Toad venom as a Chinese traditional natural medicine with a kind of effective chemical components has been widely used for many disease.Recently more and more research was focused on its remarkable antitumor efforts, new studies have found that the mechanism was closely associated with endoplasmic reticulum stress,tumor-related inflammation, autophagy, mitochondria-induced apoptosis pathway, heat chock protein and immuneomodulatory.In this article we reviewed the antitumor research advances of toad venom and its active compounds from several aspects mentioned above.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the changes and determine the difference of electrode impedance and neural response telemetry ( NRT) value with cochlear implants in children with malformed inner ear and normal inner ear. METHOD: Eighty-eight children with multi-channel cochlear implants participated in this study. Children were divided into malformed inner ear group and normal inner ear group. To test the electrode impedance values and NRT value. RESULT: The changes of electrode impedance showed the similar changing pattern in two groups. There was not different in electrode impedance values between the two groups (P > 0.05). The changes of electrode neural response telemetry values showed the similar changing pattern in two groups. There was significantly different in electrode impedance values between the two groups (P < 0.05). The NRT were going up higher from electrode 22 to electrode 1. CONCLUSION The values vary are different programming sessions and electrodes during the first 3 months of cochlear implant use. To acquire better hearing frequent programming sessions are necessary.
Adolescent ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants ; Cochlear Nerve ; Ear, Inner ; abnormalities ; physiopathology ; surgery ; Electric Impedance ; Electrodes ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Male

Objective To explore the relationship between cholecystoadenomyomatosis and gallbladder cancer.Method The expression of p53,bcl-2,EGFR oncoproteins were examined by method of immunohistochemistry in benign lesions and carcinomas in gallbladder.Results The study revealed that overexpressions of p53,bcl-2,EGFR oncoproteins were detected in 0,4,3 cases of 21 patients with chronic cholecystitis;0,5,3 cases of 20 patients with cholecysto-adenomyomatosis and 16,14,11 cases of 25 patients with adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder respectively.There were significantly differences in single or multiple oncogene expression rates among groups,but not in chronic cholecystitis to adenomyomatosis.Conclusions These results suggests that oncogenic changes of p53,bcl-2,EGFR expression may play a role in gallbladder oncogenesis,cholecystoadenomyomaltosis should not be considered as an important precancerous lesion of gallbladder.

Extracorporeal shock wave treatment is capable of providing a non-surgical and effective treatment modality for patients suffering from osteoarthritis. The major objective of current works is to investigate how the shock wave (SW) field would change if a bony structure exists in the path of the acoustic wave. Firstly, a model of finite element method (FEM) was developed based on Comsol software in the present study. Then, high-speed photography experiments were performed to record cavitation bubbles with the presence of mimic bone. On the basis of comparing experimental with simulated results, the effectiveness of FEM model could be verified. Finally, the energy distribution during extracorporeal shock wave treatment was predicted. The results showed that the shock wave field was deflected with the presence of bony structure and varying deflection angles could be observed as the bone shifted up in the z-direction relative to shock wave geometric focus. Combining MRI/CT scans to FEM modeling is helpful for better standardizing the treatment dosage and optimizing treatment protocols in the clinic.
Finite Element Analysis ; Humans ; Lithotripsy ; Models, Theoretical ; Osteoarthritis ; therapy ; Photography ; Software ; Sound

The electrochemical behaviors of parathion(PT) on nano-Al2O3 film modified electrode(nano-Al2O3/GCE/CME) were investigated. It was found that the redox peak currents of PT remarkably increased and the oxidation peak potential negatively shifted at the nano-Al2O3/GCE/CME. All the experimental parameters were optimized and a simple and sensitive electroanalytical method was developed for the determination of PT. The oxidation peak current was linear with the concentration of PT over the range from 2.5×10-9 to 1.0×10-7 mol/L and 1.0×10-7 to 1.0×10-5 mol/L. A low detection limit of 1.0×10-9 mol/L was obtained for 30 s accumulation at open circuit(S/N=3). The relative standard deviation(n=10) was 3.8% for 1×10-5 mol/L PT. The proposed method was used for the quantitative analysis of PT in some vegetables and the results were satisfactory.

Both microRNA and DNA methylation are the important contents of epigenetic modification.Lots of studies have confirmed that mutual regulation of microRNA and DNA methylation involve in tumorgenesis and development of cancer.The studies of their mechanisms bring some new ideas for investigating the pathogenesis of tumors,and provide a theoretical basis for the early diagnosis and treatment.

The present study was performed to investigate the relationship between the countercurrent of portal vein and intrahepatic cancerometastasis in patients with hepatic carcinoma under color Doppler flow imaging.To display the situation of portal carcinomatous thrombosis and intrahepatic cancerometastasis, two dimensional ultrasound was carried out in patients with hepatitis hepatocarcinoma and non hepatitis hepatocarcinoma. Also, color Doppler flow imaging was employed to examine the incidence of the pylic countercurrent and the portal vein hepatic artery fistula in four groups: hepatitis hepatocarcinoma group, non-hepatitis hepatocarcinoma group, hepatocirrhosis group and control group. The results showed that the incidences of portal carcinomatous thrombosis,intrahepatic cancerometastasis and the incidences of the countercurrent in portal vein were higher in hepatitis hepatocarcinoma group than those in non hepatitis hepatocarcinoma group ( P

Telomeres are protective caps located at the ends of human chromosomes. Telomeres shorten with each successive cell di-vision in normal human cells, whereas they are continuously elongated by human telomerase in over 85%of tumors. This simple and attractive difference steers the development of anticancer drugs targeting telomeres and telomerase. Many promising current telo-mere/telomerase-targeting agents, such as GRN163L and GV1001, showed good therapeutic effect both in preclinical studies and phaseⅠ/Ⅱclinical trials. These agents have even entered phaseⅢclinical trials in patients with various tumors. Most therapeutics are more effective when used in combination with standard chemotherapies. Moreover, pharmacological interference with tumor-cell telomere biology to reduce telomere length and/or telomere stability could enhance the effectiveness and safety of radiotherapy. Therapeutics targeting telomere/telomerase may play a key role in radiotherapy in the era of personalized medicine in the future.

Objective To compare the recent adverse reactions caused by 131I-Metuximab (licartin) treatment via two different routes and to assess the safety and advantages of peripheral intravenous bolus of licartin for the treatment of advanced HCC.Methods Clinical data of 54 patients (45 males,9 females,age 33-80 years) with advanced HCC treated with Licartin in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from October 2010 to March 2013 were collected and analyzed.The patients were divided into vein group (n=33) with Licartin injected through peripheral vein and artery group (n =21) with Licartin injected through hepatic artery.The results of blood routine examination,liver and kidney function and thyroid function between the two groups (1 week before treatment,4 and 12 weeks after treatment) were compared.The adverse reaction rate (ARR) and adverse reaction progression rate (ARPR) were also compared between the 2 groups.Ten days after Licartin treatment,all patients underwent gamma imaging to access the drug distribution in vivo.x2 test and two-sample t test were used to analyze data.Results There were no significant differences on age,gender and TNM staging between the vein group and the artery group (t =0.721,x2=0.561 and 4.769,all P＞0.05).The vein group showed temporary drug-related leucopenia (x2=7.041,P＜0.05) and increased level of serum total bilirubin (STB;x2 =10.297,P＜0.05) 4 weeks post-treatment.Twelve weeks later,the above parameters returned to baseline.In artery group,no influence on liver and kidney functions was observed,but the numbers of WBC and PLT decreased significantly (x2 =8.949 and 8.778,both P＜0.05) and returned to baseline 12 weeks post-treatment.The ARR in patients who had normal ALT levels before treatment between the two groups was significantly different(3.33％(1/30) vs 5/19,x2=5.718,P＜0.05).No significant difference was observed on ARR in patients with normal level of other parameters,and on ARPR in patients with abnormal preoperative parameters between the two groups (x2 =0.000-2.500,all P＞0.05).The drug's in vivo biodistribution and the thyroid function between the 2 groups showed no significant difference.Conclusion The peripheral intravenous bolus administration of Licartin is safe to treat patients with advanced HCC.

Phage display technology describes a genetic engineering technique in which a library of peptide or protein variants is expressed on the outside of a phage virion,while the genetic material encodes each variant resides on the inside and maintains the relatively independent spatial structure and biological activity. Studies have shown that the phage display technology can be used to screen tumor homing peptides,target trans-porting anti-substances,develop vaccines,research diagnostic regents and image in blood vessels.Thus phage display technology is a powerful method to overcome the challenge of tumor disease.