Inflammatory and Nutritional Status Influences Outcomes of Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy.

INTRODUCTION: The potential association between severe postoperative complications (SPC) and the oncological outcomes of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients according to the different Naples Prognostic Score (NPS) of the inflammatory nutritional status after minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) is unclear. METHODS: Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to evaluate overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) between with or without SPC (Clavien-Dindo grade ≥ III) in low NPS status (NPS = 0 or 1) and high NPS status (NPS = 2 or 3 or 4) patients. Cox multivariable analysis was carried out to analyze the various independent factors of OS and DFS, and a nomogram based on SPC was established. RESULTS: A total of 20.7% (125/604) ESCC patients developed SPC after MIE. Patients with SPC exhibited poor 5-year OS and DFS compared to those without SPC (all P < 0.001). Further analysis revealed that SPC significantly reduced OS and DFS in patients with high NPS status (all P < 0.001) but had little effect on the prognosis of patients with low NPS status (all P > 0.05). Multivariable Cox analysis revealed that SPC could be an independent influence indicator for OS and DFS in patients with high NPS status. Therefore, a novel nomogram combining SPC and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging has been developed, which was found to be relatively more accurate in predicting OS and DFS than TNM staging alone. CONCLUSION: Severe complications can adversely affect the long-term oncological outcome of ESCC patients with high systemic inflammatory response and malnutrition after MIE.

FM807, a curcumin analogue, shows potent antitumor effects in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells by heat shock protein 90 inhibition.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an epithelial malignancy usually associated with overexpression of both epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and ß-catenin. FM807 is a novel curcumin analogue with antitumor activity against both poorly and well-differentiated NPC cell lines as well as good selectivity for tumor cells. FM807 actions were shown to include inhibition of cell growth, induction of necrotic/late apoptotic cell death, and G1 arrest in NPC cells. Crucially, it exhibited potent antitumor effects both in vitro and in vivo. Binding of FM807 to the N-terminus of Hsp90 disrupted Hsp90/client complexes, resulting in degradation of the Hsp90 client protein EGFR and inhibition of the downstream Raf/MEK/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathway. FM807 also depleted levels of the intranuclear transcription factors ß-catenin, Cyclin D1 and c-Myc levels by inhibiting Hsp90 chaperoned nuclear transport. In conjunction with its low toxicity in NPC xenograft mice, these results provide a sound preclinical basis for further development of FM807 as a novel therapeutic agent in the treatment of NPC.

Nickel/Platinum Dual Silicide Axial Nanowire Heterostructures with Excellent Photosensor Applications.

Transition metal silicide nanowires (NWs) have attracted increasing attention as they possess advantages of both silicon NWs and transition metals. Over the past years, there have been reported with efforts on one silicide in a single silicon NW. However, the research on multicomponent silicides in a single silicon NW is still rare, leading to limited functionalities. In this work, we successfully fabricated ß-Pt2Si/Si/θ-Ni2Si, ß-Pt2Si/θ-Ni2Si, and Pt, Ni, and Si ternary phase axial NW heterostructures through solid state reactions at 650 °C. Using in situ transmission electron microscope (in situ TEM), the growth mechanism of silicide NW heterostructures and the diffusion behaviors of transition metals were systematically studied. Spherical aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (Cs-corrected STEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) was used to analyze the phase structure and composition of silicide NW heterostructures. Moreover, electrical and photon sensing properties for the silicide nanowire heterostructures demonstrated promising applications in nano-optoeletronic devices. We found that Ni, Pt, and Si ternary phase nanowire heterostructures have an excellent infrared light sensing property which is absent in bulk Ni2Si or Pt2Si. The above results would benefit the further understanding of heterostructured nano materials.