BACKGROUND:Increasing evidence has shown that lovastatin with less toxicity to normal cels has crucial effects on proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation of various cancer cels. However, its roles in glioma stem cels remain unclear.
OBJECTIVE:To explore the effect of lovastatin on proliferation and apoptosis of glioma stem cels.
METHODS: Flow cytometric sorting was used to separate glioma stem cels from human glioblastoma cel line U87. Effects of lovastatin on the proliferation and apoptosis of glioma stem cels were determined by MTT and flow cytometry, respectively. Furthermore, expression levels of Ki67, Bax and Bcl-2 in glioma stem cels treated with lovastatin were detected using western blot analysis.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The CD133-positive glioma stem cels were sorted from human glioblastoma cel line U87 with a positive percentage of 85%. MTT assay showed that lovastatin inhibited the proliferation of glioma stem cels in dose (5, 10, 20 μmol/L)- and time (24, 48, 72, 96 hours)-dependent manners. Flow cytometry analysis showed that 10 μmol/L lovastatin (48 hours) induced apoptosis in glioma stem cels. In addition, the expression level of Ki67 was decreased by lovastatin treatment in a dose-dependent manner, and the Bcl-2 and Bax expression levels were reduced and increased by 10 μmol/L lovastatin treatment, respectively. In conclusion, lovastatin can inhibit cel proliferation and induce apoptosis of glioma stem cels, and lovastatin may be a potential drug for treatment of brain tumors.

Objective:To report 2 young infants of sodium channel related epilepsy with SCN2A gene mutation, and to discuss the clinical characteristics of the disease and the efficacy and safety of lacosamide combined with the literature.Methods:Corresponding information of 2 children hospitalized in the Department of Neurology of Hunan Children′s Hospital in July 2021 and October 2021 was collected, including the symptoms, comprehensive physical examination, blood, cerebrospinal fluid, imaging, electrophysiological examination, diagnosis and treatment process, response to treatment and other clinical data, as well as the sequencing results of the whole exome of the children. The efficacy and safety of lacosamide were analyzed, and the related literatures of the Biomedical Literature Database, Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform and Chinese Knowledge Infrastructure Database were searched and reviewed.Results:Both of the 2 cases were girl. Their onset age was within 3 months. The initial symptoms were frequent convulsions and backward development. There was no structural abnormality in the head image. The convulsions could not be controlled according to conventional multidrug treatment. The seizures were quickly controlled with lacosamide. Now they have been followed up for 6 months. No obvious adverse reactions were found. Case 1 gene test results showed the SCN2A gene (chr2:166152333-166246334) heterozygous deletion, SCN1A gene (chr2:166847754-16693013) heterozygous deletion, the deletion size being about 5.72 Mb. Case 2 gene test results showed new missense mutation of SCN2A (c.1285G>A, p.Glu429Lys). There were dozens of seizures every day. They were treated with valproic acid, oxcarbazepine and levetiracetam successively. The seizures could not be controlled. Three focal seizures originated in the left temporal region were detected by electroencephalogram. There was no recurrence on the third day after adding lacosamide, and there was no attack after 5 months of follow-up. No obvious adverse reactions were found during follow-up.Conclusions:Sodium channel related epileptic encephalopathy often starts early, has frequent seizures, and can be accompanied by backward psychomotor development at the same time. The slow sodium channel blocker lacosamide has good efficacy and safety in the treatment of sodium channel-related epilepsy with SCN2A gene mutation or combined SCN1A gene mutation.

Objective　To investigate the expression level of serum microrna-493 (mir-493) in patients with acute cerebral infarction (ACI) and its relationship with the prognosis after thrombolysis.Methods　Seventy patients with ACI in our hospital from October 2019 to March 2021 were selected as the study group,and 70 patients with healthy physical examination during the same period were selected as the control group.The serum miR-493 levels of the study group before treatment,3 d,7 d after treatment were detected.Results　The serum miR-493 levels in the study group were higher than that before treatment at 3 days after treatment,however,the serum miR-493 levels in the study group were lower in each time period (P<0.05).Serum miR-493 levels before treatment and neurological deficits in ACI patients Degree,serum VEGF,Ang-2,CRP,and IL-6 levels were negatively correlated (P<0.05).Serum miR-493 levels before treatment,3 d,and 7 d after treatment in the study group with good prognosis were higher than those with poor prognosis patients (P<0.05).The area under the curve (AUC) of serum miR-493 predicting poor prognosis of ACI patients with thrombolytic therapy before treatment,3 d and 7 d after treatment were 0.748,0.851,0.879,respectively,and 7 d after treatment serum miR-493 predicted the largest AUC,and the best prediction sensitivity and specificity were 73.68% and 88.24%,respectively.Conclusion　The expression levels of serum miR-493 in patients with acute cerebral infarction are significantly reduced,and related to the prognosis of patients after thrombolysis,and has certain value in assisting clinical prediction of the prognosis of patients.