PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer requiring radiation to the oropharyngeal mucosal area were divided in to two groups to receive either radiation alone or radiation plus topical application of pure natural honey. Patients were treated using a 6-MV linear accelerator at a dose rate of 2 Gy per day five times a week up to a dose of 60-70 Gy. In the study arm, patients were advised to take 20 ml of pure honey 15 min before, 15 min after and 6 h post-radiation therapy. Patients were evaluated every week for the development of radiation mucositis using the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) grading system.
MAIN RESULTS: There was significant reduction in the symptomatic grade 3/4 mucositis among honey-treated patients compared to controls; i.e. 20% versus 75% ( p 0.00058). The compliance of honey-treated group of patients was better than controls. Fifty-five percent of patients treated with topical honey showed no change or a positive gain in body weight compared to 25% in the control arm ( p 0.053), the majority of whom lost weight.
CONCLUSIONS: Topical application of natural honey is a simple and cost-effective treatment in radiation mucositis, which warrants further multi-centre randomised trials to validate our finding.
METHODS: In this study we have designed new live-attenuated vaccine vectors based on recombinant vesicular stomatitis viruses (rVSV) expressing NiV glycoproteins (G or F) or nucleoprotein (N) and evaluated their protective efficacy in Syrian hamsters, an established NiV animal disease model. We further characterized the humoral immune response to vaccination in hamsters using ELISA and neutralization assays and performed serum transfer studies.
RESULTS: Vaccination of Syrian hamsters with a single dose of the rVSV vaccine vectors resulted in strong humoral immune responses with neutralizing activities found only in those animals vaccinated with rVSV expressing NiV G or F proteins. Vaccinated animals with neutralizing antibody responses were completely protected from lethal NiV disease, whereas animals vaccinated with rVSV expressing NiV N showed only partial protection. Protection of NiV G or F vaccinated animals was conferred by antibodies, most likely the neutralizing fraction, as demonstrated by serum transfer studies. Protection of N-vaccinated hamsters was not antibody-dependent indicating a role of adaptive cellular responses for protection.
CONCLUSIONS: The rVSV vectors expressing Nipah virus G or F are prime candidates for new 'emergency vaccines' to be utilized for NiV outbreak management.
CASE REPORT: We report a case of a 46-year-old Chinese male who presented with six months history of abdominal pain, weight loss and rectal bleeding. Diagnostic colonoscopy revealed multiple aphthous ulcers within the ileo-caecal region and distal transverse colon, separated by normal mucosa, mimicking skip lesions of Crohn's colitis. Computer topography (CT) scan of the abdomen showed multiple circumferential thickenings involving predominantly the right colon. A clinical diagnosis of colonic Crohn's disease with possible perforation was made. An extended right hemicolectomy was performed due to uncontrolled rectal bleeding. Histopathology examination of the colon showed infiltration by malignant lymphoid cells associated with necrosis, angiocentricity and angiodestruction. Immunohistochemical studies confirmed T-cell monoclonality, presence of cytotoxic granules and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. A diagnosis of extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma of the colon was made.
DISCUSSION: These findings highlight that colonic NK/T cell lymphoma may clinically mimic other benign inflammatory lesions and should be one of the differential diagnoses in patients presenting with gastrointestinal lesions. The final diagnosis is only possible with appropriate histological and immunohistochemical studies.