The efficacy and safety of novel antiepileptic drugs in treatment of epilepsy of patients with brain tumors.

Objective: This meta-analysis aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of novel antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in treating epilepsy in patients with brain tumors (BTRE). Methods: A search was conducted on PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library from inception to February 2023, with English language restriction. Results: In this meta-analysis, 18 clinical trials involving 755 BTRE patients were included to assess the efficacy and safety of novel AEDs in BTRE treatment. At the last follow-up, a ≥50% reduction in seizure frequency was experienced by 72% of patients (random-effects model, 95% CI = 0.64-0.78) using novel AEDs. At the last follow-up, seizure freedom was experienced by 34% of patients (random-effects model, 95% CI = 0.28-0.41) using novel AEDs. The pooled incidence of AEs was found to be 19% (95% CI: 13%-26%), with a withdrawal rate due to adverse effects of only 3%. Comparable efficacy and incidence of adverse effects were observed between lacosamide and perampanel. Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggests that novel antiepileptic drugs are deemed effective for seizure control in brain tumor patients, particularly when used as adjunctive therapy. Although lacosamide and perampanel received more focus in studies, no significant difference was observed in the efficacy and adverse reactions of these two drugs in seizure control. Further randomized controlled trials are deemed necessary to validate our findings.

UHPLC-MS/MS Assay for Quantification of Legubicin, a Novel Doxorubicin-Based Legumain-Activated Prodrug, and Its Application to Pharmacokinetic and Tissue Distribution Studies.

Legubicin, a novel prodrug based on doxorubicin, has both albumin-binding and legumain-activating properties. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a UHPLC-MS/MS method for investigating the in vivo pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution profiles of legubicin in rats and tumor-bearing mice following intravenous administration, and to compare this prodrug with the positive control drug doxorubicin. The study employed a UHLC-MS/MS method to determine the levels of albumin-bound of legubicin and two metabolites (free Leu-DOX and DOX) in plasma, tumor, and tissue samples. This method was validated for good selectivity, high sensitivity, excellent extraction recovery, and short run time. The results showed that legubicin was present in the circulation in vivo mainly in a protein-bound form with larger AUC values and lower clearance and distribution, and essentially released small amounts of doxorubicin. Compared to administration of equimolar doses of doxorubicin, legubicin showed increased exposure of the active drug in the tumor and decreased the level of the active drug in the heart and kidney. This study provides valuable information on the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of legubicin, implicating its potential as a novel and effective drug candidate for anti-cancer therapies.

A pan-cancer analysis of molecular characteristics and oncogenic role of gasdermins.

BACKGROUND: The gasdermins (GSDMs) family is proposed to be pore-forming effector proteins that cause cell membrane permeabilization and pyroptosis. Despite our increasing knowledge of GSDMD, GSDME and GSDMB, the biological functions and the regulation of GSDM expression and activation remain elusive for most GSDMs. In this study, we analyzed the molecular characteristics and oncogenic role of GSDM family genes systematically. METHODS: TCGA, CCLE, cBioPortal, GEPIA, CellMiner and BioGRID databases were utilized in this study. Immunohistochemical analysis and a series of in vitro experiments were conducted. RESULTS: We found that, in cancer, GSDM genes and their expressions extensively changed, which were associated with patient survival. The expression of GSDMs was widely associated with cancer-related pathways, drug resistance, immune subtypes, tumor microenvironment and cancer cell stemness. However, an intra- and inter-cancer heterogeneity was discovered regarding the corresponding GSDM gene. We found that GSDMA and GSDMB regulated drug resistance to the opposite direction of GSDME. In colorectal cancer, GSDME might be a positive regulator in cell invasion and metastasis through cell migration and angiogenesis, while GSDMA, GSDMB and GSDMD might be a negatively regulator of cell migration. CONCLUSIONS: GSDM family genes might play important roles in cancer other than pyroptosis. We suggest more efforts be made to investigate the GSDM family and each GSDM gene be studied as an entity in each type of cancer.

Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition of Peritoneal Mesothelial Cells Is Enhanced by M2c Macrophage Polarization.

BACKGROUND: Peritoneal fibrosis (PF) can reduce the efficiency of peritoneal dialysis and eventually lead to ultrafiltration failure. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of peritoneal mesothelial cells (PMCs) is the start of PF. Macrophages are involved in the process. This study was to investigate the effect of macrophage polarization on EMT of PMCs. METHODS: Monocyte-macrophage cells (THP-1) were treated to induce macrophage subsets (M1, M2a, M2c). The inducing was assessed by detecting protein and mRNA expression of cytokines using ELISA and RT-PCR. Subsequently, PMCs were co-cultured with M1, M2a and M2c, respectively, in Transwell chambers for 48 h and then expressions of E-cadherin and α-SMA were determined in PMCs. The PMCs that were not co-cultured with macrophages served as control PMCs. One-way ANOVA and SNK-q test were used to conduct statistics and P < .05 as significant. RESULTS: Detection of the cytokines, including IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, TGF-ß1, CCL17 and CXCL13, verified that the inducting of macrophage subtypes was successful. Compared to control, E-cadherin protein expression was significantly decreased and α-SMA protein expression increased in M1-treated PMCs (P < .05); M2a-treated PMCs had an increased gene expression of α-SMA (P < .05); E-cadherin protein and gene expression were decreased and α-SMA protein and gene expression increased significantly in M2c-treated PMCs (P < .05 or P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: EMT of PMCs is enhanced by M2c macrophage polarization; meanwhile, M1 and M2a polarization may have the effect to some extent, but not as definite as M2c.

miR-638 suppresses proliferation by negatively regulating high mobility group A1 in ovarian cancer cells.

Ovarian cancer is one of the most common gynecological diseases with high mortality rates. Previous studies have shown that microRNA (miR)-638 is associated with tumorigenesis. The present study aimed to assess the role and underlying mechanisms of miR-638 in ovarian cancer. miR-638 expression was detected in ovarian cancer tissues and miR-638 was overexpressed or knocked down in ovarian cancer OVCAR-3 and Caov-3 cells. The clinical results revealed that miR-638 expression was downregulated in ovarian cancer tissues compared with in adjacent normal tissues. miR-638 expression was also found to be relatively low in OVCAR-3 cells whilst being relatively high in Caov-3 cells among the five ovarian cancer cell lines tested. miR-638 overexpression inhibited cell viability, arrested the cell cycle at the G1 phase and promoted apoptosis in OVCAR-3 cells. By contrast, miR-638 knockdown increased Caov-3 cell viability, facilitated cell cycle progression and inhibited apoptosis. miR-638 reduced the expression of high mobility group A1 (HMGA1) by directly targeting its 3' untranslated region. HMGA1 overexpression reversed the inhibition of proliferation induced by miR-638 overexpression in OVCAR-3 cells. These results suggest that miR-638 may serve to be a suppressor of ovarian cancer by regulating HMGA1, which may provide a potential therapeutic target for ovarian cancer.

TAZ-regulated expression of IL-8 is involved in chemoresistance of hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

Chemotherapy resistance is one of the major challenges for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In order to investigate the mechanisms involved in chemoresistance of HCC, we established cisplatin (CDDP) and doxorubicin (Dox) resistant HCC cells. The expression of transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ), one of the major downstream effectors of Hippo pathway, was upregulated in chemoresistant HCC cells. Targeted inhibition of TAZ via its siRNAs can restore CDDP and Dox sensitivity of chemoresistant HCC cells. The upregulation of TAZ increased the expression of IL-8 in HCC/CDDP and HCC/Dox cells. Recombinant IL-8 (rIL-8) antagonized the increased chemosensitivity mediated by TAZ knockdown. Mechanistically, TAZ can directly bind with the promoter of IL-8 to activate its transcription in chemoresistant HCC cells. Collectively, our data showed that TAZ-regulated expression of IL-8 was involved in chemoresistance of HCC cells. It indicated that targeted inhibition of TAZ/IL-8 axis might be helpful to improve chemotherapy efficiency for HCC.

Capillary-based three-dimensional immunosensor assembly for high-performance detection of carcinoembryonic antigen using laser-induced fluorescence spectrometry.

A novel capillary-based three-dimensional (3D) fluoroimmunosensor for carcinoembryonic antigen detection was explored for the first time. The immunosensor was designed in symmetrical cylinder structure and fabricated with capillary tubes encapsulated in a quartz tube. The 3D design of the sensor increased the area of sensing surface, flexibility in light path design and efficiency of fluorescence collection by aluminum foil, resulting in analytical performance improvement. The CEA immunosensor was constructed in double antibody sandwich format. Fluorescence signals from DyLight 550-labeled antibody were measured using a laser-induced fluorescence spectrometry. There is an obvious improvement in the linear detection range of 0.7-80 ng/mL. This novel 3D immunosensor dramatically improved the detection limit (1.1 pmol/L CEA) and sensitivity. Assay validation studies indicated that the correlation coefficient reached 0.9935, with recoveries of 92.82-118.81%. Furthermore, the immunosensor was successfully applied to CEA determination in actual saliva specimens with high sensitivity and acceptable precision. Regarding accuracy, the results obtained by 3D immunosensor were not significantly different (t test) from those obtained by validated electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. This new 3D CEA immunosensor was demonstrated to be a high-performance tool for CEA diagnostics.

Plasma-enhanced antibody immobilization for the development of a capillary-based carcinoembryonic antigen immunosensor using laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy.

In this study, antibody immobilization using a microwave-induced H2O/Ar plasma pretreatment was achieved for the first time. Plasma was used to activate the surface of a capillary-based immunosensor by increasing the density of silicon hydroxyls and dangling bonds to ensure better silanization. The capture antibodies were covalently immobilized after the silanized surface reacted with glutaraldehyde and antibodies. A Cy3-labeled detection antibody was used in combination with the antigen captured by the immunosensor to complete the sandwich-type immunoassay, and the signals were measured using a laser-induced fluorescence system. Microwave-induced H2O/Ar plasma pretreatment of the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) immunosensor improved the antibody immobilization, and there was an obvious improvement in the linear detection range, i.e., 1 order of magnitude compared with a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This novel immobilization method dramatically improved the detection limit (0.5 pmol/L CEA) and sensitivity. Assay validation studies indicated that the correlation coefficient reached 0.9978, and the relative standard deviations were <7% for all samples, with recoveries of 99.7-107.1%. Furthermore, the immunosensor was applied successfully to CEA determination in actual saliva specimens with high sensitivity, acceptable precision, and reasonable accuracy. This enhanced CEA immunosensor based on microwave-induced H2O/Ar plasma was demonstrated to be a sensitive tool for CEA diagnostics.

Electrocatalytic oxidation of hydrogen peroxide and cysteine at a glassy carbon electrode modified with platinum nanoparticle-deposited carbon nanotubes.

A glassy carbon electrode modified with platinum nanoparticle-decorated carbon nanotubes (Pt-CNT/GCE) was prepared. The electrochemical behaviors for the catalysis oxidations of hydrogen peroxide and cysteine were studied. The Pt-CNT/GCE showed catalytic activity for electro-oxidation of hydrogen peroxide at 0.6 V in PBS (pH = 7.0) and for that of cysteine at 0.55 V in sulfuric acid medium (pH