Analgesic action of laser therapy (LLLT) in an animal model

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the analgesic effect of laser therapy on healthy tissue of mice.STUDY DESIGN: Forty-five animals were divided in three groups of 15: A--infrared laser irradiation (830 nm, Kondortech, São Carlos, SP, Brazil); B--red laser irradiation (660 nm, Kondortech, São Carlos, SP, Brazil); C-- ham irradiation with laser unit off. After laser application, the mice remained immobilized for the injection of 30 microl of 2% formalin in the plantar pad of the irradiated hind paw. The time that the mouse kept the hind paw lifted was measured at 5 min intervals for 30 minutes.RESULTS: Results showed statistically significant differences comparing the control group with the infrared laser group at 5, 20, 25 and 30 accumulated minutes, and with the red laser group at all time points. The analysis of partial times, at each 5 minutes, showed statistically significant differences between the control and the laser groups up to 20 minutes.CONCLUSIONS: Laser therapy had an analgesic effect and red laser had the best results

Three little pieces for computer and relativity

Numerical relativity has made big strides over the last decade. A number of problems that have plagued the field for years have now been mostly solved. This progress has transformed numerical relativity into a powerful tool to explore fundamental problems in physics and astrophysics, and I present here three representative examples. These "three little pieces" reflect a personal choice and describe work that I am particularly familiar with. However, many more examples could be made.Comment: 42 pages, 11 figures. Plenary talk at "Relativity and Gravitation: 100 Years after Einstein in Prague", June 25 - 29, 2012, Prague, Czech Republic. To appear in the Proceedings (Edition Open Access). Collects results appeared in journal articles [72,73, 122-124

Addition of Bevacizumab to Chemotherapy in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

INTRODUCTION: Recently, studies have demonstrated that the addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy could be associated with better outcomes in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the benefit seems to be dependent on the drugs used in the chemotherapy regimens. This systematic review evaluated the strength of data on efficacy of the addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases were searched. Eligible studies were randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that evaluated chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab in patients with advanced NSCLC. The outcomes included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), response rate (RR), toxicities and treatment related mortality. Hazard ratios (HR) and odds ratios (OR) were used for the meta-analysis and were expressed with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: We included results reported from five RCTs, with a total of 2,252 patients included in the primary analysis, all of them using platinum-based chemotherapy regimens. Compared to chemotherapy alone, the addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy resulted in a significant longer OS (HR 0.89; 95% CI 0.79 to 0.99; p = 0.04), longer PFS (HR 0.73; 95% CI 0.66 to 0.82; p<0.00001) and higher response rates (OR 2.34; 95% CI 1.89 to 2.89; p<0.00001). We found no heterogeneity between trials, in all comparisons. There was a slight increase in toxicities in bevacizumab group, as well as an increased rate of treatment-related mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC prolongs OS, PFS and RR. Considering the toxicities added, and the small absolute benefits found, bevacizumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy can be considered an option in selected patients with advanced NSCLC. However, risks and benefits should be discussed with patients before decision making

Pre-Operative Risk Factors Predict Post-Operative Respiratory Failure after Liver Transplantation

OBJECTIVE: Post-operative pulmonary complications significantly affect patient survival rates, but there is still no conclusive evidence regarding the effect of post-operative respiratory failure after liver transplantation on patient prognosis. This study aimed to predict the risk factors for post-operative respiratory failure (PRF) after liver transplantation and the impact on short-term survival rates. DESIGN: The retrospective observational cohort study was conducted in a twelve-bed adult surgical intensive care unit in northern Taiwan. The medical records of 147 liver transplant patients were reviewed from September 2002 to July 2007. Sixty-two experienced post-operative respiratory failure while the remaining 85 patients did not. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Gender, age, etiology, disease history, pre-operative ventilator use, molecular adsorbent re-circulating system (MARS) use, source of organ transplantation, model for end-stage liver disease score (MELD) and Child-Turcotte-Pugh score calculated immediately before surgery were assessed for the two groups. The length of the intensive care unit stay, admission duration, and mortality within 30 days, 3 months, and 1 year were also evaluated. Using a logistic regression model, post-operative respiratory failure correlated with diabetes mellitus prior to liver transplantation, pre-operative impaired renal function, pre-operative ventilator use, pre-operative MARS use and deceased donor source of organ transplantation (p<0.05). Once liver transplant patients developed PRF, their length of ICU stay and admission duration were prolonged, significantly increasing their mortality and morbidity (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The predictive pre-operative risk factors significantly influenced the occurrence of post-operative respiratory failure after liver transplantation

A study of 82 extended HLA haplotypes in HFE-C282Y homozygous hemochromatosis subjects: relationship to the genetic control of CD8+ T-lymphocyte numbers and severity of iron overload

BACKGROUND: It has been recently demonstrated that CD8+ T-lymphocyte numbers are genetically transmitted in association with the MHC class I region. The present study was designed with the objective of narrowing the region associated with the setting of CD8+ T-lymphocyte numbers in a population of C282Y homozygous hemochromatosis subjects, in whom a high prevalence of abnormally low CD8+ T-lymphocyte counts has been described. METHODS: The study includes 43 C282Y homozygous subjects fully characterized both phenotypically and genotypically. Clinical characterization includes measurements of iron parameters at diagnosis (transferrin saturation and serum ferritin), total body iron stores and T-cell immunophenotyping determined by flow cytometry. Genetic characterization includes HLA class I alleles (A, B and C) and four additional microsatellite markers (D6S265, D6S2222, D6S105 and D6S2239) spanning 5 Megabases in the 6p21.3 region. RESULTS: Eighty-two extended C282Y carrying haplotypes were defined. Single-locus analysis revealed that the HLA-A region was associated with CD8+ T-cell numbers. Multivariate analysis showed that the combinations of the most common HLA-A alleles (HLA-A*03, -A*02 and -A*01) were associated with significantly lower numbers of CD8+ T-lymphocytes (0.30 ± 0.14 × 10(6)/ml), in comparison with subjects carrying only one copy of those alleles (0.46 ± 0.19 × 10(6)/ml) and subjects without any copy of those alleles (0.79 ± 0.15 × 10(6)/ml;p = 0.0001). No differences were observed in CD8+ T-cell counts among control subjects carrying the same combinations of HLA-A alleles (0.47 ± 0.14; 0.45 ± 0.21 and 0.41 ± 0.17 × 10(6)/ml, respectively), therefore not supporting a direct effect of HLA specificity but rather an indirect association with a locus close to HLA-A. Multivariate analysis showed that the combination of the most common HLA-A alleles also have an impact on the clinical expression of HH in terms of iron stores, in males(p = 0.0009). CONCLUSION: The present study provides evidence supporting an inextricable link between extended HLA haplotypes, CD8+ T-lymphocyte numbers and severity of iron overload in hereditary hemochromatosis(HH). It gives additional information to better define a candidate region involved in the regulation of CD8+ T-lymphocyte numbers. A new evolutionary hypothesis concerning the inheritance of the phenotype of low CD8+ T-lymphocyte numbers associated with particular ancestral HLA haplotypes carrying the C282Y mutation and its implication on the clinical heterogeneity of HH is discussed

Enzymatic Depilation of Animal Hide: Identification of Elastase (LasB) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa MCM B-327 as a Depilating Protease

Conventional leather processing involving depilation of animal hide by lime and sulphide treatment generates considerable amounts of chemical waste causing severe environmental pollution. Enzymatic depilation is an environmentally friendly process and has been considered to be a viable alternative to the chemical depilation process. We isolated an extracellular protease from Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain MCM B-327 with high depilation activity using buffalo hide as a substrate. This 33 kDa protease generated a peptide mass fingerprint and de novo sequence that matched perfectly with LasB (elastase), of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In support of this data a lasB mutant of MCM B-327 strain lacked depilatory activity and failed to produce LasB. LasB heterologously over-produced and purified from Escherichia coli also exhibited high depilating activity. Moreover, reintroduction of the lasB gene to the P. aeruginosa lasB mutant via a knock-in strategy also successfully restored depilation activity thus confirming the role of LasB as the depilating enzyme