Search

Stimuli-responsive nanocarriers for anticancer drug and gene co-delivery are a promising strategy in cancer therapy due to their combination of chemotherapy and gene therapy. In this work, we developed a facile and effective method to fabricate stimuli-responsive nanocarriers for anticancer drug and gene co-delivery based on complexes of polyethylenimine (PEI) with an adenosine triphosphate (ATP) responsive aptamer duplex (ARAD). No chemical reactions or complex modifications were used in the construction processes. In this system, Doxorubicin-loaded aptamer duplex and plasmid DNA (p53) can be bound by PEI by electronic interactions to form stable complexes which effectively protect the aptamer and p53 from DNase degradation. The intercalated Dox can be released on-demand by a structural change in the aptamer duplex in an ATP-rich environment. The morphology and average size of the nanocarriers were characterized by zeta potential and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The nanocarriers exhibit lower cell toxicity in HeLa cell lines relative to PEI. RT-PCR and Western blot analysis confirmed that p53 could be effectively delivered and expressed in HeLa cells by PEI/ARAD/p53 complexes. Moreover, the apoptosis percentage of HeLa cells treated with PEI/ARAD/Dox/p53 complex increased to 40.8%, compared to 24.7% for PEI/ARAD/Dox complex and 11.5% for PEI/ARAD/p53, respectively. The result demonstrated that the combinatorial delivery of Dox and p53 by nanocarriers could induce synergistic actions and lead to effective cancer cell apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case-control study focused on estimating the association between miR-146a polymorphism and risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in central-south China. In total, 160 patients with NPC and 200 healthy controls in central-south China were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay. Chi-square test was used to assess the different distribution of miR-146a polymorphism between NPC patients and controls; and logistic regression analysis was applied to analyze the associations between miR-146a polymorphism with cancer risk in different contrast models. Significant differences between NPC patients and controls were found in genotype (P=0.033 for GG versus CG versus CC; and odds ratio (OR)=0.568, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.354-0.912, P=0.019 for CG versus CC; and OR=0.503, 95% CI=0.261-0.971, P=0.041 for CG versus CC; and OR=0.564, 95% CI=0.360-0.884, P=0.012 for GG+CG versus CC, respectively) and allelic analysis (P=0.025 for G versus C). Our findings suggested that polymorphism of mir-146a was associated with NPC in the central-southern Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extra-nodal natural killer T-Cell (NK/T-cell) lymphoma is a progressive cancer with poor prognosis due to the lack of disease specific treatment. To develop specific therapeutic strategies, it is essential to identify tumor markers. Recent studies show that circulating microRNA (miRNA) may serve as diagnostic and/or prognostic markers for some diseases. To explore miRNAs as potential diagnostic and/or prognostic markers of NK/T-cell lymphoma, in our study, we compared circulating miR-221 levels in 79 patients and 37 normal subjects by real-time PCR amplification directly from plasma samples, and correlated patient's miR-221 levels with their clinic features and treatment outcomes. We observed a significant difference between the patient and control groups (p=0.038), and a correlation of plasma miR-221 level in patient with sex, as well as a reverse correlation with performance status and the overall survival after treatment. Univariate and multivariate analyses further revealed that plasma miR-221 level, age, B symptoms, LDH level and complete response after primary treatment all present prognostic values when judged by overall survival (OS). Together, our results show that it is feasible to perform direct amplification of plasma miRNAs without total RNA extraction, and plasma miR-221 may be a diagnostic and prognostic marker for NK/T-cell lymphoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]