Contribution of Matrix Metallopeptidase-1 Genotypes, Smoking, Alcohol Drinking and Areca Chewing to Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Susceptibility.

Background/aim: The up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) has been demonstrated to be correlated with lymph node metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC); however, the genotypic role of MMP-1 is not well understand. The present study aimed to assess the contribution of MMP-1 promoter -1607 genotypes, combined with environmental carcinogens, on the predisposition to NPC tumorigenesis.

Materials And Methods: The MMP-1 promoter -1607 genotypes were examined for 352 age- and gender-matched controls and 176 NPC patients by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) methodology.

Platelet-Monocyte Aggregates and C-Reactive Protein are Associated with VTE in Older Surgical Patients.

Emerging evidence implicates platelets as key mediators of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Nevertheless, the pathways by which platelets and circulating procoagulant proteins synergistically orchestrate VTE remain incompletely understood. We prospectively determined whether activated platelets and systemic procoagulant factors were associated with VTE in 32 older orthopedic surgery patients.

Green tea (-)-epigallocatechin gallate induced growth inhibition of human placental choriocarcinoma cells.

This study investigated the pathways involved in the effect of green tea epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) on mitogenesis in BeWo, JEG-3, and JAR placental choriocarcinoma cells. EGCG inhibited cell proliferation in dose-dependent and time-dependent manners, as indicated by the number of cells and incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). A catechin-specific effect of green tea was evident; EGCG was more effective than epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epigallocatechin in suppressing cell growth.

Green tea (-)-epigallocatechin gallate inhibits the growth of human villous trophoblasts via the ERK, p38, AMP-activated protein kinase, and protein kinase B pathways.

Green tea catechins, especially (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), have been reported to circulate in the placenta of animals and blood of humans after consumption. Whether EGCG regulates activity of human villous trophoblasts (HVT) is unknown. This study investigated the pathways involved in EGCG modulation of trophoblast mitogenesis.

Clinical features, outcome and prognostic factors of 87 patients with angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma in Taiwan.

We retrospectively analyzed 87 patients with angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma (AITL) in Taiwan. The median age was 68 (range 18-89) years. Of these patients, 74 % was at an advanced stage.

Proceedings of the Third Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: A Review of Emerging Issues and Technologies.

The proceedings of the 3rd Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank summarize the most contemporary clinical, electrophysiological, imaging, and computational work on DBS for the treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric disease. Significant innovations of the past year are emphasized. The Think Tank's contributors represent a unique multidisciplinary ensemble of expert neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, engineers, and members of industry.

Comprehensive mutational analysis of primary and relapse acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a subtype of myeloid leukemia characterized by differentiation block at the promyelocyte stage. Besides the presence of chromosomal rearrangement t(15;17), leading to the formation of PML-RARA (promyelocytic leukemia-retinoic acid receptor alpha) fusion, other genetic alterations have also been implicated in APL. Here, we performed comprehensive mutational analysis of primary and relapse APL to identify somatic alterations, which cooperate with PML-RARA in the pathogenesis of APL.

National Randomized Controlled Trial of Virtual House Calls for People with Parkinson's Disease: Interest and Barriers.

Background: Delivering specialty care remotely directly into people's homes can enhance access for and improve the healthcare of individuals with chronic conditions. However, evidence supporting this approach is limited.

Materials And Methods: Connect.

Mediastinal Germ Cell Tumor-associated Histiocytic Proliferations Treated With Thalidomide Plus Chemotherapy Followed by Alemtuzumab-containing Reduced Intensity Allogeneic Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation: A Case Report.

Mediastinal nonseminomatous germ cell tumor (MNSGCT)-associated histiocytic proliferations are rare and rapidly fatal disorders. Standard treatment modalities have yet to be established.We report a case of MNSGCT-associated hemophagocytic syndrome that evolved into malignant histiocytosis/disseminated histiocytic sarcoma (MH/HS), which was initially treated with intravenous immunoglobulin, corticosteroids, and cyclosporine.

A novel method for assessing the severity of levodopa-induced dyskinesia using wearable sensors.

Patients with Parkinson's disease often experience significant changes in the severity of dyskinesia when they undergo titration of their medications. Dyskinesia is marked by involuntary jerking movements that occur randomly in a burst-like fashion. The burst-like nature of such movements makes it difficult to estimate the clinical scores of severity of dyskinesia using wearable sensors.

Impact of SNP array karyotyping on the diagnosis and the outcome of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia with low risk cytogenetic features or no metaphases.

Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a clonal hematopoietic disorder with heterogeneous clinical, morphological and genetic characteristics. Clonal cytogenetic abnormalities are found in 20-30% of patients with CMML. Patients with low risk cytogenetic features (normal karyotype and isolated loss of Y chromosome) account for ∼80% of CMML patients and often fall into the low risk categories of CMML prognostic scores.

NUDT15 gene polymorphism related to mercaptopurine intolerance in Taiwan Chinese children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

A recent study identified a variant of the NUDT15 gene (rs116855232 C>T) associated with intolerance to thiopurine in Korean patients with Crohn's disease. This study prompted us to substantiate the finding in a Taiwanese population. Four hundred and four children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 100 adults with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura or localized lymphoma having normal bone marrow were examined.

Profiling of somatic mutations in acute myeloid leukemia with FLT3-ITD at diagnosis and relapse.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with an FLT3 internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD) mutation is an aggressive hematologic malignancy with a grave prognosis. To identify the mutational spectrum associated with relapse, whole-exome sequencing was performed on 13 matched diagnosis, relapse, and remission trios followed by targeted sequencing of 299 genes in 67 FLT3-ITD patients. The FLT3-ITD genome has an average of 13 mutations per sample, similar to other AML subtypes, which is a low mutation rate compared with that in solid tumors.

High frequency of additional gene mutations in acute myeloid leukemia with MLL partial tandem duplication: DNMT3A mutation is associated with poor prognosis.

The mutational profiles of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with partial tandem duplication of mixed-lineage leukemia gene (MLL-PTD) have not been comprehensively studied. We studied 19 gene mutations for 98 patients with MLL-PTD AML to determine the mutation frequency and clinical correlations. MLL-PTD was screened by reverse-transcriptase PCR and confirmed by real-time quantitative PCR.

CD5 positivity is an independent adverse prognostic factor in elderly patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma.

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Age over 60 years is one of the five parameters of the International Prognostic Index (IPI), which is the most important clinical prognostic predictor in DLBCL. A previous study on German DLBCL patients over 60 years of age showed that immunoblastic morphology, but not germinal center B cell-like (GCB)/non-GCB subtype, correlated with short survival.

Interaction of myoglobin with oleic acid.

Previous studies have shown that palmitate (PA) can interact with myoglobin (Mb). The present study has investigated the interaction of the more soluble unsaturated fatty acid, oleic acid (OA). Indeed, (1)H NMR measurements of the Mb signal during OA titration also show signal changes consistent with specific and non-specific binding.

Comparison of VIM and STN DBS for Parkinsonian Resting and Postural/Action Tremor.

Background: Resting tremor is common in Parkinson's disease (PD), but up to 47% of PD patients have action tremor, which is sometimes resistant to medications. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) of the thalamus or subthalamic nucleus (STN) is effective for medication-refractory tremor in PD, though it remains unclear whether STN DBS is as effective as VIM DBS for postural/action tremor related to PD.

Methods: We carried out a single-center retrospective review of patients with medication-refractory resting, postural, and action PD tremor, treated with either VIM or STN DBS between August 2004 and March 2014.

The role of XRCC6/Ku70 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

The association between XRCC6/Ku70, an upstream player in the DNA double-strand break repair system, and the risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) was examined. In this case-control study, 176 NPC patients and 352 cancer-free controls were genotyped, and the associations of XRCC6 promoter T-991C (rs5751129), promoter G-57C (rs2267437), promoter G-31A (rs132770), and intron 3 (rs132774) polymorphisms with NPC risk were evaluated. NPC tissue samples were also assessed for their XRCC6 mRNA and protein expression by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR and Western blotting, respectively.

Prevalence of Anal Dysplasia in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background & Aims: Although the prevalence of anal dysplasia is higher in some immunosuppressed populations, the prevalence in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is unknown. We examined the prevalence of abnormal anal cytology among IBD patients, and its relation to the human papilloma virus (HPV).

Methods: Adults with IBD and age-matched healthy controls (HC) were recruited.

Cutaneous plasmacytosis: a clinicopathologic study of 12 cases in Taiwan revealing heterogeneous underlying causes.

Background: Cutaneous plasmacytosis is clinically characterized by multiple pigmented papules and plaques that occur mainly on the trunk and many plasma cells in the lesional skin. Most of the cases reported have occurred in Japan. Whether cutaneous plasmacytosis is a unique reactive disease or a neoplastic condition has not been established.

Biological Activities of RUNX1 Mutants Predict Secondary Acute Leukemia Transformation from Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndromes.

Purpose: Transcription factor RUNX1 is essential for normal hematopoiesis. High mutation frequencies of RUNX1 gene in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) have been described, whereas the biologic significances of the mutations were not investigated. Here, we aimed to correlate the biologic activities of the RUNX1 mutants with the clinical outcomes of patients.

Analysis and prediction of the critical regions of antimicrobial peptides based on conditional random fields.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are potent drug candidates against microbes such as bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses. The size of AMPs ranges from less than ten to hundreds of amino acids. Often only a few amino acids or the critical regions of antimicrobial proteins matter the functionality.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia-associated refractory immune thrombocytopenia successfully treated with eltrombopag.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) may be associated with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). The standard treatment for CLL-associated ITP is steroids. For refractory cases, various treatment strategies such as rituximab, splenectomy, and thrombopoietic mimetics are available.

Estrogen enhances activity of Wnt signaling during osteogenesis by inducing Fhl1 expression.

Estrogen is a crucial hormone for osteoclast inhibition and for preventing osteoporosis. However, the hormone's role in osteoblast growth and differentiation remains unclear. The complexity of estrogen's role in guiding osteoblast behavior arises partly from crosstalk with other signaling pathways, including Wnt signaling.

Second primary lung cancers among breast cancer patients treated with anti-estrogens have a longer cancer-specific survival.

Background/aim: Estrogen is thought to play an important role in lung cancer carcinogenesis and progression. The incidence and survival of second primary lung cancer among breast cancer patients with and without anti-estrogen therapy were evaluated.

Patients And Methods: All women diagnosed with breast cancer and treated at the Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center between January 2000 and December 2009 were included and followed-up for occurrence and/or death from lung cancer until December 2011.