Personal comorbidities and their subsequent risks for liver,gallbladder and bile duct cancers

Many environmental risk factors for hepatobiliary cancers are known but whether they are associated with specific cancer types is unclear. We present here a novel approach of assessing standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of previously diagnosed comorbidities for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), gallbladder cancer (GBC), cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and ampullary cancer. The 13 comorbidities included alcohol and nonalcohol related liver disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, gallstone disease, viral and other kinds of hepatitis, infection of bile ducts, hepatic and other autoimmune diseases, obesity and diabetes. Patients were identified from the Swedish Inpatient Register from 1987 to 2018, and their cancers were followed from 1997 onwards. SIRs for HCC were 80 to 100 in men and women diagnosed with hepatitis C virus and they were also >10 in patients diagnosed with hepatitis B virus, other kind of hepatitis, hepatic autoimmune disease and nonalcohol related liver disease. Many of these risks, as well as alcohol related liver disease, were either specific to HCC or were shared with intrahepatic CCA. For GBC, CCA and ampullary cancer infection of bile ducts was the main risk factor. Gallstone disease, nonhepatic autoimmune diseases and diabetes were associated with all hepatobiliary cancers. The limitations of the study include inability to cover some rare risk factors and limited follow-up time. Many of the considered comorbidities are characterized by chronic inflammation and/or overt immune disturbance in autoimmune diseases. The results suggest that local chronic inflammation and a related immune disturbance is the carcinogenic trigger for all these cancers.     

基于全基因组测序的耐碳青霉烯类抗生素鲍曼不动杆菌耐药基因、毒力因子及同源性分析

摘要：目的 通过应用全基因组测序(whole genome sequencing, WGS)技术分析某三级医疗机构耐碳青霉烯类抗生素鲍曼不 动杆菌(carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, CRAB)的耐药基因、毒力因子及同源性。方法 收集该院2020年1月至3月 重症监护病房(Intensive care unit, ICU)、神经外科分离的11株医院感染CRAB菌株，通过二代测序平台进行全基因组测序, 应用 基因组流行病学中心(Center for genomic epidemiology, CGE)ResFinder 4. 0软件分析其耐药基因型，并应用MORPHEUS在线制作 热图，应用毒力因子数据库(virulence factors of pathogenic bacteria, VFDB)VFanalyzer软件筛选毒力因子，应用MLST软件检测菌 株的ST型，应用Kaptive软件检测荚膜型，应用CSI Phylogeny 1. 4软件及FigTree v1. 4. 4软件构建最大似然树(maximum likelihood tree, MLT)以分析其同源性。结果 11株CRAB对亚胺培南、美罗培南、头孢菌素、环丙沙星均呈现耐药，而对阿米卡星、左氧 氟沙星耐药的菌株株数较少。11株CRAB共检测出18种耐药基因，11株同时携带碳青霉烯酶耐药基因blaOXA-23和blaOXA-66，β-内酰 胺酶耐药基因以blaTEM-1D和blaADC-25为主，大部分菌株携带多种外排泵相关耐药基因及抗菌药物修饰酶耐药基因。11株CRAB均携 带多种毒力因子，包括外膜孔蛋白、脂多糖、生物膜、外排泵、磷脂酶和效应蛋白等，如OmpA、Lps、Csu、Pga、Ade、Plc、 Bas、Bau、Ent、Hem、Aba、Bfm、Pbp和Kat等。11株CRAB均为ST2-K22型，同源性分析结果显示C组内同源性关系相近，存 在院内传播的可能。结论 该院CRAB的耐药性、毒力特征复杂多样，同源性分析显示该院存在1种优势克隆株，该克隆株有医 院内传播的风险。     

Cardioprotective effects of sinomenine in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in a rat model

BackgroundIschemia reperfusion (I/R) play an imperative role in the expansion of cardiovascular disease. Sinomenine (SM) has been exhibited to possess antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and anticarcinogenic properties. The aim of the study was scrutinized the cardioprotective effect of SM against I/R injury in rat.MethodsRat were randomly divided into normal control (NC), I/R control and I/R + SM (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg), respectively. Ventricular arrhythmias, body weight and heart weight were estimated. Antioxidant, inflammatory cytokines, inflammatory mediators and plasmin system indicator were accessed.ResultsPre-treated SM group rats exhibited the reduction in the duration and incidence of ventricular fibrillation, ventricular ectopic beat (VEB) and ventricular tachycardia along with suppression of arrhythmia score during the ischemia (30 and 120 min). SM treated rats significantly (P < 0.001) altered the level of antioxidant parameters. SM treatment significantly (P < 0.001) repressed the level of creatine kinase MB (CK-MB), creatine kinase (CK) and troponin I (Tnl). SM treated rats significantly (P < 0.001) repressed the tissue factor (TF), thromboxane B2 (TXB2), plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) and plasma fibrinogen (Fbg) and inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory mediators.ConclusionOur result clearly indicated that SM plays anti-arrhythmia effect in I/R injury in the rats via alteration of oxidative stress and inflammatory reaction.     

The involvement of PacIRA system of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia in the uptake of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pyochelin and intraspecies competition for iron acquisition

BackgroundStenotrophomonas maltophilia, a species of highly genetic diversity, has emerged as an important nosocomial pathogen. S. maltophilia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are often co-isolated from pneumonia patients. In our previous study, we have demonstrated that the pacIRA cluster present in some but not all clinical S. maltophilia isolates. Proteins encoded by pacIRA operon are an extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factor, a transmembrane anti-sigma regulator, and a TonB-dependent receptor. This study aimed to elucidate PacIRA system function and its significance to S. maltophilia.MethodsThe pacI, pacR, and pacA genes were individually or totally deleted from the chromosome of KJΔEnt, a pacIRA-positive and siderophore-null strain. Growth promotion assay was performed to examine the implication of pacIRA system in iron utilization. Gene expression was quantified by quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR). Growth competition assay was executed to investigate the significance of pacIRA operon to S. maltophilia.ResultsPacIRA system contributed to utilize ferri-pyochelin of P. aeruginosa as iron sources for growth in an iron-depleted condition, but hardly utilized ferric citrate, hemin, ferri-stenobactin, and ferri-pyoverdine. PacIRA was founded to belong to Fur regulon and upregulated in response to iron-depleted stress. Growth competition assay demonstrated that pacIRA-positive S. maltophilia had a superiority over pacIRA-negative S. maltophilia in iron acquisition when they were co-cultured in P. aeruginosa ferri-pyochelin-supplemented medium.ConclusionsPacIRA system of S. maltophilia is a xenosiderophore uptake implement, involving in the acquisition of pyochelin of P. aeruginosa.     

Nanotherapy: New Approach for Impeding Hepatic Cancer Microenvironment via Targeting Multiple Molecular Pathways

Objective: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) microenvironment has been recognized as a key contributor for cancer progression, metastasis, and drug resistance. The crosstalk between tumor cells, the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and the chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2) signaling networks mediates immunoinhibitory impact and facilitates tumor angiogenesis. The current investigation aimed at exploring the potent anti-cancer activity of the newly designed nano-based anti-cancer therapy comprising anti-VEGF drug, avastin (AV), and CCR2 antagonist (CR) to counteract HCC and tracking its mode of action in vivo. Methods: The prepared AV, CR, and AVCR nanoprototypes were characterized by nanoscale characterization techniques in our previous work. Here, they are applied for unearthing their anti-cancer properties / mechanisms in hepatic cancer-induced rats via analyzing protein levels and genetic expression of the elements incorporated in the angiogenesis, apoptosis, and metastasis signalling pathways. Results: The present results revealed a significant down-regulation in the angiogenesis, survival and metastasis indices along with up-regulation in the pro-apoptotic mediators upon treatment of hepatic cancer-bearing rats with the novel synthesized nanomaterials when compared with the untreated counterparts. We showed across HCC model that anti-VEGF in combination with CCR2 antagonism therapy leads to sensitization and enhanced tumor response over anti-VEGF or CCR2 antagonism monotherapy, particularly in its nanoscale formulation. Conclusion: The present approach provides new mechanistic insights into the powerful anti-hepatic cancer advantage of the novel nanoprototypes which is correlated with modulating critical signal transduction pathways implicated in tumor microenviroment such as angiogenesis, apoptosis and metastasis. This research work presents a substantial foundation for future studies focused on prohibiting cancer progression and recovery by targeting tumor microenviroment.