Advanced technologies for decontamination and conversion of scrap metal

In October 1993, Manufacturing Sciences Corporation was awarded DOE contract DE-AC21-93MC30170 to develop and test recycling of radioactive scrap metal (RSM) to high value and intermediate and final product forms. This work was conducted to help solve the problems associated with decontamination and reuse of the diffusion plant barrier nickel and other radioactively contaminated scrap metals present in the diffusion plants. Options available for disposition of the nickel include decontamination and subsequent release or recycled product manufacture for restricted end use. Both of these options are evaluated during the course of this research effort. work during phase I of this project successfully demonstrated the ability to make stainless steel from barrier nickel feed. This paved the way for restricted end use products made from stainless steel. Also, after repeated trials and studies, the inducto-slag nickel decontamination process was eliminated as a suitable alternative. Electro-refining appeared to be a promising technology for decontamination of the diffusion plant barrier material. Goals for phase II included conducting experiments to facilitate the development of an electro-refining process to separate technetium from nickel. In parallel with those activities, phase II efforts were to include the development of the necessary processes to make useful products from radioactive scrap metal. Nickel from the diffusion plants as well as stainless steel and carbon steel could be used as feed material for these products

Triterpenoid modulation of IL-17 and Nrf-2 expression ameliorates neuroinflammation and promotes remyelination in autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Inflammatory cytokines and endogenous anti-oxidants are variables affecting disease progression in multiple sclerosis (MS). Here we demonstrate the dual capacity of triterpenoids to simultaneously repress production of IL-17 and other pro-inflammatory mediators while exerting neuroprotective effects directly through Nrf2-dependent induction of anti-oxidant genes. Derivatives of the natural triterpene oleanolic acid, namely CDDO-trifluoroethyl-amide (CDDO-TFEA), completely suppressed disease in a murine model of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), by inhibiting Th1 and Th17 mRNA and cytokine production. Encephalitogenic T cells recovered from treated mice were hypo-responsive to myelin antigen and failed to adoptively transfer the disease. Microarray analyses showed significant suppression of pro-inflammatory transcripts with concomitant induction of anti-inflammatory genes including Ptgds and Hsd11b1. Finally, triterpenoids induced oligodendrocyte maturation in vitro and enhanced myelin repair in an LPC-induced non-inflammatory model of demyelination in vivo. These results demonstrate the unique potential of triterpenoid derivatives for the treatment of neuroinflammatory disorders such as MS

Cucurbitacin IIa: a novel class of anti-cancer drug inducing non-reversible actin aggregation and inhibiting survivin independent of JAK2/STAT3 phosphorylation

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Aldo-keto reductases are biomarkers of NRF2 activity and are co-ordinately overexpressed in non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: Although the nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) pathway is one of the most frequently dysregulated in cancer, it is not clear whether mutational status is a good predictor of NRF2 activity. Here we utilise four members of the aldo-keto reductase (AKR) superfamily as biomarkers to address this question. METHODS: Twenty-three cell lines of diverse origin and NRF2-pathway mutational status were used to determine the relationship between AKR expression and NRF2 activity. AKR expression was evaluated in lung cancer biopsies and Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Oncomine data sets. RESULTS: AKRs were expressed at a high basal level in cell lines carrying mutations in the NRF2 pathway. In non-mutant cell lines, co-ordinate induction of AKRs was consistently observed following activation of NRF2. Immunohistochemical analysis of lung tumour biopsies and interrogation of TCGA data revealed that AKRs are enriched in both squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) and adenocarcinomas that contain somatic alterations in the NRF2 pathway but, in the case of SCC, AKRs were also enriched in most other tumours. CONCLUSIONS: An AKR biomarker panel can be used to determine NRF2 status in tumours. Hyperactivation of the NRF2 pathway is far more prevalent in lung SCC than previously predicted by genomic analyses

A Natural Combination Extract of Viscum album L. Containing Both Triterpene Acids and Lectins Is Highly Effective against AML In Vivo

Aqueous Viscum album L. extracts are widely used in complementary cancer medicine. Hydrophobic triterpene acids also possess anti-cancer properties, but due to their low solubility they do not occur in significant amounts in aqueous extracts. Using cyclodextrins we solubilised mistletoe triterpenes (mainly oleanolic acid) and investigated the effect of a mistletoe whole plant extract on human acute myeloid leukaemia cells in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo. Single Viscum album L. extracts containing only solubilised triterpene acids (TT) or lectins (viscum) inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner in vitro and ex vivo. The combination of viscum and TT extracts (viscumTT) enhanced the induction of apoptosis synergistically. The experiments demonstrated that all three extracts are able to induce apoptosis via caspase-8 and -9 dependent pathways with down-regulation of members of the inhibitor of apoptosis and Bcl-2 families of proteins. Finally, the acute myeloid leukaemia mouse model experiment confirmed the therapeutic effectiveness of viscumTT-treatment resulting in significant tumour weight reduction, comparable to the effect in cytarabine-treated mice. These results suggest that the combination viscumTT may have a potential therapeutic value for the treatment AML

Differential expression of 12 histone deacetylase (HDAC) genes in astrocytomas and normal brain tissue: class II and IV are hypoexpressed in glioblastomas

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glioblastoma is the most lethal primary malignant brain tumor. Although considerable progress has been made in the treatment of this aggressive tumor, the clinical outcome for patients remains poor. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are recognized as promising targets for cancer treatment. In the past several years, HDAC inhibitors (HDACis) have been used as radiosensitizers in glioblastoma treatment. However, no study has demonstrated the status of global <it>HDAC </it>expression in gliomas and its possible correlation to the use of HDACis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare mRNA and protein levels of class I, II and IV of HDACs in low grade and high grade astrocytomas and normal brain tissue and to correlate the findings with the malignancy in astrocytomas.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty-three microdissected patient tumor samples were evaluated. The histopathologic diagnoses were 20 low-grade gliomas (13 grade I and 7 grade II) and 23 high-grade gliomas (5 grade III and 18 glioblastomas). Eleven normal cerebral tissue samples were also analyzed (54 total samples analyzed). mRNA expression of class I, II, and IV <it>HDACs </it>was studied by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and normalized to the housekeeping gene <it>β-glucuronidase</it>. Protein levels were evaluated by western blotting.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that mRNA levels of class II and IV <it>HDACs </it>were downregulated in glioblastomas compared to low-grade astrocytomas and normal brain tissue (7 in 8 genes, <it>p </it>< 0.05). The protein levels of class II HDAC9 were also lower in high-grade astrocytomas than in low-grade astrocytomas and normal brain tissue. Additionally, we found that histone H3 (but not histone H4) was more acetylated in glioblastomas than normal brain tissue.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study establishes a negative correlation between <it>HDAC </it>gene expression and the glioma grade suggesting that class II and IV <it>HDACs </it>might play an important role in glioma malignancy. Evaluation of histone acetylation levels showed that histone H3 is more acetylated in glioblastomas than normal brain tissue confirming the downregulation of <it>HDAC </it>mRNA in glioblastomas.</p

A comprehensive analysis of common genetic variation in prolactin (PRL) and PRL receptor (PRLR) genes in relation to plasma prolactin levels and breast cancer risk: the Multiethnic Cohort

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies in animals and humans clearly indicate a role for prolactin (PRL) in breast epithelial proliferation, differentiation, and tumorigenesis. Prospective epidemiological studies have also shown that women with higher circulating PRL levels have an increase in risk of breast cancer, suggesting that variability in PRL may also be important in determining a woman's risk.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We evaluated genetic variation in the PRL and PRL receptor (PRLR) genes as predictors of plasma PRL levels and breast cancer risk among African-American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese-American, Latina, and White women in the Multiethnic Cohort Study (MEC). We selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from both the public (dbSNP) and private (Celera) databases to construct high density SNP maps that included up to 20 kilobases (kb) upstream of the transcription initiation site and 10 kb downstream of the last exon of each gene, for a total coverage of 59 kb in PRL and 210 kb in PRLR. We genotyped 80 SNPs in PRL and 173 SNPs in PRLR in a multiethnic panel of 349 unaffected subjects to characterize linkage disequilibrium (LD) and haplotype patterns. We sequenced the coding regions of PRL and PRLR in 95 advanced breast cancer cases (19 of each racial/ethnic group) to uncover putative functional variation. A total of 33 and 60 haplotype "tag" SNPs (tagSNPs) that allowed for high predictability (R_h²≥ 0.70) of the common haplotypes in PRL and PRLR, respectively, were then genotyped in a multiethnic breast cancer case-control study of 1,615 invasive breast cancer cases and 1,962 controls in the MEC. We also assessed the association of common genetic variation with circulating PRL levels in 362 postmenopausal controls without a history of hormone therapy use at blood draw. Because of the large number of comparisons being performed we used a relatively stringent type I error criteria (p < 0.0005) for evaluating the significance of any single association to correct for performing approximately 100 independent tests, close to the number of tagSNPs genotyped for both genes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We observed no significant associations between PRL and PRLR haplotypes or individual SNPs in relation to breast cancer risk. A nominally significant association was noted between prolactin levels and a tagSNP (tagSNP 44, rs2244502) in intron 1 of PRL. This SNP showed approximately a 50% increase in levels between minor allele homozygotes vs. major allele homozygotes. However, this association was not significant (p = 0.002) using our type I error criteria to correct for multiple testing, nor was this SNP associated with breast cancer risk (p = 0.58).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this comprehensive analysis covering 59 kb of the PRL locus and 210 kb of the PRLR locus, we found no significant association between common variation in these candidate genes and breast cancer risk or plasma PRL levels. The LD characterization of PRL and PRLR in this multiethnic population provide a framework for studying these genes in relation to other disease outcomes that have been associated with PRL, as well as for larger studies of plasma PRL levels.</p