Decreased Cerebrospinal Fluid Glutamine Levels in Patients with Benign Brain Tumors

Abstract: CSF glutamine concentrations were studied in 12 patients with benign brain tumors (meningioma, craniopharyngioma, or osteofibroma), 12 patients with malignant brain tumors (astrocytoma, medulloblastoma, pinealoblastoma, or chondrosarcoma), 9 patients with non-cerebral tumors, and a reference group of 24 patients. The mean ± SD levels in the benign tumor group (424 ± 124 μ M ) were significantly lower (p < 0.0004) than those in the reference group (642 ± 195 μ M ). There was no significant difference between the CSF glutamine concentrations in the malignant cerebral tumor group (643 ± 210 μ M ) or noncerebral tumor group (599 ± 127 μ M ) and those in the reference group. In patients with benign brain tumors there was indication of an inverse linear relationship between the logarithm of CSF glutamine concentration and tumor diameter.     

Plasminogen activators: general aspects and recent developments

Considerable interest in plasminogen activators as human thrombolytic drugs has stimulated rapid biotechnologic progresses. These enzymes have been classified in two immunochemically distinct groups: "urokinase-like" activators or u-PA which do not interact with fibrin and "tissue activator-like" activators or t-PA which interact with fibrin. Plasminogen activators are widely distributed in normal and malignant tissues and they are implicated in various physiological and pathological processes. They maintain the functional integrity of the vascular system and their presence may be of importance in tissue remodeling and cell migration. Urokinase and streptokinase are used in human thrombolytic therapy. However, the properties displayed by t-PA suggest that this enzyme may be a superior fibrinolytic agent. The primary structures of urokinase and t-PA are known; both enzymes have been synthesized by DNA technology. In order to produce t-PA in large quantities by gene cloning, intensive studies are conducted by pharmaceutical industries. Clinical trials using t-PA for dissolving thrombi in coronary heart disease, strokes and pulmonary embolism are in progress. This review presents the molecular and structural properties of plasminogen activators, as well as related physiological, pathological and therapeutic aspects.     

长非编码RNA PVT1与消化系统肿瘤

长非编码RNA（long non-coding RNAs, lncRNAs）在肿瘤发生、发展进程中承担重要角色,是近年来的研究热点之一。大量研究表明,浆细胞瘤变异易位基因1（plasmacytoma variant translocation 1, PVT1）可通过多种分子机制参与调控消化系统肿瘤的增殖凋亡、迁移侵袭、细胞自噬、血管生成、多药耐药及肿瘤代谢等过程,从而发挥致癌作用。本文主要就PVT1在消化系统肿瘤中的表达水平变化,及其与临床病理特征和预后的关系,以及PVT1对消化系统肿瘤的致癌作用机制和多药耐药机制等研究进展作一综述。     

Distal Retinal Pigment of the Fiddler Crab,Uca pugilator: Release of the Dark-Adapting Hormone by Methionine Enkephalin and FMRFamide

The neuropeptides methionine enkephalin and FMRFamide, when injected into intact fiddler crabs, Uca pugilator, produce dark adaptation of the distal retinal pigment. Furthermore, both neuropeptides stimulate release of distal retinal pigment dark-adapting hormone activity from the isolated eyestalk neuroendocrine complex. It is hypothesized that both neuropeptides, when injected into intact fiddler crabs, act only indirectly on the distal retinal pigment, by stimulating release of this dark-adapting hormone.     

A reinvestigation of the Gn-RH (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone) systems in the goldfish brain using antibodies to salmon Gn-RH

Summary The organization of Gn-RH systems in the brain of teleosts has been investigated previously by immunohistochemistry using antibodies against the mammalian decapeptide which differs from the teleostean factor. Here, we report the distribution of immunoreactive Gn-RH in the brain of goldfish using antibodies against synthetic teleost peptide.Immunoreactive structures are found along a column extending from the rostral olfactory bulbs to the pituitary stalk. Cell bodies are observed within the olfactory nerves and bulbs, along the ventromedial telencephalon, the ventrolateral preoptic area and the latero-basal hypothalamus. Large perikarya are detected in the dorsal midbrain tegmentum, immediately caudal to the posterior commissure. A prominent pathway was traced from the cells located in the olfactory nerves through the medial olfactory tract and along all the perikarya described above to the pituitary stalk. In the pituitary, projections are restricted to the proximal pars distalis. A second immunoreactive pathway ascends more dorsally in the telencephalon and arches to the periventricular regions of the diencephalon. Part of this pathway forms a periventricular network in the dorsal and posterior hypothalamus, whereas other projections continue caudally to the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord. Lesions of the ventral preoptic area demonstrate that most of the fibers detected in the pituitary originate from the preoptic region.     

The dopaminergic innervation of the goldfish pituitary

Summary The dopaminergic innervation of the goldfish pituitary gland was studied by immunocytochemistry at the electron-microscope level using highly specific antibodies against dopamine coupled to bovine serum albumin with glutaraldehyde. A satisfactory preservation of the tissue was achieved after immersion in 5% glutaraldehyde in phosphate buffer containing sodium metabisulfite to prevent oxidation of the endogenous dopamine. The immunocyto-chemical procedure was performed on Vibratome sections using the preembedding method. Immunoreactivity was restricted to part of the neurosecretory type-B fibers (diameter of the secretory vesicles lower than 100 nm) in which it was found to occupy the whole cytoplasm. Labeled fibers were observed within the neurohypophysis in the different parts of the gland and in the adenohypophyseal tissue where immunoreactive profiles were detected in close apposition to the different cell types. These data are in agreement with previous results obtained by means of radioautography and further support a role for dopamine in the neuroendocrine regulation of pituitary functions in teleosts.     

Expression of epidermal growth factor receptor and associated glycoprotein on cultured human brain tumor cells

The expression of epidermal growth factor (EGF-R) in normal glial and glioma cells grown in culture was examined by using several independent assays. Immunoprecipitation with the monoclonal antibody R1 of extracts from metabolically labeled glial and glioma cells revealed a protein of Mr approximately 170,000, with a migration in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels identical to the EGR-R of A431 epidermal carcinoma cells. Furthermore, in the majority of glioma extracts, a protein of Mr approximately 190,000 was specifically immunoprecipitated by this antibody. Similar results were obtained by immunoblotting with a second antibody directed against a synthetic peptide in the sequence of the v-erb-B oncogene. In cell lines expressing both proteins, each was specifically phosphorylated on tyrosine in immune complex kinase assays. The majority of glioma cells bound between 40,000 to 80,000 125I-labeled epidermal growth factor molecules per cell. These results suggest that the expression of EGF-R is common in cultured human glioma cells. In addition, a structurally related protein, is expressed in some of these cells.     

Two tumor models of curative adoptive chemoimmunotherapy using tumor-infiltrated spleen cells with potent antitumor cytotoxicity stimulated by antigen-sharing tumors

Previously we have established curative protocols for adoptive chemoimmunotherapy (ACIT) of mice bearing different plasmacytomas that are known to bear cross-reacting antigens: (a) the cure of mice bearing an early-stage, nonpalpable MOPC-315 tumor by a very low dose of cyclophosphamide (10 mg/kg) and cultured MOPC-315-tumor-infiltrated (TI) spleen cells (25×10⁶) and (b) the cure of mice bearing a late-stage, relatively drug-resistant, highly metastatic RPC-5 tumor with cyclophosphamide (100 mg/kg) and cultured RPC-5 TI spleen cells (25×10⁶–50×10⁶). In both models, the spleen cells were obtained from mice bearing a late-stage tumor and were cultured for 5 days in the presence of polyethyleneglycol 6000 and autochthonous tumor cells as a source of tumor antigen. Here we show that RPC-5 tumor cells could substitute for MOPC-315 tumor cells in the 5-day culture of MOPC-315 TI spleen cells so that they became curative in ACIT for mice bearing an early-stage MOPC-315 tumor. Similarly, MOPC-315 tumor cells could substitute for RPC-5 tumor cells in the 5-day culture of RPC-5 TI spleen cells so that they became curative in ACIT of mice bearing a late-stage RPC-5 tumor. In addition, RPC-5 TI spleen cells cultured with either MOPC-315 or RPC-5 tumor cells were effective in curing all mice bearing an early-stage MOPC-315 tumor by ACIT. However, MOPC-315 TI spleen cells whether cultured with MOPC-315 or RPC-5 tumor cells, were much less effective than cultured RPC-5 TI spleen cells in curing mice bearing a late-stage RPC-5 tumor by ACIT (although the survival of these mice was extended significantly). Interestingly, whereas RPC-5 TI spleen cells cultured with either MOPC-315 or RPC-5 tumor cells were as effective as MOPC-315 TI spleen cells cultured under the same conditions in lysing MOPC-315 tumor cells in vitro, MOPC-315 TI spleen cells that had been cultured with either MOPC-315 or RPC-5 tumor cells exerted a much weaker in vitro cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity against RPC-5 tumor cells than did RPC-5 TI spleen cells that had been cultured under the same conditions.Work was supported by research grant CA-30088 from the National Cancer Institute and IM-435 from the American Cancer Society. M. B. M. was supported by Career Development Award CA-01350 from the National Cancer InstituteThis work is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph. D. degree     

Superantigen-based tumor therapy: in vivo activation of cytotoxic T cells

We have recently demonstrated that the superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) targets in vitro activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes against tumor cells expressing major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II antigens. In this report we analyze the use of SEA as an immunoactivator in vivo. Treatment of mice with SEA activated a fraction of CD3⁺ T cells apparently as a function of their T cell receptor V expression. SEA induced interleukin-2 receptor expression and proliferation in both CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells. This proliferative response was dose-dependent (0.1 – 100 µg/mouse), peaked during day 1 after treatment and declined to background levels within 4 days. The cytotoxic response, measured as cytotoxicity to SEA-coated MHC class II⁺ target cells (staphylococcal-enterotoxin-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, SDCC), was maximal at a dosage of 1 µg SEA/mouse. The SDCC was confined to the CD8⁺ T cell compartment, peaked 2 days after treatment and declined to background levels within 4 days. A second injection of SEA on day 5 after the first SEA treatment resulted in SDCC function with kinetics and magnitude identical to that seen after one injection. These results pave the way for the use of SEA in the treatment of MHC class II⁺ tumors.