CUL1 promotes breast cancer metastasis through regulating EZH2-induced the autocrine expression of the cytokines CXCL8 and IL11.

CUL1 is an essential component of SCF (SKP1-CUL1-F-box protein) E3 ubiquitin ligase complex. Our previous study has showed that CUL1 is positively associated with poor overall and disease-specific survival of breast cancer patients. Here, we further explored its roles in breast cancer metastasis. Our data showed that CUL1 significantly promoted breast cancer cell migration, invasion, tube formation in vitro, as well as angiogenesis and metastasis in vivo. In mechanism, the human gene expression profiling was used to determine global transcriptional changes in MDA-MB-231 cells, and we identified autocrine expression of the cytokines CXCL8 and IL11 as the target genes of CUL1 in breast cancer cell migration, invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis. CUL1 regulated EZH2 expression to promote the production of cytokines, and finally significantly aggravating the breast cancer cell metastasis and angiogenesis through the PI3K-AKT-mTOR signaling pathway. Combined with the previous report about CUL1, we proposed that CUL1 may serve as a promising therapeutic target for breast cancer metastasis.

Meta analysis of the curative effect of acupuncture on post-stroke depression.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the curative effect of acupuncture on post-stroke depression (PSD). METHODS: The internet was used to retrieve the Wanfang Medical Data System, Chinese Periodical Net, the Weipu Information Resources System, PubMed and the Cochrane Library Database. Relevant articles, up to September 2010, were manually retrieved. These papers included studies that had performed random and semi-random control trials for the use of acupuncture to treat PSD. Fifteen random control tests involving 1096 patients were included in this study and individual cases, interventional measures and curative effects were extracted from this research. Grade methodological quality evaluation and meta-analysis were performed on these studies. RESULTS: Comparison between the acupuncture group and the Western medicine group for the curative rate on PSD revealed an OR of 1.48, 95% CI = [1.11 1.97] and P = 0.008. Comparison of obviously effective rate shows that OR = 1.39, 95% CI = [1.08 1.80] and P = 0.01. Comparison of effective rate shows that OR = 0.83, 95% CI = [0.631.09] and P = 0.18. CONCLUSION: Comparison between the acupuncture group and Western medicine group in treating PSD revealed that there is a statistical difference in curative rate and remarkably effective rate, but no difference in effective rate.

[A systematic review of randomized controlled clinical trials of abdominal acupuncture treatment of cervical spondylosis].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect and methodological quality of clinically randomized controlled studies on abdominal acupuncture therapy for cervical spondylosis and to make out its current situation, validity and applicability. METHODS: Using the PubMed, CNKI (China Academic Journals Full-text Database), VIP (VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodicals Database) and Wanfang Digital Periodicals Electronic Database covering the period of 1989-2009, we did a literature search on the original articles of abdominal acupuncture treatment of cervical spondylosis and selected those accorded with the standards of randomized controlled studies. Animal studies, surveys, and news articles, and those duplicated, being absent in diagnostic criteria and non-randomized controlled trials were excluded. The papers' quality was analyzed by using the Jadad quality assessment scoring system and the therapeutic effect evaluated by using Review Manage 4.2.7 software. RESULTS: A total of 8 papers containing 909 cervical spondylosis patients and written in Chinese were included. These 8 studies used the effective rate as the primary outcome, 2 of them used the McGill Pain Questionnaire scales at the same time. Meta-analysis showed that the abdominal acupuncture group was better than the control group in visual analogue scale score (P < 0.05). No significant differences were found between abdominal acupuncture and routine acupuncture [OR = 3.29, 95% CI (0.13, 82.99)], EA [OR = 2.09, 95% CI (0.36, 11.95)] and traction therapy [OR = 6.06, 95% CI (3.01, 12.18)] in the total effective rate, pain rating index score [WMD = -2.24, 95% CI (-5.29, 0.81)] and the present pain intensity score [WMD = -0.84, 95% CI (-2.13, 0.44)]. CONCLUSION: At the present, there has been no sufficient evidence to ensure that in the treatment of cervical spondylosis, the abdominal acupuncture therapy is superior to routine acupuncture, EA and traction therapy. Attention should be paid to the randomized controlled study of larger samples and qualified design.