Journal of investigative medicine : the official publication of the American Federation for Clinical Research
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Recent studies suggest an important role for leptin in respiratory immune responses and pathogenesis of inflammatory respiratory diseases. There has been an interest to explore whether leptin plays any role in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ⋯ We did not find any significant difference in the levels of serum leptin in subjects with COPD. Our data provide indirect evidence against a major role for serum leptin in the pathogenesis of COPD in humans.
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Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, a chronic and incurable disease of the human immune system. As the standard of care for the patients with HIV-1, current highly active antiretroviral treatment has been therapeutically effective in most patients; however, it is not curative, and highly active antiretroviral treatment is intolerable because of severe adverse effects. Therefore, nucleic acid-based therapeutics, such as antisense oligonucleotide, ribozyme, messenger RNA, RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutics, aptamer, and so on, have been actively developed as alternative or adjuvant agents for those chemical antiviral drugs to surmount those drawbacks. ⋯ The combined use of small interfering RNA (siRNAs) and aptamers could effectively block viral replication and prevent the emergence of resistant variants. The present review offers a brief overview of the use of cell-type-specific aptamer and aptamer-siRNA conjugates' development in our group for the treatment of HIV-1. Their potentials for targeted delivering RNAi therapeutics (eg, siRNA) and suppressing HIV-1 replication in vitro and in humanized animal model will be highlighted here.
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Accumulating evidence shows that gradual loss of white matter integrity plays an important role in the development of Alzheimer disease (AD). ⋯ The radiographic manifestation of damaged white matter microstructural integrity in the cholinergic pathway in MCI patients may provide a rational basis for the use of cholinesterase inhibitor drugs in the MCI stage of AD.
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Cirrhosis is diagnosed in patients of all ages and is the end result of many different diseases. The aim of this study was to characterize clinical and ethnic features of adult patients who were admitted to the hospital at different (young/old) ages and examine associations between age and ethnicity within these groups. ⋯ The data suggest an association between ethnicity and age of cirrhosis diagnosis, both overall and in patients with certain cirrhosis etiologies. This work raises the possibility of an ethnic and/or genetic basis for cirrhosis.