Clinical and instrumental evaluation of vasospasm after subarachnoid aneurismal hemorrhage

Development of a cerebral vasospasm complicating flow of disease, remains an important problem in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage due to a ruptured arterial aneurysm. The goalof this study was to evaluate the contribution CT Angiography, Clinical Evaluation and Transcranial Doppler in diagnosis of a vasospasm after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. The data of 129 patients with veryfied aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage treated in the neurosurgical center of the Ekaterinburg Municipal Clinical Hospital 40 since January 2004 till January 2006 are included in the submitted examination. With the count of available experience the practical value of various diagnostic methods at different stages of disease is discussed.Развитие церебрального ангиоспазма, осложняющее течение заболевания у пациентов после разрыва артериальных аневризм, продолжает оставаться важной проблемой. Цель представленной работы - оценить вклад КТ-АГ, клинического метода и ТКУЗДГ в диагностику ангиоспазма при аневризматическом субарахноидальном кровоизлиянии. В представленное исследование включены данные 129 пациентов с верифицированным аневризматическим субарахноидальным кровоизлиянием, поступивших на лечение в нейрохирургический центр ГКБ №40 г. Екатеринбурга с января 2004 по январь 2006. С учетом имеющегося опыта обсуждается практическая ценность различных методов диагностики церебрального ангиоспазма на разных этапах течения заболевания

Nucleo-cytoplasmic transport of proteins and RNA in plants

Merkle T. Nucleo-cytoplasmic transport of proteins and RNA in plants. Plant Cell Reports. 2011;30(2):153-176.Transport of macromolecules between the nucleus and the cytoplasm is an essential necessity in eukaryotic cells, since the nuclear envelope separates transcription from translation. In the past few years, an increasing number of components of the plant nuclear transport machinery have been characterised. This progress, although far from being completed, confirmed that the general characteristics of nuclear transport are conserved between plants and other organisms. However, plant-specific components were also identified. Interestingly, several mutants in genes encoding components of the plant nuclear transport machinery were investigated, revealing differential sensitivity of plant-specific pathways to impaired nuclear transport. These findings attracted attention towards plant-specific cargoes that are transported over the nuclear envelope, unravelling connections between nuclear transport and components of signalling and developmental pathways. The current state of research in plants is summarised in comparison to yeast and vertebrate systems, and special emphasis is given to plant nuclear transport mutants

Evidence for Antisense Transcription Associated with MicroRNA Target mRNAs in Arabidopsis

Antisense transcription is a pervasive phenomenon, but its source and functional significance is largely unknown. We took an expression-based approach to explore microRNA (miRNA)-related antisense transcription by computational analyses of published whole-genome tiling microarray transcriptome and deep sequencing small RNA (smRNA) data. Statistical support for greater abundance of antisense transcription signatures and smRNAs was observed for miRNA targets than for paralogous genes with no miRNA cleavage site. Antisense smRNAs were also found associated with MIRNA genes. This suggests that miRNA-associated “transitivity” (production of small interfering RNAs through antisense transcription) is more common than previously reported. High-resolution (3 nt) custom tiling microarray transcriptome analysis was performed with probes 400 bp 5′ upstream and 3′ downstream of the miRNA cleavage sites (direction relative to the mRNA) for 22 select miRNA target genes. We hybridized RNAs labeled from the smRNA pathway mutants, including hen1-1, dcl1-7, hyl1-2, rdr6-15, and sgs3-14. Results showed that antisense transcripts associated with miRNA targets were mainly elevated in hen1-1 and sgs3-14 to a lesser extent, and somewhat reduced in dcl11-7, hyl11-2, or rdr6-15 mutants. This was corroborated by semi-quantitative reverse transcription PCR; however, a direct correlation of antisense transcript abundance in MIR164 gene knockouts was not observed. Our overall analysis reveals a more widespread role for miRNA-associated transitivity with implications for functions of antisense transcription in gene regulation. HEN1 and SGS3 may be links for miRNA target entry into different RNA processing pathways

CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF CUSHING'S DISEASE (RESULTS OF ANALYSIS OF THE CLINICAL DATABASE OF THE MOSCOW REGION)

Background: Cushing's disease (CD) is a  severe multimorbid disorder that affects primarily young people in their productive age. In most cases, the diagnosis is delayed and patients with complications of hypercorticism are seen by doctors of various specialties.Aim: To identify the most frequent clinical signs and symptoms of CD at the time of diagnosis, to assess an association between clinical manifestations of hypercorticism and main clinical and laboratory parameters.Materials and methods: We examined 44 CD patients registered in the database of CD patients of the Moscow Regional Research and Clinical Institute (MONIKI).Results: The mean age of patients was 37.9±10.5 years, with most of them (68.2%) being in the age range of 30 to 50 years. The median of disease duration was 35.5 [22; 75] months. Facial plethora, which is the most characteristic sign of hypercorticism, was seen in 97.7% of patients. Striae, thought to be most often associated with hypercorticism, were found only in 38.6% of patients. The most frequent complaints (> 80%) were weight gain, fatigue, headache, and menstrual dysfunction. Some of the symptoms showed a positive correlation with cortisol levels.Conclusion: Clinical manifestations of CD are mostly non-specific. Only facial plethora was highly prevalent of all typical symptoms of hypercorticism. At least one of the "specific" symptoms was found in all patients