Encouraging specific biomarkers-based therapeutic strategies for hepatocellular carcinoma.

The prevention, early discovery and effective treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain a global medical challenge. At present, HCC is still mainly treated by surgery, supplemented by vascular embolization, radio frequency, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and biotherapy. The application of multikinase inhibitor sorafenib, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, or PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors can prolong the median survival of HCC patients.

Tubulin Maytansine Site Binding Ligands and their Applications as MTAs and ADCs for Cancer Therapy.

Background: Microtubule Targeting Agents (MTAs) represent the most successful anticancer drugs for cancer chemotherapy. Through interfering with the tubulin polymerization and depolymerization dynamics, MTAs influence intracellular transport and cell signal pathways, inhibit cell mitosis and cell proliferation, and induce cell apoptosis and death. The tubulin maytansine site binding agents are natural or nature-derived products that represent one type of the MTAs that inhibit tubulin polymerization and exhibit potent antitumor activity both in vitro and in vivo.

Computed tomography-magnetic resonance imaging fusion-guided iodine-125 seed implantation for single malignant brain tumor: Feasibility and safety.

Background: To investigate the feasibility and safety of computed tomography-magnetic resonance imaging (CT-MRI) fusion-guided iodine-125 seed implantation for a single malignant brain tumor.

Methods: From November 2015 to October 2016, 12 patients with a single malignant brain tumor were treated with permanent iodine-125 seeds implantation. CT-MRI fusion images were used to make the preoperative treatment plan, intraoperative dose optimization, postoperative verification, and tumor response follow-up.

Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Burden Is Associated With Poststroke Depressive Symptoms: A 15-Month Prospective Study.

All types of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) markers including lacune, white matter hyperintensities (WMH), cerebral microbleeds, and perivascular spaces were found to be associated with poststroke depressive symptoms (PDS). This study explored whether the combination of the four markers constituting an overall SVD burden was associated with PDS. A cohort of 563 patients with acute ischemic stroke were followed over a 15-month period after the index stroke.

Enlarged perivascular spaces in the centrum semiovale are associated with poststroke depression: A 3-month prospective study.

Background: Enlarged perivascular spaces (EPVS), markers of cerebral small vessel disease, are associated with unfavorable prognosis of stroke. This study explored the relationship between EPVS and poststroke depression (PSD).

Methods: A total of 725 patients with acute ischemic stroke were recruited from the Stroke Unit of a university-affiliated hospital in Hong Kong.

Association of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Burden and Health-Related Quality of Life after Acute Ischemic Stroke.

: Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is associated with increased mortality, disability and cognitive decline, depression in stroke survivors. This study examined the association between SVD burden, defined by a combination of SVD markers, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in acute ischemic stroke. : Patients admitted with acute ischemic stroke of any etiology were prospectively screened between January 2010 to December 2014 and enrolled in the study if they met study entry criteria.

Enlarged perivascular spaces are associated with health-related quality of life in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Aims: This study explored the association between enlarged perivascular spaces (EPVS) and the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Methods: This was an observational study of consecutively screened patients with acute ischemic stroke from March 2010 to March 2015. EPVS were rated in the basal ganglia and the centrum semiovale with a validated scale.

Chronic Ketamine Exposure Causes White Matter Microstructural Abnormalities in Adolescent Cynomolgus Monkeys.

Acute and repeated exposures to ketamine mimic aspects of positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia in humans. Recent studies by our group and others have shown that chronicity of ketamine use may be a key element for establishing a more valid model of cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, current understanding on the long-term consequences of ketamine exposure on brain circuits has remained incomplete, particularly with regard to microstructural changes of white matter tracts that underpin the neuropathology of schizophrenia.

Synthetic studies towards 1α-hydroxysolasodine from diosgenin and the unexpected tetrahydrofuran ring opening in the Birch reduction process.

The synthesis of 1α-hydroxysolasodine from diosgenin was attempted. The Pd/C catalyst mediated dehydrogenation of diosgenin generated the 1,4,6-trien-3-one (3), which was reacted with Ac2O in pyridine in the presence of a catalytic amount of POCl3 followed by hydrolysis to give the 22-hydroxyfurostan (4) in 65% yield. Conversion of the primary 26-OH group into the azide and simultaneously 22-OH dehydration were achieved in one step by Mitsunobu reaction.

Efficacy and Durability in Direct Labeling of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Using Ultrasmall Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Organosilica, Dextran, and PEG Coatings.

We herein report a comparative study of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) labeling using spherical superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles containing different coatings, namely, organosilica, dextran, and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). These nanomaterials possess a similar SPIO core size of 6-7 nm. Together with their coatings, the overall sizes are 10-15 nm for all SPIO@SiO₂, SPIO@dextran, and SPIO@PEG nanoparticles.

Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound increases cellular uptake of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanomaterial: results from human osteosarcoma cell line U2OS.

Purpose: To determine whether low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) is able to facilitate the uptake of a superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanomaterial by cells that do not express high endocytosis capacity.

Materials And Methods: The human osteosarcoma cell line U2OS and a silica-coated SPIO functionalized peripherally with amines groups (overall diameter 8 nm) were used in this study. Adherent U2OS cells were labeled with SPIO by incubating with culture media containing the SPIO at 4.

[Alteration of Vitamin E levels in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma].

Objective: To investigate the alterations of Vitamin E (Vit E) levels in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma and explore its mechanism of action.

Method: A comparative analysis of the serum Vit E levels was conducted in patients with various pancreatic diseases.

Results: In patients with acute pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic adenocarcinoma, serum Vit E levels were significantly lower than those in normal subjects (P<0.