Leptotrichia buccalis bacteremia in two patients with acute myelogenous leukemia

Leptotrichia buccalis is rarely implicated in systemic disease. We report two patients with clinically significant L. buccalis bacteremia which developed during the neutropenia secondary to chemotherapy. Based upon our experience, L. buccalis bacteremia should be considered in certain high-risk immunocompromised patients with mucositis and/or gingivitis.     

Marsupials and monotremes sort genome treasures from junk

A recent landmark paper demonstrates the unique contribution of marsupials and monotremes to comparative genome analysis, filling an evolutionary gap between the eutherian mammals (including humans) and more distant vertebrate species.     

Effect of an acute ergotamine challenge on reproductive hormones in follicular phase heifers and progestin-treated cows

The objective of this research was to determine if ergotamine, an ergopeptine alkaloid isolated from Neotyphodium-infected grasses and associated with toxicoses in livestock, altered plasma concentrations of reproductive hormones in follicular phase heifers and in cows given a progestin implant. In Experiment 1, blood was sampled for 8h from four cycling heifers 2 days after synchronized luteolysis. Heifers were treated with ergotamine tartrate (19microg/kg) i.v. or saline vehicle in a simple cross-over design after 1h of pre-treatment blood sampling. Heifers received oxytocin (100USP units) i.v. 4h after ergotamine or saline treatment. Ergotamine reduced (P<0.01) prolactin concentrations from 1 to 4h post-treatment and increased (P<0.01) 13,14-dihydro-15-keto prostaglandin F2alpha (PGFM) concentrations from 2 to 5h post-treatment. A PGFM response to oxytocin was not detected. In Experiment 2, blood was sampled for 8h from six cycling cows 10 days after receiving a s.c. norgestomet implant. Cows were treated i.v. with ergotamine (20microg/kg) or saline in a simple cross-over design after 1h of pre-treatment blood sampling. Cows received gonadorelin (GnRH, 100microg) i.v. 1h after ergotamine or saline. Cows received oxytocin (100USP units) i.v. 4h after ergotamine or saline treatment. Ergotamine reduced (P<0.01) serum prolactin concentrations by 120min after treatment, with prolactin returning to pre-treatment concentrations by 200min after treatment. Saline-treated cows had lower (P<0.01) prolactin by 280min after treatment. Ergotamine-treated cows had higher (P<0.01) PGFM concentrations compared to saline-treated cows 120-240min after treatments, but the groups exhibited similar increases in PGFM after oxytocin. Plasma LH and FSH concentrations increased to peaks 100-120min after GnRH for both groups. However, the LH response to GnRH was greater (P<0.01) for ergotamine-treated cows. In summary, ergotamine lowered prolactin and elevated PGFM concentrations in follicular phase heifers and cows on norgestomet therapy. Ergotamine increased the LH response to exogenous GnRH in cows with norgestomet implants. These data highlight the potential of ergopeptine alkaloids to affect reproduction through altered endocrine function.     

Relation of Abnormal Cytological Smears and Carcinoma of Cervix Uteri to Husband's Occupation

An analysis of the cytological records of almost 300,000 women in the Manchester area shows that the rates of positive/suspicious findings from population screening are highly correlated with the rates of mortality from cancer of the cervix when both are distributed according to the occupation of the husband. The correlation holds for various occupational groupings and for all the individual occupation units in which there are more than 1,000 women. This evidence strengthens the case for believing that the condition revealed by a positive smear is a stage in the development of invasive cancer of the uterine cervix.     

Differential Proteome Analysis Identifies TGF-β-Related Pro-Metastatic Proteins in a 4T1 Murine Breast Cancer Model

Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) has a dual role in tumorigenesis, acting as either a tumor suppressor or as a pro-oncogenic factor in a context-dependent manner. Although TGF-β antagonists have been proposed as anti-metastatic therapies for patients with advanced stage cancer, how TGF-β mediates metastasis-promoting effects is poorly understood. Establishment of TGF-β-related protein expression signatures at the metastatic site could provide new mechanistic information and potentially allow identification of novel biomarkers for clinical intervention to discriminate TGF-β oncogenic effects from tumor suppressive effects. In the present study, we found that systemic administration of the TGF-β receptor kinase inhibitor, SB-431542, significantly inhibited lung metastasis from transplanted 4T1 mammary tumors in Balb/c mice. The differentially expressed proteins in the comparison of lung metastases from SB-431542 treated and control vehicle-treated groups were analyzed by a quantitative LTQ Orbitrap Velos system coupled with stable isotope dimethyl labeling. A total of 36,239 peptides from 6,694 proteins were identified, out of which 4,531 proteins were characterized as differentially expressed. A subset of upregulated proteins in the control group was validated by western blotting and immunohistochemistry. The eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) family members constituted the most enriched protein pathway in vehicle-treated compared with SB-43512-treated lung metastases, suggesting that increased protein expression of specific eIF family members, especially eIF4A1 and eEF2, is related to the metastatic phenotype of advanced breast cancer and can be down-regulated by TGF-β pathway inhibitors. Thus our proteomic approach identified eIF pathway proteins as novel potential mediators of TGF-β tumor-promoting activity.     

Nicotine exposure during differentiation causes inhibition of N-myc expression

Background

The ability of chemicals to disrupt neonatal development can be studied using embryonic stem cells (ESC). One such chemical is nicotine. Prenatal nicotine exposure is known to affect postnatal lung function, although the mechanisms by which it has this effect are not clear. Since fibroblasts are a critical component of the developing lung, providing structure and secreting paracrine factors that are essential to epithelialization, this study focuses on the differentiation of ESC into fibroblasts using a directed differentiation protocol.

Methods

Fibroblasts obtained from non-human primate ESC (nhpESC) differentiation were analyzed by immunohistochemistry, immunostaining, Affymetrix gene expression array, qPCR, and immunoblotting.

Results

Results of these analyses demonstrated that although nhpESCs differentiate into fibroblasts in the presence of nicotine and appear normal by some measures, including H&E and SMA staining, they have an altered gene expression profile. Network analysis of expression changes demonstrated an over-representation of cell-cycle related genes with downregulation of N-myc as a central regulator in the pathway. Further investigation demonstrated that cells differentiated in the presence of nicotine had decreased N-myc mRNA and protein expression and longer doubling times, a biological effect consistent with downregulation of N-myc.

Conclusions

This study is the first to use primate ESC to demonstrate that nicotine can affect cellular differentiation from pluripotency into fibroblasts, and in particular, mediate N-myc expression in differentiating ESCs. Given the crucial role of fibroblasts throughout the body, this has important implications for the effect of cigarette smoke exposure on human development not only in the lung, but in organogenesis in general.     

Universal digital high-resolution melt: a novel approach to broad-based profiling of heterogeneous biological samples

Comprehensive profiling of nucleic acids in genetically heterogeneous samples is important for clinical and basic research applications. Universal digital high-resolution melt (U-dHRM) is a new approach to broad-based PCR diagnostics and profiling technologies that can overcome issues of poor sensitivity due to contaminating nucleic acids and poor specificity due to primer or probe hybridization inaccuracies for single nucleotide variations. The U-dHRM approach uses broad-based primers or ligated adapter sequences to universally amplify all nucleic acid molecules in a heterogeneous sample, which have been partitioned, as in digital PCR. Extensive assay optimization enables direct sequence identification by algorithm-based matching of melt curve shape and Tm to a database of known sequence-specific melt curves. We show that single-molecule detection and single nucleotide sensitivity is possible. The feasibility and utility of U-dHRM is demonstrated through detection of bacteria associated with polymicrobial blood infection and microRNAs (miRNAs) associated with host response to infection. U-dHRM using broad-based 16S rRNA gene primers demonstrates universal single cell detection of bacterial pathogens, even in the presence of larger amounts of contaminating bacteria; U-dHRM using universally adapted Lethal-7 miRNAs in a heterogeneous mixture showcases the single copy sensitivity and single nucleotide specificity of this approach.