Bone metastasis is common for advanced breast cancer, and can cause pathologic fractures, hypercalcemia, spinal cord compression and other skeletal-related events. The life quality of patients with bone metastasis will be seriously affected. But for now, the mechanism of breast cancer bone metastasis is not clear. As a result, there are no effective and targeted treatments, except the locoregional therapy such as radiation therapy and surgery. Therefore, this review focuses on the molecular mechanisms of breast cancer bone metastasis in order to lay a foundation for further research of effective targeted therapy. Firstly, in this review, a complex succession of invasion-metastasis cascade in bone metastasis is expounded, and the positive feedback “vicious cycle” promoting the milignant proliferation of tumor cells is expatiated. Then the estrogen receptor mediating mechanism of bone metastasis is discussed. In the end, the recent advances in clinical research of breast cancer bone metastasis and the forward future research directions are summarized.

BACKGROUND:Cartilage defects are one of the major clinical challenges faced by orthopedic surgeons.Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary approach that combines knowledge of engineering and cell biology to provide new ideas and approaches for the repair of cartilage defects. OBJECTIVE:To prepare a multi-component composite scaffold based on silk fibroin,gelatin,and chitosan to screen for a three-dimensional porous scaffold suitable for cartilage regeneration by evaluating its physicochemical properties and biological performance. METHODS:Four groups of porous scaffolds were prepared by vacuum freeze-drying method using silk fibroin,gelatin and chitosan as the base materials,namely chitosan/gelatin scaffold,silk fibroin/chitosan scaffold,silk fibroin/gelatin scaffold and silk fibroin/chitosan/gelatin scaffold.The suitable cartilage scaffolds were screened by scanning electron microscopy,X-ray diffractometer,porosity,water absorption and swelling rate,biodegradation rate and mechanical property detection.Then cartilage scaffolds were co-cultured with chondrocytes isolated and extracted from patients with osteoarthritis.The feasibility of porous scaffolds for cartilage injury repair was evaluated in vitro by cell adhesion rate assay,cell live-dead staining and cell activity proliferation assay. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)All four groups of scaffolds had porous structures.The comprehensive physical performance test results showed that the silk fibroin/gelatin/chitosan scaffold was more in line with the requirements of cartilage defect repair.This scaffold had a pore size of(176.00±53.68)μm,the porosity of(80.15±2.57)%,and water absorption and swelling rate of(3 712±358)%.After immersion in PBS containing lysozyme for 28 days in vitro,the biodegradation rate was(46.87±3.25)%,and it had good mechanical properties.(2)Chondrocytes could adhere well on the silk fibroin/gelatin/chitosan scaffold,and the cell adhesion rate increased with time.CCK8 and live/dead cell double staining results showed that silk fibroin/gelatin/chitosan scaffold had good biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity.(3)The results showed that silk fibroin/gelatin/chitosan scaffold had a highly hydrated 3D structure,suitable pore size and porosity,good biodegradability and superior mechanical properties,which can provide a good reticular skeleton and microenvironment for nutrient transport and chondrocyte attachment and proliferation.

Purpose: Pyrotinib is a newly-developed irreversible pan-ErbB receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor. This study reported the first real-world data of pyrotinib-based therapy in metastatic human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer (BC), focusing on efficacy in lapatinib-treated patients and in brain metastasis. Materials and Methods: One hundred thirteen patients with metastatic HER2-positive BC treated with pyrotinib-based therapy in Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center under non-clinical trial settings from September 1, 2018 to March 1, 2019 were included. Results: Over half patients have received more than two lines of systematic therapy and exposed to two or more kinds of anti-HER2 agents. Most patients received a combined therapy, commonly of pyrotinib plus capecitabine, or vinorelbine or trastuzumab. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 6.3 months (range, 5.54 to 7.06 months) and objective response rate (ORR) was 29.5%, with two patients (1.9%) achieving complete response. Lapatinib-naïve patients had significantly longer PFS than lapatinib-treated patients (9.0 months vs. 5.4 months, p=0.001). ORR for lapatinib-treated patients was 23.2%. Thirty-one of 113 patients have brain metastasis. Median PFS was 6.7 months and intracranial ORR was 28%. For patients without concurrent radiotherapy and/or brain surgery, the ORR was very low (6.3%). But for patients receiving concurrent radiotherapy and/or brain surgery, the ORR was 66.7%, and three patients achieved complete response. Most common adverse event was diarrhea. Conclusion Pyrotinib-based therapy demonstrated promising effects in metastatic HER2-positive BC and showed activity in lapatinib-treated patients. For patients with brain metastasis, pyrotinib-based regimen without radiotherapy showed limited efficacy, but when combined with radiotherapy it showed promising intracranial control.

Thimerosal has been widely used as a preservative in drug and vaccine products for decades.Due to the strong propensity to modify thiols in proteins,conformational changes could occur due to covalent bond formation between ethylmercury(a degradant of thimerosal)and thiols.Such a conformational change could lead to partial or even complete loss of desirable protein function.This study aims to investigate the effects of thimerosal on the capsid stability and antigenicity of recombinant human papillomavirus(HPV)18 virus-like particles(VLPs).Dramatic destabilization of the recombinant viral capsid upon thimerosal treatment was observed.Such a negative effect on the thermal stability of VLPs preserved with thimerosal was shown to be dependent on the thimerosal concentration.Two highly neutralizing antibodies,13H12 and 3C3,were found to be the most sensitive to thimerosal treatment.The kinetics of antigenicity loss,when monitored with 13H12 or 3C3 as probes,yielded two distinctly different sets of kinetic parameters,while the data from both monoclonal antibodies(mAbs)followed a biphasic expo-nential decay model.The potential effect of thimerosal on protein function,particularly for thiol-containing proteinaceous active components,needs to be comprehensively characterized during formulation development when a preservative is necessary.

Kallistatin, which protects organs and cells against inflammation, fibrosis and oxidative stress, is mainly synthesized and secreted in liver. However, its relationship to human liver disease remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between serum kallistatin and clinical evidence of both cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to determine if serum kallistatin levels could be used as a diagnostic indicator of hepatic health status, especially human liver cirrhosis (LC). Our cohort consisted of 115 patients with clinically proven liver fibrosis (LF), LC, or HCC by liver biopsies, and 31 healthy controls (CON). Serum kallistatin levels were quantified by ELISA. Results of the present study demonstrated that irrespective of the underlying etiology, serum kallistatin levels were significantly lower in the LF/LC group when compared with the CON group. A decrease in serum kallistatin levels appeared to reflect the extent of cirrhosis, with the lowest levels associated with higher grades of cirrhosis. Patients with LC had a noticeable correlation between serum kallistatin levels and other serum biochemical indicators. The area under the curve (AUC) for LC, viral liver cirrhosis (VLC) and alcoholic liver cirrhosis (ALC) was 0.845, 0.757 and 0.931, respectively. In conclusion, our findings demonstrated that kallistatin, a plasma protein produced by the liver, can be a useful and reliable diagnostic indicator of hepatic health status, especially for LC.