Concurrent Thermochemoradiotherapy in Glioblastoma Treatment: Preliminary Results

Glioblastoma is the most frequent and aggressive primary brain tumor. The patient can be alive with this pathology using the modern standard of intensive combined treatment less than 2 years. Between December 2013 and August 2017, 30 patients with newly diagnosed supratentorial glioblastoma had received concomitant chemoradiotherapy with transcranial radiofrequency hyperthermia. The gross total or the subtotal resection of the tumor was made previously in all cases. The median follow-up time after operation achieved 12 months (95% confidence interval (CI): 8.5–23 months) in this study. The median disease-free survival time was 9.6 months (95% CI: 7.2–19.0 months). The median overall survival time of patients included in the study was 23.4 months. No increase in the systemic side effects of chemotherapy was found compared with the frequency described in the population. Preliminary results had shown that the usage of concomitant thermochemoradiotherapy with transcranial radiofrequency hyperthermia improves progression-free survival rates. Overall survival rates also tended to increase. Given the absence of severe complications, it is necessary to continue research to achieve statistically significant results

Changes in the Ultrastructure of <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> Cells Make It Possible to Identify and Analyze the Injuring Effects of Ciprofloxacin, Polycationic Amphiphile and Their Hybrid

The purposeful development of synthetic antibacterial compounds requires an understanding of the relationship between effects of compounds and their chemical structure. This knowledge can be obtained by studying changes in bacteria ultrastructure under the action of antibacterial compounds of a certain chemical structure. Our study was aimed at examination of ultrastructural changes in S. aureus cells caused by polycationic amphiphile based on 1,4‒diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DL412), ciprofloxacin and their hybrid (DL5Cip6); the samples were incubated for 15 and 45 min. DL412 first directly interacted with bacterial cell wall, damaging it, then penetrated into the cell and disrupted cytoplasm. Ciprofloxacin penetrated into cell without visually damaging the cell wall, but altered the cell membrane and cytoplasm, and inhibited the division of bacteria. The ultrastructural characteristics of S. aureus cells damaged by the hybrid clearly differed from those under ciprofloxacin or DL412 action. Signs associated with ciprofloxacin predominated in cell damage patterns from the hybrid. We studied the effect of ciprofloxacin, DL412 and their hybrid on S. aureus biofilm morphology using paraffin sections. Clear differences in compound effects on S. aureus biofilm (45 min incubation) were observed. The results obtained allow us to recommend this simple and cheap approach for the initial assessment of antibiofilm properties of synthesized compounds