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Biomedical subjects

E G Rodriguez

Publications and source records attributed to E G Rodriguez.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Multivalent DNA-based immunization against hepatitis B virus with plasmids encoding surface and core antigens.

The immune response against hepatitis B surface and core antigens was evaluated by either coinoculation or independent intramuscular administration of pAEC compact DNA immunization vectors carrying their genes. The pAEC vectors bear just the essential elements for mammalian expression and bacterial amplification. Balb/c mice were immunized with 100 microg of each construct, either alone or in combination. In spite of lacking known immunostimulatory sequences (e.g., AACGTT), significant cellular (proliferative) and humoral immune responses were raised against both antigens. Coadministration of both plasmids maintained the immune response against the two antigens, without interference between them. Modulation of the antigen expression and further immune response, by using the Kozak's translation initiation sequence, was also analyzed. No differences due to its presence or absence were observed.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

The Caenorhabditis elegans dosage compensation machinery is recruited to X chromosome DNA attached to an autosome.

The dosage compensation machinery of Caenorhabditis elegans is targeted specifically to the X chromosomes of hermaphrodites (XX) to reduce gene expression by half. Many of the trans-acting factors that direct the dosage compensation machinery to X have been identified, but none of the proposed cis-acting X chromosome-recognition elements needed to recruit dosage compensation components have been found. To study X chromosome recognition, we explored whether portions of an X chromosome attached to an autosome are competent to bind the C. elegans dosage compensation complex (DCC). To do so, we devised a three-dimensional in situ approach that allowed us to compare the volume, position, and number of chromosomal and subchromosomal bodies bound by the dosage compensation machinery in wild-type XX nuclei and XX nuclei carrying an X duplication. The dosage compensation complex was found to associate with a duplication of the right 30% of X, but the complex did not spread onto adjacent autosomal sequences. This result indicates that all the information required to specify X chromosome identity resides on the duplication and that the dosage compensation machinery can localize to a site distinct from the full-length hermaphrodite X chromosome. In contrast, smaller duplications of other regions of X appeared to not support localization of the DCC. In a separate effort to identify cis-acting X recognition elements, we used a computational approach to analyze genomic DNA sequences for the presence of short motifs that were abundant and overrepresented on X relative to autosomes. Fourteen families of X-enriched motifs were discovered and mapped onto the X chromosome.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Reporting of dementia on death certificates: a community study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which conditions suggesting dementia are reported on death certificates of older adults and to identify the factors associated with reporting of dementia. DESIGN: A prospective epidemiological study in which community-dwelling subjects with and without dementia were identified and followed until death, after which their death certificates were examined. POPULATION: A total of 527 individuals who died during 8 years of follow-up of a population-based cohort of 1422 persons aged 65 and older at study entry. MEASUREMENTS: Demographic; study diagnoses, including Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) Scale stages and diagnoses of Probable and Possible Alzheimer's disease (AD) by NINCDS-ADRDA criteria; disorders listed on death certificates as immediate, underlying, or contributory causes of death. RESULTS: Of 172 deceased subjects with study diagnoses of dementia, 30.2% had CDR = .5 and 69.8% had CDR > or = 1. Of 168 subjects in which dementia subtype could be diagnosed, Probable AD was diagnosed in 31.0% and Possible AD in 38.7%. On their death certificates, conditions indicating or suggesting dementia were reported in 23.8% of dementias overall; in 1.9% of those with CDR = .5 and 33.3% of those with CDR > or = 1; in 36.5% of those with Probable AD and 21.5% of those with Possible AD. In a multiple logistic regression model, variables associated independently with the reporting of dementia in demented individuals were: higher CDR stage of dementia (odds ratio (OR) 22.6; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.9-174.7); likely etiology of dementia, Probable AD (OR = 3.5; CI, 1.1-10.6); and place of death, long-term care institution (OR = 3.8; 95% CI, 1.6-9.0). CONCLUSIONS: Although Alzheimer's disease is widely regarded as a leading cause of death, dementias are reported on the death certificates of only a quarter of demented individuals in the population at large. Reporting is more likely in those with more advanced dementia, with Probable Alzheimer's disease, and those who die in long-term care institutions.

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