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Biomedical subjects

Fiona Smith

Publications and source records attributed to Fiona Smith.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Are there health benefits from improving basic nutrition in a remote Aboriginal community?

BACKGROUND: Otitis media, chronic suppurative otitis media, and skin infections are common in many Aboriginal communities. METHOD: Primary school students in a remote Aboriginal community were examined by blood testing. Audiometry was compared before and 6 months after children were provided with fresh fruit each school day, as were rates of skin infections, and the prescription of antibiotics for otitis media and skin infections. RESULTS: All 12 students who completed both points of hearing testing had slight or greater hearing loss at baseline. Five had improved hearing at 6 months and seven (58%) had no change. Mean antibiotic prescriptions decreased from seven to 1 per month. All 15 tested had low serum vitamin C concentrations and 11 had abnormal iron studies, suggesting their poor health might be caused by poor nutrition. DISCUSSION: Although many other factors may have contributed to the improvements, the results suggest nutrition as a possible factor for poor health outcomes in remote Aboriginal communities, which could be easily overcome. A randomised trial should be conducted.

Australia↗
PubMed2004

The Drosophila RNA-binding protein Lark is required for the organization of the actin cytoskeleton and Hu-li tai shao localization during oogenesis.

Elimination of maternal expression of the Drosophila RNA-binding protein Lark results in female sterility. Here we show that this is due to a requirement during oogenesis. Developing oocytes from lark(1) germline clones (GLCs) are often smaller than normal due to defects in nurse cell cytoplasmic "dumping." Late-stage egg chambers from lark(1) GLCs contain low levels of cortical and ring canal associated actin and completely lack nurse cell cytoplasmic F-actin bundles, suggesting the "dumping" phenotype is due to a defect in the actin cytoskeleton. Localization of Hu-li tai shao (Hts) protein, a component of ring canals, is also disrupted in these mutants. In addition to the dumpless phenotype, we observed a buildup of late-stage egg chambers, a phenotype that correlates with the decrease in egg-laying observed in the mutants. We postulate that this phenotype is due to defects in the cytoskeletal integrity of eggs since retained and oviposited eggs are fragile and often deflated. These mutant phenotypes are likely due to disruption of an RNA-binding function of Lark as similar phenotypes were observed in flies carrying specific RNA-binding domain mutations. We propose that Lark functions during oogenesis as an RNA-binding protein, regulating mRNAs required for nurse cell transport or apoptosis.

Actins↗
PubMed2004

Magnetocardiography for pharmacology safety studies requiring high patient throughput and reliability.

Recent guideline drafts of the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) underline the necessity to test nonantiarrhythmic drugs for their potential to prolong the QT or the corrected QT (QTc) interval. The implementation of these guidelines requires a large amount of ECG measurements on animals and humans in preclinical and clinical phases of the drug development process. We propose the use of magnetocardiography (MCG) as a complementary method with particular advantages in high-throughput studies, where signal quality and reliability are key factors. Our proposal is based on a review of recent MCG studies investigating the repolarization phase and results of methodological work assessing QT interval parameters from the MCG. The applicability of MCG for pre-clinical in-vivo studies is demonstrated by the ease of measurement in unrestrained non-anesthetized rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters..

Animals↗
PubMed2004

The NSF for children, young people and maternity services: an overview.

Unlike many of the other national service frameworks for England which are disease or condition specific, the children's national service framework encompasses all aspects of children's and young people's health care. The other major difference is that standards do not have detailed targets with set timescales but centre upon principles and examples of good practice. The overriding principle is to ensure quality and safety of care. The implementation of the NSF will form part of the wider programme aimed at improving standards and outcomes for all children. The publication Every Child Matters (DfES 2003) sets out a vision of the outcomes and commitment to support every child to: be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, achieve economic well-being. The NSF standards will feature within the new integrated inspection framework around children's services. Local champions will be crucial to ensuring that the standards are fully implemented at local level. Nurses, midwives and health visitors should take every opportunity to influence developments and ensure that they become actively involved in local discussions and decision-making forums.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Measuring intracellular calcium fluxes in high throughput mode.

The measurement of intracellular calcium fluxes in real time is widely applied within the pharmaceutical industry to measure the activation of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRhyp;s), either for pharmacological characterisation or to screen for new surrogate ligands. Initially restricted to G(q) coupled GPCRs, the introduction of promiscuous and chimeric G-proteins has further widened the application of these assays. The development of new calcium sensitive dyes and assays has provided sensitive, homogeneous assays which can be readily applied to high throughput screening (HTS). In this paper we describe the full automation of this assay type using a fluorometric imaging plate reader (FLIPR ) integrated into a Beckman/Sagian system to establish a simple robotic system that is well suited for the current medium throughput screening in this area of lead discovery. Using a recently completed HTS we discuss important determinants for FLIPR based screening, highlight some limitations of the current approach, and look at the requirements for future automated systems capable of keeping up with expanding compound files.

Automation↗
PubMed2003

Rainfall and vector mosquito numbers as risk indicators for mosquito-borne disease in central Australia.

There have been 5 confirmed cases of Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVE) infection in the Alice Springs region during the high rainfall years of 1999/00 and 2000/01, compared with one case in the preceding 9 years. There also appeared to be an increased prevalence of Ross River virus (RR) infection in the Alice Springs and Tennant Creek regions associated with high rainfall. This paper presents an analysis of summer rainfall from 1990/91 to 2000/01, numbers of seroconversion of sentinel chickens to MVE, and RR cases in both regions. In Alice Springs where summer rainfall (December to February) and average vector numbers in the December to March period are closely correlated, the analysis also included mosquito vector numbers and MVE cases. Summer rainfall over 100 mm was significantly associated with sentinel chicken seroconversions to MVE. From December to March there was also a significant association of average vector numbers (> or = 300) with seroconversions in sentinel chickens following high summer rainfall. MVE appears enzootic in the Tennant Creek region and epizootic in the Alice Springs region. In Alice Springs during December to March, there was a significant association of RR cases with rainfall over 100 mm and with average vector numbers over 300. There was also a significant correlation of summer rainfall with RR cases in Tennant Creek. Summer rainfall is a new and good early indicator of high risk for both MVE and RR disease in the Alice Springs locality and RR in the Tennant Creek locality. Although similar relationships between rainfall and vector abundance, and disease incidence probably exist in other areas of central Australia, rainfall and vector abundance thresholds will probably vary according to local climatic and environmental conditions.

Alphavirus Infections↗
PubMed2002

High-throughput screening for ion channel modulators.

Ion channels present a group of targets for major clinical indications, which have been difficult to address due to the lack of suitable rapid but biologically significant methodologies. To address the need for increased throughput in primary screening, the authors have set up a Beckman/Sagian core system to fully automate functional fluorescence-based assays that measure ion channel function. They apply voltage-sensitive fluorescent probes, and the activity of channels is monitored using Aurora's Voltage/Ion Probe Reader (VIPR). The system provides a platform for fully automated high-throughput screening as well as pharmacological characterization of ion channel modulators. The application of voltage-sensitive fluorescence dyes coupled with fluorescence resonance energy transfer is the basis of robust assays, which can be adapted to the study of a variety of ion channels to screen for both inhibitors and activators of voltage-gated and other ion channels.

Automation↗
PubMed2002

The role of the Eph-ephrin signalling system in the regulation of developmental patterning.

The Eph and ephrin system, consisting of fourteen Eph receptor tyrosine kinase proteins and nine ephrin membrane proteins in vertebrates, has been implicated in the regulation of many critical events during development. Binding of cell surface Eph and ephrin proteins results in bi-directional signals, which regulate the cytoskeletal, adhesive and motile properties of the interacting cells. Through these signals Eph and ephrin proteins are involved in early embryonic cell movements, which establish the germ layers, cell movements involved in formation of tissue boundaries and the pathfinding of axons. This review focuses on two vertebrate models, the zebrafish and mouse, in which experimental perturbation of Eph and/or ephrin expression in vivo have provided important insights into the role and functioning of the Eph/ephrin system.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2002

What does voluntary disenrollment from Medicare+Choice plans mean to beneficiaries?

The Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 required CMS to report publicly Medicare managed care (MMC) plan voluntary disenrollment rates. To ensure disenrollment rates would be meaningful to beneficiaries in health plan choice, CMS funded the development of surveys and reporting formats to identify and present the reasons that beneficiaries voluntarily leave plans. Public reporting of reasons on the Medicare Web site began in 2002. We discuss results from extensive audience testing of disenrollment rates and reasons materials. Medicare beneficiaries do not easily understand disenrollment. We also discuss challenges in presenting useful disenrollment information and policy implications for public reporting.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Localization of T and B lymphocytes in histologically normal adult human donor liver.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Donor liver suitable for successful transplantation often has one or more of a range of mild abnormalities including inflammation. Passenger leukocytes documented in donor liver are thought to result from inflammatory stimuli in response to ischemic, drug or alcohol related damage. The aim was to identify donor livers, which were free of any evidence of damage, and to determine if, and where, leukocytes were present in these pristine livers. METHODOLOGY: Eight of eighteen donor livers, examined by hematoxylin and eosin staining, were found to be free of any evidence of pathological damage. Sections from these livers were stained with antibodies against CD3 (T cell marker), CD20 (B cell marker) and CD45 (common leukocyte antigen). RESULTS: Each of these livers were found to have significant numbers of T lymphocytes, located mainly in the portal tracts but also scattered throughout the parenchyma. A similar distribution of B cells was detected but at much lower levels. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of lymphocytes in the human liver is usually considered a hallmark of pathology. The demonstration of significant lymphocyte populations in pristine liver, particularly in the parenchyma, supports the hypothesis that the human liver harbors tissue-resident lymphocytes.

Adolescent↗