(C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Recently, studies on dendritic cell (DC) vaccine have focused on the development of more effective DC vaccine regimen, such as the application of multiple tumor-associated antigen-targeted DC vaccine. This approach could be used to enhance efficacy of DC-based vaccine against tumors and infectious diseases. In this study, we analyzed whether DC from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma can

be infected with the a-fetoprotein (AFP) gene and/or HBsAg gene (hepatocellular carcinoma-related antigen). Further, it was examined whether vaccination using these genetically engineered DC can induce stronger therapeutic antitumor immunity. Results revealed

that DC infected AG-014699 concentration with AdAFP (adenovirus AFP)/HBsAg can express AFP and HBsAg by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot techniques. Compared with those before transfection, the expressions of membrane molecules increased dramatically. Specific T cells generated by DCs infected with AdAFP/HBsAg specifically recognized human leukocyte antigen-matched HepG2.2.15 cell lines. Moreover, the cytotoxic activity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes against HepG2.2.15 with DCs expressing AFP was significantly augmented by coinfection with the HBsAg gene. Administration with such vaccine also significantly increased the Ricolinostat production of interleukin-12p70 and interferon-gamma. Most importantly, in vivo results suggested that inhibitors of tumor growth were most significant in severe combined immunodeficiency mice model, which was treated with induced cytotoxic T lymphocyte by the AFP/HBsAg-DC vaccine. These results indicate that a vaccination therapy using DCs coinfected with the two tumor-associated antigen genes is an effective strategy for immunotherapy in the activation of DCs, CD4(+) T cells, and

CD8(+) T cells, and may be useful in the clinical application of cancer vaccine therapy. (c) 2010 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“A new norditerpene alkaloid, 10-hydroxy-8-O-methyltalatizamine (1), was isolated from the whole plant of Aconitum anthora L. besides the known isotalatizidine (2) and hetisinone Salubrinal (3). The structures were determined by means of HR-ESI-MS, 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, including (1)H-(1)H COSY, NOESY, HSQC and HMBC experiments, resulting in complete (1)H and (13)C chemical shift assignments for 1-3, and revision of some earlier (13)C-NMR data. The effects of the isolated compounds, together with twenty-one other Aconitum alkaloids with different skeletal types and substitution patterns, on hERG channels were studied by the whole-cell patch clamp technique, using the QPatch-16 automated patch clamp system.