Looking at Alzheimer's disease: Part 1 symptoms, diagnosis and changes in the brain

In this, the first of a series of articles, the natural history of Alzheimer's disease will be discussed as well as the methods of diagnosis and the pathological changes which underlie the symptoms.

Parkinson's disease Part 1: symptoms, diagnosis and changes in the brain

Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder of middle-aged and elderly people. There are two aspects of the disease of special interest to optometrists. First, visual problems may be present in a proportion of patients with the disease. In addition, the disease is treated by a variety of drugs, some of which may have ocular complications. This article describes the incidence, symptoms, diagnosis, causes and changes in the brain in Parkinson's disease.

Genetics of ocular disease Part 1: Basic concepts: cells, chromosomes and inheritance

This series of articles describes the basic elements of genetics necessary to understand the new advances and the impact these advances will have on the study and treatment of ocular disease. The first article describes the patterns of inheritance of human characteristics, how they are transmitted between the generations and the structure of chromosomes.

Looking to the future : Predicting renal replacement outcomes in a large community cohort with chronic kidney disease

Peer reviewed

Looking to the future : Predicting renal replacement outcomes in a large community cohort with chronic kidney disease

Peer reviewed

Looking to the future : Predicting renal replacement outcomes in a large community cohort with chronic kidney disease

Peer reviewed

The association between vitamin K2 intake and glucose homeostasis in individuals with and without chronic kidney disease

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Expression and Role of CD166 in the Chronic Kidney Disease

Background: CD166, an adhesion molecule of the immunoglobulin superfamily, is one of the crucial effectors that traffic lymphocytes into tissues. Till now, the expression and role of CD166 in the chronic kidney disease remains unknown. Objectives: In the present study, we are to examine the expression of CD166 in the chronic kidney disease, and to explore its function with CD4+ T cells. Materials and Methods: CD166 expression was tested by Flow Cytometry (FACS) in the primary macrophages stimulated with LPS. In vivo, the expression of CD166 and CD4 were examined in the kidney tissues of adriamycin-induced nephropathy (AN) mice by immnohistochemistry. Macrophages and lymphocytes were co-cultured, the interaction between CD166 and CD4 was tested by immunofluorescent staining. Furthermore, the effects of CD166 on the activation and proliferation of T cells were explored. Results: In this study, CD166 expression was found to be upregulated on activated macrophages and glomerular endothelia in the adriamycin-induced nephropathy (AN) mice and CD4+ T cells were increased with CD166 expression in the AN mice. The interaction between macrophages and CD4+ T cells indicated that CD166 played a key role in the recruitment of lymphocytes in the chronic kidney disease, and neither proliferation nor activation of T cells was affected by CD166. Conclusions: CD166 expressed on macrophages and endothelia in AN kidney, and the function was related to the recruitment of CD4+ T cells into inflamed kidney, indicating that CD166 may be a potential target for reducing the inflammatory infiltrates in the chronic kidney disease.

Factors affecting peritoneal dialysis selection in Taiwanese patients with chronic kidney disease

BACKGROUND: Taiwan has the highest incidence and prevalence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the world with 55,499 ESRD patients on long-term dialysis. Nevertheless, 90.96% of these patients are managed on maintenance haemodialysis (HD), with only 9.03% enrolled in a peritoneal dialysis (PD) programme. AIM: The study aim was to identify the factors affecting Taiwanese patient's selection of PD in preference to HD for chronic kidney disease. METHODS: A cross-sectional research design was utilized with 130 chronic renal failure (CRF) patients purposively selected from outpatient nephrology clinics at four separate Taiwan hospitals. Logistic regression was used to identify the main factors affecting the patient's choice of dialysis type. RESULTS: Single-factor logistic regression found significant differences in opinion related to age, education level, occupation type, disease characteristics, lifestyle modifications, self-care ability, know-how of dialysis modality, security considerations and findings related to the decisions made by medical personnel (P < 0.05). Moreover, multinomial logistic regression after adjustment for interfering variables found that self-care ability and dialysis modality know-how were the two main factors affecting the person's selection of dialysis type. CONCLUSIONS: Self-care ability and the person's knowledge of the different types of dialysis modality and how they function were the major determinants for selection of dialysis type in Taiwan based on the results from this study. The results indicate that the education of CRF patients about the types of dialysis available is essential to enable them to understand the benefits or limitations of both types of dialysis.

The role of religion and spirituality in coping with kidney disease and haemodialysis in Thailand

BACKGROUND: People with chronic kidney disease (CKD) face various problems including psychological, socioeconomic and physical effects associated with CKD and its treatment. They need to develop strategies to help them cope with CKD and life challenges. Religion and spirituality are important coping strategies, but their role in helping people cope with CKD and haemodialysis (HD) in Thailand is relatively unknown.

AIMS: To investigate the role of religion and spirituality in coping with CKD and its treatment in Thailand.

DESIGN: An exploratory, qualitative approach was undertaken using semistructured individual interviews.
METHOD: Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants. Face-to-face, in-depth individual interviews using open questions were conducted during January and February 2012. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using the framework method of qualitative data analysis.

FINDINGS: Twenty people receiving HD participated: age range 23-77 years, mean 53.7 (±16.38 SD). Ten were women. Participants reported use of religious and spiritual practices to cope with CKD and its treatment, including religious and spiritual explanations for developing CKD, karmic disease, making merit, reading Dharma books, praying and chanting to save life and making a vow to Pran-Boon.

CONCLUSION: Religion and spirituality provide powerful coping strategies that can help Thai people with CKD overcome the associated distress and difficulties. Religion and spirituality cannot be separated in Thai culture because Thai people are both religious and spiritual.

Bicaudal-C基因的分子特征和生物学功能

某些蛋白翻译水平的激活和抑制对胚胎发育过程中基因表达起到重要的时空调节作用.在果蝇中,Bicaudal-c(dBic-C)基因产物被认为是一种能与RNA结合的蛋白质分子,并对转录后水平具有重要的调节作用.dBic-C基因的突变会导致果蝇缺失头部结构和重复的尾部结构,故而命名为双尾-C基因.后来又在多个不同物种(如线虫、爪蟾、小鼠)中发现dBic-C的同源基因,并且这些同源基因的蛋白质产物高度保守.小鼠的Bicaudal-C基因(Biccl)定位于10号染色体的C1区域,其蛋白质N端含有KH结构域,用于介导蛋白质与RNA的相瓦作用;C端的SAM结构域则在蛋白质与蛋白质相互结合中发挥作用.目前已发现3种与Biccl基因相关的小鼠突变体模型jcpk、bpk和67Gso,这些小鼠突变体中Biccl基因在不同位点发生突变,产生异常的蛋白质产物,结果导致小鼠肾脏发生胞囊化,并且影响身体其他器官的正常形态及功能,病理表型特征与人类的多囊肾病(polycystic kidney disease,PKD)极为相似.本文通过总结和同顾Bicaudal-C基因研究的成果和进展,揭示该基因在生物体发育和器官形成中的作用,为深入研究这一基因的生物学功能奠定基础.

Investigations of stress responses in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Transcriptional control and heat shock protein function

The baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae responds to the cytotoxic effects of elevated temperature (37-42°C) by activating transcription of ∼150 genes, termed heat shock genes, collectively required to compensate for the abundance of misfolded and aggregated proteins and various physiological modifications necessary for the cell to survive and grow at heat shock temperatures. An intriguing facet of the yeast heat shock response is the remarkable similarity it shares with the global remodeling that occurs in mammalian cells in response to numerous pathophysiological conditions including cancer and cardiovascular disease and thus provides an ideal model system. I have therefore investigated several novel features of stress signaling, transcriptional regulation, and physiology. Initial work focused on the characterization of SYM1, a novel heat shock gene in yeast which was demonstrated to be required for growth on the nonfermentable carbon source ethanol at elevated temperature, and to be the functional ortholog of the mammalian kidney disease gene, Mpv17. Additional work addressed the role of two proteins, the Akt-related kinase, Sch9, and Sse1, the yeast Hsp110 protein chaperone homolog, in signaling by protein kinase A, establishing Sse1 as a critical negative regulator of this pathway. Furthermore, I have demonstrated a role for Sse1 in biogenesis and stability of the stress-response transcription factor, Msn2; a finding that has been extended to include a select subset of additional high molecular weight proteins, suggesting a more global role for this chaperone in stabilizing the cellular proteome. The final emphasis of my doctoral work has included the finding that celastrol, a compound isolated from the plant family Celasfraceae, a component of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, can activate heat shock transcription factor (Hsf1) in yeast and mammalian cells through an oxidative stress mechanism. Celastrol treatment simultaneously activates both heat shock and oxidative stress response pathways, resulting in increased cytoprotection. ^