Humans ; Asthma/drug therapy* ; Biological Therapy

Objective:APOBEC3B (A3B) is an important member of the apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide (APOBEC) family. The study aims to investigate the relationship between A3B expression and prognosis as well as resistance to cisplatin in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods:Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to analysis the A3B mRNA expression in 40 NSCLC tissues; Kaplan Meier plotter was used to analyse the correlation between A3B expression and clinical prognosis; in addition, the knock-down A3B expression cell line in human lung adenocarcinoma cell A549 was constructed; MTS and plate cloning experiment were performed to observe the changes in cell cisplatin sensitivity, and γ-H2AX immunofluorescence was used to quantitate the DNA damage.Results:Compared with adjacent tissues, A3B was highly expressed in NSCLC tissues (27/40). Kaplan Meier plotter analysis showed that A3B expression was positively correlated with NSCLC overall survival (OS) [adenocarcinoma: HR=0.64(0.47-0.86), P=0.002 6; squamous cell carcinoma: HR=0.77(0.59-1.01), P=0.006]. Cell-based studies showed that the knock-down A3B expression contributed to sensitivity to cisplatin in A549 cells. Conclusions:A3B mediates the sensitivity of lung cancer to cisplatin. This effect may partly explain why NSCLC patients with high A3B expression have a better prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Anlotinib is a newly developed small molecule multiple receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitor that was approved for the treatment of patients with lung cancer in China. We aim to report 3 cases of rare complication of anlotinib-bronchial fistula (BF) during the treatment of lung cancer patients and summarize the possible causes. METHODS: We collected three patients who developed BF due to anlotinib treatment, and conducted a search of Medline and PubMed for medical literature published between 2018 and 2020 using the following search terms: "anlotinib," "lung cancer," and "fistula." RESULTS: Our literature search produced two case reports (three patients) which, in addition to our three patients. We collated the patients' clinical characteristics including demographic information, cancer type, imaging features, treatment received, risk factors for anlotinib related BF, and treatment-related outcomes. The six patients shared some common characteristics: advanced age, male, concurrent infection symptoms, diabetes mellitus (DM), advanced squamous cell and small cell lung cancers, centrally located tumors, tumor measuring ≥5 cm in longest diameter, and newly formed tumor cavitation after multi-line treatment especially after receiving radiotherapy. Fistula types included broncho-pericardial fistula, broncho-pleural fistula, and esophago-tracheobronchial fistula. Six patients all died within 6 months. CONCLUSIONS Although anlotinib is relatively safe, it is still necessary to pay attention to the occurrence of BF, a rare treatment side effect that threatens the quality of life and overall survival of patients. Anlotinib, therefore, requires selective use and close observation of high-risk patients.

PURPOSE: Details of patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbation in mainland China are lacking. To improve disease control and reduce economic burden, a large sample survey among this patient population is indispensable. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics and outcomes of such patients.METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbation in 29 hospitals of 29 regions in mainland China during the period 2013 to 2014. Demographic features, pre-admission conditions, exacerbation details, and outcomes were summarized. Risk factors for exacerbation severity were analyzed.RESULTS: There were 3,240 asthmatic patients included in this study (57.7% females, 42.3% males). Only 28.0% used daily controller medications; 1,287 (39.7%) patients were not currently on inhaled corticosteroids. Acute upper airway infection was the most common trigger of exacerbation (42.3%). Patients with severe to life-threatening exacerbation tended to have a longer disease course, a smoking history, and had comorbidities such as hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and food allergy. The multivariate analysis showed that smoking history, comorbidities of hypertension, COPD, and food allergy were independent risk factors for more severe exacerbation. The number of patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbation varied with seasons, peaking in March and September. Eight patients died during the study period (mortality 0.25%).CONCLUSIONS: Despite enhanced education on asthma self-management in China during recent years, few patients were using daily controller medications before the onset of their exacerbation, indicating that more educational efforts and considerations are needed. The findings of this study may improve our understanding of hospital admission for asthma exacerbation in mainland China and provide evidence for decision-making.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; Asthma ; China ; Comorbidity ; Disease Progression ; Education ; Female ; Food Hypersensitivity ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Inpatients ; Medication Adherence ; Mortality ; Multivariate Analysis ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Seasons ; Self Care ; Smoke ; Smoking

Objective To study the inducing factors and clinical characteristics of patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbation in China. Methods Patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbation at 29 hospitals in China were retrospectively recruited during 2013-2014. Results Clinical data of 3 240 asthmatic patients were collected and analyzed including 1 369(42.3%) males and 1 871(57.7%)females. The patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbation counted for 2.95% (6 375/215 955) of all patients hospitalized during the same period. The leading six inducing factors, in sequence, were acute upper respiratory tract infection[42.3%(1 370/3 240)],changes of weather[22.8%(738/3 240)],noxious gas[(4.3% (140/3 240), allergy challenges [3.5%(115/3 240)], strenuous exercise [1.8%(57/3 240)], and air pollution [1.5%(49/3 240)].In older patients,more exacerbations were induced by weather changes,yet less sensitive to allergy challenges. As to middle-aged patients, they were less sensitive to upper respiratory tract infections,however the difference was not statistically significant(P>0.05).In winter more asthma patients were induced by upper respiratory tract infections,while in autumn more patients were induced by weather changes,strenuous exercise and air pollution.In spring and summer more patients were induced by allergy challenges, but the differences failed to achieve statistical significance (P>0.05). In northern cities more patients were induced by upper respiratory infections, whereas in southern cities more by noxious gases. Allergy challenges and air pollution tended to affect more patients in northern cities,but the difference was of no significance (P>0.05). The differences of inducing factors among patients of different gender, with or without a smoking history, and with different exacerbation severity didn't show any statistical significance. The patients with severe and life-threatening exacerbations counted for 20.1%(652/3 240).The percentage of patients older than 60 years was higher in patients with severe or life-threatening exacerbations than in whose with mild or moderate exacerbations,so did the percentage of male patients,of patients with disease duration longer than 10 years, with smoking history, and with a history of hospitalization or emergency department visits due to asthma exacerbation during the last year.Conclusion The acute upper respiratory tract infection ranks top among all the inducing factors. Senility, male gender, long duration of disease, smoking history, and a history of frequent hospital visits might be the risk factors for severe or life-threatening asthma exacerbations.

Due to the decline of motor ability and the impact of the diseases, abnormalities in gait is common in the elderly population, which will raise the risk of fall and cause serious injury. This study focuses on the analysis of the gait kinematics parameters of normal adults' gait, aiming to investigate the characteristics of gait parameters in different age groups and to explore the role of gait parameters in motor function assessment and clinical diagnosis. Based on the gait data gained by electronic walkway, the relationship among the toe out angles and their correlation with age and gender etc. were quantitatively analyzed. The results show that most normal subjects walk with positive toe out angles, and the angles increase with age. Such changes are slow in the young and middle age groups. However, the elevations of the left out toe angle and the angles between the feet are statistically significant after entering elder age ( >60 years). The results also suggest that the angle between the feet is a kind of practical gait parameter for varying applications. This study concludes that feet angle analysis is potential to provide a convenient and quantitative tool for the assessment of lower limb motor ability and the diagnosis of knee joint diseases.

Objective:The effects of IL-13 ( Interleukin-13 ) on SDF-1 ( Stromal cell derived factor 1 ) and EGF ( Epidermal growth factor) expression in fibroblasts co-cultured with breast cancer cells were investigated to explore the mechanism for IL-13 in the development of breast cancer.Methods:The co-culture of human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 with the human skin fibroblast line CCC-ESF-1 ( ESF) was used in vitro and in tumor-burdened nude mice.The effects of IL-13 on SDF-1 and EGF expression in the co-cultured fibroblasts in vitro were analyzed using reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction ( RT-qPCR ) , flow cytometry and Western blot assay.The proliferation of the co-cultured human breast cancer cells in vitro was detected by Cell counting kit-8(CCK-8).The effects of IL-13 on SDF-1 and EGF expression in the fibroblasts of tumor tissue of tumor-burdened nude mice were analyzed using immunofluorescence and laser confocal microscope, and the tumor volumes were examined.Results: IL-13 could up-regulate SDF-1 and EGF expression in the fibroblasts co-cultured with breast cancer cells in vitro,and promoted the proliferation of the co-cultured breast cancer cells.In tumor-burdened nude mice,IL-13 enhanced SDF-1 and EGF expression of fibroblasts in tumor tissue, and accelerated tumor growth.Conclusion:IL-13 up-regulates SDF-1 and EGF expression of fibroblasts co-cultured with breast cancer cells.The molecular mechanism of promoting effect of IL-13 on breast cancer relates to SDF-1 and EGF of fibroblasts in breast cancer stroma.

Background and objective Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma is a rare histologic subtype of non-small cell lung cancer. hTe effective treatment for this disease has not well deifned due to its extremely low morbidity. hTis study explores the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of 38 patients with PSC, so as to provide some clues for its diagnosis and treatment. Methods hTe study enrolled 38 patients with PSC that were diagnosed with histology or cytology in our hospital between January 2000 and December 2013. We retrospectively analyzed general clinical characteristics, smoking history, tumor size, TNM staging, pathology, immunohistochemistry, diagnostic method, treatment and prognosis. We used SPSS 19.0 statistical sotfware and Kaplan-Meier method to analyze our data. Results Patients in this study were aged from 26 to 76 years old (the median age was 57.5 years old). Among all of them, the male to female ratio was 4:1, and 81.6%of patients had smoking history. Cough and hemoptysis were the most common primary symptoms. hTe median survival was 21 months, while one-year survival rate, three-year survival rate and five-year survival rate were 68.4%, 31.6%and 18.4%respectively. Tumor size, TNM staging, distant metastasis and surgery therapy were associated with the prognosis of patients. Conclusion Patients with PSC present with no special symptoms generally. According to our study, factors that affect patients’ prognosis include tumor size, TNM staging, distant metastasis and surgery. Complete resection is the key treatment for PSC patients, but comprehensive chemoradiotherapy needs further exploration in evidence-based medicine. Biological target therapy may give new insight into treatment for PSC.

Objective To investigate the expression of calcium-binding protein S100A4 in pancreatic carcinoma and its clinical significannce.Methods Immunohistochemistry EliVisionTM Plus method was used to examine the expression of S100A4 in 70 surgical specimens of primary pancreatic carcinoma and 15 patients with noncarcinoma pancreatic tissues.The correlation between the expression of S100A4 and the clinicopathological parameters was analyzed.Results S100A4 was positive in 52(52/70,74.3％) specimens of primary pancreatic carcinoma according to immunohistochemistry detection.No expression of S100A4 in adjacent noncarcinoma pancreatic tissues was detected.The expression of S100A4 did not correlated with gender,age or tumor site while it was significantly correlated with tumor size,grade of differentiation,TNM stages,lymph node metastasis and survival.Disease-free survival and overall survival of the negative group were significantly longer than the positive group.The difference had statistical significance.Conclusion The study shows that over expression of S100A4 protein is closely related with clinicopathological parameters of pancreatic cancer patients,indicating poor prognosis for pancreatic cancer patients.

Objective To investigate the correlation between the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2),vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) protein,and metastasis in human papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).Methods lmmunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of COX-2 and VEGF protein in 66 cases of PTC,20 cases of thyroid adenoma (TA),20 cases of nodular goiter (NG) and 15 cases of adjacent noncancerous (AN) tissues.Results The positive expression rate of COX-2 (72.7％,48/66)and VEGF (59.1％,39/66) was significantly higher in PTC than in TA( 10.0％,15.0％ ),NG( 15.0％,20.0％ )and AN (0.0％,13.3％ ) (P ＜0.05).The expression of COX-2 and VEGF was closely related to invasion,metastasis,and survival duration of PTC patients (P ＜0.05).Conclusion The expression of COX-2 and VEGF is closely related to biological behaviors of PTC patients and can be taken as prognostic indicators for PTC patients.