A case of successful ablation of a gastrophrenic fistula with n-Butyl-2-Cyanocrylate.

A 79-year-old woman with a fistula between a subphrenic abscess and the fundus of the stomach was successfully treated with n-Butyl-2-Cyanoacrylate. Conservative management had failed. Clinical presentation, treatment progress and imaging findings by computed tomography scan, ultrasound, gastroscopy and fluoroscopy are presented, along with a brief review of the relevant literature.     

Proteomic Analyses of the Effects of Drugs of Abuse on Monocyte-Derived Mature Dendritic Cells

Drug abuse has become a global health concern. Understanding how drug abuse modulates the immune system and how the immune system responds to pathogens associated with drug abuse, such hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), can be assessed by an integrated approach comparing proteomic analyses and quantitation of gene expression. Two-dimensional (2D) difference gel electrophoresis was used to determine the molecular mechanisms underlying the proteomic changes that alter normal biological processes when monocyte-derived mature dendritic cells were treated with cocaine or methamphetamine. Both drugs differentially regulated the expression of several functional classes of proteins including those that modulate apoptosis, protein folding, protein kinase activity, and metabolism and proteins that function as intracellular signal transduction molecules. Proteomic data were validated using a combination of quantitative, real-time PCR and Western blot analyses. These studies will help to identify the molecular mechanisms, including the expression of several functionally important classes of proteins that have emerged as potential mediators of pathogenesis. These proteins may predispose immunocompetent cells, including dendritic cells, to infection with viruses such as HCV and HIV-1, which are associated with drug abuse.     

Assessing Coronavirus Fear in Indian Population Using the Fear of COVID-19 Scale

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - The current study aimed to determine the level of fear of COVID-19 among Indian residents using the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) and...     

T Cell-Epstein-Barr Virus–Associated Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) Occurs in Non-Asians and Is Associated with a T Cell Activation State that Is Comparable to Primary HLH

Journal of Clinical Immunology - T cell-Epstein-Barr virus–associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (T cell-EBV-HLH) is prevalent in East Asia and has poor prognosis. Understanding of...     

Association of Helicobacter pylori with oral potentially malignant disorders and oral squamous cell carcinoma—a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective

To assess any potential association between Helicobacter pylori and oral squamous cell carcinoma/oral potentially malignant disorders.

Materials and methods

Data mining was done using PubMed, Cochrane Library, and SCOPUS databases. The search included articles published up to May 2019. Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to score the quality of the included articles. Data including the type of study, the sample population, the type of oral lesion, and the resulting statistical data were extracted.

Results

Out of 131 screened articles, only 15 articles fulfilled the eligibility criteria. Among the 15 studies, 9 focused on oral squamous cell carcinoma and 6 focused on oral potentially malignant disorders. Eight out of the 9 oral squamous cell carcinoma studies were included in the meta-analysis. Forest plot was generated using the odds ratio and confidence intervals calculated for each of the included studies. Due to the lack of sufficient studies, the meta-analysis was not performed for oral potentially malignant disorders.

Conclusion

Due to the contradictory results of the included studies, it was not possible to make any conclusive statement on the potential association of H. pylori with oral squamous cell carcinoma. The variations in the methodology, especially the differences in the sensitivity/specificity of the diagnostic modalities could be the cause for differential results.

Clinical relevance

Although the association of H. pylori with oral squamous cell carcinoma could not be confirmed, it is vital to reduce the excess oral microbial load, especially in patients exhibiting oral mucosal changes with no history of associated risk factors.

     

Analysis of exome sequence in 604 trios for recessive genotypes in schizophrenia

Genetic associations involving both rare and common alleles have been reported for schizophrenia but there have been no systematic scans for rare recessive genotypes using fully phased trio data. Here, we use exome sequencing in 604 schizophrenia proband–parent trios to investigate the role of recessive (homozygous or compound heterozygous) nonsynonymous genotypes in the disorder. The burden of recessive genotypes was not significantly increased in probands at either a genome-wide level or in any individual gene after adjustment for multiple testing. At a system level, probands had an excess of nonsynonymous compound heterozygous genotypes (minor allele frequency, MAF ⩽1%) in voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs; eight in probands and none in parents, P=1.5 × 10⁻⁴). Previous findings of multiple de novo loss-of-function mutations in this gene family, particularly SCN2A, in autism and intellectual disability provide biological and genetic plausibility for this finding. Pointing further to the involvement of VGSCs in schizophrenia, we found that these genes were enriched for nonsynonymous mutations (MAF ⩽0.1%) in cases genotyped using an exome array, (5585 schizophrenia cases and 8103 controls), and that in the trios data, synaptic proteins interacting with VGSCs were also enriched for both compound heterozygosity (P=0.018) and de novo mutations (P=0.04). However, we were unable to replicate the specific association with compound heterozygosity at VGSCs in an independent sample of Taiwanese schizophrenia trios (N=614). We conclude that recessive genotypes do not appear to make a substantial contribution to schizophrenia at a genome-wide level. Although multiple lines of evidence, including several from this study, suggest that rare mutations in VGSCs contribute to the disorder, in the absence of replication of the original findings regarding compound heterozygosity, this conclusion requires evaluation in a larger sample of trios.