Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome caused by first-line antituberculosis drugs: Two case reports and a review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Patients suffering from drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome caused by first-line antituberculosis drugs often need to be retreated rapidly. Patch tests prior to the reintroduction of antituberculosis drugs are rarely performed. OBJECTIVES: To highlight those drugs most often involved in DRESS caused by antituberculosis drugs, illustrate the potential value of patch tests to identify these culprit(s), and provide insights into how to rapidly retreat these patients. METHODS: A detailed description of the work-up of two illustrative patients, together with a literature review of similar cases, is provided. RESULTS: All first-line antituberculosis drugs may cause DRESS syndrome, but rifampicin and isoniazid are most frequently involved. Patch tests can be performed sooner than usually advised in the context of DRESS syndrome, and potentially with lower test concentrations, but false-negative results are possible. Sequential reintroduction of patch test-negative drugs is feasible, although the dose and order of drugs to be readministered, as well as the use of concomitant systemic corticosteroids, remain a matter of debate. CONCLUSION: Patch tests in the context of DRESS syndrome caused by antituberculosis drugs, despite their shortcomings, may potentially guide rapid retreatment of these patients.

Delayed Protein Changes During Seed Germination.

Over the past decade, ample transcriptome data have been generated at different stages during seed germination; however, far less is known about protein synthesis during this important physiological process. Generally, the correlation between transcript levels and protein abundance is low, which strongly limits the use of transcriptome data to accurately estimate protein expression. Polysomal profiling has emerged as a tool to identify mRNAs that are actively translated. The association of the mRNA to the polysome, also referred to as translatome, provides a proxy for mRNA translation. In this study, the correlation between the changes in total mRNA, polysome-associated mRNA, and protein levels across seed germination was investigated. The direct correlation between polysomal mRNA and protein abundance at a single time-point during seed germination is low. However, once the polysomal mRNA of a time-point is compared to the proteome of the next time-point, the correlation is much higher. 35% of the investigated proteome has delayed changes at the protein level. Genes have been classified based on their delayed protein changes, and specific motifs in these genes have been identified. Moreover, mRNA and protein stability and mRNA length have been found as important predictors for changes in protein abundance. In conclusion, polysome association and/or dissociation predicts future changes in protein abundance in germinating seeds.