The Tumor-Immune Microenvironment and Response to Radiation Therapy

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy (RT) are standard therapeutic modalities for patients with cancer, including breast cancer. Historic studies examining tissue and cellular responses to RT have predominantly focused on damage caused to proliferating malignant cells leading to their death. However, there is increasing evidence that RT also leads to significant alterations in the tumor microenvironment, particularly with respect to effects on immune cells infiltrating tumors. This review focuses on tumor-associated immune cell responses following RT and discusses how immune responses may be modified to enhance durability and efficacy of RT.     

Sleep apnea and risk of deep vein thrombosis: a non-randomized, pair-matched cohort study

BackgroundPatients with sleep apnea have been reported to be associated with increased prevalence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in some papers, which were criticized for either a small sample size or lack of a prospective control. Our study strived to explore the relationship of sleep apnea and the subsequent development of DVT using a nationwide, population-based database.MethodsFrom 2000 to 2007, we identified a study cohort consisting of newly diagnosed sleep apnea cases in the National Health Insurance Research Database. A control cohort without sleep apnea, matched for age, sex, comorbidities, major operation, and fractures, was selected for comparison. The 2 cohorts were followed-up, and we observed the occurrence of DVT by registry of DVT diagnosis.ResultsOf the 10,185 sampled patients (5680 sleep apnea patients vs. 4505 control), 40 (0.39%) cases developed DVT during a mean follow-up period of 3.56 years, including 30 (0.53%) from the sleep apnea cohort and 10 (0.22 %) from the control group. Subjects with sleep apnea experienced a 3.113-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.516-6.390; P = .002) increase in incident DVT, which was independent of age, sex, and comorbidities. Kaplan-Meier analysis also revealed the tendency of sleep apnea patients toward DVT development (log-rank test, P = .001). The risk of DVT was even higher in sleep apnea cases who needed continuous positive airway pressure treatment (hazard ratio 9.575; 95% confidence interval, 3.181-28.818; P <.001).ConclusionSleep apnea may be an independent risk factor for DVT.     

Cholesterol requirement of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) secretion

Hepatitis B virus-infected patients secrete enormous quantities (50-300 microg/ml) of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in their serum. One hypothesis for this synthetic effort is that these lipoprotein particles serve to adsorb neutralizing antisurface antibodies. We have shown that insulin suppresses the expression of HBsAg in human hepatoma cell Hep3B cells. We further studied the signaling pathway of insulin on the inhibition of HBsAg. Using a fungal metabolite, lovastatin, to block the p21Ras signaling pathway of insulin, we found that lovastatin inhibited the secretion of HBsAg into culture medium in Hep3B cells; however, the involvement of p21Ras-MAPKs was excluded in this effect. The cholesterol depletion from the membrane, leading to the destabilization of rafts, was the mechanism for the lovastatin inhibition of HBsAg secretion. However, lovastatin has no effect on the secretion of infectious viral Dane particles. Herein, we show for the first time that cholesterol is required for HBsAg secretion.     

Star Block Copolymers Through Nitroxide‐Mediated Radical Polymerization From Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS) Core

A series of star block copolymers were prepared through nitroxide‐mediated radical polymerization (NMRP) from polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) nanoparticle by core‐first polymerization. Eight N‐alkoxyamine groups were incorporated onto the eight corners of a POSS cube through quantitative hydrosilylation through addition of octakis(dimethylsiloxy)silsesquioxane (Q₈M POSS) with 1‐(2‐(allyloxy)‐1‐phenylethoxy)‐2,2,6,6‐tetramethylpiperidine (allyl‐TEMPO) and Karstedt's agent (a platinum divinylsiloxane complex) was used as a catalyst. Octa‐N‐alkoxyamines POSS (OT‐POSS) were used as platform to synthesize star polystyrene‐POSS ((PS)₈‐POSS) homopolymer and diblock copolymers of poly(styrene‐block‐4‐vinylpyridine)‐POSS ((PS‐b‐P4VP)₈‐POSS) and poly(styrene‐block‐acetoxystyrene) ((PS‐b‐PAS)₈‐POSS) through NMRP. In addition, subsequent selective hydrolysis of the acetyl protective group of (PS‐b‐PAS)₈‐POSS, the poly(styrene‐block‐vinyl phenol) ((PS‐b‐PVPh)₈‐POSS) with strong hydrogen bonding group was obtained. The detailed chemical structure and self‐assembled structures of these star block copolymers based on POSS were characterized by ¹H NMR, FTIR, SEC, TEM, and SAXS analyses.

     

Assaults against nurses of general and psychiatric hospitals in Taiwan

Purpose  

Nurses are at risk of occupational assaults. However, the incidence and effects have not been documented among nurses in Taiwan. We aimed to study the incidence of assaults and their effects, including quality of life and job-related stress among nurses.     

High‐Heteronucleobase‐Content Polystyrene Copolymers Prepared Using Click Chemistry Form Supramolecular Structures With Melamine Through Complementary Multiple Hydrogen‐Bonding Interactions

Free‐radical copolymerization is used to synthesize poly[styrene‐co‐(4‐vinylbenzyl azide)] (PS‐co‐PVBN₃), followed by click chemistry to react it with propargyl thymine (PT) to obtain a series of high‐performance polystyrene derivatives, poly[styrene‐co‐(4‐vinylbenzyltriazolylmethylmethylthymine)] (PS‐co‐PVBT). The presence of the thymine units on the side chains of the PS copolymers allows specific intermolecular association through self‐complementary T–T interactions. In addition, the thermal and dynamic rheological properties of PS‐co‐PVBT increase significantly when it is blended with melamine (M) because of the strong, complementary, multiple hydrogen‐bonding interactions that occur between the T units and this low‐molecular‐weight compound (M).     

Four new genotypes of adenovirus type 3 isolated from patients with conjunctivitis in Japan.

Adenovirus type 3 (Ad3) was the most frequently isolated serotype from patients with conjunctivitis during the period from 1989 to 1991 in Japan. All Ad3 strains isolated in 1990 had an identical genotype, Ad3f. However, in 1992, the predominant serotype was replaced by Ad4. The genome type was examined to determine whether genetic changes existed in Ad3 isolates in 1992. Ad3 isolated from 55 patients with acute conjunctivitis during the period from June 1992 to February 1993 in Japan was assessed by genome typing with restriction endonucleases BamH I, Bgl II, Hind III, and Sma I recognizing 6-base-pair sequences. The emergence of four new genotypes of Ad3 was identified; one with a new Bam HI site (one isolate), one with a new Bgl II site (two isolates), one with a new Hind III site (three isolates) and one with a new Sma I site (two isolates). This study demonstrates that the emergence of a new genotype of Ad3 may contribute to the replacement of the predominant serotype associated with adenovirus conjunctivitis in Japan.     

Polygon interpolation for serial cross sections

In this paper, a new technique for contour interpolation between slices is presented. We assumed that contour interpolation is equivalent to the interpolation of a polygon that approximates the object shape. The location of each polygon vertex is characterized by a set of parameters. Polygon interpolation can be performed on these parameters. These interpolated parameters are then used to reconstruct the vertices of the new polygon. Finally, the contour is approximated from this polygon using a cubic spline interpolation. This new technique takes into account the shape, the translation, the size, and the orientation of the object's contours. A comparison with regular shape-based interpolation is made on several object contours. The preliminary results show that this new method yields a better contour and is computationally more efficient than shape-based interpolation. This technique can be applied to gray-level images too. The interpolation result of an MR image does not show artifact of intermediate substance commonly seen in a typical linear gray-level interpolation.     

Bioinspired Photo‐Core‐Crosslinked and Noncovalently Connected Micelles From Functionalized Polystyrene and Poly(ethylene oxide) Homopolymers

In this paper, we report a simple and effective method for the preparation of stable core‐crosslinked micelles after the self‐assembly of thymine‐functionalized polystyrene (PVBT) and adenine‐terminated poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO‐A) homopolymers, and subsequent bioinspired photo‐crosslinking of the thymine units in PVBT. We obtained “graft‐like” copolymers from the interactions of PEO‐A with the PVBT chains through complementary multiple hydrogen bonding in a common solvent (dimethylformamide) after the addition of selective solvents (H₂O and MeCN for PVBT and PEO‐A, respectively). Stable micelles featuring PVBT as the core and PEO‐A as the shell were formed via selective solvent pairs; they were clearly visualized using transmission electronic microscopy and staining techniques. The shapes and sizes of the core/shell micelle structures did not change after exposure to UV light, revealing the enhanced dimensional stability of these photo‐core‐crosslinked micelles.     

Down-regulation of von Hippel-Lindau protein in N-nitroso compound-induced rat non-clear cell renal tumors

Non-clear cell rat kidney tumors, inducible by N-nitroso compounds but lacking mutations in the von Hippel--Lindau (VHL) coding sequence, were examined for other VHL alterations. Neither mutations nor DNA methylation was detected in a putative promoter region. By immunohistochemistry, however, VHL protein level was evidently reduced in six of the eight eosinophilic renal epithelial tumors and in all the ten nephroblastomas. Immunoblotting of normal kidney detected two VHL proteins of 20 and 22kDa in a 16-day-old fetal rat but only 20kDa protein in an adult rat. This is the first demonstration of VHL alteration at the protein level.