Cell-mediated immunity in chyluria

Cellular immune response to mitogens phytohemaggluthin (PHA) and poke weed mitogen (PWM) was assessed in 13 patients with chyluria and 32 healthy controls. The mean stimulation Index of the patient group was significantly lower than the control group. The degree of depression was neither related to the duration of excretion of chyle nor to the microfilaraemic status

Some important ethyl and ethyl-methyl ethers of flavonols: transformation of quercimeritrin into O-tetraethylrhamnetin

The use of ethylation in the study of naturally occurring glycosides and partial methyl ethers of hydroxy flavones is discussed. This procedure renders the work simpler and more definite. Starting from ω-ethoxy res-and phloracetophenones, the preparation of mixed ethyl methyl ethers of the flavonols, fisetin, kæmpferol, and quercetin, with an ethoxyl in the 3-position and methoxyls in the other positions, is described and it is shown that these compounds are useful in the study of the 3-glycosides of these flavonols. The case of rutin has been used as a typical example. As an illustration of the synthesis of fully ethylated compounds fisetin tetraethyl ether is made and as an example for the use of ethylation in the study of both 7-glycosides and 7-methyl ethers, O-3 : 3' : 4'-triethyl-7-methyl-fisetin is synthesised. The use of ethylation for establishing interrelationship between glycosides and partial methyl ethers of hydroxy flavones is illustrated with the case of quercimeritrin and rhamnetin. Quercimeritrin has been ethylated with diethyl sulphate and the ethylated glucoside hydrolysed and methylated. The product is a mixed ether of quercetin and is shown to be identical with O-tetraethyl rhamnetin

Nuclear oxidation in flavones and related compounds Part XXIV. Synthesis of myristicin and elemicin

This article does not have an abstract

Constitution of oroxylin-A and synthesis of its diethyl-ether

The experiments described in this paper show that a pure sample of oroxylin-A melts at 219–20° (acetate, 139–40°), that the substance melting at 231–32° is a mixture of it with chrysin and that this mixture could be separated by fractionation of the acetates. The constitution of oroxylin-A as the 6-methyl ether of baicalein is confirmed by ethylating it to the diethyl ether and showing that the product is identical with a synthetic sample of 6-methoxy-5 : 7-diethoxy flavone. The details of the synthesis are given

Outage Performance of Bidirectional Full-Duplex Amplify-and-Forward Relay Network with Transmit Antenna Selection and Maximal Ratio Combining, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2018, nr 1

In this paper, a bidirectional full-duplex amplify- and-forward (AF) relay network with multiple antennas at source nodes is proposed. Assuming that the channel state information is known at the source nodes, transmit antenna selection and maximal ratio combining (MRC) are employed when source nodes transmit information to the relay node and receive information from the relay node respectively, in order to improve the overall signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR). Analytical expressions are derived for tight upper bound SINR at the relay node and source nodes upon reception. Further, losed form expressions are also derived for end-to-end outage probability of the proposed bidirectional full-duplex AF relay network in the Nakagami-m fading channel environment. Although self-interference at the relay node limits the performance of the full-duplex network, the outage performance of the proposed network is better than that of conventional bidirectional full-duplex and half-duplex AF relay networks, due to the selection diversity gain in TAS and diversity and array gain in MRC

Waking up dormant tumor suppressor genes with zinc fingers, TALEs and the CRISPR/dCas9 system

The aberrant epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) plays a major role during carcinogenesis and regaining these dormant functions by engineering of sequence-specific epigenome editing tools offers a unique opportunity for targeted therapies. However, effectively normalizing the expression and regaining tumor suppressive functions of silenced TSGs by artificial transcription factors (ATFs) still remains a major challenge. Herein we describe novel combinatorial strategies for the potent reactivation of two class II TSGs, MASPIN and REPRIMO, in cell lines with varying epigenetic states, using the CRISPR/dCas9 associated system linked to a panel of effector domains (VP64, p300, VPR and SAM complex), as well as with protein-based ATFs, Zinc Fingers and TALEs. We found that co-delivery of multiple effector domains using a combination of CRISPR/dCas9 and TALEs or SAM complex maximized activation in highly methylated promoters. In particular, CRISPR/dCas9 VPR with SAM upregulated MASPIN mRNA (22,145-fold change) in H157 lung cancer cells, with accompanying re-expression of MASPIN protein, which led to a concomitant inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of apoptotic cell death. Consistently, CRISPR/dCas9 VP64 with SAM upregulated REPRIMO (680-fold change), which led to phenotypic reprogramming in AGS gastric cancer cells. Altogether, our results outlined novel sequence-specific, combinatorial epigenome editing approaches to reactivate highly methylated TSGs as a promising therapy for cancer and other diseases

The preemptive repeat hybrid server interruption model

We analyze a discrete-time queueing system with server interruptions and a hybrid preemptive repeat interruption discipline. Such a discipline encapsulates both the preemptive repeat identical and the preemptive repeat different disciplines. By the introduction and analysis of so-called service completion times, we significantly reduce the complexity of the analysis. Our results include a.o. the probability generating functions and moments of queue content and delay. Finally, by means of some numerical examples, we assess how performance measures are affected by the specifics of the interruption discipline

Detection of pancreatic cancer tumours and precursor lesions by cathepsin E activity in mouse models.

ABSTRACT Background and Aims Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the USA. Surgical resection is the only effective treatment; however, only 20% of patients are candidates for surgery. The ability to detect early PDAC would increase the availability of surgery and improve patient survival. This study assessed the feasibility of using the enzymatic activity of cathepsin E (Cath E), a protease highly and specifically expressed in PDAC, as a novel biomarker for the detection of pancreas-bearing pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) lesions and PDAC. Methods Pancreas from normal, chronic pancreatitis and PDAC patients was assessed for Cath E expression by quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. Human PDAC xenografts and genetically engineered mouse models (GEMM) of PDAC were injected with a Cath E activity selective fluorescent probe and imaged using an optical imaging system. Results The specificity of Cath E expression in PDAC patients and GEMM of pancreatic cancer was confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. The novel probe for Cath E activity specifically detected PDAC in both human xenografts and GEMM in vivo. The Cath E sensitive probe was also able to detect pancreas with PanIN lesions in GEMM before tumour formation. Conclusions The elevated Cath E expression in PanIN and pancreatic tumours allowed in-vivo detection of human PDAC xenografts and imaging of pancreas with PanIN and PDAC tumours in GEMM. Our results support the usefulness of Cath E activity as a potential molecular target for PDAC and early detection imaging. Despite great efforts to help patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in the past few years, this disease remains devastating with the worst outcome of all major cancers. In the USA, PDAC ranks 10th in terms of incidence, but for both men and women, it is fourth in terms of cancer deaths. Although many molecular biomarker candidates of PDAC have been identified, 3 biomarkers with the necessary sensitivity and specificity for early detection are still lacking. 4e6 The most widely utilised blood-based biomarker is CA 19-9, which is not expressed in all patients, is not highly specific as it is elevated in other gastrointestinal cancers, and is not useful for the detection of early disease. 7 8 Furthermore, CA 19-9 levels do not provide information about the localisation of the disease nor the existence of metastases. The most sensitive diagnosis of PDAC currently requires invasive imaging procedures such as endoscopic ultrasonography, which Significance of this study What is already known about this subject? < No highly specific and sensitive biomarkers are clinically available for the detection of PDAC at an early stage. < Cath E is highly overexpressed in many cancers including PDAC. < A Cath E selective peptide was recently identified that specifically detects its enzymatic activity. What are the new findings? < We demonstrate that the elevated levels of Cath E expression in early pancreatic cancer lesions and pancreatic tumours could be exploited for PDAC detection. < We illustrate that the detection and localisation of PDAC in mouse xenografts and GEMM was possible utilising the outstanding specificity of a novel Cath E-activatable imaging probe. How might it impact on clinical practice in the foreseeable future? < The ability to detect and visualise pancreatic tumours and PanIN in PDAC by virtue of Cath E activity sensitive probes in preclinical mouse models suggests that modifications of this approach will be useful for the early detection and management of this deadly cancer in patients. < The specificity of Cath E activity for PDAC suggests that this enzymatic activity will be useful in the future for the development of novel therapeutics or theranostics. Cruz-Monserrate Z, Abd-Elgaliel WR, Grote T, et al. Gut (2011)