Growth and cholesterol reduction activity of Eubacterium Coprostanoligenes

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Morphological Hormonal and Genetical Analyses of Early in Vitro Flowering in Dendrobium Chao Praya Smile

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

US-localized diffuse optical tomography in breast cancer: comparison with pharmacokinetic parameters of DCE-MRI and with pathologic biomarkers.

BackgroundTo correlate parameters of Ultrasonography-guided Diffuse optical tomography (US-DOT) with pharmacokinetic features of Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI and pathologic markers of breast cancer.MethodsOur institutional review board approved this retrospective study and waived the requirement for informed consent. Thirty seven breast cancer patients received US-DOT and DCE-MRI with less than two weeks in between imaging sessions. The maximal total hemoglobin concentration (THC) measured by US-DOT was correlated with DCE-MRI pharmacokinetic parameters, which included K(trans), k ep and signal enhancement ratio (SER). These imaging parameters were also correlated with the pathologic biomarkers of breast cancer.ResultsThe parameters THC and SER showed marginal positive correlation (r = 0.303, p = 0.058). Tumors with high histological grade, negative ER, and higher Ki-67 expression ≥ 20% showed statistically higher THC values compared to their counterparts (p = 0.019, 0.041, and 0.023 respectively). Triple-negative (TN) breast cancers showed statistically higher K(trans) values than non-TN cancers (p = 0.048).ConclusionTHC obtained from US-DOT and K(trans) obtained from DCE-MRI were associated with biomarkers indicative of a higher aggressiveness in breast cancer. Although US-DOT and DCE-MRI both measured the vascular properties of breast cancer, parameters from the two imaging modalities showed a weak association presumably due to their different contrast mechanisms and depth sensitivities

US-localized diffuse optical tomography in breast cancer: comparison with pharmacokinetic parameters of DCE-MRI and with pathologic biomarkers.

BackgroundTo correlate parameters of Ultrasonography-guided Diffuse optical tomography (US-DOT) with pharmacokinetic features of Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI and pathologic markers of breast cancer.MethodsOur institutional review board approved this retrospective study and waived the requirement for informed consent. Thirty seven breast cancer patients received US-DOT and DCE-MRI with less than two weeks in between imaging sessions. The maximal total hemoglobin concentration (THC) measured by US-DOT was correlated with DCE-MRI pharmacokinetic parameters, which included K(trans), k ep and signal enhancement ratio (SER). These imaging parameters were also correlated with the pathologic biomarkers of breast cancer.ResultsThe parameters THC and SER showed marginal positive correlation (r = 0.303, p = 0.058). Tumors with high histological grade, negative ER, and higher Ki-67 expression ≥ 20% showed statistically higher THC values compared to their counterparts (p = 0.019, 0.041, and 0.023 respectively). Triple-negative (TN) breast cancers showed statistically higher K(trans) values than non-TN cancers (p = 0.048).ConclusionTHC obtained from US-DOT and K(trans) obtained from DCE-MRI were associated with biomarkers indicative of a higher aggressiveness in breast cancer. Although US-DOT and DCE-MRI both measured the vascular properties of breast cancer, parameters from the two imaging modalities showed a weak association presumably due to their different contrast mechanisms and depth sensitivities

Recrudescence, Reinfection, or Relapse? A More Rigorous Framework to Assess Chloroquine Efficacy for Plasmodium vivax Malaria

International audienceBackground: Plasmodium vivax resistance to chloroquine (CQ) has been reported worldwide, although the World Health Organization clinical drug efficacy studies protocol does not permit classification of patient outcomes.Methods: We enrolled 40 patients with P. vivax malaria in northeastern Cambodia, where >17% treatment failures were previously reported. Patients were treated with CQ (30 mg/kg) and followed for 2 months, with frequent clinical examination and capillary blood sample collection for microscopy, molecular parasite detection and genotyping, and drug concentration measurements. Reinfections were prevented by relocating patients to a transmission-free area.Results: P. vivax parasites were eliminated in all patients by day 3. Genomic analyses revealed that all clones in polyclonal infections were cleared at the same rate, indicating their equal susceptibility to CQ. CQ blood concentrations were below the therapeutic level in all recurrent infections (24 of 40 patients), which were efficiently cleared by a second course of CQ treatment. Genotyping (128 SNPs barcode) and sequences of entire parasite genome (Whole-Genome Sequencing, Illumina) indicated that two thirds (6 of 8) of the recurrent parasites resulted from heterologous relapses whose 50% are from by sibling/recombinant clones.Conclusions: No evidence of CQ resistance was observed. Our data suggest that P. vivax antimalarial drug resistance is likely overestimated and that the current guidelines for clinical drug studies of P. vivax malaria need to be revised

Tumor Necrosis Factor-α and Mortality in Patients Infected with Vibrio vulnificus

Serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) was evaluated in Vibrio vulnificus-infected patients at admission. The median TNF-α concentration in the non-survivor group was determined to be 261.0 pg/mL, in contrast to 69.5 pg/mL in the survivor group (P = 0.001). Hence, serum TNF-α concentration may potentially be an early predictor of the mortality in patients with Vibrio septicemia

Activity of faropenem with and without rifampicin against Mycobacterium tuberculosis: evaluation in a whole-blood bactericidal activity trial

10.1093/jac/dkx081JOURNAL OF ANTIMICROBIAL CHEMOTHERAPY7272012-201

Adjunctive use of celecoxib with anti-tuberculosis drugs: evaluation in a whole-blood bactericidal activity model

Abstract COX-2 inhibition may be of benefit in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) through a number of pathways including efflux pump inhibition (increasing intracellular TB drug levels) and diverse effects on inflammation and the immune response. We investigated celecoxib (a COX-2 inhibitor) alone and with standard anti-tuberculosis drugs in the whole-blood bactericidal activity (WBA) model. Healthy volunteers took a single dose of celecoxib (400 mg), followed (after 1 week) by a single dose of either rifampicin (10 mg/kg) or pyrazinamide (25 mg/kg), followed (after 2 or 7 days respectively) by the same anti-tuberculosis drug with celecoxib. WBA was measured at intervals until 8 hours post-dose (by inoculating blood samples with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and estimating the change in bacterial colony forming units after 72 hours incubation). Celecoxib had no activity alone in the WBA assay (cumulative WBA over 8 hours post-dose: 0.03 ± 0.01ΔlogCFU, p = 1.00 versus zero). Celecoxib did not increase cumulative WBA of standard TB drugs (mean cumulative WBA −0.10 ± 0.13ΔlogCFU versus −0.10 ± 0.12ΔlogCFU for TB drugs alone versus TB drugs and celecoxib; mean difference −0.01, 95% CI −0.02 to 0.00; p = 0.16). The lack of benefit of celecoxib suggests that efflux pump inhibition or eicosanoid pathway-related responses are of limited importance in mycobacterial killing in the WBA assay