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Jian-yao Chen,1 Li-ping Liu,2 Jiang-feng Xu3 1Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shaoxing Second Hospital, Shaoxing, 2Department of Surgery, Zhuzhou Clinical Institute, Central South University School of Medicine, Zhuzhou, 3Department of Surgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Yiwu, China Abstract: RING domain AP-1 coactivator-1 (RACO-1) is a coactivator that links c-Jun to growth factor signaling and is essential for AP-1 function. This study aimed to investigate the expression and clinical significance of RACO-1 protein in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in China. A total of 136 tissue samples of HBV-related HCC were detected by immunohistochemistry (including 76 patients in training cohort and 60 patients in validation cohort). Correlation between RACO-1 expression and clinicopathologic features of HBV-related HCC was analyzed in both the cohorts. RACO-1 expression was significantly higher in HBV-related HCC tissues than in adjacent non-tumor liver tissues. All the patients were divided into two groups: the low expression group and the high expression group. RACO-1 expression was significantly related to vascular invasion (P=0.021), tumor numbers (P=0.046), International Union for Cancer Control/American Joint Committee on Cancer stage (P=0.006), cirrhosis (P=0.046), capsular (P=0.039), and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage (P=0.041) in training cohort. The validation cohort showed the same results. The high RACO-1 expression was the independent prognostic factor for HBV-related HCC patients in both training cohort and validation cohort. Our data implicate RACO-1 as a novel prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic target for HBV-related HCC. Keywords: RACO-1, hepatitis B, hepatocellular carcinoma, prognosis, BCLC stage, vascular invasion, cirrhosis, UICC/AJCC stage

Wan He,1,* Chang Zou,2,* Zhongkai Tian,1 Wenyong Tan,1 Weixi Shen,3 Jinghua Chen,1 Liping Liu,4 Ruilian Xu1 1Department of Oncology, The Second Clinical Medical College, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, Jinan University, Shenzhen, China; 2Clinical Medical Research Center, The Second Clinical Medical College, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, Jinan University, Shenzhen, China; 3Department of Oncology, Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University, Shenzhen, China; 4Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, The Second Clinical Medical College, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, Jinan University, Shenzhen, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Patients with stage IV nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) have a poor prognosis, even with effective chemotherapy. Target agents combined with chemotherapy may improve NPC patients’ outcome. The case of a patient with NPC, who was treated by adding bevacizumab to chemotherapy after disease progression using first-line chemotherapy, is reported. Recently published literature about effects of combining bevacizumab with standard chemotherapy in NPC cell lines or patients are also reviewed and discussed. Consistent with a few preclinical trials and Phase II clinical trials, bevacizumab may reverse the drug resistance to chemotherapy, and its toxic side effects are well tolerated. Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma, bevacizumab, drug resistance, combination therapy

Yong-ming Zou, Da Lu, Li-ping Liu, Hui-hong Zhang, Yu-ying Zhou Department of Neurology, Tianjin Huanhu Hospital, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder with the earliest clinical symptom of olfactory dysfunction, which is a potential clinical marker for AD severity and progression. However, many questions remain unanswered. This article reviews relevant research on olfactory dysfunction in AD and evaluates the predictive value of olfactory dysfunction for the epidemiological, pathophysiological, and clinical features of AD, as well as for the conversion of cognitive impairment to AD. We summarize problems of existing studies and provide a useful reference for further studies in AD olfactory dysfunction and for clinical applications of olfactory testing. Keywords: olfactory dysfunction, Alzheimer’s disease, olfactory testing, progress

Human protein arginine N-methyltransferase 2 (PRMT2, HRMT1L1) is a protein that belongs to the arginine methyltransferase family, and it has diverse roles in transcriptional regulation through different mechanisms depending on its binding partners. In this study, we provide evidences for the negative effect of PRMT2 on breast cancer cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Morever, cyclin D1, one of the key modulators of cell cycle, was found to be downregulated by PRMT2, and PRMT2 was further shown to suppress the estrogen receptor α-binding affinity to the activator protein-1 (AP-1) site in cyclin D1 promoter through indirect binding with AP-1 site, resulting in the inhibition of cyclin D1 promoter activity in MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, a positive correlation between the expression of PRMT2 and cyclin D1 was confirmed in the breast cancer tissues by using tissue microarray assay. In addition, PRMT2 was found to show a high absent percentage in breast caner cell nuclei and the nuclear loss ratio of PRMT2 was demonstrated to positively correlate with cyclin D1 expression and the increasing tumor grade of invasive ductal carcinoma. Those results offer an essential insight into the effect of PRMT2 on breast carcinogenesis, and PRMT2 nuclear loss might be an important biological marker for the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Colour Doppler flow imaging was used in this prospective, cross-sectional study to analyse renal haemodynamics in 50 cirrhotic patients and 15 healthy controls. Mean renal arterial resistive index (RI) was higher in cirrhotic patients than in healthy controls. Mean RI was also higher in cirrhotic patients with non-refractory ascites than in those without ascites, suggesting that the degree of renal vasoconstriction varies with the severity of ascites. A gradient of RI values across the main renal artery, interlobar artery and interlobular renal artery was retained in cirrhotic patients even in the decompensatory stage with non-refractory ascites but was not present in the decompensatory stage with refractory ascites. The disappearance of this gradient may be an important prognostic factor in the development of hepatorenal syndrome (HRS). An inverse correlation between creatinine clearance and interlobular arterial RI was shown for all cirrhotic patients suggesting that even patients with refractory ascites are in a prophase of HRS.