Background Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and programmed cell death protein 1(PD-1) blockade therapy has revolutionized the treatment landscape of malignancies. However, only a minority patients are anticipated to experience deep durable response. In addition, successful therapeutic agonism 4-1BB, promising co-stimulatory immunologic target, been limited by major safety concerns hepatotoxici...

tuberculosis is a serious global public health problem and its high prevalence is stron gly associated with the enhancement of drug resistance. in this study we demonstrate a multiplex allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (mas)-pcr assay to simultaneously detect mutations in the first and third bases of the embb gene codon 306 atg in ethambutol (emb) resistant isolates of mycobacterium tub...

The influence of an upstream open reading frame (ORF) in the 5'-untranslated region (UTR) of the mRNA on corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor type 1 (CRHR1) translation was studied in constructs containing the 5'-UTR of CRHR1, with or without an ATG-to-ATA mutation in the upstream ORF, and the main ORF of luciferase or CRHR1. Upstream mutation in luciferase constructs increased luciferase a...

Eosinophils form 50% of cells in the host granulomatous response to Schistosoma mansoni eggs, but their functional role in these granulomas and their relation to egg destruction is unknown. We have studied the course of S. mansoni infection in mice treated with normal rabbit serum (NRS) or depleted of their eosinophils by monospecific anti-eosinophil serum (AES). At 6-wk of infection (after 2 w...

Newly diagnosed patients with acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD, grades I-IV; n = 211) were given 6-methylprednisolone (6MPred) 2 mg/kg per day for 5 consecutive days; 150 patients (71%) tapered 6MPred on day +5 and were considered responders; 61 patients (29%) could not taper their steroid dose and were considered nonresponders. The cumulative incidence of transplant-related mortality (TRM...

The presence of multiple homologues of the same yeast Atg protein endows an additional layer of complexity on the autophagy pathway in higher eukaryotes. The physiological function of the individual genes, however, remains largely unknown. Here we investigated the role of the two Caenorhabditis elegans homologues of the cysteine protease Atg4 in the pathway responsible for degradation of protei...

OBJECTIVE To study the demographic profile, prognostic indicators, and mortality of tetanus patients and treatment outcomes following intramuscular anti-tetanus immunoglobulin (ATG) alone or combined intrathecal and intramuscular ATG. DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING Inpatients from a tertiary care hospital. SUBJECTS One hundred children under 12 years of age diagnosed with tetanus and...

Fifty-four patients with severe aplastic anemia were treated with horse anti-human thymocyte globulin (ATG) and androgens. Thirty of these patients also received an infusion of HLA-haploidentical marrow cells. Only those patients having evidence of hematologic recovery within 3 mo after ATG therapy were considered responders to the immunosuppressive regimen. Of 53 patients evaluable for respons...

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant is an established treatment modality for hematologic and non-hematologic diseases. However, it is associated with acute and long-term sequelae which can translate into mortality. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) remains a glaring obstacle, especially with the advent of reduced-intensity conditioning. Serotherapy capitalizes on antibodies which targe...