Prophylactic interleukin-2 increases the survival rate of mice with acute intraperitoneal infection withStaphylococcus aureus

Laboratory of Cellular Immunity and Laboratory of Bacteriology, Department of Laboratory Animals. Oncologic Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow. (Presented by Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences N. N. Trapeznikov.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 114, No. 10, pp. 383–385, October, 1992.     

New potential antihypoxants based on 2-ethyl-3-(<Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>,<Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-dimethylcarbamoyloxy)-6-methylpyridine

It is established that succinic acid is capable of potentiating (synergism) the antihypoxic activity of 3-hydroxypyridine derivatives such as the succinate (Ia) and hydrochloride (Ib) of 3-(N,N-dimethylcarbamoyloxy)- 2-ethyl-6-methylpyridine. This effect makes it expedient to create new drugs containing a mixture of Ia or Ib and succinic acid derivatives that would possess antihypoxic, antiamnestic, and anticonvulsant activity. The antihypoxic activity of 3-hydroxypyridine drugs increases in the order emoxypin < mexidol < proxypin < Ia + succinic acid < Ib + succinic acid.     

Motor and secretion function of stomach and duodenum, duodenogastric reflux in patients with duodenal ulcer

Gastric secretion, motor function and tonicity of the stomach and duodenum, duodenogastric reflux were studied in inpatients with two clinicopathogenetic types of duodenal ulcer: observed at young age (type 1) and in later life (type 2). The examination included pH-metry with simultaneous balloon cimography, chromogastroduodenoscopy with Kongo-red, tests for Helicobacter pylori conducted on the biopsy samples. All the patients were found to have continuous acid production. High acid production was more frequently registered in males with the disease type 1, the lowest production was in females with the disease type 2. Duration of the acid inflow into the duodenum in patients with the disease type 2 was greater than that in young subjects. Mild ulcer was associated with moderate acidity in the duodenum, in severe ulcer the acidity was very high. Males with the disease 1 and 2 and females with type 2 had hyperkinetic, hypertonic gastric motor function. In duodenal ulcer prevalent is hypertonic, hyperkinetic type of duodenal motor function being most frequent among males with the disease type 2. Duodenogastric reflux occurs more often in patients with intensive acid production associated with hypotonic, hypokinetic motor type and duodenal tone.     

The distribution pattern of ERα expression,ESR1 genetic variation and expression of growth factor receptors: association with breast cancer prognosis in Russian patients treated with adjuvant tamoxifen

Identification of additional biomarkers associated with ER genomic and nongenomic pathways could be very useful to distinguish patients who will benefit from tamoxifen treatment. The aim of this study was to analyze the prognostic significance of the distribution pattern of ERα expression, ESR1 gene single-nucleotide polymorphisms and expression levels of growth factor receptors in Russian hormone receptor-positive breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant tamoxifen. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissue samples from 97 patients were examined for the distribution pattern of ERα expression, as well as for EGFR and TGF-βR1 expression by immunohistochemistry. Genotypes for ESR1 +30T>C (rs2077647) and ESR1 2014G>A (rs2228480) were analyzed using a TaqMan assay. Progression-free survival (PFS) was used as an endpoint for the survival analyses. We found that patients with the heterogeneous distribution of ERα expression had poor prognosis on tamoxifen treatment (P = 0.021). We identified a high EGFR expression in patients who developed distant metastasis or recurrence during tamoxifen treatment (a tamoxifen-resistant group—TR) in contrast to the distant metastasis-free patients (a tamoxifen-sensitive group—TS) (80.0 vs. 41.9 %, respectively, P = 0.009). Carriers of the ESR12014A mutant allele were more prevalent among the TR patients compared to the TS patients (26.3 vs. 8.0 %, respectively, P = 0.009). EGFR expression and the distribution pattern of ERα expression were associated with the response to tamoxifen by both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The presence of these markers either alone or in combination was correlated with the worse PFS for all patients. Analysis of the distribution pattern of ERα expression and the EGFR status in tumor tissue may be valuable for patient selection for tamoxifen adjuvant therapy.