Treatment of symptoms and signs beyond the expanded disability status scale remains a major target in multiple sclerosis. QualiCOP was an observational, non-interventional, open-label study conducted at 170 sites in Germany. Of the 754 enrolled patients, 96 % had relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) and were either disease-modifying therapy naïve (de novo, n = 481) or previously treated (n = 237) with once-daily, subcutaneous 20-mg/mL glatiramer acetate (GA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Treatment of multiple sclerosis patients with glatiramer acetate has been demonstrated a beneficial effect on disease activity. The objective of this prospective naturalistic study was to evaluate the impact of glatiramer acetate on fatigue and work absenteeism.
Methods: 291 treatment-naïve patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis were included and treated with glatiramer acetate for twelve months.
The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR, ErbB1) is frequently dysregulated in a variety of solid human tumors, including malignant glioma. EGFR expression has been associated with disease progression, resistance to standard therapies and poor survival. The application of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) has become an effective and highly specific tool to modulate gene expression, and a wide range of oncogenes have been silenced successfully.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMelanoma inhibitory activity (MIA) is an 11 kD protein secreted by malignant melanomas. Recent studies revealed an interaction of MIA with epitopes of extracellular matrix proteins including fibronectin. Structural homology of MIA with the binding sites of alpha4beta1 integrin results in complex interactions of MIA with molecules binding to alpha4beta1 integrin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMelanoma-inhibiting activity/cartilage-derived retinoic acid-sensitive protein, a 11 kDa protein, is mainly expressed in cartilage during embryogenesis, and is related to invasion, metastasis, and immunomodulation of melanoma and glioma cells in vivo and in vitro. Here, we describe an alternative splice product of this gene termed melanoma-inhibiting activity (splice), lacking exon 2 of the original protein. A predicted frameshift by alternate splicing results in a unique C-terminal portion of the protein.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The identification of tumor-specific antigens is an important topic for potential therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Melanoma-inhibiting activity (MIA/CD-RAP), a protein involved in the regulation of tumor growth, invasion, dissemination and immunoreactivity in melanomas and other tumors, is expressed by almost all melanomas and melanoma metastases screened to date so far. Elevated levels of melanoma-inhibiting activity (MIA/CD-RAP) have also been measured in a subgroup of patients with advanced stage breast carcinomas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF