Biomedical subjects

T Gooding

Publications and source records attributed to T Gooding.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection using ESAT-6 and intracellular cytokine cytometry.

Diagnosis of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) using tuberculin skin testing (TST) is often hampered by prior Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination. ESAT-6 is a protein that is expressed by MTB but absent in BCG. It has been postulated that it might be useful in distinguishing MTB-specific immune responses. This study measured CD4 T cell responder frequencies specific for ESAT-6 and the TST reagent purified protein derivative (PPD) in patients with tuberculosis (n = 16), controls with non-tuberculous pneumonia (n = 8) and normal subjects (n = 7). Responses were identified using the intracellular cytokine staining technique and flow cytometry on whole blood samples, and performed blinded to the patient condition. Antigen-specific CD4 cells were defined by CD69 positivity and one or more cytokine [interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-10, interferon (IFN)-gamma] and/or CD40L positivity. With ESAT-6 stimulation it was found that TB patients had significantly higher frequencies of IFN-gamma and CD40L-positive CD4 T cells compared to the normal group, while no significant differences were measured with PPD stimulation. A responder frequency of 0.01% or higher for at least one of the measured cytokines/CD40L was defined as a positive response. Using this criterion to compare the two patient groups, PPD had 100% sensitivity but 0% specificity while ESAT-6 had 100% sensitivity and 88% specificity. Use of MTB-specific proteins such as ESAT-6 in combination with intracellular cytokine staining and flow cytometry has the potential to identify individuals with MTB infection.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Community-based education improves stroke knowledge.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Despite advances in stroke therapy, the public remains uninformed about stroke, and few stroke patients present to the hospital in time to receive treatment. Health education campaigns can increase community awareness and may decrease time to hospital presentation among stroke patients. METHODS: We conducted a community-based education campaign utilizing television and newspapers to inform the residents of King County, Wash., USA, about stroke and the need to call 911. The effectiveness of the campaign was assessed, using a pretest-posttest design, through telephone interviews with residents of King County. RESULTS: Prior to the education campaign, 59.6% of persons in King County could name a risk factor for stroke, but only 45.2% knew that the brain was the organ of injury. And while 68.2% of persons stated that they would call 911 in the event of stroke, only 38.6% could name a symptom of stroke. The knowledge deficit was greatest among Asian-Americans, men, the less educated and low-income residents. There was a significant increase in stroke knowledge following the education campaign; respondents were 52% (p = 0.005) more likely to know a risk factor for stroke and 35% (p = 0.032) more likely to know a symptom of stroke after the campaign. CONCLUSIONS: Baseline knowledge about stroke among the public is poor, but can be increased through public education campaigns.

Aged↗

PubMed1998

Intercellular communication is involved in the bystander regulation of gene expression in human cells exposed to very low fluences of alpha particles.

We demonstrate by western analysis that the expression levels of TP53 (formerly known as p53), CDKN1A (formerly known as p21Waf1), CDC2 (formerly known as p34cdc2), CCNB1 (cyclin B1) and RAD51 are significantly modulated in confluent, density-inhibited human diploid cell populations exposed to doses where only a small fraction of the nuclei are actually traversed by an alpha-particle track. The extent of modulation of TP53 and CDKN1A is significantly reduced in the presence of the gap junction inhibitor lindane and in irradiated low-density cell populations. In situ immunofluorescence studies show that at doses where about 2% of the nuclei would be traversed by an alpha particle, induction of CDKN1A occurs in more cells than predicted. Furthermore, the induced cells are present in isolated aggregates of neighboring cells. Therefore, our studies at the gene expression level indicate that similar signaling pathways are induced in bystander cells that are not traversed by an alpha particle as in traversed cells, and that biological effects in cell populations are not restricted to the response of individual cells to the DNA damage they receive.

Alpha Particles↗