Evaluation of the Effect of Nutritional Intervention on Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Aim: The paper aims to combine mathematical statistics to assess the effect of nutritional intervention in the population of nasopharyngeal cancer patients. Methodology. After following the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 120 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma were selected. All patients are treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The nurse collects relevant clinical treatment data during the radiotherapy of the patient. After the patient's radiotherapy, the nurse remeasures the patient's nutritional status indicators. Three months after the completion of radiotherapy, the patient will be reexamined by MRI, and the radiotherapist will assess the patient's radiosensitivity based on the results of the MRI examination. All the blood biochemical indicators and body measurement indicators were also assessed and coordinated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. This study performs multiple linear regression analysis on treatment-related factors that affect nutritional status during radiotherapy. Results: The experimental results showed that the side effects of radiotherapy are independent influencing factors of nutritional status. Radiotherapy damages the DNA of cells, so that cells cannot continue to divide and grow, and all cells in the treatment area were affected by radiation. The standard radiotherapy treatment is quite long, and the oral cavity, throat, and parotid gland, are all within the irradiation range. In addition to killing the tumor cells, the radiation can also cause certain damage to the surrounding tissues of the tumor. This article takes radiosensitivity as the dependent variable (insensitivity = 0; sensitivity = 1) and takes the nutritional index NI, age, gender, education level, marriage, smoking, chronic disease history, TNM staging, whether the chemotherapy steps are the same or not, GTVnx prescription dose, and the number of radiotherapies as independent variables. AMC, albumin, hemoglobin, serum prealbumin, and transferrin are all correlated with radiosensitivity, which is consistent with the results of most studies. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that nutritional index (NI) was correlated with the radiosensitivity of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Conclusion: Finally, this paper concludes that nutritional intervention has a certain effect on the treatment of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Relationship between miR-338-3p and Clinicopathological Parameters, Prognosis, and STAT3 mRNA Expression in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of miR-338-3p in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its relationship with STAT3 mRNA expression as well as their relationship with clinical pathological parameters and prognosis of patients. METHODS: From September 2016 to September 2018, 71 patients with NPC were selected as the NPC group, and 71 samples of NPC tissues were collected during the operation. A total of 23 patients who underwent biopsy due to chronic nasopharyngitis were selected as the control group and 23 nasopharyngeal mucosal tissues were collected. The expressions of miR-338-3p and STAT3 mRNA in nasopharyngeal tissue of two groups were detected by real-time quantitative PCR, and the relationship between the two was analyzed. To collect clinical data of NPC patients and analyze the relationship between the expressions of miR-338-3p and STAT3 in NPC tissues and clinical pathological parameters of the patients, we followed up the patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma for three years to observe the relationship between miR-338-3p, STAT3, and the prognosis of the patients. RESULTS: The relative expression levels of miR-338-3p in nasopharyngeal tissues of the NPC group and the control group were 0.39 ± 0.05 and 1.01 ± 0.09, respectively (P < 0.05). The relative expression levels of STAT3 mRNA in nasopharyngeal tissues of the NPC group and the control group were 3.82 ± 0.21 and 1.04 ± 0.11, respectively (P > 0.05). miR-338-3p was negatively correlated with the relative expression of STAT3 mRNA in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (r = 0.038, P > 0.05). The expression of miR-338-3p was related to the age of the patient, clinical TNM stage, T stage, and distant metastasis (all P < 0.05). STAT3 expression was correlated with clinical TNM stage, T stage, and distant metastasis in our patient (P < 0.05). The expressions of miR-338-3p and STAT3 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues from different gender, histological type, N stage, M stage, and degree of differentiation showed no statistical differences (P > 0.05). The survival rate of the group with low miR-338-3p expression was significantly lower than that of the group with high miR-338-3p expression (P > 0.05). The survival rate of patients with the high STAT3 expression group was significantly lower than that of patients with the low STAT3 expression group (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: There is a negative correlation between the low expression of miR-338-3p and the high expression of STAT3 in NPC, which are all related to the TNM stage, T stage, and prognosis of the patient.

TRAF2 Knockdown in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Induced Cell Cycle Arrest and Enhanced the Sensitivity to Radiotherapy.

TRAF2 is a crucial adaptor protein involved in various signaling pathways. However, its biological functions in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remain largely unknown. In the present study, we found that TRAF2 was overexpressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells. Knockdown of TRAF2 with shRNA significantly suppressed NPC cell proliferation and colony formation. The growth of xenograft tumor significantly reduced after TRAF2 was silenced. Conversely, the ectopic overexpression of TRAF2 significantly promoted cell proliferation and anchorage-independent growth. In TRAF2 knockdown cells, EGF-induced activation of transcriptional factors, including MSK1, CREB, and ATF2, markedly decreased. Accordingly, the transcriptional activity of AP-1 was substantially decreased in TRAF2-deficient cells. With the suppression of gene transcription, the expression of cyclin D1 was significantly impaired, which gave rise to the G0/G1 cell cycle arrest. Moreover, the overexpression of TRAF2 in NPC cells was associated with resistance to irradiation, and the potency of irradiation was substantially enhanced after TRAF2 was knocked down. Briefly, our studies demonstrated that TRAF2 had a crucial role in NPC development, and it might be of great potential to targeting TRAF2 for NPC prevention and treatment.

Rational Molecular Design of Potent PLK1 PBD Domain-binding Phosphopeptides Using Preferential Amino Acid Building Blocks.

Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) is an important regulator in diverse aspects of the cell cycle and proliferation. The protein has a highly conserved polo-box domain (PBD) present in C-terminal noncatalytic region, which exhibits a relatively broad sequence specificity in recognizing and binding phosphorylated substrates to control substrate phosphorylation by the kinase. In order to elucidate the structural basis, thermodynamic property, and biological implication underlying PBD-substrate recognition and association, a systematic amino acid preference profile of phosphopeptide interaction with PLK1 PBD domain was established via virtual mutagenesis analysis and mutation energy calculation, from which the contribution of different amino acids at each residue position of two reference phosphopeptides to domain-peptide binding was characterized comprehensively and quantitatively. With the profile, we are able to determine the favorable, neutral, and unfavorable amino acid types for each position of PBD-binding phosphopeptides, and we also explored the molecular origin of the broad sequence specificity in PBD-substrate recognition. To practice computational findings, the profile was further employed to guide rational design of potent PBD binders; three 6-mer phosphopeptides (i.e., IQSpSPC, LQSpTPF, and LNSpTPT) were successfully developed, which can efficiently target PBD domain with high affinity (Kd = 5.7 ± 1.1, 0.75 ± 0.18, and 7.2 ± 2.6 µm, resp.) as measured by a fluorescence anisotropy assay. The complex structure of PLK1 PBD domain with a newly designed, potent phosphopeptide LQSpTPF as well as diverse noncovalent chemical forces, such as H-bonds and hydrophobic interactions at the complex interface, were examined in detail to reveal the molecular mechanism of high affinity and stability of the complex system.

Revisiting the structural basis and energetic landscape of susceptibility difference between HLA isotypes to allergic rhinitis.

The human leukocyte antigen class II (HLA II) molecules are implicated in the immunopathogenesis of allergic rhinitis (AR). The HLA II contains three allelic isotypes HLA-DR, -DQ, and -QP that exhibit considerably different susceptibility to AR. Here, we investigated the structural basis and energetic landscape of the susceptibility difference between the three HLA II isotypes to AR by combining computational analysis and experimental assay. Multiple sequence alignment revealed a low conservation among the three subtypes with sequence identity of ∼10% between them, suggesting that the peptide repertoires presented by HLA-DR, -DP and -DQ are not overlapped to each other, and they may be involved in different immune functions and dysfunctions. Structural analysis imparted that the antigenic peptides are rooted on the peptide-binding groove of HLA molecules and hold in a PPII-like helical conformation. Subsequently, the interaction behavior of 17 AR allergen-derived peptides with HLA-DR, -DP and -DQ was investigated using a statistics-based quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) predictor. It was found a significant difference between the binding capabilities of these antigenic peptides to HLA-DR and to HLA-DP/-DQ; the former showed a generally higher affinity than the latter with p-value of 0.02 obtained from 2-tailed Student's t-test. The computational findings were then confirmed by HLA II-peptide stability assay, which demonstrated that the AR allergen-derived peptides have a high in vitro selectivity for HLA-DR over HLA-DP/-DQ. Thus, the HLA-DR isotype, rather than HLA-DP and -DQ, is expected to associate with the pathological process of AR.

[Expression of C-erbB-2 and EGFR expression and its relationship with cell proliferation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To study the expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), C-erbB-2 and its relationship with cell proliferation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. METHOD: Expression of C-erbB-2, EGFR and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were detected with immunohistochemical staining in 32 nasopharyngeal carcinoma samples and 12 chronic inflammatory nasopharyngeal tissue samples. RESULT: The positive rate of EGFR,C-erbB-2, and PCNA expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma was 65.6%, 37.5%, and (42.5 +/- 22.6)%, respectively, which was significantly higher than that in chronic inflammatory nasopharyngeal tissue (P < 0.05). There were positive correlations between the positive rate of EGFR, C-erbB-2, and PCNA expression and histopathological stage. The co-expression of C-erbB2 and EGFR was found in 62.5% (20/32) nasopharyngeal carcinoma samples. There was a positive correlation between C-erbB-2 and EGFR expression (r = 0.38, P < 0.05). The highest percentage of PCNA expression was found in carcinoma samples with co-expression of C-erbB and EGFR. CONCLUSION: C-erbB-2, EGFR might have synergetic effect in the development and progress of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The co-expression of C-erbB-2 and EGFR closely correlates with cell proliferation status.

[Expression of CD23 and CD19 on peripheral blood lymphocytes and its association with serum total IgE in patients with allergic rhinitis].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expression of CD23, CD19 on peripheral blood lymphocytes as well as its association with serum total IgE levels and nasal allergic symptoms in patients with allergic rhinitis (AR). METHOD: Symptom scores were evaluated in 46 AR patients, expression of CD23, CD19 on peripheral blood lymphocytes were measured by flow cytometry, and serum total IgE levels were determined by immune chemiluminescence. Thirty two healthy individuals were enrolled as controls. RESULT: The percentage of CD23+, CD19+ and CD23+/ CD19+,on peripheral blood lymphocytes in AR patients were 11.6 +/- 1. , 22.8 +/- 3.3,10.2 +/- 1.7, respectively. Higher frequencies of CD23+, CD19+, and CD23+/CD19+ were found in AR patients compared with controls (P < 0.05). There were positive correlations between expression rates of CD23+, CD19+, CD23+/CD19+ and levels of serum total IgE, nasal allergic symptom scores, respectively. CD23+/CD19+ demonstrated greater correlations with serum total IgE and nasal allergic symptom (r = 0.65 and 0.49, P < 0.05) than CD23+ and CD19+ did. Correlation between CD23+/CD19+ and nasal allergic symptom scores was greater than the corresponding correlations of serum total IgE (r = 0.33, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: CD23 and CD19 are important factors that associated with serum total IgE in the pathogenesis of AR, Analysis on the expression of CD23+/CD19+ on peripheral blood lymphocytes is helpful for evaluating the severity of AR.