The long-term survival of patients with III-IVb stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with IMRT with or without Nimotuzumab: a propensity score-matched analysis.

BACKGROUND: To assess the efficacy of Nimotuzumab in combination with first-line chemoradiotherapy treatment in Chinese patients with primary III-IVb stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma. METHODS: Patients with primary locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma who were treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and concurrent cisplatin-based chemotherapy between January 2008 and December 2013 at a single institution were retrospectively reviewed. Group A received at least 6 doses of Nimotuzumab, while Group B did not receive Nimotuzumab. A propensity score matching method was used to match patients from each group in a 1:3 ratio. RESULTS: In total, 730 eligible patients were propensity matched, with 184 patients in Group A and 546 patients in Group B. Significant differences were not observed in the patient and tumor characteristics between Group A and Group B. At a median follow-up of 74.78 months (range 3.53-117.83 months), locoregional recurrence, distant failure and death were observed in 10.68, 11.10 and 16.03% of all patients, respectively. The estimated 5-year locoregional relapse-free survival, distant metastasis-free survival, progression-free survival and overall survival in the Group A versus Group B were 85.34% versus 89.79% (P = 0.156), 93.09% versus 85.61% (P = 0.012), 79.96% versus 77.99% (P = 0.117) and 88.91% versus 78.30% (P = 0.006), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This nimotuzumab-containing regimen resulted in improved long-term survival of III-IVb stage NPC patients and warrants further prospective evaluation.

Predictive and Carcinogenic Roles of Necroptosis-Related miR-425-5p and miR-16-5p in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the expression and function of necroptosis-associated miRNAs in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: A total of three microarray datasets, i.e., GSE122497, GSE114110, and GSE43732, were selected from the GEO database for differential analysis of necroptosis-related miRNA expression. The differentially expressed miRNAs were screened for target miRNAs using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis in the OncomiR database. The expression of the target miRNAs in the HEEC, KYSE-450, TE-1, and KYSE-410 cell lines was measured via qPCR. The expression of the target miRNAs in esophageal cancer cells was regulated by transfection with Lipofectamine 2000, and cell proliferation, cell migration, cell apoptosis and the cell cycle were detected by CCK-8, Transwell, and flow cytometry. RESULTS: The tumor tissue and peripheral blood of esophageal squamous cell cancer patients showed differential expression of 7 miRNAs related to necroptosis. Survival analysis revealed that miR-425-5p and miR-16-5p were negatively correlated with patient survival. The esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines exhibited increased expression of miR-425-5p and miR-16-5p, with KYSE-410 exhibiting the most significant increase. Inhibition of miR-425-5p and miR-16-5p expression in the KYSE-410 cell line resulted in increased apoptosis, decreased proliferation, and decreased migration of esophageal cancer cells as well as a significant increase in the S phase and a decrease in the G2/M phase according to the cell cycle assay. CONCLUSION: The pro-carcinogenic role of miR-425-5p and miR-16-5p has been observed in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Simple and rapid detection of calcium peroxide in flour based on methanobactin peroxidase-like activity.

Calcium peroxide is forbidden to be added to flour as brightener in many countries. A rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method for the detection of calcium peroxide in flour was proposed. Methanobactin (Mb), a copper-binding small peptide of methanotrophs with excellent peroxidase-like activity, has been successfully applied for H2O2-mediated co-oxidation between phenol and 4-aminoantipyrine to give a colored product that can be detected at 505 nm. When the concentration of Mb-Cu was 6.5 × 10-6 mol/L, the detection temperature was 50 ℃, and the detection time was 5 min, the linear range for quantification of calcium peroxide concentration was observed between 0.4 and 10.0 mg/L with R2 = 0.99397. The limit of detection was 0.027 mg/L (3.34 mg/kg flour) and the average recovery of standard addition was 99.6%-100.5%. Mb was very stable and still maintained catalytic activity even at 50 ℃ in acidic medium, which gave the proposed method has simple process and rapid detection speed.

Opposite effects of high and low doses of interleukin-2 on T cell-mediated hepatitis in mice (interleukin-2 on hepatitis).

PURPOSE: Concanavalin A (Con A)-induced hepatitis is an extensively used animal model of T cell-mediated acute hepatitis. A variety of cytokines, including interleukin 4 (IL-4), interferon gamma (IFN-γ), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), have been shown to play important roles in Con A-induced liver injury. However, the role of IL-2, a critical cytokine in the development and function of T cells and a clinical therapeutics for virus infection and tumor, has not been carefully examined in this model. METHODS: In this study, we investigated the function of IL-2 in Con A-induced hepatitis by using various strategies of rhIL-2 pretreatment. We treated mice with two rhIL-2 administration strategies: a single injection of high dose of rhIL-2 (IL-2(hi), 50 × 10(3) U/mouse) and four injections of low dose of rhIL-2 (IL-2(4lo), 5 × 10(3) U/mouse). RESULTS: IL-2(hi) pretreatment ameliorated Con A-induced liver injury, while IL-2(4lo) aggravated Con A-induced liver injury. IL-2(hi) pretreatment reduced Con A-induced elevation of serum TNF-α while IL-2(4lo) pretreatment did not. Serum IL-4 and TNF-α were high 6 h after Con A injection in IL-2(4lo) mice, while it was undetectable in IL-2(hi) and non-pretreated mice. IL-2(hi) pretreatment reduced Con A-induced accumulation of T cells in liver while IL-2(4lo) pretreatment increased accumulation of NK cells. CONCLUSION: Various strategies of rhIL-2 administration play different roles in Con A-induced hepatitis, suggesting the importance of IL-2 administrative regime in clinical liver diseases.