Osteoporosis can manifest in two ways in rheumatoid arthritis: generalized bone loss, which may result from immobility, the inflammatory process per se and/or treatments such as steroids; and periarticular demineralization, which is probably due to local release of inflammatory agents. Digital X-ray radiogrammetry (DXR) is an effective and sensitive modality for monitoring periarticular osteopo...

OBJECTIVES To determine the influence of disease-related variables on hand cortical bone loss in women with early inflammatory arthritis (IA), and whether hand cortical bone mass predicts subsequent joint damage. METHOD Adults aged ≥ 16 years with recent onset of IA were recruited to the Norfolk Arthritis Register between 1990 and 1998, and followed prospectively. At baseline, patients had th...

E-selectin is expressed on the surfaces of stimulated vascular endothelial cells and is sometimes involved in cancer cell metastasis. The H2-receptor antagonist cimetidine inhibits the increase in E-selectin expression on vascular endothelial cells that is induced by interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) and cimetidine. It also inhibits the adhesion of sialyl-Lewis-antigen-positive cancer cells to vascu...

INTRODUCTION To assess the relationship between low bone mineral density (BMD), anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide-2 (anti-CCP2) antibodies, and disease activity in patients with established rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS Patients enrolled in a single-center, observational cohort registry of patients with RA. Eligible patients had known BMD, as measured by digital X-ray radiogrammetry (DXR...

INTRODUCTION Radiographic progression in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has in several studies been shown to be predicted by serological markers widely used in daily clinical practice. The objective of this longitudinal study was to examine if these serological markers also predict hand bone mineral density (BMD) loss in patients with RA of short disease duration. METHODS 163 patients with RA of s...

1-Deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase (DXR), which catalyzes the first committed step in the 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis used by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other infectious microorganisms, is absent in humans and therefore an attractive drug target. Fosmidomycin is a nanomolar inhibitor of DXR, but despite great efforts, few analogues wit...

BACKGROUND MCC-465 is an immunoliposome-encapsulated doxorubicin (DXR). The liposome is tagged with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and the F(ab')2 fragment of human monoclonal antibody GAH, which positively reacts to >90% of cancerous stomach tissues, but negatively to all normal tissues. In preclinical studies, MCC-465 showed superior cytotoxic activity against several human stomach cancer cells co...

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) were reported to be involved in resistance to chemo/radiation therapy. We previously reported that CD13 was both a marker of CSCs and a candidate therapeutic target in HCC. In the present study, we explored the antitumor effect of a combined therapy, where ubenimex, a CD13 inhibitor, was combined with conventional anticancer drugs, fluorouracil (5-FU), cisplatin (CDDP),...

Artemisinin is extracted from a traditional Chinese medicinal herb Artemisia annua L., which is regarded as the most efficient drug against malaria in the world. In recent years, attention has been paid to increase the artemisinin content through transgenic methods because of the low content of artemisinin in wild plants. In this article, three functional artemisinin-related genes namely dxr, c...