King Salman's Return to Brunei Two Decades Later

Earlier this month, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud became the first Saudi monarch to visit the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, spending one day in this Southeast Asian Muslim-majority country 20 years after his first visit as the then-governor of Riyadh. As part of his three-week Asia tour, King Salman went to Brunei as well as China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and the Maldives, with the expressed intention to boost the kingdom’s investment, commercial, security and cultural relations with Asian states, including four Muslim-majority nations. Although his visit to the monarchy in Borneo was brief, it was significant for several reasons

Enhancing proteotoxic stress in leiomyosarcoma cells triggers mitochondrial dysfunctions, cell death, and antitumor activity in vivo

Leiomyosarcomas are rare and aggressive tumors characterized by a complex karyotype. Surgical resection with or without radiotherapy and chemotherapy is the standard curative treatment. Unfortunately, a high percentage of leiomyosarcomas recurs and metastasizes. In these cases, doxorubicin and ifosfamide represent the standard treatment but with low response rates. Here, we evaluated the induction of proteotoxic stress as a possible strategy to kill leiomyosarcoma cells in a therapeutic perspective. We show that aggressive leiomyosarcomas coexist with high levels of proteotoxic stress. As a consequence, we hypothesized that leiomyosarcoma cells are vulnerable to further increases of proteotoxic stress. The small compound 2c is a strong inducer of proteotoxic stress. In leiomyosarcoma cells, it triggers cell death coupled to a profound reorganization of the mitochondrial network. By using stimulated emission depletion microscopy, we have unveiled the existence of DIABLO/SMAC clusters that are modulated by 2c. Finally, we have engineered a new version of 2c linked to polyethylene glycol though a short peptide, named 2cPP. This new prodrug is specifically activated by proteases present in the tumor microenvironment. 2cPP shows a strong antitumor activity in vivo against leiomyosarcomas and no toxicity against normal cells

Can China and India coexist in Myanmar?

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/Daniel Wagner, Chief Executive Officer, and Giorgio Cafiero, Research Analyst, both with Country Risk Solutions, explain that "Even if Myanmar's relationship with China does not fundamentally shift (and we do not expect that it will), India--and other countries such as the United States and Japan--offer Naypyidaw greater leverage against Beijing by emphasizing that Myanmar has other options.

Is the Bahraini Muslim Brotherhood's 'special status' over?

For Bahrain's Al-Khalifa royals, Islamic Minbar has served as an important support bas

Selection of pre-operative haematobiochemical parameters for the identification of patients 'at risk of infection' undergoing surgery for gastro-intestinal cancer.

Sixty-three patients were given a complete laboratory screening before undergoing surgical treatment for cancer of the digestive tract. The values of all these parameters were correlated with the incidence of postoperative infections, with the aim of identifying those markers which could be useful for the pre-operative selection of the patients at risk of infection. Patients who developed postoperative infections showed a significant pre-operative reduction of total serum proteins (P less than 0.02), albumins (P less than 0.02), beta-globulins (P less than 0.01) and C3c (P less than 0.05), while alpha 1-globulins were slightly, but not significantly, increased. The possible clinical applications of these parameters, to develop a predictive model which may help identify the patients at risk of infection, are discussed