血小板生成素与白介素-11治疗胃癌术后辅助化疗后血小板减少症时效及安全性的比较

目的:比较血小板生成素与白介素-11治疗胃癌患者术后化疗血小板减少症的时效和安全性。方法:术后辅助化疗出现血小板计数低于75×109/L的进展期胃癌患者68例,将其分为TPO组与IL-11组,分别为35例和33例。分别皮下注射rhTPO 15000U,每日1次;rhIL-11 1.5 mg,每日1次,当血小板计数125×109/L或比用药前上升50×109/L,即停止给药,疗程最长为14天。每3天抽取外周静脉血2 m L,通过全自动血液分析仪测定血小板计数,密切观察出现的不良反应并记录。比较两组患者不同临床病理资料、血小板计数、血小板计数升至75×109/L和125×109/L的时程、药物不良反应。结果:两组患者年龄、性别、化疗方案、血小板最低值出现的化疗周期及临床病理分期的比较均没有统计学差异(P值均0.05)。TPO组与IL-11组血小板动态值的比较,第9天出现显著差异(P=0.032)。TPO组与IL-11组血小板计数恢复至75×109/L和125×109/L所需的时间,有显著差异(P=0.041,P=0.013)。TPO组中,有3例(8.6%)患者发生不良反应,IL-11组中,有13例(39.4%)患者发生不良反应,TPO组患者出现的不良反应少且较轻微(P=0.006)。结论:rhTPO治疗胃癌患者术后化疗血小板减少症时效快,安全性好。     

Thiophene Rings Improve the Device Performance of Conjugated Polymers in Polymer Solar Cells with Thick Active Layers

Developing novel materials that tolerate thickness variations of the active layer is critical to further enhance the efficiency of polymer solar cells and enable large‐scale manufacturing. Presently, only a few polymers afford high efficiencies at active layer thickness exceeding 200 nm and molecular design guidelines for developing successful materials are lacking. It is thus highly desirable to identify structural factors that determine the performance of semiconducting conjugated polymers in thick‐film polymer solar cells. Here, it is demonstrated that thiophene rings, introduced in the backbone of alternating donor–acceptor type conjugated polymers, enhance the fill factor and overall efficiency for thick (>200 nm) solar cells. For a series of fluorinated semiconducting polymers derived from electron‐rich benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]dithiophene units and electron‐deficient 5,6‐difluorobenzo[2,1,3]thiazole units a steady increase of the fill factor and power conversion efficiency is found when introducing thiophene rings between the donor and acceptor units. The increased performance is a synergistic result of an enhanced hole mobility and a suppressed bimolecular charge recombination, which is attributed to more favorable polymer chain packing and finer phase separation.     

Aggregation prone regions in human proteome: Insights from large‐scale data analyses

Protein aggregation leads to several burdensome human maladies, but a molecular level understanding of how human proteome has tackled the threat of aggregation is currently lacking. In this work, we survey the human proteome for incidence of aggregation prone regions (APRs), by using sequences of experimentally validated amyloid‐fibril forming peptides and via computational predictions. While approximately 30 human proteins are currently known to be amyloidogenic, we found that 260 proteins (～1% of human proteome) contain at least one experimentally validated amyloid‐fibril forming segment. Computer predictions suggest that more than 80% of the human proteins contain at least one potential APR and approximately two‐thirds (65%) contain two or more APRs; spanning 3–5% of their sequences. Sequence randomizations show that this apparently high incidence of APRs has been actually significantly reduced by unique amino acid composition and sequence patterning of human proteins. The human proteome has utilized a wide repertoire of sequence‐structural optimization strategies, most of them already known, to minimize deleterious consequences due to the presence of APRs while simultaneously taking advantage of their order promoting properties. This survey also found that APRs tend to be located near the active and ligand binding sites in human proteins, but not near the post translational modification sites. The APRs in human proteins are also preferentially found at heterotypic interfaces rather than homotypic ones. Interestingly, this survey reveals that APRs play multiple, often opposing, roles in the human protein sequence‐structure‐function relationships. Insights gained from this work have several interesting implications towards novel drug discovery and development. Proteins 2017; 85:1099–1118. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Insulin stimulates GDP release from G proteins in the rat and human liver plasma membranes

Plasma membranes (1–2 mg protein) prepared from the livers of adult male rats and human organ donors were incubated with 0.6 μM [α-³²P] guanosine triphosphate (GTP) in an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-regenerating buffer at 37°C for 1 h; during this incubation, the [³²P]GTP is hydrolyzed and the nucleotide that is predominantly bound to the membranes is [³²P] guanosine diphosphate (GDP). [³²P]GDP release from the liver membranes was proportional to the protein concentration and increased as a function of time. At 5 mM, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Mn²⁺, and Zn²⁺ maximally inhibited GDP release by 80–90%, whereas, 5 mM Cu²⁺ maximally stimulated the reaction by 100%. Therefore, cations were not included in the buffer used in the GDP release step. One μM Gpp(NH)p (5′-guanylylimidodiphosphate), a nonhydrolyzable analog of GTP, maximally stimulated [³²P]GDP release in the liver membranes by up to 30%. Although 10 nM Gpp(NH)p had no effect on GDP release, it appeared to stabilize the hormonal effect by blocking further GDP/GTP exchange. In the rat membranes, 1–100 nM glucagon (used as a positive control) stimulated [³²P]GDP release by about 17% (P < .05); similarly, 0.1–100 nM insulin stimulated [³²P]GDP release by 10–13% (P < .05). In the human membranes, 10 pM to 100 nM insulin stimulated [³²P]GDP release by 7–10%. In the rat membranes, 10 nM insulin stimulated [³²P]GDP release by 17 and 24% at 2 and 4 min, respectively (P < .05); in the human membranes, 10 nM insulin stimulated [³²P]GDP release by about 9% at 2 and 4 min. Normal rabbit IgG (used as a control for insulin receptor antibody) by itself stimulated the GDP release by rat and human membranes. However, the stimulation of the GDP release by insulin receptor antibody was consistently higher than that observed with normal rabbit IgG. Four to 15 μg of insulin receptor antibody stimulated [³²P]GDP release by 12–22% (P < .05) and 7–14% in rat and human membranes, respectively. These results indicate that ligand binding to the insulin receptor results in a functional interaction of the receptor with a guanine nucleotide-binding transducer protein (G protein) and activation of GTP/GDP exchange.     

Stimulation of HeLa cell growth by physiological concentrations of 4-hydroxynonenal

The aim of this study was to analyze the growth response of HeLa cells over a prolonged period of time to a single exposure of physiological and supraphysiological concentrations of 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), a peroxidation product of omega-6-polyunsaturated fatty acids. Furthermore, the growth modulating effect of serum factors, particularly albumin, on the growth pattern was examined. The effects of HNE on the growth rate and viability of the cells, as well as on the incorporation of labelled amino acids were monitored daily over a period of four days. Fetal calf serum not only had a growth stimualting effect but also modulated the action of HNE. In neither respect was albumin able to substitute for serum indicating that the influence of serum was not exerted via an albumin–HNE conjugate. HNE had a clear dose-dependent effect and a distinction could be made between a supraphysiological concentration (100 μM), which was primarily cytotoxic and a physiological range (below 10 μM) which showed growth modulatory effects. These effects consisted of a transient inhibition in the initial phase of the cell growth, which under optimal conditions (in presence of serum) was followed by a period of increased proliferation, compared to untreated control cultures, until confluence was attained. It is suggested that HNE is not only a toxic product of lipid peroxidation, but a physiological growth regulating factor as well.     

N-phenyl ureidobenzenesulfonates,a novel class of promising human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibitors

N-phenyl ureidobenzenesulfonates (PUB-SOs) is a new class of promising anticancer agents inducing replication stresses and cell cycle arrest in S-phase. However, the pharmacological target of PUB-SOs was still unidentified. Consequently, the objective of the present study was to identify and confirm the pharmacological target of the prototypical PUB-SO named 2-ethylphenyl 4-(3-ethylureido)benzenesulfonate (SFOM-0046) leading to the cell cycle arrest in S-phase. The antiproliferative and the cytotoxic activities of SFOM-0046 were characterized using the NCI-60 screening program and its fingerprint was analyzed by COMPARE algorithm. Then, human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (hDHODH) colorimetric assay, uridine rescuing cell proliferation and molecular docking in the brequinar-binding site were performed. As a result, SFOM-0046 exhibited a mean antiproliferative activity of 3.5 μM in the NCI-60 screening program and evidenced that leukemia and colon cancer cell panels were more sensitive to SFOM-0046. COMPARE algorithm showed that the SFOM-0046 cytotoxic profile is equivalent to the ones of brequinar and dichloroallyl lawsone, two inhibitors of hDHODH. SFOM-0046 inhibited the hDHODH in the low nanomolar range (IC₅₀ = 72 nM) and uridine rescued the cell proliferation of HT-29, HT-1080, M21 and MCF-7 cancer cell lines in the presence of SFOM-0046. Finally, molecular docking showed a binding pose of SFOM-0046 interacting with Met43 and Phe62 present in the brequinar-binding site. In conclusion, PUB-SOs and notably SFOM-0046 are new small molecules hDHODH inhibitors triggering replication stresses and S-phase arrest.