Objective. To study the clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes of anti-NMDAR encephalitis and the immunopathology of associated teratomas. Methods. Twenty-one patients were enrolled in this retrospective study, who were diagnosed with anti-NMDAR encephalitis with ovarian teratoma and admitted to two tertiary hospitals in South China from July 2014 to December 2019. The clinical data of patients were reviewed. Comparisons were made between the patients with different outcomes after surgery. Immunohistochemical analyses of associated ovarian teratomas were performed. Results. The mean age of the patients was 24.33 ± 5.12 years. The peak seasons of disease onset were autumn and winter (30.61% and 32.65%). The symptoms could be divided into 8 categories, including psychiatric abnormalities, seizures, movement dysfunction, consciousness disorders, autonomic dysregulation, speech disturbance, central hypoventilation, and memory deficits. All patients developed four or more categories of symptoms within the first four weeks. Twelve patients (57.1%) had a maximum mRS of 5, and 11 patients (52.4%) were admitted to ICU. Twenty patients received surgery, and only 3 patients were diagnosed pathologically with immature ovarian teratomas, while the other 17 patients had mature ovarian teratomas. After surgery, 17 patients (85.0%) got clinical improvement. The central hypoventilation symptom and mature ovarian teratomas were associated with surgical outcome. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that there were NMDAR-positive neural tissues in all 8 teratomas and in which 3 cases also contained large numbers of NMDAR-positive sebaceous glands and squamous epithelial tissues. Conclusion. The disease is of high prevalence in autumn and winter. The central hypoventilation symptom and mature ovarian teratomas were associated with surgical outcome. NMDAR-positive neural tissue is not the only etiological factor of encephalitis. We speculate that encephalitis development in some patients may result from NMDAR expression in sebaceous glands and squamous epithelial tissues.

Among the various histologic subtypes of ovarian cancers (OCs), ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) represents a great challenge due to its disease aggressiveness and resistance to chemotherapy. IGF1 is overexpressed in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), and IGF1 pathway activation is related to the chemoresistance of various cancers. In this study, we found that the expression level of IGF1 was higher in OCCC than in the most common type of OC, high-grade serous adenocarcinoma (HGSC). Then, we investigated the role of IGF1 pathway activation in the progression of OCCC, observing that activation of the IGF1 pathway using IGF1 promoted the proliferation and migration of ES2 cells, while inactivation of the IGF1 pathway using the selective IGF1R inhibitor OSI-906 reversed the alteration mediated by IGF1.Based on the role of the IGF1 pathway in cancer chemoresistance, we proposed that OSI-906 may restore the sensitivity of OCCC to cisplatin. We rst validated that IGF1 increased the IC50 value of cisplatin in ES2 cells, while OSI-906 decreased it. Then we con rmed that IGF1 decreased the apoptosis rate of ES2 cells induced by cisplatin, while OSI-906 increased it. Finally, we conducted animal experiments to investigate whether OSI-906 helps cisplatin control the growth of OCCC. As expected, OSI-906 increased the effect of cisplatin in attenuating the growth of OCCC in vivo. Therefore, we conclude that using OSI-906 may be an effective method to restore the sensitivity of OCCC to cisplatin by targeting the IGF1R/AKT pathway.

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