Rotavirus gastroenteritis in a children's hospital specialized in craniofacial malformations

This study aimed to verify the relationship between acute diarrhea provoked by rotavirus and different indicators of craniofacial malformations. In the Hospital for Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anomalies, 8,724 children with cleft lip and cleft palate were divided into the following groups: acute diarrhea and infection due to rotavirus (C1, n = 62), acute diarrhea (C2, n = 153) and without acute diarrhea (C3, n = 8,509). In C1, 29.03% of the cases consisted of hospital infections associated with the hospitalization period while 38.71% of the patients were aged less than six months. The percentage of children not having breastfed was significantly higher in acute diarrhea groups. Additionally, there was a seasonal prevalence of rotavirus infection between May and October. Finally, the present findings indicate that rotavirus is a predominant etiological agent for gastroenteritis in children with craniofacial malformations. Moreover, among infants younger than six months of age, type of craniofacial malformation, breastfeeding difficulty, socioeconomic level and longer hospitalization period appear to contribute to higher infection morbidity

Inhibition of CXCR2 Plays a Pivotal Role in Re-Sensitizing Ovarian Cancer to Cisplatin Treatment

cDNA microarray data conducted by our group revealed overexpression of CXCL2 and CXCL8 in ovarian cancer (OC) microenvironment. Herein, we have proven that the chemokine receptor, CXCR2, is a pivotal molecule in re-sensitizing OC to cisplatin, and its inhibition decreases cell proliferation, viability, tumor size in cisplatinresistant cells, as well as reversed the overexpression of mesenchymal epithelium transition markers. Altogether, our study indicates a central effect of CXCR2 in preventing tumor progression, due to acquisition of cisplatin chemoresistant phenotype by tumor cells, and patients’ high lethality rate. We found that the overexpression of CXCR2 by OC cells is persistent and anomalously confined to the cellular nuclei, thus pointing to an urge in developing highly lipophilic molecules that promptly permeate cells, bind to and inhibit nuclear CXCR2 to fight OC, instead of relying on the high-cost genetic engineered cells.acknowledge financial support from CAPES, FAPES and CNPq, as well as the Biotechnology Program/ RENORBIO from the Federal University of Espirito Santo, Espirito Santo, Brazil; Institute of Pathology and Molecular Immunology (IPATIMUP) and the Institute of Innovation and Health Research (I3s), Porto, Portugal

Sensitivity to musical emotion is influenced by tonal structure in congenital amusia

Emotional communication in music depends on multiple attributes including psychoacoustic features and tonal system information, the latter of which is unique to music. The present study investigated whether congenital amusia, a lifelong disorder of musical processing, impacts sensitivity to musical emotion elicited by timbre and tonal system information. Twenty-six amusics and 26 matched controls made tension judgments on Western (familiar) and Indian (unfamiliar) melodies played on piano and sitar. Like controls, amusics used timbre cues to judge musical tension in Western and Indian melodies. While controls assigned significantly lower tension ratings to Western melodies compared to Indian melodies, thus showing a tonal familiarity effect on tension ratings, amusics provided comparable tension ratings for Western and Indian melodies on both timbres. Furthermore, amusics rated Western melodies as more tense compared to controls, as they relied less on tonality cues than controls in rating tension for Western melodies. The implications of these findings in terms of emotional responses to music are discussed