Association between Endothelial Selectin (E-selectin) gene polymorphisms and E-selectin level with visceral leishmaniais, in an ARMS-PCR based study

Background: In the visceral leishmaniasis (VL), parasites reside in reticuluendothelial system, mainly in macrophages. Endothelial Selectin (E-selectin) might play an important role in leukocyte-endothelium interactions and inflammatory cell recruitment. The aim of this study was determining E-selectin level and its polymorphism in three groups, patients, seropositive and healthy individuals. Methods: Serum soluble E-selectin levels as well as 2 polymorphisms of E-selectin (Ser128Arg and Leu554Phe) were measured in a cohort of patients with documented VL (n=64), a healthy control group (n=74) and a seropositive for VL but without any symptoms (n=81). Circulation concentration of E-selectin levels was measured by ELIS. The amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-PCR procedure was used for detecting polymorphisms. Results: The mean of E-selectin levels significantly differed between three groups (P<0.026), and were increased in patients in comparison with other groups. Difference was more considerable between two groups of patients and healthy ones (patients 92.8 ng/ml; healthy individuals 71.9 ng/ml). Polymorphisms were associated with soluble E-selectin levels and altogether explained 14.4%, 7.2%, and 8.7% in patients, seropositive and seronegative healthy individuals, respectively. Distribution of polymorphisms of 128Ser/Arg and 554Leu/Phe among three groups was not different significantly; however, there was a considerable arrangement in distribution of Ser128Arg polymorphism and 128Arg allele in healthy group was more than two fold of patients (55% against 20%). Conclusion: The association between soluble E-selectin levels and visceral leishmaniasis suggests that this molecule might have significant role in the inflammatory process in VL. Moreover, frequency of 128Arg allele in healthy group was higher than patients

Domestic dog ownership in Iran is a risk factor for human infection with Leishmania infantum.

One explanation proposed for the widespread failure to control zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis by culling infected domestic dogs is that wild canids or humans play significant roles in transmission. The aim of this study was to determine the importance of domestic dogs as the reservoir hosts of visceral leishmaniasis in northwest Iran. A random sample of 3,872 children and 199 dogs in 38 villages was surveyed by the direct agglutination test. Dog ownership details among these households were collected by questionnaire. Parasites isolated from 16 patients and 12 dogs were characterized as Leishmania infantum MON-1. Average seroprevalence in dogs (21.6%) was much higher than in children (7%). Child seropositivity increased significantly with village dog density in absolute terms (P < 0.001) and in relation to dog/human ratios (P = 0.028). Dog ownership within villages also was a significant risk factor for child seropositivity (P = 0.003)

Scoping review of indicators and methods of measurement used to evaluate the impact of dog population management interventions

Background: Dogs are ubiquitous in human society and attempts to manage their populations are common to most countries. Managing dog populations is achieved through a range of interventions to suit the dog population dynamics and dog ownership characteristics of the location, with a number of potential impacts or goals in mind. Impact assessment provides the opportunity for interventions to identify areas of inefficiencies for improvement and build evidence of positive change. Methods: This scoping review collates 26 studies that have assessed the impacts of dog population management interventions. Results: It reports the use of 29 indicators of change under 8 categories of impact and describes variation in the methods used to measure these indicators. Conclusion: The relatively few published examples of impact assessment in dog population management suggest this field is in its infancy; however this review highlights those notable exceptions. By describing those indicators and methods of measurement that have been reported thus far, and apparent barriers to efficient assessment, this review aims to support and direct future impact assessment

Noise Reduction Using 2D Anisotropic Diffusion Filter in Inverse Electrocardiography

Noise in biomedical measurements has a negative effect on the accuracy of the solutions obtained. Therefore various filtering methods have been proposed in literature to reduce the effects of noise. In our previous studies we have demonstrated the application of one dimensional Anisotropic Diffusion Filter (ADF) to suppress the effects of measurement and geometric noise in body surface potential measurements (BSPM) with the goal of improving the corresponding solutions of the inverse problem of electrocardiography (ECG). In this study, we used two dimensional AD filter to cancel the noise on the body surface potentials and we compared the results to our previous observations. We used unfiltered and filtered BSPMs to estimate the epicardial potential distribution

Class I Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase <i>PIK3CA</i>/p110α and <i>PIK3CB</i>/p110β Isoforms in Endometrial Cancer

The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling pathway is highly dysregulated in cancer, leading to elevated PI3K signalling and altered cellular processes that contribute to tumour development. The pathway is normally orchestrated by class I PI3K enzymes and negatively regulated by the phosphatase and tensin homologue, PTEN. Endometrial carcinomas harbour frequent alterations in components of the pathway, including changes in gene copy number and mutations, in particular in the oncogene PIK3CA, the gene encoding the PI3K catalytic subunit p110&#945;, and the tumour suppressor PTEN. PIK3CB, encoding the other ubiquitously expressed class I isoform p110&#946;, is less frequently altered but the few mutations identified to date are oncogenic. This isoform has received more research interest in recent years, particularly since PTEN-deficient tumours were found to be reliant on p110&#946; activity to sustain transformation. In this review, we describe the current understanding of the common and distinct biochemical properties of the p110&#945; and p110&#946; isoforms, summarise their mutations and highlight how they are targeted in clinical trials in endometrial cancer

Genetic algorithm-based regularization parameter estimation for the inverse electrocardiography problem using multiple constraints

In inverse electrocardiography, the goal is to estimate cardiac electrical sources from potential measurements on the body surface. It is by nature an ill-posed problem, and regularization must be employed to obtain reliable solutions. This paper employs the multiple constraint solution approach proposed in Brooks et al. (IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 46(1):3-18, 1999) and extends its practical applicability to include more than two constraints by finding appropriate values for the multiple regularization parameters. Here, we propose the use of real-valued genetic algorithms for the estimation of multiple regularization parameters. Theoretically, it is possible to include as many constraints as necessary and find the corresponding regularization parameters using this approach. We have shown the feasibility of our method using two and three constraints. The results indicate that GA could be a good approach for the estimation of multiple regularization parameters