Comparison between photodynamic therapy with topical application of 5-aminolevulinic acid and CO2 laser therapy in the treatment of cervical condylomata acuminate: a randomized controlled trial.

The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of photodynamic therapy with topical applied 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA-PDT) for the treatment of cervical condylomata accuminate (CA). 161 Patients with cervical CA were randomly divided into ALA-PDT group and CO2 laser (control) group. Patients (n=89) in the ALA-PDT group were treated with topical 5% ALA under occlusive dressing for 3 h followed by irradiation with semiconductor laser at a dose of 1000 J/cm(-2) and a power of 100 mW. Patients were treated 2 weeks later if necessary. Patients (n=72) in the control group were treated with CO2 laser. The treatment was repeated at 1-week interval when necessary. No response rate, complete response rate (CR) and recurrence rate of wart lesions as well as rate of eradication of HPVs were analyzed. The CR rate was 90.2% in the ALA-PDT group and 96.2% in the control group. The eradication rate was 90.2% in the ALA-PDT group and 65.8% in the control group after 3 months of follow-up. Both the eradication rate and recurrence rate in the ALA-PDT group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.001). The adverse event in patients receiving ALA-PDT was mainly mild bleeding. ALA-PDT is a more effective and well-tolerated treatment for cervical CA compared with conventional CO2 laser therapy.

A correlation study on the effects of DNMT1 on methylation levels in CD4(+) T cells of SLE patients.

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of DNMT1 on CD4(+) T cells in the peripheral blood of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. METHODS: To investigate the differential expression of DNMT1 in CD4(+) T cells of SLE patients and healthy individuals, a DNMT1 lentiviral plasmid (pLenti6.3/V5-DNMT1) and a control plasmid (pLenti6.3/V5-GW/LacZ) were constructed and transfected into CD4(+) T cells from the peripheral blood of SLE patients. The transcriptional and translational expression of DNMT1, global genomic DNA methylation, and the production of IgG antibody in the CD4(+) T cells in the peripheral blood of SLE patients were assessed using qPCR analysis, western blotting, flow cytometry, and ELISA, respectively. RESULTS: The expression level of DNMT1 in SLE patients was significantly lower than that in normal humans. The expression of DNMT1 was found to be positively correlated with the methylation level of genomic DNA and negatively correlated with the IgG titration level. DNA sequencing results confirmed that the DNMT1 lentiviral plasmid was successfully constructed. After the CD4(+) T cells from the peripheral blood of SLE patients were transfected with the pLenti6.3/V5-DNMT1 plasmid, the transcription level of the DNMT1 gene was upregulated and abundance of DNMT1 protein significantly increased. Global genomic DNA methylation was enhanced, while the production of IgG antibody was reduced. CONCLUSION: DNMT1 can inhibit the autoimmune response in SLE patients by reversing the abnormally low DNA methylation level in the CD4(+) T cells.