Sphingolipids, especially ceramide and S1P, are structural components of biological membranes and bioactive molecules which participate in diverse cellular activities such as cell division, differentiation, gene expression and apoptosis. Emerging evidence demonstrates the role of sphingolipids in hepatocellular death, which contributes to the progression of several liver diseases including ischaemia-reperfusion liver injury, steatohepatitis or hepatocarcinogenesis. Furthermore, some data indicate that the accumulation of some sphingolipids contributes to the hepatic dysfunctions. Hence, understanding of sphingolipid may open up a novel therapeutic avenue to liver diseases. This review focuses on the progress in the sphingolipid metabolic pathway with a focus on hepatic diseases and drugs targeting the sphingolipid pathway.

Objective]The aim of this study was to investigate the level of serum C3,C4 and HDL-C in patients with coronary heart disease and the correlation between C3,C4 and HDL-C in patients with coronary heart disease.[Methods]We collected 251 cases of patient diagnosed with coronary artery disease by coronary angiography in Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital ,Sun Yat-Sen University from 2015-12 to 2016-07 and collected over our Boji Medical Center healthy people in 214 cases. These patients were divided into acute coronary syndrome group with 180 cases and stable coronary heart disease group with 71 cases. Each test results was adopted from clinical laboratory of Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital ,Sun Yat-Sen University.[Results]Compared with the healthy control ,the difference of serum C3,C4 and HDL-C from acute coronary syndrome group and stable coronary heart disease group,was statistically significant(P<0.05). However,in patients with acute coronary syndrome and stable coronary artery disease groups,there was no significant correlation(P > 0.05)between C3,C4 and HDL-C. In healthy group,complement C3 negatively correlated with HDL-C,the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).[Conclusions]In patients with coronary heart disease, the level of C3 and C4 increased,while the level of HDL-C decreased ,and inflammation may affect the relevance judgments between complement and HDL-C.

BACKGROUNDSignificant efforts have been made to identify factors that differentiate patients treated with novel therapies, such as bortezomib in multiple myeloma (MM). The exact expression pattern and prognostic value of the cancer/testis antigen preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) in MM are unknown and were explored in this study.

METHODSThe transcript level of PRAME was detected in bone marrow specimens from 100 newly diagnosed MM patients using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and the prognostic value of PRAME was determined through retrospective survival analysis. PRAME expression higher than the upper limit of normal bone marrow was defined as PRAME overexpression or PRAME (+).

RESULTSSixty-two patients (62.0%) overexpressed PRAME. PRAME overexpression showed no prognostic significance to either overall survival (n = 100) or progression-free survival (PFS, n = 96, all P > 0.05) of patients. The patients were also categorized according to regimens with or without bortezomib. PRAME overexpression tended to be associated with a lower two-year PFS rate in patients treated with non-bortezomib-containing regimens (53.5% vs. 76.9%, P = 0.071). By contrast, it was not associated with the two-year PFS rate in patients with bortezomib-containing regimens (77.5% vs. 63.9%, P > 0.05). When the patients were categorized into PRAME (+) and PRAME (-) groups, treatment with bortezomibcontaining regimens predicted a higher two-year PFS rate in PRAME (+) patients (77.5% vs. 53.5%, P = 0.027) but showed no significant effect on two-year PFS rate in PRAME (-) patients (63.9% vs. 76.9%, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONPRAME overexpression might be an adverse prognostic factor of PFS in MM patients treated with non-bortezomib-containing regimens. Bortezomib improves PFS in patients overexpressing PRAME.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antigens, Neoplasm ; metabolism ; Boronic Acids ; therapeutic use ; Bortezomib ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multiple Myeloma ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; mortality ; Pyrazines ; therapeutic use ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Young Adult