Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is an uncommon tumor affecting adolescents and young adults that is only rarely encountered in body fluid cytology. We report the cytological features of metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma in the ascitic fluid of a 17-year-old female patient, who had presented with abdominal distention, 21 months after being diagnosed with perirectal alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. The rare single neoplastic cells that were admixed with abundant reactive mesothelial cells were initially misinterpreted as reactive mesothelial cells. However, their neoplastic nature was established after a careful review of their cytological features and the performance of immunoperoxidase stains. Compared to the reactive mesothelial cells that were present in the sample, the malignant cells were smaller, with less ample and more homogenous cytoplasm. They had slightly larger, more hyperchromatic, and more frequently eccentric nuclei, with larger nucleoli. This case highlights the potential pitfall of the misinterpretation of metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma cells for reactive mesothelial cells. Awareness of this potential diagnostic problem and recognition of the cytomorphological features of this neoplasm in the body fluids allows the identification of malignant cells, even when they are rare and intimately associated with mesothelial cells.

Chaff cutter is an extensively used machine in Indian rural households to chop fodder for feeding draft and mulch to animals. A survey was conducted in five villages of Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh (a northern state of India) to determine the causal factors responsible for chaff cutter injuries. It was observed that major injuries were caused during children playing with the machine and workers feeding the fodder in to the chute. Further, a survey of chaff cutter manufacturers was conducted to determine the critical dimensions of the machine so that safety interventions could be developed. Based on the survey results and mechanism of injuries, three safety interventions were developed to prevent the injuries. These interventions can be retrofitted on old machines and can be incorporated in new machines as well. Experiments were conducted using different fodder crops to observe difficulty in chaff cutting with the safety interventions. It was observed that incorporation of the interventions had no effect on performance of chaff cutting operation. These were retrofitted on existing machines at different locations and the response was very positive.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dissemination can be seen relatively frequently in medulloblastomas and its presence at diagnosis is important for determining both treatment and prognosis. The anaplastic variant is an aggressive variant of medulloblastoma with characteristic histopathologic features and unfavorable prognosis that was included in the latest WHO classification. Herein, we report the CSF cytologic features of a case of recurrent anaplastic medulloblastoma in a 17-year-old male patient who had undergone autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant as a part of the treatment protocol. The malignant cells were large, had high nucleocytoplasmic ratios, and highly pleomorphic, frequently polylobated nuclei with coarse chromatin and 1-3 visible nucleoli. These CSF cytologic features differed significantly from those of classic medulloblastoma, which usually shows small cells with rounded, rather uniform nuclei with fine ("blastic") chromatin. The differential diagnosis of anaplastic medulloblastoma is broader than that of classic medulloblastoma, as it includes metastatic carcinomas and large cell lymphoma, a differential diagnosis especially pertinent in this patient with a history of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Awareness of these unusual but distinctive cytologic features is important for the accurate diagnosis of anaplastic medulloblastomas in CSF specimens and to avoid possible diagnostic pitfalls. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2012; © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We report a case of a 40-year-old woman with renal angiomyoadenomatous tumor, a rare neoplasm with only 6 previous cases reported in the literature. Unlike our case, most tumors have been identified in middle-aged males; they present as well-circumscribed, encapsulated tan-brown masses with variably prominent cystic areas. Microscopically, the tumors have a variably thick leiomyomatous capsule, which invaginates into the tumor and intermixes with tubules or solid nests of clear epithelial cells. The epithelial cells have low-grade basally oriented nuclei, and their basement membranes are intimately linked to a labyrinthine network of capillaries and pericytes. Microscopically, these tumors can be confused with clear cell carcinoma, papillary carcinoma, mixed epithelial and stromal tumors, and angiomyolipoma. This is also the first case report correlating the radiographic and morphological findings of this rare entity. The differentiating features of these neoplasms and a review of literature of are herein presented.

Being an obligate aerobe, M. tuberculosis faces a number of energetic challenges, when it encounters hypoxia and environmental stress during intracellular infection. Consequently, it has evolved innovative strategies to cope with these unfavourable conditions. Here, we report a novel flavohemoglobin (MtbFHb) from M. tuberculosis that exhibits unique features within its heme and reductase domains distinct from conventional FHbs, including the absence of the characteristic hydrogen bonding interactions within the proximal heme pocket and mutations in the FAD and NADH binding regions of the reductase domain. In contrast to conventional FHbs, it has a hexacoordinate low-spin heme with a proximal histidine ligand lacking imidazolate character and a distal heme pocket with a relatively low electrostatic potential. Additionally, MtbFHb carries a new FAD binding site in its reductase domain similar to that of D-lactate dehydrogenase (D-LDH). When overexpressed in E. coli or M. smegmatis, MtbFHb remained associated with the cell membrane and exhibited D-lactate:phenazine methosulphate reductase activity and oxidized D-lactate into pyruvate by converting the heme iron from Fe3+ to Fe2+ in a FAD-dependent manner, indicating electron transfer from D-lactate to the heme via FAD cofactor. Under oxidative stress, MtbFHb expressing cells exhibited growth advantage with reduced level of lipid peroxidation. Given the fact that D-lactate is a by-product of lipid peroxidation and that M. tuberculosis lacks the gene encoding D-LDH, we propose that the novel D-lactate metabolizing activity of MtbFHb uniquely equips M. tuberculosis to balance the stress level by protecting the cell membrane from oxidative damage via cycling between the Fe3+/Fe2+ redox states.

Artesunic acid 5, the hemisuccinate derivative of dihydroartemisinin 2, is the only clinically useful water soluble derivative of artemisinin 1. However, being a lactol ester, it is rapidly hydrolysed back to dihydroartemisinin in aqueous alkaline solution, a reaction which seriously limits its utility. A new series of potentially more stable linker-based hemisuccinate derivatives 12a-i and 14a-c have been prepared. The process involved acid-catalysed reaction of dihydroartemisinin with various diols and polyethylene glycols to give hydroxy-functionalized ethers 7a-i and 10a-c and their further derivatization to hemisuccinate esters 12a-i and 14a-c. Both the hydroxy-functionalized ethers 7a-i and 10a-c and their hemisuccinate derivatives 12a-i and 14a-c have been assessed for antimalarial activity against multidrug-resistant Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis in Swiss mice. Several of these hemisuccinate derivatives have shown very promising activity. Hemisuccinate derivatives, 12f and 12i, the two most active compounds of the series, provided 100% protection to malaria-infected mice at 24 mg/kg × 4 days and, therefore, are twice as potent as artesunic acid, which provides a similar level of protection at 48 mg/kg x 4 days.

The essential oil composition of Coleus aromaticus Benth.(family Lamiaceae) was examined by capillary GC and GC-MS. Analyses revealed the presence of 28 constituents, of which 16 were identified. Thymol (83.39%) was found to be the major compound, while 1-octen-3-ol, terpine-4-ol, eugenol, trans-caryophyllene, caryophyllene oxide and α-cadinol were present as minor constituents.

The essential oil from the flowering aerial parts of Bupleurum hamiltonii Balak syn. Bupleurum tenue family Apiaceae (Umbellifereae) was obtained by steam distillation and analysed by a combination of GC (RI) and GC-MS. The chemical composition of the isolated oil is reported here for the first time. Twenty-seven compounds were identified, which represent 92.7% of the total oil. The chemical composition of the isolated oil was characterised by a high proportion of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (61.9%), among which germacrene-D (17.8%), trans-β-farnesene (14.7%) and β-caryophyllene (13.1%) were the predominant compounds. The monoterpene hydrocarbons (16.6%) represented the second major fraction of the same oil followed by the oxygenated sesquiterpenes (7.9%).