PurposeTo evaluate the effect of auricular acupressure (AA) on cancer-related fatigue (CRF), sleep disturbance and anxiety in lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.Materials and methodsPatients were recruited from the respiratory department of a general hospital and were randomised into three groups. A 9-week course of AA using Semen Vaccariae (SV) (Group A)/AA using magnetic beads (Group B)/routine care (Group C) was implemented. CRF scores were used as the primary outcome while the sleep and anxiety scores were the secondary outcomes. Analysis of variance and least significant difference t-test were used to determine the intergroup differences and paired-sample t-test was used for the intragroup comparison.Results100 lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy were included. Compared with Group C, AA could significantly alleviate CRF (F:24.63, p<0.01), especially for physical and affective fatigue and Group A was more effective for managing physical fatigue than Group B in per-protocol (PP) (−1.75 (−2.69 to –0.82), p<0.01)/Intention to Treat analysis (ITT) (−1.41 (−2.39 to –0.41), p=0.01) analysis. However, AA had no effect on cognitive fatigue. Compared with Group C, only Group A produced significant improvements in sleep quality in PP analysis (−1.17 (−2.23 to –0.10), p=0.03) while it yielded negative results in ITT analysis (−0.82 (−1.74 to 0.10), p=0.08). Compared with Group C, AA could significantly reduce anxiety in PP analysis (F:9.35, p<0.01) while there was no statistical difference between Group B and Group C (−0.95 (−2.81 to 0.90), p=0.31), Group A and Group B (−1.26 (−3.12 to 0.59), p=0.18) in ITT analysis.ConclusionAA can alleviate CRF of lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, especially for physical and affective fatigue. AA using SV is more effective for physical fatigue while AA using magnetic beads works better for anxiety. However, AA cannot improve the sleep quality.Trial registration numberISRCTNregistry (ISRCTN16408424).

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To identify major active constituents and measure their levels in a typical medicinal herb–Rhizoma coptidis, we applied the concept of removing and adding, taking inspiration from functional genetic methods. As this herb has bacteriostatic properties and is used to treat bacterial diarrhea, we examined the effects of individual constituents (berberine, palmatine, coptisine, epiberberine, jateorrhizine and columbamine) on the growth of Shigella dysenteriae with microcalorimetry. The removing and adding procedures revealed that berberine and coptisine were the main antibacterial constituents of R. coptidis, with bacteriostatic activities of 54.10% and 39.75%, respectively. The relative levels of berberine and coptisine in R. coptidis were 8.08%–31.92% and 4.05%–14.45%, respectively. On the basis of whole effect, the method of constituents removing and adding, coupled with a bioassay, is a useful strategy to identify the active constituents and measure their levels in herbal medicines, which may provide reference to other natural products.

Alanine serine cysteine-preferring transporter 2 (ASCT2; also known as SLC1A5) is an important glutamine transporter, and it serves a crucial role in tumor growth and progression. ASCT2 is highly expressed in numerous types of cancer, but the pathological significance of its expression in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains unclear. The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) level is hyperelevated in a number of tumor types, including ovarian cancer. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the prognostic role of ASCT2 and phosphorylated (p)-mTOR in EOC. The levels of ASCT2 and p-mTOR/mTOR were detected in normal ovarian tissues, benign ovarian tumors, borderline ovarian tumors and EOC tissues by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and western blot assays. The protein levels of ASCT2 and p-mTOR in EOC patients were then detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Furthermore, EOC tumor sections were stained for Ki-67 and cluster of differentiation 34 (CD34) to assess proliferation and microvessel density by IHC. The results of RT-qPCR and western blot analysis demonstrated that ASCT2 and p-mTOR protein levels were significantly higher in EOC tissues compared with those in other groups. IHC analysis of 104 EOC tissues suggested that ASCT2 expression was associated with clinicopathological parameters, including International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, pathological grade, serum cancer antigen 125 level, Ki-67 status and CD34 status. Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis indicated that high expression of ASCT2 and p-mTOR were important factors predicting a poor prognosis for patients with EOC. The expression levels of ASCT2 and p-mTOR in EOC were positively correlated (r=0.385, P<0.001). This positive correlation between ASCT2 and p-mTOR indicates that they have a synergistic effect on the growth and development of early EOC. The combined detection of ASCT2 and p-mTOR may serve as a potential marker to inform diagnosis, postoperative follow-up requirements and targeted therapy options for patients with early-stage EOC, but not for terminal-stage patients.

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