Intra-arterial ACNU, CDDP chemotherapy for brain metastases from lung cancer: comparison of cases with and without intra-arterial mannitol infusion

To assess whether therapeutic efficacy is related to intra-arterial (IA) mannitol infusion prior to ACNU and cisplatin (CDDP) for brain metastases from lung cancer, clinical results of patients with and without IA mannitol infusion were compared. Thirty-nine patients were randomly assigned to either a mannitol infusion group (group A) or a non-mannitol infusion group (group B). There were 22 patients in group A and 17 in group B. During radiotherapy, ACNU and CDDP, at a dose of 100 mg/body, were given through the common carotid artery at a rate of 20 mg/min. In group A, 50 ml of 20% mannitol was injected intra-arterially at a rate of 50 ml/min immediately prior to the injection of chemotherapeutic agents. Major complications, such as seizure and neurotoxicity, were not observed. Complete response (disappearance of enhanced tumor mass) was obtained in 72% of group A and in 67% of group B. The median time to tumor progression was 40 weeks for group A and 22 weeks for group B. The median survival time (MST) was 45 weeks for group A and 30 weeks for group B. The survival time was significantly longer in group A as compared to group B (p < 0.05). When the patients who died of failure of vital organ systems other than brain complications were excluded in calculating the survival time, the MST was 69 weeks for 11 patients of group A and 34 weeks for 7 patients of group B. These data suggest that an effort to increase drug delivery to the brain tumor may indeed lengthen the survival time of patients with brain metastases from lung cancer.     

Bisphenol F Synthesis Over Mesoporous Aluminosilicate MCM-41 Molecular Sieves

Temperature-programmed desorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectroscopy and catalytic test reaction have been applied to investigate acid sites in a microporous activated carbon (Norit RX 1 Extra). Treatment with HNO₃ generates acid sites in the pristine carbon. XPS data show an increase of the amount of carboxyl and hydroxyl groups on the activated carbon surface. The thermodesorption profiles of the material corroborate the XPS data and indicate the presence of hydroxyl groups of carboxylic acids. The results obtained by these methods indicate the presence of acid sites. Thus, the acidity of the carbon was tested in the esterification of organic acids with alcohols. The pristine carbon presents no activity. By contrast, the treated carbon presents enough acidity to carry out the reaction achieving conversion values of around 45% for the reaction of benzoic acid with ethanol in a batch reactor. Such a value increases if the reaction is carried out under ultrasound activation, affording conversion values of around 85%. The selectivity of the reactions is high, around 95%. Only in the case of 1-octanol are some side-products observed, due to the oxidation of the alcohol.     

Full duplex transmission operation of a 2.45-GHz asynchronous spread spectrum using a SAN convolver

An asynchronous spread spectrum (SS) modem in the 2.45-GHz band has been implemented using an efficient ZnO-SiO(2)-Si surface acoustic wave (SAW) convolver. The modem, which can operate under full duplex transmission is based on a direct-sequence/code-shift-keying (DS/CSK) method for the modulation. Pseudonoise (PN) codes are chosen from a preferred pair of m-sequences of period 127, and the code rate is 14 MHz. The demodulation is carried out asynchronously, utilizing the coherent correlation characteristics of the SAW convolver. The main interference caused by a transmitted signal in the modem itself is effectively reduced by an RF isolator and the SS process gain. Adequate self-jamming rejection capability has been confirmed; a bit error rate of 10(-6) is observed at -78.3 dB of a desired-to-undesired-signal ratio using an artificial transmission line.     

Morphological and physiological bases of crayfish local circuit neurones

As the subject of neuroethological studies, arthropods offer several advantages to elucidate the neural processes that generate and control behavioural acts. The relative simplicity of their neural organization and their identifiable neurones are particularly advantageous. The crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, uropods are paired appendages of the last abdominal segment that show bilateral closing movement in response to mechanical stimulation. This movement, the avoidance "dart" response, is mediated by a cascade and parallel organization of local circuit neurones in the terminal abdominal ganglion. Thirty intersegmental ascending interneurones and 20 spiking local interneurones have been identified both morphologically and physiologically. They receive exteroceptive inputs directly from the sensory afferents. Two complementary groups of unilateral nonspiking local interneurones have also been functionally identified. They exert fine control over the wide range of activity of motor neurones in a graded and sustained manner. These nonspiking interneurones form opposing and parallel pathways that are essential in modulating the pattern of movement of the uropods.     

Dry developable resist in e-beam and sr lithography

Dry developable resists comprised of poly(methyl isopropenyl ketone) (PMIPK) and 4-methyl-2,6-dI-(4′-azldoben-zylidene)-cyclohexanone-1 gave excellent results in SK lithography, i. e., high aspect ratio resist patterns with vertical walls were easily obtained by maskless dry etching in the single layer resist process. Because of the simplicity of single layer resist processing and the high etch rate in maskless dry etching for the formation of thick resist patterns, the dry developable resist in SR lithography may be advantageous to the multilayer resist for the purpose of generating high resolution, thick resist patterns with vertical walls. The resolution limit of the dry developable resist which reproduces the designed dimensions was 100 nm line and 200 nm space when a conventional e-beam apparatus was used at 20 KV in the dry developable multilayer resist process.     

Application of surface-coated liposomes for oral delivery of peptide: effects of coating the liposome's surface on the GI transit of insulin

We prepared two kinds of surface-coated liposomes and investigated their potencies as oral dosage forms for peptide drugs by focusing on their effects on the gastrointestinal (GI) transit of drugs. The surface of the liposomes was coated with poly(ethylene glycol) 2000 (PEG-Lip) or the sugar chain of mucin (Mucin-Lip). As a model peptide drug, insulin was encapsulated in these liposomes. Coating the surface with poly(ethylene glycol) was found to reduce the transit rate of liposomes in the small intestine after oral administration to rats in vivo. Mucin-Lip was retained in the stomach longer than PEG-Lip or uncoated liposomes. The effect of surface coating on the intestinal transit of liposomes was determined by means of in situ single pass perfusion in the rat small intestine. Statistical moment analysis was applied to the outflow pattern of both liposomes and encapsulated insulin. The mean transit time (MTT) and deviation of transit time (DTT) in the intestinal tract were calculated. The MTT of PEG-Lip was much longer than those of uncoated liposomes and Mucin-Lip and was significantly shortened after removal of the intestinal mucous layer. These results indicated that PEG-Lip interacts strongly with the intestinal mucous layer, leading to its slow transit in the intestine. In contrast, coating the liposome's surface with mucin did not affect either the MTT or DTT of liposomes in the intestine. This result is in accordance with the in vivo observation that Mucin-Lip was highly retained in the stomach, but not in any region of the small intestine in vivo. Both the MTT and DTT values of insulin encapsulated in PEG-Lip and Mucin-Lip were almost the same as those of liposomes themselves, suggesting that surface-coated liposomes retained insulin in the intestinal tract. However, MTT and DTT of insulin were significantly shorter than those of uncoated liposomes because these liposomes degraded and released significant amounts of insulin during single pass perfusion. The ability of surface-coated liposomes, especially of PEG-Lip, to interact with the mucus layer and slow the transit rate in the GI tract is considered desirable for oral delivery of peptide drugs. Modification of the liposomal surface with appropriate materials, therefore, should be an effective method by which to achieve the oral delivery of peptide drugs.     

Prominent increase of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in the sera of patients with uveitis

Ciguatera is a significant food-borne disease caused by potent polyether toxins (ciguatoxins) which accumulate in the flesh of ciguateric reef fish at risk levels > 0.1 ppb for Pacific ciguatoxins. Research on ciguatera has been severely hindered by the lack of analytical methods that detect and characterize low levels of ciguatoxin in crude extracts of fish. Here we report a new procedure for ciguatoxin analysis based on gradient reversed-phase HPLC/tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS/MS). The method gave a linear response to pure Pacific and Caribbean ciguatoxins (P-CTX-1 and C-CTX-1) and the structurally related brevetoxin (PbTx-2) spiked into crude extracts of fish. Levels equivalent to 40 ppt P-CTX-1, 100 ppt C-CTX-1, and 200 ppt PbTx-2 in fish flesh could be detected by HPLC/MS/MS. Using P-CTX-1 as an internal standard, the analysis of extracts of 30 ciguateric fish from the Caribbean Sea (8 toxic, 12 borderline, and 10 nontoxic by mouse bioassay) confirmed the reliability of the method and allowed an estimated risk level of > 0.25 ppb C-CTX-1 to be established. HPLC/MS/MS provides a sensitive analytical approach, not previously available, for the determination of Pacific and Caribbean ciguatoxins at sub-ppb levels in fish flesh.     

A novel point mutation in congenital erythropoietic porphyria in two members of Japanese family

The molecular basis of the uroporphyrinogen III synthase (UROIIIS) deficiency was investigated in two members of a Japanese family. This defect in heme biosynthesis is responsible for a rare autosomal recessive disease: congenital erythropoietic porphyria (CEP) or Gnther's disease. The first patient was homoallelic for a novel missense mutation: a T to C transition of nucleotide 634 that predicted a serine to proline substitution at residue 212 (S212P). The second patient appeared heteroallelic, carrying the same missense mutation and a nonsense mutation: a C to T change at nucleotide 745, resulting in a premature stop at codon 249, instead of a glutamine (Q249X). The corresponding mutated proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli and no residual activity was observed. A family study was also performed to determine the carrier status.