More anxious or more shy? Examining the social anxiety levels of adolescents with primary enuresis nocturna: a controlled study

INTRODUCTION

Enuresis nocturna (EN) is very common worldwide, and psychiatric disorders are 1.3-4.5 times higher in children with EN. When the authors focus on symptoms of individuals with EN, they figured out that the individuals were impaired in social and emotional skills because of the dramatic consequences of EN. The authors presume that, despite a lack of psychiatric comorbidity, primary enuresis nocturna (PEN) itself and its consequences may increase adolescents' social anxiety (SA), leading to adulthood mental diseases.

OBJECTIVE

In this study, the authors aimed to investigate the presence of SA of adolescents with monosymptomatic PEN without any psychiatric comorbidity by comparing them with their healthy peers.

METHODS

The study was composed of 56 children who applied to pediatric nephrology outpatient clinic and were diagnosed with monosymptomatic PEN and 42 healthy controls. The psychiatric diagnoses were made by a child psychiatrist, with the help of a semistructured interview (Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Present and Lifetime Version, K-SADS-PL), and patients were required to fill out the Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Disorders, Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A), and Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) scales with the help of a clinical psychologist. The physical examination made by a pediatric nephrologist and dysfunctional voiding and incontinence scoring system questionnaire were used to evaluate the voiding dysfunction in children.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference in the total depression and anxiety scores between the groups (p > 0.05). There was a significant difference between the two groups in the subscale of SA (t = 2.67 p = 0.009) (Table). Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (p < 0.001) and subscales of SAS-A (Fear of Negative Evaluation [p < 0.001], General Social Avoidance and Distress [p = 0.003], Social Avoidance and Distress in New Situations [p < 0.001]) scores were significantly higher in the patient group.

DISCUSSION

The authors want to emphasize the comorbid SA of adolescents diagnosed with PEN. This anxiety may disturb adolescents' health in two ways: first, with the help of direct consequences of the SA and second, being late for seeking help for the EN and possible delay in EN treatments. The main limitation of this study is the assessments of the prior mental status of subjects were made by K-SADS-PL, thus remaining a recall bias. A follow-up study may be more objective.

CONCLUSION

So all adolescents diagnosed with PEN should require a detailed mental examination to prevent further negative consequences and provide more comprehensive treatment. Also, the study needed to be repeated in larger samples, and prospective studies should be designed to enhance authors' understanding.

Hesperidin promotes programmed cell death by downregulation of nongenomic estrogen receptor signalling pathway in endometrial cancer cells

Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is the most common malignant gynecologic tumor in women. EC is thought to be caused by increasing estrogen levels relative to progesterone in the body. Hesperidin (Hsd), a biologically active flavonoid, could be extracted from Citrus species. It has been recently shown that Hsd could exert anticarcinogenic properties in different cancer types. However, the effects of Hsd and its molecular mechanisms on EC remain unclear. In this study, the antiproliferative, apoptotic and genomic effects of Hsd in EC and its underlying mechanisms were identified. We found that Hsd significantly suppressed the proliferation of EC cells in dose and time dependent manner. Mechanistic studies showed that Hsd could contribute apoptosis by inducing externalization of phosphatidyl serine (PS), caspase-3 activity and loss of mitochondrial membrane (MMP). Furthermore, we examined that Hsd could also significantly upregulate the expression of proapoptotic Bax subgroup genes (Bax and Bik) while downregulating the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 in EC cell lines. According to GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes in Hsd treated EC cells, we identified that Hsd could promote cell death via downregulation of estrogen receptor I (ESRI) that was directly related to ERK/MAPK pathway. Taken together, our study first showed that Hsd could be an antiestrogenic compound that could modulate nongenomic estrogen receptor signaling through inhibition of EC cell growth. Our findings may provide us a novel growth inhibitory agent for EC treatment after verifying its molecular mechanism with in vivo studies.

miR-17 in imatinib resistance and response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in chronic myeloid leukemia cells

PURPOSE

In this study we examined the expression levels of miR-17 which possesses oncogenic activities through downregulation of CDKN1A, p21 and E2F1 tumor suppressor genes, in imatinib sensitive and resistant chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells. On the other hand, we also determined the expression levels of miR-17 in response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors imatinib, nilotinib and dasatinib used for the treatment of CML.

METHODS

The expression profiles of miR-17 were analysed by Stem-Loop reverse transcription (RT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

RESULTS

The results revealed significant increase in the expression levels of miR-17 in imatinib sensitive and resistant cells compared to peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). On the other hand, significant decrease was observed in miR-17 levels in response to imatinib, nilotinib and dasatinib.

CONCLUSION

These results may imply that miR-17 can be used for diagnosis and treatment of CML.

Novel agents targeting bioactive sphingolipids for the treatment of cancer

Sphingolipids are a class of lipids that have important functions in a variety of cellular processes such as, differentiation, proliferation, senescence, apoptosis and chemotherapeutic resistance. The most widely studied bioactive shingolipids include ceramides, dihydroceramide (dhCer), ceramide-1-phosphate (C1P), glucosyl-ceramide (GluCer), sphingosine and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P). Although the length of fatty acid chain affects the physiological role, ceramides and sphingosine are known to induce apoptosis whereas C1P, S1P and GluCer induce proliferation of cells, which causes the development of chemoresistance. Previous studies have implicated the significance of bioactive shingolipids in oncogenesis, cancer progression and drug- and radiation-resistance. Therefore, targeting the elements of sphingolipid metabolism appears important for the development of novel therapeutics or to increase the effectiveness of the current treatment strategies. Some approaches involve the development of synthetic ceramide analogs, small molecule inhibitors of enzymes such as sphingosine kinase, acid ceramidase or ceramide synthase that catalyze ceramide catabolism or its conversion to various molecular species and S1P receptor antagonists. These approaches mainly aim to up-regulate the levels of apoptotic shingolipids while the proliferative ones are down-regulated, or to directly deliver cytotoxic sphingolipids like short-chain ceramide analogs to tumor cells. It is suggested that a combination therapy with conventional cytotoxic approaches while preventing the conversion of ceramide to S1P and consequently increasing the ceramide levels would be more beneficial. This review compiles the current knowledge about sphingolipids, and mainly focuses on novel agents modulating sphingolipid pathways that represent recent therapeutic strategies for the treatment of cancer.

The roles of antiapoptotic sphingosine kinase-1 and glucosylceramide genes in drug induced cell death of MCF-7 breast cancer cells

PURPOSE

Sphingolipids are important signaling molecules mediating cell survival, proliferation, cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. Ceramide is the most vital sphingolipid which induces growth arrest, senescence, and apoptosis. In this study, we aimed to determine the roles of sphingosine kinase-1 (SK-1) and glucosylceramide synthase (GCS) genes in paclitaxel, doxorubicin, tamoxifen, cyclophosphamide and docetaxel induced apoptosis in human MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

METHODS

IC50 values (drug concentration inhibiting cell growth by 50%) of the anticancer agents were calculated using XTT cell proliferation assay. Changes in mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) were determined using JC-1 assay kit. Changes in the mRNA levels of SK-1 and GCS genes were measured by using RT-PCR technique.

RESULTS

The results demonstrated significant decrease in cellular proliferation and increase in loss of MMP in a dose-dependent manner. Paclitaxel, doxorubicin, tamoxifen, cyclophosphamide and docetaxel application downregulated SK-1 expression while paclitaxel, tamoxifen, cyclophosphamide and docetaxel but not doxorubicin downregulated GCS comparing to untreated control cells.

CONCLUSION

These results show for the first time that these agents induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cells by downregulating the antiapoptotic SK-1 and GCS genes that may result in accumulation of apoptotic ceramides.

Imatinib-induced apoptosis: a possible link to topoisomerase enzyme inhibition

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE

Imatinib is a specific BCR/ABL inhibitor, commonly used for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), a hematological malignancy resulting from a chromosomal translocation that generates the BCR/ABL fusion protein. Recent studies showed that the imatinib has cytotoxic and apoptotic effects on many BCR/ABL-negative cancers. Numerous compounds with cytotoxic potential exert their functions by interfering with the DNA topoisomerase. In this study, we examined the effects of imatinib on tumour cell-killing in relation to DNA topoisomerase enzyme inhibition.

METHODS

We determined the cytotoxicity by cell proliferation assay (XTT; tetrazolium hydroxide), using the human K562 CML cells, and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential by monitoring the changes in caspase-3 enzyme activity. Type I and II topoisomerase activities were measured by supercoiled plasmid relaxation and minicircle DNA decatenation assays respectively.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Imatinib-induced apoptosis and inhibited cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner. We also found that the imatinib was effective in both type I and type II topoisomerase reactions to a varying degree between 94% and 7% for the concentration range of 1 mm-0.02 mm in a dose-dependent manner.

WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that the inhibition of topoisomerases may be a significant factor in imatinib-induced apoptosis in CML.

Cross-resistance to cytosine arabinoside in human acute myeloid leukemia cells selected for resistance to vincristine

AIM

The goals of the study were to reveal the involvement of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), the product of multidrug resistance 1 gene (MDR1) in cellular resistance to vincristine (VCR) and investigate cross-resistance against cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C) in HL60 and HL60/VCR cell lines.

METHODS

HL60 cells (human acute myeloid leukemia cell line) were cultured on medium with 1-50 nM of VCR for 4-6 weeks, and VCR resistant cells (HL60/VCR) were selected. The viability of cells was assessed by MTT assay and the expression of MDR1 gene was detected by RT-PCR.

RESULTS

No expression of MDR1 gene was revealed in HL60 cells, but MDR1 started to be expressed after incubation of cells with 2 nM of VCR and its expression level elevates with increase of agent concentration. MTT test has shown that HL-60/VCR cells were 75-fold more resistant to VCR and 42-fold higher resistant to cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C) compared to sensitive HL60 cells.

CONCLUSION

Aquired resistance to VCR and cross-resistance to Ara-C correlates with MDR1 gene expression in vitro.