Case records of the Massachusetts General Hospital. Weekly clinicopathological exercises. Case 31-1998. An eight-year-old boy with bronchiectasis

[Localised bronchiectasis revealing carcinoid tumor]

Nous rapportons l'observation d'une patiente âgée de 32 ans, qui a présenté un syndrome bronchique purulent récidivant depuis 05 ans. Le bilan radiologique a montré des clartés finement cerclés au niveau basithoracique gauche en rapport avec des dilatations de bronche localisée au niveau du lobe inferieur gauche, de type cylindrique. La bronchoscopie souple a montré une tumeur rougeâtre à surface lisse obstruant l'entrée de la pyramide basale gauche. La patiente a bénéficié d'une lobectomie inferieure gauche plus curage ganglionnaire médiastinal. Les résultats de l'étude anatomopathologique de la pièce opératoire sont en faveur d'une tumeur carcinoïde typique. La suite post-opératoire était sans complication et l'évolution clinique et radiologique est bonne.

Inhibitors of alpha-synuclein oligomerization and toxicity: a future therapeutic strategy for Parkinson's disease and related disorders

An abundance of genetic, histopathological, and biochemical evidence has implicated the neuronal protein, alpha-synuclein (alpha-syn) as a key player in the development of several neurodegenerative diseases, the so-called synucleinopathies, of which Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most prevalent. Development of disease appears to be linked to events that increase the intracellular concentration of alpha-syn or cause its chemical modification, either of which can accelerate the rate at which it forms aggregates. Examples of such events include increased copy number of genes, decreased rate of degradation via the proteasome or other proteases, or altered forms of alpha-syn, such as truncations, missense mutations, or chemical modifications by oxidative reactions. Aggregated forms of the protein, especially newly formed soluble aggregates, are toxic to cells, so that one therapeutic strategy would be to reduce the rate at which such oligomerization occurs. We have therefore designed several peptides and also identified small molecules that can inhibit alpha-syn oligomerization and toxicity in vitro. These compounds could serve as lead compounds for the design of new drugs for the treatment of PD and related disorders in the future.

Tuberculosis, Bronchiectasis, and Infertility: What Ailed George Orwell?

In the last and most productive years of his life, George Orwell struggled with pulmonary tuberculosis, dying at the dawn of the era of chemotherapy. His case history illustrates clinical aspects of tuberculosis with contemporary relevance: the role of poverty in its spread, the limited efficacy of monotherapy, the potential toxicity of treatment, and the prominence of cachexia as a terminal symptom. Orwell's ordeals with collapse therapy may have influenced the portrayal of the tortures of Winston Smith in the novel 1984. I discuss unifying diagnoses for Orwell's respiratory problems and apparent infertility, including tuberculous epididymitis, Young syndrome, immotile cilia syndrome, and cystic fibrosis.