Association of oxcarbazepine concentration with seizure frequency in pregnant women with epilepsy.

The management of epilepsy during pregnancy presents particular challenges for neurologists worldwide. Currently, there are no clear recommendations for oxcarbazepine (OXC) specific target concentration during pregnancy. We conducted this retrospective observational cohort study on pregnant women with epilepsy (WWE) who received OXC monotherapy or polytherapy, at the epilepsy outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital in eastern China. Sixteen pregnancies of 16 WWE were split into the seizure-free group or the non-seizure-free group, according to whether they had been seizure free for more than one year prior to conception or not. There was a significantly decrease in OXC concentration throughout pregnancy, as indicated by the concentration/dose ratio and the ratio of target concentration (RTC). The second trimester of pregnancy was the period when seizure deterioration occurred the most, particularly in the non-seizure-free group. Lower RTC_OXC was identified to be a risk factor for increasing seizure frequency in both the total group and the non-seizure-free group in both univariate and multivariate analysis, with a threshold of 0.575 for differentiating patients at high-risk and low-risk for seizure deterioration. In conclusion, this study suggested an OXC concentration threshold of 0.575 during pregnancy for assisting neurologists in OXC drug monitoring and dose adaptation.

Potential value of autoantibodies as biomarkers of chronic graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

We investigated the value of autoantibodies as biomarkers of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) by analyzing the autoantibody profiles of 65 patients (34 cGVHD and 31 non-cGVHD) surviving longer than three months after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Autoantibodies to at least one antigen were detected in 45 patients (70.8%), with multiple autoantibodies detected in 30 patients (46.2%). Antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) were the most frequently detected autoantibodies, with a significantly higher prevalence in non-cGVHD patients and cGVHD patients than that in healthy controls (HCs). ANA-nucleolar (ANA-N) was the main immunofluorescence pattern of ANA-positivity in both the non-cGVHD and cGVHD groups. There was a higher prevalence of anti-Ro52-positivity in non-cGVHD and cGVHD patients than in HC. Liver cGVHD was significantly associated with anti-Ro52-positivity. However, cGVHD activity and severity were not associated with the presence of autoantibodies. Similarly, there were no significant differences in overall survival or relapse among the four groups of patients expressing autoantibodies. Our results suggest that autoantibodies have limited value in predicting cGVHD.

Expression of B7-H4 and hepatitis B virus X in hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma.

AIM: To investigate the expression and clinical significance of B7-H4 and hepatitis B virus X (HBx) protein in hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HBV-HCC). METHODS: The expression of B7-H4 in the human HCC cell lines HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 were detected by western blot, flow cytometry, and immunofluorescence. The expression of B7-H4 and HBx in 83 HBV-HCC was detected by immunohistochemistry, and the relationship with clinicopathological features was analyzed. Paraffin sections were generated from 83 HBV-HCC patients (22 females and 61 males) enrolled in this study. The age of these patients ranged from 35 to 77 years, with an average of 52.5 ± 11.3 years. All experiments were approved by the Ethics Committees of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. RESULTS: B7-H4 was significantly upregulated in HepG2.2.15 cells compared to HepG2 cells. Specifically, the protein expression of B7-H4 in the lysates of HepG2 cells was more than that in HepG2.2.15 cells. In addition, HBx was expressed only in HepG2.2.15 cells. Similar data were obtained by flow cytometry. The positive rates of B7-H4 and HBx in the tissues of 83 HBV-HCC patients were 68.67% (57/83) and 59.04% (49/83), respectively. The expression of HBx was correlated with tumor node metastases (TNM) stage, and the expression of B7-H4 was positively correlated with HBx (rs = 0.388; P < 0.01). The expression level of B7-H4 in HBx-positive HBV-HCC tissues was substantially higher than that in HBx-negative HBV-HCC tissues. The expression level of B7H4 was negatively related to tumor TNM stage. CONCLUSION: Higher expression of HBx and B7-H4 was correlated with tumor progression of HBV-HCC, suggesting that B7-H4 may be involved in facilitating HBV-related hepatocarcinogenesis.