Applications of stem cell disease models in liver metabolic research and drug development / 生理学报

The high failure rate of the new drug development has been well recognized. Relying on the pre-clinical data obtained from animal experiments will inevitably cause a low concordance with human clinical trials, which will eventually lead to new drug development failure. Employing human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or adult stem cells to simulate disease models can not only provide an unlimited cell materials, but also faithfully represent the genetic background of a certain disease, when iPSCs or adult stem cells derived from patients with a specific disease genetic variation are applied. In addition, gene editing methods can be used to introduce genetic variants of interest into stem cells to generate disease models. Furthermore, by establishing a cell bank with a population of iPSCs in petri dish, in vitro human genetic studies can be carried out in these cells, with GWAS and QTL studies applied to identify genetic variants that are associated with drug sensitivity or cytotoxicity. These efforts may offer valuable information for the recruitment of suitable patients for clinical trials. Therefore, stem cell-derived disease models can provide valuable resources for the pathophysiological studies of diseases as well as the drug development. In this review, we will briefly introduce the development of the liver disease models derived from stem cells and their applications in disease study and drug development.

Comparison of the effect between early anatomical open reduction, internal fixation and closed reduction, internal fixation for treatment of children displaced femoral neck fracture / 中国骨伤

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compared the effect between early anatomical open reduction, internal fixation (ORIF) and closed reduction, internal fixation (CRIF) for treatment of children displaced femoral neck fracture.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From March 2006 to May 2010,34 children with displaced femoral neck fractures were reviewed retrospectively. These patients were divided into two groups. Among them, 19 cases were treated by open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) as group A, included 11 males and 8 females with an average age of (8.1 +/- 1.3), the other 15 cases were treated by closed reduction and internal fixation (CRIF) as group B, included 9 males and 6 females with an average age of (7.9 +/- 1.5). Complications were observed and the short term effectiveness was evaluated by Ratliff standard.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All children were followed-up from 1 to 3 years (means 1.2 years). All fractures were healed. There was statistical different in the curative effects between the two groups (Z=2.389, P= 0.017). The incidence of complications in two groups had statistical different (P=0.046).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The early ORIF could get better reduction with fewer complications than CRIF in fractures of the displaced femoral neck in children in Delbet type-II and type-III, therefore, ORIF should be considered.</p>

Development of the research on the application of chlorotoxin in imaging diagnostics and targeted therapies for tumors / 癌症

Precisely locating tumors always proves to be difficult. To find a molecule that can specifically bind to tumor cells is the key. Recently, chlorotoxin (CTX) has been proved to be able to bind to many kinds of tumor cells. The CTX receptor on the cell surface has been demonstrated to be matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2). Many researchers have combined CTX with other molecules, including 131I, Cy5.5, iron oxide nanoparticles coated by polyethylene glycol (NP-PEG), and so on, and thus synthesized various types of probes that can be detected by gamma-camera, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). With these methods, the binding degree of CTX could be assessed. These studies demonstrated that CTX has a highly specific binding ability, high stability, and security. CTX could also inhibit or kill the tumor cells. A nonviral nanovector has been developed for gene therapy. As a result, it gradually develops into a new method of diagnosis and targeted therapy of tumors. This article reviews the current progress on CTX including the origin, chemical construction, the mechanism of binding with tumor cells, and the application to tumor imaging diagnosis and therapy.

A case report of sparganosis mansoni in the cheek / 华西口腔医学杂志

Sparganosis mansoni is a kind of parasitic infective disease, rarely seen in clinic. A case of sparganosis mansoni is reported in this article. The patient was a 25-year-old male, who came to Xiangya Hospital on September 26, 2007 because of a mass in the left cheek. A white tape-like body was found during the operation and recognized to be a live parasite. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay of the serum revealed positivity against Spirometra mansoni. The final identification proved that the white tape-like body was Sparganum mansoni. The disease of this patient was caused by eating raw flesh of frogs infected with the Sparganum mansoni.