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Pancreatic cancer is a major threat to population health, and there is an urgent need for the novel diagnostic and therapeutic patterns to improve the prognosis. Artificial intelligence (AI) has efficient computing and intelligent analysis capabilities, which brings a new opportunity for the upgrade of the diagnostic and therapeutic patterns of pancreatic cancer. This article reviews the recent progress of AI technology in early screening, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis prediction of pancreatic cancer, then describes the main difficulty and challenges of current AI research in pancreatic cancer, and proposes the future development directions from data quality and algorithm interpretation, etc. The aim is to provide new research ideas for the fusion of AI technology and pancreatic cancer, then promote the development and application of new pancreatic cancer diagnostic and therapeutic models, and ultimately improve the prognosis of patients.
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The experimental class is a very important part of medical research graduate students in teaching practice. The lack of attention to experimental teaching, the unclear teaching purpose, and the disconnection between teaching content and practical application are the most important problems in current teaching practice. In this study, we propose to emphasize the experimental teaching objectives and experimental records to enhance students' initiative and standardize rigor; increase the training of advanced experimental equipment to improve students' hands-on ability; enrich teaching methods and means to improve teaching conditions; cultivate students' scientific thinking to enhance Student's experimental operating skills. The measures help comprehensively cultivate postgraduates' innovation and practical ability, and have great significance for medical research work.
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Angiogenesis is an essential process in tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) inhibitors targeting tumor angiogenic pathway have been widely used in the clinical cancer treatment. However, most of currently used VEGFR2 kinase inhibitors are multi-target inhibitors which might result in target-associated side effects and therefore limited clinical toleration. Highly selective VEGFR inhibitors are still highly demanded from both basic research and clinical application point of view. Here we report the discovery and characterization of a novel VEGFR2 inhibitor (CHMFL-VEGFR2-002), which exhibited high selectivity among structurally closed kinases including PDGFRs, FGFRs, CSF1R, etc. CHMFL-VEGFR2-002 displayed potent inhibitory activity against VEGFR2 kinase in the biochemical assay (IC = 66 nmol/L) and VEGFR2 autophosphorylation in cells (ECs ∼100 nmol/L) as well as potent anti-proliferation effect against VEGFR2 transformed BaF3 cells (GI = 150 nmol/L). In addition, CHMFL-VEGFR2-002 also displayed good anti-angiogenesis efficacy and exhibited good PK (pharmacokinetics) profile with bioavailability over 49% and anti-angiogenesis efficacy in both zebrafish and mouse models without apparent toxicity. These results suggest that CHMFL-VEGFR2-002 might be a useful research tool for dissecting new functions of VEGFR2 kinase as well as a potential anti-angiogenetic agent for the cancer therapy.
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The symbiotic bacterial species Wolbachia pipientis is a maternally inherited, intracellular parasitic microbe common to arthropod species(including most insects)and some nematodes. This bacteria manipulates the reproduction of its hosts by different mechanisms, including cytoplasmic incompatibility, parthenogenesis inducing, male-killing,feminization and increase female fecundity. In this paper, previous studies on the interactions between Wolbachia and Drosophila is briefly surveyed and discussed.
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Objective To investigate the protective effects of Dextran-40 on fatal jellyfish stings at whole animal and cellular levels.MethodsFirstly, using the fatal jellyfish envenomation syndrome (acute jellyfish envenomation syndrome, AJES and delayed jellyfish envenomation syndrome, DJES) models established earlier by ourselves, we surveyed the effects of Dextran-40 on the survival rate of AJES mice, on the circulatory function of AJES rats and on the serum biochemical indexes of DJES rats.In addition, the protective effects of Dextran-40 on cardiomyocytes against the damage induced by tentacle extract (TE) from the jellyfish Cyanea capillata were studied at the cellular level by laser scanning confocal microscopy.ResultsAt the whole animal level, Dextran-40 at 0.8g/kg significantly improved the survival rate of AJES mice, and at 0.6g/kg greatly inhibited the drop of blood pressure of AJES rats.For the DJES rats, Dextran-40 at 0.6g/kg had a significant protective effect on the liver function indexes (ALT, AST, A/G) and myocardial enzymes (CK, LDH).At the cellular level, Dextran-40 5μg/mL greatly inhibited the TE-induced increase in intracellular Ca2+ content and the death of cardiomyocytes.ConclusionThe protective effects of Dextran-40 on fatal jellyfish stings may be related to its ability to stabilize blood pressure or block the TE-induced pore formation in the cardiomyocytes.Considering that the clinical safety of Dextran-40, we strongly recommend it as a first-aid medicine for jellyfish stings.
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Objective To investigate the combination effect using iron chelators deferasirox and cisplatin on A549 cell proliferation and apoptosis and to provide evidences to explore an effective way to treat lung cancer. Methods Lung adeno?carcinoma cells were cultured by conventional way, with administration of different concentrations of deferasirox and cisplat?in. Cell growth inhibition was observed under an inverted microscope. Proliferation inhibition was evaluated by MTT assay. Morphological changes of cell apoptosis was detected using DAPI,AO/EB straning and flow cytometry. Results After a cer?tain time of incubation with different concentrations of the combined drugs,the cell number reduce significantly, which was counted under invert microscope. Cells were dispersed with each other and adherent cells appear shrunken and poor in re?fractivity. MTT assay showed that inhibition of cell proliferation was in a concentration-time-dependent manner. Chromatin condensation, nuclear condensation and other typical apoptotic morphology were detected after DAPI and AO/EB straning. Flow cytometry showed that apoptosis increased with rising drug concentration. So combination therapy was significantly pro-apoptotic. Conclusion Deferasirox has the ability to inhibit proliferation of A549 cells and can promote tumor cell apoptosis and enhances cancer cell tolerance when combined with cisplatin. It can also reduce the amount and toxicity of cis?platin. It provides a basis for finding an effective way to treat lung cancer.
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Objective Toevaluatea modified Ziehl-Neelsen(Z-N) stain in the diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis. Methods Cerebrospinal fluid specimens from 35 patients were stained by using the modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining. Re-sults The positive rate was 94.29% in 35 patients with tuberculous meningitisand the intracellular acid-fast bacilli was detected in 53.40%of all specimens. One case was stained positive in 15 patients with non-tuberculous meningitis. Con-clusion The modified Ziehl-Neelsen stain not only significantly improves the detection rates of tuberculous meningitisbut alsois able to identify intracellular M.tuberculosisin cerebrospinal fluidspecimen.Thus, the modified Z-N stain can be a convenient tool for diagnosing tuberculous meningitis.
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Objective To prepare magnetic adriamycin-verapamil-albumin nanoparticles(MAVANs) and measure the physical property of the MAVANs,such as magnetism,drug loading(DL)and size of nanoparticles in order to direct its further experimental study on animals and its application in clinical practice.Methods Commercial cottonseed oil was refined,then mixed with adriamycin,verapamil,human albumin and Fe3O4 magnetic powder according to appropriate proportion,and MAVANs was prepared by using a heat denaturation technique.The size and shape of nanoparticles were determined by electron transmission micro-photography.The magnetic response and structure of the MAVANs were analyzed by upside-down microscope.The standard curve was plotted.The drug loading of verapamil in the MAVANs was quantified by high performance liguid chromatography.The drug loading of adriamycin was quantified by a standard spectrophotonuorometry.Results The nanoparticles featured homogenous size,regular and spherical shape,and good magnetic response.The mean diameter of nanoparticles was 0.5?m.The loading amount of verapamil was 0.8%.The drug loading of adriamycin was 1.25%.Conclusions The heat denaturation technique is feasible to prepare the nanoparticles which can load two kinds of drug with good physical property.The process is simple and the testing condition is easy to control.
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AIM: To investigate the signaling mechanisms involved in the priming effects of lipopolysaccharide(LPS) on heat killed Staphylococcus aureus(HKSa)-induced nitric oxide(NO) production in macrophages.METHODS: Murine macrophage RAW264.7 was used in the experiment.Griess reagent was used to measure the content of nitrite in culture medium.Real-time PCR and Western blot was utilized to examine the mRNA and protein levels of toll-like receptor 2(TLR2),respectively.Dual luciferase reporter assay was used to assess the transcriptional activity of nuclear factor of activated T cells(NF-AT).RESULTS: The RAW264.7 cells pretreated with LPS for 24 h significantly enhanced NO production induced by HKSa,suggesting that LPS primed the macrophages and increased the reactivity of the cells to HKSa.LPS increased the mRNA and protein levels of TLR2 in a dose-dependent manner in RAW264.7 cells.The RAW264.7 cells pretreated with LPS enhanced NO production induced by peptidoglycan,one of the specific ligand of TLR2.The priming effect of LPS on HKSa-induced NO production was partly blocked by TLR2 neutralizing antibody.LPS significantly enhanced the transcriptional activity of NF-AT,which was inhibited by BAPTA/AM(a cell-permeable cytosolic calcium chelator) and cyclosporine A(CsA,an inhibitor for calcineurin).Both BAPTA/AM and CsA inhibited the priming effect of LPS on HKSa-induced NO production in RAW264.7 cells.CONCLUSION: The present study confirms the priming effect of LPS on the reactivity of RAW264.7 cells to HKSa.Pattern recognition receptor TLR2 and calcium/calcineurin/NF-AT signaling pathway may be involved in the priming process initiated by LPS.