Long-term survival and immunological parameters in metastatic melanoma patients who responded to ipilimumab 10 mg/kg within an expanded access programme.

Background: Ipilimumab can result in durable clinical responses among patients with advanced melanoma. However, no predictive marker of clinical activity has yet been identified. We provide preliminary data describing the correlation between immunological parameters and response/survival among patients with advanced melanoma who received ipilimumab 10 mg/kg in an expanded access programme.

Expression and regulation of B7-H3 immunoregulatory receptor, in human mesothelial and mesothelioma cells: immunotherapeutic implications.

No treatment prolongs the survival of malignant mesothelioma (MM) patients. Since MM elicits anti-tumor host's immune responses, immunotherapy represents a promising strategy for its control. Immunomodulatory antibodies against components of the B7 family of immunomodulatory molecules that regulate T cell activation are being investigated in human malignancies including MM.

Ipilimumab experience in heavily pretreated patients with melanoma in an expanded access program at the University Hospital of Siena (Italy).

Aim Of Study: To evaluate the feasibility of ipilimumab treatment for metastatic melanoma outside the boundaries of clinical trials, in a setting similar to that of daily practice.

Methods: Ipilimumab was available upon physician request in the Expanded Access Programme for patients with life-threatening, unresectable stage III/IV melanoma who failed or did not tolerate previous treatments and for whom no therapeutic option was available. Induction treatment with ipilimumab 10 mg/kg was administered intravenously every 3 weeks, for a total of 4 doses, with maintenance doses every 12 weeks based on physicians' discretion and clinical judgment.

CD40 expression by human melanocytic lesions and melanoma cell lines and direct CD40 targeting with the therapeutic anti-CD40 antibody CP-870,893.

Anti-CD40 antibodies are in clinical development in patients with metastatic melanoma, a cancer that has been reported earlier to express CD40. The antitumor activity of anti-CD40 antibodies may be mediated by direct cytotoxic effects on CD40-positive melanoma cells or indirectly through modulation of host cells. In these studies, biopsies of patients with primary and metastatic melanoma, short-term cultures, and established melanoma cell lines were analyzed for CD40 expression using a combination of methods including immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and gene expression profiling, and the cytotoxic effects of the anti-CD40 antibody CP-870,893 on melanoma cell lines were tested using cell viability assays.

Relationship between Hpt polymorphisms and serum protein electropherogram.

Serum protein electrophoresis is routinely used to identify pathologies involving dysproteinemia. The electropherogram mainly represents the most abundant serum proteins, one of which is the polymorphic haptoglobin (Hpt), characterized by a molecular heterogeneity with three major phenotypes (Hpt 1-1, 2-1, and 2-2). To improve the interpretation of electropherogram and possibly to extend its applicability, we aimed to explore the relationship between Hpt phenotypes (determined by immunoblotting) and protein profiles.

Proteomic analysis of the pathophysiological process involved in the antisnake venom effect of Mucuna pruriens extract.

Previously, we reported the antisnake venom properties of a Mucuna pruriens seed extract (MPE) and tested its in vivo efficacy against Echis carinatus venom (EV) in short- (1 injection) and long-term (three weekly injections) treatments. The aim of the present study was to investigate plasma proteome changes associated with MPE treatments and identify proteins responsible for survival of envenomated mice (CHALLENGED mice). Six treatment groups were studied.

Simultaneous determination of serum concentrations of levodopa, dopamine, 3-O-methyldopa and alpha-methyldopa by HPLC.

Levodopa is the medication of choice for Parkinson's disease. The biological complexity of levodopa and of its main derivatives makes their determination important in the clinical field. The aim of this study was to develop an HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of serum concentrations of levodopa, dopamine, 3-O-methyldopa and alpha-methyldopa.