Provided are methods for treating diseases, disorders, and conditions associated with undesirable cellular proliferation in subjects in need thereof. In some embodiments, the methods include administering to a subject in need thereof a therapeutically effective amount of a composition comprising, consisting essentially of, or consisting of a chemotherapeutic agent and a short chain ceramide. Also provided are methods for increasing total ceramide levels in cells, for increasing long chain ceramide to a very long chain ceramide ratios in cells, methods for enhancing apoptosis of cells, for prognosing subjects with diseases, disorders, and conditions associated with undesirable cellular proliferation with respect to treatments, for increasing sensitivities of drug-resistant tumor and/or cancer cells to chemotherapeutics, and compositions that have one or more short chain ceramides and one or more chemotherapeutically active agents.

Combined multistage microbial preparations for enhancement of the biological skin barrier and maintenance of healthy skin microbiota are disclosed. The preparations are useful in chronic problems associated with dysbiosis such as atopic dermatitis, acne, rosacea and vitiligo or acute problems caused by damage of the skin such as burns, cuts and contusions.

Compositions and methods for treating or reducing the severity of occurrence of a parasitic worm or helminth infection in a subject are described. The methods include administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of a composition comprising isolated native, bioactive nematicidal crystals formed from a single type of nematicidal crystal protein. The isolated native, bioactive nematicidal crystals are substantially free of any bacterial spores or host bacterial proteins, other than nematicidal crystal protein in the form of a crystal. Methods for making isolated native, bioactive nematicidal crystals are also described. The crystal proteins may be full length, truncated, variant, or sub-variant Cry proteins. Examples of crystal proteins include Cry5B, Cry21, Cry14A, Cry6A, and Cry13A.

The invention relates to the field of minimal residual disease (MRD) diagnostics, which is progressively more applied for the evaluation of treatment effectiveness in patients with a hematological malignancy, such as B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL), B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL), and multiple myeloma (MM). Provided are unique reagent compositions with carefully selected and thoroughly tested combinations of antibodies, for ≥8-color flow cytometric stainings as well as for 10-color and 12-color flow cyometric stainings, which can reach sensitivities of at least 10.sup.−4, even down to 10.sup.−5. Also provided are diagnostic kits and methods for detecting MRD.

A process for the linear synthesis of a gram-positive class II bacteriocin or a variant thereof is disclosed herein. The process comprises the stepwise addition of selected amino acids to a solid support; pseudoproline positioning and reopening; and cleavage of the gram-positive class II bacteriocin or the variant thereof from the solid support to provide a linear gram-positive class II bacteriocin or variant thereof; and in situ disulfide bond formation. Various applications and uses of the synthetic bacteriocins are also disclosed. The synthetic process can also be used to synthesize variants of bacteriocins by the selective substitution of one or more amino acids and/or additions and/or deletions of selected amino acids.

Methods are described for increasing levels of healthy vaginal bacteria by treating the vaginal mucosa with bacteriocins derived from Lactobacillus paragasseri, Lactobacillus gasseri, and other bacterial strains. The bacteriocins are surprisingly advantageous as being selectively active against Lactobacillus iners but relatively inactive against H.sub.2O.sub.2-producing Lactobacillus species. Because L. iners is involved in the onset and maintenance of vaginal dysbiosis, selective removal of this bacterium from the vaginal microbiome treats or prevents conditions associated with vaginal dysbiosis, such as bacterial vaginosis and its sequelae.

This disclosure relates to methods of treating cancer or initiating, enhancing, or prolonging an anti-tumor response in a subject in need thereof comprising administering to the subject an effective amount of a checkpoint inhibitor in combination with a purine cleaving enzyme or a vector encoding expression thereof, and a prodrug cleaved by said purine cleaving enzyme. In certain embodiments, this disclosure relates to methods of treating cancer or initiating, enhancing, or prolonging an anti-tumor response in a subject in need thereof comprising administering to the subject an effective amount of a checkpoint inhibitor in combination with a purine cleaving enzyme, or a vector encoding expression thereof, in the absence of a prodrug cleaved by said purine cleaving enzyme.

[Object] To provide a fusion protein of an antibody that recognizes cancer cells and a mutant streptavidin, which is for use in the treatment or diagnosis of cancer.

[Means for Solution] A fusion protein comprising a protein-recognizing substance and the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 19 that is fused with the protein-recognizing substance.

This invention concerns compositions and methods of treating or diagnosing inflammatory disorders and other disorders, as well as compositions and methods of treating HIV.

This invention concerns compositions and methods of treating or diagnosing inflammatory disorders and other disorders, as well as compositions and methods of treating HIV.