It has been shown that topical nerve growth factor (NGF) administration induces healing action on human cutaneous, corneal and pressure ulcers, glaucoma, maculopathy and retinitis pigmentosa suggesting a therapeutic potential of NGF in human ophthalmology and cutaneous ulcers. A similar therapeutic suggestion has emerged for the NGF gene therapy of Alzheimer's disease and ischemic heart injury. Moreover, over the last few years, the role and biological properties of NGF have also been investigated with transgenic mice over-expressing and down-expressing NGF. However, the results obtained with these transgenic mice seem suitable to confirm and/or support the evidence obtained with exogenous administration of NGF regarding the suggested clinical potentiality of NGF. The aim of the present brief review is to report and comment on these two different findings of NGF's healing properties.

Cramps and myalgias are frequent presentations of many disorders whose diagnosis is generally difficult. Among the unusual causes stand the milder phenotypes of dystrophinopathies, which are caused, just as Duchenne and Becker’s dystrophy, by mutations in the dystrophin gene. An 8 year-old boy presented severe muscle pain on exercise and serum rise in creatine kinase over 1000 U/l. He had normal muscle power and mild calf hypertrophy. The molecular analysis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the dystrophin gene showed deletions of exons 45 to 51. Dystrophin analysis by Western blot revealed a dystrophin of reduced quantity and molecular weight. Emphasis is made to include dystrophinopathies in the differential diagnosis of myalgias and the usefulness of molecular genetic techniques in the identification of these disorders (Rev Méd Chile 2000; 128: 772-7).

Infecção simultânea com Dengue 1 e 2 em uma paciente brasileira Epidemias de dengue vem ocorrendo em vários Estados brasileiros desde 1986 envolvendo os sorotipos 1 (DEN-1) e 2 (DEN-2). Em vista dos poucos casos de dupla infecção documentados na literatura, relatamos aqui um caso de infecção simultânea com DEN-1 e DEN-2 em uma paciente residente no município de Miranda, Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, Região Centro-Oeste do Brasil. O DEN-1 foi introduzido nesse Estado em 1989 e o DEN-2 em 1996, com a circulação de ambos em alguns municípios. Esta dupla infecção foi identificada por isolamento de vírus e imunofluorescência indireta usando anticorpos monoclonais e confirmada pela reação em cadeia da polimerase (PCR). Este é o primeiro caso de infecção simultânea com os sorotipos 1 e 2 documentado no Brasil.

Dengue outbreaks have occurred in several Brazilian States since 1986 involving serotypes 1 (DEN-1) and 2 (DEN-2). In view of the few cases of double infection documented in the literature, we report here a case of simultaneous infection with DEN-1 and DEN-2 in a patient residing in the municipality of Miranda, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Western region of Brazil. DEN-1 was introduced in this State in 1989 and DEN-2 in 1996, both of them circulating in some municipalities. This double infection was identified by virus isolation and by indirect immunofluorescence using monoclonal antibodies and confirmed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This is the first documented case of simultaneous infection with serotypes DEN-1 and DEN-2 in Brazil.