Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a significant cause of acute respiratory disease in children and young adults. We describe a case of a 15-year-old boy who presented with an unusual scarlatiniform rash in the setting of a positive Mycoplasma pneumonia IgM but negative antistreptolysin antibody. While mycoplasma infections with cutaneous manifestations such as scarlatiniform exanthema have been described in textbooks, there are no reports in the primary literature. We wish to highlight the recognition of alternate presentations of mycoplasma, and briefly discuss the role of molecular mimicry in its pathogenesis.
Prenatal ethanol exposure causes the most frequent preventable birth disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). The effect of turmeric extracts in rescuing an ethanol-induced developmental defect using zebrafish as a model was determined. Ethanol-induced oxidative stress is one of the major mechanisms underlying FASD. We hypothesize that antioxidant inducing properties of turmeric may alleviate ethanol-induced defects. Curcuminoid content of the turmeric powder extract (5 mg/mL turmeric in ethanol) was determined by UPLC and found to contain Curcumin (124.1 ± 0.2 µg/mL), Desmethoxycurcumin (43.4 ± 0.1 µg/mL), and Bisdemethoxycurcumin (36.6 ± 0.1 µg/mL). Zebrafish embryos were treated with 100 mM (0.6% v/v) ethanol during gastrulation through organogenesis (2–48 hours post fertilization; hpf) and supplemented with turmeric extract to obtain total curcuminoid concentrations of 0, 1.16, 1.72 or 2.32 µM. Turmeric supplementation showed significant rescue of the body length at 72 hpf compared to ethanol-treated embryos. The mechanism underlying the rescue remains to be determined.
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