The Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 1 Antagonist Capsazepine Improves the Impaired Lung Mechanics during Endotoxemia

Acute lung injury (ALI) caused by systemic inflammatory response remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Management of patients with sepsis is largely limited to supportive therapies, reflecting an incomplete understanding of the underlying pathophysiology. Furthermore, there have been limited advances in the treatments for ALI. In this study, lung function and a histological analysis were performed to evaluate the impact of transient receptor potential vanilloid‐1 receptor (TRPV1) antagonist (capsazepine; CPZ) on the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced lung injury in mice. For this, adult mice pre‐treated with CPZ or vehicle received intraperitoneal injections of LPS or saline and 24 hr after, the mice were anaesthetized, and lung mechanics was evaluated. The LPS‐challenged mice exhibited substantial mechanical impairment, characterized by increases in respiratory system resistance, respiratory system elastance, tissue damping and tissue elastance. The pre‐treatment with CPZ prevented the increase in respiratory system resistance and decreased the increase in tissue damping during endotoxemia. In addition, mice pre‐treated with CPZ had an attenuated lung injury evidenced by reduction on collapsed area of the lung parenchyma induced by LPS. This suggests that the TRPV1 antagonist capsazepine has a protective effect on lung mechanics in ALI during endotoxemia and that it may be a target for enhanced therapeutic efficacy in ALI.     

Clinical Diagnostic Implications of Body Fluid MiRNA in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis

Oral cancer, predominantly oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), is one of the most leading causes of cancers worldwide. Due to a low 5-year survival rate, highly effective methods for the early detection of OSCC are totally needed. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), as promising biomarkers, can bring insights into tumorigenesis of oral cancers. However, studies on the accuracy of miRNAs detection in OSCC have inconsistent conclusions, leading us to conduct this meta-analysis. The aim of this study was to systematically review the articles investigating the diagnostic value of miRNAs in OSCC.The PubMed, Embase, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Web of Science were searched (updated to June 11th, 2015) to identify all articles evaluating the diagnostic yield of miRNAs for OSCC. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and other diagnostic parameters were used to assess the performance of miRNAs assays on OSCC detection. Statistical analysis was conducted by employing the R software.The present meta-analysis comprised 23 studies from 10 articles, including 598 OSCC patients and 320 healthy individuals, available for analysis. The summary receiver operator characteristic (SROC) curve was plotted. Meanwhile, the pooled diagnostic parameters and the area under curve (AUC) were calculated based on all included studies. The pooled diagnostic parameters calculated from all 23 studies were as follows: pooled sensitivity of 0.759 (95% CI: 0.701–0.809), pooled specificity of 0.773 (95% CI: 0.713–0.823) and AUC of 0.832, which indicates a relatively high diagnostic accuracy of miRNAs in differentiating OSCC patients from healthy controls. Meanwhile, In addition, subgroup analyses were conducted to access the heterogeneity between studies, which is based on specimen (serum/plasma/blood/saliva/ tissue) and ethnicity (Asian/Caucasian).In summary, our meta-analysis suggests that miRNAs might be used in noninvasive screening tests for OSCC, which needs further large-scale studies to be validated.     

Sonodynamic Therapy: Advances and Challenges in Clinical Translation

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) consists of the synergetic interaction between ultrasound and a chemical agent. In SDT, the cytotoxicity is triggered by ultrasonic stimuli, notably through cavitation. The unique features of SDT are relevant in the clinical context more than ever: the need for efficacy, accuracy, and safety while being noninvasive and preserving the patient's quality of life. However, despite the promising results of this technique, only a few clinical reports describe the use of SDT. The objective of this article is to provide an extensive overview of the clinical and preclinical research conducted in vivo on SDT, to identify the limitations, and to detail the developed strategies to overcome them.     

Generalized,severe epidermolysis bullosa simplex caused by a Keratin 5 p.E477K mutation

Epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS) is a skin fragility disorder resulting from mutations of structural proteins in the epidermis. We provide a brief report of long‐term survival and reproduction in a mother with EBS due to keratin 5 (KRT5) c.1429G > A (p.E477K) mutation, which causes a particularly severe form of the disease.     

lncRNAPCGEM1对肺癌A549细胞恶性生物学行为的影响及其作用机制

目的：探讨长链非编码RNA（long-chain noncoding，lncRNA）PCGEM1 对肺癌A549 细胞恶性生物学行为的影响及其作用机制。方法：收集2016 年3 月至2018 年5 月湖北医药学院附属太和医院胸外科接受手术治疗的62 例肺癌（lung cancer，LC）患者癌组织及相应的癌旁组织标本，并用以上组织构建LC组织芯片。用qPCR检测lncRNA PCGEM1 及miR-148a 在LC组织相应的癌旁组织及LC细胞株中的表达。构建lncRNA PCGEM1 沉默细胞系A549-siPCGEM1 和阴性对照A549-NC，并以A549 细胞作为空白对照（Control 组），用MTT和平板克隆实验检测敲减PCGEM1 对A549 细胞增殖能力的影响，Transwell 和划痕实验检测敲减PCGEM1 对A549 细胞侵袭和迁移能力的影响。使用生物信息学网站StarBase 预测可互补结合PCGEM1的miRNA，再根据Targetscan 网站预测相应可靶向结合miRNA的基因；Western blotting 实验检测TGF-β2/Smad2 信号通路蛋白表达情况。结果：在LC组织中PCGEM1 的表达水平高于癌旁组织而miR-148a 的表达量明显低于癌旁组织（均P<0.05），PCGEM1 在5 种LC细胞株中的表达明显高于人肺成纤维细胞HLF-02（均P<0.05），且以A549 细胞中表达最高。敲减PCGEM1 后，与Control 组和A549-NC 组比较，A549-siPCGEM1 组A549 细胞增殖、侵袭和迁移能力显著降低（均P<0.05）。StarBase 和Targetscan 网站预测结果显示，PCGEM1 可与miR-148a 互补结合，miR-148a 与TGF-β2 存在靶向结合位点。与Control 组和A549-NC组比较，A549-siPCGEM1 组中miR-148a 表达明显升高，TGF-β2 及p-Smad2 蛋白的表达明显降低（均P<0.05）。结论：lncRNA PCGEM1在LC组织和细胞株中高表达，高表达的PCGEM1 可通过下调miR-148a 水平强化TGF β2/Smad2 信号通路，从而促进A549 细胞恶性生物学行为的进展。