Misdiagnosis of diabetic foot ulcer in patients with undiagnosed skin malignancies.

A growing number of studies report dermal malignancies mimicking diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). We reviewed clinical cases reporting malignant tumours misdiagnosed to be DFU aiming to identify factors contributing to misdiagnosis. We systematically searched in PubMed for clinical cases reporting on misdiagnosis of DFU in patients with cancer. A chi-square analysis was conducted to show the link between the incidence of initial DFU misdiagnosis and patient age, gender and wound duration. Lesions misdiagnosed to be DFU were subsequently diagnosed as melanoma (68% of the cases), Kaposi's sarcoma (14%), squamous cell carcinoma (11%), mantle cell lymphoma, and diffuse B-cell lymphoma (both by 4%). Older age (≥65 years) was associated with a significantly increased risk of malignancy masked as DFU (OR: 2.452; 95% CI: 1.132 to 5.312; P value = .019). The risk of such suspicion in older patients (age ≥ 65 years) was 145% higher than in younger patients (age < 65 years). Clinicians should maintain a high level of awareness towards potentially malignant foot lesions in elderly patients with diabetes (age ≥ 65).

Extension of Maximal Lifespan and High Bone Marrow Chimerism After Nonmyeloablative Syngeneic Transplantation of Bone Marrow From Young to Old Mice.

The goal of this work was to determine the effect of nonablative syngeneic transplantation of young bone marrow (BM) to laboratory animals (mice) of advanced age upon maximum duration of their lifespan. To do this, transplantation of 100 million nucleated cells from BM of young syngeneic donors to an old nonablated animal was performed at the time when half of the population had already died. As a result, the maximum lifespan (MLS) increased by 28 ± 5%, and the survival time from the beginning of the experiment increased 2.8 ± 0.3-fold. The chimerism of the BM 6 months after the transplantation was 28%.

A Novel Lipopeptaibol Emericellipsin A with Antimicrobial and Antitumor Activity Produced by the Extremophilic Fungus Emericellopsis alkalina.

Soil fungi are known to contain a rich variety of defense metabolites that allow them to compete with other organisms (fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and insects) and help them occupy more preferential areas at the expense of effective antagonism. These compounds possess antibiotic activity towards a wide range of other microbes, particularly fungi that belong to different taxonomical units. These compounds include peptaibols, which are non-ribosomal synthesized polypeptides containing non-standard amino acid residues (alpha-aminoisobutyric acid mandatory) and some posttranslational modifications. We isolated a novel antibiotic peptide from the culture medium of Emericellopsis alkalina, an alkalophilic strain. This peptide, called emericellipsin A, exhibited a strong antifungal effect against the yeast Candida albicans, the mold fungus Aspergillus niger, and human pathogen clinical isolates. It also exhibited antimicrobial activity against some Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Additionally, emericellipsin A showed a significant cytotoxic effect and was highly active against Hep G2 and HeLa tumor cell lines. We used NMR spectroscopy to reveal that this peptaibol is nine amino acid residues long and contains non-standard amino acids. The mode of molecular action of emericellipsin A is most likely associated with its effects on the membranes of cells. Emericellipsin A is rather short peptaibol and could be useful for the development of antifungal, antibacterial, or anti-tumor remedies.