Toripalimab plus axitinib versus sunitinib as first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma: RENOTORCH, a randomized, open-label, phase III study

BACKGROUND

Immune checkpoint inhibitors in combination with tyrosine kinase inhibitors are standard treatments for advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This phase III RENOTORCH study compared the efficacy and safety of toripalimab plus axitinib versus sunitinib for the first-line treatment of patients with intermediate-/poor-risk advanced RCC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Patients with intermediate-/poor-risk unresectable or metastatic RCC were randomized in a ratio of 1 : 1 to receive toripalimab (240 mg intravenously once every 3 weeks) plus axitinib (5 mg orally twice daily) or sunitinib [50 mg orally once daily for 4 weeks (6-week cycle) or 2 weeks (3-week cycle)]. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) assessed by an independent review committee (IRC). The secondary endpoints were investigator-assessed PFS, overall response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS), and safety.

RESULTS

A total of 421 patients were randomized to receive toripalimab plus axitinib (n = 210) or sunitinib (n = 211). With a median follow-up of 14.6 months, toripalimab plus axitinib significantly reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 35% compared with sunitinib as assessed by an IRC [hazard ratio (HR) 0.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.49-0.86; P = 0.0028]. The median PFS was 18.0 months in the toripalimab-axitinib group, whereas it was 9.8 months in the sunitinib group. The IRC-assessed ORR was significantly higher in the toripalimab-axitinib group compared with the sunitinib group (56.7% versus 30.8%; P < 0.0001). An OS trend favoring toripalimab plus axitinib was also observed (HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.40-0.92). Treatment-related grade ≥3 adverse events occurred in 61.5% of patients in the toripalimab-axitinib group and 58.6% of patients in the sunitinib group.

CONCLUSION

In patients with previously untreated intermediate-/poor-risk advanced RCC, toripalimab plus axitinib provided significantly longer PFS and higher ORR than sunitinib and had a manageable safety profile TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04394975.

Inverse relations between Helicobacter pylori infection and risk of esophageal precancerous lesions in drinkers and peanut consumption

BACKGROUND

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a Gram-negative bacterium found in the upper digestive tract. Although H. pylori infection is an identified risk factor for gastric cancer, its role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains a topic of much debate.

AIM

To evaluate the association between H. pylori infection and the risk of precancerous lesions of ESCC, and further explore the association between dietary factors and the risk of H. pylori infection.

METHODS

Two hundred patients with esophageal precancerous lesions (EPL) aged 63.01 ± 6.08 years and 200 healthy controls aged 62.85 ± 6.03 years were included in this case-control study. Epidemiological data and qualitative food frequency data were investigated. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay measuring serum immunoglobulin G antibodies was used to determine H. pylori seropositivity. An unconditional logistic regression model was used to assess the association between H. pylori infection and EPL risk dichotomized by gender, age, and the use of tobacco and alcohol, as well as the association between dietary factors and the risk of H. pylori infection.

RESULTS

A total of 47 (23.5%) EPL cases and 58 (29.0%) healthy controls had positive H. pylori infection. An inverse relation between H. pylori infection and the risk of EPL was found in the group of drinkers after adjustment for covariates [odds ratio (OR) = 0.32, 95% confidence interval (95%CI): 0.11-0.95]. Additionally, peanut intake was significantly associated with a decreased risk of H. pylori infection (OR = 0.39, 95%CI: 0.20-0.74).

CONCLUSION

Our study suggested that H. pylori infection may decrease the risk of EPL for drinkers in a rural adult Chinese population, and the consumption of peanut may reduce the risk of H. pylori infection. These findings should be framed as preliminary evidence, and further studies are required to address whether the mechanisms are related to the localization of lesions and alcohol consumption.

The Effects of Peanuts and Tree Nuts on Lipid Profile in Type 2 Diabetic Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized, Controlled-Feeding Clinical Studies

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus was found to be associated with metabolic disorders, particularly abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism. Dietary food choices may have profound effects on blood lipids. The primary objective of this study was to examine the effects of peanuts and tree nuts intake on lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: According to preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis guidelines, we performed a systematic search of randomized controlled clinical trials and systematic reviews published in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane library, from inception through June 2021. Studies in populations with type 2 diabetes, which compare nuts or peanuts to a controlled-diet group were included. We used the mean difference with 95% CIs to present estimates for continuous outcomes from individual studies. In addition, we used the GRADEpro tool to evaluate the overall quality of evidence.

Results: Sixteen studies involving 1,041 participants were eligible for this review. The results showed that peanuts and tree nuts supplementation did not induce significant changes in low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) (mean difference = −0.11; 95%CI: −0.25 – 0.03, p = 0.117) and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (mean difference = 0.01; 95%CI: −0.01 – 0.04, p = 0.400) in patients with type 2 diabetics. In addition, we found that peanuts and tree nuts intake may cause a significantly reduction in total cholesterol (TC) (mean difference = −0.14; 95%CI: −0.26 – −0.02, p = 0.024) and triglyceride (TG) (mean difference = −0.10; 95%CI: −0.17 – −0.02, p = 0.010). In the subgroup analysis, a significantly greater reduction in TC was observed in studies which duration was <12 weeks (mean difference = −0.22; 95%CI: −0.37 – −0.08, p = 0.002). The quality of the body of evidence was “moderate” for TC and TG, the quality of evidence for LDL-C and HDL-C were “low.”

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that consuming peanuts and tree nuts might be beneficial to lower TC concentration and TG concentration in type 2 diabetics subjects. Furthermore, peanuts and tree nuts supplementation could be considered as a part of a healthy lifestyle in the management of blood lipids in patients with type 2 diabetes. Given some limits observed in the current studies, more well-designed trials are still needed.

Band Dependent Interlayer f-Electron Hybridization in CeRhIn_{5}

A key issue in heavy fermion research is how subtle changes in the hybridization between the 4f (5f) and conduction electrons can result in fundamentally different ground states. CeRhIn_{5} stands out as a particularly notable example: when replacing Rh with either Co or Ir, antiferromagnetism gives way to superconductivity. In this photoemission study of CeRhIn_{5}, we demonstrate that the use of resonant angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with polarized light allows us to extract detailed information on the 4f crystal field states and details on the 4f and conduction electron hybridization, which together determine the ground state. We directly observe weakly dispersive Kondo resonances of f electrons and identify two of the three Ce 4f_{5/2}^{1} crystal-electric-field levels and band-dependent hybridization, which signals that the hybridization occurs primarily between the Ce 4f states in the CeIn_{3} layer and two more three-dimensional bands composed of the Rh 4d and In 5p orbitals in the RhIn_{2} layer. Our results allow us to connect the properties observed at elevated temperatures with the unusual low-temperature properties of this enigmatic heavy fermion compound.

Highly Anisotropic and Twofold Symmetric Superconducting Gap in Nematically Ordered FeSe_{0.93}S_{0.07}

FeSe exhibits a novel ground state in which superconductivity coexists with a nematic order in the absence of any long-range magnetic order. Here, we report on an angle-resolved photoemission study on the superconducting gap structure in the nematic state of FeSe_{0.93}S_{0.07}, without the complications caused by Fermi surface reconstruction induced by magnetic order. We find that the superconducting gap shows a pronounced twofold anisotropy around the elliptical hole pocket near Z (0, 0, π), with gap minima at the end points of its major axis, while no detectable gap is observed around Γ (0, 0, 0) and the zone corner (π, π, k_{z}). The large anisotropy and nodal gap distribution demonstrate the substantial effects of the nematicity on the superconductivity and thus put strong constraints on current theories.

[The effect of locally injected betamethasone on collagen deposition in benign central airway stenosis]

OBJECTIVE

To assess the effects of locally injected betamethasone on cicatricial tissue hyperplasia in patients with benign central airway stenosis.

METHODS

A prospective study was conducted with 2 treatment modalities: conventional interventional(CI)therapy, and CI combined with local betamethasone injection(LBI). The average optical density value of TGF-β1 and collagen density in the local airway tissues were compared before therapy and 7 d after the CI treatment and the LBI treatment, respectively.

RESULTS

Six patients were recruited in this study from May 2013 to June 2015.The results showed significant statistical differences by paired t-test in TGF-β1: 92±38 vs 164±47(t=-7.984, P=0.000)before and after the CI treatment, respectively; 128±45 vs 78±40 (t=10.055, P=0.000)before and after the LBI treatment, respectively. The collagen density was 91 932±59 520 vs 150 252±76 673(t=-8.105, P=0.000) before and after the CI treatment, respectively; 107 024±54 880 vs 114 038±50 772(t=-0.621, P=0.54) before and after the LBI treatment, respectively.Trend comparisons made before and after the treatments showed significant statistical differences in TGF-β1(F=712.139, P=0.000) and in the collagen density (F=261.256, P=0.000)between the CI treatment and the LBI treatment groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The CI treatment was shown to stimulate the production of TGF-β1 and the deposition of collagen, while the LBI treatment was shown to reduce the production of TGF-β1 and alleviate the deposition of collagen from the stimulation of the CI treatment.

Xpert MTB/RIF Assay for Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Rifampicin Resistance in Children: a Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

The Xpert MTB/RIF assay has been recommended by WHO to replace conventional microscopy, culture, and drug resistance tests. It simultaneously detects both Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (TB) and resistance to rifampicin (RIF) within two hours. The objective was to review the available research studies on the accuracy of the Xpert MTB/RIF assay for diagnosing pulmonary TB and RIF-resistance in children.

METHODS

A comprehensive search of Pubmed and Embase was performed up to October 28, 2014. We identified published articles estimating the diagnostic accuracy of the Xpert MTB/RIF assay in children with or without HIV using culture or culture plus clinical TB as standard reference. QUADAS-2 tool was used to evaluate the quality of the studies. A summary estimation for sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratios (DOR), and the area under the summary ROC curve (AUC) was performed. Meta-analysis was used to establish the overall accuracy.

RESULTS

11 diagnostic studies with 3801 patients were included in the systematic review. The overall analysis revealed a moderate sensitivity and high specificity of 65% (95% CI: 61 - 69%) and 99% (95% CI: 98 - 99%), respectively, and a pooled diagnostic odds ratio of 164.09 (95% CI: 111.89 - 240.64). The AUC value was found to be 0.94. The pooled sensitivity and specificity for paediatric rifampicin resistance were 94.0% (95% CI: 80.0 - 93.0%) and 99.0% (95% CI: 95.0 - 98.0%), respectively. Hence, the Xpert MTB/RIF assay has good diagnostic and rifampicin performance for paediatric pulmonary tuberculosis.

CONCLUSIONS

The Xpert MTB/RIF is sensitive and specific for diagnosing paediatric pulmonary TB. It is also effective in detecting rifamnicin resistance. It can, therefore, be used as an initial diagnostic tool.

G12V Kras mutations in cervical cancer under virtual microscope of molecular dynamics simulations

Kras mutations and cancers are common and their role in the progression of cancer is well known and elucidated. The present work is searching for the most deleterious mutation of the four found at codon 12 and 13 of Kras in cervical cancers using prediction servers; different servers were used to look into different factors that govern the protein function. The in silico results predicted G12V to be the most devastating; this particular mutation was then subjected to molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) for further analysis. The authors' approach of MDSs helped them to place the native and mutant structure under virtual microscope and observe their dynamics over time. The results generated are enlightening the effect of G12V variation on the dynamics of Kras. The structural variation between the native and mutant Kras over 50 nanoseconds (ns) run varied at every parameter checked and the results are in excellent agreement with the available experimental data.

Signature of Strong Spin-Orbital Coupling in the Large Nonsaturating Magnetoresistance Material WTe2

We report the detailed electronic structure of WTe2 by high resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We resolved a rather complicated Fermi surface of WTe2. Specifically, there are in total nine Fermi pockets, including one hole pocket at the Brillouin zone center Γ, and two hole pockets and two electron pockets on each side of Γ along the Γ-X direction. Remarkably, we have observed circular dichroism in our photoemission spectra, which suggests that the orbital angular momentum exhibits a rich texture at various sections of the Fermi surface. This is further confirmed by our density-functional-theory calculations, where the spin texture is qualitatively reproduced as the conjugate consequence of spin-orbital coupling. Since the spin texture would forbid backscatterings that are directly involved in the resistivity, our data suggest that the spin-orbit coupling and the related spin and orbital angular momentum textures may play an important role in the anomalously large magnetoresistance of WTe2. Furthermore, the large differences among spin textures calculated for magnetic fields along the in-plane and out-of-plane directions also provide a natural explanation of the large field-direction dependence on the magnetoresistance.

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study on the surface states of the correlated topological insulator YbB6

YbB₆ is recently predicted to be a moderately correlated topological insulator, which provides a playground to explore the interplay between correlation and topological properties. With angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we directly observed almost linearly dispersive bands around the time-reversal invariant momenta and with negligible k_z dependence, consistent with odd number of surface states crossing the Fermi level in a Z₂ topological insulator. Circular dichroism photoemission spectra suggest that these in-gap states possess chirality of orbital angular momentum, which is related to the chiral spin texture, further indicative of their topological nature. The observed insulating gap of YbB₆ is about 100 meV, larger than that found by theoretical calculations. Our results present strong evidence that YbB₆ is a correlated topological insulator and provide a foundation for further studies of this promising material.

Genetic diversity of Phytophthora capsici (Pythiaceae) isolates in Anhui Province of China based on ISSR-PCR markers

Phytophthora capsici is a plant pathogenic oomycete that damages numerous crops worldwide. Consequently, interest in research on the genetic structure of this species has grown in recent decades. However, there is little information about P. capsici in eastern China. We investigated the genetic diversity of P. capsici isolates from three large regions of Anhui Province in eastern China based on ISSR-PCR technology. Thirteen random primers were screened and used to amplify DNA from 51 samples. We obtained 158 reproducible ISSR fragments, of which 90% were polymorphic, revealing a high degree of polymorphism among the isolates. Genetic similarity coefficients among all the isolates ranged from 0.56 to 0.94, with a mean of 0.84 based on the ISSR data, indicating a high level of genetic variation in these P. capsici isolates. Cluster analysis using UPGMA indicated that the Anhui isolates were divided into seven groups according to the DNA fingerprints, although there was no correlation between the ISSR group and geographic origin. Isolates from the same location showed no clustering based on the year of sampling. AMOVA partitioned variability among (13.6%) and within populations (86.4%). The gene flow among populations ranged from 2.804 to 4.937, with a mean of 3.545, indicating highly frequent gene exchange. Genetic distances and genetic differentiation were negatively correlated with geographic distances. These results lead us to suggest that this pathogen has considerable evolutionary potential, which will enable it to adapt to and overcome management strategies over time.

[Energy transfer between electric polymer PVK and terbium complex and its transmission electronmicroscope (TME) study]

A chloroform-soluble terbium complex, which is confirmed to be Tb(aspirin)3 phen using element analysis and FT-IR spectroscopy, was synthesized. Photoluminescent investigation on the terbium complex and PVK-terbium complex composite was conducted. Förster energy transfer occurred between the terbium complex and the PVK matrix. There are no overlap between UV spectrum of the complex and the emission spectrum of PVK, however, overlap is observed between the excitation spectrum of the complex and the emission spectrum of PVK. Therefore, we suggest that the necessary condition of Förster energy transfer should be overlap between the excitation (not UV) spectrum of one complex and the emission spectrum of polymer matrix. Further investigation indicates that the emission of PVK can be suppressed at different extents by doping various amount of Tb(aspirin)3 phen into PVK films. The ratio of Tb(aspirin)3 phen: PVK = 1:2 (wt%) are regarded as an optimized ratio for limiting the emission of PVK. TEM images of PVK/Tb(aspirin)3 phen films reveal that nanoparticles of the Tb complex are dispersed in the PVK matrix. The size of the aggregated complex in PVK matrix is 20-30 nm. The film is not homogeneous as dark regions co-exist with light region in the TEM images. This phenomenon may be related to the short lifetime of electroluminescent devices.

Distinguishing malignant from normal oral tissues using FTIR fiber-optic techniques

Oral tissue samples were studied using mid-IR fiber-optic attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy and other spectral techniques. The 1745 cm(-1) band, which is assigned to the ester group (C==O) vibration of triglycerides, is a reliable marker that is present in normal tissues but absent or a weak band in malignant oral tissues. Other bands such as C--H stretching bands and the amide bands are also helpful in distinguishing malignant tissues from normal tissues. Subtraction spectra confirmed the above conclusion. In addition, Raman spectroscopic measurements were in agreement with the results observed from FTIR spectra.

[Studies on a new type of all-solid-state atropine ion-selective electrode]

Using urea-formaldehyde resin as frame material and KCl powder as active component, a Ag/AgCl solid state electrode was prepared. Then, using the prepared Ag/AgCl solid state electrode as substrate and atropine tetraphenylborate ion-pair complex as active component, a new type of all-solid-state atropine ion-selective electrode was constructed. The properties of this electrode were studied in detail. The results indicate that the electrode showed good stability and can be used for potentiometric determination of atropine in pharmaceutical preparations.