Physicochemical Characterization of a Fern Polysaccharide from Alsophila spinulosa Leaf and Its Anti-Aging Activity in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Alsophila spinulosa, as a rare tree fern with potential medicinal value, has attracted extensive attention. Herein, the physicochemical properties, antioxidant and anti-aging activities of polysaccharide from A. spinulosa leaf (ALP) were investigated. ALP was composed of galactose, arabinose, glucose, rhamnose, galacturonic acid, mannose, and fucose. (1→), (1→6), and (1→2) bond types were the primary glycosidic bond in ALP. Surprisingly, ALP displayed the wonderful activity of antioxidant and anti-aging, including excellent scavenging ability against DPPH and ABTS radicals in vitro; prolonging the life span, improving activity of antioxidative enzymes (SOD and CAT), and decreasing the level of ROS, MDA in Caenorhabditis elegans. Meanwhile, ALP promoted DAF-16 to move into the nuclear. Overall, our results illustrated that ALP could be further developed as a functional food ingredient.

18F-FDG PET/CT for the early prediction of the response rate and survival of patients with recurrent or metastatic breast cancer.

The present study aimed to explore the value of fludeoxyglucose F 18 positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) for the early prediction of chemotherapy remission rates and survival in patients with recurrent and metastatic breast cancer. A total of 24 patients diagnosed with recurrent or metastatic breast cancer between 2009 and 2014 were enrolled. All patients underwent a PET/CT examination prior to (PET/CT1) and following (PET/CT2) chemotherapy. Differences of PET/CT1 maximal standardized uptake values (SUVmax), PET/CT2 SUVmax, ΔSUVmax and the ΔSUVmax% between objective remission (OR) and non-OR groups were measured. Survival differences between OR and non-OR groups and the overall survival (OS) between metabolic responsive and metabolic non-responsive groups were analyzed. In the present study, it was revealed that ΔSUVmax and ΔSUVmax% were significantly higher in the OR group compared with the non-OR group (P<0.001). Overall survival was significantly prolonged in the OR and metabolic responder groups compared with their respective control groups (P<0.001 and P<0.01, respectively). ΔSUVmax% were significantly positively associated with OS (r2=0.266; P<0.01). In conclusion, PET/CT may be valuable for the early prediction of the chemotherapy efficacy and survival of patients with recurrent or metastatic breast cancer.