Immunomodulatory effects of EGCG fraction of green tea extract in innate and adaptive immunity via T regulatory cells in murine model

Green tea is a widely consumed beverage known for its beneficial anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, anti-mutagenic, anti-carcinogenic, and cardioprotective properties. Here, we administered epigallocatechin gallate fraction of green tea extract (EGTE) to mice for 6 weeks and examined the effects on the innate and adaptive immune responses by measuring phagocytic and natural killer (NK) cell activity, as well as antigen-specific proliferation, cytolysis, cytokine secretion, and antibody production. Our data show that EGTE administration increased NK cell cytolysis and peritoneal cell phagocytosis, as well as splenocyte proliferation and secretion of IL-2 and IFN-γ. Of note, EGTE treatment decreased the production antigen-specific IgE via increased the proportion of CD4⁺ CD25⁺ regulatory T lymphocytes in the spleen, suggesting that EGTE may play a role in regulating the allergic response.     

Addiction to multiple oncogenes can be exploited to prevent the emergence of therapeutic resistance

Many cancers exhibit sensitivity to the inhibition of a single genetic lesion, a property that has been successfully exploited with oncogene-targeted therapeutics. However, inhibition of single oncogenes often fails to result in sustained tumor regression due to the emergence of therapy-resistant cells. Here, we report that MYC-driven lymphomas frequently acquire activating mutations in β-catenin, including a previously unreported mutation in a splice acceptor site. Tumors with these genetic lesions are highly dependent on β-catenin for their survival and the suppression of β-catenin resulted in marked apoptosis causally related to a decrease in Bcl-xL expression. Using a novel inducible inhibitor of β-catenin, we illustrate that, although MYC withdrawal or β-catenin inhibition alone results in initial tumor regression, most tumors ultimately recurred, mimicking the clinical response to single-agent targeted therapy. Importantly, the simultaneous combined inhibition of both MYC and β-catenin promoted more rapid tumor regression and successfully prevented tumor recurrence. Hence, we demonstrated that MYC-induced tumors are addicted to mutant β-catenin, and the combined inactivation of MYC and β-catenin induces sustained tumor regression. Our results provide a proof of principle that targeting multiple oncogene addicted pathways can prevent therapeutic resistance.Cancer cells are highly sensitive to the targeted inhibition of single driver mutations, eliciting a phenomenon known as “oncogene addiction” (1). The identification of genetic dependencies in multiple tumor types has resulted in the development of several molecularly targeted therapeutics, including the BCR-ABL kinase inhibitor imatinib for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), the EGFR kinase inhibitor gefitinib for the treatment of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and the BRAF kinase inhibitor vemurafenib for the treatment of advanced melanoma (2–4). Although these oncogene-targeted agents have provided promising clinical responses, many patients ultimately experience a recurrence of their disease due to the development of drug resistance (4–6). Thus, it has become evident that monotherapy with targeted drugs is insufficient for achieving sustained tumor regression.Resistance to targeted therapy can arise through multiple mechanisms, depending on the tumor type and the targeted oncogenic pathway (7). Cells frequently acquire resistance through mutations in the targeted oncogene itself that disrupt drug binding, as in the case of BCR-ABL and EGFR (8, 5, 6). In addition, resistance to EGFR inhibition in NSCLC and BRAF inhibition in melanoma has been found to occur through a variety of mechanisms that activate downstream signaling proteins or alternative pathways, which can functionally substitute for loss in activity of the targeted oncogene (9–11). Although significant progress has been made in the identification and inhibition of resistance pathways, it may prove challenging to anticipate and suppress all of the potential mechanisms of resistance for each oncogene-addicted cancer and targeted therapeutic agent.Combination therapy has been successfully applied to prevent resistance in the treatment of infectious diseases such as HIV (12, 13) and tuberculosis (14). In the context of oncogene-targeted therapy for cancer, it has been proposed that a similar strategy, using combinations directed against multiple dependencies, is the most likely to prevent resistance (7). Indeed, mathematical modeling indicates that targeting at least two independently required pathways may be sufficient to prevent tumor recurrence (15). However, there exists little experimental evidence directly testing such an approach and it remains unclear which combinations of targets would be most effective at inducing long-term remissions.MYC is one of the most frequently amplified oncogenes in human cancer (16). In the Eμ-tTA/tetO-MYC conditional mouse model, overexpression of MYC results in the development of aggressive T-cell lymphoma, and MYC inactivation in established tumors is sufficient to induce tumor regression through processes such as proliferative arrest, cellular senescence, apoptosis, and the shutdown of angiogenesis (17–19). The extent of regression is dependent on both cell-intrinsic and host-dependent contexts, and in particular, tumors frequently recur following MYC inactivation in the absence of an intact adaptive immune system (20). Recurring tumors restore expression of the MYC transgene or up-regulate expression of endogenous Myc, demonstrating that resistance occurs primarily through reactivation of the MYC pathway (21). Thus, MYC oncogene addiction and tumor recurrence in the Eμ-tTA/tetO-MYC lymphoma model resembles the clinical course of human cancers treated with single agent targeted therapy.Here, we demonstrate that the combined inactivation of two oncogene addiction pathways can result in sustained tumor regression. Moreover, we describe a previously unidentified splice acceptor site mutation in β-catenin that is associated with MYC-induced lymphomagenesis. Tumors with mutations in β-catenin are also highly addicted to this mutant gene product for their survival. We demonstrate that in MYC-induced lymphomas, combined addiction to both MYC and β-catenin can be exploited in a rational manner to prevent the emergence of therapeutic resistance.     

Proteomic changes in rat kidney injured by adenine and the regulation of anemoside B4

Adenine is commonly used to establish the animal models for chronic kidney injury and its renal interstitial fibrosis. As an endogenous substance, adenine-induced kidney damage has not yet been fully studied and elucidated, except for inflammatory reaction. Here we analyzed the proteomics of kidney of rats after adenine overloading using LS-MS/MS assay, and observed the role of anemoside B4 (B4). The results showed that adenine could down-regulate 285 proteins and up-regulate 164 proteins in rat kidney tissue compared with the normal group. Down-regulated proteins mainly affected related pathways, such as energy metabolism, while up-regulated proteins affected inflammatory response pathways and metabolic pathways. B4 could significantly reverse the down-regulation of about 40 proteins, which were involved in mitochondria, redox processes, extracellular exosomes, acetylation and other signaling pathways. Simultaneously, B4 could inhibit the up-regulation of five proteins caused by adenine, which were involved in cell cycle, oocyte meiosis, PI3K-Akt and other signaling pathways. Further experimental results of mRNA expression using real-time PCR assay supported the proteomic analysis. Therefore, we proposed that the damage of rat kidney caused by adenine was more complicated, not only with an inflammatory reaction, but also with extensive effects to various metabolic processes in the body. This work provided a valuable clue for comprehensive understanding of adenine-induced renal damage.     

王念孙释《广雅》医学词汇

三国时代魏张揖编著的《广雅》中收录有医学词汇,清代训诂大家王念孙所著的《广雅疏证》是《广雅》最好的注本,最注重以声音通训诂、系联同源词,以此对词义进行训释,沟通词际关系。以《广雅》中收录的医学词汇为语料,挖掘王念孙在《广雅疏证》中训释医词时所使用的破通假、系同源、沟通普通词汇与医学词汇等理论、方法,并结合王念孙在校勘《广雅》文本中存在的误字、脱文、衍文等问题时采用的校勘学方法,从中探索当今医学词汇研究可以借鉴的释词方法。     

Cytomegalovirus infection causes morbidity and mortality in patients with autoimmune diseases, particularly systemic lupus: in a Chinese population in Taiwan

To investigate the clinical outcome of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in febrile hospitalized patients with autoimmune diseases, mostly systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Fifty-four febrile patients were analyzed retrospectively. Half were diagnosed as CMV infection, by positive CMV pp65 antigenemia assay. Clinical and laboratory data between two groups were compared. Correlation between laboratory data and SELENA-SLEDAI scores/mortality were analyzed in the CMV infection group. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to determine the cutoff points of different parameters for predicting mortality or morbidity. The CMV infection group received a higher corticosteroid dosage (mean 26.3 mg/day) and a higher percentage of azathioprine use before admission than the non-CMV infection group. In the former, the deceased subgroup had a significantly higher number of infected leukocytes for CMV (shortened as CMV counts, P = 0.013), more cases of bacterial infection (P = 0.090), and a higher SLE disease activity index score (P = 0.072) than the alive subgroup. The CMV infection group had lower lymphocyte count and more positive bacterial infection than the non-CMV infection group did (P = 0.013 and P = 0.027, respectively). A level of 25 CMV particles/5 × 10(5) polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) was the best cutoff point for predicting CMV-associated mortality, with a sensitivity of 75.0% and specificity of 72.2%. Moderate dose (30 mg/day) of prednisolone or azathioprine use predisposes patients with autoimmune diseases to CMV infection with concurrent bacterial infection. In particular, peak CMV counts at 25/5 × 10(5) PMN or low lymphocyte counts predict mortality or morbidity, respectively.     

Recognizing syntactic errors in Chinese and English sentences: Brain electrical activity in Asperger's syndrome

This study investigates electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillatory activity in the brain for bilingual participants with Asperger's syndrome (AS) and bilingual healthy control participants during visual recognition of syntactic errors in traditional Mandarin Chinese (native) and English (foreign) sentences. Reading performance is similar for the two groups in both languages. While reading Mandarin Chinese, the control group showed a left-hemispheric specialization within the 400–600 ms interval in delta synchronization. However, delta synchronizations were widely distributed in all scalp regions and lasted longer than 600 ms in the AS group. One possible interpretation of our data is the hypothesis that the AS group has more difficulty in brain organization of semantic and syntactic processes than the control group when reading their native language, because Chinese syntactic structure requires more work to be done by the perceiver. Nevertheless, other brain mechanisms (e.g., top-down regulation), can partially compensate for this difficulty, allowing AS subjects to attain the same level of response activity as the controls.