PDE4 inhibitors serve as therapeutic targets for pulmonary fibrosis / 中国临床药理学与治疗学

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and ultimately fatal chronic interstitial lung disease characterized by a progressive decline in lung function, and current treatment options are limited. cAMP is one of the most important second messengers and plays a key role in relaxing airway smooth muscle cells and reducing inflammation. Phosphodiesterase (PDE) is a superfamily of enzymes, and PDE4 enzymes dominate 11 PDE superfamily enzymes, available in four isoforms-PDE4A, PDE4B, PDE4C and PDE4D, which selectively decompose cAMP, while PDE4 inhibitors increase cAMP levels by preventing cAMP from breaking down, thereby exerting anti-inflammatory, anti-remodeling effects and providing an attractive drug target for the treatment of IPF. This review summarizes knowledge about the association of pulmonary fibrosis with PKE4, as well as emerging preclinical studies and clinical trials regarding PDE4 inhibitors.

Research progress on the relationship between thyroid hormone and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis / 中国临床药理学与治疗学

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic progressive disease with unknown etiology, which is characterized by scarring of lung parenchyma, leading to reduced quality of life and premature death. At present, some studies have confirmed that hypothyroidism (HT) may play a role in the development of fibrosis. Many animal experiments have proved that thyroid hormone (TH) can inhibit pulmonary fibrosis by regulating glucose metabolism, improving mitochondrial function and inhibiting inflammation. This paper summarizes the correlation between TH and IPF, and deeply understands the relationship between TH and IPF, in order to have new treatment strategies for IPF in the future.

Integrins targeting αv are used as drug targets for pulmonary fibrosis / 中国临床药理学与治疗学

IPF is a chronic progressive interstitial lung disease of unknown etiology and poor prognosis, and despite receive treatment, most patients consideration are likely to progress or worsen. Integrins are heterodimer cell surface proteins that are promising therapeutic targets for intervention in pulmonary fibrosis. Alphav integrins are central to the development of fibrosis because they activate latent TGF-β, a known pro-fibrosis cytokine. The alphav subunit may form heterodimers with the β1, β3, β5, β6, or β8 subunits, one or more of which are essential for the development of pulmonary fibrosis, but their relative importance is unclear. This review summarizes the knowledge of the association of pulmonary fibrosis with alpha-val-integrins, as well as emerging preclinical studies and clinical trials of alpha-fibrosis inhibitors.

Predicting clinical chemo-sensitivity of primary ovarian cancer using adenosine triphosphate-tumor chemosensitivity assay combined with detection of drug resistance genes / 中华妇产科杂志

Objective To predict clinical chemotherapy sensitivity of primary ovarian cancer by jointing adenosine triphosphate(ATP) - tumor chemo-sensitivity assay(TCA) method in vitro and detection of drug resistance genes, provide reference for clinical treatment. Methods Forty-seven primary epithelial ovarian tumor samples were collected from the patients who received cytoreductive surgery. Viable ovarian cancer cells obtained from malignant tissue were tested for their sensitivity to carboplatin (CBP), cisplatin (DDP), paclitaxel(PTX) and CBP + PTX using ATP-TCA method in vitro; at same time, real-time quantitative PCR was used to analysis BRCA1 and ERCC1 mRNA relative expression in forty-six specimens (1 frozen tumor samples mRNA were not detected due to serious degradation). The relationship between ATP-TCA test results, clinical indicators, and the effectiveness of the joint prediction on clinical chemosensitivity by combining these two methods were statistically analyzed using chi-square test. Results (1)The results showns that three programs of DDP,CBP and PTX + CBP were significantly related with clinical results(P<0.05) in vitro, in which the compliance rate in PTX + CBP program was the highest 83%(39/47) ,and the predictive sensitivity, predictive specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and predictive accurate rate were 90%,71%,84% and 80% ,respectively.PTX + CBP combined in vitro test results was also related with residual tumor size and neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which was more prone to drug resistance with residual tumor larger than 2 cm (P = 0. 023) and with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (P = 0.011). (2) BRCA1 mRNA expression levels in the clinical-resistant group and the clinical-sensitive group was 0.673 ± 2.143 and - 1.436 ± 2.594 (P=0.008), ERCC1 mRNA expression levels in the clinical-resistant group and the clinical-sensitive group was -0.529 ± 1.982 and - 3.188 ±2.601 (P =0.001). There were also significant correlation among the expression levels of BRCA1 ,ERCC1 mRNA and clinical efficacy (P<0.01). (3)ATP-TCA and detection of drug resistance genes combined to predict the clinical application of PTX + CBP resistance may occur in 8/9 cases. Conclusions ATP-TCA may be an ideal method of in vitro drug sensitivity testing method, which could effectively predict clinical chemotherapy sensitivity. Combination of the drug-resistant associated genes detection method and the ATP-TCA method can increase the predictive effectiveness of ovarian cancer chemosensitivity and guide individual chemotherapy of ovarian cancer.