[A new cucurbitane glycoside from Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora].

Chemical constituents from the ethanol extract of Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora were isolated and purified by column chromatography. Their structures were identified by HR-MS, 1D and 2D-NMR, and their cytotoxicity was assessed by CCK-8 assay. Four compounds were isolated and identified as follows: 2ß-D-glucosyloxy-3ß,16α,20ß-trihydroxy-9-methyl-19-norlanosterol-5,25-diene-22-one(1), 2ß-D-glucosyloxy-3ß,16α,20ß-trihydroxy-9-methyl-19-norlanosta-5,24-diene-22-one(2), 25-acetoxy-2ß-glucosyloxy-3ß,16α,20ß-trihydroxy-9-methyl-19-norlanosta-5-ene-22-one(3) and 25-acetoxy-2ß-glucosyloxy-3ß,16α,20ß-trihydroxy-9-methyl-19-norlanosta-5,23-(E)-diene-22-one(4). Compound 1 represents a new cucurbitane glycoside. The half inhibitory concentrations of the 4 compounds exceeded 100 µmol·L~(-1) against four tumor cell lines, indicating no significant cytotoxicity.

The efficacy and safety of modified Gegenqinlian Fomular for advanced colorectal cancer (damp heat accumulation type): A multicenter randomized controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: CRC, the incidence of the fourth highest among males and the third among females, is one of the malignant tumors that seriously threaten human health. The principle of treatment for advanced stage CRC is a multidisciplinary and comprehensive treatment based on chemotherapy, which always bring significant toxic side effects. CHM has advantages in the treatment of tumors with the effect on improving clinical symptoms and reducing side effects. GGQL formula is mainly used for treating abnormal defecates caused by damp-heat, so we will evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of modified GGQL formula for patients with advanced CRC with the type of damp-heat in this study. METHODS: Multicenter RCT with two parallel groups in three hospitals planning to recruit 120 CRC patients with the type of damp-heat will be conducted. The control group will be treated by basic antitumor therapy and the treatment group will use modified GGQL formula plus basic antitumor therapy. The primary outcomes will be quality of life, TCM symptom score, PFS and OS, and the secondary outcomes will be performance status, size of tumor, tumor marker in the serum, tumor microenvironment and immune status. All analyses will be based on an intention-to-treat principle. This study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of Shanxi Province Hospital of Traditional Chinese medicine (2021Y-06017). The results will be published in relevant journal. DISCUSSION: The results of this RCT will contribute to Chinese herbal medicine for treating CRC patients with the type of damp heat accumulation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ChiCTR2100050754 (September 4, 2021).

Buzhong Tiaogan Formula for delaying colorectal liver metastasis (liver depression spleen deficient type): A multicenter randomized controlled trial: A study protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Colorectal cancer has been ranked third among the most common cancers worldwide and raised to the second leading cause of cancer death with nearly one-tenth of cancer-related deaths globally, and nearly half of colorectal cancer patients present with or develop colorectal cancer liver metastasis (CRLM). Buzhong Tiaogan Formula (BTF) has been proven to treat CRLM in our team, but there are lacking of evidence on its effective in delaying colorectal liver metastasis (liver depression spleen deficiency type), so we will evaluate the efficacy and safety of BTF in preventing the occurrence of CRLM. METHODS: This randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be carried out in 3 different hospitals in Shanxi Province planning to recruit 150 CRLM patients with the type of liver depression spleen deficiency. The control group will be treated by basic antitumor therapy and the treatment group will use BTF plus basic antitumor therapy. The primary outcomes will be quality of life of included patients, the time of occurrence of liver metastasis, the score of traditional Chinese medicine symptom for the type of liver depression spleen deficiency; and the secondary outcomes will include overall survival, progression-free survival, DFS, tumor microenvironment and immune state of the included patient. Safety evaluation will be recorded during the whole study. All data in this RCT will be analyzed by SPSS 23.0 software. This study has been approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Shanxi Province Hospital of Traditional Chinese medicine (2021Y-06016). DISCUSSION: The results of this RCT will contribute to BTF for delaying colorectal liver metastasis (liver depression spleen deficient type). And the results from this RCT will be published in a relevant journal after finished. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ChiMCTR2100005268 (September 4, 2021).

An Inflammation-Related Nine-Gene Signature to Improve Prognosis Prediction of Lung Adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: A novel predictive model was rarely reported based on inflammation-related genes to explore clinical outcomes of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. METHODS: Using TCGA database, we screened nine inflammation-related genes with a prognostic value, and LASSO regression was applied for model construction. The predictive value of the prognostic signature developed from inflammation-related genes was assessed by survival assays and multivariate assays. PCA and t-SNE analysis were performed to demonstrate clustering abilities of risk scores. RESULTS: Thirteen inflammation-related genes (BTG2, CCL20, CD69, DCBLD2, GPC3, IL7R, LAMP3, MMP14, NMUR1, PCDH7, PIK3R5, RNF144B, and TPBG) with prognostic values were finally identified. LASSO regression further screened nine candidates (BTG2, CCL20, CD69, IL7R, MMP14, NMUR1, PCDH7, RNF144B, and TPBG). Then, a prognostic prediction model using the above nine genes was constructed. A reliable clustering ability of risk score was demonstrated by PCA and t-SNE assays in 500 LUAD patients. The survival assays revealed that the overall survivals of the high-risk group were distinctly poorer than those of the low-risk group with 1-, 3-, and 5-year AUC values of 0.695, 0.666, and 0.694, respectively. Finally, multivariate assays demonstrated the scoring system as an independent prognostic factor for overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that the signature of nine inflammation-related genes can be used as a prognostic marker for LUAD.