Therapeutic strategies targeting tumor angiogenesis have been approved for cancer therapy. Vasculature normalization induced by anti-angiogenic drugs can restore abnormal tumor vessels, and improve the tumor microenvironment characterized by hypoxia, extracellular acidosis, and high interstitial lfuid pressure, improve the cancer treatment results by chemoradiotherapy and immunotherapy.

Objective To investigate the prognostic value of C5L2 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods The data of 175 patients with HCC who underwent curative resection at Zhongshan Hospital,Fudan University from Oct.,2012 to Sep.,2013 were analyzed retrospectively.The correlation between C5L2 and clinicopathologic characteristics were explored.COX regression model was used to determine the influence of clinical parameters on predicting recurrence,and the prognostic value of combined application of C5L2 and AFP were evaluated by Kaplan-Meier method.In vitro,the expression of C5L2 were tested in 5 HCC cell lines,and Hep3B and Huh7 were chosen for down-regulation and up-regulation of C5L2,respectively,the abilities of invasion and migration were examined by transwell and the potential mechanism was explored.Results The C5L2 expression was correlated to gender,tumor size and recurrence,and the recurrence rate of low C5L2 expression group was higher.Also,the multivariate analysis showed that C5L2 low expression was an independent risk factor for recurrence.Moreover,the combined application of C5L2 and AFP could estimate prognosis more effectively.Knockdown of C5L2 in Hep3B promoted the invasiveness and motility,and increased the level of β-catenin and MMP2;conversely,overexpression of C5L2 in Huh7 inhibited the invasiveness and motility,and decreased the level of β catenin and MMP2.Conclusions C5L2 could be regarded as an auxiliary indicator for prognosis of HCC,thereby the evaluation of C5L2 could help with making effective and comprehensive management for HCC patients.

Objective:To verify the performance of the next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform and evaluate the application of NGS, droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and super amplification refractory mutation system (super-ARMS) in the detection of circulating free DNA (cfDNA) mutations in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods:A total of 75 patients with NSCLC in the respiratory department of Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University were enrolled. The standards, cfDNA from 25 patients with newly diagnosed and untreated NSCLC, and self-made mixed samples mixed with hemoglobin (1 000 mg /dl), bilirubin (500 mg/l), fat emulsion (2%), enterococcus gDNA and Escherichia coli gDNA were used to verify the blank limit, analytical sensitivity, precision, accuracy and specificity of NGS platform. The cfDNA mutations of 75 NSCLC patients were detected by ddPCR and NGS, and the mutation positive rates of the two platforms were compared. The linear relationship between the two platforms was compared by Pearson correlation test. 12 patients were selected by simple random sampling for the detection of plasma super-ARMS platform. The performance of three platforms in the detection of plasma cfDNA mutation in patients with NSCLC was compared.Results:The blank limit of NGS platform was set to 0.00%, the analytical sensitivity was 0.2%, the intra-assay precision and inter-assay precision were 100%. The test results were not affected by endogenous hemoglobin, bilirubin or fat emulsion in plasma or exogenous DNA interference, and the analysis specificity was good. The mutation positive rates of plasma cfDNA in 75 NSCLC patients detected by ddPCR and NGS were 61.33% and 60.00%, respectively. The complete coincidence rate was 89.33%, which suggests there was a positive correlation between the mutation abundance of NGS and ddPCR ( r=0.984, P=0.001). Among the plasma of 12 NSCLC patients, the results of NGS, ddPCR and super-ARMS were completely consistent in 7 cases, including 2 wild-types and 5 mutants. Conclusion:The NGS platform was verified to be useful for cfDNA mutation detection in patients with NSCLC. The ddPCR, NGS and super-ARMS have their own advantages in detecting cfDNA mutations in patients with NSCLC.

Objective:To investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of whole exome sequencing (WES), as a molecular diagnosis technique, for adult patients with genetic diseases.Methods:The present retrospective analysis included 445 adult patients (ages 18-80 years) with suspected genetic diseases who underwent whole exome sequencing (WES) from August 2021 to December 2022. The pathogenicity classification of each variant was assessed in accordance with the recommendations developed by the American Society of Medical Genetics and Genomics.Results:The overall positive rate of WES among adult patients with suspected genetic diseases was 28.08% (125/445). The highest positive rate was observed in the age group of 41-50 years (34.33%, 23/67). Among the diagnosed genetic diseases, those affecting the cardiovascular system (63.16%, 84/133), nervous system (18.05%, 24/133), and endocrine system (13.53%, 18/133) ranked as the top three. The most common genetic diseases identified through WES in adult patients were hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (18.80%, 25/133), dilated cardiomyopathy (16.54%, 22/133), Marfan syndrome (15.04%, 20/133), epilepsy (9.02%, 12/133), and familial hypercholesterolemia (4.51%, 6/133). The main causative genes identified included FBN1 (14.29%, 19/133), MYBPC3 (9.02%, 12/133), MYH7 (9.02%, 12/133), LDLR (3.76%, 5/133), TTN (3.76%, 5/133), and TNNI3 (3.01%, 4/133).Conclusion:Applying the WES technique in clinical practice can improve the diagnostic rate of adult genetic diseases, especially in adult patients with suspected genetic conditions involving the cardiovascular system, nervous system, and endocrine system.

The global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has infected over 109 million people, leading to over 2 million deaths up to date and still lacking of effective drugs for patient treatment. Here, we screened about 1.8 million small molecules against the main protease (M^pro) and papain like protease (PL^pro), two major proteases in severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 genome, and identified 1851M^pro inhibitors and 205 PL^pro inhibitors with low nmol/l activity of the best hits. Among these inhibitors, eight small molecules showed dual inhibition effects on both M^pro and PL^pro, exhibiting potential as better candidates for COVID-19 treatment. The best inhibitors of each protease were tested in antiviral assay, with over 40% of M^pro inhibitors and over 20% of PL^pro inhibitors showing high potency in viral inhibition with low cytotoxicity. The X-ray crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 M^pro in complex with its potent inhibitor 4a was determined at 1.8 Å resolution. Together with docking assays, our results provide a comprehensive resource for future research on anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug development.
Humans ; Antiviral Agents/chemistry* ; COVID-19 ; COVID-19 Drug Treatment ; High-Throughput Screening Assays ; Molecular Docking Simulation ; Protease Inhibitors/chemistry* ; SARS-CoV-2/enzymology* ; Viral Nonstructural Proteins