Background: Nodding Syndrome (NS), previously called Nodding Disease, is a chronic and debilitating illness affecting thousands of children aged 3-18 years in post-conflict Northern Uganda and South Sudan. Characterised by malnutrition, stunted growth, mental retardation and seizures, some researchers have designated it as epilepsy. With reports appearing in Northern Uganda in1997, NS reached e...

Tolbutamide and gliclazide block the KATP channel Kir6.2/Sur1, causing membrane depolarization and stimulating insulin secretion in pancreatic beta cells. We examined the ability of the EPAC-selective cAMP analog 8-pCPT-29-O-Me-cAMP-AM to potentiate the action of these drugs and the mechanism that might account for it. Insulin secretion stimulated by both 200 mM tolbutamide and 20 mM gliclazide...

Concerns exist about adequacy of vitamin D in pregnant women relative to both maternal and fetal adverse health outcomes. Further contributing to these concerns is the prevalence of inadequate and deficient vitamin D status in pregnant women, which ranges from 5 to 84% globally. Although maternal vitamin D metabolism changes during pregnancy, the mechanisms underlying these changes and the role...

The character of the incoming plate subducting at convergent margins and the processes affecting it as it passes below the shallow forearc may play a major role in the nature and extent of hazardous intraplate seismicity as well as the magnitude of volcanism and the chemistry of lavas produced in the overlying volcanic arc. The fate of incoming sediments and ocean crust and of their associated ...

Objective(s):MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression. They have important roles in kidney development, homeostasis and disease, and participate in the onset and progression of tubulointerstitial sclerosis and end-stage glomerular lesions that occur in various forms of chronic kidney disease (CKD). In the present study, we elucidated the role of microR...

The activation of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program is an important step for tumor initiation, invasion, and metastasis in solid tumors, including lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to identify the sequence variants in the miR-205/200 family-regulated EMT pathway and test their association with risk for lung cancer. Fifty samples were resequenced to identify sequenc...

In order to evaluate if there is variation on the intensity of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) response during HTLV-I associated tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) evolution we retrospectively reviewed 128 cases. The results indicate that although CSF inflammatory alterations can persist over a 10-year period, they tend to become slight or even absent after the second year of TSP evolution.