Case reportsAbscess of the mitral annulus mimicking left atrial tumour – case report

A case of a 50-year-old female with hypertension and diabetes, admitted to the hospital due to echocardiographically detected left atrial tumour, is presented. Differential diagnosis included thrombus, myxoma and infectious tumour. The patient underwent surgery. Histopathological examination revealed the presence of an abscess in the left atrium. This report underlines the difficulties in the diagnosis of cardiac tumours

Ovocystatin affects actin cytoskeleton organization and induces proapoptotic activity

Ovocystatin is a chicken egg white protein, generally known for its inhibitory activity against cysteine proteases. However, biological activity of ovocystatin does not seem to be well recognized in respect to other possible cellular effects. Our attention has been focused on ovocystatin cytotoxic effects in relation to its influence on actin cytoskeleton organization and apoptosis induction. In vitro studies with human melanoma A375, human cervix HeLa cancer cells and normal human fibroblasts - NHDF were done. Cytotoxic activity of ovocystatin was seen in respect to apoptosis induction - manifested by cell shape changes, phosphatydylserine translocation and actin cytoskeleton reorganization. Normal human fibroblasts have shown lower sensitivity to ovocystatin as compared with human melanoma A375 and human cervix HeLa cancer cells. In conclusion, ovocystatin affects actin cytoskeleton organization and displays proapoptotic activity towards applied cell lines. This implicates its application as a potential anticancer drug. However, its adverse effects on normal cells should be taken into consideration

Ovocystatin Induced Changes in Expression of Alzheimer’s Disease Relevant Proteins in APP/PS1 Transgenic Mice

Background: Ovocystatin is marked by structural and biological similarities to human cystatin C, which plays an important role in the course of neurodegenerative diseases. Recently, it has been shown that ovocystatin might prevent aging-related cognitive impairment in rats and reduce memory decline in an APP/PS1 mice model. Thus, this study aimed to assess the effect of ovocystatin on histopathological changes in APP/PS1 mice. Materials and methods: Ovocystatin was administered intraperitoneally for four weeks (40 μg/mouse) to 35-weeks-old transgenic (AD, n = 14) and wild type (NCAR, n = 15) mice (stock B6C3-Tg(APPswe, PSEN1dE9)85Dbo/Mmjax). A histopathological evaluation comprised antibodies directed against β-amyloid (1:400, SIG-39320-1000, Covance) and Tau (1:4000, AHB0042, Invitrogen). Three regions of the hippocampus— the dentate gyrus (DG) and the cornu ammonis (CA1 and CA3)—were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in each animal. All differences are expressed as percentage relative to the control group. Results: The main results showed that the percentage of immunoreactive area of β-amyloid, tau protein deposits in APP/PS1+ovCYS was decreased in DG, CA1, and CA3 regions compared with the APP/PS1 control, respectively (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Ovocystatin caused significant changes in the expression pattern of all investigated proteins in hippocampal tissues both in APP/PS1 and NCAR mice