Topical menthol for treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a frequent treatment-limiting factor that significantly impairs patients' everyday life, also because of a lack of valid palliative options. Here, we report a case of a male patient with a history of metastatic colon cancer and previous chemotherapies. He came to our attention with a peripheral neuropathy that impaired his quality of life and could limit the further line of chemotherapy. We treated the neuropathy with menthol aqueous cream with benefit

Assignment of the complete disulphide bridges pattern in the human recombinant Follitropin b-chain.

The chemical assessment of the complete disulphide bridge pattern in the β-chain of human recombinant follicotropin (βFSH) was accomplished by integrating classical biochemical methodologies with mass spectrometric procedures. A proteolytic strategy consisting of a double digestion of native βFSH using the broad-specificity protease subtilisin first, followed by trypsin, was employed. The resulting peptide mixture was directly analysed by FAB-MS, leading to the assignment of the first three disulphide bridges. The remaining S-S bridges were determined by HPLC fractionation of the proteolytic digest followed by ESMS analysis of the individual fractions. The pattern of cysteine couplings in βFSH was determined as: Cys3-Cys51, Cys17-Cys66, Cys20-Cys104, Cys28-Cys82, Cys32-Cys84 and Cys87-cys94, confirming the arrangement inferred from the crystal structure of the homologous βCG. A subset of the S-S bridge pattern comprising Cys3-Cys51, Cys28-Cys82 and Cys32-Cys84 constitutes a cysteine knot motif similar to that found in the growth factor superfamily

Structural characterisation of human recombinant glycohormones follitropin, lutropin and choriogonadotropin expressed in chinese hamster ovary cells

The a and chains from human recombinant gonadotropins follitropin, lutropin and choriogonadotropin expressed in CHO cells have been structurally characterised both at the protein and at the carbohydrate level by using advanced mass spectrometric procedures. The three a chains share the same amino acid sequence while they display different glycosylation patterns. The oligosaccharide structures detected belong to the complex-type glycans with different degree of sialylation. Partial proteolytic processing occurred at the N-terminus of the follitropin p chain and at the C-terminus of the lutropin 11' chain. The N-linked glycans from the three p chains were found to contain fucosylated and sialylated diantennary and triantennary complex-type structures. The follitropin p chain showed the presence of N-acetyllactosamine repeats on the antennae. The overall structure of the recombinant glycohormones corresponds to their natural counterparts with the exception that sulphated terminal glycosylation is missing

Looking for A Place for Dose-Dense TMZ Regimens in GBM Patients: An Experience with MGMT Exploratory Evaluation

Prolonged exposure to temozolomide (TMZ) could improve clinical outcomes in recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients. We previously developed a dose-dense regimen of TMZ in a phase II study (180 mg/m2 from days 1 to 5 every two weeks). A retrospective analysis of patients with macroscopic residual GBM treated with “post-induction” dose-dense TMZ was conducted, adding an explorative subgroup analyses among patients with different O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) expressions (negative vs positive, < vs ≥ of 50 % of cells stained, < vs ≥ 70% of cells stained). Thirty-six patients were evaluated; after a median follow-up of 36 weeks, median Progression Free Survival (PFS) and median Overall Survival (OS) were 19 and 34 weeks, respectively. MGMT expression (70% cut-off) and sex were confirmed as independent predictors for disease control rate (DCR) at multivariate analysis. At univariate analysis ECOG-PS, Sex (female), extensive tumor resection was shown to be related to a longer PFS, while MGMT expression (cutoff 70%) to a shorter PFS. Multivariate analysis with Cox hazard regression confirmed only ECOGPS as an independent predictor for PFS. ECOG-PS showed to be significant related to a longer OS. Our analysis showed that dose-dense TMZ regimens are still an option for patients with recurrent GBM, but should be used for re-challenge treatments. MGMT immunohistochemistry high expression might be used as a “surrogate” negative predictor for DCR for dd-TMZ treatments