Risk factors for lung cancer in COPD - results from the Bergen COPD cohort study.

Background: COPD patients have an increased risk of developing lung cancer, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We aimed to identify risk factors for lung cancer in patients from the Bergen COPD Cohort Study.

Methods: We compared 433 COPD patients with 279 healthy controls, all former or current smokers.

Association of Growth Differentiation Factor 15 with Mortality in a Prospective Hemodialysis Cohort.

Background/aims: Cardiovascular disease and protein-energy wasting are among the strongest predictors of the high mortality of dialysis patients. In the general population, the novel cardiovascular and wasting biomarker, growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15), is associated with decreased survival. However, little is known about GDF15 in dialysis patients.

Growth differentiation factor-15 is a predictor of important disease outcomes in patients with COPD.

Increased levels of growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF15) are associated with cachexia, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. The role of GDF15 in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is unknown.The study included 413 patients with COPD from the Bergen COPD Cohort Study.

Growth differentiating factor-15 (GDF-15): A potential biomarker and therapeutic target for cancer-associated weight loss.

Growth differentiating factor-15 (GDF-15), also known as macrophage inhibiting factor-1, is a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily, which has been implicated in cancer-associated weight loss. The present study investigated the association between cancer-associated weight loss and plasma GDF-15 concentration, as well as other biomarkers, in patients with metastatic lung or exocrine pancreatic cancer. A total of 218 patients were enrolled over a 1-year period.

MAP3K11/GDF15 axis is a critical driver of cancer cachexia.

Background: Cancer associated cachexia affects the majority of cancer patients during the course of the disease and thought to be directly responsible for about a quarter of all cancer deaths. Current evidence suggests that a pro-inflammatory state may be associated with this syndrome although the molecular mechanisms responsible for the development of cachexia are poorly understood. The purpose of this work was the identification of key drivers of cancer cachexia that could provide a potential point of intervention for the treatment and/or prevention of this syndrome.

Plasma growth differentiation factor 15 is associated with weight loss and mortality in cancer patients.

Background: Cancer-related weight loss is associated with increased inflammation and decreased survival. The novel inflammatory mediator growth differentiation factor (GDF)15 is associated with poor prognosis in cancer but its role in cancer-related weight loss (C-WL) remains unclear. Our objective was to measure GDF15 in plasma samples of cancer subjects and controls and establish its association with other inflammatory markers and clinical outcomes.

23814, an Inhibitory Antibody of Ligand-Mediated Notch1 Activation, Modulates Angiogenesis and Inhibits Tumor Growth without Gastrointestinal Toxicity.

Dysregulation of Notch signaling has been implicated in the development of many different types of cancer. Notch inhibitors are being tested in the clinic, but in most cases gastrointestinal and other toxicities have limited the dosage and, therefore, the effectiveness of these therapies. Herein, we describe the generation of a monoclonal antibody against the ligand-binding domain of the Notch1 receptor that specifically blocks ligand-induced activation.

Neuregulin 1 expression is a predictive biomarker for response to AV-203, an ERBB3 inhibitory antibody, in human tumor models.

Purpose: ERBB3 is overexpressed in a broad spectrum of human cancers, and its aberrant activation is associated with tumor pathogenesis and therapeutic resistance to various anticancer agents. Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) is the predominant ligand for ERBB3 and can promote the heterodimerization of ERBB3 with other ERBB family members, resulting in activation of multiple intracellular signaling pathways. AV-203 is a humanized IgG1/κ ERBB3 inhibitory antibody that completed a first-in-human phase I clinical trial in patients with advanced solid tumors.

Microenvironment-derived HGF overcomes genetically determined sensitivity to anti-MET drugs.

Cell-based drug screenings indicate that tumors displaying c-MET gene amplification are "addicted" to MET signaling and therefore are very sensitive to MET-targeted agents. However, these screenings were conducted in the absence of the MET ligand, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), which is abundant in the tumor microenvironment. Sensitivity of six MET-addicted human tumor cells to three MET kinase inhibitors (JNJ-38877605, PHA-665752, crizotinib) and one antagonistic anti-MET antibody (DN30 Fab) was analyzed in the absence or presence of HGF, in a stroma-tumor coculture system, and by combining anti-MET drugs with an HGF neutralizing antibody (ficlatuzumab) in human HGF knock-in mice bearing c-MET-amplified tumors.

[The first psychotic episode].

In the large Second Department of Neurology and Psychiatry of County Hospital, Gyula, the author treated several thousand children, adolescents and young adults with the diagnosis of first psychotic episode between 1970-2003. Beside his experience with thousands of patients he reviews the data of literature published in the last years. Beside the survey of symptomatology he deals with the causes of psychoses existing in childhood and displayed by imaging techniques (MRI, PET, CT), especially the loss of grey matter, the cortical abnormalities of frontal, frontotemporal lobes as well as the functional disturbances of the continuous reverberations with subcortical regions.

[Aggression in psychiatric disorders].

Reviewing literature the author examines aggressive behaviour of psychiatric patients as well as its neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, neuroendocrinological and sociological aspects. Although different epidemiological data can also be found, the author agrees with the majority of authors: aggression occurs only in a small percentage of psychiatric patients. Mental patients are not just the perpetrators, they often are victims as well.

Interaction trap/two-hybrid system to identify interacting proteins.

The yeast two-hybrid method (or interaction trap) is a powerful technique for detecting protein interactions. The procedure is performed using transcriptional activation of a dual reporter system in yeast to identify interactions between a protein of interest (the bait protein) and the candidate proteins for interaction. The method can be used to screen a protein library for interactions with a bait protein or to test for association between proteins that are expected to interact based on prior evidence.

[Psychiatric aspects of autocastration].

In 1982, first time in Hungary, the author published the detailed description of a transsexual, schizophrenic patient performing autocastration and reviewed the literature. Later,in 1988, he described 2 more cases of them, this time jointly observed and treated with urologist. As since the early 1980's no publication dealing with autocastration has appeared in Hungary, the author now reviews the current literature as well as the other recent possibilities of therapeutical microreplantation and individual and family therapeutical possibilities.

Interaction trap/two-hybrid system to identify interacting proteins.

The yeast two-hybrid method (or interaction trap) is a powerful technique for detecting protein interactions. The procedure is performed using transcriptional activation of a dual reporter system in yeast to identify interactions between a protein of interest (the bait protein) and the candidate proteins for interaction. The method can be used to screen a protein library for interactions with a bait protein or to test for association between proteins that are expected to interact based on prior evidence.

[Neurologic and psychiatric implications of apathy].

During his long practice as head physician of a neurological and psychiatrical department with over 100 beds performed the examination and department of more than a hundred thousand patients. Based on the acquired experience and the data of the most recent literature he treats every aspect of the apathy syndrome. He emphasizes the multidisciplinary approach during both establishing the causes and the examination and treatment of patients.

GP369, an FGFR2-IIIb-specific antibody, exhibits potent antitumor activity against human cancers driven by activated FGFR2 signaling.

Dysregulated fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling has been implicated in the pathogenesis of human cancers. Aberrant activation of FGF receptor 2 (FGFR2) signaling, through overexpression of FGFR2 and/or its ligands, mutations, and receptor amplification, has been found in a variety of human tumors. We generated monoclonal antibodies against the extracellular ligand-binding domain of FGFR2 to address the role of FGFR2 in tumorigenesis and to explore the potential of FGFR2 as a novel therapeutic target.

[Sexological problems in neurological disorders: neurosexology].

The author has examined this complex subject-matter as he has not found any publications dealing with the interconnection between neurology and sexuality in the Hungarian literature available to him. Healthy sexual behavior determines the individual's quality of life. This, however requires a coordinated, complex functioning bound to very complex structures and their unimpaired functions: peripheral receptor-->peripheral nerve-->radix-->spinal cord-->definite, functionally interrelated structures of the brain (prae-optic areas, hypothalamus, amygdala, limbic system and the cerebral cortex, mainly the orbitofrontal area).

Interaction trap/two-hybrid system to identify interacting proteins.

The yeast two-hybrid method (or interaction trap) is a powerful technique for detecting protein interactions. The procedure is performed using transcriptional activation of a dual reporter system in yeast to identify interactions between a protein of interest (the bait protein) and the candidate proteins for interaction. The method can be used to screen a protein library for interactions with a bait protein or to test for association between proteins that are expected to interact based on prior evidence.

Interaction trap/two-hybrid system to identify interacting proteins.

The yeast two-hybrid method (or interaction trap) is a powerful technique for detecting protein interactions. The procedure is performed using transcriptional activation of a dual reporter system in yeast to identify interactions between a protein of interest (the bait protein) and the candidate proteins for interaction. The method can be used to screen a protein library for interactions with a bait protein or to test for association between proteins that are expected to interact based on prior evidence.