Recently,the prevalence of human papillomavirus(HPV)infection in head and neck squa-mous cancers has shown an upward trend,especially in the oropharynx squamous carcinoma. This subset of head and neck cancers possesses distinct clinical and laboratory features and outcome,and is particulary com-mon in individuals who lack the traditional risk factors of tobacco and alcohol abuse. The biological markers and treatment of HPV associated head neck cancers are hot topic in current international research.

ABSTRACT:Objective To explore the effects of virus interleukin‐10 (vIL‐10 ) on different expressions of MHC‐I antigen processing “the operon” .Methods We collected nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells (CNE‐1 and CNE‐2) treated by vIL‐10 at different time points ,and detected the changes of MHC‐I antigen processing “the operons” (TAP‐1 ,TAP‐2 ,LMP‐2 ,LMP‐7 and HLA‐I) by RT‐PCR and Western blot .Results ① mRNA level :There was no difference in the expression of TAP‐1 in CNE‐1 and CNE‐2 cells at various time points .The expressions of TAP‐2 and LMP‐2 in CNE‐1 and CNE‐2 did not change at 1 ,4 ,6 ,12 h ,but downregulated and even disappeared at 24 h .The expression of LMP‐7 in CNE‐1 decreased 4 h after vIL‐10 was added ,and that in CNE‐2 decreased at 6 h .The expression of HLA‐I in CNE‐1 and CNE‐2 showed significant decrease at 24 h .② Protein expression :The expression of TAP‐1 in CNE‐1 and CNE‐2 showed significant decrease at 24 h .The expression of TAP‐2 in CNE‐1 and CNE‐2 was gradually downregulated at different time points .The expressions of LMP‐2 and LMP‐7 in CNE‐2 were gradually downregulated at different periods ,while that in CNE‐1 was only decreased at 12 h .The expression of HLA‐I in CNE‐1 and CNE‐2 was gradually downregulated ,but there was no significant difference at each period in CNE‐1 ,while the expression of HLA‐I in CNE‐2 at 24 h was significantly downregulated .Conclusion vIL‐10 can inhibit the expression of MHC‐I antigen processing “the operon” in NPC in the time‐dependent manner .

OBJECTIVETo obtain streptavidin-tagged human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (SA/hGM-CSF) fusion protein and evaluate its bioactivity .

METHODSPET24a-6His-SA-L-hGM-CSF and PET24a-hGM-CSF-L-SA-6His plasmids were constructed and expressed in Rosetta (DE3) host bacteria to generate the fusion proteins. The two fusion proteins were refolded by gradient dialysis after Ni-NTA affinity chromatography and finally purified using DEAE-sepharose FF anion exchange chromatography. MTT method was used to evaluate the effect of SA/hGM-CSF fusion proteins in inducing the proliferation of human erythroleukemia cells (TF-1). The efficiency of the fusion proteins for surface modification of biotinylated MB49 tumor cells was evaluated by flow cytometry.

RESULTSThe recombinant fusion proteins SA-hGM-CSF and hGM-CSF-SA were highly expressed in Rosetta (DE3) at about 20% of the total bacterial proteins, with a purity of about 96% after purification. The two fusion proteins exhibited bifunctional activities, namely the pro-proliferation effect on human erythroleukemia cells (TF-1) and SA-mediated high-affinity binding to biotinylated cell surfaces (with an anchoring modified rate of about 99%).

CONCLUSIONSA/hGM-CSF bi-fusion proteins obtained in this study lays the groundwork for the development of cancer cell vaccines with surface modification by hGM-CSF.

Biomarkers ; Cancer Vaccines ; biosynthesis ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Diterpenes ; pharmacology ; Escherichia coli ; metabolism ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor ; biosynthesis ; Humans ; Membrane Fusion Proteins ; biosynthesis ; Plasmids ; Streptavidin ; chemistry

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility and safety of percutaneous ¹²⁵I seed permanent implantation for advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma from toxicity, tumor response, and short-term outcome. METHODS: ¹²⁵I seeds implant procedures were performed under computed tomography for 34 patients with advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma. We observed the local control rate, overall survival, and acute or late toxicity rate. RESULTS: In the 34 patients (stage III, n=6; stage IV, n=28), the sites of origin were pyriform sinus (n=29) and postcricoid area (n=5). All patients also received one to four cycles of chemotherapy after seed implantation. The post-plan showed that the actuarial D90 of ¹²⁵I seeds ranged from 90 to 158 Gy (median, 127 Gy). The mean follow-up was 12.3 months (range, 3.4 to 43.2 months). The local control was 2.1–31.0 months with a median of 17.7 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 13.4 to 22.0 months). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year local controls were 65.3%, 28.6%, and 9.5% respectively. Twelve patients (35%) died of local recurrence, fourteen patients (41%) died of distant metastases, and three patients (9%) died of recurrence and metastases at the same time. Five patients (15%) still survived to follow-up. At the time of analysis, the median survival time was 12.5 months (95% CI, 9.5 to 15.4 months). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival rates were 55.2%, 20.3%, and 10.9%, respectively. Five patients (15%) experienced grade 3 toxic events and nine patients (26%) have experienced grade 2 toxic events. CONCLUSION: This review shows relatively low toxicity for interstitial ¹²⁵I seed implantation in the patients with advanced stage hypopharyngeal cancer. The high local control results suggest that ¹²⁵I seed brachytherapy implant as a salvage or palliative treatment for advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma merit further investigation.
Brachytherapy ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hypopharyngeal Neoplasms ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Palliative Care* ; Pyriform Sinus ; Recurrence ; Survival Rate

Pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) is a well-recognized complication of ABO major mismatched allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), with a reported incidence of 10%-20% (Zhidong et al., 2012; Busca et al., 2018). It is clinically characterized by anemia, reticulocytopenia, and the absence of erythroblasts in a normal-appearing bone marrow biopsy (Shahan and Hildebrandt, 2015). The mechanism for PRCA has been presumed to be persistence of recipient isoagglutinins, produced by residual host B lymphocytes or plasma cells, which can interfere with the engraftment of donor erythroid cells (Zhidong et al., 2012). Several risk factors of PRCA at presentation are known, such as presence of anti-A isoagglutinins before transplantation, reduced intensity conditioning, absence of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), sibling donors, and cyclosporin A (CsA) as GVHD prophylaxis (Hirokawa et al., 2013). PRCA is not considered to be a barrier to HSCT, as some patients can recover spontaneously or benefit from various approaches including high-dose steroids, erythropoietin (EPO), plasma exchange, immunoadsorption, donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI), treatment with rituximab, bortezomib, or daratumumab, and tapering or discontinuation of immunosuppression (Hirokawa et al., 2013; Bathini et al., 2019). However, there are still some patients who fail to respond even to aggressive treatment; they become red cell transfusion-dependent and iron-overloaded, and their life quality is impaired.