Pregnancies in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients are high risk to both mother and fetus because of increased rates of complications. During the past years, we have treated many cases of SLE patients using autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation with good outcome after pregnancy. The rate of maternal hypertension and lupus nephritis was greatly reduced in autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplanted group (n = 11) when compared to non-transplant group (n = 39) (P < 0.05). In addition, the outcome of lupus flare activity of the mother after delivery is significantly better in transplanted group than that in non-transplanted group (P < 0.05). Here, we describe two typical cases of long duration (>6 years) of remission after successful pregnancy in refractory SLE patients post-autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Our report demonstrated that peripheral blood stem cell transplantation is safe and effective, thereby could be recommended as prior strategy in refractory SLE patients, especially for those women of child-bearing age who plan for pregnancy.
Norcantharidin (NCTD), the demethylated analog of the Chinese medicine cantharidin, exhibits anti-myeloma activity by inactivating nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), which is implicated in multiple myeloma (MM) cell survival and resistance to bortezomib (BTZ). We investigated whether NCTD could potentiate the anti-tumor activity of BTZ in MM. NCTD inhibited the proliferation of MM cells and potentiated the anti-myeloma effects of BTZ by down-regulating IKKα and p-IκBα, which induced the accumulation of IκBα and inhibited the constitutive activation of NF-κB. This effect was correlated with the suppression of NF-κB-regulated gene products. Furthermore, a chemotherapy-potentiating effect of NCTD on BTZ was also observed in vivo. Our study demonstrated that NCTD and BTZ exhibit significant therapeutic effects on MM through the NF-κB signal pathway in vitro and in vivo. Future studies will investigate the combined effects of NCTD and BTZ in patients with MM.
MicroRNA (miR)-19a, as an oncomiR, has been studied in several types of cancer; however, its role in the development and progression of multiple myeloma (MM) remains unclear. The present study used a bioinformatics approach to investigate the involvement of miR-19a in MM. miR-19a targets were predicted using target prediction programs, followed by screening for differentially expressed genes in MM. The function of these genes was then annotated using gene ontology term enrichment, signaling pathway enrichment and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis. In addition, natural language processing (NLP) was performed to identify genes associated with MM. A total of 715 putative targets of miR-19a were identified in the present study, of which 40 were experimentally validated. A total of 121 genes were identified to be differentially expressed in MM, including 80 upregulated genes and 41 downregulated genes. Among the differentially expressed genes, ras homolog family member B, clathrin heavy chain, prosaposin and protein phosphatase 6 regulatory subunit 2 were predicted target genes of miR-19a. The results of NLP revealed that 2 of the differentially expressed genes, Y-box binding protein 1 and TP53 regulated inhibitor of apoptosis 1, were reported to be associated with MM. In addition, 41 target genes of miR-19a were identified to be associated with the development and progression of MM. These results may aid in understanding the molecular mechanisms of miR-19a in the development and progression of MM. In addition, the results of the present study indicate that targets genes of miR-19a are potential candidate biomarkers for MM.
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