Cutaneous embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma presenting as a nodule on cheek; a case report and review of literature

We report a case of primary cutaneous rhabdomyosarcoma, solid embryonal type, presenting as a rapidly enlarging nodule on the right cheek of a 7-year-old boy. This lesion had begun as a pea-sized nodule 8 months previously, and, with suspected abscess, had been incised. It recurred 2 months later; at that time, incisional biopsy was consistent with malignant round cell tumor. Wide local excision of the tumor was then completed. Subsequent immunohistochemical staining with desmin and myoglobin confirmed embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. The patient underwent radiation therapy followed by chemotherapy and continues to be disease free at 14 months after his wide local excision. Rhabdomyosarcoma presenting as a dermal nodule is rare. It usually presents as an asymptomatic papule without distinctive clinical features and therefore may result in delayed diagnosis unless a biopsy is performed.     

Post-traumatic fatal <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nattrassia mangiferae</Emphasis> orbital infection

Nattrassia mangiferae orbital infection is a very rare disease that is usually curable. We report the first case of a fatal N. mangiferae orbital infection following a thorn penetration injury in a patient who also had diabetes mellitus, heart failure, and cirrhosis.     

Intragenic SNP haplotypes associated with 84dup18 mutation in <Emphasis Type="Italic">TNFRSF11A</Emphasis> in four FEO pedigrees suggest three independent origins for this mutation

Familial expansile osteolysis (FEO) is a rare disorder causing bone dysplasia. The clinical features of FEO include early-onset hearing loss, tooth destruction, and progressive lytic expansion within limb bones causing pain, fracture, and deformity. An 18-bp duplication in the first exon of the TNFRSF11A gene encoding RANK has been previously identified in four FEO pedigrees. Despite having the identical mutation, phenotypic variations among affected individuals of the same and different pedigrees were noted. Another 18-bp duplication, one base proximal to the duplication previously reported, was subsequently found in two unrelated FEO patients. Finally, mutations overlapping with the mutations found in the FEO pedigrees have been found in ESH and early-onset PDB pedigrees. An Iranian FEO pedigree that contains six affected individuals dispersed in three generations has previously been introduced; here, the clinical features of the proband are reported in greater detail, and the genetic defect of the pedigree is presented. Direct sequencing of the entire coding region and upstream and downstream noncoding regions of TNFRSF11A in her DNA revealed the same 18-bp duplication mutation as previously found in the four FEO pedigrees. Additionally, eight sequence variations as compared to the TNFRSF11A reference sequence were identified, and a haplotype linked to the mutation based on these variations was defined. Although the mutation in the Iranian and four of the previously described FEO pedigrees was the same, haplotypes based on the intragenic SNPs suggest that the mutations do not share a common descent.     

Prevalence of aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes genes among isolates of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium in Iran

Disks containing 120 microg of gentamicin were used to detect high-level gentamicin-resistant phenotype (HLGR) among isolates of Enterococcus faecalis (n = 79) and E. faecium (n = 35). These isolates were collected from three hospitals in Tehran during 2002-2004. The macrobroth dilution assay was then used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of gentamicin. The susceptibility of isolates against amikacin, netilmicin, tobramycin, and kanamycin were also determined by Kirby-Bauer method. All isolates were subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays targeting aminoglycoside modifying enzyme (AMEs) genes including aac(6 ')-aph(2 "), aph(2 ")-Ib, aph(2 ")-Ic, aph(2 ")-Ia, aph(2 ")-Id, aph(3 ')-IIIa, and ant(4 ')-Ia. Fifty-nine isolates (52%) showed HLGR phenotype. All isolates with HLGR phenotype and those showing 64 < MIC < 500 microg/ml contained aac(6 ')-aph(2 "). The aph(3 ')-IIIa was found in 61% of the isolates with HLGR phenotypes and in 65% of isolates with MIC < 500. Coexistence of aac(6 ')-aph(2 ") and aph(3 ')-IIIa gene among HLGR isolates of E. faecalis and E. faecium were 60% and 65%, respectively. The gene aph(2 ")-Ic was amplified in two isolates of E. faecium. The results of PCR for aph(2 ")-Id, ant(4 ')-Ia and aph(2 ")-Ib genes were negative. The aac(6 ')-aph(2 ") was the most frequent gene encoding resistance to gentamicin and other aminoglycosides followed by aph(3 ')-IIIa. Isolates lacking these genes were susceptible to all aminoglyocosides tested in this study.     

A biomimetic potentiometric sensor based on molecularly imprinted polymer for the determination of memantine in tablets

Memantine hydrochloride is one of the first novel class medications for treatment of Alzheimer's disease. In this work, a biomimetic potentiometric sensor, based on a non‐covalent imprinted polymer, was fabricated for the recognition and determination of memantine in pure drug and tablet pharmaceutical form. The molecularly imprinted polymer was synthesized by precipitation polymerization, using memantine hydrochloride as a template molecule, methacrylic acid as a functional monomer, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a cross‐linking agent. The sensor was developed by dispersing the memantine imprinted polymer particles in dibutyl sebacate plasticizer and embedding in poly(vinyl chloride) matrix. The wide linear range (10^?5?10^?1 M), with a near Nernstian response of 57.4 mV/decade, a limit of detection 6.0 × 10^?6 M, fast response time (~15 s) and a satisfactory long‐term stability (4 months) are characterizations of the proposed sensor. The sensor showed a high selectivity and a sensitive response to the template in aqueous system. The standard electrode potentials were determined at different temperatures and used to calculate the isothermal coefficient of the electrode. It was used as indicator electrode in potentiometric determination of memantine in pharmaceutical formulations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Concomitant upregulation of nucleostemin and downregulation of Sox2 and Klf4 in gastric adenocarcinoma

Nucleostemin (NS) is a nucleolar protein involved in stem cell (SC) self-renewal by controlling cell cycle progression. In addition to SCs, NS is also expressed in some highly proliferating cells including several adult stem cells and cancer cell lines. NS knock-down in different cell lines demonstrated its cell type-dependent function in arresting cell cycle in either G1 or G2/M phases. Here, we have evaluated the expression of NS and iPS genes in 36 gastric cancer and their matched marginal nontumor tissues by means of real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We have also examined a potential causative role of NS in gastric tumorigenesis by suppressing its expression in a gastric cancer cell line, AGS. Our data revealed that NS expression level is much higher in tumor tissues (p?=?0.046), especially in high-grade ones (p?<?0.001), whereas the expression of Klf4 and Sox2 is downregulated in tumor tissues compared to marginal nontumor samples (p?<?0.001). Furthermore, NS suppression in the AGS cell line caused some morphological alterations, a cell cycle arrest at G1 phase, and an upregulation of iPS genes: Nanog, Sox2, and Klf4. Based on our results, NS overexpression seems to have a causative role in gastric tumorigenesis and/or progression, and it could be considered as a potential tumor marker for diagnosis, molecular classification, and molecular therapy of gastric adenocarcinoma.     

Altered expression of apoptotic genes in response to OCT4B1 suppression in human tumor cell lines

OCT4B1 is a newly discovered spliced variant of OCT4 which is primarily expressed in pluripotent and tumor cells. Based on our previous studies, OCT4B1 is significantly overexpressed in tumors, where it endows an anti-apoptotic property to tumor cells. However, the mechanism by which OCT4B1 regulates the apoptotic pathway is not yet elucidated. Here, we investigated the effects of OCT4B1 suppression on the expression alteration of 84 genes involved in apoptotic pathway. The AGS (gastric adenocarcinoma), 5637 (bladder tumor), and U-87MG (brain tumor) cell lines were transfected with OCT4B1 or irrelevant siRNAs. The expression level of apoptotic genes was then quantified using a human apoptosis panel-PCR kit. Our data revealed an almost similar pattern of alteration in the expression profile of apoptotic genes in all three studied cell lines, following OCT4B1 suppression. In general, the expression of more than 54 apoptotic genes (64 % of arrayed genes) showed significant changes. Among these, some up-regulated (CIDEA, CIDEB, TNFRSF1A, TNFRSF21, TNFRSF11B, TNFRSF10B, and CASP7) and down-regulated (BCL2, BCL2L11, TP73, TP53, BAD, TRAF3, TRAF2, BRAF, BNIP3L, BFAR, and BAX) genes had on average more than tenfold gene expression alteration in all three examined cell lines. With some minor exceptions, suppression of OCT4B1 caused upregulation of pro-apoptotic and down-regulation of anti-apoptotic genes in transfected tumor cells. Uncovering OCT4B1 down-stream targets could further elucidate its part in tumorigenesis, and could lead to finding a new approach to combat cancer, based on targeting OCT4B1.     

Mitochondria Distinguish Granule-Stored from de novo Synthesized Tumor Necrosis Factor Secretion in Human Mast Cells

Background: Mast cells are immune cells derived from hematopoietic precursors that mature in the tissue microenvironment. Mast cells are critical for allergic, immune and inflammatory processes, many of which involve tumor necrosis factor (TNF). These cells uniquely store TNF in their secretory granules. Upon stimulation, mast cells rapidly (30 min) secrete β-hexosaminidase and granule-stored TNF through degranulation, but also increase TNF mRNA and release de novo synthesized TNF 24 h later. The regulation of these two distinct pathways is poorly understood. Methods: Human LAD2 leukemic mast cells are stimulated by substance P. TNF secretion and gene expression were measured by ELISA and real-time PCR, and mitochondrial dynamics was observed in live cells under confocal microscopy. Cell energy consumption was measured in terms of oxygen consumption rate. Results: Here, we show that granule-stored TNF is preformed, and its secretion from LAD2 mast cells stimulated by substance P (1) exhibits higher energy consumption and is inhibited by the mitochondrial ATP pump blocker oligomycin, (2) shows rapid increase in intracellular calcium levels, and (3) exhibits reversible mitochondrial translocation, from a perinuclear distribution to the cell surface, as compared to de novo synthesized TNF release induced by lipopolysaccharide. This mitochondrial translocation is confirmed using primary human umbilical cord blood-derived mast cells stimulated by an allergic trigger (IgE/streptavidin). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that unique mitochondrial functions distinguish granule-stored from newly synthesized TNF release from human mast cells, thus permitting the versatile involvement of mast cells in different biological processes.