To study the effect and toxicities of China-made paclitaxel in the treatment of advanced epithelial ovarian carcinoma.

The role of genistein in the effect of growth factors (KGF and EGF) on the growth of HPV 16 DNA-immortalized human cervical epithelial cells (HCE 16/3 cells) was studied.

To study the antitumor and immunological activities of oxalysine (OXL).

Considerable evidence has showed that apoptosis is involved in both cancer development and inhibition. A new assay (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase assay, TdT assay) was recently reported to have advantages in the detection of apoptosis. In this study, this assay was used to investigate antitumor drug-induced apoptosis in human cancer cells.

To elucidate the pattern of chemotherapy drugs induced apoptosis and its role in chemotherapy of acute leukemia.

To investigate the mechanism by which taxol induces apoptosis in human breast cancer cells.

To study the biological significance of Grp94 deleted product (Grp94 beta) expressed in human colorectal carcinoma cells.

We detected the antiproliferative effect with MTT test and investigated the changes in biological properties, cytomorphology and ultrastructure through cytopathology and electronic microscopy. Cell growth of JF-305 was inhibited by all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA). The maximal inhibitory rate was 34.7%. The number of proliferative cells reduced (P < 0.01). Cell metabolism slowed down, secretory functions recovered, and malignant degree decreased. ATRA can inhibit the proliferation and induce the differentiation of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma JF-305 cells.

Proliferation, cell cycle, total amount of DNA, area of cell nucleus, as well as epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) and expression of oncogene C-erbB2 mRNA of Chinese breast cancer cell line (BCaP-37) after being treated with kappa-selenocarrageenan were determined by cell culture technique, image cytometry (ICM) and northern blot to explore its anti-tumor mechanism. Results revealed 3.0-120 mg/L selenocarrageenan could inhibit proliferation of BCaP-37, with a response of time and dose dependence. The areas of nuclei were significantly lower with ICM in cells treated with 15 or 60 mg/L selenocarrageenan for four days than those in controls (P < 0.01). Levels of EGFR and expression of C-erbB2 mRNA were significantly inhibited in cells treated with 60 mg/L selenocarrageenan. It suggests that selenocarrageenan can inhibit proliferation of breast cancer cells through regulation of the levels of EGFR and expression of C-erbB2 mRNA.

To assess the feasibility of delivering liposomal adriamycin (lipo-ADM) to the regional lymph nodes via intralymphatic infusion in a rabbits model.

For further investigating the efficacy and side effects of meisoindico.

Human lung cancer leads the mortality of cancers and the chemotherapy is often uneffective because of drug resistance. In order to study the role of mdr-1 gene in resistant lung cancer, the fully length mdr-1 cDNA was transferred into a sensitive lung cancer cell line GLC. The mdr-1 cDNA was constructed in a retroviral vector, pDORneo. The transfection of recombinant plasmid was carried out by lipofectin. Supernatant containing infective viruses derived from a G418 resistant clone of package cell PA317 was used to infect GLC cell which is sensitive to chemotherapeutic agents. After G418 and adriamycine selections, three P-glycoprotein positive clones were isolated and the integration of mdr-1 cDNA was demonstrated by PCR of genomic DNA. The relative resistance of 3 clones to adriamycine as and elevated by 5.4, 6.0 respectively 7.8 times compared with the untransfected cell and the transcription of mdr-1 gene in these transfected cells as obviously enhanced by in situ hybridization. This results suggest that the mdr-1 gene plays a role in increasing drug resistance of human lung cancer.

To study the effects of two cAMP analogs with different site-selectivity on growth and differentiation of metastatic human lung cancer cells.

To evaluate the anti-cancer effect of Ailing-1 on human megakaryoblastic leukemia cells in culture.

In order to illustrate the possible roles of PML-RARalpha protein in arsenic trioxide (AsO3)-induced NB4 cell apoptosis.

To illustrate the possible cellular and molecular mechanisms of arsenic trioxide (As2O3) in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).

The liver targeting and sustained release hydroxycamptothecin polybutylcyanoacrylate nanoparticles (HCPT-PBCA-NP) which were wrapped up with ployvinylpyrrolidone(PVP) were prepared by adsorption-enwrapping method. The morphology, size and size distribution, drug loading, release characteristics in vitro, distribution and pharmacokinetic parameters in animals of the PVP-HCPT-PBCA-NP were studied. The results showed that the average diameter was 81.2 nm, drug loading was 1.22%. The release characteristics in vitro was in accord with Higuchi equation: Q = 0.0615 + 0.0940 square root of t.64.5% of the HCPT were concentrated in liver 15 min after iv PVP-HCPT-PBCA-NP. The plasma drug concentration-time curve of the HCPT in 5 rabbits was fitted to a two-compartment open model. The Vc was 3.548 L; T1/2 was 146.99 h; CL was 0.178 L.h-1. The method of preparation presented in this paper seems to have important reference value for the preparation of PBCA-NP of the insoluble drugs both in water and in oil.

An optimum procedure was established for preparing mitoxantrone albumin microspheres (DHAQ-BSA-MS) with emulsion-heating solidification. The morphology, diameters, drug loading, release characteristics, stability and its distribution in vivo of the drug-loaded albumin microspheres were studied. The results showed that the surface was regular, the average diameter was 0.99 micron, mean surface diameter was 1.24 microns and mean volume diameter was 1.44 microns, apparent drug loading was 2.558 +/- 0.101 micrograms.mg-1 (n = 5), effective drug loading was 1.503% +/- 0.127% (n = 5), embedding ratio was 92.82% +/- 6.48% (n = 5), and the release characteristics were in accord with "biphase kinetics equation": 1 - Q = 0.6428e-0.2132t + 0.3988e-0.00150t (gamma 1 = -0.9951, gamma 2 = -0.9982); T1/2 alpha = 3.250 h, T1/2 beta = 461.7 h. The stability of the drug-loaded albumin microspheres was good after three months storage at room temperature. The results determined by HPLC showed that the drug accumulated about 77.6% +/- 1.38% of the dose in the liver 20 minutes after intravenous injection to mice. This indicates that DHAQ-BSA-MS showed remarkable targeting for liver, and it seems to have important value for increasing the antihepatoma effect and decreasing the toxicity of mitoxantrone.