Pimavanserin(Nuplazid) is a drug of selective targeting 5-HT2A receptor, developed by Acadia Pharmaceuticals. In April 29, 2016, it was approved by FDA for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients experiencing mental symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. In this paper, we summarize the synthetic methods of pimavanserin published in literature in recent years and their advantages and disadvantages.

Objective To synthesize the impurity of vildagliptin as a reference substance, and optimize its preparation process by the central composite design-response surface methodology. Method The impurity was synthesized from L-proline and 3-amino-1-adamantanol through chloroacetylation, amination, dehydration and substitution. Results The structure of the disubstituted derivative of vildagliptin was verified by IR, 1H-NMR and MS. Conclusion The synthesized compound can be used as the reference substance of the impurity, so the impurity can be controlled. Preparation process gained the application value after it was optimized by the central composite design-response surface methodology.

Objective To explore the new model of teaching assessment and evaluation of sanitary microbiology studied by students majoring in preventive medicine. Methods Combination of formative assessment and summative assessment was applied in the teaching for students in under-graduate preventive medicine class in Grade 2007-2010. To get better effect, method was improved constantly. Pearson correlation analysis was used to students' formative assessment and summative as-sessment, and comprehensive evaluation achievement(the first two added). Moreover, the effects were assessed by teachers' self-evaluation and their exchanging ideas with students. Results Ranging from 10.06 to 12.22, the standard deviations of four grades' summative assessment results were the biggest number, so the summative assessment was more effective. Students' formative assessment, summative assessment, and comprehensive assessment for this course were positively correlated(P<0.01) for suc-cessive four years. Teachers and students approved of the new mode. Conclusion The effective com-bination of formative assessment and summative assessment was helpful for student to develop and assess learning ability and overall qualities, and for teachers to improve teaching level.

Apoptosis ; Down-Regulation ; Electron Transport Complex IV ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Mitochondria ; metabolism ; Mutation ; Neoplasms ; genetics ; metabolism ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the tumor-suppression effect of hydroxyurea on meningioma cells and its possible mechanism.

METHODSThe meningioma cells were cultured in medium containing varied doses of hydroxyurea (5x10(-3)mol/L, 5x10(-4)mol/L, 5x10(-5)mol/L), the cell growth was measured by MTT method, cell apoptosis was observed with flow cytometry (FCM).

RESULTSMTT measurement demonstrated that the administration of hydroxyurea led to a dose-dependent suppression in cell proliferation and FCM showed a dose-dependent increase in apoptosis rate.

CONCLUSIONHydroxyurea can inhibit meningioma cell growth in vitro, which is most likely associated with apoptosis of the tumor cells.

Adult ; Aged ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Cell Division ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Female ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Hydroxyurea ; pharmacology ; Male ; Meningioma ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Middle Aged

Orphan nuclear receptor NR4A1 from the NR4A subfamily is one of the transcriptional factors that have not identified specific ligands .Previous studies have found that NR4A1 could regulate cell proliferation ,apoptosis ,differentiation and stress responses by changing gene expression ,post-translational modification and interactions between coregulatory pro-teins .Recently ,it has shown that NR4A1 has an abnormal expression in human atherosclerotic lesions and has been identified as a key regulator gene in vascular cells dysfunction .Regulating NR4A1 expression can have an important impact on the prolif-eration of smooth muscle cell and endothelial cell activation ,meanwhile it could reduce inflammation ,foam cell formation and lipid deposition ,inhibit vascular remodeling ,and prevent the development of atherosclerosis .These studies suggest that NR4A1 might be a novel target for drug development in prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis .

Proteasome inhibitors have shown remarkable success in the treatment of hematologic neoplasm. There has been a lot of attention to applying these drugs for solid tumor treatment. Recent preclinical study has signified the effectiveness on cell proliferation inhibition in lung adenocarcinoma treated by carfilzomib (CFZ), a second generation proteasome inhibitor. However, no insight has been gained regarding the mechanism. In this study, we have systematically investigated the CFZ functions in cell proliferation and growth, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis in lung adenocarcinoma cells. Flow cytometry experiments showed that CFZ significantly induced G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in lung adenocarcinoma. MTS and colony formation assays revealed that CFZ substantially inhibited survival of lung adenocarcinoma cells. All results were consistently correlated to the upregulation expression of Gadd45a, which is an important gene in modulating cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in response to physiologic and environmental stresses. Here, upregulation of Gadd45a expression was observed after CFZ treatment. Knocking down Gadd45a expression suppressed G2/M arrest and apoptosis in CFZ-treated cells, and reduced cytotoxicity of this drug. The protein expression analysis has further identified that the AKT/FOXO3a pathway is involved in Gadd45a upregulation after CFZ treatment. These findings unveil a novel mechanism of proteasome inhibitor in anti-solid tumor activity, and shed light on novel preferable therapeutic strategy for lung adenocarcinoma. We believe that Gadd45a expression can be a highly promising candidate predictor in evaluating the efficacy of proteasome inhibitors in solid tumor therapy.
Adenocarcinoma of Lung/pathology* ; Apoptosis/drug effects* ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints/drug effects* ; Cell Cycle Proteins/genetics* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Forkhead Box Protein O3/physiology* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic/drug effects* ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms/pathology* ; Oligopeptides/pharmacology* ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/physiology* ; Up-Regulation

OBJECTIVETo construct COL1A1-targeted short hairpin RNA (shRNA) vector with pSilencer 4.1-CMV neo siRNA expression vector and to evaluate its effect on proliferation and migration of gastric cancer BGC-823 cells in vitro.

METHODSThree COL1A1-shRNA plasmids (COL1A1-shRNA-1, COL1A1-shRNA-2, COL1A1-shRNA-3), targeting different sites of COL1A1 gene, were constructed using pSilencer 4.1-CMV neo siRNA expression vector and transfected into gastric cancer BGC-823 cells. Real time quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot were performed to detect expression levels of COL1A1. MTT and Transwell migration assays were employed to evaluate the effects of COL1A1 gene silence on cell proliferation and migration.

RESULTThree recombinant plasmids targeting COL1A1 were constructed successfully. The expressions of COL1A1 in BGC-823 cells, including mRNA and protein levels, were significantly inhibited by the COL1A1-shRNA transfectants, which resulted in a clear reduction of cell proliferation and migration capacity.

CONCLUSIONThe COL1A1-shRNA can effectively knock down gene expression and inhibit proliferation and migration of gastric cancer BGC-823 cells.

Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Collagen Type I ; genetics ; metabolism ; Genetic Vectors ; Humans ; Plasmids ; genetics ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; RNA, Small Interfering ; genetics ; Stomach Neoplasms ; pathology ; Transfection ; Transformation, Bacterial

Background: The detection of glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 (GAD65) autoantibodies is essential for the prediction and diagnosis of latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA). The aim of the current study was to compare a newly developed electrochemiluminescence (ECL)-GAD65 antibody assay with the established radiobinding assay, and to explore whether the new assay could be used to define LADA more precisely. Methods: Serum samples were harvested from 141 patients with LADA, 95 with type 1 diabetes mellitus, and 99 with type 2 diabetes mellitus, and tested for GAD65 autoantibodies using both the radiobinding assay and ECL assay. A glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies (GADA) competition assay was also performed to assess antibody affinity. Furthermore, the clinical features of these patients were compared. Results: Eighty-eight out of 141 serum samples (62.4%) from LADA patients were GAD65 antibody-positive by ECL assay. Compared with ECL-GAD65 antibody-negative patients, ECL-GAD65 antibody-positive patients were leaner (P<0.0001), had poorer β-cell function (P<0.05), and were more likely to have other diabetes-associated autoantibodies. The β-cell function of ECLGAD65 antibody-positive patients was similar to that of type 1 diabetes mellitus patients, whereas ECL-GAD65 antibody-negative patients were more similar to type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Conclusion Patients with ECL-GAD65 antibody-negative share a similar phenotype with type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, whereas patients with ECL-GAD65 antibody-positive resemble those with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Thus, the detection of GADA using ECL may help to identify the subtype of LADA.

OBJECTIVETo construct hu-PBL/SCID chimeras and to investigate the development of lymphoma and oncogenicity of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).

METHODSHuman peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) were isolated from healthy adult donors and transplanted intraperitoneally into severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice. Mice with hu-PBL engraftment from healthy EBV seronegative donors were injected intraperitoneally with EBV-containing supernatant from suspension culture of B95-8 cell line (active infection), whereas mice receiving lymphocytes from healthy EBV seropositive donors were not re-infected with B95-8 derived EBV (latent infection). Pathological examination and molecular analysis were performed on experimental animals and induced neoplasms.

RESULTSIn the early stage of this experiment, 12 mice died of acute graft-versus-host disease, mortality was 34.3% (12/35 mice) with an average life span of 17.5 days. In 19 survival hu-PBL/SCID chimeric recipients from 12 healthy donors, tumor incidence was 84.2% (16/19 mice). The average survival time of tumor-bearing mice was 65.5 days. EBV-related neoplasms in SCID mice were nodular tumors with aggressive and fatal features. Histological morphology of tumors exhibited diffuse large cell lymphomas. Immunohistochemistry revealed that LCA (CD45) and L26 (CD20) were positive, but both PS1 (CD3) and UCHL-1 (CD45RO) were negative, and EBV products ZEBRA, LMP1, and EBNA2 were expressed in a small number of tumor cells. EB virus particles were seen in the nuclei of some tumor cells by electron microscopy, and EBV DNA could be amplified in the tumor tissues by PCR. In situ hybridization indicated that the nuclei of tumor cells contained human-specific Alu sequence.

CONCLUSIONSEBV-induced tumors were human B-cell malignant lymphomas. We obtained direct causative evidence dealing with EBV-associated tumor deriving from normal human cells.

Adult ; Animals ; Antigens, CD20 ; metabolism ; Chimera ; Epstein-Barr Virus Infections ; immunology ; virology ; Graft vs Host Disease ; prevention & control ; virology ; Herpesvirus 4, Human ; physiology ; Humans ; Leukocyte Common Antigens ; metabolism ; Leukocyte Transfusion ; methods ; Lymphoma, B-Cell ; immunology ; virology ; Lysosomal-Associated Membrane Protein 1 ; metabolism ; Mice ; Mice, SCID