Trying to stomach multiple myeloma: A case report.

We report a case of a 51-year-old male with minimal past medical history who presented to his primary care provider with nausea, vomiting and constipation in the outpatient setting. Concomitantly, he was found to have a renal injury, anemia and lytic lesions which were confirmed to be due to multiple myeloma. After further investigation of the gastrointestinal symptoms, he was diagnosed with gastroparesis. This case represents an unusual presentation of gastroparesis, diagnosed at the same time as multiple myeloma, for which there has yet to be a published association. Here we detail the case, review gastric emptying physiology, the diagnostic criteria for gastroparesis and hypothesize the connection if it might have with multiple myeloma.

Odorant receptor-mediated sperm activation in disease vector mosquitoes.

Insects, such as the malaria vector mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, depend upon chemoreceptors to respond to volatiles emitted from a range of environmental sources, most notably blood meal hosts and oviposition sites. A subset of peripheral signaling pathways involved in these insect chemosensory-dependent behaviors requires the activity of heteromeric odorant receptor (OR) ion channel complexes and ligands for numerous A. gambiae ORs (AgOrs) have been identified. Although AgOrs are expressed in nonhead appendages, studies characterizing potential AgOr function in nonolfactory tissues have not been conducted. In the present study, we explore the possibility that AgOrs mediate responses of spermatozoa to endogenous signaling molecules in A. gambiae. In addition to finding AgOr transcript expression in testes, we show that the OR coreceptor, AgOrco, is localized to the flagella of A. gambiae spermatozoa where Orco-specific agonists, antagonists, and other odorant ligands robustly activate flagella beating in an Orco-dependent process. We also demonstrate Orco expression and Orco-mediated activation of spermatozoa in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Moreover, we find Orco localization in testes across distinct insect taxa and posit that OR-mediated responses in spermatozoa may represent a general characteristic of insect reproduction and an example of convergent evolution.