Endoscopic Treatment of Vesicoureteral Reflux in Children with Dextranomer/Hyaluronic Acid—A Single Surgeon's 6-Year Experience

Endoscopic treatment for vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) has become an established alternative to long-term antibiotic prophylaxis and ureteral reimplantation. We present the outcome of endoscopic treatment with dextranomer/hyaluronic acid copolymer (Deflux) for VUR in children by a single surgeon at our institute from October 2003 to October 2009. We reviewed the cases of 150 patients (total 239 ureters), 56 girls (37%) and 94 boys (63%), with a mean age of 2.2 years and a median followup of 2.5 years (range 3–68 months). Among the 239 ureters treated, 67.4% (161/239) were cured with a single injection, and a second and third injection raised the cure rate to 86.6% (207/239) and 88.3% (211/239), respectively. None had postoperative ureteral obstruction

The Regulation Requirement of Dengue Vaccines

Dengue fever (dengue), a mosquito-borne disease caused by dengue viruses (DENVs), represents severe public health problems in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and other subtropical regions. Many regulatory issues arise along with the development of dengue vaccines. It is required to follow the regulatory pathway for the license application. Dengue vaccines can be approved without local clinical phase III data. The national regulatory authorities (NRAs) must have the information, training and ability to review and approve the application. A novel vaccine product Dengvaxia® for dengue has been approved in many countries. The approval is based on clinical trials that show the vaccine could reduce about 60% dengue, prevented 90% of severe cases and 80% of hospitalizations. Several other DNA, live-attenuated, purified inactivated, subunit, vectored and chimeric vaccine candidates are currently developing in clinical phases. Although there are still some challenges for the development and regulation of vaccine, the prospects of dengue vaccines are promising provided that we can overcome the difficulty

Biotechnologies Applied in Biomedical Vaccines

Vaccination, the administration of an antigenic material (vaccine), is considered to be the most effective method for disease prevention and control. A vaccine usually contains an agent that resembles a diseases‐causing pathogen and is often made from inactivated microbes, live attenuated microbes, its toxins, or part of surface antigens (subunit). However, the modern biotechnological tools and genomics have opened a new era to develop novel vaccines and many products are successfully marketing around the world. It is important to formulate and deliver these vaccines appropriately to maximize the potential advances in prevention, therapy, and vaccinology. New vaccines employing biotechnological innovations are helping us to change the way for illness prevention. The clinical application of vaccines will be diversified along with the development of biotechnologies. In modern society, the outbreak of many infectious diseases has decreased through vaccination, but the burden of noninfectious diseases is growing. The new biotechnologies may result in not only the appreciation of vaccines which are critical in inducing protection against an infectious disease but also the production of therapeutic vaccines which are effective for alldiseases including infectious and noninfectious diseases

Nanotechnologies Applied in Biomedical Vaccines

Vaccination, one of the most effective strategies to prevent infectious diseases, is the administration of antigenic materials to stimulate an individual’s immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a specific pathogen. Though it is so advantageous for diseases control and prevention, vaccines still have some limitations. Nanotechnology is an approach to prepare a novel biomedicine vaccine with the vaccine consumption and side effects significantly decreased. Regulation is the most important criterion for the development of nanovaccines. All marketing products have to meet the requirement of regulation. The fast-track designation potentially aids in the development and expedites the review of nanovaccines that show promises in an unmet medical need. Here, some successful nanovaccine products are introduced—Inflexal® V, Epaxal®, GardasilTM, and CervarixTM have been widely used for the clinical applications, which are delivered either in the form of virosomes or virus-like particles. Vaccines based on nanotechnology may overcome their original disadvantages and lead to the development of painless, safer, and more effective products

Results of one-stage urethroplasty for hypospadias in pediatrics – single surgeon’s experience

Introduction: Hypospadias repair is a challenging technique in pediatric urology with a long learning curve. This study presents the results of urethroplasty performed by a single surgeon to repair hypospadias in children and compares the surgical outcomes at different periods. Materials and Methods: From January 2009 to February 2016, patients who were less than 18 years old and were operated for hypospadias were retrospectively reviewed and divided into two groups: group I (from January 2009 to February 2012) and group II (from March 2012 to February 2016). All operations were performed by the same pediatric surgeon, andsurgical outcomes of the two periods were compared. Results: This study considered150 patients (69 in group I/81 in group II). The Mean operative age was 30.4±32.7 months in group I and 33.6±43.3 months in group II(p=0.309). The selected procedures mainly depended on the subjective anatomical analysis in the operating room and the surgeon’s preference. The mean follow-up duration was 21.7±28.31 months in group I and 13.6±16.6 months in group II (p=0.033).The overall complication rate was 44.9% in group Iand 35.8% in group II (p=0.316). The incidence of glanular disruption significantly decreased from 21.7% to 6.2% (p=0.007) because of the wide dissection of the glanular wings and the deep incision of the urethral plate, which led to tension-free sutures for glanular reconstruction. Conclusions: One-stage repair of hypospadias may achieve satisfactory outcomes in cosmetic appearance and voiding function. Surgical outcomes could be improved by increasing practice

Apoptotic Cell Death and Inhibition of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway in Human Colon Cancer Cells by an Active Fraction (HS7) from Taiwanofungus camphoratus

Aberrant activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling plays an important role in the development of colon cancer. HS7 is an active fraction extracted from Taiwanofungus camphoratus, which had been widely used as complementary medicine for Taiwan cancer patients in the past decades. In this study, we demonstrated the effects of HS7 on the growth inhibition, apoptosis induction, and Wnt/β-catenin signaling suppression in human colon cancer cells. HS7 significantly inhibited proliferation of HT29, HCT116, and SW480 colon cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The apoptosis induction was evidenced by DNA fragmentation and subG1 accumulation, which was associated with increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, activation of caspase-3 and cleavage of PARP. By using Tcf-dependent luciferase activity assay, HS7 was found to inhibit the β-catenin/Tcf transcriptional activities. In addition, HS7 strongly suppressed the binding of Tcf complexes to its DNA-binding site shown in electrophoretic mobility shift assay. This inhibition was further confirmed by the decreased protein levels of Tcf-4 and β-catenin. The β-catenin/Tcf downstream target genes, such as survivin, c-myc, cyclin D1, MMP7, and MT1-MMP involved in apoptosis, invasion, and angiogenesis were also diminished as well. These results indicate that Taiwanofungus camphoratus may provide a benefit as integrative medicine for the treatment of colon cancer

Gingyo-San Enhances Immunity and Potentiates Infectious Bursal Disease Vaccination

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of Gingyo-san (GGS), a traditional Chinese medical formula, on peripheral lymphocyte proliferation and serum antibody titers in chickens vaccinated against the infectious bursal disease (IBD) virus. Treatment groups were fed one of three doses of GGS in their diet (0.5%, 1.0% and 2.0%, w/w), and the IBD vaccine was administered at 1 and 3 weeks of age. At Weeks 8, 12 and 16, changes in serum IBD antibody titers were measured via the micro-method and T cell proliferation. In gene expression experiments, GGS-treated peripheral T lymphocytes were stimulated with concanavalin A (ConA) for 24 h. The mRNA expression of interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-12 (IL-12) was determined using a semi-quantitative RT-PCR assay. The results showed that a low dose of GGS could significantly raise the antibody titers. Medium and high doses of GGS enhanced IL-2 and IFN-γ production. GGS altered the expression of IL-4 and IL-12 in T lymphocytes. CD4+ T lymphocyte development was also skewed towards the Th1 phenotype. GGS enhanced cell-mediated immunity and augmented the effects of IBD vaccination in strengthening subsequent anti-viral responses