Anticardiolipin antibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Anticardiolipin antibodies were studied in serum and cerebrospinal fluid from 32 consecutive patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, admitted for the assessment of neuropsychiatric disease. Ten of the 16 patients with active neuropsychiatric complaints showed positive anticardiolipin antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid, including eight with the simultaneous presence of antibodies in their sera. By contrast, only 2 of the 16 patients with headaches, lacking further data of neurological disease, revealed anticardiolipin antibodies in their cerebrospinal fluid. The assessment of Q-albumin index showed abnormal values in a subset of patients with active neuropsychiatric changes who showed positive cerebrospinal anticardiolipin antibodies, suggesting that an impairment of the blood brain barrier function may lead to a leakage of intrathecal antiphospholipid antibodies from systemic circulation. Additionally, few patients revealed normal Q-albumin values with high IgG-cerebrospinal fluid index suggesting increased intrathecal synthesis of autoantibodies. The study of anticardiolipin antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid was useful to detect active neuropsychiatric disease in systemic lupus erythematosus.     

Clonal analysis of bilateral breast cancer

Forty-nine pairs of bilateral breast tumors (41 synchronous and 8 asynchronous cases) were examined for X-chromosome inactivation status and p53 mutations to address the issue of their clonality. Among 12 cases that were informative for the trinucleotide repeat polymorphism in exon 1 of the androgen receptor gene on the X chromosome, 3 cases were found to have different alleles of the locus inactivated in the right and left breast tumors, indicating that the two tumors arose from distinct transformed cells. Thirteen tumors (13%) from 11 women (22%) contained somatic mutations in exons 5-8 of the p53 gene. In two cases, both breast tumors harbored p53 mutations, but the specific mutations were not identical. Seven synchronous and two asynchronous cases had p53 mutations in one tumor only. A germ line p53 mutation at codon 248, one of the most common p53 mutations in Li-Fraumeni syndrome, was observed in one case. Immunohistochemical analysis of p53 protein with a monoclonal antihuman p53 antibody showed concordant positivity between the right and left tumors in three bilateral breast cancer cases. Our results suggest that at least some bilateral breast tumors originate from distinct cells, but that some bilateral breast tumors may be related through a common p53 abnormality.     

A shape-based machine learning tool for drug design

Building predictive models for iterative drug design in the absence of a known target protein structure is an important challenge. We present a novel technique, Compass, that removes a major obstacle to accurate prediction by automatically selecting conformations and alignments of molecules without the benefit of a characterized active site. The technique combines explicit representation of molecular shape with neural network learning methods to produce highly predictive models, even across chemically distinct classes of molecules. We apply the method to predicting human perception of musk odor and show how the resulting models can provide graphical guidance for chemical modifications.     

The role of anterior ectosylvian cortex in cross-modality orientation and approach behavior

Benzoporphyrin derivative (BPD), a sensitizer currently in clinical trials, was evaluated for the treatment of experimental Greene melanoma implanted in the rabbit iris. To improve tumor targeting, BPD was complexed with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) representing an endogenous carrier system for BPD as previously described. Twelve tumors were irradiated at a sensitizer dose of 2 mg kg-1 body weight using a dye laser at 692 nm. Tumor responses were documented by photography, angiography and light and electron microscopy. All tumors treated with 80 J cm-2 regressed irreversibly. The principal mechanism of tumor necrosis was thrombosis following disruption of endothelial membranes. Ultrastructure data suggested tumor cell damage, although evidence for this being the result of direct PDT-mediated tumor cell death was less clear. These data suggest that BPD-LDL may be used to improve the selectivity of photodynamic tumor therapy possibly by the increased uptake of lipoprotein-delivered sensitizer to neovascular endothelial cells.     

Microbial populations of Botrytis cinerea-inoculated strawberry fruit exposed to four volatile compounds

OBJECTIVE: The authors tested the hypothesis that eye tracking disorder in schizophrenia is associated with neurological signs. METHOD: The subjects were 93 normal comparison subjects and 59 schizophrenic patients. They were evaluated with the Neurological Evaluation Scale, a standardized rating instrument that assesses sensory integration, motor coordination, sequencing of complex motor acts, and other neurological signs. Also, the schizophrenic patients' smooth-pursuit eye movements were tested in response to a 0.3-Hz sinusoidal target by means of infrared oculography. They were divided into those with (N=18) and without (N=41) eye tracking disorder by using a previously described method, which was based on mixture analysis of the distribution of position root mean square error. RESULTS: The patients with eye tracking disorder had significantly worse performance than the patients without eye tracking disorder with respect to sensory integration, and the effect size was moderate to large. In comparison with the normal subjects, both patient subgroups had significantly worse performance on all of the Neurological Evaluation Scale subscales. CONCLUSIONS: Although neurological signs are present generally in schizophrenia, poor sensory integration is particularly pronounced in patients with eye tracking disorder. A review of the literature shows that the two abnormalities have strikingly similar patterns of validators, including 1) familial aggregation, 2) premorbid presence, 3) syndromal specificity, 4) trait status, and 5) association with the deficit syndrome. Poor sensory integration and eye tracking disorder in schizophrenia may be various manifestations of a common, underlying pathophysiological process.     

Relationship of cocaine and other substance dependence to well-being of high-risk psychiatric patients

OBJECTIVE: The co-occurrence of substance dependence disorders was determined in a sample of 160 frequently hospitalized adults with severe mental illness, and the relationship between substance dependence and psychosocial functioning and well-being was examined. METHODS: A structured interview was used to assess subjects for co-occurring current DSM-III-R substance dependence disorders during an acute psychiatric hospitalization. They were administered a structed interview that included the subscales of the Addiction Severity Index, the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale, Lehman's Quality of Life Interview, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, the Mastery Scale, and questions about service needs. RESULTS: Seventy-eight of the subjects (48.8 percent) were diagnosed as having at least one current substance dependence disorder. Most subjects with comorbid substance dependence were polysubstance dependent (55.1 percent), and almost half (44.9 percent) met criteria for cocaine dependence. Subjects who were substance dependent were significantly overrepresented among those diagnosed with bipolar disorder, psychotic disorder not otherwise specified, and major depression. When the analysis controlled for demographic characteristics and primary diagnosis, comorbidity was related to depressive symptoms, adverse life conditions, and diminished life satisfaction in several domains. Substance-dependent subjects were significantly more likely to have been arrested and jailed than nondependent subjects. Cocaine-dependent subjects were significantly less satisfied than all other subjects with their living situation and personal safety and more likely to request assistance for their drug and alcohol use problems. CONCLUSIONS: The findings corroborate high rates of co-occurring substance dependence disorders among frequently hospitalized patients with severe mental illness. They also reveal a high prevalence of cocaine dependence and a dramatic pattern of negative correlates of cocaine dependence. The findings suggest that successful interventions for substance dependence may improve these patients' life circumstances and that psychiatric patients may be particularly receptive to such interventions during hospitalization.