Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of mesalazine versus sulfasalazine in the treatment of ulcerative colitis.Methods The literatures were searched from PubMed (1966 to January 2010), the Cochrane Library (1966 to January 2010), EMbase (1974 to January 2010), CNKI (1994 to January 2010), VIP (1989 to January 2010), and CBM (1978 to January 2010). The data were extracted, the quality of studies was evaluated according to The Cochrane Handbook, and meta-analyses were performed using RevMan 5.0 software. Results Sixteen RCTs involving 1 333 patients were included in this study. The results of meta-analyses showed that the total effective rate of the mesalazine group was significantly higher than that of the sulfasalazine group (RR=1.10, 95%CI 1.04 to 1.17, Plt;0.05), and significant differences were noted in the total remission rate (RR=1.82, 95%CI 1.14 to 2.91, Plt;0.05), while there was no significant difference in the relapse rate between the two groups (RR=0.86, 95%CI 0.57 to 1.29, Pgt;0.05). Twelve RCTs reported adverse effects and meta-analyses showed that the incidence of adverse effects was significantly lower in the mesalazine group than in the sulfasalazine group (RR=0.56, 95%CI 0.42 to 0.73, Plt;0.05). Conclusion Analyses show that mesalazine is much more effective and safe in the management of ulcerative colitis than sulfasalazine. However, there is a moderate risk of bias due to methodological quality problems in all 16 included RCTs, so more strictly-designed multi-centered randomized controlled trials with high quality in large-scale are needed to confirm this result.
Objective To explore the effect on apoptotic genes of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell BxPC-3 from subcutaneous transplantation tumor in nude mice induced by 5-FU and sulfasalazine (SZ).Methods Changes of apoptosis-related genes 〔bcl-2, cyclinD1, Bax and NF-κB (p65)〕 in subcutaneous transplantation tumor treated by 5-FU, SZ alone or both at the levels of mRNA and protein were measured by RT-PCR and Western blot. Results NF-κB (p65) at mRNA relative content and protein expression in subcutaneously heterotopic transplantation tumor treated by 5-FU (7.5, 15 mg/kg), SZ (10, 20 mg/kg) alone or both showed significant difference, except for two subsets in SZ group, respectively, in comparison with each control group (P＜0.01). Meanwhile bcl-2 and cyclinD1 at the levels of mRNA and protein, and Bax protein level were significantly different from each control group (P＜0.01). The above-mentioned indexes were show obvious interaction of both by multiple factor analysis of variance. Conclusion Up-regulated level of Bax, down-regulated levels of bcl-2, cyclinD1 and NF-κB (p65) might be one of apoptotic mechanisms that SZ synergistically enhanced apoptotic effect on pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell BxPC-3 of subcutaneous transplantation tumor in nude mice induced by 5-FU.
ObjectiveTo investigate the efficacy of sulfasalazine combined with thalidomide in the treatment of spondyloarthropathy (SpA), and to probe whether the treatment can reach and maintain clinical remission for the patients. MethodBetween January 2011 and June 2013, we used a prospective, non-intervention and regular follow-up study to observe and assess 70 SpA patients on their Bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index, visual analogue scale score, peripheral arthritis, blood sedimentation, and C-reactive protein. All the patients had taken sulfasalazine, thalidomide and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for 24 weeks. Multivariate analysis of factors affecting the efficacy of the program was our object of this study. ResultsAfter 24 weeks, the total clinical remission rate of these patients was 72.9%. Clinical remission rate of 40 patients with short duration of SpA was 90.0%, while it was 50.0% for the other 30 patients with a non-short duration of SpA. Observation indexes before and after treatment in both groups of patients had significant differences (P<0.05). For patients with non-short duration SpA, the curative effect for female was obviously better than male, but the difference between male and female patients with short-duration SpA was not so obvious. Clinical remission rate for youth was similar with that for non-youth patients. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that whether the disease had a short duration[OR=3.408, 95%CI (1.637, 7.437), P=0.001] and whether the patients were urban residents[OR=4.163, 95%CI (2.011, 8.761), P=0.001] were statistically significant (P<0.05). ConclusionsClinical remission of spondyloarthropathy can be maintain by sulfasalazine combined with thalidomide. Clinical remission rate of the scheme is affected by duration of disease and residency except age and gender of the patients. Short duration and urban residency are independent factors for reaching clinical remission after treatment.