[Lower Back Pain - Specific or Non-Specific?] / Rückenschmerzen.

Lower Back Pain - Specific or Non-Specific? Abstract. Lower back pain is a challenge. A diagnosis that is as accurate as possible is significant for both the treating physician and the patient. With a precise examination, it is often possible to narrow down even the less specific back pain (the so-called "non-specific back pain") and assign it to a clinical syndrome.

Three Novel Antisense Overlapping Genes in E. coli O157:H7 EDL933.

The abundance of long overlapping genes in prokaryotic genomes is likely to be significantly underestimated. To date, only a few examples of such genes are fully established. Using RNA sequencing and ribosome profiling, we found expression of novel overlapping open reading frames in Escherichia coli O157:H7 EDL933 (EHEC). Indeed, the overlapping candidate genes are equipped with typical structural elements required for transcription and translation, i.e., promoters, transcription start sites, as well as terminators, all of which were experimentally verified. Translationally arrested mutants, unable to produce the overlapping encoded protein, were found to have a growth disadvantage when grown competitively against the wild type. Thus, the phenotypes found imply biological functionality of the genes at the level of proteins produced. The addition of 3 more examples of prokaryotic overlapping genes to the currently limited, yet constantly growing pool of such genes emphasizes the underestimated coding capacity of bacterial genomes. IMPORTANCE The abundance of long overlapping genes in prokaryotic genomes is likely to be significantly underestimated, since such genes are not allowed in genome annotations. However, ribosome profiling catches mRNA in the moment of being template for protein production. Using this technique and subsequent experiments, we verified 3 novel overlapping genes encoded in antisense of known genes. This adds more examples of prokaryotic overlapping genes to the currently limited, yet constantly growing pool of such genes.

IMI - oral biopharmaceutics tools project - evaluation of bottom-up PBPK prediction success part 1: Characterisation of the OrBiTo database of compounds.

Predicting oral bioavailability (Foral) is of importance for estimating systemic exposure of orally administered drugs. Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling and simulation have been applied extensively in biopharmaceutics recently. The Oral Biopharmaceutical Tools (OrBiTo) project (Innovative Medicines Initiative) aims to develop and improve upon biopharmaceutical tools, including PBPK absorption models. A large-scale evaluation of PBPK models may be considered the first step. Here we characterise the OrBiTo active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) database for use in a large-scale simulation study. The OrBiTo database comprised 83 APIs and 1475 study arms. The database displayed a median logP of 3.60 (2.40-4.58), human blood-to-plasma ratio of 0.62 (0.57-0.71), and fraction unbound in plasma of 0.05 (0.01-0.17). The database mainly consisted of basic compounds (48.19%) and Biopharmaceutics Classification System class II compounds (55.81%). Median human intravenous clearance was 16.9L/h (interquartile range: 11.6-43.6L/h; n=23), volume of distribution was 80.8L (54.5-239L; n=23). The majority of oral formulations were immediate release (IR: 87.6%). Human Foral displayed a median of 0.415 (0.203-0.724; n=22) for IR formulations. The OrBiTo database was found to be largely representative of previously published datasets. 43 of the APIs were found to satisfy the minimum inclusion criteria for the simulation exercise, and many of these have significant gaps of other key parameters, which could potentially impact the interpretability of the simulation outcome. However, the OrBiTo simulation exercise represents a unique opportunity to perform a large-scale evaluation of the PBPK approach to predicting oral biopharmaceutics.

Role of reflux-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition in periprosthetic leakage after prosthetic voice rehabilitation.

BACKGROUND: Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) contributes to periprosthetic leakage after prosthetic voice rehabilitation. However, underlying mechanisms are unclear, and markers predicting anti-reflux therapy response are missing. METHODS: We assessed epithelial-mesenchymal transition in 148 consecutive biopsies from 44 patients with/without fistula enlargement under dual-probe pH monitoring before and after proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy applying immunohistochemistry. Results were correlated with reflux intensity and clinical and histologic findings. RESULTS: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition correlated with GER in all samples, and patients with fistula enlargement showed higher epithelial-mesenchymal transition scores. Contrary to patients without enlargement, epithelial-mesenchymal transition scores did not regress during therapy in this group. Furthermore, pretherapeutic epithelial-mesenchymal transition scores were lower in therapy responders than in nonresponders without reaching significance (p = .07). CONCLUSION: We demonstrate that epithelial-mesenchymal transition correlates with severity of GER and presence of periprosthetic fistula enlargement in patients who underwent prosthetic voice rehabilitation, but epithelial-mesenchymal transition seems to be reversible upon PPI treatment in early stages only.

DNA double strand breaks as predictor of efficacy of the alpha-particle emitter Ac-225 and the electron emitter Lu-177 for somatostatin receptor targeted radiotherapy.

RATIONALE: Key biologic effects of the alpha-particle emitter Actinium-225 in comparison to the beta-particle emitter Lutetium-177 labeled somatostatin-analogue DOTATOC in vitro and in vivo were studied to evaluate the significance of γH2AX-foci formation. METHODS: To determine the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) between the two isotopes (as - biological consequence of different ionisation-densities along a particle-track), somatostatin expressing AR42J cells were incubated with Ac-225-DOTATOC and Lu-177-DOTATOC up to 48 h and viability was analyzed using the MTT assay. DNA double strand breaks (DSB) were quantified by immunofluorescence staining of γH2AX-foci. Cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. In vivo uptake of both radiolabeled somatostatin-analogues into subcutaneously growing AR42J tumors and the number of cells displaying γH2AX-foci were measured. Therapeutic efficacy was assayed by monitoring tumor growth after treatment with activities estimated from in vitro cytotoxicity. RESULTS: Ac-225-DOTATOC resulted in ED50 values of 14 kBq/ml after 48 h, whereas Lu-177-DOTATOC displayed ED50 values of 10 MBq/ml. The number of DSB grew with increasing concentration of Ac-225-DOTATOC and similarly with Lu-177-DOTATOC when applying a factor of 700-fold higher activity compared to Ac-225. Already 24 h after incubation with 2.5-10 kBq/ml, Ac-225-DOTATOC cell-cycle studies showed up to a 60% increase in the percentage of tumor cells in G2/M phase. After 72 h an apoptotic subG1 peak was also detectable. Tumor uptake for both radio peptides at 48 h was identical (7.5%ID/g), though the overall number of cells with γH2AX-foci was higher in tumors treated with 48 kBq Ac-225-DOTATOC compared to tumors treated with 30 MBq Lu-177-DOTATOC (35% vs. 21%). Tumors with a volume of 0.34 ml reached delayed exponential tumor growth after 25 days (44 kBq Ac-225-DOTATOC) and after 21 days (34 MBq Lu-177-DOTATOC). CONCLUSION: γH2AX-foci formation, triggered by beta- and alpha-irradiation, is an early key parameter in predicting response to internal radiotherapy.

Purification of DNA-origami nanostructures by rate-zonal centrifugation.

Most previously reported methods for purifying DNA-origami nanostructures rely on agarose-gel electrophoresis (AGE) for separation. Although AGE is routinely used to yield 0.1-1 µg purified DNA nanostructures, obtaining >100 µg of purified DNA-origami structure through AGE is typically laborious because of the post-electrophoresis extraction, desalting and concentration steps. Here, we present a readily scalable purification approach utilizing rate-zonal centrifugation, which provides comparable separation resolution as AGE. The DNA nanostructures remain in aqueous solution throughout the purification process. Therefore, the desired products are easily recovered with consistently high yield (40-80%) and without contaminants such as residual agarose gel or DNA intercalating dyes. Seven distinct three-dimensional DNA-origami constructs were purified at the scale of 0.1-100 µg (final yield) per centrifuge tube, showing the versatility of this method. Given the commercially available equipment for gradient mixing and fraction collection, this method should be amenable to automation and further scale up for preparation of larger amounts (e.g. milligram quantities) of DNA nanostructures.

Radiosynthesis of a ¹8F-labeled 2,3-diarylsubstituted indole via McMurry coupling for functional characterization of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in vitro and in vivo.

The radiosynthesis of 3-(4-[(18)F]fluorophenyl)-2-(4-methylsulfonylphenyl)-1H-indole [(18)F]-3 as potential PET radiotracer for functional characterization of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in vitro and in vivo is described. [(18)F]-3 was prepared by McMurry cyclization of a (18)F-labeled intermediate with low valent titanium and zinc via a two-step procedure in a remote controlled synthesizer unit including HPLC purification and solid phase extraction. In this way [(18)F]-3 was synthesized in 80 min synthesis time in 10% total decay corrected yield from [(18)F]fluoride in radiochemical purity >98% and a specific activity of 74-91 GBq/µmol (EOS). [(18)F]-3 was evaluated in vitro using pro-inflammatory stimulated THP-1 and COX-2 expressing tumor cell lines (FaDu, A2058, HT-29), where the radiotracer uptake was shown to be consistent with up regulated COX-2 expression. The stability of [(18)F]-3 was determined by incubation in rat whole blood and plasma in vitro and by metabolite analysis of arterial blood samples in vivo, showing with 75% of original compound after 60 min an acceptable high metabolic stability. However, no substantial tumor accumulation of [(18)F]-3 could be observed by dynamic small animal PET studies on HT-29 tumor-bearing mice in vivo. This may be due to the only moderate COX-1/COX-2 selectivity of 3 as demonstrated by both cellular and enzymatic cyclooxygenase inhibition assay in vitro. Nevertheless, the new approach first using McMurry cyclization in (18)F-chemistry gives access to (18)F-labeled diarylsubstituted heterocycles that hold promise as radiolabeled COX-2 inhibitors.

Cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (cdk4/6) inhibitors: perspectives in cancer therapy and imaging.

Cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (Cdk4/6) are important components of cell cycle activation and control in early G(1) phase. Both enzymes and their regulators, e.g., cyclins, play critical roles in embryogenesis, homeostasis, and cancerogenesis. Cdk4/6 are attractive targets for cancer treatment. Recently, numerous selective small molecule inhibitors of Cdk4/6 have been developed. The potential of Cdk4/6 inhibitors, particularly, pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives, as both anti-cancer drugs and 124I- and 18F-radiolabeled tracers for cancer imaging using positron emission tomography is discussed.

Radiosynthesis and radiopharmacological evaluation of cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (Cdk4) inhibitors.

Tumor cells are characterized by their loss of growth control resulting from alterations in regulating pathways of the cell cycle, such as a deregulated cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) activity and/or Cdk expression. Appropriately radiolabeled Cdk4 inhibitors are discussed as promising molecular probes for imaging cell proliferation processes and tumor visualization by PET. This work describes the design, synthesis and radiopharmacological evaluation of two (124)I-labeled Cdk4 inhibitors as potential radiotracers for imaging of Cdk4 in vivo. Treatment of a solution containing labeling precursors with [(124)I]NaI gave radiolabeled Cdk4 inhibitors [(124)I]CKIA and [(124)I]CKIB in radiochemical yields of up to 35%. (124)I-labeled radiotracers [(124)I]CKIA and [(124)I]CKIB were used in cell uptake studies as well as biodistribution studies in Wistar rats and small-animal PET in tumor-bearing mice. In vitro radiotracer uptake studies in adherent tumor cells using [(124)I]CKIA showed substantial uptake in HT-29 and FaDu cells (750-850 %ID/mg protein [(124)I]CKIA and 900-1000 %ID/mg protein [(124)I]CKIB) after 1 h at 37 degrees C. Biodistribution of [(124)I]CKIA and [(124)I]CKIB showed rapid blood clearance of radioactivity and an accumulation as well as metabolization in the liver. Both radiotracers were administered intravenously to mouse FaDu xenograft tumor model and imaging studies were performed on a small-animal PET scanner. Both imaging techniques showed only little uptake of both radiotracers in the FaDu tumor xenografts.

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The cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk)-cyclin D/retinoblastoma (pRb)/E2F cascade, which controls the G1/S transition of cell cycle, has been found to be altered in many neoplasias. Inhibition of this pathway by using, for example, selective Cdk4 inhibitors has been suggested to be a promising approach for cancer therapy. We hypothesized that appropriately radiolabeled Cdk4 inhibitors are suitable probes for tumor imaging and may be helpful studying cell proliferation processes in vivo by positron emission tomography. Herein, we report the synthesis and biological, biochemical, and radiopharmacological characterizations of two (124)I-labeled small molecule Cdk4 inhibitors (8-cyclopentyl-6-iodo-5-methyl-2-(4-piperazin-1-yl-phenylamino)-8H-pyrido[2,3-d]-pyrimidin-7-one (CKIA) and 8-cyclopentyl-6-iodo-5-methyl-2-(5-(piperazin-1-yl)-pyridin-2-yl-amino)-8H-pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidin-7-one (CKIB)). Our data demonstrate a defined and specific inhibition of tumor cell proliferation through CKIA and CKIB by inhibition of the Cdk4/pRb/E2F pathway emphasizing potential therapeutic benefit of CKIA and CKIB. Furthermore, radiopharmacological properties of [(124)I]CKIA and [(124)I]CKIB observed in human tumor cells are promising prerequisites for in vivo biodistribution and imaging studies.

Self-assembly of DNA into nanoscale three-dimensional shapes.

Molecular self-assembly offers a 'bottom-up' route to fabrication with subnanometre precision of complex structures from simple components. DNA has proved to be a versatile building block for programmable construction of such objects, including two-dimensional crystals, nanotubes, and three-dimensional wireframe nanopolyhedra. Templated self-assembly of DNA into custom two-dimensional shapes on the megadalton scale has been demonstrated previously with a multiple-kilobase 'scaffold strand' that is folded into a flat array of antiparallel helices by interactions with hundreds of oligonucleotide 'staple strands'. Here we extend this method to building custom three-dimensional shapes formed as pleated layers of helices constrained to a honeycomb lattice. We demonstrate the design and assembly of nanostructures approximating six shapes-monolith, square nut, railed bridge, genie bottle, stacked cross, slotted cross-with precisely controlled dimensions ranging from 10 to 100 nm. We also show hierarchical assembly of structures such as homomultimeric linear tracks and heterotrimeric wireframe icosahedra. Proper assembly requires week-long folding times and calibrated monovalent and divalent cation concentrations. We anticipate that our strategy for self-assembling custom three-dimensional shapes will provide a general route to the manufacture of sophisticated devices bearing features on the nanometre scale.