Visual field and ocular safety during short-term vigabatrin treatment in cocaine abusers.

Purpose: To evaluate the ocular safety of short-term vigabatrin treatment of cocaine abuse.

Design: Multicenter, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-masked, parallel assignment study.

Methods: Cocaine addicts were randomized to receive vigabatrin 3000 mg/day, cumulative dose 218 g (n = 92), or placebo (n = 94) for 12 weeks.

First clinical trial of a novel caspase inhibitor: anti-apoptotic caspase inhibitor, IDN-6556, improves liver enzymes.

Objective: To evaluate the safety of IDN-6556, a novel anti-apoptotic pan-caspase inhibitor, administered in single and multiple ascending doses in normal volunteers and patients with hepatic dysfunction.

Materials And Methods: IDN-6556 was administered as a 30-minute intravenous infusion in rising doses to 3 groups: Group A, normal volunteers, given as a single infusion, Group B, normal volunteers, given q.i.

Induction of cross clade reactive specific antibodies in mice by conjugates of HGP-30 (peptide analog of HIV-1(SF2) p17) and peptide segments of human beta-2-microglobulin or MHC II beta chain.

HGP-30, a 30 amino acid synthetic peptide homologous to a conserved region of HIV-1(SF2) p17 (aa86-115), has previously been shown to elicit both cellular and humoral immune responses when conjugated to KLH and adsorbed to alum. However, the free HGP-30 peptide is not immunogenic in animals. In order to improve the immunogenicity of HGP-30, peptide conjugates consisting of a modified HGP-30 sequence (m-HGP-30/aa82-111) and a peptide segment, residues 38-50, of the MHC I accessory molecule, human beta-2-microglobulin (beta-2-M), referred to as Peptide J, or a peptide from the MHC II beta chain (peptide G) were evaluated in mice.

Flt3 ligand enhances the immunogenicity of a gag-based HIV-1 vaccine.

Liposomes and Flt3 ligand (Flt3L), a ligand for the fms-like tyrosine kinase receptor Flt3/ FLK2, can augment the immune response to an HIV peptide vaccine. The HGP-30 peptide used in these studies is a synthetic peptide that corresponds to a highly conserved region of HIV-1 p17 gag (amino acids 86-115). Mice were immunized with HGP-30 or HGP-30 conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) and delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) responses, antibody (IgG) amount and antigen-specific proliferative responses by spleen cells were used to monitor the immune response.

Immunologic approaches to the treatment of prostate cancer.

The presence of several organ-specific molecules that could serve as immunogens or targets of an immune attack, the nonessential nature of the prostate gland, the substantial failure rate after treatment of the primary tumor, and the lack of effective chemotherapy for metastatic disease make prostate cancer an ideal candidate for immunotherapy. This report reviews the current status of two novel approaches to the treatment of prostate cancer. The first is an effort to induce antitumor immunity by enriching the cytokine environment within the primary cancer by intraprostatic injection of Leukocyte Interleukin (Cel-Sci Corp, Vienna, VA), a mixture of natural cytokines that includes interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta), IL-2, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interferon gamma (IFN-gamma), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha).

Cross-clade p17 peptide recognition by antisera to HGP-30, a 30-amino acid synthetic peptide antigen from HIV type 1 p17.

HGP-30, a 30-amino acid synthetic peptide analog of HIV-1SF2 p17 (aa 86-115), was used to immunize both mice and humans. Since the amino acid sequence of HGP-30 is relatively conserved among different HIV-1 strains and clades, experiments were carried out to determine if antisera obtained by immunizing animals and humans can recognize HGP-30-related peptide consensus sequences belonging to different clades. Results show that antisera from mice immunized with HGP-30 can recognize clade B and C and to a lesser degree clade A and E consensus sequences of HIV-1, in addition to recognizing HGP-30 sequence.

Detection of soft-tissue infections and osteomyelitis using a technetium-99m-labeled anti-granulocyte monoclonal antibody fragment.

Unlabelled: Imaging of osteomyelitis and soft-tissue infections can be problematic with currently available agents; bone scans are often false-positive. Indium-111-oxine and 99mTc-HMPAO white blood cell (WBC) scans require ex vivo handling of blood with potential exposure to infectious agents, and 99mTc-antigranulocyte (IgG1) antibodies need 24 hr for final diagnosis.

Methods: We investigated the use of 99mTc-murine anti-granulocyte monoclonal Fab' fragment in 20 patients with suspected osteomyelitis of soft-tissue infections.

Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and the genital mycoplasmas in a nonmetropolitan population.

Results of cultures from patients with nonspecific urethritis (NSU) during a 4-year period were retrospectively analyzed. NSU cultures included chlamydiae and mycoplasmas. Seventy-five of 2,408 cultures run by the Missoula Community Hospital microbiology laboratory were positive for chlamydiae (3%).