Synergistic Effect of the Combined Action of Targeted and Photodynamic Therapy on HER2-Positive Breast Cancer.

Development of combined schemes for the treatment of oncological diseases is a promising strategy to improve the effectiveness of antitumor therapy. This paper shows the fundamental possibility of multiplying the antitumor effect by combining targeted and photodynamic therapy. It was demonstrated that sequential treatment of HER-2 positive breast cancer cells with the targeted toxin DARPin-LoPE and the photoactive compound photodithazine leads to a synergistic enhancement of their effect. In the future, this approach is intended to achieve the maximum therapeutic effect while minimizing the risks of negative side effects.

[Variability of the plasma proteome in healthy people (report 1)].

The last decade has seen intense development of proteomic technologies have opened new perspectives for rapid large-scale screening of biological samples in order to find biomarkers of various diseases or conditions. However, in order to adequately evaluate the possibility of using protein as a biomarker, it is necessary to know how much its concentration varies widely in healthy people. This project aims to explore the limits of the concentration of protein components of plasma in healthy people.

Cancer-specific MALDI-TOF profiles of blood serum and plasma: biological meaning and perspectives.

MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry has become a popular tool of cancer research during the last decade. High throughput and relative simplicity of this technology have made it attractive for biomarker discovery and validation across various platforms in blood serum/plasma. Many technical approaches have been developed for plasma/serum profiling including protein-chip based SELDI-TOF mass-spectrometry, purification of serum on magnetic beads, analysis of carrier-associated fraction and mass-spectrometric immunoassays. Extensive data about the identity of differential features detected on mass-spectra up to now makes it possible to draw conclusions about potency and perspectives of MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry in this field. A great majority of identified differentially expressed proteins are either house-keeping or inflammatory proteins as well as their modifications or fragments. Discriminating ability of mass-spectra is likely to be based on differential modification and fragmentation patterns of abundant serum proteins reflecting activity of enzymes including proteases and their inhibitors.

[Comparative study of methods for isolating glucose isomerase from Streptomyces albogriseolus mycelium]. / Sravnitel'noe izuchenie sposobov vydeleniia gliukozoizomerazy iz mitseliia Streptomyces albogriseolus.

Different procedures for disintegrating the biomass of Streptomyces albogriseolus were compared, and the recovery of glucose isomerase was analysed for each of the procedures. The following techniques were tested: disintegration of the mycelium with ultrasound and with pressure, autolysis in the presence of lysozyme and in its absence. The yields of the enzyme and total protein were found to depend on the time during which the biomass was treated. The effect of different procedures for isolating the enzyme on its recovery and activity is discussed.