Presence of circumsporozoite protein (CSP) was Plasmodium falciparum detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a sample of s.s., and collected in Anopheles gambiae A. melas A. pharoensis Guinea-Bissau during October and November 2009. The percentage of P. infected samples (10.2% overall) was comparable to earlier studies falciparum from other sites in Guinea-Bissau (9.6-12.4%). T...

In this article, on page 204, the title has been spelled incorrectly: " MEALS " should have appeared as " MELAS ". The title should be corrected as the following: from " A Case of Myopathy, Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis and Stroke-like Epicodes (MEALS) Syndrome with Intracardiac Thrombus " to " A Case of Myopathy, Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis and Stroke-like Epicodes (MELAS) Syndrome with ...

Mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) syndrome is a multisystem disorder, which is clinically characterized by encephalopathy, dementia, seizures and stroke-like episodes. Multiple organs can be affected and cardiac involvement often dominates the clinical picture because of its high energy requirement. We report a case of a 21-year-old woman with MELAS ...

Mitochondrial dysfunction activates mitochondria-to-nucleus signaling pathways whose components are mostly unknown. Identification of these components is important to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying mitochondrial diseases and to discover putative therapeutic targets. MELAS syndrome is a rare neurodegenerative disease caused by mutations in mitochondrial (mt) DNA affecting mt-tRNA...

Mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke-like episode (MELAS) and myoclonic epilepsy and ragged-red fibers (MERRF) are rare disorders caused by point mutation of the tRNA gene of the mitochondrial genome. To understand the pathogenetic mechanism of MELAS and MERRF, we studied four patients. Serially sectioned frozen muscle specimens with a battery of histochemical stai...

MELAS (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke) syndrome was first described in 1984 by Pavlakis et al. [1] after reporting three cases of their own and identifying eight others in the literature. Although MELAS syndrome shares some similarities with Kearns-Sayre syndrome and MERRF (myoclonus epilepsy and ragged-red fibers) syndrome, they believe it to be a distinct ...

Mutations in mtDNA are responsible for a variety of mitochondrial diseases, where the mitochondrial tRNA(Leu(UUR)) gene has especially hot spots for pathogenic mutations. Clinical features often depend on the tRNA species and/or positions of the mutations; however, molecular pathogenesis elucidating the relation between the location of the mutations and their leading phenotype are not fully und...

OBJECTIVE To investigate cardiac function in patients with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) and clarify the clinical features of cardiomyopathy in MELAS. PATIENTS 11 consecutive patients with MELAS (mean age at initial examination 11.3 years, range 4 to 16 years) were enrolled in the study. Six were followed for more than five years. RESULTS...

Since stroke in childhood, although rare, has many potential causes, identification of the underlying disease offers a diagnostic challenge. Mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) is a rare disorder often mistaken for other diseases. Here, we describe the case of a previously healthy 11-year-old girl who initially presented with gastroenteritis...