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BACKGROUND: The clinical manifestations of myofascial pelvic pain (MFPP) are mainly acute or chronic muscle pain at one or more trigger points in the pelvic cavity or pelvic floor. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the predictive value of pelvic floor myoelectric parameters with respect to MFPP and the effect of its clinical treatment. METHODS: Two hundred and one women followed up in the Wenzhou People’s Hospital 6–12 weeks postpartum between July 2020 and July 2021. They were divided into an MFPP group (n= 90) and a non-MFPP group (n= 102), but 9 MFPP patients without a pelvic floor electromyography evaluation were not included. The general demographic data and pelvic floor electromyography evaluation parameters of the two groups were compared; the related factors of postpartum women suffering from MFPP were analyzed, and a nomogram model of the postpartum risk of suffering from MFPP was established. The 99 patients with postpartum MFPP were divided into a treatment group (n= 10) and a control group (n= 89). The difference in visual analog scale scores between the two groups initially and after three months of treatment was compared to evaluate the effective remission rate of postpartum MFPP after treatment. RESULTS: A significant difference was observed in the relaxation time at the rapid contraction stage (z= 4.369, p< 0.05) and the tension contraction stage (z= 135.645, p< 0.01) between the MFPP group and the non-MFPP group. The nomogram model for predicting postpartum MFPP was established with nine variables as potential predictors. The calibration chart and C index of 0.68 (95% CI: 0.65–0.71) proved that the model had a certain degree of discrimination. The clinical decision-making curve showed that the model could increase the net benefit rate of patients. The pain relief rate in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group (p< 0.01). CONCLUSION: There is a significant correlation between postpartum MFPP and relaxation time at rapid contraction stage and tension contraction stage. The risk prediction nomogram model of postpartum MFPP established with nine potential predictors has a certain prediction capability, and clinical treatment can effectively relieve MFPP in postpartum patients.

BACKGROUND Mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue extranodal marginal zone (MALT) lymphoma is a low-grade tumor that rarely occurs in the urinary bladder. There is currently no consensus on the common imaging findings or most appropriate treatment in MALT lymphoma in the urinary bladder due to the limited number of reports. CASE SUMMARY A 48-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital with a 1-year history of macroscopic hematuria. Imaging showed a large homogeneous mass with an unclear boundary and an irregular morphology in the bladder. The mass had an abundant blood supply. For further diagnosis, transurethral cystoscopic biopsy and bone marrow biopsy was performed, and the patient was finally diagnosed with primary MALT lymphoma of the bladder. R-CHOP chemotherapy was carried out. After three cycles of chemotherapy, the mass disappeared and the bladder wall thickness was only 4 mm, which indicated excellent therapeutic response to the chemotherapy. To date, the patient remains asymptomatic and she visits our hospital regularly for the completion of the remaining chemotherapy cycles. CONCLUSION Primary MALT lymphoma of the bladder is rare, and there are certain characteristics in the ultrasonographic findings. Imaging findings play an important role in evaluating the therapeutic efficacy and are critical during long-term follow-up after therapy.

The clinical manifestations of myofascial pelvic pain (MFPP) are mainly acute or chronic muscle pain at one or more trigger points in the pelvic cavity or pelvic floor.This study aims to explore the predictive value of pelvic floor myoelectric parameters with respect to MFPP and the effect of its clinical treatment.Two hundred and one women followed up in the Wenzhou People's Hospital 6-12 weeks postpartum between July 2020 and July 2021. They were divided into an MFPP group (n= 90) and a non-MFPP group (n= 102), but 9 MFPP patients without a pelvic floor electromyography evaluation were not included. The general demographic data and pelvic floor electromyography evaluation parameters of the two groups were compared; the related factors of postpartum women suffering from MFPP were analyzed, and a nomogram model of the postpartum risk of suffering from MFPP was established. The 99 patients with postpartum MFPP were divided into a treatment group (n= 10) and a control group (n= 89). The difference in visual analog scale scores between the two groups initially and after three months of treatment was compared to evaluate the effective remission rate of postpartum MFPP after treatment.A significant difference was observed in the relaxation time at the rapid contraction stage (z= 4.369, p0.05) and the tension contraction stage (z= 135.645, p0.01) between the MFPP group and the non-MFPP group. The nomogram model for predicting postpartum MFPP was established with nine variables as potential predictors. The calibration chart and C index of 0.68 (95% CI: 0.65-0.71) proved that the model had a certain degree of discrimination. The clinical decision-making curve showed that the model could increase the net benefit rate of patients. The pain relief rate in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group (p0.01).There is a significant correlation between postpartum MFPP and relaxation time at rapid contraction stage and tension contraction stage. The risk prediction nomogram model of postpartum MFPP established with nine potential predictors has a certain prediction capability, and clinical treatment can effectively relieve MFPP in postpartum patients.

BACKGROUND Intrahepatic biliary cystadenoma (IBC) is a rare benign hepatic tumor that is often misdiagnosed as other hepatic cystic diseases. Therefore, imaging examinations are required for preoperative diagnosis. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) has gained increasing popularity as an emerging imaging modality and it is considered the primary method for screening IBC because of its specificity of performance. We describe an unusual case of monolocular IBC and emphasize the performance of CEUS. CASE SUMMARY A 45-year-old man complained of epigastric pain lasting 1 wk. He had no medical history of hepatitis, liver cirrhosis or parasitization. Physical examination revealed a mass of approximately 6 cm in size in the upper abdomen below the subxiphoid process. Tumor marker tests found elevated CA19-9 levels (119.3 U/mL), but other laboratory tests were unremarkable. Ultrasound and computerized tomography revealed a round thick-walled mass measuring 83 mm × 68 mm located in the left lateral lobe of the liver that lacked internal septations and manifested as a monolocular cystic structure. CEUS demonstrated that in the arterial phase, the anechoic area manifested as a peripheral ring with homogeneous enhancement. The central part presented with no enhancement. During the portal phase, the enhanced portion began to subside but was still above the surrounding liver tissue. The patient underwent left partial liver lobectomy and recovered well without tumor recurrence or metastasis. Eventually, the results of pathological examination confirmed IBC. CONCLUSION A few IBC cases present with monolocular characteristics, and the lack of intracystic septa in imaging performance cannot exclude IBC.

Fang Liu,1,2,* Rong-Bin Lv,3,* Yan Liu,4 Qian Hao,1 Shu-Jie Liu,5 Yuan-Yuan Zheng,2 Cui Li,2 Cheng Zhu,1 Min Wang1,6 1Department of Geriatric Gastroenterology, Qilu Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250012, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastroenterology, Taian City Central Hospital, Taian, Shandong 271000, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of PET/CT, Taian City Central Hospital, Taian, Shandong 271000, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Emergency, Dongping Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Taian, Shandong 271500, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Zibo Spring Hospital Co., Ltd, Zibo, Shandong 255022, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of General Practice, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250012, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Min WangDepartment of Geriatric Gastroenterology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, 107 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan, Shandong 250012, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-531-82166601Email doctorminmin@163.comBackground: Both salinomycin (SAL) and sulforaphane (SFN) exert their antitumorigenic effects in various types of cancer We investigated whether combining salinomycin (SAL, an antibiotic ionophore) with sulforaphane (SFN, a phytochemical) exerted synergistic antiproliferative and proapoptotic activities in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells in vitro and in vivo by evaluating the proliferative and apoptotic responses of two CRC cell lines.Materials and Methods: The combination index (CI) was calculated using the Chou-Talalay method, and the effects of the synergistic combination (CI< 1) of lower doses of SAL and SFN were selected for further studies. Anti-tumor effect of the combination of SAL and SFN was tested both in vitro and in vivo.Results: Cotreatment effectively inhibited proliferation, migration and invasion and enhanced apoptosis. The xenograft model also showed similar results. Furthermore, we evaluated the molecular mechanism behind SAL- and SFN-mediated CRC cell apoptosis. The combination treatment induced apoptosis in Caco-2 and CX-1 cells by inhibiting the PI3K/Akt pathway, which increased the expression of the tumor suppressor protein p53. The treatment also decreased the expression of the survival protein Bcl-2 and increased the expression of the proapoptotic protein Bax, which increased the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, as well as enhanced poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage. Upon inhibiting the PI3K/Akt pathway with LY294002 prior to cotreatment, we detected enhanced PARP cleavage compared to that in the cotreatment only group.Conclusion: We investigated whether the combination of SAL and SFN had antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects in CRC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Cotreatment also significantly decreased migration and invasion compared to that of the control and SAL or SFN monotherapies. This novel combination of SAL and SFN might provide a potential strategy to treat CRC.Keywords: salinomycin, sulforaphane, colorectal cancer, synergism, apoptosis, PI3K/Akt pathway

Water pollution by toxic organic dyes is one of the most critical health and environmental problems worldwide. By means of molecular dynamics method, the present work aims to evaluate the applicability of montmorillonite (Mt) modified by hexadecyltrimethylammonium cations (HDTMA

In recent years the range of channels for customers to acquire products has generally expanded. The Smart-X system plays an essential role in pricing strategies, as fairness concerns could impact t...

The development of emerging technologies, such as advanced information system, social media, and blockchain, has significantly changed consumers’ behaviors in relation to online purchase. Having access to the historical price information, consumers are able to compare the current price with the historical prices and may raise fairness concerns in the comparison process. We investigate the impacts of consumers’ fairness concerns on retailers’ pricing strategies in a two-stage model. We show that when the retailer uses uniform pricing strategy, consumers’ fairness concerns induce the retailer to decrease product price. As a consequence, the market demand expands and the retailer’s profit reduces. When the retailer adopts multi-stage pricing strategy, we find that consumers’ fairness concerns are not always harmful to the retailer’s profit. Under certain conditions, the retailer can benefit from consumers’ fairness concerns. Particularly, the product price in the first period increases, but the price in the second period and the market demand could be increased or decreased, depending on the situations.

Background: The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and its rapid spread may have led to individuals developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychological distress. Under this context, teachers merit more attention as a group with high levels of work stress. The purpose of this study was to verify the relationship between PTSD and psychological distress and to explore sleep problems as a possible mediator in the relationship between PTSD and psychological distress, as well as the moderator of internet gaming disorders (IGD) in the relationship between sleep problems and psychological distress. Methods: A total of 11,014 Chinese primary and middle school teachers participated in this study. The survey was conducted online between 25 May and 30 June 2020. Results: PTSD was shown to have both a direct and indirect effect on teachers’ psychological distress. The indirect effect was mediated by sleep problems. IGD played a moderating role between sleep problems and psychological distress. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, PTSD has been shown to have had a serious impact on the psychological stress of teachers, which was mediated by sleep problems. In addition, IGD raised the harm brought from sleep problems on teachers’ mental health.

Lung adenocarcinoma is heterogeneous and hierarchically organized, with a subpopulation of stem-like cells (CSCs) that reside at the apex of the hierarchy, in which exosomes act as important mediators by transporting specific molecules among different cell populations. Although there have been numerous studies on tumor exosomes, the constituents and functional properties of CSC-derived exosomes are still poorly characterized. Here we present a detail transcriptome and proteome atlas of the exosomes released by human lung adenocarcinoma stem-like cells (LSLCs). The transcriptome analysis indicates the specific patterns of exosomal constituents, including the fragmentation of transcripts and the low-level presence of circular RNAs, and identifies multiple exosomal-enriched mRNAs and lncRNAs. Integrative analysis of transcriptome and proteome data reveals the diverse functions of exosomal-enriched RNAs and proteins, many of which are associated with tumorigenesis. Importantly, several LSLC markers we identified are highly expressed in LSLC-derived exosomes and associate with poor survival, which may serve as promising liquid biopsy biomarkers for lung adenocarcinoma diagnosis. Our study provides a resource for the future elucidation of the functions of tumor-derived exosomes and their regulatory mechanisms in mediating lung cancer development.

C1q/TNF-related protein 12 (CTRP12) has been reported to play a key role in coronary artery disease. However, whether CTRP12 plays a role in the regulation of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury is not fully understood. The goals of this work were to assess the possible relationship between CTRP12 and myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. Here, we exposed cardiomyocytes to hypoxia/re-oxygenation (H/R) to establish an in vitro cardiomyocyte injury model of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. Our results showed that H/R treatment resulted in a decrease in CTRP12 expression in cardiomyocytes. The up-regulation of CTRP12 ameliorated H/R-induced cardiomyocyte injury via the down-regulation of apoptosis, oxidative stress, and inflammation. In contrast, the knockdown of CTRP12 enhanced cardiomyocyte sensitivity to H/R-induced cardiomyocyte injury. Further investigation showed that CTRP12 enhanced the levels of nuclear Nrf2 and increased the expression of Nrf2 target genes in cardiomyocytes exposed to H/R. However, the inhibition of Nrf2 markedly diminished CTRP12-overexpression-mediated cardioprotective effects against H/R injury. Overall, these data indicate that CTRP12 protects against H/R-induced cardiomyocyte injury by inhibiting apoptosis, oxidative stress, and inflammation via the enhancement of Nrf2 signaling. This work suggests a potential role of CTRP12 in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury and proposes it as an attractive target for cardioprotection.

Objective: Currently, there is paucity of data on the rate of vaginal deliveries and cesarean section among women in Tibet. In this study, we carried out an observational study of 7365 consecutive pregnant women in Lhasa, Tibet who gave birth at our tertiary care institution between 2012 and 2015. Materials and methods: In this retrospective study, we reviewed the hospital records for demographic data, obstetric history, and the number of vaginal and emergency cesarean section deliveries. The overall and annual rate of vaginal and cesarean section deliveries was calculated. Causes, indications or risks for cesarean section were also analyzed. Results: During the review period, 7365 neonates were delivered at our hospital, including 1690 (23.0%) deliveries via cesarean section. The yearly rate of cesarean section progressively declined from 26.7% in 2012 to 18% in 2015 (P

Professor Jiping ZHAO has unique thoughts on the diagnosis and treatment of peripheral facial paralysis. She pays the great attention to clinical differentiation in treatment with acupuncture, especially meridian differentiation. She believes that the differentiation of lesion is core and the early judgment is critical for the better therapeutic effects on intractable facial paralysis. The local acupoints are selected in the guide of the theory of meridian sinew and stimulated on the base of three-needling theory. The distal acupoints are decided in light of the syndrome differentiation, of which, Hegŭ (合谷 LI 4), Zusānlĭ (足三里 ST 36) and Taichōng (太冲 LR 3) are the basic acupoints. Additionally, Professor ZHAO lays the emphasis on the 5th branch of facial nerve (cervical branch) in diagnosis and treatment.

Tribulus terrestris L. is a well-known medicinal plant from subtropical areas. In China Pharmacopoeia, only the fruit of T. terrestris is recorded to be the medicinal part. But some pharmaceutical preparations and food supplements made of total saponins of aerial part of T. terrestris including fruits, stems, and leaves are commercially available. However, steroidal saponins in different parts have not been studied extensively. So differentiating three parts and ensuring reasonable application of T. terrestris has been an important issue. Herein, we developed an integrated platform based on components profiling and chemometrics analysis to comparatively characterize and investigate steroidal saponins in three parts. As a result, a total of 84 steroidal saponins were characterized or tentatively identified, including 20 compounds reported for the first time. A clear separation of the three parts was achieved by partial least squares discriminant analysis based on the identified saponins, and 17 saponins were screened as biomarkers. Support vector machines model established based on 17 markers showed excellent predication accuracy of 100%. Finally, different distribution of steroidal saponins in three parts was shown obviously by heatmap visualization. These results provide promising perspectives for quality control of Chinese medicine, especially those with different medical parts.

Oral mucositis (OM) caused by cancer therapy is the most common adverse reaction in the radiotherapy of head and neck tumors. In severe cases, it can lead to the interruption of treatment, which affects the control of the disease and the quality of life. Shuanghua Baihe Tablet (SBT) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula, which is administerd to treat OM in China. It has been clinically effective for more than 30 years, but the underlying mechanism is not completely understood. With the development of multiple omics, it is possible to explore the mechanism of Chinese herbal compound prescriptions. Based on transcriptomics and metabolomics, we explored the underlying mechanism of SBT in the treatment of OM. An OM model of rats was established by 5-FU induction, and SBT was orally administered at dosages of 0.75 and 3 g·kg

The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula Ento-PB containing Periplaneta americana (Linnaeus) (Blattidae) and Taraxacum mongolicum Hand.-Mazz. (Compositae) has great potential for treating inflammation. This study explored the effects of Ento-PB on ulcerative colitis (UC). The UC model was induced with 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) by enema. Male Sprague–Dawley rats (n = 32) were divided into four groups: (1) control group that received 2.5 mL/kg normal saline, (2) TNBS group that received 2.5 mL/kg normal saline, (3) Ento-PB low-dose group that received 100 mg/kg Ento-PB, and (4) Ento-PB high-dose group that received 200 mg/kg Ento-PB. Rats were administered drugs via enema for 14 days after modeling. The disease activity index (DAI), colon mucosa damage index (CMDI), histopathological score (HS), levels of interleukin-8 (IL-8), IL-10, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in serum, contents of IL-2, myeloperoxidase (MPO), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), and epidermal growth factor (EGF) in the colon, and abundance of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Bacteroides, and Escherichia coli were assessed. Ento-PB administration showed a significant reduction in DAI, CMDI, and HS, contents of IL-2, IL-8, IL-17, TNF-α, CRP, and MPO, and a significant increase in the levels of IL-10, TGF-β1, and EGF. Compared with the TNBS-administered group, the abundance of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and E. coli decreased, while an obvious increase in the proportion of Bacteroides was found in the Ento-PB-administered groups. Ento-PB alleviated inflammation in UC by regulating the equilibrium of Th1/Th17/Treg cytokines and recovering the imbalance between the gut microbiota. Applying Ento-PB in treating UC could be suggested.

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a reversible neuroradiological syndrome characterized by reversible vasogenic edema. The pathophysiological mechanism is still unclear, but PRES may be triggered by various etiologies. To date, only a few PRES cases linked to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) hypovolemia were reported. The association between PRES and CSF hypovolemia needs to be explored. We presented a case of PRES with CSF hypovolemia as a result of an inadvertent dural puncture and reviewed the literature to identify the clinical characterization and pathophysiological mechanism of PRES following CSF hypovolemia. A total of 31 cases of PRES-CSF hypovolemia was included for analysis. The median age was 33 years, with a notable female predominance (87.1%). Fifteen patients (48.4%) didn't have either a history of hypertension nor an episode of hypertension. The most common cause of CSF hypovolemia was epidural or lumbar puncture (n = 21), followed by CSF shunt (n = 6). The median interval between the procedure leading to CSF hypovolemia and PRES was 4 days. Seizure, altered mental state, and headache were the most frequent presenting symptom. The parietooccipital pattern was most frequent (71.0%). Conservative management remains the mainstay of treatment with excellent outcomes. Three patients had a second episode of PRES. CSF hypovolemia is a plausible cause of PRES via a unique pathophysiologic mechanism including arterial hyperperfusion and venous dysfunction. Patients with CSF hypovolemia is more susceptible to PRES, which is potentially life-threatening. Given that CSF hypovolemia is a common complication of anesthetic, neurological, and neurosurgical procedures, PRES should be early considered for prompt diagnosis and appropriate management.

During steroid bioconversion, organic solvents are widely used for facilitating hydrophobic substrate dissolution in industry. Thus, strains that tolerate organic solvents are highly desirable. IrrE, a global transcriptional factor, was introduced into Arthrobacter simplex with Δ1-dehydrogenation ability. The results evidenced that IrrE did not affect cell biological traits and biotransformation performance under non-stress conditions. However, the recombinant strain achieved a productivity higher than that of the control strain in systems containing more ethanol and substrate, which coincided with cell viability under ethanol stress, the major stress factor during biotransformation. It also demonstrated that IrrE caused genome-wide transcriptional perturbation, and several defense proteins or systems were linked with higher organic solvent tolerance. IrrE simultaneously enhanced cell resistance to various stresses, and its horizontal impacts showed strain and stress dependence. In conclusion, the introdu...

The interparticle friction behavior of saturated clay controls its mechanical properties, but remains unclear at nanoscale. As one of major clay minerals, the hydrated montmorillonite (MMT) is selected to investigate the nanoscale friction characteristics using Molecular Dynamics simulation method. Two portions of MMT representing two particles with a water film in the middle are created to simulate an undrained system. A virtual spring is applied on the upper MMT portion to provide the sliding with a constant velocity relative to the bottom portion. The effects of normal load and sliding velocity on the frictional behavior are then investigated. The friction coefficients of hydrated MMT at different cases were measured and compared with other experimental and simulation results for the validation. The evolution of normal load with the number of hydrogen bonds for hydrated MMT was finally analyzed. All simulation results indicated that the friction load fluctuated periodically with a cycle of about 9.10 A at sliding velocity inferior 0.001 A•fs−1, which was nearly equal to montmorillonite's lattice constant along the sliding direction; the fluctuation amplitude of the friction load increased with the decreasing sliding velocity; the relationship between the average friction load and the logarithm of sliding velocity followed a power function; the friction coefficient and the cohesion were found to increase approximately linearly with sliding velocity.

// Fang-Wang Fu 1,* , Jie Rao 2,* , Yuan-Yuan Zheng 1 , Hui-Lin Wang 1 , Jian-Guang Yang 1 , and Guo-Qing Zheng 1 1 Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou city, China 2 Department of Neurology, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Lishui Central Hospital, Lishui City, China * Co-first author Correspondence to: Guo-Qing Zheng, email: // Keywords : POEMS syndrome, ischemic stroke, vasculopathy, vascular endothelial growth factor, vessel wall imaging Received : March 29, 2017 Accepted : June 28, 2017 Published : August 10, 2017 Abstract Background: POEMS syndrome is a rare multi-systemic disease characterized by polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal gammopathy, and skin changes. Arterial or venous thrombosis is a less-common complication of POEMS syndrome. Ischemic stroke has also been reported sporadically. However, the association between POEMS syndrome and ischemic stroke has not been entirely understood. Methods: A case of ischemic stroke caused by cerebral vasculitis in a patient with POEMS syndrome was presented. Then a comprehensive review and analysis of the literature were performed. Results: A total of 28 patients were identified. The common clinical manifestations of POEMS syndrome were rather non-specific in patients with ischemic stroke compared with those of patients without ischemic stroke. Twenty patients were found with multiple ischemic lesions (71.5%). In the 25 patients who had undergone the evaluation of cerebral arteries, nineteen patients (76.0%) were found with cerebral vasculopathy. Twelve patients (48.0%) had more than one cerebral artery involved. Ischemic events were documented in 8 patients even when they were undergoing all the therapy for ischemic stroke. Ten (55.6%) of the 18 patients who had survival data died within two years after stroke events. Conclusion: Comprehensive analysis of literature revealed several trends in patients with ischemic stroke and POEMS syndrome including a low survival rate and a preponderance of cerebral vasculopathy and multiple cerebral arteries affected. Ischemic stroke may be a poor outcome predictor in patients with POEMS syndrome. Further researches focusing on a larger cohort may help in better characterizing and treating this rare complication of POEMS syndrome.

// Hui-Yun Zhang 1, * , Wen-Qian Xu 1, * , Yuan-yuan Zheng 2 , Emmanuel Omari-Siaw 1 , Yuan Zhu 1 , Xia Cao 1 , Shan-Shan Tong 1 , Jiang-nan Yu 1, 2 , Xi-ming Xu 1 1 Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Center for Nano Drug/Gene Delivery and Tissue Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, People’s Republic of China 2 School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Jiang-nan Yu, email: yjn@ujs.edu.cn Xi-ming Xu, email: xmxu@ujs.edu.cn Keywords: cardiac glycosides, periplocymarin, octreotide, targetability, octreotide- periplocymarin conjugate Received: August 05, 2016 Accepted: November 09, 2016 Published: November 16, 2016 ABSTRACT Cardiac glycosides could increase intracellular Ca 2+ ion by inhibiting the Na + /K + ATPase to induce apoptosis in many tumor cells. However, narrow therapeutic index, poor tumor selectivity and severe cardiovascular toxicity hinder their applications in cancer treatment. To improve the safety profile and tumor targetablility of cardiac glycosides, we designed octreotide conjugated periplocymarin, a cardiac glycoside isolated from Cortex periplocae . The conjugate showed higher cytotoxicity on MCF-7 cells and HepG2 tumor cells (SSTRs overexpression) but much less toxicity in L-02 normal cells. Tissue distribution studies of the conjugate using H 22 tumor model in mice showed higher accumulation in tumor and lower distribution in heart and liver than periplocymarin. Furthermore, in vivo anticancer effects of the conjugate on mice bearing H 22 cancer xenografts confirmed enhanced anti-tumor efficacy and decreased systemic toxicity. Altogether, octreotide-conjugated periplocymarin demonstrated tumor selectivity and may be useful as a targeting agent to improve the safety profile of cardiac glycosides for cancer therapy.

Background To explore the efficacy of postoperative antifungal treatment for preventing the recurrence of pulmonary cryptococcosis (PC) and occurrence of cryptococcal meningitis (CM), a retrospective study was conducted in 112 hospitalized PC patients with or without antifungal treatment following surgery. Methods The treatment failure rate, PC recurrence rate, and CM incidence were compared. Additionally, the effectiveness of postoperative antifungal therapy was assessed by gathering and analyzing the published literature. Results The failure rate (P = .054) and recurrence rate (P = .178) were similar in the 2 groups, but the incidence of CM was lower in the group that received postoperative antifungal treatment (P = .039). Conclusions This study did not show any difference in the PC recurrence rate or failure rate in the different treatment duration groups. Thus, a shorter antifungal treatment course of 2 months may be an optional treatment. In addition, upon review of the literature, no case of CM occurrence was reported among the 169 cases given postoperative antifungal treatment.

Background To evaluate the clinical utility of LIM Domain Only 2 (LMO2) negative and CD38 positive in diagnosis of Burkitt lymphoma (BL). Methods LMO2 and CD38 expression determined by immunohistochemistry in 75 BL, 12 High-grade B-cell lymphoma, NOS (HGBL,NOS) and 3 Burkitt-like lymphomas with the 11q aberration. Results The sensitivity and specificity of LMO2 negative for detecting BL were 98.67 and 100%, respectively; those of CD38 positive were 98.67 and 66.67%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of a combination of both for detecting BL were 97.33 and 100%, respectively. In our study, the combined LMO2 negative and CD38 positive results had a higher area under the curve than either LMO2 negative or CD38 positive alone. Conclusions A combination of LMO2 negative and CD38 positive is useful for the diagnosis of Burkitt lymphoma.