Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy: A Case Report

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a maternally inherited mitochondrial disease that primarily affects the optic nerve, causing bilateral vision loss in juveniles and young adults. A 12-year-old boy had complained of blurred vision in both eyes for more than 1 year. His best-corrected visual acuity was 0.08 in the right eye and 0.1 in the left. Ophthalmologic examination showed bilateral optic disc hyperemia and margin blurring, peripapillary telangiectasis, and a relative afferent pupil defect in his right eye. Fluorescein angiography showed no stain or leakage around the optic disc in the late phase. Visual field analysis showed central scotoma in the left eye and a near-total defect in the right. Upon examination of the patient's mitochondrial DNA, a point mutation at nucleotide position 11778 was found, and the diagnosis of LHON was confirmed. Coenzyme Q10 was used to treat the patient

Evaluation of Antioxidant and Free Radical Scavenging Capacities of Polyphenolics from Pods of Caesalpinia pulcherrima

Thirteen polyphenolics were isolated from fresh pods of Caesalpinia pulcherrima using various methods of column chromatography. The structures of these polyphenolics were elucidated as gallic acid (1), methyl gallate (2), 6-O-galloyl-d-glucoside (3), methyl 6-O-galloyl-β-d-glucoside (4), methyl 3,6-di-O-galloyl-α-d-glucopyranoside (5), gentisic acid 5-O-α-d-(6′-O-galloyl)glucopyranoside (6), guaiacylglycerol 4-O-β-d-(6′-O-galloyl)glucopyranoside (7), 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenol 1-O-β-d-(6′-O-galloyl) glucopyranoside (8), (+)-gallocatechin (9), (+)-catechin (10), (+)-gallocatechin 3-O-gallate (11), myricetin 3-rhamnoside (12), and ampelopsin (13). All isolated compounds were tested for their antioxidant activities in the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydroxyl, and peroxynitrite radicals scavenging assays. Among those compounds, 11, 12, and 2 exhibited the best DPPH-, hydroxyl-, and peroxynitrite radical-scavenging activities, respectively. Compound 7 is a new compound, and possesses better scavenging activities towards DPPH but has equivalent hydroxyl radical scavenging activity when compared to BHT. The paper is the first report on free radical scavenging properties of components of the fresh pods of Caesalpinia pulcherrima. The results obtained from the current study indicate that the free radical scavenging property of fresh pods of Caesalpinia pulcherrima may be one of the mechanisms by which this herbal medicine is effective in several free radical mediated diseases

Differentiation of fetal hematopoietic stem cells requires ARID4B to restrict autocrine KITLG/KIT-Src signaling.

Balance between the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) duality to either possess self-renewal capacity or differentiate into multipotency progenitors (MPPs) is crucial for maintaining homeostasis of the hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSPC) compartment. To retain the HSC self-renewal activity, KIT, a receptor tyrosine kinase, in HSCs is activated by its cognate ligand KITLG originating from niche cells. Here, we show that AT-rich interaction domain 4B (ARID4B) interferes with KITLG/KIT signaling, consequently allowing HSC differentiation. Conditional Arid4b knockout in mouse hematopoietic cells blocks fetal HSC differentiation, preventing hematopoiesis. Mechanistically, ARID4B-deficient HSCs self-express KITLG and overexpress KIT. As to downstream pathways of KITLG/KIT signaling, inhibition of Src family kinases rescues the HSC differentiation defect elicited by ARID4B loss. In summary, the intrinsic ARID4B-KITLG/KIT-Src axis is an HSPC regulatory program that enables the differentiation state, while KIT stimulation by KITLG from niche cells preserves the HSPC undifferentiated pool

Intelligent Point-of-Interest Recommendation for Tourism Planning via Density-based Clustering and Genetic Algorithm

In recent years, geographic information service and relevant social media become more popular, some geographic point may interest people, e.g. scenic spot or famous store, naming as a point-of-interest (POI). However, the number of POI contributing by social media grows exponentially which causing a searching problem. How to recommend a POI to a user/tourist becomes a challenge. This study proposes an intelligent system using density-based clustering and genetic algorithm to recommend a POIs solution for tourism planning. Density-based clustering identifies candidate POIs. Skyline method decides a superior POI from candidate POIs by dominant of multiple attributes. Genetic algorithm optimizes the recommendation solution. The contribution is to get a tourism POI solution from a huge amount of candidate POIs based on user/tourist preferences. An experimental system implementation is in progress. In future, we will use open data from Google map and Foursquare to proof the proposed system mechanism effectiveness