Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
 24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The rate of ribosome synthesis and accumulation in Escherichia coli during the transition after an energy source shift-down was analyzed. The shift was imposed on cultures of stringent and relaxed strains growing in glucose minimal medium by the addition of the glucose analogue alpha-methylglucoside. In the stringent strain, ribosome synthesis was almost instantaneously reduced after the shift, whereas the relaxed strain exhibited a more gradual response. The rate of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) synthesis was affected similarly, though to a smaller extent. A comparison of the rates of synthesis and accumulation of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and ribosomal proteins showed that far more ribosomal components were synthesized after the shift than were accumulated, indicating that a substantial part of the rRNA made after the shift was unstable. A new method was used to measure relative rates of rRNA synthesis and to estimate the transcription time for the rRNA operon under different conditions. In steady states of growth with growth rates ranging from 0.75 to 2.3 doublings/h, as well as during the transition after a shift-down, the transcription time of the rRNA operon was constant. The rate of synthesis of rRNA correlated during this transition - in contrast to the rate of accumulation (M. T. Hansen et al., J. Bacteriol. 122: 585-591, 1975) - with the ppGpp pool in the same way as has been observed during partial amino acid starvation.
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PMID:Control of ribosome synthesis in Escherichia coli: analysis of an energy source shift-down. 32 72

1. Clinical and necropsy observations in lepromatous leprosy associated with severe emaciation and accompanying hypoproteinemia suggest that protein deprivation may be of pathogenic significance in the ulcerative phenomenon that is designated "Lazarine leprosy". 2. An experimental utilizing Wiersung rats infected with Mycobacterium lepraemurium and maintained on a protein-free diet was developed for the purpose of studying the effect of protein starvation on the course of chronic mycobacterial disease similar to lepromatous leprosy with respect to pathogen and host inflammatory response. 3. It was possible to maintain the experimental animals on a protein-free diet for up to 18 weeks of concomitant M. lepraemurium infection. This was long enough for the infection to disseminate to a degree that was evident in control animals only several weeks later. 4. The protein-deprived animals showed decreased inflammatory response to the pathogen, presented more rapid dissemination of the infection and harbored more bacilli per macrophage than did animals similarly infected but maintained on a protein adequate diet. This indicates impairment of native cellular immunity by protein deprivation through decrease in ability of macrophages to inhibit bacillary multiplication. 5. There was no evidence of impairment of macrophage ability to phagocytose the pathogens. 6. Morphologically the increased dissemination of pathogens and decrease in inflammatory response was similar to the increase in number and extent of visceral lesions seen in Lazarine leprosy. Decreased ability to dispose of the infecting bacilli was similar in the two models, human and animal. The animal model does not, as does lepromatous leprosy, involve the skin in the infection. Hence comparable ulcerative phenomena were not replicated in the animals. 7. It is suggested that Lazarine leprosy may result from enhanced lepromatous leprous infection occurring as a result of protein malnutrition. The pathogenic mechanism appears to be impairment of cellular immunity probably enhanced by concomitant impairment of humoral antibody immunity resulting also in decreased resistance to pyogenic and other secondary pathogens. The tissue edema attendant on decreased serum osmotic pressure due to lowering of the serum protein fractions enhances the probability of ulceration.
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PMID:The role of protein malnutrition in the pathogenesis of ulcerative "Lazarine" leprosy. 82 11

Insights gained by a group of American maternal and child helath (MCH) care nurses during a 1983 exchange tour to Kenya, sponsored by Professional Seminar Counsultants, are decribed. Kenya is a poor, predominantly rural country. The annual population growth rate is 4.1%, and 60% of the population is under the age of 16. The government's annual per capita health expenditure is only US$4, there is little emphasis on pediatrics as a speciality, and the linguistic diversity of the population complicates the delivery of health care services. As a result of these factors, the MCH care system in Kenya differed markedly from the systems observed in previous exchange tours to China and the USSR. Kenya's population is served by a variety of government, private, and missionary hospitals and by government health centers. The health centers are staffed by 2 nurses and 2 assistants who provide maternity, family planning, and immunization services. The staff also diagnoses and treats common illnesses. Service are provided free for patients under the age of 16, and minimal fees are collected from older patients. The largest hospital in the country is the 1600 bed, Joma Kenyatta National hospital which employs 900 nurses and serves as a refereal hospital for complicated cases and as a teaching and research center. 42% of the hospital staff nurses are registered nurses and 58% are enrolled nurses. Disease patterns in Kenya and the US are markedly different. In Kenya, infectious diseases are more common than chronic diseases, and amony children the major causes of death are starvation, measles, whooping cough, malaria, tubercluosis, and diarrhea. Marasmus and protein calorie deficiency are the 2 major types of childhood malnutrition found in Kenya. Nurses frequently provide health education services and even teach mothers how to grow nutritious foods for their children. Rh incompatibility is rare in Kenya, but ABO incompatibility is common. Othr common diseases, raraly found in temperate climates, include Burkitt's lymphoma, leprosy, and tropical ataxic neuropathies. The visiting nurses were at 1st shocked by some of the practices and customs they observed; however, as they learned more about the rationall behind these practices, shock gave way to appreciation. Children's wards lacked playthings, the walls were devoid of pictures, and the rooms were sparsely furnished. The lack of material items, however, was more than compensated for by the rich stimuli provided family members and friends, who not only visited the chilren, but performed a variety of nursing tasks. The family centered approach also provided a sense of security for the patients. A Masai paramedic explained how the custom of polygamy ensures adherence to the 2-year postpartum sexual taboo which, in turn, facilitates prolonged breast feeding. The nurses also became acquainted with the social value of adolescent circumcision rites. These rites are illegal but still performed in many rural areas. The rites are physically painful, but they provide a mechanism for easing the transition from adolescent to adult status. The rites help young people assume measningful roles in the society and provide them with clearly specified identities. As a result, adolescent suicide is rara among the rural villagers.
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PMID:Health care in Africa. 646 42

The present investigation attempts to study the personality characteristics of children suffering from leprosy. A group of eleven children was selected from the Central Jalma Institute for Leprosy and Kusht Seva Sadan at Tajganj, Agra. Indian adaptation of Leopold Bellak's Children's Apperception Test (CAT) was employed for collecting the data. The most salient features which were charted out are that they have a general craving for sociogenic needs like love and affection, security, affiliation, cooperation etc. Their anxiety level tends to be high due to certain conflicts. The obvious fact has been that leprosy appears as a somatic devastation in the presence of highly active psychogenic starvation of personality.
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PMID:The psychodynamic side of leprosy - a Children's Apperception Test (CAT) study. 727 43

Genetic differentiation by natural selection is readily observed among microbial populations, but a more comprehensive understanding of evolutionary forces, genetic causes, and resulting phenotypic advantages is not often sought. Recently, a surface population of Pseudomonas putida bacteria was shown to evolve rapidly by natural selection of better-adapted variants in a mixed-species biofilm consortium (S. K. Hansen, P. B. Rainey, J. A. Haagensen, and S. Molin, Nature 445:533-536, 2007). Adaptation was caused by mutations in a wapH homolog (PP4943) involved in core lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis. Here we investigate further the biofilm physiology and the phenotypic characteristics of the selected P. putida rough colony variants. The coexistence of the P. putida population in a mixed-species biofilm with Acinetobacter sp. strain C6 is dependent on the benzoate excreted from Acinetobacter during the catabolism of benzyl alcohol, the sole carbon source. Examination of biofilm development and the dynamics of the wild-type consortium revealed that the biofilm environment became oxygen limited, possibly with low oxygen concentrations around Acinetobacter microcolonies. In contrast to P. putida wild-type cells, which readily dispersed from the mixed-species biofilm in response to oxygen starvation, the rough variant cells displayed a nondispersal phenotype. However, in monospecies biofilms proliferating on benzoate, the rough variant (like the wild-type population) dispersed in response to oxygen starvation. A key factor explaining this conditional, nondispersal phenotype is likely to be the acquired ability of the rough variant to coaggregate specifically with Acinetobacter cells. We further show that the P. putida rough variant displayed enhanced production of a cellulose-like polymer as a consequence of the mutation in wapH. The resulting phenotypic characteristics of the P. putida rough variant explain its enhanced fitness and ability to form tight structural associations with Acinetobacter microcolonies.
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PMID:Characterization of a Pseudomonas putida rough variant evolved in a mixed-species biofilm with Acinetobacter sp. strain C6. 1746 52

Rapid lowering of the external pH ("pH jump") enhances Cl(-) influx in Chara. Experiments were conducted to distinguish between two factors which have previously been proposed to mediate in the response: raised cytoplasmic pH and lowered cytoplasmic Cl(-) concentration. It is concluded that the latter alternative is more likely because: i) Cl(-) influx is reduced at high external pH; ii) influx following the pH jump is never greater than that following pretreatment in Cl(-)-free solution, which reduces cytoplasmic Cl(-) concentration ("Cl(-) starvation"); iii) the joint application of pH jump and Cl(-) starvation does not result in a greater Cl(-) influx than does Cl(-) starvation alone; and iv) addition of NH 4 (+) , which increases cytoplasmic pH, does generate an additional stimulation of Cl(-) influx following a pH jump. It is suggested that the increased cytoplasmic pH at the end of pretreatment at high external pH decays rapidly during the pH jump, and thus any effect on Cl(-) influx is so transient as to be undetectable by the methods used. The results are discussed in terms of a reaction kinetic model for 2H(+)/Cl(-) cotransport (Sanders, D. and Hansen, U.-P, 1981, J. Member. Biol. 58, 139-153) which describes quantitatively; i) the effects of NH 4 (+) on Cl(-) influx in terms involving only a change in cytoplasmic pH; and ii) the combined effects of Cl(-) starvation and NH 4 (+) in terms involving only changes in Cl(-) concentration and cytoplasmic pH. Conversely, the combined effects of Cl(-) starvation and pH jump cannot be described by the model if the effect of the pH jump is the consequence of increased cytoplasmic pH. The simple interpretation of experiments on whole cells involving manipulation of [Formula: see text] (the electrochemical potential difference for protons across the plasma membrane) is questioned in the light of these and previous findings that secondary factors can determine the response of Cl(-) transport in Chara.
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PMID:Proton/chloride cotransport in Chara: mechanism of enhanced influx after rapid external acidification. 2424 14

The purpose of this research is to describe how Hansen's disease patients experienced the modern system of control of Hansen's disease introduced by Japan, and the inimical attitude of society against them in colonial Korea. The study also seeks to reveal the development of the system to eliminate Hansen's disease patients from their home and community to larger society and leprosarium in this era. Sorokdo Charity hospital (SCH), a hospital for Hansen's disease patients, was built in 1916, and vagrant Hansen's disease patients began to be isolated in this hospital beginning in 1917 by the Japanese Government-General of Korea (JGGK). Once the police detained and sent vagrant Hansen's disease patients to SCH, stigma and discrimination against them strengthened in Korean society. Because of strong stigma and discrimination in Korean society, Hansen's disease patients suffered from daily threats of death. First, their family members were not only afraid of the contagiousness of Hansen's disease but also the stigma and discrimination against themselves by community members. If a family had a Hansen's disease patient, the rest of community members would discriminate against the entire family. Furthermore, because Hansen's disease patients were excluded from any economic livelihood such as getting a job, the existence of the patients was a big burden for their families. Therefore, many patients left their homes and began their vagrancy. The patients who could not leave their homes committed suicide or were killed by their family members. The victims of such deaths were usually women, who were at the lower position in the family hierarchy. In the strong Confucian society in Korea, more female patients were killed by themselves than male patients. Moreover, all of patients victims in the murder were women. This shows that the stigma and discrimination against Hansen's disease patients within their families were stronger against women than men. Strong stigma and discrimination made the patients rely on superstition such as cannibalism. Patients believed that there were not any effective medicine. There were a few reports of patients who were cured, and many were treated with chaulmoogra oil in the modern Hansen's disease hospitals. Eating human flesh was known as a folk remedy for Hansen's disease. As such, patients began to kill healthy people, usually children, to eat their flesh. Increased stigma led to increased victims. Hansen's disease patients who left their homes faced many threats during their vagrancy. For survival, they established their own organizations in the late 1920's. The patients who were rejected to be hospitalized in the Western Hansen's disease hospital at Busan, Daegu, and Yeosu organized self-help organizations. The purpose of these organizations was first to secure the medicine supply of chaulmoogra oil. However, as stigma and discrimination strengthened, these organizations formed by Hansen's disease patients demanded the Japanese Government-General of Korea to send and segregate them on Sorok island. They did not know the situation of the inside of this island because news media described it as a haven for patients, and very few patients were discharged from this island to tell the truth. On this island, several hundreds of patients were killed by compulsory heavy labor, starvation, and violence. They were not treated as patients, but as something to be eliminated. Under strong suppression on this island, the patients resisted first by escaping this island. However, in 1937, some patients tried to kill a Korean staff but failed. Attempted murderers were all put in the jail, also located on this island. In 1941, a patient murdered another patient who had harassed other patients, and in 1942, Chunsang Lee, a patient, killed the director of Sorok island. These instances show that there was a system to eliminate Hansen's disease patients in colonial Korea.
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PMID:Death and Survival of Patients with Hansen's Disease in Colonial Korea. 3149 20

The antibiotic diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS) is used in combination with other antibiotics as a first line treatment for leprosy. DDS has been previously reported to extend lifespan in Caenorhabditis elegans through inhibition of pyruvate kinase and decreased mitochondrial function. Here we report an alternative mechanism of action by which DDS promotes longevity in C. elegans by reducing folate production by the microbiome. This results in altered methionine cycle metabolite levels mimicking the effects of metformin and lifespan extension that is dependent on the starvation- and hypoxia-induced flavin containing monoxygenase, FMO-2.
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PMID:DDS promotes longevity through a microbiome-mediated starvation signal. 3219 Jul 86