Clinical centralized safety monitoring and evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine formula granules / 中国中药杂志

Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) formula granules are highly praised for the advanced, convenient, and modern use of Chinese medicinal materials. The safety of TCM formula granules has long been a concern of regulatory authorities and the medical industry. A multi-center, prospective, open, non-interventional, and centralized monitoring was carried out for the patients treated with TCM formula granules in 252 medical institutions from February 5, 2020 to April 19, 2022. All the case data and the incidence of adverse drug reactions/events were recorded. This study evaluated the safety of TCM formula granules, aiming to provide a reference for the clinically use. A total of 20 547 patients were included in this study. Four adverse events were recorded, including 3 adverse drug reactions with an adverse drug reaction rate of 0.015%, all of which occurred in the digestive system. There was no serious adverse event, and no factors related to adverse drug reactions/events were identified. The incidence of adverse drug reactions/events associated with China Resources Sanjiu Medical & Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. TCM formula granules was rare, which proved their safety in clinical use. A comprehensive data mining and objective analysis was carried out for the medicines with high frequency in TCM formula granules, the commonly used medicine pairs and combinations, and departmental medication. The drug use characteristics, prescription rules, and departmental use of TCM formula granules were summarized, which can shed light on the prescription compatibility and clinical application.

Methyltransferase-like 3 promotes the progression of lung cancer via activating PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.

Methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) catalyses N6-methyladenosine (m6 A) modification on messenger RNA (mRNA) and participates in a wide range of biological functions via epigenetically regulating gene expression. Recent studies suggested that dysregulation of METTL3 is associated with multiple human cancers; however, the role of METTL3 in lung cancer remains unclear. In the present study, through transcriptome analysis of lung cancer patients, we found that METTL3 is overexpressed in lung cancer patients and is associated with poor patient survival. More importantly, combining both in vitro and in vivo models, we revealed that in lung cancer cells, METTL3 overexpression activates PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and mTOR-mediated protein synthesis. Mechanistically, METTL3 promotes PI3K expression by introducing m6 A modification in PI3K 3' untranslated region (3' UTR). Elevated PI3K level then activates downstream AKT and mTOR signalling pathway and results in rapid cancer cell proliferation and metastasis. Taken together, our study reveals that METTL3-mediated m6 A methylation promotes lung cancer progression via activating PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.

Effect of SLC6A4 gene polymorphism on pain sensitivity in patients with lung cancer / 中华麻醉学杂志

Objective To evaluate the effect of SLC6A4 gene polymorphism on pain sensitivity in the patients with lung cancer. Methods A total of 248 patients with pulmonary malignant tumor served as lung cancer group and 104 healthy subjects in the Physical Examination Center of our hospital served as con-trol group. Patients with malignant pulmonary tumor in lung cancer group were further divided into 3 sub-groups according to pain score and the three step analgesic ladder recommended by WHO(opioids was used when visual analogue scale[VAS]score≥4 points): painless subgroup, mild pain subgroup and moder-ate-severe pain subgroup. The consumption of opioids(based on requirement for morphine)within 24 h af-ter pain relief(VAS score≤3 points)after treatment and VAS score before treatment were recorded. Ve-nous blood samples were collected, and the genotypes were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restric-tion fragment length polymorphism. Results There was no significant difference in genotype frequency or allele frequency at rs4795541 and rs3813034 sites between lung cancer group and control group and among the three subgroups(P>0.05). There was no significant difference in VAS score before treatment or re-quirement for morphine between patients of different genotypes and alleles(P>0.05). There was no signifi-cant difference in VAS score before treatment or requirement for morphine between lung cancer patients with medium and low expression of serotonin transporter in 5-HTT-linked polymorphic region. Conclusion SLC6A4 gene polymorphism exerts no effect on pain sensitivity in the patients with lung cancer.