Objective To evaluate the role of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) in the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal tuberculosis. Methods We had conducted video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and acute pathological examinations for diagnosing and treating esophageal tuberculosis in 8 patients from June 1996 to April 2004. Results All the 8 patents were clarified as having secondary esophageal tuberculosis (Six of them had been misdiagnosed as having esophageal tumors preoperatively). A lymphoidectomy was carried out in 5 patents and a focus debridement, in 3 patents. The duration of procedure was 30~50 min (mean, 45 min). The intraoperative blood loss was 50~100 ml (mean, 80 ml). Postoperatively, pleural effusion occurred in 2 patients and wound infection took place in 1. Follow-up for 5~27 months (mean, 15 months) in 7 patients revealed a remarkable relief of dysphagia and no recurrence. Conclusions VATS in combination with acute pathological examinations is a rapid, safe, accurate and minimally invasive alternative for the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal tuberculosis.

Colorectal cancer is currently the third most common cancer worldwide,and there are still half of the patients undergoing recurrence and metastasis after surgical treatment,so it is necessary for colorectal cancer patients to receive radiation therapy routinely.Due to the side effects brought by radiotherapy,it is of great importance to solve how to minimize the radiation dose in radiation therapy and improve radiation sensitivity.In recent years,people discovered that microRNAs can not only be involved in the origins of colorectal cancer and progress,but also play a increasingly important role in cancer radiosensitivity.MicroRNAs can regulate tumor radiosensitivity by influencing tumor microenvironment and function on target genes.DNA damage response caused by radiation includes the activation of ATM,histone modification and chromatin remodeling,cell cycle arrest,damage repair and apoptosis.microRNAs can regulate tumor radiosensitivity through above processes.This review focuses on the mechanism of microRNAs in affecting DNA damage repair and prospects the future of microRNAs in influencing the sensitivity of cancer radiotherapy in clinical application.

Objective To investigate the antitumor effect of special promoter-controlled Gibbon ape leukemia virus membrane fusion glycoprotein (GALV.fus) mediated by type Ⅰ herpes simplex virus (HSV-Ⅰ) on lung adenocarcinoma. Methods Recombinant HSV-Ⅰ plasmids encoding GALV.fus was introduced into green monkey kidney cells(Vero)by liposome to amplify the virus, and then the virus was transfected into lung adenocarcinoma (A549), human fetal fibroblasts (HFL-Ⅰ GNHu 5) and human lung adenocarcinoma xenografts which were established in nude mice subcutaneously to observe antitumor and cytotoxic effect in vitro and in vivo; Recombined cytomegalovirus (CMV) containing GALV.fus or enhanced green fluorescence protein were served as control. Results Recombinant HSV-Ⅰ virus were packed successfully. Heterotransplantative tumourigenicity of the tumour was 100% in nude mice after A549 cells were inoculated. Recombinant HSV-Ⅰvirus exerted obvious antitumor effects in vitro, with relative survival rate of 23%, while for CMV virus containing GALV. fus, the rate was 20%, and for CMV virus encoding EGFP, the rate was 68%. Recombinant HSV-Ⅰvirus also showed striking antitumor effect on the implanted tumor. Conclusion GALV.fus has powerful effect against lung cancer in vitro and in vivo and maybe a promising candidate for gene therapy.

Objective To investigate the expression of miRNA-31 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients,and the relationship between miRNA-31 and disease activity of RA.Methods After obtaining the informed consent,peripheral blood samples of 56 RA patients,12 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients,6 Sj(o)gren's syndrome (SS) patients and 30 healthy controls were collected from the Department of Rheumatology,Peking University Third Hospital.RNA was extracted from the PBMCs which were separated by Ficoll-Paque PLUS.The expression of miRNA-31 in the PBMCs of RA patients,SLE patients,SS patients and healthy controls was detected by real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).Furthermore,according to the RA disease activity score (DAS28),RA patients were divided into high,moderate and low disease activity groups and remission group,and miRNA-31 expression was compared between different groups.Data were analyzed using t test or Mann-Whitney U test.Results The expression of miRNA-31 in PBMCs of RA patients was 7.25 times (P=0.003 8) higher when compared with that of the control group.To be specific,the expression of miRNA-31 was 10.63 times in PBMCs of high activity RA group (P=0.01) and 8.95 times in moderate activity RA group (P=0.000 3) when compared with that of the control group,and there was no significant difference between low activity,remission groups and control groups in terms of miRNA-31 expression.Furthermore,the expression of miRNA-31 in PBMCs of SLE patients was not significantly different from the control and miRNA-31 expression in PBMCs of SS patients was 1.64 times (P=0.02) higher than that of the RA patients,but the average level of miRNA-31 was much less than that of RA patients.The increased miRNA-31 may serve as a diagnostic marker for disease activity of RA.