Background
Primary cardiac angiosarcoma (PCAS) is a rare type of tumour. Furthermore, descriptions of the demographic features and prognostic factors of PCAS patients have been poorly reported.
Methods
A population cohort study was conducted using retrospectively extracted data from the SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) database for patients with histological diagnoses of PCAS; the extracted information included demographic, treatment and outcome data.
Results
A total of 168 cases of PCAS from 1973 to 2013 were included. The mean age at diagnosis was 44.4 ± 15.5 years. PCAS was more prevalent in men than in women. The majority of PCAS patients were white (67.3%), while the incidence of PCAS in black individuals was relatively infrequent (19.0%). In addition, 87 cases were classified as distant stage, 44 as regional stage, and 33 as localized stage. The median disease-specific survival (DSS) was 7.22 months, and the 1-, 2- and 5-year DSS rate for PCAS patients was 34.7%, 14.3% and 10.2%, respectively. Further multivariate analyses showed that an age at (greater than or equal to) 45 years (HR 2.165), no radiotherapy (HR 1.629), tumour size > 5 cm (HR 3.182), and the summary stage was associated with worse PCAS-related survival. Cancer-directed surgery and radiotherapy significantly improved the DSS for patients with PCAS (
P
< 0.05). The C-index of the nomograms was 0.706 (95% CI 0.654–0.758), and the calibration curves showed good agreement between the nomogram prediction and actual observation.
Conclusion
PCAS is a rare cancer that is prone to have poor prognoses. To understand PCAS more thoroughly, more cases with adequate information are needed.
Biofilm formation mediated by sortase A (srtA) is important for bacterial colonisation and resistance to antibiotics. Thus, the inhibitor of SrtA may represent a promising agent for bacterial infection. The structure of Streptococcus pneumoniae D39 srtA has been characterised by crystallisation. Site‐directed mutagenesis was used for the determination of the key residues for the activity of S. pneumoniae D39 srtA. An effective srtA inhibitor, quercetin, and its mechanism was further identified using srtA activity inhibition assay and molecular modelling. In this study, the crystal structure of S. pneumoniae D39 srtA has been solved and shown to contain a unique domain B. Additionally, its transpeptidase activity was evaluated in vitro. Based on the structure, we identified Cys207 as the catalytic residue, with His141 and Arg215 serving as binding sites for the peptide substrate. We found that quercetin can specifically compete with the natural substrate, leading to a significant decrease in the catalytic activity of this enzyme. In cells co‐cultured with this small molecule inhibitor, NanA cannot anchor to the cell wall effectively, and biofilm formation and biomass decrease significantly. Interestingly, when we supplemented cultures with sialic acid, a crucial signal for pneumococcal coloniation and the invasion of the host in the co‐culture system, biofilm loss did not occur. This result indicates that quercetin inhibits biofilm formation by affecting sialic acid production. In conclusion, the inhibition of pneumococcal srtA by the small molecule quercetin offers a novel strategy for pneumococcal preventative therapy.
Two novel alkaloids compounds together with fifteen know metabolites were identified from
Aspergillus ochraceus
. The stereochemistry features of the new molecules were determined via HRESIMS, NMR, ECD, and XRD analyses. Amongst these, compounds two compounds exhibited potential efficacy as anti‐Parkinson's disease with the EC
50
values of 2.30 and 2.45 μ
m
, respectively. ADMET prediction showed that these compounds owned favorable drug‐like characteristics and safe toxicity scores towards CNS drugs. Virtual screening analyses manifested that the compounds exhibited not only robust and reliable interactions to adenosine receptors A
2A
, but also higher binding selectivity to A
2A
receptors than to A
1
and A
3
receptors. Molecular dynamics simulation demonstrated the reliability of molecular docking results and the stability of the complexes obtained with the novel compounds and A
2A
receptors in natural environments. It is the first time that anti‐PD lead compounds have been identified from
Aspergillus ochraceus
and targeting adenosine A
2A
receptors.
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