AIM To evaluate bioavailability, biocompa- tibility and biodegradability of an injectable microsphere sustained release preparation of naltrexone(NTX) in 4 dogs. METHODS Pharmacokinetic data of NTX and remained NTX in microspheres in injection site were studied using high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC)-electrochemical detection with naloxone(NLX) as internal standard. Biocompatibility of the microspheres was assayed by histological examination. RESULTSPharmacokinetics of NTX after an intramuscular dose of 0.5 or 1.0 mg*kg-1 NTX indicated a plasma clearance range of 0.66 to 0.73 L*min-1 and a t1/2β range of 60.0 to 67.2 min. After a 1-week washout period without medication, NTX microspheres injection period about 4 weeks followed. After injection of 1.0 g of microspheres containing (296.5±2.1)mg of NTX, mean blood concentrations of NTX exceeded 1 μg*L-1 for 26-28 d, and cmax per dose (mg*kg-1) was only 1% of that after NTX dosing. It was estimated that approximately (93.0±4.1)% of the administered dose was absorbed after microspheres injection in 4 dogs. There were no serious adverse effects other than light tissue irritation. CONCLUSIONThis NTX microspheres preparation provides a safe, complete and sustained release of the drug for about one month.

Objective To explore the difference of resting-state default-mode network functional connectivity in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and in healthy subjects. Methods Ten patients with TRD and 12 healthy control subjects underwent 440 s fMRI scans while resting quietly. Functional connectivity analysis was used to isolate the default mode network in each subject. Group maps of the default-mode network were generated and compared between the two groups. A within-group analysis was performed in the depressed group to explore effects of depression refractoriness on network functional connectivity. Results Functional connectivity of both side of middle temporal gyrus, rectal gyrus, precuneus gray matter, left orbital gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule, and post cingulate gyrus in TRD group weakened compared with that of the control subjects. Conclusion There are resting default network connection weakening in multiple brain areas in TRD patients, which may lead to self-control and emotional behavior abnormal in patients.

Objective To explore the relationship between the increase of transmural dispersion of repolarization with ventricular arrhythmia,myocardial infarction degree and coronary events in elderly patients with myocardial infarction at T peak-T end interval in order to provide the guidance instruction for the assessment of prognosis of elderly myocardial infarction.Methods One hundred and twenty cases of senile myocardial infarction in the cardiology department of our hospital were selected,including 73 males and 47 females,the average age was (62.37 ± 11.34) years old.In addition,76 elderly cases of other heart disease were selected as the control group,including 42 males and 34 females,the average age was (59.56 ± 12.64) years old.The T peak-T end interval,dispersion and T peak-T end interval and dispersion after correcting the heart ratein different groups were analyzed.Results The T peak-T end interval,dispersion and T peak-T end interval and dispersion after correcting the heart rate had statistical differences between the control group and AMI group at admission and between the acute stage and recovery stage in the AMI group (P＜0.01);the T peak-T end interval and dispersion before and after correcting the heart rate had statistical differences among the patients with different ventricular arrhythmia (P＜0.01);the T peak-T end interval and dispersion before and after correcting the heart rate had statistical differences among the patients with anterior lateral wall,anterior wall,inferior wall,high lateral wall and multiple vessels infarction (P＜0.01);the case death after correcting the heart rate in different degrees and coronary event occurrence at admission had statistical difference (P＜0.01).Conclusion The T peak-T end interval has a close relation with malignant arrhythmia occurrence,which has an important predictive value for the short term prognosis in elderly patients with AMI.

Objective To investigate the impact of sample typeon the detection of c-KIT exon 17 mutation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Methods A retrospective study was conducted on 51 bone marrow samples collected from 37 AML patients [17 maleand 20 female, with a median age of 33 (range from 1 to 82)] at diagnosis or after treatment from June 2016 to August 2018. Of the 37 cases of AML, 24 were t(8; 21) AML, 11 were inv(16)/t(16;16) AML and 2 were non-CBF-AML. RNA and DNA were simultaneously extracted from every sample. PCR followed by Sanger sequencing were used to screen c-KIT exon 17 mutation, and the comparisons were made between paired cDNA and DNAsamples. Results (1) Of the 51 paired samples, 14 pairs were simultaneously detected positive for c-KITmutation in both of cDNA and DNA samples, but 17 pairs were detected negative in both, and the remaining 20 pairswere only detected positive for the mutation in cDNA but not in DNA, with an inconsistency rate of 39.2％. The positive rate of detecting c-KITmutation was significantly higher in cDNA than in DNA samples (66.7％vs 27.5％,P=0.000073). (2)Inconsistent mutation results between paired cDNA and DNA samples occurred in t(8;21)AML, inv(16)AML and non-CBF-AML patients with the inconsistency rate of 36.4％(12/33), 27.2％(3/11) and 71.4％ (5/7), respectively. (3)The inconsistency rate was significantly higher in samples collected after treatment compared with those collected at diagnosis (72.7％vs 13.8％, P=0.00003). (4) All 5 serially monitored patients with c-KITmutation had inconsistency in mutation detection between cDNA and DNA samples during follow up. Conclusion cDNA improves the detection of c-KIT exon 17 mutation in AML patients compared with DNA, which is especially common after treatment.

BACKGROUNDSignificant efforts have been made to identify factors that differentiate patients treated with novel therapies, such as bortezomib in multiple myeloma (MM). The exact expression pattern and prognostic value of the cancer/testis antigen preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) in MM are unknown and were explored in this study.

METHODSThe transcript level of PRAME was detected in bone marrow specimens from 100 newly diagnosed MM patients using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and the prognostic value of PRAME was determined through retrospective survival analysis. PRAME expression higher than the upper limit of normal bone marrow was defined as PRAME overexpression or PRAME (+).

RESULTSSixty-two patients (62.0%) overexpressed PRAME. PRAME overexpression showed no prognostic significance to either overall survival (n = 100) or progression-free survival (PFS, n = 96, all P > 0.05) of patients. The patients were also categorized according to regimens with or without bortezomib. PRAME overexpression tended to be associated with a lower two-year PFS rate in patients treated with non-bortezomib-containing regimens (53.5% vs. 76.9%, P = 0.071). By contrast, it was not associated with the two-year PFS rate in patients with bortezomib-containing regimens (77.5% vs. 63.9%, P > 0.05). When the patients were categorized into PRAME (+) and PRAME (-) groups, treatment with bortezomibcontaining regimens predicted a higher two-year PFS rate in PRAME (+) patients (77.5% vs. 53.5%, P = 0.027) but showed no significant effect on two-year PFS rate in PRAME (-) patients (63.9% vs. 76.9%, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONPRAME overexpression might be an adverse prognostic factor of PFS in MM patients treated with non-bortezomib-containing regimens. Bortezomib improves PFS in patients overexpressing PRAME.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antigens, Neoplasm ; metabolism ; Boronic Acids ; therapeutic use ; Bortezomib ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multiple Myeloma ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; mortality ; Pyrazines ; therapeutic use ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo validate the conversion factor (CF) for the conversion of BCR-ABL (P210) transcript levels to the international scale in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

METHODSIn 2012, the international reference laboratory in Adelaide, Australia (IMVS) sent two batches of RNA samples, 30 samples per batch, to Peking University People's Hospital (PKUPH). By comparing BCRABL (P210) transcript levels reported by the two laboratories, CF of PKUPH was calculated and validated by IMVS. In 2013, PKUPH prepared the exchange samples for validation of CF of 9 hospitals who have calculated CFs before. The fresh BCR-ABL (P210) (+) cells were serially diluted by BCR-ABL (P210) (-) cells to prepare 22 kinds of samples with different BCR-ABL transcript levels, each kind had 10 parallel samples. Trizol reagent was added in each tube. Ten hospitals tested BCR-ABL transcript levels of one set of 22 samples. Agreement between BCR-ABL transcript levels of each laboratory and PKUPH was assessed by the Bland-Altman method.

RESULTSPKUPH successfully validated its CF with bias 1.1 fold and 95% limits of agreement between -4.7 and 4.9 fold. Of 9 hospitals whose validation performed by sample exchanges with PKUPH, 6 hospitals successfully validated their CF with bias ≤±1.4 fold and 95% limits of agreement within ±6 fold.

CONCLUSIONValidation of CF examined the stability of the detection of BCR-ABL (P210) transcript levels, which was necessary for the valid conversion of BCR-ABL (P210) transcript levels to the international scale in CML.

Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl ; genetics ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive ; genetics ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; standards ; Transcription, Genetic

Objective: To investigate the current status and real performance of the detection of RUNX1-RUNX1T1 fusion transcript levels and WT1 transcript levels in China through interlaboratory comparison. Methods: Peking University People’s Hospital (PKUPH) prepared the samples for comparison. That is, the fresh RUNX1-RUNX1T1 positive (+) bone morrow nucleated cells were serially diluted with RUNX1-RUNX1T1 negative (-) nucleated cells from different patients. Totally 23 sets with 14 different samples per set were prepared. TRIzol reagent was added in each tube and thoroughly mixed with cells for homogenization. Each laboratory simultaneously tested RUNX1-RUNX1T1 and WT1 transcript levels of one set of samples by real-time quantitative PCR method. All transcript levels were reported as the percentage of RUNX1-RUNX1T1 or WT1 transcript copies/ABL copies. Spearman correlation coefficient between the reported transcript levels of each participated laboratory and those of PKUPH was calculated. Results: ①RUNX1-RUNX1T1 comparison: 9 samples were (+) and 5 were (-) , the false negative and positive rates of the 20 participated laboratories were 0 (0/180) and 5% (5/100) , respectively. The reported transcript levels of all 9 positive samples were different among laboratories. The median reported transcript levels of 9 positive samples were from 0.060% to 176.7%, which covered 3.5-log. The ratios of each sample’s highest to the lowest reported transcript levels were from 5.5 to 12.3 (one result which obviously deviated from other laboratories’ results was not included) , 85% (17/20) of the laboratories had correlation coefficient ≥0.98. ②WT1 comparison: The median reported transcript levels of all 14 samples were from 0.17% to 67.6%, which covered 2.6-log. The ratios of each sample’s highest to the lowest reported transcript levels were from 5.3-13.7, 62% (13/21) of the laboratories had correlation coefficient ≥0.98. ③ The relative relationship of the reported RUNX1-RUNX1T1 transcript levels between the participants and PKUPH was not always consistent with that of WT1 transcript levels. Both RUNX1-RUNX1T1 and WT1 transcript levels from 2 and 7 laboratories were individually lower than and higher than those of PKUPH, whereas for the rest 11 laboratories, one transcript level was higher than and the other was lower than that of PKUPH. Conclusion The reported RUNX1-RUNX1T1 and WT1 transcript levels were different among laboratories for the same sample. Most of the participated laboratories reported highly consistent result with that of PKUPH. The relationship between laboratories of the different transcript levels may not be the same.