Novel STAT3 oligonucleotide compounds suppress tumor growth and overcome the acquired resistance to sorafenib in hepatocellular carcinoma

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) plays an important role in the occurrence and progression of tumors, leading to resistance and poor prognosis. Activation of STAT3 signaling is frequently detected in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but potent and less toxic STAT3 inhibitors have not been discovered. Here, based on antisense technology, we designed a series of stabilized modified antisense oligonucleotides targeting STAT3 mRNA (STAT3 ASOs). Treatment with STAT3 ASOs decreased the STAT3 mRNA and protein levels in HCC cells. STAT3 ASOs significantly inhibited the proliferation, survival, migration, and invasion of cancer cells by specifically perturbing STAT3 signaling. Treatment with STAT3 ASOs decreased the tumor burden in an HCC xenograft model. Moreover, aberrant STAT3 signaling activation is one of multiple signaling pathways involved in sorafenib resistance in HCC. STAT3 ASOs effectively sensitized resistant HCC cell lines to sorafenib in vitro and improved the inhibitory potency of sorafenib in a resistant HCC xenograft model. The developed STAT3 ASOs enrich the tools capable of targeting STAT3 and modulating STAT3 activity, serve as a promising strategy for treating HCC and other STAT3-addicted tumors, and alleviate the acquired resistance to sorafenib in HCC patients. A series of novel STAT3 antisense oligonucleotide were designed and showed potent anti-cancer efficacy in hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro and in vivo by targeting STAT3 signaling. Moreover, the selected STAT3 ASOs enhance sorafenib sensitivity in resistant cell model and xenograft model.

[Risk factors and clinical features of hospital-associated venous thromboembolism]

Objective: To investigate the clinical features and risk factors of hospital-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE). Methods: The study enrolled acute VTE patients admitted into China-Japan Friendship Hospital from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017. The hospital-associated VTE (HA-VTE) group and the community-associated VTE (CA-VTE) group were classified according to whether the VTE occurred during hospitalization or within a 90-day period of admission to hospital (including inpatient with at least two days of hospital stay or a surgical procedure under general or regional anaesthesia). Differences in clinical features, risk factors, and mortality rate were compared between the two groups. Results: A total of 437 patients with acute VTE were analyzed in the study. Among them, 266 patients were HA-VTE, 171 patients were CA-VTE. Patients in the CA-VTE group were more likely to have varicose veins, sedentary, long-distance travel, and patients in the HA-VTE group were more complicated with recent surgery (<1 month), bed rest, active malignant tumor, acute infections, acute cerebral infarction, fracture, central venous catheter (P<0.05). The CA-VTE group had more clinical symptoms such as lower extremity pain, dyspnea, chest pain and chest tightness (P<0.05). HA-VTE patients had less clinical symptoms but were more severe than the CA-VTE patients, with more sudden deaths (0 vs 3.4%, P=0.035). Among HA-VTE patients, 92.8% experienced VTE during hospitalization or within 1 month of the preceding hospital encounter, with a 13-day median time to VTE. The all-cause mortality rate was higher for HA-VTE group than CA-VTE group (8.3% vs 1.2%, P<0.001), and the in-hospital VTE was more common compared to VTE diagnosed post-discharge (12.2% vs 3.4%, P<0.001). Conclusions: More than half events of VTE are related to recent hospitalizations. HA-VTE has different risk factors from CA-VTE, combined with fewer clinical symptoms but higher all-cause mortality rate. More attention about VTE should be paid to hospitalized patients to reduce the incidence of HA-VTE events.

Oxidation and corrosion behaviors of Mg-based nanoparticles

Various Mg-based nanoparticles were prepared by evaporating bulk magnesium in the atmospheres of Ar, Ar+N2 and CH4, respectively. The formations, phases, morphologies, thermal properties and corrosion behaviors of these kinds of nanocomposite particles were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA) and potentiodynamic polarisation scan (PPS). It is shown that the Mg-based nanoparticles produced in Ar and Ar+N2 atmospheres have hexangular crystal habits with particles' sizes ranging from 50 to 400 nm, while the nanoparticles produced in CH4 atmosphere have amorphous carbon out layers with particles' sizes among 20-100 nm. TG/DTA results show that two-steps oxidation process can be confirmed for all samples, which may be attributed to the oxidations of out layer and core of nanoparticle. The CH4 atmosphere-prepared nanoparticles exhibit better corrosion resistance properties due to its peculiar carbon doping.

Low-temperature nitridation of Fe nanoparticles precursor

Nitridation of Fe nanoparticle precursor was performed in a NH3 atmosphere at the temperatures of 473 K and 673 K for one hour. Fe nanoparticles precursor had a typical spherical shape with iron oxides shell and alpha-Fe core, which was obtained by an arc-discharge method. Up to date, the nitriding temperature of 473 K in present work was the lowest by thermal ammonolysis method because of the characteristics of the nano-sized particles. The resultant product after nitridation was a mixture of iron-nitrides (gamma'-Fe4N and epsilon-Fe3N) nanoparticles with homogeneous dispersion. The nitriding mechanism, oxidizing behaviors and magnetic properties of iron-nitride nanoparticles were measured and discussed.

[An analysis of lymphocyte subsets and purified protein derivative-antibody in pulmonary tuberculosis]

The lymphocyte subsets and PPD-antibody in peripheral blood were determined in 72 cases of bacteriological positive pulmonary tuberculosis using monoclonal antibody to anti-T lymphocyte and ELISA assay. The results showed that the percentage of T3 was 52.44 +/- 11.46% and the OD of PPD-antibody was 0.47 +/- 0.27 in initially treated patient group; 40.27 +/- 7.81%, 0.81 +/- 0.17 in chronic carrier group respectively. There were statistically significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.01). The percentage of T3 was significantly larger in 30-59 yr group than in more than 60 yr group among non chronic carriers (55.9 +/- 11.3% vs 44.4 +/- 2.4, P < 0.05). PPD-antibody was strongly associated with extent of lesion in lung.

[Diagnostic problems in pulmonary miliary tuberculosis, an analysis of 125 cases]

From Dec. 1984 to Dec. 1985, 4805 cases of various types of pulmonary tuberculosis were admitted to our hospital. Among them, there were 125 cases of pulmonary miliary tuberculosis, accounted for 2.6% of total cases. The rate of delayed diagnosis was 92%. The rate of delayed diagnosis patients of rural areas was higher than that of city (96.9%, versus 82.8%, P less than 0.05). Only 33.6% showed typical miliary changes on chest radiographs. The complication of enlargement of peripheral lymph nodes and extrapulmonary tuberculosis were much higher in miliary tuberculosis patients than that of total cases (36%, 45/125; 4.9%, 236/4805; P less than 0.01. 71.2%, 89/125; 5.8%, 278/4805; P less than 0.01 respectively).