Research Triangle Park

About: Research Triangle Park is a nonprofit organization based out in Durham, North Carolina, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Receptor. The organization has 24961 authors who have published 35800 publications receiving 1684504 citations. The organization is also known as: RTP.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Toxicity and Human Health Review: Current State of Knowledge and Strategies for Informing Future Research.

Abstract: Reports of environmental and human health impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have greatly increased in the peer-reviewed literature. The goals of the present review are to assess the state of the science regarding toxicological effects of PFAS and to develop strategies for advancing knowledge on the health effects of this large family of chemicals. Currently, much of the toxicity data available for PFAS are for a handful of chemicals, primarily legacy PFAS such as perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate. Epidemiological studies have revealed associations between exposure to specific PFAS and a variety of health effects, including altered immune and thyroid function, liver disease, lipid and insulin dysregulation, kidney disease, adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes, and cancer. Concordance with experimental animal data exists for many of these effects. However, information on modes of action and adverse outcome pathways must be expanded, and profound differences in PFAS toxicokinetic properties must be considered in understanding differences in responses between the sexes and among species and life stages. With many health effects noted for a relatively few example compounds and hundreds of other PFAS in commerce lacking toxicity data, more contemporary and high-throughput approaches such as read-across, molecular dynamics, and protein modeling are proposed to accelerate the development of toxicity information on emerging and legacy PFAS, individually and as mixtures. In addition, an appropriate degree of precaution, given what is already known from the PFAS examples noted, may be needed to protect human health. Environ Toxicol Chem 2021;40:606-630. © 2020 SETAC.

Economic impacts of non-native forest insects in the continental United States.

Abstract: Reliable estimates of the impacts and costs of biological invasions are critical to developing credible management, trade and regulatory policies. Worldwide, forests and urban trees provide important ecosystem services as well as economic and social benefits, but are threatened by non-native insects. More than 450 non-native forest insects are established in the United States but estimates of broad-scale economic impacts associated with these species are largely unavailable. We developed a novel modeling approach that maximizes the use of available data, accounts for multiple sources of uncertainty, and provides cost estimates for three major feeding guilds of non-native forest insects. For each guild, we calculated the economic damages for five cost categories and we estimated the probability of future introductions of damaging pests. We found that costs are largely borne by homeowners and municipal governments. Wood- and phloemboring insects are anticipated to cause the largest economic impacts by annually inducing nearly $1.7 billion in local government expenditures and approximately $830 million in lost residential property values. Given observations of new species, there is a 32% chance that another highly destructive borer species will invade the U.S. in the next 10 years. Our damage estimates provide a crucial but previously missing component of cost-benefit analyses to evaluate policies and management options intended to reduce species introductions. The modeling approach we developed is highly flexible and could be similarly employed to estimate damages in other countries or natural resource sectors.

Opiate-Like Materials in the Adrenal Medulla: Evidence for Storage and Secretion with Catecholamines

Abstract: Opiate-like materials, as measured by the radioreceptor assay, were found in the adrenal gland of 7 mammalian species including man. The opiate-like materials are confined to the adrenal medulla, and followed a pattern identical to catecholamines on differential and isopycnic centrifugation. In the isolated perfused dog adrenal gland, acetylcholine stimulates a Ca2+-dependent secretion of opiate-like materials and catecholamines in the same molar ratio as they are stored within the chromaffin cell. Ba2+ also stimulates the secretion of both products from the adrenal gland. Separation of the opiate-like materials by Sephadex G-50 and reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatography indicates the presence of four peaks of opiate-like materials of molecular weights below 2,000. Two of these peaks comigrate in these systems with authentic met- and leu-enkephalins and react with the corresponding antibodies. These results indicate that enkephalins and other low molecular weight opiate-like materials are stored in and secreted from the chromaffin vesicles with catecholamines in the adrenal glands. These findings support a role for enkephalins as neurotransmitters and/or neurohormones. Also, they suggest that enkephalins and other opiate-like materials may exert important neuroendocrine functions outside the central nervous system.

An autosomal genomic scan for loci linked to type II diabetes mellitus and body-mass index in Pima Indians.

Abstract: Genetic factors influence the development of type II diabetes mellitus, but genetic loci for the most common forms of diabetes have not been identified. A genomic scan was conducted to identify loci linked to diabetes and body-mass index (BMI) in Pima Indians, a Native American population with a high prevalence of type II diabetes. Among 264 nuclear families containing 966 siblings, 516 autosomal markers with a median distance between adjacent markers of 6.4 cM were genotyped. Variance-components methods were used to test for linkage with an age-adjusted diabetes score and with BMI. In multipoint analyses, the strongest evidence for linkage with age-adjusted diabetes (LOD = 1.7) was on chromosome 11q, in the region that was also linked most strongly with BMI (LOD = 3.6). Bivariate linkage analyses strongly rejected both the null hypothesis of no linkage with either trait and the null hypothesis of no contribution of the locus to the covariation among the two traits. Sib-pair analyses suggest additional potential diabetes-susceptibility loci on chromosomes 1q and 7q.