The balance of Polo-like kinase 1 in tumorigenesis

Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) belongs to a family of conserved serine/threonine kinases with a polo-box domain, which have similar but non-overlapping functions in the cell cycle progression. Plk1 plays a key role to ensure the normal mitosis. Interestingly, overexpression of Plk1 is associated with tumor development and could serve as a prognostic marker for many cancers. Due to Plk1 overexpression, several Plk1 inhibitors have been developed and tested for the cancer treatment. However, in a recent study, it has been suggested that down-regulation of Plk1 could also induce aneuploidy and tumor formation in vivo. Therefore, a normal level of Plk1 is important for mitosis. And caution should be taken when Plk1 inhibitors are used in the clinical trial and their side effects including tumorigenesis should be carefully evaluated

Latent analysis of unmodified biomolecules and their complexes in solution with attomole detection sensitivity

The study of biomolecular interactions is central to an understanding of function, malfunction and therapeutic modulation of biological systems, yet often involves a compromise between sensitivity and accuracy. Many conventional analytical steps and the procedures required to facilitate sensitive detection, such as the incorporation of chemical labels, are prone to perturb the complexes under observation. Here we present a 'latent' analysis approach that uses chemical and microfluidic tools to reveal, through highly sensitive detection of a labelled system, the behaviour of the physiologically relevant unlabelled system. We implement this strategy in a native microfluidic diffusional sizing platform, allowing us to achieve detection sensitivity at the attomole level, determine the hydrodynamic radii of biomolecules that vary by over three orders of magnitude in molecular weight, and study heterogeneous mixtures. We illustrate these key advantages by characterizing a complex of an antibody domain in the solution phase and under physiologically relevant conditions.We would like to thank the ERC, BBSRC, Wellcome Trust, Newman Foundation, Winston Churchill Foundation, and Elan Pharmaceuticals for financial support. E.D.G was supported by the MRC (G1002272)

Myocarditis mimicking acute coronary syndrome - the role of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis

Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of myocardium with a wide range of clinical presentations. Myocarditis may mimic acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and adequate differential diagnosis is not possible by conventional tests. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has emerged as a leading imaging modality in the diagnosis of myocarditis in such patients. Here, we report three cases of myocarditis mimicking ACS with normal coronary arteries. CMR was used for confirming the diagnosis of myocarditis in all three patients presented here