Surveying Persons with Disabilities: A Source Guide (Version 1)

As a collaborator with the Cornell Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. has been working on a project that identifies the strengths and limitations in existing disability data collection in both content and data collection methodology. The intended outcomes of this project include expanding and synthesizing knowledge of best practices and the extent existing data use those practices, informing the development of data enhancement options, and contributing to a more informed use of existing data. In an effort to provide the public with an up-to-date and easily accessible source of research on the methodological issues associated with surveying persons with disabilities, MPR has prepared a Source Guide of material related to this topic. The Source Guide contains 150 abstracts, summaries, and references, followed by a Subject Index, which cross references the sources from the Reference List under various subjects. The Source Guide is viewed as a “living document,” and will be periodically updated

Interbilayer-crosslinked multilamellar vesicles as synthetic vaccines for potent humoral and cellular immune responses

available in PMC 2011 September 1Vaccines based on recombinant proteins avoid the toxicity and antivector immunity associated with live vaccine (for example, viral) vectors, but their immunogenicity is poor, particularly for CD8+ T-cell responses. Synthetic particles carrying antigens and adjuvant molecules have been developed to enhance subunit vaccines, but in general these materials have failed to elicit CD8+ T-cell responses comparable to those for live vectors in preclinical animal models. Here, we describe interbilayer-crosslinked multilamellar vesicles formed by crosslinking headgroups of adjacent lipid bilayers within multilamellar vesicles. Interbilayer-crosslinked vesicles stably entrapped protein antigens in the vesicle core and lipid-based immunostimulatory molecules in the vesicle walls under extracellular conditions, but exhibited rapid release in the presence of endolysosomal lipases. We found that these antigen/adjuvant-carrying vesicles form an extremely potent whole-protein vaccine, eliciting endogenous T-cell and antibody responses comparable to those for the strongest vaccine vectors. These materials should enable a range of subunit vaccines and provide new possibilities for therapeutic protein delivery.Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and HarvardBill & Melinda Gates FoundationUnited States. Dept. of Defense (contract W911NF-07-D-0004)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (P41RR002250)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (RC2GM092599

Expression levels of obesity-related genes are associated with weight change in kidney transplant recipients.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association of gene expression profiles in subcutaneous adipose tissue with weight change in kidney transplant recipients and to gain insights into the underlying mechanisms of weight gain.A secondary data analysis was done on a subgroup (n = 26) of existing clinical and gene expression data from a larger prospective longitudinal study examining factors contributing to weight gain in transplant recipients. Measurements taken included adipose tissue gene expression profiles at time of transplant, baseline and six-month weight, and demographic data. Using multivariate linear regression analysis controlled for race and gender, expression levels of 1553 genes were significantly (p<0.05) associated with weight change. Functional analysis using Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes classifications identified metabolic pathways that were enriched in this dataset. Furthermore, GeneIndexer literature mining analysis identified a subset of genes that are highly associated with obesity in the literature and Ingenuity pathway analysis revealed several significant gene networks associated with metabolism and endocrine function. Polymorphisms in several of these genes have previously been linked to obesity.We have successfully identified a set of molecular pathways that taken together may provide insights into the mechanisms of weight gain in kidney transplant recipients. Future work will be done to determine how these pathways may contribute to weight gain

Expression p-values for genes whose expression levels were negatively correlated with weight gain.

<p>Expression p-values for genes whose expression levels were negatively correlated with weight gain.</p

Gene network.

<p>Network identified by Ingenuity software from the analysis of the 41 top ranked genes identified to be correlated with weight gain from microarray data and also highly associated with obesity in the literature by GeneIndexer. The genes CPE, NPY1R, NPY5R, and APOM suggest that these subjects may show changes in leptin and insulin response genes prior to post-transplant weight gain.</p

Functional categories in KEGG that were significantly enriched in the genes associated with weight gain.

<p>Notes: Enrichment p-values were calculated using a hypergeometric test for the number of genes expected in each category by chance. Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment was used to correct for multiple testing error.</p

Genes correlated with relative weight change.

<p>A set of 12 and 21 obesity related genes that are positively (A) and negatively (B) correlated with relative weight change, respectively. Each line represents the mean normalized expression value (vertical axis) for a given gene across 26 kidney transplant recipients ordered with respect to weight loss/gain (horizontal axis) at 6 months after transplantation.</p