tion in nonsplenectomized ITP patients. RCTs are particularly important in ITP because spontaneous remissions are known to occur6 and because formal evaluations of treatment efficacy that include clinically important end points—such as bleeding and quality-oflife—are needed.7 Conflict-of-interest disclosure: T.E.W. declares no competing financial interests. D.M.A. has received an operating gran...

An elementary introduction into the Seiberg-Witten theory is given. Every effort is made to get it as pedagogical as possible, and within a reasonable size. The selection of the relevant material is heavily oriented towards graduate students. The basic ideas about solitons, monopoles, supersymmetry and duality are reviewed from the first principles, and they are illustrated on the simplest exam...

Riemannian geometry in four dimensions naturally leads to an SL(3) connection that annihilates a basis for self-dual two-forms. Einstein’s equations may be written in terms of an SO(3) connection, with SO(3) chosen as an appropriate subgroup of SL(3). We show how a set of ”neighbours” of Einstein’s equations arises because the subgroup may be chosen in different ways. An explicit example of a n...

Twenty-two children with immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) with long-lasting thrombocytopenia, adversely affecting their quality of life, were treated with a reduced rituximab regimen in order to eliminate B cells producing anti-platelet antibody. A single dose of rituximab resulted in a response rate similar to that reported for cases in which 4 doses of rituximab were used.

OBJECTIVE Inosine, a break-down product of adenosine has been recently shown to exert inodilatory and anti-inflammatory properties. Furthermore inosine might be a key substrate of pharmacological post-conditioning. In the present pre-clinical study, we investigated the effects of inosine on cardiac function during reperfusion in an experimental model of cardioplegic arrest and extracorporal cir...

The objective of these studies was to determine whether inosine, a precursor of the antioxidant uric acid, can ameliorate hemin-induced oxidative stress. Dietary inclusion of inosine was begun either before or after hemin-induced oxidative stress. Broilers (4 weeks) were divided into four treatment groups (Control, Hemin, Inosine, Hemin/Inosine). Throughout the study control birds (n=10) were i...

Neurogenic detrusor overactivity (NDO) is among the most challenging complications of spinal cord injury (SCI). A recent report by us demonstrated an improvement in NDO in SCI rats following chronic systemic treatment with the purine nucleoside inosine. The objective of this study was to investigate the mechanism of action of inosine underlying improvement of NDO. Male Sprague-Dawley rats under...

Inosine, a breakdown product of adenosine, has recently been shown to exert immunomodulatory and neuroprotective effects. We show here that the oral administration of inosine has antidepressant-like effects in two animal models. Inosine significantly enhanced neurite outgrowth and viability of primary cultured neocortical neurons, which was suppressed by adenosine A1 and A2A receptor agonists. ...

We developed a numerical code which allows fast and accurate simulation of isotachophoresis (ITP). The multi-species code accounts for equilibrium chemistry, non-uniform electroosmotic flow, and dispersion. Our modeling efforts for the latter are also presented. The goal of our work is to create an efficient, accurate, validated, and uniquely-capable electrophoresis simulation code available fo...

Three analogs of inosine, formycin B, allopurinol ribonucleoside, and 9-deazainosine, were tested for their ability to suppress proliferation of Pneumocystis carinii in culture with WI-38 cells. The organism was inhibited by 9-deazainosine at 10 micrograms/ml, and there was some inhibition at 1 microgram/ml. Formycin B was effective only at 40 micrograms/ml. Allopurinol ribonucleoside had littl...