University of Kentucky

About: University of Kentucky is a education organization based out in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 43933 authors who have published 92195 publications receiving 3256087 citations. The organization is also known as: UK.

Vitamin D hormone confers neuroprotection in parallel with downregulation of L-type calcium channel expression in hippocampal neurons.

Abstract: Although vitamin D hormone (VDH; 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3)), the active metabolite of vitamin D, is the major Ca(2+)-regulatory steroid hormone in the periphery, it is not known whether it also modulates Ca(2+) homeostasis in brain neurons. Recently, chronic treatment with VDH was reported to protect brain neurons in both aging and animal models of stroke. However, it is unclear whether those actions were attributable to direct effects on brain cells or indirect effects mediated via peripheral pathways. VDH modulates L-type voltage-sensitive Ca(2+) channels (L-VSCCs) in peripheral tissues, and an increase in L-VSCCs appears linked to both brain aging and neuronal vulnerability. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that VDH has direct neuroprotective actions and, in parallel, targets L-VSCCs in hippocampal neurons. Primary rat hippocampal cultures, treated for several days with VDH, exhibited a U-shaped concentration-response curve for neuroprotection against excitotoxic insults: lower concentrations of VDH (1-100 nm) were protective, but higher, nonphysiological concentrations (500-1000 nm) were not. Parallel studies using patch-clamp techniques found a similar U-shaped curve in which L-VSCC current was reduced at lower VDH concentrations and increased at higher (500 nm) concentrations. Real-time PCR studies demonstrated that VDH monotonically downregulated mRNA expression for the alpha(1C) and alpha(1D) pore-forming subunits of L-VSCCs. However, 500 nm VDH also nonspecifically reduced a range of other mRNA species. Thus, these studies provide the first evidence of (1) direct neuroprotective actions of VDH at relatively low concentrations, and (2) selective downregulation of L-VSCC expression in brain neurons at the same, lower concentrations.

Saliency-Aware Video Object Segmentation

Abstract: Video saliency, aiming for estimation of a single dominant object in a sequence, offers strong object-level cues for unsupervised video object segmentation. In this paper, we present a geodesic distance based technique that provides reliable and temporally consistent saliency measurement of superpixels as a prior for pixel-wise labeling. Using undirected intra-frame and inter-frame graphs constructed from spatiotemporal edges or appearance and motion, and a skeleton abstraction step to further enhance saliency estimates, our method formulates the pixel-wise segmentation task as an energy minimization problem on a function that consists of unary terms of global foreground and background models, dynamic location models, and pairwise terms of label smoothness potentials. We perform extensive quantitative and qualitative experiments on benchmark datasets. Our method achieves superior performance in comparison to the current state-of-the-art in terms of accuracy and speed.

Nanomedicine in pulmonary delivery.

Abstract: The lung is an attractive target for drug delivery due to noninvasive administration via inhalation aerosols, avoidance of first-pass metabolism, direct delivery to the site of action for the treatment of respiratory diseases, and the availability of a huge surface area for local drug action and systemic absorption of drug. Colloidal carriers (ie, nanocarrier systems) in pulmonary drug delivery offer many advantages such as the potential to achieve relatively uniform distribution of drug dose among the alveoli, achievement of improved solubility of the drug from its own aqueous solubility, a sustained drug release which consequently reduces dosing frequency, improves patient compliance, decreases incidence of side effects, and the potential of drug internalization by cells. This review focuses on the current status and explores the potential of colloidal carriers (ie, nanocarrier systems) in pulmonary drug delivery with special attention to their pharmaceutical aspects. Manufacturing processes, in vitro/in vivo evaluation methods, and regulatory/toxicity issues of nanomedicines in pulmonary delivery are also discussed.

Monoclonal antibody technology

Abstract: The development, production, limitations, and uses of monoclonal antibody (MoAb) technology are presented. The first MoAbs were developed in 1975 using a process whereby the antibody-producing spleen cells of mice that had been immunized against sheep red blood cells were fused with the cells of a mouse myeloma cell line, producing hybridomas. These hybridoma cells are used to produce MoAbs, which are antibodies that will bind to only one specific target site on an antigen. Large quantities of MoAbs are grown, either in cell cultures or in the peritoneum of mice, and harvested. Although large quantities of MoAbs can be produced, these techniques are limited because of the potential for contamination by mouse viruses and the inability of the hybridomas to yield sufficient quantities of MoAbs. MoAbs are currently used in diagnostic techniques, including pregnancy tests and drug assays, as well as in tests for detecting viral and bacterial infections and cancer. MoAbs, coupled with dyes or radioactive isotopes, can be used in imaging techniques. Other possible applications of MoAbs include tissue typing, purification, therapy of cancer and autoimmune diseases, and treatment of drug toxicities. As the use of MoAbs in health care increases, pharmacists will need to have a good understanding of the functions and applications of these agents.