For most, it had taken the form of attendance at local study days about the Mental Capacity Act or local practice development meetings. Table ​Table11 details the

nurses’ roles. Table 1 Roles of nurses who took part in focus groups The nurses took part in 6 focus group discussions about their experiences of providing end-of-life care and views about ACP. We decided to have six focus groups so that each would involve three or four nurses to ensure that nurses had time to talk in some detail about their experiences and views. Three follow up workshops with nurses who had participated in the discussions focused on collaborative interpretation of the focus group data and identification Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of key themes and developing ideas about educational resources for ACP. An aide memoire was designed and used in the focus group discussions to enable the nurses

to reflect on: • When they had first heard of ‘advance care planning’ • Their knowledge and http://www.selleckchem.com/products/mek162.html understanding of ACP • Their views about their contribution and roles in ACP • Their experiences of implementing ACP practice in patient Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical care • Their perceptions of challenges or barriers to ACP • Their training and education needs The aide memoire was developed in the light of existing literature and following consultation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with the nurses at the recruitment meeting. The focus groups were transcribed with nurses’ permission and

analyzed with the aid of the qualitative data analysis package NVIVO [26]. We used Strauss and Corbin’s [27] constant comparative method to generate categories, patterns and themes from the transcribed textual data relating Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to experiences and perceptions. The data were initially analyzed by one research team member. Emerging categories and themes were subsequently verified by the research team at a dedicated project meeting and then discussed with the nurses at the follow up workshops. This acted as a form of respondent validation [28] and also generated new insights into the interpretative emphasis we should place on the findings. We do not claim that we have been able to reach data saturation and recommend that further research takes place to check the transferability of the results presented much here. Results First encounters and understandings of ACP Most of the community nurses had first heard of the term ACP between two and three years prior to the focus group discussions. Nurses identified as sources of information about ACP the new documentation being introduced in practice as a result of the Mental Capacity Act [5], discussions about practice and policy development taking place locally and information related to care planning ‘tools’ such as the Gold Standards Framework.

On the other hand, a sample size of 600 patients was also required to prove that bevacizumab was ineffective in pancreatic DHFR inhibitor cancer despite the use of stopping rules in the trial. In Bayesian designs, uncertainty is measured as a probability. Unknown parameters are given a probability distribution while what is known is taken as a given. However, once the results of the study become more evident, these are no longer probabilities and are taken as a given. Thus these trial designs are inherently adaptive and allow the investigator to modify

trials mid course based on current data. Thus, Bayesian adaptive designs allow for changes to the clinical trial Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical based on ongoing progress and allow enrichment based on the results. These designs are especially suitable

for the development of biomarker-directed targeted therapy. For instance, the prior distribution of a biomarker profile may not be known with a great deal of certainty; this Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical can therefore be hypothesized and refined as the trial develops. A pharmaceutical company can tie in the decision rules within the Bayesian trial design to determine the pathway for drug development. Bayesian designs are extensively being utilized at MD Anderson Cancer Center, wherein over a Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical hundred clinical trials are ongoing using these principles. A detailed review of this trial design is described elsewhere. The disadvantages of this design is that it is computationally intensive, restricted to a limited number of centers with expertise and is not yet widely recognized

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical by regulatory agencies as an efficient and economical pathway towards drug development. While these issues appear to be complex, successful implementation is possible and requires a multidisciplinary effort. One such an example is an ongoing study in non-small cell lung cancer at our institution. Battle trial for non small-cell lung cancer The Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical recently concluded BATTLE 1 (Biomarker-integrated Approaches of Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer Elimination) phase II clinical trial conducted at MD Anderson Cancer Center illustrates the potential of Bayesian adaptive randomization as a study design for evaluating novel targeted therapies in cancer using personalized biomarker profiles to guide treatment much allocations (Fig 1). First, 97 patients with stage IV non small-cell lung cancer who had received at least one prior chemotherapy were each assigned to receive one of four possible drugs (Erlotinib, Vandetanib, Erlotinib + Bexarotene, or Sorafenib) by traditional simple randomization. Core biopsies of the lung were obtained from this initial subset of patients and profiled for four biomarkers (EGFR, KRAS/BRAF, VEGFR-2 and RXR/Cyclin D1). The primary study endpoint was progression-free survival at 8 weeks. Interim analysis was conducted to determine the specific biomarker profiles that predicted a favorable clinical response in each of the four study arms.

”7 “Chance favors the prepared mind,” as Pasteur (1822-1896) said, or more precisely: “Dans les champs de l’observation, le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés.”8 Indeed, it is hard to think of a better expression of “serendipity” as one reviews the incredible concatenation of intentional and chance events in medicine’s happy accidents.2,9 Development of the drug industry The story begins in 1856 with

an 18-year-old English chemist named William Henry Perkins (1838-1907) who was trying to synthesize quinine and ended up with a bluish substance, that he extracted from a “black mess” in his test tube, which had excellent dyeing properties.10 Perkins’ discovery of the first artificial dye Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in history, variably referred to as aniline purple, tyrian blue, or mauve, triggered a, chain reaction by serendipity.7 Modifications of his process led to the development of many dyes and the emergence of the dye industry, eg, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Bayer (1862), Ciba (1859), Geigy (1859), and Sandoz (1862).10,11 Recognition that a fuller exploitation of his findings Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical would require a new breed of chemist12 gave a, strong impetus for the development of organic

chemistry.13,14 The synthesis of organic compounds led to the birth of the selleckchem pharmaceutical industry.15 By the end of the 19th century, many of the dye companies, eg, Bayer (1896) and Ciba (1889),12 extended their activities to the development of drugs. Perkins’ discovery cannot, be attributed to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical pure luck. He studied at, the Royal College of Chemistry in London under August Wilhclm von Hofmann (1818-1892), one of the pioneers of aniline chemistry,16 and was aware that

crystalline (a substance obtained by O. Unverdorben in 1826 by distillation of indigo) and kyanol or cyanol (a substance isolated from coal tar by K Runge in 1834, that produced a beautiful blue color on treatment with calcium chloride), were the same substance (phenylamine, with the composition of C5H5NH2 ) that C. J. Fritzsche obtained by treating indigo with potassium Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical chloride, and named aniline. (The word “aniline” comes from Indigofera anil, the indigo-yielding plant; anil is derived from the Sanskrit word “nile,” ie, dark blue.17) His serendipitous discovery aminophylline was built on his knowledge and past, experience. He was also fully aware of the potential use of his discovery. Early drugs in psychiatry The introduction of the first, effective drugs for the control of excitement, agitation, and insomnia paralleled the birth of the pharmaceutical industry. In the clinical development, of at least two of these drugs, potassium bromide and chloral hydrate, serendipity played an important role. Potassium bromide Potassium bromide is the oldest widely used sedative in medicine. It, is the potassium salt of bromine, a chemical element, first isolated in 1826 from the ashes of seaweed by A. J. Balard, an apothecary in Montpelicr, France.18 In its natural form bromine is too corrosive to be ingested.

64 Although similar associations between physical activity and find more dementia may be expected in the oldest-old, such evidence is extremely scarce. Preliminary analyses of the 90+ Study showed that impairment in measures of physical performance (such as timed walking, balance, and hand grip) were associated with increased risk of dementia.6 Nevertheless, data of the 90+ Study from

the 1980s associated late-life exercise with longevity, but not dementia.65 In order to assess fully the contribution of physical activity to risk Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of dementia in the oldest-old, exercise and activeness should be objectively evaluated in real time, years before the onset of dementia. This requires long prospective studies, which are currently unavailable. Lifestyle Similar to physical Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical activity, other lifestyle-related factors have been associated with longevity. Those factors include eating habits reflected in body mass index (both being underweight and being obese increased the risk of mortality),66 alcohol consumption (more than 2 drinks per day reduced the risk of death by 15%),67 and caffeine intake (with a U-shaped mortality curve).68 None of these factors, however, were associated with prevalent dementia in the oldest-old.6 In summary, many of the risk and protective factors for dementia in the young elderly are not relevant for Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the oldest-old. Out of the reviewed factors,

only age was consistently associated with dementia in the oldest-old. Estrogen showed some association with dementia in the oldest, but this association was not consistent through all studies and dementia subtypes. The other factors—the

ε4 allele Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the ApoE gene, physical activity, and healthy lifestyle—which were all associated with dementia in younger elderly, were not associated with dementia in the oldest-old. This difference Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical supports the potential for differential neurobiology of AD and dementia in the oldest-old. Neurobiological Changes in Dementia of the Oldest-Old “Dementia” is a general term for a group of disorders, and the distinction between dementia subtypes is largely dependent on their underlying neuropathology. Hence, for the most part, the following discussion describes the associations between pathologies of specific dementia subtypes and the clinical manifestation of general dementia symptoms. The major pathological hallmarks of AD, extracellular deposits of amyloid protein which form because neuritic plaques and intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles, are found with increasing frequency in advancing age.69 The age-related increases in AD pathologies, together with the increased incidence rates of dementia with age, suggest that the two are related. Recent studies, however, have shown that the association between the pathological features of AD and dementia is stronger in younger persons than in the oldest-old.

The conditions are discussed in more detail in the RAAS inhibitor research buy following sections. Table II The genetic basis of conditions for which there is evidence that mutations give rise directly to intellectual disability. ATRX, alpha-thalassemia X-linked mental retardation syndrome; XLMR, X-linked mental retardation; IL-1, interleukin-1; IQ, intelligence … When we consider Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the pathogenesis of intellectual disability, it is important to bear in mind that the phenotype involves multiple domains of intellectual functioning,

often broadly divided into verbal and performance skills, but also encompassing capacities such as memory and attention, where performance is not traditionally seen as central to intellectual ability. Unfortunately, we do not know whether the domains that psychologists recognize correspond to the way genes operate, whether, for instance, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical verbal and performance skills can be separated at a genetic level. Information is lacking about genetic influences on the domains of both normal and abnormal intellectual functioning. Studies of the heritability of intelligence, a measure of the extent to which genes contribute to the variation in intellectual functioning in the population, have mostly been carried Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical out on overall measures of cognitive function,

such as IQ, although more recent work on speech and language development is beginning to indicate that genetic effects that have more specific influences can be identified.15,16 Similarly,

there have been few detailed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical psychometric investigations of people with intellectual disability due to a specific genetic lesion, so we do not know whether cognitive functioning is abnormal over all domains or whether there are discrete abnormalities. In fact, as discussed later, there is some evidence in favor of the latter hypothesis. Genetic mapping Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical techniques and molecular cloning have made it possible to investigate disorders where the relationship between intellectual disability and genetic defect L-NAME HCl might be immediate. These are conditions where there are no noticeable alterations in brain structures and the cause of cognitive impairment is difficult to find. In general, this distinction is reflected in the division of MR into syndromic and nonsyndromic conditions. In syndromic MR, the phenotype includes additional physical abnormalities (such as facial dysmorphism or minor abnormalities of the hands and feet), while in nonsyndromic MR the only abnormality is cognitive impairment. It might appear that genetic lesions are directly responsible for intellectual disability more commonly in nonsyndromic than in syndromic conditions, but it should be borne in mind that, without an understanding of the pathogenesis, this is only an assumption.

Mean intensities and standard deviations were calculated for each volume in both participants and used for nonparametric testing (Wilcoxon rank-sum test) followed by a correction for multiple comparisons (Holm 1979), adjusting P-values for testing multiple hypotheses on effects pertaining to the 14 selected subcortical structures. Results For volumetry and assessment of quantitative correlates of vascularization, subcortical segmentation of gradient echo sequences and the respective TOF MR-angiography volumes was performed using the FreeSurfer image analysis suite (Fig. ​(Fig.1).1). Assessment of whole-brain TOF contrast indicated significantly

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical lower intensity values in subject #2 versus subject #1 for the Thalamus (left: Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical −9.9%, P = 0.002, right: −10.0%, P = 0.003), right Caudate (−8.3%, P = 0.044), and

Pallidum (left: −17.3%, P = 0.011, right: −13.1%, P = 0.02). No significant differences in intensity were observed for the left Caudate (P = 0.07), Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Putamen (left: P = 1, right: P = 0.474), Hippocampus (left: P = 1, right: P = 1), Amygdala (left: P = 1, right: P = 1), and the Accumbens-area (left: P = 1, right: P = 1). Also mean intensity of all 14 structures was significantly lower in subject #2 than in subject #1 (−10%, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical means [SEM] subject #1: 82.9 [1.6]; subject #2: 75.0

[1.8]; P = 0.004). There was no significant difference between both subjects observable regarding total volume of the 14 subcortical gray-matter structures assessed (means [SEM] subject #1: 30.2 mL [6.1]; subject #2: 27.8 mL [5.9]; P = 0.078) (Table ​(Table11 and Fig. ​Fig.22). Table 1 Subcortical regions identified by the parcellation algorithm and estimated volumes Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for each participant, as well as differences in mean regional intensity and the respective T-test statistics Figure 1 (A and B) Reconstructed three-dimensional (3D) time-of-flight (TOF) images, demonstrating subcortical and cortical vessels originating from the main trunks of the cerebral arteries for both subjects assessed. (C) Indicates the subcortical brain areas … Figure 2 Mean values Methisazone (SEM) of total subcortical gray-matter intensity and total volume of the subcortical gray-matter structures assessed for subject #1 and #2. Discussion In this study, we quantified individual aging-related decrease of subcortical gray-matter vascularization and this website demonstrated most pronounced changes for brain regions in the Thalamus and Pallidum. By using 3D-TOF angiography at high field strength of 7T, high spatial resolution could be realized, allowing to take into account potential regional small vessel pathology.

12 Biopsy remains a safe procedure for prostate cancer detection. Monitoring false-positive results is important because they can also have a psychologic impact on patient health. McNaughton-Collins and colleagues13 reported that 49% of men who received a false-positive result and a later, confirmed normal result thought about prostate cancer either “a lot” or “some of the time” compared with only 18% of those with a normal serum PSA level (P < .001). Such results raise a number of interesting questions regarding the impact of diagnosis on a patient’s Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical psychologic well-being. The 13-year follow-up of the PLCO may provide additional answers. Although the randomization of the population was near perfect

and resulted in highly comparable populations, the contamination of the control group is a concern in both Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical studies. The ERSPC report does not describe the control group and its possible screenings. Thus, it is unclear how many patients in the control group were screened and how this unidentified number affected the results. Because there were study centers in different countries, it is possible that the control groups underwent different levels of SAR302503 cost screening or none at all. It is therefore

difficult to assess the level of homogeneity in screening within the control group. The PLCO trial took measures to minimize Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical contamination before it began randomization by excluding men who had had more than 1 PSA test in the 3 years previous to 1995. The trial assesses the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical screening in the control group by regular surveys, reporting that 9.8% of the control group did in fact have repeated screenings during the study period. An average of these and those who had never been screened was taken to assess contamination of the whole control group. In the PLCO trial, the level of screening in the overall study population was high: 44% of men had at Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical least 1 PSA test and 55% had at least

1 DRE in the past 3 years. Age at the time of enrollment trials may have further added to the contamination in both the PLCO and ERSPC trials. Recommendations by the American Medical Association14 state that men above 55 should be screened annually. Because patients up to 75 years of age were enrolled in both trials, the study population was most likely, at least in part, already screened. Carter and colleagues15 already investigated the influence of age on the chance of curable prostate cancer among men with nonpalpable disease. Younger age was found to be associated with greater probability of curable cancer and more likely to lead to a decrease in prostate cancer mortality. Similarly, Smith and colleagues16 demonstrated that younger age at the time of diagnosis is an independent predictor of better prognosis. The earlier age at diagnosis and stage migration has created a lead-time of at least 3 to 5 years. This lead-time bias is an important consideration in studies demonstrating an improved survival in the PSA screening era.

2000). Female C57BL6 galectin-3 knock-out mice (Gal-3−/−; Hsu et al. 2000) were bred with nonlittermate transgenic C57BL6 SOD1G93A males to yield homozygous C57BL6 SOD1G93A/Gal-3−/− mice at the F2 generation. Transgenic offspring were genotyped by PCR amplification from tail tissue DNA. Briefly, tail clips were digested (12 h, 55°C) in lysis buffer (1 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical m Tris, pH8.8, 0.5 m EDTA, 10% Tween 20, 200 μg/mL Proteinase K), boiled (5 min) to inactivate Proteinase K, and centrifuged at 16,500 × g (2 min). PCR lysis buffer was combined directly with PCR reaction buffer (1X Flexi Buffer, 25 mm MgCl2, 10 mm of PCR nucleotide mix),

primers, GoTaq DNA polymerase, and nuclease free water in a 50 μL reaction mixture. RT-PCR was used to Selleckchem AZD8055 amplify mutated SOD1 and disrupted galectin-3, and results visualized on 2% ethidium bromide agarose gels. Primers used to identify the human mSOD1G93A gene were Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 5′-CATCAGCCCTAATCCATCTGA-3′ (forward) and 5′-CGCGACTAACAATCAAAGTGA-3′ (reverse). GaI-3−/− Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical mice were originally produced by interrupting the region coding for the CRD in exon 5, by inserting a neomycin resistant gene in a short intro 4-exon 5 segment (0.5

kb) (Hsu et al. 2000). Primers to identify galectin-3 deficient mice were 5′GTAGGTGAGAGTCACAAGCTGGAGGCC-3′ (binding upstream of intron) and 5′GTAGGTGAGAGTCACAAGCTGGAGGCC-3′ (binding upstream of the Neo cassette) and 5′CACTCTCAAAGGGGAAGGCTGACTGTC-3′ (binding common downstream sequence of exon). These primers amplify a 450-bp fragment

in gal-3+/+ mice, a 300-bp fragment in gal-3−/− mice, and both 450- and 300-bp fragments in gal-3+/− heterozygotes. Human postmortem Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical spinal cord tissue Spinal cords from patients with sporadic ALS (n = 5) or from those who died from other causes (n = 4) were obtained from a postmortem tissue bank (Johns Hopkins University). Human samples were evaluated in accordance with HIPPA regulations and supported by Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical approved IRB protocols at Johns Hopkins and Children’s National Medical Center. RNA preparation and microarray Olopatadine Lumbar spinal cords from male B6SJL/J SOD1G93A transgenic and wild-type mice were isolated at 28, 42, 56, 70, 98, 112, and 126 days of age (n = 3 per group), extracted in Trizol (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY), cleaned with RNeasy mini-columns (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA), quantified with a spectrophotometer, and assessed for quality by gel electrophoresis. RNA was considered to be of suitable quality when intact 28S and 18S ribosomal bands were visualizable upon ethidium bromide staining of samples resolved on a 1% agarose gel. Total RNA was amplified and synthesized as biotin-conjugated cRNA, fragmented, and hybridized to Mouse 430 2.0 Affymetrix arrays using reagents and methods supplied by the manufacturer (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA).

2008; Thomas and Ellingrod,

2009], and can interact with other medications by inhibiting various isoenzymes of the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme system [Greenblatt et al. 1998; Kelly et al. 2010; Spina et al. 2003]. Depression is especially common in patients with cardiovascular disease [Schleifer et al. 1989], and metoprolol is commonly prescribed to patients with ischemic heart disease. Since the initial finding that depression is associated with increased mortality after acute myocardial infarction [Frasure-Smith et al. 1995], the association between depression and cardiovascular disease has also assumed a high profile [Bush et al. 2005], and has been the subject of a large, randomized controlled trial showing Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the safety of sertraline in patients with cardiovascular disease [Glassman et al. 2002]. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Indeed, increased awareness of the implications of depression in cardiovascular illness has likely increased the rate of antidepressant prescriptions in patients with coronary disease. Metoprolol toxicity manifests primarily as conduction disturbances, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical generally including bradycardia. Metoprolol is metabolized primarily by CYP2D6, a highly polymorphic enzyme inactive in roughly 7% of white people. People exhibiting this ‘poor metabolizer’ phenotype display more metoprolol-related adverse events [Wuttke et al.

2002]. This is relevant because fluoxetine and NU7026 in vitro paroxetine are potent inhibitors of CYP2D6 [Alfaro et al. 2000; Lam et al. 2002]. Indeed, the initiation of paroxetine in patients receiving Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical metoprolol could provoke metoprolol-related bradycardia, as has been described in case reports [Goryachkina et al. 2008; Onalan et al. 2008]. Metoprolol is frequently prescribed with fluoxetine or paroxetine [Molden et al. 2005] and in vitro evidence suggests that fluoxetine and paroxetine are more likely than other antidepressants to interact with metoprolol to cause bradycardia [Alfaro et al. 2000; Belpaire et al. 1998; Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Hemeryck et al. 2001; Walley et al. 1993; Yoon et al. 2000]. We speculated that, among older patients

receiving metoprolol, the initiation of antidepressants that inhibit CYP2D6 would be associated with an increased risk of bradycardia-related hospital visits. To test this Histone demethylase hypothesis, we conducted a nested case–control study examining the risk of bradycardia in older patients taking metoprolol who recently commenced an antidepressant. Methods Setting and design We conducted a nested case–control analysis of multiple linked healthcare databases spanning 13 years (1 April 1997 to 31 March 2009) in Ontario, Canada. Ontario is Canada’s most populous province with a registered population of 13,069,200 in 2009, of whom 1,787,900 were 65 years of age or older. Ontario’s older residents have universal access to hospital care, physician services, and prescription drug coverage.

The average background was then subtracted from the above-mentioned average of each experimental treatment group. Spectral analysis of images All images of the spinal cord dorsal horn and DRGs were captured by a Zeiss Axioscope Microscope at 20× magnification with a Nuance

Spectral Camera (Cambridge Research & Instrumentation, Woburn, MA). Utilizing the Nuance computer software, the fluorescent wavelength emission spectra was initially determined for each fluorophore utilized in the detection of the primary antibody of Alvespimycin interest (DAPI, 488 ± 10 nm; FITC, 575 ± 5 nm; Rhodamine Red 600 ± 5 nm) by using a control slide with only a drop of the pure fluorophore. This Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical was performed in the absence of a tissue specimen that may potentially obscure the measurement of the fluorophore’s emission spectra. Two sets of additional control slides with tissue sections, one with only PBS without primary but with secondary antibody treatment,

and the other, with primary but Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical without secondary antibody treatment, were then used to objectively eliminate low-intensity fluorescence and autofluorescence background “noise” from our measurements (Fig. 1C). Using control slides, the Nuance software allows the user to set an acceptable threshold of low-level emission Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical fluorescent intensity (as opposed to the software’s “autothreshold” option) within and outside the defined wavelength of interest between tissue samples. The experimenter determined low-level emission intensity by closely replicating the

composite computer image with that observed through the eyepiece. Emission values that fall below this acceptable threshold of low-level emission, within and outside the defined wavelength Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of interest, were eliminated from our measurements (Fig. 1D). This level of fluorescent threshold for each protein Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical marker was determined by the user, finding the most appropriate wavelength of interest that captures the specific FITC or Rhodamine Red staining for each protein marker within a tissue (e.g., dorsal horn spinal cord or DRG). Once the optimal level of fluorescent threshold was determined for a particular protein marker, this level Thymidine kinase was held consistent throughout all of the treatment groups for the image analysis (Fig. 1D). These steps were followed by software conversion of fluorescent wavelength intensity for each fluorophore to a numerical value. Autofluorescence was defined as the emission outside the defined wavelength of interest (e.g., DAPI, 488 ± 10 nm; FITC, 575 ± 5 nm; Rhodamine Red 600 ± 5 nm). These specific autofluorescent and low-level background emission values were subtracted from the image (Fig. 1E and 1F), yielding a numerical value of true fluorescent emission intensity for each fluorophore (Mansfield et al. 2008; Mahad et al. 2009).