SB-273005, an antagonist of αvβ3 integrin, reduces the production of Th2 cells and cytokine IL-10 in pregnant mice

Loss of ATRX promotes aggressive features of osteosarcoma with increased NF-κB signaling and integrin binding

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a lethal disease with few known targeted therapies. Here, we show that decreased ATRX expression is associated with more aggressive tumor cell phenotypes, including increased growth, migration, invasion, and metastasis. These phenotypic changes correspond with activation of NF-κB signaling, extracellular matrix remodeling, increased integrin αvβ3 expression, and ETS family transcription factor binding. Here, we characterize these changes in vitro, in vivo, and in a data set of human OS patients. This increased aggression substantially sensitizes ATRX-deficient OS cells to integrin signaling inhibition. Thus, ATRX plays an important tumor-suppression role in OS, and loss of function of this gene may underlie new therapeutic vulnerabilities. The relationship between ATRX expression and integrin binding, NF-κB activation, and ETS family transcription factor binding has not been described in previous studies and may impact the pathophysiology of other diseases with ATRX loss, including other cancers and the ATR-X α thalassemia intellectual disability syndrome.

Tirofiban, a Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Antagonist, Has a Protective Effect on Decompression Sickness in Rats: Is the Crosstalk Between Platelet and Leukocytes Essential?

In its severest forms, decompression sickness (DCS) may extend systemically and/or induce severe neurological deficits, including paralysis or even death. It seems that the sterile and ischemic inflammatory phenomena are consecutive to the reaction of the bubbles with the organism and that the blood platelet activation plays a determinant role in the development of DCS. According to the hypotheses commonly put forward, the bubbles could either activate the platelets by direct contact or be the cause of abrasion of the vascular epithelium, which would expose the basal plate glycogen and then prompt the platelets to activate. The purpose of this study is to confirm anti-platelet drugs specific to GPIIb/IIIa integrin could prevent DCS, using a rat model. There is a significant difference concerning the incidence of the drug on the clinical status of the rats (p = 0.016), with a better clinical outcome for rats treated with tirofiban (TIR) compared with the control rats (p = 0.027), even if the three anti-GPIIb/IIIa agents used have limited respiratory distress. TIR limited the decrease in platelet counts following the hyperbaric exposure. TIR help to prevent from DCS. TIR is specific to GPIIb/IIIa whereas eptifibatide and abciximab could inhibit αVβ3 and αMβ2 involved in communication with the immune system. While inhibiting GPIIb/IIIa could highlight a platelet-dependent inflammatory pathway that improves DCS outcomes, we wonder whether inhibiting the αVβ3 and αMβ2 communications is not a wrong approach for limiting mortality in DCS.

Genetic polymorphisms of IL-6 and IL-10 genes correlate with lung cancer in never-smoking Han population in China

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, especially in China. It is believed that genetic polymorphisms played a role in cancer susceptibility. Here we investigated the association of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility of lung cancer in never-smoking Chinese Han population. In this study, we performed a case-control study including 330 cases of never-smoking lung cancer patients and 336 cancer-free never-smoking controls in Chinese Han population. We used polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method to identify gene polymorphisms, and then verified by sequencing method. The results indicated that the four single nucleotide polymorphisms (IL-6 -1363T/G and -572G/C, IL-10 -819T/C and -592A/C) were genotyped by PCR-RFLP and confirmed by sequencing, and we found that the allelic frequencies of G in IL-6 -1363T/G, C in IL-10 -819T/C and C in IL-10 -592A/C were significantly increased in lung cancer patients, by comparing with the control group. However, there was no significant difference in the distribution of the IL-6 572G/C polymorphisms between patients and controls. In conclusion, the IL-6 -1363T/G, IL-10 -819T/C and IL-10 -592A/C polymorphisms are closely related to genetic susceptibility to lung cancer in never-smoking Chinese Han population, and these genetic variants might be used as molecular markers for detecting lung cancer susceptibility.