Xbp1-independent Ire1 signaling is required for photoreceptor differentiation and rhabdomere morphogenesis in Drosophila

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is composed by homeostatic signaling pathways that are activated by excessive protein misfolding in the endoplasmic reticulum. Ire1 signaling is an important mediator of the UPR, leading to the activation of the transcription factor Xbp1. Here, we show that Drosophila Ire1 mutant photoreceptors have defects in the delivery of rhodopsin-1 to the rhabdomere and in the secretion of Spacemaker/Eyes Shut into the interrhabdomeral space. However, these defects are not observed in Xbp1 mutant photoreceptors. Ire1 mutant retinas have higher mRNA levels for targets of regulated Ire1-dependent decay (RIDD), including for the fatty acid transport protein (fatp). Importantly, the downregulation of fatp by RNAi rescues the rhodopsin-1 delivery defects observed in Ire1 mutant photoreceptors. Our results show that the role of Ire1 during photoreceptor differentiation is independent of Xbp1 function and demonstrate the physiological relevance of the RIDD mechanism in this specific paradigm.

Recombinant human arginase induced caspase-dependent apoptosis and autophagy in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cells

Arginase, an arginine-degrading enzyme, has gained increased attention recently as a new experimental therapeutics for a variety of malignant solid cancers. In this study, we found that recombinant human arginase (rhArg) could induce remarkable growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest, and caspase-dependent apoptosis in Raji and Daudi non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) cells through arginine deprivation. Interestingly, rhArg-treatment resulted in the appearance of autophagosomes and upregulation of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 II, indicating that rhArg induced autophagy in lymphoma cells. Further study suggested that mammalian target of rapamycin/S6k signaling pathway may be involved in rhArg-induced autophagy in NHL cells. Moreover, blocking autophagy using pharmacological inhibitors (3-methyladenine and chloroquine) or genetic approaches (small interfering RNA targeting autophagy-related gene 5 and Beclin-1) enhanced the cell killing effect of rhArg. These results demonstrated that rhArg has a potent anti-lymphoma activity, which could be improved by in combination with autophagic inhibitors, suggesting that rhArg, either alone or in combination with autophagic inhibitors, could be a potential novel therapeutics for the treatment of NHL.

Chinese SLE Treatment and Research group (CSTAR) registry: I. Major clinical characteristics of Chinese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

The Chinese systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) treatment and research group (CSTAR) provides major clinical characteristics of SLE in China and establishes a platform to provide resources for future basic and clinical studies. CSTAR originated as a multicentre, consecutive, and prospective design. The data were collected online from 104 rheumatology centers, which covered 30 provinces in China. The registered patients were required to meet four or more of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for the classification of SLE. All CSTAR centers use the same protocol-directed methods to provide uniform evaluations, which included demographic data, clinical features, laboratory examinations, and disease activity evaluations. The patient samples, including DNA samples and sera, were also collected for further quality controls and additional studies. Preliminary analysis from 2104 baseline evaluations was available for this analysis. Of 1914 female and 190 male patients (F:M=10.1), the mean age at onset was 29.2 y with confirmed diagnosis one year later at the age of 30.3 y. Eighty four (4.2%) of 2002 patients had a family history of rheumatic diseases, including 34 (1.7%) cases with SLE. In addition, one hundred and seven (5.2%) abnormal pregnancies were recorded among 2026 experiences. The characteristics of the CSTAR cohort were compared to similarly sized cohorts from other studies. We found that 56.1% of patients presented with concurrent hematological disorders compared to only 18.2% of European patients. Moreover, 47.4% of patients presented with nephropathy compared to 27.9% of European patients. Conversely, neurological manifestations were only seen in 4.8% of Chinese SLE patients compared to 19.4% of European patients, 12.1% of U.S. patients, 22.8% of Malaysian patients and 26.4% of Latin Americans. Pulmonary arterial hypertension and interstitial lung diseases were complications identified in 3.8% and 4.2% of Chinese lupus patients, respectively. The CSTAR registry has provided epidemiological data and phenotypes of Chinese patients with SLE, and has demonstrated several differences between ethnicities. Clinical data and biologic samples would be valuable resources for future translational studies with national and international collaboration.

A modified UPR stress sensing system reveals a novel tissue distribution of IRE1/XBP1 activity during normal Drosophila development

Eukaryotic cells respond to stress caused by the accumulation of unfolded/misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum by activating the intracellular signaling pathways referred to as the unfolded protein response (UPR). In metazoans, UPR consists of three parallel branches, each characterized by its stress sensor protein, IRE1, ATF6, and PERK, respectively. In Drosophila, IRE1/XBP1 pathway is considered to function as a major branch of UPR; however, its physiological roles during the normal development and homeostasis remain poorly understood. To visualize IRE1/XBP1 activity in fly tissues under normal physiological conditions, we modified previously reported XBP1 stress sensing systems (Souid et al., Dev Genes Evol 217: 159-167, 2007; Ryoo et al., EMBO J 26: 242-252, 2007), based on the recent reports regarding the unconventional splicing of XBP1/HAC1 mRNA (Aragon et al., Nature 457: 736-740, 2009; Yanagitani et al., Mol Cell 34: 191-200, 2009; Science 331: 586-589, 2011). The improved XBP1 stress sensing system allowed us to detect new IRE1/XBP1 activities in the brain, gut, Malpighian tubules, and trachea of third instar larvae and in the adult male reproductive organ. Specifically, in the larval brain, IRE1/XBP1 activity was detected exclusively in glia, although previous reports have largely focused on IRE1/XBP1 activity in neurons. Unexpected glial IRE1/XBP1 activity may provide us with novel insights into the brain homeostasis regulated by the UPR.

Focal dermal hypoplasia: updates

Focal dermal hypoplasia (FDH), or Goltz-Gorlin syndrome, is a rare syndrome and may result in multisystem disorders. Several reviews of FDH have been published. However, the last comprehensive review of this disorder appeared more than 20 years ago. To date, a number of new clinical manifestations have been reported and considerable knowledge has accumulated regarding etiology and pathogenetic mechanisms. The purpose of this review is to gather these more recent data and to provide organized and reliable information. So we reviewed 159 cases of FDH that had been reported from 1990 to 2012, summarized the new discoveries, and suggested a potential standard for the diagnosis of FDH. We also reported on a Chinese girl with FDH, who was clinically and histologically in accord with FDH, as an example.

[A randomized controlled study of chemotherapy: etoposide combined with oxaliplatin or cisplatin regimens in the treatment of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer in elderly patients]

BACKGROUND

Etoposide combined cisplatin (EP) is the most commonly-used first-line treatment combination chemotherapy regimen in the treatment of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), The side-effects of cisplatin, such as nausea and vomiting, influence patients' quality of life. This study aims to compare the efficacy and toxicities between etoposide plus oxaliplatin (EO) and etoposide plus cisplatin (EP) regimens as first-line chemotherapy for elderly patients with SCLC.

METHODS

Seventy-one old, extensive-stage SCLC patients, who had not received anti-tumor treatment, were randomly divided into two groups, namely, EO group (etoposide: 80 mg/m² d1-5+oxaliplatin; 130 mg/m² d1; repeated every 21 days) and EP group (etoposide: 80 mg/m² d1-5+cisplatin; 25 mg/m² d1-3; repeated every 21 days). Efficacy and toxicities were evaluated after 2 or more cycles.

RESULTS

No statistical differences were observed between the EO and EP groups in the response rate (55.9% vs 54.3%, P=0.894), disease control rate (82.4% vs 77.1%, P=0.591), median progression free survival (5.5 months vs 4.7 months, P=0.638), and median survival time (10.5 months vs 9.1 months, P=0.862). In terms of toxicities, the incidence of nausea/vomiting in the EO group was significantly lower than that in the EP group (65.7% vs 97.2%, P=0.001), but the neurotoxicity of grade 1-2 in the EO group was more significant (74.3% vs 11.1%, P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The clinical efficiency of EO and EP regimens is similar to the first-line chemotherapy for extensive-stage SCLC in elderly patients. However, the tolerance of EO regimens is better than that in the EP regiments.

Sensitivity analysis of multilayer perceptron to input and weight perturbations

An important issue in the design and implementation of a neural network is the sensitivity of its output to input and weight perturbations. In this paper, we discuss the sensitivity of the most popular and general feedforward neural networks--multilayer perceptron (MLP). The sensitivity is defined as the mathematical expectation of the output errors of the MLP due to input and weight perturbations with respect to all input and weight values in a given continuous interval. The sensitivity for a single neuron is discussed first and an analytical expression that is a function of the absolute values of input and weight perturbations is approximately derived. Then an algorithm is given to compute the sensitivity for the entire MLP. As intuitively expected, the sensitivity increases with input and weight perturbations, but the increase has an upper bound that is determined by the structural configuration of the MLP, namely the number of neurons per layer and the number of layers. There exists an optimal value for the number of neurons in a layer, which yields the highest sensitivity value. The effect caused by the number of layers is quite unexpected. The sensitivity of a neural network may decrease at first and then almost keeps constant while the number increases.

[A randomized clinical trial on the clinical efficacy and toxicities of single-agent paclitaxel liposome versus paclitaxel liposome plus oxaliplatin as first-line chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer in elderly patients]

背景与目的

目前推荐第三代药物单药治疗老年晚期非小细胞肺癌（non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC），本研究旨在比较紫杉醇脂质体与紫杉醇脂质体联合奥沙利铂一线治疗老年晚期NSCLC的临床疗效及毒副作用。

方法

2008年7月-2010年8月未经过治疗的经病理学或细胞学确诊的老年晚期NSCLC患者69例随机分成紫杉醇脂质体单药组（35例）和紫杉醇脂质体联合奥沙利铂组（34例），单药组给予紫杉醇脂质体135 mg/m² d1；联合组给予紫杉醇脂质体135 mg/m² d1+奥沙利铂125 mg/m² d1，每21天重复，至少治疗2个周期，评价疗效和不良反应。

结果

单药组与联合组相比，治疗有效率（22.9% vs 35.3%, P=0.297）、疾病控制率（60.0% vs 70.6%, P=0.450）和1年生存率（28.6% vs 41.2%, P=0.724）差异均无统计学意义，联合组的无疾病进展生存期（progression free survival, PFS）较单药组延长1.5个月（5.0个月 vs 3.5个月，P=0.024）。在毒副作用方面，两组白细胞减少（P=0.808）、血小板减少（P＞0.999）、贫血（P=0.477）、恶心和呕吐的发生率（P=0.777）相当；两组发生神经毒性的患者分别为33例和3例（97.1% vs 8.6%, P＜0.001），但均为Ⅰ度-Ⅱ度。

结论

紫杉醇脂质体联合奥沙利铂用于一线治疗老年晚期NSCLC疗效略优于紫杉醇脂质体单药，能延长患者的PFS，临床应用安全性好。

Antioxidant capacity and mineral contents of edible wild Australian mushrooms

Five selected edible wild Australian mushrooms, Morchella elata, Suillus luteus, Pleurotus eryngii, Cyttaria gunnii, and Flammulina velutipes, were evaluated for their antioxidant capacity and mineral contents. The antioxidant capacities of the methanolic extracts of the dried caps of the mushrooms were determined using a number of different chemical reactions in evaluating multi-mechanistic antioxidant activities. These included the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity, ferric ion reducing antioxidant power, and ferrous ion chelating activity. Mineral contents of the dried caps of the mushrooms were also determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy. The results indicated that these edible wild mushrooms have a high antioxidant capacity and all, except C. gunnii, have a high level of several essential micro-nutrients such as copper, magnesium, and zinc. It can be concluded that these edible wild mushrooms are good sources of nutritional antioxidants and a number of mineral elements.

Female condom use in the rural sex industry in China: analysis of users and non-users at post-intervention surveys

Changes in sexual attitudes and behaviors and resurgence of the sex industry in China have increased concerns about HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STI) epidemics. Little attention has been paid to the significant and growing sex industry in rural China. Promotion of barrier protection in this context is most effective to prevent STIs and pregnancy. The female condom (FC) is a barrier method that gives women more autonomy in its application, and has other advantages, but has been little promoted and tested in high risk contexts in China. The China/US Women's Health Project was designed to promote FC use in addition to male condoms (MC) through outreach intervention conducted in sex work establishments in rural and small urban towns in southern China, using the original prototype FC1. The study used quantitative and qualitative methods to document the pre-intervention context, intervention delivery process, and post-intervention outcomes of FC use. In this paper we compare post-intervention FC users and non-users in the first study sites, two rural towns in a single county in Hainan Province. Examination of cross-sectional six-month and 12-month surveys indicated that, despite relatively high MC use, about one-third of the women in sex work establishments in these rural towns had adopted FC at each post-intervention survey. Compared with non-users, FC users were more likely to be freelance women in boarding houses, more sexually experienced, married with children, more sexually active in the prior month, and more exposed to the intervention. The rural context hampered intervention implementation, particularly the significant limits in health and human resources available to manage prevention of HIV/STIs among women in the sex industry. These challenges highlight the need to better understand the context of the rural sex industry and capacity of local resources for better prevention efforts and the benefits that new prevention technologies like FC can offer.

Analysis of properties and proinflammatory functions of cockroach allergens Per a 1.01s

Cockroaches have been identified as one of the major indoor allergens inducing perennial rhinitis and asthma. Per a 1s are a group of the major allergens from American cockroach. Although Per a 1s are major allergens from American cockroach, factors contributing to the allergenicity of Per a 1s are still poorly defined. To investigate the effects of Per a 1s on the expression of PARs and the release of proinflammatory cytokines from mast cells. Per a 1.0101 and Per a 1.0104 were cloned from American cockroach and then expressed in Eschericia coli. The purified allergens were used to stimulate P815 mast cells, and the expression of protease-activated receptors (PARs) was determined by real-time RT-PCR and flow cytometry. The levels of IL-4 and IL-13 in culture media were detected with ELISA. Sera from 80 and 77.3% of cockroach allergy patients reacted to recombinant Per a (rPer a) 1.0101 and rPer a 1.0104, confirming they are major allergens. Both rPer a 1.0101 and rPer a 1.0104 had no enzymatic activity, but rPer a 1.0101 upregulated the expression of PAR-1 and PAR-2, and rPer a 1.0104 enhanced the expression of PAR-1 and PAR-4 proteins. Both recombinant allergens were able to increase the release of IL-4 and IL-13 from P815 mast cells. This is the first study aiming to investigate functions of group 1 allergens of American cockroach. rPer a 1.0101 and rPer a 1.0104 have the capacity to upregulate the expression of PARs and to enhance Th2 cytokine production in mast cells.

Direct functionalization of an optical fiber by a plasmonic nanosensor

We explore a rapid route for fabricating silver nanoparticles (NPs) at the end of an optical fiber. The size and number of silver NPs can be controlled by varying the exposure doses. The effect of the refractive index of different solvents on the extinction spectra have been studied as a proof of concept of a fiber integrated plasmon-based sensor.