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Aims: Cocaine Use Disorder (CUD) is an important health issue, associated with structural brain abnormalities. However, the impact of the route of administration and their predictive value for relapse remain unknown., Methods: We conducted an anatomical MRI study in 55 CUD patients (26 CUD-Crack and 29 CUD-Hydro) entering inpatient detoxification, and 38 matched healthy controls. In patients, a 3-months outpatient follow-up was carried out to specify the treatment outcome status (relapser when cocaine was consumed once or more during the past month). A Voxel-Based Morphometry approach was used., Results: Compared with controls, CUD patients had widespread gray matter alterations, mostly in frontal and temporal cortices, but also in the cerebellum and several sub-cortical structures. We then compared CUD-Crack with CUD-Hydro patients and found that crack-cocaine use was associated with lower volume in the right inferior and middle temporal gyri, and the right fusiform gyrus. Cerebellar vermis was smaller during detoxification in subsequent relapsers compared to three-months abstainers., Conclusions: Patients with CUD display widespread cortical and subcortical brain shrinkage. Patients with preferential crack-cocaine use and subsequent relapsers showed specific gray matter volume deficits, suggesting that different patterns of cocaine use and different clinical outcome are associated with different brain macrostructure., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors declared no financial disclosures or conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Here we report a case of sustentorial brain abscess due to Listeria monocytogenes. Blood culture and procalcitonine blood measurement were negative. L. monocytogenes was isolated from CSF after inoculation in Castañeda medium., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Predictive biomarkers of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer are needed to better characterize tumors and enable more tailored therapies., Methods: The expression levels of survivin, BCL-2, cyclin D1, ETS1, and PDEF in tumor samples obtained in the diagnostic biopsies of patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy for stage II and stage III disease were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The mean expression score (range, 0-15) obtained by 3 different pathologists was used for analysis and correlated with complete pathologic response (pCR) and survival by standard univariate and multivariate methods., Results: Forty-five female patients were included in this study and received preoperative standard anthracycline/taxane-based chemotherapy. The median age at diagnosis was 49 years (range, 25-70 years). Three patients (7.1%) achieved pCR. The mean expression score of survivin in the diagnostic biopsies was significantly higher (P = .01) in patients with pCR (9.3) than in those without (3.4). There was no significant association with pCR for the other biologic markers analyzed nor was there correlation with prognosis. Survivin levels were not associated with age, tumor grade, clinical stage, or receptor status., Conclusion: High expression levels of survivin in the primary tumor may be used as a potential predictive biomarker of pCR to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with stage II and stage III breast cancer., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aim of the Study: To develop a fast and reliable real time PCR technique for detecting plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes qnrA, qnrB and qnrS., Methods: A real-time PCR assay using SYBR Green I and Roche LightCycler(®) was developed to detect qnr genes. Detection of qnr genes was based on comparison of melting temperature differences with a positive control of each qnr genes. This assay was performed to study 138 isolates collected from diagnostic and screening samples in the Champagne-Ardenne region in 2004 (France)., Results: In optimized conditions, the three positive controls tested alone and with isolates confirmed the specificity of the PCR primers. Each PCR assay was able to test 30 strains in 60min for 1 qnr gene. Out of 138 isolates screened, 3.6 % isolates were positive for a qnrA1, 1.5 % for qnrS1 and no qnrB-like gene. Prevalence of qnr determinants was 5 % and reached 9.5 % in clinical isolates., Conclusion: Real-time PCR is a fast and reliable technique for screening of qnr-positive strains. This study shows a relatively high prevalence of qnr determinants (5 %) among ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae., (Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Stem cell leukemia/T cell acute leukemia 1 (SCL/TAL1) plays a key role in the development of murine primitive hematopoiesis but its functions in adult definitive hematopoiesis are still unclear. Using lentiviral delivery of TAL1-directed shRNA in human hematopoietic cells, we show that decreased expression of TAL1 induced major disorders at different levels of adult hematopoietic cell development. Erythroid and myeloid cell production in cultures was dramatically decreased in TAL1-directed shRNA-expressing cells, whereas lymphoid B-cell development was normal. These results confirm the role of TAL1 in the erythroid compartment and show TLA1's implication in the function of myeloid committed progenitors. Moreover, long-term cultures and transplantation of TAL1-directed shRNA-expressing CD34+ cells into irradiated nonobese diabetic-severe combined immunodeficient (NOD-SCID) mice led to dramatically low levels of human cells of all lineages including the B-lymphoid lineage, strongly suggesting that TAL1 has a role in the early commitment of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in humans. Cultures and transplantation experiments performed with mouse Sca1+ cells gave identical results. Altogether, these observations definitively show that TAL1 participates in the regulation of hematopoiesis from HSCs to myeloid progenitors, and pinpoint TAL1 as a master protein of human and murine adult hematopoiesis.