A Pilot Study of the Short Term Effectiveness and Safety of Amniotic Fluid in Severe Dry Eye Disease

The aim of this study was to evaluate if amniotic fluid (AF) mixed with artificial tears or soaked with a soft contact lens (SCL) as a treatment for severe dry eye disease (DED) would improve its signs or symptoms. In this retrospective pilot study 22 consecutive eyes of 11 patients with level 3 DED classified by DEWS 1 (Dry Eye WorkShop 1 2007), were included in the study between June 1 and September 30 in 2017. The study was conducted before DEWS II (Dry Eye WorkShop II 2017), which was published in October 2017. Therefore, DEWS II was not adopted for this study. Soft Contact Lens Acuvue Oasys of Plano with 8.8 base curve and 14 mm diameters by Johnson and Johnson were used to soak in FloGraft, which is an AF, for 30 minutes before placing in 12 eyes in Group 1. The contact lenses were placed in the left eye for 1 week. In Group 2, 10 eyes used 6 mL of artificial tears mixed with 0.25 mL of AF, which were applied to the eye four times a day for 1 week. No other eye medications were used. The eyes that were included had diffuse punctate staining and fast tear breaking times of <5 seconds with severe ocular symptoms (DEWS 1 level 3-4). Photos of fluorescein stain corneas before the treatment and 1 week after the treatment were used to compare the distribution of punctate staining as the objective outcomes for signs. Several questions adopted from the Ocular Surface disease Index (OSDI) about subjective symptoms before and after the treatment were asked, and documented on the chart. Improvement either in symptoms or signs or both of DED after 1 week at follow-up examination was recorded. Group 1, with SCL 46% had improvement after 1 week and Group 2, with artificial tears 50% had improvement after 1 week. Improvement means either symptom relief or comparatively decreased distribution of punctate staining on the cornea or both. No cases had inflammation, infection, irritation or blurred vision. We concluded that FloGraft as an AF can safely improve the symptoms or the signs of severe DED either as a mix with artificial tears or soaked with SCL by about 50% in this case series without evidence of irritation, inflammation or blurred vision in the short term

Effects of Ox-LDL on Macrophages NAD(P)H Autofluorescence Changes by Two-photon Microscopy

Ox-LDL uptakes by macrophage play a critical role in the happening of atherosclerosis. Because of its low damage on observed cells and better signal-to- background ratio, two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy is used to observe NAD(P)H autofluorescence of macrophage under difference cultured conditions- bare cover glass, coated with fibronectin or poly-D-lysine. The results show that the optimal condition is fibronectin coated surface, on which, macrophages profile can be clearly identified on NAD(P)H autofluorescence images collected by two-photon microscopy. Moreover, different morphology and intensities of autofluorescence under different conditions were observed as well. In the future, effects of ox-LDL on macrophages will be investigated by purposed system to research etiology of atherosclerosis.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions (http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions

The diverse magneto-optical selection rules in bilayer black phosphorus

The magneto-optical properties of bilayer phosphorene is investigated by the generalized tight-binding model and the gradient approximation. The vertical inter-Landau-level transitions, being sensitive to the polarization directions, are mainly determined by the spatial symmetries of sub-envelope functions on the distinct sublattices. The anisotropic excitations strongly depend on the electric and magnetic fields. A perpendicular uniform electric field could greatly diversify the selection rule, frequency, intensity, number and form of symmetric absorption peaks. Specifically, the unusual magneto-optical properties appear beyond the critical field as a result of two subgroups of Landau levels with the main and side modes. The rich and unique magneto-absorption spectra arise from the very close relations among the geometric structures, multiple intralayer and interlayer hopping integrals, and composite external fields

Liquid biopsy genotyping in lung cancer: ready for clinical utility?

Liquid biopsy is a blood test that detects evidence of cancer cells or tumor DNA in the circulation. Despite complicated collection methods and the requirement for technique-dependent platforms, it has generated substantial interest due, in part, to its potential to detect driver oncogenes such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutants in lung cancer. This technology is advancing rapidly and is being incorporated into numerous EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) development programs. It appears ready for integration into clinical care. Recent studies have demonstrated that biological fluids such as saliva and urine can also be used for detecting EGFR mutant DNA through application other user-friendly techniques. This review focuses on the clinical application of liquid biopsies to lung cancer genotyping, including EGFR and other targets of genotype-directed therapy and compares multiple platforms used for liquid biopsy

Proteomic analysis of rhein-induced cyt: ER stress mediates cell death in breast cancer cells

Rhein is a natural product purified from herbal plants such as Rheum palmatum, which has been shown to have anti-angiogenesis and anti-tumor metastasis properties. However, the biological effects of rhein on the behavior of breast cancers are not completely elucidated. To evaluate whether rhein might be useful in the treatment of breast cancer and its cytotoxic mechanism, we analyzed the impact of rhein treatment on differential protein expression as well as redox regulation in a non-invasive breast cancer cell line, MCF-7, and an invasive breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231, using lysine- and cysteine-labeling two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) combined with MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. This proteomic study revealed that 73 proteins were significantly changed in protein expression; while 9 proteins were significantly altered in thiol reactivity in both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. The results also demonstrated that rhein-induced cytotoxicity in breast cancer cells mostly involves dysregulation of cytoskeleton regulation, protein folding, the glycolysis pathway and transcription control. A further study also indicated that rhein promotes misfolding of cellular proteins as well as unbalancing of the cellular redox status leading to ER-stress. Our work shows that the current proteomic strategy offers a high-through-put platform to study the molecular mechanisms of rhein-induced cytotoxicity in breast cancer cells. The identified differentially expressed proteins might be further evaluated as potential targets in breast cancer therapy