A thermostable messenger RNA based vaccine against rabies.

Although effective rabies virus vaccines have been existing for decades, each year, rabies virus infections still cause around 50.000 fatalities worldwide. Most of these cases occur in developing countries, where these vaccines are not available.

Comparison of stab wound probing versus radiological stab wound channel depiction with contrast medium.

Background: Instillation of contrast medium into stab wounds has shown promising results regarding visibility and assessment of general stab direction with computed tomography. However, the accuracy of this method--and, incidentally also probing of stab wounds--has to our knowledge not previously been examined. Also the effect of bluntness of different stabbing objects on the examination of stab wounds was not considered before this study.

A picture is worth a thousand words--the utility of 3D visualization illustrated by a case of survived pancreatic transection.

It is one of the most important tasks of the forensic pathologist to explain the forensically relevant medical findings to medical non-professionals. However, it is often difficult to comment on the nature and potential consequences of organ injuries in a comprehensive way to individuals with limited knowledge of anatomy and physiology. This rare case of survived pancreatic transaction after kicks to the abdomen illustrates how the application of dedicated software programs for three-dimensional reconstruction can overcome these difficulties, allowing for clear and concise visualization of complex findings.

Fatal lower extremity varicose vein rupture.

Varicose vein rupture is a rare cause of death, although varicosities are a common pathology. We present three cases of sudden death due to varicose vein rupture. After a review of the literature, the case circumstances and the findings of imaging examination, performed in two cases, are presented.

A modified random oligonucleotide-based combination therapy for adjuvant treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Anti-cancer therapy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is mostly based on surgical removal or palliative therapy using antimetabolites, like 5'-fluorouracil or gemcitabine. Adjuvant treatment using these chemotherapeutics has recently proven a beneficial concept, though general survival rates are still poor. Most recently, combination therapy of gemcitabine with other targeted drugs was evaluated in clinical trials.

Co-transfection of messenger RNA and siRNA as a method to study the efficiency of siRNA.

The definition of an optimal siRNA results from the in vitro testing of several siRNA designed to specifically target a gene. Usually, such in vitro tests consist in the transfection of the several siRNA duplexes in a cell expressing stably the gene of interest. When a siRNA specific for a mRNA coding toxic proteins (certain transcription factors, transporters, toxins, cell cycle controlling proteins, etc.

Spontaneous formation of nucleic acid-based nanoparticles is responsible for high interferon-alpha induction by CpG-A in plasmacytoid dendritic cells.

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC) represent a highly specialized immune cell subset that produces large quantities of the anti-viral cytokines type I interferons (IFN-alpha and IFN-beta) upon viral infection. PDC employ a member of the family of toll-like receptors, TLR9, to detect CpG motifs (unmethylated CG dinucleotides in certain base context) present in viral DNA. A certain group of CpG motif-containing oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG ODN), CpG-A, was the first synthetic stimulus available that induced large amounts of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) in PDC.

Terminally modified oligodeoxynucleotides directed against p53 in an orthotopic xenograft model: a novel adjuvant treatment strategy for pancreatic ductal carcinoma.

Objectives: Investigation of a terminally modified oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) directed against p53 mRNA (p53-3' polyethylene glycol-5' tocopherol ODN as a novel drug for pancreatic ductal carcinoma therapy in vitro and in vivo.

Methods: The impact of lipophilic modifications at the 5' end of p53-directed ODNs on cellular uptake was analyzed in vitro using proliferation assays, fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis, and confocal laser scanning microscopy. The in vivo effects of p53-PT-ODN on the growth of orthotopically xenografted human pancreatic ductal carcinoma cells (PancTuI) were studied in SCID beige mice.