Questionnaires Measuring Physical Activity in Clinical Pediatric Populations: A Systematic Review.

PURPOSE: Regular physical activity (PA) is a cornerstone therapy for many childhood chronic health conditions, and questionnaires offer a simple method for monitoring PA and identifying children who do not meet clinical practice guidelines. The purpose of this systematic review is to determine which questionnaires are most efficacious for assessing PA in children with chronic health conditions. METHODS: Systematic literature searches were conducted through ProQuest, MEDLINE, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus from January 2010 to August 2020 to identify studies that measured PA with a validated questionnaire in children and adolescents aged 3-18 years old with chronic health conditions. In eligible studies, the validity and reliability of questionnaires were identified, and the modified COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstruments checklist and Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations were used to assess the quality and strength of evidence and risk of bias. RESULTS: Four thousand four hundred and seventy-eight references were extracted, and 10 articles were included for review. From 10 eligible studies, 6 questionnaires were identified, none of which adequately measure PA in clinical pediatric populations. CONCLUSION: Questionnaires to adequately measure PA in children with chronic conditions are lacking. This compromises the identification of those who do not meet PA guidelines, limiting the opportunity to identify and address factors contributing to low PA levels.

Evaluation of anti-proliferative activity of medicinal plants used in Asian Traditional Medicine to treat cancer.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The extensive biodiversity of plants in Southeast Asia and inadequate research hitherto warrant a continued investigation into medicinal plants. On the basis of a careful review of fresh medicinal plant usage to treat cancer from previous ethnobotanical interviews in Singapore and from the traditional uses of the indigenous plants, fresh leaves of seven locally grown medicinal plant species were evaluated for anti-proliferative activity. AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the anti-proliferative activity of local medicinal plant species Clausena lansium Skeels, Clinacanthus nutans (Burm. f.) Lindau, Leea indica (Burm. f.) Merr., Pereskia bleo (Kunth) DC., Strobilanthes crispus (L.) Blume, Vernonia amygdalina Delile and Vitex trifolia L. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Fresh, healthy and mature leaves of the seven medicinal plants were harvested from various locations in Singapore and Malaysia for Soxhlet, ultrasonication and maceration extractions in three different solvents (water, ethanol and methanol). Cell proliferation assay using water soluble tetrazolium salt (WST-1) assay was performed on twelve human cancer cell lines derived from breast (MDA-MB-231, T47D), cervical (C33A), colon (HCT116), leukemia (U937), liver (HepG2, SNU-182, SNU-449), ovarian (OVCAR-5, PA-1, SK-OV-3) and uterine (MES-SA/DX5) cancer. RESULTS: A total of 37 fresh leaf extracts from seven medicinal plants were evaluated for their anti-tumour activities in twelve human cancer cell lines. Of these, the extracts of C. lansium, L. indica, P. bleo, S. crispus, V. amygdalina and V. trifolia exhibited promising anti-proliferative activity against multiple cancer cell lines. Further investigation of selected promising leaf extracts indicated that maceration methanolic extract of L. indica was most effective overall against majority of the cancer cell lines, with best IC50 values of 31.5 ±â€¯11.4 µg/mL, 37.5 ±â€¯0.7 µg/mL and 43.0 ±â€¯6.2 µg/mL in cervical C33A, liver SNU-449, and ovarian PA-1 cancer cell lines, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results of this study provide new scientific evidence for the traditional use of local medicinal plant species C. lansium, L . indica, P. bleo, S. crispus, V. amygdalina and V. trifolia in cancer treatment. These results highlight the importance of the upkeep of these indigenous plants in modern society and their relevance as resources for drug discovery.

Oxaliplatin regulates expression of stress ligands in ovarian cancer cells and modulates their susceptibility to natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity.

Selected cytotoxic chemicals can provoke the immune system to recognize and destroy malignant tumors. Most of the studies on immunogenic cell death are focused on the signals that operate on a series of receptors expressed by dendritic cells to induce tumor antigen-specific T-cell responses. Here, we explored the effects of oxaliplatin, an immunogenic cell death inducer, on the induction of stress ligands and promotion of natural killer (NK) cell-mediated cytotoxicity in human ovarian cancer cells. The results indicated that treatment of tumor cells with oxaliplatin induced the production of type I interferons and chemokines and enhanced the expression of major histocompatibility complex class I-related chains (MIC) A/B, UL16-binding protein (ULBP)-3, CD155 and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-R1/R2. Furthermore, oxaliplatin but not cisplatin treatment enhanced susceptibility of ovarian cancer cells to NK cell-mediated cytolysis. In addition, activated NK cells completely abrogated the growth of cancer cells that were pretreated with oxaliplatin. However, cancer cells pretreated with the same concentration of oxaliplatin alone were capable of potentiating regrowth over a period of time. These results suggest an advantage in combining oxaliplatin and NK cell-based therapy in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Further investigation on such potential combination therapy is warranted.