Treating Cancer as an Infectious Disease—Viral Antigens as Novel Targets for Treatment and Potential Prevention of Tumors of Viral Etiology

Nearly 20% of human cancers worldwide have an infectious etiology with the most prominent examples being hepatitis B and C virus-associated hepatocellular carcinoma and human papilloma virus-associated cervical cancer. There is an urgent need to find new approaches to treatment and prevention of virus-associated cancers.Viral antigens have not been previously considered as targets for treatment or prevention of virus-associated cancers. We hypothesized that it was possible to treat experimental HPV16-associated cervical cancer (CC) and Hepatitis B-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by targeting viral antigens expressed on cancer cells with radiolabeled antibodies to viral antigens. Treatment of experimental CC and HCC tumors with (188)Re-labeled mAbs to E6 and HBx viral proteins, respectively, resulted in significant and dose-dependent retardation of tumor growth in comparison with untreated mice or mice treated with unlabeled antibodies.This strategy is fundamentally different from the prior uses of radioimmunotherapy in oncology, which targeted tumor-associated human antigens and promises increased specificity and minimal toxicity of treatment. It also raises an exciting possibility to prevent virus-associated cancers in chronically infected patients by eliminating cells infected with oncogenic viruses before they transform into cancer

Human T Cell Leukemia Virus Reactivation with Progression of Adult T-Cell Leukemia-Lymphoma

Background: Human T-cell leukemia virus-associated adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma (ATLL) has a very poor prognosis, despite trials of a variety of different treatment regimens. Virus expression has been reported to be limited or absent when ATLL is diagnosed, and this has suggested that secondary genetic or epigenetic changes are important in disease pathogenesis. Methods and Findings: We prospectively investigated combination chemotherapy followed by antiretroviral therapy for this disorder. Nineteen patients were prospectively enrolled between 2002 and 2006 at five medical centers in a phase II clinical trial of infusional chemotherapy with etoposide, doxorubicin, and vincristine, daily prednisone, and bolus cyclophosphamide (EPOCH) given for two to six cycles until maximal clinical response, and followed by antiviral therapy with daily zidovudine, lamivudine, and alpha interferon-2a for up to one year. Seven patients were on study for less than one month due to progressive disease or chemotherapy toxicity. Eleven patients achieved an objective response with median duration of response of thirteen months, and two complete remissions. During chemotherapy induction, viral RN

Displacement and Resettlement: Understanding the Role of Climate Change in Contemporary Migration

How do we understand displacement and resettlement in the context of climate change? This chapter outlines challenges and debates in the literature connecting climate change to the growing global flow of people. We begin with an outline of the literature on environmental migration, specifically the definitions, measurements, and forms of environmental migration. The discussion then moves to challenges in the reception of migrants, treating the current scholarship on migrant resettlement. We detail a selection of cases in which the environment plays a role in the displacement of a population, including sea level rise in Pacific Island States, cyclonic storms in Bangladesh, and desertification in West Africa, as well as the role of deforestation in South America’s Southern Cone as a driver of both climate change and migration. We outline examples of each, highlighting the complex set of losses and damages incurred by populations in each case

Direct Zn-diamine promoted reduction of C=O and C=N bonds by polymethylhydrosiloxane in methanol

Ketones and imines are chemoselectively reduced at room temperature in methanol to the corresponding alcohols and amines in high yields in a one-step procedure using polymethylhydrosiloxane (PMHS) and a simple zinc–diamine catalyst