4β-Hydroxywithanolide E from Physalis peruviana (golden berry) inhibits growth of human lung cancer cells through DNA damage, apoptosis and G2/M arrest

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The crude extract of the fruit bearing plant, <it>Physalis peruviana </it>(golden berry), demonstrated anti-hepatoma and anti-inflammatory activities. However, the cellular mechanism involved in this process is still unknown.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Herein, we isolated the main pure compound, 4β-Hydroxywithanolide (4βHWE) derived from golden berries, and investigated its antiproliferative effect on a human lung cancer cell line (H1299) using survival, cell cycle, and apoptosis analyses. An alkaline comet-nuclear extract (NE) assay was used to evaluate the DNA damage due to the drug.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>It was shown that DNA damage was significantly induced by 1, 5, and 10 μg/mL 4βHWE for 2 h in a dose-dependent manner (<it>p </it>< 0.005). A trypan blue exclusion assay showed that the proliferation of cells was inhibited by 4βHWE in both dose- and time-dependent manners (<it>p </it>< 0.05 and 0.001 for 24 and 48 h, respectively). The half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC₅₀) of 4βHWE in H1299 cells for 24 and 48 h were 0.6 and 0.71 μg/mL, respectively, suggesting it could be a potential therapeutic agent against lung cancer. In a flow cytometric analysis, 4βHWE produced cell cycle perturbation in the form of sub-G₁accumulation and slight arrest at the G₂/M phase with 1 μg/mL for 12 and 24 h, respectively. Using flow cytometric and annexin V/propidium iodide immunofluorescence double-staining techniques, these phenomena were proven to be apoptosis and complete G₂/M arrest for H1299 cells treated with 5 μg/mL for 24 h.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this study, we demonstrated that golden berry-derived 4βHWE is a potential DNA-damaging and chemotherapeutic agent against lung cancer.</p

Relationships among organizational culture, knowledge acquisition, organizational learning, and organizational innovation in Taiwan's banking and insurance industries

[[abstract]]This article investigates the relationships among organizational culture (OC), knowledge acquisition (KA), organizational learning (OL), and organizational innovation (OI) in Taiwan's banking and insurance industries. We use the top 100 financial enterprises in Taiwan published by Common Wealth Magazine in 2005 as the population and 23 of them are chosen as the sample in this study. A total of 785 questionnaires were issued and 449 valid replies were received. The research results indicate that OL serves as a partial mediator between OC and OI. In addition, this article finds that OC affects OL and innovation through KA. Furthermore, OL has a full mediation effect on KA and OI.[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[booktype]]電子版[[booktype]]紙

Direct-acting antivirals for patients with chronic hepatitis C and hepatocellular carcinoma in Taiwan

Background/purpose: The treatment of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) has evolved from interferon (IFN)-based therapy to direct acting antivirals (DAAs). The effect of antiviral treatment on outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with CHC has not been well analyzed in Taiwan. Methods: From April 2015 to May 2018, 199 HCC patients with CHC undergoing DAAs treatment, including 127 having prospectively longitudinal observation, were enrolled. Among them, 107 BCLC 0/A patients achieving curative treatment of HCC were further compared with a historical cohort of 42 HCC patients experienced pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) plus ribavirin for CHC after curative treatment. Results: The sustained virological response (SVR) rates were 95.0% in BCLC stage 0/A (114/120), 97.1% in BCLC B (68/70), and 77.8% in BCLC C (7/9). The median recurrence-free survivals (RFS) between the DAA and IFN arms were of no difference by counting either from antiviral treatment (29.3 mo vs 39.2 mo, p = 0.764) or from curative treatment (65.8 mo vs 44.0 mo, p = 0.130), respectively. Achievement of SVR was the key independent factor associated with RFS and overall survival. The pattern of recurrence was also similar between the DAA and IFN arms. For intermediate stage HCC patients, the median time to tumor progression was 9.2 months from the initiation of DAA therapy, and 90% of patients maintained in BCLC B till 12 months after the DAA treatment. Conclusions: The SVR is high within BCLC B HCV-HCC patients by DAAs treatment. The risk of HCC recurrence and progression is not increased by DAAs

Prediction of extranodal extension in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma by CT images using an evolutionary learning model

Abstract Background Extranodal extension (ENE) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) correlates to poor prognoses and influences treatment strategies. Deep learning may yield promising performance of predicting ENE in HNSCC but lack of transparency and interpretability. This work proposes an evolutionary learning method, called EL-ENE, to establish a more interpretable ENE prediction model for aiding clinical diagnosis. Methods There were 364 HNSCC patients who underwent neck lymph node (LN) dissection with pre-operative contrast-enhanced computerized tomography images. All the 778 LNs were divided into training and test sets with the ratio 8:2. EL-ENE uses an inheritable bi-objective combinatorial genetic algorithm for optimal feature selection and parameter setting of support vector machine. The diagnostic performances of the ENE prediction model and radiologists were compared using independent test datasets. Results The EL-ENE model achieved the test accuracy of 80.00%, sensitivity of 81.13%, and specificity of 79.44% for ENE detection. The three radiologists achieved the mean diagnostic accuracy of 70.4%, sensitivity of 75.6%, and specificity of 67.9%. The features of gray-level texture and 3D morphology of LNs played essential roles in predicting ENE. Conclusions The EL-ENE method provided an accurate, comprehensible, and robust model to predict ENE in HNSCC with interpretable radiomic features for expanding clinical knowledge. The proposed transparent prediction models are more trustworthy and may increase their acceptance in daily clinical practice

The p38 and NFκB signaling protein activation involved in glycitein protective effects on isoproterenol-treated H9c2 cardiomyoblast cells

Heart disease (HD) is greatly associated with gender and clinical evidence shows that increased serum norepinephrine levels are found in patients with HD. This study investigates the cardio-protective effect of glycitein, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) from soy bean extract, on H9c2 cardiomyoblast cells treated with isoproterenol (ISO, a norepinephrine analog). The image data and results from western blotting showed that ISO treatment was capable of inducing cellular apoptosis, especially the mitochondrial dependent pathway. Glycitein treatment could suppress mitochondrial pro-apoptotic proteins expression including caspase-9 and caspase-3 in H9c2 treated with ISO. In contrast, several survival proteins were expressed in H9c2 cells treated with glycitein, such as phosphor (p)-Akt, p-Bad and Akt. We confirmed that the protective role of glycitein was partially mediated through the expression of p-38 and NFκB proteins by adding several pathway inhibitors

Galactomannan from Antrodia cinnamomea Enhances the Phagocytic Activity of Macrophages

Galactomannan with an octasaccharide-repeating unit (ACP) was isolated from Taiwan medicinal mushroom Antrodia cinnamomea, and its chemical structure was determined herein. ACP significantly enhanced the phagocytosis and bactericidal activity of J774A.1 murine macrophages against Escherichia coli, with prospects for developing a new immunomodulatory compound or adjuvant in immunotherapy and vaccination