Actin Cytoskeleton and Golgi Involvement in Barley stripe mosaic virus Movement and Cell Wall Localization of Triple Gene Block Proteins.

Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) induces massive actin filament thickening at the infection front of infected Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. To determine the mechanisms leading to actin remodeling, fluorescent protein fusions of the BSMV triple gene block (TGB) proteins were coexpressed in cells with the actin marker DsRed: Talin. TGB ectopic expression experiments revealed that TGB3 is a major elicitor of filament thickening, that TGB2 resulted in formation of intermediate DsRed:Talin filaments, and that TGB1 alone had no obvious effects on actin filament structure. Latrunculin B (LatB) treatments retarded BSMV cell-to-cell movement, disrupted actin filament organization, and dramatically decreased the proportion of paired TGB3 foci appearing at the cell wall (CW). BSMV infection of transgenic plants tagged with GFP-KDEL exhibited membrane proliferation and vesicle formation that were especially evident around the nucleus. Similar membrane proliferation occurred in plants expressing TGB2 and/or TGB3, and DsRed: Talin fluorescence in these plants colocalized with the ER vesicles. TGB3 also associated with the Golgi apparatus and overlapped with cortical vesicles appearing at the cell periphery. Brefeldin A treatments disrupted Golgi and also altered vesicles at the CW, but failed to interfere with TGB CW localization. Our results indicate that actin cytoskeleton interactions are important in BSMV cell-to-cell movement and for CW localization of TGB3

Preparation of polylactide-co-glycolide nanoparticles incorporating celecoxib and their antitumor activity against brain tumor cells

Tae-Ho Kim1*, Young-Il Jeong2*, Shu-Guang Jin2, Jian Pei2, Tae-Young Jung1, Kyung-Sub Moon1, In-Young Kim1, Sam-Suk Kang1, Shin Jung1,21Department of Neurosurgery, 2Brain Tumor Research Laboratory, Chonnam National University Research Institute of Medical Science, Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital and Medical School, Gwangju, Republic of Korea *These authors contributed equally to this work. Background: Celecoxib, a cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitor, has been reported to mediate growth inhibitory effects and to induce apoptosis in various cancer cell lines. In this study, we examined the potential effects of celecoxib on glioma cell proliferation, migration, and inhibition of COX-2 expression in vitro. Methods: Celecoxib was incorporated into poly DL-lactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) nanoparticles for antitumor drug delivery. Results: PLGA nanoparticles incorporating celecoxib had spherical shapes and their particle sizes were in the range of 50–200 nm. Drug-loading efficiency was not significantly changed according to the solvent used, except for acetone. Celecoxib was released from the PLGA nanoparticles for more than 2 days, and the higher the drug content, the longer the duration of drug release. PLGA nanoparticles incorporating celecoxib showed cytotoxicity against U87MG tumor cells similar to that of celecoxib administered alone. Furthermore, celecoxib did not affect the degree of migration of U87MG cells. PLGA nanoparticles incorporating celecoxib showed dose-dependent cytotoxicity similar to that of celecoxib alone in C6 rat glioma cells. Western blot assay of the C6 cells showed that neither celecoxib alone nor PLGA nanoparticles incorporating celecoxib affected COX-2 expression. Conclusion: PLGA nanoparticles incorporating celecoxib had antitumor activity similar to that of celecoxib alone, even though these particles did not affect the degree of migration or COX-2 expression in the tumor cells. Keywords: celecoxib, cyclo-oxygenase-2, PLGA nanoparticles, glioma, antitumor activit

Metastatic Glioblastoma in Cervical Lymph Node after Repeated Craniotomies: Report of a Case with Diagnosis by Fine Needle Aspiration

Head and neck metastasis from glioblastoma is rare event usually seen in patients with previous and repeated surgery. We present the case of a 35 yr-old-female suffering from metastatic glioblastoma in cervical lymph node that was diagnosed by fine needle aspiration. During the last 4 yr, she had four separate craniotomies for the recurrent brain tumors. Cytological diagnosis was made by light microscopy with immunostaining with glial fibrillay acid protein. Chemotherapy with vincristine and procarbazine was performed. The cervical masses were decreased in size and some disappeared while the intracranial glioblastoma continued to grow during chemotherapy. We discuss possible explanations for these different courses after chemotherapy in extraneural metastatic glioblastoma and primary intracranial glioblastoma

The Use of T1 Sagittal Angle in Predicting Cervical Disc Degeneration

Study DesignRetrospective evaluation.PurposeTo analyze the effect of T1 slope on degree of degeneration in patients with cervical disc degeneration.Overview of LiteratureThe T1 slope is well known parameter that may be very useful in evaluating sagittal balance. There are no reports on the analysis of the relationship between T1 slope and cervical disc degeneration. We hypothesized that T1 slope has an effect on the degree of cervical degeneration.MethodsSixty patients who had cervical spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in our orthopedic clinic were enrolled. Patients were divided into two groups according to T1 slope. Radiologic parameters obtained from radiography and cervical spine MRI were compared between low T1 slope group (≤25) and high T1 slope group (>25).ResultsAmong low T1 slope group, average degeneration grade of each cervical segment was 2.65 in C2-3, 2.50 in C3-4, 2.62 in C4-5, 3.23 in C5-6, and 2.81 in C6-7. And that of high T1 group was 2.35 in C2-3, 2.32 in C3-4, 2.59 in C4-5, 2.79 in C5-6, and 2.32 in C6-7. Grade of degeneration of low T1 group was significantly higher, as compared with high T1 group in C5-6 (p=0.028) and C6-7 (p=0.009). Percentage of high grade degeneration of more than grand III was 65.4% in low T1 group and 32.4% in high T1 group (p=0.018). Risk of high grade degeneration of C6-7 was significantly higher in low T1 group (odds ratio, 5.63; 95% confidence interval, 1.665-19.057; p=0.005).ConclusionsPatients with low T1 slope had higher grade of degeneration regardless of age and gender. Low T1 slope is a potential risk factor of cervical spondylosis especially in the C6-7 cervical segment

Intracranial metastasis from primary transitional cell carcinoma of female urethra: case report & review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the female urethra is a rare urological malignancy, and intracranial metastasis of this cancer has not yet been reported in the literature. This review is intended to present a case of multiple intracranial metastasis in a female patient with a remote history of primary urethral TCC.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>A 49-year-old woman, presented with a prolapsed mass in urethral orifice that was diagnosed as primary urethral TCC with distant lung and multiple bone metastases. The patient subsequently underwent chemotherapy under various regimens. A year later, the patient developed headache and vomiting which as was found to be due to multiple intracranial metastasis. The patient underwent surgical resection of the largest lesion located on the cerebellum, and consecutively gamma knife radiosurgery was performed for other small-sized lesions. Pathological examination of the resected mass revealed a metastatic carcinoma from a known urethral TCC. Serial work-up of systemic metastasis revealed concomitant aggravation of lung, spleen, and liver metastasis. The patient died of lung complication 2 months after the diagnosis of brain metastasis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of cerebral metastasis from primary urethral TCC, with pathological confirmation. As shown in intracranial metastasis of other urinary tract carcinoma, this case occurred in the setting of uncontrolled systemic disease and led to dismal prognosis in spite of aggressive interventional modalities.</p

Genetic analysis of ORF5 of recent Korean porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome viruses (PRRSVs) in viremic sera collected from MLV-vaccinating or non-vaccinating farms

The 23 open reading frame (ORF) 5 sequences of Korean type II porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) were collected from viremic sera from the (modified live vaccine) MLV-vaccinating and non-vaccinating farms from 2007 to 2008. The samples were phylogenetically analyzed with previous ORF5 sequences, including type I Korean PRRSV, and previously reported or collected sequences from 1997 to 2008. A MN184-like subgroup of type II Korean PRRSV was newly identified in the viremic sera collected from 2007 to 2008. And of the type I PRRSVs, one subgroup had 87.2~88.9% similarity with the Lelystad virus, showing a close relationship with the 27~2003 strain of Spain. The maximum parsimony tree of type II PRRSV from 1997 to 2008 showed that they had evolved to four lineages, subgroups 1, 2, 3 and 4. Most of the recently collected type II PRRSVs belonged to subgroup 4 (48%). The region of three B-cell epitopes and two T-cell epitopes of ORF5 amino acids sequences was considerably different from the MLV in subgroups 3 and 4. In conclusion, the existence of type I PRRSV, which was genetically different from Lelystad virus (Prototype of type I PRRSV), and heterologous type II PRRSVs of viremic pigs detected even in the MLV-vaccinating farms indicated the need for new vaccine approaches for the control of PRRSV in Korea