Application of thermoresponsive HPLC to forensic toxicology: determination of barbiturates in human urine

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed for the assays of five barbiturates in human urine using a new thermoresponsive polymer separation column, which is composed of N-isopropylacrylamide polymer. According to elevating the column temperature from 10 ℃ to 50 ℃, five barbiturates, such as metharbital, primidone, phenobarbital, mephobarbital and pentobarbital, became well separated by this method. Five barbiturates showed good linearity in the range of 0.2-10 mg/ml. Good accuracy, precision and recoveries for these drugs were obtained at 1 and 5 μg/ml urine. The method with the new-type column seems to have high potential to be extensively used in forensic toxicology for analysis of many drugs and poisons by HPLC and HPLC-mass spectrometry (MS) (-MS)

Virulent Strain of Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 3, Japan

Virulence may be associated with mutation of the helicase domain (V239A), and source of the human infection may be swine

CD146 is a potential immunotarget for neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma, the most common extracranial solid tumor of childhood, is thought to arise from neural crest-derived immature cells. The prognosis of patients with high-risk or recurrent/refractory neuroblastoma remains quite poor despite intensive multimodality therapy; therefore, novel therapeutic interventions are required. We examined the expression of a cell adhesion molecule CD146 (melanoma cell adhesion molecule [MCAM]) by neuroblastoma cell lines and in clinical samples and investigated the anti-tumor effects of CD146-targeting treatment for neuroblastoma cells both in vitro and in vivo. CD146 is expressed by 4 cell lines and by most of primary tumors at any stage. Short hairpin RNA-mediated knockdown of CD146, or treatment with an anti-CD146 polyclonal antibody, effectively inhibited growth of neuroblastoma cells both in vitro and in vivo, principally due to increased apoptosis via the focal adhesion kinase and/or nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathway. Furthermore, the anti-CD146 polyclonal antibody markedly inhibited tumor growth in immunodeficient mice inoculated with primary neuroblastoma cells. In conclusion, CD146 represents a promising therapeutic target for neuroblastoma