Personalized multidisciplinary approach of orbital apex foreign body: A case report and literature review.

Foreign bodies in the intraconal space are unusual, and lodgment at the orbital apex was even more unusual. High-velocity object injuries, such as gunshots or industrial accidents, are the common causes of intraorbital foreign bodies. It is difficult for surgeons to retrieve foreign bodies from the orbital apex as it is a deep, narrow space with critical surrounding structures. The use of an image-guided navigation system improves the accuracy of transnasal endoscopic surgery and causes less damage. We present a case in which a bullet became lodged in the orbital apex and was successfully removed using transnasal endoscopic surgery with the collaboration of otolaryngologists and ophthalmologists. To summarize, orbital apex foreign bodies are harmful, and prompt removal with a personalized multidisciplinary approach is critical.

[Screening and inhibition of antagonistic endophytic bacteria isolated from soybean (Glycine max)nodules against Alternaria longipes.] / çƒŸè‰èµ¤æ˜Ÿç— èŒæ‹®æŠ—æ€§å¤§è±†æ ¹ç˜¤å† ç”ŸèŒçš„ç­›é€‰åŠæŠ‘åˆ¶ä½œç”¨.

Using Alternaria longipes as tested phytopathogen, endophytic bacteria isolated from soybean nodules were selected to study antagonistic effects by confrontation and metabolic liquid culture methods. The inhibited hyphae were determined by microscopic observation, and the screened strains were characterized by cell culture, physiological and biochemical tests, 16S rDNA sequencing, phylogenetic analysis and inoculation trials in greenhouse. The results indicated that the seven of the endophytes exerted more than 42% inhibitory effects after the first and the second screening. These strains belonged to genus Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Sinorhizobium and Stenotrophomonas, respectively. Microscopic observation showed that the affected hyphae ends of A. longipes appear deformity of coralline branch, spherical expansions and so on. Antagonistic experiments with metabolites showed that the inhibition of endophytic bacteria against pathogenic fungus played an effective role mainly by bacteria producing extracellular substances. Confrontation tests suggested that endophytic Bacillus rapidly produced biofilm to effectively hinder the growth and extension of pathogen hyphae. Inoculation experiments showed that the disease index of treatment group was significantly lowered compared with the control, suggesting it could be utilized as a biological control resource inhibiting tobacco brown spot.

Podocalyxin EBP50 ezrin molecular complex enhances the metastatic potential of renal cell carcinoma through recruiting Rac1 guanine nucleotide exchange factor ARHGEF7.

Podocalyxin was initially identified in glomerular podocytes to critically maintain the structural and functional integrity of the glomerular ultrafiltrative apparatus. Lately, it has emerged as a malignant marker in tumors arising from a variety of tissue origins. By immunohistochemistry, we identified that 9.6% of renal cell carcinoma patients overexpress this protein. This subset of patients had significantly shorter disease-specific and overall survivals, and, importantly, we established podocalyxin overexpression as an independent prognostic factor for latent distant metastasis with multivariate analysis. Podocalyxin down-regulation by small interfering RNA led to defective migration in model renal tubular cells, which was corrected by re-expression of podocalyxin. The activity of the small GTPase Rac1, a well-characterized modulator of cell migration, was diminished by podocalyxin knock-down. Conversely, podocalyxin overexpression in human embryonic kidney cells up-regulated Rac1 activity, which depended on a complex formed by podocalyxin, ERM-binding phosphoprotein 50, ezrin, and ARHGEF7, a Rac1 activator. Therefore, podocalyxin can serve as a biomarker to identify renal cell carcinoma patients with higher metastatic potential for more aggressive intervention at earlier clinical stages.

PPP2R2B CAG repeat length in the Han Chinese in Taiwan: Association analyses in neurological and psychiatric disorders and potential functional implications.

PPP2R2B, a protein widely expressed in neurons throughout the brain, regulates the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity for the microtubule-associated protein tau and other substrates. Altered PP2A activity has been implicated in spinocerebellar ataxia 12, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and other tauopathies. Through a case-control study and a reporter assay, we investigated the association of PPP2R2B CAG repeat polymorphism with Taiwanese AD, essential tremor (ET), Parkinson's disease (PD), and schizophrenia and clarified the functional implication of this polymorphism. The distribution of the alleles was not significantly different between patients and controls, with 68.6-76.1% alleles at lengths of 10, 13, and 16 triplets. No expanded alleles were detected in either group. However, the frequency of the individuals carrying the short 5-, 6-, and 7-triplet alleles was notably higher in patients with AD (5/180 [2.8%], Fisher's exact test, P = 0.003; including 2 homozygotes) and ET (4/132 [3.0%], Fisher's exact test, P < 0.001) than in the controls (1/625 [0.2%]). The PPP2R2B transcriptional activity was significantly lower in the luciferase reporter constructs containing the (CAG)(5-7) allele than in those containing the common 10-, 13-, and 16-triplet alleles in both neuroblastoma and embryonic kidney cells. Therefore, our preliminary results suggest that the PPP2R2B gene CAG repeat polymorphism may be functional and may, in part, play a role in conferring susceptibility to AD and ET in Taiwan.