Objectives: To examine experiences of racism in health settings and their impact on mental health among Aboriginal Australians. Design, setting and participants: A cross‐sectional survey of experiences of racism and mental health was conducted in two metropolitan and two rural Victorian local government areas (LGAs) between 1 December 2010 and 31 October 2011. Participants included 755 Aboriginal Australians aged over 18 years who had resided in the relevant LGA for at least a year. The response rate across all LGAs was 99%. Main outcome measures: Being above or below the threshold for high or very high psychological distress on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. Results: 221 participants reported experiences of racism in health settings in the past 12 months. The results suggested that people experiencing racism in health settings (OR, 4.49; 95% CI, 2.28–8.86) and non‐health settings (OR, 2.66; 95% CI, 1.39–5.08) were more likely than people who did not experience racism to be above the threshold for high or very high psychological distress. Conclusions: Experiencing interpersonal racism in health settings is associated with increased psychological distress over and above what would be expected in other settings. This finding supports the rationale for improving cultural competency and reducing racism as a means of closing the health gap between Aboriginal and other Australians. Capitalising on this investment will require explicitly evaluating the impact of these initiatives on reducing patient experiences of racism.

While studies investigating the health effects of racial discrimination for children and youth have examined a range of effect modifiers, to date, relationships between experiences of racial discrimination, student attitudes, and health outcomes remain unexplored. This study uniquely demonstrates the moderating effects of vicarious racism and motivated fairness on the association between direct experiences of racism and mental health outcomes, specifically depressive symptoms and loneliness, among primary and secondary school students. Across seven schools, 263 students (54.4% female), ranging from 8 to 17 years old (M = 11.2, SD = 2.2) reported attitudes about other racial/ethnic groups and experiences of racism. Students from minority ethnic groups (determined by country of birth) reported higher levels of loneliness and more racist experiences relative to the majority group students. Students from the majority racial/ethnic group reported higher levels of loneliness and depressive symptoms if they had more friends from different racial/ethnic groups, whereas the number of friends from different groups had no effect on minority students' loneliness or depressive symptoms. Direct experiences of racism were robustly related to higher loneliness and depressive symptoms in multivariate regression models. However, the association with depressive symptoms was reduced to marginal significance when students reported low motivated fairness. Elaborating on the negative health effects of racism in primary and secondary school students provides an impetus for future research and the development of appropriate interventions.

BackgroundRacial discrimination denies those from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds access to rights such as the ability to participate equally and freely in community and public life, equitable service provision and freedom from violence. Our study was designed to examine how people from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds in four Australian localities experience and respond to racial discrimination, as well as associated health impacts.MethodsData were collected from 1,139 Australians regarding types of racial discrimination experienced, settings for these incidents, response mechanisms and psychological distress as measured by the Kessler 6 (K6) Psychological Distress Scale.ResultsAge, education, religion, gender, visibility and rurality were all significantly associated with differences in the frequency of experiencing racial discrimination. Experiencing racial discrimination was associated with worse mental health. Mental health impacts were not associated with the type of discriminatory experience, but experiencing racial discrimination in shops and in employment and government settings was associated with being above the threshold for high or very high psychological distress. One out of twelve response mechanisms was found to be associated with lower stress following a discriminatory incident.ConclusionsStudy results indicate that poorer mental health was associated with the volume of discrimination experienced, rather than the type of experience. However, the impact of experiencing discrimination in some settings was shown to be particularly associated with high or very high psychological distress.Our findings suggest that interventions designed to prevent the occurrence of racism have more potential to increase mental health in racial and ethnic minority communities than interventions that work with individuals in response to experiencing racism.

Androgen receptor (AR) plays an important role in normal prostate function as well as in the etiology of prostate cancer. Activation of AR is dictated by hormone binding and by interactions with coregulators. Several of these coregulators are known targets of Ras-related signals. Recent evidence suggests that Ras activation may play a causal role in the progression of prostate cancer toward a more malignant and hormone-insensitive phenotype. In the present study, we used a transcription factor-transcription factor interaction array method to identify the zinc finger protein Ras-responsive element binding protein (RREB-1) as a partner and coregulator of AR. In LNCaP prostate cancer cells, RREB-1 was found to be present in a complex with endogenous AR as determined by coimmunoprecipitation, glutathione S-transferase pull down, and immunofluorescence analyses. RREB-1 bound to the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) promoter as assessed by chromatin immunoprecipitation. Transient expression of RREB-1 down-regulated AR-mediated promoter activity and suppressed expression of PSA protein. The repressor activity of RREB-1 was significantly attenuated by cotransfection of activated Ras. Moreover, expression of the dominant-negative N-17-Ras or, alternatively, use of the MAPK kinase inhibitor PD98059 [2-(2-amino-3-methyoxyphenyl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one] abolished the effect of Ras in attenuating RREB-1-mediated repression. Furthermore, inhibition of RREB-1 expression by RNA interference enhanced the effect of Ras on PSA promoter activity and PSA expression. In addition, activation of the Ras pathway depleted AR from the RREB-1/AR complex. Collectively, our data for the first time identify RREB-1 as a repressor of AR and further implicate the Ras/MAPK kinase pathway as a likely antagonist of the inhibitory effects of RREB-1 on androgenic signaling.

The technical challenge to analysis of the serum proteome is that the serum proteins are present at unequal concentrations. A few are so dominant, such as serum albumin and immunoglobulins, that they mask detection of other proteins. Because of these high abundance proteins, current technologies, while theoretically capable of analyzing protein amounts spanning four orders of magnitude, are only able to analyze proteins ranging over two orders of magnitude and cannot analyze the lower abundance proteins that may be the next biomarkers and drug targets. To facilitate the identification of low abundance proteins, we fractionated serum samples from patients with prostate cancer and patients with benign prostate hyperplasia using anion displacement liquid chromatofocusing chromatography, which separates proteins by a pH gradient and a positively charged column. Differential expression of proteins from fractions was then determined and identified by IEF gels and 2-D DIGE. Results demonstrate improved resolution of proteins within the chosen pH gradient when compared to the unfractionated samples. Several proteins that were differentially expressed in serum from patients with prostate cancer were identified in the fractionated serum. Three of these proteins, squamous cell carcinoma antigen 1 (SCCA1), calgranulin B, and haptoglobin-related protein, are present in the serum at levels below the classical protein level of mg/mL. SCCA1 is normally expressed in serum at ng/mL levels, and calgranulin B is an intracellular protein. Our results demonstrate that the use of anion displacement liquid chromatofocusing chromatography may reduce the complexity of the serum proteome by separating proteins into distinct pH ranges, and facilitate the identification of low abundance proteins.