We present here a case of dorsal column degeneration in a female patient with multiple myeloma following exposure to bortezomib. Two days after intravenous administration of a first course of bortezomib 1 mg/m(2), the patient developed rapidly-progressive numbness, pain and muscle weakness in the bilateral upper and lower limbs. Following gancyclovir treatment of subsequent cytomegalovirus vire...

Viral encephalitis is a medical emergency. The spectrum of brain involvement and the prognosis are dependent mainly on the specific pathogen and the immunological state of the host. Although specific therapy is limited to only several viral agents, correct immediate diagnosis and introduction of symptomatic and specific therapy has a dramatic influence upon survival and reduces the extent of pe...

Adenoviral vectors have been exploited for a wide range of gene therapy applications. Direct genetic modification of the adenovirus capsid proteins has been employed to achieve alteration of vector tropism. We have defined the carboxy-terminus of the minor capsid protein pIX as a locus capable of presenting incorporated ligands on the virus capsid surface. Thus, we sought to exploit the possibi...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of gancyclovir (GCV) treatment for severe cytomegalovirus (CMV)-associated pneumonia in immunocompetent children. METHOD We enrolled patients with CMV-associated severe pneumonia admitted to the Vietnam National Hospital of Pediatrics, Hanoi, Vietnam, from January 2010 to December 2011. On admission, though respiratory bacteria and vir...

Exploitation of differences in the substrate specificity of the type I and type II thymidine kinases (EC 2.7.1.21, TK) expressed by the Herpesviridae and Poxviridae (and human cells), respectively, has lead to the development of effective antiherpetic drugs such as acyclovir and gancyclovir. Analysis of type I TK protein sequences reveals a consensus sequence which corresponds to domain IV of t...

Previous studies demonstrated that herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk) could phosphorylate non‑toxic gancyclovir (GCV) efficiently to produce phosphorylated products that result in cell apoptosis, to kill tumor cells. The present study aimed to construct a plasmid vector, pcDNA3.1‑pAFP‑TK, carrying the suicide gene driven by the alpha‑fetoprotein (AFP) promoter, to investigate the cyt...

OBJECTIVE To explore the presentation and management of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) identified through routine clinical investigations, and ascertain outcome in early childhood. DESIGN Active population-based surveillance. SETTING UK and Ireland. METHODS Infants born in 2001-2002 with confirmed or suspected congenital CMV infection were reported through the British Paediatric Surveil...

a 32-year-old end stage renal disease (esrd) woman was scheduled for transplantation. also, she has had fever of unknown origin (fuo), rise of esr and ppd>22 mm. therefore treatment with isoniazid and rifampin was started three months prior to transplantation. she developed allograft dysfunction on week after transplantation. she received a few course pulse therapy (methyl prednisolone), antily...

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) belongs to the Herpesviridae family, Alphaherpesvirinae subfamily. HSV-1 is a human pathogen associated with keratitis and cold sores, the formation of which is exacerbated by periods of elevated stress, corticosteroid use and immunosuppression. HSV-1 is an enveloped double stranded DNA (dsDNA) virus which following primary infection in epithelial cells follo...

Background: Data on the clinical course and outcomes of pediatric patients with cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection complicating acute severe ulcerative colitis (ASC) is very limited. The aim of our study was to compare the outcome of CMV-positive and negative pediatric ASC. Methods: This was a multicenter retrospective case-controlled study, from centers in Europe and Israel. We included CMV –posi...