Traditional Chinese medicine integrated with chemotherapy for stage IV non-surgical gastric cancer: a retrospective clinical analysis / 中西医结合学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is regarded as an important treatment for gastric cancer patients, especially for those in advanced stage. To evaluate the effects of TCM treatment on gastric cancer patients, the authors performed a retrospective study to report the result of the integrated treatment of TCM with chemotherapy for stage IV non-surgical gastric cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>In this study, 182 patients with stage IV and non-surgical gastric cancer were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate the effects of TCM integrated with chemotherapy. Among the 182 cases, 88 cases received integrated therapy consisting of TCM and chemotherapy, while 94 cases received chemotherapy alone. The overall survival and Karnofsky performance status (KPS) score were measured as the main outcome.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The median overall survival of the integrated therapy group and chemotherapy group were 16.9 and 10.5 months, respectively. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates of integrated therapy group vs. chemotherapy group were 70% vs. 32%, 18% vs. 4%, and 11% vs. 0%, respectively. There was a significant difference between the two groups (χ= 42.244, P > 0.001). After six-month treatment, KPS scores of the integrated therapy group and the chemotherapy group were 75.00 ± 14.78 and 60.64 ± 21.39, respectively (P > 0.001). The Cox regression analysis showed that TCM treatment is a protective factor for patients' overall survival.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>This study demonstrated that TCM integrated with chemotherapy may prolong overall survival and improve survival rate and life quality of patients with stage IV non-surgical gastric cancer.</p>

Effect of xiaotan sanjie recipe on expressions of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 in nude mice with transplanted human gastric adenocarcinoma cell MKN-45 / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the mechanism of Xiaotan Sanjie Recipe (XSR) in inhibiting lymphatic metastasis of gastric carcinoma by observing its effects on the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) and its receptor VEGFR-3 in nude mice with transplanted human gastric adenocarcinoma cell MKN-45.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty mice were made into MKN-45 tumor model and randomly divided into three groups treated with saline, 5-Fu, and XSR, respectively. Gene and protein expressions of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 in the tumor tissue were detected by RT-PCR, and the lymphatic microvessel density (LMVD) in tumor was measured with immunohistochemistry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the group treated with saline, the mRNA and protein expressions of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 as well as LMVD level were significantly lower (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) in the group treated with XSR. There was no significantly statistic difference between the group of XSR and 5-Fu on the indices mentioned above (P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>By down-regulating the mRNA and protein expressions of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 might be one of possible mechanisms for XSR in preventing and curing the lymphatic metastasis of gastric carcinoma.</p>

Effects of xiaotan sanjie recipe on vasculogenic mimicry of human gastric cancer xenografts in nude mice / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the effect of Xiaotan Sanjie Recipe (XTSJD) and its mechanism on vasculogenic mimicry (VM) of human gastric cancer xenografts in nude mice.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The tumor-bearing mice model was established by subcutaneous inoculating with xenografts of human gastric cancer into the right armpit of 30 BALB/c nude mice. After modeling, the tumor-bearing mice were randomly divided into the normal saline group, the XTSJD group, and the doxycycline hyclate (DH) group, 10 in each. And the mice were administered with corresponding medicine by gastrogavage for 4 weeks. Then all mice were killed by cervical dislocation. The tumor mass were weighed and the tumor inhibition rate calculated. The amount of VM in tumor was counted. Expressions of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) -2 and MMP-9 were tested using immunohistochemical method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Tumor weight in the XTSJD group and the OH group decreased significantly when compared with the NS group (P<0.01). The amount of VM in the XTSJD group (24.50+/-3.03) and the OH group (14.70+/-1.34) was significantly less than that in the NS group (33.10+/-2.64) (P<0.01). The positive expressions of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in the XTSJD group and the OH group was significantly lower than that in the NS group (P <0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>XTSJD could inhibit the formation of VM in xenografted tumor of nude mice. The mechanism might be correlated with the down-regulation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 expressions.</p>

Fusion tags technology and their applications / 生物工程学报

Fusion tags are originally developed to facilitate the purification of recombinant protein from crude extracts. In recent years, the discovery of different tags and the development of fusion strategy make the function of fusion tags diversified. However, there was no a cure-all fusion tag for different applications. We here give an overview of fusion tag technology and the different applications of fusion tags, including the purification, detection and oriented immobilization of recombinant protein, the visualization of bioevent in vivo, the enhancement of the yield of protein, the improvement of the solubility and stability of the expressed protein.