【Objective】 To investigate the expression of optineurin (OPTN) in multiple myeloma (MM) and explore the mechanism and clinical value of OPTN gene in the occurrence and development of MM. 【Methods】 In this study, three gene expression omnibus (GEO) data sets were used to analyze the expression level of OPTN in MM. Clinical bone marrow samples of MM patients were collected. qRT-PCR was used to further verify the expression of OPTN in MM patients. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to analyze the value of OPTN in the prognosis and diagnosis of MM. At the same time, MM transcriptome data were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. According to the median boundary of OPTN mRNA expression level, the MM patients were divided into OPTN high- and low-expression groups. In order to investigate the possible molecular mechanisms of OPTN in MM, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was made after the differentially expressed genes were filtered using the limma package of the R language. 【Results】 The expression level of OPTN was significantly lower in MM tissues than in normal tissues (P<0.05). OPTN expression level was significantly correlated with International Staging System (ISS) in MM patients (P<0.05). ROC results showed that the expression level of OPTN could distinguish between normal and MM patients. Survival analysis showed that the overall survival (OS) of patients with low OPTN expression was significantly lower than that of patients with high OPTN expression (P<0.05). GO, KEGG and GSEA enrichment analyses indicated that OPTN might affect apoptosis and autophagy, and regulate cellular immune response by regulating Nod-like receptors, NF-κB, TNF and RAS/MAPK pathways. 【Conclusion】 Low expression of OPTN in MM is associated with poor prognosis of patients, and thus may be an important potential biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of MM.

Objective:This study aims to compare the antiviral treatment similarities and differences in the population covered by the 2024 version of the World Health Organization's (WHO) hepatitis B prevention and treatment guidelines and the current Chinese hepatitis B prevention and treatment guidelines, so as to explore their impact on the indications for antiviral therapy in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB).Methods:The information of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection who did not receive antiviral treatment was collected through the registration database of the China Clinical Research Platform for Hepatitis B Elimination. Descriptive statistics were conducted on the demographic, blood, biochemical, and virological levels of patients according to the treatment recommendations of the two versions of the guidelines. The Mann-Whitney U test and χ2 test were used to compare the differences and proportional distribution of the treatment populations covered by the two guidelines. The χ2 test was used to analyze the coverage rate of different antiviral treatment indications.Results:A total of 21,134 CHB patients without antiviral treatment were enrolled. 69.4% of patients met the 2024 versions of the WHO guidelines' recommendations. 85.0% of patients met the current Chinese hepatitis B prevention and treatment guidelines. The WHO guidelines for antiviral therapy indications were met in younger patients with higher levels of ALT, AST, and APRI scores, as well as greater proportion of patients with higher viral loads (P<0.001). The WHO guidelines recommended a cut-off value of APRI>0.5, which raised the proportion of patients on antiviral therapy from 6.6% to 30.9%. 45.7% of patients met the antiviral indications for HBV DNA >2000 IU/ml with abnormal transaminase (ALT>30 U/L for males and ALT>19 U/L for females). The reduced APRI diagnostic cut-off value and ALT treatment threshold had further increased the treatment coverage rate by 91.6% in patients with chronic HBV infection in line with the 2024 versions of WHO guidelines.Conclusion:The reduction of the APRI diagnostic cut-off value and the ALT treatment threshold, based on the current hepatitis B guidelines of China, will further improve the treatment coverage of CHB patients.

Background/Aims: Existing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prediction models are derived mainly from pretreatment or early on-treatment parameters. We reassessed the dynamic changes in the performance of 17 HCC models in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) during long-term antiviral therapy (AVT). Methods: Among 987 CHB patients administered long-term entecavir therapy, 660 patients had 8 years of follow-up data. Model scores were calculated using on-treatment values at 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, and 5 years of AVT to predict threeyear HCC occurrence. Model performance was assessed with the area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC). The original model cutoffs to distinguish different levels of HCC risk were evaluated by the log-rank test. Results: The AUROCs of the 17 HCC models varied from 0.51 to 0.78 when using on-treatment scores from years 2.5 to 5. Models with a cirrhosis variable showed numerically higher AUROCs (pooled at 0.65–0.73 for treated, untreated, or mixed treatment models) than models without (treated or mixed models: 0.61–0.68; untreated models: 0.51–0.59). Stratification into low, intermediate, and high-risk levels using the original cutoff values could no longer reflect the true HCC incidence using scores after 3.5 years of AVT for models without cirrhosis and after 4 years of AVT for models with cirrhosis. Conclusions The performance of existing HCC prediction models, especially models without the cirrhosis variable, decreased in CHB patients on long-term AVT. The optimization of existing models or the development of novel models for better HCC prediction during long-term AVT is warranted.

Based on the national policies, regulations and documents on residency training, this paper sorts out the historical evolution of the standardized residency training system in China, and divides its development into four stages: preliminary exploration, local pilot, national trials, and implementation. It also puts forward some practical thoughts on its development law and future trend, such aspects as that the system reform follows the top-down administrative order and indicative plan, the system pays attention to the gradual implementation on the basis of summing up practical experience, and the system needs continuous implementation and improvement from the overall perspective.

Objective To describe the characteristics and registration status of clinical trials of new drugs for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and to provide a reference for the design and implementation of clinical trials of new drugs for NASH. Methods The U.S. Clinical Trials Database, China Clinical Trial Registry, and Center for Drug Evaluation, National Medical Products Administration, were searched for clinical trials of new drug registration and interventional studies with NASH as the indication published up to August 6, 2021, using NASH in English and Chinese characters as the keywords, and liver cirrhosis was excluded. Two researchers independently searched and screened the articles to extract relevant information. Results A total of 196 clinical trials of new drug registration or interventional studies for NASH were included, among which there were 174 trials registered abroad and 22 trials registered in China, and the number of registrations tended to increase year by year. The numbers of phase Ⅰ, phase Ⅰ/Ⅱ(including Ⅰb/Ⅱa), phase Ⅱ, phase Ⅱ/Ⅲ, and phase Ⅲ clinical trials were 45(23.0%), 8(4.1%), 112(57.1%), 4(2.0%), and 19(9.7%), respectively. The main drug types included farnesoid X receptors, fibroblast growth factors, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor agonists, and glucagon-like peptide-1, with numbers of 16(8.16%), 14(7.14%), 11(5.61%), and 13(6.63%), respectively. The clinical trials of innovative drugs for NASH initiated by the sponsors in European and American regions accounted for the highest proportion, and there was a gradual increase in the number of clinical trials of innovative drugs in China in recent years, with a similar distribution of single-center and multicenter clinical trials. As for the trials with NASH patients as subjects, the numbers of trials with pathology, imaging, and clinical diagnosis as the main inclusion criteria were 125, 66, and 42, respectively. Phase Ⅰ clinical trials used safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetic parameters as the main assessment indices, while phase Ⅱ and phase Ⅲ clinical trials often used safety and efficacy as the main assessment indices. The number of clinical trials for the registration of innovative drugs for NASH was relatively low but kept increasing in China, and there were fewer clinical trials of innovative traditional Chinese medicine drugs compared with innovative chemical drugs. Conclusion There is a significant increase in the registration of international clinical trials of innovative drugs for NASH, and most of these trials are in the early phases, with large differences in inclusion criteria and assessment indices, a lack of unified evaluation indices, and relatively few trials with new designs. There are fewer clinical trials of innovative drugs for NASH in China than in European and American countries, and the number of such trials is gradually increasing in China.

Objective:Our study aims to determine histological regression and clinical improvement after long-term antiviral therapy in hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis patients.Methods:Treatment-na?ve chronic hepatitis B patients with histologically or clinically diagnosed liver cirrhosis were enrolled. Liver biopsies were performed after 5 years entecavir-based antiviral treatment. Patients were followed up every 6 months. Cirrhosis regression was evaluated based on Metavir system and P-I-R score. Clinical improvement was evaluated before and after the long-term treatment. Kruskal Wallis test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used for continuous variables, Fisher's exact test was used for categorical variables and multivariate analysis was performed using logistic regression analysis.Results:Totals of 73 patients with HBV-related liver cirrhosis were enrolled. Among them, 30 (41.1%) patients were biopsy proved liver cirrhosis and the remaining 43 (58.9%) cirrhotic patients were diagnosed by clinical features. Based on Metavir system and P-I-R score, 72.6% (53/73) patients attained histological regression. Furthermore, 30.1% (22/73) were defined as significant regression (Metavir decrease ≥2 stage), 42.5% (31/73) were mild regression (Metavir decrease 1 stage or predominantly regressive by P-I-R system if still cirrhosis after treatment) and 27.4% (20/73) were the non-regression. Compared to levels of clinical characteristics at baseline, HBV DNA, ALT, AST, liver stiffness(decreased from 12.7 to 6.4 kPa in significant regression, from 18.1 to 7.3 kPa in mild regression and from 21.4 to 11.2 kPa in non-regression)and Ishak-HAI score significantly decreased after 5 years of anti-HBV treatment, while serum levels of platelets and albumin improved remarkably ( P<0.05). In multivariate analysis, only the pre-treatment liver stiffness level was associated with significant regression ( OR=0.887, 95% CI: 0.802-0.981, P=0.020). Conclusions:After long-term antiviral therapy, patients with HBV-related cirrhosis are easily to attain improvements in clinical parameters, while a certain percentage of these patients still cannot achieve histological reversal.

Objective:To clarify the effect and related factors of antiviral therapy on the change of esophageal varices in patients with hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis.Methods:Fifty-two cases with hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis who underwent endoscopy before and after antiviral therapy were selected from prospective cohorts. Patients were divided into three groups: no, mild, and moderate-severe based on the degree of esophageal varices. The changes in the severity of esophageal varices in each group were compared after antiviral therapy. Clinical characteristics (platelet, liver and kidney function, liver stiffness, and virological response) of patients with different regressions were analyzed. Measurement data were analyzed by independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H test, and Chi-Square test was used for count data.Results:All patients received entecavir-based antiviral therapy. The median treatment time was 3.1 (2.5-4.4) years. The proportion of patients without esophageal varices increased from 30.8% to 51.9%, the proportion of mild esophageal varices decreased from 40.4% to 30.8%, and the proportion of patients with moderate-to-severe esophageal varices decreased from 28.8% to 17.3% ( χ2=14.067, P=0.001). A total of 40.4% of patients had esophageal varices regression, and 13.5% had esophageal varices progression. The progression rate was significantly higher in patients with moderate-severe esophageal varices than patients with mild and no esophageal varices ( χ2=28.126, P<0.001), and 60.0% of patients with moderate-severe esophageal varices still remained in moderate-severe state after antiviral treatment. Baseline platelet count and 5-year mean change rates were significantly lower in patients with progressive moderate-to-severe esophageal varices than in those without progression (+3.3% vs. +34.1%, Z=7.00, P=0.027). Conclusion:After effective antiviral treatment, 40.4% of patients with hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis combined with esophageal varices has obtained esophageal varices regression, but those with moderate to severe esophageal varices still have a considerable risk of progression while receiving mono antiviral treatment only. Thrombocytopenia and without significant improving are the clinical signs of progression risk after receiving antiviral treatment.

Objective:To comparatively study the similarities and differences between the clinical, pathological, and risk factors of advanced fibrosis in men and women with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).Methods:267 patients with NAFLD diagnosed by liver biopsy were retrospectively included, and were divided into male and female groups. The difference of clinical and pathological indexes were compared between the two groups. The measurement data were in accordance with normal distribution. The comparison between the two groups was performed by independent sample t-test. The non-parametric test was used for non-normal distribution. The classification data were expressed as a percentage, and the chi-square test was used for comparison between groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the risk factors.Results:The age of onset of NAFLD was significantly lower in male than female patients ( P < 0.01). There was no statistically significant difference between the male and female groups in terms of body mass index and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes ( P > 0.05). Biochemical index: The levels of alanine aminotransferase, albumin, total bilirubin and uric acid were significantly higher in male than female patients ( P < 0.01). Liver pathology: The proportion of ballooning degeneration was significantly lower in male than female patients ( P < 0.01). There was not statistically significant difference between the two groups in the proportion of steatohepatitis score, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (52.0% vs. 61.5%, P = 0.283) and advanced liver fibrosis (14.3% vs. 17.8%, P = 0.162). Thrombocytopenia was a common independent risk factor for advanced stage liver fibrosis ( OR = 0.984, 0.978~0.989, P < 0.01). Type 2 diabetes was only an independent risk factor for advanced stage liver fibrosis in men ( OR = 6.557, 1.667~25.782), P < 0.01). Elevated AST was only an independent risk factor for advanced stage liver fibrosis in women ( OR = 1.016, 1.003~1.028, P = 0.012). Conclusion:In NAFLD patients, there are some clinical and pathological differences between genders. Platelets are a common predictor of advanced liver fibrosis in men and women. Type 2 diabetes in men and elevated aspartate aminotransferase in women can be regarded as independent risk factors for advanced liver fibrosis.

Objective:To describe the current status of registration and design characteristics of clinical trials of new drugs for curing hepatitis B through domestic and foreign websites, so as to provide references for the follow-up clinical trials of new hepatitis B drugs.Methods:A search was conducted on the US Clinical Trials Database and the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry Center. The search date was from the establishment of the database to May 26, 2020, and the registration trials of new drugs for curing hepatitis B at home and abroad were included. Two researchers independently searched and screened the literature and extracted the data.Results:A total of 106 registered clinical trials of new drugs for curing hepatitis B were included (94 English registration websites and 12 Chinese registration websites), and the number of registrations had increased year by year. Among them, the proportion of therapeutic vaccines and core protein inhibitors were the highest, accounting for 27.4% ( n = 29) and 22.6% ( n = 24), respectively. The vast majority of clinical trials ( n = 96, 90.6%) were in the early stages (Phase I and II). The subjects in phase I clinical trial were mainly healthy people and treated CHB patients, while the subjects in phase II clinical trial were mainly CHB patients who had achieved viral suppression after initial or post-treatment. The main evaluation indicators of Phase I clinical trials were the safety and tolerability of new drugs. The main evaluation indicators in about half of Phase II clinical trials were HBsAg negative conversion/quantitative decline. Overall, the number of clinical trials with the new design was small, accounting for 3.8% (4 / 106). There were relatively few trials of new drugs for curing hepatitis B on domestic registration websites, and the information provided was incomplete. Conclusion:The number of clinical trials of new hepatitis B drugs at home and abroad is increasing year by year, but most of them are in phase I and II, with few adopting new designs. In addition, the information integrity of the domestic website registration center needs to be improved.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of brazilin on the proliferation, apoptosis and autophagy of human tongue squamous cell carcinoma Tca8113 cells in vitro and explore its molecular mechanism. METHODS: The changes in the proliferation, morphology and apoptosis of Tca8113 cells in response to brazilin treatment were detected using MTT assay, Hoechst33342 staining, and Annexin V/PI double staining, respectively. The expressions of apoptosis-related protein Bax, Bcl-2, cleaved caspase-3 and autophagy-related proteins p-AMPK, p-mTOR, LC3B, and p62 in the treated cells were detected using Western blotting. The effect of treatment with both the AMPK pathway inhibitor and brazilin on the expressions of the pathway-related proteins p-AMPK, p-mTOR, and LC3B was assessed. RESULTS: MTT assay showed that brazilin significantly inhibited the proliferation of Tca8113 cells with an IC50 of 31.17 μmol/L at 24 h. Hoechst33342 staining showed that brazilin induced apoptotic morphological changes in Tca8113 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Treatment with different concentrations of brazilin resulted in increased apoptosis in the cells. Brazilin obviously inhibited the expression of Bcl-2, p62 and p-mTOR and enhanced the expressions of Bax, cleaved caspase-3, LC3B and p-AMPK. The AMPK pathway inhibitor significantly inhibited the increase in p-AMPK and LC3B expressions and the decrease in p-mTOR expression induced by brazilin. CONCLUSIONS Brazilin can inhibit the proliferation and promote apoptosis in Tca8113 cells and at the same time induces autophagy in the cells through the AMPK/mTOR pathway.
Apoptosis ; Autophagy ; Benzopyrans ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Humans ; Tongue Neoplasms