Tuesday, January 19, 2016

AJP-Lung Submissions Rise

We would like to thank all of our contributors in 2015. Our submissions  have increased over 20% from 2014.   We were, in fact, one of the few APS journals to show growth.

Thank you for your submissions.





The journal title is     AJP-Lung    
Published research pages to date are   2361    
Published editorial pages to date are   407    
Projected total pages for 2015 are   2768    
The page cap is      2400    
Pages (over)/under cap are   (368)    






  # Research Manuscripts recv thru 4Q 2015 # Research Manuscripts recv thru 4Q 2014 YTD Change No.  YTD Change %  
AJP-Cell 319 374 -55 -15%  
AJP-Endo 525 613 -88 -14%  
AJP-GI&L 419 436 -17 -4%  
AJP-Heart 852 833 19 2%  
AJP-Regu 496 480 16 3%  
AJP-Renal 462 518 -56 -11%  
AJP-Lung 426 356 70 20%  
Total AJP 3,499 3,610 -111 -3%  

Sunday, January 17, 2016

New insights into the complex role of estrogen in influenza

In the recent 2009 H1N1 pandemic young adult women experienced greater mortality than age-matched men. Murine models show worse outcomes in adult females compared to males. So estrogen is bad for influenza, right? Not so fast! In a recent AJP Lung paper that has garnered media attention (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160112093424.htm),  Dr. Sabra Klein and colleagues report that estrogen or compounds with estrogen-like activity actually reduce influenza virus replication in primary human nasal epithelial cells—but only in those from female, not male, donors. The effect is mediated through the 2nd genomic estrogen receptor, ER-beta, since neither of the other two ER receptors (ER-alpha or GPR30) were expressed in the nasal epithelial cells, and an ER antagonist could block estrogen’s effects. Transcriptome profiling showed marked down-regulation of zinc-finger proteins, an intriguing clue to possible molecular mechanisms for both the anti-proliferative effect and the sex selectivity . This work expands on past studies from the Klein lab showing that pharmacologic or high levels of estrogen can have beneficial effects on influenza outcome in mouse models, while recognizing that normal low levels may have paradoxical pro-inflammatory or harmful effects. The biphasic nature of hormone effects is well known, and these data are a fascinating addition to the important role of sex hormones in modulating outcomes in infectious disease.

To find out more about this interesting study, please check out the full text of this article. It is available for free on the AJP-Lung website, even for those with no subscription to APS journals:
http://ajplung.physiology.org/content/early/2015/12/17/ajplung.00398.2015

Dr. Lester Kobzik