Some patients with mild illness in the early stage could suddenly progress to severe disease, and eventually died due to septic shock with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), which was associated with cytokine storm 95. There is compelling evidence that some TCM herbal products or its components have potent immunosuppressive effects, as shown by our own and other's studies 79, 96-103. For example, Wang, et al. 104 reported that Shen Fu Injection could inhibit the lung inflammation and decrease the levels of IL-1β, IL-6 and other cytokines. Chang, et al. 105 reported that Re Du Ning Injection could markedly reduce the levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-8, IL-10, and some other cytokines of LPS-induced model of acute lung injury in rats. We recently reported that tetrandrine, a compound isolated from an anti-rheumatic Chinese herb, could potently inhibit proinflammatory Th1, Th2 and Th17 responses in LPS-challenged mice 106. Therefore, TCM with the capacity to inhibit cytokine storm and its devastating consequences may be harnessed in the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients.
Grandmaster Wilson has had a truly illustrious career. As a competitor in the seventies he was a member of the U.S. Team and won five world titles and eight U.S. National titles. In the eighties he served for four years as a coach on the U.S. Team. Grandmaster Wilson has appeared in virtually every major Martial Arts magazine and accumulated a record of 13-0 as a kick boxer. He was awarded six Golden Belt awards in tournament competition while accumulation over 250 career trophies. During his successful career he has been inducted into six Martial Arts Halls of Fame, including "Inside Kung Fu Magazine" and the "World Head of Family Sokeship Council". As an accomplished author Grandmaster Wilson has authored many articles in several different magazine publications as well as authoring five different books pertaining to the Pai Lum Tao system that are sold worldwide.
lung fu pao magazine | 16
EGFR is a major anticancer drug target in human epithelial tumors. One effective class of agents is the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), such as gefitinib and erlotinib. These drugs induce dramatic responses in individuals with lung adenocarcinomas characterized by mutations in exons encoding the EGFR tyrosine kinase domain, but disease progression invariably occurs. A major reason for such acquired resistance is the outgrowth of tumor cells with additional TKI-resistant EGFR mutations. Here we used relevant transgenic mouse lung tumor models to evaluate strategies to overcome the most common EGFR TKI resistance mutation, T790M. We treated mice bearing tumors harboring EGFR mutations with a variety of anticancer agents, including a new irreversible EGFR TKI that is under development (BIBW-2992) and the EGFR-specific antibody cetuximab. Surprisingly, we found that only the combination of both agents together induced dramatic shrinkage of erlotinib-resistant tumors harboring the T790M mutation, because together they efficiently depleted both phosphorylated and total EGFR. We suggest that these studies have immediate therapeutic implications for lung cancer patients, as dual targeting with cetuximab and a second-generation EGFR TKI may be an effective strategy to overcome T790M-mediated drug resistance. Moreover, this approach could serve as an important model for targeting other receptor tyrosine kinases activated in human cancers.
In his letter, Dr Costa cited the two retrospective studies (Riely et al, 2006; Jackman et al, 2006) showing prolonged time to progression and overall survival (OS) of non-small cell lung cancer patients with exon 19 deletions when compared with L858R patients given epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and raised the important issue of clinical differences between these two types of mutations. As Dr Costa also mentioned, however, the two Japanese prospective trials (including our own) have shown no significant differences in response rate between these mutation types (Asahina et al, 2006; Inoue et al, 2006). In our trial, where individual data for progression-free survival (PFS) and OS were available, median PFS for exon 19 deletion was 8.3 months and two of the three patients with L858R mutation were alive and progression-free after more than 11.7 months, whereas median OS has not been reached in either group. 2ff7e9595c