CEREBRAL INFARCTION FOLLOWING THORACIC HERPES ZOSTER

Objective: To present a case of cerebral infarction following thoracic herpes zoster presenting as Gerstmann's syndrome. Clinical features: A 61 year old male developed herpes zoster of T 1-2 dermatomes. Four months later he developed a confusional state together with expressive aphasia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and finger agnosia with no long tract signs. CT scan of head showed recent infarction of this left parietal lobe. He recieved a five day course of acyclovir 800mg four times daily and showed slow but steady improvement Conclusion: Herpes zoster is uncommonly followed by cerebral infarction. Acyclovir may have a role in therapy of this complication.     

Antibodies to immunoglobulin heavy chain variable regions protect helper cells from specific suicide by radiolabeled antigen

The antigen-binding receptor of helper T cells was studied by radioactive antigen-caused suicide in vitro. Purified antibodies to immunoglobulin variable regions, obtained from sera of rabbits immunized with isolated VH and VL fragments of mouse myeloma proteins (MOPC 315, XRPC 25), were used to inhibit the binding of radiotoxic antigen. Anti-VH, but not anti-V lambda or anti-V chi inhibited suicide of carrier-primed cells.     

Texture analysis of foot sole soft tissue images in diabetic neuropathy using wavelet transform

The paper presents a new method of characterisation of texture changes in foot sole soft tissue ultrasound (US) images, as observed to occur in diabetic subjects, using wavelet transforms. US images of the soft tissue subcutaneous layer were taken with a 7.5 MHz linear transducer probe placed parallel to the skin surface. The foot sole hardness was characterised by Shore level. A 2D discrete wavelet transform was performed on the US images to extract features that encode the internal state of the foot sole soft tissue. The global energy feature computed at the output of each wavelet channel was found to achieve excellent delineation between the normal and the diabetic groups. An important finding was a strong correlation, in the order of 0.84 and above, between the feature values that reflect changes in the internal arrangement of the tissue, and the externally measurable hardening of the skin, characterised by the Shore levels, with the latter known to be high for diabetics. A comparison drawn between diabetic ulcer and non-ulcer groups established a change in the order of 122–311% in the textural parameter, as influenced by a corresponding 66.7–200% change in the respective Shore values. Thus US examination of foot sole soft tissue and its texture analysis may serve as sources of valuable information regarding the internal changes taking place with progressive hardening of the soft tissue and thereby help the clinician in taking appropriate preventive measures.     

Schizophrenia syndromes associated with changes in ventricle-to-brain ratios: a serial high-resolution three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging study in first-episode schizophrenia patients using subvoxel registration and semiautomated quantification

A cohort of patients with first-episode schizophrenia was dichotomised into two age- and sex-matched groups of clinical syndromes, the active and withdrawn, and underwent high-resolution three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging at baseline and 8 months later. A cohort of age- and sex-matched normal controls was also imaged at the same time intervals. The application of subvoxel registration and semiautomated quantification techniques demonstrated a significantly different outcome in ventricular changes between the two groups of patients. Compared with the controls, the withdrawn patients showed progressive ventricular enlargement, with an increase in ventricle-to-brain volume ratio, whereas the active group showed a reduction in ventricle-to-brain volume ratio, with a change opposite in sign and smaller in magnitude. These findings lend further support for the aetiological validity of this syndromal model of schizophrenia and are likely to be of importance in furthering our understanding of its pathogenesis and in the development of suitable therapeutic strategies.     

Phase I trial of intravenous IL-4 pseudomonas exotoxin protein (NBI-3001) in patients with advanced solid tumors that express the IL-4 receptor

NBI-3001 is a novel immunotoxin of attenuated Pseudomonas exotoxin fused to circularly permutated IL-4, which has shown some antitumor effects in glioblastoma multiforme with intratumoral administration. The authors evaluated the safety and tolerability of NBI-3001 administered intravenously in a dose-escalation design to patients with renal cell and non-small cell lung carcinoma whose tumors showed at least 10% IL-4 receptor expression. Cohorts of three to six patients were treated at dose levels of 0.008, 0.016, and 0.027 mg/m2 daily x 5 days every 28 days. Neutralizing antibody (NAB) titers, plasma levels of NBI-3001, and patient tolerability were monitored sequentially. 14 patients received a total of 36 cycles of NBI-3001 (range 1-6). No dose-limiting toxicities were noted at dose levels 0.008 and 0.016 mg/m2. At 0.027 mg/m2, two patients developed self-limiting, grade 3 or 4 transaminase elevation during cycle 1. NAB titers of more than 1:100 were detected in five of the seven patients treated with at least two cycles; the median titer after cycle 1 and the median maximum titer in subsequent cycles were 1:50 and approximately 1:1,710, respectively. No objective tumor responses were noted. Eight of 12 evaluable patients with renal cell carcinoma had stable disease; four patients had disease progression. High NAB titers resulted in four patients being withdrawn from the study. The dose-limiting toxicity for intravenous NBI-3001 was transaminase elevation at 0.027 mg/m2. NBI-3001 at 0.016 mg/m2 was well tolerated. Low circulating levels of NBI-3001, coupled with rising NAB titers, may have contributed to the lack of response in tumors that express IL-4R.     

Molecular modeling and docking characterization of Dectin-1 (PAMP) receptor of Bubalus bubalis

Dectin-1, is a type II transmembrane receptor protein which contains a single extracellular CTLD (C-type lectin domain), stalk, transmembrane domain and an ITAM (immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs) in its cytoplasmic tail. Dectin-1 has the ability to recognize fungal β-glucans, which are carbohydrate PAMPs found predominantly in fungal cell walls. The recognition of fungal β-glucans by Dectin-1 helps in a variety of cellular responses, like host protection, such as fungal uptake and killing, and the production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In this study we predicted the 3D (three dimensional) structure of Dectin-1 receptor based on homology modeling using MODELLER 9v8 software. The TMHMM server was used for the prediction of transmembrane helices. DALI, PROFUNC, Q-Site Finder, PINTS servers and PASS software used for the prediction of functional sites in the modeled Dectin-1 receptor. The docking investigation of Dectin-1 receptor with β-glucan suggests that ASP150, ASP113, GLY106, and GLU196 amino acids are the catalytic residues which form a shallow groove in the protein surface and bind to ligand β-glucan. We hope that this work will help in in-silico screening, structure-based design, and in understanding the structural basis of ligand binding to the Dectin-1 receptor.