Baseline neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-lymphocyte ratio appear predictive of immune treatment related toxicity in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: A well-recognized class effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) is immune-related adverse events (IrAEs) ranging from low grade toxicities to life-threatening end organ damage requiring permanent discontinuation of ICI. Deaths are reported in < 5% of patients treated with ICI. There are, however, no reliable markers to predict the onset and severity of IrAEs.

Tandem Recruitment and Foraging in the Ponerine Ant Pachycondyla harpax (Fabricius).

Tandem running is a common recruitment strategy in ant species with small colony sizes. During a tandem run, an informed leader guides a usually naïve nestmate to a food source or a nest site. Some species perform tandem runs only during house hunting, suggesting that tandem running does not always improve foraging success in species known to use tandem running as a recruitment strategy, but more natural history information on tandem running under natural conditions is needed to better understand the adaptive significance of tandem recruitment in foraging.

A method to quantitatively trap volatilized organoselenides for stable selenium isotope analysis.

If volatile organoselenides are to be analyzed for their stable Se isotope composition to elucidate sources and formation processes, organoselenides need to be trapped quantitatively to avoid artificial Se isotope fractionation. We developed an efficient trap of organoselenides to be used in microcosms designed to determine the Se isotope fractionation by microbial transformation of inorganic Se to volatile organoselenides. The recoveries of volatilized dimethyldiselenide (DMDSe) from aqueous standard solutions by activated charcoal and alkaline peroxide solution with subsequent freeze-drying and purification via a cation exchange resin were tested.

Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their oxygen-containing derivatives and metabolites in soils.

Although polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been extensively studied, the knowledge of their oxygen-containing derivatives and metabolites (OPAHs) in soils is limited. We modified and tested an existing analytical protocol involving pressurized liquid extraction of soil followed by fractionation of target compounds into PAHs and OPAHs on a silica gel column and gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry-based separation and quantification. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and carbonyl-OPAHs were quantified directly after separation on silica gel columns, and hydroxyl/carboxyl-OPAHs were quantified after silylation with N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide.

Molecular evolution of the globin gene cluster E in two distantly related midges, Chironomus pallidivittatus and C. thummi thummi.

We have studied the evolutionary dynamics of a cluster of insect globin genes by comparing the organization and sequence of the gene group in two distantly related species, Chironomus pallidivittatus and C. t. thummi.

Second malignancies.

The secondary development of malignant tumors after the treatment of Hodgkin's disease has been termed the price of success, but is relevant also to other types of cancer and gives an opportunity to study mechanisms of carcinogenesis and tumor induction. The authors review here their experience with second malignant neoplasms (SMN) as well as the result of an extensive search of the recent literature. The primary malignancies discussed in this article include Hodgkin's disease, pediatric cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and other types of tumors.

[Therapy and prognosis of tuberculosis].

Treatment and prognosis of tuberculosis. Worldwide the so-called short-course chemotherapy has become the standard treatment for tuberculosis. The 6-month regimen consists of isoniazid, rifampin, and pyrazinamid given for 2 month followed by isoniazid and rifampin for 4 month.

The hiv tat gene is a promoter of epidermal skin tumors.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients have a very high incidence (>90%) of neoplastic and non-neoplastic skin disorders. The proliferative lesions frequently involve the epidermis and include squamous and basal cell carcinomas, and the papulosquamous diseases of seborrheic dermatitis and psoriasis. Although the role played by HIV in the development of these proliferative skin lesions is not clear, there are several lines of evidence suggesting that HIV may play a causative role.

Oncogene-associated transformation of rodent fibroblasts is accompanied by large morphologic and metabolic alterations.

Cellular growth, proliferative activity, cell volume and metabolism of four differently transformed cell lines were investigated. Studies were carried out with spontaneously immortalized and poorly tumorigenic Rat1 cells, c-mycl-transfected and non-tumorigenic M1 fibroblasts, as well as their T24Ha-ras-(co)-transfected counterparts Rat1-T1 and MR1. Ras-transfection of both Rat1 and M1 cells, which is associated with aggressive tumor growth in vivo, caused significant morphological alterations, namely a 30-50% decrease in cell volume.

Proliferation and oxygenation status of widr spheroids in different lactate and oxygen environments.

Human colon adenocarcinoma cells WiDr were cultured as monolayers or multicellular spheroids in 5% or 20% (v/v) oxygen and in various external lactate concentrations of 0-20 mM. Doubling times and H-3-thymidine labeling indices of exponential monolayer cells indicated that there was no difference in growth behavior between the two oxygen environments, yet these parameters reflected a growth retardation upon elevation of lactate. Growth of WiDr spheroids was retarded in both low oxygen and high lactate concentrations.