Overcoming drug resistance in hormone- and drug-refractory prostate cancer cell line, PC-3 by docetaxel and gossypol combination

Drug resistance is a significant challenge of daily oncology practice. Docetaxel and gossypol both have antitumoral activity in hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). Our results revealed that docetaxel and gossypol were synergistically cytotoxic and apoptotic in PC-3 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. We further investigated the expression profiles of genes involved in drug resistance and metabolism with a Human Cancer Drug Resistance and Metabolism PCR Array^® (SuperArray). Six of the 84 genes that are known to regulate drug resistance, metabolism, cell cycle, DNA repair and oncogenesis were downregulated ≥3-fold change by the combination treatment. These results may be important in devising mechanism-based and targeted therapeutic strategies for prostate cancer, especially in devising combination therapy for drug resistant prostate cancers.     

Lead and Mercury Levels in Preterm Infants Before and After Blood Transfusions

Biological Trace Element Research - Very low birth weight (VLBW) infants usually receive packed red blood cell unit (pRBC) transfusions. Heavy metal transfer via pRBCs is not widely discussed...     

Thiol/disulfide homeostasis impaired in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome

BackgroundPrimary Sjögren''s syndrome (pSS) is a disease associated with the overexpression of proinflammatory cytokines, and oxidative stress is one of the factors responsible for its etiopathogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the thiol/disulphide homeostasis in pSS patients.MethodsThe study included 68 pSS patients and 69 healthy controls. Thiol/disulphide homeostasis (total thiol, native thiol, and disulphide levels) was measured using the automatic spectrophotometric method developed by Erel and Neselioglu, and the results of the 2 groups were compared.ResultsThe gender and age distributions of the pSS and control groups were similar (P = 0.988 and P = 0.065). Total thiol and native thiol levels were lower in the pSS group than in the control group (470.08 ± 33.65 µmol/L vs. 528.21 ± 44.99 µmol/L, P < 0.001, and 439.14 ± 30.67 µmol/L vs. 497.56 ± 46.70 µmol/L, P < 0.001, respectively). There were no differences in disulphide levels between groups [17.00 (range 0.70-217.0) µmol/L vs. 14.95 (range 2.10-40.10) µmol/L, P = 0.195].ConclusionsIt was concluded that the thiol/disulphide balance shifted towards disulphide in patients with pSS.     

Further research on the detoxifying effect of RNA

Type A Cl. perfringens toxin caused necrosis in guniea-pigs and killed mice. Sodium nucleinate, administered orally to these animals simultaneously with the injection of the toxin and 2 hours later significantly prevented dermonecrosis in guinea-pigs and death in mice, as well as the development of pathomorphological changes in the liver, the kidneys and the spleen, the fatty degeneration of hepatocytes and disturbances in nucleic acid metabolism in these cells.