Two new tryptophan derivatives from the seed kernels of Entada rheedei: effects on cell viability and HIV infectivity

Two new tryptophan derivatives, N-sulfonyl-L-tryptophan (tryptorheedei A) (1) and 3-(N-sulfonylindolyl)-D-lactic acid (tryptorheedei B) (2) together with the known 5-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-2-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (3), 1-O-methylglucopyranoside, entadamide A, homogentisic acid and 3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-β-sitosterol, were isolated from the seed kernels of Entada rheedei (Mimosaceae). Their structures were established using 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and by comparison with spectroscopic data reported in the literature. Compounds 1 and 2 showed no toxicity to TZM and Human PBMC cells. Both compounds 1 and 2 were found to promote early infection events in HIV, likely by inhibiting the enzyme indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and preventing tryptophan depletion. Inhibition of IDO acutely in HIV infection inhibits viral replication, but chronic activation of IDO leads to immune impairment in AIDS. IDO is also the gatekeeper enzyme for kynurenine metabolism, a pathway involved in serotonin and melatonin biosynthesis and the regulation of glutamate and dopamine levels in the brain. Therefore inhibition of IDO might explain both the reported medicinal and neuropsychiatric effects of E. rheedei.

Risk factors for local and regional recurrence in patients with resected N0-N1 non-small-cell lung cancer, with implications for patient selection for adjuvant radiation therapy

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the actuarial risk of local and regional failure in patients with completely resected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and to assess surgical and pathological factors affecting this risk.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Between January 1998 and December 2009, 1402 consecutive stage I-III (N0-N1) NSCLC patients underwent complete resection without adjuvant radiation therapy. The median follow-up was 42 months.

RESULTS

Local-regional recurrence was identified in 9% of patients, with local failure alone in 3% of patients, regional failure alone in 4% of patients, and both local and regional failure simultaneously in 2% of patients. Patients who had local failure were found to be at increased risk of mortality. By multivariate analyses, three variables were shown to be independently significant risk factors for local [surgical procedure (single/multiple wedges+segmentectomy versus lobectomy+bilobectomy+pneumonectomy), tumor size>2.7 cm, and visceral pleural invasion] and regional (pathologic N1 stage, visceral pleural invasion, and lymphovascular space invasion, LVI) recurrence, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Patients with N0-N1 disease have low rates of locoregional recurrence after surgical resection. However, several prognostic factors can be identified that increase this risk and identify patients who may benefit from adjuvant treatment.

A promising approach for asthma treatment by multiwayly modulating toll-like receptors

Asthma is a major epidemic affecting up to one third people in developed countries over the last decades, and making a crucial impact on morbidity rates. The classical characters of asthma in human are airway inflammation, airway hyperreactivity, and airway remodeling. Hygiene hypothesis, inflammation cells and signaling pathway in asthma were involved in Toll-like receptors (TLRs). TLRs are a kind of pattern recognition receptors, which are important in recognition of various pathogens. TLRs have been seen as a key target for asthma treatment, so a promising approach for asthma treatment was adopted to the multiwayly modulating toll-like receptors way.  

Hypertonic saline reduces lipopolysaccharide-induced mouse brain edema through inhibiting aquaporin 4 expression

INTRODUCTION

Three percent sodium chloride (NaCl) treatment has been shown to reduce brain edema and inhibited brain aquaporin 4 (AQP4) expression in bacterial meningitis induced by Escherichia coli. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is the main pathogenic component of E. coli. We aimed to explore the effect of 3% NaCl in mouse brain edema induced by LPS, as well as to elucidate the potential mechanisms of action.

METHODS

Three percent NaCl was used to treat cerebral edema induced by LPS in mice in vivo. Brain water content, IL-1β, TNFα, immunoglobulin G (IgG), AQP4 mRNA and protein were measured in brain tissues. IL-1β, 3% NaCl and calphostin C (a specific inhibitor of protein kinase C) were used to treat the primary astrocytes in vitro. AQP4 mRNA and protein were measured in astrocytes. Differences in various groups were determined by one-way analysis of variance.

RESULTS

Three percent NaCl attenuated the increase of brain water content, IL-1β, TNFα, IgG, AQP4 mRNA and protein in brain tissues induced by LPS. Three percent NaCl inhibited the increase of AQP4 mRNA and protein in astrocytes induced by IL-1β in vitro. Calphostin C blocked the decrease of AQP4 mRNA and protein in astrocytes induced by 3% NaCl in vitro.

CONCLUSIONS

Osmotherapy with 3% NaCl ameliorated LPS-induced cerebral edema in vivo. In addition to its osmotic force, 3% NaCl exerted anti-edema effects possibly through down-regulating the expression of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and TNFα) and inhibiting the expression of AQP4 induced by proinflammatory cytokines. Three percent NaCl attenuated the expression of AQP4 through activation of protein kinase C in astrocytes.

SU-F-BRCD-05: Mean Regional Dose to the Esophagus Predicts Acute Toxicity Rate for Lung Cancer Patients

PURPOSE

The relationship between spatial aspects of the dose distribution and incidence of acute radiation esophagitis for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients is not well understood. Specifically, the location of dose along the superior-inferior (SI) axis of the esophagus has not been previously considered. We introduce the concept of mean regional dose (MRD) calculated for esophageal subvolumes, and test for significance for prediction of acute esophagitis (AE).

METHODS

The 3D dose distribution within the esophagus was extracted for 541 NSCLC patients treated with definitive photon therapy. The esophagus contour was divided into equal geometric halves, thirds, and fourths along the SI direction of the structure. MRD in each subvolume was calculated. Univariate logistic regression was performed to determine the correlation between MRD and CTCAE3.0 AE grade = 2 (medical intervention). The MRD was incorporated into an existing NTCP model (based on mean dose for the total esophageal volume) as a separate additive factor.

RESULTS

Univariate analysis indicated a significant correlation between AE grade = 2 and MRD in each of the esophageal subvolumes except for the inferior third and inferior-most quarter. There was a statistically significant improvement when including the additive MRD factor for the superior/inferior halves, superior/inferior thirds, and superior-most/inferior-most quarters into the NTCP model.

CONCLUSIONS

This study investigates previously unexplored regional differences in delivered dose to the esophagus of patients treated for NSCLC. There is evidence to suggest that dose to the superior portions of the esophagus is more important as it relates to the potential for acute toxicity. The 541 patient cohort is the largest database used to investigate AE in patients treated for NSCLC, strengthening the power of the statistical results. Additional methods to incorporate dose in individual esophagus voxels (along the SI axis) into the NTCP model are also being explored.

SU-E-T-394: Comparison of Planned Dose Distribution Vs. Delivered Dose Distribution for Both IMRT and Proton Therapy Using Weekly Repeat 4DCT Data Sets

PURPOSE

To evaluate treatment deviations and the impact of treatment modality in the presence of breathing motion and anatomical changes during the course of lung cancer radiotherapy.

METHODS

Two non-small cell lung cancer patients were enrolled in a randomized clinical trial to compare IMRT and proton therapy. To rigorously evaluate the impact of motion and anatomical changes, we used a '5D' dose accumulation approach to sum dose distributions from phase-to-phase and week-to-week to the reference (end-expiration) phase of the original planning 4DCT data set. Six to eight weekly 4DCT data sets that consisted of 10 breathing phases were acquired during the treatment course. The original plan was re-calculated for each phase and deformably mapped to the reference phase to compare the 'delivered' dose distribution with the planned dose distribution of both the IMRT plan and the proton plan for each patient. DVHs derived from delivered dose distribution were compared to that from the planned dose distribution.

RESULTS

The delivered dose showed 3% and 2% increase in the dose to the CTV for IMRT and proton plan respectively. Target coverage remained acceptable despite tumor shrinkage from 29% to 49%. The doses to normal structures, such as lung and heart, increased more in the proton plan than in the IMRT plan. The V20 of the total lung volume increased by 4% and 6% from the delivered dose compared to the planned dose for IMRT and proton plan, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The results showed sufficient target coverage was maintained for both modalities. Increases in lung dose were observed in both modalities, but more in the proton arm, perhaps due to weight loss and tumor shrinkage. Adaptive proton therapy strategy is recommended to minimize normal tissue doses. Supported in part by NCI P01 CA021239-29A1.

SU-E-J-186: CT Textures Can be Predictive for Tumor Shrinkage

PURPOSE

To determine if NSCLC GTV CT textures can be predictive for tumor shrinkage after proton therapy with concurrent chemotherapy.

METHODS

Simulation and weekly 4DCTs were obtained from 25 patients with locally advanced NSCLC treated by proton therapy at a 74 Gy dose level with concurrent chemotherapy. In-house deformable image registration software based on the demons algorithm propagated the physician-generated planning GTV onto each weekly image set. GTV soft tissue volumes were then extracted from CT images by in-house software which pruned out voxels below a cutoff HU threshold. Patients whose normalized end-treatment pruned GTV was less than the group median were classified as 'strong responders.'The remaining patients were classified as 'weak responders.' For each pruned GTV, the MaZda texture analysis software generated quantitative 3D texture features based on the image histogram, absolute gradient, co-occurrence matrix, and run-length matrix. Using the Fisher coefficient, a subset of these texture features that were relevant to distinguishing the two response groups was obtained. In-house software and MaZda were then used to perform neural network data classification with leave-one-out cross-validation based on this texture feature subset. The true positive rate (TPR), false positive rate (FPR), classification accuracy, and one-sided p-values were recorded.

RESULTS

Six classification models were tested. Each model had a unique combination of feature extraction and analysis parameters. Taking 'strong responders' to be the 'positive' class, the average TPR was 0.66 (0.60 - 0.75), the average FPR was 0.36 (0.31 - 0.40), the average classification accuracy was 64.8% (60.0% - 68.0%), and the average one-sided p-value was 0.118 (0.055 - 0.215).

CONCLUSIONS

There is some evidence showing that NSCLC GTV CT textures can be predictive for tumor shrinkage after proton therapy. Further work should be done to include more patients, texture metrics, and data analysis techniques. The presenting author receives funding support from a Hertz Foundation Applied Science Fellowship.

Clinical features of axial undifferentiated spondyloarthritis (USpA) in China: HLA-B27 is more useful for classification than MRI of the sacroiliac joint

OBJECTIVES

To analyse the clinical features of Chinese undifferentiated spondyloarthritis (USpA) patients with predominantly axial involvement, and in particular the influence of human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) on the classification of axial USpA.

METHODS

Patients with low back pain for ≥ 3 months and no definite radiographic sacroiliitis were enrolled in this study. They were diagnosed as USpA based on rheumatologists' findings. Correlations between clinical features and HLA-B27 status or MRI manifestations were analysed.

RESULTS

A total of 197 USpA patients were recruited, of whom 135 (70.3%) were positive for HLA-B27. Acute inflammation, structural damage lesions, and normal findings on SIJ MRI were recorded in 64.5, 13.2 and 22.3% of patients, respectively. Classification criteria for axial SpA according to the European Spondylarthropathy Study Group (ESSG), Amor, and the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) were fulfilled by 63.5, 64.5 and 83.2% patients, respectively. Cross-validation showed significant correlation among these three criteria. Patients positive for HLA-B27 included more males, with earlier onset age, better response to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)/C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. In addition, more HLA-B27-positive than HLA-B27-negative patients fulfilled the ESSG, Amor, and ASAS criteria. Patients with acute inflammation on SIJ MRI had a higher level of ESR/CRP, and a greater proportion of them fulfilled the Amor and ASAS criteria. However, the proportion of those fulfilling the ESSG criteria did not differ with different MRI manifestations.

CONCLUSION

Both HLA-B27 status and SIJ MRI findings influence the classification of Chinese axial USpA patients, but HLA-B27 seems of more value.

Identification of a small-molecule inhibitor of Stat5a/b through structure-based screen for therapy development for prostate cancer

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Background: There are no effective treatments for metastatic or castration resistant prostate cancer. We have shown that transcription factor Stat5a/b is constitutively active in high-grade prostate cancer, but not in normal human prostate epithelium. Stat5a/b is active in 95% of clinical castration resistant prostate cancers, and the expression of active Stat5a/b in primary prostate cancer predicts early disease recurrence. Stat5a/b is critical for the viability of prostate cancer cells in vitro and for growth of prostate xenograft tumors in nude mice. Stat5a/b synergizes with androgen receptor (AR) and Stat5a/b promotes metastatic behavior of human prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Here, we hypothesize that Stat5a/b is a molecular target for rational drug design for prostate cancer.

Methods: We identified a small- molecule inhibitor of Stat5a/b dimerization by structure-based virtual screen from a database of 30 million chemical structures. The efficacy of the Stat5a/b inhibitor was determined by reporter gene assays, dimerization by co-immunoprecipitations, nuclear translocation by cytochemistry and binding to DNA by EMSA. Cell viability was analyzed by MTT assay.

Results: The novel Stat5a/b inhibitor IST5-002 inhibited transcriptional activity of Stat5a/b at IC50 of 1.5 μ M for Stat5a and 3.5 μ M for Stat5b, but not of Stat3 in prostate cancer cells. IST5-002 inhibited dimerization, nuclear translocation, and binding of Stat5a/b to the Stat5 DNA consensus sequence. Furthermore, IST5-002 inhibited expression of Stat5a/b target gene cyclin D1, and induced massive apoptosis of DU145, CWR22Rv1 and LNCaP human prostate cancer cells. IST5-002 blocked prostate cancer xenograft tumor growth in nude mice and induced death in clinical prostate cancers ex vivo in 3D organ cultures.

Conclusions: We have identified a small molecule Stat5a/b inhibitor IST5-002 for therapy development for prostate cancer. Future work will focus on chemical modifications of IST5-002 to achieve IC50 below 1 μ M and oral administration.

No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Over-expression of talin 1 and integrin-linked kinase in PBMCs of patients with ankylosing spondylitis: a proteomic study

OBJECTIVES

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is difficult to diagnose in its early stage due to the lack of simple and specific diagnostic indicators. This study was performed to screen candidate AS-associated proteins from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of AS patients by combining a two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) technique with mass spectrometry (MS) analysis.

METHODS

Twelve subjects consisting of 6 AS patients and 6 healthy volunteers (HVs) were enrolled in the 2-DE experiments. The protein expression patterns of PBMCs from different groups were analysed by PDQuest software, and the protein spots over/under-expressed by more than 2-fold between the two groups were identified by MS analysis. Western blot analyses were used to verify the differentially expressed proteins in 32 AS patients and 32 HVs.

RESULTS

Six proteins including pyruvate kinase (PK), profilin 1 (PFN1), talin 1 (TLN1), Chain A of cyclophilin A (CyPA), unknown protein (gi|16306948) and integrin-linked kinase (ILK) were identified from 10 over-expressed protein spots found by 2-DE in the AS group. Western blot experiments confirmed a higher expression of both TLN1 and ILK in AS group compared to the HV group (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

TLN1 and ILK expressed higher in PBMCs of AS patients compared to healthy controls, which were involved in the integrin signalling pathway. The two proteins are likely novel disease-associated proteins and potential disease markers of AS.

Scientific publications in pharmacology and pharmacy journals from Chinese authors in various parts of North Asia: a 10-year survey of the literature

The amount and quality of pharmacology and pharmacy research by authors from China was investigated by comparing published articles from 136 international journals (1998 - 2007) by authors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The number of articles, clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, case reports, impact factors, number of citations and number of articles published in top general medicine journals were compared. The total number of articles increased significantly between 1998 and 2007 (from 324 to 2536 per year). In total, there were 12 021 articles: 7576 from mainland China, 3267 from Taiwan and 1178 from Hong Kong. The accumulated impact factor of the articles from mainland China (16 688.94) was much higher than for those from Taiwan (8726.92) and Hong Kong (3161.22) but, among the three regions, Hong Kong had the highest mean impact factor and the most articles published in top general medicine journals.

Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci in the hard-shelled mussel, Mytilus coruscus (Mytilidae)

Mytilus coruscus is one of the most important cultured species of marine shellfish in China. Using an expressed sequence tag-library and two microsatellite-enriched genomic libraries of M. coruscus, we isolated and characterized 12 polymorphic microsatellites in a test population; the number of alleles ranged from three to seven, and the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.0333 to 0.8571 and from 0.3452 to 0.8267, respectively. Four loci deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. These polymorphic microsatellite loci can be employed in genetic diversity analysis and molecular marker-assisted breeding of M. coruscus.

Completion rate and diagnostic yield of small-bowel capsule endoscopy: 1 vs. 2 frames per second

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS

Currently, the default frame rate for capsule endoscopy is usually set at 2 frames per second (fps). We postulated that setting the frame rate at 1 fps for the whole procedure would save battery life and increase the completion rate without compromising the diagnostic yield. The aim of this study was to compare the completion rates and diagnostic yield of capsule endoscopy performed with frame rates of 1 fps and 2 fps.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The OMOM capsule endoscopy system was used. The procedure was performed according to the manufacturer's instructions, and the frame rate was set at 1 fps in one group and at 2 fps in the other group for the whole procedure. The completion rate, total operating time, and diagnostic yield in the two groups were measured and compared.

RESULTS

A total of 107 patients were randomized to either the 1 fps group (n = 54) or the 2 fps group (control, n = 53). There was no significant difference in sex, age, indications, and gastric transit time between the two groups. The mean total operating time was significantly longer in the 1 fps group than in the 2 fps group (758 +/- 79 minutes vs. 456 +/- 67 minutes, P < 0.001). The completion rate and diagnostic yield were significantly higher in the 1 fps group than in the 2 fps group (96.2 % vs. 70.6 %, P < 0.001; 40.7 % vs. 18.9 %, P = 0.013, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Setting the frame rate of the capsule endoscope at 1 fps for the whole procedure increases the completion rate by prolonging the capsule's total operating time; the diagnostic yield does seem to be at least as high as with 2 fps.