Cavernous sinus syndrome as the initial symptom of Burkitt's lymphoma: a case report and literature review
REVISTA DE NEUROLOGIA
Authors: Ruiz-Ortiz, Mariano; Azcarate-Diaz, Francisco J.; Galindo-Rodriguez, David; Torres-Calcines, Natalia; Calleja-Castano, Patricia
Abstract
Introduction. The cavernous sinus is a structure in the base of the skull that houses several nerve and vascular structures. Its compromise leads to cavernous sinus syndrome, which is a combination of oculomotor disorders and others affecting the first two trigeminal branches, often accompanied by pain or proptosis. Infiltration due to Burkitt's lymphoma is a rare cause of this syndrome. Case report. A 43-year-old male, carrier of human immunodeficiency virus, with good control of the disease, who developed a clinical picture consisting of progressive painful ophthalmoplegia in the presence of a laterocervical adenopathy. Complementary tests allowed a diagnosis of Burkitt's lymphoma with extranodal extension to the cavernous sinus. A review of the cases published in Medline was also carried out: a total of 15 cases were detected and their epidemiological characteristics, form of presentation, extracranial involvement at the time of diagnosis and clinical progression were described. Conclusions. Burkitt's lymphoma is a high-grade lymphoproliferative syndrome. Its form associated with immunodeficiency is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in this subgroup of patients. In the cases analysed in the literature, the age of presentation varied and the form of onset was a progressive painful ophthalmoplegia or numb chin syndrome. Exclusive involvement of the cavernous sinus was infrequent, but in that case it entailed a poor prognosis. It is important to rule out a primary extracranial origin and not to confuse it with an idiopathic Tolosa-Hunt syndrome that would delay the beginning of antitumour treatment.
Binding free energy calculations using MMPB/GBSA approaches for PAMAM-G4-drug complexes at neutral, basic and acid pH conditions
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR GRAPHICS & MODELLING
Authors: Martinez-Munoz, Alberto; Bello, Martiniano; Romero-Castro, Aurelio; Alberto Rodriguez-Fonseca, Rolando; Rodrigues, Joao; Armando Sanchez-Espinosa, Victor; Correa-Basurto, Jose
Abstract
Dendrimers are synthetic macromolecules with a highly-branched structure and high concentration of surface groups. Among dendrimers, Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) has received substantial attention as a novel drug carrier and delivery system. Depending on the generation and type of terminal groups, dendrimer toxicity could change and include cytotoxicity. Although PAMAM is water soluble, molecular modeling of the dendrimer-drug complex is considered challenging for exploring the conformational mobility of dendrimers and atomic specific interactions during the dendrimer-drug association. However, conventional protocols for predicting binding affinities have been designed for small protein molecules or protein-protein complexes that can be applied to study the dendrimer-drug association. In this work, we performed docking calculations for a set of 94 previously reported compounds on PAMAM of fourth generation (G4-PAMAM) to select six compounds, cromoglicic acid (CRO) - a mast cell stabilizer, Fusidic acid (FUS) - a bacteriostatic antibiotic, and Methotrexate (MTX) - a chemotherapy agent and immune system suppressant, which have the highest affinities for G4-PAMAM, and Lidocaine (LDC) used to numb tissue in a specific area and for ventricular tachycardia treatment, Metoprolol (MET) - a beta 1 receptor blocker, and Pindolol (PIN) - a 13 blocker, which have the lowest affinities for the G4-PAMAM dendrimer, to perform MD simulations combined with the molecular mechanics generalized/Poisson-Boltzmann surface area MMGBSA/MMPBSA approach to investigate the interactions of generating 4 charge-neutral, charge basic and charge-acid G4-PAMAM dendrimers. In addition, to validate these theoretical G4-PAMAM-drug complexes, the complexes were experimentally conjugated to determine their stability in aqueous solubility studies immediately and over one year. Our results show that among the different commercial drugs, both charged and neutral PAMAM have the most favorable binding free energies for CRO, MIX, and FUS, which appears to be due to a complex counterbalance of electrostatics and van der Waals interactions. These theoretical and aqueous solubility studies supported the high affinity of methotrexate for the G4-PAMAM-drug due to its carboxyl and aryl moieties that favor its accommodation by noncovalent interactions. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.