Diterpenoids isolated from Labiatae family herbs have strong antitumor activities with low toxicity. In this study, Eriocalyxin B (EriB), a diterpenoid extracted from Isodon eriocalyx, was tested on human leukemia/lymphoma cells and murine leukemia models. Acute myeloid leukemia cell line Kasumi-1 was most sensitive to EriB. Significant apoptosis was observed, concomitant with Bcl-2/Bcl-X L downregulation, mitochondrial instability and caspase-3 activation. AML1-ETO oncoprotein was degraded in parallel to caspase-3 activation. EriB-mediated apoptosis was associated with NF-jB inactivation by preventing NF-jB nuclear translocation and inducing IjBa cleavage, and disturbance of MAPK pathway by downregulating ERK1/2 phosphorylation and activating AP-1. Without affecting normal hematopoietic progenitor cells proliferation, EriB was effective on primary t(8;21) leukemia blasts and caused AML1-ETO degradation. In murine t(8;21) leukemia models, EriB remarkably prolonged the survival time or decreased the xenograft tumor size. Together, EriB might be a potential treatment for t(8;21) leukemia by targeting AML1-ETO oncoprotein and activating apoptosis pathways.

SUMMARY. Current guidelines recommend antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and high viral load. Scant histological data exist for CHB patients with persistently normal ALT (PNALT) because disease progression is thought to be rare. To identify potential predictors of significant histology in the presence of PNALT, we compared the clinical characteristics and histology of Chinese CHB PNALT patients to those in patients with elevated ALT. Percutaneous liver biopsy was performed in 522 CHB patients with Chinese ethnicity who had not had antiviral treatment. Differences in age, ALT, viral load, hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) status and liver histology were compared between eligible PNALT (252) and elevated ALT (270) patients. Of the PNALT patients, 38.5% had normal liver histology, 25.4% had significant necroinflammation and/or fibrosis and 8.4% had established cirrhosis. Furthermore, histopathological differences between patients with high-normal ALT (0.5-1.0 · the upper limit of normal (ULN)) and low-normal ALT (£0.5 · ULN) were evaluated. There was a significantly greater prevalence of histopathology in the high-normal group (40.0%) than in the low-normal group (16.6%) (P < 0.001). Multiple logistic regression identified that significant histopathology findings in PNALT patients correlated with age (P < 0.001) and ALT level (P < 0.001), with age >40 years and ALT >0.5 · ULN predicting significant histopathology. Our data indicate that liver biopsy is recommended in CHB patients >40 years of age, particularly when their ALT is 0.5-1.0 · ULN. The findings above provide evidence for indication of antiviral therapy in patients with PNALT and significant histopathological change.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of rituximab combined with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) in Chinese patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The study comprised a retrospective analysis of patients treated at a single center. Patients received four to six infusions of rituximab (375 mg/m(2) per dose) on day 1 of each cycle of CHOP chemotherapy. CHOP was initiated on day 3 of each cycle; cycles were repeated at 21-day intervals. A total of 82 patients with a median age of 45 years (range 18-76 years) was included. The overall response (OR) and complete response (CR) rates were 90.2 and 70.7%, respectively. The estimated 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 56.4 +/- 8.3% and 74.1 +/- 7.4%, respectively. Patients with International Prognostic Index (IPI) scores < or = 2 had significantly higher OR, CR, PFS, and OS rates (p = 0.01, p = 0.02, p = 0.01, p < 0.001, respectively) compared with patients with IPI scores >2. The hematologic toxicity was mild. Five patients with a history of chronic hepatitis B experienced a reactivation of viral hepatitis. The rituximab-CHOP combination was effective and well tolerated in Chinese patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL.

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ABSTRACT. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate the translation of targeted mRNAs. An increasing amount of evidence indicates that miRNAs play important role in cancer pathogenesis, apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Recently, miRNA-199a has been shown to be involved in many human cancers, although the role of miRNA-199a-3p in gastric cancer has not yet been evaluated. In the present study, the expression of miRNA-199a-3p was found to be significantly downregulated in human gastric cancer tissues and cells. miRNA-199a-3p induced anti-proliferation effects on human gastric cancer cells. Furthermore, using quantitative RT-PCR (real-time polymerase chain reaction) and luciferase reporter assays, mTOR was identified as a direct target gene of miRNA-199a-3p that is downregulated by it. In conclusion, our findings suggest that miRNA-199a-3p is associated with human gastric cancer through its ability to decrease cancer cell proliferation and target the mTOR signaling pathway, and, therefore, may provide a novel Role of miRNA-199a-3p in gastric carcinomas therapeutic target for the treatment of human gastric cancer.

The in-plane anisotropy (IPA) of mechanical properties existed in plate products is often undesired since it limits the industrial application and increases the difficulty of material processing. It is thus one of the important factors which requires strict control during the manufacture of highperformance aluminum alloy plates. The anisotropic behavior of TiB 2 /2024Al composite rolling sheet under different heat treatment is studied in this article. T4 heat treated specimen shows good isotropy of yield strength and its texture components are significantly weakened compared with traditional Al alloys. The evolution of microstructures for T4 specimen was studied. The submicron TiB 2 particles increase the driving force of recrystallization during rolling process and static recrystallization (SRX) is stimulated, thus induces texture randomization. Anisotropic behavior of yield strength occurs in specimen after T3 heat treatment. It is supposed that the difference in the activation of slip system under different loading direction gives rise to this anisotropy.

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