Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0020505 (hyperphagia)
 6,116 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Infections caused by the opportunistic yeast pathogen, Candida albicans, are becoming increasingly important. Superficial Candida infections, particularly those of the mouth and vagina, are very common; for example, candidal vaginitis plaques millions of women worldwide, often proving refractory to treatment. Systemic candidosis is much rarer, but it is an important hazard of modern medical procedures such as transplant surgery, i.v. hyperalimentation, and immunosuppressive therapy. One significant virulence factor of C. albicans is its ability to secrete extracellular acid proteinase. This attribute is shared by C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis, but not by other less pathogenic Candida species. The enzymes produced by these yeasts are all carboxyl proteinases capable of degrading secretory IgA, the major immunoglobulin of mucous membranes. Some have keratino- or collagenolytic activity. Two secretory proteinases of C. albicans have been purified and characterized; their properties are reviewed. Possible applications of this work to the treatment and diagnosis of candidosis are discussed.
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PMID:Candida proteinases and candidosis. 306 60

In summary, the association between malnutrition and infections, including respiratory infections, seems clear from consistent experience in developing nations. Young children are at the greatest risk, both of severe malnutrition and complicating infections. The cell-mediated immune system is the most affected by protein-calorie malnutrition, but antibody responses are also affected and complement levels are low. Infections with organisms handled by cell-mediated immunity would be the most predictable, but the immunoglobulin responses that are important for opsonization of invading microorganisms may also be impaired. The experience in developing nations has been extrapolated to patients in US hospitals, because hospitalized patients often have one or more abnormal nutritional parameters. However, severe malnutrition of the sort found in children in developing nations is uncommon in hospitalized patients, and the effects of malnutrition on host defenses in adults are likely to be less severe than in children. Whether the degrees of malnutrition that have been described in hospitalized patients produce clinically significant effects on antibacterial defenses in the lungs of adults remains uncertain. Despite the intuitive importance of nutritional support, and the repeated observation that nutritional parameters improve with nutritional support, a number of controlled trials have failed to show a clear improvement in patient outcome with aggressive nutritional therapy, including parenteral hyperalimentation. The results of these studies, together with the risks involved in parenteral alimentation have led some to suggest that "the emperor has no clothes," and that aggressive nutritional support is not worthwhile for most patients. The major problem in interpreting the data is the lack of clear clinical endpoints, and this may obscure potentially important responses to nutritional therapy. Nutritional status is only one of many interacting variables that may affect clinical outcome, particularly in patients in critical care units. Survival usually depends on many factors, particularly the status of major organ systems independent of nutrition, so that survival as an endpoint for nutritional studies is likely to be too insensitive. Prospective studies of the incidence and significance of infections, particularly pneumonia, in malnourished patients and the effects of nutritional therapy are lacking. At present, the prudent approach is to treat infections aggressively in malnourished patients, with antibiotics and drainage if necessary, and to provide nutritional supplementation in all patients via the gut as long as possible.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:The relationship between malnutrition and lung infections. 311 82

Infections of the gastrointestinal nematode, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, in the laboratory rat result in a characteristic biphasic anorexia which is followed by hyperphagia once the worm burden has been cleared. Despite the importance of parasite-induced anorexia, relatively little is known of the underlying mechanisms. We have investigated the involvement of the central appetite drive in this anorexia by studying the gene expression of two neuropeptides with opposing actions on energy balance, NPY and CRF. Gene expression was assessed by in situ hybridization at 2, 8 and 16 days post-infection (p.i.) in infected rats, in uninfected controls, and in a group with food intake restricted to match that taken voluntarily by the parasitize animals. The sampling intervals corresponded to each of the two phases of maximum anorexia and the period of compensatory hyperphagia. Surprisingly, we found that increases in NPY gene expression in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) accompany anorexia in rats infected with N. brasiliensis; there was a significant relationship between degree of anorexia and induction of NPY mRNA after 8 days of infection. Furthermore, ARC NPY mRNA levels in parasitized animals were similar to those in pair-fed individuals with food intake restricted to match the infected rats. The number of larvae used to establish the infection affected both the degree of anorexia and the level of NPY mRNA at 8 days p.i. in a dose-dependent manner. NPY gene expression remained elevated in infected rats during at least the initial stages of compensatory hyperphagia. This suggests that animals detect a state of energy deficit during the early stages of the infection, yet do not feed, but become hyperphagic coincident with worm loss. The failure of anorectic parasitized animals to feed in response to activation of the NPYergic system makes this a novel system in which to study the regulation of hypothalamic NPY by physiological challenge. There were no significant differences in CRF gene expression between the groups at any of the sampling intervals.
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PMID:Anorexia induced by the parasitic nematode, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis: effects on NPY and CRF gene expression in the rat hypothalamus. 874 24

Central line catheters are commonly placed in extremely low-birthweight infants to provide venous access for administration of hyperalimentation and medications. Infections is the most common complication of central line catheters in this patient population. With expansion of the neonatal intensive care unit at Allegheny General Hospital and an increase in the number of infants weighing less than 1000 g, there was a proportionate increase in the number of central line catheter days. A multidisciplinary team formed to improve central line care practices to reduce the rate of line infections. The continuous quality improvement process was used to modify central line practices, which led to a decrease in the rate of central line infections. For the first 8 months of 1997, the infection rate was below the 25th percentile according to the National Nosocomial infections Surveillance System data.
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PMID:The clinical experience of continuous quality improvement in the neonatal intensive care unit. 978 77