[Analysis of Histologic Transformation and Prognosis for Follicular Lymphoma].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the related factors of invasive transformation and prognosis for follicular lymphoma. METHODS: A total of 168 patients with follicular lymphoma at First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from August 2015 to January 2021 were collected, and the significance of each index in histological transformation (HT) and prognosis were analyzed. RESULTS: Pathology grade3, Ki-67 index ≥40%, ß2MG＞3 mg/L, LDH＞245 U/L, POD24 and non-invasion of bone marrow were associated with HT. Univariate analysis showed that the high risk of FLIPI-2, pathological grade 3, Ki-67≥40%, anemia, ß2MG＞3 mg/L, LDH＞245 U/L and HT had significant adverse effects on PFS; ß2MG＞3 mg/L, LDH＞245 U/L, POD24 and HT had significant adverse effects on OS. Cox multivariate analysis showed that the ß2MG >3 mg/L and HT were independent risk factors of PFS, HT was independent risk factor of OS. CONCLUSION: The pathological grade, Ki-67, ß2MG, LDH, POD24 and bone marrow invasion of FL can predict the risk of HT. Meanwhile, ß2MG >3 mg/L and HT are significantly related to poor prognosis of FL.

Orelabrutinib-bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor-based regimens in the treatment of central nervous system lymphoma: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Central nervous system lymphoma (CNSL) is an aggressive lymphoma. Orelabrutinib, an oral Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is a new treatment strategy for CNSL. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of orelabrutinib-based regimens in the treatment of patients with CNSL. METHODS: Twenty-three patients with CNSL were included in this retrospective study. All patients received the orelabrutinib-based regimen. Efficacy was evaluated based on investigators' assessment of overall response rate (ORR), complete response/unconfirmed complete response (CR/CRu), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD), progressive disease (PD), duration of response (DOR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The safety of orelabrutinib-based regimens has also been evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 17.39% of patients received orelabrutinib-based regimens for consolidation therapy, and 82.61% of patients for induction therapy (4 newly diagnosed CNSL, 15 relapsed/refractory CNSL). In the newly diagnosed CNSL group, the ORR was 100% (1 CR, 1 CRu, 2 PR). The 6-month DOR rate, 6-month PFS rate, and 6-month OS rate were 100%, 100%, and 100%, respectively. Of the 15 relapsed/refractory CNSL patients, five therapy regimens were applied (orelabrutinib, n = 3; orelabrutinib/immunotherapy, n = 3; orelabrutinib/chemotherapy, n = 2; orelabrutinib/immunochemotherapy, n = 6; orelabrutinib/radiotherapy, n = 1). The ORR was 60.00% (4 CR, 5 PR). The 6-month DOR rate, 6-month PFS rate, and 6-month OS rate were 92.30%, 67.70%, and 70.00%, respectively. Twenty-one patients reported adverse events (AEs), and 6 patients experienced grade ≥ 3 AEs. CONCLUSION: Orelabrutinib-based regimens were efficacious and well-tolerated in patients with CNSL. These combined therapies offer a new potential therapeutic strategy for patients with CNSL.

Psychophysiological and cognitive effects of strawberry plants on people in isolated environments.

In manned deep-space exploration, extremely isolated environments may adversely affect the mood and cognition of astronauts. Horticultural plants and activities have been proven to be effective in improving their physical, psychological, and cognitive states. To assess the effects of applying horticultural plants and activities in isolated environments, this study investigated the influence of viewing strawberry plants on the mood of people in a laboratory experiment as indicated by heart rate, salivary cortisol, and psychological scales. The results showed that heart rate and salivary cortisol were significantly decreased after viewing strawberry plants for 15 min. "Tension" and "confusion" scored using the Profile of Mood States negative mood subscales, and anxiety levels measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scale were also significantly reduced. This study further explored the impact of viewing strawberry plants on cognition. A notable reduction of the subjects' reaction time after 15-min plant viewing was observed. Based on these findings, a long-duration isolated experiment in a bioregenerative life support system-"Lunar Palace I"-was conducted. A similar trend was obtained that crew members' mood states were improved by viewing the strawberry plants, but no significant change was observed. This study provided some experimental evidence for the benefits of interacting with strawberry plants in isolated environments.

Activated hippo signal pathway inhibits cell proliferation and promotes apoptosis in NK/T cell lymphoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Natural Killer T-Cell Lymphoma (NKTCL) is a subtype of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and its morbidity is ranked the first of T-Cell Lymphoma. Hippo signaling pathway is involved in the pathogenesis of tumors. However, the role of Hippo signaling pathway in the oncogenesis of NKTCL still remains unclear. METHODS: The expressions of mammalian sterile 20-like kinase 1 (MST1) and Yes-associated protein (YAP) were investigated by RT-PCR and Western blotting. Cell viability was detected by MTT assays. Cell cycle and cell apoptosis were determined by flow cytometry. Cell proliferative capacity was detected by colony formation assay. Nude mice xenograft models were established and the tumor sections were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining. RESULTS: The expression of MST1 was significantly down-regulated in NKTCL tissues (n = 30) and cell lines, while the expression of YAP was significantly up-regulated, and the phosphorylation of YAP was inhibited. Overexpression of MST1, knockdown of YAP, or verteporfin (VP) treatment could inhibit cell proliferation, and promote cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in NKTCL cells, while knockdown of MST1 and overexpression of YAP promoted cell proliferation. Additionally, Bcl-2/Bax ratio and downstream effectors of Hippo signaling pathway (c-myc, survivin, cyclinD1, CTGF, and TEAD) were significantly decreased when MST1 was overexpressed and YAP was knocked down or after VP treatment. Furthermore, our mice model demonstrated that activation of Hippo signal pathway suppressed the tumorigenesis of NKTCL. CONCLUSION: The activation of Hippo signal pathway via overexpressing MST1 or down-regulating YAP can inhibit the tumorigenesis of NKTCL.

Nickel-Catalyzed Carboxylation of Aryl and Heteroaryl Fluorosulfates Using Carbon Dioxide.

The development of efficient and practical methods to construct carboxylic acids using CO2 as a C1 synthon is of great importance. Nickel-catalyzed carboxylation of aryl fluorosulfates and heteroaryl fluorosulfates with CO2 is described, affording arene carboxylic acids with good to excellent yields under mild conditions. In addition, a one-pot phenol fluorosulfation/carboxylation is developed.

Inhibitory effects of mild hyperthermia plus docetaxel therapy on ER(+/-) breast cancer cells and action mechanisms.

The purpose of this study was to verify that a combination of mild hyperthermia and docetaxel chemotherapy produces synergistic antitumor effects and to explore the action mechanisms of this treatment approach. The effects of docetaxel on the proliferation of cells from the estrogen receptor (ER)-positive human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 and the ER-negative human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-453 were examined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and effective experimental concentrations of docetaxel were determined. The effects of mild hyperthermia plus docetaxel therapy on apoptosis rate in the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 human breast cancer cell lines were analyzed by using flow cytometry with Annexin-V fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)/propidium iodide (PI) staining. The effects of these combined treatments on cell cycle progression in the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 human breast cancer cell lines were examined by using flow cytometry. The effects of these combined treatments on the expression of apoptosis-related proteins and proteins in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways were analyzed by using Western blotting. The effects of these combined treatments on the expression of the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and the multi-drug resistance (MDR) gene product P-glycoprotein (Pgp) were examined by using Western blotting. The results showed that the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of docetaxel for MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 cells was 19.57±1.12 and 21.64±2.31 µmol/L respectively. Mild hyperthermia with docetaxel therapy could increase apoptosis rate in the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 cells. Apoptosis rate in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 cells was increased from (23.66±3.59)% and (18.51±3.17)% in docetaxel treatment group to (47.12±6.73)% and (55.16±7.42)% in mild hyperthermia plus docetaxel group, indicating that the mild hyperthermia and docetaxel therapeutic approaches exhibited significant synergistic antitumor effects. Treatments of mild hyperthermia plus docetaxel induced G2/M cell cycle arrest in the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 cells. Western blotting demonstrated that proteins in the MAPK pathway were expressed at higher levels in docetaxel-treated cells following mild hypothermia than those in cells treated with docetaxel alone. As compared with blank control group, cells from the mild hyperthermia plus docetaxel group exhibited significantly decreased B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) protein expression but slightly increased Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) expression. Western blotting results revealed that HSP70 and Pgp expression levels were significantly increased following mild hypothermia. It was concluded that treatments of mild hyperthermia plus docetaxel inhibited the proliferation of human breast cancer cells, promoted apoptosis of breast cancer cells, and produced synergistic antitumor effects.

Enlarge the training set based on inter-class relationship for face recognition from one image per person.

In some large-scale face recognition task, such as driver license identification and law enforcement, the training set only contains one image per person. This situation is referred to as one sample problem. Because many face recognition techniques implicitly assume that several (at least two) images per person are available for training, they cannot deal with the one sample problem. This paper investigates principal component analysis (PCA), Fisher linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and locality preserving projections (LPP) and shows why they cannot perform well in one sample problem. After that, this paper presents four reasons that make one sample problem itself difficult: the small sample size problem; the lack of representative samples; the underestimated intra-class variation; and the overestimated inter-class variation. Based on the analysis, this paper proposes to enlarge the training set based on the inter-class relationship. This paper also extends LDA and LPP to extract features from the enlarged training set. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Total resection of lesser curvature for radical treatment of distal gastric carcinoma.

BACKGROUND/AIM: The extent of gastric resection and lymphadenectomy for curative treatment of distal gastric cancer remains controversial. The present study investigated the efficacy of total resection of the lesser curvature as radical surgery for distal gastric carcinoma. METHODOLOGY: Patients with pathologically confirmed advanced distal gastric cancer seen at our hospital from 2003 to 2006 were randomly selected to receive either total resection of lesser curvature (Group A, N=60) or traditional subtotal gastrectomy (Group B, N=60), both with D2 lymph node dissection. Patient and tumor characteristics, lymph node metastases, and surgical outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: Three-year survival rates were 56.7% and 28.3% for Groups A and B, respectively (p = 0.042). A total of 467 (30.5%) and 225 (24.7%) tumor-positive lymph nodes were resected in Groups A and B, respectively (p = 0.002). Tumor recurrence rate was 1.6% (1/60) in Group A and 11.6% (7/60) in Group B (p = 0.061). CONCLUSION: Total resection of the lesser curvature with D2 level lymph node dissection prolonged patient survival and decreased tumor recurrence. This surgical approach should be considered for the treatment of patients with distal gastric carcinoma.

[Overexpression of hSav1 promotes Mst1-induced apoptosis in HeLa cells].

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the effect of hSav1 expression on Mst1-mediated apoptosis in HeLa cells. METHODS: Plasmids pCMV-HA-hSav1 and pcDNA/4TO-Flag-Mst1 were constructed and cotransfected into HeLa cells. Triple immunofluorescent labeling of hSav1, Mst1 and nucleus was performed to determine their subcellular localization. Plasmids pCMV-HA-hSav1 and/or pcDNA/4TO-Flag-Mst1 were transfected into HeLa cells, and 36 hours later cisplatin (50 micromol/L) as a pro-apoptotic agent was added for 14 hours. Cell apoptosis was analyzed by annexin V/PI assay. RESULTS: Plasmids pCMV-HA-hSav1 and pcDNA/4TO-Flag-Mst1 were constructed and the authenticity of constructs was verified by sequencing. The binding in vitro showed that hSav1 could be detect from the anti-Mst1 immunoprecipitation complex. The immunofluorescent labeling showed that hSav1 and Mst1 had the same localization in cells. Overexpressed protein hSav1 did not induce a significant cell apoptosis. However, co-expression of hSav1 with Mst1 resulted in a significant increase of apoptosis above the level seen with Mst1 alone (24.5% +/- 2.4% vs. 39.3% +/- 4.0%, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that hSav1 is a newly identified protein that interacts with Mst1 and augments Mst1-mediated apoptosis.

Diclofenac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, activates the transient outward K+ current in rat cerebellar granule cells.

Diclofenac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), has been widely investigated in terms of its pharmacological action, but less is known about its direct effect on ion channels. Here, the effect of diclofenac on voltage-dependent transient outward K+ currents (I(A)) in cultured rat cerebellar granule cells was investigated using the whole-cell voltage-clamp technique. At concentrations of 10(-5)-10(-3) M, diclofenac reversibly increased the I(A) amplitude in a dose-dependent manner and significantly modulated the steady-state inactivation properties of the I(A) channels, but did not alter the steady-state activation properties. Furthermore, diclofenac treatment resulted in a slightly accelerated recovery from I(A) channel inactivation. Intracellular application of diclofenac could mimic the effects induced by extracellular application, although once the intracellular response reached a plateau, extracellular application of diclofenac could induce further increases in the current. These observations indicate that diclofenac might exert its effects on the channel protein at both the inner and outer sides of the cell membrane. Our data provide the first evidence that diclofenac is able to activate transient outward potassium channels in neurons. Although further work will be necessary to define the exact mechanism of diclofenac-induced I(A) channel activation, this study provides evidence that the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, diclofenac, may play a novel neuronal role that is worthy of future study.