Cerebellopontine epidermoid presenting with trigeminal neuralgia for 10 years: a case report

Trigeminal neuralgia, also called tic douloureux, is a common and potentially disabling pain syndrome, which affects the trigeminal or fifth cranial nerve. The precise pathophysiology of Trigeminal neuralgia remains obscure. The disorder causes extreme, sporadic, sudden burning or shock-like face pain that lasts from few seconds to minutes and can be physically and mentally incapacitating. More than one nerve branch can be affected by the disorder. A 55-year-old female presented with pain over the left side of face for 10 years uncontrolled with carbamazepine. On examination the positive findings were reduced sensation by 25% over the left side of face with House and Brackman grade II facial nerve palsy. The corneal reflex was absent on left side. Magnetic resonance imaging showed left cerebellopontine angle (CPA) mass suggestive of an epidermoid involving the Vth nerve and Gasserian ganglion and extending into the middle cranial fossa. She underwent left suboccipital craniectomy and near total excision of the tumor with decompression of the Vth nerve which was fully engulfed by the tumor. Postoperative the VII nerve palsy increased to grade III and she had 50% loss of sensation over left side. She had no further attacks of pain and hence tapered off the carbamazepine. TN caused by cerebellopontine angle epidermoids is uncommon and should be kept in view in all cases presenting with TN. The aim of surgery for epidermoids is to decompress the cranial nerves and brain stem and not total removal with its attendant morbidity and mortality

Gastrointestinal cancers, ACE-2/TMPRSS2 expression and susceptibility to COVID-19

Recent studies on the pathophysiology of COVID-19 are indicating that the Angiotensin convertase enzyme 2 (ACE-2) and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) can act as a major component in the fusion of SARS-Cov-2 with target cells. It has also been observed that the expression of ACE-2 and TMPRSS2 can be altered in malignancies. Shedding light on this matter could be crucial since the COVID-19 pandemic interfered with many gastrointestinal cancer screening programs. Herein we discuss the possibility of severe forms of COVID-19 in patients with gastrointestinal cancers due to the gastrointestinal entry route of SARS-CoV-2 into the human body. The disruption of cancer screening programs caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic could therefore have massive negative health impact on patients affected by gastrointestinal malignancies

Adsorption of thiotepa anticancer by the assistance of aluminum nitride nanocage scaffolds: A computational perspective on drug delivery applications

This work was carried out by the importance of providing insights into the nano-based drug delivery of anticancers. To this aim, a representative model of aluminum nitride (AN) nanocage scaffold and two of its boron and gallium doped forms (BAN and GAN) were investigated towards the adsorption of thiotepa (Tep) anticancer. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to evaluate the stabilized structures and their corresponding electronic features. The results indicated the contribution of N-head and S-head of Tep to interactions with each scaffold resulting six complexes; NTep@AN and STep@AN, NTep@BAN and STep@BAN, NTep@GAN and STep@GAN. In each complex model, the characteristic features were obtained based on the interactions details and frontier molecular orbitals related features. In this regard, the investigated scaffolds were found suitable for adsorbing the Tep substance with different strengths and frontier molecular orbitals levels yielding the possibility of assigning specified recovery time and conductance. As a consequence, the models of investigated scaffolds were found suitable to work as possible carriers of Tep anticancer for approaching the nano-based drug delivery purposes