Intravenous leiomyomatosis of the uterus with extension to the right heart

A 42-year-old woman admitted with debilitation and engorgement both lower extremities. Transthoracic two-dimensional echocardiography, abdominal ultrasound and computerized tomography revealed a lobulated pelvic mass, a mass within right internal iliac vein, both common iliac vein, as well as the inferior vena cava, extending into the right atrium. In addition, echocardiography and abdominal ultrasound showed the tumor of right atrium and inferior vena cave has no stalk and has well-demarcated borders with the wall of right atrium and inferior vena cave. Hence, the presumptive diagnosis of IVL was made by echocardiography and abdominal ultrasound and the presumptive diagnosis of sarcoma with invasion in right internal iliac vein, both common iliac vein, the inferior vena cava, as well as the right atrium was made by multi-detector-row computerized tomography. The patient underwent a one-stage combined multidisciplinary thoraco-abdominal operation under general anaesthetic. Subsequently the pathologic report confirmed IVL

Contribution of Coagulases towards Staphylococcus aureus Disease and Protective Immunity

The bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus seeds abscesses in host tissues to replicate at the center of these lesions, protected from host immune cells via a pseudocapsule. Using histochemical staining, we identified prothrombin and fibrin within abscesses and pseudocapsules. S. aureus secretes two clotting factors, coagulase (Coa) and von Willebrand factor binding protein (vWbp). We report here that Coa and vWbp together are required for the formation of abscesses. Coa and vWbp promote the non-proteolytic activation of prothrombin and cleavage of fibrinogen, reactions that are inhibited with specific antibody against each of these molecules. Coa and vWbp specific antibodies confer protection against abscess formation and S. aureus lethal bacteremia, suggesting that coagulases function as protective antigens for a staphylococcal vaccine

Preventing Staphylococcus aureus Sepsis through the Inhibition of Its Agglutination in Blood

Staphylococcus aureus infection is a frequent cause of sepsis in humans, a disease associated with high mortality and without specific intervention. When suspended in human or animal plasma, staphylococci are known to agglutinate, however the bacterial factors responsible for agglutination and their possible contribution to disease pathogenesis have not yet been revealed. Using a mouse model for S. aureus sepsis, we report here that staphylococcal agglutination in blood was associated with a lethal outcome of this disease. Three secreted products of staphylococci - coagulase (Coa), von Willebrand factor binding protein (vWbp) and clumping factor (ClfA) – were required for agglutination. Coa and vWbp activate prothrombin to cleave fibrinogen, whereas ClfA allowed staphylococci to associate with the resulting fibrin cables. All three virulence genes promoted the formation of thromboembolic lesions in heart tissues. S. aureus agglutination could be disrupted and the lethal outcome of sepsis could be prevented by combining dabigatran-etexilate treatment, which blocked Coa and vWbp activity, with antibodies specific for ClfA. Together these results suggest that the combined administration of direct thrombin inhibitors and ClfA-antibodies that block S. aureus agglutination with fibrin may be useful for the prevention of staphylococcal sepsis in humans

CD studies on the conformation of some deoxyoligonucleotides containing adenine and thymine residues

CD studies of the deoxyoligomer series d(pT)(n) and d(pA)(n) show increasing CD maxima for oligo (dT)'s with chain length variation from two to seven, while oligo (dA)'s exhibit a decreasing CD maximum. Concentrated solutions of NaClO(4) cause a decrease in the CD of longer oligo (dT)'s towards the CD of d(pT)(2) which is different from oligo dA's. Probably base-sugar interactions are important in the observed conformational effects. The chemically synthesized oligomers dpApApTpT and dpTpApTpA show deviations in their CD spectra which reflect a dominating conformational effect of d(pA)(2) in the former but not in the alternating isomer

End-specific covalent photo-dependent immobilisation of synthetic DNA to paramagnetic beads

A novel approach for light-dependent covalent immobilisation of synthetic DNA oligomers to amino-coated paramagnetic beads is described. A hetero-bifunctional photo-reactive cross-linking chemical, 4-nitrophenyl 3-diazopyruvate, is applied to attach 5′ amino-modified DNA to both silica and polystyrene paramagnetic beads. The coupling yields are comparable with similar methods in which no photo-reactive chemicals are used. The immobilised DNA on the polystyrene and silica beads was used efficiently in hybridisation experiments. An extension of this approach to light-directed immobilisation of specific DNA to beads, located at different positions in micro-flow reactors, opens up a range of integrated applications to complex diagnostics, evolutionary biotechnology and novel areas such as DNA computing

Hairpin-dimer equilibrium of a parallel-stranded DNA hairpin: formation of a four-stranded complex.

The 24mer deoxyoligonucleotide 3'-d(T)10-5'-5'-d(C)4- d(A)10-3'(psC4) with an uncommon 5'-p-5'phosphodiester linkage was designed to enable the formation of a hairpin structure with unusual parallel-stranded stem. As reference hairpin structure with an antiparallel-stranded stem, the 24mer 5'-d(T)10-d(C)4-d(A)10-3'(apsC4) was chosen. The behaviour of these oligonucleotides at different temperatures, DNA and salt concentrations was characterised by a combination of UV melting, CD, CD melting, infrared and Raman spectroscopy, infrared melting and analytical ultracentrifugation. The parallel-stranded hairpin structure was found to be formed by psC4 only under conditions of low DNA concentration and low salt concentration. Increase of the NaCl concentration beyond the physiological level or high DNA concentration supports the formation of intermolecular multi-stranded structures. The experimental data are in agreement with a four-stranded complex formed by two molecules of psC4. The base pairing model of this asymmetric four-stranded complex is based on the pyrimidine motif of a triple helix with two bifurcated hydrogen bonds at the O4 of the thymine each directed towards one of the amino protons of both adenines. In contrast, the reference oligonucleotide apsC4 forms only an antiparallel-stranded hairpin under all experimental conditions