RESUMO
Babesiosis is a zoonotic disease caused by a protozoa Babesia. It is transmitted through a tick vector and affects red blood cells. The clinical manifestation of Babesiosis varies and can range from asymptomatic infection to fatal multi-organ failure and death. The severity of infection varies with different Babesia species and also the immunity of the host. The management of Babesiosis depends on the severity of infection and the burden of parasitemia. Here we present a case of severe Babesiosis in an immunocompetent patient with heavy parasitemia requiring red blood cell exchange transfusion (ET).
RESUMO
Current treatments of various cancers include chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, immunotherapy, and combinations. However, there is a need to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic treatments for unresponsive patients. These may be achieved by the identification of novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers which will help in the stratification of patients' initial responses to particular treatments and circumvent resistance, relapses, metastasis, and death. We have been investigating human prostate cancer as a model tumor. We have identified Yin Yang 1 (YY1), a dysregulated transcription factor, whose overexpression correlated with tumor progression as well as in the regulation of drug resistance and the development of EMT. YY1 expression is upregulated in human prostate cancer cell lines and tissues. We postulated that YY1 may be a potential biomarker in prostate cancer for patients' stratification as well as a novel target for therapeutic intervention. We used Bioinformatic gene RNA array datasets for the expression of YY1 in prostate tumor tissues as compared to normal tissues. Interestingly, variations on the expression levels of YY1 mRNA in prostate cancer were reported by different investigators. This mini review summarizes the current reported studies and Bioinformatic analyses on the role of YY1 in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer.