Sweet neutron crystallography.

Extremely sweet proteins isolated from tropical fruit extracts are promising healthy alternatives to sugar and synthetic sweeteners. Sweetness and taste in general are, however, still poorly understood. The engineering of stable sweet proteins with tailored properties is made difficult by the lack of supporting high-resolution structural data. Experimental information on charge distribution, protonation states and solvent structure are vital for an understanding of the mechanism through which sweet proteins interact with taste receptors. Neutron studies of the crystal structures of sweet proteins allow a detailed study of these biophysical properties, as illustrated by a neutron study on the native protein thaumatin in which deuterium labelling was used to improve data quality.

Long-term response of isolated limb perfusion with hyperthermia and chemotherapy for Merkel cell carcinoma.

INTRODUCTION: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a very rare and aggressive neoplasm. Due to its rarity, therapeutic guidelines are not well established, especially for regionally advanced disease. Hyperthermic isolated limb perfusion (HILP) with Melphalan and either with or without tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is becoming more common in clinical practice, yet the long-term response is not clear. Previous reports have established indications for treatment of unresectable MCC as well as the outcome of MCC patients receiving perfusion treatment in combination with other therapies (e.g., radiation). METHOD: A review was performed of the most important articles in MEDLINE from the last 20 years related to HILP and MCC. It was possible to collect all cases of HILP from the literature. Details of one case of MCC where HILP was administered was included in the literature review. RESULTS: A total of nine cases of MCC receiving ILP were identified in the literature; of these, seven achieved a complete response, one a partial response and one no response. All five patients treated without TNF-alpha had a complete response. Of the four patients treated with TNF-alpha, two had complete, one partial and one no response. CONCLUSION: Based on the cases described, isolated limb perfusion is an acceptable option to treat regional advanced cases of MCC, and the use of TNF-alpha does not impact the overall response.

Mexican use of lead in the treatment of empacho: community, clinic, and longitudinal patterns.

This paper discusses research designed to investigate community, clinic, and longitudinal patterns in use of lead as a treatment for empacho, a folk illness manifest by gastrointestinal symptoms. The same questionnaire used in a clinic-based study seven years previously in Guadalajara, Mexico, was used to interview a randomly selected community sample: in addition, the study was repeated at the same clinic sites that had been studied previously. The goals were to investigate: (1) What are community wide prevalences of empacho and use of lead based remedies? (2) To what extent are current patterns of use of lead for treatment of empacho in clinic-based samples similar to those seven years ago. The attributable risk to the population as a whole from use of lead based remedies was found to be 11% of the households of Guadalajara. Essentially this same estimate was seen for the 1987 and 1994 clinic populations. Interestingly, while percentages of lead users have declined since 1987, twice as great a percentage of informants reported treating empacho. Other patterns originally identified in 1987 persisted in 1994; lead use continues to be associated with lower levels of parental education and income.