Inference of gene-phenotype associations via protein-protein interaction and orthology

published_or_final_versio

The Role of Medical Education in Reducing Health Care Disparities: The First Ten Years of the UCLA/Drew Medical Education Program

BACKGROUND: The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)/Charles R. Drew University Medical Education Program was developed to train physicians for practice in underserved areas. The UCLA/Drew Medical Education Program students receive basic science instruction at UCLA and complete their required clinical rotations in South Los Angeles, an impoverished urban community. We have previously shown that, in comparison to their UCLA counterparts, students in the Drew program had greater odds of maintaining their commitment to medically disadvantaged populations over the course of medical education. OBJECTIVE: To examine the independent association of graduation from the UCLA/Drew program with subsequent choice of physician practice location. We hypothesized that participation in the UCLA/Drew program predicts future practice in medically disadvantaged areas, controlling for student demographics such as race/ethnicity and gender, indicators of socioeconomic status, and specialty choice. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Graduates (1,071) of the UCLA School of Medicine and the UCLA/Drew Medical Education Program from 1985–1995, practicing in California in 2003 based on the address listed in the American Medical Association (AMA) Physician Masterfile. MEASUREMENTS: Physician address was geocoded to a California Medical Service Study Area (MSSA). A medically disadvantaged community was defined as meeting any one of the following criteria: (a) federally designated HPSA or MUA; (b) rural area; (c) high minority area; or (d) high poverty area. RESULTS: Fifty-three percent of UCLA/Drew graduates are located in medically disadvantaged areas, in contrast to 26.1% of UCLA graduates. In multivariate analyses, underrepresented minority race/ethnicity (OR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.10–2.25) and participation in the Drew program (OR: 2.47; 95% CI: 1.59–3.83) were independent predictors of future practice in disadvantaged areas. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians who graduated from the UCLA/Drew Medical Education Program have higher odds of practicing in underserved areas than those who completed the traditional UCLA curriculum, even after controlling for other factors such as race/ethnicity. The association between participation in the UCLA/Drew Medical Education Program and physician practice location suggests that medical education programs may reinforce student goals to practice in disadvantaged communities

Angiotensin II type 1 receptor-dependent oxidative stress mediates endothelial dysfunction in type 2 diabetic mice

The mechanisms underlying the effect of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibition on endothelial dysfunction in type 2 diabetes are incompletely understood. This study explored a causal relationship between RAAS activation and oxidative stress involved in diabetes-associated endothelial dysfunction. Daily oral administration of valsartan or enalapril at 10mg/kg/day to db/db mice for 6 weeks reversed the blunted acetylcholine-induced endothelium-dependent dilatations, suppressed the upregulated expression of angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) and NAD(P)H oxidase subunits (p22phox and p47phox), and reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Acute exposure to AT1R blocker losartan restored the impaired endothelium-dependent dilatations in aortas of db/db mice and also in renal arteries of diabetic patients (fasting plasma glucose level ≥7.0 mmol/l). Similar observations were also made with apocynin, diphenyliodonium, or tempol treatment in db/db mouse aortas. DHE fluorescence revealed an overproduction of ROS in db/db aortas which was sensitive to inhibition by losartan or ROS scavengers. Losartan also prevented the impairment of endothelium-dependent dilatations under hyperglycemic conditions that were accompanied by high ROS production. The present study has identified an initiative role of AT1R activation in mediating endothelial dysfunction of arteries from db/db mice and diabetic patients. © 2010 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.published_or_final_versio

Progress and perspective of microneedle system for anti-cancer drug delivery

Transdermal drug delivery exhibited encouraging prospects, especially through superficial drug administration routes. However, only a few limited lipophilic drug molecules could cross the skin barrier, those are with low molecular weight and rational Log P value. Microneedles (MNs) can overcome these limitations to deliver numerous drugs into the dermal layer by piercing the outermost skin layer of the body. In the case of superficial cancer treatments, topical drug administration faces severely low transfer efficiency, and systemic treatments are always associated with side effects and premature drug degradation. MN-based systems have achieved excellent technical capabilities and been tested for pre-clinical chemotherapy, photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, and immunotherapy. In this review, we will focus on the features, progress, and opportunities of MNs in the anticancer drug delivery system. Then, we will discuss the strategies and advantages in these works and summarize challenges, perspectives, and translational potential for future applications

Value-added Synthesis of Graphene: Recycling Industrial Carbon Waste into Electrodes for High-Performance Electronic Devices

We have developed a simple, scalable, transfer-free, ecologically sustainable, value-added method to convert inexpensive coal tar pitch to patterned graphene films directly on device substrates. The method, which does not require an additional transfer process, enables direct growth of graphene films on device substrates in large area. To demonstrate the practical applications of the graphene films, we used the patterned graphene grown on a dielectric substrate directly as electrodes of bottom-contact pentacene field-effect transistors (max. field effect mobility similar to 0.36 cm(2).V-1.s(-1)), without using any physical transfer process. This use of a chemical waste product as a solid carbon source instead of commonly used explosive hydrocarbon gas sources for graphene synthesis has the dual benefits of converting the waste to a valuable product, and reducing pollution.111714Ysciescopu