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Biomedical subjects

Rosemary Cook

Publications and source records attributed to Rosemary Cook.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Community nursing in the 21st century: who, where, what, how?

Change is a given in the health service, but the changes currently under way are particularly important in the opportunities they offer district nurses to expand and develop their roles. In this article, the director of the Queen's Nursing Institute, which pioneered the training and development of district nurses, examines what can be learned from the past and present, in an attempt to inform the future direction of district nursing.

Community Health Nursing↗
PubMed2004

Vaccination with antioxidant enzymes confers protective immunity against challenge infection with Schistosoma mansoni.

Schistosoma mansoni, an intravascular parasite, lives in a hostile environment in close contact with host humoral and cellular cytotoxic factors. To establish itself in the host, the parasite has evolved a number of immune evasion mechanisms, such as antioxidant enzymes. Our laboratory has demonstrated that the expression of antioxidant enzymes is developmentally regulated, with the highest levels present in the adult worm, the stage least susceptible to immune elimination, and the lowest levels in the larval stages, the most susceptible to immune elimination. Vaccination of mice with naked DNA constructs containing Cu/Zn cytosolic superoxide dismutase (CT-SOD), signal-peptide containing SOD or glutathione peroxidase (GPX) showed significant levels of protection compared to a control group. We have further shown that vaccination with SmCT-SOD but not SmGPX results in elimination of adult worms. Anti-oxidant enzyme vaccine candidates offer an advance over existing vaccine strategies that all seem to target the larval developmental stages in that they target adult worms and thus may have therapeutic as well as prophylactic value. To eliminate the potential for cross-reactivity of SmCT-SOD with human superoxide dismutase, we identified parasite-specific epitope-containing peptides. Our results serve as a basis for developing a subunit vaccine against schistosomiasis.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Cross-reactivity of Schistosoma mansoni cytosolic superoxide dismutase, a protective vaccine candidate, with host superoxide dismutase and identification of parasite-specific B epitopes.

Schistosoma mansoni, an intravascular parasite, has evolved a number of immune evasion mechanisms to establish itself in the host, such as antioxidant enzymes. Our laboratory has demonstrated that the highest levels of certain antioxidant enzymes are found in adult worms, which are the least susceptible to immune killing. Vaccination of mice with naked DNA constructs containing the gene encoding Cu/Zn cytosolic superoxide dismutase (SmCT-SOD) showed significant levels of protection compared to a control group, and our data demonstrate that the adult worms are a target of the immune response that confers resistance in SmCT-SOD DNA-vaccinated mice. Because SmCT-SOD shows significant identity with the human homologue, we evaluated the reactivity of anti-SmCT-SOD antibodies derived from SmCT-SOD-immunized mice and rabbits and from S. mansoni-infected individuals to human superoxide dismutase (hSOD) and SmCT-SOD parasite-specific peptides to assess the potential for autoimmune responses from immunization with the recombinant molecule. In addition, we evaluated the ability of various SmCT-SOD adjuvant-delivered immunizations to induce cross-reactive antibodies. Both mouse and rabbit antibodies generated against SmCT-SOD recognized the denatured form of hSOD. The same antibodies did not recognize nondenatured hSOD. Sera from infected individuals with different clinical forms of schistosomiasis recognized SmCT-SOD but not hSOD. Antibodies from mice immunized with different SmCT-SOD-containing formulations of both DNA and protein were able to recognize SmCT-SOD-derived peptides but not soluble hSOD. All together, these findings serve as a basis for developing a subunit vaccine against schistosomiasis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Charitable view.

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Charities↗
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Public view.

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Career Choice↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Nurse prescribing: a policy overview.

Nurses play an important role in ensuring that patients receive the maximum benefit from any medicines they are prescribed. This includes administering them, ensuring that patients understand how to take and store their medication, and recognising and acting on any side-effects. Some nurses also prescribe medicines. The NHS Plan envisages most nurses being qualified to prescribe or supply medicines (under patient group directions) by 2004. This article discusses current developments in policy on nurse prescribing and the implications for nurses.

Drug Prescriptions↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A brief guide to the new supplementary prescribing.

Supplementary prescribing is an entirely new way of prescribing medicines, involving a partnership between a doctor (the independent prescriber) and a nurse or pharmacist (the supplementary prescriber). Following the announcement in November 2002 by health minister Lord Philip Hunt, this article explains how supplementary prescribing will work and looks at where and how nurses can use this new form of prescribing to improve services to patients.

Drug Prescriptions↗