Rodent Brain Tumor Models for Studies Focusing on Boron Neutron Capture Therapy.

Rodent brain tumor models have been very useful in advancing the treatment of glioblastomas. This review focuses on the four most widely used rodent brain tumor models: the C6, 9L, and F98 rat gliomas, and the GL261 murine glioma. All of these have been used in studies relating to boron neutron capture therapy. The most important of these studies were those using the 9L gliosarcoma, which led to the clinical use of boronophenylalanine, and the F98 glioma, which has been used for the preclinical evaluation of new boron delivery agents and methods of optimizing their delivery.

A Comparison of the Clinical, Viral, Pathologic, and Immunologic Features of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) Diseases.

CONTEXT.­: The purpose of this review was to compare 3 coronavirus diseases, including severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 viruses, respectively. OBJECTIVE.­: To cover the following topics: clinical considerations, viral characteristics, pathology, immune response, pathogenesis, and the prognosis associated with each coronavirus disease in humans. DATA SOURCES.­: Clinically, flu-like symptoms are usual at the time of presentation for all 3 diseases, but these vary from asymptomatic to severe multisystem involvement. The pathology associated with symptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome and COVID-19 has been well described, the most prominent of which is diffuse alveolar damage. The immune response to each of these viruses is highly complex and includes both humoral and cellular components that can have a significant impact on prognosis. In severe cases of COVID-19, a dysregulated innate host immune system can initiate a hyperinflammatory syndrome dominated by endothelial dysfunction that can lead to a hypercoagulable state with microthrombi, resulting in a systemic microvascular and macrovascular disease. CONCLUSIONS.­: The severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome epidemics have been limited, involving approximately 8000 and 2500 individuals, respectively. In contrast, COVID-19 has resulted in a worldwide pandemic with more than 177 million cases and 3.9 million deaths as of June 15, 2021, and fatality rates ranging from less than 0.1% to approximately 10% depending upon the country. Ending on a positive note, the development of a number of vaccines, at least 6 of which now are in clinical use, should mitigate and eventually control the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.