Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis: A Diagnostic Conundrum.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a syndrome of excessive immune activation causing widespread inflammation and tissue destruction leading to multi-organ dysfunction and failure. Making the diagnosis of HLH could be quite challenging due to the broad range of presenting symptoms and their lack of specificity. After ruling out considerations for differential diagnoses, recognizing the most common presenting signs and symptoms of HLH, including neurologic dysfunction, and having a high clinical suspicion for HLH in the setting of inflammatory/demyelinating diseases are important for prompt diagnosis and treatment.

Fatty Acid Beta-Oxidation Disorders: A Brief Review.

Background: Mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation disorders (FAODs) are a heterogeneous group of defects in fatty acid transport and mitochondrial β-oxidation. They are inherited as autosomal recessive disorders and have a wide range of clinical presentations.

Summary: The background information and case report provide important insight into mitochondrial FAODs.

Synthesis of fluorescent analogs of alpha-conotoxin MII.

Alpha-conotoxins (alpha-CTxs) are small peptides that are competitive inhibitors of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and have been used to study the kinetics of nAChRs. Alpha-CTx MII, from the venom of Conus magus, has been shown to potently block both rat alpha3beta2 and rat chimeric alpha6/alpha3beta2beta3 cloned nAChRs expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Tetramethylrhodamine (TMR), Bodipy FL, Alexa Fluor 488, and terbium chelates (TbCh) are fluorescent molecules that can be reacted with the N-terminus of the conopeptide to produce fluorescent conjugates.