The detrimental association between fear of falling and motor performance in older cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Background: Cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) are at increased risk of falls and developing fear of falling (FoF). Although FoF may continue to impair motor performance and increase the risk of falling even further, this association remains unexplored in CIPN.

Research Question: Does high FoF in patients with CIPN further deteriorate motor performance beyond the impairment from CIPN-related sensory deficits?

Methods: In this secondary analysis of data collected from two clinical trials, gait parameters during habitual walking condition and postural sway parameters during 30-second quiet standing (eye-open and eyes-closed) were compared among older participants (≥ 65 years) with CIPN and high FoF (CIPN FoF+; n=16), older participants with CIPN and low FoF (CIPN FoF-; n=19) and normal older controls (i.

A YoeB toxin cleaves both RNA and DNA.

Type II toxin-antitoxin systems contain a toxin protein, which mediates diverse interactions within the bacterial cell when it is not bound by its cognate antitoxin protein. These toxins provide a rich source of evolutionarily-conserved tertiary folds that mediate diverse catalytic reactions. These properties make toxins of interest in biotechnology applications, and studies of the catalytic mechanisms continue to provide surprises.

Identifying a Molecular Mechanism That Imparts Species-Specific Toxicity to YoeB Toxins.

The ribosome-dependent (Ec) mRNase toxin YoeB has been demonstrated to protect cells during thermal stress. (At), a plant pathogen, also encodes a YoeB toxin. Initial studies indicated that AtYoeB does not impact the growth of Ec, but its expression is toxic to the native host At.

Expression of different ParE toxins results in conserved phenotypes with distinguishable classes of toxicity.

Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are found on both chromosomes and plasmids. These systems are unique in that they can confer both fatal and protective effects on bacterial cells-a quality that could potentially be harnessed given further understanding of these TA mechanisms. The current work focuses on the ParE subfamily, which is found throughout proteobacteria and has a sequence identity on average of approximately 12% (similarity at 30%-80%).

The toxin from a ParDE toxin-antitoxin system found in Pseudomonas aeruginosa offers protection to cells challenged with anti-gyrase antibiotics.

Toxin-antitoxin systems are mediators of diverse activities in bacterial physiology. For the ParE-type toxins, their reported role of gyrase inhibition utilized during plasmid-segregation killing indicates they are toxic. However, their location throughout chromosomes leads to questions about function, including potential non-toxic outcomes.