Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0014118 (endocarditis)
 15,629 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Noninfective endocarditis may develop on heart valves in a wide variety of clinical conditions. Various events have been cited as possible etiologic factors. These lesions are clinically important because the vegetations frequently embolize and cause arterial obstruction and tissue infarction. Previously, the diagnosis of the disease had been made only at autopsies. Only a single case has been reported to have been diagnosed clinically in childhood. We present a patient with noninfective endocarditis, urgently operated on with the presumptive echocardiographic diagnosis of tricuspid valve myxoma, whose protein C level was found to be very low. It's known that in patients with homozygous congenital protein C deficiency venous thrombosis may develop. We think that the etiologic factor of the thrombosis on the tricuspid valve in the case presented is congenital protein C deficiency. With this case study we further emphasize the specific role of two-dimensional echocardiography in the diagnosis of noninfective endocarditis and recommend that protein C deficiency be investigated as an etiologic factor.
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PMID:Two-dimensional echocardiographic diagnosis of tricuspid valve noninfective endocarditis due to protein C deficiency (lesion mimicking tricuspid valve myxoma). 203 19

A decrease in levels of circulating anticoagulant protein C has been shown to occur following autologous BMT, and this deficiency may contribute to a hypercoagulable state placing patients at risk for thromboembolic events. We report four patients who suffered a variety of thrombotic complications following BMT (non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis, superior vena cava thrombosis, thrombotic stroke, purpura fulminans, small bowel infarction secondary to diffuse microvascular thrombosis), which were preceded by or temporally related to decreased levels of protein C. Treatment with fresh frozen plasma (FFP) led to slight, temporary increases in protein C levels but infusions of FFP did not prevent either death or extension of the thrombus in these four cases, suggesting the need for higher protein C doses and/or concomitant anticoagulation. Though no direct causal relationship between these thrombotic complications and the protein C deficiency can be proved, a generalized hypercoagulable state caused by protein C deficiency may have contributed to the development, severity or progression of these complications.
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PMID:Thrombotic complications of BMT: association with protein C deficiency. 843 11

Necrosis of the digits is a rare complication of warfarin therapy of obscure pathogenesis. We report a 61-year-old woman with a 12-month history of Raynaud's phenomenon who developed multiple digital necrosis following aortic valve replacement with mechanical prosthesis for aortic insufficiency caused by nonbacterial thrombotic endocarditis. Exacerbation of Raynaud's phenomenon occurred during the postoperative period, with daily episodes of ischemia of the fingers and toes that improved with local warming. However, coincident with the occurrence of immune heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, and while undergoing routine warfarin anticoagulation because of the mechanical valve prosthesis, the patient abruptly developed progression of digital ischemia to multiple digital necrosis on postoperative day 8, at the time the international normalized ratio reached its peak value of 4.3. All limb pulses were readily palpable, and vascular imaging studies showed thrombosis only in the superficial femoral and popliteal veins of the right leg. Coagulation studies showed greatly elevated levels of thrombin-antithrombin complexes and prothrombin fragment F1.2 levels, consistent with uncontrolled thrombin generation. After vitamin K administration, no abnormalities of the protein C anticoagulant pathway were identified, consistent with previous studies of other patients with warfarin-induced necrosis complicating heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. Subsequently, the patient was shown to have metastatic breast adenocarcinoma, which explained the patient's initial presentation with nonbacterial thrombotic endocarditis. This patient case suggests that multiple digital gangrene can result from the interaction of various localizing and systemic factors, including compromised microvascular blood flow (Raynaud's phenomenon), increased thrombin generation (heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, adenocarcinoma), and warfarin-induced failure of the protein C natural anticoagulant pathway.
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PMID:Warfarin-associated multiple digital necrosis complicating heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and Raynaud's phenomenon after aortic valve replacement for adenocarcinoma-associated thrombotic endocarditis. 1469 34

Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis are the most important etiological agents of biofilm associated-infections on indwelling medical devices. Biofilm infections may also develop independently of indwelling devices, e.g., in native valve endocarditis, bone tissue, and open wounds. After attachment to tissue or indwelling medical devices that have been conditioned with host plasma proteins, staphylococcal biofilms grow, and produce a specific environment which provides the conditions for cell-cell interaction and formation of multicellular communities. Bacteria living in biofilms express a variety of macromolecules, including exopolysaccharides, proteins, extracellular eDNA, and other polymers. The S. aureus surface protein C and G (SasC and SasG), clumping factor B (ClfB), serine aspartate repeat protein (SdrC), the biofilm-associated protein (Bap), and the fibronectin/fibrinogen-binding proteins (FnBPA and FnBPB) are individually implicated in biofilm matrix formation. In S. epidermidis, a protein named accumulation-associated protein (Aap) contributes to both the primary attachment phase and the establishment of intercellular connections by forming fibrils on the cell surface. In S. epidermidis, proteinaceous biofilm formation can also be mediated by the extracellular matrix binding protein (Embp) and S. epidermidis surface protein C (SesC). Additionally, multifunctional proteins such as extracellular adherence protein (Eap) and extracellular matrix protein binding protein (Emp) of S. aureus and the iron-regulated surface determinant protein C (IsdC) of S. lugdunensis can promote biofilm formation in iron-depleted conditions. This multitude of proteins intervene at different stages of biofilm formation with certain proteins contributing to biofilm accumulation and others mediating primary attachment to surfaces. This review examines the contribution of proteins to biofilm formation in Staphylococci. The potential to develop vaccines to prevent protein-dependent biofilm formation during staphylococcal infection is discussed.
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PMID:Protein-based biofilm matrices in Staphylococci. 2554 Jul 73

Biofilm formation is involved in numerous Staphylococcus aureus infections such as endocarditis, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, and infections of indwelling medical devices. In these diseases, S. aureus forms biofilms as cell aggregates interspersed in host matrix material. Here, we have observed that the level of cell aggregation was significantly higher in the isogenic spoVG-deletion strain than in the wild-type strain. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR data indicated that SpoVG could repress the expression of sasC, which codes for S. aureus surface protein C and is involved in cell aggregation and biofilm accumulation. Electromagnetic mobility shift assay demonstrated that SpoVG could specifically bind to the promoter region of sasC, indicating that SpoVG is a negative regulator and directly represses the expression of sasC In addition, deletion of the SasC aggregation domain in the spoVG-deletion strain indicated that high-level expression of sasC could be the underlying cause of significantly increased cell aggregation formation. Our previous study showed that SpoVG is involved in oxacillin resistance of methicillin-resistant S. aureus by regulating the expression of genes involved in cell wall synthesis and degradation. In this study, we also found that SpoVG was able to negatively modulate the S. aureus drug tolerance under conditions of a high concentration of oxacillin treatment. These findings can broaden our understanding of the regulation of biofilm formation and drug tolerance in S. aureus IMPORTANCE This study revealed that SpoVG can modulate cell aggregation by repressing sasC expression and extracellular DNA (eDNA) release. Furthermore, we have demonstrated the potential linkage between cell aggregation and antibiotic resistance. Our findings provide novel insights into the regulatory mechanisms of SpoVG involved in cell aggregation and in biofilm development and formation in Staphylococcus aureus.
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PMID:SpoVG Modulates Cell Aggregation in Staphylococcus aureus by Regulating sasC Expression and Extracellular DNA Release. 3244 67