Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory process that is known to be the underlying cause of coronary artery disease (CAD).1 In addition to being the first step of primary hemostasis, platelets play a pivotal role in the thrombotic process that follows rupture, fissure, or erosion of an atherosclerotic plaque.2 Because atherothrombotic events are essentially platelet-driven processes, this und...

564 www.thelancet.com Vol 384 August 16, 2014 The effi cacy and safety of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been substantially enhanced by refi nements in antithrombotic treatments. Ischaemic complications were reduced by as much as 50% with addition of platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors (GPIs) to early regimens of aspirin and heparin. However, use of these potent platelet inh...

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) invited the manufacturer (The Medicines Company) of bivalirudin to submit evidence for its clinical and cost effectiveness within its licensed indication for the treatment of adults with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) intended for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), as part of NICE's single techn...

The exogenous introduction of fluorescentlipoproteins into cell membranes is a method for visualizingthe cellular traffic of membrane associated proteins, and alsofor altering the cell surface in a controlled manner. In order toachieve the cell membrane anchoring of proteins and theirsubsequent fluorescence based detection, a cholesterolderivative was designed. The headg...

Anchoring of proteins to membranes by glycosylphosphatidylinositols (GPIs) is ubiquitous among all eukaryotes and heavily used by parasitic protozoa. GPI is synthesized and transferred en bloc to form GPI-anchored proteins. The key enzyme in this process is a putative GPI:protein transamidase that would cleave a peptide bond near the COOH terminus of the protein and attach the GPI by an amide l...

Despite the fact that Leishmania parasites are transmitted exclusively by the bite of an infected sand fly, there are few reports concerning the relationship of this factor on Leishmania infection. Two models were developed, one using needle injection and the second based on natural transmission by the vector. During the natural transmission of Leishmania, sand flies inoculate low numbers of me...