St. Leger

The paper by Cochrane, St. Leger, and Moore (1978) typifies the issues associated with many early studies. Specifically, they relied on cross sections with multiple countries and often limited the analysis to simple correlations. Because determinants of life expectancy are multifactorial, national studies are more likely to detect differences than international studies. It is also critically important to include adequate control variables. In fact, a later study (Cremieux, Ouellette, and Meilleur 1999) based on extensive national data suggests that a 10% increase in health care spending reduces infant mortality by 0.5% for males and 0.4% for females while increasing life expectancy by half a year for males and three months for females. The current study uses similar modeling and data hence, results on the effect of pharmaceuticals reported below can be put in perspective relative to the overall effect of health care spending from that earlier research. 

Cochrane, A. L., A. S. St. Leger, and F. Moore. 1978. Health Service Input andMortality Output in Developed Countries. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 32(3) 200-205. 

St Leger et al. (1987b) characterized two subtilisin-like proteases (chymoelastases) and three tiypsin-like proteases from M. anisopliae. A subtilisin-like protease (Prl pl=10.3, Mw=25 kDa) and a trypsin-like protease (Pr2 pl=4.42, Mw=28.5 kDa) were purified to homogeneity. Inhibition studies have revealed that both enzymes possess essential Ser and His residues in the active site. Prl exhibited higher activity to locust cuticle than Pr2 and it showed activity to elastin as well. 

M. anisopliae Prl isoforms subtilisin-like serine 28.5-30.2 9.0-10.2 tetra-butyl- oxycarbonyl-Gly-Leu- Phe-chloromethyl ketone St. Leger etal. (1994a)... 

Pr2 isoforms trypsin-like serine 27-30 4.4-5.2 PMSF St. Leger et al. (1994a, 1996a)... 

M. anisopliae carboxipeptidase carboxypeptidase 30 9.97 DIFP, 1,10-phenan-throline, potato carboxypeptidase inhibitor St. Leger etal. (1994b)... 

In M. anisopliae, subtilisin is reported to be intricately related to a strain s ability to penetrate, colonize and macerate insect host tissues (St. Leger et al., 1996a Bagga et al., 2004). Subtilisins were found to be expressed after growth of M. anisopliae on different... 

Freimoser, F. M., Hu, G., and St. Leger, R. J. (2005). Variation in gene expression patterns as the insect pathogen Metarhizium anisopliae adapts to different host cuticle or nutrient deprivation in vitro. Microbiology, 151, 361-371. 

Joshi, L., St. Leger, R. J., and Bidochka, M. J. (1995). Cloning of a cuticle-degrading protease from the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 125, 211-218. 

St. Leger, R. J., Butt, T. M., Staples, R. C., and Roberts, D. W. (1989). Synthesis of proteins including a cuticle-degrading protease during differentiation of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. Experimental Mycology, 13, 253-262. 

St. Leger, R. J., Chamley, A. K., and Cooper, R. M. (1986). Cuticle-degrading enzymes of entomopathogenic fungi synthesis in culture on cuticle. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, 48, 85-95. 

St. Leger, R. J., Nelson, J. O., and Screen, S. E. (1999). The entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae alters ambient pH, allowing extracellular protease production and activity. Microbiology (UK), 145, 2691-2699. 

---