Cytogenetic abnormalities in Acute Myeloid Leukemia in Sweden. A population based study.

The impact of cytogenetic findings in AML was analyzed in the large population-based Swedish AML registry. Karyotypic patterns differed by age: t(8;21), inv(16) and t(11q23) were more common in younger patients, whereas loss of 5q, 7q and 17p, monosomal karyotype (MK) and complex karyotype (CK) were more common in older patients. Patients with ≥5 chromosome abnormalities had worse overall survival than those with fewer abnormalities or normal karyotype in all age groups. Loss of 5q, 7q and/or 17p had, in contrast to MK, a further negative impact on survival. Multivariable analyses on risk factors in patients 65 chromosomes) adult AML diagnosed 1997-2014, and 68 (1.9%) were HH (n=50)/TT (n=18). The OS was similar between patients with HH/TT and CK AML (median 0.9 years vs. 0.6 years; P=0.082), whereas OS was significantly longer (median 1.6 years; P=0.028) for IR AML. The OS was shorter for cases with HH than with TT (median 0.6 years vs. 1.4 years; P=0.032) and for HH/TT AMLs with adverse abnormalities (median 0.8 years vs. 1.1 years; P=0.044). HH/TT AML is associated with a poor outcome, but chromosome numbers >65 and absence of adverse aberrations seem to translate into a more favorable prognosis. Also, among 23 patients (0.4 %) with trisomy 13 with a median age of 72 years (44-84), there was a striking male predominance (80%) with AML-M0 subtype in 37% of patients. Therapy-related AML and MDS/MPN/AML were present in 30% of patients. Median OS time was 9.6 months (95 % CI (3.5-13.7), and 13 months for other patients (95% CI 11.7-14.04), which was almost identical as in previously published studies

Age-related changes of superoxide dismutase activity in patients with schizophrenia

© 2017, Institut za Vojnomedicinske Naucne Informacije/Documentaciju. All rights reserved. Background/Aim. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is the critical enzyme in the detoxification of superoxide radicals because those are the first species produced in the majority of biological free radical producing reactions. Inconsistent data are present about SOD activity in patients with schizophrenia. Numerous studies show that SOD is elevated in chronic schizophrenic patients. However, decreased SOD activity is found in neuroleptic naive, first episode schizophrenic patients, in chronic-medicated patients and in chronic-unmedicated patients. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of age, gender, age at disease onset, the duration of the disease, the number of episodes, heredity, psychopathologic symptoms and drug treatment on erythrocyte SOD activity in patients with schizophrenia. Methods. This study included 68 consecutive patients with schizophrenia (29 males and 39 females) ranging in age from 18 to 61 years, divided into two age groups ( 34 years). SOD activity was measured in erythrocyte hemolyzates by commercially available Ransod test. Results. In the group of patients younger than 34 years SOD levels were significantly higher (1,381 ± 273 U/gHb, p = 0.038) compared to the levels in the older patients (1,231 ± 206 U/gHb). Gender and heredity did not induce any significant difference in SOD activity between the groups. A significant difference in enzyme activity was found between the younger and older patient groups having the onset of the disease after 24 years of age (1,408 ± 217 U/gHb vs 1,252 ± 213 U/gHb, p = 0.031, respectively). The patients in the younger group with more than one psychotic episodes had significantly higher SOD activity (1,492 ± 298 U/gHb; p = 0.009) than those with only one episode (1,256 ± 177 U/gHb), as well as than the older patients with more than one episode (1,253 ± 231 U/gHb; p = 0.014). Although the duration of the disease did not induce any significant difference in enzyme activity between the younger and older patient groups, a significant negative correlation was obtained between SOD activity and the duration of the disease (r = -0.511, p < 0.01). No significant differences were found in SOD activity between the groups with the different positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) scores. First generation antipsychotics were associated with elevated enzyme activity in both groups. Simultaneous treatment of patients with first generation antipsychotics and second generation antipsychotics induced a significant decrease in SOD activity in the younger patient group. Conclusion. Our results show that erythrocyte SOD activity is increased in the early phase of schizophrenia, depending on age at the onset of the disease, the number of psychotic episodes, the duration of the disease and medical treatment

Study of inter- and intra-individual variations in the salivary microbiota

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Oral bacterial communities contain species that promote health and others that have been implicated in oral and/or systemic diseases. Culture-independent approaches provide the best means to assess the diversity of oral bacteria because most of them remain uncultivable.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The salivary microbiota from five adults was analyzed at three time-points by means of the 454 pyrosequencing technology. The V1-V3 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA genes was amplified by PCR using saliva lysates and broad-range primers. The bar-coded PCR products were pooled and sequenced unidirectionally to cover the V3 hypervariable region. Of 50,708 obtained sequences, 31,860 passed the quality control. Non-bacterial sequences (2.2%) were removed leaving 31,170 reads. Samples were dominated by seven major phyla: members of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and candidate division TM7 were identified in all samples; Fusobacteria and Spirochaetes were identified in all individuals, but not at all time-points. The dataset was represented by 3,011 distinct sequences (100%-ID phylotypes) of ~215 nucleotides and 583 phylotypes defined at ≥97% identity (97%-ID phylotypes). We compared saliva samples from different individuals in terms of the phylogeny of their microbial communities. Based on the presence and absence of phylotypes defined at 100% or 97% identity thresholds, samples from each subject formed separate clusters. Among individual taxa, phylum Bacteroidetes and order Clostridiales (Firmicutes) were the best indicators of intraindividual similarity of the salivary flora over time. Fifteen out of 81 genera constituted 73 to 94% of the total sequences present in different samples. Of these, 8 were shared by all time points of all individuals, while 15-25 genera were present in all three time-points of different individuals. Representatives of the class Sphingobacteria, order Sphingobacteriales and family Clostridiaceae were found only in one subject.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The salivary microbial community appeared to be stable over at least 5 days, allowing for subject-specific grouping using UniFrac. Inclusion of all available samples from more distant time points (up to 29 days) confirmed this observation. Samples taken at closer time intervals were not necessarily more similar than samples obtained across longer sampling times. These results point to the persistence of subject-specific taxa whose frequency fluctuates between the time points. Genus <it>Gemella</it>, identified in all time-points of all individuals, was not defined as a core-microbiome genus in previous studies of salivary bacterial communities. Human oral microbiome studies are still in their infancy and larger-scale projects are required to better define individual and universal oral microbiome core.</p

First case of Cryptococcus gattii multilobar pneumonia in Switzerland and associated challenges

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Analysis of the salivary microbiome using culture-independent techniques

The salivary microbiota is a potential diagnostic indicator of several diseases. Culture-independent techniques are required to study the salivary microbial community since many of its members have not been cultivated

Septic shock caused by Capnocytophaga canis after a cat scratch

Capnocytophaga canis is an uncommon cause of septic shock. Only three cases have been previously reported in the literature. In this article, we describe the case of a 70-year-old male admitted to the intensive care unit for septic shock of unknown origin. On day 2, one anaerobic bottle out of the two sets taken at admission turned positive with Gram-negative bacilli. The pathogen was identified by 16S rRNA gene as C. canis. The strain was characterized and compared with other clinical isolates of Capnocytophaga spp

Analysis of the salivary microbiome using culture-independent techniques

The salivary microbiota is a potential diagnostic indicator of several diseases. Culture-independent techniques are required to study the salivary microbial community since many of its members have not been cultivated

Decontamination of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence datasets based on bacterial load assessment by qPCR

Identification of unexpected taxa in 16S rRNA surveys of low-density microbiota, diluted mock communities and cultures demonstrated that a variable fraction of sequence reads originated from exogenous DNA. The sources of these contaminants are reagents used in DNA extraction, PCR, and next-generation sequencing library preparation, and human (skin, oral and respiratory) microbiota from the investigators

Root Microbiota in Primary and Secondary Apical Periodontitis

Apical periodontitis is an inflammatory disease of the dental periradicular tissues triggered by bacteria colonizing necrotic root canals. Primary apical periodontitis results from the microbial colonization of necrotic pulp tissues. Secondary apical periodontitis results from a persistent infection of incorrectly treated root canals. The aim of this study was to characterize the microbiota present in primary and secondary intraradicular infections associated with apical periodontitis using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Teeth exhibiting apical periodontitis with or without root canal treatment were extracted after informed consent. From each tooth, the intraradicular content as well as a dentin sample (control) were collected and subjected to DNA extraction. PCR amplicons of the V3–V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene were pooled and sequenced (2 × 300) on an Illumina MiSeq instrument. The bioinformatics analysis pipeline included quality filtering, merging of forward and reverse reads, clustering of reads into operational taxonomic units (OTUs), removal of putative contaminant OTUs and assigning taxonomy. The most prevalent and abundant OTU in both dentin and root canal samples was assigned to anaerobic bacterium Fusobacterium nucleatum. Multivariate analysis showed clustering of microbiota by sample type (dentin vs. intraradicular content) and, in root canals, by pathology (primary vs. secondary infection). The proportions of Enterococcus faecalis and F. nucleatum were, respectively, higher and lower when comparing secondary to primary infected root canals. Co-occurrence network analysis provided evidence of microbial interactions specific to the infection type. The identification of bacterial taxa differentially abundant in primary and secondary intraradicular infections may provide the basis for targeted therapeutic approaches aimed at reducing the incidence of apical periodontitis

Microbial Communities of Conducting and Respiratory Zones of Lung-Transplanted Patients.

Background: Lung transplantation (LT) is a recognized treatment for end-stage pulmonary disease. Bacteria from the recipient nasopharynx seed the new lungs leading to infections and allograft damage. Understanding the characteristics and topological variations of the microbiota may be important to apprehend the pathophysiology of allograft dysfunction. Objectives: To examine the characteristics and relationship of bacterial compositions between conducting and respiratory zones of the allograft. Methods: We performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing on bronchial aspirates (BAs) and bronchoalveolar lavages (BALs) collected in pairs in 19 patients at several time-points post-LT. Results: The respiratory zone was characterized independently of the time post-LT by a higher bacterial richness than the conducting zone (p = 0.041). The phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria dominated both sampling zones, with an inverse correlation between these two phyla (Spearman r = -0.830). Samples of the same pair, as well as pairs from the same individual clustered together (Pseudo-F = 3.8652, p &lt; 0.01). Microbiota of BA and BAL were more closely related in samples from the same patient than each sample type across different patients, with variation in community structure being mainly inter-individual (p &lt; 0.01). Both number of antibiotics administered (p &lt; 0.01) and time interval post-LT (p &lt; 0.01) contributed to the variation in global microbiota structure. Longitudinal analysis of BA-BAL pairs of two patients showed dynamic wave like fluctuations of the microbiota. Conclusions: Our results show that post-transplant respiratory zones harbor higher bacterial richness, but overall similar bacterial profiles as compared to conductive zones. They further support an individual microbial signature following LT