Japanese Encephalitis Outbreak, India, 2005

An outbreak of viral encephalitis occurred in Gorakhpur, India, from July through November 2005. The etiologic agent was confirmed to be Japanese encephalitis virus by analyzing 326 acute-phase clinical specimens for virus-specific antibodies and viral RNA and by virus isolation. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these isolates belonged to genogroup 3

Promoter methylation and silencing of the retinoic acid receptor-β gene in lung carcinomas

Background: Retinoic acid plays an important role in lung development and differentiation, acting primarily via nuclear receptors encoded by the retinoic acid receptor-β (RARβ) gene. Because receptor isoforms RARβ2 and RARβ4 are repressed in human lung cancers, we investigated whether methylation of their promoter, P2, might lead to silencing of the RARβ gene in human lung tumors and cell lines. Methods: Methylation of the P2 promoter from small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines and tumor samples was analyzed by the methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Expression of RARβ2 and RARβ4 was analyzed by reverse transcription-PCR. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) was analyzed by PCR amplification followed by electrophoretic separation of PCR products. Statistical differences were analyzed by Fisher's exact test with continuity correction. Results: The P2 promoter was methylated in 72% (63 of 87) of SCLC and in 41% (52 of 127) of NSCLC tumors and cell lines, and the difference was statistically significant (two-sided