Pegylated Liposomal Doxorubicin as a Single Agent or as Combination Therapy with Carboplatin in Patients with Recurrent or Refractory Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

OBJECTIVE Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD;CAELYX^(?)), a novel formulation of doxorubicin with enhancedtherapeutic efficacy and reduced toxicity, has demonstratedimproved progression-free survival in recurrent or refractoryovarian cancer. The objective of this open-label, noncomparative,observational study was to determine the efficacyand safety of PLD monotherapy or combination therapy withcarboplatin for patients with recurrent or refractory ovariancancer.METHODS Sixty-two patients with recurrent or refractoryovarian cancer who completed a platinum-based chemotherapyregimen and demonstrated platinum sensitivity for first-linetreatment at least 6 months prior to study entry were enrolledin 20 centers in China. PLD was given as monotherapy (50mg/m^2 infused over 60 minutes) or as combination therapy(30 mg/m^2 1-hour infusion) with carboplatin (area under thecurve 5 mg.min/mL 1-hour infusion) on day 1 every 28 daysfor 4 cycles. The primary endpoint was objective response (OR)rate or CA-125 level. Secondary endpoints included time toresponse, time-to-progression, health-related quality of life, andsafety.RESULTS Overall, 48% of the 62 evaluable patients achieveda confirmed OR. More patients receiving PLD and carboplatinachieved an OR vs the PLD monotherapy group (63% vs. 37%).The median time to response and disease progression was58.5 days and 56.0 days, respectively. Overall and drug-relatedadverse events were reported for 39% and 34%, respectively.The most commonly reported adverse events were stomatitis(22.6%) and palmar-plantar erythroderma (9.7%). Two deathswere reported.CONCLUSION PLD is an effective and well tolerated agentin women with recurrent or refractory epithelial ovarian cancer.

Construction of a eukaryotic expression plasmid for human retina-derived neurotrophin-3

Neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) can promote the repair of central nervous system and retinal damage. In previous reports, NT-3 has been expressed by viral vectors. However, plasmid vectors have a safer profile compared with viral vectors in clinical studies. This study recombined amplified human retinal NT-3 with a eukaryotic expression plasmid containing green fluorescent protein (GFP) to construct an NT-3 expression plasmid, pEGFP-N1-NT-3. The transfection efficiency 48 hours after pEGFP-N1-NT-3 transfection to 293T cells was 50.06 ± 2.78%. Abundant NT-3-GFP was expressed in 293T cells as observed by fluorescence microscopy, suggesting the construct pEGFP-N1-NT-3 effectively expressed and secreted NT-3-GFP. Secretory vesicles containing NT-3-GFP were observed in a constant location in cells by laser scan confocal microscopy, indicating the expression and secretion processes of NT-3 in eukaryotic cells were in accordance with the physical synthesis processes of secreted proteins. Western blot assay showed that pro-NT-3-GFP had a molecular weight of 56 kDa, further confirming NT-3-GFP expression. At 48 hours after transfection, the concentration of NT-3 in culture medium was 22.3 ng/mL, suggesting NT-3 produced by pEGFP-N1-NT-3 was efficiently secreted. This study constructed a human retinal-derived NT-3 eukaryotic expression plasmid that efficiently expressed and secreted NT-3.