Association between Dietary Potassium Intake and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Advanced Hepatic Fibrosis in U.S. Adults.

Introduction: The correlation between potassium and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is currently still poorly understood. We conducted this study to explore the correlation between dietary potassium intake and NAFLD, as well as advanced hepatic fibrosis (AHF). The study also sought to identify any potential interactions. Methods: The data employed in this study were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) program, encompassing a period from 2007 to 2018. Employing the multiple logistic regression analysis, we evaluated the association of dietary potassium intake with NAFLD and AHF. Subsequently, stratification analysis, based on demographic variables, was constructed so as to assess the stability of the results. In addition, potential interaction effects were assessed by interaction tests. Results: A total of 9443 participants were included in the analysis. The mean age of the participants was 50.4 years, and their daily mean dietary potassium and vitamin C intake was 2556.49 mg and 82.93 mg, respectively. Following comprehensive statistical analyses, the findings indicated a negative correlation between dietary potassium intake and both NAFLD and AHF. Participants in Q4 group with dietary potassium intake exhibited a 31% and 42% reduction in the odds of developing NAFLD and AHF, respectively, in comparison to Q1 group. An interaction effect of dietary vitamin C intake was observed in the association between dietary potassium intake and NAFLD. The results imply that high dietary vitamin C intake augment the inverse relationship between dietary potassium intake and NAFLD. Conclusion: Dietary potassium intake was found to have an inverse association with the odds of both NAFLD and AHF. The association between dietary potassium intake and NAFLD was amplified by the presence of vitamin C in the diet.

Suppression of bladder cancer growth by adeno-associated virus vector-mediated combination of HSV-TK and endostatin in vitro.

BACKGROUND: Gene therapy may offer a new tool for the treatment of bladder cancer. Previously, we have shown a significant antitumor effect in bladder cancer xenografts in a nude mouse model using intratumoral herpes simplex virus thymidine (HSV-TK) and endostatin gene monotherapy. OBJECTIVES: Given the high vascularity of human bladder cancer and the ability of HSV-TK or endostatin monotherapy to eradicate the tumors, we decided to test a novel combination of cytotoxic and antiangiogenic gene therapy using HSV-TK and endostatin adeno-associated viruses (AAV) in vitro. METHODS: We constructed the plasmid AAV-TK-IRES-Endostatin (pAAV-TIE) and packaged the AAV particles containing gene fragments of HSV-TK and endostatin. The combination anticancer effect of recombinant AAV-TIE (rAAV-TIE) was measured in vitro while rAAV-HSV-TK and rAAV-Endostatin were used as control groups. RESULTS: The inverted terminal repeat sequences were amplified using only one primer and the fragment between two ITRs of pAAV-TIE measuring about 4 kb, which indicated a stable sequence of pAAV-TIE. Three clear bands representing the AAV capsid proteins VP1, VP2, and VP3 could be seen on both lanes against a very low background, which demonstrated that chloroform extraction could effectively extract contaminants from rAAV stock without significant loss of the rAAV. In vitro, our results found that the transduction efficiency, measured from GFP-transduced tumors, was about 62%. The combination therapy led to an obvious apoptosis of bladder tumor cells compared with single HSV-TK or endostatin treatment. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that the inhibition of angiogenesis using endostatin gene transfer, together with the cytotoxic HSV-TK gene therapy, resulted in a significant antitumor effect in vitro compared to the single gene based therapy in BTCC.

Potent antitumor activity of the combination of HSV-TK and endostatin by adeno-associated virus vector for bladder cancer in vivo.

BACKGROUND: Gene therapy may offer a new tool for the treatment of bladder cancer. Previously, we have shown a significant antitumor effect in bladder cancer xenografts in a nude mouse model using intratumoral herpes simplex virus thymidine (HSV-TK) and endostatin gene monotherapy. METHODS: Given the high vascularity of human bladder cancer and the ability of HSV-TK or endostatin monotherapy to eradicate the tumors, we decided to test a novel combination of cytotoxic and antiangiogenic gene therapy using intratumorally delivered HSV-TK and endostatin adeno-associated viruses (AAV). We constructed plasmid AAV-TK-IRES-Endostatin (pAAV-TIE) and packaged the AAV particles containing gene fragments of HSV-TK and endostatin. The combined anticancer effect of recombinant AAV-TIE (rAAV-TIE) was measured in vivo with rAAV-HSV-TK and rAAV-Endostatin as the control groups. RESULTS: The inverted terminal repeat sequence was amplified using only one primer and the fragment between two ITRs of pAAV-TIE measuring about 4 kb, which indicated a stable sequence of pAAV-TIE. Three clear bands representing the AAV capsid proteins VP1, VP2, and VP3 could be seen on both lanes against a very low background, which demonstrated that chloroform extraction could effectively extract contaminants from rAAV stock without significant loss of the rAAV. In vivo, our results showed that the tumors in mice injected with the rAAV-TIE not only took significantly longer to emerge but also that their growth, once established, was significant slower than that of tumors grown with single HSV-TK or endostatin treated animals. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that the inhibition of angiogenesis using endostatin gene transfer, together with the cytotoxic HSV-TK gene therapy, resulted in a significant antitumor effect compared to the single gene based therapy in BTCC.