抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a major public health problem. It is the fourth leading cause of chronic morbidity and mortality in the United States, and is projected to rank fifth in 2020 in burden of disease worldwide, according to a study published by the World Bank/World Health Organization. Yet, COPD remains relatively unknown or ignored by the public as well as public health and government officials. In 1998, in an effort to bring more attention to COPD, its management, and its prevention, a committed group of scientists encouraged the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the World Health Organization to form the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Among the important objectives of GOLD are to increase awareness of COPD and to help the millions of people who suffer from this disease and die prematurely of it or its complications. The first step in the GOLD program was to prepare a consensus report, Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of COPD, published in 2001. The present, newly revised document follows the same format as the original consensus report, but has been updated to reflect the many publications on COPD that have appeared. GOLD national leaders, a network of international experts, have initiated investigations of the causes and prevalence of COPD in their countries, and developed innovative approaches for the dissemination and implementation of COPD management guidelines. We appreciate the enormous amount of work the GOLD national leaders have done on behalf of their patients with COPD. Despite the achievements in the 5 years since the GOLD report was originally published, considerable additional work is ahead of us if we are to control this major public health problem. The GOLD initiative will continue to bring COPD to the attention of governments, public health officials, health care workers, and the general public, but a concerted effort by all involved in health care will be necessary.

https://www.who.int/respiratory/copd/GOLD_WR_06.pdf

Global strategy for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: GOLD executive summary.

At high concentrations, free radicals and radical-derived, nonradical reactive species are hazardous for living organisms and damage all major cellular constituents. At moderate concentrations, how...

/pdf/free-radicals-in-the-physiological-control-of-cell-function-g3w3iyr0ph.pdf

Free Radicals in the Physiological Control of Cell Function

The REDCap consortium: Building an international community of software platform partners.

Comprehensive Integration of Single-Cell Data.

Background— Although the dominant product of vascular Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), prostacyclin (PGI2), restrains atherogenesis, inhibition and deletion of COX-2 have yielded conflicting results in mouse models of atherosclerosis. Floxed mice were used to parse distinct cellular contributions of COX-2 in macrophages and T cells (TCs) to atherogenesis. Methods and Results— Deletion of macrophage–COX-2 (Mac–COX-2KOs) was attained with LysMCre mice and completely suppressed lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophage prostaglandin (PG) formation and lipopolysaccharide-evoked systemic PG biosynthesis by ≈30%. Lipopolysaccharide-stimulated COX-2 expression was suppressed in polymorphonuclear leukocytes isolated from MacKOs, but PG formation was not even detected in polymorphonuclear leukocyte supernatants from control mice. Atherogenesis was attenuated when MacKOs were crossed into hyperlipidemic low-density lipoprotein receptor knockouts. Deletion of Mac–COX-2 appeared to remove a restraint on COX-2 expression in l...

Targeted Deletions of Cyclooxygenase-2 and Atherogenesis in Mice

Thromboxane A2, the predominant cyclooxygenase product of arachidonic acid in the platelet, is a potent vasoconstrictor and stimulus of platelet aggregation. Prostacyclin, the principal cyclooxygenase metabolite formed in the vascular endothelium, inhibits platelet aggregation and dilates blood vessels. A therapeutic objective in the treatment of human vascular occlusive disease has been the inhibition of thromboxane formation without coincident reduction in prostacyclin biosynthesis. We compared the biochemical selectivity and platelet inhibitory actions of single doses of aspirin, a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, with imidazo(1,5-2)pyridine-5-hexanoic acid (CGS 13080), an inhibitor of thromboxane synthase. Aspirin, 325 mg, prolonged the bleeding time markedly, inhibited aggregation and nucleotide release in whole blood and platelet-rich plasma, and maximally inhibited thromboxane generation in serum. The effects of aspirin, 20 mg, were considerably less marked but, as with the higher dose, persisted throughout the study period (24 hr after dosing). CGS 13080 also prolonged bleeding time and inhibited thromboxane formation. In contrast to aspirin, these effects were reversible and inhibition of aggregation was less marked. Endogenous prostacyclin biosynthesis was measured by excretion of the major urinary metabolite 2,3-dinor-6-keto-PGF1 alpha (PGI-M). Whereas aspirin, 325 mg, reduced PGI-M excretion a mean 29%, excretion increased 48% and 100% after CGS 13080, 100 mg and 200 mg. Aspirin, 20 mg, did not alter prostacyclin biosynthesis. Inhibition of thromboxane synthase permits selective inhibition of thromboxane formation in man. Although drugs of greater potency and longer duration of action are desirable, enhanced prostacyclin synthesis may be an important component of the platelet inhibitory actions of thromboxane synthase inhibitors in man.

Selective and nonselective inhibition of thromboxane formation

Prostacyclin and prostaglandin E1: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic utility.

Niacin, an old drug with a new twist.

A robust method for the routine quantitation of a selected group of urinary eicosanoid metabolites of interest to cardiovascular research in human and mouse is described and discussed. Included are the addition of stable isotope‐labeled internal standards, solid phase extraction, and quantitation by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry using selected reaction monitoring (SRM) techniques.

Garret A. FitzGerald

Papers

Targeted Deletions of Cyclooxygenase-2 and Atherogenesis in Mice

Selective and nonselective inhibition of thromboxane formation

Prostacyclin and prostaglandin E1: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic utility.

Niacin, an old drug with a new twist.

Noninvasive assessment of the role of cyclooxygenases in cardiovascular health: a detailed HPLC/MS/MS method.