Association of Chinese herbal medicine use with the depression risk among the long-term breast cancer survivors: A longitudinal follow-up study.

Background: Breast cancer patients are at elevated risk of depression during treatment, thus provoking the chance of poor clinical outcomes. This retrospective cohort study aimed to investigate whether integrating Chinese herbal medicines citation(CHM) into conventional cancer therapy could decrease the risk of depression in the long-term breast cancer survivors. Methods: A cohort of patients aged 20-70 years and with newly diagnosed breast cancer during 2000-2008 was identified from a nationwide claims database. In this study, we focused solely on survivors of breast cancer at least1 year after diagnosis. After one-to-one matching for age, sex, and baseline comorbidities, breast cancer patients who received (n = 1,450) and did not receive (n = 1,450) CHM treatment were enrolled. The incidence rate and hazard ratio citation(HR) for depression between the two groups was estimated at the end of 2012. A Cox proportional hazard model was constructed to examine the impact of the CHM use on the risk of depression. Results: During the study period, the incidence rate of depression was significantly lower in the treated cohort than in the untreated cohort [8.57 compared with 11.01 per 1,000 person-years citation(PYs)], and the adjusted HR remained significant at 0.74 (95% CI 0.58-0.94) in a Cox proportional hazards regression model. The corresponding risk further decreasing to 43% among those using CHM for more than 1 year. Conclusion: Finding from this investigation indicated that the lower risk of depression observed in breast cancer patients treated with CHM, suggesting that CHM treatment should be considered for disease management toward breast cancer. Yet, the optimal administered dose should be determined in further clinical trials.

Decreased risk of colorectal cancer among patients with type 2 diabetes receiving Chinese herbal medicine: a population-based cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: Patients with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), but whether Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) can reduce this risk is unknown. This study investigated the effect that CHMs have on CRC risk in patients with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This cohort study used the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database to identify 54 744 patients, newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, aged 20-70 years, who were receiving treatment between 1998 and 2007. From this sample, we randomly selected 14 940 CHMs users and 14 940 non-CHMs users, using propensity scores matching. All were followed through 2012 to record CRC incidence. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to compute the hazard ratio (HR) of CRC by CHMs use. RESULTS: During follow-up, 235 CHMs users and 375 non-CHMs users developed CRC, incidence rates of 1.73% and 2.47% per 1000 person-years, respectively. CHM users had a significantly reduced risk of CRC compared with non-CHM users (adjusted HR=0.71; 95% CI 0.60 to 0.84). The greatest effect was in those receiving CHMs for more than 1 year. Huang-Qin, Xue-Fu-Zhu-Yu-Tang, Shu-Jing-Huo-Xue-Tang, Liu-Wei-Di-Huang-Wan, Ji-Sheng-Shen-Qi-Wan, Gan-Lu-Yin, Shao-Yao-Gan-Cao-Tang and Ban-Xia-Xie-Xin-Tang were significantly associated with lower risk of CRC. CONCLUSION: Integrating CHMs into the clinical management of patients with type 2 diabetes may be beneficial in reducing the risk of CRC.

Role of vacuoles in phosphorus storage and remobilization.

Vacuoles play a fundamental role in storage and remobilization of various nutrients, including phosphorus (P), an essential element for cell growth and development. Cells acquire P primarily in the form of inorganic orthophosphate (Pi). However, the form of P stored in vacuoles varies by organism and tissue. Algae and yeast store polyphosphates (polyPs), whereas plants store Pi and inositol phosphates (InsPs) in vegetative tissues and seeds, respectively. In this review, we summarize how vacuolar P molecules are stored and reallocated and how these processes are regulated and co-ordinated. The roles of SYG1/PHO81/XPR1 (SPX)-domain-containing membrane proteins in allocating vacuolar P are outlined. We also highlight the importance of vacuolar P in buffering the cytoplasmic Pi concentration to maintain cellular homeostasis when the external P supply fluctuates, and present additional roles for vacuolar polyP and InsP besides being a P reserve. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility of alternative pathways to recycle Pi from other P metabolites in vacuoles. Finally, future perspectives for researching this topic and its potential application in agriculture are proposed.

Stop and Smell the Pollen: The Role of Olfaction and Vision of the Oriental Honey Buzzard in Identifying Food.

The importance of olfaction for various avian behaviors has become increasingly evident. So far, the use of olfaction for food detection among raptors has only been demonstrated for Cathartes vultures. The Oriental honey buzzard (Pernis orientalis) is a resident and migrant in Taiwan and regularly forages in apiaries. One of its foods in apiaries is yellow pollen dough, a softball-sized mixture of pollen, soybeans, and sugar that beekeepers provide as a supplementary food for bees. Given that pollen dough is not similar to any naturally occurring food, we hypothesized that buzzards identify the dough's nutritious contents using olfaction, perhaps in combination with vision. Using a series of choice experiments in which individuals could choose between two doughs, we showed that (1) buzzards almost unerringly chose pollen-containing over pollen lacking doughs when otherwise the doughs were identical in size, shape, and yellow color; (2) buzzards always preferred yellow over black or green doughs if both doughs contained pollen; (3) buzzards still preferred pollen-containing over pollen-lacking doughs when both doughs were black, but at a lower rate than in (1). We statistically excluded the possible influences of the doughs' relative brightness or of repeat visits by the same individuals. Our experiments thus suggest the use of a 'multi-modal foraging strategy' among buzzards whereby olfaction and vision are likely to be both used in identifying food at close distances. We also estimated the olfactory receptor gene repertoire size in the buzzard's genome which is almost five times as large as that of three other raptor species. Therefore, olfaction is likely of far greater ecological importance to this species than to other raptor species. We suggest that olfaction should be considered in the design of behavioral and genetic studies to better understand the use of multiple senses in avian behaviors.

Subamolide B Isolated from Medicinal Plant Cinnamomum subavenium Induces Cytotoxicity in Human Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells through Mitochondrial and CHOP-Dependent Cell Death Pathways.

Subamolide B is a butanolide isolated from Cinnamomum subavenium, a medicinal plant traditionally used to treat various ailments including carcinomatous swelling. We herein reported for the first time that subamolide B potently induced cytotoxicity against diverse human skin cancer cell lines while sparing nonmalignant cells. Mechanistic studies on human cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cell line SCC12 highlighted the involvement of apoptosis in subamolide B-induced cytotoxicity, as evidenced by the activation of caspases-8, -9, -4, and -3, the increase in annexin V-positive population, and the partial restoration of cell viability by cotreatment with the pan-caspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk. Additionally, subamolide B evoked cell death pathways mediated by FasL/Fas, mitochondria, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, as supported by subamolide B-induced FasL upregulation, BCL-2 suppression/cytosolic release of cytochrome c, and UPR activation/CHOP upregulation, respectively. Noteworthy, ectopic expression of c-FLIPL or dominant-negative mutant of FADD failed to impair subamolide B-induced cytotoxicity, whereas BCL-2 overexpression or CHOP depletion greatly rescued subamolide B-stimulated cells. Collectively, these results underscored the central role of mitochondrial and CHOP-mediated cell death pathways in subamolide B-induced cytotoxicity. Our findings further implicate the potential of subamolide B for cutaneous SCC therapy or as a lead compound for developing novel chemotherapeutic agents.