Probing the association behavior of poly(ethylene glycol)-based amphiphilic comb-like polymer in NaCl solution

The effect of salt on the associative behavior of intramolecular aggregates obtained from poly(ethylene glycol)-based amphiphilic comb-like polymers in aqueous medium at pH 6.2 has been investigated by surface tension, fluorescence probe, dynamic light-scattering, and viscometry techniques. Results reveal that the addition of salt screens the electrostatic repulsion between the charges along the polymer backbone in the aggregates and consequently (1) reduces the surface activity at the air/water interface, (2) leads to the contraction of the polymer backbone, and (3) reduces the hydrodynamic sizes of the aggregates. In contrast, the hydrophobicity of the aggregates remains unperturbed.

Concurrent skin and nerve histology in leprosy and its role in the classification of leprosy

Concurrent skin and nerve histology was evaluated in 60 leprosy patients (25 BT, 28 BL and 7 LL). The twin aims were to study the comparative histology and the usefulness of nerve histology in the classification of the disease. In BT patients, clinical and histological classification was in agreement in 11 (44%) skin and 17 (68%) nerve biopsies. Concurrent skin and nerve histology was in consonance in 14 (56%) BT patients, while in 6 (24%) patients, only nerve histology was helpful in the classification of the disease, the skin histology being non-specific. Nerve histology was classified as BL in 3 (12%) BT patients, the skin histology was non-specific. In the BL group, the histology of 23 (82.4%) nerve biopsies correlated with the clinical classification, in contrast to skin histology which correlated with clinical assessment in 19 (68%) patients only. In the LL patients, the histology of nerve correlated with the clinical classification in 5 patients (71.4%), compared to histology of the skin in 4 (57%) patients only. The GF was higher in the nerves than in the skin throughout the leprosy spectrum (BT, BL, LL); the difference was, however, marginal in BL leprosy. The average bacteriological index (BI) was higher in nerves (4+) compared to that of skin histology and slit skin smears (3+) in BL leprosy. There was, however, no difference in the BI of the slit skin smears, skin and nerve biopsies in lepromatous leprosy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Faun-tail nevus--a case report

A Case of faun-tail nevus is presented. A long tuft of hair over the back in the lumbar region hid a bony defect of the fifth lumbar spine. No neurological symptoms were encountered.

Evaluation of physicochemical parameters of edible oils at room temperature and after heating at high temperature

Edible oils and fats are recognized as vital constituents of our daily diet and contribute significantly to the regulation of different body functions. Edible oil quality is largely determined by physicochemical characteristics and sensory evaluation due to its nature and processing procedure. The present study includes evaluation of different physicochemical parameters of soybean, palm, mustard and bran oil at room temperature and after heating at 180oC for 10 mins using different analytical methodologies. These properties were studied to evaluate the compositional quality of oils and also to investigate the effect of heating as it ultimately changes the physicochemical and sensory properties of the oil. Results revealed that there was a significant difference in physicochemical parameters among four types of oils before and after heating. Peroxide, free fatty acid and acid value were increased with the increase of temperature at 180oC. The iodine value was highest in soybean oil (133.17 mg/g), followed by mustard oil (110.59 mg/g) but was lowest in palm oil (46.18 mg/g). In addition, saponification value was found to be 187.1, 202.39, 191.38 and 181.6 mg/g in soybean, palm, mustard and bran oil, respectively. The study also indicated that the L*, a* and b* values of oil decreased significantly with heating temperature. However, sensory evaluation results also found that soybean oil and bran oil were more preferable to cooking than the other two oils. Taking consideration of all parameters the study concluded that soybean oil and bran oil had the superior quality to other samples.

Culture of nocardioform bacilli from leprosy patients & clinical evaluation of nocardioform bacilli derived antigen

An antigen derived from cultured nocardioform bacilli was compared with Mitsuda lepromin in intradermal skin test reactions. Nocardioform bacilli were cultured in gelatin minimal medium from the tissue fluid of 85 lepromatous patients (56 M, 29 F). Of these, 65 samples showed uncontaminated growth of the organism, which were pooled for the manufacture of the test antigen. This antigen was intradermally tested in 50 untreated leprosy patients irrespective of the type, together with Mitsuda lepromin and sterile gelatin minimal media, which served as a control. No early reaction was observed at 72 h, while the late reaction at 28 days was positive in all patients in the Tuberculoid (TT) group with both antigens. Eighteen patients (81.8%) in the Borderline tuberculoid (BT) group reacted strongly to Mitsuda lepromin at 28 days, while 21 patients (95.5%) in this group showed a strong late reaction with the test antigen. The lepromatous (LL) group did not show any reaction with the two antigens. It is inferred that nocardioform bacilli are easy to cultivate, and that the test antigen compares well with Mitsuda lepromin.

Abstract P5-07-04: Not presented

This abstract was not presented at the conference.

Citation Format: Chatterjee S, Basak P, Tan S, Lefort S, Pellacani D, Safneck J, Buchel E, Aparicio S, Eaves CJ, Raouf A. Not presented [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-07-04.

Paucibacillary multidrug therapy in leprosy. 7 1/2 years experience

Three hundred and twenty-three paucibacillary (PB) leprosy patients were treated with WHO-recommended multidrug therapy (MDT) and followed up for over 7 1/2 years. The paucibacillary MDT regimen (PBR) was well accepted and tolerated. Complete clinical regression was attained in 61.2% patients after 6 doses of PBR. Persistence of clinical activity after 6 months of therapy was associated with occurrence of type I upgrading reaction, presence of six or more patches and more than two thickened major nerve trunks. Reversal reactions were encountered in 15.9% patients, one third of which were accompanied by severe neuritis. Delayed upgrading reaction occurred in six patients, two patients had relapse one and two years after stopping of PBR. The WHO recommended MDT regimen for paucibacillary cases needs careful evaluation and it may be necessary to extend the treatment beyond six months in certain situations.

Involvement of the legs in idiopathic striae distensae--a case report

A case of idiopathic striae distensae (ISD) is presented. The patient was a healthy young adult with no history of weight lifting, use of systemic or local corticosteroids, infections or trauma. Horizontally disposed striae were located on the abdomen, back and legs. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report case of ISD where idiopathic striae were present below the knees.

Electron microscopic characteristics of actinomycetic agents having aetiological association with human leprosy and epizootic ulcerative syndrome of fish

The transmission electron microscopic (TEM) studies of the human leprosy derived chemoautotrophic nocardio-form (CAN) bacteria and EUS derived CAN bacteria showed presence of double contoured cell-walls consisting of an electron transparent and a dense layer. The fibrillar structures on the surface of these CAN bacterial cells also suggested their similarity to the human tissue derived Mycobacterium leprae cells. These EM studies further revealed mycelial and coccoid bodies in all these bacteria as was observed originally.

Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) expression and role of vincristine sulfate in mouse model of malignancy related peritoneal ascites: an experimental metastatic condition

AIM

To evaluate the efficacy of intraperitoneal vincristine administration into ascitic sarcoma-180 bearing mice as a model of human malignant ascites regarding various peritoneal/retroperitoneal sarcomatosis, and to evaluate the flowcytometric telomerase reverse transcriptase expression for the diagnostic and prognostic purposes.

METHODS

Present study included disease induction by intraperitoneal homologous ascitic sarcoma-180 transplantation followed by in vivo intraperitoneal drug administration to study mitotic index, flowcytometric cell cycle and telomerase reverse transcriptase expression pattern, erythrosin-B dye exclusion study for malignant cell viability assessment. Besides, in vitro malignant ascite culture in presence and absence of vincristine sulfate and survival study were also taken into consideration.

RESULTS

Intraperitoneal vincristine administration (concentration 0.5 mg/kg body weight) significantly diminished the mitotic index in diseased subjects in comparison to untreated control subjects. Treated group of animals showed increased life span and median survival time. Cell viability assessment during the course of drug administration also revealed gradual depression on cell viability over time. Flowcytometric cell cycle analysis showed a good prognostic feature of chemotherapeutic administration schedule by representing high G2/M phase blocked cells along with reduced telomerase reverse transcriptase positive cells in treated animals.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that long term administration of vincristine sulfate in small doses could be a good pharmacological intervention in case of malignant peritoneal ascites due to sarcomatosis as it indirectly reduced the level of telomerase reverse transcriptase expression in malignant cells by directly regulating cell cycle and simultaneously increased the life expectancy of the diseased subjects.

Signatures of tRNAGlx-specificity in proteobacterial glutamyl-tRNA synthetases

The canonical function of glutamyl-tRNA synthetase (GluRS) is to glutamylate tRNAGlu. Yet not all bacterial GluRSs glutamylate tRNAGlu; many glutamylate both tRNAGlu and tRNAGln, while some glutamylate only tRNAGln and not the cognate substrate tRNAGlu. Understanding the basis of the unique specificity of tRNAGlx is important. Mutational studies have hinted at hotspot residues, both on tRNAGlx and GluRS, which play crucial roles in tRNAGlx-specificity. However, its underlying structural basis remains unexplored. The majority of biochemical studies related to tRNAGlx-specificity have been performed on GluRS from Escherichia coli and other proteobacterial species. However, since the early crystal structures of GluRS and tRNAGlu-bound GluRS were from non-proteobacterial species (Thermus thermophilus), proteobacterial biochemical data have often been interpreted in the context of non-proteobacterial GluRS structures. Marked differences between proteobacterial and non-proteobacterial GluRSs have been demonstrated; therefore, it is important to understand tRNAGlx-specificity vis-a-vis proteobacterial GluRS structures. To this end, we solved the crystal structure of a double mutant GluRS from E. coli. Using the solved structure and several other currently available proteo- and non-proteobacterial GluRS crystal structures, we probed the structural basis of the tRNAGlx-specificity of bacterial GluRSs. Specifically, our analyses suggest a unique role played by the tRNAGlx D-helix contacting loop of GluRS in the modulation of tRNAGln-specificity. While earlier studies have identified functional hotspots on tRNAGlx that control the tRNAGlx-specificity of GluRS, this is the first report of complementary signatures of tRNAGlx-specificity in GluRS.

Molecular origin of the differential stabilities of the protofilaments in different polymorphs: molecular dynamics simulation and deep learning

Fragments of α-synuclein, an intrinsically disordered protein, whose misfolding and aggregation are responsible for diseases like Parkinson's disease and others, can co-exist in different polymorphs like 'rod' and 'twister'. Their apparently stable structures have different degrees of tolerance to perturbations like point mutations. The molecular basis of this is investigated using molecular dynamics-based conformational sampling. A charge-swapping mutation, E46K, known to be a reason for the early onset of Parkinson's disease, has differential impact on two polymorphs, and its molecular reason has been probed by investigating the intra-fibril interaction network that is responsible for stabilizing the aggregates. Two different quaternary level arrangement of the peptides in two polymorphs, establishing two different types of interrelations between residues of the peptide monomers, form the basis of their differential stabilities; a Deep Neural Network (DNN)-based analysis has extracted different pairs of residues and their spatial proximities as features to distinguish the states of two polymorphs. It has revealed that difference in these molecular arrangements intrinsically assigns key roles to different sets of residues in two different forms, like a feedback loop from quaternary structure to sequence level; an important insight into the sequence-structure relationship in general. Such atomic level insights were substantiated with the proof of differences in the dynamic correlation between residue pairs, altered mobilities of the sidechains that affects packing and redistribution of the weightage of different principal modes of internal motions in different systems. The identification of key residues with altered significance in different polymorphs is likely to benefit the planned design of fibril breaking molecules.

Abstract P3-04-25: Role of H19, a long non-coding RNA, in development of resistance to endocrine therapy in breast cancer cells

Introduction:

Majority of breast cancer tumors are Estrogen receptor positive (ER+) where antiestrogen therapies (endocrine therapies) are the best therapeutic strategy to treat this type of tumors. However, eventually over 30% of patients will develop resistance to endocrine therapies resulting in disease relapse. We recently showed that the long noncoding RNA, H19, is an estrogen target gene that plays a significant role in estrogen-induced proliferation of the normal and malignant ER+ cells. We therefore hypothesize that H19 expression is also important to the proliferation of endocrine therapy resistant cells. In this study, we examined if estrogen-independent H19 expression is important to the development of endocrine therapy resistance.

Objective:

The overall objective of this project is to use therapy sensitive (MCF-7) and therapy-resistant (LCC9) breast cancer cells as model systems to examine the role of long non-coding RNA H19 in development and maintenance of resistance to endocrine therapy.

Methodology and Results:

We examined the expression of H19 in ER+ breast cancer cells (MCF7) that under the selective pressure of fulvesterant (ICI, ER down regulator) acquire resistance to ICI. We observed that while H19 expression was initially decreased as expected, its expression subsequently increased in the ICI-resistant MCF7 cells. Interestingly, H19 knockdown in MCF7 cells significantly decrease their proliferation as determined by Flowcytometry and made them more sensitive to ICI. We also examined H19 expression in the ICI-resistant LCC9 cells and found that ICI treatment increased H19 expression. Interestingly, H19 knockdown in the LCC9 cells decreased their proliferation and surprisingly made them sensitive to ICI treatment. Previous observations indicate that NOTCH4 receptor (NR4) may be involved in endocrine therapy resistance. Interestingly we found that in presence of ICI, NR4 expression is increased and that forced activation of NR4 markedly increases H19 expression in LCC9 cells.

Conclusion:

Altogether these observations suggest that H19 plays an important role in the development of endocrine therapy resistance and further our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in endocrine therapy resistance. These and similar studies could potentially lead to the development of new therapies to treat therapy resistant tumor cells. Further experiments would reveal if signalling pathways that regulate H19 expression independent of estrogen are useful therapies against endocrine therapy resistant tumors.

Citation Format: Basak P, Chatterjee S, Bhat V, Jin H, Su A, Murphy LC, Raouf A. Role of H19, a long non-coding RNA, in development of resistance to endocrine therapy in breast cancer cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-04-25.

Pilomatrixoma

Clinical and histopathological features of two cases of pilomatrixoma are reported. The tumour in each case was slow-growing, asymptomatic and at the same site. Histopathology showed classical eosinophilic ghost cell, surrounded by basophilic cells, along with areas of calcification and keratinization.