comprehensive review of clinical trials on EGFR inhibitors such as cetuximab and panitumumab as monotherapy and in combination for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer

Metastatic colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cause of death due to cancer after those of lung, stomach, and liver. Anti epidermal growth factor receptor drugs as a targeting therapy seem to be good candidates for curing metastatic colorectal cancer. Two available anti epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibodies are cetuximab and panitumumab which have been approved for metastatic colorectal cancer treatment. Through the available literature on NCBI and clinical trials, 31 clinical trials in which cetuximab or panitumumab as monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy were used for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer patients in different line settings and 12 clinical trials in which bevacizumab was used for being compared with anti epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibodies or chemotherapy were chosen for reviewing and comparing the results of overall survival, progression free survival and adverse effects. Cetuximab and panitumumab are well accepted for the treatment of mCRC patients at all stages in different line settings. Although cetuximab administration in metastatic colorectal cancer patients is mostly associated with better overall survival and panitumumab results in better progression free survival, to confirm the superiority of each of them in the treatment protocol of epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibodies, more clinical trials with larger sample size are needed. Through current available data from clinical studies, it can be concluded that the best treatment outcome is achieved by a combination of anti epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibodies with conventional chemotherapy

Th1 immune response induction by biogenic selenium nanoparticles in mice with breast cancer: preliminary vaccine model

Background: tumor associated antigens can be viably used to enhance host immune response

Objectives: the immunomodulatory effect of biogenic selenium nanoparticles [SeNPs] was compared between treated and untreated mice with crude antigens of 4T1 cells

Materials and Methods: female inbred BALB/c mice [60] were injected by cancinogenic 4T1 cells causing breast cancer. After 10 days, all tumor bearing mice were divided into 4 groups. Group 1 was daily provided oral PBS and injected by the same buffer after tumor induction and was considered as control. Group 2 received only 100 [micro]g/day SeNPs as an oral supplement for 30 days. Group 3 was only injected with 4T1 cells crude antigens with nil supplementation of SeNPs. Group 4 animals were supplemented 100 [micro]g/day SeNPs for 30 days and simultaneously injected with crude antigens of 4T1 cells. All antigens or PBS injections were introduced at 7, 14 and 28 days following tumor induction. Oral PBS and SeNPs supplementation initiated from the first day of tumor induction and continued up to 30 days. During tumor growth, animal weights and survival rates were monitored and at the end of the study the concentrations of different cytokines and DTH responses were measured

Results: data clearly showed that the levels of cellular immunomodulatory components [granzyme B, IL-12, IFN-[lambada], and IL-2] significantly increased [P < 0.05] in mice treated with both SeNPs and crude antigens of 4T1 cells in comparison to the other groups. In contrast, the levels of TGF-[beta] in these mice decreased

Conclusions: although SeNPs showed a noticeable boosting effect for the immune response in mice bearing tumor exposed to crude antigens of 4T1 cells, further complementary studies seem to be inevitable

Use of artificial neural networks to examine parameters affecting the immobilization of streptokinase in chitosan

Streptokinase is a potent fibrinolytic agent which is widely used in treatment of deep vein thrombosis [DVT], pulmonary embolism [PE] and acute myocardial infarction [MI]. Major limitation of this enzyme is its short biological half-life in the blood stream. Our previous report showed that complexing streptokinase with chitosan could be a solution to overcome this limitation. The aim of this research was to establish an artificial neural networks [ANNs] model for identifying main factors influencing the loading efficiency of streptokinase, as an essential parameter determining efficacy of the enzyme. Three variables, namely, chitosan concentration, buffer pH and enzyme concentration were considered as input values and the loading efficiency was used as output. Subsequently, the experimental data were modeled and the model was validated against a set of unseen data. The developed model indicated chitosan concentration as probably the most important factor, having reverse effect on the loading efficiency

GC/MS analysis of Citrus aurantium L. hydrolate and its comparison with the commercial samples

The chemical composition of the Hydrolate of Citrus aurantium L. [Rutaceae] flowers [neroli] grown in Iran, and two commercial hydrolates were analyzed by GC/MS. Thirty compounds [90.3%] were identified in the Hydrolate by the use of laboratory apparatus, thirty-eight compounds [83.4%] in the Hydrolate from the traditional method and fifteen compounds [98.3%] in the industrially produced sample. The major compounds within the Hydrolate obtained in the laboratory were geraniol [26.6%], alpha-terpineol [20.7%], linalool [15.4%] and benzene acetaldehyde [5.5%]. Linalool [44.1%], methyl anthranilate [11.8%] and cis-linalool oxide [6.1%] were found in high percentages in the Hydrolate from the obtained traditional sample. 1,8-Cineol [15.9%], linalool [13.8%] and alpha-terpineol [6.6%] were more than other constituents in the industrially obtained hydrolate

Process for isolating and purifying stigmasterol and sitosterol derived products from glycine max seeds

Two major sterol dos soybean, Glycine max L. [Leguminosae], were isolated with Thin Layer Chromatography [TLC] and argentic TLC. They were examined using NMR, IR and MS instrumental analysis and identified as stigmasterol [stigmast-5, 22-dien-3beta-ol] acetate and sitosterol [stigmast-5-en-3beta-ol] acetate