Patients with malignant gliomas have a poor prognosis because these tumors do not respond well to conventional treatments. Studies

Abstract. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is known for its ability to selectively induce apoptosis in malignant cells. However, human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells display resistance to TRAIL-induced cell death. The present study investigated whether TRAIL-induced apoptosis in HCC cells was enhanced by the administration of an inhibitor of glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) or by short hairpin RNA-mediated inhibition of GSK-3β. The results of the current study demonstrated that inhibition of GSK-3β significantly impairs the expression of the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) target genes Bcl-xL and clAP2 in HCC cells (P<0.05). This indicates that GSK-3β may regulate NF-κB target genes involved in cell survival. Furthermore, knockdown of Bcl-xL significantly enhanced the sensitizing effect of GSK-3β inhibitor on TRAIL-induced apoptosis (P<0.05). Overall, the present study provides a rationale for further exploration of GSK-3β inhibition combined with TRAIL as a novel treatment for HCC.

SummaryThe newly developed high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method allowed for the differentiation of QiYi capsules from 10 batches due to their characteristic fingerprints, proving to be a well-suited method for characterization and assignment of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) preparation. The method was validated for repeatability, intra-precision, and inter-precision. The result was acceptable, with the reference of myotonin, because relative standard deviation (% RSD) was 3.9% in reproducibility test and less than 3.44% in inter-or intra-plate precisions. HPTLC fingerprinting of the extracts showed several peaks with different R F values. Eleven peaks were selected as the common peaks to evaluate the similarities of 10 different samples with R F values ranging from 0.10 to 0.87 according to fingerprint. The similarities of 10 batches of QiYi capsules were more than 0.940; it indicated that the different batches of QiYi capsules were stable and reliable in quality.

Alginate–chitosan nanocapsules (Alg-CS NCs) were prepared by a two-stage process. The NCs were loaded with two low molecular drugs-tegafur and Mitoxantrone Hydrochloride(DHAD). Results revealed that these two drugs exhibited different drug loading and release characteristics. The drug loading and encapsulation efficiency of tegafur (<1%) were both lower than those of DHAD with the drug loading at about 20%~60% and encapsulation efficiency over 90%. However, tegafur showed a visible burst release phenomenon and the cumulative release rate of tegafur was much higher than that of DHAD.

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