A novel chemotherapeutic sensitivity-testing system based on collagen gel droplet embedded 3D-culture methods for hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Patients suffering from advanced stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) often exhibit a poor prognosis or dismal clinical outcomes due to ineffective chemotherapy or a multi-drug resistance (MDR) process. Thus, it is urgent to develop a new chemotherapeutic sensitivity testing system for HCC treatment. The presence study investigated the potential application of a novel chemotherapeutic sensitivity-testing system based on a collagen gel droplet embedded 3D-culture system (CD-DST). METHODS: Primary cells were separating from surgical resection specimens and then tested by CD-DST. To identify whether HCC cell lines or cells separating from clinical specimens contain MDR features, the cells were treated with an IC 50 (half maximal inhibitory concentration) or IC max (maximal inhibitory concentration) concentration of antitumor agents, e.g., 5-furuolouracil (5-FU), paclitaxel (PAC), cisplatin (CDDP), epirubicin (EPI), or oxaliplatin (L-OHP), and the inhibitory rates (IRs) were calculated. RESULTS: HepG2 cells were sensitive to 5-FU, PAC, CDDP, EPI, or L-OHP; the IC 50 value is 0.83 ± 0.45 µg/ml, 0.03 ± 0.02 µg/ml, 1.15 ± 0.75 µg/ml, 0.09 ± 0.03 µg/ml, or 1.76 ± 0.44 µg/ml, respectively. Only eight (8/26), nine (9/26), or five (5/26) patients were sensitive to the IC max concentration of CDDP, EPI, or L-OHP; whereas only three (3/26), four (4/26), or two (2/26) patients were sensitive to the IC 50 concentration of CDDP, EPI, or L-OHP. No patients were sensitive to 5-FU or PAC. CONCLUSIONS: The in vitro drug sensitivity exanimation revealed the MDR features of HCC and examined the sensitivity of HCC cells from clinical specimens to anti-tumor agents. CD-DST may be a useful method to predict the potential clinical benefits of anticancer agents for HCC patients.

Development of a colloidal gold kit for the diagnosis of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus infection.

It is critical to develop a cost-effective detection kit for rapid diagnosis and on-site detection of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) infection. Here, an immunochromatographic assay (ICA) to detect SFTSV infection is described. The ICA uses gold nanoparticles coated with recombinant SFTSV for the simultaneous detection of IgG and IgM antibodies to SFTSV. The ICA was developed and evaluated by using positive sera samples of SFTSV infection (n = 245) collected from the CDC of China. The reference laboratory diagnosis of SFTSV infection was based on the "gold standard". The results demonstrated that the positive coincidence rate and negative coincidence rate were determined to be 98.4% and 100% for IgM and 96.7% and 98.6% for IgG, respectively. The kit showed good selectivity for detection of SFTSV-specific IgG and IgM with no interference from positive sera samples of Japanese encephalitis virus infection, Dengue virus infection, Hantavirus infection, HIV infection, HBV surface antigen, HCV antibody, Mycobacterium tuberculosis antibody, or RF. Based on these results, the ICS test developed may be a suitable tool for rapid on-site testing for SFTSV infections.