Los "equibióticos" ni combate ni Resistencia / The "equibiotics": no combato resistance

Investigando las propiedades de plantas que suelen ser usadas con propósitos anti-infecciosos en las medicinas populares, postulamos que la acción de ciertas combinaciones de extractos con acción antimicrobiana se da a la par de un efecto de preservación y fortalecimiento del equilibrio normal de la microbiota local en el huésped. A tales fitomedicamentos proponemos denominarlos "equibióticos" (que equilibran la microbiota) y a las dos vías de actuación bajos las que actúan: "auferobiótica" (que inactiva a los microorganismos patógenos) y "alerebiótica" (que protege y reconstruye la conformación normal de la microbiota). Estos productos formarían parte de la nueva tendencia en la búsqueda de fitomedicamentos para detener y prevenir las infecciones, sustentada en un nuevo marco de referencia teóric-práctico en el que la recuperación del equilibrio de la microbioma del huésped suplanta a la idea de exterminación microbiana, generalmente aceptada en otros tiempos(AU)

Investigating the properties of plants often used in traditional medicines for anti.infective purposes, we postúlate the action of certain combinations of extracts that possess antimicrobial properties together with effects on the preservation and strengthening of the normal balance of the host microbiota. For such herbal medicines we propose the term "equibiotics" (that balance the microbiota), and to their two models of action :"auferobiotics" (that inactivate pathogens) and "alerebiotics" (that protect and restore the balance of the biota). Equibiotics have the peculiarity that their bimodal action influences and strengthens the natural ability of the host to regulate the microbiota. These products belong to the global new trend in the search for herbal medicinal products for stopping and preventing infections, based on a new theoretical and practical framework in which the recovery of the balance of the host microbiome substitutes, as goal, the idea of extermination of pathogens, generally accepted in the past(AU)

Engineering and biological characterization of VB6-845, an anti-EpCAM immunotoxin containing a T-cell epitope-depleted variant of the plant toxin bouganin.

The clinical development of immunotoxins in the treatment of solid tumors has been impeded in part, by the induction of an immune response directed primarily against the toxin moiety. Bouganin, a type I ribosome inactivating protein isolated from the leaf of Bougainvillea spectabilis Willd, was mutated to remove the T-cell epitopes while preserving the biological activity of the wild-type molecule. The T-cell epitope-depleted variant of bouganin (de-bouganin) was genetically linked to an anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) Fab moiety via a peptidic linker containing a furin proteolytic site to create the fusion construct VB6-845. To determine the optimal construct design for VB6-845, several dicistronic units where de-bouganin was genetically linked to either the N-terminal or C-terminal of either the heavy or light chain were engineered. Only the C-terminal variants expressed the full-length molecule. An in vitro assessment of the biological activity of VB6-845 showed that it bound and selectively killed EpCAM-positive cell lines with a greater potency than many commonly used chemotherapeutic agents. In vivo efficacy was demonstrated using an EpCAM-positive human tumor xenograft model in SCID mice with the majority of the mice treated being tumor free at the end of the study.