ABSTRACT
Apoptosis is a physiologically essential mechanism of cell and plays an important role in reducing the development and progression of tumors. The appealing strategy for cancer therapy is to target the lesions that induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Survivin, the smallest member of the mammalian inhibitors of the apoptosis protein family, is upregulated in various malignancies to protect cells from apoptosis. Survivin knockdown could induce cancer cell apoptosis and inhibit tumor-angiogenesis. Survivin expression would be silenced by microRNA (miRNA)-mediated RNA interference. However, noninvasive and tissue-specific gene delivery techniques remain absent recently and the utilizations of miRNA expression vectors have been limited by inefficient delivery technique, especially in vivo. On the other hand, safe and promising technologies of gene transfection would be valuable in clinical gene therapy. Successful treatment of gene transfer method would lead to a new and readily available approach in the anticancer research. Sonoporation is an alternative technique of gene delivery that uses ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction to create pores in the cell membrane. Based on our previous studies, in this article, we postulated that the transfection of miRNA could be mediated by the combination of sonoporation and polyethylenimine (PEI) which was one of the most effective poly-cationic gene vectors and enhance the endocytosis of plasmids DNA and hypothesized that the gene silencing and apoptosis induction with miRNA targeting human Survivin would be improved by this novel technique. In our opinion, this novel combination of sonoporation and PEI could enhance targeted gene delivery effectively and might be a feasible, novel candidate for gene therapy.
Subject(s)
Humans , Genetic Therapy , Methods , Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins , Genetics , MicroRNAs , Genetics , Neoplasms , Therapeutics , Polyethyleneimine , Chemistry , Transfection , MethodsABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the therapeutic effect of needle-pricking therapy combined with spinal massage on ankylosing spondylitis and to probe into the mechanism.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Ninety-three cases who were definitely diagnosed as having ankylosing spondylitis at active stage were randomly divided into a medication group (n=46) and an observation group (n=47). The observation group were treated by needle-pricking the main points, Neck No. 2 nerve, Neck No. 5 nerve point, etc., combined with spinal rotation massage, and the medication group were treated with Azulfidine. Changes of cumulative score of arthralgia and arthroncus, function of joint, Keitel test, and ESR and CRP before and after treatment were observed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The effective rate and the markedly effective rate were 95.8%0 and 68.1% in the observation group and 78.3% and 23.9% in the medication group, respectively, the former being significantly better than the latter (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Needle-pricking therapy combined with spinal massage has a significant therapeutic effect with a steady and long-term effect for treatment of ankylosing spondylitis at active stage.</p>
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Acupuncture Therapy , Methods , Combined Modality Therapy , Massage , Medicine, Chinese Traditional , Spine , Spondylitis, Ankylosing , TherapeuticsABSTRACT
The clinical practice on real patients is more and more difficult in the present condition of the hospitals.Then,the modern medical simulating teaching is the main direction of the development in this field due to its characteristics,based on high- technology,simulating the real clinical circumstance,and being applicable in practice and avoiding the risk of clinical miscarriage. The significance and main development direction of modern medical simulated teaching will be discussed in this article.