Development of human protein reference database as an initial platform for approaching systems biology in humans

Human Protein Reference Database (HPRD) is an object database that integrates a wealth of information relevant to the function of human proteins in health and disease. Data pertaining to thousands of protein-protein interactions, posttranslational modifications, enzyme/substrate relationships, disease associations, tissue expression, and subcellular localization were extracted from the literature for a nonredundant set of 2750 human proteins. Almost all the information was obtained manually by biologists who read and interpreted >300,000 published articles during the annotation process. This database, which has an intuitive query interface allowing easy access to all the features of proteins, was built by using open source technologies and will be freely available at http://www.hprd.org to the academic community. This unified bioinformatics platform will be useful in cataloging and mining the large number of proteomic interactions and alterations that will be discovered in the postgenomic era.     

Allelic variation of BAT-26 and BAT-40 poly-adenine repeat loci in North Indians.

Analysis of mononucleotide repeats BAT-26 and BAT-40 in North Indians revealed that there were germline polymorphisms at both the loci. We evaluated BAT-26 and BAT-40 in 100 normal healthy individuals from North India. The DNA from normal blood was PCR amplified using primers flanking the BAT-26 and BAT-40 loci. The allelic variation of BAT-26 and BAT-40 ranged between 117-130 and 94-112 bp respectively. The most frequent BAT-26 allele was 122 bp, which corresponded to 26 repeats and had a frequency of 32% while that of BAT-40 was 109 bp corresponding to 39 repeats with a frequency of 26%. These results suggest that polymorphisms in these poly-adenine repeat loci limit their applicability in studying the microsatellite instability in cancers.     

A Snapshot of Social Risk Factors and Associations with Health Outcomes in a Community Sample of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) People in the U.S.

Social factors (e.g. housing, food security, etc.) contribute significantly to health. The purpose of this study is to describe social risk and social exclusion factors in one of the largest Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) populations in the U.S. and their association with health outcomes. We conducted a cross-sectional study with a community convenience sample of 412 adults who self-identify as MENA. Weighted, adjusted linear regression models were used to examine relationships of interest. Prevalent social risks included transportation barriers to healthcare (33%), food insecurity (33%), and financial strain (25%). In adjusted models, perception of being treated unfairly (Estimate (SE) 0.08 (0.04), p?<?0.05) and fear of deportation (0.26 (0.06), p?<?0.001) were associated with more social risk factors. More social risk factors were associated with worse self-reported health (0.09 (0.03), p?<?0.01), more chronic conditions (0.11 (0.03), p?<?0.004), and more mental health symptoms (0.34 (0.14) p?<?0.01).Social risk is high among those perceiving unfairness and fear deportation. Those with more social risk factors reported worse health. These findings have implications for social needs screening and referral models that can best serve U.S. MENA sub-populations.

     

Grandmothers’ influence on child care

Objective: This paper compares child care-giving and child's nutritional status among rural families where grandmothers were present and those where grandmothers were absent. Methods: From 27 villages in rural Vadodara, four were randomly selected and all the families (n=31) with children (3–24 months) where grandmothers were present (GMP) were compared with 39 families where grandmothers were absent (GMA). Semi structured questionnaires were used to assess beliefs-practices of mothers and grandmothers regarding breastfeeding and complementary feeding (BF-CF). Nutrient intake of the children and nutritional status were measured using standard procedures.Results: Some deleterious practices were present in a similar proportion of both GMP and GMA groups: giving prelacteals, delaying initiation of BF, exclusive breastfeeding <3 months and delaying initiation of CF. Favorable practices present in significantly more GMP were: active feeding and use of anganwadi services. Grandmother’s help enabled mother to practice more care-giving behaviors. However, children in both the groups had low calorie intake (<40% RDA) and a high prevalence of under nutrition: 56–64% (Weight-for-Age z score <−2).Conclusion: Role of family members in childcare and the benefits of including them in interventions to improve child survival, health and nutrition status need to be further researched.     

Perceived Parent Financial Burden and Asthma Outcomes in Low-Income, Urban Children

The purpose of this study was to describe the demographic characteristics of low-income parents who perceive financial burden in managing their child’s asthma and related associations with their children’s asthma outcomes and clinical characteristics. We hypothesized that (1) identifiable differences between parents who do and do not report burden; (2) regardless of access to care, asthma outcomes would be worse for children whose parents perceive financial burden in obtaining care for their child’s condition. Baseline data from a randomized trial evaluating the effect of a school-based asthma intervention were analyzed for this research. Eight hundred thirty-five parents were interviewed by telephone regarding their child’s asthma management. Associations between demographic and clinical factors and perception of financial burden were examined using bivariate analysis. Multivariate regression analyses were used to examine associations between perceptions of financial burden and asthma outcomes, including emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and missed school days. Perceived financial burden was evident in 10 % (n = 79) of parents. Female heads of household (χ²(3) = 7.41; p < 0.05), those at the lowest income levels (χ²(3) = 12.14; p < 0.01), and those whose child’s asthma was poorly controlled (χ²(2) = 49.42; p < 0.001) were most likely to perceive financial burden. In models controlling for level of asthma control, income, and having a usual source of asthma care, parents who perceived financial burden were more likely to have children who had at least one emergency department visit (OR = 1.95; 95 % CI = 1.15 to 3.29), hospitalization (OR = 3.99; 95 % CI = 2.03 to 7.82), or missed school days due to asthma (OR = 3.26; 95 % CI = 1.60 to 6.67) in the previous year. Our results supported our hypotheses. Among low-income parents of children with asthma, the majority do not perceive financial burden to obtaining care. However, among parents that do perceive burden, urgent care use and missed school days due to asthma for their child were significantly higher, regardless of family income and having a usual source of asthma care. Mothers and grandmothers heading families and those caring for children with uncontrolled asthma were most likely to report burden. These findings have implications for clinical practice in that health care providers may be able to take simple actions to determine patients’ financial-related perceptions, correct misconceptions, and help patients consider their full range of options to manage their child’s asthma.