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Biomedical subjects

J D Young

Publications and source records attributed to J D Young.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Use of helium-oxygen mixture in adult patients presenting with exacerbations of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review.

We examined systematically all controlled and cross-over randomised trials in patients with acute exacerbations of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease comparing Heliox against air-oxygen mixtures. Fourteen studies were identified. In asthma studies, peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) was increased by an average of 29.6% (95% CI 16.6-42.6) by Heliox-driven nebulisers, or by 13.3 l.min(-1) (95% CI 3.71-22.81) absolute. In studies of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease receiving non-invasive ventilation the arterial carbon dioxide tension (P(a)co(2)) and respiratory rate were unchanged: weighted mean difference for P(a)co(2)-0.29kPa (95% CI - 0.64-0.07) favoured Heliox, and for respiratory rate 1.6 breaths.min(-1) (95% CI - 0.93, 4.14) favoured control. Heliox minimally reduced the work of breathing in intubated patients, and reduced intrinsic positive end expiratory pressure (iPEEP). The use of Heliox to drive nebulisers in patients with acute asthma slightly improves airflow measures. We were unable to determine whether this improved recovery.

Adult↗

Comparison of mortality prediction models after open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.

OBJECTIVES: Comparison of the accuracy of prediction of contemporary mortality prediction models after open Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) surgery. METHODS: Post-operative data were collected from AAA patients from 2 UK Intensive Care Units (ICU). POSSUM and VBHOM based models were compared to the APACHE-AAA model which was able to adjust for the hospital-related effect on outcome. Model performance was assessed using measures of calibration, discrimination and subgroup analysis. RESULTS: 541 patients were studied. The in-hospital mortality rate for elective AAA repair (325 patients) was: 6.2% (95% confidence interval (c.i.) 3.5 to 8.8) and for emergency repair (216 patients) was: 28.7% (95% c.i. 22.5-34.9). The APACHE-based model had the best overall fit to the whole population of AAA patients, and also separately in elective and emergency patients. The V-POSSUM physiology-only (p<0.001) and VBHOM (p=0.011) models had a poor fit in elective patients. The RAAA-POSSUM physiology-only (p<0.001) and VBHOM models (p=0.010) had a poor fit in emergency patients. CONCLUSIONS: The APACHE-AAA model with its ability to adjust for both the hospital-related "effect" as well as the patient case-mix, was a more accurate risk stratification model than other contemporary models, in the post-operative AAA patient managed in ICU.

APACHE↗

A national survey of intensive care follow-up clinics.

Intensive care follow-up clinics allow extended review of survivors of critical illness. However, the current provision of intensive care follow-up clinics in the UK is unknown. We performed a survey of intensive care follow-up clinic practice in the UK. A questionnaire was sent to 298 intensive care units in the UK to determine the number of follow-up clinics and details of current follow-up practice. Responses were received from 266 intensive care units, an 89% response rate. Eighty units (30%) ran a follow-up clinic. Only 47 (59%) of these clinics were funded. Of those intensive care units without a follow-up clinic, 158 (88%) cited 'financial constraints' as the reason. Over half of the follow-up clinics (44 clinics, 55%) were nurse-led, and the majority (56 clinics, 77%) only routinely review patients treated on the intensive care unit for 3 or 4 days or longer. Nearly half of the follow-up clinics (39 clinics, 49%) have pre-negotiated access to at least one other out-patient service.

Critical Care↗

A randomised controlled trial of the effect of continuous electronic physiological monitoring on the adverse event rate in high risk medical and surgical patients.

We conducted a randomised controlled trial of mandated five-channel physiological monitoring vs standard care, in acute medical and surgical wards in a single UK teaching hospital. In all, 402 high-risk medical and surgical patients were studied. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients experiencing one or more major adverse events, including urgent staff calls, changes to higher care levels, cardiac arrests or death, in 96 h following randomisation. Secondary outcomes were the proportion of patients requiring acute treatment changes, and the 30-day and hospital mortality. In the 96 h following randomisation, 113 (56%) patients in the monitored arm and 116 (58%) in the control arm (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.63-1.40, p = 0.76) had a major event. An acute change in treatment was necessary in 107 (53%) monitored patients and 101 (50%) control patients (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.87-1.29). Thirty-four (17%) monitored patients and 35 (17%) control patients died within 30 days. Thirteen patients in the control group received full five-channel monitoring at the request of the ward staff. We conclude that mandated electronic vital signs monitoring in high risk medical and surgical patients has no effect on adverse events or mortality.

Adult↗

Nitric oxide synthase is downregulated, while haem oxygenase is increased, in patients with septic shock.

BACKGROUND: The vasodilatation characteristic of human septic shock is conventionally attributed to increased nitric oxide production, primarily by extrapolation of animal and human in vitro studies. There are no conclusive studies of human disease, and the cellular source of nitric oxide in human sepsis is not known. Haem oxygenase is upregulated by oxidative stress, but little is known about haem oxygenase expression in human sepsis. Haem oxygenase may modulate nitric oxide production, and may also have a direct effect on vascular tone. METHODS: Mesenteric arterial smooth muscle (ASM) (obtained during laparotomy) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were obtained from patients with early septic shock and from control patients. mRNA levels were determined by real-time RT-PCR. RESULTS: mRNA for inducible and endothelial nitric oxide synthase was reduced in both ASM and PBMCs from septic patients. In contrast, inducible haem oxygenase mRNA was increased in sepsis in both cell types. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that, rather than being induced, the enzymes which produce nitric oxide are reduced at this time point in human septic shock. Thus many of the in vitro models of sepsis studied to date may not fully replicate human disease. The increase in haem oxygenase expression confirms that these cells have been subjected to oxidative stress in sepsis. The activity of induced haem oxygenase may limit nitric oxide production, while possibly causing vasodilation through production of carbon monoxide.

Adult↗

Coupling of CFTR-mediated anion secretion to nucleoside transporters and adenosine homeostasis in Calu-3 cells.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the role of adenosine-dependent regulation of anion secretion in Calu-3 cells. RT-PCR studies showed that Calu-3 cells expressed mRNA for A2A and A2B but not A1 or A3 receptors, and for hENT1, hENT2 and hCNT3 but not hCNT1 or hCNT2 nucleoside transporters. Short-circuit current measurements indicated that A2B receptors were present in both apical and basolateral membranes, whereas A2A receptors were detected only in basolateral membranes. Uptake studies demonstrated that the majority of adenosine transport was mediated by hENT1, which was localized to both apical and basolateral membranes, with a smaller hENT2-mediated component in basolateral membranes. Whole-cell current measurements showed that application of extracellular nitrobenzylmercaptopurine ribonucleoside (NBMPR), a selective inhibitor of hENT1-mediated transport, had similar effects on whole-cell currents as the application of exogenous adenosine. Inhibitors of adenosine kinase and 5'-nucleotidase increased and decreased, respectively, whole-cell currents, whereas inhibition of adenosine deaminase had no effect. Single-channel studies showed that NBMPR and adenosine kinase inhibitors activated CFTR Cl- channels. These results suggested that the equilibrative nucleoside transporters (hENT1, hENT2) together with adenosine kinase and 5'-nucleotidase play a crucial role in the regulation of CFTR through an adenosine-dependent pathway in human airway epithelia.

Adenosine↗

New method to evaluate the practice of positive pressure ventilation in intensive care units.

BACKGROUND: There is good evidence to support the use of a "protective" ventilation strategy, using small tidal volumes and inspiratory pressures, in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Many general intensive care units in the UK are being slow to adopt this approach and we therefore set out to devise a method to audit ventilation and possibly influence practice in these units. METHODS: Using variables that are routinely documented by intensive care nurses, we assessed the relationship between ventilator settings and arterial blood gas values on 30 consecutive ventilated patients admitted to intensive care units at both a teaching and a district hospital. Data were recorded twice daily and the proportions of data points where there was unnecessary hyperventilation were recorded at each centre. RESULTS: The initial audit results showed clear differences in practice between the teaching hospital and the district hospital. After an intensive education programme, during which an active role for nursing staff in ventilator management was encouraged, supported by simple protocols, practice in the district hospital was re-audited and found to closely mirror that in the teaching centre. CONCLUSIONS: To assist progress towards the use of a "protective" ventilation strategy in intensive care units in the UK, we devised a simple, robust audit method. We have shown how this method can give a more uniform practice of ventilation in critical care units, with the introduction of nurse-run protocols.

Critical Care↗

Immunocytochemical demonstration of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter rENT1 in rat sinoatrial node.

Adenosine exerts multiple receptor-mediated effects in the heart, including a negative chronotropic effect on the sinoatrial node. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter rENT1 in rat sinoatrial node and atrial muscle. Immunocytochemistry and/or immunoblotting revealed abundant expression of this protein in plasma membranes of sinoatrial node and in atrial and ventricular cells. Because rENT1-mediated transport is likely to regulate the local concentrations of adenosine in the sinoatrial node and other parts of the heart, it represents a potential pharmacological target that might be exploited to ameliorate ischemic damage during heart surgery.

Animals↗

Topology of a human equilibrative, nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBMPR)-sensitive nucleoside transporter (hENT1) implicated in the cellular uptake of adenosine and anti-cancer drugs.

The human equilibrative nucleoside transporter hENT1, the first identified member of the ENT family of integral membrane proteins, is the primary mechanism for the cellular uptake of physiologic nucleosides, including adenosine, and many anti-cancer nucleoside drugs. We have produced recombinant hENT1 in Xenopus oocytes and used native and engineered N-glycosylation sites in combination with immunological approaches to experimentally define the membrane architecture of this prototypic nucleoside transporter. hENT1 (456 amino acid residues) is shown to contain 11 transmembrane helical segments with an amino terminus that is intracellular and a carboxyl terminus that is extracellular. Transmembrane helices are linked by short hydrophilic regions, except for a large glycosylated extracellular loop between transmembrane helices 1 and 2 and a large central cytoplasmic loop between transmembrane helices 6 and 7. Sequence analyses suggest that this membrane topology is common to all mammalian, insect, nematode, protozoan, yeast, and plant members of the ENT protein family.

Adenosine↗

Mechanisms of uptake and resistance to troxacitabine, a novel deoxycytidine nucleoside analogue, in human leukemic and solid tumor cell lines.

Troxacitabine (Troxatyl; BCH-4556; (-)-2'-deoxy-3'-oxacytidine), a deoxycytidine analogue with an unusual dioxolane structure and nonnatural L-configuration, has potent antitumor activity in animal models and is in clinical trials against human malignancies. The current work was undertaken to identify potential biochemical mechanisms of resistance to troxacitabine and to determine whether there are differences in resistance mechanisms between troxacitabine, gemcitabine, and cytarabine in human leukemic and solid tumor cell lines. The CCRF-CEM leukemia cell line was highly sensitive to the antiproliferative effects of troxacitabine, gemcitabine, and cytarabine with inhibition of proliferation by 50% observed at 160, 20, and 10 nM, respectively, whereas a deoxycytidine kinase (dCK)-deficient variant (CEM/dCK(-)) was resistant to all three drugs. In contrast, a nucleoside transport-deficient variant (CEM/ARAC8C) exhibited high levels of resistance to cytarabine (1150-fold) and gemcitabine (432-fold) but only minimal resistance to troxacitabine (7-fold). Analysis of troxacitabine transportability by the five molecularly characterized human nucleoside transporters [human equilibrative nucleoside transporters 1 and 2, human concentrative nucleoside transporter (hCNT) 1, hCNT2, and hCNT3] revealed that short- and long-term uptake of 10-30 microM [(3)H]troxacitabine was low and unaffected by the presence of either nucleoside transport inhibitors or high concentrations of nonradioactive troxacitabine. These results, which suggested that the major route of cellular uptake of troxacitabine was passive diffusion, demonstrated that deficiencies in nucleoside transport were unlikely to impart resistance to troxacitabine. A troxacitabine-resistant prostate cancer subline (DU145(R); 6300-fold) that exhibited reduced uptake of troxacitabine was cross-resistant to both gemcitabine (350-fold) and cytarabine (300-fold). dCK activity toward deoxycytidine in DU145(R) cell lysates was <20% of that in DU145 cell lysates, and no activity was detected toward troxacitabine. Sequence analysis of cDNAs encoding dCK revealed a mutation of a highly conserved amino acid (Trp(92)-->Leu) in DU145(R) dCK, providing a possible explanation for the reduced phosphorylation of troxacitabine in DU145(R) lysates. Reduced deamination of deoxycytidine was also observed in DU145(R) relative to DU145 cells, and this may have contributed to the overall resistance phenotype. These results, which demonstrated a different resistance profile for troxacitabine, gemcitabine, and cytarabine, suggest that troxacitabine may have an advantage over gemcitabine and cytarabine in human malignancies that lack or have low nucleoside transport activities.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Equilibrative nucleoside transporters: mapping regions of interaction for the substrate analogue nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBMPR) using rat chimeric proteins.

The rat equilibrative nucleoside transporters rENT1 and rENT2 belong to a family of integral membrane proteins with 11 potential transmembrane segments (TMs) and are distinguished functionally by differences in sensitivity to inhibition by nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBMPR). Structurally, the proteins have a large glycosylated extracellular loop between TMs 1 and 2 and a large cytoplasmic loop between TMs 6 and 7. In the present study, we have generated chimeras between NBMPR-sensitive rENT1 and NBMPR-insensitive rENT2, using splice sites at rENT1 residues 99 (end of TM 2), 171 (between TMs 4 and 5), and 231 (end of TM 6) to identify structural domains of rENT1 responsible for transport inhibition by NBMPR. Transplanting the amino-terminal half of rENT2 into rENT1 rendered rENT1 NBMPR-insensitive. Domain swaps within the amino-terminal halves of rENT1 and rENT2 identified two contiguous regions, TMs 3-4 (rENT1 residues 100-171) and TMs 5-6 (rENT1 residues 172-231), as the major sites of NBMPR interaction. Since NBMPR is a nucleoside analogue and functions as a competitive inhibitor of zero-trans nucleoside influx, TMs 3-6 are likely to form parts of the substrate translocation channel.

Affinity Labels↗

Subcellular distribution and membrane topology of the mammalian concentrative Na+-nucleoside cotransporter rCNT1.

The rat transporter rCNT1 is the archetype of a family of concentrative nucleoside transporters (CNTs) found both in eukaryotes and in prokaryotes. In the present study we have used antibodies to investigate the subcellular distribution and membrane topology of this protein. rCNT1 was found to be expressed predominantly in the brush-border membranes of the polarized epithelial cells of rat jejunum and renal cortical tubules and in the bile canalicular membranes of liver parenchymal cells, consistent with roles in the absorption of dietary nucleosides, of nucleosides in the glomerular filtrate, or of nucleosides arising from the action of extracellular nucleotidases, respectively. The effect of endoglycosidase F treatment on wild-type and mutant rCNT1 expressed in Xenopus oocytes revealed that the recombinant transporter could be glycosylated at either or both of Asn605 and Asn643, indicating that its C terminus is extracellular. In contrast, potential N-glycosylation sites introduced near the N terminus, or between putative transmembrane (TM) helices 4 and 5, were not glycosylated. The deduced orientation of the N terminus in the cytoplasm was confirmed by immunocytochemistry on intact and saponin-permeabilized Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing recombinant rCNT1. These results, in conjunction with extensive analyses of CNT family protein sequences using predictive algorithms, lead us to propose a revised topological model, in which rCNT1 possesses 13 TM helices with the hydrophilic N-terminal and C-terminal domains on the cytoplasmic and extracellular sides of the membrane, respectively. Furthermore, we show that the first three TM helices, which are absent from prokaryote CNTs, are not essential for transporter function; truncated proteins lacking these helices, derived either from rCNT1 or from its human homolog hCNT1, were found to retain significant sodium-dependent uridine transport activity when expressed in oocytes.

Amino Acid Motifs↗

Identification of Cys140 in helix 4 as an exofacial cysteine residue within the substrate-translocation channel of rat equilibrative nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBMPR)-insensitive nucleoside transporter rENT2.

The human and rat equilibrative nucleoside transporter proteins hENT1, rENT1, hENT2 and rENT2 belong to a family of integral membrane proteins with 11 potential transmembrane segments (TMs), and are distinguished functionally by differences in transport of nucleobases and sensitivity to inhibition by nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBMPR) and vasoactive drugs. In the present study, we have produced recombinant hENT1, rENT1, hENT2 and rENT2 in Xenopus oocytes and investigated uridine transport following exposure to the impermeant thiol-reactive reagent p-chloromercuriphenyl sulphonate (PCMBS). PCMBS caused reversible inhibition of uridine influx by rENT2, but had no effect on hENT1, hENT2 or rENT1. This difference correlated with the presence in rENT2 of a unique Cys residue (Cys(140)) in the outer half of TM4 that was absent from the other ENTs. Mutation of Cys(140) to Ser produced a functional protein (rENT2/C140S) that was insensitive to inhibition by PCMBS, identifying Cys(140) as the exofacial Cys residue in rENT2 responsible for PCMBS inhibition. Uridine protected wild-type rENT2 against PCMBS inhibition, suggesting that Cys(140) in TM4 lies within or is closely adjacent to the substrate-translocation channel of the transporter. TM4 has been shown previously to be within a structural domain (TMs 3-6) responsible for interactions with NBMPR, vasoactive drugs and nucleobases.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Distinct regional distribution of human equilibrative nucleoside transporter proteins 1 and 2 (hENT1 and hENT2) in the central nervous system.

Nucleoside transport processes play an important role in human cells in salvage of nucleosides used in the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and in regulating endogenous adenosine concentrations in the human central nervous system (CNS). By altering the levels of adenosine available to interact with cell-surface receptors, nucleoside transporters have profound effects on the ability of adenosine to modulate neurotransmission, vascular tone and other physiological events. Although the human equilibrative nucleoside transporters 1 and 2 (hENT1 and hENT2) are believed to play a crucial role in modulating brain function, their distribution within the major divisions of the human CNS is not known. In this work, antibodies specific for hENT1 and hENT2 were produced against fragments of the transporter proteins and used for immunoblot analysis of enriched membrane fractions prepared from several regions of the human brain. While hENT1 was most prevalent in the frontal and parietal lobes of the cerebral cortex, thalamus, midbrain and basal ganglia, hENT2 was concentrated in the cerebellum and brainstem regions, particularly the pons. The apparent reciprocal distribution of hENT1 and hENT2 in human brain suggests that these nucleoside transporter proteins are produced in distinct regions of the CNS where they function in nucleoside salvage and/or regulation of exogenous adenosine. Within the brain regions that were investigated, the pattern of hENT1 distribution correlated well with adenosine A(1) receptor abundance. The regional co-localization of hENT1 and A(1) receptor protein suggests an important role of hENT1-mediated transport process in the control of neuromodulatory actions mediated by adenosine A(1) receptors in human brain.

Adenosine↗