MicroRNAs as potential therapeutic targets for pancreatic cancer / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive malignancies. The poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients is mainly attributed to low diagnostic rate at the early stage, highly aggressive nature coupled with the inadequate efficacy of current chemotherapeutic regimens. Novel therapeutic strategies are urgently needed for pancreatic cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important regulatory role in key processes of cancer development. The aberrant expression of miRNAs is often involved in the initiation, progression, and metastasis of pancreatic cancer. The discovery of tumor suppressor miRNAs provides prospects for the development of a novel treatment strategy for pancreatic cancer. We reviewed recent progress on the understanding of the role of miRNAs in pancreatic cancer, highlighted the efficient application of miRNAs-based therapies for pancreatic cancer in animal models and clinical trials, and proposed future prospects. This review focuses on the promise of integrating miRNAs into the treatment of pancreatic cancer and provides guidance for the development of precision medicine for pancreatic cancer.

Selective inhibition of endothelin receptor A improves white matter le-sions in hypertensive rats / 中国病理生理杂志

AIM:To observe whether selective inhibition of endothelin receptor A(ETRA)improves white matter lesions(WMLs),and explore the mechanism.METHODS:Sprague-Dawley rats(n=33)were randomly divided into sham operation group(n=9),treatment group[stroke-prone renovascular hypertensive rats-modified 2 vessel occlu-sion(RHRSP-modified 2VO)+ambrisentan(n=12)]and placebo group[RHRSP-modified 2VO +vehicle(n =12)].Drug and vehicle administration was performed from 17th to 20th week and monitoring of systolic arterial pressure was performed weekly.Morris water maze test was conducted to evaluate the function of cognition.The protein levels of en-dothelin-1(ET-1)in the cortex,corpus callosum and caudate putamen were quantitatively analyzed respectively.The se-verity of WMLs and the relationship between ET-1 and vessels were observed by the method of histopathology.RESULTS:The difference of systolic arterial pressure between treatment group and placebo group was not significant.The animals in treatment group exhibited shorter escape latency(P<0.05),more times of crossing platform(P<0.05), lower level of ET-1 in corpus callosum and caudate putamen(P<0.05),respectively,improved WMLs severity(P<0.05)and lower binding level of ET-1 to vessels compared with the placebo group.CONCLUSION: Selective inhibition of endothelin receptor A improves the severity of WMLs and ameliorates the cognitive function.

Ginsenoside Rh₂ induces apoptosis and autophagy of K562 cells by activating p38 / 中国中药杂志

To study the effect of ginseng saponin Rh₂ in inducing apoptosis of human leukemia K562 cells, and explore its mechanism from the aspect of autophagy pathway. CCK-8 assay was used to examine the growth inhibition of human leukemia cell lines K562 treated with ginsenoside Rh₂; flow cytometry (FCM) was used to detect cell apoptosis; Hoechst staining was used to observe the changes of cell morphological apoptosis; Acridine and MDC staining were used to detect the effects of the Rh₂ on autophagy; Western blot and RT-PCR were used to detect the expression levels of the proteins closely associated with autophagy and apoptosis. In order to study the effect of autophagy in proliferation and apoptosis, we used the autophagy inhibitor (3-MA).CCK-8 indicated that Rh₂ at low concentration could effectively inhibit the proliferation of leukemia cellsin dose- and time-dependent manners in K562 cells; FCM indicated that Rh₂ induced apoptosis; Hoechest staining showed that K562 cells had typical apoptotic morphological changes by treated Rh₂; Acridine and MDC staining showed that Rh₂ enhanced the green fluorescence and a large number of acidic autophagy vesicles were present; Western blot and RT-PCR results showed that Rh₂ increased the expression levels of Beclin-1, LC3A, LC3B, activated Caspase-3 and p-p38 in K562 cells; application of autophagy inhibitors(3-MA) could weaken the inhibition effect of Rh₂ on proliferation and induction effect on apoptosis in K562 cells. Ginsenoside Rh₂ inhibited the proliferation and induced apoptosis probably through activating p-p38, and inducing cell autophagy signaling pathway in K562 cells.

Ginsenoside Rh₂-induced inhibition of histone deacetylase 6 promotes K562 cells autophagy and apoptosis in vivo / 中国中药杂志

To study the in vivo inhibition effect of ginsenoside Rh₂ on humanleukemia cells, and explore its mechanism from autophagy and apoptosis aspects, human leukemia K562 cells allograft tumor models were applied, and after administration of ginsenosides Rh₂ by gavage, the tumor diameter, volume and inhibitory rate were measured, and the anti-tumor activity of ginsenosides Rh₂ was observed. The levels of HAT and HDAC in tumor tissues were detected by chemical colorimetry assay, and expressions of HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC3, HDAC4, HDAC5 and HDAC6 were detected by Western blotting assay. The expression levels of vital genes closely associated with autophagy and mRNA expressions of HDAC6 and Hsp90 were detected by Real time-PCR. HE staining was used to observe apoptosis, and immunohistochemistry was used to detect the protein expressions of HDAC6, Hsp90 and activated caspases 3. The results showed that ginsenoside Rh₂ could inhibit the growth of k562 cells allograft tumor, with a tumor inhibition rate up to 53.10%. Ginsenoside Rh₂ could significantly decrease HDAC activity and decrease the expressions of HDAC1, HDAC2 and HDAC6, and inhibit the expressions of HDAC6 and HSP90, increase the expressions of vital autophagy genes (beclin-1, LC3A and LC3B). Histopathological results showed that ginsenosides Rh₂ could significantly increase the tumor apoptosis. Therefore, ginsenoside Rh₂ had good anti-tumor effect in vivo, and the mechanism maybe associated with regulating autophagy and apoptosis through HDAC6 and Hsp90 pathways and inhibiting the in vivo proliferation of tumor cells.

"The teaching effect of ""organ-system-based curriculum"" integrated model on clinical gradua-tion field work" / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective To explore the teaching effect ofOrgan-system-based curriculum in-tegrated model on clinical graduation field work. Method 150 clinical medical undergraduates of Grade 2009 from Shenyang Medical College selected, were randomly divided into the experimental group (75 persons) and the control group (75 persons). The experimental group adopted the means of the Organ-system-based curriculum integrated model, namely practicing according to human organ-system and the control group accepted the traditional pattern of discipline centered practice during the clinical graduation internship. The two groups of students carried out questionnaire survey and comprehend examinations when the practice ended, and then statistics analysis (the chi square test, t test) was done by the SPSS 19.0 software between the two groups in order to explore the teaching effect. Result The students' satisfaction degree from six aspects of the questionnaire survey showed in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group (the degree of recognition of practicing pattern: χ2=11.437, P=0.003; the architectonic integrality: χ2=9.881, P=0.007; the im-provement of the autonomic learning ability χ2=9.643, P=0.008; the teaching method and means: χ2=11.006, P=0.004; motivating learning interest: χ2=13.550, P=0.001; increasing the ability of clinical thinking: χ2=13.309, P=0.001), and the average test scores of students from three parts of examination results showed by comprehend examinations (speculative knowledge examination: t=2.768, P=0.006;technical skill examination: t=2.212, P=0.029; clinical capability examination: t=5.015, P=0.000) in the experimental group was obviously higher than that in the control group and the difference was sig-nificant. Conclusion Organ-system-based curriculum integrated model on clinical graduation in-ternship is generally approved by the students, which has significantly improved the students' clinical thinking ability, and the quality of graduation internship teaching.

Chinese medicine improves postoperative quality of life in endometriosis patients: a randomized controlled trial / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of Chinese medicine (CM) and Western medicine (WM) on quality of life (QOL) after conservative surgery for endometriosis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 320 patients with endometriosis were randomized into two groups by using random block design, CM group (160 cases, activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis treatment based on syndrome differentiation) and WM group (160 cases, gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist or gestrinone treatment) after conservative surgery. Treatment was given for 3-6 months (according to the revised American Fertility Society scoring system stage), and the World Health Organization QOL-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) was applied to patients before and after treatment to assess QOL.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were 136 cases in the CM group and 141 cases in the WM group completing therapy. In the CM group, the use of the WHOQOL-BREF showed that the physical, psychological and environmental scores posttreatment were significantly higher than those at pre-treatment (P < 0.05), and for 12 items (pain and discomfort, energy and fatigue, sleep and rest, mobility, activities of daily living, work capacity, negative feelings, health and social care: accessibility and quality, participation in and opportunities for recreation/leisure activities, appetite, QOL score, overall health status and QOL), the difference in scores was significant (P < 0.05). In the WM group, 4 items (pain and discomfort, opportunities for acquiring new information and skills, QOL score, overall health status and QOL) had significantly different scores post-treatment compared with those at pre-treatment (P < 0.05). Before treatment, the QOL in the two groups of patients showed no significant difference (P > 0.05). After treatment, the scores for physical health in the CM group were significantly higher than those of the WM group (P < 0.05) and the scores of 4 items (mobility, activities of daily living, sexual activity, QOL score) in the CM group were significantly higher than those in the WM group (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>CM and WM treatment could improve the QOL of patients with endometriosis after conservative surgery. CM treatment is more effective than WM.</p>

Achievements inspection empirical study of universities and colleges — taking a medical college as example / 中华医学教育探索杂志

The achievements inspection and the drive standard of our country' universities and colleges is unscientific.The inspection result and the incentive mechanism have a lot of questions.Based on some medical university,the author analyzed the indicator system's construction,proposed displaying school culture guidance value,construcing the easy and feasible achievements inspection indicator system and completing measures and so on to better inspection feedback.