The Timothy syndrome mutations G402S and G406R abolish inactivation of Ca(V)1.2 and cause multiorgan dysfunction and lethal arrhythmias. To gain insights into the consequences of the G402S mutation on structure and function of the channel, we systematically mutated the corresponding Gly-432 of the rabbit channel and applied homology modeling. All mutations of Gly-432 (G432A/M/N/V/W) diminished ...

CONCLUSIONS The data suggest that branchial cleft cyst (BCC) can be primarily treated with OK-432 sclerotherapy and only the remaining lesions with excision. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effectiveness of sclerotherapy using OK-432 in the treatment of BCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS We treated 12 BCC patients (3 males and 9 females; mean age 25 years) with OK-432 sclerotherapy at an outpatient clin...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS The aim of this study was to evaluate the indications for, and outcomes and limitations of, OK-432 therapy in various otolaryngological cystic diseases. STUDY DESIGN A retrospective clinical study at Yamagata University School of Medicine and the Fukase Clinic in Japan. METHODS Between April 1996 and November 2009 we tried OK-432 therapy in 148 patients with otolaryngo...

We report here a case of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with multiple lung metastases, which were disappeared by treatment of OK-432. The patient was a 65-year-old man and was diagnosed in 1986 with a small (17 x 11 mm) HCC in the anterior-superior segment of the liver. A part of the right hepatic lobe including the tumor was surgically removed, and transarterial injections of adriamycin (10 mg...

Over a period of seven years, 15 patients (aged from birth to 15 years; median 22 months) with lymphangioma were treated with OK-432; they received a mean of three injections each. Ten received OK-432 as first line treatment; five were treated after surgery (three had a residual lymphangioma after incomplete removal and two had a late recurrence). OK-432 proved to be effective for primitive as ...

INTRODUCTION Lymphangioma is a malformation of the lymphatic system. The classic approach is surgery. We report a case of orbital lymphangioma in a girl who was given OK-432 to avoid surgery and its complications. DISCUSSION OK-432 is a lyophilized mixture of group A Streptococcus pyogenes which produces a fibrosis limited to the lesion with a high cure rate. The main advantages are the easy ...

Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen-presenting cells, which have recently been applied for cancer immunotherapy using epitope peptides. Accumulating results of the clinical trials of such a strategy suggest that maturity of the applied DCs has a significant impact on the outcome of the vaccination. Here we examined the effects of penicillin-killed Streptococcus pyogenes (OK-432) on DC matu...

BACKGROUND Primary fetal hydrothorax (PFHT) is an uncommon condition with an estimated prevalence of 1 in 10,000/15,000 pregnancies. Therapeutic interventions include thoracocentesis, thoraco-amniotic shunting (TAS), and pleurodesis using OK-432. METHODS A review of the literature was performed to identify all cases of PFHT treated with TAS and OK-432. All cases of PFHT referred to the Fetal ...

Background: Congenital chylothorax is the most common cause of pleural effusion in newborn infants. These infants show signs of respiratory distress at birth. Chemical pleurodesis with OK-432 has recently been proposed for cases of persistent congenital chylothorax as an alternative method to surgery. Here we report a case of neonate with congenital chylothorax who developed hemothorax and shoc...