Newly identified active faults in the Pollino seismic gap, southern Italy, and their seismotectonic significance

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systemic contact dermatitis from herbal and homeopathic preparations used for herpes virus treatment

Systemic contact dermatitis may occur in contactsensitized individuals when they are exposed to haptens orally, transcutaneously, intravenously or by inhalation. We report the case of a woman developing a diffuse skin eruption after the topical use of Rhus toxicodendron alcoholic extract and the oral introduction of a homeopathic preparation of the same substance for herpes treatment. An open test, performed with the Rhus toxicodendron tincture, showed an erythematooedematous response at 48 h and vesicular reaction at 96 h that was still present after 7 days. Patch test with 65% ethyl alcohol gave negative results. The open test performed, as control, in eight healthy informed subjects revealed negative responses to Rhus tincture application. The result is interesting because in Italy, allergic contact dermatitis to Rhus is uncommon and this case increases the understanding of the pathogenetic mechanism leading to systemic contact dermatitis development. Key words: homeopathy; plant extracts; mother tincture; Rhus toxicodendron; herpes virus infection

Fibrinogen species as resolved by HPLC-SAXS data processing within the UltraScan Solution Modeler ( US-SOMO ) enhanced SAS module

Fibrinogen is a large heterogeneous aggregation/degradation-prone protein playing a central role in blood coagulation and associated pathologies, whose structure is not completely resolved. When a high-molecular-weight fraction was analyzed by size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography/small-angle X-ray scattering (HPLC-SAXS), several composite peaks were apparent and because of the stickiness of fibrinogen the analysis was complicated by severe capillary fouling. Novel SAS analysis tools developed as a part of the UltraScan Solution Modeler ( US-SOMO ; http://somo.uthscsa.edu/), an open-source suite of utilities with advanced graphical user interfaces whose initial goal was the hydrodynamic modeling of biomacromolecules, were implemented and applied to this problem. They include the correction of baseline drift due to the accumulation of material on the SAXS capillary walls, and the Gaussian decomposition of non-baseline-resolved HPLC-SAXS elution peaks. It was thus possible to resolve at least two species co-eluting under the fibrinogen main monomer peak, probably resulting from in-column degradation, and two others under an oligomers peak. The overall and cross-sectional radii of gyration, molecular mass and mass/length ratio of all species were determined using the manual or semi-automated procedures available within the US-SOMO SAS module. Differences between monomeric species and linear and sideways oligomers were thus identified and rationalized. This new US-SOMO version additionally contains several computational and graphical tools, implementing functionalities such as the mapping of residues contributing to particular regions of P ( r ), and an advanced module for the comparison of primary I ( q ) versus q data with model curves computed from atomic level structures or bead models. It should be of great help in multi-resolution studies involving hydrodynamics, solution scattering and crystallographic/NMR data

Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone Agonists Have an Anti-apoptotic Effect on Cumulus Cells

Background: Ovaries are sensitive to chemotherapy, which may lead to early depletion of primordial follicle reserve. One strategy for gonadal function preservation is temporary ovarian suppression with Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone agonists (GnRHa) during chemotherapy. To date, GnRHa protective mechanism of action remains not fully elucidated. Methods: We collected 260 immature cumulus cell-oocyte complexes (COC) from 111 women < 38 years old, with a normal ovarian reserve. The COC were randomly assigned to the following groups: (a) control; culture with the addition of (b) GnRHa; (c) cyclophosphamide; (d) cyclophosphamide plus GnRHa. After in vitro treatments, RNA and proteins were extracted from oocytes and cumulus cells (CC), separately. Potential effects of drugs were evaluated on GnRH receptors, apoptosis pathways, ceramide pathway, and glutathione synthesis by quantitative PCR and, whenever possible, by Western blot. Results: Cyclophosphamide triggered activation of the extrinsic pathway of apoptosis mediated by BAX in CC. The co-administration of GnRHa inhibited the apoptosis pathway in CC. According to our model, the GnRHa does not directly act on oocytes, which do not express GnRH receptors. Moreover, glutathione synthesis was decreased after GnRHa treatment both in CC and oocytes. Conclusion: Our data suggest that the protective mechanisms induced by GnRHa is mediated by an anti-apoptotic effect on CC

Substitution of the Human αC Region with the Analogous Chicken Domain Generates a Fibrinogen with Severely Impaired Lateral Aggregation: Fibrin Monomers Assemble into Protofibrils but Protofibrils Do Not Assemble into Fibers

Fibrin polymerization occurs in two steps: the assembly of fibrin monomers into protofibrils and the lateral aggregation of protofibrils into fibers. Here we describe a novel fibrinogen that apparently impairs only lateral aggregation. This variant is a hybrid, where the human αC region has been replaced with the homologous chicken region. Several experiments indicate this hybrid human-chicken (HC) fibrinogen has an overall structure similar to normal. Thrombin-catalyzed fibrinopeptide release from HC fibrinogen was normal. Plasmin digests of HC fibrinogen produced fragments that were similar to normal D and E; further, as with normal fibrinogen, the knob ‘A’ peptide, GPRP, reversed the plasmin cleavage associated with addition of EDTA. Dynamic light scattering and turbidity studies with HC fibrinogen showed polymerization was not normal. Whereas early small increases in hydrodynamic radius and absorbance paralleled the increases seen during the assembly of normal protofibrils, HC fibrinogen showed no dramatic increase in scattering as observed with normal lateral aggregation. To determine whether HC and normal fibrinogen could form a copolymer, we examined mixtures of these. Polymerization of normal fibrinogen was markedly changed by HC fibrinogen, as expected for mixed polymers. When the mixture contained 0.45 μM normal and 0.15 M HC fibrinogen, the initiation of lateral aggregation was delayed and the final fiber size was reduced relative to normal fibrinogen at 0.45 μM. Considered altogether our data suggest that HC fibrin monomers can assemble into protofibrils or protofibril-like structures but these either cannot assemble into fibers or assemble into very thin fibers

Chronic Idiopathic and Chronic Autoimmune Urticaria: Clinical and Immunopathological Features of 68 Subjects

Skin tests with autologous serum elicit an immediate wheal-and-flare response in about 30 ‐ 50% of chronic idiopathic urticaria subjects, suggesting that an autoimmune mechanism might be involved in the pathogenesis of this disease. The aim of the present work, involving 68 subjects with chronic idiopathic urticaria, was to distinguish between the serum-positive and serum-negative cases and highlight the clinical differences between the two groups on the basis of the Breneman scale score. We also tried to correlate the finding of a positive response to the autologous serum skin test with other autoimmune diatheses or fully developed autoimmune disorders. Our results did not demonstrate any significant differences between the two groups with regard to mean age, sex distribution, angioedema and mucosal/cutaneous atopy. However, all subjects with positive autologous serum skin test presented more severe clinical features than serumnegative subjects. We found no differences between the two groups in the incidence of autoimmune disease. Key words: chronic urticaria; autologous serum skin test; autoimmunity

MycoBank gearing up for new horizons.

MycoBank, a registration system for fungi established in 2004 to capture all taxonomic novelties, acts as a coordination hub between repositories such as Index Fungorum and Fungal Names. Since January 2013, registration of fungal names is a mandatory requirement for valid publication under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants (ICN). This review explains the database innovations that have been implemented over the past few years, and discusses new features such as advanced queries, registration of typification events (MBT numbers for lecto, epi- and neotypes), the multi-lingual database interface, the nomenclature discussion forum, annotation system, and web services with links to third parties. MycoBank has also introduced novel identification services, linking DNA sequence data to numerous related databases to enable intelligent search queries. Although MycoBank fills an important void for taxon registration, challenges for the future remain to improve links between taxonomic names and DNA data, and to also introduce a formal system for naming fungi known from DNA sequence data only. To further improve the quality of MycoBank data, remote access will now allow registered mycologists to act as MycoBank curators, using Citrix software

Erratum to: Analysis of in vitro ADCC and clinical response to trastuzumab: possible relevance of Fc\u3b3RIIIA/Fc\u3b3RIIA gene polymorphisms and HER-2 expression levels on breast cancer cell lines

BACKGROUND: Trastuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) currently used for the treatment of breast cancer (BC) patients with HER-2 overexpressing tumor subtype. Previous data reported the involvement of FcγRIIIA/IIA gene polymorphisms and/or antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) in the therapeutic efficacy of trastuzumab, although results on these issues are still controversial. This study was aimed to evaluate in vitro the functional relationships among FcγRIIIA/IIA polymorphisms, ADCC intensity and HER-2 expression on tumor target cells and to correlate them with response to trastuzumab. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-five patients with HER-2 overexpressing BC, receiving trastuzumab in a neoadjuvant (NEO) or metastatic (MTS) setting, were genotyped for the FcγRIIIA 158V>F and FcγRIIA 131H>R polymorphisms by a newly developed pyrosequencing assay and by multiplex Tetra-primer-ARMS PCR, respectively. Trastuzumab-mediated ADCC of patients’ peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was evaluated prior to therapy and measured by (51)Chromium release using as targets three human BC cell lines showing different levels of reactivity with trastuzumab. RESULTS: We found that the FcγRIIIA 158F and/or the FcγRIIA 131R variants, commonly reported as unfavorable in BC, may actually behave as ADCC favorable genotypes, in both the NEO (P ranging from 0.009 to 0.039 and from 0.007 to 0.047, respectively) and MTS (P ranging from 0.009 to 0.032 and P = 0.034, respectively) patients. The ADCC intensity was affected by different levels of trastuzumab reactivity with BC target cells. In this context, the MCF-7 cell line, showing the lowest reactivity with trastuzumab, resulted the most suitable cell line for evaluating ADCC and response to trastuzumab. Indeed, we found a statistically significant correlation between an increased frequency of patients showing ADCC of MCF-7 and complete response to trastuzumab in the NEO setting (P = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Although this study was performed in a limited number of patients, it would indicate a correlation of FcγR gene polymorphisms to the ADCC extent in combination with the HER-2 expression levels on tumor target cells in BC patients. However, to confirm our findings further experimental evidences obtained from a larger cohort of BC patients are mandatory. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-015-0680-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users