Pressure-flow studies in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia: a study comparing suprapubic and transurethral methods

Abstract Aim: To compare the use of the suprapubic puncture method versus the transurethral method in pressure-flow studies in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Methods: Twenty-three men with benign prostatic hyperplasia underwent both suprapubic and transurethral pressure-flow studies during a single session. Standard pressure-flow variables were recorded in all patients with both methods, enabling calculation of obstruction using commonly used grading systems, such as the urethral resistance algorithm, the Abrams-Griffith (AG) number and the Schäfer linear nomogram. Results: There were statistically significant differences between the methods in the mean values of maximum flow rate (P < 0.05), detrusor pressure at the maximum flow (P < 0.01), urethral resistance algorithm (P < 0.01), AG number (P < 0.01) and maximum cystic capacity (P < 0.01). Of the men in the study, 10 (43.5%) remained in the same Schäfer class with both methods and 18 (78.3%) in the same AG number area. Using the transurethral method, 12 (52.2%) men increased their Schäfer class by one and 1 (4.3%) by two. There were also differences between the suprapubic and transurethral methods using the AG number: 4 (17.4%) men moved from a classification of equivocal to obstructed and 1 (4.3%) from unobstructed to equivocal. Conclusion: The differences between the techniques for measuring intravesical pressure alter the grading of obstruction determined by several of the commonly used classifications. An 8 F transurethral catheter significantly increases the likelihood of a diagnosis of bladder outlet obstruction when compared with the suprapubic method. (Asian J Androl 2006 Nov; 8: 731-735

Replication and Meta-analysis of the Association between BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism and Cognitive Impairment in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy.

Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) adversely affects cancer patients. We had previously demonstrated that the BDNF Val66Met genetic polymorphism is associated with lower odds of subjective CRCI in the multitasking and verbal ability domains among breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. To further assess our previous findings, we evaluated the association of BDNF Val66Met polymorphism with subjective and objective CRCI in a temporally separate cohort of patients and pooled findings from both the original (n = 145) and current (n = 193) cohorts in a meta-analysis. Subjective CRCI was assessed using FACT-Cog. Objective CRCI was evaluated using computerized neuropsychological tests. Genotyping was carried out using Sanger sequencing. The association of BDNF Val66Met genotypes and CRCI was examined with logistic regression. A fixed-effect meta-analysis was conducted using the inverse variance method. In the meta-analysis (n = 338), significantly lower odds of CRCI were associated with Met allele carriers based on the global FACT-Cog score (OR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.29-0.94). Furthermore, Met allele carriers were at lower odds of developing impairment in the domains of memory (OR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.17-0.70), multitasking (OR = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.18-0.59), and verbal ability (OR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.24-0.88). Consistent with the previous study, lower odds of subjective CRCI among patients with the BDNF Met allele was observed after adjusting for potential confounders in the multitasking (OR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.14-0.67) domain. In conclusion, carriers of the BDNF Met allele were protected against global subjective CRCI, particularly in the domains of memory, multitasking, and verbal ability. Our findings further contribute to the understanding of CRCI pathophysiology

Antioxidant and hepatoprotective effects of the food seasoning curry leaves Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng. (Rutaceae)

Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng. (Rutaceae), a common spice, has been traditionally used to reduce inflammation and hepatitis. The present study aimed to reveal the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity as well as the regulation of cytochrome P450 levels elicited by aqueous extracts of M. koenigii leaves in response to paracetamol-induced liver toxicity in BALB/c mice. Liver toxicity was induced by an overdose of paracetamol followed by treatment with a M. koenigii leaf aqueous extract. The levels of serum liver markers, liver antioxidants, inflammatory markers and liver cytochrome P450 2E1 were quantified after 14 days of treatment. Histopathological analysis of the liver was also carried out. In vitro antioxidant levels and phenolic acid characterization were also performed. The extracts (50 and 200 mg kg-1 body weight) effectively restored the serum liver profiles (alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase and alkaline phosphatase), liver antioxidant levels (superoxide dismutase, glutathione and ferric reducing ability of plasma) and inflammatory markers (tumor necrosis factor alpha, inducible nitric oxide synthase, nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells and nitric oxide) to healthy levels in a dosage dependent manner. The level of liver cytochrome P450 2E1 was also lowered in the extract treated groups. Histopathological assessment showed that treatment with 200 mg kg-1 of the M. koenigii aqueous extract was able to reduce liver necrosis in mice fed paracetamol. Gallic acid concentration was the highest among all the phenolic acids detected in the extract. These results suggested that the M. koenigii aqueous extract, which possessed antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, can be used as a potential treatment for liver diseases caused by oxidative stress

Antihyperglycemic and anti-inflammatory effects of fermented food paste on high-fat diet and streptozotocin-challenged mice

Background: Fermented food has been widely consumed as health food to ameliorate or prevent several chronic diseases including diabetes. Xeniji™, a fermented food paste (FFP), has been previously reported with various bioactivities, which may be caused by the presence of several metabolites including polyphenolic acids, flavonoids, and vitamins. In this study, the anti-hyperglycemic and anti-inflammatory effects of FFP were assessed. Methods: In this study, type 2 diabetes model mice were induced by streptozotocin and high-fat diet (HFD) and used to evaluate the antihyperglycemic and anti-inflammatory effects of FFP. Mice were fed with HFD and challenged with 30 mg/kg body weight (BW) of streptozotocin for 1 month followed by 6 weeks of supplementation with 0.1 and 1.0 g/kg BW of FFP. Metformin was used as positive control treatment. Results: Xeniji™-supplemented hyperglycemic mice were recorded with lower glucose level after 6 weeks of duration. This effect was contributed by the improvement of insulin sensitivity in the hyperglycemic mice indicated by the oral glucose tolerance test, insulin tolerance test, and end point insulin level. In addition, gene expression study has shown that the antihyperglycemic effect of FFP is related to the improvement of lipid and glucose metabolism in the mice. Furthermore, both 0.1 and 1 g/kg BW of FFP was able to reduce hyperglycemia-related inflammation indicated by the reduction of proinflammatory cytokines, NF-kB and iNOS gene expression and nitric oxide level. Conclusion: FFP potentially demonstrated in vivo antihyperglycemic and anti-inflammatory effects on HFD and streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice

Provenance, routing and weathering history of heavy minerals from coastal placer deposits of southern Vietnam

Heavy mineral rich sands along the coastal margin of southern Vietnam often contain commercial deposits of ilmenite and zircon but their origin is unknown. A multi-method approach based on petrology, geochemistry and detrital zircon geochronology was used to define the provenance and transport history of these mainly Quaternary sands. A trend of progressive enrichment of ilmenite TiO2 content, from north to south, was observed. This reflects increased levels of weathering attributed to a wider coastal margin and shelf in the south combined with a succession of erosion and reburial events associated with interstadial and interglacial sea-level changes. Weathering took place during lowstands. Detrital zircon U-Pb age signatures collected from 25 major river outlets along the coast of Vietnam helped to locate potential sand sources. Prominent age groups spanning 90-120 Ma and 220-250 Ma with a minor group at 400-500 Ma are present in all of the detrital zircon U-Pb age distributions of contemporary beach sands and Quaternary coastal dune placer deposits. Proterozoic grains are also present but constitute < 10% of dated grains. The main source terrain for the placer sands is southern Vietnam where there are widespread outcrops of Mesozoic magmatic rocks. Detrital zircon U-Pb age signatures from river sands that drain this area are identical to zircon age distributions in placer sands. River sands from northern Vietnam, the Mekong and its delta contain abundant Paleozoic and Proterozoic zircons, which are largely absent from the placer sands, and so are ruled out as primary sources

Expression and Functional Studies of Ubiquitin C-Terminal Hydrolase L1 Regulated Genes

Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) have been increasingly implicated in regulation of cellular processes, but a functional role for Ubiquitin C-terminal Hydrolases (UCHs), which has been largely relegated to processing of small ubiquitinated peptides, remains unexplored. One member of the UCH family, UCH L1, is expressed in a number of malignancies suggesting that this DUB might be involved in oncogenic processes, and increased expression and activity of UCH L1 have been detected in EBV-immortalized cell lines. Here we present an analysis of genes regulated by UCH L1 shown by microarray profiles obtained from cells in which expression of the gene was inhibited by RNAi. Microarray data were verified with subsequent real-time PCR analysis. We found that inhibition of UCH L1 activates genes that control apoptosis, cell cycle arrest and at the same time suppresses expression of genes involved in proliferation and migration pathways. These findings are complemented by biological assays for apoptosis, cell cycle progression and migration that support the data obtained from microarray analysis, and suggest that the multi-functional molecule UCH L1 plays a role in regulating principal pathways involved in oncogenesis

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts