Vaccine Preventable Diseases in Pediatric Palliative Care - A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.

Context: Vaccine preventable diseases lead to distressful symptoms and complications among pediatric patients receiving specialized home palliative care. There was no data on the vaccination compliance.

Objectives: The objective was to determine the vaccination coverage, discuss the relevance of vaccinations and provide vaccination recommendations in pediatric palliative care.

Myrtucommulone from Myrtus communis induces apoptosis in cancer cells via the mitochondrial pathway involving caspase-9.

Myrtucommulone (MC) is a unique, nonprenylated acylphloroglucinol contained in the leaves of myrtle (Myrtus communis). Here, we addressed the potential of MC to induce apoptosis of cancer cells. MC potently induced cell death of different cancer cell lines (EC(50) 3-8 microM) with characteristics of apoptosis, visualized by the activation of caspase-3, -8 and -9, cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP), release of nucleosomes into the cytosol, and DNA fragmentation.

Caspase-mediated degradation of human 5-lipoxygenase in B lymphocytic cells.

5-Lipoxygenase (5-LO) is a tightly regulated enzyme in the synthesis of bioactive lipids from arachidonic acid. Here, we demonstrate that 5-LO is regulated by caspases, which are signaling molecules that control critical biological processes by means of specific limited proteolysis. Cell splitting of the Epstein-Barr virus-transformed B lymphocytic cell line BL41-E95-A caused a pronounced, but transient, reduction of functional 5-LO protein, accompanied by the appearance of a 62-kDa 5-LO cleavage product.