Differential antitumor activity of aflibercept and bevacizumab in patient-derived xenograft models of colorectal cancer.

The recombinant fusion protein aflibercept (ziv-aflibercept in the United States) binds VEGF-A, VEGF-B, and placental growth factor (PlGF). The monoclonal antibody bevacizumab binds VEGF-A. Recent studies hypothesized that dual targeting of VEGF/PlGF is more beneficial than targeting either ligand.

Time to recurrence and survival in serous ovarian tumors predicted from integrated genomic profiles.

Background: Serous ovarian cancer (SeOvCa) is an aggressive disease with differential and often inadequate therapeutic outcome after standard treatment. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) has provided rich molecular and genetic profiles from hundreds of primary surgical samples. These profiles confirm mutations of TP53 in ~100% of patients and an extraordinarily complex profile of DNA copy number changes with considerable patient-to-patient diversity.

PIK3CA somatic mutations in breast cancer: Mechanistic insights from Langevin dynamics simulations.

Somatic mutations in PIK3CA (phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase, catalytic subunit, alpha isoform) are reported in breast and other human cancers to concentrate at hotspots within its kinase and helical domains. Most of these mutations cause kinase gain of function in vitro and are associated with oncogenicity in vivo. However, little is known about the mechanisms driving tumor development.

POLIR: polarizable, flexible, transferable water potential optimized for IR spectroscopy.

A polarizable, flexible and transferable potential for water, POLIR, is presented. In addition to providing a good description of the usual structural and kinetic properties, POLIR correctly describes the vibrational frequencies, absolute infrared intensities, and HOH angle in clusters, liquid water, and ice, offering the possibility of a comprehensive classical theory of vibrational spectroscopy. The high degree of transferability suggests applications to solvation and to water that is confined, interfacial, and under the extreme conditions encountered in the geological and planetary sciences.

Classical molecular electrostatics: recognition of ligands in proteins and the vibrational Stark effect.

It is shown that classical electrostatics quantitatively describes both the binding of the diatomic ligands XO (X = C, N, O) to the heme group in myoglobin and the dependence of their vibrational frequencies upon an external field, the vibrational Stark effect. The key is a proper treatment of induced dipoles. The results suggest that ligand binding occurs via an "electrostatic bond", a generalization of the standard ionic bond to include induction, and, more generally, that classical electrostatics can replace quantum mechanics for a considerable simplification of some complex problems.

Induction model for molecular electrostatics: application to the infrared spectroscopy of CO liquid.

Far-infrared intermolecular and midinfrared vibrational spectra of CO liquid have been calculated by Fourier transforming the quantum-corrected classical dipole correlation. The time dependence of the coordinates is determined from a standard nonpolarizable force field, and the dipole is determined from the coordinates with a "spectroscopic model" proposed herein. The model includes intramolecular induction and atomic charges, polarizabilities, and permanent dipoles.