BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients often have dysphagia through age and several co-morbidities, leading to aspiration pneumonia (AsP). COPD patients also have increased risk of developing community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Using a national inpatient database in Japan, we aimed to compare clinical characteristics and outcomes between AsP and CAP in COPD patients an...

Accessory cells, which include glia and other cell types that develop in close association with neurons, have been shown to play key roles in regulating neuron development. However, the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms remain poorly understood. A particularly intimate association between accessory cells and neurons is found in insect chordotonal organs. We have found that the cap ce...

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and its impact on hospital length of stay and in-hospital mortality. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We carried out a retrospective, nationwide register analysis of CAP in adult patients admitted to Portuguese hospitals between 2009 and 2012. Anonymous ...

1. The compound action potential (CAP) output from the isolated eye of Aplysia, in darkness at constant temperature, exhibits a circadian rhythm of CAP frequency and a circadian rhythm of CAP amplitude when recorded in culture medium for up to two weeks. 2. Deuterated culture medium lengthened the period of the CAP frequency rhythm linearly from 26-7 h in normal culture medium to 33-7 h in 50% ...

Background This study aimed to estimate the economic burden of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) among elderly patients in Japan. In addition, the study evaluated the relationship between total treatment cost and CAP risk factors. Methods An administrative database was searched for elderly patients (≥ 65 years old) who had pneumonia (ICD-10 code: J12-J18) and an antibiotic prescription betwe...

Kinetoplastid mRNAs possess a unique hypermethylated cap 4 structure derived from the standard m7GpppN cap structure, with 2'-O methylations on the first four ribose sugars and additional base methylations on the first adenine and the fourth uracil. While the enzymes responsible for m7GpppN cap 0 formations has been characterized in Trypanosoma brucei, the mechanism of cap 4 methylation and the...

The calponin family of F-actin-, tropomyosin- and calmodulin-binding proteins currently comprises three genetic variants. Their functional roles implicated from in vitro studies include the regulation of actomyosin interactions in smooth muscle cells (h1 calponin), cytoskeletal organisation in non-muscle cells (h2 calponin) and the control of neurite outgrowth (acidic calponin). We have now inv...

In large series of nonresponding community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was observed to be a protective factor for nonresponse to initial antibiotics. This intriguing fact may be linked to changes in the phenotype of inflammatory cells and, in particular, to the induction of classical-M1 or alternative-M2 activation of macrophages, which result...

Prostate cancer (CaP) is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men. Chronic inflammation has been one of several factors associated with the development of CaP. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in cytokine genes have been associated with increased inflammation, increased cytokine production and possibly increased CaP risk. However, the effects of cytokine SNPs on CaP suscep...

Cbl-associated protein (CAP) localizes to focal adhesions and associates with numerous cytoskeletal proteins; however, its physiological roles remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that Drosophila CAP regulates the organization of two actin-rich structures in Drosophila: muscle attachment sites (MASs), which connect somatic muscles to the body wall; and scolopale cells, which form an integral co...