(-)-Gephyrotoxin-223 was formally synthesized from chiral synthon 1 which has been chemoenzymatically synthesized in the presence of Candida Antartica lipase.  

Purpose: To investigate etiological factors of endophthalmitis in Farabi Eye Hospital. Methods: In a retrospective study, the clinical records of 223 patients admitted to the hospital with final diagnosis of endophthalmitis between March 2002 and March 2004 were reviewed. Analyzed factors included: age, sex, clinical presentation, clinical course, microbiological data, treatment modality, visual outcome, and surgical complications.Results: Two hundred twenty three patients with final diagnosis of endophthalmitis were evaluated. One hundred and fifty patients (67%) were male and 73 (33%) were female. 50.2% of the patients were older than 40 years, 14.3% fall in the range of 17-40 years and 30.5% in the range of 2-16 years, and 4.9% were younger than 2 years of age. 57% of endophthalmitis cases were postoperative, 40.5% were posttraumatic, and 2.5% were endogenous. Overall 15.9% of the cases had positive culture. Wound leakage was noted in 39% and vitreous loss in 22% of postoperative patients. During 3.5-6.5 months (mean 4.5 months) visual acuity was 20/400 or better in 69.5% of posttraumatic cases and in 44.5% of postoperative patients. Finally 92.8% of patients required at least one vitrectomy procedure as a part of their management. Evisceration or enucleation was performed in 8.1% as a primary operation or in the course of their treatment.Conclusion: The incidence of postoperative endophthalmitis in this study is similar to other studies.Posttraumatic endophthalmitis incidence is less than the mean incidence of other reports. The rate of positive culture was also less than other studies.

Background: Diagnosis of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) at an early stage is a daunting challenge due to the deficiency of specific noninvasive markers. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in the initiation and progression of NSCLC. Measuring miRNA expression levels could provide a potential approach for the diagnosis of NSCLC. Our goals were to examine miR-223, miR-212, miR-192, miR-3074, SNORD33 and SNORD37 expression levels in tissue and sputum of NSCLC patients and cancer free subjects for molecular diagnosis of NSCLC.Methods: Relative expressions of miR-223, miR-212, miR-192, miR-3074, SNORD33 and SNORD37 were examined with quantitative real-time RT-PCR assay in tissue and sputum obtained from 17 NSCLC patients and 17 controls.Results: miR-3074 was upregulated in tissue samples of NSCLC patients compared with control group. miR-223 was upregulated, miR-212 and SNORD37 were downergulated in sputum samples of patients compared with controls. miR-223 quantification produced 82% sensitivity and 95% specificity with areas under the ROC curve at 0.90 in detection of NSCLC.Conclusion: miR-223 clearly discriminated cancer patients from cancer-free subjects and our results suggest that miR-223 could be a diagnostic useful biomarker. The measurement of altered miRNA expression in sputum samples manifested the potential noninvasive approach for detection of lung cancer.