Nostalgic nationalism, welfare chauvinism, and migration anxieties in Central and Eastern Europe

This contribution examines, in the Central and Eastern European context, the interplay between ideals of national specificity, welfare chauvinist appeals, and emerging politics of migration, for the purpose of providing welfare provision to a narrowly defined ethnic group, as promoted by right-wing populist parties in the region. We suggest a comparative framework to account the various positions that such parties occupy in the mainstream political systems in Central and Eastern Europe. Our study deals with the case of a right-wing populist party becoming the main governing force, such as the Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) in Poland; the case of a right-wing populist party as key opposition force, such as the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom, Jobbik) in Hungary; and thirdly, the case of an unsuccessful right-wing populist party, such as the United Romania Party (Partidul România Unită, PRU). For our qualitative analysis we are drawing on the official discourses of these parties as articulated from 2015 onwards, since it marks the beginning of what has come to be referred to as the European refugee crisis. The aim of this chapter is to map out the various electoral strategies employed, with varying degrees of success, which juxtapose cultural protectionist appeals to welfare chauvinist proposals, and consequently shed light on the culture and welfare nexus in the Central and Eastern European context

CDK9 inhibition as an effective therapy for small cell lung cancer

Abstract Treatment-naïve small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is typically susceptible to standard-of-care chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin and etoposide recently combined with PD-L1 inhibitors. Yet, in most cases, SCLC patients develop resistance to first-line therapy and alternative therapies are urgently required to overcome this resistance. In this study, we tested the efficacy of dinaciclib, an FDA-orphan drug and inhibitor of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 9, among other CDKs, in SCLC. Furthermore, we report on a newly developed, highly specific CDK9 inhibitor, VC-1, with tumour-killing activity in SCLC. CDK9 inhibition displayed high killing potential in a panel of mouse and human SCLC cell lines. Mechanistically, CDK9 inhibition led to a reduction in MCL-1 and cFLIP anti-apoptotic proteins and killed cells, almost exclusively, by intrinsic apoptosis. While CDK9 inhibition did not synergise with chemotherapy, it displayed high efficacy in chemotherapy-resistant cells. In vivo, CDK9 inhibition effectively reduced tumour growth and improved survival in both autochthonous and syngeneic SCLC models. Together, this study shows that CDK9 inhibition is a promising therapeutic agent against SCLC and could be applied to chemo-refractory or resistant SCLC