Atrial and placental melanoma metastasis: a case report and literature review

Malignant melanoma can metastasize to virtually any organ of the body. The aggressiveness is determined by the primary site, depth of dermal invasion, presence or absence of ulceration, lymphovascular infiltration and regional lymph node involvement. We report a case of a pregnant woman with a previous history of stage 3 melanoma who presented with cardiac metastasis and placental melanoma infiltration. A review of literature on cardiac and placental involvement of melanoma is also provided

Hodgkin's lymphoma presenting with heart failure: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Cardiac involvement in malignant lymphoma is one of the least investigated subjects in oncology. This article reports a case of cardiac involvement in Hodgkin's lymphoma which presented as heart failure.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of an 8-year-old Afghan girl with Hodgkin's lymphoma. The disease presented with systemic signs and symptoms, including abdominal distension, weakness, pallor, chills, fever, generalized edema, hepatosplenomegaly and generalized lymphadenopathy, as well as signs of heart failure. Test results showed a rare form of heart metastasis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We report a case of Hodgkin's lymphoma with metastasis to the heart, detected premortem. Although the involvement of the heart in a malignancy is relatively common, premortem detection is unusual and only few studies have reported it in the literature.</p

Cytomegalovirus Infection of the Colon Presenting as a Mass-Like Lesion

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is responsible for the most common opportunistic infections in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The colon is a common site for these infections in patients positive for human immunodeficiency virus. CMV rarely presents as an intraluminal inflammatory mass in the colon. Here we report the case of a CMV infection presenting as a mass-like lesion in an AIDS patient. The clinical diagnosis of CMV infection is largely based on the characteristic endoscopic appearance. Endoscopic procedures are encouraged early in the course of CMV infection in immunocompromised patients. CMV pseudotumors along with malignancy should be part of the endoscopic evaluation in patients with AIDS

Brugia malayi Antigen (BmA) inhibits HIV-1 trans-infection but neither BmA nor ES-62 alter HIV-1 infectivity of DC induced CD4+ Th-cells

One of the hallmarks of HIV-1 disease is the association of heightened CD4+ T-cell activation with HIV-1 replication. Parasitic helminths including filarial nematodes have evolved numerous and complex mechanisms to skew, dampen and evade human immune responses suggesting that HIV-1 infection may be modulated in co-infected individuals. Here we studied the effects of two filarial nematode products, adult worm antigen from Brugia malayi (BmA) and excretory-secretory product 62 (ES-62) from Acanthocheilonema viteae on HIV-1 infection in vitro. Neither BmA nor ES-62 influenced HIV-1 replication in CD4+ enriched T-cells, with either a CCR5- or CXCR4-using virus. BmA, but not ES-62, had the capacity to bind the C-type lectin dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3-grabbing non-integrin (DC-SIGN) thereby inhibiting HIV-1 trans-infection of CD4+ enriched T-cells. As for their effect on DCs, neither BmA nor ES-62 could enhance or inhibit DC maturation as determined by CD83, CD86 and HLA-DR expression, or the production of IL-6, IL-10, IL-12 and TNF-α. As expected, due to the unaltered DC phenotype, no differences were found in CD4+ T helper (Th) cell phenotypes induced by DCs treated with either BmA or ES-62. Moreover, the HIV-1 susceptibility of the Th-cell populations induced by BmA or ES-62 exposed DCs was unaffected for both CCR5- and CXCR4-using HIV-1 viruses. In conclusion, although BmA has the potential capacity to interfere with HIV-1 transmission or initial viral dissemination through preventing the virus from interacting with DCs, no differences in the Th-cell polarizing capacity of DCs exposed to BmA or ES-62 were observed. Neither antigenic source demonstrated beneficial or detrimental effects on the HIV-1 susceptibility of CD4+ Th-cells induced by exposed DCs

Myocarditis in CD8-Depleted SIV-Infected Rhesus Macaques after Short-Term Dual Therapy with Nucleoside and Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

Background: Although highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has dramatically reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with HIV infection, a number of antiretroviral toxicities have been described, including myocardial toxicity resulting from the use of nucleotide and nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). Current treatment guidelines recommend the use of HAART regimens containing two NRTIs for initial therapy of HIV-1 positive individuals; however, potential cardiotoxicity resulting from treatment with multiple NRTIs has not been addressed. Methodology/Principal Findings: We examined myocardial tissue from twelve CD8 lymphocyte-depleted adult rhesus macaques, including eight animals infected with simian immunodeficiency virus, four of which received combined antiretroviral therapy (CART) consisting of two NRTIs [(9-R-2-Phosphonomethoxypropyl Adenine) (PMPA) and (+/−)-beta-2′,3′-dideoxy-5-fluoro-3′-thiacytidine (RCV)] for 28 days. Multifocal infiltrates of mononuclear inflammatory cells were present in the myocardium of all macaques that received CART, but not untreated SIV-positive animals or SIV-negative controls. Macrophages were the predominant inflammatory cells within lesions, as shown by immunoreactivity for the macrophage markers Iba1 and CD68. Heart specimens from monkeys that received CART had significantly lower virus burdens than untreated animals (p<0.05), but significantly greater quantities of TNF-α mRNA than either SIV-positive untreated animals or uninfected controls (p<0.05). Interferon-γ (IFN-γ), IL-1β and CXCL11 mRNA were upregulated in heart tissue from SIV-positive monkeys, independent of antiretroviral treatment, but CXCL9 mRNA was only upregulated in heart tissue from macaques that received CART. Conclusions/Significance: These results suggest that short-term treatment with multiple NRTIs may be associated with myocarditis, and demonstrate that the CD8-depleted SIV-positive rhesus monkey is a useful model for studying the cardiotoxic effects of combined antiretroviral therapy in the setting of immunodeficiency virus infection

Uncharted waters: rare and unclassified cardiomyopathies characterized on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has undergone considerable technology advances in recent years, so that it is now entering into mainstream cardiac imaging practice. In particular, CMR is proving to be a valuable imaging tool in the detection, morphological assessment and functional assessment of cardiomyopathies. Although our understanding of this broad group of heart disorders continues to expand, it is an evolving group of entities, with the rarer cardiomyopathies remaining poorly understood or even unclassified. In this review, we describe the clinical and pathophysiological aspects of several of the rare/unclassified cardiomyopathies and their appearance on CMR

Coordinating Environmental Genomics and Geochemistry Reveals Metabolic Transitions in a Hot Spring Ecosystem

We have constructed a conceptual model of biogeochemical cycles and metabolic and microbial community shifts within a hot spring ecosystem via coordinated analysis of the “Bison Pool” (BP) Environmental Genome and a complementary contextual geochemical dataset of ∼75 geochemical parameters. 2,321 16S rRNA clones and 470 megabases of environmental sequence data were produced from biofilms at five sites along the outflow of BP, an alkaline hot spring in Sentinel Meadow (Lower Geyser Basin) of Yellowstone National Park. This channel acts as a >22 m gradient of decreasing temperature, increasing dissolved oxygen, and changing availability of biologically important chemical species, such as those containing nitrogen and sulfur. Microbial life at BP transitions from a 92°C chemotrophic streamer biofilm community in the BP source pool to a 56°C phototrophic mat community. We improved automated annotation of the BP environmental genomes using BLAST-based Markov clustering. We have also assigned environmental genome sequences to individual microbial community members by complementing traditional homology-based assignment with nucleotide word-usage algorithms, allowing more than 70% of all reads to be assigned to source organisms. This assignment yields high genome coverage in dominant community members, facilitating reconstruction of nearly complete metabolic profiles and in-depth analysis of the relation between geochemical and metabolic changes along the outflow. We show that changes in environmental conditions and energy availability are associated with dramatic shifts in microbial communities and metabolic function. We have also identified an organism constituting a novel phylum in a metabolic “transition” community, located physically between the chemotroph- and phototroph-dominated sites. The complementary analysis of biogeochemical and environmental genomic data from BP has allowed us to build ecosystem-based conceptual models for this hot spring, reconstructing whole metabolic networks in order to illuminate community roles in shaping and responding to geochemical variability

Games of Incomplete Information and Myopic Equilibria

A new concept of an equilibrium in games is introduced that solves an open question posed by A. Neyman