Differential Diagnosis of Lemierre’s Syndrome in a Patient with Acute Paresis of the Abducens and Oculomotor Nerves

Andreas Gutzeit,Justus E. Roos,Bettina Portocarrero-Fäh,Carolin Reischauer,Lulian Claas,Karin Gassmann,Klaus Hergan,Sebastian Kos,Biliana Rodic,Kerstin Winkler,Urs Karrer,Sabine Sartoretti-Schefer 대한안과학회 2013 Korean Journal of Ophthalmology Vol.27 No.3

Lemierre’s syndrome is characterized by anaerobic septicemia, internal jugular vein thrombosis, and septic emboli associated with infections of the head and neck. We describe an unusual and clinically confusing case of a young woman with an acute paresis of the abducens nerve and partial paresis of the right oculomotor nerve. After an extensive imaging diagnostic procedure, we also documented a peritonsillar abscess and various types of thromboses in intracranial and extracranial veins. Furthermore, we found brain and lung abscesses, which led us to establish the diagnosis of Lemierre's syndrome. Despite intensive anti-coagulation and antibiotic therapy,the patient developed a mycotic aneurysm in the right internal carotid artery directly adjacent to the previously thrombosed cavernous sinus. In summary, we were able to confirm that Lemierre's syndrome may occur in conjunction with uncharacteristic symptoms. Due to the sometimes confusing clinical symptoms as well as clinical and radiological specialties, we had to work on an interdisciplinary basis to minimize the delay prior to establishing the diagnosis and therapy.

WeTrace: a Privacy-preserving Tracing Approach

Muriel Franco,Bruno Rodrigues,Christian Killer,Eder John Scheid,Alessandro De Carli,Andreas Gassmann,David Schönbächler,Burkhard Stiller 한국통신학회 2021 Journal of communications and networks Vol.23 No.5

For the protection of people and society against harmand health threats—especially in case of the COVID-19 pandemic— a variety of different disciplines needs to be involved. The datacollection of basic and health-related data of individuals in today’shighly mobile society does help to plan, protect, and identify nextsteps health authorities and governments can, shall, or need to planfor or even implement. Thus, every individual, human, and inhabitantof the world is the key player—very different from many pastcrises’. And since all individuals are involved his/her (a) health and(b) privacy shall be considered in a very carefully crafted balance,not overruling one aspect with another one. Privacy remains key. The solution of the current pandemic’s data collection can bebased on a fully privacy-preserving application, which can be usedby individuals on their mobile devices, such as smartphones, whilemaintaining at the same time their privacy. Additionally, respectivedata collected in such a fully distributed setting does help to confinethe pandemic and can be achieved in a democratic and very open,but still and especially privacy-protecting manner. Therefore, the WeTrace approach and application designed utilizesthe Bluetooth low energy (BLE) communication channel,many modern mobile devices offer, where public-key cryptographyis being applied to allow for deciphering of messages for that destinationit had been intended for. Since literally every other potentialparticipant only listens to random data, even a brute force attackwill not succeed. WeTrace and its Open Source implementation ensurethat any receiver of a message knows that this is for him/her,without being able to identify the original sender.

In Vitro Blood Flow and Cell-Free Layer in Hyperbolic Microchannels: Visualizations and Measurements

Raquel O. Rodrigues,Raquel Lopes,Diana Pinho,Ana I. Pereira,Valdemar Garcia,Stefan Gassmann,Patrícia C. Sousa,Rui Lima 한국바이오칩학회 2016 BioChip Journal Vol.10 No.1

Red blood cells (RBCs) in microchannels has tendency to undergo axial migration due to the parabolic velocity profile, which results in a high shear stress around wall that forces the RBC to move towards the centre induced by the tank treading motion of the RBC membrane. As a result there is a formation of a cell free layer (CFL) with extremely low concentration of cells. Based on this phenomenon, several works have proposed microfluidic designs to separate the suspending physiological fluid from whole in vitro blood. This study aims to characterize the CFL in hyperbolic-shaped microchannels to separate RBCs from plasma. For this purpose, we have investigated the effect of hyperbolic contractions on the CFL by using not only different Hencky strains but also varying the series of contractions. The results show that the hyperbolic contractions with a Hencky strain of 3 and higher, substantially increase the CFL downstream of the contraction region in contrast with the microchannels with a Hencky strain of 2, where the effect is insignificant. Although, the highest CFL thickness occur at microchannels with a Hencky strain of 3.6 and 4.2 the experiments have also shown that cells blockage are more likely to occur at this kind of microchannels. Hence, the most appropriate hyperbolic-shaped microchannels to separate RBCs from plasma is the one with a Hencky strain of 3. Red blood cells (RBCs) in microchannels has tendency to undergo axial migration due to the parabolic velocity profile, which results in a high shear stress around wall that forces the RBC to move towards the centre induced by the tank treading motion of the RBC membrane. As a result there is a formation of a cell free layer (CFL) with extremely low concentration of cells. Based on this phenomenon, several works have proposed microfluidic designs to separate the suspending physiological fluid from whole in vitro blood. This study aims to characterize the CFL in hyperbolic-shaped microchannels to separate RBCs from plasma. For this purpose, we have investigated the effect of hyperbolic contractions on the CFL by using not only different Hencky strains but also varying the series of contractions. The results show that the hyperbolic contractions with a Hencky strain of 3 and higher, substantially increase the CFL downstream of the contraction region in contrast with the microchannels with a Hencky strain of 2, where the effect is insignificant. Although, the highest CFL thickness occur at microchannels with a Hencky strain of 3.6 and 4.2 the experiments have also shown that cells blockage are more likely to occur at this kind of microchannels.Hence, the most appropriate hyperbolic-shaped microchannels to separate RBCs from plasma is the one with a Hencky strain of 3.

The bacterial type III-secreted protein AvrRps4 is a bipartite effector

Halane, Morgan K.,Kim, Sang Hee,Spears, Benjamin J.,Garner, Christopher M.,Rogan, Conner J.,Okafor, Elizabeth C.,Su, Jianbin,Bhattacharjee, Saikat,Gassmann, Walter Public Library of Science 2018 PLoS pathogens Vol.14 No.3

<▼1><P>Bacterial effector proteins secreted into host plant cells manipulate those cells to the benefit of the pathogen, but effector-triggered immunity (ETI) occurs when effectors are recognized by host resistance proteins. The RPS4/RRS1 pair recognizes the <I>Pseudomonas syringae</I> pv. pisi effector AvrRps4. AvrRps4 is processed <I>in planta</I> into AvrRps4<SUP>N</SUP> (133 amino acids), homologous to the N-termini of other effectors including the native <I>P</I>. <I>syringae</I> pv. tomato strain DC3000 effector HopK1, and AvrRps4<SUP>C</SUP> (88 amino acids). Previous data suggested that AvrRps4<SUP>C</SUP> alone is necessary and sufficient for resistance when overexpressed in heterologous systems. We show that delivering AvrRps4<SUP>C</SUP> from DC3000, but not from a DC3000 <I>hopK1</I><SUP><I>-</I></SUP> strain, triggers resistance in the Arabidopsis accession Col-0. Delivering AvrRps4<SUP>C</SUP> in tandem with AvrRps4<SUP>N</SUP>, or as a chimera with HopK1<SUP>N</SUP>, fully complements AvrRps4-triggered immunity. AvrRps4<SUP>N</SUP> in the absence of AvrRps4<SUP>C</SUP> enhances virulence in Col-0. In addition, AvrRps4<SUP>N</SUP> triggers a hypersensitive response in lettuce that is attenuated by coexpression of AvrRps4<SUP>C</SUP>, further supporting the role of AvrRps4<SUP>N</SUP> as a bona fide effector domain. Based on these results we propose that evolutionarily, fusion of AvrRps4<SUP>C</SUP> to AvrRps4<SUP>N</SUP> may have counteracted recognition of AvrRps4<SUP>N</SUP>, and that the plant <I>RPS4/RRS1</I> resistance gene pair was selected as a countermeasure. We conclude that AvrRps4 represents an unusual chimeric effector, with recognition in Arabidopsis by RPS4/RRS1 requiring the presence of both processed effector moieties.</P></▼1><▼2><P><B>Author summary</B></P><P>An important component of the plant immune system relies on the detection of pathogen-derived effectors by immune receptors called resistance proteins. Bacterial pathogens inject effectors into the host cell via a dedicated secretion system to suppress defenses and to manipulate the physiology of the host cell to the pathogen's advantage. Usually, a single resistance protein recognizes a single effector, but an increasing number of exceptions and elaborations on this one-to-one relationship are known. The plant Arabidopsis uses a pair of resistance proteins, RRS1 and RPS4, to detect the effector AvrRps4. After injection into the cell, AvrRps4 is cleaved into two protein parts, and it had been assumed that only the C-terminal part needs to be present to trigger RPS4/RRS1. We show here that both AvrRps4 parts are required for triggering resistance in Arabidopsis, and that the N-terminal part, which previously had been assumed to only function in effector secretion into the host cell, in fact on its own has some functions of an effector. This conclusion is supported by the observation that the N-terminal part of AvrRps4 is sufficient to trigger resistance in lettuce. The fusion of the two AvrRps4 parts may have arisen to counteract plant defenses.</P></▼2>

Natural Variation in Small Molecule-Induced TIR-NB-LRR Signaling Induces Root Growth Arrest via EDS1- and PAD4-Complexed R Protein VICTR in Arabidopsis

Kim, T.-H.,Kunz, H.-H.,Bhattacharjee, S.,Hauser, F.,Park, J.,Engineer, C.,Liu, A.,Ha, T.,Parker, J.E.,Gassmann, W. AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS 2012 The Plant cell Vol.24 No.12