Biochemical and biophysical analysis of heptad repeat regions from the fusion protein of Menangle virus,a newly emergent paramyxovirus

E. coli in vitro expression system. The GST-removed purified 2-Helix protein could form a stable trimer in vitro judging by gel-filtration and chemical cross-linking. CD spectra showed that the 2-Helix protein had a high percentage of α-helix and was very thermo-stable. Crystals of the 2-Helix protein preparations have been obtained in many conditions with hanging-drop diffusion method. These results indicated that Menangle virus has the common features of the fusion protein for other paramyxoviruses and should adopt a similar fusion mechanism to other members. As the HR regions of Menangle virus F protein could form stable six-helix bundle coiled coil structure, they should be used as drug target for the design of fusion inhibitors, as successfully used for other parmyxoviruses. This is especially relevant to such a newly emergent virus with zoonotic potentials. Received January 23, 2003; accepted February 28, 2003 Published online April 28, 2003     

Segmental jejunal lipomatosis--a rare cause of intestinal obstruction

A rare case of a segmental small intestinal (jejunal) lipomatosis is described. A 33-year-old male was admitted with a clinical diagnosis of an acute intestinal obstruction. A plain erect abdominal x-ray showed multiple air-fluid levels. On an exploratory laparotomy, a jejunojejunal intussusception was found secondary to a segmental submucosal lipomatosis. This was treated by a segmental resection and anastomosis, which resulted in a complete cure. Here we present this case with a review of the relevant literature.     

Dystrophin gene deletions in South Indian Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients

66 unrelated patients from Southern India with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) were studied for intragenic deletion in 18 exons and Pm region of the DMD gene using multiplex PCR. Of these 41 (62.1%) showed intragenic deletions. 78% of the deletions were located at the distal hotspot region (44-55 exons) and 22% of the deletions were located at the proximal region (exon 2-19). Exon 50 is most frequently deleted. Deletions in isolated cases were significantly more compared to familial cases. The lower incidence reported from South India compared to North India, is suggestive of variations in the Southern and Northern population.     

Role of fine-needle aspiration cytology in childhood malignancies

During the last 4 yr, fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has been employed in 1,474 patients in 0-15-yr age group at our institute. Of these, 245 patients were found to have malignant disease, including primitive neuroectodermal tumors, hepatoblastoma, nephroblastoma, sarcoma, and epithelial malignancies. Four metastases from medulloblastoma and two each from astrocytoma and meningioma were confirmed without open biopsy. FNAC interpretation was easy when cytologic findings were correlated with relevant clinical and radiologic data.     

Inflammatory cell infiltrate in a responding metastatic nodule after vaccine-based immunotherapy

A patient with von Hippel Lindau disease, bilateral symmetric renal cell carcinoma and pulmonary metastases treated with immunotherapy is the subject of this study. A left kidney and tumour mass were removed and the tumour cells used to make an autologous tumour/bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine as part of the treatment protocol. The patient's pulmonary nodules responded, but the remaining renal nodule subsequently grew. Samples of both tumours were obtained allowing for an internally controlled evaluation of the histological and immunohistologic differences between a responding and non-responding tumour nodule after therapy. The immunotherapy protocol is designed to promote a T cell response to autologous tumour. Cellular infiltrates were demonstrated in both responding and non-responding nodules compared with the pretreatment tumour specimen, but the responding nodule contained proportionately more T cells as well as markedly increased numbers of plasma cells and granulocytes. This suggested that several arms of the immune system may have been operative in the responding nodule.     

Histological studies on certain autonomic ganglia in the buffalo (Bubalus bubalis).

In the buffalo the sympathetic ganglionic neurons were multipolar and contained finely granular or vesicular Nissl material and eccentric nuclei with more than one nucleolus. They measured (mean values) 23.62 X 14.30 mum in the cranial cervical ganglion, 22.51 X 13.58 mum in the vertebral ganglion, 25.25 X 15.75 mum in the cervicothoracic ganglion and 22.84 X 14.27 mum in the fourth thoracic ganglion. Their density values were 256 neurons/mm2 in the cranial cervical ganglion, 250 neurons/mm2 in the vertebral ganglion, 248 neurons/mm2 in the cervicothoracic ganglion and 252 neurons/mm2 in the fourth thoracic ganglion.