[Study on the dynamic changes of peripheral platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio in the prognosis of neoadjuvant chemotherapy patients with gastric cancer].

Objective: To investigate the significance of platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer (AGC). Methods: The medical records of 247 AGC patients who underwent surgery between May 2015 and October 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. The relationship between PLR value and its changes before and after neoadjuvant therapy and clinicopathological features and prognosis was further analyzed. Results: △PLR was defined according to the different states of PLR before and after neoadjuvant therapy. If negative value was defined as"Reduced Group"(138) and positive value or 0 was defined as "Unreduced group"(109). There were statistical differences between the two groups of△PLR in tumor size, nerve invasion, presence or absence of vascular tumor thrombus, ypT staging, ypN staging, ypTNM staging, and pathological response (all P<0.05), but there was no statistical difference between age, gender, and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy (all P>0.05). Survival analysis showed that the 5-year disease-free survival rates between the two groups were 39.0% and 54.0%, respectively (P=0.025); the 5-year overall survival rates between the two groups were 41.8% and 58.1%, respectively (P=0.035); the difference were statistically significant. Multivariate analysis showed that ypT3-4 stage, ypN3b stage and △PLR were independent risk factors for 5-year disease-free survival rate (HR=2.731/2.676, 95%CI: 1.026-7.268/1.014-6.985; HR=4.717, 95%CI: 1.922-11.579; HR=2.854, 95%CI: 1.117-4.124; all P<0.05) and 5-year overall survival rate (HR=3.226/2.655, 95%CI: 1.280-9.227/0.945-7.548; HR=4.550, 95%CI: 1.842-11.239; HR=2.897, 95%CI: 1.049-5.251; all P<0. 05). Conclusion: △PLR can better predict the prognosis of AGC patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

[Treatment of advanced Siewert type â ¡ esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma by thoracoabdominal radical gastrectomy and D2 lymphadenectomy].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the advantages of thoracoabdominal radical gastrectomy for advanced Siewert type Ⅱ adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction. METHODS: Clinical data of 86 patients with Siewert type Ⅱ adennocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction who received surgical treatment at the Henan Provincial Tumor Hospital from January 2015 to January 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 44 patients underwent abdominal operation (abdominal group), and 42 patients underwent thoracoabdominal radical gastrectomy (thoraco-abdominal group). The operation time, lymph node number, distance between the tumor and cutting edge, amount of intraoperational blood loss, postoperative pulmonary complications, and postoperative hospital stay in the two groups were compared. RESULTS: Comparing the thoracoabdominal group with the abdominal group, the number of removed lymph nodes was 41.57±9.22 vs. 35.09±10.61 (P<0.01), the number of removed mediastinal lymph nodes was 6.38±1.50 vs. 3.52±1.42 (P<0.01), the distance between the tumor and cut edge was (5.62±0.73) cm vs. (3.30±0.85) cm (P<0.01), whereas the operation time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative pulmonary complications, occurrence of anastomotic leakage and hospital stay were statistically not significantly different (P>0.05 for all). CONCLUSIONS: For patients with advanced Siewert type Ⅱ adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction, radical gastrectomy through thoracoabdominal approach can resect a longer segment of the esophagus, dissect more mediastinal lymph nodes, and does not increase post-operative complications and extend hospital stay, thus, exhibits obvious advantages in the surgical treatment of Siewert Ⅱ adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction.

Brassinosteroid (BR) biosynthetic gene lhdd10 controls late heading and plant height in rice (Oryza sativa L.).

KEY MESSAGE: A Brd2 allele suppresses heading date by altering the expression of heading date regulators such as OsMADS50 , and also negatively regulates chlorophyll biosynthesis. Heading date and plant height are important determinants of yield in rice (Oryza sativa L.). In this study, we characterized a late heading, dwarf mutant known as lhdd10 selected following ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS)-treatment of ssp. indica cultivar 93-11. lhdd10 showed late heading, dwarfness and slightly darker-green leaves than wild-type 93-11 under long-day and short-day conditions. We isolated lhdd10 by map-based cloning; it encoded a putative FAD-linked oxidoreductase protein (a brassinosteroid biosynthetic gene) that localized to the nucleus. LHDD10 was constitutively expressed in various tissues, but more so in shoot apices and panicles. Our data showed that lhdd10 influences heading date by controlling the expression of heading date regulators, such as OsMADS50 in both LD and SD conditions. lhdd10 also negatively regulated expression of chlorophyll biosynthetic genes to reduce the chlorophyll content. Our data indicated that BRs play important roles in regulating heading date and chlorophyll biosynthesis. This work provides material that will allow study of how BRs regulate heading date in rice.

Differential antinociceptive effects of intrathecal administration of C-terminal esterified endomorphin-2 analogues in mice.

BACKGROUND: We have previously synthesized three esterified endomorphin-2 (EM-2) analogues 1-3 by substitution of C-terminus with methyl, ethyl and tert-butyl ester, respectively. Interestingly, the increase of EM-2 in bulkness of the esterified group decreased the µ-opioid receptor affinity but increased the δ-affinity. Presently, we extended our studies to investigate the antinociceptive potencies of these esterified analogues given intrathecally in the mouse tail-flick test. Also, the specific opioid receptor antagonists and antibodies against endogenous opioid peptides were used to determine whether there are any differential mechanisms on the antinociception produced by these analogues. METHODS: Antinociception was assessed using the 50 °C hot water tail-flick test. The drugs and antibodies were administered intrathecally. RESULTS: The ED50 value of analogue 1 was 1.34 nmol, exhibiting the highest analgesic effect. In contrast, the antinociceptive potency of analogue 2 was about twofold less potent than that of EM-2. The antinociception induced by analogues 1 and 2 was mediated by the stimulation of µ-opioid receptor in the spinal cord. However, the analogue 1-induced antinociception also contained an additional component that was mediated by the release of dynorphin A acting on κ-opioid receptor, which was similar to its parent EM-2. Notably, analogue 3 exhibited only slightly lower analgesia relative to EM-2, which may possibly be due to a direct stimulation of both µ- and δ-opioid receptors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated that EM-2 and its analogues 1-3 produced differential antinociceptive effects when administered intrathecally. We concluded that C-terminal amide to esterification conversion changed the antinociceptive potencies and properties of EM-2.