Total serum bile acids predict therapy for HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B patients with borderline ALT and high HBV DNA.

INTRODUCTION: The introduction of antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection depends on precise evaluation of hepatic lesions. Total serum bile acids (TSBAs) are highly sensitive in monitoring liver dysfunction. We evaluated the predictive role of TSBAs for hepatic lesions in CHB patients with borderline alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and high level of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA copies. METHODOLOGY: 328 CHB patients were enrolled, 241 were hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive and 87 were HBeAg-negative. Patients were further divided into two entities according to inflammation/fibrosis evaluated by liver biopsy, low-grade (inflammation grade < 2 and fibrosis stage < 2) and high-grade (inflammation grade ≥ 2 or/and fibrosis stage ≥ 2) cohorts. TSBAs were compared with noninvasive tools including aspartate aminnotransferase (AST)-to-platelet ratio index (APRI), fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) and red cell distribution width (RDW)-to-platelet ratio (RPR) to predict high-grade hepatic lesions in CHB subgroups. RESULTS: TSBAs, APRI, FIB-4 and RPR were statistically different between low- and high-grade patients in HBeAg-positive cohort. Only TSBAs showed significant difference between low and high grade in HBeAg-negative patients. Similarly, APRI, FIB-4 and RPR were correlated with different division of inflammation/fibrosis only in HBeAg-positive while TSBAs were correlated with inflammation/fibrosis levels in both HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative groups. Of the four indicators, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that TSBAs have the maximum AUC (area under the curve) in HBeAg-negative group but the minimum in HBeAg-positive cohort. CONCLUSIONS: TSBAs can be used for predicting antiviral therapy in CHB patients with HBeAg-negative, borderline ALT and high HBV DNA.

JSI-124 (Cucurbitacin I) inhibits tumor angiogenesis of human breast cancer through reduction of STAT3 phosphorylation.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequently diagnosed type of cancer all over the world. Angiogenesis, a physiological or pathological process characterized by the sprouting of new blood vessels from existing vessels, plays a vital role in tumor nutrition. In this work, we used JSI-124 (Cucurbitacin I), a selective JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway inhibitor, to investigate the role of STAT3 in tumor angiogenesis of a human BC cell line in vitro. JSI-124 inhibited cell viability, proliferation, adhesion, migration and tube formation of a human BC cell line MDA-MB-468. After transfection with pMXs-Stat3C, a dominant active mutant, the inhibitory effects of JSI-124 on MDA-MB-468 were abolished. Furthermore, JSI-124 reduced the phosphorylation of STAT3. These results suggested that JSI-124 inhibited tumor angiogenesis of the human BC cell line in vitro through the reduction of STAT3 phosphorylation. In addition, JSI-124 could reduce VEGF transcription and secretion, suggesting that JSI-124 is also involved in the inhibition of the VEGF autocrine loop in the tumor microenvironment.