OBJECTIVETo investigate the protective mechanism of neuroactive steroid allopregnanolone on N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) induced toxicity in primary mouse cortical neurons.

METHODSPrimary cultured mouse cortical neurons were subjected to allopregnanolone, the expression of beta-aminobutyric acid receptor beta2 subunit (beta2-GABA-R) mRNAs was detected by RT-PCR and Akt phosphorylation was assayed by Western blot using Akt-phosphoserine 473-specific antibody. After the cultured mouse cortical neurons were pretreated with or without allopregnanolone prior to treatment with NMDA , DNA isolated was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis and proteins collected were analyzed by Western blot with anti-cleaved-PARP, anti-cleaved caspase-3, and anti-cleaved caspase-9 antibodies.

RESULTSWhen cultured mouse cortical neurons were exposed to allopregnanolone both the expression of beta2-GABA-R mRNAs and Akt phosphorylation increased. Allopregnanolone inhibited the NMDA-induced apoptosis and decreased the level of active-PARP, active-caspase-3 and active-caspase-9 notably at a final concentration of 5 x 10(6) mol/L.

CONCLUSIONPretreatment with allopregnanolone may be neuroprotective on NMDA-induced neuronal cells apoptosis by increasing beta2-GABA-R expression and Akt phosphorylation.

Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Caspase 3 ; metabolism ; Caspase 9 ; metabolism ; Cerebral Cortex ; cytology ; Mice ; N-Methylaspartate ; antagonists & inhibitors ; toxicity ; Neurons ; cytology ; Neuroprotective Agents ; pharmacology ; Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase-1 ; Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases ; metabolism ; Pregnanolone ; pharmacology ; Primary Cell Culture ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; metabolism ; Receptors, GABA-B ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective:To investigate the functional imaging parameters that effectively distinguish isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) gene mutation status in clinical practice with long echo time (TE) point-resolved spectroscopy (PRESS) MRS.Methods:Totally 25 patients with suspected diagnosis of low grade gliomas(LGGs; Grade II) were recruited prospectively and divided into IDH mutation group and IDH wild group according to pathological results in the study. All patients were scanned with long TE PRESS MRS. In addition, IDH mutational status was determined by post-operation Sanger sequencing. The t test or Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the differences of 2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG), Glutamate (Glu), Glutamine (Gln) and 2HG/Glu+Gln between the IDH mutation group and the IDH wild group, then ROC curve was plotted with statistically significant indexes to obtain the efficacy of predicting IDH mutation status. Results:Of the 25 patients, 19 had IDH mutant gliomas and 6 had IDH wild-type gliomas. 2HG, Glu, Gln and 2HG/Glu+Gln in IDH mutated group were 1.42 (1.09, 1.93)mmol/L, (1.74±1.31)mmol/L, (1.68±0.66)mmol/L, 0.55 (0.28, 0.77), respectively; while the corresponding values were 0.00 (0.00, 1.30)mmol/L, (3.28±1.02)mmol/L, (2.55±1.47)mmol/L, 0.00 (0.00, 0.26) in IDH gene wild type group, respectively. The differences of 2HG, Glu, and 2HG/Glu+Gln between the two groups were statistically significant ( P values were 0.030, 0.016, 0.004, respectively). The area under the ROC curve of 2HG/Glu+Gln was the largest (0.877), and the sensitivity was the highest (84.2%). Conclusion:The integration of 2HG with Glu and Gln can effectively realize the noninvasive assessment of IDH mutation status.

Within the past few years, the invention of next-generation sequencing has revealed several new genes associated with tumor formation and development, for example DNMT3a. This gene is an independent prognostic factor for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The objective of this study was to analyze the DNMT3a mutation in childhood AML in a single center. PCR amplification of the entire coding region of DNMT3a was performed using 23 overlapping primer pairs in 57 patients who were diagnosed in Blood Disease Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, then the directly sequencing was underwent. The results showed that no DNMT3a mutation was found in these patients including the hotspot R882. But AML1/ETO mutation was found in 10 patients, CBFB/MYH11 mutation in 3 patients, PML/RARa mutation in 13 patients, FLT3/ITD mutation in 5 patients, FLT3/TKD mutation in 1 patient, PML/RARa and FLT3/TKD mutation coexisted in 2 patients. It is concluded that DNMT3a mutations are rare in childhood AML, and different mechanisms of myeloid leukemogenesis between childhood and adults maybe involved.
Adolescent ; Base Sequence ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases ; genetics ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Karyotyping ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; genetics ; Male ; Mutation

Objective: To analyze the clinical and molecular diagnostic status of Fanconi anemia (FA) in China. Methods: The General situation, clinical manifestations and chromosome breakage test and genetic test results of 107 pediatric FA cases registered in the Chinese Blood and Marrow Transplantation Registry Group (CBMTRG) and the Chinese Children Blood and Marrow Transplantation Registry Group (CCBMTRG) from August 2009 to January 2022 were analyzed retrospectively. Children with FANCA gene variants were divided into mild and severe groups based on the type of variant, and Wilcoxon-test was used to compare the phenotypic differences between groups. Results: Of the 176 registered FA patients, 69 (39.2%) cases were excluded due to lack of definitive genetic diagnosis results, and the remaining 107 children from 15 hospitals were included in the study, including 70 males and 37 females. The age at transplantation treatment were 6 (4, 9) years. The enrolled children were involved in 10 pathogenic genes, including 89 cases of FANCA gene, 7 cases of FANCG gene, 3 cases of FANCB gene, 2 cases of FANCE gene and 1 case each of FANCC, FANCD1, FANCD2, FANCF, FANCJ, and FANCN gene. Compound heterozygous or homozygous of loss-of-function variants account for 69.2% (72/104). Loss-of-function variants account for 79.2% (141/178) in FANCA gene variants, and 20.8% (37/178) were large exon deletions. Fifty-five children (51.4%) had chromosome breakage test records, with a positive rate of 81.8% (45/55). There were 172 congenital malformations in 80 children.Café-au-Lait spots (16.3%, 28/172), thumb deformities (16.3%,28/172), polydactyly (13.9%, 24/172), and short stature (12.2%, 21/172) were the most common congenital malformations in Chinese children with FA. No significant difference was found in the number of congenital malformations between children with severe (50 cases) and mild FANCA variants (26 cases) (Z=-1.33, P=0.185). Conclusions: FANCA gene is the main pathogenic gene in children with FA, where the detection of its exon deletion should be strengthened clinically. There were no phenotypic differences among children with different types of FANCA variants. Chromosome break test is helpful to determine the pathogenicity of variants, but its accuracy needs to be improved.
Male ; Female ; Humans ; Child ; Fanconi Anemia/genetics* ; Chromosome Breakage ; Retrospective Studies ; Exons ; China/epidemiology*