High serum superoxide dismutase activity improves radiation-related quality of life in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVES: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in China. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy and volume-modulated arc therapy have become the main treatments for esophageal carcinoma; however, side effects caused by radiotherapy greatly impact the quality of life in these patients. This study aimed to explore the impact of serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels on the prognosis of patients with ESCC undergoing radiotherapy. METHODS: Patients aged between 18 and 80 years with lower-middle ESCC who underwent radiotherapy were eligible for this assessment. Adverse events, responses, treatment outcomes, and overall survival (OS) were assessed. Between 2012 and 2014, 195 patients were enrolled, of which 65 were assigned to the low- and high-SOD groups based on their serum SOD values. RESULTS: The baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups, except for the T staging. Adverse events in the low-SOD group were significantly higher than those in the high-SOD group (radiation esophagitis, p=0.007; radiation pneumonitis, p=0.032; leukopenia, p=0.023; thrombocytopenia, p=0.037; anemia, p=0.041). There were no significant differences in response, treatment outcomes, or OS. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, high serum SOD activity improved post-radiotherapy quality of life but did not impact the prognosis of patients with ESCC. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report that serum SOD activity is associated with radiation-induced toxicity and moderately increased radiotherapeutic response in patients with ESCC undergoing radiotherapy.

Resina draconis inhibits the endoplasmic-reticulum-induced apoptosis of myocardial cells via regulating miR-423-3p/ERK signaling pathway in a tree shrew myocardial ischemia– reperfusion model

Ischemia-reperfusion (IR) is one of the significant medical problems in China. Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) stainingis used to detect the status of the infarct size, and real-time PCR and western blotting are used to detect expressions ofgenes. TUNEL assay has been used to detect apoptosis. Using a tree shrew myocardial IR model, we found that in thereperfusion period, resina draconis (RD) treatment reduced the infarct size by TTC staining, and significantly enhanced thesuperoxide dismutase expression and down-regulated the malondialdehyde concentration in a dose-dependent manner. Inhearts showing IR, Bax was increased and Bcl-2 was reduced, and RD treatment inhibited the IR-induced Bax expressionand up-regulated the IR suppressed level of Bcl-2. TUNEL assay showed that IR induced the apoptosis of myocardial cells,and RD treatment suppressed the IR-induced apoptosis. CHOP and GRP78 were also upregulated in IR hearts, and RDtreatment could significantly attenuate the CHOP and GRP78 levels compared with IR group. We further found that IRdecreased the miR-423-3p expression and upregulated its target gene ERK both in mRNA and protein levels, and RDtreatment upregulated miR-423-3p expression and downregulated ERK expression compared with the IR group. Importantly, miR-423-3p mimics inhibited IR increased ERK, CHOP and GRP78 expressions, and enhanced IR decreased Bcl-2expression, and inhibited the IR-induced apoptosis of myocardial cells. The findings of this study suggest that RD treatmentinhibited the endoplasmic reticulum induced apoptosis of myocardial cells via regulating miR-423-3p/ERK signalingpathway in a tree shrew myocardial IR model.