ROS-INDUCED OXIDATIVE STRESS IN NOBILE-TYPE DENDROBIUM PROTOCORM-LIKE BODIES (PLBS) DURING VITRIFICATION

BACKGROUND

Oxidative stress involved in cryopreservation protocols may be responsible for the poor survival of tissues after cryopreservation.

OBJECTIVE

In the current study, we aimed to clarify the role of oxidative stress and its relationship with survival rate during cryopreservation of PLBs from nobile-type Dendrobium.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

ROS, antioxidants and oxidative products and the survival rate in PLBs from Dendrobium Hamanal Lake Dream were determined during vitrification.

RESULTS

Relative survival of PLBs decreased significantly after preculture and rewarming (P<0.01). Generation of ·O₂^- and protein carbonyl (PCO) increased significantly after preculture. Dramatic increases in ·O₂^-, H₂O₂ and MDA, and significant decreases in AsA content, activities of SOD and CAT were observed after rewarming.

CONCLUSION

ROS-induced oxidative stress was associated with the poor survival of PLBs following vitrification. ·O₂^- was the predominant ROS resulting in the decreased survival after preculture, while H₂O₂ together with ·O₂^- appear to be responsible for the survival decrease after rewarming.

Timing of antiretroviral therapy initiation after diagnosis of recent human immunodeficiency virus infection and CD4(+) T-cell recovery

We retrospectively examined the timing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and CD4(+) T-cell recovery over 36 months among recent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections using BED (HIV-1 subtypes B, E and D) immunoglobulin G capture enzyme immunoassay (BED-CEIA). Regardless of baseline CD4(+) counts, individuals (n = 393) who initiated ART >2 months after diagnosis had significantly decreased probability and rate of achieving CD4(+) counts ≥900 cells/μL or ≥600 cells/μL than those individuals (n = 135) who started ART earlier (≤2 months). But the mean CD4(+) counts in two groups converged after 30 months of treatment. Early ART initiation leads to accelerated CD4(+) recovery, but does not offer a long-term advantage in CD4(+) counts.

MiR-21 and miR-183 can simultaneously target SOCS6 and modulate growth and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells

OBJECTIVE

Both miR-21 and miR-183 are upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and are considered as oncomiR. However, their oncogenic roles are still not fully understood. This study aimed to explore the regulative role of miR-21 and miR-183 over suppressors of cytokine signaling 6 (SOCS6), a negative regulator of cytokine receptor signaling.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

qRT-PCR analysis was performed to assess miR-21 and miR-183 expression in tumor tissues obtained from HCC patients and in HCC cell lines HepG2 and Hep3B. Their regulation over SOCS6 is verified using dual luciferase assay and Western blot analysis. The function of miR-21/miR-183-SOCS6 axis in cell growth, invasion and apoptosis was studied.

RESULTS

MiR-21 and miR-183 expression in HCC tissues than in adjacent normal tissues. Knockdown of miR-21 and miR-183 in HepG2 and Hep3B cells could decrease cell viability, increase cell apoptosis and decrease cell invasion. Based on the dual luciferase assay and Western blot analysis, we confirmed that both miR-21 and miR-183 can simultaneously target SOCS6 and modulate its expression at protein level. Overexpression of SOCS6 without 3'UTR could significantly lower cell growth rate and invasion capability, but increase relative caspase 3/7 activity and the ratio of apoptotic cells. However, these effects could not be blocked by miR-21 or miR-183 mimics.

CONCLUSIONS

This study revealed a novel miR-21/miR-183-SOCS6 axis that might play an important role in modulating cell growth and invasion of HCC cells.

CpG ODN 1826 enhances radiosensitivity of the human lung cancer cell line A549 in a rat model

This study investigated the effects of CpG ODN1826 plus radiotherapy (RT) on tumor growth and angiogenesis of subcutaneous tumor in a rat model. Four treatment groups were tested in which rats were injected with 100 μL CpG ODN1826 (1 μg/μL) or 100 μL vehicle, with and without exposure to 8 Gy after 2 h. At 7 days after inoculation of lung cancer cells, drugs were injected in the tumor and radiation was administered over 5 days, after which the rate of tumor inhibition was calculated. Expression of VEGF-C in tumor tissue was seen in 10, 50, 80, and 100% of tumors in the CpG ODN1826 + RT, CpG ODN1826, vehicle + RT, and vehicle alone groups, respectively, while positive expression of NRP-1 was seen in 10, 40, 90, and 100% of tumors. The decreases in expression of VEGF-C mRNA in the CpG ODN1826 + RT and CpG ODN1826 groups compared with the NS + RT and NS groups were significant (P < 0.01), as were the decreases in NRP-1 mRNA in the CpG ODN1826 + RT group compared with the CpG ODN1826 group (P < 0.01). Thus, CpG ODN1826 can significantly inhibit tumor growth in a rat model, the mechanism of which may be related to inhibition of the expression of VEGF-C and NRP-1, which have an inhibitory effect on angiogenesis.

Effect of Xin Mai Jia on atherosclerosis in rats

We investigated the therapeutic effect of Xin Mai Jia (XMJ) on atherosclerosis (AS) in rats. Rat models of AS were established by peritoneally injecting vitamin D, feeding a high-fat diet, and inducing balloon injuries in rats. The stomachs of the rats were irrigated continuously for 10 weeks with XMJ. Blood lipid- and hemorheology-related indices of blood samples were detected. Pathological changes in the right common carotid arterial tissues were also determined. The protein expression levels of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, angio-tensin-1, and endothelin-1 were determined by western blotting. XMJ reduced cholesterol, trigylecride, and low-density lipoprotein levels as well as blood viscosity, sedimentation, and hematocrit. Furthermore, XMJ alleviated vascular endothelial injury and reduced/eliminated atherosclerotic plaques. In contrast, XMJ significantly increased the endothelium-dependent relaxing response of the AS rat models. The western blotting results showed that XMJ upregulated endothelial nitric oxide synthase but downregulated angiotensin-1 and endothelin-1. XMJ prevented the development of AS by regulating blood lipid levels, hemorheology, and vascular function.

Malondialdehyde and SOD-induced changes of gastric tissues in acute gastric mucosal injury under positive acceleration

The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of positive acceleration (+Gz) on the gastric mucosal tissues in cases of acute gastric mucosal injury and to explore the role of oxygen free radicals. Thirty Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into the absolute ethanol control group (A group), absolute ethanol +5Gz group (B group), absolute ethanol +10Gz group (C group). Following centrifugation, the gastric tissues of each group were studied for the presence of gastric mucosal injuries and morphological changes. The concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) contents were simultaneously investigated. Degree of gastric mucosal injuries were as follows: C group (visually 49.080 ± 10.254, under light microscopy 9.400 ± 2.011) > B group (visually 23.654 ± 9.678, under light microscopy 5.000 ± 1.054) > A group (visually 11.410 ± 3.742, under light microscopy 3.800 ± 1.399). The gastric mucosal MDA content (0.376 ± 0.084 vs 0.235 ± 0.044) was significantly higher in the C group than in the A group, whereas the SOD content (8.852 ± 1.001 vs 10.694 ± 0.965) was lower than that in the A group. However, the MDA and SOD contents did not change much in the B group. Our results suggest that the +Gz exposure might aggravate the acute gastric mucosal injury, and changes in MDA and SOD contents in the gastric tissues indicated that the oxygen free radicals play an important role in this regard.

Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 antibody in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Currently, blockade of the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)/PD-1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) signaling pathway has been proved one of the most promising immunotherapeutic strategies against cancer. Several antibodies have been developed to either block the PD-1 or its ligand PD-L1 are under development. So far, a series of phase I trials on PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been completed, without reports of results from phase II studies. Thus, we sought to perform a meta-analysis incorporating all available evidences to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibition therapy.

METHODS

Electronic databases were searched for eligible literatures. Data of objective respond rate (ORR) and rate of adverse effects (AEs) with 95% confidence interval (CI) evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) was extracted. The outcomes were synthesized based on random-effect model. Subgroup analyses were proposed.

RESULTS

In overall, ORR in the whole population with PD-1 blockage treatment is 22.5% (95% CI: 17.6% to 28.2%). Additionally, the rate of Grade 3-4 AEs is 16.7% (95% CI: 6.5% to 36.8%) and drug-related death rate is 2.5% (95% CI: 1.3% to 4.6%). As for patients with PD-L1 inhibition therapy, an overall ORR is 19.5% (95% CI: 13.2% to 27.7%). A higher rate of Grade 3-4 AEs (31.7%, 95% CI: 14.2% to 56.5%) is observed with a lower drug-related death rate (1.8%, 95% CI: 0.4% to 8.3%). In exploratory analyses of anti-PD-1 agents, we observed that greater ORR was presented in the median-dose cohort (3 mg/kg) than that of both low-dose (1 mg/kg) and high-dose (10 mg/kg) cohort (low-dose vs. median-dose: OR =0.12, P=0.0002; median-dose vs. high-dose: OR =1.47, P=0.18).

CONCLUSIONS

Anti-PD-1 and anti PD-L1 antibodies showed objective responses in approximately one fourth NSCLC patients with a tolerable adverse-effect profile. In addition, median-dose (3 mg/kg) might be a preferential dosage of anti-PD-1 agents.

Oridonin inhibits tumor growth in glioma by inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis

Glioma is the most common malignant intracranial tumors. Despite newly developed therapies, these treatments mainly target oncogenic signals, and unfortunately, fail to provide enough survival benefit in both human patients and mouse xenograft models, especially the first-generation therapies. Oridonin is purified from the Chinese herb Rabdosia rubescens and considered to exert extensive anti-cancer effects on human tumorigenesis. In this study, we systemically investigated the role of Oridonin in tumor growth and the underlying mechanisms in human glioma. We found that Oridonin inhibited cell proliferations in a dose- and time-dependent manner in both glioma U87 and U251 cells. Moreover, these anti-cancer effects were also confirmed in a mouse model bearing glioma. Furthermore, cell cycle arrest in S phase was observed in Oridonin-mediated growth inhibition by flow cytometry. Cell cycle arrest in S phase led to eventual cell apoptosis, as revealed by Hoechst 33342 staining and annexin V/PI double-staining. The cell apoptosis might be accomplished through a mitochondrial manner. In all, we were the first to our knowledge to report that Oridonin could exert anti-cancer effects on tumor growth in human glioma by inducing cell cycle arrest and eventual cell apoptosis. The identification of Oridonin as a critical mediator of glioma growth may potentiate Oridonin as a novel therapeutic strategies in glioma treatments.

Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) inhibits breast cancer metastasis by down-regulating fibronectin

Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) plays an important role in the tumor growth and metastasis inhibition. It has been reported that PEDF expression is significantly reduced in breast cancer, and associated with disease progression and poor patient outcome. However, the exact mechanism of PEDF on breast cancer metastasis including liver and lung metastasis remains unclear. The present study aims to reveal the impact of PEDF on breast cancer. The orthotopic tumor mice model inoculated by MDA-MB-231 cells stably expressing PEDF or control cells was used to assess liver and lung metastasis of breast cancer. In vitro, migration and invasion experiments were used to detect the metastatic abilities of MDA-MB-231 and SKBR3 breast cancer cells with or without overexpression of PEDF. The metastatic-related molecules including EMT makers, fibronectin, and p-AKT and p-ERK were detected by qRT-PCR, Western blot, and Fluorescent immunocytochemistry. PEDF significantly inhibited breast cancer growth and metastasis in vivo and in vitro. Mechanically, PEDF inhibited breast cancer cell migration and invasion by down-regulating fibronectin and subsequent MMP2/MMP9 reduction via p-ERK and p-AKT signaling pathways. However, PEDF had no effect on EMT conversion in the breast cancer cells which was usually involved in cancer metastasis. Furthermore, the study showed that laminin receptor mediated the down-regulation of fibronectin by PEDF. These results reported for the first time that PEDF inhibited breast cancer metastasis by down-regulating fibronectin via laminin receptor/AKT/ERK pathway. Our findings demonstrated PEDF as a dual effector in limiting breast cancer growth and metastasis and highlighted a new avenue to block breast cancer progression.

Abstract 5326: COSMIC: Enhancing the world's knowledge of somatic mutations in human cancer

COSMIC, the Catalogue Of Somatic Mutations In Cancer (http://cancer.sanger.ac.uk) is the world's largest and most comprehensive online resource for exploring the impact of somatic mutations in human cancer. Now running for over 10 years, the 67th release (Oct 2013) describes 1592109 mutations in 947213 tumour samples across 25606 genes. This information is curated manually from the scientific literature, and automatically from genome resequencing consortium data portals. Full curation of the scientific literature provides in-depth understanding of the impact that each gene has in human cancer, and this has been achieved for 127 point-mutated cancer genes, and 185 fusion gene pairs. Curated genes are selected from the Cancer Gene Census (http://cancer.sanger.ac.uk/census), a listing of all genes with substantial evidence implicating them in cancer promotion, currently numbering 513 and updated frequently.

The mutations discovered in the re-sequencing of over 8000 tumour genomes are now present in COSMIC (viewable in isolation from the genic curations, http://cancer.sanger.ac.uk/wgs). In addition, the Sanger has now fully exome sequenced 1015 common cancer cell lines, identifying 1146874 coding mutations annotated for functional significance, and this is available exclusively in COSMIC at (http://cancer.sanger.ac.uk/cell_lines). While COSMIC has focused on point mutations and gene fusions, many other mutation mechanisms cause oncogenesis and these are now being integrated. The 67th COSMIC release includes copy number mutations integrated into the database and major web page views. To allow easy graphical examination of this data, copy number information was reduced to ‘gain’ and ‘loss’ annotations for inclusion in histograms and tables, with much more precise detail available with a further click. Copy number data is available in detail for every gene in COSMIC, and also for every tissue. Exploring cancer via COSMIC’s Cancer Browser (http://cancer.sanger.ac.uk/cosmic/browse/tissue), results not just in a plot of the most mutated genes, but now also a circular genome plot summarizing the copy number gains and losses across all the samples from that tumour type, all explorable in more detail via clicks on the pictures.

As the genomic data increases in COSMIC, it is becoming more important to qualitatively annotate the information, indicating which is more important or significant to oncogenesis. We are now building systems to better highlight known or putative functional mutations, improving the signal-to-noise ratio of cancer genome resequencing.

Citation Format: C Boutselakis, S A. Forbes, P Gunasekaran, M Jia, D Beare, N Bindal, C Y. Kok, K Leung, D Minjie, R Shepherd, S Bamford, S Ward, C Cole, J W. Teague, M Stratton, P Campbell, U McDermott. COSMIC: Enhancing the world's knowledge of somatic mutations in human cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 5326. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-5326

Wide-scale pollen banking of ornamental plants through cryopreservation

BACKGROUND

Cryopreservation has been proved to be an efficient method for the long-term storage of pollen, based on our previous studies establishing cryo pollen banks for Camellia, Paeonia, and Prunus mume.

OBJECTIVE

In the present study, we aimed to extend and verify the applicability of the cryopreservation protocol for ornamental plants.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

71 species or cultivars from 19 families were cryopreserved using the established protocol.

RESULTS

Pollen from 60 species or cultivars (85% of those experimented on) retained viability after 1 year's cryopreservation; of these, 36 (51% of the total investigated) retained a sufficiently high germination capability compared with fresh pollen to enable longer term cryopreservation.

CONCLUSION

This study confirms that wide-scale pollen banking of ornamental plants is feasible.

Impaired natural killer cell-induced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity is associated with human immunodeficiency virus-1 disease progression

This study evaluates the correlation between natural killer (NK) cell function and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 disease progression in 133 untreated HIV-1 positive Chinese subjects, including 41 former plasma donors (FPDs) and 92 men who have sex with men, and 35 HIV-negative controls. Flow cytometry was used to determine the abundance of NK cell subsets, the expression levels of receptor species, human leucocyte antigen (HLA) genotyping and the antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) responses of NK cells. We observed a decreased expression of CD56(dim) CD16(+) NK cell subsets and an increased expression of CD56(-) CD16(+) with HIV-1 infection. As well, the expression of activating and inhibitory receptors increased significantly in NK cells, but CD16 receptor levels and the NKG2A/NKG2C ratio were down-regulated with HIV-1 infection. ADCC responses were higher in elite controllers than in all other groups, and were correlated inversely with HIV-1 viral load but correlated positively with CD4 count only in FPDs. Furthermore, individuals infected for < 1 year have lower ADCC responses than those infected for > 1 year. We also observed a negative association between ADCC responses and viral load in those who carry the HLA-A*30/B*13/Cw*06 haplotype. The positive correlation between CD16 expression and ADCC responses and a negative correlation trend between CD158a and ADCC responses were also observed (P = 0·058). Our results showed that the ADCC response is associated with patients' disease status, receptor expression levels, infection time and specific HLA alleles, which indicates that ADCC may offer protective effects against HIV-1 infection.

The progress of selective fluorescent chemosensors by boronic acid

As a cutting-edge scientific research field, the detection of biological active substance is very important for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Boronic acid interacts with cis-1,2-or 1,3-diol to form five- or six-membered ring which could be used as the reporter of fluorescent sensors to probe carbohydrates and bioactive substance. This review summarizes the recent progress of boronic acid sensors for carbohydrates, L-dopamine, fluoride, copper ion, mercury ion and hydrogen peroxide. In this article, we will briefly introduce the chemistry of boronic acid, and then give a description of the fluorescence properties of each boronic acid sensor, such as fluorescence intensity change, excitation and emission wavelengths, quantum yields and water solubility. In addition, we summarize the mechanisms of fluorescent signal output for some representative sensors and discuss the strategies for developing new fluorescent probes.

Potential autophagy enhancers attenuate rotenone-induced toxicity in SH-SY5Y

Recent studies have shown that autophagy upregulation may be a tractable therapeutic intervention for clearing the disease-causing proteins, including α-synuclein, ubiquitin, and other misfolded or aggregated proteins in Parkinson's disease (PD). In this study, we explored a novel pharmacotherapeutic approach to treating PD by utilizing potential autophagy enhancers valproic acid (VPA) and carbamazepine (CBZ). Pretreatment with VPA (3 mM) and CBZ (50 μM) along with positive control rapamycin (Rap, 0.2 μM) or lithium (LiCl, 10 mM) significantly enhanced cell viability, decreased rotenone-induced nuclear fragmentation and apoptosis, ameliorated the decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, reduced reactive oxygen species generation in the human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Specifically, the numbers of lysosomes and autophagic vacuolar organelles were increased and the microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3-II (LC3-II) expression was up-regulated by VPA, CBZ, Rap, and LiCl (53%, 31%, 72%, and 63%), suggesting that these agents activated autophagic pathways. Moreover, pretreatment with the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine (Chl, 10 μM) remarkably strengthened rotenone toxicity in these cells. Our results suggest that VPA and CBZ, the most commonly used anti-epilepsy and mood-stabilizing medications with low-risk and easy administration might be potential therapeutics for PD.

Loss of balance between T helper type 17 and regulatory T cells in chronic human immunodeficiency virus infection

The aim of this study is to characterize the changes of CD4(+) CD25(high) forkhead box P3 (FoxP3(+) ) regulatory T cells (T(reg) ), interleukin (IL)-17 secreting T helper type 17 (Th17) cell frequencies and the balance of these two subsets in a cohort of chronic human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected patients in China. A total of 115 untreated chronic HIV-infected individuals and 32 healthy donors were recruited in this study. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from ethylenediamine tetracetic acid (EDTA) anti-coagulated fresh whole blood and stained to characterize the frequencies of T(reg) and Th17. Of a total 115 patients, 42 individuals including 10 elite controllers were followed-up for more than 1 year, and changes of T(reg) and Th17 frequencies were analysed over time. The continuous loss of Th17 cells was accompanied by a concomitant rise in the frequency of T(reg) cells, resulting in a loss of Th17/T(reg) balance during the progressive HIV infection. Meanwhile, the T(reg) levels, Th17 levels and Th17/T(reg) ratios of the elite controller group were comparable to those of the HIV-1 negative controls in the follow-up study. Additionally, we demonstrated that loss of balance between Th17 and T(reg) is associated with an earlier CD4 T cell decline during the course of HIV infection. Our results indicate that a loss of immune-balance of Th17 to T(reg) during HIV-1 disease progression and the persistence of such an immune-balance in the elite controllers may have a critical role in HIV-1 infection and further shed new light into understanding the pathogenesis of HIV-1.

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase: activity inhibition and protein overexpression in rotenone models for Parkinson's disease

Rotenone, a widely used pesticide and an environmental risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD), induces nigrostriatal injury, Lewy body-like inclusions, and Parkinsonian symptoms in rat models for PD. Our previous data indicated that glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) overexpression and glycolytic inhibition were co-current in rotenone-induced PC12 (rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cells) cell death. However, whether GAPDH overexpression plays any role in dopaminergic neurodegeneration in vivo remains unknown. In this study, we have found that GAPDH overexpression and GAPDH-positive Lewy body-like aggregates in nigral dopaminergic neurons while nigral GAPDH glycolytic activity decreases in rotenone-based PD animal models. Furthermore, GAPDH knockdown reduces rotenone toxicity significantly in PC12. These in vitro and in vivo data suggest that GAPDH contributes to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease, possibly representing a new molecular target for neuroprotective strategies and alternative therapies for PD.

Kinase suppressor of Ras 2 is involved in regulation of cell proliferation and is up-regulated in human invasive ductal carcinomas of breast

AIM

To study the expression of Kinase Suppressor of Ras 2 (KSR2) in human breast tumors and its effect on proliferation of breast epithelial cells. We reported previously that KSR2 was up-regulated in immortalized human breast epithelial cells.

METHODS

Proteomics technologies, systems biology tool for a KSR2 network analysis, immunoblotting, siRNA technology, overexpression of KSR2, cell proliferation assays and immunohistochemistry of tissue microarray of human breast tumors and normal breast tissue were used.

RESULTS

In conditionally immortalized primary epithelial cells KSR2 expression was shown to be up-regulated. The involvement of KSR2 in regulation of cell proliferation was predicted by a KSR2-centered network analysis. We observed that KSR2 down-regulation with specific siRNA inhibited cell proliferation. By immunohistochemistry of tissue microarray it was demonstrated that KSR2 expression was enhanced in human invasive breast carcinomas.

CONCLUSION

Our findings propose KSR2 as a new marker of immortalization, which has an impact on cell proliferation.