Efficacy and safety of turmeric and curcumin in lowering blood lipid levels in patients with cardiovascular risk factors: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background

Dyslipidemia is an important and common cardiovascular risk factor in the general population. The lipid-lowering effects of turmeric and curcumin are unconfirmed. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of turmeric and curcumin in lowering blood lipids in patients at risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods

A comprehensive literature search was conducted on PubMed, Embase, Ovid, Medline and Cochrane Library databases to identify randomized controlled trials (published as of November 2016) that assessed the effect of turmeric and curcumin on blood lipid levels including total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG). Pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the effect.

Results

The analysis included 7 eligible studies (649 patients). Turmeric and curcumin significantly reduced serum LDL-C (SMD = −0.340, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −0.530 to −0.150, P < 0.0001) and TG (SMD = −0.214, 95% CI: −0.369 to −0.059, P = 0.007) levels as compared to those in the control group. These may be effective in lowering serum TC levels in patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS, SMD = −0.934, 95% CI: −1.289 to −0.579, P < 0.0001), and turmeric extract could possibly have a greater effect on reducing serum TC levels (SMD = −0.584, 95% CI: −0.980 to −0.188, P = 0.004); however, the efficacy is yet to be confirmed. Serum HDL-C levels were not obviously improved. Turmeric and curcumin appeared safe, and no serious adverse events were reported in any of the included studies.

Conclusions

Turmeric and curcumin may protect patients at risk of CVD through improving serum lipid levels. Curcumin may be used as a well-tolerated dietary adjunct to conventional drugs. Further research is required to resolve uncertainties related to dosage form, dose and medication frequency of curcumin.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12937-017-0293-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Correlation between Disease Activity and Endorectal Ultrasound Findings of Chronic Radiation Proctitis

The aim of this study was to summarize the imaging features of chronic radiation proctitis (CRP) on endorectal ultrasound (ERUS) and investigate the value of ERUS in the evaluation of disease activity. 40 CRP patients and 30 control patients were investigated by ERUS. Rectal wall thickness and layers, ulcers and rectovaginal fistulas were evaluated by B-mode ultrasound. Power Doppler imaging was used to evaluate the vascularity of the rectal wall using a semiquantitative score. Disease activity was calculated according to the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events 4.0 (CTCAE 4.0). Imaging findings for patients with mild and severe CRP were compared. For 30 patients in the control group, the average maximum thickness of the rectal wall was 3.07 ± 0.73 mm, with all exhibiting typical wall stratification and level 0 vascularity. For the 40 CRP patients, there was marked thickening of the rectal wall (average thickness = 9.42 ± 1.94 mm), which was significantly thicker than in the control group (p < 0.05). The rectal walls of the mild group were significantly thinner than those of the severe group (8.71 ± 1.67 mm vs. 10.00 ± 2.00 mm, p < 0.05). Among the 22 severe cases, 19 cases (19/22, 86.4%) exhibited hyper-vascularity (level IV) or blurred wall stratification (including hypo-echoic submucosa, ulcer and fistula); 12 of the 18 mild cases (166.7%) exhibited a vascularity of level III and typical wall stratification. A significant association (p < 0.05) was observed between stratification and vascularity of the rectal wall and CRP activity. When ERUS findings of blurred rectal wall stratification or increasing vascularity (level IV) were used to evaluate CRP activity, the sensitivity was 86.4% (95% confidence interval: 64.0-96.4) and the specificity was 66.7% (95% confidence interval: 41.2-85.6). Thickening of the rectal wall, blurred wall stratification and increased vascularity are characteristic ERUS findings of CRP. ERUS is helpful in the comprehensive evaluation of disease activity and may provide objective evidence during treatment planning and follow-up.

Flower stamen-like porous boron carbon nitride nanoscrolls for water cleaning

With the development of the textile industry, commercial organic dyes in waste water are posing as serious issues. Recently, nanomaterials such as porous nanosheets have proven to be efficient in adsorbing the dyes from waste water. However, it still remains a challenge to develop novel nanomaterials as effective absorbents for water cleaning. Herein, we report novel flower stamen-like porous boron carbon nitride (BCN) nanoscrolls for water cleaning. The porous BCN nanoscrolls with a high surface area of 890 m² g^-1 display excellent dye adsorption performances up to the adsorption capacity of 620 mg g^-1 of Congo red and 250 mg g^-1 of methylene blue, which have a great potential value for water cleaning applications.

[Efficacy and Potential Application of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients with IIIa Stage Non-small Cell Lung Cancer]

背景与目的

新辅助化疗应用于可手术切除的Ⅲa期非小细胞肺癌（non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC）患者的确切疗效及安全性尚存争议。本研究旨在探讨新辅助化疗对可手术切除Ⅲa期NSCLC患者的近期疗效，并分析其与术后并发症的相关性。

方法

根据纳入及排除标准，回顾性分析2011年1月-2013年10月重庆医科大学附属第一医院收治的明确临床诊断为Ⅲa期NSCLC 370例患者完整资料，根据术前是否接受新辅助化疗分为两组，其中A组为新辅助化疗+手术组97例，B组为直接手术组273例，比较两组患者的临床资料，分析新辅助化疗后肿瘤降期率，并将两组患者的手术情况、术后并发症进行对比，统计两组患者3年无病生存期（disease-free survival, DFS）。

结果

A组患者新辅助化疗后肿瘤总降期率为65.98%（64/97）；两组患者R0切除率分别为96.91%（94/97）和90.48%（247/273），手术时间、术中出血量、术后平均住院日差异均无统计学意义（P > 0.05）；术后并发症总发生率A组稍高于B组，分别为76.29%（74/97）和72.52%（198/273），差异无统计学意义（P > 0.05）；所有患者术后随访2个月-36个月，中位随访时间12.7个月，两组患者术后总体复发转移率分别为63.92%（62/97）和94.87%（259/273），有统计学差异（P < 0.05）；A、B两组患者中位DFS分别为19.46个月和11.34个月，差异有统计学意义（P < 0.001）。

结论

新辅助化疗可使Ⅲa期NSCLC患者受益，能有效降低肿瘤分期，提高肿瘤切除率，可降低术后局部复发率及远处转移率，提高患者的无进展生存期；且并不明显增加术后并发症的发生率。

Molecular mechanism of C-reaction protein in promoting migration and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of most common malignant cancers and is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths. The prognosis and survival of patients are closely related to the degree of tumor metastasis. The mechanism of HCC metastasis is still unclear. In the present study, we investigated the molecular mechanism of C-reaction protein in promoting migration and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro. We estimated that CRP is overexpressed in liver cancer tissues and that it promotes invasion and metastasis of HCC in vitro. In the present study, we employed iTRAQ-based mass spectrometry to analyze the HepG2 secretory proteins of CRP siRNA-treated cells and negative control siRNA-treated cells. We identified 109 differentially expressed proteins after silencing CRP, of which 45 were upregulated and 64 were downregulated. Some of the differentially expressed proteins were confirmed by western blot analysis and real-time quantitative PCR. Furthermore, we found that knockdown of CRP substantially abrogates HIF-1α expression levels, the luciferase activity of HIF-1α and ERK and Akt phosphorylation in HepG2 cells. The present study provides a novel mechanism by which CRP promotes the proliferation, migration, invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Inhibition of CRP suppressed migration, invasion and healing of hepatoma carcinoma cells by decreasing HIF-1α activity and CTSD.

Abstract P4-07-11: MicroRNA-367a promotes tumor growth and stemness potential by targeting FBXW7 in breast cancer

Increasing studies showed that MicroRNAs (miRNAs)participate in the carcinogenesis and progression of breast cancer, but the specific mechanism of miRNAs in breast cancer needs to be furtherexplored. in this study, wefound that miR-367a was significantly up-regulated in breast cancer tissue samples and cell lines, compared to paired normal tumor-adjacent samples and MCF-10A. meanwhile, Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated high miR-367a expression was evidently correlated with poor prognostic features of breast cancer. overexpression of miR-367a remarkably promoted proliferation, cell cycle,inhibited apoptosis ratios and stem-like capacity of breast cancer cells in vitro, whilesilencing the expression of miR-367a dramaticallyreversed these cellular events .in addition,In vivo studies showed that knockdown of miR-367a inhibited tumor growth of breast cancer ,moreover, F-box and WD repeat domain-containing 7 (FBXW7) was identified as a direct target genes of miR-367a, as miR-367a directly bound to the 3'untranslated region of FBXW7 . Notably, alterations of FBXW7 levels abrogated the effects of miR-367a on breast cancer cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis and stemness potential. In conclusion,evidence from this study demonstrated that miR-367amay serve as a novel prognostic indicator for breast cancer patients andexerts tumor promotion,at least in part, by inhibiting FBXW7.

Key words: miR-367a, FBXW7, breast cancer, tumor growth, stem-like capacity.

Citation Format: Xiao G, Zhang J, Sun X, Qin S, Zhang B, Liu D, Liu J, Ren H. MicroRNA-367a promotes tumor growth and stemness potential by targeting FBXW7 in breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-07-11.