Neuroblastoma (NB) is a pediatric cancer of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system and represents the most frequent solid malignancy in infants. Nectin2 belongs to the immunoglobulin superfamily ...and has been shown to play a role in tumorigenesis. In the current study, we demonstrate that serum Nectin2 level is increased in NB patients compared with that in healthy controls and Nectin2 level is correlated with neuroblastoma international neuroblastoma staging system (INSS) classification. There is a positive correlation between Nectin2 level and shorter overall survival in NB patients. Knockdown of
reduces the migration of SH-SY5Y and SK-N-BE2 cells and induces their apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. RNA-seq analysis demonstrates that
knockdown affects the expressions of 258 genes, including 240 that are upregulated and 18 that are downregulated compared with negative controls. qRT-PCR and western blot analysis confirm that ANXA2 expression is decreased in
-knockdown SH-SY5Y cells, consistent with the RNA-seq results. ANXA2 overexpression rescues the percentage of apoptotic NB cells induced by
knockdown and compensates for the impact of
knockdown on cleaved caspase3 and bax expressions. In addition, western blot analysis results show that ANXA2 overexpression rescues the effect of
knockdown on MMP2 and MMP9 expressions. The current data highlight the importance of Nectin2 in NB progression and the potential of Nectin2 as a novel candidate target for gene therapy.
Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMSs) are highly malignant soft‐tissue sarcomas. Head and neck RMSs often pose unique challenges to treatment because of their closeness to important structures. We here report a ...rare case of a 1‐year‐old boy with a 1‐month history of right eye swelling and an eye mass. Biopsy of deep tumors in the maxillofacial region supports embryonal RMS. Postoperative positron emission computed tomography showed a 5.0 cm × 4.8 cm × 4.2 cm malignant tumor in the right maxillary region. In accordance with the international RMS study group guideline, the child was diagnosed with IIIa and TNM stage T2bN1M1 embryonal RMS. The child was treated with a combination of chemotherapy and 125I seed implantation radiotherapy and eventually achieved partial remission. This case report shows that 125I seed implantation is a safe and effective means of delivering radiotherapy to young children with head and neck RMSs. It may be an option for children with RMSs for whom surgery or external radiotherapy is unsuitable.
In this article, children with orbital rhabdomyosarcomas received chemotherapy combined with 125I seed implantation radiotherapy without undergoing surgical treatment, resulting in long‐term remission.
Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial malignant solid tumor in children, which is highly prone to bone marrow (BM) metastasis. BM can monitor early signs of mild disease and metastasis. ...Existing biomarkers are insufficient for the diagnosis and treatment of NB. Bromodomain PHD finger transcription factor (BPTF) is an important subunit of the chromatin-remodeling complex that is closely associated with tumors. Here, we evaluated whether BPTF in BM plays an important role in predicting NB progression, and explore the molecular mechanism of BPTF in NB.
The clinical relevance of the BPTF was predicted in the GEO (GSE62564) and TARGET database. The biological function of BPTF in NB was investigated by constructing cell lines and employing BPTF inhibitor AU1. Western blot was used to determine the changes of BPTF, TFAP4, PI3K/AKT signaling and Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related markers. A total of 109 children with newly diagnosed NB in Beijing Children's Hospital from January 2018 to March 2021 were included in this study. RT-PCR was used to measure the BPTF and TFAP4 expression in BM. The cut-off level was set at the median value of BPTF expression levels.
Databases suggested that BPTF expression was higher in NB and was significantly associated with stage and grade. Proliferation and migration of NB cells were slowed down when BPTF was silenced. Mechanistically, TFAP4 could positively regulate BPTF and promotes EMT process through activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Moreover, detection of the newly diagnosed BM specimens showed that BPTF expression was significantly higher in high-risk group, stage IV group and BM metastasis group. Children with high BPTF at initial diagnosis were considered to have high risk for disease progression and recurrence. BPTF is an independent risk factor for predicting NB progression.
A novel and convenient BPTF-targeted humoral detection that can prompt minimal residual and predict NB progression in the early stages of the disease were identified. BPTF inhibitor AU1 is expected to become a new targeted drug for NB therapy. It's also reveal previously unknown mechanisms of BPTF in NB cell proliferation and metastasis through TFAP4 and PI3K/AKT pathways.
We report two children with hepatoblastoma (HB) with a history of neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Case 1 was diagnosed with HB at 5 months of age. Liver enlargement was found during the NEC ...operation at 3 months of age and then was clinically diagnosed by imaging. After six chemotherapy courses, a partial hepatectomy was performed. Three months after ceasing the chemotherapy, a chest computed tomography scan suggested that distant metastasis of the tumor should be considered, and the lesion was removed. However, 9 months after the operation, alpha‐fetoprotein concentrations were increased, and abdominal imaging showed a recurrence of the tumor in situ, resulting in a hepatectomy. Case 2 was diagnosed with NEC shortly after birth and underwent an intestinal resection and anastomosis 1 month later. He was diagnosed with HB at 3 years of age. Hepatectomy was performed after five courses of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy was stopped after 10 courses, and alpha‐fetoprotein concentrations were normal. At present, both children have survived and are in a healthy condition. Physicians should be aware of the possibility of HB and a history of NEC in children. Premature birth and low birth weight are common factors leading to the pathogenesis of HB and NEC. The association between these two diseases requires further study.
Two children with hepatoblastoma (HB) with a history of neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). We found that premature birth and low birth weight are common factors leading to the pathogenesis of HB and NEC. The correlation between these two diseases deserves further study.
Neuroblastoma (NB) is a pediatric cancer of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system and represents the most frequent solid malignancy in infants. Nectin2 belongs to the immunoglobulin superfamily ...and has been shown to play a role in tumorigenesis. In the current study, we demonstrate that serum Nectin2 level is increased in NB patients compared with that in healthy controls and Nectin2 level is correlated with neuroblastoma international neuroblastoma staging system (INSS) classification. There is a positive correlation between Nectin2 level and shorter overall survival in NB patients. Knockdown of
Nectin2
reduces the migration of SH-SY5Y and SK-N-BE2 cells and induces their apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. RNA-seq analysis demonstrates that
Nectin2
knockdown affects the expressions of 258 genes, including 240 that are upregulated and 18 that are downregulated compared with negative controls. qRT-PCR and western blot analysis confirm that ANXA2 expression is decreased in
Nectin2
-knockdown SH-SY5Y cells, consistent with the RNA-seq results. ANXA2 overexpression rescues the percentage of apoptotic NB cells induced by
Nectin2
knockdown and compensates for the impact of
Nectin2
knockdown on cleaved caspase3 and bax expressions. In addition, western blot analysis results show that ANXA2 overexpression rescues the effect of
Nectin2
knockdown on MMP2 and MMP9 expressions. The current data highlight the importance of Nectin2 in NB progression and the potential of Nectin2 as a novel candidate target for gene therapy.
With the development of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), China implemented measures in an attempt to control the infection rate. We conducted a single-center, cross-sectional study to ...ascertain the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the equitable availability of medical resources for children diagnosed with malignant solid tumors in China.
Data on the demographics, clinical characteristics, and medical expenses of 876 patients diagnosed with neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), Wilms tumor, hepatoblastoma (HB), Ewing sarcoma (ES), and central nervous system (CNS) tumors from 2019 to 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, were retrospectively collected from the National Center for Children's Health. The Pearson χ
test and Mann-Whitney test were performed to analyze the differences among variables.
Except for the regional origin of children with tumors during the epidemic, no significant differences were found in the demographic or clinical characteristics of patients at initial diagnosis. The number of patients from northern China and northeastern China who attended Beijing Children's Hospital (BCH) increased after the outbreak of COVID-19 (P=0.001). There was no significant alteration observed in the frequency of hospitalizations per individual per annum (P=0.641) or the mean expense incurred per individual per hospitalization (P=0.361). In addition, the medical insurance coverage rate of real-time settlement increased year by year.
After the COVID-19 outbreak, the origin of patients with solid tumor who visited BCH was concentrated in the northern region of China. COVID-19 had no impact on the other demographic factors, clinical characteristics, or economic burden of patients with pediatric malignant solid tumors.
Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMSs) are highly malignant soft-tissue sarcomas. Head and neck RMSs often pose unique challenges to treatment because of their closeness to important structures. We here report a ...rare case of a 1-year-old boy with a 1-month history of right eye swelling and an eye mass. Biopsy of deep tumors in the maxillofacial region supports embryonal RMS. Postoperative positron emission computed tomography showed a 5.0 cm × 4.8 cm × 4.2 cm malignant tumor in the right maxillary region. In accordance with the international RMS study group guideline, the child was diagnosed with IIIa and TNM stage T2bN1M1 embryonal RMS. The child was treated with a combination of chemotherapy and 125I seed implantation radiotherapy and eventually achieved partial remission. This case report shows that 125I seed implantation is a safe and effective means of delivering radiotherapy to young children with head and neck RMSs. It may be an option for children with RMSs for whom surgery or external radiotherapy is unsuitable.
We report two children with hepatoblastoma (HB) with a history of neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Case 1 was diagnosed with HB at 5 months of age. Liver enlargement was found during the NEC ...operation at 3 months of age and then was clinically diagnosed by imaging. After six chemotherapy courses, a partial hepatectomy was performed. Three months after ceasing the chemotherapy, a chest computed tomography scan suggested that distant metastasis of the tumor should be considered, and the lesion was removed. However, 9 months after the operation, alpha-fetoprotein concentrations were increased, and abdominal imaging showed a recurrence of the tumor in situ, resulting in a hepatectomy. Case 2 was diagnosed with NEC shortly after birth and underwent an intestinal resection and anastomosis 1 month later. He was diagnosed with HB at 3 years of age. Hepatectomy was performed after five courses of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy was stopped after 10 courses, and alpha-fetoprotein concentrations were normal. At present, both children have survived and are in a healthy condition. Physicians should be aware of the possibility of HB and a history of NEC in children. Premature birth and low birth weight are common factors leading to the pathogenesis of HB and NEC. The association between these two diseases requires further study.
Principal component analysis (PCA) is one of the most important and powerful methods in chemometrics as well as in a wealth of other areas. Running a PCA results in two main elements, the score plot ...and the loading plot; the score plot provides the location of the samples, and the loading plot indicates correlations among variables, the trends in the grouping of samples, and the most important variables. In the past 10 years teaching chemometrics, we have struggled with not having free software with an easy to use graphical user interface for data handling and calculations. In this paper, we provide a series of examples that students used to carry PCA in R-Project, a free and open source software program. In the first example, students used PCA to find correlations among chemical properties of chemical elements and relate these properties with the periodic distribution of the elements. In the second example, meat samples were grouped using 14 variables, and students could observe how outlier samples might influence the PCA model; in this case, they were also taught how to use the t test to choose the variables that were significant to the PCA model. In the third example, healthy patients were differentiated from diabetic patients using 163 lipid concentrations. In the fourth example, Atlantic salmon samples were differentiated from catfish samples. In the fifth and sixth examples, students were able to observe how data treatment affects the classification of natural products and edible oils, respectively.
Objectives/Hypothesis
The objectives of this study were to evaluate laryngeal inflammation and mucosal integrity in a murine model of reflux disease and to assess the protective effects of topical ...agents including alginate, hyaluronic acid, and cashew gum.
Study Design
Animal study.
Methods
A surgical murine model of reflux disease was evaluated at 3 or 7 days postsurgery, and laryngeal samples were collected to measure inflammation (wet weight and myeloperoxidase MPO) and mucosal integrity (transepithelial resistance TER and mucosal permeability to fluorescein). Additional groups of animals were administered one of several topical agents (alginate, hyaluronic acid, or cashew gum) daily, and laryngeal inflammation and mucosal integrity were evaluated at 3 days postsurgery.
Results
At 3 days, and not 7 days postsurgery, we observed increased laryngeal wet weight and MPO, decreased laryngeal TER, and increased laryngeal mucosa permeability. Alginate partially decreased laryngeal inflammation (wet weight and not MPO) and dramatically improved laryngeal mucosal integrity. Conversely, hyaluronic acid eliminated the inflammation; however, it had no effect on laryngeal mucosal integrity impairment. Cashew gum eliminated laryngeal inflammation as well as the impairment in laryngeal mucosal integrity.
Conclusions
This study shows that a surgical model of reflux disease induced laryngeal inflammation and impairment in laryngeal barrier function. These observed alterations were partially attenuated by alginate and hyaluronic acid and completely reversed by cashew gum.
Level of Evidence
NA Laryngoscope, 2020
