Objective To summarize the clinical and pathological characteristics of gastrointestinal stromal tumors with hepatic metastasis, and to analyze its survival and explore its principles of diagnosis and treatment. Methods Among 99 patients diagnosed as gastrointestinal stromal tumors who had a completely case history in our hospital, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 26 patients with hepatic metastatic and the factors influencing survival. Results The average age at diagnosis of primary and hepatic metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors was 50.8 and 51.8 years old respectively. Five cases were confirmed by pathological examination, 12 cases were diagnosed by the exploration during the operation and 14 patients had an imaging diagnosis only. Synchronous and metachronous hepatic metastasis happened in 8 and 18 patients respectively. The median interval between the primary tumor and the metachronous hepatic metastasis was 12 months. The primary sites of 12 cases were in stomach, 5 in colorectum, 6 in small intestine and 3 in extra-gastrointestinal tract.Four cases of the hepatic metastatic tumors were treated with surgical resections, 2 with injections of anhydrous alcohol, 3 with interven-tional therapies, 7 with systemic chemotherapies, 8 with imatinib and 2 without treatment. The median survival was 21 months after hepatic metastasis. The administration of imatinib was an important factor prolonging the survival after hepatic metastasis. Conclusions The most frequent primary site of hepatic metastatic stromal tumor is the stomach while small intestinal stromal tumors are most inclined to metastasize to the liver. Treatment with imatinib for more than 3 months can prolong the survival.

This study is to report the preparation of complexes of Ad5 and anionic liposomes (AL-Ad5), the amplification of adenoviruses with enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) reporter gene performed by HEK 293 cells, the adenoviral vectors purified by cesium chloride gradient centrifugation, and the titer of adenovirus determined by cytopathic effect (CPE) method, hexon capsid immunoassay and quantitative-PCR (Q-PCR), separately. The prescription and experiment conditions were optimized by central composite design (CCD). The complexes of Ad5 and AL-Ad5 were formulated by the calcium-induced phase change method. The morpholopy, particle size and zeta potential were detected by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. Additionally, the bicolourable fluoresce-labeled complexes (F(labeled)-AL-Ad5) were prepared and their intracellular location in MDCK cells was detected by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The results indicate that the complexes of AL-Ad5 exhibited a uniform distribution with a particle size of 211 +/- 10 nm and a zeta potential of -41.2 +/- 2.2 mV. The result of CLSM demonstrates that the intracellular location of red fluoresce-labeled adenovirus was consistent with that of green fluoresce-labeled liposomes suggesting that the naked adenovirus was well encapsulated by the anionic liposomes in complexes of AL-Ad5.

Objective To study the clinicopathological characteristics of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) in Chinese population with different criteria and guidelines. Methods Twenty four families fulfilling Amsterdam Criteria (AC), 15 additional families fulfilling Japanese Criteria (JC) and the remaining 19 patients fitting Bethesda Guidelines (BG) were analyzed. Results In the 24 AC families there were 116 malignant tumor patients including 90 colorectal cancer (CRC) subjects and in the 15 JC families there were 54 malignant tumor patients including 33 CRC cases. The two groups displayed similar clinical features. Mean age of first CRC at diagnosis was 46.1 and 51.4 years old, respectively. The proximal colonic cancers accounted for 55.4% versus 44.8%. Synchronous and metachronous multiple CRCs occurred in 25.6% and 18.2% of patients respectively. Totally there were 55 extracolonic tumors in the two groups. Gastric and endometrial carcinomas were two most common extracolonic tumor types in our series. The tumors of the 34 probands showed more frequent exophytic growth pattern, higher occurance of poorly differentiated carcinoma, A / B Dukes stage and more Crohn's like lymphoid reaction ( P

OBJECTIVE To investigate the in vitro inhibitory mechanism of berberine on the proliferation of tumor stem cells and evaluate its in vivo safety. METHODS Flow cytometry was used to select tumor stem cells from mouse skin melanoma B16F10 cells； CD44， CD133， Nanog homologous box protein （NANOG） and octamer-binding transcription factor 4 （OCT4） were used as indicators to characterize tumor stem cells. Tumor stem cells were divided into control group， all-trans retinoic acid （ATRA） group， and berberine group， and the CCK-8 method was used to detect the effects of berberine on the viability of tumor stem cells； flow cytometry was adopted to detect cell apoptotic rate， the proportion of CD44+/CD133+ and the positive cell rate of sex determining region Y box protein 2 （SOX2）； the morphological changes of tumor balls were recorded after treatment with berberine； the morphology of cell pyroptosis in each group was recorded， and the release rate of lactate dehydrogenase （LDH） was detected； Western blot assay was adopted to detect the expressions of pyroptosis-related protein gasdermin E （GSDME）， GSDME- N， caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-3. Preliminary evaluation of in vivo safety of berberine was conducted by using zebrafish embryo toxicity experiments. RESULTS Compared with B16F10 cells， the proportion of CD44+/CD133+ cells in tumor stem cells and the fluorescence intensity of NANOG and OCT4 were significantly increased （P＜0.000 1）. The half-inhibitory concentration of berberine to tumor stem cells was 50.98 μmol/L. Compared with the control group， the apoptotic rate of cells in the berberine group was significantly increased， while the proportion of CD44+/CD133+ cells and the rate of SOX2 positive cells were reduced significantly （P＜0.000 1）； tumor stem cell spheroids were atrophied， with partial cell death. After treatment with berberine， tumor stem cells exhibited swelling in their outermost layer， the release rate of LDH of cells was significantly increased and the release rate of LDH increased with increasing dose； the protein expressions of GSDME-N and cleaved-caspase-3 of cells in berberine 20， 40 μmol/L groups were significantly increased， and the protein expressions of GSDME and caspase-3 were significantly reduced （except for berberine 20 μmol/L group， P＜0.05）. The embryonic development of zebrafish treated with berberine was almost unaffected， and the survival rate of embryo reached 100%， with no obvious abnormalities observed. CONCLUSIONS Berberine has good activity against the proliferation of tumor stem cells， and its mechanism of action may be related to activating GSDME and promoting cell pyroptosis； berberine has good in vivo safety.

RNAs are involved in the crucial processes of disease progression and have emerged as powerful therapeutic targets and diagnostic biomarkers. However, efficient delivery of therapeutic RNA to the targeted location and precise detection of RNA markers remains challenging. Recently, more and more attention has been paid to applying nucleic acid nanoassemblies in diagnosing and treating. Due to the flexibility and deformability of nucleic acids, the nanoassemblies could be fabricated with different shapes and structures. With hybridization, nucleic acid nanoassemblies, including DNA and RNA nanostructures, can be applied to enhance RNA therapeutics and diagnosis. This review briefly introduces the construction and properties of different nucleic acid nanoassemblies and their applications for RNA therapy and diagnosis and makes further prospects for their development.