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Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is a highly aggressive lymphoma that mainly affects children and young adults. Chemotherapy is effective in young BL patients but the outcome in adults is less satisfactory. Therefore, there is a need to enhance the cytotoxic effect of drugs used in BL treatment. Glutathione (GSH) is an important antioxidant involved in processes such as regulation of oxidative stress and drug detoxification. Elevated GSH levels have been observed in many cancers and were associated with chemoresistance. We previously identified GCLC, encoding an enzyme involved in GSH biosynthesis, as an essential gene in BL. We now confirm that knockout of GCLC decreases viability of BL cells and that the GCLC protein is overexpressed in BL tissues. Moreover, we demonstrate that buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), a known inhibitor of GCLC, decreases growth of BL cells but does not affect control B cells. Furthermore, we show for the first time that BSO enhances the cytotoxicity of compounds commonly used in BL treatment, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide. Given the fact that BSO itself was not toxic to control cells and well-tolerated in clinical trials, combination of chemotherapy with BSO may allow reduction of the doses of cytotoxic drugs required to obtain effective responses in BL patients.

Electrolytes based on new binary solvent mixtures and well-known salts (LiTDI or LiPF6) show no signs of crystallization, even when reaching extremely low temperatures such as −70 °C. This work involves studying mixtures of poly(ethylene glycol)s (both PEG350ME and PEG500DME) with ethylene carbonate. The new electrolytes derived from these mixtures display rather high conductivity values (around 2 mS cm–1) at room temperature. A large influence of oligomer chain lengths and its ending groups was observed when forming noncrystallizing systems. Both thermal and electrochemical studies are presented. Along with a drop in temperature, the lack of crystallization in these systems may prevent the sudden drop in conductivity and sudden changes in the volume of such systems. This may be the answer to various issues that arise in cells which are exposed to low temperatures.