Guillain-Barre Syndrome-A Rare Cause of Quadriparesis after the Bentall Procedure for Type A Aortic Dissection.

Neurological complications following aortic surgery are most often cerebrovascular accidents due to embolism, or spinal infarcts resulting in hemiparesis or hemiplegia. Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare cause of quadriparesis. Here, we report a 49-year old male who presented with acute aortic dissection and underwent the Bentall procedure following which he developed quadriparesis, subsequently diagnosed to be a case of Guillain-Barre syndrome. He was successfully treated with intravenous immunoglobulin.

Comparative evaluation of anti-angiogenic effects of noscapine derivatives.

Angiogenesis, the formation of new capillaries from pre-existing vessels, is essential for tumor progression. Synthetic derivatives of anti-cancer compound, noscapine (an opium alkaloid) such as Cl-noscapine, Br-noscapine and Folate-noscapine along with two of the reference compounds, TNP-470 and paclitaxel were examined for anti-angiogenic activities by using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The noscapine derivatives showed anti-angiogenic activity albeit at high concentration compared to the reference compounds. All the tested compounds inhibited angiogenesis in a dose-dependent manner; the drug concentration causing 50% inhibition of cell survival was 11.87 µM for Cl-noscapine, 6.9 µM for Br-noscapine and 6.79 µM for folate-noscapine. Besides, all the noscapine derivatives significantly inhibited cord formation (IC50 for Cl-noscapine is 50.76 µM, for Br-noscapine is 90.08 µM and for folate-noscapine is 18.44 µM) as well as migration and invasion (IC50 value of Cl-noscapine is 28.01 µM, for Br-noscapine is 19.78 µM and for folate-noscapine is 10.76 µM) of endothelial cells. Based on these results, we speculated that the inhibitory effects on human endothelial cell proliferation of noscapine derivatives might be important for anti-angiogenesis.