Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyū no shinpo
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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common form of inherited muscle disease and is characterized by progressive muscle wasting ultimately resulting in death of the patients in their twenties. DMD is characterized by a deficiency of the muscle dystrophin as a result of mutations in the dystrophin gene. Currently, no effective treatment for DMD is available. ⋯ Induction of the read-through effect using gentamycin or PTC124 is expected to produce dystrophin in DMD patients with nonsense mutation. The treatment with PTC124 is currently under clinical trial. In this review, these treatments strategies have been summarized.
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A 77-year-old man non-immunized to tetanus suffered head trauma on the right side when he tumbled from a height of approximately 2m. Five days later, he experienced difficulty in opening his mouth and developed right ptosis. He was referred to our hospital 2 days post-ictus. ⋯ We subsequently conducted the following treatments: debridement of the wound, intravenous infusion of antitetanus human immunoglobulin (AHI), intrathecal AHI infusion, and systemic administration of benzylpenicillin. His condition improved with these treatments, and without any complications such as autonomic nervous system dysfunction or classical tetanic spasms. This case suggests that we should consider the possibility of cephalic tetanus when we observe a patient with cranial nerve palsy associated with injury.
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Despite remarkable advancements in brain tumor surgery after the introduction of operating microscopes and neuronavigation systems, precise removal of infiltrative brain tumors such as gliomas remains difficult. In many cases, the margins of these tumors are unclear even under the microscope. Neuronavigation based on preoperative images also is unreliable after the "brain shift" phonomenon following cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) withdrawal and/or tumor removal. ⋯ Various lay-outs of the operating room and iMRI units with different magnetic field strengths ranging from 0.12T to 3.0T are currently in use. In 2006, we introduced 2 operation theaters with iMRI units, a 0.4T, relatively low (0.4T) and high (1.5T) magnetic-field strengths were installed at the Nagoya University Hospital and the Nagoya Central Hospital, one of our affiliated hospitals, respectively. In this paper, we discuss the, effectiveness of iMRI, as well as several problems associated with its application on the basis of the relevant literatures and our experience of more than 400 operations performed at the 2 different iMRI operation theaters, Brain THEATER and BrainSUITE.
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Oncolytic viruses are genetically engineered, recombinant viruses or naturally occurring, attenuated viruses that infect, replicate selectively within, and destroy tumor cells. These viruses are nontoxic to normal tissues, and progeny viruses released from destroyed tumor cells can spread and infect surrounding tumor cells. In addition, most oncolytic viruses can elicit specific antitumor immunity in the course of tumor cell destruction. ⋯ Thus far, oncolytic viruses that are inoculated intratumorally, are shown to be safe; adverse events typically observed are usually transient and include local inflammation and flu-like symptoms. Oncolytic viruses can be used in combination with chemotherapy or other conventional therapies, which, in some cases, can lead to synergistic effects. This review summarizes the recent advances in clinical and preclinical research on oncolytic virus therapy for malignant brain tumors.