Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM) Intervention on Chemotherapy-Related Cognitive Impairment in Breast Cancer Survivors.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM), which is used to reduce chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI), relieve psychological distress, and improve quality of life (QOL) in Chinese breast cancer survivors (BCs). Methods: Seventy-four BCs were enrolled in this study. All patients were randomly assigned to either the CALM group or the care as usual (CAU) group. All patients were evaluated by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive Function (FACT-Cog), Distress Thermometer (DT), and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) before and after CALM or CAU application to BCs with CRCI. We compared the differences in all these scores between the CALM group and the control group and analyzed the correlation between cognitive function and QOL. Results: Compared with the CAU group, the performance of the CALM group on the FACT-Cog, DT, and FACT-B showed significant differences before and after CALM (t = -18.909, -5.180, -32.421, P = .000, .000, .000, respectively). Finally, there was a positive correlation between cognitive function and QOL in breast cancer patients before (r = 0.579, P = .000) and after (r = 0.797, P = .000) treatment. Conclusions: The present results indicated that CALM has salutary effects on the improvement of cognitive impairment and QOL and relieves psychological distress in breast cancer patients, which may be due to a positive correlation between psychological distress and cognitive function or QOL.

Epigallocatechin Gallate Attenuates Partial Bladder Outlet Obstruction-induced Bladder Injury via Suppression of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-related Apoptosis-In Vivo Study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the protective effect of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a green tea extract, on partial bladder outlet obstruction (pBOO)-induced bladder injury in a rat model. METHODS: The female Sprague-Dawley rats underwent sham or BOO procedures, and were divided into several groups (sham with saline injection, sham with EGCG treatment, BOO with saline injection, and BOO with EGCG treatment). The rats in each group were randomized into 2 groups (48 hours and 30 days after the BOO procedure) for when their bladders were harvested. EGCG (4.5 mg/kg/day) and saline were administered via intraperitoneal injection after the BOO procedure during the study period. Bladder tissue was examined for inflammation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-related apoptotic markers by Western blot, and histological staining. RESULTS: BOO induced acute bladder injury (hemorrhage, edema, and neutrophil infiltration) after 48 hours. In addition, cystometry showed a decrease in micturition pressure and intercontractile interval. We also observed increased expressions of cyclooxygenase-2, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase at 48 hours, as well as ER stress markers such as caspase-12 and CCAAT/-enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP). Treatment with EGCG significantly improved pBOO-induced histologic changes, bladder dysfunction, and the overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2, CHOP, and caspase-12 at 48 hours. Similarly, EGCG treatment for 30 days effectively recovered compliance and intercontractile interval, submucosal ER stress-related apoptosis (CHOP and caspase-12) at 30 days after pBOO. CONCLUSIONS: EGCG alleviate pBOO-induced bladder injury and dysfunction via suppression of inflammation and ER stress-related apoptosis.

[Research on Dynamic Evolution of Blockade of Heart Vessel Syndrome Based on Metabonomics].

Objective To observe the changes of metabolomics in the evolution process of blockade of heart vessel syndrome (BHVS). Methods The formation of BHVS in three stages were sim- ulated by using high-fat forage and ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery. Increased blood lipid was in the early stage of blood stasis syndrome (BSS) group. Atherosclerosis (AS) was formed in the middle stage of BSS group (sub-BSS). Coronary artery was ligated on the basis of AS was the 3rd stage of BSS (BHVS group). There were 8 rats in each group. Totally 24 rats was used as the blank con- trol group and each stage had 8 rats. The changes of metabolite contents were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares method (PLS) with gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) among different groups. Results (1) In the 32 kinds of identified metabolites, citric acid was closest associated with the evolution process of BHVS, followed by cholesterol, inositol, ornithine, proline, isoleucine, octadecanoic acid, lactic acid, urea, leucine, linoleic acid, mannose. (2) Metabolic markers in the three stages: octadecanoic acid, lactic acid (positively correlated) , and mannose (negatively correlated) in the early stage of BSS. Ornithine, proline, inositol (positively correla- ted) , and isoleucine (negatively correlated) in the middle stage of BSS (sub-BSS). Leucine, isoleucine, citric acid (positively correlated) , and lactic acid (negatively correlated) in the BHVS stage. Conclusions High fat diet causes disordered in vivo lipid metabolism in pre-stage BSS, and the organism initiates anti- inflammation. Continued high fat diet leads to disordered urea cycle, imbalanced intestinal flora, changed vascular morphology, and liver dysfunction in the sub-BSS stage. Acute myocardial ischemia leads to glucose metabolism disorder in the BHVS stage.