Progress in research on childhood T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia, Notch1 signaling pathway, and its inhibitors: A review.

Childhood leukemia is cancer that seriously threatens the life of children in China. Poor sensitivity to chemotherapy and susceptibility to drug resistance are the reasons for the treatment of T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (T-ALL) being extremely difficult. Moreover, traditional intensive chemotherapy regimens cause great damage to children. Therefore, it is highly important to search for targeted drugs and develop a precise individualized treatment for child patients. There are activating mutations in the NOTCH1 gene in more than 50% of human T-ALLs and the Notch signaling pathway is involved in the pathogenesis of T-ALL. In this review, we summarize the progress in research on T-ALL and Notch1 signaling pathway inhibitors to provide a theoretical basis for the clinical treatment of T-ALL.

Establishment of Cytarabine-resistant Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cell Lines and Its Resistance Mechanism / 中国实验血液学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To establish cytarabine-resistant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cell lines and investigate its possible resistant mechanism.@*METHODS@#Low-concentration cytarabine (Ara-C) continuously induced and cultured Jurkat and Nalm-6 cells to construct cytarabine-resistant cell lines Jurkat/Ara-C and Nalm-6/Ara-C. The cell viability was detected by CCK-8 assay, and the distribution of cell cycle was detected by flow cytometry. Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR was used to detect the mRNA expression levels of multidrug resistant gene and Ara-C metabolic enzymes. The expression levels of cyclin were detected by Western blot.@*RESULTS@#Jurkat/Ara-C and Nalm-6/Ara-C drug-resistant cell lines were successfully established, the resistance index of which was 1 973.908±161.163 and 7 231.643± 1 190.624, respectively. Drug-resistant cell lines had no cross-resistance to commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs, such as doxorubicin. Flow cytometry showed that the ratio of G@*CONCLUSION@#Cytarabine-resistant ALL cell lines are successfully established by using low concentration continuous induction method, and its drug-resistant mechanism may be related to the deficiencies of DCK and cyclinB1.

Relationship between interleukin-17A gene polymorphisms and the susceptibility to childhood asthma / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the relationship between polymorphisms of interleukin-17A (IL-17A) gene promoter (-197G/A and -692C/T) and the susceptibility to childhood asthma, to further identify the candidate genes for asthma, and to provide a basis for early prevention of asthma in high-risk children.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty-five outpatients or inpatients with childhood asthma between August 2013 and August 2015 were assigned to asthma group. Seventy healthy children within the same period were assigned to control group. Using peripheral venous blood from the two groups, PCR with sequence-specific primers was carried out to determine single nucleotide polymorphisms at positions -197G/A and -692C/T in IL-17A gene promoter. A statistical analysis was used to evaluate differences in genotype and allele frequencies between the two groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the control group, the asthma group had significantly higher frequencies of TT genotype (29% vs 16%; P=0.012) and T allele (52% vs 42%; P=0.039) at position -692C/T of IL-17A gene. Children with T allele had 1.413-fold higher risk of childhood asthma than those with C allele (OR=1.413, 95%CI: 1.015-1.917). There were no significant differences in genotype and allele frequencies at position -197G/A in IL-17A gene between the two groups (p>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Polymorphisms at position -692C/T in IL-17A gene promoter is associated with the susceptibility to childhood asthma. Children with -692T allele are more susceptible to childhood asthma. There is no significant relationship between polymorphisms at position -197G/A in IL-17A gene promoter and the susceptibility to childhood asthma.</p>

Comparison of three types of self-treatments for posterior canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo: modified Epley maneuver, modified Semont maneuver and Brandt-Daroff maneuver / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare the efficacy and recurrence rates of modified Epley maneuver, modified Semont maneuver and Brandt-Daroff maneuver in patients with posterior canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (PC-BPPV).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred and sixty-eight patients with unilateral PC-BPPV were included in the study, which were divided into four groups randomly, 45 with modified Epley maneuver (group 1), 43 with modified Semont maneuver (group 2), and 40 with Brandt-Daroff maneuver (group 3). There were 40 controls without physical therapy technique (group 4) included. The efficacy after one week and one month, the time to recovery, the frequency of side effects and recurrence rates among the four groups were evaluated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The efficacy of modified Epley maneuver was superior to the other three groups after one week (χ(2)(1, 2) = 8.55, P < 0.05; χ(2)(1, 3) = 23.23, P < 0.01;χ(2)(1, 4) = 44.00, P < 0.01) and to the Brandt-Daroff maneuver at follow-up evaluation after one month (χ(2) = 8.42, P < 0.05). The efficacy of modified Semont maneuver was superior to the control groups after one week (χ(2) = 14.49, P < 0.01), but there was no difference between the two groups after one month (χ(2) = 0.01, P > 0.05). The efficacy of Brandt-Daroff maneuver was not different with the control group at one week and one month follow-up evaluation (χ(2) = 3.35, P > 0.05;χ(2) = 0.18, P > 0.05). Kaplan-Meier testing showed that the time to recovery was significantly shorter in the modified Epley group. The frequency of side effects was not significantly different among the three physical therapy groups. There was no difference in the frequency of recurrence among the four groups (χ(2) = 4.076, P = 0.253). Duration of illness before self-treatment and age were the independent predictors of recurrence.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The modified Epley maneuver is more effective for self treatment of PC-BPPV than modified Semont maneuver and Brandt-Daroff maneuver. Daily routine of self-treatment does not prevent the recurrence of PC-BPPV.</p>

Three new xanthones from Garcinia xanthochymus / 药学学报

To study xanthones from the barks of Garcinia xanthochymus, the constituents were isolated by normal-phase and reverse-phase silica gel column chromatography from the EtOAc extract. Their structures were elucidated by spectral analysis. Three new xanthones were purified and identified as 1,2,5-trihydroxy-6-methoxyxanthone (1), 1,4,6-trihydroxy-5-methoxyxanthone (2), 1,2,7-trihydroxy-4-(1,1-dimethylallyl) xanthone (3).