Bioactive Peptides Against Fungal Biofilms.

Infections caused by invasive fungal biofilms have been widely associated with high morbidity and mortality rates, mainly due to the advent of antibiotic resistance. Moreover, fungal biofilms impose an additional challenge, leading to multidrug resistance. This fact, along with the contamination of medical devices and the limited number of effective antifungal agents available on the market, demonstrates the importance of finding novel drug candidates targeting pathogenic fungal cells and biofilms.

Computer-Aided Design of Mastoparan-like Peptides Enables the Generation of Nontoxic Variants with Extended Antibacterial Properties.

Diverse peptides have been evaluated for their activity against pathogenic microorganisms. Here, five mastoparan variants were designed based on mastoparan-L, among which two (R1 and R4) were selected for in-depth analysis. Mastoparan-L (parent/control), R1, and R4 inhibited susceptible/resistant bacteria at concentrations ranging from 2 to 32 μM, whereas only R1 and R4 eradicated biofilms at 16 μM.

Von Recklinghausen disease and gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Background: We discuss how the notion of mesenchymal or connective tumors of the digestive tract has passed to the concept of stromal tumors and its links with von Recklinghausen disease, and make special reference to the progress in medical treatment.

Methods: We have studied one of our own cases and did a review of the literature.

Results: For isolated primary lesions, good results are obtained with surgery.

[Recklinghausen's disease and gastrointestinal stromal tumors].

Gastro-intestinal stromal tumors associated with Recklinghausen's disease should be considered in the current concept of the stromal tumors with reference to recent advances in immuno-chemistry. In this setting, there is an high potential of maluignancy. For the treatment of these lesions, surgery is the main tool.

Endoscopic management of obstructive jaundice due to portal cavernoma.

This report describes 2 cases of calcified cavernous transformation of portal vein of unknown etiology. In both cases the revealing symptom was jaundice due to extrinsic compression of the common bile duct by the cavernoma. Only 4 other cases have been previously described in the literature.