Targeting PIK3CA Alterations in Hormone Receptor-Positive,Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-2–Negative Advanced Breast Cancer: New Therapeutic Approaches and Practical Considerations

The phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is frequently dysregulated in human breast cancer. Approximately 30% of all patients with breast cancer will carry mutations of the PIK3CA gene, which encodes the PI3K catalytic subunit isoform p110α. Mutations in PIK3CA have been associated with resistance to endocrine therapy, HER2-directed therapy, and cytotoxic therapy. Early trials of pan-PI3K inhibitors showed little treatment benefit as monotherapy owing to disease resistance arising through enhanced estrogen receptor pathway signaling. Combining PI3K inhibition with endocrine therapy can help overcome resistance. Clinical trials of pan-PI3K inhibitors combined with endocrine therapy demonstrated modest clinical benefits but challenging toxicity profiles, facilitating the development of more selective PI3K-targeting agents. More recent trials of isoform-specific PI3K inhibitors in patients with PIK3CA mutations have shown promising clinical efficacy with a predictable, manageable safety profile. In the present review, we discuss the clinical relevance of mutations of PIK3CA and their potential use as a biomarker to guide treatment choices in patients with HR⁺ HER2⁻ advanced breast cancer.     

Peripheral whole blood FOXP3 TSDR methylation: a potential marker in severity assessment of autoimmune diseases and chronic infections

Immune dysregulation is a cardinal feature of autoimmune diseases and chronic microbial infections. In particular, regulatory T cells are downregulated in autoimmune diseases while upregulated in chronic microbial infections. FOXP3 is the master regulator of Treg development. Treg-specific demethylated region (TSDR) is a highly conserved locus on the FOXP3 gene that is fully demethylated in natural Tregs but methylated in effector T cells. In our study, we used high resolution melt-polymerase chain reaction (HRM-PCR) to determine the FOXP3 TSDR methylation status in autoimmune diseases and chronic microbial infections. We found that FOXP3 TSDR to have the highest mean melting temperature (highly methylated) in active SLE patients compared to all the other groups (p?<?0.001). The psoriasis group also had a significantly high mean melting temperature (78.62?±?0.20) when compared with the inactive SLE group (78.49?±?0.29, p?<?0.05) and control group (78.44?±?0.25, p?<?0.01). There was no significant difference in melting temperature between inactive SLE and healthy controls. Disease activity in SLE was directly associated with methylation of the FOXP3 TSDR. On the other hand, patients with chronic microbial infections had significantly lower FOXP3 TSDR mean melting temperature (demethylated) when compared with healthy controls (78.28?±?0.21 vs 78.44?±?0.25, p?<?0.05). Our results suggest that the use of HRM-PCR to detect FOXP3 TSDR methylation status is a reliable and easy method to predict natural regulatory T cell levels in peripheral blood in different disease conditions. Determining FOXP3 TSDR methylation status can be a useful tool in diagnosis, and monitoring the severity of autoimmune diseases and chronic microbial infections.     

附加钢板技术治疗股骨干髓内钉术后骨不连的现状和研究进展

目的对附加钢板技术治疗股骨干髓内钉术后骨不连的历史、现状和进展进行综述。方法广泛查阅国内外关于附加钢板技术治疗股骨干髓内钉术后骨不连的临床研究文献，并进行综合分析。结果自 1997 年附加钢板技术已成功用于治疗股骨干髓内钉术后骨不连，根据原髓内钉是否失效，可分为保留原髓内钉和更换原髓内钉两类。该技术不仅适用于简单骨不连，还可用于合并严重畸形的复杂性骨不连。相比更换髓内钉、更换外侧钢板和双钢板技术，附加钢板技术手术创伤更小，骨折愈合时间更短，骨折愈合率更高，患者能更早重返社会和工作。然而，该技术也存在一些问题有待解决，包括双皮质螺钉固定困难、缺乏适合股骨干解剖型附加钢板以及缺乏术后功能和生活质量的评估研究。结论相比其他翻修固定方式，附加钢板技术能够获得更高的骨折愈合率和更好的临床预后。然而，术后患者能否在功能和生活质量方面进一步获益还有待证实。此外，还需要更高质量的临床对照研究深入证明其是否确实优于其他翻修固定方式。     

经重睑切口的上睑旋转皮瓣矫正轻中度内眦赘皮疗效观察

目的探讨重睑术中采用经重睑切口的上睑旋转皮瓣矫正轻、中度内眦赘皮的疗效。方法回顾分析 2016 年 7 月—2017 年 10 月，重睑术中采用经重睑切口的上睑旋转皮瓣矫正轻、中度睑板型内眦赘皮合并单睑的 34 例患者（试验组）临床资料；以同期 38 例接受传统“Z”成形内眦开大术联合重睑术患者为对照（对照组）。两组患者年龄及内侧赘皮分度比较，差异无统计学意义（P>0.05）。于术前及术后 6 d、6 个月测量眼裂长度，计算眼裂长度改善程度；参照内眦赘皮矫正标准评价手术疗效。 结果两组患者切口均Ⅰ期愈合，并获随访 6 个月。两组内眦赘皮明显矫正。试验组内眦处无切口；对照组遗留瘢痕，其中 6 例增生明显。术后 6 d 试验组及对照组眼裂长度改善程度分别为 3.63%±0.07%、3.70%±0.05%；术后 6 个月分别为 4.64%±0.09%、4.46%±0.10%；两组比较差异均无统计学意义（t=0.005，P=0.996；t=0.287，P=0.871）。术后 6 个月疗效评价，试验组优 20 例、良 12 例、差 2 例，优良率 94.12%；对照组优 16 例、良 16 例、差 6 例，优良率 84.21%；差异无统计学意义（χ²=0.796，P=0.372）。 结论经重睑切口的上睑旋转皮瓣矫正轻、中度内眦赘皮手术操作简便、效果满意，内眦处无瘢痕形成。     

Accuracy of prehospital triage systems for mass casualty incidents in trauma register studies - A systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies

BackgroundPrioritising patients in mass casualty incidents (MCI) can be extremely difficult. Therefore, triage systems are important in every emergency medical service. This study reviews the accuracy of primary triage systems for MCI in trauma register studies.MethodsWe registered a protocol at PROSPERO ID: CRD42018115438. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Central, Web of Science, Scopus, Clinical Trials, Google Scholar, and reference lists for eligible studies. We included studies that both examined a primary triage system for MCI in trauma registers and provided sensitivity and specificity for critically injured vs non-critically injured as results. We excluded studies that used paediatric, chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear MCIs populations or triage systems. Finally, we calculated intra-study relative sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic odds ratio for each triage system.ResultsTriage Sieve (TS) significantly underperformed in relative diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) when compared to START and CareFlight (CF) (START vs TS: 19.85 vs 13.23 (p<0.0001)│CF vs TS: 23.72 vs 12.83 (p<0.0001)). There was no significant difference in DOR between TS and Military Sieve (MS) (p<0.710). Compared to START, MS and CF TS had significantly higher relative specificity (START vs TS: 93.6% vs 96.1% (p=0.047)│CF vs TS: 96% vs 95.3% (p=0.0006)│MS vs TS: 94% vs 88.3% (p=0.0002)) and lower relative sensitivity (START vs TS: 57.8% vs 34.8% (p<0.0001)│CF vs TS: 53.9% vs 34.7% (p<0.0001)│MS vs TS: 51.9% vs 35.2% p<0.0001)).CF had significantly better relative DOR than START (CF vs START: 23.56 vs 27.79 (p=0.043)). MS had significantly better relative sensitivity than CF and START (MS vs CF: 49.5% vs 38.7% (p<0.0001)│MS vs START: 49.4% vs 43.9% (p=0.01)). In contrast, CF had significantly better relative specificity than MS (MS vs CF: 91.3% vs 93.3% (p<0.0001)). The remaining comparisons did not yield any significant differences.ConclusionAs the included studies were at risk of bias and had heterogenic characteristics, our results should be interpreted with caution. Nonetheless, our results point towards inferior accuracy of Triage Sieve compared to START and CareFlight, and less firmly point towards superior accuracy of Military Sieve compared to START, CareFlight and Triage Sieve     

Immunohistochemical and molecular analysis of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in esophageal carcinoma

Among the numerous signaling pathways involved in tumorigenesis, PI3K‐AKT‐mTOR is a key one that regulates diverse cellular functions. However, its prognostic value in esophageal carcinoma remains unclear. In our study, we examined the immunohistochemical expression of phosphorylated (p‐) AKT, mTOR, p70S6K and 4E‐BP1 along with the mutational status of PIK3CA and AKT1 genes by High Resolution Melting Analysis and Pyrosequencing in 44 esophageal carcinomas. The results were correlated with the clinicopathological characteristics of the patients in an effort to define their possible prognostic significance. Total p‐mTOR cytoplasmic expression, assessed in 10 random areas, was positively correlated with tumor stage (Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA, I/II vs III/IV, p = 0.0500). Μoreover, maximum p‐mTOR cytoplasmic immunoexpression, estimated in hot spot areas, was positively associated with tumor grade (Mann–Whitney U test, I/II vs III, p = 0.0565). Interestingly, p‐4E‐BP1 immunoreactivity was negatively correlated with tumor histological grade (Mann–Whitney U test, I/II vs III, p = 0.0427). No mutation was observed in exons 9 and 20 of PIK3CA gene and in exon 4 of AKT1 gene. In conclusion, our findings depict the presence of activated PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in esophageal cancer bringing forward p‐mTOR and p‐4E‐BP1 for their potential role in esophageal carcinogenesis. Additional studies are warranted to validate our findings.     

Using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to determine 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels for clinical assessment of vitamin D deficiency

Vitamin D is responsible for multiple metabolic functions in humans. Rickets are the most common disease caused by vitamin D deficiency. It is caused by poor calcium intake resulting in poor serum-ionized calcium. The purpose of this study is to develop a rapid, sensitive, and feasible method to determine the 25-hydroxy-vitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) levels in blood samples for clinical assessment. In this study, gas chromatography coupled mass spectrometry with trimethylsilyl derivatization (TMS-GC-MS) is the most suitable protocol for quantitative analyses of 25(OH)D3. Performance of method was evaluated and compared with liquid chromatography and immunoassay. Method validation has been carried out with plasma specimens. The limit of quantitation of TMS-GC-MS method is 1.5 ppb with good linear correlation. Furthermore, the dietary intake and nutritional status of vegetarian and non-vegetarians in Taiwan were assessed by our validated method. As a result, this vitamin D nutrition survey demonstrates that most Taiwanese people have insufficient vitamin D. Due to dietary habits; the male vegans may have the highest risk of vitamin D deficiency.     

DNA vaccine encoding the moonlighting protein Onchocerca volvulus glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Ov-GAPDH) leads to partial protection in a mouse model of human filariasis

River blindness, caused by the filarial parasite Onchocerca volvulus, is a major socio-economic and public health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. In January 2015, The Onchocerciasis Vaccine for Africa (TOVA) Initiative has been launched with the aim of providing new tools to complement mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin, thereby promoting elimination of onchocerciasis in Africa. In this context we here present Onchocerca volvulus glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Ov-GAPDH) as a possible DNA vaccine candidate. We report that in a laboratory model for filariasis, immunization with Ov-GAPDH led to a significant reduction of adult worm load and microfilaraemia in BALB/c mice after challenge infection with the filarial parasite Litomosoides sigmodontis. Mice were either vaccinated with Ov-GAPDH.DNA plasmid (Ov-pGAPDH.DNA) alone or in combination with recombinantly expressed Ov-GAPDH protein (Ov-rGAPDH). During the following challenge infection of immunized and control mice with L. sigmodontis, those formulations which included the DNA plasmid, led to a significant reduction of adult worm loads (up to 57% median reduction) and microfilaraemia (up to 94% reduction) in immunized animals. In a further experiment, immunization with a mixture of four overlapping, synthetic Ov-GAPDH peptides (Ov-GAPDHpept), with alum as adjuvant, did not significantly reduce worm loads. Our results indicate that DNA vaccination with Ov-GAPDH has protective potential against filarial challenge infection in the mouse model. This suggests a transfer of the approach into the cattle Onchocerca ochengi model, where it is possible to investigate the effects of this vaccination in the context of a natural host–parasite relationship.