Development and evaluation of novel tumor-targeting paclitaxel-loaded nano-carriers for ovarian cancer treatment: in vitro and in vivo.

Background: Ovarian cancer is the most leading cause of death and the third most common gynecologic malignancy in women. Traditional chemotherapy has inevitable drawbacks of nonspecific tumor targeting, high toxicity, and poor therapeutic efficiency. In order to overcome such shortcomings, we prepared a novel nano-carrier drug-delivery system to enhance the anti-tumor efficiency.

Qindan capsule changes adventitial collagen synthesis in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Objective: To investigate the effect of Qindan capsule (QC) on collagen synthesis and the mechanism underlying the process in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs).

Methods: Twentyfour SHRs were divided into three groups: the hypertension model group, the QC treatment group, and the losartan treatment group. Eight Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats were used as the normal control group.

Increased frequencies of Th22 cells as well as Th17 cells in the peripheral blood of patients with ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: T-helper (Th) 22 is involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. The roles of Th22 cells in the pathophysiological of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remain unsettled. So we examined the frequencies of Th22 cells, Th17 cells and Th1 cells in peripheral blood (PB) from patients with AS and patients with RA compared with both healthy controls as well as patients with osteoarthritis.

Differential gene expression of phosphoglyceric kinase (PGK) and hypoxic adaptation in chicken.

Four single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of the Phosphoglyceric Kinase (PGK) gene were discovered based on comparison of the sequences from an altiplano chicken breed (Tibetan chicken) and two lowland breeds (White Leghorn and Shouguang chicken). Gel-shift results indicate that one of these SNPs, an A-->G mutation at position 59 in exon10, is able to bind hypoxia-induced factor-l (HIF-1), functioning as a hypoxia response element (HRE). The mutant gene results in M-->T mutation at position 379 amino acid.