The National Center for Biotechnology Information's Protein Clusters Database.

Rapid increases in DNA sequencing capabilities have led to a vast increase in the data generated from prokaryotic genomic studies, which has been a boon to scientists studying micro-organism evolution and to those who wish to understand the biological underpinnings of microbial systems. The NCBI Protein Clusters Database (ProtClustDB) has been created to efficiently maintain and keep the deluge of data up to date. ProtClustDB contains both curated and uncurated clusters of proteins grouped by sequence similarity. The May 2008 release contains a total of 285 386 clusters derived from over 1.7 million proteins encoded by 3806 nt sequences from the RefSeq collection of complete chromosomes and plasmids from four major groups: prokaryotes, bacteriophages and the mitochondrial and chloroplast organelles. There are 7180 clusters containing 376 513 proteins with curated gene and protein functional annotation. PubMed identifiers and external cross references are collected for all clusters and provide additional information resources. A suite of web tools is available to explore more detailed information, such as multiple alignments, phylogenetic trees and genomic neighborhoods. ProtClustDB provides an efficient method to aggregate gene and protein annotation for researchers and is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=proteinclusters.

Evidence standards in experimental and inferential INSDC Third Party Annotation data.

The Third Party Annotation (TPA) project collects and presents high-quality annotation of nucleotide sequence. Annotation is submitted by researchers who have not themselves generated novel nucleotide sequence. In its first few years, the resource has proven to be popular with submitters from a range of biological research areas. Central to the project is the requirement for high-quality data, resulting from experimental and inferred analysis discussed in peer-reviewed publications. The data are divided into two tiers: those with experimental evidence and those with inferential evidence. Standards for TPA are detailed and illustrated with the aid of case studies.

Single doses of the serotonin agonists buspirone and m-chlorophenylpiperazine do not relieve neuropathic pain.

A large body of evidence links serotonin with analgesia in animal models, but the lack of serotonin agonists suitable for clinical use has delayed study of serotonin's relevance to pain relief in humans. In a randomized, double-blind crossover study, we compared single doses of two 5-HT1 agonists, buspirone and m-chlorophenylpiperazine, to placebo in 20 patients with post-herpetic neuralgia or painful neuropathy. No analgesia was observed after either drug, at doses high enough to produce frequent central nervous system side effects. These results suggest that acute stimulation of 5-HT1 receptors is not sufficient to produce analgesia in patients with these neuropathic pain syndromes.

Efficacy of desipramine in painful diabetic neuropathy: a placebo-controlled trial.

Although amitriptyline relieves pain in many patients with painful diabetic neuropathy, side effects often preclude effective treatment. Desipramine has the least anticholinergic and sedative effects of the first generation tricyclic antidepressants. We compared a 6 week course of desipramine (mean dose, 201 mg/day) to active placebo in 20 patients with painful diabetic neuropathy in a double-blind crossover trial. Pain relief with desipramine was statistically significant in weeks 5 and 6. Eleven patients reported at least moderate relief with desipramine, compared to 2 with placebo. Pain relief tended to be greater in depressed patients, but relief was also observed in patients who did not show an antidepressant effect. We conclude that desipramine relieves pain in many patients with painful diabetic neuropathy, offering an alternative for patients unable to tolerate amitriptyline. Blockade of norepinephrine reuptake, an action shared by desipramine, amitriptyline, and other antidepressants proven effective in neuropathic pain, may mediate this analgesic effect.

Rattlesnake bites.

Preview Rattlesnake bites can have a wide spectrum of physical consequences, some of them devastating. Opinion regarding appropriate management of this medical emergency is controversial and changing. In this article, the authors offer practical, up-to-date guidelines to expedite treatment that may be lifesaving.

Cardiorespiratory events detected by home memory monitoring and one-year neurodevelopmental outcome.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if infants with cardiorespiratory events detected by home memory monitoring during early infancy have decreased neurodevelopmental performance. STUDY DESIGN: Infants (n = 256) enrolled in the Collaborative Home Infant Monitoring Evaluation also completed the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II at 92 weeks' postconceptional age. Infants were classified as having 0, 1 to 4, or 5+ cardiorespiratory events. Events were defined as apnea >or=20 seconds or heart rate <60 to 80 bpm or <50 to 60 bpm, for >or=5 to 15 seconds, depending on age. RESULTS: For term infants, having 0, 1 to 4, and 5+ cardiorespiratory events was associated with unadjusted mean Mental Developmental Index (MDI) values (+/-SD) of 103.6 (10.6), 104.2 (10.7), and 97.7 (10.9), respectively, and mean Psychomotor Developmental Index (PDI) values of 109.5 (16.6), 105.8 (16.5), and 100.2 (17.4). For preterm infants, having 0, 1 to 4, and 5+ cardiorespiratory events was associated with unadjusted mean MDI values of 100.4 (10.3), 96.8 (11.5), and 95.8 (10.6), respectively, and mean PDI values of 91.7 (19.2), 93.8 (15.5), and 94.4 (17.7). The adjusted difference in mean MDI scores with 5+ events compared with 0 events was 5.6 points lower in term infants ( P = .03) and 4.9 points lower in preterm infants ( P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: Having 5+ conventional events is associated with lower adjusted mean differences in MDI in term and preterm infants.