A Nomogram for Predicting Risk of Thromboembolism in Gastric Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy.

Purpose: The aims of this study were to develop and validate a novel nomogram to predict thromboembolism (TE) in gastric cancer (GC) patients receiving chemotherapy and to test its predictive ability. Methods: This retrospective study included 544 GC patients who received chemotherapy as the initial treatment at two medical centers. Among the 544 GC patients who received chemotherapy, 275 and 137 patients in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University from January 2014 to March 2019 were enrolled in the training cohort and the validation cohort, respectively. A total of 132 patients in the Beilun branch of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University from January 2015 to August 2019 were enrolled in external validation cohorts. The nomogram was based on parameters determined by univariate and multivariate logistic analyses. The prediction performance of the nomogram was measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), the calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA). The applicability of the nomogram was internally and independently validated. Results: The predictors included the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG), presence of an active cancer (AC), central venous catheter (CVC), and D-dimer levels. These risk factors are shown on the nomogram and verified. The nomogram demonstrated good discrimination and fine calibration with an AUROC of 0.875 (0.832 in internal validation and 0.807 in independent validation). The DCA revealed that the nomogram had a high clinical application value. Conclusions: We propose the nomogram for predicting TE in patients with GC receiving chemotherapy, which can help in making timely personalized clinical decisions for different risk populations.

C-Phycocyanin as a tumour-associated macrophage-targeted photosensitiser and a vehicle of phthalocyanine for enhanced photodynamic therapy.

C-Phycocyanin (CPC) as a tumour-associated macrophage (TAM)-targeted photosensitiser has been first proved, and used as a vehicle of zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) to fabricate a ZnPc-CPC conjugate, which exhibits an efficient in vitro photodynamic activity, and selectively accumulates in tumour sites probably due to the affinity to TAM.

Preparation and sonodynamic activities of water-soluble tetra-α-(3-carboxyphenoxyl) zinc(II) phthalocyanine and its bovine serum albumin conjugate.

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is a new approach for cancer treatment, involving the synergistic effect of ultrasound and certain chemical compounds termed as sonosensitizers. A water-soluble phthalocyanine, namely tetra-α-(3-carboxyphenoxyl) zinc(II) phthalocyanine (ZnPcC4), has been prepared and characterized. The interactions between ZnPcC4 and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were also investigated by absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. It was found that there were strong interactions between ZnPcC4 and BSA with a binding constant of 6.83×10(7)M(-1). A non-covalent BSA conjugate of ZnPcC4 (ZnPcC4-BSA) was prepared. Both ZnPcC4 and ZnPcC4-BSA exhibited efficient sonodynamic activities against HepG2 human hepatocarcinoma cells. Compared with ZnPcC4, conjugate ZnPcC4-BSA showed a higher sonodynamic activity with an IC50 value of 7.5µM. Upon illumination with ultrasound, ZnPcC4-BSA can induce an increase of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, resulting in cellular apoptosis. The results suggest that the albumin conjugates of zinc(II) phthalocyanines functionalized with carboxyls can serve as promising sonosensitizers for sonodynamic therapy.

[Preparation and identification of OmpW monoclonal antibodies].

AIM: To prepare and characterize the mouse monoclonal antibodies against Vibrio parahaemolyticus OmpW. METHODS: The OmpW amino acid sequence from three diseased Vibrio was analyzed by Bioinformatics. Mice were immunized with r-OmpW which was highly expressed and purified in E.coli. Five Vibrio(Va, Vp, Vh, Vv, Van) were chosen as antigen for mAb selection.The characters of the anti-OmpW monoclonal antibodies were studied by Western blot, Flow Cytometry, indirect immunofluorescence. RESULTS: OmpW was testified a highly conservative membrane protein.Three clones of anti-OmpW mAb was obtained. The Ig subclass of the mAb secreted from fused cell S5C10 was IgG3, which of the titer was 4.6×10(4);. The mAb could specifically recognize Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio anguillarum, Vibrio vulnificus, which could not react with Pseudomonas flurosecens, Aeromonas hydrophila, Aeromonas sobria, Aeromonas hydrophila, Escherichia coli. CONCLUSION: The mAb could specially recognize five diseased Vibrio, which is a useful tool for the further study of the diagnosis of Vibrio.

Synthesis of [3ß-acetoxy-urs-12-en-28-oyl]-1-monoglyceride and investigation on its anti tumor effects against BGC-823.

Ursolic acid (UA) as the leader compound was designed to prepare a series of derivatives (three novel compounds UA-1a, UA-1b and UA-2) by modification at the C3 and C28 positions. Their chemical structures were confirmed by IR, (1)H NMR and MS. The cytotoxic activity of the derivatives was evaluated against HepG2, BGC-823 and HT-29 by the MTT assay. The novel derivative UA-1a, [3ß-acetoxy-urs-12-en-28-oyl]-1-monoglyceride showed significant anti-growth ability against the assayed cancer cell lines, particularly against BGC-823, while low cytotoxicity to human normal gastric cell line GES-1. Further investigation revealed that UA-1a could induce apoptotic events of the treated BGC-823 cells, such as comet-like DNA bend, sub-G0/G1 phase accumulation and phosphatidylserine externalization. The activity of Caspase-3 was found to be up-regulated, while the expression of Bcl-2 and Survivin were down-regulated in UA-1a treated cells. UA-1a might trigger the death of BGC-823 cells by inducing apoptosis via the mitochondria pathway. UA-1a exerted stronger ability than Taxol to retard tumor growth in nude mice without leaving apparent toxicity to the hosts. The experimental data suggested that UA-1a would have a therapeutic potential in the treatment of gastric cancer.