Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027819 (neuroblastoma)
 27,800 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Previous results obtained in experimental and clinical trials have demonstrated that topical combined thrapy with human interferon (HI) and human colostral secretory immunoglobulin A (S-IgA) is effective against herpetic corneal infection. This therapy prevented encephalitis in rabbits but could not completely prevent recurrences either in rabbits or in patients. A number of in vitro studies were designed to elucidate the role of these factors in herpes simplex virus replication in the nervous system, with the following results: (1) HSV latency in trigeminal ganglia (TG) explanted from rabbits with experimental herpetic keratitis, topically treated with HI or HI/S-IgA: HSV was recovered in 30% TG after 15-19 days co-cultivation on RK-13 cells. (2) HSV replication in nervous ganglia and nerve of newborn rabbits in organ culture; influence of HI or HI plus IgG: a restrictive HSV productive infection was demonstrated in this system, although yields were always higher in nerve cultures. We were unable to demonstrate a direct effect of HI on HSV-1 replication. When explants were treated with HI and IgG before and after infection for 48 hours a delay in the expression of HSV-1 was detected by co-cultivation. (3) Replication of HSV-1 and HSV-2 in a C1300 murine neuroblastoma clone (NB41A3): both HSV types replicated with titres of 10(3.4) for HSV-1 AND 10(4.8) for HSV-2 at 48 hours p.i.; CPE was more marked for HSV-2 at 24 hours. HSV-specific antigens were demonstrated by the immunoperoxidase technique.
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PMID:Interferon in the replication of herpes simplex virus in normal and pathological nerve cells. 22 73

The effect of 100 polar and 100 nonpolar plant extract materials obtained from Southeast Asia were evaluated for amebicidal activity in vitro against three species of Acanthamoeba. A. culbertsoni, A. castellanii, and A. polyphaga, the causative agents of granulomatous amebic encephalitis and amebic keratitis, were studied in vitro to determine whether the plant extracts exhibited amebicidal activity or induced encystment of the amebae. Of the 200 plant extracts tested, extracts obtained from three plants (Ipomoea sp., Kaempferia galanga, and Cananga odorata) were amebicidal for all three species of Acanthamoeba and a fourth extract prepared from Gastrochilus panduratum was lytic for A. polyphaga and growth-inhibitory for A. castellanii and A. culbertsoni. Three plant extracts induced encystment of all three species of Acanthamoeba. Select plant extracts were tested as well for tumoricidal activity against B103 neuroblastoma cells. Some plant extracts that exhibited tumoricidal activity for B103 cells were not amebicidal for Acanthamoeba spp. Additionally, the polar and nonpolar extracts that exhibited amebicidal activity were also tested for activity against primary murine peritoneal macrophage cultures. Plant extracts that demonstrated tumoricidal or amebicidal activity were not lytic for normal macrophage cultures.
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PMID:Amebicidal activity of plant extracts from Southeast Asia on Acanthamoeba spp. 976 4

A Thai Acanthamoeba isolate named AS recovered from a corneal scraping of a keratitis patient was genotypically determined as T4. AS trophozoites were used for studying Acanthamoeba-induced apoptosis in mouse neuroblastoma NA cells during in vitro co-cultivation. The Acanthamoeba-exposed NA cells showed signs of apoptosis including cell shrinkage, nuclear condensation and DNA fragmentation. The effect was confirmed by DNA laddering electrophoresis. Involvement of caspase enzymes and mitochondrial pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins (Bax and Bcl-2) in AS-induced apoptosis was determined. The use of Z-VAD-FMK, a pan-caspase inhibitor, significantly reduced the apoptotic effect, while Bax/Bcl-2 ratio analysis showed a significant increase in the expression of apoptotic proteins in AS-exposed NA cells. These results strongly indicated that apoptosis induced by AS trophozoites is caspase-dependent and is mediated by over-expression of pro-apoptotic proteins in the mitochondrial pathway. This is the first report on the role of Bax in mediating apoptosis induced by Acanthamoeba.
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PMID:Thai Acanthamoeba isolate (T4) induced apoptotic death in neuroblastoma cells via the Bax-mediated pathway. 2060 Nov 6

We report for the first time the occurrence of a filamentous fungus, Albifimbria verrucaria, in the blood of a pediatric neuroblastoma patient. The Albifimbria genus comprises common soil-inhabiting and saprophytic fungi and has been isolated as a plant pathogen in Northern and Southern Italy. As a human pathogen, A. verrucaria has been implicated in keratitis and can produce trichothecene toxins, which are weakly cytotoxic for mammalian cell lines. A. verrucaria was isolated from blood during the follow-up of a previous coagulase-negative Staphylococcus catheter-related infection. Lung nodules, compatible with fungal infection, had been observed on a CT scan 6 months earlier; they still persist. Possible routes of transmission were considered to be airborne, catheter related, or transfusion dependent, as the patient had undergone platelet and red blood cell transfusions during rescue chemotherapy. No filamentous fungi were isolated from sputum or CVCs. In conclusion, we describe an unprecedented fungemia caused by A. verrucaria and show how an unexpected pathogen may be acquired from the environment by patients at high risk due to immunosuppression. The route of transmission remains unknown.
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PMID:Occurrence of Albifimbria verrucaria in the Blood of a Female Child With Neuroblastoma. 3211 3