Global Analysis Reveals Families of Chemical Motifs Enriched for hERG Inhibitors

Promiscuous inhibition of the human ether-à-go-go-related gene (hERG) potassium channel by drugs poses a major risk for life threatening arrhythmia and costly drug withdrawals. Current knowledge of this phenomenon is derived from a limited number of known drugs and tool compounds. However, in a diverse, naïve chemical library, it remains unclear which and to what degree chemical motifs or scaffolds might be enriched for hERG inhibition. Here we report electrophysiology measurements of hERG inhibition and computational analyses of >300,000 diverse small molecules. We identify chemical ‘communities’ with high hERG liability, containing both canonical scaffolds and structurally distinctive molecules. These data enable the development of more effective classifiers to computationally assess hERG risk. The resultant predictive models now accurately classify naïve compound libraries for tendency of hERG inhibition. Together these results provide a more complete reference map of characteristic chemical motifs for hERG liability and advance a systematic approach to rank chemical collections for cardiotoxicity risk.     

Correlation between Activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR Pathway and Prognosis of Breast Cancer in Chinese Women

Background

Abnormal activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR (PAM) pathway, caused by PIK3CA mutation, KRAS mutation, PTEN loss, or AKT1 mutation, is one of the most frequent signaling abnormalities in breast carcinoma. However, distribution and frequencies of mutations in PAM pathway are unclear in breast cancer patients from the mainland of China and the correlation between these mutations and breast cancer outcome remains to be identified.

Methods

A total of 288 patients with invasive ductal breast cancer were recruited in this study. Mutations in PIK3CA (exons 4, 9 and 20), KRAS (exon 2) and AKT1 (exon 3) were detected using Sanger sequencing. PTEN loss was measured by immunohistochemistry assay. Correlations between these genetic aberrations and clinicopathological features were analyzed.

Results

The frequencies of PIK3CA mutation, KRAS mutation, AKT1 mutation and PTEN loss were 15.6%, 1.8%, 4.4% and 35.3%, respectively. However, except for PTEN loss, which was tied to estrogen receptor (ER) status, these alterations were not associated with other clinicopathological features. Survival analysis demonstrated that PIK3CA mutation, PTEN loss and PAM pathway activation were not associated with disease-free survival (DFS). Subgroup analysis of patients with ER positive tumors revealed that PIK3CA mutation more strongly reduced DFS compared to wild-type PIK3CA (76.2% vs. 54.2%; P = 0.011). PIK3CA mutation was also an independent factor for bad prognosis in ER positive patients.

Conclusions

AKT1, KRAS and PIK3CA mutations and PTEN loss all exist in women with breast cancer in the mainland China. PIK3CA mutation may contribute to the poor outcome of ER positive breast carcinomas, providing evidence for the combination of PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitors and endocrine therapy.     

Seroprevalence of the Hepatitis B,Hepatitis C,and Human Immunodeficiency Viruses and Treponema pallidum at the Beijing General Hospital from 2010 to 2014: A Cross-Sectional Study

BackgroundThe hepatitis B, hepatitis C, human immunodeficiency viruses and Treponema pallidum are important causes of infectious diseases concern to public health.MethodsBetween 2010 and 2014, we used an automated chemiluminescence microparticle immunoassay to detect the hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human immunodeficiency viruses as well as Treponema pallidum (the rapid plasma regain test was used in 2010–2011). Positive human immunodeficiency virus tests were confirmed via western blotting.ResultsAmong 416,130 subjects, the seroprevalences for hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus, and Treponema pallidum were 5.72%, 1.23%, 0.196%, and 0.76%, respectively. Among 671 patients with positive human immunodeficiency virus results, 392 cases were confirmed via western blotting. Hepatitis B and human immunodeficiency virus infections were more frequent in men (7.78% and 0.26%, respectively) than in women (4.45% and 0.021%, respectively). The hepatitis B and C virus seroprevalences decreased from 6.21% and 1.58%, respectively, in 2010, to 5.37% and 0.988%, respectively, in 2014. The human immunodeficiency virus seroprevalence increased from 0.04% in 2010 to 0.17% in 2014, and was elevated in the Infectious Disease (2.65%), Emergency (1.71%), and Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (1.12%) departments. The specificity of the human immunodeficiency virus screening was 71.4%. The false positive rates for the Treponema pallidum screening tests increased in patients who were 60–70 years old. The co-infection rates for the hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency viruses were 0.47% in hepatitis C virus-positive patients and 7.33% in human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients.ConclusionsDuring 2010–2014, hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus infections were more frequent among men at our institution. Although the seroprevalences of hepatitis B and C viruses decreased, the seroprevalence of human immunodeficiency virus infection increased (with higher seroprevalences in high-risk departments). Older patients were more likely to exhibit false positive findings for syphilis.     

Scoliosis Related Information on the Internet in China: Can Patients Benefit from This Information?

BackgroundThere has been an increasing popularity of searching health related information online in recent years. Despite that considerable amount of scoliosis patients have shown interest in obtaining scoliosis information through Internet, previous studies have demonstrated poor quality of online information. However, this conclusion may vary depending on region and culture. Since China has a restricted Internet access outside of its borders, the aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of scoliosis information available online using recognized scoring systems and to analyze the Internet as a source of health information in China.MethodsA survey-based questionnaire was distributed to 280 respondents at outpatient clinics. Information on demographics and Internet use was collected. Binary logistic analysis was performed to identify possible predictors for the use of Internet. In addition, the top 60 scoliosis related websites assessed through 4 search engines were reviewed by a surgeon and the quality of online information was evaluated using DISCERN score and JAMA benchmark.ResultsUse of the Internet as a source for scoliosis related information was confirmed in 87.8% of the respondents. College education, Internet access at home and urban residence were identified as potential predictors for Internet use. However, the quality of online scoliosis related information was poor with an average DISCERN score of 27.9±11.7 and may be misleading for scoliosis patients.ConclusionThe study outlines the profile of scoliosis patients who use the Internet as a source of health information. It was shown that 87.8% of the scoliosis patients in outpatient clinics have searched for scoliosis related information on Internet. Urban patients, higher education and Internet access at home were identified as potential predictors for Internet search. However, the overall quality of online scoliosis related information was poor and confusing. Physician based websites seemed to contain more reliable information.     

Decreased Prefrontal Lobe Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity in Adolescents with Internet Gaming Disorder: A Primary Study Using Resting-State fMRI

Purposes

Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that people with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) have structural and functional abnormalities in specific brain areas and connections. However, little is known about the alterations of the interhemispheric resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in participants with IGD. In the present study, we used a newly developed voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) method to investigate the interhemispheric rsFC of the whole brain in participants with IGD.

Methods

We compared interhemispheric rsFC between 17 participants with IGD and 24 healthy controls, group-matched on age, gender, and education status. All participants were provided written informed consent. Resting-state functional and structural magnetic resonance images were acquired for all participants. The rsFC between bilateral homotopic voxels was calculated. Regions showing abnormal VMHC in IGD participants were adopted as regions of interest for correlation analyses.

Results

Compared to healthy controls, IGD participants showed decreased VMHC between the left and right superior frontal gyrus (orbital part), inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part), middle frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus. Further analyses showed Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS)-related VMHC in superior frontal gyrus (orbital part) and CIAS (r = −0.55, p = 0.02, uncorrected).

Conclusions

Our findings implicate the important role of altered interhemispheric rsFC in the bilateral prefrontal lobe in the neuropathological mechanism of IGD, and provide further supportive evidence for the reclassification of IGD as a behavioral addiction.     

Flow‐injection chemiluminescence method to detect a β2 adrenergic agonist

A new method for the detection of β₂ adrenergic agonists was developed based on the chemiluminescence (CL) reaction of β₂ adrenergic agonist with potassium ferricyanide–luminol CL. The effect of β₂ adrenergic agonists including isoprenaline hydrochloride, salbutamol sulfate, terbutaline sulfate and ractopamine on the CL intensity of potassium ferricyanide–luminol was discovered. Detection of the β₂ adrenergic agonist was carried out in a flow system. Using uniform design experimentation, the influence factors of CL were optimized. The optimal experimental conditions were 1 mmol/L of potassium ferricyanide, 10 µmol/L of luminol, 1.2 mmol/L of sodium hydroxide, a flow speed of 2.6 mL/min and a distance of 1.2 cm from ‘Y₂’ to the flow cell. The linear ranges and limit of detection were 10–100 and 5 ng/mL for isoprenaline hydrochloride, 20–100 and 5 ng/mL for salbutamol sulfate, 8–200 and 1 ng/mL for terbutaline sulfate, 20–100 and 4 ng/mL for ractopamine, respectively. The proposed method allowed 200 injections/h with excellent repeatability and precision. It was successfully applied to the determination of three β₂ adrenergic agonists in commercial pharmaceutical formulations with recoveries in the range of 96.8–98.5%. The possible CL reaction mechanism of potassium ferricyanide–luminol–β₂ adrenergic agonist was discussed from the UV/vis spectra. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.