Cupressaceae pollinosis in the Madrid area

Background There is no previous report of Cupressaceae pollinosis in the Madrid area. Objective To ascertain the presence of Cupressaceae pollinosis in the Madrid area. Methods Thirty-six patients were studied who had winter pollinosis symptoms and a positive skin test to C. arizonica. They were skin tested with C. sempervirens (Abeiló, Madrid), C. arizonica (in-house extract) and other common inhalant allergens (Abeiló). Total IgE was measured and specific IgE to C. arizonica, C. sempervirens and J. sabinoides was determined. Results Six of the patients were only sensitized to Cupressaceae pollens, whereas 30 patients had also sensitivity to other pollens (oleaceae 28, plantain 27, grasses 25, chenopodium 25, compositae 23, Parietaria 9) and 18 patients were also sensitized to other inhalant allergens (animals 17, mites 4, moulds 2). Conclusion These results confirm the existence of allergy to Cupressaceae pollens in Madrid (Spain).     

Assessment and Validation of US EPA's OncoLogic® Expert System and Analysis of Its Modulating Factors for Structural Alerts

OncoLogic® is a software program able to screen chemical compounds for toxicological effects. The software predicts the potential carcinogenicity of chemicals by applying rules of structure activity relationship (SAR) analysis. To validate the predictivity of OncoLogic® (Version 7.0), 123 compounds tested with the long-term carcinogenicity bioassay on rodents were extracted from the ISSCAN database and were analyzed. The concordance between the OncoLogic® SAR analysis and the bioassay results was high. To better understand the strength of the SAR science in OncoLogic®, we investigated the influence of a select group of modulating factors on the predictions by the structural alerts.     

Measurement of Lower Leg Compression In Vivo: Recommendations for the Performance of Measurements of Interface Pressure and Stiffness

BACKGROUND Interface pressure and stiffness characterizing the elastic properties of the material are the deciding parameters determining the dosage of compression treatment and should therefore be measured in future clinical trials.
AIM The aim of this consensus paper is to provide some recommendations regarding the use of suitable methods for this indication.
METHOD This paper was formulated based on the results of an international consensus meeting between a group of medical experts and representatives from the industry held in January 2005 in Vienna, Austria.
RESULTS Proposals are made concerning methods for measuring the interface pressure and for assessing the stiffness of a compression device in an individual patient.
CONCLUSIONS In vivo measurement of interface pressure is encouraged when clinical and experimental outcomes of compression treatment are to be evaluated.     

Evaluation of the Toxicity Forecasting Capability of EPA's ToxCast Phase I Data: Can ToxCast In Vitro Assays Predict Carcinogenicity?

Long-term rodent bioassays have played a central role in protecting human health from carcinogens; for ethical and practical reasons their use is decreasing whereas genotoxicity testing has taken a pivotal role. However, this strategy—as presently implemented—is not sensitive enough to detect all genotoxic carcinogens, and cannot detect nongenotoxic carcinogens. Among the alternative approaches under study there is the ToxCast/Tox21 project. Following a previous study from our laboratory, here we present a new, more extensive analysis of ToxCast Phase I results, indicating that at the present state-of-art this approach is not able to predict the carcinogenicity of chemicals. Possible reasons for this mediocre performance are discussed, and opinions on ways to tune up the project in the next phases are presented.     

Side-reactions in peptide synthesis

The impurities which formed in the large-scale synthesis of THF-γ2, an immunomodulatory peptide of formula H-Leu-Glu-Asp-Gly-Pro-Lys-Phe-Leu-OH, were identified by a combination of analytical methods, and their structure confirmed by synthesis. Most impurities originated from side-reactions involving the aspartyl residue (cyclization, β-aspartyl formation and cleavage). Based on this knowledge, modifications were introduced into the work up and the purification procedure which resulted in a very pure final product (>99% by RP-HPLC).