The antipsoriatic effect of MTX during the remission-induction phase of treatment is influenced by folate status and may be significantly less if combined treatment with FA is used, irrespective of pre-treatment folate levels. The individual tailoring of MTX dosing needs further attention because the mean percent PASI improvement from baseline was 83% and the inter-patient variability in response was low after 16 weeks of monotherapy with MTX.
This is a unique study based on a representative sample of the general population in a Central European country. The overall prevalence of H. pylori is lower than previously assumed and could partly reflect a substantial recent decrease in H. pylori prevalence in the Czech Republic. Consistent with earlier studies, H. pylori infection is strongly influenced by socioeconomic conditions and childhood poverty.
Attempts have been made to obtain indicators of the abuse of illicit drugs. Many techniques are expensive and/or time-consuming. Others have limitations due to the focus on specific populations. The recent outbreak of fentanyl deaths in Chicago and Detroit related to fentanyl-laced heroin suggest that mortality is a valuable indicator of a drug's presence and prevalence in a community. Drug mortality statistics are accessible from Medical Examiner/Coroner offices. It is possible that including deaths both intentional and non-intentional will give the best overall indication of trends in drug use. By following death rates, it may be possible to provide a ''canary in the coal mine'' for drugs of abuse. We've studied data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for cocaine related deaths. Data from 2005 showed 1,943 deaths compared to 1,034 cocaine related deaths in 2000, a 90% increase. Data from the first 6 months of 2006 reveals a continuing increasing trend with an increase of 10.8% compared to 2005. Supporting data from a survey of students at the University of Florida showed an increase of cocaine use in the previous year from 4.0% in 1991 to 7.1% in 2004. There appears to be a renewed epidemic of cocaine abuse in Florida. Interventions are required to prevent progression of this alarming trend.
In healthy Caucasian subjects, the MRs of DM to DEX in plasma obtained at 3 h correlated reasonably well with those in urine collected over the time interval 0-4 h after the dose. Nevertheless, repeatability of this plasma index should be determined before its wide use can be recommended. Finally, the interindividual variation in DEX metabolism to HM (catalyzed by CYP3A) contributes only minimally to the interindividual variability of the MRs.
These results indicate that methylation in p53 promoter region may play an important role in carcinogenesis of ovarian cancer and could potentially be used in screening of ovarian cancer, and may have implications for future chemotherapy based on epigenetic changes.
Summary:The aims of the study were: i) to compare circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) yields obtained by different manual extraction procedures, ii) to evaluate the addition of various carrier molecules into the plasma to improve ctDNA extraction recovery, and iii) to use next generation sequencing (NGS) technology to analyze KRAS, BRAF, and NRAS somatic mutations in ctDNA from patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Venous blood was obtained from patients who suffered from metastatic colorectal carcinoma. For plasma ctDNA extraction, the following carriers were tested: carrier RNA, polyadenylic acid, glycogen, linear acrylamide, yeast tRNA, salmon sperm DNA, and herring sperm DNA. Each extract was characterized by quantitative real-time PCR and next generation sequencing. The addition of polyadenylic acid had a significant positive effect on the amount of ctDNA eluted. The sequencing data revealed five cases of ctDNA mutated in KRAS and one patient with a BRAF mutation. An agreement of 86% was found between tumor tissues and ctDNA. Testing somatic mutations in ctDNA seems to be a promising tool to monitor dynamically changing genotypes of tumor cells circulating in the body. The optimized process of ctDNA extraction should help to obtain more reliable sequencing data in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
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