Afatinib is an irreversible inhibitor for the ErbB family of tyrosine kinases with oral administration. In two randomized, open-label and multinational phase III trials, the progression-free survival was significantly prolonged by afatinib compared with peme-trexed plus cisplatin (LUX-Lung 3) or gemcitabine plus cisplatin (LUX-Lung 6) in the treatment-naive patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer ( NSCLC) with activating EGFR mutations. The patient-reported symptoms such as cough and dyspnoea, and certain health-related quality of life after the treatment by afatinib were also better than those treated by control dugs. Afatinib was ap-proved by FDA in July 2013 as the first-line treatment drug for the patients with metastatic NSCLC with EGFR exon 19 deletions or exon 21 (L858R) mutations. The action mechanisms, pharmacokinetics, clinical trials and adverse events were reviewed in this paper.

The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, is a destructive pest native to America and has recently become an invasive insect pest in China. Because of its rapid spread and great risks in China, understanding of FAW genetic background and pesticide resistance is urgent and essential to develop effective management strategies. Here, we assembled a chromosome-level genome of a male FAW (SFynMstLFR) and compared re-sequencing results of the populations from America, Africa, and China. Strain identification of 163 individuals collected from America, Africa and China showed that both C and R strains were found in the American populations, while only C strain was found in the Chinese and African populations. Moreover, population genomics analysis showed that populations from Africa and China have close relationship with significantly genetic differentiation from American populations. Taken together, FAWs invaded into China were most likely originated from Africa. Comparative genomics analysis displayed that the cytochrome p450 gene family is extremely expanded to 425 members in FAW, of which 283 genes are specific to FAW. Treatments of Chinese populations with twenty-three pesticides showed the variant patterns of transcriptome profiles, and several detoxification genes such as AOX, UGT and GST specially responded to the pesticides. These findings will be useful in developing effective strategies for management of FAW in China and other invaded areas.
Animals ; China ; Genomics ; Humans ; Male ; Pesticides ; Spodoptera/genetics* ; Transcriptome