p53 and bcl-2 expression in high-grade B-cell lymphomas: correlation with survival time.

B-cell high-grade lymphomas are heterogeneous in terms of histology, clinical presentation, treatment response and prognosis. As bcl-2 and p53 gene deregulations are frequently involved in several types of lymphoid malignancies, we aimed our investigation at the study of the relation between bcl-2 and p53 expression and survival probability in a group of 119 patients with B-cell high-grade lymphoma. These were obtained from the Virgen de la Salud Hospital, Toledo, Spain (73 cases), John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK (31 cases), and the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy (15 cases). The relation between bcl-2 protein expression and survival was small, depending on the primary localisation of the tumour (in lymph node of mucosae), and lacked a significant correlation with overall survival. In contrast with this, p53 expression was related to survival probability in our series, this relation being both significant and independent of histological diagnosis. p53-positive patients showed a sudden decrease in life expectancy in the first months after diagnosis. Multivariant regression analysis confirmed that the only parameters significantly related with survival were extranodal origin, which is associated with a better prognosis, and p53 expression, which indicates a poor prognosis. Simultaneous expression of bcl-2 and p53 was associated with a poorer prognosis than p53 alone. This is particularly significant for large B-cell lymphomas presenting in lymph nodes. The cumulative poor effect of both p53 and bcl-2 in large B-cell lymphomas, which is more significant in nodal tumours, could confirm the existence of a multistep genetic deregulation in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. This indicates that the genetic mechanisms controlling apoptosis and their disregulation are critical steps in the progression of lymphomas

Evaluation of Two Serological Methods for Potency Testing of Whole Cell Pertussis Vaccines - Potency Testing of Whole Cell Pertussis Vaccines

The European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) and the World Health Organization (WHO) require the performance of extensive quality control testing including a potency test before a vaccine batch is released for human use. Whole cell pertussis (wP) vaccine potency is assessed by a mouse protection test (MPT) based on the Kendrick test. This test compares the vaccine dose necessary to protect 50% of mice against the effect of a lethal intracerebral dose of Bordetella pertussis and the dose of a suitable reference vaccine needed to give the same protection level. Due to the large variability in the results of this test and the severe distress which is inflicted on the many animals involved, its replacement by an alternative method is highly desirable. At the initiative of the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and HealthCare (EDQM) of the Council of Europe, in collaboration with the WHO and the In-vitro toxicology Unit/European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) of the European Commission (EC) Joint Research Centre-Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (JRC-IHCP), wP vaccine specialists from all over the world were invited to present an overview of candidate alternatives at a symposium organized in Geneva (CH) in March 2005. Although no alternative method was found suitable for immediate implementation of batch potency control, the Pertussis Serological Potency Test (PSPT), initially developed in mice and recently transferred to guinea pigs (gps), was identified as a model of interest. Using the PSPT in gps to test several components of combined vaccines such as Diphtheria-Tetanus-wP vaccines in the same animal series would allow further implementation of the European 3Rs policy to batch potency control, by additional method refinement and reduction of animal use. The present study evaluated 2 features of the serological response to wP vaccination: 1) the overall antibody response as measured by a ¿whole cell¿ ELISA (PSPT-wC-ELISA) which uses the B. pertussis 18323 challenge strain prescribed for the MPT to coat the assay plates and 2) the functional neutralising antibodies to pertussis toxin (PT, one of the main virulence factors of B. pertussis), as measured by the Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell assay. The results showed that 1) the gp model can be used for wP vaccine potency testing; 2) despite good repeatability and precision, the CHO cell assay did not generate results comparable to the MPT. Moreover, the CHO cell assay showed significant differences in the ability of wP vaccines to induce neutralising anti-PT antibodies, which did not correlate to the overall antibody response evaluated by PSPT-wC-ELISA; 3) comparable potencies were obtained in the MPT and the PSPT-wC-ELISA.JRC.I.3-In-vitro method