Some of the recombinant protein therapeutics with short half-life requires high frequent dose or injection, which results in poor patient compliance. This challenge has prompted the development of long-acting recombinant proteins in recent years. Four strategies and methods, including chemical modification, protein engineering, fusion proteins and protein glycosylation are used to modify protein molecule and finally obtain improved pharmacokinetics (PK) properties. This article reviews the four strategies of half-life extension and presents a detailed list of long-acting therapeutics on US, EU and China markets.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate in vitro anti-tumor effect of chemotherapeutic drugs on human gastric cancer cells, and investigate the relationship with Bcl-2 expression.

METHODSSingle cell suspension was prepared from fresh gastric cancer tissue and exposed to taxol (Tax), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), cisplatin (CDDP), adriamycin (ADM), mitomycin (MMC) respectively for 48 hours. Metabolic activity and inhibitory rate of cells were detected by MTT assay. Expression of Bcl-2 was examined with immunohistochemistry.

RESULTSThe inhibitory rates of cancer cells exposed to chemotherapeutic drugs were different and Tax, 5-FU, CDDP had remarkably higher rates than ADM and MMC. The lower differentiated gastric cancer cells were more sensitive than the higher ones. Positive expression rate of Bcl-2 was 80% and the positive cells showed resistance to 5-FU, ADM and MMC.

CONCLUSIONSChemosensitive testing by MTT assay can constitute the prediction for the application of chemotherapeutic drugs individually. Overexpression of Bcl-2 may contribute to multiple drug-resistance of tumors.

Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Cell Survival ; Cisplatin ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Doxorubicin ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mitomycin ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Mitomycins ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Paclitaxel ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; metabolism ; Stomach Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; pathology ; Tumor Cells, Cultured

OBJECTIVETo investigate the dynamic distribution of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs) in mdx mice.

METHODSTwenty-four 8-10-week-old immunocompromised mdx mice were transplanted with 1 x 10(7) passage 5 hBM-MSCs labeled with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) by means of injection into the tail vein. The mice were euthanized 48 hours and 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 weeks after transplantation. BrdU-positive cells in tissue and organs of the mice were detected by immunofluorescence analysis. Skeletal muscle was stained for anti-human nuclei mouse monoclonal antibody (anti-Hu) and analyzed for human dystrophin (Dys) expression by immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTSAfter transplantation, BrdU-positive cells were found in most organs (especially in bone marrow, liver, and lung) within 4 weeks, and these cells in liver and lung decreased gradually after 4 weeks. At 48 hours after transplantation, BrdU-positive cells were found in bone marrow, which reached a peak level after 2 weeks and were still detectable after 16 weeks. BrdU-positive cells in skeletal muscle increased gradually over time of transplantation. A small number of anti-Hu positive cells were detected in skeletal muscle 2 weeks after transplantation. A small number of Dys positive cell were seldom found at 4 weeks and small Dys mRNA expression detected 4 weeks after transplantation. The proportion of anti-Hu in parallel with Dys positive cells and Dys mRNA in skeletal muscle of mdx mice increased gradually over time of transplantation.

CONCLUSIONAfter being transplanted into mdx mice, hBM-MSCs are mainly distributed in bone marrow, liver, and lung during the early time (2-4 weeks) , and then in bone marrow and skeletal muscle (after 4 weeks).

Animals ; Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; Dystrophin ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Immunocompromised Host ; Immunohistochemistry ; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation ; methods ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred mdx ; Muscle, Skeletal ; metabolism ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Background Biomaterials for corneal tissue engineering must demonstrate several critical features for potentialutility invivo, includingtransparency, mechanicalintegrity, biocompatibilityand slow biodegradation. Silk film biomaterial had been characterized to meet these functional requirements. ObjectiveThis study was to investigate the feasibility of physico-crosslink regenerated silk fibroin film as tissue engineered corneal scaffold. MethodsHuman corneal epithelial cells(CECs) links were cultured by regular method and CECs in logarithmic phase were than incubated on physico-crosslink regenerated silk fibroin film membrane. The shape of cultured human CECs was observed after 24,48 and 72 hours under the inverted microscope and scanning electron microscope( SEM ) ,and the CECs were cultured on culture plates as controls. The growth state of CECs on regenerated silk fibroin film was observed daily for 7 days by MTT, and cell cycle analysis and the presence of apoptosis of human CECs were examined by flow cytometry after incubation on regenerated silk fibroin film. Regenerated silk fibroin filmCECs (4 mm×3 mm) were implanted into the corneal stroma of the right eyes of New Zealand white rabbits. At the end of 4 and 8 weeks after implantation, the appearance of the ocular surface was examined using slit lamp and corneal neovascular area was measured. Corneal histopathological examination was carried out to assess the degradation of graft materials and immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of CD34 in the corneal tissue after operation. ResultsThe morphology and structure of CECs were identical using the two cultured Methods when observed under the inverted microscope and SEM after 24,48 and 72 hours. No significant difference was found in the A490 value 1,2,3,4,5,6 or 7 days after incubation on regenerated silk membrane and in culture plates ( Fmethod =0. 641 ,P＞0.05 ). The apoptosis rates of CECs on regenerated silk membrane or culture plates were 1.8％ and 2.0％ and the amount of cells in G2/G1 phase was 1. 956 and 1. 945, respectively. Histopathological examination showed that the regenerated silk membrane material degraded and was replaced by regular collagen tissue 2 months after implantation,and the presence of neovascular area and inflammatory cells were less prominent in 2 months than 1 month post-implantation. The expression level of CD34 in corneal tissue was evidently lower 1 and 2 months after operation than the Ad-VEGF165-induced positive control group (P＜0. 05), and no significant differences were seen when compared with normal CECs(P＞0.05). ConclusionsPhysico- crosslink regenerated silk fibroin film is an excellent biomaterial for tissue engineered corneal scaffold with good biocompatibility.

Objective To evaluate the change of treatment gap of epilepsy after intervention in rural areas of China.Method Six months after being stopped from the intervention project in 2004,using the same method as the first survey at the baseline,a door-to-door epidemiological survey was conducted again in 5 rural areas where the intervention measures had been carried out for about 3 years.Results Three hundred and twenty cases of epilepsy were diagnosed in the total sample population,yielding a prevalence rate of 0.62% and the prevalence of active epilepsy 0.44%.The prevalence and the active prevalence of epilepsy in the survey in 2000 were 0.70% and 0.46% respectively.Of the people with epilepsy,39.1% were treated regularly which increased about 14% than that in the baseline survey (24.8%).The treatment gap for active epilepsy was 49.8%,which decreased by 12.8% than that in the first survey (62.6%). Conclusion The treatment gap of epilepsy in the demonstration areas has decreased remarkably,proving that the intervention measures used in the study are effective and feasible in rural areas of China.

Objective: Cytoreductive surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy is a standard frontline treatment for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). We aimed to develop an ovarian cancer risk score (OVRS) based on the expression of 10 ovarian-cancer-related genes to predict the chemoresistance, and outcomes of EOC patients. Methods: We designed a case-control study with total 149 EOC women including 75 chemosensitives and 74 chemoresistants. Gene expression was measured using the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. We tested for correlation between the OVRS and chemosensitivity or chemoresistance, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS), and validated the OVRS by analyzing patients from the TCGA database. Results: The chemosensitive group had lower OVRS than the chemoresistant group (5 vs.15, p≤0.001, Mann-Whitney U test). Patients with disease relapse (13 vs. 5, p<0.001, MannWhitney U test) or disease-related death (13.5 vs. 6, p<0.001) had higher OVRS than those without. OVRS ≥10 (hazard ratio=3.29; 95% confidence interval=1.94–5.58; p<0.001) was the only predictor for chemoresistance in multivariate analysis. The median DFS (5 months vs. 24 months) and OS (39 months vs. >60 months) of patients with OVRS ≥10 were significantly shorter than those of patients with OVRS <9). The high OVRS group also had significantly shorter median OS than the low OVRS group in 255 patients in the TCGA database (39 vs. 49 months, p=0.046). Conclusions Specific genes panel can be clinically applied in predicting the chemoresistance and outcome, and decision-making of epithelial ovarian cancer.

A highly sensitive, rapid and selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the quantitative determination of retinamido-ester in rat plasma was developed and validated. A simplified protein precipitation with acetonitrile was employed for the sample preparation. The separation was carried out on an Agilent TC C18 column (150 mm x 4.6 mm ID, 5 microm particle size) with the mobile phase consisted of methanol-water-formic acid (93: 7: 0.1). Simvastatin was used as internal standard. The detection was performed on a trap-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) scan mode via atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). The range of calibration curve was 0.05-50 ng x mL(-1) and the limit of quantification was 10 pg x mL(-1). The intra- and inter-day precision values were between 95.97% and 104.43%, and RSD was between 4.63% and 10.69%, respectively. This method was applied to determine the pharmacokinetic parameters. The main pharmacokinetic parameters of retinamido-ester after oral administration via gastric gavage of 2.5, 5, 10 mg x kg(-1) were as follows, T(1/2): (11.28 +/- 7.23), (8.90 +/- 3.82), (8.01 +/- 5.65) h; AUC(0-infinity): (103.41 +/- 61.46), (190.23 +/- 74.99), (421.66 +/- 229.20) ng x h x mL(-1); MRT: (6.31 +/- 0.75), (5.98 +/- 0.71), (6.18 +/- 0.97) h; CL/F: (30.10 +/- 13.67), (29.58 +/- 10.59), (31.18 +/- 17.51) L x h(-1) x kg(-1); Vd/F: (414.94 +/- 159.82), (356.16 +/- 139.85), (369.28 +/- 322.72) L x kg(-1), respectively.
Administration, Oral ; Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; blood ; pharmacokinetics ; Area Under Curve ; Chromatography, Liquid ; methods ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry ; methods ; Tretinoin ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; blood ; pharmacokinetics

OBJECTIVETo analyze the factors affecting pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer patients.

METHODSA retrospective cohort study was carried out to analyze the clinical data of 141 breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The factors affecting pCR and the changes of tumor receptor status before and after treatment were analyzed.

RESULTSAmong all the 141 patients, 21 patients (14.9%) achieved pCR. The rate of pCR achieved by regimens of anthracycline combined with taxane was higher (16.8%, 19/113) than that by anthracycline-containing regimens (7.1%, 1/14). The dose intensity of anthracycline had a significant correlation with pCR rate (P < 0.05). The pCR rate in the relative dose intensity of taxane ≥ 0.85 arm was higher than that of < 0.85 arm (P = 0.02). Eighty patients (56.7%) had completed more than 4 cycles of chemotherapy and the median time to achieve pCR was 6 (3 to 10) cycles. The pCR rate had a significant difference between patients < 6 and ≥ 6 cycles (7.1% vs. 22.5%,P = 0.01). Multivariate analysis showed that tumor size measured by palpation ≤ 5 cm and ≥ 6 chemotherapy cycles were significantly related with pCR rate (P < 0.05). In all the 21 pCR patients, the pre-treatment ER(-), PR(-), HER-2(-) statuses were in 14, 14 and 17 patients, respectively. The status of ER, PR, HER-2 of most patients (74.2%, 69.7% and 87.7%, respectively) was not changed after treatment. Among the patients with changes in receptor status, ER changed from negative to positive was in the majority (37.1%, 13/35 vs. 12.9%, 4/31, P < 0.05), and the percentage of changes in PR and HER-2 status had no significant differences.

CONCLUSIONSThe regimens of anthracycline combined with taxane can achieve a higher pCR rate. The lymph node and receptor status before therapy have no significant correlation with pCR. Patients who have primary tumor size ≤ 5 cm, ≥ 6 chemotherapy cycles and enough dose intensity are easier to achieve pCR. The receptor status before and after therapy should be determined, and according to any positive results, physicians can chose HER-2 targeted therapy and/or endocrine therapy after surgery to benefit the patients.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Anthracyclines ; administration & dosage ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Breast Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; pathology ; Bridged-Ring Compounds ; administration & dosage ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Female ; Humans ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Middle Aged ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; methods ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Receptor, ErbB-2 ; metabolism ; Receptors, Estrogen ; metabolism ; Receptors, Progesterone ; metabolism ; Remission Induction ; Retrospective Studies ; Taxoids ; administration & dosage ; Tumor Burden

OBJECTIVETo evaluate in vitro antitumor effects of chemotherapeutic drugs, and investgate the relationship with expression of hTERT mRNA in human gastric cancer tissues.

METHODSFresh samples of gastric cancer obtained from operation room were prepared to single-cell suspension (3 x 10(5) to 5 x 10(5) cells ml(-1)) and were separately exposed to taxol (TAX), cisplatin (CDDP), 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu), adriamycin (ADM), mitomycin (MMC) for 48 hours. Metabolic activity and inhibitory rate of the cells were determined by trypan blue exclusion and MTT assay. Expression of hTERT mRNA was detected by in situ hybridization (ISH).

RESULTSThe inhibition rate of cancer cells exposed to chemotherapeutic drugs was different, and that of TAX, CDDP, 5-Fu was significantly higher than that of ADM and MMC. The positive rate of hTERT mRNA expression was 90.0% (54/60) and positive cells showed resistance to 5-Fu and ADM.

CONCLUSIONOverexpression of hTERT mRNA may contribute to primary drug-resistance of tumors. Chemosensitivity tests by MTT assay may contribute to prediction of effectness in applying chemotherapeutic drugs and identify drug-resistant cases.

Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous ; metabolism ; pathology ; Adenocarcinoma, Papillary ; metabolism ; pathology ; Adult ; Aged ; Antibiotics, Antineoplastic ; pharmacology ; Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic ; pharmacology ; Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic ; pharmacology ; Carcinoma, Signet Ring Cell ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Cisplatin ; pharmacology ; Doxorubicin ; pharmacology ; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mitomycin ; pharmacology ; Paclitaxel ; pharmacology ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Stomach Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Telomerase ; genetics ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the feasibility, toxicity and tumor control of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

METHODSFourty-nine patients (Karnofsky performance status (KPS) >or= 80) with local-regional recurrence in the nasopharynx were treated with full course IMRT. Three patients with cervical lymph node metastasis (N1 2 and N3 1) were further supplemented with 5 to 6 courses of chemotherapy (Cisplatin + 5-Fu) after IMRT.

RESULTSThe results of treatment plan showed that the mean dose of covering gross tumor volume (GTV) (D(95)) in the nasopharynx was 68.09 Gy and the mean volume of GTV (V(95)) receiving the 95% dose was 98.46%. The mean dose of GTV, clinical target volume CTV1 and CTV2 in the targets were 71.40 Gy, 63.63 Gy and 59.81 Gy. The median follow-up time was 9 months (range 3 to 16 months). The local-regional progression-free survival was 100% with local-regional residual disease in 3 (6.1%) cases but was complicated with nasopharyngeal mucosa necrosis in 14 (28.6%) cases after IMRT.

CONCLUSIONIntensity modulated radiation therapy, as a re-treatment option for recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma, is able to improve the tumor target coverage and spare the adjacent critical structures. As high dose IMRT can result in radio-necrosis of nasopharyngeal mucosa, the prescription dose of GTV should be suitably decreased to 60 - 65 Gy.

Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; pathology ; radiotherapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; pathology ; radiotherapy ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; radiotherapy ; Neoplasm Staging ; Radiation Injuries ; pathology ; Radiotherapy Dosage ; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted ; Radiotherapy, Conformal ; methods