The Board of iMig deeply regrets that the Quebec Government has provided the loan guarantee that enables resumption of asbestos mining in Canada. It is further regretted that the majority market for the such asbestos is likely to be the developing countries. Our previous statement on the matter stands as below:

We, the Board of iMig, wish to expand on our position, in response to the points summarized in the New York Times article of February 3, 2011 (see article link in menu at right).
We strongly disagree with Mr. Coulombe’s …

The expression of chemokines and chemokine receptors has been linked to disease prognosis of various cancers.  The expression and role of chemokines and their receptors in mesothelioma is not well known.  In this article by Tong Li et.al, the authors report that the chemokine CXCL12 (stromal derived factor 1) and the receptor CXCR4 were overexpressed in mesothelioma samples from 41 patients and in cell lines.  CXCR4 was found in almost all mesotheliomas (97%) and CXCL12 in 78%; another receptor CXCR7 was only weakly expressed. CXCL12 binding to CXCR4 may mediate …

The chemoresistance of solid tumors such as mesothelioma may be better studied in vitro 3D models because multicellular spheroids acquire multicellular resistance that may recapitulate the stubborn chemoresistance seen in vivo.
Dr. Xiang et al. recently used multicellular spheroids to test the efficacy of the recombinant anti-mesothelin immunotoxin SS1P in spheroids. The authors compared 2D (monolayer) and 3D (multicellular spheroid) mesothelioma cultures of the cell line NCI-H226 and found that, regardless of equal mesothelin expression in 2D and in 3D, SS1P was at least 100 times less cytotoxic in spheroids compared …

Although inhibition of EGFR has not shown promise in clinical trials of mesothelioma, broader inhibition of growth pathways might be more effective.  In this study, mesothelioma cells were propagated from human mesothelioma tumors of different histologies and found to have activation of several receptor tyrosine kinases.  In the figure, one sees an array from one mesothelioma cell line with evidence of activation of EGF-R, ERBB3, IGF1R, AXL, and MET, not seen in the normal mesothelial cells.  (The two spots in each corner are positive controls)  Inhibition of a chaperone protein …