Oral cancer is a global health burden with significantly poor survival, especially when the diagnosis is at its late stage. Despite advances in current treatment modalities, there has been minimal improvement in survival rates over the last five decades. The development of local recurrence, regional failure, and the formation of second primary tumors accounts for this poor outcome. For survivors, cosmetic and functional compromises resulting from treatment are often devastating. These statistics underscore the need for novel approaches in the management of this deadly disease. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment modality that involves administration of a light-sensitive drug, known as a photosensitizer, followed by light irradiation of an appropriate wavelength that corresponds to an absorbance band of the sensitizer. In the presence of tissue oxygen, cytotoxic free radicals that are produced cause direct tumor cell death, damage to the microvasculature, and induction of inflammatory reactions at the target sites. PDT offers a prospective new approach in controlling this disease at its various stages either as a stand-alone therapy for early lesions or as an adjuvant therapy for advanced cases. In this review, we aim to explore the applications of PDT in oral cancer therapy and to present an overview of the recent advances in PDT that can potentially reposition its utility for oral cancer treatment.
The ability of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) to accurately determine the concentrations of amplifiable targets makes it a promising platform for measuring copy number alterations (CNAs) in genomic biomarkers. However, its application to clinical samples, particularly formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens, will require strategies to reliably determine CNAs in DNA of limited quantity and quality. When applied to cancerous tissue, those methods must also account for global genetic instability and the associated probability that the abundance(s) of one or more chosen reference loci do not represent the average ploidy of cells comprising the specimen. Here we present an experimental design strategy and associated data analysis tool that enables accurate determination of CNAs in a panel of biomarkers using multiplexed ddPCR. The method includes strategies to optimize primer and probes design to cleanly segregate droplets in the data output from reaction wells amplifying multiple independent templates, and to correct for bias from artifacts such as DNA fragmentation. We demonstrate how a panel of reference loci can be used to determine a stable CNA-neutral benchmark. These innovations, when taken together, provide a comprehensive strategy that can be used to reliably detect biomarker CNAs in DNA extracted from either frozen or FFPE tissue biopsies.
Pentaherb formula (PHF) has been proven to improve the quality of life of children with atopic dermatitis without side effects. The aim of this study was to elucidate the potential anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic activities of PHF, Moutan Cortex (Danpi/DP) and gallic acid (GA) using human basophils (KU812 cells), which are crucial effector cells in allergic inflammation. PHF, DP and GA could significantly suppress the expression of allergic inflammatory cytokine IL-33-upregulated intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1, and the release of chemokines CCL2, CCL5, CXCL8 and inflammatory cytokine IL-6 from KU812 cells (all p < 0.05). With the combined use of dexamethasone (0.01 μg/mL) and GA (10 μg/mL), the suppression of ICAM-1 expression OPEN ACCESSMolecules 2013, 18 2484 and CCL5 and IL-6 release of IL-33-activated KU812 cells were significantly greater than the use of GA alone (all p < 0.05). The suppression of the IL-33-induced activation of intracellular signalling molecules p38 mitogen activated protein kinase, nuclear factor-B and c-Jun amino-terminal kinase in GA-treated KU812 cells could be the underlying mechanism for the suppression on ICAM-1, chemokines and cytokines. The combined use of dexamethasone with the natural products PHF or DP or GA might therefore enhance the development of a novel therapeutic modality for allergic inflammatory diseases with high potency and fewer side effects.
ObjectivesDetection of genomic alterations in diseases can be achieved with current molecular technologies. However, the molecules extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) bio-samples are often limited possibly due to DNA fragmentation and crosslinking caused by the sample fixation and processing. The study objective was to design a droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) assay to assess the quality and quantity of DNA derived from various DNA extraction conditions on FFPE samples.MethodsWe used 10 μm-thick sections from 5 FFPE oral tumoral blocks, each consisting of 10–15 sections. The protocol variables tested included: 1) tissue staining; 2) duration and 3) temperature of post-digestion heat treatment; and 4) DNA extraction method. DNA quantity was assessed using the NanoDrop 2000 (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA), the Qubit fluorometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA), and a ddPCR-based assay. DNA quality was assessed using a ddPCR assay for the degree of fragmentation and the effectiveness of removing crosslinks with varying guanine-cytosine (GC)-content.ResultsDeparaffinization with xylene helped to increase the DNA yield. Tissue staining (methyl green staining, pH 6) prior to microdissection, comparing to no staining, caused additional DNA fragmentation. Compared to column-based method, DNA extracted with phenol chloroform and ethanol precipitation increased the degree of fragmentation and lowered the yield of amplifiable DNA. The cross-linking derived from GC-contents may not be the only factor impacting on the DNA quality.ConclusionsSamples undergoing different pre-treatment conditions prior to extraction can impact the yield of amplifiable DNA. Our ddPCR assay can be used to assess for both DNA quantity and quality.
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