BackgroundWhile the concept of angiogenesis blockade as a therapeutic intervention for cancer has been repeatedly demonstrated, the full promise of this approach has yet to be realized. Specifically, drugs such as VEGF-blocking antibodies or kinase inhibitors suffer from the drawbacks of resistance development, as well as off-target toxicities. Pre...
VEGF signaling through VEGFR-2 is the major factor in glioblastoma angiogenesis. CT-322, a pegylated protein engineered from the 10th type III human fibronectin domain, binds the VEGFR-2 extracellular domain with high specificity and affinity to block VEGF-induced VEGFR-2 signaling. This study evaluated CT-322 in an open-label run-in/phase 2 settin...
Combining dendritic cell vaccination with the adjuvant effect of a strain of dengue virus may be a way to overcome known tumor immune evasion mechanisms. Dengue is unique among viruses as primary infections carry lower mortality than the common cold, but secondary infections carry significant risk of hypovolemic shock. While current immuno-therapie...
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) continues to embody as a mammoth public health problem and hurdle to the socioeconomic development of Bihar, India. Interestingly, all leishmanial infections do not lead to overt clinical disease and may stay asymptomatic for a period of time. Asymptomatic cases of VL are considered as probable potential reservoirs of VL...
Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has been at the forefront of cancer imaging since the early 2000s. Before its application in clinical oncology, this powerful technique had already achieved widespread recognition due to its utility in the diagnosis of cerebral infarction. Following this initial success, the ability of DWI to detect inherent tissue ...
EGFRvIII is a key oncogene in glioblastoma (GBM). EGFRvIII results from an in-frame deletion in the extracellular domain of EGFR, does not bind ligand and is thought to be constitutively active. Although EGFRvIII dimerization is known to activate EGFRvIII, the factors that drive EGFRvIII dimerization and activation are not well understood. Here we ...
Scott, Brian J.van Vugt, Vincent A.Rush, ToniBrown, TiffanyChen, Clark C.Carter, Bob S.Schwab, RichardFanta, PaulHelsten, TeresaBazhenova, Lyudmila
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Leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) from solid tumors is typically a late manifestation of systemic cancer with limited survival. Randomized trials comparing single agent intrathecal methotrexate to liposomal cytarabine have shown similar efficacy and tolerability. We hypothesized that combination intrathecal chemotherapy would be a safe and tolerable o...
There is a great interest in targeting and selective ablation of populations of circulating cells for research or therapeutic purposes. Red blood cells (RBCs) are readily available and fully biocompatible long-circulating intravascular carriers (natural life is 120days) that are amenable to chemical modifications, drug loading and reinjection. Here...
BackgroundGlioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive disease associated with poor survival. It is essential to account for the complexity of GBM biology to improve diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. This complexity is best represented by the increasing amounts of profiling (“omics”) data available due to advances in biotechnology. The challenge of int...
BackgroundPrimary and secondary brain cancers are highly treatment resistant, and their marked angiogenesis attracts interest as a potential therapeutic target. Recent observations reveal that the microvascular endothelium of primary high-grade gliomas expresses prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA). Breast cancers express PSMA and they frequen...