Prognostic significance of the novel nutrition-inflammation marker of lymphocyte-C-reactive protein ratio in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma receiving concurrent chemoradiotherapy.

Background: Recent studies indicate that the novel lymphocyte-C-reactive protein ratio (LCR) is strongly associated with the survival of various tumors, but its prognostic value in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is understudied. This study aimed to explore the relationship between LCR and overall survival (OS) in NPC and develop a predictive model. Methods: A total of 841 NPC patients who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) between January 2010 and December 2014 were retrospectively enrolled and randomly divided into a training cohort (n = 589) and a validation cohort (n = 252), and 122 patients between January 2015 and March 2015 were included as an additional validation cohort. Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses were performed to identify variables associated with OS and construct a predictive nomogram. The predictive accuracy of the nomogram was evaluated and independently validated. Results: The LCR score differentiated NPC patients into two groups with distinct prognoses (HR = 0.53; 95% CI: 0.32-0.89, P = 0.014). Multivariate analysis showed that age, T stage, N stage, EBV-DNA status, and LCR score were independently associated with OS, and a predictive nomogram was developed. The nomogram had a good performance for the prediction of OS [C-index = 0.770 (95% CI: 0.675-0.864)]. and outperformed the traditional staging system [C-index = 0.589 (95% CI: 0.385-0.792)]. The results were internally and additionally validated using independent cohorts. Conclusion: The pretreatment LCR could independently predict the overall survival in NPC patients. A novel LCR-based prognostic model of an easy-to-use nomogram was established, and it outperformed the conventional staging system in terms of predictive power. Further external verification remains necessary.

The prognostic significance of human ovarian aging-related signature in breast cancer after surgery: A multicohort study.

Background: Recent studies have shown that ovarian aging is strongly associated with the risk of breast cancer, however, its prognostic impact on breast cancer is not yet fully understood. In this study, we performed a multicohort genetic analysis to explore its prognostic value and biological features in breast cancer. Methods: The gene expression and clinicopathological data of 3366 patients from the The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort, the Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC) cohort and the GSE86166 cohort were analyzed. A total of 290 ovarian aging-related genes (OARGs) were included in the establishment of the prognostic model. Furthermore, functional mechanisms analysis, drug sensitivity, and immune cell infiltration were investigated using bioinformatic methods. Results: An eight OARG-based signature was established and validated using independent cohorts. Two risk subgroups of patients with distinct survival outcomes were identified by the OARG-based signature. A nomogram with good predictive performance was developed by integrating the OARG risk score with clinicopathological factors. Moreover, the OARG-based signature was correlated with DNA damage repair, immune cell signaling pathways, and immunomodulatory functions. The patients in the low-risk subgroup were found to be sensitive to traditional chemotherapeutic, endocrine, and targeted agents (doxorubicin, tamoxifen, lapatinib, etc.) and some novel targeted drugs (sunitinib, pazopanib, etc.). Moreover, patients in the low-risk subgroup may be more susceptible to immune escape and therefore respond less effectively to immunotherapy. Conclusions: In this study, we proposed a comprehensive analytical method for breast cancer assessment based on OARG expression patterns, which could precisely predict clinical outcomes and drug sensitivity of breast cancer patients.

[Epidemiology and etiology of hand-foot-and-mouth disease in Hainan, 2010].

To reveal the epidemiological and pathogenic characteristics of Hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) in Hainan province in 2010, epidemiology data of HFMD reporting cases were analyzed, clinical specimens from 1346 HFMD cases were collected for enterovirus (EV) detection. Viral isolation was performed for EV nucleic acid positive samples. Complete VP1 encoding region of EV71 were sequenced and analyzed with Sequencher (version 5.0) and MEGA software (version 5.0). The epidemiology data showed that all 18 prefectures in Hainan had reporting cases during 2010, with higher incidence in the northeast; and the children less than 4 years old accounted for the majority of the suffered; the epidemic reached peak during September to October, which was different from other Provinces in China. The laboratory results indicated that EV71 and CA16 were identified as the major causative pathogens in Hainan in 2010, however, EV71 infection was absolutely dominant among severe and fatal cases. In addition, some HFMD cases were identified associated with other serotypes of EV infections. Molecular epidemiological analysis showed that all the EV71 strains belonged to C4a evolutionary branch, which is the dominant evolutionary branch in China in recent years, and at least three transmission chains existed. This study has an important information in clarifying the characteristics of epidemics and transmission of HFMD in Hainan, and to provide the guidance for HFMD prevention and control in the future.

[Study on the extraction of total alkaloid from folium nelumbinis with ultrasonic wave technology optimized by central composite design and response surface method].

OBJECTIVE: To optimize the extracting process of Folium Nelumbinis by central composite design and response surface method. METHODS: Independent variables were ethanol concentration, solvents ratio and pH,dependent variable was extracting rate of alkaloid. Composite design and response surface method were used to optimize the extracting process. Resultant model was used to predict the response in the optimal region. RESULTS: The optimum extraction conditions were 80% aqueous ethanol, 75 fold solvent, pH value 5. CONCLUSION: The optimum process is simple and more convenient for extracting Folium Nelumbinis. The observed and predicted values are close to each other.

[Protective effect of Uncaria rhynchophylla total alkaloids pretreatment on hippocampal neurons after acute hypoxia].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of Uncaria rhynchophylla total alkaloids (RTA) pretreatment on the voltage-gated sodium currents of the rat hippocampal neurons after acute hypoxia. METHOD: Primary cultured hippocampal neurons were divided into RTA pre-treated and non-pretreated groups. Patch clamp whole-cell recording was used to compare the voltage-gated sodium current amplitude and threshold with those before hypoxia. RESULT: After acute hypoxia, sodium current amplitude was significantly decreased and its threshold was upside. RTA pretreatment could inhibit the reduction of sodium current amplitude. CONCLUSION: RTA pretreatment alleviates the acute hypoxia-induced change of sodium currents, which may be one of the mechanisms for protective effect of RTA on cells.