Two cases of "cannabis acute psychosis" following the administration of oral cannabis

BACKGROUND: Cannabis is the most commonly used illegal drug and its therapeutic aspects have a growing interest. Short-term psychotic reactions have been described but not clearly with synthetic oral THC, especially in occasional users. CASE PRESENTATIONS: We report two cases of healthy subjects who were occasional but regular cannabis users without psychiatric history who developed transient psychotic symptoms (depersonalization, paranoid feelings and derealisation) following oral administration of cannabis. In contrast to most other case reports where circumstances and blood concentrations are unknown, the two cases reported here happened under experimental conditions with all subjects negative for cannabis, opiates, amphetamines, cocaine, benzodiazepines and alcohol, and therefore the ingested dose, the time-events of effects on behavior and performance as well as the cannabinoid blood levels were documented. CONCLUSION: While the oral route of administration achieves only limited blood concentrations, significant psychotic reactions may occur

A review of abnormalities in the perception of visual illusions in schizophrenia

Specific abnormalities of vision in schizophrenia have been observed to affect high-level and some low-level integration mechanisms, suggesting that people with schizophrenia may experience anomalies across different stages in the visual system affecting either early or late processing or both. Here, we review the research into visual illusion perception in schizophrenia and the issues which previous research has faced. One general finding that emerged from the literature is that those with schizophrenia are mostly immune to the effects of high-level illusory displays, but this effect is not consistent across all low-level illusions. The present review suggests that this resistance is due to the weakening of top–down perceptual mechanisms and may be relevant to the understanding of symptoms of visual distortion rather than hallucinations as previously thought

Pyrosequencing of the Camptotheca acuminata transcriptome reveals putative genes involved in camptothecin biosynthesis and transport

Background: Camptotheca acuminata is a Nyssaceae plant, often called the "happy tree", which is indigenous in Southern China. C. acuminata produces the terpenoid indole alkaloid, camptothecin (CPT), which exhibits clinical effects in various cancer treatments. Despite its importance, little is known about the transcriptome of C. acuminata and the mechanism of CPT biosynthesis, as only few nucleotide sequences are included in the GenBank database.Results: From a constructed cDNA library of young C. acuminata leaves, a total of 30,358 unigenes, with an average length of 403 bp, were obtained after assembly of 74,858 high quality reads using GS De Novo assembler software. Through functional annotation, a total of 21,213 unigenes were annotated at least once against the NCBI nucleotide (Nt), non-redundant protein (Nr), Uniprot/SwissProt, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Arabidopsis thaliana proteome (TAIR) databases. Further analysis identified 521 ESTs representing 20 enzyme genes that are involved in the backbone of the CPT biosynthetic pathway in the library. Three putative genes in the upstream pathway, including genes for geraniol-10-hydroxylase (CaPG10H), secologanin synthase (CaPSCS), and strictosidine synthase (CaPSTR) were cloned and analyzed. The expression level of the three genes was also detected using qRT-PCR in C. acuminata. With respect to the branch pathway of CPT synthesis, six cytochrome P450s transcripts were selected as candidate transcripts by detection of transcript expression in different tissues using qRT-PCR. In addition, one glucosidase gene was identified that might participate in CPT biosynthesis. For CPT transport, three of 21 transcripts for multidrug resistance protein (MDR) transporters were also screened from the dataset by their annotation result and gene expression analysis.Conclusion: This study produced a large amount of transcriptome data from C. acuminata by 454 pyrosequencing. According to EST annotation, catalytic features prediction, and expression analysis, novel putative transcripts involved in CPT biosynthesis and transport were discovered in C. acuminata. This study will facilitate further identification of key enzymes and transporter genes in C. acuminata

Capacity and Autonomy : An Exploration of Fukuyama’s Governance Hypothesis

Peer reviewe

Population level survival of patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia in Germany compared to the US in the early 21st century

INTRODUCTION: The advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors has produced 5-year survival of 90 + % for chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) patients in clinical trials. However, population level survival has been lower, especially in older patients. Here, we examine survival of patients with CML in Germany and compare it to survival of patients in the United States (US). METHODS: Data were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database in the US and 11 cancer registries in Germany. Patients 15–69 years old diagnosed with CML were included in the analysis. Period analysis for 2002–2006 was used to provide the most up-to-date possible estimates of five-year relative survival. RESULTS: Five-year relative survival was 68.7% overall in Germany and 72.7% in the US. Survival was higher in the US for all age groups except for ages 15–39 years, but the difference was only statistically significant for ages 50–59 years (at 67.5% vs 77.7% in Germany and the US, respectively). Survival decreased with age, ranging from 83.1% and 81.9%, respectively, in Germany and the US for patients 15–39 years old to 54.2% and 54.5%, respectively, in patients 65–69 years old. Survival increased between 2002 and 2006 by 12.0% points in Germany and 17.1% points in the US. CONCLUSIONS: Five-year survival estimates were higher in the US than in Germany overall, but the difference was only significant for ages 50–59 years. Survival did not equal that seen in clinical trials for either country, but strong improvement in survival was seen between 2002 and 2006

Transcriptome analysis of Bupleurum chinense focusing on genes involved in the biosynthesis of saikosaponins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Bupleurum chinense </it>DC. is a widely used traditional Chinese medicinal plant. Saikosaponins are the major bioactive constituents of <it>B. chinense</it>, but relatively little is known about saikosaponin biosynthesis. The 454 pyrosequencing technology provides a promising opportunity for finding novel genes that participate in plant metabolism. Consequently, this technology may help to identify the candidate genes involved in the saikosaponin biosynthetic pathway.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>One-quarter of the 454 pyrosequencing runs produced a total of 195, 088 high-quality reads, with an average read length of 356 bases (NCBI SRA accession SRA039388). A <it>de novo </it>assembly generated 24, 037 unique sequences (22, 748 contigs and 1, 289 singletons), 12, 649 (52.6%) of which were annotated against three public protein databases using a basic local alignment search tool (E-value ≤1e-10). All unique sequences were compared with NCBI expressed sequence tags (ESTs) (237) and encoding sequences (44) from the <it>Bupleurum </it>genus, and with a Sanger-sequenced EST dataset (3, 111). The 23, 173 (96.4%) unique sequences obtained in the present study represent novel <it>Bupleurum </it>genes. The ESTs of genes related to saikosaponin biosynthesis were found to encode known enzymes that catalyze the formation of the saikosaponin backbone; 246 cytochrome P450 (<it>P450</it>s) and 102 glycosyltransferases (<it>GT</it>s) unique sequences were also found in the 454 dataset. Full length cDNAs of 7 <it>P450</it>s and 7 uridine diphosphate <it>GT</it>s (<it>UGT</it>s) were verified by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction or by cloning using 5' and/or 3' rapid amplification of cDNA ends. Two <it>P450</it>s and three <it>UGT</it>s were identified as the most likely candidates involved in saikosaponin biosynthesis. This finding was based on the coordinate up-regulation of their expression with <it>β-AS </it>in methyl jasmonate-treated adventitious roots and on their similar expression patterns with <it>β-AS </it>in various <it>B. chinense </it>tissues.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A collection of high-quality ESTs for <it>B. chinense </it>obtained by 454 pyrosequencing is provided here for the first time. These data should aid further research on the functional genomics of <it>B. chinense </it>and other <it>Bupleurum </it>species. The candidate genes for enzymes involved in saikosaponin biosynthesis, especially the <it>P450</it>s and <it>UGT</it>s, that were revealed provide a substantial foundation for follow-up research on the metabolism and regulation of the saikosaponins.</p

Worldwide comparison of survival from childhood leukaemia for 1995–2009, by subtype, age, and sex (CONCORD-2): a population-based study of individual data for 89 828 children from 198 registries in 53 countries

Background Global inequalities in access to health care are reflected in differences in cancer survival. The CONCORD programme was designed to assess worldwide differences and trends in population-based cancer survival. In this population-based study, we aimed to estimate survival inequalities globally for several subtypes of childhood leukaemia. Methods Cancer registries participating in CONCORD were asked to submit tumour registrations for all children aged 0-14 years who were diagnosed with leukaemia between Jan 1, 1995, and Dec 31, 2009, and followed up until Dec 31, 2009. Haematological malignancies were defined by morphology codes in the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, third revision. We excluded data from registries from which the data were judged to be less reliable, or included only lymphomas, and data from countries in which data for fewer than ten children were available for analysis. We also excluded records because of a missing date of birth, diagnosis, or last known vital status. We estimated 5-year net survival (ie, the probability of surviving at least 5 years after diagnosis, after controlling for deaths from other causes [background mortality]) for children by calendar period of diagnosis (1995-99, 2000-04, and 2005-09), sex, and age at diagnosis (< 1, 1-4, 5-9, and 10-14 years, inclusive) using appropriate life tables. We estimated age-standardised net survival for international comparison of survival trends for precursor-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Findings We analysed data from 89 828 children from 198 registries in 53 countries. During 1995-99, 5-year agestandardised net survival for all lymphoid leukaemias combined ranged from 10.6% (95% CI 3.1-18.2) in the Chinese registries to 86.8% (81.6-92.0) in Austria. International differences in 5-year survival for childhood leukaemia were still large as recently as 2005-09, when age-standardised survival for lymphoid leukaemias ranged from 52.4% (95% CI 42.8-61.9) in Cali, Colombia, to 91.6% (89.5-93.6) in the German registries, and for AML ranged from 33.3% (18.9-47.7) in Bulgaria to 78.2% (72.0-84.3) in German registries. Survival from precursor-cell ALL was very close to that of all lymphoid leukaemias combined, with similar variation. In most countries, survival from AML improved more than survival from ALL between 2000-04 and 2005-09. Survival for each type of leukaemia varied markedly with age: survival was highest for children aged 1-4 and 5-9 years, and lowest for infants (younger than 1 year). There was no systematic difference in survival between boys and girls. Interpretation Global inequalities in survival from childhood leukaemia have narrowed with time but remain very wide for both ALL and AML. These results provide useful information for health policy makers on the effectiveness of health-care systems and for cancer policy makers to reduce inequalities in childhood survival