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Objective Henoch-Schonlein purpura nephritis has become a significant threat to children's health. Traditional combined therapy of glucocorticoids and cyclophosphamide leads to severe toxicity and complications. Therefore, identifying a feasible and effective strategy with low side-effects for the treatment of Henoch-Schonlein purpura nephritis is of great significance. Methods A randomized, controlled trial was carried out. A total of 279 children with Henoch-Schonlein purpura nephritis were recruited and randomly divided into three groups: control group (receiving the current standard therapy), TA group (receiving tacrolimus) and TA + tripterygium glycosides group (receiving tacrolimus + tripterygium treatment). The total duration of the trial was 6 months, and the duration of follow-up observation was 9 months. Results Various therapies showed similar therapeutic effects in the third and sixth months. The relief of Henoch-Schonlein purpura nephritis symptoms caused by TA + tripterygium glycosides was slower than the TA and control groups. The incidence of adverse reactions in the TA + tripterygium glycosides group was lower in the control and TA groups. The final treatment effect of the experimental groups was better than the control group. The recurrence rate in the TA + tripterygium glycosides group was also significantly lower. Conclusion Tacrolimus and tripterygium glycosides combined therapy had better effects and safety for long-term treatment of Henoch-Schonlein purpura nephritis.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is characterized by abnormal lymphoblasts accumulation in the bone marrow and blood. Despite great efforts have been made in exploring novel therapeutic method, the prognosis of children with ALL is still unsatisfied. Glucocorticoid (GC) resistance is a great obstacle for the clinical treatment of ALL. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the molecular mechanism underlying the GC resistance. According to previous reports, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in drug resistance of various human cancers. LncRNA HOXA cluster antisense RNA2 (HOXA-AS2) has been reported in several human malignancies due to its oncogenic property. However, the molecular mechanism of HOXA-AS2 involved in the GC resistance of ALL still needs to be further clarified. At first, we found that lncRNA HOXA-AS2 was highly expressed both in prednisone insensitive ALL cell lines and patient samples. Gain or loss-of-function assays revealed that HOXA-AS2 enhanced GC resistance via promoting cell proliferation and inhibiting cell apoptosis. Furthermore, we validated that HOXA-AS2 upregulated HOXA3, thereby activating EGFR/Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway. Our findings showed that HOXA-AS2 may be a potential therapeutic target for ALL patients with poor GC resistance.

In this study, folic acid-conjugated lipid nanoparticles were successfully prepared to enhance the active targeting of capsaicin (CAP) in ovarian cancers. The particles were nanosized and exhibited a controlled release of drug in the physiological conditions. The folic acid (FA)-conjugated system exhibited a remarkably higher uptake of nanoparticles in the cancer cells compared to that of non-targeted system. The folate-conjugated CAP-loaded lipid nanoparticles (CFLN) upon interacting with cancer cells were internalized via receptor-mediated endocytosis mechanism and resulted in higher concentration in the cancer cells. Consistently, CFLN showed a remarkably higher toxic effect compared to that of non-targeted nanoparticle system. CFLN showed significantly higher cancer cell apoptosis with nearly 39% of cells in apoptosis chamber (early and late) compared to only ∼21% and ∼11% for CAP-loaded lipid nanoparticles (CLN) and CAP. The loading of drug in the lipid nanoparticle system extended the drug retention in the blood circulation and allowed the active targeting to specific cancer cells. The prolonged circulation of drug attributed to the antifouling property of polyethylene glycol molecule in the structure. Overall, study highlights that using targeting moiety could enhance the therapeutic response of nanomedicines in the treatment of solid tumors.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a subset of breast cancers, have poorer survival than other breast cancer types. Recent studies have demonstrated that the abnormal Hedgehog (Hh) pathway is activated in TNBC and that these treatment-resistant cancers are sensitive to inhibition of the Hh pathway. Smoothened (Smo) protein is a vital constituent in Hh signaling and an attractive drug target. Vismodegib (VIS) is one of the most widely studied Smo inhibitors. But the clinical application of Smo inhibitors is limited to adult patients with BCC and AML, with many side effects. Therefore, it's necessary to develop novel Smo inhibitor with better profiles. Twenty [1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyridines were designed, synthesized and screened as Smo inhibitors. Four of these novel compounds showed directly bound to Smo protein with stronger binding affinity than VIS. The new compounds showed broad anti-proliferative activity against cancer cell lines in vitro, especially triple-negative breast cancer cells. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that TPB15 markedly induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in MDA-MB-468 cells. TPB15 blocked Smo translocation into the cilia and reduced Smo protein and mRNA expression. Furthermore, the expression of the downstream regulatory factor glioma-associated oncogene 1 (Gli1) was significantly inhibited. Finally, TPB15 demonstrated greater anti-tumor activity in our animal models than VIS with lower toxicity. Hence, these results support further optimization of this novel scaffold to develop improved Smo antagonists.