Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0006849 (oral candidiasis)
 1,939 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This is the first report from Ethiopia of a case of cryptococcal meningitis in a patient with AIDS. A 20-year-old woman was admitted to Tikur Anbessa Hospital in January 1990 with complaints of generalized pruritic skin lesions of six months, and headache, fever, and poor appetite of three months duration. The headache and low-grade intermittent fever were accompanied by nausea, vomiting, anorexia, and progressive weight loss, without diarrhea. She had had multiple sex partners. Upon admission, after being bedridden for two weeks, she appeared acutely ill and restless. Her temperature was 39.5 degrees Celsius, and she had oral thrush. There was no lymphadenopathy. Widespread, irregular erythematous and whitish macular patches (3 x 5 to 8 x 10 sq. cm in size) with peripheral scaling and tiny vesicles were found on the skin, pubic and perineal regions. She had neck stiffness, but was conscious and well-oriented. Hemoglobin (Hb) was 10.5 g%; the white cell count (WBC) was 3400/cu. mm; the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was 92 mm/hr; the platelet count was 175,000/mm; and blood films were negative for hemoparasites. Urinalysis showed 3+ albumin and many pus cells and red cells/HPF. Urine culture was negative, and the VDRL test was nonreactive. Lumbar puncture, which was performed upon arrival, showed clear cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), with normal protein and glucose levels and no cells. CSF culture showed yeast cells, and an India ink preparation was positive for Cryptococcus neoformans. Blood taken for bacterial culture grew yeast cells. Renal and liver function tests, and chest x-rays were normal. A potassium hydroxide (KOH) preparation from a skin snip showed rounded yeast cells. ELISA and Western blot tests were both positive. The patient was given supportive treatment and amphotericin B (0.6 mg/kg daily). Although the fever decreased, the patient's general condition did not improve. She complained of headache, photophobia, nausea, and vomiting. Lumbar puncture was repeated eight days after the start of treatment; CSF culture and India ink preparations were negative. Urea nitrogen (BUN) repeated two weeks later was normal. Four weeks after admission, the patient suddenly vomited massive amounts of fresh blood and died before transfusion could be given. A discussion follows regarding the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment of this disease, particularly in AIDS patients, with a review of the literature.
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PMID:Cryptococcal meningitis in a young Ethiopian woman with AIDS. 139 20

During their autumn migratory phase, thrush nightingales (Luscinia luscinia) previously starved for 2 d were allowed to refuel under three different ambient temperature conditions (-7 degrees, 7 degrees, and 22 degrees C). During the refueling period, as well as during the preceding control and starvation periods, food intake, body mass, and feces production were monitored. In addition, daily energy expenditure was measured during the refueling period. The compilation of the energy balance during the refueling period revealed an energy density of the deposited tissue of 33.6 kJ g-1. Assuming that the deposited tissue consists of fat and protein exclusively, with energy densities of 39.6 and 5.5 kJ g-1 wet mass, respectively, we estimated the deposited tissue to consist of 82% fat and 18% wet protein (6% dry protein and 12% water). Nitrogen balances during control, starvation, and refueling phases and during a period of prolonged and complete starvation indicated that 5% of the nutrient stores consisted of dry protein. Our results support recent findings that nutrient stores for migration often contain protein in addition to fat and consequently are 15%-25% less energy rich than pure fat stores. These proteins might be stored as muscle or other functional tissue and may be required to support the extra mass of the stores and/or reflect an incapacity of the metabolic machinery to catabolize far exclusively. Fuel deposition rate was positively related with ambient temperature, whereas food intake rate was unaffected by temperature. These results indicate that the rate of fuel deposition is limited by a ceiling in food intake rate; when this ceiling is reached, fuel deposition rate is negatively affected by daily energy expenditure rate. To a certain extent, the ceiling in food intake rate varies depending on feeding conditions over the previous days. These variations in food intake capacity probably reflect the building and breakdown of gut tissues and/or gut enzyme systems and might be insensible and not evolutionary adaptive. Significant energetic costs, however, are probably associated with the maintenance of gut tissues. It is therefore feasible that changes in digestive capacity are regulated and are directed at energy economization.
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PMID:Composition of fuel stores and digestive limitations to fuel deposition rate in the long-distance migratory thrush nightingale, Luscinia luscinia. 923 84

Cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) feed predominantly on fruits that are rich in simple sugars and low in nitrogen, supplementing this diet with arthropod prey during the summer months as well as flowers and tree sap in springtime. In contrast, thrushes feed extensively on fatty, protein-rich invertebrate prey, supplemented with sugary and lipid-rich fruits. Simple sugars and fats are digested and/or absorbed by distinctly different physiological mechanisms, which suggests the possibility of contrasting digestive strategies in animals specialized to diets containing one of these two energy sources. In this study, we quantified enzymatic activity of three membrane-bound intestinal enzymes of cedar waxwings and five species of thrushes to explore this aspect of their digestive physiology. These enzymes catalyze the final steps in the digestion of carbohydrates (sucrase-isomaltase and maltase-glucoamylase) and protein (aminopeptidase-N). The two carbohydrases are homologous enzymes with overlapping functions; both enzymes catalyze the hydrolysis of maltase and isomaltase. The membrane-bound digestive enzyme systems that we described for cedar waxwings and thrushes can be explained by the particular nutrients contained within their respective natural diets. Consistent with previous work, cedar waxwings displayed intestinal sucrase activity, whereas thrushes did not. Correspondingly, cedar waxwings eat some foods containing sucrose, whereas thrushes do not. Sucrase-isomaltase conferred all maltase and isomaltase activity in cedar waxwings. In contrast, all maltase and isomaltase activity in thrushes was necessarily sucrase independent, which indicated the presence of maltase-glucoamylase. The absence of sucrase-independent maltase activity in cedar waxwings suggests that sucrase-isomaltase obviates the need for maltase-glucoamylase. Indeed, total maltase and isomaltase activities were much higher in cedar waxwings than in thrushes. Neither waxwings nor thrushes eat starchy foods; sucrase-isomaltase in waxwings and maltaseglucoamylase in thrushes probably function in digesting glycogen in animal foods. We suggest that digestive traits associated with specialization to monosaccharide-rich fruits (lack of a grinding gizzard) by frugivorous waxwings and thrushes may prevent utilization of starchy seeds. Total aminopeptidase-N activity in cedar waxwings was indistinguishable from the allometric pattern among thrush species, but the distribution of this enzyme along the intestines of waxwings and thrushes was distinctly different, which demonstrates that total enzyme activity can be insufficient as a descriptor of the functional activity of brush border enzymes. Aminopeptidase-N activity peaked in the anterior part of the intestines of thrushes and in the terminal portion of the intestines of waxwings, which suggests contrasting strategies for protein digestion from fatty versus sugary diets, respectively.
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PMID:The membrane-bound intestinal enzymes of waxwings and thrushes: adaptive and functional implications of patterns of enzyme activity. 1143 43

Candida albicans is a major human fungal pathogen especially as an etiologic agent of opportunistic oral and genital infections. Moreover, C. albicans can be involved in the deep infections and recent evidence suggests that the majority of diseases produced by this pathogen are associated with biofilm growth. The aims of this study were to evaluate biofilm production ability of C. albicans strains isolated from different sources, and to evaluate the effect of serum for enhancement the growth of biofilm. The strains used in this study were obtained from three sources; 12 from feces of patients with gastrointestinal disturbances, 13 from the oral cavity of patients with oral candidiasis, and 16 from the vagina of patients with Candida vulvovaginitis (CVV). Polystyrene 96-well plates were used to grow biofilms and crystal violet (CV) staining method was used to evaluate the growth. There were no differences in biofilm growth expressed as CV absorbance between C. albicans strains from different origins neither in Yeast Nitrogen Base broth (YNB) or in bovine serum (BS) (ANOVA, P = 0.1648, P = 0.5106, respectively). In the BS, the biofilm production was greater than in YNB medium for all samples (ANOVA, P = 0.0003).
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PMID:Quantitative evaluation of biofilm formation in yeast nitrogen base (YNB) broth and in bovine serum (BS) of Candida albicans strains isolated from mucosal infections. 2168 96