[Progress in basic research and clinical application of hepatocyte transplantation].

Hepatocyte transplantation is considered a promising alternative treatment to liver transplantation. Although the safety and efficacy of hepatocyte transplantation in the treatment of acute liver failure and certain inherited metabolic diseases of the liver have been validated in many clinical trials, clinical hepatocyte transplantation still faces many problems and limitations, such as a shortage of high-quality donor organs, reduced cell viability after cryopreservation, low cell implantation and proliferation rates, and allogeneic hepatocyte rejection. This article reviews the latest basic research and clinical application progress in hepatocyte transplantation.

[A case report of TAFRO syndrome].

The study is to improve clinicians' understanding of TAFRO syndrome, to explore the diagnosis and treatment of TAFRO syndrome and to identify TAFRO syndrome in the early stage. The clinical manifestations, laboratory examination results, imaging manifestations, diagnosis and treatment of TAFRO syndrome were reported, and the literature of TAFRO syndrome was reviewed. The main clinical manifestations of the female were intermittent vaginal bleeding, fever, depressive edema of both legs, red blood cell and thrombocytopenia, and renal function deterioration. The results showed that leukocytes increased, anemia, thrombocytopenia and severe renal dysfunction were found; With fever, C-reactive protein and procalcitonin increased significantly, bone penetration suggested that granulocyte proliferation was active, and megakaryocytes were seen. But anti-infection treatment was ineffective; CT suggested that there was a high uptake of multiple fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in many parts of the body; The lymph node biopsy was considered to be in accordance with the transparent vascular type of Castleman disease; Renal biopsy was used to return thrombotic microvascular disease with subacute renal tubulointerstitial nephropathy. In terms of treatment, the clinical condition of the patients was improved after methylprednisolone (60 mg, once a day), the temperature was normal, and the effusion in the serous cavity was better than before. The blood transfusion and platelet support therapy were intermittently given. Hemoglobin and platelets were increased in sex, and the urine volume increased to 1 000 mL/day. However, the platelet dropped at a later time, after 1 month of treatment with topizumab, the clinical condition of the patients was further improved. At present, the blood pigment and platelets returned to normal and had been separated from dialysis. TAFRO syndrome is a special subtype of idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease, and it is a group of systemic inflammatory diseases with its own characteristics. Its clinical manifestations and diagnosis and treatment are unique compared with other idiopathic multicentric Castleman diseases. For the enlargement of lymph nodes of unknown reasons, it is suggested to improve the lymph node biopsy actively. Renal insufficiency is an important part of TAFRO syndrome. Renal biopsy is of great significance to study the pathogenesis of TAFRO syndrome and to judge the prognosis of patients. The clinical diagnosis of the disease requires comprehensive clinical manifestations and the results of various examinations. Early diagnosis and early treatment of the disease can often achieve good clinical effect.

MicroRNA 34b inhibits cell proliferation in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia via regulating LDHA.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the regulatory effect of microRNA-34b on the occurrence of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia and the underlying mechanism. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The expression of microRNA-34b in the bone marrow of 72 children with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was detected by quantitative Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR). The relationship between microRNA-34b expression and pathological characteristics was analyzed. Kaplan-Meier curve was introduced for evaluating the prognostic value of microRNA-34b in pediatric AML. The regulatory effects of microRNA-34b on proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis of leukemia cells were accessed by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Bioinformatics prediction and dual-luciferase reporter gene assay were conducted to evaluate the binding between microRNA-34b and lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA). LDHA expression after overexpression of microRNA-34b was determined by qRT-PCR and Western blot. Rescue experiments were conducted to verify whether microRNA-34b could regulate proliferative and apoptotic behaviors of leukemia cells by suppressing LDHA expression. RESULTS: MicroRNA-34b was markedly downregulated in AML children. Low expression of microRNA-34b was correlated to FAB typing, cytogenetic abnormality, and day 7 response to the treatment of pediatric AML. By collecting the follow-up data, it was found that low expression of microRNA-34b was correlated to the poor prognosis of AML. Overexpression of microRNA-34b inhibited proliferative ability and cell cycle progression, but accelerated apoptosis of AML cells. Dual-luciferase reporter gene assay verified that microRNA-34b could bind to LDHA, thereafter inhibiting LDHA expression. Overexpression of LDHA reversed the regulatory effects of microRNA-34b on proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis of AML cells. CONCLUSIONS: We found that microRNA-34b is lowly expressed in pediatric AML patients, and low expression of microRNA-34b may serve as an indicator of malignant progression and poor prognosis of pediatric AML. MicroRNA-34b may affect the proliferation and apoptosis of leukemia cells by regulating the expression of LDHA.

Attenuating the abnormally high expression of AEBP1 suppresses the pathogenesis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia via p53-dependent signaling pathway.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the candidate genes and their potential mechanism in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (cALL). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened from GSE67684 (treatment), GSE28460 (relapse), and GSE60926 (relapse). The expression of AEBP1 at different stages of cALL was analyzed followed by functional enrichment analysis of its co-expressed genes. Expression of AEBP1 was determined in different leukemia cell lines and knocked down in Jurkat cells. Cell behaviors as well as the expression of p53, Bax, and Bcl-2 were also evaluated after silencing AEBP1 in Jurkat cells. RESULTS: Two clusters: Profile 1 (downward) and Profile 26 (upward) were identified in GSE67684, and 53 Profile 1-specific DEGs were identified compared with DEGs in GSE28460 and GSE60926. AEBP1 was one of these genes and was significantly downregulated after treatment but upregulated in relapse samples. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that AEBP1 co-expressed genes were significantly enriched in GO terms including immune response, blood coagulation etc. and in the hematopoietic cell lineage and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways. AEBP1 was significantly increased in leukemia cell lines, especially in Jurkat cells, compared with the Pbmc cells. Silencing AEBP1 markedly reduced proliferation and induced cell cycle arrest in Jurkat cells, but also promoted apoptosis of Jurkat cells. Silencing AEBP1 also inhibited the expression of p53 and Bcl-2 but promoted Bax in Jurkat cells. CONCLUSIONS: AEBP1 was highly-expressed in the diagnosis and relapse cALL, and silencing AEBP1 significantly reduced proliferation but promoted apoptosis in Jurkat cells via a p53-dependent pathway.

Par-4/THAP1 complex and Notch3 competitively regulated pre-mRNA splicing of CCAR1 and affected inversely the survival of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells.

Although the intensification of therapy for children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) has substantially improved clinical outcomes, T-ALL remains an important challenge in pediatric oncology. Here, we report that the cooperative synergy between prostate apoptosis response factor-4 (Par-4) and THAP1 induces cell cycle and apoptosis regulator 1 (CCAR1) gene expression and cellular apoptosis in human T-ALL cell line Jurkat cells, CEM cells and primary cultured neoplastic T lymphocytes from children with T-ALL. Par-4 and THAP1 collaborated to activate the promoter of CCAR1 gene. Mechanistic investigations revealed that Par-4 and THAP1 formed a protein complex by the interaction of their carboxyl termini, and THAP1 bound to CCAR1 promoter though its zinc-dependent DNA-binding domain at amino terminus. Par-4/THAP1 complex and Notch3 competitively bound to CCAR1 promoter and competitively modulated alternative pre-mRNA splicing of CCAR1, which resulted in two different transcripts and played an opposite role in T-ALL cell survival. Despite Notch3 induced a shift splicing from the full-length isoform toward a shorter form of CCAR1 mRNA by splicing factor SRp40 and SRp55, Par-4/THAP1 complex strongly antagonized this inductive effect. Our finding revealed a mechanistic rationale for Par-4/THAP1-induced apoptosis in T-ALL cells that would be of benefit to develop a new therapy strategy for T-ALL.

Impact of depression mood disorder on the adverse drug reaction incidence rate of anticancer drugs in cancer patients.

The aim of this study was to explore the impact of depression mood disorder on the incidence of adverse drug reactions of anticancer drugs in cancer patients. The Hamilton Depression Scale 17 was used to evaluate the depression mood disorder level in 73 cancer patients before chemotherapy. Pharmacists monitored adverse drug reactions during the chemotherapy period. The relationship between depression mood disorder level and the incidence of adverse drug reactions was analysed. The frequency and extent of total adverse drug reactions were not related to depression mood disorder level. The frequency and extent of subjectively experienced adverse drug reactions such as anorexia, nausea and fatigue were related to depression mood disorder level. In conclusion, psychological support and intervention should be provided to cancer patients in order to improve patient adherence and cancer chemotherapy effectiveness, and to decrease the incidence of adverse drug reactions.

Using pseudo amino acid composition to predict protein subcellular location: approached with amino acid composition distribution.

In the Post Genome Age, there is an urgent need to develop the reliable and effective computational methods to predict the subcellular localization for the explosion of newly found proteins. Here, a novel method of pseudo amino acid (PseAA) composition, the so-called "amino acid composition distribution" (AACD), is introduced. First, a protein sequence is divided equally into multiple segments. Then, amino acid composition of each segment is calculated in series. After that, each protein sequence can be represented by a feature vector. Finally, the feature vectors of all sequences thus obtained are further input into the multi-class support vector machines to predict the subcellular localization. The results show that AACD is quite effective in representing protein sequences for the purpose of predicting protein subcellular localization.

A dynamic model for the p53 stress response networks under ion radiation.

P53 controls the cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis through interaction with the downstream genes and their signal pathways. To stimulate the investigation into the complicated responses of p53 under the circumstance of ion radiation (IR) in the cellular level, a dynamic model for the p53 stress response networks is proposed. The model can be successfully used to simulate the dynamic processes of generating the double-strand breaks (DSBs) and their repairing, ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) activation, as well as the oscillations occurring in the p53-MDM2 feedback loop.

Lipoxin A4 inhibits connective tissue growth factor-induced production of chemokines in rat mesangial cells.

Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is involved in mitogenesis, matrix production, and chemotaxis in mesenchymal cells. The effects of CTGF on the production of chemokines remain unclear. The present studies investigate the regulatory role of CTGF in the production of fractalkine, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and RANTES (regulated upon activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted) in cultured mesangial cells of rats, and the modulatory effects of lipoxin A(4) (LXA(4)) on actions of CTGF. CTGF enhanced the mRNA expression and protein release of fractalkine, MCP-1, and RANTES, the expression of phospho (P)-p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), P-phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-K), P-Akt, and activity of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) in mesangial cells. P-p42/44 MAPK blockade inhibited the CTGF-induced expression of P-p42/44 MAPK but not NF-kappaB, and partially decreased the levels of the above chemokines in supernatants. P-PI3-K blockade downregulated the CTGF-stimulated expression of P-PI3-K, P-Akt, and NF-kappaB but not P-p42/44 MAPK, and partially decreased the release of the above chemokines. NF-kappaB blockade abrogated the CTGF-activated NF-kappaB and partially decreased the secretion of the above chemokines. LXA(4) dose-dependently inhibited the CTGF-stimulated mRNA expression and protein release of the above chemokines, and the expression of P-p42/44MAPK, P-PI3-K, P-Akt, and NF-kappaB. In conclusion, these results demonstrate that CTGF induces production of fractalkine, MCP-1, and RANTES via the p42/44 MAPK-, PI3-K/Akt-, and NF-kappaB-dependent signal pathway, and LXA(4) downregulates the above effects of CTGF on rat mesangial cells.

Support vector machines for predicting protein structural class.

BACKGROUND: We apply a new machine learning method, the so-called Support Vector Machine method, to predict the protein structural class. Support Vector Machine method is performed based on the database derived from SCOP, in which protein domains are classified based on known structures and the evolutionary relationships and the principles that govern their 3-D structure. RESULTS: High rates of both self-consistency and jackknife tests are obtained. The good results indicate that the structural class of a protein is considerably correlated with its amino acid composition. CONCLUSIONS: It is expected that the Support Vector Machine method and the elegant component-coupled method, also named as the covariant discrimination algorithm, if complemented with each other, can provide a powerful computational tool for predicting the structural classes of proteins.

Some insights into protein structural class prediction.

It has been quite clear that the success rate for predicting protein structural class can be improved significantly by using the algorithms that incorporate the coupling effect among different amino acid components of a protein. However, there is still a lot of confusion in understanding the relationship of these advanced algorithms, such as the least Mahalanobis distance algorithm, the component-coupled algorithm, and the Bayes decision rule. In this communication, a simple, rigorous derivation is provided to prove that the Bayes decision rule introduced recently for protein structural class prediction is completely the same as the earlier component-coupled algorithm. Meanwhile, it is also very clear from the derivative equations that the least Mahalanobis distance algorithm is an approximation of the component-coupled algorithm, also named as the covariant-discriminant algorithm introduced by Chou and Elrod in protein subcellular location prediction (Protein Engineering, 1999; 12:107-118). Clarification of the confusion will help use these powerful algorithms effectively and correctly interpret the results obtained by them, so as to conduce to the further development not only in the structural prediction area, but in some other relevant areas in protein science as well.

An intriguing controversy over protein structural class prediction.

A recent report by Bahar et al. [(1997), Proteins 29, 172-185] indicates that the coupling effects among different amino acid components as originally formulated by K. C. Chou [(1995), Proteins 21, 319-344] are important for improving the prediction of protein structural classes. These authors have further proposed a compact lattice model to illuminate the physical insight contained in the component-coupled algorithm. However, a completely opposite result was concluded by Eisenhaber et al. [(1996), Proteins 25, 169 179], using a different dataset constructed according to their definition. To address such an intriguing controversy, tests were conducted by various approaches for the datasets from an objective database, the SCOP database [Murzin et al. (1995), J. Mol. Biol. 247, 536-540]. The results obtained by both self-consistency and jackknife tests indicate that the overall rates of correct prediction by the algorithm incorporating the coupling effect among different amino acid components are significantly higher than those by the algorithms without counting such an effect. This is fully consistent with the physical reality that the folding of a protein is the result of a collective interaction among its constituent amino acid residues, and hence the coupling effects of different amino acid components must be incorporated in order to improve the prediction quality. It was found by a revisiting the calculation procedures by Eisenhaber et al. that there was a conceptual mistake in constructing the structural class datasets and a systematic mistake in applying the component-coupled algorithm. These findings are informative for understanding and utilizing the component-coupled algorithm to study the structural classes of proteins.

Major histocompatibility complex class II antigens in steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome in Chinese children.

Steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS) has been postulated to have an immunopathogenic basis. To determine whether SSNS is associated with specific class II antigens of the major histocompatibility complex, we studied HLA-DR and DQ in 40 children with SSNS. HLA-DR7 was found in 40% of SSNS patients compared with only 11.23% of controls (P = 0.00025). HLA-DR9 occurred in 71.40% of patients with frequent relapses, compared with 27.37% of controls (P = 0.016). It seems likely that SSNS has an immunogenetic basis.

[Studies on constituents of Ilex chinensis Sims].

Several compounds characterised as protocatechuic acid, caffeic acid, syringin, rotundic acid and pedunculoside were isolated from the leaves of Ilex chinensis, a Chinese crude drug. A novel compound cyclohexanone pedunculosyl-3,23-O-acetal was identified and proposed as a pedunculoside derivative produced in the extracting procedure.

An extension of Chou's graphic rules for deriving enzyme kinetic equations to systems involving parallel reaction pathways.

An extension has been made to the Chou's graphic rules in order to cover those enzyme-catalysed reaction systems in which there are two or more parallel reaction routes between any two enzyme species.

The flexibility during the juxtaposition of reacting groups and the upper limits of enzyme reactions.

The combination between enzymes and substrates occur only after their reacting groups are in juxtaposition with each other. This will greatly reduce the probability of their effective encounters. However, the results calculated with the finite elements method show that the reaction limits will not decrease substantially if van der Waal's forces and a reasonable flexibility during such a juxtaposition are taken into account.