Anaphylaxis and generalized urticaria from eating Chinese bayberry fruit

Chinese bayberry Myrica rubra is a very popular fruit in southeastern China.In spite of its wide consumption,no allergies to this fruit have been reported previously.Here we report on a 40-year-old woman suffering from anaphylaxis to Chinese bayberry fruit.Prick-prick skin tests revealed strong reactions to fresh Chinese bayberry fruits as well as to peach,and weaker reactions to some other fruits including apple,melon,and banana.ImmunoCAP analysis revealed identical titers of specific IgE(4.3 kU A /L) to peach extract and its lipid transfer protein(LTP,rPru p 3),which was confirmed by detection of a 9 kD band following immunoblotting.Immunoblot analysis with Chinese bayberry extract gave bands of 22,45,and 90 kD,but no 9 kD band was recognized.There was also no evidence of LTP recognition for loquat(36 kD) or melon(24 kD).This first report of a severe allergic reaction to Chinese bayberry fruit in a patient with LTP-mediated peach allergy indicates that other as yet unidentified non-pollen related fruit allergens are involved in this new severe fruit allergy.

DCX and CRABP2 are candidate genes for differential diagnosis between pre-chemotherapy embryonic and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma in pediatric patients

Importance Rhabdomyosarcoma(RMS)is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children.More than 90%of cases are classified as embryonic RMS(ERMS)or alveolar RMS(ARMS).ERMS has a worse prognosis than ARMS.Early differential diagnosis is of paramount importance for optimization of treatment.Objective To identify genes that are differentially expressed between ARMS and ERMS,which can be used for accurate rhabdomyosarcoma classification.Methods Three Gene Expression Omnibus datasets composed of ARMS and ERMS samples were screened and 35 differentially expressed genes(DEGs)were identified.Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and area under the curve analysis was performed for these 35 DEGs and seven candidate genes with the best differential expression scores between ARMS and ERMS were determined.The expression of these seven candidate genes was validated by immunohistochemical analysis of pre-chemotherapy ARMS and ERMS specimens.Results The levels of DCX and CRABP2 were confirmed to be remarkably different between paraffin-embedded ARMS and ERMS tissues,while EGFR abundance was only marginally different between these two RMS subtypes.Interpretation DCX and CRABP2 are potential biomarkers for distinguishing ARMS from ERMS in pre-chemotherapy pediatric patients.