Project description:Zusammenfassung Die Adipositas ist eine über das Normalmaß hinausgehende Vermehrung des Körperfetts und wird über den Body-Mass- Index (BMI = kg/m) bestimmt. Ab einem BMI von 30 kg/m liegt definitionsgemäß eine Adipositas vor. Der Krankheitswert ergibt sich aus der Assoziation von Folgeerkrankungen, deren Risiko mit der Prävalenzdauer und dem Schweregrad der Adipositas ansteigt (Tab. 28.1). Dabei korreliert das kardiovaskuläre Risiko besonders mit dem Vorliegen einer viszeralen Adipositas (>88/102 cm Taillenumfang bei Frauen/ Männern). Die Prävalenz der Adipositas steigt in Deutschland kontinuierlich an. Derzeit ist knapp ein Viertel der deutschen Bevölkerung als adipös einzustufen.
Project description:The Bioinformatics group at the National Cancer Research Institute (IST) of Genoa has been involved since many years in the development and maintenance of biomedical information systems. Among them, the Common Access to Biological Resources and Information network services offer access to more than 130,000 biological resources, like strains of micro-organisms and human and animal cell lines, included in 29 collections from some of the most known European Biological Resource Centers. An Sequence Retrieval System (SRS) implementation of the TP53 Mutation Database of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (Lyon) was made available in order to improve interoperability of this data with other molecular biology databases. 'SRS by WS (SWS)', a system for retrieving information on public SRS sites and for directly querying them, was also implemented. In order to make this information available through application programming interfaces, we implemented a suite of free web services (WS), called the 'IST Bioinformatics Web Services (IBWS)'. A support web site, including a description of the system, a list of available WS together with help pages, links to corresponding WSDLs and forms for testing services, is available at http://bioinformatics.istge.it/ibws/. WSDL definitions can also be retrieved directly at http://bioinformatics.istge.it:8080/axis/services.
Project description:Die Covid-19-Krise verschärft die bereits lebhaft geführte Diskussion um regionale Disparitäten in der Daseinsvorsorge. Insbesondere im dünnbesiedelten, ländlichen Raum hatten viele Kommunen schon vor der aktuellen Ausnahmesituation Schwierigkeiten, attraktive medizinische Versorgung, Bildungsinfrastruktur, öffentlichen Personennahverkehr oder Breitbandinternet bereitzustellen. Während einerseits die weitere Stärkung urbaner Zentren zur Diskussion steht, wird den Menschen im ländlichen Raum andererseits ein Gefühl des Verlassenwerdens attestiert, das auf einen kulturellen Stadt-Land-Konflikt hinzudeuten scheint. Der vorliegende Beitrag bietet den Auftakt für die kleinräumige empirisch fundierte Debatte um Daseinsvorsorge und die Entfremdung von etablierten Parteien in Deutschland. Die Analyse beruht auf einem zu diesem Zweck aufgebauten Datensatz, der neben einem Index der Daseinsvorsorge auch eine Auswertung der Distanz zum nächstgelegenen Bahnhof und der Erreichbarkeit des nächstgelegenen Krankenhauses auf Gemeindeebene für die Bundestagswahl 2017 sowie die Europawahl 2019 erlaubt. Wie aus anderen westlichen Demokratien zu erwarten, geht auch in Deutschland ein besseres AfD-Ergebnis mit einer schwächeren Daseinsvorsorge einher. Ein Teil dieses Effektes ist jedoch schlicht auf die Divergenz zwischen ländlichem Raum und urbaner Agglomeration zurückzuführen und zeigt sich entgegen der Erwartungen weniger deutlich oder gar nicht zwischen kleineren ländlichen Gemeinden. Zudem steigt die Zustimmung zum Rechtspopulismus weder mit zunehmender Distanz zum nächstgelegenen Bahnhof noch mit einer höheren Kommunalverschuldung. Trotzdem deutet auch in den kleineren Gemeinden einiges auf Erfolge der AfD in Räumen politischer Entfremdung und wirtschaftlicher Schwierigkeiten hin. Robust schneidet die rechtspopulistische Partei umso besser ab desto geringer die vorherrschende Wahlbeteiligung desto stärker die Gemeinde von Abwanderung betroffen sowie desto angespannter der Arbeitsmarkt ist. Eine innovative Wirtschaft vor Ort hat hingegen das Potenzial, die Zustimmung zu den Rechtspopulisten abzumildern. Zusatzmaterial online Zusätzliche Informationen sind in der Online-Version dieses Artikels (10.1007/s41358-020-00239-y) enthalten.
Project description:Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic pruritic inflammatory skin disease. We recently described an animal model in which repeated epicutaneous applications of a house dust mite extract and Staphylococcal enterotoxin B induced eczematous skin lesions. In this study we showed that global gene expression patterns are very similar between human AD skin and allergen/staphylococcal enterotoxin B–induced mouse skin lesions, particularly in the expression of genes related to epidermal growth/differentiation, skin barrier, lipid/energy metabolism, immune response, or extracellular matrix. In this model, mast cells and T cells, but not B cells or eosinophils, were shown to be required for the full expression of dermatitis, as revealed by reduced skin inflammation and reduced serum IgE levels in mice lacking mast cells or T cells (TCRb-/- or Rag1-/-). The clinical severity of dermatitis correlated with the numbers of mast cells, but not eosinophils. Consistent with the idea that T helper type 2 (Th2) cells play a predominant role in allergic diseases, the receptor for the Th2-promoting cytokine thymic stromal lymphopoietin and the high-affinity IgE receptor, FceRI, were required to attain maximal clinical scores. Therefore, this clinically relevant model provides mechanistic insights into the pathogenic mechanism of human AD.
Project description:Seit dem ersten Auftreten der Coronavirus-Krankheit 2019 (COVID-19) in China sind nur wenige Wochen vergangen. In dieser Zeit hat sich die Infektion weltweit ausgebreitet. Doch auch das Wissen über das neuartige Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) ist gewachsen. Dieser Artikel fasst die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse zusammen und gibt einen Überblick, wie die limitierte Datenlage hinsichtlich Schwangerschaft und Geburt einzuschätzen ist. (Stand: 21.03.2020)
Project description:Introduction Severe aplastic anemia(SAA)is a severe disease characterized by immune-mediated bone marrow failure and pancytopenia. Immunosuppressive therapy (ATG plus CsA, IST) is the standard treatment for patients who are not suitable for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Some patients have a delayed response after 6 months of ATG, and unnecessary to be given secondary ATG or allo-HSCT. We attempted to distinguish patients who may get potential delayed response from those who were really not responsive to IST. Methods We collected data from 45 SAA patients who were assessed no-response to IST at 6 months after rATG and failed to receive secondary ATG or allo-HSCT. Results CsA plus eltrombopag (EPAG) group has an extra 75% response rate while CsA maintenance group has an extra 44% response rate at 12 months. ATG was applied within 30 days after diagnosis, ATG dosage was suffificient (ATG/lymphocyte ≥2), and absolute reticulocyte count (ARC) was ≥30×109 /L at 6 months, indicated patients could get delayed response and benefifit from CsA maintenance. Addition of EPAG could give an even better response. Otherwise, secondary ATG or allo-HSCT treatment were recommended to be given immediately. Clinical Trial Registration https://www.chictr.org.cn/searchproj.aspx, identifier ChiCTR2300067615.
Project description:PurposeMeasurement of IgE specific to purified house dust mite (HDM) allergens may improve allergy diagnosis. This study aimed to investigate the sensitization profiles of Korean HDM allergic subjects suffering from respiratory allergy and atopic dermatitis (AD) to Der f 1, Der f 2, Der f 6, Der f 8, Der f 10, and Der f 20.MethodsRecombinant HDM allergens were produced in Pichia pastoris (Der f 1) or Escherichia coli (5 allergens). IgE reactivity to the individual recombinant allergens and total extract of mite was assessed by ELISA.ResultsDer f 1 was recognized by 79.1%, Der f 2 by 79.1%, Der f 6 by 9.3%, Der f 8 by 6.2%, Der f 10 by 6.2%, and Der f 20 by 6.6% of the patients' sera tested, while the prevalence of IgE reactivity to total mite extract was 94.7%. Combination of Der f 1 and Der f 2 had a sensitivity of 87.6%. Specific IgE to Der f 2 alone was detected from 89.4% of HDM-sensitized respiratory allergy subjects and 92.3% to the combination of the 2 major allergens Der f 1 and Der f 2. However, sera from fewer patients with AD, namely 72.4% and 71.0%, recognized Der f 1 and Der f 2, respectively. The combination of 2 major allergens allowed diagnosis of 84.5% of the AD patients. No correlation between sensitization to specific allergens and HDM allergy entity was found.ConclusionsDer f 2 was the most frequently sensitized allergen among the HDM-sensitized respiratory and AD patients in Korea, and the combination of the group 1 and 2 major allergens increased the diagnostic sensitivity. Minor allergens did not significantly improve diagnostic sensitivity. However, further studies are needed to analyze the relationship between sensitization to other HDM allergens and the disease entity of the HDM allergy.
Project description:Manual curation of biomedical literature has become extremely tedious process due to its exponential growth in recent years. To extract meaningful information from such large and unstructured text, newer and more efficient mining tool is required. Here, we introduce PALM-IST, a computational platform that not only allows users to explore biomedical abstracts using keyword based text mining but also extracts biological entity (e.g., gene/protein, drug, disease, biological processes, cellular component, etc.) information from the extracted text and subsequently mines various databases to provide their comprehensive inter-relation (e.g., interaction, expression, etc.). PALM-IST constructs protein interaction network and pathway information data relevant to the text search using multiple data mining tools and assembles them to create a meta-interaction network. It also analyzes scientific collaboration by extraction and creation of "co-authorship network," for a given search context. Hence, this useful combination of literature and data mining provided in PALM-IST can be used to extract novel protein-protein interaction (PPI), to generate meta-pathways and further to identify key crosstalk and bottleneck proteins. PALM-IST is available at www.hpppi.iicb.res.in/ctm.
Project description:Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic pruritic inflammatory skin disease. We recently described an animal model in which repeated epicutaneous applications of a house dust mite extract and Staphylococcal enterotoxin B induced eczematous skin lesions. In this study we showed that global gene expression patterns are very similar between human AD skin and allergen/staphylococcal enterotoxin B–induced mouse skin lesions, particularly in the expression of genes related to epidermal growth/differentiation, skin barrier, lipid/energy metabolism, immune response, or extracellular matrix. In this model, mast cells and T cells, but not B cells or eosinophils, were shown to be required for the full expression of dermatitis, as revealed by reduced skin inflammation and reduced serum IgE levels in mice lacking mast cells or T cells (TCRb-/- or Rag1-/-). The clinical severity of dermatitis correlated with the numbers of mast cells, but not eosinophils. Consistent with the idea that T helper type 2 (Th2) cells play a predominant role in allergic diseases, the receptor for the Th2-promoting cytokine thymic stromal lymphopoietin and the high-affinity IgE receptor, FceRI, were required to attain maximal clinical scores. Therefore, this clinically relevant model provides mechanistic insights into the pathogenic mechanism of human AD. A total of six samples were analyzed. Back skin samples from healthy or AD-induced C57BL/6, PLC-beta 3 KO (C57BL/6 background), and NC/Nga mice were collected for total RNA extraction. Pooled RNA from 2-4 mice per condition were used for analysis.