OBJECTIVETo evaluate the preventive and therapeutic effect of thymosin alpha(1) on lung infections in critical patients with tracheotomy.

METHODSForty-two patients were randomly divided into treatment group and control group to receive daily subcutaneous thymosin injection at 11.6 mg and saline of 2 ml for 7 days, respectively.

RESULTSCompared with the control group, the infection rate, white blood cell count, C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukiu-6 were significantly lower in the treatment group.

CONCLUSIONThymosin alpha(1) can be effective for prevention and treatment of lung infections in critical patients with tracheotomy and may improve the patients' immunity and prognosis.

Adjuvants, Immunologic ; therapeutic use ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Brain Injuries ; drug therapy ; surgery ; Cerebral Infarction ; drug therapy ; Critical Illness ; Female ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pneumonia ; prevention & control ; Thymosin ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Tracheotomy ; adverse effects

Objective To evaluate the short-term curative effect and the safety of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) therapy by using microspheres and lipiodol for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods A total of 87 patients with pathologically proved HCC were randomly divided into the study group (n=44,using embospheres of 100-300 μm in diameter together with lipiodol) and the control group (n=43,using gelfoam particles of 350-560 μm in diameter together with lipiodol).Postopertaive biochemical (liver function and AFP) findings and imaging (CT and/or MRI) manifestations were recorded,and the clinical efficacy and adverse reactions were analyzed.Results TACE was performed in all 87 patients.After the treatment,both the disease benefit rate and the postoperative reduction in AFP level in the study group were remarkably better than those in the control group (P＜0.05),but postoperative liver function indexes were not significantly different from the preoperative ones (P＞0.05).The average number of interventional therapy within the follow-up period of 6 months in the study group was smaller than that in the control group (P＜0.05).No statistically significant differences in 6-,12-and 18-month survival rates existed between the two groups (P＞0.05).Conclusion In treating HCC,TACE by combination use of microspheres and lipiodol is safe,its short-term curative effect is more obvious than TACE by combination use of gelfoam particles and lipiodol,and it can reduce the times of interventional procedure.Before TACE,careful planning of the pre-treatment of hepatic artery-portal vein fistula and the superselective catheterization with micro catheter should be taken into consideration.

PURPOSE: Immune suppression is common in patients with advanced breast cancer but the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon have not been sufficiently studied. In this study, we aimed to identify B7 family members that were able to predict the immune status of patients, and which may serve as potential targets for the treatment of breast cancer. We also aimed to identify microRNAs that may regulate the expression of B7 family members. METHODS: The Cancer Genome Atlas data from 1,092 patients with breast cancer, including gene expression, microRNA expression and survival data, were used for statistical and survival analyses. Polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were used to measure messenger RNA and protein expression, respectively. Luciferase assay was used to investigate direct microRNA target. RESULTS: Bioinformatic analysis predicted that microRNA (miR)-93, miR-195, miR-497, and miR-340 are potential regulators of the immune evasion of breast cancer cells, and that they exert this function by targeting CD274, PDCD1LG2, and NCR3LG1. We chose CD274 for further investigations. We found that miR-195, miR-497, and CD274 expression levels were inversely correlated in MDA-MB-231 cells, and miR-195 and miR-497 expressions mimic inhibited CD274 expression in vitro. Mechanistic investigations demonstrated that miR-195 and miR-497 directly target CD274 3′ untranslated region. CONCLUSION: Our data indicated that the level of B7 family members can predict the prognosis of breast cancer patients, and miR-195/miR-497 regulate CD274 expression in triple negative breast cancer. This regulation may further influence tumor progression and the immune tolerance mechanism in breast cancer and may be able to predict the effect of immunotherapy on patients.
Antigens, CD274 ; B7 Antigens ; Blotting, Western ; Breast Neoplasms ; Computational Biology ; Gene Expression ; Genome ; Humans ; Immune Evasion ; Immune Tolerance ; Immunotherapy ; In Vitro Techniques ; Ligands* ; Luciferases ; MicroRNAs ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prognosis ; RNA, Messenger ; Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms* ; Untranslated Regions