The knowledge that melanoma is susceptible to attack by the host’s immune Abstract system has resulted in the testing of a variety of immunotherapies. Interferon-α-2b, which has several anti-tumour mechanisms including an antiproliferative effect, an anti-angiogenesis effect, the enhancement of natural-killer cell activity and the upregulation of tumour antigen presentation, has shown tremendou...

IFN-α exhibits either direct antiviral effects or distinct immunomodulatory properties, which was identified as a 'natural immune adjuvant' for both the innate and the adaptive immune responses. Here we have investigated the effects of IFN-α as an adjuvant on the generation of T follicular helper (Tfh) cells and antigen-specific antibody responses. The data showed that adenoviral vectors co-exp...

B. anthracis is the causative agent of anthrax. Pathogenesis is primarily mediated through the exotoxins lethal factor and edema factor, which bind protective antigen (PA) to gain entry into the host cell. The current anthrax vaccine (AVA, Biothrax) consists of aluminum-adsorbed cell-free filtrates of unencapsulated B. anthracis, wherein PA is thought to be the principle target of neutralizatio...

Bone health is a critical issue in the management of women with breast cancer. Many women who develop breast cancer are postmenopausal, which already predisposes them to osteoporosis. Systemic treatments for breast cancer, including chemotherapy and endocrine therapy, decrease circulating levels of estrogen in both pre- and postmenopausal women, further accelerating the natural process of bone ...

F or years, clinicians have appreciated that breast cancer is not one disease, but a family of diseases, each with a distinct natural history and response to treatment. Yet, over the past two decades, adjuvant trials have largely enrolled patients on the basis of tumour size and lymph node status, rather than by biologic features. There were relatively few concessions to the biologic heterogene...

The epidemiology and natural history of adult gliosarcomas (GSMs), as well as patient and treatment factors associated with outcome, are ill defined. Patients over 20 years of age with GSM diagnosed from 1988 to 2004 were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox models were used to examine outcomes. Similar analyses we...

Non-replicating vaccines, such as those based on recombinant proteins, require adjuvants and delivery systems, which have thus far depended on mimicking pathogen danger signals and strong pro-inflammatory responses. In search of a safer and more efficacious alternative, we tested whether vaccinations with influenza recombinant hemagglutinin (HA) mixed with a novel vegetable oil in water emulsio...

If irradiated tumor cells could be rendered immunogenic, they would provide a safe, broad, and patient-specific array of antigens for immunotherapies. Prior approaches have emphasized genetic transduction of live tumor cells to express cytokines, costimulators, and surrogate foreign antigens. We asked if immunity could be achieved by delivering irradiated, major histocompatibility complex-negat...

Adjuvant endocrine therapy remains the principle strategy to reduce recurrence risk in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer. Studies of the natural history of breast cancer have shown that, while not reaching zero at any time point, the risk of recurrence is highest in the first 5 years following initial diagnosis and treatment. Within this initial 5 years, there is a peak of recurrenc...

BACKGROUND The larvae of Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae) have been used traditionally for malnutritional stagnation, decubital necrosis, osteomyelitis, ecthyma and lip scald and also to treat coma and gastric cancer in the traditional Chinese medicine. Its immunomodulatory effects in naïve mice in relation to the traditional uses were also reported. However, the immunological adjuvant poten...