Giant Peripheral Ossifying Fibroma Treated With Piezosurgery and Platelet-Rich Fibrin: A Rare Case Report.

INTRODUCTION: The peripheral ossifying fibroma (POF) is a benign reactive lesion that exclusively arises from gingiva. The lesion may gain considerably large sizes and present peculiar clinical and radiographic features that would then allow it to be called a giant POF; in that case, its otherwise simple surgical extraction could create a challenge. Thus, we elect here, for the very first time, a plausible alternative for treating giant POF: piezosurgery followed by placement of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF). CASE PRESENTATION: A 31-year-old black male presented a large asymptomatic nodule on the lower gingiva; the lesion had caused vestibular displacement of teeth and had been present for 18 years. Following the diagnostic hypothesis of a giant POF, an excisional biopsy was performed under local anesthesia using piezosurgery (microvibration of 36,000 times/sec was used in a bone cortical working mode), which confirmed the diagnosis. The surgical procedure was facilitated with the use of piezosurgery followed by placement of PRF, being the trans- and postoperative periods occurred with no complications. One year after the treatment, the patient shows no signs of disease recurrence and remains under follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Giant POF is a rare gingival reactive lesion that can reach large dimensions, causing teeth displacement, functional, and esthetic impairments. The lesion can be successfully managed with piezosurgery and PRF, as illustrated herein, avoiding extensive bone loss and damage to the surrounding soft tissues.

Thiophenacetamide as a potential modulator to NF-κB: structure and dynamics study using in silico and molecular biology assays.

Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) plays critical roles in the regulation of many pathophysiological processes, including inflammation and immune responses, cell growth and apoptosis. This DNA-binding protein receptor is considered an important molecular target to treat many diseases through host-directed therapy. In this line, several drugs containing thiophene cores have been extensively evaluated due to their ability to interfere on NF-κB translocation to the nucleus. In this work, assays using drug affinity responsive target stability (DARTS) revealed that the parent compound N-(Aryl)-2-thiophen-2-ylacetamide referred to as thiophenacetamide (TAA) specifically binds to the p65 subunit of the NF-κB. Since no experimental binding mode of TAA with p65 is available, we explored TAA within putative sites in silico to gain insights into its possible binding mode and behavior. The binding mode of TAA found in Site 1 formed hydrogen bonds with Lys37 and Asp125 on p65, important residues near DNA-binding region. Molecular dynamics simulations showed the stability of this mode of binding in contrast to the other also tested modes. Our results suggest that TAA binding could occur in regions close to residues responsible for DNA binding, increasing NF-κB protein rigidity and affecting the association between DNA and NF-κB. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Chiroptical properties of streptorubin B: the synergy between theory and experiment.

Analysis of the calculated and measured optical rotation (OR) together with other calculated chiroptical properties such as electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) of the prodigiosin alkaloid streptorubin B shows that these are dominated by the pseudoenantiomeric atropisomers anti-(S)-streptorubin B (1A) and syn-(S)-streptorubin (1B). Atropisomerism is a dynamic phenomenon with a potentially nonequilibrium population of isomers, and accordingly the measured chiroptical responses may vary with time, concentration, temperature, and the anion of the salts used. Streptorubin also has the potential to form stacked homodimers for which the optical rotations measured at 589 nm can vary greatly due to the presence of ECD-active electronic transitions in this region.

Pleiotropic effects of statins may improve outcomes in atherosclerotic renovascular disease.

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerotic renovascular disease (ARD) coexists with arterial obstructive disease in the coronary, cerebral, and peripheral arteries that may remain underdiagnosed and untreated. METHODS: This retrospective study compares overall survival and renal survival (i.e., time to doubling of serum creatinine or end-stage renal disease (ESRD)) over an 11-year period in 104 ARD patients of whom 68 received statin therapy (group S) because of elevated lipid levels and 36 had no statin (group NS) because of normal lipid profile at entry. RESULTS: Atherosclerosis in another vascular bed was documented in 84%. Lipid profiles at end point were virtually identical in both the groups. Group S had mean survival 123months (confidence interval (CI) 113-134) with four deaths, and mean renal survival 122months (CI 113-131). Group NS had mean survival 33 months (CI 23-42) with 13 deaths, and mean renal survival 27 months (CI 17-37). CONCLUSIONS: Statin therapy was associated with lesser rate of progression of renal insufficiency (with 7.4% of S patients reaching renal end points vs. 38.9% of NS patients) and lower overall mortality (5.9 % in S vs. 36.1% in NS patients), P < 0.001 for both. Although both groups received what was deemed optimal therapy, they did have other differences that may have affected the outcomes (a limitation addressed by Cox multiple regression analysis). These results suggest the need for prospective randomized controlled studies in ARD patients in order to explore potential benefits of statins that may not be attributable solely to lipid lowering.