Wednesday, 4 of September

Friday, September 13, 2013 0 comments
This day we spent at five sessions: 
• Telomers and cancer,
• Combating persistent viruses, 
• Cell senescence and anergy,
 Disruptive medicine, 
• Cardiovascular aging.

Rigdon Lentz talk was called "Apheresis of TNF and IL-2 disrupts tumor immunoevasion". TNF and IL-2 are known to ba pro-inflammatory cytokines produced by activated mononuclear white blood cells. These cells link up tumor cells via specific receptors. Connecting of cytokines (TNF and IL-2) and these receptors leads to cell death by apoptosis and oxidative stress. At the same time tumor cells can produce such soluble receptors for TNF and IL-2 as sTNF-R1, sTNF-R2 and sIL-2 and this fact is most likely to be a main mechanism by which tumor cells could block and avoid attack of immune system. Rigdon proposed the extracorporeal removal of these inhibitors via apheresis device. I was impressed by outcome of this study: metastatic patients who receive multiple treatment cycles and have clinical symptoms of tumor inflammation further show X-ray and CT signs of tumor necrosis and reduction!

Todd Rider was talking about new approach in antiviral therapeutics. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) Activated Caspase Oligomerizer (DRACO) could selectively induce provoke apoptosis in cells containing viral dsRNA without killing uninfected cells. Furthermore, it was demonstrated in mice that DRACO quickly penetrate into all organs, persist for over 24 hours and are nontoxic. DRACO was demonstrated as very effective against 15 different viruses, including H1N1 influenza, Tacaribe arenavirus, Amapari arenavirus and Guama bunyavirus.


We met very interesting poster at the poster-session and got to know one of the authors of it - Stuart Calimport. The Human Memome Project was made with aim to identify socio-cultural markers of longevity. Data was collected from over 300 participants, 25 countries, in an 18-70-age range. Authors used statistical analysis and computational modeling techniques to build optimal sets of behaviors, interests that correlate with longevity.  




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