PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: a real-world study.

Management and treatment of terminal metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains heavily debated. We sought to investigate the efficacy of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor plus anlotinib as a potential solution for terminal mCRPC and further evaluate the association of genomic characteristics with efficacy outcomes. We conducted a retrospective real-world study of 25 mCRPC patients who received PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib after the progression to standard treatments. The clinical information was extracted from the electronic medical records and 22 patients had targeted circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) next-generation sequencing. Statistical analysis showed that 6 (24.0%) patients experienced prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response and 11 (44.0%) patients experienced PSA reduction. The relationship between ctDNA findings and outcomes was also analyzed. DNA-damage repair (DDR) pathways and homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway defects indicated a comparatively longer PSA-progression-free survival (PSA-PFS; 2.5 months vs 1.2 months, P = 0.027; 3.3 months vs 1.2 months, P = 0.017; respectively). This study introduces the PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib as a late-line therapeutic strategy for terminal mCRPC. PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib may be a new treatment choice for terminal mCRPC patients with DDR or HRR pathway defects and requires further investigation.

Peripheral monocyte count: an independent diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for prostate cancer - a large Chinese cohort study.

Increasing evidence indicates that inflammation may play important roles in tumorigenesis and progression, and an elevated peripheral monocyte count predicts a poor prognosis in various types of malignancies. Here, we evaluate the roles of peripheral monocyte count in the diagnosis and prognosis for prostate cancer in Chinese patients. A total of 1107 consecutive patients who had undergone prostate biopsy and 290 prostate cancer patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy as first-line therapy were retrospectively analyzed. The parameters were measured at the time of diagnosis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the independent predictors of a positive biopsy. Patients were categorized in two groups using a cutoff point of 0.425 × 109 l-1 as calculated by the receiver-operating curve analysis for prognosis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to determine the associations of monocyte count with progression-free survival, cancer-specific survival, and overall survival. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that monocyte count, age, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), free/total PSA, and prostate volume were independent predictors for prostate cancer. Multivariate Cox regression analyses identified an elevated monocyte count as an independent prognostic factor for worse cancer-specific survival (hazard ratio = 2.244, P < 0.05) and overall survival (hazard ratio = 1.995, P < 0.05), but not progression-free survival (P = 0.117). Our results indicated that an elevated monocyte count was an independent diagnostic biomarker for prostate cancer, and pretreatment peripheral monocyte count might play a significant role in the prognosis of prostate cancer patients treated with androgen deprivation therapy.

Construction of DNA vaccines and their induced protective immunity against experimental Eimeria tenella infection.

In an attempt to construct a DNA vaccine against chicken coccidiosis, the TA4 gene of Eimeria tenella strain BJ was ligated to the mammalian expression vector pcDNA3.1/Zeo(+) to give pcDNA3.1-TA4 (pcDT). Then, Et1A (E. tenella refractile body gene) was ligated to it, upstream, aiming to be expressed in fusion with TA4, giving pcDNA3.1-Et1A-TA4 (pcDET). The constructed DNA vaccines were given to broilers intramuscularly 10-15 min after the breasts had been pre-treated with 25% sucrose solution. At 7 days after the second vaccination, chickens were challenged with 3 x 10(4) sporulated oocysts of E. tenella BJ. The chickens were killed and the lesion scores of the ceca, the relative body-weight gains and the numbers of oocysts in the ceca of each group of chickens were calculated at day 8 post-inoculation. Results indicated that both pcDT and pcDET could induce protective immunity against coccidial challenge. Their use could obviously reduce oocyst output and alleviate chicken body-weight decrease due to coccidial infection. An anti-coccidial index of 160 was achieved with a treatment of 50 microg pcDET and 100 microg pcDT.