ABSTRACT
Prevalence of alcohol use in India is reported to be 21.4% and there is increasing alcohol intake among the young people. The present study was undertaken to study the socio-demographic characteristics of patients having alcohol-related disorders attending the de-addiction center at Burdwan Medical College in West Bengal and to find out some factors responsible for that. A clinic-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 187 patients with the help of pre-tested pre-designed schedule after obtaining informed consent. Data analysis was carried out with the help of Epi info software version 6. Majority of the patients were male, in productive age group and married. Age of initiation and amount of alcohol intake were significantly associated with positive family history of alcoholism. Children having family history of alcoholism should be counseled to prevent development of alcoholism.
ABSTRACT
MicroRNAs (miRs), the 17- to 25-nucleotide-long non-coding RNAs, regulate expression of approximately 30% of the protein-coding genes at the post-transcriptional level and have emerged as critical components of the complex functional pathway networks controlling important cellular processes, such as proliferation, development, differentiation, stress response' and apoptosis. Abnormal expression levels of miRs, regulating critical cancerassociated pathways, have been implicated to play important roles in the oncogenic processes, functioning both as oncogenes and as tumour suppressor genes. Elucidation of the genetic networks regulated by the abnormally expressing miRs in cancer cells is proving to be extremely significant in understanding the role of these miRs in the induction of malignant-transformation-associated phenotypic changes. As a result, the miRs involved in the oncogenic transformation process are being investigated as novel biomarkers of disease detection and prognosis as well as potential therapeutic targets for human cancers. In this \article, we review the existing literature in the field documenting the significance of aberrantly expressed miRs in human pancreatic cancer and discuss how the oncogenic miRs may be involved in the genetic networks regulating functional pathways deregulated in this malignancy
ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to find out the cognitive impairment if any, in early stages of human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients and if there is any cognitive impairment, then its association with duration of illness detection. Fifty patients with early stages of HIV and 50 matched controls were compared in various neuropsychological tests along with demographic profiles. Seropositive patients had poorly performed in digit symbol substitution test, trail making test and controlled word association test. This impairment had no association with duration of detection of illness. It is not known whether mild neurocognitive disorder predisposes patients to the development of frank dementia. Cognitive impairment should be identified early in order to maximise functional status, enhance quality of life and survival time.
Subject(s)
Adult , Case-Control Studies , Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Disease Progression , Female , HIV Infections/complications , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neuropsychological Tests , Pilot Projects , Psychometrics , Risk Factors , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Background: Gain of the q arm of chromosome 20 in human colorectal cancer has been associated with poorer survival time and has been reported to increase in frequency from adenomas to metastasis. The increasing frequency of chromosome 20q amplification during colorectal cancer progression and the presence of this amplification in carcinomas of other tissue origin has lead us to hypothesize that 20q11-13 harbors one or more genes which, when over expressed promote tumor invasion and metastasis. Aims: Generate genomic and expression profiles of the 20q amplicon in human cancer cell lines in order to identify genes with increased copy number and expression. Materials and Methods: Utilizing genomic sequencing clones and amplification mapping data from our lab and other previous studies, BAC/ PAC tiling paths spanning the 20q amplicon and genomic microarrays were generated. Array-CGH on the custom array with human cancer cell line DNAs was performed to generate genomic profiles of the amplicon. Expression array analysis with RNA from these cell lines using commercial oligo microarrays generated expression profiles of the amplicon. The data were then combined in order to identify genes with increased copy number and expression. Results: Over expressed genes in regions of increased copy number were identified and a list of potential novel genetic tumor markers was assembled based on biological functions of these genes Conclusions: Performing high-resolution genomic microarray profiling in conjunction with expression analysis is an effective approach to identify potential tumor markers.