Chronic Experimental Epilepsy in Macaca Mulatta

Abstract

The broad field of gene therapy promises a number of innovative treatments that are likely to become important in preventing deaths from cancer. In this review, we discuss the history, highlights and future of three different gene therapy treatment approaches: immunotherapy, oncolytic virotherapy and gene transfer. Immunotherapy uses genetically modified cells and viral particles to stimulate the immune system to destroy cancer cells. Recent clinical trials of second and third generation vaccines have shown encouraging results with a wide range of cancers, including lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer and malignant melanoma. Oncolytic virotherapy, which uses viral particles that replicate within the cancer cell to cause cell death, is an emerging treatment modality that shows great promise, particularly with metastatic cancers. Initial phase I trials for several vectors have generated excitement over the potential power of this technique. Gene transfer is a new treatment modality that introduces new genes into a cancerous cell or the surrounding tissue to cause cell death or slow the growth of the cancer. This treatment technique is very flexible, and a wide range of genes and vectors are being used in clinical trials with successful outcomes. As these therapies mature, they may be used alone or in combination with current treatments to help make cancer a manageable disease.

Stress and Epilepsy: Multiple Models, Multiple Outcomes

“…In early studies, the application of alumina cream to the cortex was used to elicit the generation of spontaneous seizures in Rhesus macaque monkeys. Stress and the anticipation of a stressful event were identified as key triggering factors for these spontaneous seizures (Kopeloff et al, 1954;Lockard, 1980). Intriguingly, the severity of the acute stressor correlated with the severity of the resulting seizure (Kopeloff et al, 1954).…”

“…Stress and the anticipation of a stressful event were identified as key triggering factors for these spontaneous seizures (Kopeloff et al, 1954;Lockard, 1980). Intriguingly, the severity of the acute stressor correlated with the severity of the resulting seizure (Kopeloff et al, 1954). In the decades since, the focus has shifted to rodent models of induced epilepsy.…”

Aluminum in the Environment and Human Health

“…In monkeys, altered brain activity was also noted after injection of alumina cream into the cerebral hemisphere (674,675). Development of epilepsy was also studied following intracortical (676) and intracisternal (677) injections.…”

Pulmonary Fibrosis and Encephalopathy Associated with the Inhalation of Aluminium Dust

“…Although there are no reports in the literature of a neurological disorder attributable to aluminium intoxication in man, it has been known for some years that hydrous oxides of aluminium applied to the surface of the brain in monkeys and apes will produce severe recurrent epilepsy (Kopeloff, Chusid, and Kopeloff, 1954). Aluminium oxide powder, hydrous oxides of aluminium, aluminium cream, and alums have been found to have such epileptogenic properties.…”