Echocardiographic imaging of tricuspid and pulmonary valve abnormalities in primary ovarian carcinoid tumor

Carcinoid is a rare malignancy originating from enterochromaffin cells and is clinically characterized by flushing, diarrhea and bronchospasm, due to secretion of vasoactive substances. A dreaded complication is carcinoid heart disease, which mainly affects right cardiac chambers, resulting in thickened, immobile and retracted tricuspid and pulmonary valves. In the current report, a case of a 60-year old female presenting with symptoms of right heart failure is described. Transthoracic two-dimensional and real-time three-dimensional echocardiography findings, as well as biochemical markers, including pro-BNP and NT-pro-BNP, were consistent with carcinoid syndrome. The histological diagnosis of carcinoid was confirmed after surgical resection of an ovarian mass

Investigation of β-carotene–gelatin composite particles with a multiwavelength UV/vis detector for the analytical ultracentrifuge

A multiwavelength UV/vis detector for the analytical ultracentrifuge (MWL-AUC) has been developed recently. In this work, β-carotene–gelatin composite particles are investigated with MWL-AUC. Band centrifugation with a Vinograd cell is used to ensure maximum sample separation. Spectral changes of the system are observed in dependence of the sedimentation coefficient and are attributed to a previously unknown inhomogeneity of the β-carotene chemical composition with both H- and J-aggregates coexisting in a mixture. In addition, our data suggest that pure H- and J-aggregates exist in a particle while their relative concentrations in a mixture determine the color characteristics of the sample. The unique abilities and properties of MWL-AUC include sedimentation coefficient distributions for all possible wavelengths, full UV/vis spectra of each different species in the mixture and 3D movies of the sedimentation process. These properties significantly extend the scope of the analytical ultracentrifuge technique and show that complex biopolymer multicomponent mixtures can be resolved into their individual species

Composite Higgs Search at the LHC

The Higgs boson production cross-sections and decay rates depend, within the Standard Model (SM), on a single unknown parameter, the Higgs mass. In composite Higgs models where the Higgs boson emerges as a pseudo-Goldstone boson from a strongly-interacting sector, additional parameters control the Higgs properties which then deviate from the SM ones. These deviations modify the LEP and Tevatron exclusion bounds and significantly affect the searches for the Higgs boson at the LHC. In some cases, all the Higgs couplings are reduced, which results in deterioration of the Higgs searches but the deviations of the Higgs couplings can also allow for an enhancement of the gluon-fusion production channel, leading to higher statistical significances. The search in the H to gamma gamma channel can also be substantially improved due to an enhancement of the branching fraction for the decay of the Higgs boson into a pair of photons.Comment: 32 pages, 16 figure

Liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear multifragmentation

The equation of state of nuclear matter suggests that at suitable beam energies the disassembling hot system formed in heavy ion collisions will pass through a liquid-gas coexistence region. Searching for the signatures of the phase transition has been a very important focal point of experimental endeavours in heavy ion collisions, in the last fifteen years. Simultaneously theoretical models have been developed to provide information about the equation of state and reaction mechanisms consistent with the experimental observables. This article is a review of this endeavour.Comment: 63 pages, 27 figures, submitted to Adv. Nucl. Phys. Some typos corrected, minor text change

CCL3L1 copy number, CCR5 genotype and susceptibility to tuberculosis

Background: Tuberculosis is a major infectious disease and functional studies have provided evidence that both the chemokine MIP-1α and its receptor CCR5 play a role in susceptibility to TB. Thus by measuring copy number variation of CCL3L1, one of the genes that encode MIP-1α, and genotyping a functional promoter polymorphism -2459A > G in CCR5 (rs1799987) we investigate the influence of MIP-1α and CCR5, independently and combined, in susceptibility to clinically active TB in three populations, a Peruvian population (n = 1132), a !Xhosa population (n = 605) and a South African Coloured population (n = 221). The three populations include patients with clinically diagnosed pulmonary TB, as well as other, less prevalent forms of extrapulmonary TB. Methods and results: Copy number of CCL3L1 was measured using the paralogue ratio test and exhibited ranges between 0–6 copies per diploid genome (pdg) in Peru, between 0–12 pdg in !Xhosa samples and between 0–10 pdg in South African Coloured samples. The CCR5 promoter polymorphism was observed to differ significantly in allele frequency between populations (*A; Peru f = 0.67, !Xhosa f = 0.38, Coloured f = 0.48). Conclusions: The case–control association studies performed however find, surprisingly, no evidence for an influence of variation in genes coding for MIP-1α or CCR5 individually or together in susceptibility to clinically active TB in these populations

Structure Collisions between Interacting Proteins

Protein-protein interactions take place at defined binding interfaces. One protein may bind two or more proteins at different interfaces at the same time. So far it has been commonly accepted that non-overlapping interfaces allow a given protein to bind other proteins simultaneously while no collisions occur between the binding protein structures. To test this assumption, we performed a comprehensive analysis of structural protein interactions to detect potential collisions. Our results did not indicate cases of biologically relevant collisions in the Protein Data Bank of protein structures. However, we discovered a number of collisions that originate from alternative protein conformations or quaternary structures due to different experimental conditions

Altered cardiac autonomic nervous function in depression

Background:Depression is an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease. Autonomic instability may play a mediating or moderating role in this relationship; however this is not well understood. The objective of this study was to explore cardiac autonomic function and cardiac arrhythmia in depression, the correlation between depression severity and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) related indices, and the prevalence of arrhythmia.Methods:Individuals (n = 53) with major depression as assessed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, who had a Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) score ≥20 and a Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale score > 53 were compared to 53 healthy individuals, matched for age and gender. Multichannel Electrocardiograph ECG-92C data were collected over 24 hours. Long-term changes in HRV were used to assess the following vagally mediated changes in autonomic tone, expressed as time domain indices: Standard deviation of the NN intervals (SDNN), standard deviation of 5 min averaged NN intervals (SDANN), Root Mean Square of the Successive Differences (RMSSD) and percentage of NN intervals > 50 ms different from preceding interval (pNN50). Pearson’s correlations were conducted to explore the strength of the association between depression severity (using the SDS and HRV related indices, specifically SDNN and low frequency domain / high frequency domain (LF/HF)).Results:The values of SDNN, SDANN, RMSSD, PNN50 and HF were lower in the depression group compared to the control group (P<.05). The mean value of the LF in the depression group was higher than the in control group (P<.05). Furthermore the ratio of LF/HF was higher among the depression group than the control group (P<.05). A linear relationship was shown to exist between the severity of the depression and HRV indices. In the depression group, the prevalence of arrhythmia was significantly higher than in the control group (P<.05), particularly supraventricular arrhythmias.Conclusions:Our findings suggest that depression is accompanied by dysfunction of the cardiac autonomic nervous system, and further, that depression severity is linked to severity of this dysfunction. Individuals with depression appear to be susceptible to premature atrial and/or ventricular disease

The Open AUC Project

Progress in analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) has been hindered by obstructions to hardware innovation and by software incompatibility. In this paper, we announce and outline the Open AUC Project. The goals of the Open AUC Project are to stimulate AUC innovation by improving instrumentation, detectors, acquisition and analysis software, and collaborative tools. These improvements are needed for the next generation of AUC-based research. The Open AUC Project combines on-going work from several different groups. A new base instrument is described, one that is designed from the ground up to be an analytical ultracentrifuge. This machine offers an open architecture, hardware standards, and application programming interfaces for detector developers. All software will use the GNU Public License to assure that intellectual property is available in open source format. The Open AUC strategy facilitates collaborations, encourages sharing, and eliminates the chronic impediments that have plagued AUC innovation for the last 20 years. This ultracentrifuge will be equipped with multiple and interchangeable optical tracks so that state-of-the-art electronics and improved detectors will be available for a variety of optical systems. The instrument will be complemented by a new rotor, enhanced data acquisition and analysis software, as well as collaboration software. Described here are the instrument, the modular software components, and a standardized database that will encourage and ease integration of data analysis and interpretation software

Polyglutamine Induced Misfolding of Huntingtin Exon1 is Modulated by the Flanking Sequences

Polyglutamine (polyQ) expansion in exon1 (XN1) of the huntingtin protein is linked to Huntington's disease. When the number of glutamines exceeds a threshold of approximately 36–40 repeats, XN1 can readily form amyloid aggregates similar to those associated with disease. Many experiments suggest that misfolding of monomeric XN1 plays an important role in the length-dependent aggregation. Elucidating the misfolding of a XN1 monomer can help determine the molecular mechanism of XN1 aggregation and potentially help develop strategies to inhibit XN1 aggregation. The flanking sequences surrounding the polyQ region can play a critical role in determining the structural rearrangement and aggregation mechanism of XN1. Few experiments have studied XN1 in its entirety, with all flanking regions. To obtain structural insights into the misfolding of XN1 toward amyloid aggregation, we perform molecular dynamics simulations on monomeric XN1 with full flanking regions, a variant missing the polyproline regions, which are hypothesized to prevent aggregation, and an isolated polyQ peptide (Qn). For each of these three constructs, we study glutamine repeat lengths of 23, 36, 40 and 47. We find that polyQ peptides have a positive correlation between their probability to form a β-rich misfolded state and their expansion length. We also find that the flanking regions of XN1 affect its probability to^x_page_count=28 form a β-rich state compared to the isolated polyQ. Particularly, the polyproline regions form polyproline type II helices and decrease the probability of the polyQ region to form a β-rich state. Additionally, by lengthening polyQ, the first N-terminal 17 residues are more likely to adopt a β-sheet conformation rather than an α-helix conformation. Therefore, our molecular dynamics study provides a structural insight of XN1 misfolding and elucidates the possible role of the flanking sequences in XN1 aggregation

Gene expression profiles in human HepG2 cells treated with extracts of the Tamarindus indica fruit pulp

Tamarindus indicaL. (T. indica) or locally known as asam jawa belongs to the family of Leguminosae. The fruit pulp had been reported to have antioxidant activities and possess hypolipidaemic effects. In this study, we attempted to investigate the gene expression patterns in human hepatoma HepG2 cell line in response to treatment with low concentration of the fruit pulp extracts. Microarray analysis using Affymetrix Human Genome 1.0 S.T arrays was used in the study. Microarray data were validated using semi-quantitative RT–PCR and real-time RT–PCR. Amongst the significantly up-regulated genes were those that code for the metallothioneins (MT1M, MT1F, MT1X) and glutathione S-transferases (GSTA1, GSTA2, GST02) that are involved in stress response. APOA4, APOA5, ABCG5 and MTTP genes were also significantly regulated that could be linked to hypolipidaemic activities of the T. indica fruit pulp