Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027819 (neuroblastoma)
 27,800 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

'Suicide transport' is a term coined to describe the use of retrogradely axonally transported toxin to produce anatomically selective neural lesions. As a first step in developing neuron type-selective, systemically non-toxic suicide transport agents, a prototype hybrid toxin consisting of ricin A-chain (RTA) disulfide coupled to wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) was synthesized by first derivatizing WGA by reaction with N-succinimidyl-3-(2-pyridyldithio)-propionate (SPDP) in the presence of N-acetylglucosamine and then formation of WGA-SS-RTA by mixing the derivatized WGA with reduced RTA. The ability of this conjugate to inhibit protein synthesis was tested on two cell lines in vitro; the ID50 was 0.2 nM using the K562 hematopoietic stem cell line and 0.02 nM for the 2a neuroblastoma cell line. Suicide transport activity was assessed by microinjection of hybrid into the cervical vagus nerve of rats. Intact WGA-SS-RTA, but not hybrid that was pretreated with dithiothreitol to uncouple RTA from the WGA carrier, reliably killed vagal motor neurons. Both intact and reduced hybrid killed vagal sensory neurons. Indirect peroxidase immunohistochemistry demonstrated transport of RTA to vagal sensory neurons and WGA to both vagal sensory and motor neurons. These results are the first evidence that a hybrid toxin can be active as a suicide transport agent.
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PMID:Wheat germ agglutinin-ricin A-chain conjugate is neuronotoxic after vagal injection. 301 47

Major dose-limiting factors of high-dose thiotepa (TEPA) and melphalan are life-threatening mucositis and neurotoxicity. To administer a maximum dose of these drugs safely and to obtain a maximum anti-cancer effect, a double-conditioning regimen with a single grafting, two cycles of administration of a combination of TEPA (300-600 mg/m2) plus melphalan (70-150 mg/m2) with a 1-week interval was attempted in 20 patients with pediatric advanced or chemotherapy-resistant solid tumors (seven rhabdomyosarcoma, four hepatoblastoma, three neuroblastoma and four other malignancy). Combinations of TEPA plus melphalan/busulfan (Bu) (8-10 mg/kg) and TEPA plus Bu were given to four and two patients with brain tumors, respectively. In an additional two patients, three cycles of drug administration were performed. According to the results of the dose-escalating study, the maximum tolerable doses of TEPA and melphalan for children aged 2 years old or older were 1000 mg/m2 and 280 mg/m2, respectively. Mucositis was dose-limiting. Renal toxicity was also dose-limiting in young children (<2 years old). There were two treatment-related deaths (7%) (fungal pneumonia and renal tubular acidosis). Among 13 patients who received high-dose chemotherapy during CR, 10 are alive with no evidence of disease (15-59 months, median: 35 months) and in 13 evaluable patients without CR, six are alive without regrowth of the disease (14-59 months, median: 39 months). Thus, these novel conditioning regimens allowed us to increase the dose intensity to nearly the maximum for each drug and seemed to reduce adverse effects compared to previously reported regimens with these drugs. With regard to the effect on outcome, the results of this study seem to be encouraging, but a further study on a larger number of patients is required.
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PMID:Double-conditioning regimens consisting of thiotepa, melphalan and busulfan with stem cell rescue for the treatment of pediatric solid tumors. 967 89