In this paper we focus our attention on the role of two families of receptors, Toll-like receptors (TLR) and decoy receptors (DcR) involved in the generation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus-like syndromes in human and mouse models. To date, these molecules were described in several autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, antiphospholipids syndrome, bowel inflammation,...

LAY SUMMARY Life threatening trauma and severe hemorrhage are treated using several medical principles called damage control resuscitation (DCR). Red blood cell transfusion is an essential tool in DCR used to address a lack of oxygen delivery the tissues consequent abnormalities human physiology. There numerous challenges accessing stable red products austere remote environments. This article d...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to observe the clinical efficacy and toxicity of cisplatin in combination with gemcitabine or Abraxane as first-line chemotherapy for stage III/IV non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 200 patients with advanced NSCLC, which was confirmed by pathology or cytology, were enrolled into our research by reviewing previous complete...

PURPOSE To compare success rates of external dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) and endoscopic endonasal DCR for acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction (NLDO). DESIGN Retrospective, comparative, nonrandomized clinical study. PARTICIPANTS One hundred forty-three patients (176 surgeries) operated for acquired NLDO. METHODS A review of electronic medical records of patients with acquired NLDO who u...

INTRODUCTION There is limited information published on switching erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) treatment for anemia associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) from darbepoetin alfa (DA) to methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta (PEG-Epo) outside the protocol of interventional clinical studies. AFFIRM (Aranesp Efficiency Relative to Mircera) was a retrospective, multi-site, observat...

Double-stranded RNAs can suppress expression of homologous genes through an evolutionarily conserved process named RNA interference (RNAi) or post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS). One mechanism underlying silencing is degradation of target mRNAs by an RNP complex, which contains approximately 22 nt of siRNAs as guides to substrate selection. A bidentate nuclease called Dicer has been impl...

Chromosome fragmentation is a hallmark of apoptosis, conserved in diverse organisms. In mammals, caspases activate apoptotic chromosome fragmentation by cleaving and inactivating an apoptotic nuclease inhibitor. We report that inactivation of the Caenorhabditis elegans dcr-1 gene, which encodes the Dicer ribonuclease important for processing of small RNAs, compromises apoptosis and blocks apopt...

The Data Category Registry is one of the ISO initiatives towards the establishment of standards for Language Resource management, creation and coding. Successful application of the DCR depends on the availability of tools that can interact with it. This paper describes the first steps that have been taken to provide users of the multimedia annotation tool ELAN, with the means to create referenc...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Brain metastasis was frequent in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with poor prognosis. Gefitinib was an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor which has been used in the treatment of NSCLC. Our study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicities of gefitinib in lung adenocarcinoma patients with brain metastases. METHODS We retrospec...