Response of preclinical medulloblastoma models to combination therapy with 13-cis retinoic acid and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA).

Purpose: Current medulloblastoma therapy, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, is unacceptably toxic. However, 13-cis retinoic acid (RA) and SAHA, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, have each been shown to induce apoptosis in medulloblastoma cultures and mouse models. Both drugs cross the blood brain barrier, have been given safely to children, and achieve brain concentrations that are at or near therapeutic levels.

Extensive and breed-specific linkage disequilibrium in Canis familiaris.

The 156 breeds of registered dogs in the United States offer a unique opportunity to map genes important in disease susceptibility, morphology, and behavior. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) is of current interest for its application in whole genome association mapping, since the extent of LD determines the feasibility of such studies. We have measured LD at five genomic intervals, each 5 Mb in length and composed of five clusters of sequence variants spaced 800 kb-1.