Bulletin No. 1, 2018

New Treatment Doubles the Progression-Free Survival for Liver Cancer Patients The multidisciplinary team, formed by experts of the Departments of Oncology, Surgery, and Imaging and Interventional Radiology of the Faculty of Medicine, proved that a new transarterial treatment named ‘Ablative Chemoembolization (ACE)’ could prolong the progression-free survival of liver cancer patients at the intermediate stage by twice the length of time, compared with ‘conventional transarterial chemoembolization’. The new treatment is more effective in killing tumour cells of liver cancer patients, thereby allowing some patients to have tumours removed by surgery after assessment of their liver conditions. The study results have been published in the medical journal Radiology . Taking Aim at the Essential Oncogene Triggering Liver Cancer A research team led by Prof. Yu Jun of the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics performed RNA-sequence analyses and revealed squalene epoxidase (SQLE) as the top outlier metabolic gene overexpressed among the NAFLD-HCC patients. They also identified an antifungal drug, Terbinafine, which effectively suppressed SQLE-induced cholesteryl ester and oxidative stress accumulation, leading to reduced NAFLD-induced cancer cell proliferation. The study was published in the international medical journal Science Translational Medicine as a cover story. The research team will continue to investigate the efficacy of Terbinafine in treating and preventing NAFLD-HCC, in the hope of translating their findings into applications. Unravelling the Mechanism Survival of Helicobacter Pylori A research team led by Prof. Wong Kam-bo (left), Director of the School of Life Sciences, proved that a Helicobacter pylori ( H. pylori ) can survive in the human stomach by using toxic nickel ions to activate an enzyme that can neutralize gastric acid. This discovery helps the future development of novel drugs against H. pylori infection. The team’s research findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA . ‘As H. pylori is increasingly resistant to antibiotics, we would like to identify a new antibiotics target before the problem of resistance gets out of hand,’ said Professor Wong. The team is now using structural information to screen drugs that inhibit urease activation. R esearch Behavioural Activation with Mindfulness Lowers Major Depression Risk The Faculty of Medicine has shown that behavioural activation with mindfulness meditation could help reduce depressive symptoms and prevent major depression. Patients who underwent an eight-week treatment showed a reduction in depressive symptoms and a lowered risk of developing the major depressive disorder. The findings were published in the international scientific journal Annals of Family Medicine .  GroundbreakingDiscovery in Iron Retention A research team consisting of investigators from the School of Biomedical Sciences and Fudan University discovered that experimental mice with a deficiency in the enzyme ‘cystathionine β-synthase’ (CBS) displayed hemochromatosis- like symptoms, which means excess iron content in the serum and liver, along with damage to major organs. Researchers pointed out that CBS deficiency could interfere with the mechanism of red blood cell production and result in excessive iron retention. The study published in the international medical journal Hepatology may benefit patients suffering from hemochromatosis from unknown causes and provide new directions in diagnosis and treatment. 34 Chinese University Bulletin No.1, 2018