Managing Expectations in the Transition to Proof of Concept Studies.

Background: As we move away from the traditional chemotherapy era to targeted therapy, the validity of old assessment paradigms associated with therapeutics are being raised in the context of immunotherapy. The old paradigm required elaborating on the toxicity assessment, with no expectation of efficacy in early phase trials. Safety data from Phase 1 and 2 studies with many immunotherapeutics show limited toxicities and draw attention to the need to demonstrate efficacy in the early evaluation of new agents.

Antibodies: At The Nexus of Antigens and Cancer Vaccines.

This review describes the development of monoclonal antibodies and the inception of their use in cancer therapy, their impact on defining cancer biomarkers, and their structural utility in new cancer vaccine development.

Production of antibodies in plants: approaches and perspectives.

Advances in molecular biology, immunology, and plant biotechnology have changed the paradigm of plant as a food source to so-called plant bioreactor to produce valuable recombinant proteins. These include therapeutic or diagnostic monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and other biopharmaceutical proteins. The plant as a bioreactor for the production of therapeutic proteins has several advantages, which include the lack of animal pathogenic contaminants, low cost of production, and ease of agricultural scale-up compared to other currently available systems.

Plant-derived EpCAM antigen induces protective anti-cancer response.

Immunotherapy holds great promise for treatment of infectious and malignant diseases and might help to prevent the occurrence and recurrence of cancer. We produced a plant-derived tumor-associated colorectal cancer antigen EpCAM (pGA733) at high yields using two modern plant expression systems. The full antigenic domain of EpCAM was efficiently purified to confirm its antigenic and immunogenic properties as compared to those of the antigen expressed in the baculovirus system (bGA733).

[The evaluation of the spread of the somatic development parameters (weight, height, BMI) over the population the first-year students of the Medical University of Silesia].

Because of spreading increase of the percentage of obese people in our society, there exists a need to draw attention of young people to this problem. In the investigation the positive measures of somatic growth (weight and height) in the assessment of the intensity of overweight, or obesity were used. In the research 518 women and 323 males were involved, first year students of Medical University of Silesia, admitted in Student's Ambulatory of Medical University of Silesia in years 1989-1993.

Plant-derived anti-Lewis Y mAb exhibits biological activities for efficient immunotherapy against human cancer cells.

Although current demands for therapeutic mAbs are growing quickly, production methods to date, including in vitro mammalian tissue culture and transgenic animals, provide only limited quantities at high cost. Several tumor-associated antigens in tumor cells have been identified as targets for therapeutic mAbs. Here we describe the production of mAb BR55-2 (IgG2a) in transgenic plants that recognizes the nonprotein tumor-associated antigen Lewis Y oligosaccharide overexpressed in human carcinomas, particularly breast and colorectal cancers.

[The appreciation of the medical students' knowledge concerning the role and work of medical care funds in Polish health care system].

The aim of the research was verification and comparison of the present state of knowledge among the students (of different departments and years ofstudy), about the role ofMedical Care Funds in the up-to-now healthcare system and the patient's rights as far as the students' future profession as doctors, dentists healthcare managers and medical rescuers is concerned. The research was carried out by means of anonymous questionnaire. A uniform "assessment" method was adopted following the principles of didactic measurement.

Inhibition of tumor growth by plant-derived mAb.

The tumor-associated antigen EpCAM (GA733-2) is a highly expressed target on adenocarcinoma cells, as defined by murine mAb CO17-1A. We recently developed a transgenic plant system for the safe and inexpensive production of large quantities of mAb CO17-1A as a future source of clinical-grade protein. Although the glycosylation pattern of plant-derived mAb (mAb(P)) CO17-1A differs considerably from that of the mammalian-derived mAb (mAb(M)), we show here that the biological activity of both mAbs is quite similar.

[Current knowledge among students of the Silesian Medical Academy about the importance and role of medical care funds].

The purpose of this research was verification and comparison of the present state of knowledge among the students of different departments and years of study. The questions concerned the role of Medical Care Funds in the up-to-now healthcare system and the patient's rights as far as the students' future professions as doctors, dentists, healthcare managers and medical rescuers is concerned. The questionnaire included 15 questions referring to the problem of functioning of the medical care institutions after the reform of healthcare services introduced in 1999.

[Self-assessment of nutritinal status in medical students and objective measures of estimating somatic development].

Problem of "obesity epidemic" is still very common, but the knowledge about this is limited and it develops very slowly. Probably it even concerns medical students who are in touch with health problems every day and who will watch over society's health in the future. Available literature estimating people's health is mainly connected with negative measures of human health condition.

[Influence of exposure to cigarette smoke on clinical course of bronchial asthma among Silesian children].

Bronchial asthma belongs to the group of illnesses of allergic and inflammatory origin. Despite numerous research divergent results are described in literature, that is the reason why a decision was made to conduct a careful study of the influence of various factors on induction and clinical course of bronchial asthma among children. The research included 5945 children of 10-11 from 86 primary schools of the Katowice province (presently Silesian province).

[Influence of gas and dust air pollutants on development of asthma in children].

Bronchial asthma belongs to a large group of illnesses of allergic and inflammatory origin. Despite long-term studies still not much is known about the factors inducing children's bronchial asthma. This fact influenced the line of the research.

[Differentiation of students's knowledge of civilization-related diseases].

The goal of the study was to check and compare the current condition of students' knowledge on civilization-related diseases in relation to their future career as doctors, dentists, health care managers. The questionnaire consisted of 15 closed questions concerning civilization-related diseases. As opposed to majority of studies referring to this problem uniform method of assessment in accordance with the principles of didactic measurement was applied.

Simultaneous radiotherapy and radioimmunotherapy of malignant gliomas with anti-EGFR antibody labelled with iodine 125. Preliminary results.

Background: In this paper we present the preliminary results of a prospective trial of the efficacy of simultaneous radiotherapy and anti-EGFR (125)I radioimmunotherapy of malignant gliomas with 2 years' total survival as the end-point, raising the question whether anti-EGFR (125)I radioimmunotherapy influences the disease-free survival in these patients.

Material And Methods: Patients with anaplastic astrocytoma or primary glioblastoma were previously treated by a macroscopically radical neurosurgical approach and randomized either to radiotherapy + radioimmunotherapy arm or treated by radiotherapy alone. Seven patients were included in the group with radioimmunotherapy, among them five with GBM and two with AA, and five patients in the control arm.

Immunization with a plant-produced colorectal cancer antigen.

Cancer vaccination has become an important focus of oncology in recent years. Active immunization with tumor-associated antigens such as colorectal cancer antigen GA733-2 is thought to potentially overcome the reoccurrence of metastasis. As recombinant protein production in bioreactors is costly and subject to growing safety concerns, we tested plants as an alternative for the expression of a potential colorectal cancer vaccine.

Application of liquid separation techniques to the determination of the main urinary nicotine metabolites.

A rapid procedure for the analysis of the main nicotine metabolites (cotinine, trans-3'-hydroxycotinine) in urine has been worked out. The procedure includes isolation of nicotine and its metabolites from urine by means solid-liquid extraction technique using resin Amberlite XAD-2 and then quantitation by the use of thin-layer chromatography with densitometry (in reflection mode). GC-MS was applied to confirm the results obtained by TLC.

[Alice Hamilton (1869-1970): a pioneer of occupational medicine and public health].

Dr. Alice Hamilton (1869-1970) was the mother of occupational health a pioneer in public health in the United States. She worked as a doctor in Hull House, the first settlement house, and she was an advocate of the birth-control movement.

Vaccination with carbohydrate peptide mimotopes promotes anti-tumor responses.

Tumor-associated carbohydrate (TAC) antigens are important targets in cancer vaccine efforts. Carbohydrates are, however, frequently poor immunogens, in that they are T-cell-independent antigens. Molecular mimicry of TAC by peptides is an alternative approach to generating anti-carbohydrate immune responses.

Towards the development of peptide mimotopes of carbohydrate antigens as cancer vaccines.

Tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens are considered important targets in efforts to develop cancer vaccines. To further enhance vaccine efforts, we are developing peptide mimotopes of tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens that can elicit functional immune responses. Mapping peptide epitopes with anticarbohydrate antibodies can lend to defining structural relationships that can go undetected by screening of carbohydrate antigens alone.

Antigenic and immunological mimicry of peptide mimotopes of Lewis carbohydrate antigens.

Peptides may substitute for carbohydrates in reactions with carbohydrate-specific molecules. Recently, we found that peptides containing aromatic residues mimic mucin and histo-blood group related carbohydrate epitopes, eliciting polyclonal responses cross-reactive with bacterial and viral antigens that express these carbohydrate forms. These results demonstrate that peptides can function in in vivo and in vitro models as carbohydrate surrogate antigens.

[Level of stress during pregnancy estimated by mothers and average weight of newborns and frequency of low birth weight].

Low birth weight is still important health problem in many countries. Children's low birth weight increases mortality, injures central nervous system, somatic, interferes with intellectual and emotional development. Low birth weight is frequently occurring in Poland--between 7-9% of live births.

Peptide mimicry of carbohydrate epitopes on human immunodeficiency virus.

Cancer-related, mucin-type carbohydrate epitopes, principally mannose and sialo-syl residues, are expressed on the envelope protein gp 160 of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Anticarbohydrate antibodies directed toward these and other carbohydrate epitopes are known to neutralize HIV-1 infection by cell-free virus. Carbohydrates, however, being T cell-independent antigens, typically elicit diminished immune responses.