Less Pulsatile Levodopa Therapy (6 Doses Daily) Is Associated with a Reduced Incidence of Dyskinesia

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether less pulsatile levodopa therapy (LPT) can reduce the development of levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID). METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of patients with Parkinson’s disease at the movement disorders clinic of Medstar Washington Hospital Center. The study was not blinded or randomized. Patients were seen between August 2002 and August 2018. During these years, we treated patients with less pulsatile (6 doses daily) levodopa treatment to reduce LID. Occurrence of LID was recorded. RESULTS: Ninety-five patients with Parkinson’s disease taking levodopa were divided into two groups: 1) patients who were initially managed on LPT or who switched from traditional therapy (TT) (n = 61) (mean disease duration: 7.7 ± 4.8 years, mean levodopa duration: 5.6 ± 4.5 years and mean observation time: 4.3 ± 3.4 years), and 2) patients on TT throughout the observation period or until they developed dyskinesia (n = 34) (mean disease duration: 8.3 ± 3.8 years, mean levodopa duration: 6.2 ± 4.2 years and mean observation time: 4.1 ± 3.4 years). Three of the 61 LPT patients developed dyskinesia during the observation period. One of the patients developed dyskinesia after being switched to pulsatile doses by another doctor. In the other two, dyskinesia was minimal. In contrast to this 4.9% cumulative incidence, dyskinesia occurred in 50% (17/34) of TT patients, an incidence similar to that in published data (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Less pulsatile levodopa with 6 daily doses was associated with a low incidence of LID. Further study of this method of treatment is warranted.

Distribution and diversity of coliform bacteria in estuary of jiahe river, china

Waterborne outbreaks of pathogenic bacteria from contaminated water are serious threats for public health. Coliform bacteria have been regarded as one of the most important indicators for monitoring pathogenic bacteria. To address potential pathogenic bacterial outbreaks, the distribution and diversity of coliform bacteria in Jiahe river, which flows through densely-populated urban area in China, were detected. Escherichia Coli and other coliform bacteria were counted using the membrane filter technique to describe the distribution of the coliform bacteria. Phylogenetic analysis was applied to investigate the diversity of the coliform bacteria. The results suggested that the quantities of coliform bacteria varied greatly between five sampling sites with the highest value at site YT4 and the lowest value at site YT2. Highest concentrations of E. coli and other coliform bacteria were also observed at YT4, while the lowest value was detected at sites YT3 and YT2, respectively. Various coliform bacteria were classified by phylogenetic analysis, including Citrobacter, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, and Raoultella. Components of coliform bacteria affiliated into these four genera were various in all sampling sites. The statistical analysis suggested that the distribution of coliform bacteria were remarkably influenced by total bacteria amount. Multiple environmental parameters were proved to affect the diversity of coliform bacteria. The results of this study revealed the correlation between coliform bacteria and the environmental parameters, which is important for predicting and preventing waterborne transmission of pathogenic bacteria

Suppressing tumor growth of nasopharyngeal carcinoma by hTERTC27 polypeptide delivered through adeno-associated virus plus adenovirus vector cocktail / 癌症

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC) is a metastatic carcinoma that is highly prevalent in Southeast Asia. Our laboratory has previously demonstrated that the C-terminal 27-kDa polypeptide of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERTC27) inhibits the growth and tumorigenicity of human glioblastoma and melanoma cells. In this study, we investigated the antitumor effect of hTERTC27 in human C666-1 NPC cells xenografted in a nude mouse model. A cocktail of vectors comprising recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) and recombinant adenovirus (rAdv) that each carry hTERTC27 (rAAV-hTERTC27 and rAdv-hTERTC27; the cocktail was abbreviated to rAAV/rAdv-hTERTC27) was more effective than either rAAV-hTERTC27 or rAdv-hTERTC27 alone in inhibiting the growth of C666-1 NPC xenografts. Furthermore, we established three tumors on each mouse and injected rAAV/rAdv-hTERTC27 into one tumor per mouse. Although hTERTC27 expression could only be detected in the injected tumors, reduced tumor growth was observed in the injected tumor as well as the uninjected tumors, demonstrating that the vector cocktail could provoke an antitumor effect on distant, metastasized tumors. Further studies showed the observed antitumor effects included inducing necrosis and apoptosis and reducing microvessel density. Together, our data suggest that the rAAV/rAdv-hTERTC27 cocktail can potently inhibit NPC tumor growth in both local and metastasized tumors and should be further developed as a novel gene therapy strategy for NPC.