Considerations on the impact of hepatic encephalopathy treatments in the pretransplant setting.

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common complication of acute and chronic liver disease associated with exposure of brain tissue to excessive levels of ammonia produced by intestinal bacteria. Clinical manifestations range from subtle neurologic abnormalities to coma. Because development of HE can reduce survival probability, guidelines for evaluating patients for liver transplantation suggest that patients who develop HE should be considered for transplantation.

Novel hydroxyl naphthoquinones with potent Cdc25 antagonizing and growth inhibitory properties.

Cdc25 phosphatases are important in cell cycle control and activate cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdk). Efforts are currently under way to synthesize specific small-molecule Cdc25 inhibitors that might have anticancer properties. NSC 95397, a protein tyrosine phosphatase antagonist from the National Cancer Institute library, was reported to be a potent Cdc25 inhibitor.

Survival after gamma interferon intratumoral injections in a model of hepatocarcinoma.

Background/aims: Short-term efficacy of local gamma interferon delivered via a single injection of an adenovirus-gamma interferon vector has been reported in immunocompetent animals which develop spontaneous liver cancer. However the long-term outcome was not examined. The aim of this randomized trial was to assess in an immunodeficient mouse ectopic model the benefit, if any, of the long-term efficacy of intratumoral injections of gamma interferon itself.

Fluorinated quinoid inhibitor: possible "pure" arylator predicted by the simple theoretical calculation.

We report on the fluorinated form of Cpd 5 as a cell growth inhibitor. This compound is 3-fold more potent than the parent Cpd 5 and is predicted, using the semi-empirical AM1 method to be only an arylator of cysteine-containing proteins, without generating reactive oxygen species.