KLF4 suppresses anticancer effects of brusatol via transcriptional upregulating NCK2 expression in melanoma.

Brusatol (Bru), a main extract from traditional Chinese medicine Brucea javanica, has been reported to exist antitumor effect in many tumors including melanoma. However, the underlying mechanism in its anti-melanoma effect still need further exploration. Here, we reported that the protein expression of KLF4 in melanoma cells were significantly downregulated in response to brusatol treatment. Overexpression of KLF4 suppressed brusatol-induced melanoma cell apoptosis; while knockdown of KLF4 enhanced antitumor effects of brusatol on melanoma cells not only in vitro but also in vivo. Further studies on the mechanism revealed that KLF4 bound to the promoter of NCK2 directly and facilitated NCK2 transcription, which suppressed the antitumor effect of brusatol on melanoma. Furthermore, our findings showed that miR-150-3p was dramatically upregulated under brusatol treatment which resulted in the downregulation of KLF4. Our results suggested that the miR-150-3p/KLF4/NCK2 axis might play an important role in the antitumour effects of brusatol in melanoma.

Two Cases of Treatment of Moderate to Severe Acne with an Acupuncture-Debridement Microsurgical Technique and Review of the Literature.

Acne is a chronic inflammatory disease of pilosebaceous glands. Microsurgical acupuncture and debridement technique is one of the most precise and effective external treatment for acne. We introduce successful treatment of two cases of moderate to severe acne with this technique and describe the characteristics and mechanism of the technique in detail. We innovatively put forward a series of technical schemes including minimally invasive debridement, key points in operation and combined medication in the microsurgical therapeutic technique of acupuncture and debridement. It provides a practical reference for the simple and effective therapeutic technique to be applied to the clinical treatment of acne.