Recent advances with cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors: therapeutic agents for breast cancer and their role in immuno-oncology

Introduction: Collaborative interactions between several diverse biological processes govern the onset and progression of breast cancer. These processes include alterations in cellular metabolism, anti-tumor immune responses, DNA damage repair, proliferation, anti-apoptotic signals, autophagy, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, components of the non-coding genome or onco-mIRs, cancer stem cells and cellular invasiveness. The last two decades have revealed that each of these processes are also directly regulated by a component of the cell cycle apparatus, cyclin D1.

Area covered: The current review is provided to update recent developments in the clinical application of cyclin/CDK inhibitors to breast cancer with a focus on the anti-tumor immune response.

Expert opinion: The cyclin D1 gene encodes the regulatory subunit of a proline-directed serine-threonine kinase that phosphorylates several substrates. CDKs possess phosphorylation site selectivity, with the phosphate-acceptor residue preceding a proline. Several important proteins are substrates including all three retinoblastoma proteins, NRF1, GCN5, and FOXM1. Over 280 cyclin D3/CDK6 substrates have b\een identified. Given the diversity of substrates for cyclin/CDKs, and the altered thresholds for substrate phosphorylation that occurs during the cell cycle, it is exciting that small molecular inhibitors targeting cyclin D/CDK activity have encouraging results in specific tumors.     

中医药干预新型冠状病毒肺炎临床研究方案分析

对中医药防治新型冠状病毒肺炎临床研究方案注册情况进行分析,为提高相关研究设计质量提供参考和建议。检索中国临床试验注册中心网站(www.chictr.org.cn)以及美国临床试验注册中心网站(clinicaltrials.gov),以新型冠状病毒肺炎、2019-nCoV等为检索词,检索新型冠状病毒肺炎中医药相关临床研究方案。按照纳入排除标准筛选文献,并提取研究注册时间、研究目的、研究类型、申办单位、研究对象、样本量、干预措施、评价指标等数据,采用描述性分析方法。共纳入新型冠状病毒肺炎中医药相关研究方案49个,研究负责单位以湖北、北京、浙江等地医院或高等院校为主。研究具体实施单位属地集中在湖北、广东、浙江、河南等地医院。研究设计以干预性试验研究为主(共40个),其中随机平行对照研究30个,非随机对照试验7个,单臂研究2个,连续入组1个;观察性研究6个;卫生服务研究2个;预防性研究1个。总样本量30562例,单个研究样本量最大20000例,最小30例。49个方案的研究对象包括健康人群(3个)、隔离观察人群(1个)、疑似病例(10个)、确诊病例(31个)、康复期病例(4个)。31个拟纳入确诊病例的研究方案中,有16个研究未明确病情分级,3个研究明确排除危重症,4个研究纳入普通型,2个研究纳入轻型、普通型或重型,1个研究纳入轻型和普通型,1个研究纳入普通型或重型,3个研究纳入重型,1个研究纳入重症或危重症。评价的干预措施包括中成药(连花清瘟胶囊/颗粒、藿香正气滴丸/口服液、八宝丹、固表解毒灵、金蒿解热颗粒、复方鱼腥草合剂、金叶败毒颗粒、疏风解毒胶囊、双黄连口服液、痰热清注射液、血必净注射液、热毒宁注射液、喜炎平注射液)、汤药、太极拳疗法。主要疗效指标以退热时间、临床症状缓解、新型冠状病毒核酸转阴、重症转化率、胸部CT影像为主。结果表明中医药防治新冠肺炎的临床研究响应快速,当前注册方案涵盖了疾病预防、治疗和康复全过程。但存在人群定义不清,研究目标不明确,干预方案需要细化,疗效评价指标需要优化等问题;另外,需要考虑疫情救治的实际困难和工作负担,在符合医学伦理条件下,优化流程,提高研究方案的可操作性。     

基于雨课堂的临床流行病学教学改革与实践

目的探讨雨课堂在临床流行病学教学中的作用和效果。方法采用随机对照法在本科阶段无流行病学学习经历的临床专业硕士研究生中,使用雨课堂线上课前预习及课后随堂练习的功能,用于评价雨课堂线上功能的辅助教学效果。结果应用雨课堂线上功能干预组与对照组在基线、阶段小测和末考卷面成绩均无统计学差异;但对于主动学习,雨课堂参与度较高的学生成绩提高明显。结论雨课堂有利于理论性较强课程的学习,但是仍不能忽略课堂教学师生互动过程。     

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.     

Are primary care physicians ill equipped to evaluate and treat childhood physical inactivity?

ABSTRACT

Objective

To investigate primary care physician clinical practice patterns, barriers, and education surrounding pediatric physical activity (PA), and to compare practice patterns by discipline.     

我国日间手术开展现状与前景展望

日间手术在国外已有上百年的发展历史，现已成为欧美国家重要手术模式。我国于20世纪初开始开展日间手术，但目前尚未普及，发展不平衡问题比较突出，存在认识不清、开展不规范、与医保支付对接不畅等问题。日间手术是一种使国家、医院和病人三方均受益的新型手术模式。近年来，国家相关管理部门积极引导，开展日间手术的医院明显增多，可以预见，我国日间手术即将进入快速发展的新阶段。因此，有条件的医院可以从简单、易操作的病种开始，落实临床路径，积累经验，再逐步稳妥展开。在保证质量的前提下，不断拓展日间手术范围，提高三、四级手术比例。同时，积极与医保支付政策对接，采取灵活的方式，获得医保的支持，更好地促进我国日间手术的快速发展。     

Heterogeneity in amount of growth factors secreted by platelets in platelet-rich plasma samples from alopecia patients

Platelet α-granules release growth factors (GFs) that promote healing and tissue regeneration. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is shown to be beneficial in treating alopecia, and however, clinical response can be inconsistent. Due to several fold enrichment of platelets secreting large quantities of GFs following PRP injections, heterogeneity in amounts of GFs secreted by platelets may contribute to inconsistent clinical responses. Herein, we evaluated factors that could potentially contribute to heterogeneous secretion of GFs by platelets. We measured platelet secretion of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFβ1), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF-BB), epidermal growth factor (EGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF2) in aliquots of de-identified PRP samples from female patients undergoing therapy in the hair disease clinic. Although secretion of GFs by platelets was comparable in PRP samples of patients with non-cicatricial and cicatricial alopecia, a Shapiro-Wilk test for normal distribution indicated significant variability across all patient samples. The amount of GF secreted by platelets was comparable when PRP prepared from two FDA-cleared devices with distinct techniques were compared. We provide evidence of platelets secreting heterogeneous amounts of GFs within each sample as high and low secretion of random factors could be simultaneously detected. These results suggest inherent heterogeneity in secretion of GFs by platelets in patient samples that are not influenced by the device used to prepare PRP. Since some GFs could have antagonistic effects on hair growth, a balance between amounts of growth promoting and inhibiting factors may be crucial in determining clinical response to PRP therapy.