National Institutes of Health

About: National Institutes of Health is a government organization based out in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 149298 authors who have published 297896 publications receiving 21337431 citations. The organization is also known as: NIH & U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The ubiquitin kinase PINK1 recruits autophagy receptors to induce mitophagy

Abstract: Protein aggregates and damaged organelles are tagged with ubiquitin chains to trigger selective autophagy. To initiate mitophagy, the ubiquitin kinase PINK1 phosphorylates ubiquitin to activate the ubiquitin ligase parkin, which builds ubiquitin chains on mitochondrial outer membrane proteins, where they act to recruit autophagy receptors. Using genome editing to knockout five autophagy receptors in HeLa cells, here we show that two receptors previously linked to xenophagy, NDP52 and optineurin, are the primary receptors for PINK1- and parkin-mediated mitophagy. PINK1 recruits NDP52 and optineurin, but not p62, to mitochondria to activate mitophagy directly, independently of parkin. Once recruited to mitochondria, NDP52 and optineurin recruit the autophagy factors ULK1, DFCP1 and WIPI1 to focal spots proximal to mitochondria, revealing a function for these autophagy receptors upstream of LC3. This supports a new model in which PINK1-generated phospho-ubiquitin serves as the autophagy signal on mitochondria, and parkin then acts to amplify this signal. This work also suggests direct and broader roles for ubiquitin phosphorylation in other autophagy pathways.

Global estimates of cancer prevalence for 27 sites in the adult population in 2008

Abstract: Recent estimates of global cancer incidence and survival were used to update previous figures of limited duration prevalence to the year 2008. The number of patients with cancer diagnosed between 2004 and 2008 who were still alive at the end of 2008 in the adult population is described by world region, country and the human development index. The 5-year global cancer prevalence is estimated to be 28.8 million in 2008. Close to half of the prevalence burden is in areas of very high human development that comprise only one-sixth of the world's population. Breast cancer continues to be the most prevalent cancer in the vast majority of countries globally; cervix cancer is the most prevalent cancer in much of Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia and prostate cancer dominates in North America, Oceania and Northern and Western Europe. Stomach cancer is the most prevalent cancer in Eastern Asia (including China); oral cancer ranks as the most prevalent cancer in Indian men and Kaposi sarcoma has the highest 5-year prevalence among men in 11 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The methods used to estimate point prevalence appears to give reasonable results at the global level. The figures highlight the need for long-term care targeted at managing patients with certain very frequently diagnosed cancer forms. To be of greater relevance to cancer planning, the estimation of other time-based measures of global prevalence is warranted.

3'-Azido-3'-deoxythymidine (BW A509U): an antiviral agent that inhibits the infectivity and cytopathic effect of human T-lymphotropic virus type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus in vitro.

Abstract: The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is thought to result from infection of T cells by a pathogenic human retrovirus, human T-lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III) or lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV). In this report, we describe the antiviral effects of a thymidine analogue,3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (BW A509U), which, as a triphosphate, inhibits the reverse transcriptase of HTLV-III/LAV. This agent blocks the expression of the p24 gag protein of HTLV-III/LAV in H9 cells following exposure to virus. The drug also inhibits the cytopathic effect of HTLV-IIIB (a virus derived from a pool of American patients) and HTLV-III/RF-II (an isolate obtained from a Haitian patient that differs by about 20% in the amino acid sequence of the envelope gene from several isolates of HTLV-III/LAV, including HTLV-IIIB, analyzed so far). 3'-Azido-3'-deoxythymidine also completely blocks viral replication as assessed by reverse transcriptase production in normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells exposed to HTLV-IIIB. Finally, at concentrations of 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine that block the in vitro infectivity and cytopathic effect of HTLV-IIIB, the in vitro immune functions of normal T cells remain basically intact.

Genome-wide detection and characterization of positive selection in human populations

Abstract: With the advent of dense maps of human genetic variation, it is now possible to detect positive natural selection across the human genome. Here we report an analysis of over 3 million polymorphisms from the International HapMap Project Phase 2 (HapMap2). We used 'long-range haplotype' methods, which were developed to identify alleles segregating in a population that have undergone recent selection, and we also developed new methods that are based on cross-population comparisons to discover alleles that have swept to near-fixation within a population. The analysis reveals more than 300 strong candidate regions. Focusing on the strongest 22 regions, we develop a heuristic for scrutinizing these regions to identify candidate targets of selection. In a complementary analysis, we identify 26 non-synonymous, coding, single nucleotide polymorphisms showing regional evidence of positive selection. Examination of these candidates highlights three cases in which two genes in a common biological process have apparently undergone positive selection in the same population:LARGE and DMD, both related to infection by the Lassa virus, in West Africa;SLC24A5 and SLC45A2, both involved in skin pigmentation, in Europe; and EDAR and EDA2R, both involved in development of hair follicles, in Asia.

Efficacy and safety of exercise training in patients with chronic heart failure: HF-ACTION randomized controlled trial.

Abstract: Context Guidelines recommend that exercise training be considered for medically stable outpatients with heart failure. Previous studies have not had adequate statistical power to measure the effects of exercise training on clinical outcomes. Objective To test the efficacy and safety of exercise training among patients with heart failure. Design, Setting, and Patients Multicenter, randomized controlled trial of 2331 medically stable outpatients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. Participants in Heart Failure: A Controlled Trial Investigating Outcomes of Exercise Training (HF-ACTION) were randomized from April 2003 through February 2007 at 82 centers within the United States, Canada, and France; median follow-up was 30 months. Interventions Usual care plus aerobic exercise training, consisting of 36 supervised sessions followed by home-based training, or usual care alone. Main Outcome Measures Composite primary end point of all-cause mortality or hospitalization and prespecified secondary end points of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality or cardiovascular hospitalization, and cardiovascular mortality or heart failure hospitalization. Results The median age was 59 years, 28% were women, and 37% had New York Heart Association class III or IV symptoms. Heart failure etiology was ischemic in 51%, and median left ventricular ejection fraction was 25%. Exercise adherence decreased from a median of 95 minutes per week during months 4 through 6 of follow-up to 74 minutes per week during months 10 through 12. A total of 759 patients (65%) in the exercise training group died or were hospitalized compared with 796 patients (68%) in the usual care group (hazard ratio [HR], 0.93 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.84-1.02]; P = .13). There were nonsignificant reductions in the exercise training group for mortality (189 patients [16%] in the exercise training group vs 198 patients [17%] in the usual care group; HR, 0.96 [95% CI, 0.79-1.17]; P = .70), cardiovascular mortality or cardiovascular hospitalization (632 [55%] in the exercise training group vs 677 [58%] in the usual care group; HR, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.83-1.03]; P = .14), and cardiovascular mortality or heart failure hospitalization (344 [30%] in the exercise training group vs 393 [34%] in the usual care group; HR, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.75-1.00]; P = .06). In prespecified supplementary analyses adjusting for highly prognostic baseline characteristics, the HRs were 0.89 (95% CI, 0.81-0.99; P = .03) for all-cause mortality or hospitalization, 0.91 (95% CI, 0.82-1.01; P = .09) for cardiovascular mortality or cardiovascular hospitalization, and 0.85 (95% CI, 0.74-0.99; P = .03) for cardiovascular mortality or heart failure hospitalization. Other adverse events were similar between the groups. Conclusions In the protocol-specified primary analysis, exercise training resulted in nonsignificant reductions in the primary end point of all-cause mortality or hospitalization and in key secondary clinical end points. After adjustment for highly prognostic predictors of the primary end point, exercise training was associated with modest significant reductions for both all-cause mortality or hospitalization and cardiovascular mortality or heart failure hospitalization. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00047437