A marker for Stevens-Johnson syndrome ...: ethnicity matters.

Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are rare but severe cutaneous adverse drug reactions, which can be caused by a certain number of specific drugs among which is carbamazepine, an antiepileptic agent. A very strong association of carbamazepine-induced SJS with HLA-B*1502 has recently been described in the Han Chinese population. Here in, we report preliminary results from a European study (RegiSCAR) of 12 carbamazepine-induced SJS/TEN cases (nine French and three German). Among these only four had a HLA-B*1502 allele. Remarkably, these four patients had an Asian ancestry, whereas the others did not as far as we have ascertained. This shows that although the HLA region may contain important genes for SJS, the HLA-B*1502 allele is not a universal marker for this disease and that ethnicity matters.

Eight genes and alternative RNA processing pathways generate an unexpectedly large diversity of cytoplasmic intermediate filament proteins in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

Cytoplasmic intermediate filament (IF) proteins of Caenorhabditis elegans are encoded by a dispersed multigene family comprising at least eight genes which map to three linkage groups. Exon sequences and intron patterns define three distinct subfamilies. While all eight IF genes display the long coil 1b subdomain of nuclear lamins, only six genes (a1-a4, b1 and b2) retain a lamin-like tail domain. Two genes (c1 and c2) have acquired entirely novel tail domains. The overall sequence identity of the rod domains is only 29%. The gene structures show a strong drift in number and positions of introns, none of which are common to all genes. Individual genes share only one to four intron locations with the Helix aspersa IF gene, but all eight nematode genes together account for nine of the 10 introns of the gastropod gene. All C.elegans IF genes are transcribed and all except gene c2 produce trans-spliced mRNAs. Alternatively spliced mRNAs arise from genes a1, b2 and c2 through several mechanisms acting at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. These involve the alternative use of distinct promoters, polyadenylation sequences and both cis and trans RNA splice sites. The resulting sequence variations are restricted to the non-helical end domains. Minimally 12 distinct IF proteins are encoded by the various mRNAs. Different abundances in mixed-stage nematode populations suggest cell type- and/or stage-specific expression of individual mRNAs.

The characterization of equine herpes virus-1-infected cell polypeptides recognized by equine lymphocytes.

Ponies, without evidence of previous exposure to Equine herpes virus-1 (EHV-1), were experimentally infected with EHV-1 subtype 2 and investigated for lymphocyte transformation to virus-infected cell polypeptides, as shown by separation with gel electrophoresis. Animals made significant responses to Western blot fractions that corresponded to molecular weights of approximately 30,000, 40,000-45,000, 60,000-65,000, 80,000-95,000 and 100,000-140,000 MW. These molecular weight ranges correlated with the positions of major EHV-1 subtype 2 glycoproteins that were found at migration distances approximating to 137,000, 111,000, 90,000, 65,000 and 47,000 MW. Responses were also made to a subset of similar points on the subtype 1 profile. Hyperimmune equine serum precipitated numerous infected-cell proteins of both subtypes; in particular the recognition of polypeptides with MW of 142,000, 132,000, 114,000, and 46,000 was in agreement with the mitogenic responses. Labelling with 125I indicated that immunoprecipitated greater than 250,000, 182,000, 142,000, 132,000, 75,000, 46,000 and 32,000/34,000 MW products were exposed on the surface of infected cells.