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ObjectivePersons with HIV (PWH) have increased risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). Despite this increased risk, perceived cardiovascular risk among PWH is low, and interventions that are known to be beneficial in the general population, such as statins, have low uptake in this population. We sought to develop a bank of text messages about (1) the association between HIV and CVD and (2) advice on reducing cardiovascular risk.MethodsWe developed an initial bank of 162 messages. We solicited feedback from 29 PWH recruited from outpatient clinics providing HIV care at a large urban tertiary medical center and a public hospital in San Francisco, California. Participants reviewed 7-10 messages each and rated message usefulness, readability, and potential impact on behavior on a scale from 1 (least) to 5 (most). We also collected open-ended feedback on the messages and data on preferences about message timing.ResultsThe average score for the messages was 4.4/5 for usefulness, 4.4/5 for readability, and 4.0/5 for potential impact on behavior. The text messages were iteratively revised based on participant feedback, and lowest-rated messages were removed from the message bank. The final message bank included 116 messages on diet (30.2%), physical activity (24.8%), tobacco (11.2%), the association between HIV and cardiovascular disease (9.5%), general heart health (6.9%), cholesterol (5.2%), blood pressure (4.3%), blood sugar (2.6%), sleep (2.6%), and weight (2.6%).ConclusionWe describe an approach for developing educational text messages on primary prevention of cardiovascular disease among PWH.

Aim: To compare patient characteristics and outcomes between the overall and Japanese populations of GLIMMER. Methods: GLIMMER was a multicenter, double‐blind, randomized, placebo‐controlled, Phase IIb study evaluating linerixibat for the treatment of pruritus in patients with primary biliary cholangitis. Results: In total, 147 patients were randomized in the GLIMMER overall population with 38 patients comprising the Japanese population. Demographics and baseline clinical characteristics were similar across treatment groups and between both populations. A reduction in mean worst daily itch score from baseline to week 16 (primary endpoint) was seen in all groups, with the largest reduction observed with linerixibat 40 mg twice daily (BID; −2.92 [95% confidence interval: −5.07, −0.76] and −2.86 [95% confidence interval: −3.76, −1.95] for Japanese and overall populations, respectively). The highest proportion of responders was generally in the 40 mg BID group in both populations regardless of the responder definition applied. Improvements in health‐related quality of life were generally consistent in both populations. In the Japanese and overall populations, on‐treatment drug‐related adverse events were reported in 25% and 19% of patients in the placebo group and 0%–86% and 31%–78% of patients in the linerixibat groups, respectively. Consistent with the mechanism of action, the most common events were gastrointestinal in nature. The effects of linerixibat on pharmacodynamic biomarkers favored BID dosing. Conclusions: Therapeutic responses and safety of linerixibat were consistent between the Japanese and overall populations of GLIMMER. Linerixibat may provide an effective treatment option for cholestatic pruritus in patients with primary biliary cholangitis. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT02966834. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has been conducted on 3-deoxy-D-arabinoheptulosonate-7-phosphate (DAHP) which catalyzes aromatic amino acid biosynthesis's first step in prokaryotes, fungi and plants. The cloning of the complete gene defined by the small genomic DNA fragment and the determination of its evolutionary relationship to the DAHP synthases have been carried out and the details are reported.

Radiolabelled and radio-photoaffinity-labelled chemical probes identify the molecular target of pyridinyl-imidazole cytokine inhibitors to be the nitrogen-activated protein kinase homologues, termed CSBPs. Binding of the pyridinyl-imidazole cytokine inhibitors suppresses the kinase activity of CSBP. This suppression leads to inhibition of cytokine biosynthesis, confirming the crucial role of CSBPs in inflammatory cytokine production.

Aims/hypothesis: The aim of the study was to examine the association between lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) activity levels and incident diabetic retinopathy and change in retinopathy grade.Methods: This was a cohort study of diabetic participants with serum collected at baseline and routinely collected diabetic retinal screening data. Participants with type 2 diabetes from the GoDARTS (Genetics of Diabetes Audit and Research in Tayside Scotland) cohort were used. This cohort is composed of individuals of white Scottish ancestry from the Tayside region of Scotland. Survival analysis accounting for informative censoring by modelling death as a competing risk was performed for the development of incident diabetic retinopathy from a disease-free state in a 3 year follow-up period (n = 1364) by stratified Lp-PLA2 activity levels (in quartiles). The same analysis was performed for transitions to more severe grades.Results: The hazard of developing incident diabetic retinopathy was 2.08 times higher (95% CI 1.64, 2.63) for the highest quartile of Lp-PLA2 activity compared with the lowest. Higher Lp-PLA2 activity levels were associated with a significantly increased risk for transitions to all grades. The hazards of developing observable (or more severe) and referable (or more severe) retinopathy were 2.82 (95% CI 1.71, 4.65) and 1.87 (95% CI 1.26, 2.77) times higher for the highest quartile of Lp-PLA2 activity compared with the lowest, respectively.Conclusions/interpretation: Higher Lp-PLA2 levels are associated with increased risk of death and the development of incident diabetic retinopathy, as well as transitions to more severe grades of diabetic retinopathy. These associations are independent of calculated LDL-cholesterol and other traditional risk factors. Further, this biomarker study shows that the association is temporally sensitive to the proximity of the event to measurement of Lp-PLA2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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