Oxaliplatin induces drug resistance more rapidly than cisplatin in H69 small cell lung cancer cells

Cisplatin produces good responses in solid tumours including small cell lung cancer (SCLC) but this is limited by the development of resistance. Oxaliplatin is reported to show activity against some cisplatin-resistant cancers but there is little known about oxaliplatin in SCLC and there are no reports of oxaliplatin resistant SCLC cell lines. Studies of drug resistance mainly focus on the cellular resistance mechanisms rather than how the cells develop resistance. This study examines the development of cisplatin and oxaliplatin resistance in H69 human SCLC cells in response to repeated treatment with clinically relevant doses of cisplatin or oxaliplatin for either 4 days or 2h. Treatments with 200ng/ml cisplatin or 400ng/ml oxaliplatin for 4 days produced sublines (H69CIS200 and H69OX400 respectively) that showed low level (approximately 2-fold) resistance after 8 treatments. Treatments with 1000ng/ml cisplatin or 2000ng/ml oxaliplatin for 2h also produced sublines, however these were not stably resistant suggesting shorter treatment pulses of drug may be more effective. Cells survived the first five treatments without any increase in resistance, by arresting their growth for a period and then regrowing. The period of growth arrest was reduced after the sixth treatment and the H69CIS200 and H69OX400 sublines showed a reduced growth arrest in response to cisplatin and oxaliplatin treatment suggesting that "regrowth resistance" initially protected against drug treatment and this was further upregulated and became part of the resistance phenotype of these sublines. Oxaliplatin dose escalation produced more surviving sublines than cisplatin dose escalation but neither set of sublines were associated with increased resistance as determined by 5-day cytotoxicity assays, also suggesting the involvement of regrowth resistance. The resistant sublines showed no change in platinum accumulation or glutathione levels even though the H69OX400 subline was more sensitive to buthionine sulfoximine treatment. The H69CIS200 cells were cross-resistant to oxaliplatin demonstrating that oxaliplatin does not have activity against low level cisplatin resistance. Relative to the H69 cells, the H69CIS200 and H69OX400 sublines were more sensitive to paclitaxel and taxotere suggests the taxanes may be useful in the treatment of platinum resistant SCLC. These novel cellular models of cisplatin and oxaliplatin resistant SCLC will be useful in developing strategies to treat platinum-resistant SCLC

Regulation of the co-evolved HrpR and HrpS AAA+ proteins required for Pseudomonas syringae pathogenicity.

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Immediate breast reconstruction with a saline implant and AlloDerm, following removal of a Phyllodes tumor

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Phyllodes tumors are uncommon tumors of the breast that exhibit aggressive growth. While surgical management of the tumor has been reported, a single surgical approach with immediate breast reconstruction using AlloDerm has not been reported.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 22-year-old woman presented with a 4 cm mass in the left breast upon initial examination. Although the initial needle biopsy report indicated a fibroadenoma, the final pathologic report revealed a 6.5 cm × 6.4 cm × 6.4 cm benign phyllodes tumor <it>ex vivo</it>. Treatment was a simple nipple-sparing mastectomy coupled with immediate breast reconstruction. After the mastectomy, a subpectoral pocket was created for a saline implant and AlloDerm was stitched to the pectoralis and serratus muscle in the lower-pole of the breast.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Saline implant with AlloDerm can be used for immediate breast reconstruction post-mastectomy for treatment of a phyllodes tumor.</p

Incidence of epidural haematoma and neurological injury in cardiovascular patients with epidural analgesia/anaesthesia: systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Epidural anaesthesia is used extensively for cardiothoracic and vascular surgery in some centres, but not in others, with argument over the safety of the technique in patients who are usually extensively anticoagulated before, during, and after surgery. The principle concern is bleeding in the epidural space, leading to transient or persistent neurological problems. Methods: We performed an extensive systematic review to find published cohorts of use of epidural catheters during vascular, cardiac, and thoracic surgery, using electronic searching, hand searching, and reference lists of retrieved articles. Results: Twelve studies included 14,105 patients, of whom 5,026 (36%) had vascular surgery, 4,971 (35%) cardiac surgery. and 4,107 (29%) thoracic surgery. There were no cases of epidural haematoma, giving maximum risks following epidural anaesthesia in cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgery of 1 in 1,700, 1 in 1,400 and 1 in 1,700 respectively. In all these surgery types combined the maximum expected rate would be 1 in 4,700. In all these patients combined there were eight cases of transient neurological injury, a rate of 1 in 1,700. (95% confidence interval 1 in 3,300 to 1 in 850). There were no cases of persistent neurological injury (maximum expected rate 1 in 4,600). Conclusion: These estimates for cardiothoracic epidural anaesthesia should be the worst case. Limitations are inadequate denominators for different types of surgery in anticoagulated cardiothoracic or vascular patients more at risk of bleeding

PET Imaging of Microglia Activation and Infection in Neuropsychiatric Disorders with Potential Infectious Origin

The central nervous system (CNS) is an immunoprivileged location for the possible sequestration of latent infections. The presence of pathogens may be involved in the etiology of neuropsychiatric diseases by inducing classical inflammatory responses, hypersensitivity, cellular toxicity, or direct alteration of cellular processes. Infection, persistence, and activation of microbes in the brain are not easy to assess in vivo, and the relation with clinical disease is very difficult to prove. An elegant way to determine an inflammatory response in the brain in vivo is by molecular imaging of microglia activation with [11C]PK11195 and other radiopharmaceuticals that target the translocator protein (TSPO). In this chapter, we summarize the neuroimaging studies that target the TSPO in patients with neuropsychiatric diseases, and we propose positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with radiopharmaceuticals that target the metabolism of infectious agents directly.</p

Micropropagação das bananeiras 'Prata-Anã' e 'FHIA 01' a partir de explantes de plantas tratadas com paclobutrazol

Com o objetivo de avaliar o desenvolvimento in vitro de explantes das bananeiras 'Prata-Anã' e 'FHIA 01' provenientes de plantas tratadas com paclobutrazol (PBZ), conduziu-se este experimento no Laboratório de Cultura de Células e Tecidos Vegetais, Setor de Fruticultura, DFT/UFV. Utilizou-se esquema fatorial 2 x 5, correspondendo às duas cultivares ('Prata-Anã' e 'FHIA 01') e cinco doses de PBZ (0,0; 0,5; 1,0; 1,5 e 2,0 g i.a. planta-1), em delineamento experimental inteiramente ao acaso, com número variável de repetições. Avaliaram-se, na parte aérea: taxa de brotação, altura e diâmetro, número de folhas, massa fresca e seca e intensidade da cor verde; e no sistema radicular: porcentagem de enraizamento, número de raízes, comprimento da maior raiz, massa fresca e seca, e a relação massa da raiz:massa da parte aérea. Foi observado que a altura da parte aérea foi reduzida a partir de 1,13 g i.a. planta-1, em ambas as cultivares. O diâmetro não foi alterado com o aumento das doses, mas nos explantes da 'Prata Anã' os diâmetros foram maiores que 'FHIA 01'. Para o número de folhas, as massas fresca e seca não apresentaram diferenças entre as doses e entre as cultivares. A intensidade da cor verde aumentou linearmente com o aumento das doses, em ambas as cultivares. A partir de 1,07 g i.a. planta-1, a taxa de brotação da 'Prata-Anã' foi inibida, enquanto a da 'FHIA 01' foi estimulada a partir de 0,85 g i.a. planta-1. Houve interação significativa para a porcentagem de enraizamento, onde se observaram valores mais baixos para a cultivar 'Prata-Anã' (64,71%), em relação à 'FHIA 01' (95,83%), na maior dose. Não foi observado efeito das doses de PBZ sobre a porcentagem de enraizamento de explantes da 'Prata-Anã', enquanto para 'FHIA 01' houve aumento linear do enraizamento com o aumento das doses, sendo que o maior valor encontrado foi de 95,18%. As demais características aumentaram linearmente com o aumento das doses de PBZ, para ambas as cultivares

Oral abstracts of the 21st International AIDS Conference 18-22 July 2016, Durban, South Africa

The rate at which HIV-1 infected individuals progress to AIDS is highly variable and impacted by T cell immunity. CD8 T cell inhibitory molecules are up-regulated in HIV-1 infection and associate with immune dysfunction. We evaluated participants (n=122) recruited to the SPARTAC randomised clinical trial to determine whether CD8 T cell exhaustion markers PD-1, Lag-3 and Tim-3 were associated with immune activation and disease progression.Expression of PD-1, Tim-3, Lag-3 and CD38 on CD8 T cells from the closest pre-therapy time-point to seroconversion was measured by flow cytometry, and correlated with surrogate markers of HIV-1 disease (HIV-1 plasma viral load (pVL) and CD4 T cell count) and the trial endpoint (time to CD4 count <350 cells/μl or initiation of antiretroviral therapy). To explore the functional significance of these markers, co-expression of Eomes, T-bet and CD39 was assessed.Expression of PD-1 on CD8 and CD38 CD8 T cells correlated with pVL and CD4 count at baseline, and predicted time to the trial endpoint. Lag-3 expression was associated with pVL but not CD4 count. For all exhaustion markers, expression of CD38 on CD8 T cells increased the strength of associations. In Cox models, progression to the trial endpoint was most marked for PD-1/CD38 co-expressing cells, with evidence for a stronger effect within 12 weeks from confirmed diagnosis of PHI. The effect of PD-1 and Lag-3 expression on CD8 T cells retained statistical significance in Cox proportional hazards models including antiretroviral therapy and CD4 count, but not pVL as co-variants.Expression of ‘exhaustion’ or ‘immune checkpoint’ markers in early HIV-1 infection is associated with clinical progression and is impacted by immune activation and the duration of infection. New markers to identify exhausted T cells and novel interventions to reverse exhaustion may inform the development of novel immunotherapeutic approaches