Extensive diversity of ionizing-radiation-resistant bacteria recovered from Sonoran Desert soil and description of nine new species of the genus Deinococcus obtained from a single soil sample.

The ionizing-radiation-resistant fractions of two soil bacterial communities were investigated by exposing an arid soil from the Sonoran Desert and a nonarid soil from a Louisiana forest to various doses of ionizing radiation using a (60)Co source. The numbers of surviving bacteria decreased as the dose of gamma radiation to which the soils were exposed increased. Bacterial isolates surviving doses of 30 kGy were recovered from the Sonoran Desert soil, while no isolates were recovered from the nonarid forest soil after exposure to doses greater than 13 kGy.

Potentiation of TRAIL-induced apoptosis in primary effusion lymphoma through azidothymidine-mediated inhibition of NF-kappa B.

The survival of viral mediated lymphomas depends upon constitutive nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) activity. AIDS-related human herpesvirus type 8-associated primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) responds poorly to chemotherapy and is almost invariably fatal. We have previously demonstrated that the antiviral combination of interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) and azidothymidine (AZT) induces apoptosis in PEL cell lines.