Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is a malignant liver tumor derived from the epithelial cells of the second- or higher-order branch of the bile duct, with the features of insidious early symptoms, high degree of malignancy, rapid disease progression, lymph node metastasis, intrahepatic metastasis, and vascular invasion, and such patients tend to have poor prognosis. Early diagnosis can improve the radical resection rate and prognosis of ICC. At present, the preoperative diagnosis of ICC mainly relies on imaging technology, laboratory examination, and pathological examination. In addition, some new diagnostic methods have also been used in the diagnosis of ICC in recent years, but histopathological examination remains the only method for the diagnosis of ICC. This article reviews the latest research advances in the diagnosis of ICC.

Diarrhea is a common intestinal symptom in macaque.The corresponding intestinal lesions of macaque are mainly described at autopsy but less observed by colonoscopy.The aim of this study was to develop a colonoscopic technique and to obtain endoscopic images of the entire colon in macaques.Eight healthy adult macaques ( 5 males and 3 females) without diarrhea for 2 months, were fed Glauber’ s salt through nasogastric tubes.The colon cleanliness was well matched to the endoscopic observation of macaque colon.The procedure took 10-20 min for each animal.There was no obvious abnormality in the colon of four animals except some slight differences of mucosal structure from that of human beings.Small pieces of erosion and ulcer in the colons were observed in four macaques which presented mild diarrhea for less than 1 day, while a severe stenosis was observed in one of those four macaques.No animal died during and one week after the endoscopic procedure.Colonoscopy may safely performed in macaques.The images taken by colonoscopy may be important to establish diagnosis and treatment of colitis in macaques in time and to evaluate the efficacy of drug intervention as well.This technique is also helpful to provide qualified macaques for scientific researches.

The 30th annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery (JSHBPS) was held in Yokohama,Japan between June 7 and 9,2018.The latest research trends and advances in biliary tract cancer from this meeting were summarized and shared in this paper.The main content includes:history of biliary cancer surgery for recent 30 years and the future of HBP surgery for malignancies,establish of worldwide prospective database of biliary cancer and identify the optimal treatment for early gallbladder cancer,clinical research of neoadjuvant / adjuvant therapy,and progress in basic research of biliary malignancies.

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is the second most common primary hepatic malignancy with an increasing incidence and mortality in recent years.Despite advanced improvements in its diagnosis and therapy,the prognosis for ICC patients remains poor.High heterogeneity and malignant biological behavior are the main factors determining the prognosis of ICC.An in-depth study of the mechanism of ICC invasion and metastasis is expected to help optimizing clinical decision-making.The application of advanced technologies such as next-generation sequencing has enhanced the researchers' understanding of heterogeneity of ICC and characteristics of invasion and metastasis.Studies have found that ICC gene expression abnormalities (gene mutations,fusion gene formation,and abnormalities in gene expression regulatory pathways) and microRNA expression disorders are closely related to ICC cell proliferation,invasion and metastasis.In addition,ICC is usually characterized by a dense desmoplastic stroma,in which cancer-associated myofibroblasts are the major cellular components and play an important role in inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition,promoting malignant cell invasion and metastasis,and even accelerating ICC progression.

Objective:To study the expression of forkhead box P1 (FOXP1) in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), and its clinicopathological and prognostic significance.Methods:The clinical data of ICC patients treated with radical resection at Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine from January 1, 2013 to December 12, 2019 were retrospectively analysed. Of 48 ICC patients, there were 24 males and 24 females, with age of (59.1±10.1) years old (range 42 to 83 years old). Their clinicopathological data, including age, gender, tumor size, degree of differentiation, and staging were recorded. Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of FOXP1 protein in ICC cancer tissues and the corresponding adjacent normal tissues. Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate survival rates and to construct survival curves of patients. Cox regression model was used to analyze factors affecting prognosis of patients.Results:Forty-eight ICC cancer tissues and 40 corresponding paracancerous tissues were collected. The positive rates of FOXP1 proteins in ICC were significantly lower than the adjacent normal tissues [54.2%(26/48) vs. 92.5%(37/40), χ 2=15.76, P<0.05]. The degrees of tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, organ invasion and TNM staging were related to expression of FOXP1 ( P<0.05). Forty-two patients were followed-up with a median follow-up time of 11.5 (7.75, 19.25) months. Cox multivariate analysis revealed that invasion to adjacent organs, lymph node metastasis, high TNM staging (stage Ⅲ) and negative expression of FOXP1 were independent risk factors affecting overall survival of ICC patients. The overall survival and recurrence-free survival of FOXP1-positive ICC patients were 17.5 months and 15.5 months, which were significantly higher than the 14.0 months and 11.1 months, respectively, in FOXP1-negative patients. Conclusion:Negative FOXP1 expression was closely correlated with aggressive biological behavior and poor prognosis of ICC. FOXP1 may be used as new diagnostic and therapeutic targets.

Marine microorganisms, especially marine fungi, have historically proven their value as a prolific source for structurally novel and pharmacologically active secondary metabolites (Deshmukh et al., 2018; Carroll et al., 2022). The corals constitute a dominant part of reefs with the highest biodiversity, and harbor highly diverse and abundant microbial symbionts in their tissue, skeleton, and mucus layer, with species-specific core members that are spatially partitioned across coral microhabitats (Wang WQ et al., 2022). The coral-associated fungi were very recently found to be vital producers of structurally diverse compounds, terpenes, alkaloids, peptides, aromatics, lactones, and steroids. They demonstrate a wide range of bioactivity such as anticancer, antimicrobial, and antifouling activity (Chen et al., 2022). The genetically powerful genus Emericella (Ascomycota), which has marine and terrestrial sources, includes over 30 species and is distributed worldwide. It is considered a rich source of diverse secondary metabolites with antimicrobial activity or cytotoxicity (Alburae et al., 2020). Notably, Emericella nidulans, the sexual state of a classic biosynthetic strain Aspergillus nidulans, was recently reported as an important source of highly methylated polyketides (Li et al., 2019) and isoindolone-containing meroterpenoids (Zhou et al., 2016) with unusual skeletons.
Animals ; Aspergillus nidulans ; Polyketides/chemistry* ; Anthozoa/microbiology* ; Anti-Infective Agents/pharmacology* ; Alkaloids