Pisa syndrome (PS), named also as pleurothotonus, is a truncal deviation characterized by a marked lateral flexion of the trunk of at least 10 degrees , which is typically mobile, resolving, for example, on lying down [1], reported in patients affected by probable Parkinson's disease (PD), who had not been prescribed neuroleptics, antiemetics or cholinesterase inhibitors [2,3,4,5]. However, neuropathological correlates of PS in PD have not been investigated, so far. Here we report clinical and neuropathological features of a patient with pathologically confirmed PD diagnosis and a 2-year history of PS.
OVCA2 is a putative serine-hydrolase. Performing protein profiling in human tumour cell lines, OVCA2 was detected in DAOY medulloblastoma cells as a high abundance protein. The protein was unambiguously identified by 2D gel-electrophoresis and MALDI-MS and MS/MS, its presence was confirmed by western blotting. Immunohistochemistry revealed expression in medulloblastoma and predominantly in oligodendrocytes. Computational approaches predicted functional motifs and domains, interaction with apoptosis-related protein BAG and 3D structure. In addition to the presence of OVCA2 in medulloblastoma, it was furthermore detectable in three out of 10 human tumour cell-lines as a high abundance protein probably suggesting a role in the tumour biology.
