The source of the fat significantly affects the results of high-fat diet intervention.

High-fat diet (HFD) is widely used in animal models of many diseases, it helps to understand the pathogenic mechanism of related diseases. Several dietary fats were commonly used in HFD, such as corn oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, and lard. However, it was reported that different dietary fat could have completely different effects on physiological indicators and the gut microbiome, and the sources of dietary fat used in high-fat diet research have not been comprehensively compared. In this research, we conduct comparative experiments on various sources of dietary fats to test their different effects during the high-fat diet intervention. We investigated the effects of twelve common dietary fats in high-fat diet intervention of mice, body/liver weight changes, four blood lipid indices, and gut microbiome were analyzed. Our results showed that the source of dietary fat used in high-fat diet significantly affects the changes of body/liver weight and triglyceride (TRIG) in the blood. Furthermore, the intervention of canola oil increased the alpha diversity of gut microbiota, and lard has decreased diversity compared with the control group. The composition of saturated fatty acid (SFA) in fat has the most significant effects on the gut microbiome. All dietary fats treatments have an increasing Firmicutes abundance and a reduced Bacteroidetes abundance in gut microbiome, while the canola oil has a slight variation compared to other intervention groups, and the lard group has the largest changes. This study showed that different types of dietary fat have different effects on the body indicators and intestinal microbiota of mice, and canola oil produced less disturbance than other types of dietary fats in high-fat diet.

The role of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) family in tumors.

The corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) family is widely distributed among the central nervous system and peripheral tissues, such as the digestive, cardiovascular, immune, reproductive, endocrine systems. The CRH family members are widely involved in the regulation of human cell biological processes, immune response, and regulation of inflammatory processes that can affect the occurrence and development of tumors. At present, CRH family members and their receptors can be detected in many tumor tissues, and some people think that members of the CRH family may be potential tumor treatment targets as they can affect cellular processes, such as proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis. However currently, there is no systematic introduction to the relationship between the CRH family and various tumors. This review introduces the molecular regulation of the CRH family in tumor formation and seeks further targeted therapy.

FUT8 and Protein Core Fucosylation in Tumours: From Diagnosis to Treatment.

Glycosylation changes are key molecular events in tumorigenesis, progression and glycosyltransferases play a vital role in the this process. FUT8 belongs to the fucosyltransferase family and is the key enzyme involved in N-glycan core fucosylation. FUT8 and/or core fucosylated proteins are frequently upregulated in liver, lung, colorectal, pancreas, prostate,breast, oral cavity, oesophagus, and thyroid tumours, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, ependymoma, medulloblastoma and glioblastoma multiforme and downregulated in gastric cancer. They can be used as markers of cancer diagnosis, occurrence, progression and prognosis. Core fucosylated EGFR, TGFBR, E-cadherin, PD1/PD-L1 and α3ß1 integrin are potential targets for tumour therapy. In addition, IGg1 antibody defucosylation can improve antibody affinity, which is another aspect of FUT8 that could be applied to tumour therapy.

The Effects of Fecal Donors with Different Feeding Patterns on Diarrhea in a Patient Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Almost 90% of patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) experience diarrheal episodes, which represent a severe, often life-threatening complication for these patients. Although fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) represents an alternative treatment option for infection-related diarrhea, the application of FMT in HSCT patients is greatly restricted for safety reasons. Furthermore, the therapeutic outcomes of FMT as a diarrhea treatment are somewhat related to the choice of the FMT donor. Here, we comprehensively profiled the dynamic changes in the intestinal microbiota after FMT from two donors with different feeding patterns and the same severely diarrheal recipient undergoing HSCT via a 45-day clinical observation. Importantly, no adverse events attributed to FMT were observed. The stool volume and frequency of the patient were reduced when we used feces from donor #1 (mixed feeding), but these changes were not observed after FMT from donor #2 (exclusive breastfeeding). Interestingly, no obvious differences in overall diversity (Shannon) or richness (Chao1) between the two donors were observed. Additionally, Bifidobacterium accounted for 29.9% and 18.1% of OTUs in the stools of donors #1 and #2, respectively. Lactobacillus accounted for 16.3% and 2.9% of the stools of donors #1 and #2, respectively. Furthermore, through longitudinal monitoring of the patient, we identified 6 OTUs that were particularly sensitive to the different FMT complements. Together, we present a case report suggesting that the overall diversity of the intestinal microbiota may not be the only important element in the selection of an effective FMT donor.

Impact of body mass index at different transplantation stages on postoperative outcomes in patients with hematological malignancies: a meta-analysis.

Although the association between body mass index (BMI) and overall survival (OS) has been reported in leukemia patients of different ages, whether BMI levels at different stages of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) have different effects on postoperative survival remains controversial. We searched four electronic databases from inception through July 2017 without any language restrictions and included studies on different types of hematological malignancies reporting both BMI time points and HSCT. Of the 1420 articles identified, 26 articles were eligible for inclusion in this meta-analysis. Three weight groups (obese, overweight and underweight) were individually compared with the normal group. Summary risk estimates for OS and event-free survival (EFS) were calculated with random- or fixed-effects models. For BMI at the pre-HSCT stage, a statistically significant positive association of increased risk of OS (RR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.08-1.27) and EFS (RR: 1.29; 95% CI: 1-1.67) was identified in underweight individuals compared with those with normal weights. For BMI in the HSCT stage, a lower BMI was significantly associated with poorer OS (RR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.01-1.78) and EFS (RR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.09-2.06) compared with a normal BMI. Our results indicated that lower BMI at the pre-HSCT stage or during HSCT is associated with poorer survival.

Protein blend ingestion before allogeneic stem cell transplantation improves protein-energy malnutrition in patients with leukemia.

Severe protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) and skeletal muscle wasting are commonly observed in patients with acute leukemia. Recently, the ingestion of a soy-whey protein blend has been shown to promote muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Thus, we tested the hypothesis that the ingestion of a soy-whey blended protein (BP) may improve the PEM status and muscle mass in acute leukemia patients. In total, 24 patients from the same treatment group were randomly assigned to the natural diet plus soy-whey blended protein (BP) group and the natural diet only (ND) group. Our data showed that protein and energy intake decreased significantly (P < .05) after transplantation in both groups. In the absence of the BP intervention, dramatic decreases in muscle-related indicators (i.e., anthropometric variables, muscle strength and serum protein) were observed in the majority (>50%) of the patients. However, 66% of the patients who ingested the BP before transplantation showed obvious increases in arm muscle area. The gripping power value (△post-pre or △post-baseline) was significantly higher in the BP group than in the ND group (P < .05). The ingestion of the BP also increased the levels of serum albumin, globulin and serum total protein to different extents. Notably, the average time to stem cell engraftment was significantly shorter for patients in the BP group (12.2 ± 2.0 days) than for patients in the ND group (15.1 ± 2.9 days). Collectively, our data supported that soy-whey protein can improve PEM status and muscle mass in leukemia patients.

The NF-κB subunit RelB regulates the migration and invasion abilities and the radio-sensitivity of prostate cancer cells.

NF-κB subunits play important roles in carcinogenesis of a variety of human malignancies and response to cancer therapy; however, the contribution of an individual subunit has not been thoroughly defined. Constitutive activation of the canonical NF-κB subunit is a critical event in prostate carcinogenesis. Recent findings point out that RelB, which contributes to the non-canonical NF-κB activity, functions importantly in the prostate cancer progression. Here, we investigated systemically the functional roles of RelB in prostate cancer and examine its significance as a therapeutic target. Targeting RelB using short hairpin RNA approach in androgen-independent DU145 prostate cancer cells interfered with various biological behaviors of cells. We observed that RelB knockdown inhibited prostate cancer cell growth, migration, and invasion, and enhanced proteasome inhibitor sensitivity. The altered expression of anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2 played critical roles in regulating both spontaneous and radiation-induced apoptosis in the presence of RelB knockdown. For the first time, we showed that RelB knockdown significantly attenuated the migration and invasion of DU145 prostate cancer cells, due to the reduction of integrin ß-1. Collectively, we provided evidence that RelB functioned as an oncogene in prostate cancer. Developing a RelB-targeted therapeutic intervention, is valuable in treating advanced, metastatic prostate cancer.

A comparison of epidermal growth factor receptor mutation testing methods in different tissue types in non-small cell lung cancer.

The detection of somatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations is valuable when an appropriate therapy, either EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy or chemotherapy, for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) needs to be selected. Although it is well­understood that EGFR mutation detection is significant for the decision­making regarding treatment, no consensus on the methodology that should be the most preferebale for detecting mutations in clinical practice has been reached. The presence of false positives due to the technique carried out for mutation analysis affects the accurate estimation of response EGFR-TKI therapy. Furthermore, false negatives directly exclude the potential application of an EGFR-TKI. In the present study, we present the results of detecting EGFR mutations in individual sample types using three different low- or high-sensitivity techniques. We suggest that the choice of the method used should be made based on the type of the sample. Our results revealed that EGFR mutations were less frequently detected in bronchoscopic biopsies, regardless of the method used. However, the amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) was optimal owing to the small amount of DNA prepared for biopsy. The cytology sample was a valuable alternative to traditional samples, given that a sensitive method for detecting mutations was used. For surgical resections, the testing method may be selected based on the expertise of each laboratory, but direct sequencing is highly recommended. We also suggest that two methods should be used sequentially (the screening and targeted methods) in clinical practice due to the presence of non-neglected discordance between any method from its own benefits and drawbacks.