Clinical presentations of colorectal cancer at initial presentation to hospital and its site specific correlation

Background: Colorectal cancer is one of the leading cause of death all over the world. It progresses slowly and may be asymptomatic for as many as 5 years. Aim of this study was to find the incidence and the initial clinical presentations of patients with colorectal cancer and its site specific correlationMethods: This was a prospective hospital-based study conducted over a period of two years from August 2015 to September 2017 in the postgraduate department of surgery, Government medical college, Srinagar. Total of fifty three patients in the age group of 10 years to 80 years were included in the study. Colorectal tumors were divided into right colon growths (caecum, ascending colon and hepatic flexure), left colon growths (splenic flexure, descending colon and sigmoid colon) and rectal growths. Data was collected from their hospital records and analysed using SPSS computer program.Results: In present study incidence of colorectal cancer was 0.2 per 100,000 people. Thirty percent of our patients were found to be in the sixth decade of their life with male preponderance in almost every age group. Mean age of presentation being 46.44 years (males= 48.5years, females= 43.76years). Out of 53 patients, rectal growths constituted 36%, left colonic growths 36% followed by 28% cases of right colonic growths. More than one symptom was present in several patients. Maximum number of patients (43%) presented with anemia (microcytic hypochromic) with Hb of <9gm% followed by constipation 38% and bleeding per rectum 28%. Pain abdomen was present in 23% of patients. Loss of weight and diarrhoea was equally seen in 19% of patients. Diarrhoea was seen in 6 males and 4 females and was statistically significant (p<0.05).Conclusions: Colorectal cancer was found to affect the Kashmiri patients at younger age (38% were 40 years or less) with peak incidence at sixth decade. Males were affected more than females. Anaemia, constipation and bleeding per rectum were the most common predominant clinical features in right colon, left colon and rectal growths respectively

Nontraumatic terminal ileal perforation

BACKGROUND: There is still confusion and controversy over the diagnosis and optimal surgical treatment of non traumatic terminal ileal perforation-a cause of obscure peritonitis. METHODS: This study was a prospective study aimed at evaluating the clinical profile, etiology and optimal surgical management of patients with nontraumatic terminal ileal perforation. RESULTS: There were 79 cases of nontraumatic terminal ileal perforation; the causes for perforation were enteric fever(62%), nonspecific inflammation(26%), obstruction(6%), tuberculosis(4%) and radiation enteritis (1%). Simple closure of the perforation (49%) and end to side ileotransverse anastomosis(42%) were the mainstay of the surgical management. CONCLUSION: Terminal ileal perforation should be suspected in all cases of peritonitis especially in developing countries and surgical treatment should be optimized taking various accounts like etiology, delay in surgery and operative findings into consideration to reduce the incidence of deadly complications like fecal fistula

Role of NAD+ in regulating cellular and metabolic signaling pathways

BackgroundNicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a critical coenzyme present in every living cell, is involved in a myriad of metabolic processes associated with cellular bioenergetics. For this reason, NAD+ is often studied in the context of aging, cancer, and neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders. Scope of reviewCellular NAD+ depletion is associated with compromised adaptive cellular stress responses, impaired neuronal plasticity, impaired DNA repair, and cellular senescence. Increasing evidence has shown the efficacy of boosting NAD+ levels using NAD+ precursors in various diseases. This review provides a comprehensive understanding into the role of NAD+ in aging and other pathologies and discusses potential therapeutic targets. Major conclusionsAn alteration in the NAD+/NADH ratio or the NAD+ pool size can lead to derailment of the biological system and contribute to various neurodegenerative disorders, aging, and tumorigenesis. Due to the varied distribution of NAD+/NADH in different locations within cells, the direct role of impaired NAD+-dependent processes in humans remains unestablished. In this regard, longitudinal studies are needed to quantify NAD+ and its related metabolites. Future research should focus on measuring the fluxes through pathways associated with NAD+ synthesis and degradation

Serial Killing of Tumor Cells by Human Natural Killer Cells – Enhancement by Therapeutic Antibodies

BACKGROUND: Natural killer cells are an important component of the innate immune system. Anti-cancer therapies utilizing monoclonal antibodies also rely on the cytotoxicity of NK cells for their effectiveness. Here, we study the dynamics of NK cell cytotoxicity. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We observe that IL-2 activated human NK cells can serially hit multiple targets. Using functional assays, we demonstrate that on an average, a single IL-2 activated NK cell can kill four target cells. Data using live video microscopy suggest that an individual NK cell can make serial contacts with multiple targets and majority of contacts lead to lysis of target cells. Serial killing is associated with a loss of Perforin and Granzyme B content. A large majority of NK cells survive serial killing, and IL-2 can replenish their granular stock and restore the diminished cytotoxicity of ‘exhausted’ NK cells. IL-2 and IL-15 are equally effective in enhancing the killing frequency of resting NK cells. Significantly, Rituximab, a therapeutic monoclonal antibody increases the killing frequency of both resting and IL-2 activated NK cells. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data suggest that NK cell-based therapies for overcoming tumors rely on their serial killing ability. Therefore, strategies augmenting the killing ability of NK cells can boost the immune system and enhance the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody-based therapies

Multiplicity dependence of jet-like two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum range 0.7 $< p_{\rm{T}, assoc} < p_{\rm{T}, trig} <$ 5.0 GeV/$c$ is examined, to include correlations induced by jets originating from low momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<0.9$. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/161

Multi-particle azimuthal correlations in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Measurements of multi-particle azimuthal correlations (cumulants) for charged particles in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions are presented. They help address the question of whether there is evidence for global, flow-like, azimuthal correlations in the p-Pb system. Comparisons are made to measurements from the larger Pb-Pb system, where such evidence is established. In particular, the second harmonic two-particle cumulants are found to decrease with multiplicity, characteristic of a dominance of few-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions. However, when a $|\Delta \eta|$ gap is placed to suppress such correlations, the two-particle cumulants begin to rise at high-multiplicity, indicating the presence of global azimuthal correlations. The Pb-Pb values are higher than the p-Pb values at similar multiplicities. In both systems, the second harmonic four-particle cumulants exhibit a transition from positive to negative values when the multiplicity increases. The negative values allow for a measurement of $v_{2}\{4\}$ to be made, which is found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions at similar multiplicities. The second harmonic six-particle cumulants are also found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions. In Pb-Pb collisions, we generally find $v_{2}\{4\} \simeq v_{2}\{6\}\neq 0$ which is indicative of a Bessel-Gaussian function for the $v_{2}$ distribution. For very high-multiplicity Pb-Pb collisions, we observe that the four- and six-particle cumulants become consistent with 0. Finally, third harmonic two-particle cumulants in p-Pb and Pb-Pb are measured. These are found to be similar for overlapping multiplicities, when a $|\Delta\eta| > 1.4$ gap is placed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 20, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/87

Performance of the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC

ALICE is the heavy-ion experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The experiment continuously took data during the first physics campaign of the machine from fall 2009 until early 2013, using proton and lead-ion beams. In this paper we describe the running environment and the data handling procedures, and discuss the performance of the ALICE detectors and analysis methods for various physics observables

Charged jet cross sections and properties in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The differential charged jet cross sections, jet fragmentation distributions, and jet shapes are measured in minimum bias proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energy root s = 7 TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed from charged particle momenta in the midrapidity region using the sequential recombination k(T) and anti-k(T) as well as the SISCone jet finding algorithms with several resolution parameters in the range R = 0.2-0.6. Differential jet production cross sections measured with the three jet finders are in agreement in the transverse momentum (p(T)) interval 20 ) of the reconstructed jet p(T). The fragmentation of leading jets with R = 0.4 using scaled p(T) spectra of the jet constituents is studied. The measurements are compared to model calculations from event generators (PYTHIA, PHOJET, HERWIG). The measured radial density distributions and distributions are well described by the PYTHIA model (tune Perugia-2011). The fragmentation distributions are better described by HERWIG.Peer reviewe

Elliptic flow of identified hadrons in Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV

The elliptic flow coefficient (v2) of identified particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV was measured with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The results were obtained with the Scalar Product method, a two-particle corre- lation technique, using a pseudo-rapidity gap of | 06\u3b7| > 0.9 between the identified hadron under study and the reference particles. The v2 is reported for \u3c0\ub1, K\ub1, K0S, p+p, \u3c6, \u39b+\u39b, \u39e 12+\u39e+ and \u3a9 12+\u3a9+ in several collision centralities. In the low transverse momentum (pT) region, pT 3 GeV/c