Frontiers of medicine
-
Frontiers of medicine · Apr 2019
ReviewPhysiological effects of weightlessness: countermeasure system development for a long-term Chinese manned spaceflight.
The Chinese space station will be built around 2020. As a national space laboratory, it will offer unique opportunities for studying the physiological effects of weightlessness and the efficacy of the countermeasures against such effects. ⋯ To emphasize the need of the Chinese space program to implement its own program for developing countermeasures, we reviewed the literature on the negative physiological effects of weightlessness, the challenges of completing missions, the development of countermeasure devices, the establishment of countermeasure programs, and the efficacy of the countermeasure techniques in American and Russian manned spaceflights. In addition, a brief overview was provided on the Chinese research and development on countermeasures to discuss the current status and goals of the development of countermeasures against physiological problems associated with weightlessness.
-
Frontiers of medicine · Apr 2019
Interferon-α salvage treatment is effective for patients with acute leukemia/myelodysplastic syndrome with unsatisfactory response to minimal residual disease-directed donor lymphocyte infusion after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
The efficacy of salvage interferon-α (IFN-α) treatment was investigated in patients with unsatisfactory response to minimal residual disease (MRD)-directed donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) (n = 24). Patients who did not become MRD-negative at 1 month after DLI were those with unsatisfactory response and were eligible to receive salvage IFN-α treatment within 3 months of DLI. Recombinant human IFN-α-2b injections were subcutaneously administered 2-3 times a week for 6 months. ⋯ Outcomes of patients subjected to salvage IFN-α treatment after DLI were significantly better than those with persistent MRD without IFN-α treatment. Moreover, clinical outcomes were comparable between the salvage DLI and IFN-α treatment groups. Thus, salvage IFN-α treatment may help improve the outcome of patients with unsatisfactory responses to MRD-directed DLI and could be a potential salvage treatment for these patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
-
Frontiers of medicine · Feb 2019
Chimeric antigen receptor T cell targeting EGFRvIII for metastatic lung cancer therapy.
Lung cancer is the most common incident cancer and the leading cause of cancer death. In recent years, the development of tumor immunotherapy especially chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell has shown a promising future. Epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII) is a tumor-specific mutation expressed in various types of tumors and has been detected in non-small cell lung cancer with a mutation rate of 10%. ⋯ The in vivo study indicated that the metastasis of A549-EGFRvIII cells in mice were inhibited by EGFRvIII-CART cells, and the survival of the mice was significantly prolonged with no serious side effects. EGFRvIII-CART showed significantly efficient antitumor activity against lung cancer cells expressing EGFRvIII in vivo and in vitro. Therefore, CAR-T targeting EGFRvIII is a potential therapeutic strategy in preventing recurrence and metastasis of lung cancer after surgery.