This meta-analysis suggests that in patients with severe sepsis (before shock), immunotherapy with anti-TNF-α monoclonal antibodies reduces overall mortality. In patients with shock or high levels of IL-6 (> 1000 pg/ml), anti-TNF-α therapy may improve survival.

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Metalloproteinases are membrane-bound proteins that play a role in the cellular responses to antiglioma therapy. Previously, it has been shown that treatment of glioma cells with temozolomide (TMZ) and radiation (XRT) induces the expression of metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14). To investigate the role of MMP14 in gliomagenesis, we used several chemical inhibitors which affect MMP14 expression. Of all the inhibitors tested, we found that Marimastat not only inhibits the expression of MMP14 in U87 and U251 glioma cells, but also induces cell cycle arrest. To determine the relationship between MMP14 inhibition and alteration of the cell cycle, we used an RNAi technique. Genetic knockdown of MMP14 in U87 and U251 glioma cells induced G2/M arrest and decreased proliferation. Mechanistically, we show that TMZ and XRT regulated expression of MMP14 in clinical samples and in vitro models through downregulation of microRNA374. In vivo genetic knockdown of MMP14 significantly decreased tumor growth of glioma xenografts and improved survival of glioma-bearing mice. Moreover, the combination of MMP14 silencing with TMZ and XRT significantly improved the survival of glioma-bearing mice compared to a single modality treatment group. Therefore, we show that the inhibition of MMP14 sensitizes tumor cells to TMZ and XRT and could be used as a future strategy for antiglioma therapy.Glioblastoma remains an incurable form of brain cancer. In this manuscript, we show that inhibition of MMP14 can potentiate the efficacy of current standard of care which includes chemo- and radiotherapy.

Crk-like (CrkL) is an adapter protein that has crucial roles in cell proliferation, adhesion, and migration. However, the expression pattern and potential mechanism of CrkL protein in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) have not been fully elucidated. To determine roles of CrkL in cell signaling, proliferation, and migration, small interfering RNAs and plasmids transfection were used to suppress or overexpress CrkL in U87 and U251; soft-agar assay and wound-healing assay were used to observe cell invasiveness, migration, and proliferation. Erk1/2, Smad2, and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) were also analyzed by western blot. CrkL was expressed in U87 and U251 cell lines and can be activated by transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1) in vitro; CrkL knockdown significantly suppressed the expression of phosph-ERK1/2 and MMP9 but enhanced phosph-Smad2 expression compared with control (p <0.001). Overexpression of CrkL against control upregulated phosph-ERK1/2 and MMP9 and, at the same time, downregulated phosph-Smad2 (p <0.01). On the other hand, CrkL knockdown could significantly affect U87 and U251 invasiveness (p <0.01) and wound closure (p <0.01) using soft-agar assay and wound-healing assay. These studies suggest that CrkL efficiently mediates cell proliferation, migration, and invasion induced by TGF-β pathway in glioblastoma. Furthermore, CrkL can be used as a potential and efficient therapeutic target of GBM and may also mediate other signaling pathway.

The chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) has been widely investigated in diagnosis and prognosis of gastric cancer (GC). However, the impact of CXCR4 on GC patients remains controversial; Here, we conducted a meta-analysis to obtain the precise role of CXCR4 in GC prognosis and clinicopathology. Thirteen published studies with a total of 1,936 patients were included. Original data included the hazard ratio (HR) of overall survival (OS) and odds ratio (OR) in GC patients. We combined HR/OR with 95% confidence interval (CI) to estimate the hazard. In this study, OS was significantly related to CXCR4 expression, with the HR 2.63 (95% CI 1.69-4.09; p < 0.0001), and a significant correlation was also revealed between CXCR4 expression and stage (I + II, +) (OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.32-0.83; p = 0.007), depth of invasion (T1/T2, +) (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.27-0.73; p = 0.001), lymph node metastasis (LN, +) (OR 2.30, 95% CI 1.57-3.36; p < 0.0001), as well as vascular invasion (vas.inv, +) (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.53-0.98; p = 0.04). Heterogeneity was observed among the included studies with OS (I(2) = 51%), stage (I(2) = 78%), depth of invasion (I(2) = 74%), lymph node metastasis (I(2) = 64%), and histology differentiation (I(2) = 79%). No publication bias was observed. In conclusion, this meta-analysis showed CXCR4 expression indicates poor prognosis in GC patients with advanced stage or deep invasion in GC tissues, which also implied lymph node metastasis and vascular invasion. Thus, CXCR4 could help predict patient prognosis and guide clinical diagnosis and treatment.

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Quantifying the amounts and types of lipids present in mixtures is important in fields as diverse as medicine, food science, and biochemistry. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy can quantify the total amounts of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in mixtures, but identifying the length of saturated fatty acid or the position of unsaturation by NMR is a daunting challenge. We have developed an NMR technique, aliphatic chain length by isotropic mixing, to address this problem. Using a selective total correlation spectroscopy technique to excite and transfer magnetization from a resolved resonance, we demonstrate that the time dependence of this transfer to another resolved site depends linearly on the number of aliphatic carbons separating the two sites. This technique is applied to complex natural mixtures allowing the identification and quantification of the constituent fatty acids. The method has been applied to whole adipocytes demonstrating that it will be of great use in studies of whole tissues.

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