A Cervical Cancer Screening Toolkit for Somali Women: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study aims to determine whether a novel cervical cancer screening toolkit will increase rates of pap test completion and HPV vaccination among Somali women living in the United States. We conducted a randomized controlled, pilot trial from June 2021 to February 2022. Somali women aged 21 to 70 were randomized to either receive a toolkit (infographic, video and an in-person health seminar) or not. Health passports confirming a completed pap test and/or HPV vaccination by clinician signature were used to measure outcomes. The primary outcome was pap test completion and the secondary outcome was HPV vaccination. We enrolled 57 participants. Patients randomized to the treatment arm were significantly more likely to have had a pap test (53.7% vs. 3.7%, p < 0.0001) and were also more likely to have received the HPV vaccine (10.7% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.6110). This toolkit increased rates of pap test completion and more participants in the intervention arm received HPV vaccination, though numbers were low. The study design may serve as a reproducible model to determine the effectiveness of patient education materials.

Sortilin regulates sorting and secretion of Sonic hedgehog.

Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) is a secreted morphogen that is an essential regulator of patterning and growth. The Shh full-length protein undergoes autocleavage in the endoplasmic reticulum to generate the biologically active N-terminal fragment (ShhN), which is destined for secretion. We identified sortilin (Sort1), a member of the VPS10P-domain receptor family, as a new Shh trafficking receptor. We demonstrate that Sort-Shh interact by performing coimmunoprecipitation and proximity ligation assays in transfected cells and that they colocalize at the Golgi. Sort1 overexpression causes re-distribution of ShhN and, to a lesser extent, of full-length Shh to the Golgi and reduces Shh secretion. We show loss of Sort1 can partially rescue Hedgehog-associated patterning defects in a mouse model that is deficient in Shh processing, and we show that Sort1 levels negatively regulate anterograde Shh transport in axons in vitro and Hedgehog-dependent axon-glial interactions in vivo Taken together, we conclude that Shh and Sort1 can interact at the level of the Golgi and that Sort1 directs Shh away from the pathways that promote its secretion.