ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF SECRETORY MATERIALS OF SOME SCALE INSECTS.

The antimicrobial activity of the secretory materials associated with the test or wax covers of five scale insects was tested for Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The scale insects studied were the margarodid Icerya aegyptiaca (Douglas), the soft wax scale Ceroplastes rusci (Linnaeus) and three hard scales: Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell), Lepidosaphes beckiiNerwman and Parlatoria zyziphi (Lucas). The Gram-positive bacteria found included Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactia , while the Gram-negative bacteria included Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis. The results of these observations revealed that there was some highly significant antimicrobial activity associated the secretary materials of the diaspidids A. aurantii , L. beckii and P. zyziphus. The antimicrobial activity observed varied according to type of the pathogenic bacteria it was used against. Thus, the activity from all three species was effective against Staphylococcus aureus, but that of A. aurantii and P. zyziphus was less effective against Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis

Best practice management guidelines for fibrous dysplasia/McCune-Albright syndrome : a consensus statement from the FD/MAS international consortium

Fibrous Dysplasia / McCune Albright syndrome (FD/MAS) represents a wide spectrum of diseases due to somatic gain-of-function mutations of the GNAS gene. The mutation leads to overactivity in the target tissues and to a wide phenotype of clinical features that vary in severity and age of onset. The rarity of the disease and its variable presentation to multiple specialities often leads to misdiagnosis and inappropriate variability in investigations and treatments. To address this, our international consortium of clinicians, researchers, and patients’ advocates has developed pragmatic clinical guidelines for best clinical practice for the definition, diagnosis, staging, treatment and monitoring for FD/MAS to empower patients and support clinical teams in both general and specialised healthcare settings. With the lack of strong evidence to inform care, the guidelines were developed based on review of published literature, long-standing extensive experience of authors, input from other healthcare professionals involved in the care of FD/MAS patients and feedback from patients and patient groups across the globe. This has led to the formulation of a set of statements to inform healthcare professionals, patients, their families, carers and patient groups of the best practice of care. It is anticipated the implementation of these recommendations will lead to improvement in the care of patients with FD/MAS internationally

A genome-wide association scan (GWAS) for mean telomere length within the COGS project: Identified loci show little association with hormone-related cancer risk

Mean telomere length (TL) in blood cells is heritable and has been reported to be associated with risks of several diseases, including cancer. We conducted a meta-analysis of three GWAS for TL (total n=2240) and selected 1629 variants for replication via the "iCOGS" custom genotyping array. All ~200 000 iCOGS variants were analysed with TL, and those displaying associations in healthy controls (n = 15 065) were further tested in breast cancer cases (n = 11 024). We found a novel TL association (Ptrend < 4 × 10-10) at 3p14.4 close to PXK and evidence (Ptrend < 7 × 10-7) for TL loci at 6p22.1 (ZNF311) and 20q11.2 (BCL2L1). We additionally confirmed (Ptrend < 5 × 10-14) the previously reported loci at 3q26.2 (TERC), 5p15.3 (TERT) and 10q24.3 (OBFC1) and found supportive evidence (Ptrend < 5 × 10-4) for the published loci at 2p16.2 (ACYP2), 4q32.2 (NAF1) and 20q13.3 (RTEL1). SNPs tagging these loci explain TL differences of up to 731 bp (corresponding to 18% of total TL in healthy individuals), however, they display little direct evidence for association with breast, ovarian or prostate cancer risks