Average years of potential life lost in those who have died from brain and CNS tumors in the USA.

The aim of this study was to quantify the impact of all primary malignant and nonmalignant brain and central nervous system (CNS) tumors on mortality in the USA in terms of years of life lost, an indicator of premature mortality in the population. In this study, US mortality data for the year 2001 from the National Center for Health Statistics and life tables from the US Census Bureau were used. Person-years of potential life lost (PYPLL) and average years of potential life lost (AYPLL) were calculated for all deaths due to brain and CNS tumors as an underlying cause. 16,819 deaths due to brain and CNS tumors occurred in 2001, leading to a total loss of 357,483 person-years of life and an average loss of 21.3 years (AYPLL). Hispanic men and women had an AYPLL of 31.7 and 33.9 years, respectively, a figure substantially higher than other race and ethnicity categories. Malignant tumors led to an AYPLL of 25 years, which was significantly higher than the AYPLL of 19 years due to nonmalignant tumors. The relative impact of tumors arising in the various anatomical sites in the brain and CNS among adults and among children was not similar. The use of population survival indicators, such as PYPLL and AYPLL, will help better understanding of the effect of racial, ethnic, gender and age differences on the mortality due to malignant and nonmalignant brain and CNS tumors. Information on years of life lost, as well as mortality data, will be useful in focusing research priorities and resources in this field.

TA205, an anti-talin monoclonal antibody, inhibits integrin-talin interaction.

Talin mediates integrin signaling by binding to integrin cytoplasmic tails through its FERM domain which consists of F1, F2 and F3 subdomains. TA205, an anti-talin monoclonal antibody, disrupts actin stress fibers and focal adhesion when microinjected into fibroblasts. Here, we showed that TA205 caused an allosteric inhibition of integrin alphaIIb beta3 binding to the talin FERM domain and mapped the TA205 epitope to residues 131-150 in talin F1. Furthermore, binding of a talin rod fragment to talin head was partially inhibited by TA205. These findings suggest that talin F1 may be important in regulation of integrin binding and talin head-rod interaction.