Estimation of configurational entropy from molecular dynamics trajectories is a difficult task which is often performed using quasi-harmonic or histogram analysis. An entirely different approach, proposed recently, estimates local density distribution around each conformational sample by measuring the distance from its nearest neighbors. In this work we show this theoretically well grounded the...

Objective: To determine the levels of serum lactate dehydrogenase 2 (LD2) Isoenzyme and β2 microglobulin (β2m) in patients of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and to correlate these levels in NHL patients with and without bone marrow infiltration. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Post Graduate Medical Institute, Lahore and Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (...

Uremic pruritus affects many patients suffering from end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and has a negative impact on quality of life and survival. The aim of this study was to investigate the treatment effects of different combined blood purification techniques on uremic pruritus in ESRD patients. Forty maintenance hemodialysis patients with uremic pruritus were selected and randomly divided into c...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Accurate prediction of prognosis may improve management of patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy. This study compared the Toronto Risk Score and urinary low-molecular weight proteins. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS One hundred four patients with biopsy-proven idiopathic membranous nephropathy who presented between 1995 and 2008 with a well-pr...

A major component of ex vivo amyloid plaques of patients with dialysis-related amyloidosis (DRA) is a cleaved variant of β2-microglobulin (ΔN6) lacking the first six N-terminal residues. Here we perform a computational study on ΔN6, which provides clues to understand the amyloidogenicity of the full-length β2-microglobulin. Contrary to the wild-type form, ΔN6 is able to efficiently nucleate fib...

Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) has been documented in podocyte injuries in diabetic nephropathy (DN), however its role in renal tubular epithelial cells has not been elucidated. We report here that CDK5 is detrimental and promotes tubulointerstitial fibrosis (TIF) via the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2)/peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPRAγ) pathway in DN....

We conducted an international phase 2 trial to evaluate 2 dose levels of ofatumumab, a human CD20 mAb, combined with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (O-FC) as frontline therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Patients with active CLL were randomized to ofatumumab 500 mg (n = 31) or 1000 mg (n = 30) day 1, with fludarabine 25 mg/m(2) and cyclophosphamide 250 mg/m(2) days 2-4, course 1; ...

A proportion of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia achieve a minimal residual disease negative status after therapy. We retrospectively evaluated the impact of minimal residual disease on the outcome of 255 consecutive patients receiving any front-line therapy in the context of a detailed prognostic evaluation, including assessment of IGHV, TP53, NOTCH1 and SF3B1 mutations. The median f...

The benchmark dose (BMD) method has been increasingly used to assess the health risks of cadmium (Cd) in epidemiological studies. The aim of our study was to estimate the threshold levels of urinary Cd (UCd) using the BMD method in a general population of Jiangshan City, Zhejiang Province of China. In our study, a total of 934 people (469 men, 465 women) were recruited and morning urine samples...