A research update on the anticancer effects of bufalin and its derivatives.

Bufalin (BF) is a cardiotonic steroid that has recently been found to have substantial anticancer activity; however, more efforts should be directed toward clarifying the detailed molecular mechanisms underlying this activity. BF could exert its anticancer effect by inducing apoptosis in various human cancer cells and thus triggering autophagic cancer cell death. The anti-inflammatory activities of BF are potentially important for its anticancer functions. Notably, some promising synthetic BF derivatives, including poly (ethylene glycol)-based polymeric prodrug of BF and BF211, have shown potent anticancer activity. Additionally, clinical trials regarding the use of BF-related agents in patients have supported the positive effect of BF as an anticancer treatment. Currently, large-scale randomized, double-blind, placebo or positive drug parallel controlled studies are required to confirm the anticancer potential of BF in various cancer types in the clinical setting. The present review will evaluate the potential mechanisms mediated by BF in intracellular signaling events in cancer cells and various promising BF derivatives that may have greater anticancer activity, thereby clarifying BF-mediated anticancer effects. The experimental and clinical results reviewed strongly emphasize the importance of this topic in future investigations.

Structural characterization of polysaccharides from Cordyceps militaris and their hypolipidemic effects in high fat diet fed mice.

Cordyceps militaris is a crude dietary therapeutic mushroom with high nutritional and medicinal values. Mushroom-derived polysaccharides have been found to possess antihyperglycemic and antihyperlipidemic activities. This study aimed to partially clarify the structural characterization and comparatively evaluate hypolipidemic potentials of intracellular- (IPCM) and extracellular polysaccharides of C. militaris (EPCM) in high fat diet fed mice. Results indicated that IPCM-2 is α-pyran polysaccharide with an average molecular weight of 32.5 kDa, was mainly composed of mannose, glucose and galactose with mass percentages of 51.94%, 10.54%, and 37.25%, respectively. EPCM-2 is an α-pyran polysaccharide with an average molecular weight of 20 kDa that is mainly composed of mannose, glucose and galactose with mass percentages of 44.51%, 18.33%, and 35.38%, respectively. In in vivo study, EPCM-1 treatment (100 mg kg-1 d-1) showed potential effects on improving serum lipid profiles of hyperlipidemic mice, reflected by decreasing serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels by 20.05%, 45.45% and 52.63%, respectively, while IPCM-1 treatment (100 mg kg-1 d-1) remarkably decreased TC, TG and LDL-C levels by 20.74%, 47.93%, and 38.25%, respectively. In addition, EPCM-1 ameliorated hyperlipidemia possibly through upregulating the expression of serum lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and down-regulating the expression of hepatic 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR), as determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method, while IPCM-1 remarkably upregulated the expression of serum LPL. This study confirms polysaccharides from C. militaris could be explored as functional foods or natural medicines for preventing hyperlipidemia.

[Reconstruction of dynamic positron emission tomographic images by exploiting low rank and sparse penalty].

OBJECTIVE: To propose a new method for dynamic positron emission tomographic (PET) image reconstruction using low rank and sparse penalty (L&S). METHODS: The L&S reconstruction model was established and the split Bregman method was used to solve the optimal cost function. The one-tissue compartment model was used to simulate a set of PET 82Rb myocardial perfusion image. The L&S reconstruction method was compared with maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) method, low-rank penalty method and sparse penalty method. RESULTS: The L&S reconstruction method had the smallest MSE and well maintained the feature information. The polar map created by L&S method was the most similar with the reference actual polar map. CONCLUSION: L&S reconstruction method is better than the other three methods in both visual and quantitative analysis of the PET images.

Increased expression of miR-222 is associated with poor prognosis in bladder cancer.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNA-222 (miR-222) has been shown to play a potential oncogenic role in bladder cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of miR-222 in bladder cancer and its potential relevance to clinicopathological characteristics and patient survival. METHODS: Surgical specimens of cancer tissue and adjacent normal tissue were obtained from 97 patients with bladder cancer. The relative expression levels of miR-222 in the cancer and the normal adjacent tissue were measured by quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR. We analyzed their correlation with clinicopathological parameters and prognostic value. RESULTS: The expression level of miR-222 was significantly higher in tumor tissues than in corresponding non-cancerous tissues (5.46 ± 1.45 versus 1.92 ± 0.65, P < 0.0001), and a high expression of miR-222 was found to be significantly associated with tumor grade (P = 0.003) and tumor stage (P = 0.005). The miR-222 expression level was classified as high or low in relation to the median value (cutoff value = 5.15). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with higher levels of miR-222 had significantly poorer survival than those with lower expression of this miRNA in patients, with a 5-year overall survival of 29.53% and 52.75%, respectively (P = 0.0034). In the multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis, which included miR-222 level, tumor grade, tumor stage, and tumor number, high miR-222 expression was independently associated with poor survival (P < 0.001; hazard ratio 6.17; 95% CI 2.33 to 10.39). CONCLUSION: miR-222 overexpression is involved in the poor prognosis of bladder cancer and can be used as a biomarker for selection of cases requiring special attention.