Abnormal cerebral microstructure in premature neonates with congenital heart disease

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Abnormal cerebral microstructure has been documented in term neonates with congenital heart disease, portending risk for injury and poor neurodevelopmental outcome. Our hypothesis was that preterm neonates with congenital heart disease would demonstrate diffuse cerebral microstructural abnormalities when compared with critically ill neonates without congenital heart disease. A secondary aim was to identify any association between microstructural abnormalities, white matter injury (eg, punctate white matter lesions), and other clinical variables, including heart lesions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

With the use of tract-based spatial statistics, an unbiased, voxelwise method for analyzing diffusion tensor imaging data, we compared 21 preterm neonates with congenital heart disease with 2 cohorts of neonates without congenital heart disease: 28 term and 27 preterm neonates, identified from the same neonatal intensive care unit.

RESULTS

Compared with term neonates without congenital heart disease, preterm neonates with congenital heart disease had microstructural abnormalities in widespread regions of the central white matter. However, 42% of the preterm neonates with congenital heart disease had punctate white matter lesions. When neonates with punctate white matter lesions were excluded, microstructural abnormalities remained only in the splenium. Preterm neonates with congenital heart disease had similar microstructure to preterm neonates without congenital heart disease.

CONCLUSIONS

Diffuse microstructural abnormalities were observed in preterm neonates with congenital heart disease, strongly associated with punctate white matter lesions. Independently, regional vulnerability of the splenium, a structure associated with visual spatial function, was observed in all preterm neonates with congenital heart disease.

Chronic co-administration of nicotine and methamphetamine causes differential expression of immediate early genes in the dorsal striatum and nucleus accumbens of rats

Nicotine and methamphetamine (METH) cause addiction by triggering neuroplastic changes in brain reward pathways though they each engage distinct molecular targets (nicotine receptors and dopamine transporters respectively). Addiction to both drugs is very prevalent, with the vast majority of METH users also being smokers of cigarettes. This co-morbid occurrence thus raised questions about potential synergistic rewarding effects of the drugs. However, few studies have investigated the chronic neurobiological changes associated with co-morbid nicotine and METH addiction. Here we investigated the effects of these two drugs alone and in combination on the expression of several immediate early genes (IEGs) that are sensitive to drug exposures. Chronic exposure to either nicotine or METH caused significant decreases in the expression of fosb, fra1, and fra2 in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) but not in the dorsal striatum whereas the drug combination increased fra2 expression in both structures. Except for junB mRNA levels that were decreased by the three drug treatments in the NAc, there were no significant changes in the Jun family members. Of the Egr family members, NAc egr2 expression was decreased after nicotine and the drug combination whereas NAc egr3 was decreased after METH and the drug combination. The drug combination also increased striatal egr3 expression. The Nr4a family member, nr4a2/nurr1, showed increased striatal expression after all three drug treatments, while striatal nr4a3/nor-1 expression was increased by the drug combination whereas NAc nr4a1/nurr77 was decreased by nicotine and the drug combination. These observations suggest that, when given in combination, the two drugs exert distinct effects on the expression of IEGs in dopaminergic projection areas from those elicited by each drug alone. The significance of these changes in IEG expression and in other molecular markers in fostering co-morbid METH and nicotine abuse needs to be further evaluated.

Adjuvant treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma after orthotopic liver transplantation: do we really need this?

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) continues to rise and is still a major cause of mortality. Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) continues to give patients the best chance for cure, but recurrence of the disease remains a problem. Even with the implementation of the Milan criteria, recurrence rates have been shown to be 8-15% in most studies and even higher in patients who are beyond the Milan criteria. Therefore, several investigators have looked into the value of adjuvant therapy using systemic cytotoxic chemotherapy in HCC after OLT. Unfortunately, most of the trials are very small, and the results have been disappointing. But trials using Licartin seem to be promising, and other drugs such as FOLFOX and sorafenib warrant further investigation based on their efficacy in the advanced disease. In this review, we will review the current data on efficacy and rationale of adjuvant treatment for HCC after OLT including novel biomarkers.

TFinDit: transcription factor-DNA interaction data depository

Background

One of the crucial steps in regulation of gene expression is the binding of transcription factor(s) to specific DNA sequences. Knowledge of the binding affinity and specificity at a structural level between transcription factors and their target sites has important implications in our understanding of the mechanism of gene regulation. Due to their unique functions and binding specificity, there is a need for a transcription factor-specific, structure-based database and corresponding web service to facilitate structural bioinformatics studies of transcription factor-DNA interactions, such as development of knowledge-based interaction potential, transcription factor-DNA docking, binding induced conformational changes, and the thermodynamics of protein-DNA interactions.

Description

TFinDit is a relational database and a web search tool for studying transcription factor-DNA interactions. The database contains annotated transcription factor-DNA complex structures and related data, such as unbound protein structures, thermodynamic data, and binding sequences for the corresponding transcription factors in the complex structures. TFinDit also provides a user-friendly interface and allows users to either query individual entries or generate datasets through culling the database based on one or more search criteria.

Conclusions

TFinDit is a specialized structural database with annotated transcription factor-DNA complex structures and other preprocessed data. We believe that this database/web service can facilitate the development and testing of TF-DNA interaction potentials and TF-DNA docking algorithms, and the study of protein-DNA recognition mechanisms.

SpliceSeq: a resource for analysis and visualization of RNA-Seq data on alternative splicing and its functional impacts

SUMMARY

SpliceSeq is a resource for RNA-Seq data that provides a clear view of alternative splicing and identifies potential functional changes that result from splice variation. It displays intuitive visualizations and prioritized lists of results that highlight splicing events and their biological consequences. SpliceSeq unambiguously aligns reads to gene splice graphs, facilitating accurate analysis of large, complex transcript variants that cannot be adequately represented in other formats.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION

SpliceSeq is freely available at http://bioinformatics.mdanderson.org/main/SpliceSeq:Overview. The application is a Java program that can be launched via a browser or installed locally. Local installation requires MySQL and Bowtie.

CONTACT

mryan@insilico.us.com

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Serum vascular endothelial growth factor level in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing liver transplantation: experience of a single Western center

BACKGROUND

The strongest predictor of tumor relapse after liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is vascular invasion, appreciated only on explant analysis. High serum level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is associated with worse outcomes after resection or locoregional therapies but its role in liver transplantation remains undefined.

OBJECTIVE

We report the first western prospective study exploring serum VEGF in HCC liver transplant patients, correlating pre-operative serum VEGF with poor prognostic histologic features during explant analysis.

METHODS

Between May 2008, and June 2010, 75 HCC patients underwent liver transplantation at our institution. Serum VEGF was measured every 3 months until liver transplantation and correlated with histopathologic findings on explant.

RESULTS

There was no significant correlation between pre-transplant serum VEGF levels and tumor burden (median 31.0 pg/mL vs. 42.5 pg/mL, p=0.33, for tumors within and beyond the Milan criteria, respectively). Pre-transplant VEGF levels were higher in poorly differentiated tumors compared to well to moderately differentiated tumors, but not statistically significant (median 49.0 pg/mL vs. 31.0 pg/mL, p=0.26). Pre-transplant VEGF did not correlate with vascular invasion (median 37.0 pg/mL vs. 31.0 pg/mL, p=0.35, in the presence and absence of vascular invasion, respectively).

CONCLUSION

Pre-operative serum VEGF fails to predict unfavorable histologic HCC features in patients undergoing liver transplantation. Role of serum VEGF in liver transplant HCC patients remains unclear.