Establishment and evaluation of a nomogram for predicting the survival outcomes of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma based on International Prognostic Index scores and clinical indicators.

Background: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common aggressive lymphoma, treatment outcomes of patients vary greatly. The current International Prognostic Index (IPI) is not enough to distinguish patients with poor prognosis, and genetic testing is very expensive, so a inexpensive risk prediction tool should be developed for clinicians to quickly identify the poor prognosis of DLBCL patients. Methods: DLBCL patients (n=420; 18-80 years old) who received a combination of cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) with or without rituximab (R-CHOP) at our hospital between 2008 and 2017 were included in the study. Potential predictors of survival were determined by univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses, and significant variables were used to construct predictive nomograms. The new prediction models were assessed using concordance indexes (C-indexes), calibration curves, and their clinical utility was assessed by decision curve analyses (DCAs). Results: The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate was 70.62% and the 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate was 59.02%. The multivariate Cox analysis indicated that IPI, Ki-67, the lymphocyte/monocyte ratio, and first-line treatment with rituximab were significantly associated with survival. The C-index results indicated that a predictive model that included these variables had better discriminability for OS (0.73 vs. 0.67) and PFS (0.68 vs. 0.63) than the IPI-based model. The calibration plots showed good agreement with observations and nomogram predictions. The DCAs demonstrated the clinical value of the nomograms. Conclusions: Our study identified prognostic factors in patients who were newly diagnosed with DLBCL to construct an individualized risk prediction model, combined IPI with common clinical indicators. Our model might be a valuable tool that could be used to predict the prognosis of DLBCL patients who receive standard first-line treatment regimens. It enables clinicians to quickly identify some patients with possible poor prognosis and choose more active treatment for patients, such as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CART) Immunotherapy and other new drugs therapy, so as to prolong the PFS and OS of patients.

LncRNA SBF2-AS1 Promotes Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Growth by Regulating FGFR2 via Sponging miR-494-3p.

PURPOSE: Currently, there is no efficient and feasible method for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in clinical practice, and the main reason is the unclear pathogenesis of DLBCL, which leads to a high fatality rate of DLBCL. METHODS: Therefore, it is meaningful to explore the molecular mechanism of DLBCL and find a targeted therapeutic approach from the molecular level. RESULTS: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) SBF2-AS1 was highly expressed in DLBCL tissues and cell lines. Silencing of SBF2-AS1 inhibited the viability and growth of OCI-LY-3 cells. Furthermore, SBF2-AS1 acted as a sponge of miR-494-3p and inhibited its expression. And miR-494-3p directly targeted FGFR2. Functionally, forced expression of miR-494-3p or knockdown of FGFR2 removed the promoted effects of lncRNA SBF2-AS1 on DLBCL development. In vivo tumorigenesis experiments indicated SBF2-AS1 accelerated tumor growth via miR-494-3p/FGFR2 axis. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that SBF2-AS1 promoted the growth of DLBCL, which were mediated by miR-494-3p/FGFR2 axis.

Apatinib, combined with chemotherapy or alone is effective in treating angiosarcoma: a case report.

Angiosarcomas are rare but aggressive tumors with poor prognosis. The treatment of angiosarcomas with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitors is still in the stage of clinical exploration. Herein we reported a patient of skin angiosarcoma with multiple organ metastasis. She was resistance to multiline chemotherapy and pazopanib but achieved remarkable shrinkage of the lesion after apatinib treatment combined with chemotherapy or alone. The progression-free survival of the primary lesion with KRAS V14I and RBM10 E119D mutations (10 months) was shorter than that of the brain without the mutation ( ≥ 12 months). Although it is not clear whether the KRAS V14I and RBM10 E119D mutations are the main factors that impact the effect of apatinib treatment or not, the results of this study will provide valuable clues for relevant follow-up basic and clinical studies.

Regional Biases in MODIS Marine Liquid Water Cloud Drop Effective Radius Deduced Through Fusion With MISR.

Satellite measurements from Terra's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) represent our longest, single-platform, global record of the effective radius (Re) of the cloud drop size distribution. Quantifying its error characteristics has been challenging because systematic errors in retrieved Re covary with the structural characteristics of the cloud and the Sun-view geometry. Recently, it has been shown that the bias in MODIS Re can be estimated by fusing MODIS data with data from Terra's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). Here, we relate the bias to the observed underlying conditions to derive regional-scale, bias-corrected, monthly-mean Re 1.6 , Re 2.1 , and Re 3.7 values retrieved from the 1.6, 2.1, and 3.7 µm MODIS spectral channels. Our results reveal that monthly-mean bias in Re 2.1 exhibits large regional dependency, ranging from at least ~1 to 10 µm (15 to 60%) varying with scene heterogeneity, optical depth, and solar zenith angle. Regional bias-corrected monthly-mean Re 2.1 ranges from 4 to 17 µm, compared to 10 to 25 µm for uncorrected Re 2.1 , with estimated uncertainties of 0.1 to 1.8 µm. The bias-corrected monthly-mean Re 3.7 and Re 2.1 show difference of approximately +0.6 µm in the coastal marine stratocumulus regions and down to approximately -2 µm in the cumuliform cloud regions, compared to uncorrected values of about -1 to -6 µm, respectively. Bias-corrected Re values compare favorably to other independent data sources, including field observations, global model simulations, and satellite retrievals that do not use retrieval techniques similar to MODIS. This work changes the interpretation of global Re distributions from MODIS Re products and may further impact studies, which use the original MODIS Re products to study, for example, aerosol-cloud interactions and cloud microphysical parameterization.

Isolation, Purification, and Identification of Taxol and Related Taxanes from Taxol-Producing Fungus Aspergillus niger subsp. taxi.

The content of taxol in the bark of yews is very low, and this is not affordable from the environmental point of view. Thus, it is a necessity to look for alternative sources of taxol production to solve its supply. Currently, a large portion of the taxol in the market comes from chemical semi-synthesis, but the semi-synthetic precursors such as baccatin III and 10-deacetyl-baccatin III are extracted from needles and twigs of yew trees. Taxol-producing fungi as a renewable resource is a very promising way to increase the scale of taxol production. Our group has obtained a taxol-producing endophytic fungus, Aspergillus niger subsp. taxi HD86-9, to examine if A. niger can produce the taxanes. Six compounds from the fermentation broth of strain HD86-9 were isolated and identified by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and ESI-MS. The results showed that the six compounds included four taxane diterpenoids (taxol, cephalomannine, baccatin III, and 10-deacetyl-baccatin III) and two non-taxane compounds (ß-sitosterol and flavonoid isovitexin). The study verified that the taxanes can be produced by the A. niger, which is very important to taxol production via chemical semi-synthesis. Additionally, the finding is potentially very significant to solve the taxol semi-synthetic precursors extracted from needles and twigs of yew trees, and the precursor production can be easily increased through the culture condition optimization, genetic breeding, and metabolic engineering of the A. niger.

Advances and Potential Applications of Chitosan Nanoparticles as a Delivery Carrier for the Mucosal Immunity of Vaccine.

BACKGROUND: Drug research and development has entered into the new epoch of innovation formulation, and the drug delivery system has been in the forefront of pharmaceutical innovation. Chitosan, a natural polysaccharide derived from chitin, due to its well-known biocompatibility and biodegradability, it has been widely used in drug delivery, immunostimulation, tissue regeneration, blood coagulation, wound healing, drug delivery and tissue engineering. Chitosan has become a valuable vaccine adjuvant and delivery carrier, which have attracted increasing attention for its applications. In this paper, we reviewed chitosan nanoparticles, which is a promising biomaterial as vaccine adjuvant and delivery carrier, including characteristics, preparation methods and applications, or even its limitations. We also investigated the mucosal immune delivery route for drug loaded chitosan nanoparticles, such as the routes of oral and nasal. Due to the low toxicity, better biodegradability and adhesivity of chitosan nanoparticles, it can be used as the delivery carrier of vaccine antigens and drugs. These promising studies laid a foundation for the applications of chitosan nanoparticles as a delivery carrier in the vaccine or drug. METHODS: We undertook a structured research of biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles of chitosan used as a delivery carrier for the mucosal immunity of vaccine. We have searched the bibliographic databases for peer-reviewed research literature. The outstanding characteristics of the screened papers were described respectively, and a systematic content analysis methodology was used to analyse the findings. RESULTS: Sixty-three papers were included in the review, the majority defined leadership and governance approaches that had impacted upon the polymeric nanoparticles as the delivery carrier for the mucosal immunity of vaccine in therapeutic applications and developments. Thirty-five papers outlined the superiority characteristics of chitosan nanoparticles that applied in the field of vaccine. Twenty-eight papers overviewed the application prospects of chitosan derivatives used as drug delivery systerm. These included current advances in research and clinical applications of chitosan derivatives. This review identified the drug delivery systerm of chitosan or its derivatives, and we described the synthesis methods, applications and challenges of chitosan. CONCLUSION: The findings of this review identified that the chitosan derivatives were used as delivery carrier for vaccines. It also indicates that the chitosan or its derivatives play a vital role in the drug and vaccine delivery systerm.

Increased Plasma Levels of Heme Oxygenase-1 in Human Brucellosis.

BACKGROUND: Brucellosis is associated with inflammation and the oxidative stress response. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is a cytoprotective stress-responsive enzyme that has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects. Nevertheless, the role of HO-1 in human brucellosis has not yet been studied. The aim of this study was to examine the plasma levels of HO-1 in patients with brucellosis and to evaluate the ability of plasma HO-1 levels as an auxiliary diagnosis, a severity predictor, and a monitor for brucellosis treatments. METHODS: A total of 75 patients with brucellosis were divided into the acute, subacute, chronic active, and chronic stable groups. An additional 20 volunteers were included as the healthy control group. The plasma HO-1 levels and other laboratory parameters were measured in all groups. Furthermore, the plasma levels of HO-1 in the acute group were compared before and after treatment. RESULTS: The plasma HO-1 levels were considerably increased in the acute (4.97 ± 3.55), subacute (4.98 ± 3.23), and chronic active groups (4.43 ± 3.00) with brucellosis compared to the healthy control group (1.03 ± 0.63) (p < 0.01). In the acute group, the plasma HO-1 levels in the post-treatment group (2.33 ± 2.39) were significantly reduced compared to the pre-treatment group (4.97 ± 3.55) (p < 0.01). On the other hand, the plasma HO-1 levels were higher in the chronic active group (4.43 ± 3.00) than the chronic stable group (2.74 ± 2.23) (p < 0.05). However, the plasma HO-1 levels in the chronic stable group (2.74 ± 2.23) remained higher than the levels in the healthy control group (1.03 ± 0.63) (p < 0.05). The HO-1 levels were positively correlated with the C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in patients with brucellosis (r = 0.707, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The plasma HO-1 levels can reflect patients' brucellosis status and may be used as a supplementary plasma marker for diagnosing brucellosis and monitoring its treatment.