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Oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC) is a very common oral symptom for HIV infected patients. OPC is often caused by overgrowth of commensal Candida strains which asymptomatically colonize oral cavity of HIV+ patients. HIV infection can not only weaken the systemic and local mucosal immunity but also interact with Candida species colonizing in oral cavity. These changes in host immunity and Candida species may facilitate Candida colonization in oral cavity of HIV infected patients. This review will discuss oral Candida colonization (including asymptomatic Candida carriage and OPC) prevalence, colonization spectrum, colonization intensity, relationship between oropharyngeal Candida colonization and peripheral blood CD4+ T cell counts, association of plasma levels of HIV RNA and Candida colonization, and other factors related with Candida colonization in HIV+ patients.

microRNAs (miRNA) silence target genes through Watson-Crick based binding to the 3'untranslated regions (3'UTR). Thus, polymorphisms in the miRNA-binding sites may disrupt this process and play a potential role in cancer pathogenesis. Integrins have been implicated in the genesis and development of many tumors. This study was designed to evaluate the association between five SNP loci in predicted miRNA-binding sites in five integrin genes and prostate cancer occurrence and prognosis to provide data for screening high-risk Chinese Han individuals. These five polymorphisms were genotyped by using the high-resolution melting method (HRM) in 347 Chinese Han prostate cancer patients with long-time follow-up together with 367 age-matched healthy controls. GC carriers of rs11902171 in ITGAv were associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.35-0.93). However, no significant difference was detected in genotype distributions of the five SNP loci in the progression-free survival time of prostate cancer. The ITGAv gene SNP rs11902171 may be potentially associated with the risk of prostate cancer.

BackgroundOSCC is one of the most common malignancies and numerous clinical agents currently applied in combinative chemotherapy. Here we reported a novel therapeutic strategy, SAHA and DDP-loaded PECE (SAHA-DDP/PECE), can improve the therapeutic effects of intratumorally chemotherapy on OSCC cell xenografts.Objective/purposeThe objective of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of the SAHA-DDP/PECE in situ controlled drug delivery system on OSCC cell xenografts.MethodsA biodegradable and thermosensitive hydrogel was successfully developed to load SAHA and DDP. Tumor-beared mice were intratumorally administered with SAHA-DDP/PECE at 50 mg/kg (SAHA) +2 mg/kg (DDP) in 100 ul PECE hydrogel every two weeks, SAHA-DDP at 50 mg/kg(SAHA) +2 mg/kg(DDP) in NS, 2 mg/kg DDP solution, 50 mg/kg SAHA solution, equal volume of PECE hydrogel, or equal volume of NS on the same schedule, respectively. The antineoplastic actions of SAHA and DDP alone and in combination were evaluated using the determination of tumor volume, immunohistochemistry, western blot, and TUNEL analysis.ResultsThe hydrogel system was a free-flowing sol at 10 °C, become gel at body temperature, and could sustain more than 14 days in situ. SAHA-DDP/PECE was subsequently injected into tumor OSCC tumor-beared mice. The results demonstrated that such a strategy as this allows the carrier system to show a sustained release of SAHA and DDP in vivo, and could improved therapeutic effects compared with a simple additive therapeutic effect of SAHA and DDP on mouse model.ConclusionsOur research indicated that the novel SAHA-DDP/PECE system based on biodegradable PECE copolymer enhanced the therapeutic effects and could diminished the side effects of SAHA/DDP. The present work might be of great importance to the further exploration of the potential application of SAHA/DDP-hydrogel controlled drug release system in the treatment of OSCC.

To investigate the expression of MtF, transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1) and ferritin (Fn) mRNAs in K562 leukemic cells during ATRA-induced cell differentiation and to explore the interrelationship between the expression levels of these iron metabolism-related molecules.K562 cells cultured with or without ATRA (1 micromol/L) were collected at 24, 72 and 120 hours respectively. Cell differentiation toward granulocyte lineage was confirmed by microscopic study (Wright's staining) and flowcytometry. Expression levels of MtF, TfR1 and Fn were evaluated with semiquantitative RT-PCR, while K562 cells cultured without ATRA as control.Over 21.2% of K562 cells demonstrated features of granulocyte, and the expression of CD13 on cell surface increased significantly at day 5 with ATRA treatment (P0.05, compared with control). K562 cells could express a certain level of MtF before ATRA-induced differentiation. With increase of ATRA-induced cell differentiation, MtF mRNA expressions were downregulated progressively. After 5 days of induced cell differentiation, expression levels of MtF and TfR1 mRNA were just 86.5% and 79.2% of that before ATRA treatment. While Fn mRNA expression increased to 1.21 folds of that before ATRA treatment.MtF expression is downregulated during ATRA-induced K562 cell differentiation, with concomitant downregulation of TfR1 and upregulation of Fn. The coordinated expression regulation of these key iron metabolism-related molecules during cell differentiation may in turn inhibit TfR1-mediated iron uptake via endocytosis and thus adversely affect cell proliferation potential.

Centrifugation is an important step in biochemical and molecular biological researches. But the effects of centrifugal stress on cells are still unclear. In this study, osteoblastic cells UMR-106 were subjected to a moderate centrifugal stress at 209 × g for 10 min. Then the cell proliferation and gene transcription after centrifugation were analyzed with flow cytometry and Real-time RT-PCR techniques, respectively. The result showed that the cell proliferation and mRNA expression of Runx2/Cbfa1, Collagen I and osteocalcin changed shortly after centrifugal loading, but recovered to pre-load levels within 24 h. A dose-response study of exposure cells to centrifugal force at 209, 253 and 301 × g showed that the centrifugal forces within usually-used range can rapidly influenced the mRNA expression of the osteoblast-specific genes, but no statistical differences were found among the three centrifugal magnitudes. And the fast regulation in the investigated genes was proved to be related to increased c-fos mRNA levels and subsequent activation of RTK and integrity of cytoskeleton construction. The result showed that the osteoblastic cells displayed a fast auto-regulation to usually-used centrifugal stress through multiple signal pathways.

To detect whether ethanol can affect the expression of HSP70 in endothelial cells under fluid shear stress.Ethanol at different concentrations was added to the culture medium of endothelial cells, EA. Hy926, which was treated statically or under 1Pa fluid shear stress. After the incubation of 1 h, 2 h, 4 h and 6 h, the expression of HSP70 was detected by immunohistochemical method(SP).In the control group, the expression of HSP70 was negative under static state, while it was positive under 1Pa fluid shear stress lasting 4 h even without ethanol. No statistic difference was found between the 50 mg/dL ethanol group and the control group with the same treatment time of fluid shear stress. HSP70 expression was found under static state with 150 mg/dL ethanol after 4 h or 300 mg/dL ethanol after 2 h respectively. The expression increased greatly under 1Pa fluid shear stress in the same ethanol concentrations.Medium to high ethanol concentration in coordination with fluid shear stress can strongly stimulates the expression of HSP70 by a kinetic mechanism of time-dependent.

To design and develop a biological rhythm monitor and data analysis system for studying biological rhythm in animals under different conditions.The system was a distributed digital control system consisting of a computer and zeitgeber generators. Acquisition of data on animal activity and generation of zeitgeber were modularized to meet the multiple requirements of experiment. System functions and animal adaptability to this system were detected by monitoring the rhythm of mouse activities under different light-dark cycles.The animal experiment showed that the functions of this system, including data acquisition, data communication, light regulation and data analysis, were qualified for application. There was no apparent malfunction.The system is safe, reliable and easy to operate. The system could be a very useful system to study biological rhythm in animals.

This study was based on a 278 and 635 bp region of the gene for cytochrome oxidase subunit I and I (CO I and CO II ) encoding region of mtDNA; the aim was to solve the problems in identifying Sarcosaphagous flies, particularly in the flies' larvae and eggs which could not be identified only by use of their morphologyical features.Samples of sarcosaphagous flies and larvae were collected from those on the corps of rabbits on the grassland in the Huhhot district and of a pig on the sandy ground in the Dunhuang district. The mtDNA of flies and their larvae and eggs was extracted using the Chelex technique. Polymerase chain reactions were conducted on a Perkin-Elmer 9600 thermal cycler, followed by vertical non-denaturing polyacrylamide gelectrophoresis. PCR products were purified using the Nucleic Acid Purification Kit. Sequences of both strands were obtained by direct sequencing of the double-stranded PCR product using one of the PCR primers and the ABI PRISM Big Dye Terminator Cycle Sequencing Kit. Sequence reactions were electrophoresed on ABI Model 377 DNA Sequencers. A neighbour-joining tree using the Tamura and Nei model of nucleotide substitution was constructed using the MEGA2. 1 package.A 278 and 635 bp region of the gene for CO I and CO II encoding region of mtDNA of Sarcosaphagous flies and their larvae and eggs was noted to show the percentages for the sequence divergence within species (less than 1%) and the sequence divergence between species (above 3%). For species that diverged from all others by a relatively large percentage and had small within-species variation, the least percentages of sequence divergence were given which distinguished any individual within that species from any other species.A 278 and 635 bp region of the gene for CO I and CO II encoding region of mtDNA of Sarcosaphagous flies and their larvae and eggs has been effectively used for the molecular phylogeny and the identification of their species group. CO I and CO II, or CO II, is better than CO I.

Objectives We aimed to investigate the association between the expression of phosphorylated AktThr308 (p-AktThr308) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissues and clinicopathological parameters of OSCC patients and to verify the validity of p-AktThr308 as a prognostic biomarker. Study design One hundred and ninety-one patients with OSCC were recruited for the study. We tested the expression of p-AktThr308 by immunohistochemistry (IHC) with tissue microarray (TMA) and analyzed with digital pathology analysis software. The clinicopathological parameters of all patients were collected from follow-up. Results P-AktThr308 was detected in 95.2% of OSCC patients. The expression of p-AktThr308 was significantly correlated with local recurrence and five-year survival rate. High expression of p-AktThr308 in OSCC was associated with poor prognosis. Conclusion P-AktThr308 might be a candidate biomarker for the prediction of OSCC prognosis.