Colin J. Rog

This is a report of a case of acute-on-chronic inferior vena cava thrombosis 10 years following blunt abdominal trauma from a motor vehicle collision. Although more common risk factors for this pathology include anatomical variation or the long-standing presence of an inferior vena cava filter, history of blunt abdominal trauma serves as a rare etiology. Fewer than 20 cases of inferior vena cava thrombosis following blunt abdominal trauma have been reported in the literature, and most describe a presentation within weeks of inciting trauma. The lengthy time to diagnosis and acute-on-chronic presentation given substantial reconstitution of circulation by collateral veins make this case unique in the literature.

Ascariasis is an endemic parasitic disease caused by Ascaris lumbricoides, which severely burdens the healthcare system as well as harms the personal life quality, especially among less developed regions. Biliary ascariasis is a critical complication of intestinal ascariasis with painful and life-threatening manifestations. The exploration of proper strategies as its medical interventions remains largely controversial. A 16 year-old patient complained of abdominal pain and yellow sclera. Biliary ascariasis Laparoscopic cholecystectomy and bile duct exploration. More than one hundred ascarids were extracted and the patient had been discharged from hospital without any complications. The combination of laparoscope and choledochoscope is an efficient method to treat biliary ascariasis, despite of large worm burden in the common bile duct.

Cancer cells utilize flexible metabolic programs to maintain viability and proliferation under stress conditions including nutrient deprivation. Here we report that phospholipase D1 (PLD1) participates in the regulation of metabolic plasticity in cancer cells. PLD1 activity is required for cancer cell survival during prolonged glucose deprivation. Blocking PLD1 sensitizes cancer cells to glycolysis inhibition by 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) and results in decreased autophagic flux, enlarged lysosomes, and increased lysosomal pH. Mechanistically, PLD1-regulated autophagy hydrolyzes bulk membrane phospholipids to supply fatty acids (FAs) for oxidation in mitochondria. In low glucose cultures, the blockade of fatty acid oxidation (FAO) by PLD1 inhibition suppresses adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production and increases reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to cancer cell death. In summary, our findings reveal a novel role of PLD1 in sustaining cancer cell survival during metabolic stress, and suggest PLD1 as a potential target for anticancer metabolism therapy.

Background: Pathways with members that have known relevance to a disease are used to support hypotheses generated from analyses of gene expression and proteomic studies. Using cancer as an example, the pitfalls of searching pathways databases as support for genes and proteins that could represent false discoveries are explored. Findings: The frequency with which networks could be generated from 100 instances each of randomly selected five and ten genes sets as input to MetaCore, a commercial pathways database, was measured. A PubMed search enumerated cancer-related literature published for any gene in the networks. Using three, two, and one maximum intervening step between input genes to populate the network, networks were generated with frequencies of 97%, 77%, and 7% using ten gene sets and 73%, 27%, and 1% using five gene sets. PubMed reported an average of 4225 cancer-related articles per network gene. Discussion: This can be attributed to the richly populated pathways databases and the interest in the molecular basis of cancer. As information sources become enriched, they are more likely to generate plausible mechanisms for false discoveries.