Co-stimulatory pathways in lymphocyte regulation: the immunoglobulin superfamily

The controlled orchestration of immune responses is a vital feature of cellular immunity in a system that must be able to reliably distinguish self from non-self. Contrary to early beliefs, peptide recognition by T cells exhibits a relatively high level of promiscuity. The requirement for a second signalling event to be present in addition to that provided by T cell receptor ligation for T cell activation to proceed helps to prevent inappropriately directed responses. An expanding array of co-stimulatory or inhibitory signalling receptors and ligands are now recognised to be involved in the control of the crucial decisions made determining the activation, expansion, and effector functions of responding cells, and ultimately the final targeting and execution of these functions. Tight regulation of the temporal and spatial organisation of receptor/ligand expression, combined with both forward and reverse signalling, endows an extraordinary elegance to these co-stimulatory pathways. The immunoglobulin superfamily occupies a central importance in this coordination of immune responses. The understanding of its relevance in a variety of physio-pathological circumstances is now yielding a number of potential targets for therapeutic manipulation, and such immunological molecular adjuvants are beginning to enter clinical trials.     

Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin plus highly active antiretroviral therapy versus highly active antiretroviral therapy alone in HIV patients with Kaposi's sarcoma

Twenty-eight HIV patients either naive or failing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)with moderate-advanced Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)were randomly chosen to initiate a new HAART regimen plus pegylated liposomal doxorubicin(PLD) or the new HAART regimen alone. After 48 weeks, better response rates were observed in the HAART plus PLD group (76% versus 20%).In HIV-infected patients with moderate-advanced KS, HAART alone may not be enough for KS response.     

抗高血压药物与罹患癌症的风险:324168例参与随机临床试验病人的荟萃分析和试验序贯分析

长期以来,一直存在抗高血压药物是否有致癌作用的争议.自从在年龄>50岁的妇女中使用萝芙碱提取物造成乳腺癌发病率增加的报道后[1],这一争议已持续了30年.Sipahi和同事们最近的研究显示:血管紧张素受体拮抗剂(angiotensin receptor-blockers,ARB)有较高的致癌风险.这一发现再次引发了抗...