Identification of plasma miR-106a-5p and miR-30a-5p as potential biomarkers for mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis.

BACKGROUND: Although stable microRNAs (miRNAs) are present in human peripheral blood and have been considered as novel biomarkers for various diseases. But there is little research about miRNAs as biomarkers of mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (MsPGN). This study aimed to identify whether there exist disordered circulating miRNAs that can function as biomarkers for MsPGN disease activity. METHODS: The candidate miRNAs were validated in 70 MsPGN patients and 70 healthy controls by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). The specificity and sensitivity of the miRNA panel was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. In addition, the candidate miRNA levels were measured in the different MsPGN progression and in the membranous nephropathy (MN) patients and the hypothetical role of the candidate miRNA on mesangial cell proliferation was analysed. Situ hybridization was performed to examine the candidate miRNA levels in the glomerulus. RESULTS: These results showed that miR-106a-5p and miR-30a-5p were highly expressed in MsPGN patients compared with healthy controls and could discriminate MsPGN from healthy controls with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.93. In addition, the two miRNAs were not only higher in moderate and severe MsPGN patients, but could distinguish MsPGN from MN. We also observed a decreased expression in MsPGN regression group after treatment. Plasma miR-106a-5p level was positively correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Furthermore, the two miRNAs were highly expressed in MsPGN glomerulus and their overexpression could prompt mesangial cell proliferation. CONCLUSION: Plasma miR-30a-5p and miR-106a-5p can serve as novel and potential diagnostic biomarkers for MsPGN.

Potential Effects of Telbivudine Versus Entecavir on Renal Function in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Receiving Glucocorticoids Therapy.

Data remains limited about the optimal nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy for patients infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) while treated with glucocorticoids because of kidney diseases. We aim to evaluate the safety and efficacy of long-term antiviral therapy with telbivudine (LdT) and entecavir (ETV) in this specific population. In this prospective randomized controlled study, a total of 60 patients with both kidney diseases and chronic hepatitis B were randomly divided into LdT group and ETV group. We analyzed changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), variation in HBV DNA, seroconversion of hepatitis B e antigen (HbeAg) and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). During the 18 month follow-up period, serum HBV DNA load was decreased significantly at 3, 6, 12, 18 months, compared to the pre-treatment value in both LdT and ETV cohorts. No patients achieved HBeAg loss-seroconversion or HBsAg loss-seroconversion with ETV therapy whilst one patient experienced HBeAg and HBsAg loss-seroconversion with LdT therapy. No significant changes in eGFR were seen in patients with ETV therapy compared to baseline. However, eGFR increased 7.43, 18.97 mL/min/1.73m2 , respectively at 12 and 18 months in LdT group and the changes were significant compared to baseline. Further analysis also demonstrated that eGFR significantly improved 11.8, 23.25 mL/min/1.73m2 at 12 and 18 months in LdT group for patients with impaired renal function. LdT is superior to ETV in patients with chronic hepatitis B and kidney diseases because of the renal protection it confers by increasing eGFR.

Results of an early access treatment protocol of daratumumab in United States patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

BACKGROUND: Daratumumab is a human CD38-directed monoclonal antibody indicated for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma (MM). METHODS: A multicenter, open-label treatment protocol provided early access to daratumumab for patients who had progressive MM after they received ≥3 prior lines of therapy that included a proteasome inhibitor and an immunomodulatory agent or if they were refractory to both a proteasome inhibitor and an immunomodulatory agent. Patients received daratumumab 16 mg/kg weekly for 8 weeks, every other week for 16 weeks, and monthly until they developed disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or 60 days after the drug gained US approval. Treatment-emergent grade ≥3 adverse events (AEs), serious AEs, and AEs of special interest were collected. RESULTS: Three hundred forty-eight patients were enrolled at 39 US sites between June and December 2015. Patients received study therapy for a median of 1.9 months (range, 0.03-6.0 months). Fifty-two percent of patients transitioned to commercially-available daratumumab and 37% discontinued because of progressive disease. Grade ≥3 AEs occurred in 50% of patients, including thrombocytopenia (15%) and anemia (14%). Serious AEs occurred in 35% of patients (12% were drug-related), including infections (11%). Infusion reactions occurred in 56%, 2%, and 2% of patients during the first, second, and all subsequent infusions, respectively; respiratory symptoms (cough, dyspnea, throat irritation, nasal congestion) were common. The infusion reaction rate for the first infusion was 38% in 50 patients at 2 sites who received montelukast as premedication for their first infusion and 59% in patients who did not receive montelukast. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings are consistent with previously reported trials and confirm the safety profile of daratumumab in heavily pretreated US patients who have relapsed or refractory MM. Cancer 2018;124:000-000.

Determination of lysine content based on an in situ pretreatment and headspace gas chromatographic measurement technique.

This work reports on a simple method for the determination of lysine content by an in situ sample pretreatment and headspace gas chromatographic measurement (HS-GC) technique, based on carbon dioxide (CO2) formation from the pretreatment reaction (between lysine and ninhydrin solution) in a closed vial. It was observed that complete lysine conversion to CO2 could be achieved within 60 min at 60 °C in a phosphate buffer medium (pH = 4.0), with a minimum molar ratio of ninhydrin/lysine of 16. The results showed that the method had a good precision (RSD < 5.23%) and accuracy (within 6.80%), compared to the results measured by a reference method (ninhydrin spectroscopic method). Due to the feature of in situ sample pretreatment and headspace measurement, the present method becomes very simple and particularly suitable to be used for batch sample analysis in lysine-related research and applications. Graphical abstract The flow path of the reaction and HS-GC measurement for the lysine analysis.

Combining affinity propagation clustering and mutual information network to investigate key genes in fibroid.

The aim of the present study was to investigate key genes in fibroids based on the multiple affinity propogation-Krzanowski and Lai (mAP-KL) method, which included the maxT multiple hypothesis, Krzanowski and Lai (KL) cluster quality index, affinity propagation (AP) clustering algorithm and mutual information network (MIN) constructed by the context likelihood of relatedness (CLR) algorithm. In order to achieve this goal, mAP-KL was initially implemented to investigate exemplars in fibroid, and the maxT function was employed to rank the genes of training and test sets, and the top 200 genes were obtained for further study. In addition, the KL cluster index was applied to determine the quantity of clusters and the AP clustering algorithm was conducted to identify the clusters and their exemplars. Subsequently, the support vector machine (SVM) model was selected to evaluate the classification performance of mAP-KL. Finally, topological properties (degree, closeness, betweenness and transitivity) of exemplars in MIN constructed according to the CLR algorithm were assessed to investigate key genes in fibroid. The SVM model validated that the classification between normal controls and fibroid patients by mAP-KL had a good performance. A total of 9 clusters and exemplars were identified based on mAP-KL, which were comprised of CALCOCO2, COL4A2, COPS8, SNCG, PA2G4, C17orf70, MARK3, BTNL3 and TBC1D13. By accessing the topological analysis for exemplars in MIN, SNCG and COL4A2 were identified as the two most significant genes of four types of methods, and they were denoted as key genes in the progress of fibroid. In conclusion, two key genes (SNCG and COL4A2) and 9 exemplars were successfully investigated, and these may be potential biomarkers for the detection and treatment of fibroid.

[Analysis of influence of inflammatory factor in patients with ovarian endometriosis follicular fluid on the outcome of in vitro fertilization].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of follicular fluid IL-6, TNF-α on the clinical outcome of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) in patients with ovarian endometriosis. METHOD: From June 2013 to June 2014, the data of 64 (from Tangshan Maternal and Child Health Hospital IVF center) ovarian endometriosis patients was analyzed retrospectively. 58 infertility cases caused by male side were used as control group. Oocyte retrieval rate, M II oocytes rate, fertilization rate, recovery-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (R-ICSI) rate, good quality embryo rate, biochemical pregnancy rate and clinical pregnancy rate were analyzed and compared between two groups. Changes in the expression of follicular fluid IL-6, TNF-α were detected. RESULTS: Oocyte retrieval rate, M II oocytes rate, fertilization rate, good quality embryo rate, biochemical pregnancy rate and clinical pregnancy rate in ovarian endometriosis group were significantly lower than those in the control group (all P < 0.05), while R-ICSI rate increased in ovarian endometriosis group compared with control group (P < 0.05). IL-6, TNF-α expressions of follicular fluid were higher in affected side of ovarian endometriosis patients than those in the unaffected side and those in control group. CONCLUSION: Inflammation microenvironment of the follicular fluid may influence IVF-ET outcomes in ovarian endometriosis patients.

Discovery of camphor-derived pyrazolones as 11ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 inhibitors.

Starting from screening hit, (4S,7R)-1,7,8,8-tetramethyl-2-phenyl-1,2,4,5,6,7-hexahydro-4,7-methano-indazol-3-one (7), we optimized the potency and pharmacokinetic properties. This led to the identification of compounds with good in vivo activity in a mouse pharmacodynamic model of inhibition of 11ßHSD1.

Current challenges and controversies in drug-induced liver injury.

Current key challenges and controversies encountered in the identification of potentially hepatotoxic drugs and the assessment of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) are covered in this article. There is substantial debate over the classification of DILI itself, including the definition and validity of terms such as 'intrinsic' and 'idiosyncratic'. So-called idiosyncratic DILI is typically rare and requires one or more susceptibility factors in individuals. Consequently, it has been difficult to reproduce in animal models, which has limited the understanding of its underlying mechanisms despite numerous hypotheses. Advances in predictive models would also help to enable preclinical elimination of drug candidates and development of novel biomarkers. A small number of liver laboratory tests have been routinely used to help identify DILI, but their interpretation can be limited and confounded by multiple factors. Improved preclinical and clinical biomarkers are therefore needed to accurately detect early signals of liver injury, distinguish drug hepatotoxicity from other forms of liver injury, and differentiate mild from clinically important liver injury. A range of potentially useful biomarkers are emerging, although so far most have only been used preclinically, with only a few validated and used in the clinic for specific circumstances. Advances in the development of genomic biomarkers will improve the prediction and detection of hepatic injury in future. Establishing a definitive clinical diagnosis of DILI can be difficult, since it is based on circumstantial evidence by excluding other aetiologies and, when possible, identifying a drug-specific signature. DILI signals based on standard liver test abnormalities may be affected by underlying diseases such as hepatitis B and C, HIV and cancer, as well as the concomitant use of hepatotoxic drugs to treat some of these conditions. Therefore, a modified approach to DILI assessment is justified in these special populations and a suggested framework is presented that takes into account underlying disease when evaluating DILI signals in individuals. Detection of idiosyncratic DILI should, in some respects, be easier in the postmarketing setting compared with the clinical development programme, since there is a much larger and more varied patient population exposure over longer timeframes. However, postmarketing safety surveillance is currently limited by the quantity and quality of information available to make an accurate diagnosis, the lack of a control group and the rarity of cases. The pooling of multiple healthcare databases, which could potentially contain different types of patient data, is advised to address some of these deficiencies.

Pharmacokinetics of anti-influenza prodrug oseltamivir in children aged 1-5 years.

OBJECTIVE: The prodrug oseltamivir has been shown to be efficacious and safe for the treatment of influenza for patients 1 year of age or older; however, pharmacokinetic information was lacking for children below 5 years of age. This study was conducted to assess the metabolic and excretory capacity of oseltamivir and its active carboxylate metabolite in young children. METHODS: Twelve healthy children aged 1-5 years received a single oral suspension dose of oseltamivir (45 mg for 3-5 years, 30 mg for 1-2 years). Plasma and urine concentrations of oseltamivir and the carboxylate were determined by means of liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Mean peak plasma concentration and area under the plasma concentration-time curve values normalized to milligram per kilogram oseltamivir dose in the 1- to 2-year group are lower than those in the 3- to 5-year group. Mean body weight normalized oral clearance of oseltamivir and its carboxylate in younger subjects aged 1-2 years (259 ml/min/kg and 12.2 ml/min/kg) were, respectively, 52% and 30% higher than those in older subjects aged 3-5 years (170 ml/min/kg and 9.4 ml/min/kg). CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that infants as young as 1 year old can metabolize and excrete oseltamivir efficiently. The data derived from this study provide the starting dose of oseltamivir for further investigation in an efficacy study among influenza-infected infants less than 1 year of age.

Pharmacokinetics and delivery of the anti-influenza prodrug oseltamivir to the small intestine and colon using site-specific delivery capsules.

This study investigated the site-specific absorption of oseltamivir using targeted delivery and gamma scintigraphy. On four separate occasions, nine healthy male subjects each received a single 150 mg of oseltamivir administered via the Enterion capsule to the stomach, proximal small bowel, distal small bowel and the ascending colon. Pharmacokinetic parameters of oseltamivir and its carboxylate metabolite show that absorption was similar in the proximal and distal small bowel compared to stomach delivery, but reduced from the ascending colon, demonstrating that absorption-rate limited disposition occurred only for the ascending colon. The metabolite-to-parent ratios were minimally reduced. The results support the feasibility of modified-release formulation development whilst confirming the high and consistent oral bioavailability of oseltamivir.

Compensatory renal hypertrophy is mediated by a cell cycle-dependent mechanism.

BACKGROUND: Two mechanisms exist for inducing renal proximal tubule hypertrophy. One is characterized by regulation of the G1 cell cycle kinase (cell cycle-dependent mechanism), while the other mechanism involves an imbalance between rates of protein synthesis and degradation, and occurs independently of cell cycle kinase regulation (cell cycle-independent mechanism). The present studies examined whether the compensatory proximal tubule growth following uninephrectomy is mediated by the cell cycle-dependent or -independent mechanism. METHODS: Studies were done in both rats and C57Bl6 mice on tissue harvested from sham-operated or uninephrectomized animals. The magnitude of BrdU incorporation was used as the hyperplasia marker, while the proximal tubule protein: DNA ratio was used as the hypertrophy marker. Cdk4/cyclin D and cdk2/cyclin E kinase activities were assayed on renal cortex (rat studies) or isolated proximal tubules (mouse studies) using an in vitro kinase assay. RESULTS: In both rats and mice, compensatory proximal tubule growth was hypertrophic, not hyperplastic, evidenced by an increase in the protein:DNA ratio without a change in BrdU incorporation. In mice, cdk4/cyclin D kinase activity progressively increased between days 4 and 7, while cdk2/cyclin E kinase activity was decreased at both 4 and 7 days. In rats the development of hypertrophy was associated with an increase in cdk4/cyclin D kinase at days 4, 7, and 10, and an increase in cdk2/cyclin E kinase activity at days 2, 4, and 7. Roscovitine, a cdk2/cyclin E kinase inhibitor, inhibited cdk2/cyclin E kinase activity in both sham and nephrectomized rats; however, it did not prevent the development of proximal tubule hypertrophy. CONCLUSIONS: Uninephrectomy-induced compensatory proximal tubule growth is a hypertrophic form of growth that is mediated by a cell cycle-dependent mechanism.

Lack of pharmacokinetic interaction between the oral anti-influenza prodrug oseltamivir and aspirin.

Twelve volunteers completed a two-sequence, three-way crossover study of a single 900-mg aspirin dose and multiple doses of 75 mg of oseltamivir in the absence and presence of 900 mg of aspirin. The plasma and urine results demonstrated no pharmacokinetic interaction between oseltamivir and aspirin.