mainly through a cAMP/PKA-dependent, but TrKA-independent, signaling pathway coupling with CRE-mediated gene transcription. A PKC-dependent and CREB-independent pathway was also involved in its neurotrophic action

    Embedding cultural competence in faculty : a mixed-methods evaluation of an applied Indigenous proficiency workshop

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    One of the most pressing issues in Australian society is the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health and life expectancies (Marmot, 2017). Australia agreed with the World Health Organisation’s 2008 Closing the Gap in a Generation report (WHO, 2008), spending approximately 5.6% of government expenditure towards ameliorating this gap (Gardiner-Garden & Simon-Davies, 2012), yet there have been only minimal positive outcomes (Alford, 2015; Gannon, 2018). In applied terms, this means Indigenous people are still dying younger (Anderson et al., 2016), scoring higher on psychological distress (Markwick, Ansari, Sullivan, & McNeil, 2015) and suffering poorer indices on all chronic diseases (e.g. Walsh & Kangaharan, 2016; Thompson, Talley, & Kong, 2017). The level of complexity involved in addressing these “wicked” or seemingly “impossible to solve” health problems is made worse by the lack of any pan-national strategic planning and/or intervention evaluation (Lokuge et al., 2017), even though there has been a plethora of programs and projects designed to improve Indigenous health (see for example, AGPC, 2016). Leaders in health and educational institutions must consider why there is a lack of progress in closing the gap in Indigenous health and life expectancies. Addressing the inequities in Indigenous health requires a determinant of health approach (Mitrou et al., 2014), as 39% of the gap in health outcomes can be explained by social determinates (AIHW, 2017; Markwick, Ansari, Sullivan, Parsons, & McNeil, 2014). The social determinant considered to most reliably predict Indigenous poor health is racism (Kelaher, Ferdinand, & Paradies, 2014; Paradies, 2006; Paradies & Cunningham, 2009; Paradies et al., 2015; Paradies, Truong, & Priest, 2014)

    Developing the Questionnaire

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    AbstractThis chapter outlines the essential topics for developing and testing a questionnaire for a discrete choice experiment survey. It addresses issues such as the description of the environmental good, pretesting of the survey, incentive compatibility, consequentiality or mitigation of hypothetical bias. For the latter, cheap talk scripts, opt-out reminders or an oath script are discussed. Moreover, the use of instructional choice sets, the identification of protest responses and strategic bidders are considered. Finally, issues related to the payment vehicle and the cost vector design are the subject of this section
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