Asthma is a complicated lung disease, which has increased morbidity and mortality rates in worldwide. There is an overlap between asthma pathophysiology and mitochondrial dysfunction and MSCs may have regulatory effect on mitochondrial dysfunction and treats asthma. Therefore, immune-modulatory effect of MSCs and mitochondrial signaling pathways in asthma was studied. After culturing of MSCs and producing asthma animal model, the mice were treated with MSCs via IV via IT. BALf\'s eosinophil Counting, The levels of IL-4, -5, -13, -25, -33, INF-γ, Cys-LT, LTB4, LTC4, mitochondria genes expression of COX-1, COX-2, ND1, Nrf2, Cytb were measured and lung histopathological study were done. BALf\'s eosinophils, the levels of IL-4, -5, -13, -25, -33, LTB4, LTC4, Cys-LT, the mitochondria genes expression (COX-1, COX-2, Cytb and ND-1), perivascular and peribronchial inflammation, mucus hyper-production and hyperplasia of the goblet cell in pathological study were significantly decreased in MSCs-treated asthma mice and reverse trend was found about Nrf-2 gene expression, IFN-γ level and ratio of the INF-γ/IL-4. MSC therapy can control inflammation, immune-inflammatory factors in asthma and mitochondrial related genes, and prevent asthma immune-pathology.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) has been recognized as a severe complication of diabetes mellitus and a dominant pathogeny of end-stage kidney disease, which causes serious health problems and great financial burden to human society worldwide. Conventional strategies, such as renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system blockade, blood glucose level control, and bodyweight reduction, may not achieve satisfactory outcomes in many clinical practices for DN management. Notably, due to the multi-target function, Chinese medicine possesses promising clinical benefits as primary or alternative therapies for DN treatment. Increasing studies have emphasized identifying bioactive compounds and molecular mechanisms of reno-protective effects of Chinese medicines. Signaling pathways involved in glucose/lipid metabolism regulation, antioxidation, anti-inflammation, anti-fibrosis, and podocyte protection have been identified as crucial mechanisms of action. Herein, we summarize the clinical efficacies of Chinese medicines and their bioactive components in treating and managing DN after reviewing the results demonstrated in clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, with a thorough discussion on the relative underlying mechanisms and molecular targets reported in animal and cellular experiments. We aim to provide comprehensive insights into the protective effects of Chinese medicines against DN.

Skeletal muscle injuries have bothered doctors and caused great burdens to the public medical insurance system for a long time. Once injured, skeletal muscles usually go through the processes of inflammation, repairing and remodeling. If repairing and remodeling stages are out of balance, scars will be formed to replace injured skeletal muscles. At present, clinicians usually use conventional methods to restore the injured skeletal muscles, such as flap transplantation. However, flap transplantation sometimes needs to sacrifice healthy autologous tissues and will bring extra harm to patients. In recent years, stem cells-based tissue engineering provides us new treatment ideas for skeletal muscle injuries. Stem cells are cells with multiple differentiation potential and have ability to differentiate into adult cells under special condition. Skeletal muscle tissues also have stem cells, called satellite cells, but they are in small amount and new muscle fibers that derived from them may not be enough to replace injured fibers. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) could promote musculoskeletal tissue regeneration and activate the myogenic differentiation of satellite cells. Biomaterial is another important factor to promote tissue regeneration and greatly enhance physiological activities of stem cells in vivo. The combined use of stem cells and biomaterials will gradually become a mainstream to restore injured skeletal muscles in the future. This review article mainly focuses on the review of research about the application of BM-MSCs and several major biomaterials in skeletal muscle regeneration over the past decades.

With the development of biotherapy, biomacromolecular drugs have gained tremendous attention recently, especially in drug development field due to the sophisticated functions in vivo. Over the past few years, a motley variety of drug delivery strategies have been developed for biomacromolecular drugs to overcome the difficulties in the druggability, e.g., the instability and easily restricted by physiologic barriers. The application of novel delivery systems to deliver biomacromolecular drugs can usually prolong the half-life, increase the bioavailability, or improve patient compliance, which greatly improves the efficacy and potentiality for clinical use of biomacromolecular drugs. In this review, recent studies regarding the drug delivery strategies for macromolecular drugs in cancer therapy are summarized, mainly drawing on the development over the last five years.

UNASSIGNED: Primary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (PHO) is a rare disease involving joint, bone and skin. Two underlying genes responsible for this disease-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (HPGD) and solute carrier organic anion transporter family, member 2A1 (SLCO2A1)-are both associated with aberrant accumulation of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is a key enzyme in PGE2 synthesis. This study was intended to evaluate the safety and efficacy of COX-2 inhibitor in the treatment of PHO.
UNASSIGNED: We recruited patients presenting to Peking Union Medical Hospital between January 2009 and December 2016 who were diagnosed with PHO. Participants were given the COX-2 inhibitor etoricoxib (60 mg once daily) and followed up for 9 months. Gene analysis was performed at baseline. The following data were collected at baseline and during treatment: visual analogue score (VAS), volume of the distal middle finger (VDMF), knee joint circumference (KJC), serum and urinary levels of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and PGE metabolite (PGE-M) and serum levels of inflammatory markers.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 27 patients were recruited, including seven patients with PHO type I (PHOAR1) carrying HPGD gene mutations and 20 patients with PHO type II (PHOAR2) carrying SLCO2A1 gene mutations. After treatment with etoricoxib, the majority of patients experienced resolution of symptoms including pachydermia (60.9%), joint swelling (100%), digital clubbing (74.1%) and hyperhidrosis (55.0%). In both the PHO subtypes, serum and urinary levels of PGE2 were elevated at baseline and declined sharply upon treatment. For PHOAR1 patients, serum and urinary PGE-M levels were relatively low and demonstrated minimal response to COX-2 inhibition. Among PHOAR2 patients, mean serum and urinary levels of PGE-M presented at a high level at baseline and were normalized after 3 months of treatment. No severe adverse effects were reported during the study period.
UNASSIGNED: We found COX-2 inhibitor to be safe and effective for the treatment of PHO in our cohort.
UNASSIGNED: The underlying genes responsible for PHO suggest COX inhibitor as potential therapy, and our study demonstrates the efficacy and safety of this treatment.

Chronic inflammation has been linked to cancer development and metastasis. We have recently demonstrated that γδ T cells are the major cellular source of IL-17 (γδT17) and accumulation of γδT17 cells correlates with human colorectal cancer progression through recruitment and expansion of myeloid-derived suppressor cells, thus converting tumor-elicited inflammation into immunosuppression.