Systemic coagulation is activated in patients with meningioma and glioblastoma.

Purpose: Up to 30% of patients with glioblastoma (GBM) develop venous thromboembolism (VTE) over the course of the disease. Although not as high, the risk for VTE is also increased in patients with meningioma. Direct measurement of peak thrombin generation (TG) allows quantitative assessment of systemic coagulation activation in patients with GBM and meningioma.

Opioid requirement, opioid receptor expression, and clinical outcomes in patients with advanced prostate cancer.

Background: Preclinical studies show that opioids stimulate angiogenesis and tumor progression through the mu opioid receptor (MOR). Although MOR is overexpressed in several human malignancies, the effect of chronic opioid requirement on cancer progression or survival has not been examined in humans.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis on 113 patients identified in the Minneapolis VA Tumor Registry (test cohort) and 480 patients from the national VA Central Cancer Registry (validation cohort) who had been diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer between 1995 and 2010 to examine whether MOR expression or opioid requirement is associated with disease progression and survival.

Comparative genome sequencing of an isogenic pair of USA800 clinical methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates obtained before and after daptomycin treatment failure.

We describe here a clinical daptomycin treatment failure in a patient with recurrent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia in whom daptomycin was administered after a failed empirical treatment course with vancomycin and piperacillin-tazobactam. We had the opportunity to compare the genome sequences of an isogenic pair of daptomycin-susceptible and -resistant MRSA isolates obtained before and after initiation of daptomycin therapy, respectively. The genotype of both isolates was USA800, ST5, SCCmec type IV, agr type II.

Rapid and complete resolution of chemotherapy-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura/hemolytic uremic syndrome (TTP/HUS) with rituximab.

Purpose: Gemcitabine-induced thrombocytopenic purpura/hemolytic uremic syndrome (TTP/HUS) is a well described, albeit rare, complication, which is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. Treatment with standard TTP/HUS therapies such as plasma exchange, and cessation of gemcitabine is often unsuccessful. The purpose of this report is to describe the successful treatment of gemcitabine-induced TTP/HUS with rituximab, a CD20 monoclonal antibody that has been used for the treatment of refractory idiopathic TTP/HUS.

Cytosolic aconitase and ferritin are regulated by iron in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Iron regulatory protein-1 (IRP-1) is a cytosolic RNA-binding protein that is a regulator of iron homeostasis in mammalian cells. IRP-1 binds to RNA structures, known as iron-responsive elements, located in the untranslated regions of specific mRNAs, and it regulates the translation or stability of these mRNAs. Iron regulates IRP-1 activity by converting it from an RNA-binding apoprotein into a [4Fe-4S] cluster protein exhibiting aconitase activity.