MRTA在三叉神经痛病因学诊断中的应用研究

目的探讨三又神经痛患者血管压迫的MRTA（磁共振断层血管成像）表现及其病因诊断价值。方法对216例临床上诊断为三叉神经痛的患者术前行MRTA检查，均行微血管减压术，MRTA表现并与手术结果进行对照。结果216例三叉神经痛患者MRTA显示有208例在患侧有血管接触后压迫：小脑上动脉80例（37．04％），小脑前下动脉36例（16．67％），小脑后下动脉17例（7．87％），基底动脉39例（18．05％），多根血管32例（14．81％），未发现血管12例（5．56％）；手术所见216例均有血管接触或压迫：小脑上动脉75例（34．72％），小脑前下动脉33例（15．28％），小脑后下动脉15例（6．95％），基底动脉38例（17．59％），多根血管34例（15．74％），动脉＋静脉14例（6．48％），静脉7例（3．24％）。结论MRTA能清晰显示三叉神经脑池段与毗邻血管之间的关系，对三叉神经痛患者是否有血管接触或压迫的判断具有较高的敏感度和准确度，为手术医生提供术前评估和指导术中治疗有重要价值。     

Prostatic Arterial Embolization with Small Sized Particles for the Treatment of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Due to Large Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Preliminary Results

Background:The clinical failure after prostatic artery embolization (PAE) with conventional particles was relatively high,in treatment for lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) due to benign prostatic hy...     

Prognostic significance of microRNA-203 in cholangiocarcinoma

MircroRNA functions as a tumor suppressor or a promoter in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Researchers have found that miR-203 functioned as tumor suppressor in many types of cancer. However, the role of miR-203 that plays in CCA remains to be clarified. We aimed to detect the expression level and the prognostic significance of miR-203 in CCA tissues. qRT-RCR was performed to examine the miR-203 expression levels in CCA tissue specimens and corresponding normal tissues. Our findings suggest that miR-203 expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for CCA patient overall survival. Therefore, miR-203 may serve as a valuable prognostic marker and promising treatment target for CCA.     

AaeAP1 and AaeAP2: Novel Antimicrobial Peptides from the Venom of the Scorpion,Androctonus aeneas: Structural Characterisation,Molecular Cloning of Biosynthetic Precursor-Encoding cDNAs and Engineering of Analogues with Enhanced Antimicrobial and Anticancer Activities

The main functions of the abundant polypeptide toxins present in scorpion venoms are the debilitation of arthropod prey or defence against predators. These effects are achieved mainly through the blocking of an array of ion channel types within the membranes of excitable cells. However, while these ion channel-blocking toxins are tightly-folded by multiple disulphide bridges between cysteine residues, there are additional groups of peptides in the venoms that are devoid of cysteine residues. These non-disulphide bridged peptides are the subject of much research interest, and among these are peptides that exhibit antimicrobial activity. Here, we describe two novel non-disulphide-bridged antimicrobial peptides that are present in the venom of the North African scorpion, Androctonus aeneas. The cDNAs encoding the biosynthetic precursors of both peptides were cloned from a venom-derived cDNA library using 3''- and 5''-RACE strategies. Both translated precursors contained open-reading frames of 74 amino acid residues, each encoding one copy of a putative novel nonadecapeptide, whose primary structures were FLFSLIPSVIAGLVSAIRN and FLFSLIPSAIAGLVSAIRN, respectively. Both peptides were C-terminally amidated. Synthetic versions of each natural peptide displayed broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities, but were devoid of antiproliferative activity against human cancer cell lines. However, synthetic analogues of each peptide, engineered for enhanced cationicity and amphipathicity, exhibited increases in antimicrobial potency and acquired antiproliferative activity against a range of human cancer cell lines. These data clearly illustrate the potential that natural peptide templates provide towards the design of synthetic analogues for therapeutic exploitation.     

Reversal effects of Raloxifene on paclitaxel resistance in 2 MDR breast cancer cells

Raloxifene hydrochloride (RAL), one of second generation of selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), is usually used in preventing osteoporosis and breast cancer. The present study evaluated whether Raloxifene might sensitize multidrug resistant (MDR) breast cancers to chemotherapies, especially in estrogen receptor negative (ER−) breast cancer. The results showed that RAL could significantly sensitize ER- MDR breast tumors to paclitaxel both in vitro and in vivo. Combination of Raloxifene could significantly enhance paclitaxel-induced cell apoptosis, G2-M arrest as well as inhibition of cell proliferation in MDR tumors. Further studies showed that the combined treatment did not alter P-glycoprotein expression but increased P-gp ATPase activity. These results suggested that raloxifene might be a valuable chemosensitizer agent for breast cancer therapy.     

Nsc23925 prevents the development of paclitaxel resistance by inhibiting the introduction of P‐glycoprotein and enhancing apoptosis

Strategies to prevent the emergence of drug resistance will increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment and prolong survival of women with ovarian cancer. The aim of our study is to determine the effects of NSC23925 on preventing the development of paclitaxel resistance in ovarian cancer both in cultured cells in vitro and in mouse xenograft models in vivo, and to further elucidate these underlying mechanisms. We first developed a paclitaxel‐resistant ovarian cancer cell line, and demonstrated that NSC23925 could prevent the introduction of paclitaxel resistance by specifically inhibiting the overexpression of P‐glycoprotein (Pgp) in vitro. The paclitaxel‐resistant ovarian cancer cells were then established in a mouse model by continuous paclitaxel treatment in combination with or without NSC23925 administration in the mice. The majority of mice continuously treated with paclitaxel alone eventually developed paclitaxel resistance with overexpression of Pgp and antiapoptotic proteins, whereas mice remained sensitivity to paclitaxel and displayed lower expression levels of Pgp and antiapoptotic proteins after administered continuously with combination of paclitaxel–NSC23925. Paclitaxel–NSC23925‐treated mice experienced significantly longer overall survival time than paclitaxel‐treated mice. Furthermore, the combination of paclitaxel and NSC23925 therapy did not induce obvious toxicity as measured by mice body weight changes, blood cell counts and histology of internal organs. Collectively, our observations provide evidence that NSC23925 in combination with paclitaxel may prevent the onset of Pgp or antiapoptotic‐mediated paclitaxel resistance, and improve the long‐term clinical outcome in patients with ovarian cancer.