Search results for " alpha"

Experimental lung injury induces cerebral cytokine mRNA production in pigs

2020

Background Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is an important disease with a high incidence among patients admitted to intensive care units. Over the last decades, the survival of critically ill patients has improved; however, cognitive deficits are among the long-term sequelae. We hypothesize that acute lung injury leads to upregulation of cerebral cytokine synthesis. Methods After approval of the institutional and animal care committee, 20 male pigs were randomized to one of three groups: (1) Lung injury by oleic acid injection (OAI), (2) ventilation only (CTR) or (3) untreated. We compared neuronal numbers, proportion of neurons with markers for apoptosis, activation state of Ib…

Conversion of the Ca2+-ATPase from Rhodospirillum rubrum into a Mg2+-dependent enzyme by 1,N6-etheno ATP

1980

Nucleoside triphosphate hydrolysis of R.rubrum ATPase complexes can be changed from Ca2+-dependence to Mg2+-dependence by replacing ATP with 1,N6-etheno ATP. Four ATPase complexes which have been prepared by different procedures hydrolyze ATP and 1,N6-etheno ATP at different rates in dependence on the added metal ions. These differences allow an easy distinction of the various enzyme forms.

The Intention-to-Treat Effect of Bridging Treatments in the Setting of Milan Criteria–In Patients Waiting for Liver Transplantation

2019

In patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) meeting the Milan criteria (MC), the benefit of locoregional therapies (LRTs) in the context of liver transplantation (LT) is still debated. Initial biases in the selection between treated and untreated patients have yielded conflicting reported results. The study aimed to identify, using a competing risk analysis, risk factors for HCC-dependent LT failure, defined as pretransplant tumor-related delisting or posttransplant recurrence. The study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov (identification number NCT03723304). In order to offset the initial limitations of the investigated population, an inverse probability of treatment weighting (IP…

Adaptation and Validation of the Spanish Version of the Instrument to Evaluate Nurses’ Attitudes Toward Communication With the Patient for Nursing St…

2021

Communication is essential to quality of care and patient satisfaction. It has been linked to positive patient outcomes, increased engagement, improved health outcomes and safe practices. Given these benefits and the association between attitudes and behaviours, as behaviours can be predicted by studying attitudes, assessing nursing students' attitudes toward patient communication is critical as future nursing professionals. For this purpose, the main aim of this study was to adapt and validate an instrument to measure nurses´ attitudes towards communication (ACO) for nursing students. The attitudes towards communication with patients were analyzed. Then, differences in the dimensions of th…

Targeted-lung delivery of dexamethasone using gated mesoporous silica nanoparticles. A new therapeutic approach for acute lung injury treatment

2021

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a critical inflammatory syndrome, characterized by increased diffuse inflammation and severe lung damage, which represents a clinical concern due to the high morbidity and mortality in critical patients. In last years, there has been a need to develop more effective treatments for ALI, and targeted drug delivery to inflamed lungs has become an attractive research field. Here, we present a nanodevice based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with dexamethasone (a glucocorticoid extensively used for ALI treatment) and capped with a peptide that targets the TNFR1 receptor expressed in pro-inflammatory macrophages (TNFR-Dex-MSNs) and avoids cargo leakage. TNFR-D…

Acute stress and working memory in older people.

2015

Several studies have shown that acute stress affects working memory (WM) in young adults, but the effect in older people is understudied. As observed in other types of memory, older people may be less sensitive to acute effects of stress on WM. We performed two independent studies with healthy older men and women (from 55 to 77 years old) to investigate the effects of acute stress (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST) and cortisol on WM. In study 1 (n = 63), after the TSST women (but not men) improved their performance on Digit Span Forward (a measure of the memory span component of WM) but not on Digit Span Backward (a measure of both memory span and the executive component of WM). Furthermore,…

2004

We investigated how the synthesis of cAMP, stimulated by isoproterenol acting through β-adrenoreceptors and Gs, is strongly amplified by simultaneous incubation with baclofen. Baclofen is an agonist of δ-aminobutyric acid type B receptors [GABAB], known to inhibit adenylyl cyclase via Gi. Because these agents have opposite effects on cAMP levels, the unexpected increase in cAMP synthesis when they are applied simultaneously has been intensively investigated. From previous reports, it appears that cyclase type II contributes most significantly to this phenomenon. We found that simultaneous application of isoproterenol and baclofen specifically influences the association/dissociation of molec…

Highly protective in vivo function of cytomegalovirus IE1 epitope-specific memory CD8 T cells purified by T-cell receptor-based cell sorting.

2005

ABSTRACTReconstitution of antiviral CD8 T cells is essential for controlling cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection after bone marrow transplantation. Accordingly, polyclonal CD8 T cells derived from BALB/c mice infected with murine CMV protect immunocompromised adoptive transfer recipients against CMV disease. The protective population comprises CD8 T cells with T-cell receptors (TCRs) specific for defined and for as-yet-unknown viral epitopes, as well as a majority of nonprotective cells with unrelated specificities. Defined epitopes include IE1/m123 and m164, which are immunodominant in terms of the magnitude of the CD8 T-cell response, and a panel of subordinate epitopes (m04, m18, M45, M83, a…

Interleukin-7 or Interleukin-15 Enhances Survival ofMycobacterium tuberculosis-Infected Mice

2000

ABSTRACTBoth antigen-presenting cells and immune effector cells are required to effectively eradicate or containMycobacterium tuberculosis-infected cells. A variety of cytokines are involved to ensure productive “cross talk” between macrophages and T lymphocytes. For instance, infection of macrophages with mycobacteria leads to effective interleukin-7 (IL-7) and IL-15 secretion, and both cytokines are able to maintain strong cellular immune responses of α/β and γ/δ T cells. Here we show that either cytokine is able to enhance survival ofM. tuberculosis-infected BALB/c mice significantly compared to application of IL-2, IL-4, or phosphate-buffered saline (as a control). Enhanced survival cou…

Phenotype and functional changes of Vγ9/Vδ2 T lymphocytes in Behçet's disease and the effect of infliximab on Vγ9/Vδ2 T cell expansion, activation an…

2010

Introduction: Infliximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody against tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) that has been introduced recently for Behcet's disease (BD) patients who were resistant to standard treatment. The aim of this study was to analyse the functional changes of Vγ9/Vδ2 T lymphocytes in both active and inactive disease and the effect of infliximab on Vγ9/Vδ2 T cell expansion, activation and cytotoxicity. Methods: We investigated 1) cell expansion, 2) expression of TNFRII receptor, 3) perforin and gamma interferon (IFN) content, 4) release of granzyme A (GrA) and 5) phenotype changes, in vitro and in vivo, in Vγ9/Vδ2 T lymphocytes by means of fluorescence-activated cell sorter …