Value of C-reactive protein level on transplantation day in predicting early post-transplant infections and outcomes of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the value of C-reactive protein (CRP) on transplantation day in predicting early post-transplant infections and outcomes of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 78 recipients undergoing allo-HSCT. The clinical reference value of CRP on transplantation day was determined, and its sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing bacteremia was analyzed using receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC). The incidence of transplant-related complications, overall survival, and relapse rate of the patients were analyzed with respect to the CRP level.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The clinical reference value of CRP for diagnosing bacteremia was 23.3 mg/L (AUC=0.735 [95% CI: 0.623-0.848], P=0.001), which had a diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 0.793 and 0.592, respectively. Compared with the patients with low CRP levels, the patients with high CRP levels tended to have delayed neutrophil reconstitution and platelet engraftment by 0.71 days (P=0.237) and 4.09 days (P=0.048), respectively, and had a significantly higher incidence of bacteremia (17.1% vs 53.5%, P=0.001) and CMV viremia (37.1% vs 72.1%, P=0.003) within 100 days following the transplantation; the incidences of EBV viremia, pulmonary invasive fungal infection, or acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD) showed no significant difference between the two groups (41.9% vs 22.9%, P=0.094; 14.0% vs 5.7%, P=0.285; 51.2% vs 45.7, P=0.656, respectively). During the follow-up for a median of 318 (7-773) days in high-CRP group and for 299 (78-747) days in low-CRP group, the high-CRP group showed a significantly lower 2-year overall survival than the low-CRP group (42.5% vs 78.4%, P=0.022), and tended to have a higher 2-year cumulative relapse rate (52.3% vs 19.8%, P=0.235). Logistic multivariate analysis identified a high CRP level on transplantation day as the independent risk factor for post-transplant bacteremia within 100 days (OR=5.090 [95% CI: 1.115 -23.229], P=0.036).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>A high CRP level on transplantation day can be indicative of a high risk of early post-transplant bacteremia and CMV viremia and also a poor prognosis following allo-HSCT.</p>

Analysis of IKAROS6 expression in 73 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia / 中国实验血液学杂志

This study was aimed to evaluate IKAROS6 expression in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and its clinical significance. cDNAs from 73 CML patients were amplified by PCR and sequenced for IKAROS expression to elucidate clinical characteristics in IKAROS6 positive patients. The results showed that there was no IKAROS6 gene expression in 8 healthy controls and 15 CML patients in chronic phase and accelerated phase, and 15 cases (35.71%) were IKAROS6 positive in lymphoblast crisis samples among 42 newly diagnosed CML; however, none was found in myeloblast crisis of 16 newly diagnosed CML. Among 42 lymphoblast crisis of CML, the complete remission (CR) rate of IKAROS6 expression positive patients reached 40% (6/15), which was obviously lower than that in IKAROS6 negative patients (85.19%, 23/27) (p < 0.01), IKAROS6 positive patients relapsed after CR for 15 (2 - 18) months with relapse rate 66.7% (4/6), which was higher than that in expressed wild type IKAROS gene patients (21.74%, 5/23) (p < 0.05). It is concluded that abnormal expression of IKAROS gene dominated by IKAROS6 isoforms can be detected in lymphoblast crisis samples of CML patients. Abnormal expression of IKAROS gene may be an important factor in lymphoblast crisis of CML. Therefore, detection of IKAROS gene expression may be important for target therapy and evaluation of clinical prognosis of CML patients.

Effect of blocking of ROCK-1, an effector of small G protein Rho, on the malignant behavior of ovarian tumor cells in vitro / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the possible role of ROCK-1 in ovarian cancer invasion and metastasis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>ROCK-1 ASODN was transfected into SW626 and Caov-3 cell lines mediated by Lipofectamine 2000. The expressions of ROCK-1 mRNA and protein were detected by RT-PCR and Western-blot assay. Boyden chamber was used to assess the effect of ROCK-1 ASODN on the invasion and migration of the cell lines. The changes in the adhesion and proliferation of the transfected cells were detected by MTT assay.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The expressions level of ROCK-1 mRNA and protein in the cell lines were decreased significantly after transfection at doses of 10 micromol/L and 20 micromol/L ROCK-1 ASODN. When compared with the control group, the invasion capability of transfected cells was inhibited to an extent of 75.6% +/- 3.8% and 54.7% +/- 2.9%, respectively, for SW626 cell line, and 68.8% +/- 4.7% and 50.0% +/- 4.5% for Caov-3 cell line, respectively. The random migratory activity of these two cell lines was inhibited by 80.0% +/- 1.3%, 63.7% +/- 1.9%, 72.5% +/- 3.4% and 55.9% +/- 2.5%, respectively, and the inhibition of chemotaxis activity of the two cell lines was 83.9% +/- 1.4%, 64.1% +/- 1.3%, 72.5% +/- 3.4% and 54.5% +/- 1.9%, respectively. No significant difference was found in the adhesion and proliferation of the cells transfected with ROCK-1 ASODN and control cells.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The expression of ROCK-1 was closely related to the invasion capability and migratory activity of ovarian cancer cells. ROCK-1 may play a crucial role in invasion and metastasis of ovarian cancer.</p>