Association between sensorimotor function and visual assessment of postural orientation in patients with ACL injury.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between sensorimotor function and visual assessment of postural orientation during execution of weight-bearing activities in patients with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-two individuals (23 women and 29 men, mean (SD) age 26.5 (6.4)) approximately 7 months after ACLR. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Sensorimotor function (proprioception, ankle dorsiflexion range of motion, and isometric muscle strength of the hip, knee, and trunk) were recorded on the injured leg. Postural orientation errors (POEs) were visually scored from video-recordings of the injured leg during execution of 5 functional tasks, and POE subscales activities of daily living (ADL) and Sport, and Total POE score were used in the analysis. RESULTS: Lower hip external rotation strength was associated with higher Total POE score (B = -24.4, p = 0.041) and higher POE subscale ADL score (B = -24.9, p = 0.03). No associations between sensorimotor function and POE subscale Sport were found. CONCLUSIONS: Decreased hip external rotation strength might contribute to higher scores on the POE subscale ADL and the Total POE score, in men and women following ACLR. Future studies will reveal if strengthening of hip external rotation strength improves postural orientation.

A major EBNA1 variant from Asian EBV isolates shows enhanced transcriptional activity compared to prototype B95.8.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) has an instrumental role in maintaining EBV latent infection by controlling EBV episome replication and regulating viral transcription. It is a ubiquitously expressed protein during latent viral infection and in EBV-associated tumors. The EBNA1 C-terminus interacts functionally with the Qp and Cp that control viral gene expression in latency I/II and III, respectively. EBNA1 has been classified into five subtypes due to sequence variation in the DNA-interacting C-terminus. By DNA sequence analysis of its C-terminus, we detected a main sub-variant (V-val-v1) of EBNA1 with valine located in both positions 487 and 528 from matched samples including NPC biopsies and peripheral blood taken from Vietnamese (9), Chinese (12) NPC patients and healthy donors (5). In the FR-region of oriP from nine NPC biopsies from Vietnam we also frequently found substitutions, deletions and variable numbers of repeats. Using a luciferase reporter system, EBNA1 and FR both derived from Asian isolates induced higher transcriptional activity than those from B95-8 virus.