Correlation between serum melatonin and aMT6S level for age-related macular degeneration patients

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the levels of serum melatonin (MLT) and assay of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (aMT6S) of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients and study their correlation with AMD risk factors.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

58 AMD cases were selected and 58 healthy cases of the same time period were selected according to 1:1 closest matching method. ELISA method was used to test serum MLT and aMT6S level.

RESULTS

Levels of MLT and aMT6S in AMD group were lower than those in the control group, and differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Based on analysis of AMD subgroup, differences on gender had no statistical significance compared with AMD type. For cases with smoking, cardiovascular disease and corrected visual acuity lower than 0.1, MLT and aMT6S levels were reduced at 0.05). Through the regression analysis, we concluded that smoking history, cardiovascular disease history, best corrected visual acuity, MLT and aMT6S level were independent risk factors, among which MLT [OR = 3.624 (odds ratio: OR)] and aMT6S (OR = 3.201).

CONCLUSIONS

MLT and aMT6S may be related to the incidence of AMD.

Efficacy and Safety of Thrombectomy Combined with Intracoronary Administration of Tirofiban in ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI)

Background

No/slow reflow gives rise to serious complications in STEMI patients undergoing PCI, and can lead to worse outcomes. Several measures are used to prevent no/slow reflow, including thrombus removal processes and intensive use of anticoagulant agents. Our study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of thrombectomy and intracoronary administration of GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors in STEMI patients undergoing PPCI.

Material/Methods

We randomly assigned 240 STEMI patients into 3 groups. Before PPCI, patients in group A received thrombectomy and intracoronary administration of tirofiban. Patients in group B received thrombectomy, and patients in group C neither of these 2 treatments. Their demographic data and coronary angiography results were recorded. TIMI grade flow was used to evaluate the effect. After the follow-up, major adverse cardiac events were regarded as study endpoints in evaluating the safety of the combined therapy.

Results

We found no significant differences among the 3 groups in demographic and clinical characteristics (p>0.05). Patients in group A had better TIMI grade classifications and ST-segment elevation (p=0.005), and lower incidence of no/slow reflow (p=0.031) and MACE. During 6-month follow-up, the MACE rate was lower in group A than in groups B and C (p=0.038).

Conclusions

The use of thrombectomy combined with intracoronary administration of tirofiban is relatively effective and safe in STEMI patients undergoing PPCI.

Xanthotoxin prevents bone loss in ovariectomized mice through the inhibition of RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis

Xanthotoxin (XAT) is extracted from the seeds of Ammi majus. Here, we reported that XAT has an inhibitory effect on osteoclastogenesis in vitro through the suppression of both receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL)-induced ROS generation and Ca(2+) oscillations. In vivo studies showed that XAT treatment decreases the osteoclast number, prevents bone loss, and restores bone strength in ovariectomized mice.

INTRODUCTION

Excessive osteoclast formation and the resultant increase in bone resorption activity are key pathogenic factors of osteoporosis. In the present study, we have investigated the effects of XAT, a natural furanocoumarin, on the RANKL-mediated osteoclastogenesis in vitro and on ovariectomy-mediated bone loss in vivo.

METHODS

Cytotoxicity of XAT was evaluated using bone marrow macrophages (BMMs). Osteoclast differentiation, formation, and fusion were assessed using the tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) stain, the actin cytoskeleton and focal adhesion (FAK) stain, and the fusion assay, respectively. Osteoclastic bone resorption was evaluated using the pit formation assay. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and removal were evaluated using dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA). Ca(2+) oscillations and their downstream signaling targets were then detected. The ovariectomized (OVX) mouse model was adopted for our in vivo studies.

RESULTS

In vitro assays revealed that XAT inhibited the differentiation, formation, fusion, and bone resorption activity of osteoclasts. The inhibitory effect of XAT on osteoclastogenesis was associated with decreased intracellular ROS generation. XAT treatment also suppressed RANKL-induced Ca(2+) oscillations and the activation of the resultant downstream calcium-CaMKK/PYK2 signaling. Through these two mechanisms, XAT downregulated the key osteoclastogenic factors nuclear factor of activated T cells c1 (NFATc1) and c-FOS. Our in vivo studies showed that XAT treatment decreases the osteoclast number, prevents bone loss, rescues bone microarchitecture, and restores bone strength in OVX mice.

CONCLUSION

Our findings indicate that XAT is protective against ovariectomy-mediated bone loss through the inhibition of RANKL-mediated osteoclastogenesis. Therefore, XAT may be considered to be a new therapeutic candidate for treating osteoporosis.

Role of 5-HT1A receptor in insular cortex mediating stress - induced visceral sensory dysfunction

BACKGROUND

5-HT1A receptors (HTR1As) in the insular cortex are thought to be related with the generation of stress-induced functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), but its mechanism is not clear. Visceral hypersensitivity is one important pathophysiological mechanism of FGIDs. This study aimed to explore the role of HTR1As in mediating stress-induced visceral hypersensitivity and its mechanism in the insular cortex.

METHODS

Visceral hypersensitivity rat model was established by water avoidance stress (WAS) and the visceral sensitivity was measured by electromyogram. The activities of HTR1As were regulated by microinjecting the HTR1A agonist and antagonist into the insular cortex. The expression levels of 5-HT, HTR1A, N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor subtype 2B (NR2B) and c-fos were observed by RT-PCR, Western Blot and immunohistochemical staining.

KEY RESULTS

In WAS rats, the expression levels of 5-HT and HTR1As in the insular cortex were significantly lower (p < 0.05) than that in sham WAS and normal rats, but the levels of c-fos and NR2B were significantly higher (p < 0.05). After microinjecting HTR1As agonist into the insular cortex of WAS rats, the visceral sensitivity and the expression levels of NR2B and c-fos in insular cortex significantly decreased (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES

The HTR1As-NR2B signal pathway of insular cortex plays an important role in regulating stress-induced visceral hypersensitivity.

[Diagnosis and treatment of solid pseudopapillary neoplasms of the pancreas]

Solid pseudopapillary neoplasm of the pancreas (SPN) is a rare neoplasm which primarily affects young women without specific clinical manifestation. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging contribute to the preoperative diagnosis of SPN. Surgery is the main treatment approach for SPN and more research of radiation and chemotherapy is needed. Tumor diameter larger than 5 cm, tumor infiltrating nerve, vessel or adipose tissue can increase the risk of recurrence. However, these patients can still get good prognosis after surgical resection.

PFKFB3 potentially contributes to paclitaxel resistance in breast cancer cells through TLR4 activation by stimulating lactate production

Paclitaxel is a commonly used agent for breast cancer therapy, which comes across the obstacle "drug resistance", resulting in shortened overall survival of patients. Warburg effect has become one character of cancer cell and was reported to induce paclitaxel resistance, the mechanism of which is poorly understood. In this study, we sought to examine the role of 6-Phosphofructo-2-kinase (PFKFB3), a critical regulator of glycolysis, in paclitaxel resistance development. Two clones of paclitaxel resistant breast cancer cells, MCF-7RA and MCF-7RB, were established by a long term exposure of MCF-7 cells to paclitaxel. Consequently, PFKFB3 expression was found to be increased in MCF-7RA and MCF-7RB cells compared with MCF-7 cells. Silencing PFKFB3 expression markedly reduced the IC50 concentrations of MCF-7RA and MCF-7RB cells. Moreover, PFKFB3 modulated toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) and MyD88 expression as well as interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 release from breast cancer cells in response to paclitaxel exposure. In addition, PFKFB3 overexpression boosted up fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (F2,6BP) and lactate production. The enhanced lactate contributed to TLR4 signaling activation, IL-6 and IL-8 generation, and cell viability promotion in MCF-7 cells. In all, we characterized the novel role of PFKFB3 in induction of paclitaxel resistance by raising lactate production and activating TLR4 signaling.

High-bandwidth uni-traveling carrier waveguide photodetector on an InP-membrane-on-silicon platform

A uni-traveling carrier photodetector (UTC-PD), heterogeneously integrated on silicon, is demonstrated. It is fabricated in an InP-based photonic membrane bonded on a silicon wafer, using a novel double-sided processing scheme. A very high 3 dB bandwidth of beyond 67 GHz is obtained, together with a responsivity of 0.7 A/W at 1.55 μm wavelength. In addition, open eye diagrams at 54 Gb/s are observed. These results promise high speed applications using a novel full-functionality photonic platform on silicon.

Transcriptional analysis of atrial and ventricular muscles from rats

Previous studies have used microarray technology to explore gene expression differences between the atrium and the ventricle. However, selection criteria for the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) based only on either the fold change or the P value in these studies. Here, we aim to further identify the DEGs by setting a P value threshold of <0.05 and a fold change of >2, which may yield more specific gene expression differences between the atrium and the ventricle. Gene expression profiling of the atrial appendages and the ventricular free walls in 13 normal male Sprague Dawley rats were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus data base (accession No.: GSE5266). DEGs between the atrial and the ventricular samples were screened using the microarray significance analysis. The underlying functions of DEGs were predicted by gene ontology and pathway enrichment analyses. In addition, we also constructed protein interactions networks, and analyzed the function modules of the interacting proteins by MCODE. A total of 757DEGs between the atria and the ventricles were found. The genes highly expressed in the ventricular myocytes were associated with muscle contraction (e.g., Myl1, Myl2, Myl3, and Myh7) and energy production (e.g., Acadm and Acsl6), while the genes preferentially expressed in the atrial myocytes were involved in the integration of neurohumoral signals (e.g., Cldn1). These conclusions were confirmed by pathway enrichment and function module analyses. Our present study provides an overview of the transcript level differences between the atrium and the ventricle, which may be useful for determination of potential biomarkers.

Endostar combined with chemotherapy compared with chemotherapy alone in the treatment of nonsmall lung carcinoma: A meta-analysis based on Chinese patients

INTRODUCTION

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-associated death world-wide. And the lung cancer is generally divided into small cell lung carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer. For advanced NSCLC, the chemotherapy and target therapy were the important treatment modality. This meta-analysis was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and toxicity between endostar combined chemotherapy and chemotherapy alone in Chinese patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, and CNKI databases to find the potential relevant articles reporting the endostar combined with chemotherapy regimen in the treatment of nonsmall cell lung cancer in Chinese patients. The tumor response and toxicity difference between the two groups were demonstrated by odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (95% CI). All the data was pooled by Stata 11.0 (http://www.stata.com; Stata Corporation, College Station, TX) software.

RESULTS

We included 14 studies published in Chinese or English studies. The pooled results showed adding endostar in the chemotherapy regimen can significant increase the objective response rate (OR = 2.42, 95% CI = 1.87-3.12, P = 0.00) and disease control rate (OR = 2.22, 95% CI = 1.68-2.94, P = 0.00). For toxicities, the pooled data showed no statistical difference for grade III-IV granulocytopenia risk (OR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.74-1.44, P = 0.83). Nausea and vomiting (OR = 0.93 95% CI: 0.51-1.52, P = 0.78) and grade III-IV alopecia (OR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.76-1.29, P = 0.95). The funnel plot showed no statistical publications.

CONCLUSION

Combined treatment with endostar can improve the response rate for NSCLC patients without increasing the risk of developing severe adverse event.

Integrated remotely tunable optical delay line for millimeter-wave beam steering fabricated in an InP generic foundry

A compact and fabrication-tolerant integrated remotely tunable optical delay line is proposed for millimeter-wave beam steering and is fabricated in an InP generic foundry. The proposed delay line is based on a spectrally cyclic-arrayed waveguide grating feedback loop. Its major features include the tolerant architecture with reduced chip size, and bi-directional operation with simplified remote tuning. Moreover, its cyclic feature guarantees further cascaded operations either for 2D radio beam steering or for high-resolution delay generation. The experimental results show less than 6.5-dB insertion loss of the integrated delay line. Five different delays from 0 to 71.6 ps are generated with less than 0.67-ps delay errors.

HLA-B*59:01: a marker for Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis caused by methazolamide in Han Chinese

Methazolamide is an intraocular pressure-lowering drug that is used in the treatment of glaucoma and other ophthalmologic abnormalities. The use of methazolamide has been shown to cause Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) in patients of Asian ancestry. Methazolamide-induced SJS/TEN is associated with the presence of HLA-B59 serotype/HLA-B*59:01 in Korean and Japanese populations. To better understand the genetic risk factors for these adverse reactions in the Han Chinese population, we characterized the HLA class I genotypes of eight Chinese patients with methazolamide-induced SJS/TEN from 2008 to 2014. The frequency of HLA-B*59:01 was 87.5% (7/8) in the case patients, which was significantly different from 0% (0/30) in the methazolamide-tolerant patients (odds ratio (OR)=305.0; P=6.3 × 10(-7)) and 0.35% (1/283) in healthy subjects from the human major histocompatibility complex database (OR=1974.0; P=2.0 × 10(-12)). HLA-C*01:02, which is closely linked to HLA-B*59:01, had a weaker but notable association with methazolamide-induced SJS/TEN compared with the tolerant controls (OR=12.1; P=0.016) and general population (OR=15.5; P=2.0 × 10(-3)). The distribution of the HLA-B*59:01-C*01:02 haplotype was also significantly different in cases and controls. This study demonstrated a strong association between HLA-B*59:01 and methazolamide-induced SJS/TEN in the Han Chinese population for the first time. Pretherapy screening for HLA-B*59:01 would be useful to reduce the risk of methazolamide-induced SJS/TEN.

Mining drug-disease relationships as a complement to medical genetics-based drug repositioning: Where a recommendation system meets genome-wide association studies

A novel recommendation-based drug repositioning strategy is presented to simultaneously determine novel drug indications and side effects in one integrated framework. This strategy provides a complementary method to medical genetics-based drug repositioning, which reduces the occurrence of false positives in medical genetics-based drug repositioning, resulting in a ranked list of new candidate indications and/or side effects with different confidence levels. Several new drug indications and side effects are reported with high prediction confidences.

96 EFFECT OF MOF GENE ON PREIMPLANTATION DEVELOPMENT OF PIG PARTHENOGENETIC EMBRYOS

The Mof gene (males absent on the first) is crucial to X-chromosome dosage compensation in the fly. It acts specifically to catalyse acetylation of histone H4 lysine 16 (H4K16ac) as one histone acetyltransferase of the MYST family, playing essential roles during mammalian development. However, little is known about Mof gene in pigs. The present study was designed to explore effects of Mof on pre-implantation development of pig parthenogenetic embryos obtained as reported by Cao et al. (2012 Zygote 20, 229–236). Immunofluorescent staining was performed to examine protein expression level of porcine Mof (pMof) and H4K16ac, and fluorescent intensity was measured by Image J software (NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA). Data are presented as mean ± standard error, and statistical analyses of the fluorescent intensity value, embryo development rate, and quality were performed using ANOVA with SPSS software (version 15.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), and P-value <0.05 was considered significant. First, the coding sequence (CDS) of the pMof gene was cloned and the spatio-temporal expression patterns of the CDS were determined in pig oocytes, early embryos, and other tissues. A 1471-bp-long cDNA of pMof was obtained with 99.34% and 98.25% amino acid sequence homology and 92.88% and 88.96% nucleotide sequence homology to the human and mouse MOF homologues. We observed that pMof is expressed predominantly in oocytes and early embryos but at low levels in sperm and other organs. We found that pMof decreased from pronuclear to 8-cell stages and remained low until the blastocyst stage based on RT-qPCR results (n = 10 for each stage embryos). In contrast, pMof protein expression as examined by immunofluorescent staining (n = 15 for each stage embryos) remained high throughout the pre-implantation development period. After porcine embryonic genome activation, pMOF remained detectable in 4-cell (n = 10) and 8-cell (n = 10) embryos despite amanitin treatment for 24 h. Thus, the mRNA level of MOF was not decreased after transcription inhibition suggesting that MOF is a maternal gene. To assess functional significance, we examined the expression of H4K16ac, a target of pMof, and found that the level of H4K16ac was constantly low from pronuclear to morula stage, but increased dramatically in blastocysts. When we knocked down pMOF by cytoplasmic injection of siRNA into porcine MII oocytes, rate and cell number of blastocysts declined significantly [blastocyst rate: uninjected (n = 228) v. negative-siRNA (n = 220) v. MOF-siRNA (n = 230) = 65.8 ± 3.75% v. 57.5 ± 4.30% v. 46.3 ± 5.72%; cell numbers: uninjected v. negative-siRNA v. MOF-siRNA = 84.73 ± 5.25 v. 77 ± 5.50 v. 55.08 ± 6.56]. A marker for DNA double-strand breaks and repair, γ-H2AX, increased in parallel to more apoptotic cells. Knockdown of MOF reduced H4K16ac. Overall, pMof is highly conserved among human, mouse, and pig; pMof is essential to pre-implantational development of pig parthenogenetic embryos involved in regulating H4K16ac.Research was supported by NSFC (31272442).

Plasma levels of TNF-α and MMP-9 in patients with silicosis

OBJECTIVE

Silicosis is usually recognized at later stages of the disease, and early biomarkers for silicosis will be useful for timely diagnosis. We aimed at examining plasma levels of TNF-α and MMP-9, and correlation between these, in patients with different stages of silicosis in order to test suitability of these inflammatory factors as early biomarkers for silicosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

TNF-α and MMP-9 were quantified by ELISA in plasma specimens from 30 healthy individuals (control group), 28 individuals exposed to silica dust but without clinical disease, and 30 patients with silicosis.

RESULTS

Plasma levels of TNF-α and MMP-9 were increased in individuals exposed to silica dust (p < 0.05 vs. control individuals) and were further elevated in patients with silicosis (p < 0.05 vs. control individuals and individuals exposed to silica dust). There was a significant correlation between plasma levels of TNF-α and MMP-9 both in individuals exposed to silica dust (r = 0.696, p < 0.01) and patients with silicosis (r = 0.768, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Plasma levels of TNF-α and MMP-9 are increased prior to development of clinically recognized silicosis, suggesting that these biomarkers are involved in the onset and development of silicosis. Combined detection of TNF-α and MMP-9 may be useful for early diagnosis of silicosis.