Incontinentia pigmenti

Incontinentia pigmenti or Bloch-Sulzberger syndrome, is a rare X linked dominant disorder with characteristic skin, hair, eye, dental and neurological abnormalities commonly affecting females. This article reports the clinical features and management of a 11 year old girl diagnosed with Incontinentia pigmenti.     

Cortical network for representing the teeth and tongue in primates

Sensory information from the tongue and teeth is used to evaluate and distinguish food and nonfood items in the mouth, reject some and masticate and swallow others. While it is known that primates have a complex array of 10 or more somatosensory areas that contribute to the analysis of sensory information from the hand, less is known about what cortical areas are involved in processing information from receptors of the tongue and teeth. The tongue contains taste receptors, as well as mechanoreceptors. Afferents from taste receptors and mechanoreceptors of the tongue access different ascending systems in the brainstem. However, it is uncertain how these two sources of information are processed in cortex. Here the parts of somatosensory areas 3b, 3a, and presumptive 1 that represent the mechanoreceptors of the teeth and tongue are identified, and evidence is presented that the representations of the tongue also get information from the taste nucleus of the thalamus, VPMpc. As areas 3b, 3a, and 1 project to other areas of somatosensory cortex, and those areas to additional areas, some or all of the currently defined somatosensory areas of cortex may be involved in processing gustatory, as well as tactile, information from the tongue and thus have a role in the biologically important function of evaluating food in the mouth.     

Ascorbic acid combats arsenic-induced oxidative stress in mice liver

Repeated injections of arsenic trioxide induced oxidative stress and hepatotoxicity in mice as revealed from elevated levels of glutamate oxaloacetate transaminases, glutamate pyruvate transaminases, acid and alkaline phosphatases, lipid peroxidation along with reduction of superoxide dismutase, catalase, reduced glutathione content, glutathione reductase and succinate dehydrogenase activities. The present investigation was undertaken to test whether simultaneous feeding of vitamin C can combat hepatotoxicity in arsenic intoxicated mice. Hepatoprotective potential of vitamin C was indicated by its ability to restore GSH, SOD, CAT, AcP, AlkP and GRD levels towards near normal. Electron microscopic studies further supported the biochemical findings confirming the hepatoprotective potential of ascorbic acid. Besides, cytogenetical endpoints (chromosome aberrations, micronuclei, mitotic index and sperm head anomaly) were also analyzed. Administration of vitamin C alone did not show any sign of toxicity of its own. Based on the present findings, ascorbic acid appears to have protective effects against arsenic toxicity and oxidative stress.     

Interdependencies between Toll‐like receptors in Leishmania infection

Multiple pathogen‐associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) on a pathogen''s surface imply their simultaneous recognition by the host cell membrane‐located multiple PAMP‐specific Toll‐like receptors (TLRs). The TLRs on endosomes recognize internalized pathogen‐derived nucleic acids and trigger anti‐pathogen immune responses aimed at eliminating the intracellular pathogen. Whether the TLRs influence each other''s expression and effector responses—termed TLR interdependency—remains unknown. Herein, we first probed the existence of TLR interdependencies and next determined how targeting TLR interdependencies might determine the outcome of Leishmania infection. We observed that TLRs selectively altered expression of their own and of other TLRs revealing novel TLR interdependencies. Leishmania major—an intra‐macrophage parasite inflicting the disease cutaneous leishmaniasis in 88 countries—altered this TLR interdependency unfolding a unique immune evasion mechanism. We targeted this TLR interdependency by selective silencing of rationally chosen TLRs and by stimulation with selective TLR ligands working out a novel phase‐specific treatment regimen. Targeting the TLR interdependency elicited a host‐protective anti‐leishmanial immune response and reduced parasite burden. To test whether this observation could be used as a scientific rationale for treating a potentially fatal L. donovani infection, which causes visceral leishmaniasis, we targeted the inter‐TLR dependency adopting the same treatment regimen. We observed reduced splenic Leishman–Donovan units accompanied by host‐protective immune response in susceptible BALB/c mice. The TLR interdependency optimizes TLR‐induced immune response by a novel immunoregulatory framework and scientifically rationalizes targeting TLRs in tandem and in sequence for redirecting immune responses against an intracellular pathogen.     

A double-blind randomized placebo-controlled clinical study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a polyherbal formulation in geriatric age group: a phase IV clinical report

Aim of the study

We sought to determine the efficacy as antioxidant and safety profile of the polyherbal formulation in geriatric patients of eastern India.

Materials and methods

The study was double-blind, randomized including placebo controlled and was approved by the ethical committee of SSKM hospital. Geriatric patients attending the OPD (outpatient department) of SSKM hospital formed the study group. The patients were randomized to receive either the polyherbal formulation or the identical-looking placebo at a dose of 2 tablets twice daily for a period of 6 months. Follow-up of patient status was done monthly. The clinical parameters were assessed before and after 6 months of medication or placebo intake.

Results

The results showed that significant rejuvenation of the anti-oxidant property which is determined by the enzymatic and non enzymatic anti oxidants, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, reduced glutathione and malondialdehyde in the geriatric patients were seen in patients treated with Geriforte tablets as compared to patients treated with placebo and control group. There were no significant adverse effects experienced by cases in any group.

Conclusion

Polyherbal formulation is effective in rejuvenating geriatric age group compared to the placebo. This formulation is safe and compliance to the treatment was good. In ancient Ayurveda the constituents of polyherbal formulation were prescribed for different diseases including cardiological, neurological, sepsis, etc.     

Mismatches outside exons 2 and 3 do not alter the peptide motif of the allele group B*44:02P

Sequence variations outside exons 2 and 3 do not appear to affect the function of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles. HLA-B*44:02:01:01 and -B*44:27 are considered functionally identical because they differ by a single amino acid substitution of Val > Ala at position 199, which is located in the α3 domain. To validate that HLA-B*44:02:01:01 and -B*44:27 represent functionally identical alleles that might reflect a permissive mismatch in hematopoetic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), we determined their peptide-binding features. B-lymphoblastic cells were lentivirally transduced with B*44:02 and B*44:27 constructs and soluble recombinant molecules were purified by affinity chromatography. Peptides were isolated and sequencing of single peptides was performed using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LTQ-Orbitrap) technology. We demonstrate that the peptide motif of B*44:02(199Val) and B*44:27(199Ala) is identical. Both variants feature E at P2 and Y, F, or W at PΩ in their ligands. Most of the identified peptides are 9 to 11 amino acids in length and approximately 20% of these ligands are shared between the alleles. Our results lead to the conclusion that B*44:02:01:01 and B*44:27 might have the same immune function, validating a theory that is now being used in deciding which donors to select in HSCT when there is no identical donor available.     

A spline-based non-linear diffeomorphism for multimodal prostate registration

This paper presents a novel method for non-rigid registration of transrectal ultrasound and magnetic resonance prostate images based on a non-linear regularized framework of point correspondences obtained from a statistical measure of shape-contexts. The segmented prostate shapes are represented by shape-contexts and the Bhattacharyya distance between the shape representations is used to find the point correspondences between the 2D fixed and moving images. The registration method involves parametric estimation of the non-linear diffeomorphism between the multimodal images and has its basis in solving a set of non-linear equations of thin-plate splines. The solution is obtained as the least-squares solution of an over-determined system of non-linear equations constructed by integrating a set of non-linear functions over the fixed and moving images. However, this may not result in clinically acceptable transformations of the anatomical targets. Therefore, the regularized bending energy of the thin-plate splines along with the localization error of established correspondences should be included in the system of equations. The registration accuracies of the proposed method are evaluated in 20 pairs of prostate mid-gland ultrasound and magnetic resonance images. The results obtained in terms of Dice similarity coefficient show an average of 0.980±0.004, average 95% Hausdorff distance of 1.63±0.48mm and mean target registration and target localization errors of 1.60±1.17mm and 0.15±0.12mm respectively.