Brucea javanica oil (BJO) is beneficial for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC), and that quassinoids in particular brusatol are bioactive components. However, it is still uncertain whether or not other components in BJO, such as oleic acid and fatty acids, have an anti-UC effect. The present study is aimed at comparing the anti-UC effects between brusatol-enriched BJO (BE-BJO) and brusatol-free BJO (BF-BJO) and at exploring the effects and mechanisms of BE-BJO on colon inflammation and intestinal epithelial barrier function. Balb/C mice received 3% (wt/vol) DSS for one week to establish the UC model. Different doses of BE-BJO, BF-BJO, or BJO were treated. The result illustrated that BE-BJO alleviated DSS-induced loss of body weight, an increase of disease activity index (DAI), and a shortening of colon, whereas BF-BJO did not have these protective effects. BE-BJO treatment improved the morphology of colon tissue, inhibited the production and release of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6, and IL-1β in the colon tissue, and reversed the decreased expressions of ZO-1, occludin, claudin-1, and E-cadherin induced by DSS but augmented claudin-2 expression. Mechanistically, BE-BJO repressed phosphorylation of NF-κB subunit p65, suppressed RhoA activation, downregulated ROCK, and prevented phosphorylation of myosin light chain (MLC) in DSS-treated mice, indicating that the protective effect of BE-BJO is attributed to suppression of NF-κB and RhoA/ROCK signaling pathways. These findings confirm that brusatol is an active component from BJO in the treatment of UC.

Dexmedetomidine is an α2 adrenergic receptor agonist that has been reported to modulate the polarization of CD4+ T cells. However, the underlying mechanisms by which dexmedetomidine induces T-helper 1 (Th1) cell differentiation remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore the potential mechanisms through which dexmedetomidine can induce Th1 cell differentiation. Purified CD4+ T cells were stimulated with anti-CD3/anti-CD28 and then treated with dexmedetomidine. Flow cytometry analysis was adopted to measure the concentration of Th1 cells. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) were performed to detect protein levels and mRNA expression, respectively, of IFN-γ and IL-4. Western blotting was used to determine the phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) and T-bet expression. The Th1 cell subset and IFN-γ levels were elevated in the dexmedetomidine-induced CD4+ T cells. Dexmedetomidine enhanced the phosphorylation of STAT1 and the expression of T-bet in the CD4+ T cells. Atipamezole (an α2 adrenergic antagonist) and fludarabine (a STAT1 inhibitor) reversed the dexmedetomidine-induced Th1 cell differentiation. These results suggested that dexmedetomidine induced Th1 cell differentiation via the STAT1-T-bet signaling pathway.

BACKGROUND: Laminin alpha 4 (LAMA4) is widely distributed in the basement membranes of various tissues. It can regulate cancer cell proliferation and migration. We investigated the effects of LAMA4 in gastric cancer (GC). METHODS: LAMA4 expression patterns were analyzed in GC using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA), and UALCAN. Correlations between LAMA4 expression and clinicopathological characteristics were evaluated using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The survival analysis was examined using the Kaplan-Meier plotter and GEPIA and ascertained by multivariate Cox analysis. Genetic alterations and DNA methylation of LAMA4 were analyzed using cBioPortal and MethSurv. LinkedOmics was applied to identify coexpressed genes of LAMA4. The association between LAMA4 and infiltration of immune cells was explored using Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) and GEPIA. RESULTS: LAMA4 was highly expressed in GC, and its upregulation significantly correlated with T classification (P = 0.040). LAMA4 expression was an independent risk factor for overall survival (OS, P = 0.033). Patients with genetic alterations of LAMA4 showed a significantly better disease-free survival (DFS, P = 0.022). Ten CpG sites of LAMA4 were significantly associated with prognosis in GC. The functions of LAMA4 and coexpression genes were mainly involved in extracellular matrix (ECM) receptor interaction. LAMA4 expression significantly correlated with infiltration of macrophages (P < 0.001), CD4+ T cells (P < 0.001), and dendritic cells (P < 0.001). Furthermore, LAMA4 expression was significantly associated with markers of M2 and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). CONCLUSION: LAMA4 expression was linked to GC prognosis and immune cell infiltration, indicating its potential use as a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target.

Human Parainfluenza Virus Type 3 (HPIV3) is one of the main pathogens that cause acute lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children. However, there are currently no effective antiviral drugs and vaccines. Herein, we found that a natural compound, curcumin, inhibits HPIV3 infection and has antiviral effects on entry and replication of the virus life cycle. Immunofluorescence and western blotting experiments revealed that curcumin disrupts F-actin and inhibits viral inclusion body (IB) formation, thus inhibiting virus replication. Curcumin can also downregulate cellular PI4KB and interrupt its colocalization in viral IBs. This study verified the antiviral ability of curcumin on HPIV3 infection and preliminarily elucidated its influence on viral replication, providing a theoretical basis for antiviral drug development of HPIV3 and other parainfluenza viruses.

In order to evaluate the importance of deep learning techniques in stroke diseases, this paper systematically reviews the relevant literature. Deep learning techniques have a significant impact on the diagnosis, treatment, and prediction of stroke. In addition, this study also discusses the current bottlenecks and the future development prospects of deep learning technology.

OBJECTIVE: The study is aimed at evaluating the effect of the integrity of lateral wall on the quality of reduction and outcome in intertrochanteric fracture treated with proximal femoral nail antirotation (PFNA). METHODS: Medical record systems for elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture treated with PFNA were included. The patients were divided into incompetent and intact lateral wall groups. Patients' baseline characteristics, quality of reduction, and Harris Hip scores (HHS) were collected. RESULTS: The study included 115 patients with intertrochanteric fractures, with 59 in the incompetent lateral wall group and 56 in the intact group. Lateral wall thickness was 16.47 ± 2.46 mm and 23.68 ± 1.59 mm in the incompetent group and intact group (t = -18.766, P < 0.001), respectively. There was no significant difference in the quality of reduction (P = 0.646) between intact and incompetent groups. Mean HHS at final follow-up were 83.02 ± 13.89 in the incompetent group and 86.04 ± 3.39 in the intact group, with no significant difference (P = 0.123). In addition, there was no significant difference in weight-bearing or clinical healing between intact and incompetent groups. The partial weight-bearing with crutches was allowed at 2.71 ± 0.93 and 2.66 ± 1.01 weeks after the operation in the incompetent and intact groups. Time to clinical healing was 5.83 ± 0.99 and 6.00 ± 0.92 months in the incompetent and intact groups, respectively. However, the operative time in the incompetent group (58.54 ± 18.14 mins) were longer than that in the intact group (51.79 ± 17.77 mins). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, it seems that lateral wall thickness does not affect the quality of reduction and outcome in patients with intertrochanteric fracture receiving PFNA.

BACKGROUND: Patients can access medical services such as disease diagnosis online, medical treatment guidance, and medication guidance that are provided by doctors from all over the country at home. Due to the complexity of scenarios applying medical services online and the necessity of professionalism of knowledge, the traditional recommendation methods in the medical field are confronting with problems such as low computational efficiency and poor effectiveness. At the same time, patients consulting online come from all sides, and most of them suffer from nonacute or malignant diseases, and hence, there may be offline medical treatment. Therefore, this paper proposes an online prediagnosis doctor recommendation model by integrating ontology characteristics and disease text. Particularly, this recommendation model takes full consideration of geographical location of patients. OBJECTIVE: The recommendation model takes the real consultation data from online as the research object, fully testifying its effectiveness. Specifically, this model would make recommendation to patients on department and doctors based on patients' information of symptoms, diagnosis, and geographical location, as well as doctor's specialty and their department. METHODS: Utilizing crawler technique, five hospital departments were selected from the online medical service platform. The names of the departments were in accordance with the standardized department names used in real hospitals (e.g., endocrinology, dermatology, gynemetrics, pediatrics, and neurology). As a result, a dataset consisting of 20000 consultation questions by patients was built. Through the application of Python and MySQL algorithms, replacing semantic dictionary retrieval or word frequency statistics, word vectors were utilized to measure similarity between patients' prediagnosis and doctors' specialty, forming a recommendation framework on medical departments or doctors based on the above-obtained sentence similarity measurement and providing recommendation advices on intentional departments and doctors. RESULTS: In the online medical field, compared with the traditional recommendation method, the model proposed in the paper is of higher recommendation accuracy and feasibility in terms of department and doctor recommendation effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed online prediagnosis doctor recommendation model integrates ontology characteristics and disease text mining. The model gives a relatively more accurate recommendation advice based on ontology characteristics such as patients' description texts and doctors' specialties. Furthermore, the model also gives full consideration on patients' location factors. As a result, the proposed online prediagnosis doctor recommendation model would improve patients' online consultation experience and offline treatment convenience, enriching the value of online prediagnosis data.

Sri Lanka achieved elimination status for lymphatic filariasis in 2016; still, the disease remains a potential public health issue. The present study is aimed at identifying a subperiodic Brugia sp. parasite which has reemerged in Sri Lanka after four decades via molecular-based analysis. Polymerase chain reaction performed with pan-filarial primers specific for the internal transcribed spacer region-2 (ITS-2) of the rDNA of Brugia filarial parasites isolated from human, canine, and feline blood samples yielded a 615 bp band establishing the species identity as Brugia malayi. Comparison of the ITS2 sequences of the reemerged B. malayi isolates with GenBank sequences revealed a higher sequence homology with B. pahangi than B. malayi with similar phylogenetic evidence. However, the mean interspecies Kimura-2-parameter pairwise divergence between the generated Brugia sequences with B. malayi and B. pahangi was less than 3%. During the analysis of parsimony sites of the new ITS2 sequences, substitutions at A36T, A296G, T373A, and G482A made the sequences different from both B. pahangi and B. malayi suggesting the possibility of a new genetic variant or a hybrid strain of B. malayi and B. pahangi. Mosquito dissections and xenomonitoring identified M. uniformis and M. annulifera as vectors of this novel strain of B. malayi circulating among cats, dogs, and humans in Sri Lanka.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 patients can present with neurological manifestations in the form of headache, dizziness, hyposmia, myalgia, peripheral neuropathy, acute cerebrovascular disease, and encephalopathy. Neurological involvement could be due to virus-induced brain hypoxia, brain infection, or immune reaction. We aim to describe the neurological presentation of COVID-19 patients and study their neuroimaging findings and disease outcome. METHOD: The study is a single-centre, retrospective, observational study in Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC), Abu Dhabi, UAE. Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between March and May 2020 who presented with neuropathological features with or without respiratory manifestations of COVID-19 were enrolled. Electronic records were studied for age, sex, duration of hospitalization, detailed neurological presentation, history or documented concomitant fever and respiratory features of COVID-19, inflammatory markers, neuroimaging, progress, and disease outcome. RESULTS: Thirty-three patients of 10 nationalities presented with neurological manifestations. Mean (range) age was 51.4 (21-86) years. Twenty-four had comorbidities, and 18 had no prior or concomitant respiratory symptoms. Ten patients presented with encephalopathy and exhibited altered behavior/sensorium: 7 presented with myositis, 8 with stroke, and 4 with seizures, and 4 had peripheral and cranial nerve involvement. The mean (average) duration of hospital stay was 11.4 days (1-38) with the longest observed in stroke patients. Fifteen patients (45%) died and 3 (9%) had residual weakness. Serum ferritin, CRP, and procalcitonin were higher in the severe disease group and correlated with risk of death. Twelve of 22 brain images showed abnormalities including haemorrhage, infarcts, small vessel ischemia, and oedema. Risk of death was higher in older age but did not differ based on the underlying neuropathology. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 patients who present with neurological involvement have a higher risk of mortality which is aggravated by older age and higher inflammatory markers. The type of neurological pathology does not seem to influence the risk of mortality.

Oncotherapeutics like doxorubicin can affect male gonads; as a result, it leads to infertility. This work was conducted to demonstrate the toxic effects of doxorubicin on testes of male albino rats. Fifty male albino rats aged 5-7 weeks were used in this study. The animals were randomly separated into 5 sets (each set containing ten rats). Group I received saline (i.p.) for 4 weeks. Group II was given doxorubicin (DOX), 5 mg/kg BW (i.p.) once/week for 4 weeks. Groups III and IV were treated in the same way as the DOX group, left for one week without medication, and then injected with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) or human placental extract (HPE) therapy in a single dose of 5 × 106 in 200 ml PRP/week or 40 μl placental extract for 4 weeks via the caudal vein. Group V rats were treated in the same way as the DOX group also, left for one week without medication, and then injected with MSC+HPE. A significant decrease in serum testosterone, FSH, and LH levels was observed in rats treated with DOX compared to the control group. A significant elevation was recorded in rats treated with DOX+MSC or DOX+HPE when compared with the DOX group only. Rats that were given MSC+HPE after DOX intoxication showed a significant increase in hormone levels when compared to rats treated with either MSC or HPE. Light and electron microscopic examinations revealed that DOX intoxication initiated degenerative and necrotic changes in seminiferous tubules associated with partial or complete cessation of spermatogenesis. These effects were reversed by the effect of MSC or HPE. Coadministration of MSC and HPE even showed further improvement. Finally, we can say that doxorubicin has a deleterious impact on rat testes; however, therapeutic effects can be induced through MSC and/or HPE administration.

OBJECTIVES: To discuss the mutational features and their relationships with disease in a family with hereditary multiple osteochondroma (HMO) from Guangxi Province (GXBB-1 family), China. METHODS: Genomic DNA and total mRNA were extracted from peripheral blood cells of GXBB-1 family members. Whole elements of the EXT1gene and its transcript, including exons, introns, exon-intron boundaries, and coding sequence (CDS) clones, were amplified and sequenced. Allele-specific PCR was used to confirm the position and type of mutation. RESULTS: All patients from the GXBB-1 family harbored the cosegregating heterozygous c.1056+1G>A mutation located in EXT1at an exon-intron boundary. Another three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were also detected in the patients, including IVS2+1G>A in intron 2, c.1844 T>C [p.Pro (CCT) 614Pro (CCC)] in exon 3, and c.2534G>A [p.Glu (GAG) 844Glu (GAA)] in exon 9. The latter two SNPs were synonymous variations. CONCLUSIONS: The heterozygous c.1056+1G>A mutation cosegregated with the phenotype, indicating that it is a pathogenic mutation in the GXBB-1 family. This mutation is reported for the first time in Chinese HMO patients. IVS2+1G>A and c.2534G>A have no relationship with the occurrence of disease. However, c.1844 T>C and c.1056+1G>A are linked, and their interaction needs to be further studied. c.1844T>C is a new SNP that has not been reported internationally.

The results of recent animal studies have suggested that cochlear synaptopathy may be an important factor involved in presbycusis. Therefore, here, we aimed to examine whether cochlear synaptopathy frequently exists in patients with presbycusis and to describe the effect of cochlear synaptopathy on speech recognition in noise. Based on the medical history and an audiological examination, 94 elderly patients with bilateral, symmetrical, sensorineural hearing loss were diagnosed as presbycusis. An electrocochleogram, auditory brainstem responses, auditory cortical evoked potentials, and speech audiometry were recorded to access the function of the auditory pathway. First, 65 ears with hearing levels of 41-50 dB HL were grouped based on the summating potential/action potential (SP/AP) ratio, and the amplitudes of AP and SP were compared between the two resulting groups. Second, 188 ears were divided into two groups: the normal SP/AP and abnormal SP/AP groups. The speech recognition abilities in the two groups were compared. Finally, the relationship between abnormal electrocochleogram and poor speech recognition (signal-to-noise ratio loss ≥7 dB) was analyzed in 188 ears. The results of the present study showed: (1) a remarkable reduction in the action potential amplitude was observed in patients with abnormal SP/AP ratios; this suggests that cochlear synaptopathy was involved in presbycusis. (2) There was a large proportion of patients with poor speech recognition in the abnormal SP/AP group. Furthermore, a larger number of cases with abnormal SP/AP ratios were confirmed among patients with presbycusis and poor speech recognition. We concluded that cochlear synaptopathy is not uncommon among elderly individuals who have hearing ability deficits, and it may have a more pronounced effect on ears with declining auditory performance in noisy environments.

DESIGN: A systematic review. Data Sources. 114 studies were gathered using the following search descriptors: ("mobile phone" OR "smartphone" OR "cell phone" OR "mobile device" OR "mobile apps" OR "mHealth") AND ("exercise" OR "physical activity" OR "physical fitness" OR "motor activity") AND ("physiological outcomes" OR "weight outcomes" OR "psychological outcomes" OR "health" OR "health behavior"). Seven databases were used including databases such as Academic Search Premier and PubMed. PRISMA guidelines were followed in this review. Eligibility Criteria for Selecting Studies. The 20 articles included in this review met the following inclusion criteria: (1) randomized and controlled trials, (2) involving an outcome variable measured by accelerometer, and (3) intervention enforced by a smartphone application. RESULTS: Overall, 56% of the studies reviewed in this paper resulted in successful interventions. Of the 19 articles that examined the first individual health outcome of physical and physiological outcomes, 11 interventions resulted in a positive effect on one of the following parameters: MVPA/step count, sedentary behavior, cardiorespiratory fitness, and blood pressure. Six interventions examined the effects on the second individual health outcome, weight-related outcomes. Five of these interventions observed significant positive effects from mobile application interventions on weight and waist circumference. Six articles evaluated the effectiveness of smartphone-based physical activity interventions on the third and final individual health outcome, psychological outcomes, with four resulting in significant positive outcomes in self-efficacy, life enjoyment/satisfaction, and intrinsic PA motivation. CONCLUSION: The findings in this review suggest that mobile application physical activity interventions, compared to unguided exercise activities, can effectively improve certain health outcomes for individuals such as physical/physiological and weight-related outcomes. It was found that research in the area of effectiveness of mobile application interventions on specific psychosocial health outcomes such as self-efficacy, life enjoyment, and intrinsic PA motivation is limited. Thus, the effect of mobile health applications remains unclear for psychosocial outcomes. Due to this limitation, more research is warranted to confirm the findings of this review.

TRAF6 has been reported to be associated with poor prognosis in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, its precise role in tumor development has not been elaborated. In the present study, the function and the mechanism by which TRAF6 contributes to development were intensively investigated. TRAF6 was found to be overexpressed in primary NSCLC tumor tissue and all tested cell lines. Knockdown of TRAF6 with shRNA substantially attenuated NSCLC cell proliferation and anchorage-independent growth. Moreover, tumor glycolysis, such as glucose consumption and lactate production, also significantly impaired. In TRAF6-deficient cells, hexokinase-2 expression was significantly reduced, which was caused by the decrease of HIF-1α transcriptional activity. Further investigations demonstrated that TRAF6 played an important role in the regulation of Akt activation, and exogenous overexpression of constitutively activated Akt substantially rescued glycolysis suppression in TRAF6 knockdown cells. The results of the xenograft model confirmed that downregulation of TRAF6 in NSCLC tumor cells dramatically restrained tumor growth in vivo. Taken together, our studies revealed the mechanism by which TRAF6 exerts its role in NSCLC development and suggested TRAF6 maybe was a promising candidate target for lung cancer prevention and therapy.

This study investigates the antioxidant activities of lipid, protein, and carbohydrate extracts from the marine mollusk Perna canaliculus. Lipids were extracted using acetone, which was followed by protein extraction using the broad-spectrum enzyme Alcalase and then carbohydrate extraction using cetylpyridinium chloride. Eighty white BALB/c mice were divided into eight groups according to the administered extracts. Groups 1 and 5 were the control and toxin control groups, respectively. Groups 2, 3, and 4 were administered lipid, protein, and carbohydrate extracts, respectively. The other groups were administered P. canaliculus extracts as well as gentamicin and acetaminophen, known as ethanolic extracts, derived from Nerium oleander to induce oxidation stress. All groups showed significant improvements in body weight (p < 0.05). The lipid extract group showed a significant decrease in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p < 0.05) and a significant increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p < 0.05). After the toxin injection, all groups treated with P. canaliculus extracts showed increased antioxidant effects on hepatocytes (p < 0.05). The lipid extracts induced antioxidant effects to protect the kidney by increasing lipid peroxidation (p < 0.05) and catalase activities (p < 0.05). Also, protein extracts showed antioxidant effects by increasing glutathione and catalase levels significantly (p < 0.005). In conclusion, P. canaliculus extracts, especially lipids and proteins, have potent antioxidant activities that protect vital organs from oxidation stress.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to clarify the postsurgical stability of temporomandibular joints in skeletal class III patients treated with 2-jaw orthognathic surgery which was performed utilizing computer-aided three-dimensional simulation and navigation in orthognathic surgery (CASNOS) protocol. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 23 consecutive nongrowing skeletal class III patients with mandibular prognathism associated with maxillary retrognathism treated with 2-jaw orthognathic surgery between 2018 and 2019 were enrolled in this study. The surgery was planned according to the standardized protocol of CASNOS (computer-aided three-dimensional simulation and navigation in orthognathic surgery). Computed tomography (CT) scans were performed in all patients 3 weeks presurgically and 6 months postsurgically. ITKSNAP and 3D Slicer software were used to reconstruct three-dimensional facial skeletal images, to carry out image segmentation, and to superimpose and quantify the TMJ position changes before and after surgery. Amount of displacement of the most medial and lateral points of the condyles and the change of intercondylar angles were measured to evaluate the postsurgical stability of TMJ. RESULTS: A total amount of 23 skeletal class III patients (female : male = 12 : 11) with age ranged from 20.3 to 33.5 years (mean: 24.39 ± 4.8 years old) underwent Le Fort I maxillary advancement and BSSO setback of the mandible. The surgical outcome revealed the satisfactory correction of their skeletal deformities. The mean displacement of the right most lateral condylar point (RL-RL') was 1.04 ± 0.42 mm and the mean displacement of the left most lateral condylar point (LL-LL') was 1.19 ± 0.41 mm. The mean displacement of the right most medial condylar point (RM-RM') was 1.03 ± 0.39 mm and the left most medial condylar point (LM-LM') was 0.96 ± 0.39 mm. The mean intercondylar angle was 161.61 ± 5.08° presurgically and 159.28 ± 4.92° postsurgically. CONCLUSION: The postsurgical position of TM joint condyles in our study only presented a mild change with all the landmark displacement within a range of 1.2 mm. This indicates the bimaxillary orthognathic surgery via 3D CASNOS protocol can achieve a desired and stable result of TMJ position in treating skeletal class III adult patients with retrognathic maxilla and prognathic mandible.

Hyperlipidemia causes nervous system-related diseases. Exercise training has developed into an established evidence-based treatment strategy that is beneficial for neuronal injury. This study investigated the effect of exercise on hyperlipidemia-induced neuronal injury in apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE-/-) mice. Male ApoE-/- mice (age: 8 weeks) were randomly divided into four groups as follows: mice fed a normal diet (ND), normal diet+swimming training (ND+S), high-fat diet (HD), and high-fat diet+swimming (HD+S). Exercise training consisted of swimming for 40 min/day, 5 days/week for 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, we measured serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c). We also evaluated glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression levels using immunohistochemistry, real-time PCR, and immunoblotting. In addition, NLR family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3), interleukin- (IL-) 18, caspase-1, Bax, Bcl-2, and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) expression levels were measured using immunoblotting. Serum levels of TG, TC, and LDL-c were lower in ApoE-/- HD+S mice than in ApoE-/- HD mice. Immunohistochemistry, real-time PCR, and immunoblotting showed increased levels of GFAP in the ApoE-/- HD group. Immunoblotting revealed increased levels of NLRP3, IL-18, caspase-1, Bax, Bcl-2, and p-ERK in the ApoE-/- HD group; however, they were significantly suppressed in the ApoE-/- HD+S group. Therefore, exercise has protective effects against neuronal injury caused by hyperlipidemia.

Taking decisions is important in every aspect of life. Decision-making has become a difficult problem in any situation where there are multiple criteria. The application of multicriteria decision-making methods that can bring mathematical and logical solutions to the problem from an analytical perspective has experienced considerable growth recently. It provides great benefits in solution and subsequent stages. Medical equipment selection is also a challenging, complex, and difficult problem for the decision-maker, due to the requirements of conflicting criteria, which must be taken into account simultaneously. In this context, the aim of this study implicates the principle of multicriteria decision-making theories on various types of instruments used in dentistry. Since the data used in this study are not numeric but linguistic, the Fuzzy PROMETHEE decision-making method is used. In this research, six dental tools most commonly used by professionals to perform operations on patients are compared and evaluated. Fuzzy PROMETHEE decision-making method investigations show that the dental mirror is the most effective tool among all compared tools, followed by dental suction, dental air abrasion, dental handpiece, dental laser, and dental X-ray, consequently, basing on the selected criteria and the importance weight given to each criterion. Using this technique, one can obtain more specific ranking results based on a specific preference level.

BACKGROUND: Implanon discontinuation is unacceptably high in developing countries, including Ethiopia. Furthermore, there is an observed problem of high unintended pregnancy after method discontinuation that strides to program failure. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the level and determinants of Implanon discontinuation among women who used Implanon in Andabet district, public health facilities, North-West Ethiopia, 2017. METHODS: Facility-based cross-sectional study design was employed among 537 women from Feb. 03 to April 28, 2017. Study participants were selected using a systematic random sampling technique. A face-to-face interview was employed to collect data. Epi-Info version 7 was used for data entry and SPSS version 20 for analysis. Both descriptive and analytical statistical analysis was computed. On multivariable binary logistic regression, a p value of less than 0.05 was used to declare statistical significance. RESULTS: About 37% of Implanon users have discontinued the method before the intended time. About 86% of them discontinued Implanon before two years of insertion. Women who had no live child (AOR = 2.17, 95% CI: 1.25-3.77), women who did not receive preinsertion counseling (AOR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.15-2.97), women who developed Implanon-related side effect (AOR = 5.17, 95% CI: 3.18-8.40), and women who did not satisfy by the service provided (AOR = 5.40, 95% CI: 3.04-9.57) had higher odds of Implanon discontinuation. On the other hand, women who received appointment follow-up (AOR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.13-0.41) had lower odds of Implanon discontinuation. CONCLUSIONS: The level of Implanon discontinuation before its intended time was high in the district. Hence, strengthening preinsertion counseling and appointment follow-up as well as improving the clients' level of service satisfaction could increase Implanon's continuation.

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen present on a third of the healthy population. The bacterium possesses an extensive arsenal of virulence factors. The pathogenicity is linked with S. aureus high plasticity and its exceptional ability to incorporate foreign genetic material. The aim of the present study was to perform molecular characterization of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from the clinical environment of the CHU-Z Abomey-Calavi/Sô-Ava. Isolation of Staphylococcus aureus bacterium was performed on Chapman agar. Toxin production by isolated S. aureus strains was investigated using the radial immunoprecipitation technique. A colorimetric assay was used to evaluate Staphylococcus aureus lipase (SA-Lipase) production. Finally, the expression of antibiotic resistance genes and genes encoding toxins production was investigated. Our data suggest that none of the isolated Staphylococcus aureus strains expressed the investigated toxin genes. Interestingly, SA-Lipase was produced by 14.28% of our isolated S. aureus strains. The mecA gene was present in 57.14% of the isolated strains, while PVL and TSST-1 genes were identified in 2.85 and 7.14% of S. aureus, respectively. Significant genetic diversity was observed along the hospital environment S. aureus strains. The present study reveals the level of virulence of S. aureus strains isolated in the different units of CHU-Z Abomey Calavi/Sô-Ava through the production of lipase, PVL, and epidermolysins. The molecular study has favored a genetic characterization within the isolated strains.

BACKGROUND: The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2014 report indicates that anemia among women in their reproductive age in the country stood at 42 percent, making it a severe public health problem according to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification. WHO Global Observatory data indicates that some sub-Saharan African countries have been able to reduce the prevalence of anemia among women of reproductive age compared to Ghana in 2016. To inform policy decisions, data from the Demographic and Health Surveys 2014-2018 were analyzed to determine the disparities in the prevalence of anemia and related factors among women of reproductive age in Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. METHODS: This research utilized data from the Demographic and Health Surveys 2014, 2016, 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016 from Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, respectively. Respondents were women aged between 15 and 49 years. Hemoglobin levels were measured by HemoCue hemoglobin meter. 45,299 women data were extracted from the five countries with 4,644, 14,923, 6,680, 13,064, and 5,988 from Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, respectively. Association between anemia and selected predictive variables was assessed using Pearson's chi-square test statistic. Poisson regression with robust standard errors was used to estimate the prevalence rate ratios of developing anemia. The deviance goodness of fit test was employed to test the fit of the Poisson model to the data set. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in prevalence of 1,962 (42.3%), 3,527 (23.6%), 1,284 (19.3%), 5,857 (44.8%), and 1,898 (31.7%) for Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, respectively, χ 2 = 2,181.86 and p value < 0.001. Parity, pregnancy status, and contraceptives significantly increased the prevalence rate ratio of a woman developing anemia. Women in Ethiopia with a parity of six or more were 58% more likely to develop anemia than those with parity of zero. Tanzanian women who were pregnant had a 14% increased rate ratio of developing anemia. Factors that significantly decreased anemia in this study were wealth index, women's age, and women's highest level of education. Women who were in the higher education category in Ethiopia were 57% less likely to develop anemia. Ugandan women in the richest category of the wealth index were 28% less likely to develop anemia. Rwandan women in the middle category of the wealth index were 20% less likely to develop anemia. Women who were within the 45-49 age category in Ethiopia were 48% less likely to develop anemia. CONCLUSION: The individual country governments should encourage the implementation of increasing female enrollment in higher education. Women in their reproductive age should be encouraged to use modern contraceptives to reduce their anemia prevalence.

BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary malignancy in adults with high aggression. The prognosis of GBM patients is poor. There is a critical need for novel biomarkers for the prognosis and therapy of GBM. METHODS: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in GBM were screened using TCGA cohort. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed on DEGs to identify the optimal prognosis-related genes. qRT-PCR was performed to verify the result. RESULTS: A total of 5216 DEGs, including 2785 upregulated and 2458 downregulated genes, were obtained. Enrichment analysis revealed that these DEGs were mainly involved in the p53 signaling pathway and cell cycle, immune response, and MAPK signaling pathways. Moreover, the top 50 DEGs were associated with drug resistance or drug sensitivity. Prognosis analysis revealed that GBM patients with a high expression of CD163 and CHI3L2 had a poor overall survival, prognosis-free survival, and disease-specific survival. The univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that CD163 and age were independent factors affecting the prognosis of GBM patients. A validation study revealed that CD163 was upregulated in GBM tissues and associated with poor overall survival. Moreover, further analysis revealed that CD163 showed significant correlation with immune cells, immune biomarkers, chemokines, and chemokine receptors. We also identified several CD163-associated kinase, miRNA, and transcription factor targets in GBM, including LCK, miR-483, and ELF1. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, our study suggested CD163 as a prognostic biomarker and associated it with immune infiltration in GBM.

Psoriasis is a common disease in dermatology, but its etiology and pathogenesis have not been fully elucidated. In recent years, researchers have found that HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) plays an important role in biological processes as an important long-chain noncoding RNA (lncRNA). The goal of this study was to investigate the association between HOTAIR polymorphisms and psoriasis in a Chinese Han population by screening key candidate single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) sites in HOTAIR. A total of 269 patients diagnosed with psoriasis and 273 healthy control subjects were enrolled in this case-control study. Three SNPs of HOTAIR were genotyped: SNP1 (rs12826786), SNP2 (rs1899663), and SNP3 (rs4759314). All polymorphisms were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in both the control and patient groups, and the SNPs were in linkage disequilibrium. The distribution of the rs4759314 genotype in the control group and case group was statistically significant according to all the models except the recessive model (adjusted p value < 0.05), and the CCG haplotype group had a significant difference (OR (95%CI) = 2.907 (1.344 - 6.289), adjusted p value = 0.0263). rs12826786 was associated with a risk of psoriasis according to the dominant model (C/T-T/T vs. C/C: OR (95%CI) = 0.70 (0.48 - 1.01), adjusted p value = 0.049) and overdominant model (C/T vs. C/C-T/T: OR (95%CI) = 0.69 (0.47 - 1.01), adjusted p value = 0.048). The current work showed that a genomic variant within HOTAIR was associated with a risk of psoriasis, and the clinical value of this study should be further evaluated in the future.

Dibutyl phthalate is an endocrine disruptor used in a wide range of industrial and agriculture applications. The present study focuses on elucidating the effect of subacute exposure (4-weeks) of DBP on insulin and its sensitivity indexes, oxidative status, thyroid function, energy metabolites, serum biochemistry, and anthropometry in rats. A total of 64 rats were divided into 4 treatment groups as mg DBP/Kg body weight per day: (a) 0 mg/Kg (control), (b) 10 mg/Kg (DBP-10), (c) 50 mg/Kg (DBP-50), and (d) 100 mg/Kg (DBP-100). The rats in each treatment (n = 16) were further divided into male (n = 8) and female (n = 8) rats for studying treatment and gender interactions. Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT) was performed on the 21st day. Anthropometry, nutritional determinants, fasting plasma glucose, fasting plasma insulin, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA), thyroid hormones, energy metabolites, and oxidative status were studied during the experimental period. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data (p < 0.05). Tukey's posthoc test was used for pair-wise comparisons. DBP increased body weight gain and feed efficiency in an inverted nonmonotonic U-shaped fashion. Hyperglycemia and increased blood glucose area under the curve were observed in DBP-100 at 120 minutes in IPGTT. The HOMA also showed a linear monotonic contrast. Thyroxin decreased significantly in the DBP-100 rats, whereas malondialdehyde, nonesterified fatty acids, and beta hydroxyl butyrate were increased with the DBP treatments. In conclusion, DBP could be attributed to the development of hyperglycemia and insulin resistance in rats. Further investigations into the lipid peroxidation pathways can improve our understanding of the mechanisms involved in metabolic disruption.

BACKGROUND: The competing endogenous RNA- (ceRNA-) mediated regulatory mechanisms are known to play a pivotal role in intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). Our research intended to establish a ceRNA regulatory network related to IDD through bioinformatics analyses. METHODS: The expression profiles of circRNA, miRNA, and mRNA were obtained from the public Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. Then, we use sequence-based bioinformatics methods to select differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs), microRNAs (DEmiRNAs), or circRNAs (DEcircRNAs) related to IDD. We used ChEA3 to verify the targets of transcription factors (TFs). Then, we used DAVID to annotate the DEmRNAs. Finally, we constructed a potentially circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network related to IDD by predicting in the database (ENCORI, TargetScan, miRecords, miRmap, and circBank). RESULTS: We identified 31 common DEmRNAs by Venn analysis, of which MMP2 was regarded as the key hub genes. Simultaneously, miR-423-5p and miR-185-5p were predicted as the upstream molecules of MMP2. Furthermore, a total of six DEcircRNAs were predicted as the upstream circRNAs of miR-423-5p and miR-185-5p. Then, a potential circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network related to IDD was constructed by bioinformatics analysis. CONCLUSION: A comprehensive ceRNA regulatory network was constructed, which was found to be significant in IDD progression.

Irreversible loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is a common pathological feature of various optic nerve degenerative diseases such as glaucoma and ischemic optic neuropathy. Effective protection of RGCs is the key to successful treatment of these diseases. Total Panax notoginseng saponins (TPNS) are the main active component of Panax notoginseng, which has an inhibitory effect on the apoptosis pathway. This study is aimed at assessing the protective effect of TPNS on RGCs of the optic nerve crush (ONC) model of rats and exploring the underlying mechanisms. The intraperitoneal or intravitreal injection of TPNS was used based on the establishment of the rat ONC model. Fifteen days after the injury, the cell membrane fluorescent probe (Fluoro-Gold) was applied to retrograde RGCs through the superior colliculus and obtain the number of surviving RGCs. TUNEL assay was also used to detect the number and density of RGC apoptosis after the ONC model. The expression and distribution of Bcl-2/Bax, c-Jun/P-c-Jun, and P-JNK in the retina were demonstrated by Western blot analysis. After the intervention of TPNS, the rate of cell survival increased in different retinal regions (p < 0.05) and the number of apoptosis cells decreased. Regarding the expression of Bcl-2/Bax, c-Jun/P-c-Jun, and P-JNK-related apoptotic proteins, TPNS can reduce the level of apoptosis and play a role in protecting RGCs (p < 0.05). These findings indicate that topical administration of TPNS can inhibit cell apoptosis and promote RGC survival in the crushed optic nerve.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the stress status of fracture site caused by femoral neck shortening and to analyze the stress of fracture site and the implants from the finite element point of view. METHODS: CT scan data of hip of a normal adult female were collected. Three-dimensional reconstruction MICs and related module function simulation was used to establish the postoperative shortening model of femoral neck fracture with Pauwels angle > 50°, which was treated with cannulated screws. The models were divided into four groups: normal femoral neck, shortening in 2.5 mm, shortening in 7.5 mm, and shortening in 12.5 mm. The finite element analysis software msc.nastran2012 was used, and the data of maximum stress and stress nephogram of fracture site and implants were carried out. RESULTS: From normal femoral neck to shortening in 12.5 mm of the femoral neck, the maximum tensile stress increased gradually in the fracture site above the cannulated screws while compressive stress decreased gradually in the fracture site below the cannulated screws, and the maximum stress of the cannulated screws increased gradually with obvious stress concentration at the screw holes in the fracture site, and the peak value of stress concentration was about 179 MPa. CONCLUSION: The biomechanical environment of the fracture site changed by femoral neck shortening. With the increasing of femoral neck shortening, the stress of the fracture site and implants would be uneven; then, the stability of fracture site would become worse, and the possibility of implant sliding or even breakage would be increased.

BACKGROUND: Lipid metabolism may be altered in red cell genetic disorders. The erythrocyte and plasma lipids are defected which may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. In the present study, we hypothesized a possible link between severity of anemia and altered lipid profile in SCD. METHODS: A total of 151 SCD patients, including 62 patients with sickle cell anemia (SS), 54 patients with sickle β-thalassemia (ST), and 35 individuals with sickle cell trait (AS), were studied. The control group consisted of 160 healthy individuals. Total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were enzymatically measured. RESULTS: Total cholesterol and LDL-C were significantly lower (P value < 0.001) in SS and ST patients compared to AS individuals and AA controls. However, LDL-C was significantly lower in AS individuals (both males and female) compared to AA controls (P value < 0.001). The HDL-C in SS and ST patients (both males and females) was significantly lower than that in AS individuals (P value < 0.001). In addition, the HDL-C was significantly higher in SS and ST males and AS (males and females) compared to AA controls (P value < 0.001). The HDL-C was also significantly higher in SS males (P value < 0.001) and females (P value < 0.05) compared to ST patients. The HDL-C was significantly higher in AS individuals (P value < 0.001) compared to AA controls. The triglycerides in SS males was significantly lower than that in ST patients (P value < 0.001), but there was no significant difference when compared to AS individuals and AA controls. In contrast, triglycerides in SS females were significantly lower than those in ST (P value < 0.05), AS (P value < 0.001), and AA controls (P value < 0.001). In males of ST patients, triglycerides were significantly higher than those observed in AS males and AA males (P value < 0.001). In contrast, females of ST patients have a significantly lower triglycerides compared to AS and AA females (P value < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In SCD, the plasma is affected in some way, especially the plasma cholesterol that was investigated in this study. Further prospective studies should examine the contribution of an altered lipid profile to the severity and clinical complications in SCD patients.

OBJECTIVE: Increasing evidence emphasizes the implications of dysregulated apoptosis and autophagy cellular processes in coronary artery disease (CAD). Herein, we aimed to explore apoptosis- and autophagy-related long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in peripheral blood of CAD patients. METHODS: The mRNA and lncRNA expression profiles were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. With ∣fold change | >1.5 and adjusted p value < 0.05, differentially expressed apoptosis- and autophagy-related mRNAs were screened between CAD and healthy blood samples. Also, differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified for CAD. Using the psych package, apoptosis- and autophagy-related lncRNAs were defined with Spearson's correlation analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were conducted for the assessment of the diagnosed efficacy of these apoptosis- and autophagy-related lncRNAs. RESULTS: Our results showed that 24 apoptosis- and autophagy-related mRNAs were abnormally expressed in CAD than normal controls. 12 circulating upregulated and 1 downregulated apoptosis- and autophagy-related lncRNAs were identified for CAD. The ROCs confirmed that AC004485.3 (AUC = 0.899), AC004920.3 (AUC = 0.93), AJ006998.2 (AUC = 0.776), H19 (AUC = 0.943), RP5-902P8.10 (AUC = 0.956), RP5-1114G22.2 (AUC = 0.883), RP11-247A12.1 (AUC = 0.885), RP11-288L9.4 (AUC = 0.928), RP11-344B5.2 (AUC = 0.858), RP11-452C8.1 (AUC = 0.929), RP11-565A3.1 (AUC = 0.893), and XXbac-B33L19.4 (AUC = 0.932) exhibited good performance in differentiating CAD from healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Collectively, our findings proposed that circulating apoptosis- and autophagy-related lncRNAs could become underlying diagnostic markers for CAD in clinical practice.

Automated detection of brain tumor location is essential for both medical and analytical uses. In this paper, we clustered brain MRI images to detect tumor location. To obtain perfect results, we presented an unsupervised robust PCA algorithm to clustered images. The proposed method clusters brain MR image pixels to four leverages. The algorithm is implemented for five brain diseases such as glioma, Huntington, meningioma, Pick, and Alzheimer's. We used ten images of each disease to validate the optimal identification rate. According to the results obtained, 2% of the data in the bad leverage part of the image were determined, which acceptably discerned the tumor. Results show that this method has the potential to detect tumor location for brain disease with high sensitivity. Moreover, results show that the method for the Glioma images has approximately better results than others. However, according to the ROC curve for all selected diseases, the present method can find lesion location.

BACKGROUND: Testicular cancer is a malignant tumor of the testicles, the male reproductive organs that produce sperm and testosterone. It is one of the most common cancers in young men. This form of cancer can be easily diagnosed by self-examination of testicles and is curable if detected early. Periodic self-examination must be performed for early detection. Due to lack of knowledge on testicular cancer and testicular self-examination techniques, patients can potentially miss early detection. This study is aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding testicular cancer and testicular self-examination among male college students pursuing a Bachelor's degree. METHODS: A web-based cross-sectional analytical study was adopted to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of testicular cancer and testicular self-examination among male college students pursuing a Bachelor's degree and living in Bharatpur Metropolitan City in the Chitwan District of Nepal. The snowball sampling technique was employed to identify the eligible participants. Collected data were entered in SPSS version 22 and analyzed by using the Chi-square test, Pearson's correlation, and binary logistic regression. RESULTS: Out of 402 respondents, majority (56.7%) had poor knowledge regarding testicular cancer and testicular self-examination and only 11.4% had performed testicular self-examination. The majority (67.2%) of the respondents had shown an unfavorable attitude towards testicular cancer (TC) and testicular self-examination (TSE). There was a significant association between the level of knowledge and marital status 4.516 (1.962-10.397) and ethnicity 2.606 (1.443-4.709). Likewise, age 0.396 (0.191-0.821) and marital status 0.347 (0.156-0.775) have been significantly associated with testicular self-examination practice. Regarding favorable attitude, age 0.362 (0.186-0.706) and sources of information from mass media 2.346 (1.328-4.143) have been associated significantly. CONCLUSION: The study finding shows that the knowledge on testicular cancer and testicular self-examination was low. Due to lack of knowledge and trainings, the potential opportunities for early detection of testicular cancer are missed substantially. Periodic testicular self-examination is vital for early detection of testicular cancer. Hence, it is crucial to implement massive educational campaigns and trainings on testicular cancer and testicular self-examination techniques among young male groups.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the ameliorative potential of parsley (Petroselinum crispum) leaf essential oil (PO) against the detrimental effects of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) on the thyroid gland and testes of mice. Twenty-four adult male mice were divided into four groups and treated for 4 weeks. The 1st control group received 3 mL/kg olive oil intraperitoneally, twice a week followed by 0.5 mL/kg saline intragastrically daily. The 2nd CCl4 group received CCl4 (3 mL/kg intraperitoneally, twice a week). The 3rd PO group received PO (0.5 mL/kg intragastrically daily), while the 4th CCl4+PO group received CCl4 coadministrated with PO at the aforementioned doses. CCl4 group recorded significant (p < 0.05) reduction in the activities of antioxidant enzyme catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and significant (p < 0.05) increase in the lipid peroxidation end product's level malondialdehyde (MDA) in the testes and thyroid glands. Meanwhile, serum levels of testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and thyroid hormones (thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), total triiodothyronine (T3), free triiodothyronine (fT3), total thyroxine (T4), and free thyroxine (fT4)) significantly decreased. Also, histopathologically, the testicular tissue showed hypospermatogenesis within irregular-shaped seminiferous tubules with prominent edema in the interstitial spaces confirming the aforementioned biochemical alterations. Treatment with PO significantly reduced the testicular and thyroid oxidative stress (p < 0.05) and elevated the testosterone (73.47%), FSH (92.11%), LH (33.33%), T3 (23.47%), fT3 (39.13%), T4 (27.91%), and fT4 (75%) as compared to that of CCl4-treated group corresponding values. The PO GC/MS analysis indicated bioactive monoterpenes (major component is 1,3,8-mentha triene 34.48%) and phenylpropenes (major component is myristicin 21.04%). Results suggested the ameliorative effect of PO against CCl4-induced hypogonadism in mice by suppressing oxidative stress and maintaining thyroid gland function.

Programmed cell death 1 ligand (PD-L1) and its receptor (PD-1) are key molecules for immunoregulation and immunotherapy. PD-L1 binding PD-1 is an effective way to regulate T or B cell immunity in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In our study, we overexpressed PD-L1 by constructing a recombinant of PD-L1-lentiviral vector, which was subsequently used to transfect mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MBMMSCs) and significantly suppressed the development of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in DBA/1j mice. In addition, PD-L1-transfected MBMMSCs (PD-L1-MBMMSCs) ameliorated joint damage, reduced proinflammatory cytokine expression, and inhibited T and B cell activation. Furthermore, PD-L1-MBMMSCs decreased the number of dendritic cells and increased the numbers of regulatory T cells and regulatory B cells in joints of CIA mice. In conclusion, our results provided a potential therapeutic strategy for RA treatment with PD-L1-MBMMSC-targeted therapy.

BACKGROUND: Fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX) index was developed for estimating of the 10-year risk of major or hip osteoporotic fracture. To date, there is insufficient information regarding the correlation between FRAX and serum bone turnover markers (BTMs), such as soluble ligand of receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB (sRANKL), osteoprotegerin (OPG), and other molecules related with secondary osteoporosis in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Therefore, this study is aimed at assessing the correlation between the FRAX and serum levels of sRANKL, OPG, sRANKL/OPG ratio, Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1), and sclerostin (SOST) in RA. METHODS: Cross-sectional study included 156 postmenopausal women with RA. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured at lumbar spine (L1-L4) and total hip using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). RA patients were divided into (A) RA + osteoporosis and (B) RA without osteoporosis. FRAX scores were calculated including the total hip BMD. Serum sRANKL, OPG, DKK-1, and SOST levels were measured by ELISA. Pearson tests were used for assessing the correlation between serum levels of these molecules and FRAX scores in RA. RESULTS: The RA + osteoporosis group had elevated sRANKL levels (p = 0.005), higher sRANKL/OPG ratio (p = 0.017), decreased DKK-1 (p = 0.028), and lower SOST levels (p < 0.001). Low total hip BMD correlated with high sRANKL (p = 0.001) and sRANKL/OPG ratio (p = 0.005). Total hip and lumbar spine BMD correlated with DKK-1 (p = 0.009 and p = 0.05, respectively) and SOST levels (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). Higher sRANKL levels and sRANKL/OPG ratio correlated with estimated 10-year risk of a major osteoporotic fractures (p = 0.003 and p = 0.003, respectively) and hip fracture (p = 0.002 and p = 0.006, respectively). High serum SOST levels were associated with a low estimated 10-year risk of a major osteoporotic fracture (p = 0.003) and hip fracture (p = 0.009). CONCLUSION: High sRANKL levels and sRANKL/OPG ratio can be useful to detect a subgroup of RA patients who has an increased 10-year risk of major and hip osteoporotic fractures.

Since 2000, a good deal of progress has been made in malaria control. However, there is still an unacceptably high burden of the disease and numerous challenges limiting advancement towards its elimination and ultimate eradication. Among the challenges is the antimalarial drug resistance, which has been documented for almost all antimalarial drugs in current use. As a result, the malaria research community is working on the modification of existing treatments as well as the discovery and development of new drugs to counter the resistance challenges. To this effect, many products are in the pipeline and expected to be marketed soon. In addition to drug and vaccine development, mass drug administration (MDA) is under scientific scrutiny as an important strategy for effective utilization of the developed products. This review discusses the challenges related to malaria elimination, ongoing approaches to tackle the impact of drug-resistant malaria, and upcoming antimalarial drugs.

The retirement transition is a major life change affecting people's lifestyles and behaviors, including those in relation to physical activity (PA), which is a key component of active ageing. Previous research analyzing the effect of retirement on PA levels has shown mixed results, and few studies investigated this issue in a gender perspective, thus, highlighting a need of knowledge in this respect. Aims of this study focused on the experience of PA during the retirement transition were to understand typologies of PA and possible changes in these typologies, to identify behavioural types relative to PA practice and levels, and to distinguish the main drivers and barriers for practicing PA associated with the different behavioural types. A further goal of the study was to investigate the abovementioned aims considering differences between women and men. Analyses were carried out within a three-year qualitative longitudinal study (2014-2016), which explored the individual experience of PA during the transition from work to retirement of 24 women and 16 men in Italy, with interviews carried out one year before and one and two years after retirement. Results show that preferred PA for both women and men was walking, along the transition to retirement. Over time, several participants replaced physically demanding activities with lighter ones. Six behavioural types were identified, describing individuals who incremented, started, or maintained the same level of PA, people who decreased PA levels or stopped it, and individuals who had a fluctuant behavior towards PA, or who had never practiced it. In general, poor health represented the main barrier to PA. For men, the main driver to PA was its effects on body shape, while for women, socialization/networking. In order to stimulate a more effective promotion of PA during the retirement transition, policy implications were discussed in light of the results obtained.

Laryngeal carcinoma is a malignant disease with high morbidity and mortality. Several studies have indicated that miRNA dysfunction involves in the development of laryngeal carcinoma. In this study, the connection of miR-339-5p and laryngeal carcinoma was investigated, and qRT-PCR, CCK-8, and flow cytometry assay were used to observe the function of miR-339-5p on laryngeal carcinoma. Besides, the target database, dual-luciferase reporter assay, and western blot were used to explore the regulation mechanism of miR-339-5p on the progression of laryngeal carcinoma. The results showed that miR-339-5p was significantly downregulated in cisplatin-resistant cells of laryngeal carcinoma, and miR-339-5p upregulation could weaken the resistance of laryngeal carcinoma cells on cisplatin. Moreover, miR-339-5p could directly react with 3'-UTR of TAK1, and TAK1 could reverse the effects of miR-339-5p on the progression of autophagy. In conclusion, this study suggests that miR-339-5p can inhibit the autophagy to decrease the cisplatin resistance of laryngeal carcinoma via targeting TAK1.

Campylobacter enteritis is the leading cause of gastroenteritis in humans worldwide including Bangladesh. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence and antimicrobial-resistance status of Campylobacter spp. in human diarrheal samples collected from Surya Kanta Hospital, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. In this study, we evaluated a total of 330 clinical samples for the presence Campylobacter spp. via cultural and biochemical tests and molecular assays. Furthermore, antimicrobial susceptibility testing for Campylobacter species was accomplished by the standard agar disc diffusion technique against eight commercially available antimicrobial agents. A pretested semistructured questionnaire was used to capture the data on socioanthropological factors from the diarrheal patients. Pearson's chi-square test was performed, and a p value of <0.05 was considered for the level of significance. Nearly one in three diarrheal patients admitted in this hospital were infected with Campylobacter spp. Overall prevalence of Campylobacter spp. was estimated to be 31.5% (104/330) that comprised the prevalence of C. jejuni, 21.8% (n = 72), and C. coli, 9.6% (n = 32). Among the positive cases, the prevalence of Campylobacter was higher in the age group 0-5 years (52%) followed by 6-18 years (42.7%), 19-40 years (34.0%), 41-60 years (25.4%), and >60 years (10.5%). Age, family level's personal hygiene, and involvement with animal husbandry were captured as potential determinants to be associated with the Campylobacter positive status. Among the isolates, 27.3% (n = 20) of C. jejuni and 31.2% (n = 10) of C. coli demonstrated as multidrug-resistant (MDR) to three or more antimicrobial agents. The present study shows that Campylobacter spp. is most prevalent among the hospital-admitted diarrheal patients, and proper measures should be taken to reduce the burden focusing on the potential determinants.

BACKGROUND: Hemodynamic responses to laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation are transient in most patients. However, in some patients with a history of heart disease, systemic hypertension, or cerebrovascular disease, these may lead to dangerous complications. This study is aimed at determining the effectiveness of intravenous nitroglycerin bolus doses in reducing hemodynamic responses to laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation. Material and Method. In this double-blind randomized controlled trial, 78 patients aged 18 to 65 years were randomly divided into three groups: 1 μg/kg dose of nitroglycerin (first group), 2 μg/kg dose of nitroglycerin (second group), and normal saline or placebo (third group). 26 samples were allocated for each group. Patients' hemodynamic responses to laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation were measured at different times. Data were analyzed using SPSS V 16. RESULTS: Patients in the three study groups were similar in terms of age, sex, and weight. There was no significant difference between the mean saturation of peripheral oxygen (SPO2) and the mean heart rate between the three groups before endotracheal intubation and 1 to 10 minutes after intubation (P > 0.05). The difference of mean arterial blood pressure between study groups was only significant in the first and fifth minutes after intubation. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the first, third, and fifth minutes after intubation was significantly lower in the intervention groups than the control group (P < 0.05). However, no significant difference was observed between the intervention groups. The frequency of systolic blood pressure decrease was significantly different in the first and fifth minutes after intubation in the three study groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Bolus doses of 1 and 2 μg/kg nitroglycerin in noncardiac elective surgery prevents the increase of mean systolic, diastolic, and arterial blood pressure but has no significant effect on heart rate after intubation.

Argania spinosa (L.) plays an important role in the Moroccan agroeconomy, providing both employment and export revenue. Argan oil production generates different by-products with functionalities that are not yet investigated, in particular, the shell fruit. The present study aims, for the first time, at evaluating the acute and subacute toxicity, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects of argan fruit shell ethanol extract (AFSEE). The LD50 of AFSEE was determined to be greater than the 5000 mg/kg body weight of mice. No significant variation in the body and organ weights was observed after 28 days of AFSEE treatment compared to that of the control group. Biochemical parameters and histopathological examination revealed no toxic effects of AFSEE. The AFSEE produced a significant inhibition of xylene-induced ear edema in mice. AFSEE reduced significantly the paw edema in mice after carrageenan injection. The chemical characterization showed that AFSEE contains a high level of total phenol content, flavonoids, condensed tannins, and flavanols. The obtained IC50 of DPPH, ABTS, reducing power, and β-carotene demonstrates that AFSEE has a potential antioxidant effect. The results indicate that AFSEE was safe and nontoxic to mice even at higher doses. Furthermore, the present findings demonstrate that AFSEE has potential anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities.

BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is challenging at the early stage. The cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) and extracellular matrix degradation products of C-telopeptide of type II collagen (CTX-II) serve as markers for the serological diagnosis of IVDD. Oxidative stress might cause IVDD and matrix degeneration. METHODS: A total of 128 male adult Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly and equally assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group was used to construct IVDD models by acupuncture, while the control group underwent sham operation. The animals were executed every week for 8 weeks after intervertebral disc acupuncture, and serum samples were collected for the estimation of CTX-II and COMP concentrations by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Also, the histological changes and caudal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) changes were examined in the intervertebral disc. RESULTS: IVDD in rats worsened with prolonged follow-up after acupuncture. At all the time points, the experimental group showed altered histological and caudal vertebra MRI signals, and serum CTX-II and COMP concentrations were significantly greater than those of the control group. These levels increase with the process of IVDD. CONCLUSION: Serum CTX-II and COMP estimation is a reliable method to diagnose IVDD, and their concentrations show a positive correlation with the process of IVDD.

The present study was aimed at isolating endophytic fungi from the Asian culinary and medicinal plant Lilium davidii and analyzing its antifungal and plant growth-promoting effects. In this study, the fungal endophyte Acremonium sp. Ld-03 was isolated from the bulbs of L. davidii and identified through morphological and molecular analysis. The molecular and morphological analysis confirmed the endophytic fungal strain as Acremonium sp. Ld-03. Antifungal effects of Ld-03 were observed against Fusarium oxysporum, Botrytis cinerea, Botryosphaeria dothidea, and Fusarium fujikuroi. The highest growth inhibition, i.e., 78.39 ± 4.21%, was observed for B. dothidea followed by 56.68 ± 4.38%, 43.62 ± 3.81%, and 20.12 ± 2.45% for B. cinerea, F. fujikuroi, and F. oxysporum, respectively. Analysis of the ethyl acetate fraction through UHPLC-LTQ-IT-MS/MS revealed putative secondary metabolites which included xanthurenic acid, valyl aspartic acid, gancidin W, peptides, and cyclic dipeptides such as valylarginine, cyclo-[L-(4-hydroxy-Pro)-L-leu], cyclo(Pro-Phe), and (3S,6S)-3-benzyl-6-(4-hydroxybenzyl)piperazine-2,5-dione. Other metabolites included (S)-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2-((S)-pyrrolidine-2-carboxamido)propanoic acid, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), 9-octadecenamide, D-erythro-C18-Sphingosine, N-palmitoyl sphinganine, and hydroxypalmitoyl sphinganine. The strain Ld-03 showed indole acetic acid (IAA) production with or without the application of exogenous tryptophan. The IAA ranged from 53.12 ± 3.20 μg ml-1 to 167.71 ± 7.12 μg ml-1 under different tryptophan concentrations. The strain was able to produce siderophore, and its production was significantly decreased with increasing Fe(III) citrate concentrations in the medium. The endophytic fungal strain also showed production of organic acids and phosphate solubilization activity. Plant growth-promoting effects of the strain were evaluated on in vitro seedling growth of Allium tuberosum. Application of 40% culture dilution resulted in a significant increase in root and shoot length, i.e., 24.03 ± 2.71 mm and 37.27 ± 1.86 mm, respectively, compared to nontreated control plants. The fungal endophyte Ld-03 demonstrated the potential of conferring disease resistance and plant growth promotion. Therefore, we conclude that the isolated Acremonium sp. Ld-03 should be further investigated before utilization as a biocontrol agent and plant growth stimulator.

Leiomyosarcoma is an uncommon soft tissue sarcoma that composed of malignant mesenchymal cells with distinct features of the smooth muscle lineage. Typically affects the uterus and gastrointestinal tract, it can rarely be seen in large blood vessels, lymphatic and glandular duts, the mesentery, the omentum, retroperitoneum, and limbs. Occurrence is particularly rare in the limb region. Retrospective study based on patient records and postoperative pathological histological features. Four patients with limb leiomyosarcoma that were operated between 2016 and 2020 were included, three of them arising in the subcutis of the thigh region and one in cubitus. Extend resection with satisfactory outcomes is reported. Pathological examination showed that masses were composed of a fascicular arrangement of hyperchromatic spindle-shaped cells, characterized by the proliferation of epithelioid cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm for epithelioid leiomyosarcoma. Leiomyosarcomas that arise in the soft tissue, although rare, should be differentiated from other lesions, such as neurilemoma, neurofibroma, liomyoma,lipomyoma, synoviosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, malignant fibrous histiotoma, and malignant neurinoma.

BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a pandemic of pneumonia spreading around the world, leading to serious threats to public health and attracting enormous attention. There is an urgent need for sensitive diagnostic testing implementation to control and manage SARS-CoV-2 in public health laboratories. The quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) assay is the gold standard method, but the sensitivity and specificity of SARS-CoV-2 testing are dependent on a number of factors. METHODS: We synthesized RNA based on the genes published to estimate the concentration of inactivated virus samples in a biosafety level 3 laboratory. The limit of detection (LOD), linearity, accuracy, and precision were evaluated according to the bioanalytical method validation guidelines. RESULTS: We found that the LOD reached around 3 copies/reaction. Furthermore, intra-assay precision, accuracy, and linearity met the accepted criterion with an RSD for copies of less than 25%, and linear regression met the accepted R 2 of 0.98. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that synthesized RNA based on the database of the NCBI gene bank for estimating the concentration of inactivated virus samples provides a potential opportunity for reliable testing to diagnose coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as well as limit the spread of the disease. This method may be relatively quick and inexpensive, and it may be useful for developing countries during the pandemic era. In the long term, it is also applicable for evaluation, verification, validation, and external quality assessment.

BACKGROUND: Walking dysfunction exists in most patients after stroke. Evidence regarding gait training in two weeks is scarce in resource-limited settings; this study was conducted to investigate the effects of a short-term robot-assisted gait training plan for patients with stroke. METHODS: 85 patients were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups, with 31 patients in withdrawal before treatment. The training program comprised 14 2-hour sessions, for 2 consecutive weeks. Patients allocated to the robot-assisted gait training group were treated using the Gait Training and Evaluation System A3 from NX (RT group, n = 27). Another group of patients was allocated to the conventional overground gait training group (PT group, n = 27). Outcome measurements were assessed using time-space parameter gait analysis, Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), and Timed Up and Go test (TUG) scores. RESULTS: In the time-space parameter analysis of gait, the two groups exhibited no significant changes in time parameters, but the RT group exhibited a significant effect on changes in space parameters (stride length, walk velocity, and toe out angle, P < 0.05). After training, FMA scores (20.22 ± 2.68) of the PT group and FMA scores (25.89 ± 4.6) of the RT group were significant. In the Timed Up and Go test, FMA scores of the PT group (22.43 ± 3.95) were significant, whereas those in the RT group (21.31 ± 4.92) were not. The comparison between groups revealed no significant differences. CONCLUSION: Both the RT group and the PT group can partially improve the walking ability of stroke patients within 2 weeks.

BACKGROUND: Dietary diversity is an essential element of diet quality. Lactation is one of the most complex and nutritionally demanding phases of the human life cycle, and the breastfed infant is dependent on mother nutrition. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of dietary diversity and its predictors among lactating mothers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was employed in January 2020 among 416 lactating women using systematic sampling techniques. Data was collected using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Bayesian estimation was used on logistic regression to identify the significant predictors of dietary diversity. Convergence of algorithm was assessed by using time series plot, density plot, and autocorrelation plot. RESULT: The prevalence of adequate dietary diversity was 23.1%, and the significant predictors of dietary diversity were marital status of mother, education of spouse, occupation of mother and spouse, family size, gravidity, ANC follow up, nutritional education, wealth index, and food security status. CONCLUSION: From the result, unmarried, having more family size, multigravidity, poor wealth indexed, and food in secured women were less likely to have adequate dietary diversity, whereas employed women, having ANC follow up and nutrition education, were strongly associated with adequate dietary diversity. Family planning should be given to minimize the impact of large family size of dietary diversity. Any concerned body should give attention to minimize food insecurity of lactating women. Attention should be given for ANC follow-up and nutritional education of mothers by health professional and policy maker.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression and regulation mechanism of miR-29c-3p and cell division cycle associated 4 (CDCA4) in melanoma (MM). Data and Methods. Fifty-nine patients with MM admitted to our hospital were enrolled as the MM group. They were followed up for 3 years to analyze the prognostic factors; meanwhile, 51 healthy subjects were allocated into a normal group. MM cell lines (M21 and C8161) were transfected with miR-29c-3p-mimics, miR-29c-3p-inhibitor, miR-NC, si-CDCA4, and sh-CDCA4. The expression of miR-29c-3p, CDCA4, Bax, Caspase3, Bcl-2, N-cadherin, vimentin, and E-cadherin was quantified, and cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis, as well as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), were determined. RESULTS: Serum miR-29c-3p was lowly expressed and CDCA4 was highly expressed in the MM group. The area under the curve (AUC) of both for diagnosing MM was greater than 0.9. miR-29c-3p and CDCA4 were related to regional lymph node staging (N staging), distant metastasis (M staging), tumor diameter, and pathological differentiation. Low miR-29c-3p and high CDCA4 were associated with poor prognosis of MM. Overexpression of miR-29c-3p and suppression of CDCA4 hindered cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and expression of Bax, Caspase3, N-cadherin, and vimentin, but cell apoptosis and expression of Bcl-2 and E-cadherin were enhanced. Dual-luciferase reporter (DLR) assay confirmed the targeted relationship between miR-29c-3p and CDCA4. After miR-29c-3p-mimics+sh-CDCA4 was transfected into M21 and C8161 cells, the proliferation, invasion, and apoptosis were not different from those in the miR-NC group transfected with unrelated sequences. CONCLUSION: Overexpression of miR-29c-3p suppresses CDCA4 expression and decreases proliferation, migration, invasion, apoptosis, and EMT of MM cells, thus hindering MM progression.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) plays an important role in mammals as a signaling molecule. Recently, abnormal H2S concentration has been associated with several pathophysiological states, such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. As regulating H2S concentration can be a very prominent way of developing new drugs, many researchers have paid great attention to H2S research. To understand the role of H2S in pathophysiology and develop H2S-based therapies, it is necessary to measure the exact concentration of H2S within biological systems. But, H2S is volatile and can be easily oxidized. Besides, the active sites for several biological effects of H2S are inside the cell. Therefore, there is a need for the development of new methods for the accurate and reliable detection of H2S within live cells. This review provides a summary of recent developments in H2S detection methods for live cell analysis.

BACKGROUND: Electronic medical record (EMR) systems offer the potential to improve health care quality by allowing physicians real-time access to patient healthcare information. The endorsement and usage of EMRs by physicians have a significant influence on other user groups in the healthcare system. As a result, the purpose of this study was to examine physicians' attitudes regarding EMRs and identify the elements that may influence their attitudes. METHOD: An institutional-based cross-sectional study design supplemented with a qualitative study was conducted from March 1 to April 30, 2018, among a total of 403 physicians. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data. The validity of the prediction bounds for the dependent variable and the validity of the confidence intervals and P values for the parameters were measured with a value of less than 0.05 and 95 percent of confidence interval. For the supplementary qualitative study, data were collected using semistructured in-depth interviews from 11 key informants, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULT: Physicians' computer literacy (CI: 0.264, 0.713; P: 0001) and computer access at work (CI: 0.141, 0.533, P: 0.001) were shown to be favorable predictors of their attitude towards EMR system adoption. Another conclusion from this study was the inverse relationship between physicians' prior EMR experience and their attitude about the system (CI: -0.517, -0.121; P: 0.002). CONCLUSION: According to the findings of this study, physicians' attitudes regarding EMR were found moderate in the studied region. There was a favorable relationship between computer ownership, computer literacy, lack of EMR experience, participation in EMR training, and attitude towards EMR. Improving the aforementioned elements is critical to improving physicians' attitudes regarding EMR.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate effects of different intervention time points of early rehabilitation on patients with acute ischemic stroke. METHODS: We enrolled patients diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke in our hospital's rehabilitation ward from November 2013 to December 2015. Patients were randomly assigned to an ultraearly rehabilitation program (started within 72 hours of onset) or an early rehabilitation program (started from 72 hours to 7 days after onset). The efficacy was assessed by the NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) International, Barthel Index, and Fugl-Meyer Assessment at one and three months after rehabilitation. Data were analyzed by variance analysis of two-factor repeated measurement. Covariance analysis was used to adjust confounding factors for the determination of statistical differences. RESULTS: 41 patients were enrolled in the ultraearly rehabilitation group, while 45 patients were in the early rehabilitation group. There were no differences between the two groups at baseline data. Compared with the early rehabilitation group, patients in the ultraearly rehabilitation group have significantly improved NIHSS score, BMI score, and FMA score at one month and three months (P < 0.001). After adjusting for confounding factors (gender, age, severity of NIHSS score, location of stroke, hypertension, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and coronary heart disease), the significant difference still existed between the two groups at one month and three months (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our study indicated a higher efficacy in the ultraearly rehabilitation group than the early rehabilitation group. The result suggests an important practical significance in favor of the clinical treatment of stroke.

Feature selection is the process of decreasing the number of features in a dataset by removing redundant, irrelevant, and randomly class-corrected data features. By applying feature selection on large and highly dimensional datasets, the redundant features are removed, reducing the complexity of the data and reducing training time. The objective of this paper was to design an optimizer that combines the well-known metaheuristic population-based optimizer, the grey wolf algorithm, and the gradient descent algorithm and test it for applications in feature selection problems. The proposed algorithm was first compared against the original grey wolf algorithm in 23 continuous test functions. The proposed optimizer was altered for feature selection, and 3 binary implementations were developed with final implementation compared against the two implementations of the binary grey wolf optimizer and binary grey wolf particle swarm optimizer on 6 medical datasets from the UCI machine learning repository, on metrics such as accuracy, size of feature subsets, F-measure, accuracy, precision, and sensitivity. The proposed optimizer outperformed the three other optimizers in 3 of the 6 datasets in average metrics. The proposed optimizer showed promise in its capability to balance the two objectives in feature selection and could be further enhanced.

This study is aimed at comparing the antidiabetic and antioxidant potential of fenugreek and buckthorn which are commonly used in modulating diabetes in the Middle East. In this study, the antioxidant and antidiabetic activity of the aqueous extracts of the leaf and seed of fenugreek and buckthorn was tested in streptozotocin-induced diabetic male rats fed with a fat-rich diet for 8 weeks. Thirty-six male albino rats were divided into 6 groups (n = 6); the 1st group was the negative control. Diabetes was induced in the other 30 rats using streptozotocin, which were then divided into 5 groups; the 2nd was the untreated positive diabetic group, the 3rd was treated with fenugreek leaf aqueous extract, the 4th was treated with the fenugreek seed aqueous extract, the 5th was treated with buckthorn leaf aqueous extract, and the 6th was treated with buckthorn seed aqueous extract. The positive control group showed an increase in blood sugar, glycated hemoglobin, liver function enzymes, lactate dehydrogenase, kidney indices, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low- and very-low-density lipoprotein, immunoglobulins, and lipid peroxidation and a decrease in high-density lipoprotein, albumin, and antioxidant activity. The histology of the liver and testes showed severe histopathological alterations. Rats of groups 4-6 that were treated with the aqueous extract of the leaf and seed extract of fenugreek and buckthorn showed improvement of all biochemical and histopathological parameters. The seed extract of fenugreek and buckthorn showed more antioxidant activity than their leaves.

BACKGROUND: This study is aimed at investigating whether dapagliflozin adjunct to insulin therapy further improves glycemic control compared to insulin therapy alone in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (T2D). METHODS: This single-centre, randomized, controlled, open-labeled trial recruited newly diagnosed T2D patients. Subjects were randomized 1 : 1 to the dapagliflozin add-on to continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) group (DAPA) or the CSII therapy group for 5 weeks. Standard meal tests were performed 3 times at days -3, 7, and 35 for glucose, C-peptide, and insulin level determination. Two-time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) was performed at baseline and at the end of the study. The primary endpoint was the difference in the mean amplitude of glycemic excursions (MAGEs) between the groups. RESULTS: A total of 66 subjects completed the study, with 34 and 32 patients in the DAPA and CSII groups, respectively. Patients in the DAPA group exhibited significant decreases in MAGE levels at the endpoint. We also observed that patients in the DAPA group had a lower homoeostasis model assessment insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and a higher homoeostasis model assessment B (HOMA-B) value at 1 week and 5 weeks compared to those with insulin therapy, respectively. In addition, our data showed that patients in the DAPA group showed a significantly lower insulin dose (0.07 U/kg) and weighed less than those in the CSII group. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that dapagliflozin adjunct to insulin is a safe and effective therapy for improving glycemic variations, insulin sensitivity, and weight loss in newly diagnosed T2D patients.

As the value of blockchain has been widely recognized, more and more industries are proposing their blockchain solutions, including the rehabilitation medical industry. Blockchain can play a powerful role in the field of rehabilitation medicine, bringing a new research idea to the management of rehabilitation medical data. The electronic rehabilitation medical record (ERMR) contains rich data dimensions, which can provide comprehensive and accurate information for assessing the health of patients, thereby enhancing the effect of rehabilitation treatment. This paper analyzed the data characteristics of ERMR and the application requirements of blockchain in rehabilitation medicine. Based on the basic principles of blockchain, the technical advantages of blockchain used in ERMR sharing have been studied. In addition, this paper designed a blockchain-based ERMR sharing scheme in detail, using the specific technologies of blockchain such as hybrid P2P network, block-chain data structure, asymmetric encryption algorithm, digital signature, and Raft consensus algorithm to achieve distributed storage, data security, privacy protection, data consistency, data traceability, and data ownership in the process of ERMR sharing. The research results of this paper have important practical significance for realizing the safe and efficient sharing of ERMR, and can provide important technical references for the management of rehabilitation medical data with broad application prospects.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of curcumin in regulating pathogenesis of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) derived from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) model. METHODS: Male Sprague Dawley rats were injected with monocrotaline (MCT) to establish the PAH experimental model. The rats were divided into control group, MCT group, and curcumin group. At the end of the study, hemodynamic data were measured to determine pulmonary hypertension. Proliferation ability of PASMCs, a remodeling indicator of pulmonary artery and right ventricle, was detected. In addition, the morphology and function of mitochondria, antiglycolysis and antiproliferation pathways, and genes were also analyzed. RESULTS: Curcumin may function by reversing MCT-mediated pulmonary vascular remodeling in rats. Curcumin effectively improved pulmonary vascular remodeling, promoted PASMC apoptosis, and protected mitochondrial function. In addition, curcumin treatment suppressed the PI3K/AKT pathway in PASMCs and regulated the expression of antiproliferative genes. CONCLUSION: Curcumin can improve energy metabolism and reverse the process of PAHS. However, there were side effects of curcumin in MCT-induced rats, suggesting that the dosage should be treated with caution and its toxicological mechanism should be further studied and evaluated.

INTRODUCTION: Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from evaluating one's job or job experiences. However, knowledge of workplace factors that either satisfy employees to keep working or dissatisfy them making them leave their jobs or working places is essential for decision-making. Thus, this study is aimed at assessing job satisfaction and associated factors among healthcare professionals working at public and private hospitals in Bahir Dar city, northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institution-based comparative cross-sectional study design was conducted from 10 February 2020 to 29 May 2020. A total of 520 health professionals were selected from public and private health facilities using stratified systematic random sampling techniques. Data were collected using structured pretested self-administered questionnaires. A binary logistic regression model with Huber-White robust standard error was fitted to identify job satisfaction and associated factors among healthcare professionals working at public and private hospitals. A less than 0.05 p value and an Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) were considered to have a statistically significant association with the outcome variable. RESULTS: The overall magnitude of job satisfaction was 55.2% (95% CI: 51.0, 59.4%). At public and private hospitals, the provider's satisfaction was 29.0% (95% CI: 23.2, 35.1%) and 81.23% (95% CI: 76.6, 85.8%), respectively. Working at private hospital (AOR: 8.89; 95% CI: 5.14, 15.35), pleasant nature of work (AOR:  1.82; 95% CI: 1.05, 3.15), autonomy (AOR: 2.37; 95% CI: 1.29, 4.33), adequate supportive supervision (AOR: 2.42; 95% CI: 1.33, 4.40), good reward and recognition (AOR: 3.04; 95% CI: 1.37, 6.75), and high normative commitment (AOR: 2.57; 95% CI: 1.48, 4.43) were factors affecting the overall job satisfaction of health professionals. CONCLUSIONS: The magnitude of job satisfaction was relatively low in private and public hospital health professionals and severe among health professionals working in public hospitals. Healthcare policy-makers and hospital managers need to develop and institutionalize evidence-based satisfaction strategies considering the predictors of health professional's job satisfaction.

The objective of this study was to study the incidence of type of impaction of mandibular third molars based on the classifications of Pell and Gregory and Winter, which included angulation of the tooth and level of the occlusal surface of the third molar with respect to the second molar, respectively, in a sample of Saudi population in central region. In this retrospective study, orthopantomograms (OPGs) of 17760 patients were examined, who were reported by the Dental University Hospital (DUH) at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between the years 2016 and 2020. Out of 17760 radiographs, 2187 (12.31%) patients presented with at least one impacted third molar. Out of which, 1337 (7.52%) patients had bilateral impaction and 850 (4.78%) patients had unilateral impaction (p < 0.001). No gender predominance was noted in the impaction status (p > 0.05). In bilateral impaction, 671 were male (50.2%) and 666 were female (49.8%). Among unilateral impaction, 394 (46.4%) were male and 456 (53.6%) were female. Mesioangular angulation was the most common pattern of impaction (65%) followed by vertical angulation in both bilateral and unilateral impactions. Level A impaction was found to be highest in both bilateral and unilateral impactions which are 48.02% and 54.0%, respectively (p < 0.05). Our study highlights mesioangular impaction and level "A" as the most frequently encountered angulation and level of impaction in impacted teeth. This study result provides us useful data regarding the radiographic status of mandibular third molars in the population of Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: The hypercoagulable status, which forms a vicious cycle with hematogenous metastasis, is a common systemic alteration in cancers. As modeling is a key approach in research, a model which is suitable for studying how the hypercoagulable status promotes hematogenous metastasis in breast cancer is urgently needed. METHODS: Based on the tumor-bearing period (TBP) and postoperative incubation period (PIP), 4T1-breast cancer models were constructed to evaluate coagulation and tumor burden to generate multiple linear regression-based lung metastasis prediction formula. Platelets and 4T1 cells were cocultured for 30 min or 24 h in vitro to evaluate the early and late phases of their crosstalk, and then the physical characteristics (concentration and size) and procoagulant activity of the coculture supernatants were assayed. RESULTS: The multiple linear regression model was constructed as log10 (photon number) = 0.147 TBP + 0.14 PIP + 3.303 (TBP ≤ 25 and PIP ≤ 17) to predict lung metastasis. Coculture of platelets and 4T1 cells contributed to the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and the development of the hypercoagulable status. CONCLUSIONS: In vivo and in vitro hypercoagulable status models were developed to explore the mechanism of hypercoagulable status which is characterized by platelet activation and promotes hematogenous metastasis in breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the biological role and potential mechanism of miR-25 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. METHODS: The expression of miR-25 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines was detected by qRT-PCR. The effect of inhibition of miR-25 expression on the proliferative activity of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line HONE-1 was examined by CCK-8 method. Flow cytometry was used to detect the effect of miR-25 expression inhibition on the apoptosis rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line HONE-1. The miRNA target gene prediction site TargetScan predicts the target protein action site of miR-124 and verifies whether miR-25 interacts with the target by luciferase activity assay, qPCR, and Western experiments. The miR-25 inhibitor and target egg gene expression plasmids were cotransfected into HONE-1 cells for rescue experiments to investigate whether miR-25 inhibits proliferation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells by target genes. At the same time, qRT-PCR was used to detect the mRNA expression levels of Wnt/β-catenin pathway key proteins TCF4, c-Myc, and Cyclin D1 in different transfected cells. RESULTS: miR-25 expression was upregulated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines. Functional studies showed that inhibition of miR-25 expression significantly inhibited the proliferation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line HONE-1 (p < 0.05). Inhibition of miR-25 expression by flow cytometry significantly promoted apoptosis (p < 0.05). Detection of dual luciferase activity indicated that DKK3 is a direct target site for miR-25. Western blots showed that inhibition of miR-25 significantly upregulated DKK3 mRNA and protein levels. Supplementation with DKK3 significantly attenuated the inhibitory effect of miR-25 on the proliferation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line HONE-1 (p < 0.05). qRT-PCR found that mRNA levels of TCF4, c-Myc, and Cyclin D1 were significantly upregulated in miR-25-transfected cells compared to control transfection. QRT PCR showed that the mRNA and protein levels of Tcf4, c-myc, and Cyclin D1 were significantly upregulated in miR-25 overexpression-transfected cells. CONCLUSION: Inhibition of miR-25 expression promotes DKK3 gene expression, and inactivation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells.

Lung cancer is known as the leading cause which presents the highest fatality rate worldwide; non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most prevalent type of lung carcinoma with high severity and affects 80% of patients with lung malignancies. Up to now, the general treatment for NSCLC includes surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy; however, some therapeutic drugs and approaches could cause side effects and weaken the immune system. The combination of conventional therapies and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) significantly improves treatment efficacy in lung cancer. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the chemical composition and underlying antitumor mechanisms of TCM, so as to get a better understanding of the potential natural ingredient for lung cancer treatment. In this study, we selected 78 TCM to treat NSCLC cell line (A549) and obtained 92 transcriptome data; differential expression and WGCNA were applied to screen the potential natural ingredient and target genes. The sample which was treated with A. pierreana generated the most significant DEG set, including 6130 DEGs, 2479 upregulated, and 3651 downregulated. KEGG pathway analyses found that four pathways (MAPK, NF-kappa B, p53, and TGF-beta signaling pathway) were significantly enriched; 16 genes were significantly regulated in these four pathways. Interestingly, some of them such as EGFR, DUSP4, IL1R1, IL1B, MDM2, CDKNIA, and IDs have been used as the target biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and therapy. In addition, classified samples into 14 groups based on their pharmaceutical effects, WGCNA was used to identify 27 modules. Among them, green and darkgrey were the most relevant modules. Eight genes in the green module and four in darkgrey were identified as hub genes. In conclusion, we screened out three new TCM (B. fruticose, A. pierreana, and S. scandens) that have the potential to develop natural anticancer drugs and obtained the therapeutic targets for NSCLC therapy. Our study provides unique insights to screen the natural components for NSCLC therapy using high-throughput transcriptome analysis.

Excision is the gold standard for lipomas. Patients desire minimal scars, but minimal incisions can increase complications and produce hypertrophic scars. We propose an algorithmic method named the minimal one-third incision and four-step extraction method (MOTIF) for lipoma excision. This retrospective study analyzed lipomas surgically excised using the MOTIF method at our institution between January 2016 and December 2018. A total of 112 lipomas were included. The complication rates and Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) for three different size groups (<3 cm, 3 ~ 6 cm, >6 cm) were compared. Complete excision of all palpable lipomas was achieved with this approach. There were two seromas, two hematomas, and one postoperative nerve injury. There was no difference in complication rates and VSS between the three size groups. The MOTIF method is a cost-effective, reliable, and cosmetically pleasing method that can be applied to all lipomas regardless of size and location.

In light of the devastation caused by COVID-19, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and vaccine research and development (R&D) have been occupying a prominent position in the field of global health diplomacy (GHD). Most countries, international organizations, and charitable organizations have been engaged in the R&D of COVID-19 vaccines to ensure timely affordability and accessibility to all countries. Concomitantly, the World Trade Organization (WTO) provides some provisions and enforcements regarding copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical indications, and industrial designs. Given these safeguards, it is considered that intellectual property rights (IPRs) have become major barriers to the affordability and accessibility of vaccines/medicines/technology, particularly to the developing/least developed countries. Realizing the gravity of the pandemic impact, as well as its huge population and size, India has elevated this issue in its global health diplomacy by submitting a joint proposal with South Africa to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a temporary waiver of IPRs to ensure timely affordability and accessibility of COVID-19 medical products to all countries. However, the issue of the temporary waive off had become a geopolitical issue. Countries that used to claim per se as strong advocates of human rights, egalitarianism, and healthy democracy have opposed this proposal. In this contrasting milieu, this paper is aimed at examining how the TRIPS has become a barrier for developing countries' development and distribution of vaccines/technology; secondly, how India strategizes its role in the WTO in pursuant of its global health diplomacy? We conclude that the IPRs regime should not become a barrier to the accessibility/affordability of essential drugs and vaccines. To ensure access, India needs to get more engaged in GHD with all the involved global stakeholders to get strong support for their joint proposal. The developed countries that rejected/resisted the proposal can rethink their full support.

OBJECTIVE: Exploration of the underlying molecular mechanism of Jinchan Oral Liquid (JOL) in treating children with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) pneumonia to provide new evidence for the clinical application. METHODS: The active components and target genes of JOL were screened by the TCMSP database. The targets of RSV pneumonia were obtained from the GeneCards, OMIM, DrugBank, and PharmGKB database. Then, we constructed the active component-target network and screened the core genes. The overlaps were screened for PPI network analysis, GO analysis, and KEGG analysis. Finally, result validation was performed by molecular docking. RESULTS: According to the screening criteria of the ADME, 74 active compounds of JOL were obtained; after removing redundant targets, we selected 180 potential targets. By screening the online database, 893 RSV pneumonia-related targets were obtained. A total of 82 overlapping genes were chosen by looking for the intersection. The STRING online database was used to acquire PPI relationships, and 16 core genes were obtained. GO and KEGG analyses showed that the main pathways of JOL in treating RSV pneumonia include TNF signaling pathway and IL17 signaling pathway. The molecular docking results showed that the active compounds of JOL had a good affinity with the core genes. CONCLUSION: In this study, we preliminarily discussed the main active ingredients, related targets, and pathways of JOL and predicted the pharmacodynamic basis and the potential therapeutic mechanisms of RSV pneumonia. In summary, the network pharmacology strategy may be helpful for the discovery of multitarget drugs against complex diseases.

BACKGROUND: The dominant view in the literature is that informal payments in healthcare universally are a negative phenomenon. By contrast, we theorize that the motivation healthcare users for making informal payments (IP) can be classified into three categories: (1) a cultural norm, (2) "grease the wheels" payments if users offered to pay to get better services, and (3) "sand the wheels" payments if users were asked to pay by healthcare personnel or felt that payments were expected. We further hypothesize that these three categories of payments are differently associated with a user's outcomes, namely, satisfaction with healthcare, local and national government, satisfaction with life, and satisfaction with life of children in the future. METHODS: We used microdata from the 2016 Life-in-Transition survey. Multivariate regression analysis is used to quantify relationships between these categories of payments and users' outcomes. RESULTS: Payments that are the result of cultural norms are associated with better outcomes. On the contrary, "sand the wheel" payments are associated with worse outcomes. We find no association between making "grease the wheels" payments and outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first paper which evaluates association between three different categories of informal payments with a wide range of users' outcomes on a diverse sample of countries. Focusing on informal payments in general, rather than explicitly examining specific motivations, obscures the true outcomes of making IP. It is important to distinguish between three different motivations for informal payment, namely, cultural norms, "grease the wheels," and "sand the wheels" since they have varying associations with user outcomes. From a policy making standpoint, variation in the links between different motivations for making IP and measures of satisfaction suggest that decision-makers should put their primary focus on situations where IP are explicitly asked for or are implied by the situation and that they should differentiate this from cases of gratitude payments. If such measures are not implemented, then policy makers may unintentionally ban the behaviour that is linked with increased satisfaction with healthcare, government, and life (i.e., paying gratitude).

The present study was aimed at reviewing the studies that used finite element analysis (FEA) to estimate the biomechanical stress arising in removable partial dentures (RPDs) and how to optimize it. A literature survey was conducted for the English full-text articles, which used only FEA to estimate the stress developed in RPDs from Jan 2000 to May 2021. In RPDs, the retaining and supporting structures are subjected to dynamic loads during insertion and removal of the prosthesis as well as during function. The majority of stresses in free-end saddle (FES) RPDs are concentrated in the shoulder of the clasp, the horizontal curvature of the gingival approaching clasp, and the part of the major connector next to terminal abutments. Clasps fabricated from flexible materials were beneficial to eliminate the stress in the abutment, while rigid materials were preferred for major connectors to eliminate the displacement of the prosthesis. In implant-assisted RPD, the implant receive the majority of the load, thereby reducing the stress on the abutment and reducing the displacement of the prosthesis. The amount of stress in the implant decreases with zero or minimal angulation, using long and wide implants, and when the implants are placed in the first molar area.

Osteoclast, which mediates overactive bone resorption, is one of the key factors for bone destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Existing studies have shown that abnormal miR-143-3p expression was observed in both RA patients and arthritis animals, which can participate in osteoclast differentiation, and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway was closely related to osteoclast differentiation. The primary objective of the current study was to determine the role of miR-143-3p in the progression of osteoclast differentiation and its relationship with MAPK signaling pathways. The results showed that miR-143-3p inhibited osteoclast differentiation and decreased the levels of M-CSF and RANKL during osteoclast differentiation. miR-143-3p inhibited the expression of MAPK signaling proteins, which is ERK1/2 in the early stage and JNK in the later stage of osteoclast differentiation. It was also observed that MAPK inhibitors upregulated miR-143-3p expression in osteoclast differentiation. Taken together, our results suggested that miR-143-3p could inhibit the differentiation of osteoclast, which was related to inhibiting MAPK signaling pathways. This may provide a novel strategy for curing RA.

Erratum in Biomed Res Int. 2022 Aug 13;2022:9763093.

PURPOSE: Morphological differences in the knee joints of females and males have been reported in a previous study. These differences have realized the need of developing a gender-specific prosthesis. However, anatomical studies on gender-based differences in the proximal tibial plateau's sagittal curvature have rarely been conducted. Therefore, this study is aimed at evaluating the geometry of the sagittal curvature of the proximal tibial plateau in the Korean population. METHODS: Three-dimensional data for the sagittal curvature of the tibial plateau morphology from 1976 patients (i.e., 299 male and 1677 female) were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging. The sagittal profiles of the tibial plateaus were also evaluated. The independent t-test and paired t-test were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The proximal tibia had concave and convex surfaces in the medial and lateral plateaus, respectively, for both genders. In addition, the medial diameter of the tibial plateau was significantly greater than the lateral diameter for both genders. Gender-based difference was not found in the medial diameter of the tibial plateau but was observed in the lateral diameter. CONCLUSION: These results may provide guidelines for a suitable knee implant design for the Korean patients. The incorporation of this shape information in the medial and lateral sides in the prosthetics for a total knee arthroplasty and a lateral unicompartmental knee arthroplasty can improve knee range motion.

OBJECTIVE: To explore OTC (over-the-counter drugs) in Chinese community pharmacies often causes ADE (adverse drug event) in elderly patients. METHODS: Use the drugs in the Beers Criteria 2019 potentially inappropriate medication use (PIM) list as search terms. Search for drugs registered on the National Medical Products Administration of China website before December 2019 to determine the drugs containing PIM active ingredients and, then, search the Chinese OTC selection and conversion catalog database to determine it as OTC. Two databases are considered to be the same drug if they have the same drug composition. RESULTS: The incidence of PIM in elderly patients in our community is relatively high, and the management of OTC may be related to risk factors. Statistics found that 71 OTC contained the Beers Criteria ingredients, including 65 chemicals and six Chinese patent medicines. Varieties of compound preparations accounted for 78.9% and cold medicines accounted for 47.9%. CONCLUSIONS: The high detection rate of the Beers Criteria in Chinese OTC suggests that medical practitioners in China, especially community pharmacists, should pay attention to the rational use of OTC in the elderly.

BACKGROUND: The SARS-CoV-2 virus is the cause of the latest pandemic of the 21st century; it is responsible for the development of COVID-19. Within the multiple study models for both the biology and the treatment of SARS-CoV-2, the use of stem cells has been proposed because of their ability to increase the immune response and to repair tissue. Therefore, the objective of this review is to evaluate the role of stem cells against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 in order to identify their potential as a study model and as a possible therapeutic source against tissue damage caused by this virus. Therefore, the following research question was established: What is the role of stem cells in the study of SARS-CoV-2 and the treatment of COVID-19? MATERIALS AND METHODS: A search was carried out in the electronic databases of PUBMED, Scopus, and ScienceDirect. The following keywords were used: "SARS-CoV-2," "COVID-19," and "STEM CELL," plus independent search strategies with the Boolean operators "OR" and "AND." The identified reports were those whose main objective was the study of stem cells in relation to SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19. For the development of this study, the following inclusion criteria were taken into account: studies whose main objective was the study of stem cells in relation to SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 and clinical case studies, case reports, clinical trials, pilot studies, in vitro, or in vivo studies. For assessment of the risk of bias for in vitro studies, the SciRAP tool was used. The data collected for each type of study, clinical or in vitro, were analyzed with descriptive statistics using the SPSS V.22 program. RESULTS: Of the total of studies included (n = 39), 22 corresponded to in vitro investigations and 17 to human studies (clinical cases (n = 9), case series (n = 2), pilot clinical trials (n = 5), clinical trials (n = 1)). In vitro studies that induced pluripotent stem cells were the most used (n = 12), and in clinical studies, the umbilical stem cells derived were the most reported (n = 11). The mean age of the study subjects was 58.3 years. After the application of stem cell therapy, the follow-up period was 8 days minimum and 90 days maximum. Discussion. The mechanism by which the virus enters the cell is through protein "S," located on the surface of the membrane, by recognizing the ACE2 receptor located on the target cell. The evidence that the expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in stem cells indicates that stem cells from bone marrow and amniotic fluid have very little expression. This shows that stem cell has a low risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2. CONCLUSION: The use of stem cells is a highly relevant therapeutic option. It has been shown in both in vitro studies and clinical trials that it counteracts the excessive secretion of cytokines. There are even more studies that focus on long-term follow-up; thus, the potential for major side effects can be analyzed more clearly. Finally, the ethical use of stem cells from fetal or infant origin needs to be regulated. The study was registered in PROSPERO (no. CRD42021229038). The limitations of the study were because of the methodology employed, the sample was not very large, and the follow-up period of the clinical studies was relatively short.

Analysis of gait dynamics is a noninvasive and totally painless test, and it can be an ideal method for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, based on the strength of synchronization between dynamics of strides, we have suggested a rating scale method for Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods. The sample included 15 persons with PD (age: 66.8 ± 10.9 years) and 16 healthy persons (age: 39.3 ± 18.5 years) which were recruited from the Neurology Outpatient Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital and were instructed to walk a 77 m long, straight hallway. The time interval of strides and subphases of strides were measured. Using the Hilbert transformation method, we obtained the data phase and used mean absolute error (MAE) to calculate the synchronization strength of the data phase. Results. In order to check the accuracy of our method, we measured the correlation between our numerical results (MAE) and values of the Hoehn-Yahr scale. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients (r) and the P values were calculated. MAE of left and right stride intervals (LRSI) significantly correlates with the Hoehn-Yahr scale for the subjects with PD (with r = 0.60 and P = 0.025 < 0.05). Conclusion. We have revealed that the synchronization weakness of LRSI shows the severity of PD. This method seems to be well suited as a rating scale for people with PD.

BACKGROUND: Phospholysine phosphohistidine inorganic pyrophosphate phosphatase (LHPP) serves as a tumor suppressor in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the correlation between the expression of LHPP and the clinical parameters of oncogenic progression is still not well defined. This study is to reveal the correlation between the expression of LHPP in HCC and their clinical parameters. METHODS: Immunohistochemical analysis was used to assess the correlation between the expression of LHPP and the clinical parameters of HCC. Expressions of LHPP in HCC tissues and cultured HCC cells were detected by Western blot and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). LHPP, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), and α-fetoprotein (AFP) expression levels in blood or HCC tissues were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation of the expression of LHPP and the clinical index of HCC. Correlation of survival and expression of LHPP were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. RESULTS: Expressions of LHPP in HCC tissues were significantly downregulated than their paired adjacent normal tissues. A significant positive correlation was found between the cytoplasm and nuclear expression of LHPP in both HCC and their paired adjacent normal tissues. The expression of LHPP negatively correlated with the levels of GGT in the cytoplasm of adjacent tissues and with the AFP level in the nucleus of HCC cells. Relative levels of LHPP in HCC tissues were markedly lower than those of the paired adjacent normal tissues. Relative levels of LHPP in LO-2 cells were higher than those of HepG2, BEL-7404, and SMMC-7721 cell lines. The overall survival and DSF survival of patients with the high expression of LHPP were much higher than those with the low expression of LHPP in paired adjacent normal tissue. CONCLUSIONS: LHPP is associated with the AFP level and acts as a good prognostic factor in HCC.

In traditional medicine, various parts of the plant Juglans regia L. are used to treat several pathological conditions including diabetes and infectious and periodontal diseases. This includes the bark of Juglans regia. The present study is aimed at evaluating for the first time the mineral composition, investigating the antidiabetic and antibacterial properties of Moroccan J. regia bark, and finally determining the correlations between the chemical composition of the tested extracts and their biological activities. The mineral composition was determined using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. Then, nine extracts were prepared by different methods and modalities of extractions and investigated for their antidiabetic activities, via tests of inhibition of alpha-amylase, alpha-glucosidase, and beta-galactosidase enzymes, and for their antibacterial activities against six strains involved in infectious diseases and periodontology. Finally, the correlation between the chemical compositions of the different extracts prepared and their antidiabetic and antibacterial potencies was determined by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). J. regia is an important source of mineral elements, mainly Fe (19849.8), K (3487.8), Mg (2631.03), and P (691.02) mg/kg plant material. All the extracts of J. regia possess antidiabetic activity, and in particular, the macerated acetone extract gave the highest inhibitory activity against alpha-amylase (IC50 value of 5445.33 ± 82.58 μg/mL), alpha-glucosidase (IC50 value of 323.7 ± 1.71 μg/mL), and beta-galactosidase (IC50 value of 811.2 ± 8.32 μg/mL). For the results of antibacterial activity, the macerated acetone extract at the concentration of 80 mg/mL was found to be the most active by inducing inhibition diameters of 12, 17, 18, 11, 14.5, and 16 mm against Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and Listeria innocua, respectively. PCA allowed us to deduce that the extracts richer in polyphenols, in particular, the two acetone and ethanol macerates, have a better antidiabetic activity against alpha-glucosidase as well as a better antibacterial activity. The results of the present study revealed that the aqueous and organic macerate extracts showed a better antidiabetic activity and justified the use of J. regia bark as an antibacterial and antiseptic agent in traditional Moroccan medicine in the treatment of dental affections.

Stahlianthus involucratus (S. involucratus) has anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, and antipyretic activities; however, there are no literature reports on its antioxidant capacity. This study presents a comparative assessment of the polyphenols contents, flavonoids contents, and antioxidant activity of the aqueous and methanol extracts of S. involucratus (ASI and MSI). Moreover, the expression of oxidative stress-related genes in H2O2-induced H9c2 cells pretreated with the MSI was measured by RT-qPCR, and furthermore, MSI were characterized by UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS/MS. The results indicated that the MSI had higher antioxidant contents and antioxidant capacity, and MSI could inhibit H2O2-induced oxidative stress in H9c2 cells by activating the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway. UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS/MS characterized 15 phenolic compounds from the MSI. In conclusion, S. involucratus has the potential antioxidant capacity.

BACKGROUND: Clinically, autologous iliac crest bone grafts (ICBG) and bone tamping methods are often applied to manage depressed tibial plateau fractures (DTPFs). The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate the technique of using structural bicortical autologous ICBG combined with the tunnel bone tamping method (TBTM) for treating DTPFs. METHODS: All patients with DTPFs who underwent structural bicortical autologous ICBG combined with TBTM from January 2016 to February 2018 were prospectively analysed. Demographics, injury, surgery, postoperative complications, and clinical outcomes were recorded. All patients were followed up for more than 30 months. Postoperative radiography and CT were employed to assess fracture healing and the reduction quality. RESULTS: Forty-three of the included patients completed the follow-up. No malreduction was observed. Based on the immediate postoperative imaging, the intra-articular step-off was significantly reduced (8.19 mm preoperatively vs. 1.30 mm immediate postoperatively, P < 0.001). From the immediate operation to the latest follow-up, the reduction was maintained significantly well, with a nonnegligible absolute difference (0.18 mm, P = 0.108). A remarkable secondary loss of reduction (intra-articular step off > 3 mm) was found in two elderly patients (2/43, 4.65%). The incidence of complications related to the bone-graft donor and bone-graft site was 2.33% and 4.65%, respectively. At the final follow-up, the mean Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) score of the knee was 98.19 ± 2.89, and the mean 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) score was 95.65 ± 4.59. CONCLUSION: Structural bicortical autologous ICBG combined with TBTM is radiologically effective and stable in terms of complications for the DTPFs.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the patterns of a large series of tibial plateau fractures with the use of fracture mapping, with regard to different fracture types using the OTA/AO and Schatzker classification. Patients with intra-articular fractures of the tibial plateau were evaluated, using the OTA/AO and Schatzker classification on CT scans. For fracture mapping, the axial slice that completely displayed the tibial joint plane was first identified, then matched to a template congruently, and the fracture lines were identified and reproduced. In addition to epidemiological data (age and gender), the trauma mechanism (high-energy, low-energy, and pathological fracture) was recorded. In total, 271 patients with 278 intra-articular fractures of the tibial head were analyzed, including seven patients with both sides affected. The mean age was 49.1 years (men 46.3 years, women 53.5 years). The majority of fractures was caused by high-energy trauma. No significant difference could be shown with respect to trauma mechanism and resulting fracture type in terms of OTA/AO (p = 0.352) or Schatzker classification (p = 0.884). A significant difference could be found with respect to gender and resulting fracture type in terms of OTA/AO (p = 0.031). 170 (61.2%) were OTA/AO type B fractures, and 108 (38.8%) were type C fractures. Using the Schatzker classification, we found 53 type I (19.1%), 60 type II (21.6%), 27 type III (9.7%), 32 type IV (11.5%), 16 type V (5.8%), and 90 type VI (32.4%) fractures. The main affection was found in the lateral and intermedial column of the tibial plateaus, concerning both OTA/AO and Schatzker classification. The variability of intra-articular tibial head fractures is very high. In consequence, an individual analysis of fracture patterns and therapy planning by using CT scans is crucial.

As one of the most common features of obesity, insulin resistance is central to the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome. Low insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels have been proven to be associated with many traditional cardiovascular risk factors, but it still remains controversial with the relationship between IGF-1 and insulin resistance. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between IGF-1 and insulin resistance in obese prepubertal boys. We used the whole-body insulin sensitivity index (WBISI) to represent insulin resistance. 70 obese prepubertal boys were included in the study, and the obese subjects were divided into two groups by using 1.285 as a threshold value for WBISI. Clinical examination and laboratory examinations were assessed for all participants. Among obese boys, the group of children with WBISI ≤ 1.285 had lower IGF-1 standard deviation scores (SDS) (p = 0.021) than the WBISI > 1.285 group. The results of multiple linear analyses show that lg WBISI was positively correlated with IGF-1 SDS (p = 0.031) after adjusting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors. IGF-1 SDS was negatively associated with insulin resistance in obese prepubertal boys, independent of other traditional cardiovascular disease risk markers.

This article is aimed at exploring the relationship between the phosphatase 2A catalytic subunit Cα (PP2Acα, encoded by PPP2CA) and methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) in the malignant progression of gastric cancer (GC). Through analyzing the bioinformatics database and clinical tissue immunohistochemistry results, we found that abnormal PP2Acα and METTL3 levels were closely related to the malignant progression of GC. To explore the internal connection between PP2Acα and METTL3 in the progression of GC, we carried out cellular and molecular experiments and finally proved that PP2Acα inhibition can upregulate METTL3 levels by activating ATM activity, thereby promoting the malignant progression of GC.

Lipid deposition is an etiology of renal damage caused by lipid metabolism disorder in diabetic nephropathy (DN). Thus, reducing lipid deposition is a feasible strategy for the treatment of DN. Morroniside (MOR), an iridoid glycoside isolated from the Chinese herb Cornus officinalis Sieb. et Zucc., is considered to be an effective drug in inhibiting oxidative stress, reducing inflammatory response, and countering apoptosis. To explore the protective mechanism of MOR in attenuating renal lipotoxicity in DN, we investigated the effect of MOR on an in vitro model of lipid metabolism disorder of DN established by stimulating mouse renal tubular epithelial cells (mRTECs) with sodium palmitate (PA) or high glucose (HG). Oil Red O and filipin cholesterol staining assays were used to determine intracellular lipid accumulation status. Results revealed that PA or HG stimulation inhibited the expressions of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α), liver X receptors (LXR), ATP-binding cassette subfamily A member 1 (ABCA1), ABCG1, and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) in mRTECs as evidenced by western blot and quantitative real-time PCR, resulting in increased intracellular lipid deposition. Interestingly, MOR upregulated expressions of PGC-1α, LXR, ABCA1, ABCG1, and ApoE, thus reducing cholesterol accumulation in mRTECs, suggesting that MOR might promote cholesterol efflux from mRTECs via the PGC-1α/LXR pathway. Of note, silencing PGC-1α reversed the promotive effect of MOR on PA- or HG-induced cellular cholesterol accumulation. In conclusion, our results suggest that MOR has a protective effect on mRTECs under high lipid or high glucose conditions, which may be related to the promotion of intracellular cholesterol efflux mediated by PGC-1α.

OBJECTIVE: To observe and compare the efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture and antidepressants in the treatment of poststroke depression (PSD) using a meta-analysis method. METHODS: The VIP, CNKI, Wanfang, CMB, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane databases were searched. All randomized controlled trials (RCT) on electroacupuncture treatment of PSD were searched and further screened. Meta-analysis was performed on electroacupuncture and western medicine for PSD to explore the difference in efficacy between electroacupuncture and western medicine for PSD. RESULTS: Nineteen RCTs were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with the Western medicine group, the meta-analysis showed no significant changes in Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) scores between the electroacupuncture group and the antidepressant group (P > 0.05). The number of adverse events in the electroacupuncture group was less than that in the antidepressant group. CONCLUSION: Compared with antidepressants, electroacupuncture is not less effective in improving depression symptoms in PSD patients with greater safety.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNA-1-3p (miR-1-3p) exerts significant regulation in various tumor cells, but its molecular mechanisms in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are still ill defined. This study is aimed at detecting the expression of miR-1-3p in HNSCC and at determining its significant regulatory pathways. METHODS: Data were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), Oncomine, ArrayExpress, Sequence Read Archive (SRA) databases, and additional literature. Expression values of miR-1-3p in HNSCC were analyzed comprehensively. The R language software was employed to screen differentially expressed genes, and bioinformatics assessment was performed. One sequence dataset (HNSCC: n = 484; noncancer: n = 44) and 18 chip datasets (HNSCC: n = 656; noncancer: n = 199) were obtained. RESULTS: The expression of miR-1-3p in HNSCC was visibly decreased in compare with noncancerous tissues. There were distinct differences in tumor state (P = 0.0417), pathological stage (P = 0.0058), and T stage (P = 0.0044). Comprehensive analysis of sequence and chip data also indicated that miR-1-3p was lowly expressed in HNSCC. The diagnostic performance of miR-1-3p in HNSCC is reflected in the sensitivity and specificity of the collection, etc. Bioinformatics analysis showed the possible biological process, cellular component, molecular function, and KEGG pathways of miR-1-3p in HNSCC. And ITGB4 was a possible target of miR-1-3p. CONCLUSIONS: miR-1-3p's low expression may facilitate tumorigenesis and evolution in HNSCC through signaling pathways. ITGB4 may be a key gene in targeting pathways but still needs verification through in vitro experiments.

Erratum in Biomed Res Int. 2022 Jan 6;2022:9761279.

Erratum for Biomed Res Int. 2021 Jun 22;2021:5533134.

Loss of knee cartilage can cause intense pain at the knee epiphysis and this is one of the most common diseases worldwide. To diagnose this condition, the distance between the femur and tibia is calculated based on X-ray images. Accurate segmentation of the femur and tibia is required to assist in the calculation process. Several studies have investigated the use of automatic knee segmentation to assist in the calculation process, but the results are of limited value owing to the complexity of the knee. To address this problem, this study exploits deep learning for robust segmentation not affected by the environment. In addition, the Taguchi method is applied to optimize the deep learning results. Deep learning architecture, optimizer, and learning rate are considered for the Taguchi table to check the impact and interaction of the results. When the Dilated-Resnet architecture is used with the Adam optimizer and a learning rate of 0.001, dice coefficients of 0.964 and 0.942 are obtained for the femur and tibia for knee segmentation. The implemented procedure and the results of this investigation may be beneficial to help in determining the correct margins for the femur and tibia and can be the basis for developing an automatic diagnosis algorithm for orthopedic diseases.

PURPOSE: The bidirectional associations among children's motor skill competence (MSC), perceived competence (PC), physical activity (PA), and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) over time remain unanswered. This study is aimed at discerning the bidirectional relationships among elementary school children's MSC, PC, PA and, CRF over the course of one school year. METHODS: A total of 261 second and third grade children (127 boys, 134 girls; meanage = 8.27 years; BMI = 18.22 ± 3.71) were recruited from two Texas elementary schools. Approximately 73.56% of participants were White American. Children's baseline data were assessed in September/October in 2012 (Time1), and identical assessments were conducted in April/May in 2013 (Time2). MSC was assessed using product-oriented skill tests (e.g., throw, kick, and jump). PC was assessed via the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence for Children. Minutes spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) was assessed using ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers for five days, and CRF was assessed by the PACER test. Six age- and body mass index-adjusted cross-lagged panel models were used to test the relationships between the variables. RESULTS: We observed that T1 MSC significantly predicted T2 MSC (β = 0.59; p < 0.01), T2 CRF (β = 0.28; p < 0.01), and T2 MVPA (β = 0.18; p < 0.01). Children's CRF was a positive predictor for T2 CRF (β = 0.56; p < 0.01) and T2 MSC (β = 0.13; p < 0.05) Additionally, T1 MVPA significantly predicted T2 MVPA (β = 0.30; p < 0.01) and T2 PC (β = -0.14; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Findings suggested a fully bidirectional relationship between elementary children's MSC and CRF. Other bidirectional relationships among the variables were only partially supported. Educators and health professionals need to emphasize the importance of developing both MSC and CRF to maintain physical health over time.

BACKGROUND: Slow transit constipation (STC) is characterized by persistent, infrequent, or incomplete defecation. Systematic analyses of mRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA expression profiling in STC provide insights to understand the molecular mechanisms of STC pathogenesis. The present study is aimed at observing the interaction of mRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs by RNA sequencing in vivo of STC. METHODS: A rat model of STC was induced by loperamide. The expression profiles of both mRNAs and miRNAs were performed by RNA sequencing. Enrichment analyses of anomalous expressed mRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs were performed in order to identify the related biological functions and pathologic pathways through the Gene Ontology (GO) database and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. RESULTS: In total, 26435 mRNAs, 5703 lncRNAs, and 7708 circRNAs differentially expressed were identified between the two groups. The analyses of GO and KEGG show that (1) upregulated genes were enriched in a positive regulation of GTPase activity, cell migration, and protein binding and lipid binding and (2) GO annotations revealed that most trans-target mRNAs are involved in the regulation process of immune signal together with the proliferation and differentiation of immune cells. Additionally, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs was constructed. Interestingly, all of the core lncRNAs and their coexpression mRNAs in this network are downregulated. Moreover, downregulated circRNAs have a set of target mRNAs related to immunoreaction, which was consistent with the overall tendency. CONCLUSION: Our investigation enriches the STC transcriptome database and provides a preliminary exploration of novel candidate genes and avenues expression profiles in vivo. The dysregulation of mRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs might contribute to the pathological processes during STC.

PURPOSE: Due to the excessive use of raw materials in diagnostic tools and equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a dire need for cheaper and more effective methods in the healthcare system. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) methods in medical sciences as low-cost and safer diagnostic methods, researchers have turned their attention to the use of imaging tools with AI that have fewer complications for patients and reduce the consumption of healthcare resources. Despite its limitations, X-ray is suggested as the first-line diagnostic modality for detecting and screening COVID-19 cases. METHOD: This systematic review assessed the current state of AI applications and the performance of algorithms in X-ray image analysis. The search strategy yielded 322 results from four databases and google scholar, 60 of which met the inclusion criteria. The performance statistics included the area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUC) curve, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. RESULT: The average sensitivity and specificity of CXR equipped with AI algorithms for COVID-19 diagnosis were >96% (83%-100%) and 92% (80%-100%), respectively. For common X-ray methods in COVID-19 detection, these values were 0.56 (95% CI 0.51-0.60) and 0.60 (95% CI 0.54-0.65), respectively. AI has substantially improved the diagnostic performance of X-rays in COVID-19. CONCLUSION: X-rays equipped with AI can serve as a tool to screen the cases requiring CT scans. The use of this tool does not waste time or impose extra costs, has minimal complications, and can thus decrease or remove unnecessary CT slices and other healthcare resources.

Excessive free fatty acid- (FFA-) induced endothelial lipotoxicity is involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is mechanistically related to endothelial lipotoxicity. Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1 (LOX-1) is the major oxidatively modified low-density lipoprotein (OxLDL) receptor in endothelial cells and is highly abundant in atherosclerotic lesions. Curcumin reduces the LOX-1 expression; however, the mechanism underlying this effect remains unknown. In the current study, we explored whether curcumin ameliorates palmitic acid- (PA-) induced endothelial lipotoxicity and LOX-1 upregulation by reducing ER stress in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). We built endothelial lipotoxicity in vitro and found that LOX-1 was upregulated after PA stimulation, during which ER stress played an important role. Next, we observed that curcumin substantially alleviated PA-induced lipotoxicity by restoring cell viability, increasing angiogenesis, and decreasing lipid deposition. Furthermore, LOX-1 upregulation in HUVECs was blocked by curcumin, possibly via ER stress suppression. Overall, our findings demonstrated that curcumin alleviates endothelial lipotoxicity and LOX-1 upregulation, and ER stress inhibition may play a critical role in this effect.

Drug use is one of the global public health issues, and its accompanying disorders have consequences on people's mental, physical, and environmental health. Nevertheless, the majority of people who use drugs have never been treated for drug dependence and other health conditions whilst others discontinue their treatment for drug use disorder. Using the health belief model, the study aimed at exploring facilitators and barriers to health-seeking among people who use drugs in the Sunyani Municipality of Ghana. A descriptive study design was used, employing a qualitative approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 22 participants, including two key informants (male and female). The first group of participants was recruited from the ghetto (an area in the municipality where people who use drugs are usually located). The other group of participants was recruited using hospital-based records. The interview data were transcribed, coded, and analysed for the generation of themes with the aid of Nvivo version 12 pro. The results showed that people who use drugs face health challenges such as drug dependence, malaria, lungs and breathing complications, cardiovascular complications, and skin complications. People who use drugs experienced poor perceived quality of life and low health status. Health-seeking behaviours of interviewees were influenced by the perceived benefit, perceived severity, cues to action, among others. Multiple sources of healthcare were used by the people who use drugs. Whereas ease of communication, perceived severity, benefit, among others were facilitators to their health-seeking behaviours, cost, dwindling social support, lack of knowledge of the condition, and fear of arrest by law enforcement agencies also served as barriers to seeking healthcare at the orthodox health facilities. This paper suggests a holistic approach to help improve the health and health-seeking behaviours of people who use drugs. The researchers wish to indicate that an earlier version of this manuscript has been presented at the University of Ghana as a thesis.

OBJECTIVE: Thrombospondin 2 (THBS2) acts as oncogenic or tumor suppressive gene in diverse cancers. Here we studied the prognostic and immunological role of THBS2 in colorectal cancer (CRC) using bioinformatic analysis. METHODS: The genetic and protein expression of THBS2 in CRC were explored across several databases, including ONCOMINE, GEPIA2, TIMER 2.0, UALCAN and HPA databases. Correlation between THBS2 expression and clinical features in CRC was assessed using UALCAN tool. Prognostic analysis was performed using GEPIA2 and PrognoScan. Immune infiltration correlation with THBS2 in CRC was investigated with TIMER 2.0 and TISIDB. THBS2 binding and correlated genes were analyzed using String, GEPIA2, and TIMER 2.0. RESULTS: THBS2 was significantly higher in CRC across multiple databases. Age and histological subtype were correlated with THBS2 level. High THBS2 expression correlated with short overall and disease-free survival. THBS2 expression was positively correlated with immune infiltrates in CRC. Moreover, extracellular matrix structural constituent and organization, PI3K-Akt pathway, were involved in the functional mechanisms of THBS2. CONCLUSIONS: THBS2 correlates with poor prognosis and immune infiltration in CRC. THBS2 may act as a prognostic and immunological biomarker for CRC.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists are recently discovered antidiabetic drugs with potent hypoglycemic effects. Among different mechanisms of activity, these compounds were shown to reduce blood glucose by suppression of glucagon secretion and stimulation of glucose-dependent insulin secretion. These antidiabetic agents have a minor risk of hypoglycemia and have been suggested as a second-line therapy to be added to metformin treatment to further optimize glycemic control in diabetes. More recently, scientific evidence suggests that GLP-1 receptor agonists may particularly afford protection from diabetic nephropathy through modulation of the molecular pathways involved in renal impairment and so improve renal function. This additional benefit adds further weight for these compounds to become promising drugs not only for glycemic control but also to prevent diabetic complications. In this review, we have updated evidence on the beneficial effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists on diabetic nephropathy and detailed the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.

Weibing Formula 1, a classic traditional formula, has been widely used clinically to treat gastritis in recent years. However, the potential pharmacological mechanism of Weibing Formula 1 is still unclear to date. A network pharmacology-based strategy was performed to uncover the underlying mechanisms of Weibing Formula 1 against gastritis. Furthermore, we structured the drug-active ingredients-genes-disease network and PPI network of shared targets, and function enrichment analysis of these targets was carried out. Ultimately, Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets and real-time quantitative PCR were used to verify the related genes. We found 251 potential targets corresponding to 135 bioactive components of Weibing Formula 1. Then, 327 gastritis-related targets were known gastritis-related targets. Among which, 60 common targets were shared between potential targets of Weibing Formula 1 and known gastritis-related targets. The results of pathway enrichment analysis displayed that 60 common targets mostly participated in various pathways related to Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, and apoptosis. Based on the GSE60427 dataset, 15 common genes were shared between differentially expressed genes and 60 candidate targets. The verification results of the GSE5081 dataset showed that except for DUOX2 and VCAM1, the other 13 genes were significantly upregulated in gastritis, which was consistent with the results in the GSE60427 dataset. More importantly, real-time quantitative PCR results showed that the expressions of PTGS2, MMP9, CXCL2, and CXCL8 were significantly upregulated and NOS2, EGFR, and IL-10 were downregulated in gastritis patients, while the expressions of PTGS2, MMP9, CXCL2, and CXCL8 were significantly downregulated and NOS2, EGFR, and IL-10 were upregulated after the treatment of Weibing Formula 1. PTGS2, NOS2, EGFR, MMP9, CXCL2, CXCL8, and IL-10 may be the important direct targets of Weibing Formula 1 in gastritis treatment. Our study revealed the mechanism of Weibing Formula 1 in gastritis from an overall and systematic perspective, providing a theoretical basis for further knowing and application of this formula in the future.

OBJECTIVE: This study is aimed at identifying key genes involved in neurological damage in preterm infants and at determining their potential circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory mechanisms. METHODS: Differentially expressed miRNAs, mRNAs, and circRNAs were downloaded from the GEO database. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were used to determine possible relevant functions of differentially expressed mRNAs. The TTRUST database was used to predict differential TF-mRNA regulatory relationships. Then, CircMIR, miRDB, TargetScan and miRTarBase were then used to map circRNA/miRNA-TF/mRNA interaction networks. Finally, GSEA enrichment analysis was performed on the core transcription factors. RESULTS: A total of 640 mRNAs, 139 circRNAs, and 206 differentially expressed miRNAs associated with neurological injury in preterm infants were obtained. Based on the findings of Cytoscape and PPI network analysis, the hsa_circ_0008439-hsa-mir-3665-STAT3-MMP3 regulatory axis was established. GSEA analysis revealed that suppressed expression levels of STAT3 were associated with upregulated oxidative phosphorylation pathways in the neurological injury group of preterm infants. CONCLUSIONS: The circRNA-miRNA-TF-mRNA regulatory network of neurological injury in preterm infants can be used to elucidate on the pathogenesis of brain injury and help us with the early detection of brain injury in preterm infants.

METHOD: The clinical and imaging data of PEDs in the postmarket multicenter registry study (PLUS) in China were retrospectively analyzed, and patients were divided into two groups on the basis of the follow-up angiographic results: group 1 (no significant change in A1 blood flow) and group 2 (A1 occlusion or decreased blood flow). We collected patients' baseline data and evaluated the following imaging indicators: diameter and ratio of bilateral A1, M1, and internal carotid artery (ICA) vessels before stenting and the ratio of the PED size (sPED) to the ipsilateral ICA (I-ICA) diameter on the implantation side. RESULTS: A total of 1171 patients were included, of whom 48 met the inclusion criteria (17 in group 1 and 31 in group 2). In group 2, three patients experienced neurological deterioration at follow-up. From the univariate analysis of outcomes, single PED without coils, incomplete aneurysm occlusion (IAO), maximum aneurysm diameter, aneurysms involving the ICA bifurcation (ICAb), and large sPED/I-ICA diameter ratio were included in the multivariate analysis (P < 0.20). The multivariate regression analysis results showed that the ratio of sPED/I-ICA diameter was the factor influencing A1 vessel occlusion. The area under the ROC curve was 73.2%. When the sPED/I-ICA diameter ratio was 1.14, sensitivity was 70.6%, and specificity was 77.4%. CONCLUSION: When an oversized PED is placed from M1 to the ICA, the higher porosity formed at the covered A1 orifice is conducive to maintaining stable A1 blood flow and reducing the risk of A1 vessel occlusion. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03831672.

Tooth bleaching is becoming increasingly popular among patients with tooth staining, but the safety of bleaching agents on tooth structure has been questioned. Primarily thriving on the biofilm formation on enamel surface, Streptococcus mutans has been recognized as a major cariogenic bacterial species. The present study is aimed at investigating how cold-light bleaching would change enamel roughness and adhesion of Streptococcus mutans. Human premolars were divided into 72 enamel slices and allocated into 3 groups: (1) control, (2) cold-light bleaching with 35% hydrogen peroxide (Beyond™), and (3) 35% hydrogen peroxide (Beyond™) alone. Biofilms of Streptococcus mutans were cultivated on enamel slices in 5% CO2 (v/v) at 37°C for 1 day or 3 days. Enamel surfaces and biofilms were observed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was applied to quantify the roughness of enamel surface, and the amounts of biofilms were measured by optical density of scattered biofilm and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Cold-light bleaching significantly increased (p < 0.05) surface roughness of enamel compared to controls, but significantly inhibited (p < 0.05) adhesion of Streptococcus mutans on enamel in the bacterial cultures of both 1 day and 3 days. In conclusion, cold-light bleaching could roughen enamel surface but inhibit Streptococcus mutans adhesion at the preliminary stage after the bleaching treatment.

BACKGROUND: Despite being sexually active and engaging in risky sexual behaviours similar to young adults, older adults (50 years or older) are less likely to receive HIV testing, and disaggregated data are still scarce about HIV prevention and treatment in this vulnerable population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This systematic review is aimed at examining sex differences in HIV testing and counseling (HTC) among older adults in SSA. METHODS: A systematic search of four databases, namely, MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid), Web of Science, and Global Health, was conducted from 2000 to January 2020. The primary outcome of interest for this study was gender differences in HTC among older adults in SSA. Observational studies including cross-sectional, retrospective, and prospective cohort studies were included. Eligible studies must have reported sex differences in HIV testing uptake in a standard HTC service among older adults in SSA. RESULTS: From the database search, 4143 articles were identified. Five studies were ultimately included in the final review. Of the 1189 participants, 606 (51.1%) and 580 (48.9%) were female and male, respectively. The review findings suggested that both men and women preferred HTC providers that are the same sex as them with women additionally preferring a provider who is also of a similar age. Men and women differed in their pathways to getting tested for HIV. The review documented mixed results with regard to the associations between sex of older adults and uptake of HTC. Older adult HTC uptake data are limited in scope and coverage in sub-Saharan Africa. CONCLUSION: This review revealed shortage of evidence to evaluate optimum HTC utilization among older adults. Few studies examined sex differences in HIV testing among older adults in the region. There is a need for stakeholders working in the area of HIV prevention and treatment to focus on older adult health utilization evidence organization, disaggregated by age and sex. Hence, high-quality research designs are needed on the topic in order to generate good quality evidence for targeted interventions to improve HTC among older adults in sub-Saharan Africa.

In recent years, the prevalence of resistance to aminoglycosides among clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is increasing. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes (AMEs) in resistance to aminoglycosides in clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa. The clinical isolates were collected from different hospitals. Disk agar diffusion test was used to determine the antimicrobial resistance pattern of the clinical isolates, and the minimum inhibitory concentration of aminoglycosides was detected by microbroth dilution method. The PCR was performed for discovery of aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme-encoding genes. Among 100 screened isolates, 43 (43%) isolates were resistant to at least one tested aminoglycosides. However, 13 (13%) isolates were resistant to all tested aminoglycosides and 37 isolates were detected as multidrug resistant (MDR). The resistance rates of P. aeruginosa isolates against tested antibiotics were as follows: ciprofloxacin (41%), piperacillin-tazobactam (12%), cefepime (32%), piperacillin (26%), and imipenem (31%). However, according to the MIC method, 13%, 32%, 33%, and 37% of the isolates were resistant to amikacin, gentamicin, tobramycin, and netilmicin, respectively. The PCR results showed that AAC(6')-Ib was the most commonly (26/43, 60.4%) identified AME-encoding gene followed by AAC(6')-IIa (41.86%), APH(3')-IIb (34.8%), ANT(3 ″ )-Ia (18.6), ANT(2 ″ )-Ia (13.95%), and APH(3 ″ )-Ib (2.32%). However, APH(3')-Ib was not found in any of the studied isolates. The high prevalence of AME-encoding genes among aminoglycoside-resistant P. aeruginosa isolates in this area indicated the important role of AMEs in resistance to these antibiotics similar to most studies worldwide. Due to the transmission possibility of these genes between the Gram-negative bacteria, we need to control the prescription of aminoglycosides in hospitals.

BACKGROUND: The number of articles of clinical and basic research for osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is increasing, yet, to our knowledge, there is still a lack of bibliometric analysis on ONFH articles. The purpose of this study was to identify the top 100 cited (T100) articles related to ONFH research and to analyze the characteristics and qualities of these articles. METHODS: The T100 articles on ONFH were retrieved from the Web of Science database. The information about each article including citations, titles, authors, journals, countries, institutions, and keywords was recorded for bibliometric analysis. RESULTS: The T100 articles related to ONFH were mainly published from 1991 to 2010 (n = 70) and were originated from 24 countries. The USA, China, and Japan were the most productive countries in this regard. The most prolific institution was the University of Pennsylvania from the USA with 6 publications and 742 citations. The most cited article was published in 1995 by Professor Steinberg ME. The five most frequently occurring keywords were "femoral head," "osteonecrosis," "core decompression," "total hip arthroplasty," and "follow up." The keywords like "bone tissue engineering" and "extracorporeal shock wave" have emerged in recent years. CONCLUSIONS: The USA, China, and Japan contributed greatly in terms of the T100 articles. The outcomes of core decompression and total hip arthroplasty gathered the most research interests. In recent years, bone tissue engineering and extracorporeal shock wave have become new trends. However, the mechanism of ONFH is still unclear.

Bacterial meningitis (BM) is a public health burden in developing countries, including Central Asia. This disease is characterized by a high mortality rate and serious neurological complications. Delay with the start of adequate therapy is associated with an increase in mortality for patients with acute bacterial meningitis. Cerebrospinal fluid culture, as a gold standard in bacterial meningitis diagnosis, is time-consuming with modest sensitivity, and this is unsuitable for timely decision-making. It has been shown that bacterial meningitis differentiation from viral meningitis could be done through different parameters such as clinical signs and symptoms, laboratory values, such as PCR, including blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis. In this study, we proposed the method for distinguishing the bacterial form of meningitis from enteroviral one. The method is based on the machine learning process deriving making decision rules. The proposed fast-and-frugal trees (FFTree) decision tree approach showed an ability to determine procalcitonin and C-reactive protein (CRP) with cut-off values for distinguishing between bacterial and enteroviral meningitis (EVM) in children. Such a method demonstrated 100% sensitivity, 96% specificity, and 98% accuracy in the differentiation of all cases of bacterial meningitis in this study. These findings and proposed method may be useful for clinicians to facilitate the decision-making process and optimize the diagnostics of meningitis.

This study is aimed at identifying the chemical composition of the essential oil extracted from the Syzygium aromaticum seeds, as well as investigating its biological activities, insecticide effect, and allelopathic properties. The extraction yield was about 14.3 and 7.14% for grounded and ungrounded seeds, respectively. The GC-MS analysis allowed the identification of 17 heterogeneous compounds, including eugenol (68.7-87.4%), as major compound, cyperene (20.5-7.2%), phenethyl isovalerate (6.4-3.6%), and cis-thujopsene (1.9-0.8%), respectively, for grounded and ungrounded seeds. Concerning the antibacterial activity, the diameter of the inhibition zone reached 35 mm when the essential oil extracted from grounded seeds was applied against Escherichia coli. Regarding the antioxidant activity via the DPPH radical scavenging test, the IC50 varied from 1.2 ± 0.1 to 2.8 ± 0.5 μg/mL. With respect to reducing power, the efficient concentration EC50 ranged from 32 to 50 μg/mL. The essential oil exhibited also an allelopathic effect against seeds of Hyoscyamus niger, as well as an insecticide effect against Sitophilus oryzae with a DL50 value of 252.4 μL/L air. These findings enhance the use of this spice as a natural food preservative and encourage its use in several fields, including pharmaceutical, cosmetics, agriculture, and therapy, that could be a strategic way to guarantee the consumer's health.

BACKGROUND: Preformed metal crowns (PMCs), as an effective technique recommended for the enduring restoration of primary molar defects, have not been widely implemented in China as well as that in Western countries. This study is aimed at assessing the knowledge on the clinical use of the PMC technique and its effective factors among dentists in Chengdu, China. Thus, the present study is aimed at providing the best available evidence on clinical decision-making to manage dental caries in children and the overall benefits. METHODS: The self-designed questionnaire in this study consisted of two main sections, including the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and their perception and use of PMCs. The anonymous questionnaire was distributed among 1000 dentists practicing in Chengdu via SO JUMP. RESULTS: The response rate was 45%. Most respondents (69.6%) did not use PMCs. Academic qualification, working specialty, and professional experience were associated with dentists' use of PMCs. The lack of knowledge about the PMC technique was the main obstacle to the dental practitioners' use of PMCs (41.7%). The lack of understanding of the rationale behind PMCs was the main reason for parents' acceptance of PMC restorations (43.6%). Attending continuing education programs was the main approach to learning the PMC restorative technique (59.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical use of PMCs was not very popular in Chengdu city. To promote this restorative technique, knowledge and practical training should be incorporated into routine courses of undergraduate dental education.

This study is to investigate the relationship of endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase 1 (ERAP1) gene polymorphisms with psoriasis. Five databases of PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched for potential studies until 25 December 2019. Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of included studies. Meta-analysis was performed with PRISMA. A total of 9 case-control studies including 4858 psoriasis cases and 10,542 healthy controls were included. Three loci of ERAP1 gene polymorphisms (rs26653, rs30187, and rs27524) were evaluated in this meta-analysis. There was no significant association between rs26653 polymorphism and risk of psoriasis (C vs. G, OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.80-1.28, P = 0.93). However, there was a significant association between rs30187 polymorphisms and psoriasis susceptibility (T vs. C, OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.15-1.32, P < 0.00001) and a significant association between rs27524 polymorphisms and psoriasis susceptibility (A vs. G, OR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.09-1.25, P < 0.00001). For there were insufficient data of rs27044, rs151823, rs2248374, and rs2910686, we only conducted a systematic review for them. The rs30187 (C/T) and rs27524 (G/A) polymorphisms of ERAP1 are associated with increased risk of psoriasis. However, no significant association is observed between rs26653 (G/C) polymorphism and risk of psoriasis.

In this paper, the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) is estimated through a robust machine-learning algorithm known as the Particle Swarm Optimization-based Extreme Learning Machine (PSO-ELM) model. For this purpose, a large dataset from previously published reports was gathered. Various analyses were performed to evaluate the proposed model. The results of the statistical analysis showed that this model can predict the actual values with high accuracy, so that the calculated R 2 and RMSE values were equal to 0.973 and 3.56, respectively. Sensitivity analysis was also performed on the effective input parameters. The leverage technique was also performed to check the accuracy of real data, and the results showed that the majority of data are reliable. This simple yet accurate model can be very powerful in predicting the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity values and can be a good alternative to laboratory data.

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is recognized as one of the most common malignancies with a high mortality rate worldwide, supporting the necessity for an effective novel antitumor drug to improve current therapy's effectiveness. Substance P (SP) is the essential member of the tachykinins (TKs) family, which binds to the specific receptors, known as neurokinin-1 receptor (NK1R), exerting its multiple influences such as tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis. Aprepitant, as a specific NK1R antagonist, is suggested as a novel antitumor agent, promoting apoptotic processes in tumor cells; however, the exact antitumor mechanism of aprepitant on molecular signaling in CRC is not entirely known. METHOD: The resazurin assay was conducted to assess the cytotoxic effects of aprepitant on the viability of the CRC cell line (SW480). The level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was measured after 24-hour treatment with SP and aprepitant. PI/annexin V-FITC staining was conducted to assess apoptosis. Also, the expression of NF-κB antiapoptotic target genes and proapoptotic p53 target genes was measured by real-time- (RT-) PCR assay. Western blotting assay was performed to determine the expression of PI3k/AKT/NF-κB proteins. RESULTS: We found that aprepitant stimulates apoptotic cell death and attenuates the PI3K/Akt pathway and its downstream proapoptotic target gene, including NF-κB in SW480 cells. Also, the obtained results from the quantitative RT-PCR assay showed that aprepitant could decrease the level of mRNA of NF-κB antiapoptotic target genes. CONCLUSION: Towards this end, this study suggests that SP/NK1R system plays a vital role in the development of CRC, and pharmaceutical targeting of NK1R using aprepitant might be a promising treatment against CRC.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been increasingly used in the treatment of various types of tumors with favorable results. But these treatments also led to a variety of immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Neurological irAEs such as Guillain-Barré Syndrome are rare and may have serious consequences once they occur. A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed and Embase for all case reports of GBS associated with ICIs published in English reporting on human beings from 1990 up to date. A total of 30 case reports (total patients = 33) were used for final analysis. The included cases were from 11 countries, covering 10 tumor types, with melanoma accounting for the largest number. The mean age was 62.2 ± 11.1 years old, and males were dominant (male: 26 and female: 7). The median time of initial symptoms was 8.2 weeks after the 1st dose of ICIs. The most common manifestations of GBS associated with ICIs were weakness, hyporeflexia or areflexia, and paresthesia in order. The GBS subtypes suggested by electrophysiological results were acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP), acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN), and Miller Fisher syndrome (MFS). The protein level of CSF in patients with GBS related to ICIs was 180.68 ± 152.51 mg/dl. Immediate termination of ICIs followed by intravenous immunoglobulin was the preferred treatment option. 72.7% of patients recovered or had residual mild dysfunction after treatment. Elderly male patients with melanoma were most likely to develop ICI-related GBS. The specific neurological symptoms, CSF analysis, and electrophysiological examination were important means of diagnosis.

Intestinal parasites are responsible for one of the major health problems like food contamination with socioeconomic effects in the world with a prevalence rate of 30-60%, in developing countries that lie within tropical and subtropical areas. They pose a reasonable public health burden, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, including Ethiopia. Globally, due to intestinal parasitic infections, around 3.5 billion people are affected and more than 200,000 deaths are reported annually. Around 50000 deaths yearly are caused by intestinal parasites in Ethiopia. As such, intestinal parasites perceived global and local burdens to various countries. The risk of food contamination depends largely on the health status of the food handlers, their hygiene, knowledge, and practice of food hygiene. Food handlers with poor personal hygiene and sanitation conditions are the major potential sources of intestinal helminthes and protozoa worldwide. The proposed study was aimed at evaluating prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and their associated factors among food handlers working in selected catering establishments. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Bule Hora Town from March to April 2020. A total of 136 catering establishments were selected using a systematic sampling technique. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20. The prevalence of intestinal parasites in this study was 46.3%. Entamoeba histolytica was the most predominant parasite (33.3%, i.e., 21/63) while Giardia lamblia was the least (11.1%, i.e., 7/63). Consumption of vended or borehole water and hygienic practices such as hand washing before eating, after using toilet, before cooking and trimming of finger nail and wearing proper working clothes and shoes were statistically significant with intestinal parasitic infection (P < 0.05). Generally, the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection in this study was high and contributed by low socioeconomic status and poor environmental and personal hygiene. Measures including education on personal hygiene, environmental sanitation, drinking water supply, regular medical checkups, and treatment should be taken into account to reduce the prevalence of intestinal parasites.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is caused by genetics, aging, and environmental factors and is one of the leading causes of low back pain. The treatment of IDD presents many challenges. Hydrogels are biomaterials that possess properties similar to those of the natural extracellular matrix and have significant potential in the field of regenerative medicine. Hydrogels with various functional qualities have recently been used to repair and regenerate diseased intervertebral discs. Here, we review the mechanisms of intervertebral disc homeostasis and degeneration and then discuss the applications of hydrogel-mediated repair and intervertebral disc regeneration. The classification of artificial hydrogels and natural hydrogels is then briefly introduced, followed by an update on the development of functional hydrogels, which include noncellular therapeutic hydrogels, cellular therapeutic hydrogel scaffolds, responsive hydrogels, and multifunctional hydrogels. The challenges faced and future developments of the hydrogels used in IDD are discussed as they further promote their clinical translation.

To explore the effect of miR-1 on neuronal apoptosis in rats with stroke through the ERK signaling pathway. Methods. Forty male rats (180-220 g) were selected and randomly divided into the sham, model, miR-1 inhibitor, and miR-1 mimic groups (10 rats per group) by average body weight. Cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) models were established using a modified middle cerebral artery wire thrombosis (MCAO) method in rats in the model group, miR-1 inhibitor group, and miR-1 mimic group. After the successful model establishment, the miR-1inhibitor group and miR-1 mimic group were intravenously injected with miR-1 inhibitor and miR-1 mimic, respectively, once a day for 3 days. The sham and model groups were given the same dose of normal saline. TTC staining was applied to detect the cerebral infarct size and calculate the infarct volume. Histopathological changes in the hippocampus of rat brains were observed by HE staining. Flow cytometry was used to detect neuronal apoptosis in rat brains. The mRNA expressions of miR-1, ERK1/2, Bcl-2, and Bax in rat brain tissues were determined by QRT PCR, and the protein levels of ERK1/2, Bcl-2, Bax, and caspase-3 were determined by Western blot analysis. Results. Compared with the sham group, the neurological impairment score, cerebral infarct size, and volume of rats in the model group were significantly increased (p < 0.05). Compared with the model group, the neurological impairment score, cerebral infarct size, and volume were significantly increased in the miR-1 mimic group and significantly decreased in the miR-1 inhibitor group (p < 0.05). In the model group, the hippocampal tissue of rats had malaligned cells, neuron cell atrophy became smaller, the intercellular spaces became larger, and vacuoles appeared. Compared with the model group, the miR-1 inhibitor group could effectively alleviate the pathological changes in the hippocampus, and the miR-1 mimic group could significantly add to the pathological changes in the rat hippocampus. Compared with the sham group, the mRNA expression of miR-1 and Bax in the brain of model rats increased significantly (p < 0.05), and the mRNA expression of ERK1/2 decreased significantly; Compared with the model group, the miR-1 and Bax mRNA expressions in the brain tissues of rats in the miR-1 inhibitor group were significantly decreased, the ERK1/2 and bcl-2 mRNA expressions were significantly increased, and the miR-1 and Bax mRNA expressions in the brain tissues of rats in the miR-1 inhibitor group were significantly decreased, and the Bcl-2 mRNA expression was significantly increased (p < 0.05). Compared with the sham group, neuronal apoptosis was increased in the brain tissues of rats in the model group and miR-1 mimic group. Compared with the model group, neuronal apoptosis was decreased in the brain tissues of rats in the miR-1 inhibitor group. Compared with the sham group, the ERK1/2 proteins in the model group were significantly decreased, the Bcl-2, Bax, and caspase-3 proteins were significantly increased, and the ERK1/2, Bcl-2, Bax, and caspase-3 proteins in the miR-1 inhibitor group and miR-1 mimic group were significantly increased. Compared with the model group, the protein levels of ERK1/2 and Bcl-2 in the miR-1 inhibitor group were significantly increased, the proteins of Bax and caspase-3 were significantly decreased, and the protein levels of ERK1/2 and Bcl-2 in the miR-1 inhibitor group were significantly increased (p < 0.05). Conclusions. miR-1 can interfere with neuronal apoptosis in rats with stroke through the ERK signaling pathway.

Reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction is one of the important methods to investigate gene expression in cells and tissues. However, if the data cannot be normalized with appropriate reference genes, the results may be unreliable. In this study, we detected the expression of 15 reference genes in three pig cell lines. The results showed that SDHA and ALDOA were the most stable reference genes in 3D4/21 cells. TOP2B, TBP, and PPIA were the most stable reference genes in PK-15 cells. SDHA and ALDOA were the most stable reference genes in IPEC-J2 cells. In addition, each cell line only needs to use two reference genes to standardize the expression of target genes. Taken together, this study provides a reference for different pig cell lines to select reference genes and also provides a theoretical basis for the use of these cell lines in related functional researches.

Inflammation response is an important reason for disc cell senescence during disc degeneration. Recently, melatonin is suggested to protect against disc degeneration. However, the effects of melatonin on annulus fibrosus (AF) cell senescence are not fully studied. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of melatonin on AF cell senescence in an inflammatory environment and the underlying mechanism. Rat disc AF cells were cultured in a medium with tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Melatonin was added along with the medium to observe its protective effects. Compared with the control AF cells, TNF-α significantly declined cell proliferation potency and telomerase activity, elevated senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-Gal) activity, upregulated protein expression of senescence markers (p16 and p53), and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) content and activity of the NF-κB pathway. However, when the TNF-α-treated AF cells were incubated with melatonin, ROS content and activity of the NF-κB pathway were decreased, and those parameters reflecting cell senescence indicated that AF cell senescence was also partly alleviated. Together, melatonin suppresses AF cell senescence through regulating the ROS/NF-κB pathway in an inflammatory environment. This study sheds a new light that melatonin may be promising to retard inflammation-caused disc degeneration.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to participate in regulating many biological processes, including immune response to influenza A virus (IAV). However, the association between lncRNA expression profiles and influenza infection susceptibility has not been well elucidated. Here, we analyzed the expression profiles of lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs among IAV-infected adult rat (IAR), normal adult rat (AR), IAV-infected junior rat (IJR), and normal junior rat (JR) by RNA sequencing. Compared with differently expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) between AR and IAR, 24 specific DElncRNAs were found between IJR and JR. Then, based on the fold changes and P value, the top 5 DElncRNAs, including 3 upregulated and 2 downregulated lncRNAs, were chosen to establish a ceRNA network for further disclosing their regulatory mechanisms. To visualize the differentially expressed genes in the ceRNA network, GO and KEGG pathway analysis was performed to further explore their roles in influenza infection of junior rats. The results showed that the downregulated DElncRNA-target genes were mostly enriched in the IL-17 signaling pathway. It indicated that the downregulated lncRNAs conferred the susceptibility of junior rats to IAV via mediating the IL-17 signaling pathway.

PURPOSE: Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has been widely used in orthopedics surgery. However, its efficacy in acetabular fractures remains unclear. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the effect of using 3D printing technology in the surgery for acetabular fractures. METHODS: The systematic review was performed following the PRISMA guidelines. Four major electronic databases were searched (inception to February 2021). Studies were screened using a priori criteria. Data from each study were extracted by two independent reviewers and organized using a standardized table. Data were pooled and presented in forest plots. RESULTS: Thirteen studies were included in the final analysis. Four were prospective randomized trials, and nine used a retrospective comparative design. The patients aged between 32.1 (SD 14.6) years and 51.9 (SD 18.9) years. Based on the pooled analyses, overall, 3D printing-assisted surgery decreased operation time by 38.8 minutes (95% CI: -54.9, -22.8), intraoperative blood loss by 259.7 ml (95% CI: -394.6, -124.9), instrumentation time by 34.1 minutes (95% CI: -49.0, -19.1). Traditional surgery was less likely to achieve good/excellent function of hip (RR, 0.53; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.82) and more likely to have complications than 3D printing-assisted surgery (RR, 1.19; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.33). CONCLUSIONS: 3D printing technology demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of acetabular fractures. It may improve surgery-related and clinical outcomes. More prospective studies using a rigorous design (e.g., randomized trial with blinding) are warranted to confirm the long-term effects of 3D printing technology in orthopedics surgeries.

Mounting evidence has recently shown that role of long noncoding RNA is critical in many human cancers. lncRNA GSTM3TV2 was first proven to play a vital role in pancreatic cancer. However, the mechanism of lncRNA GSTM3TV2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still uncovered. Here, we object to distinguish the expression of lncRNA GSTM3TV2 and reveal its mechanistic relationship with HCC. We observed that the expression of lncRNA GSTM3TV2 and FOSL2 were upregulated in HCC. Knockdown of lncRNA GSTM3TV2 significantly inhibited cell proliferation. Meanwhile, the migration and invasion of HCC cells were greatly decreased by the downregulated lncRNA GSTM3TV2. The luciferase reporter assays showed that lncRNA GSTM3TV2 could be directly bound to miR-597, and the level of miR-597 was also decreased in the tumor tissues. lncRNA GSTM3TV2 could stabilize FOSL2 expression, resulting in the oncogenic properties of lncRNA GSTM3TV2 in HCC. Our study indicated the oncogenic activities of lncRNA GSTM3TV2 and emphasized the role of the miR-597/FOSL2 signaling pathway.

In sub-Saharan Africa, improving equitable access to healthcare remains a major challenge for public health systems. Health policymakers encourage the adoption of health insurance schemes to promote universal healthcare. Nonetheless, progress towards this goal remains suboptimal due to inequalities health insurance ownership especially among women. In this study, we aimed to explore the sociodemographic factors contributing to health insurance ownership among women in selected francophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods. This study is based on cross-sectional data obtained from Demographic and Health Surveys on five countries including Benin (n = 13,407), Madagascar (n = 12,448), Mali (n = 10,326), Niger (n = 12,558), and Togo (n = 6,979). The explanatory factors included participant age, marital status, type of residency, education, household wealth quantile, employment stats, and access to electronic media. Associations between health insurance ownership and the explanatory factors were analyzed using multivariate regression analysis, and effect sizes were reported in terms in average marginal effects (AMEs). Results. The highest percentage of insurance ownership was observed for Togo (3.31%), followed by Madagascar (2.23%) and Mali (2.2%). After stratifying by place of residency, the percentages were found to be significantly lower in the rural areas for all countries, with the most noticeable difference observed for Niger (7.73% in urban vs. 0.54% in rural women). Higher levels of education and wealth quantile were positively associated with insurance ownership in all five countries. In the pooled sample, women in the higher education category had higher likelihood of having an insurance: Benin (AME = 1.18; 95% CI = 1.10, 1.27), Madagascar (AME = 1.10; 95% CI = 1.05, 1.15), Mali (AME = 1.14; 95% CI = 1.04, 1.24), Niger (AME = 1.13; 95% CI = 1.07, 1.21), and Togo (AME = 1.17; 95% CI = 1.09, 1.26). Regarding wealth status, women from the households in the highest wealth quantile had 4% higher likelihood of having insurance in Benin and Mali and 6% higher likelihood in Madagascar and Togo. Conclusions. Percentage of women who reported having health insurance was noticeably low in all five countries. As indicated by the multivariate analyses, the actual situation is likely to be even worse due to significant socioeconomic inequalities in the distribution of women having an insurance plan. Increasing women's access to healthcare is an urgent priority for population health promotion in these countries, and therefore, addressing the entrenched sociodemographic disparities should be given urgent policy attention in an effort to strengthen universal healthcare-related goals.

AIM: This systematic review is aimed at investigating the biomechanical stress that develops in the maxillofacial prostheses (MFP) and supporting structures and methods to optimize it. Design and Methods. A literature survey was conducted for full-text English articles which used FEA to examine the stress developed in conventional and implant-assisted MFPs from January 2010 to December 2020. RESULTS: 87 articles were screened to get an update on the desired information. 74 were excluded based on a complete screening, and finally, 13 articles were recruited for complete reviewing. Discussion. The MFP is subjected to stress, which is reflected in the form of compressive and tensile strengths. The stress is mainly concentrated the resection line and around the apices of roots of teeth next to the defect. Diversity of designs and techniques were introduced to optimize the stress distribution, such as modification of the clasp design, using materials with different mechanical properties for dentures base and retainer, use of dental (DI) and/or zygomatic implants (ZI), and free flap reconstruction before prosthetic rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: Using ZI in the defective side of the dentulous maxillary defect and defective and nondefective side of the edentulous maxillary defect was found more advantageous, in terms of compression and tensile stress and retention, when compared with DI and free flap reconstruction.

INTRODUCTION: The gastric residual volume (GRV) monitoring in patients with mechanical ventilation (MV) is a common and important challenge. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of neostigmine and metoclopramide on GRV among MV patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: In a double-blind randomized clinical trial, a total of 200 mechanically ventilated ICU patients with GRV > 120 ml (6 hours after the last gavage) were randomly assigned into two groups (A and B) with 100 patients in each group. Patients in groups A and B received intravenous infusion of neostigmine at a dose of 2.5 mg/100 ml normal saline and metoclopramide at a dose of 10 mg/100 ml normal saline, within 30 minutes, respectively. GRV was evaluated 5 times for each patient, once before the intervention and 4 times (at 3, 6, 9, and 12 hours) after the intervention. In addition, demographic characteristics including age and gender, as well as severity illness based on the sequential organ failure assessment score (SOFA), were initially recorded for all patients. RESULTS: After adjusting of demographic and clinical characteristics (age, gender, and SOFA score), the generalized estimating equation (GEE) model revealed that neostigmine treatment increased odds of GRV improvement compared to the metoclopramide group (OR = 2.45, 95% CI: 1.60-3.76, P < 0.001). However, there is a statistically significant time trend (within-subject differences or time effect) regardless of treatment groups (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: According to the results, although neostigmine treatment significantly improved GRV in more patients in less time, within 12 hours of treatment, all patients in both groups had complete recovery. Considering that there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of side effects, it seems that both drugs are effective in improving the GRV of ICU patients.

Artificial intelligence technologies such as machine learning have been applied to protein engineering, with unique advantages in protein structure, function prediction, catalytic activity, and other issues in recent years. Screening better mutants is still a bottleneck in protein engineering. In this paper, a new sequence-activity relationship method was analyzed for its application in improving the thermal stability of Aspergillus terreus (R)-ω-selective amine transaminase. The experimental data from 6 single-point mutated enzymes were used as a learning dataset to build models and predict the thermostability of 26 mutants. Based on digital signal processing (DSP), this method digitized the amino acid sequence of proteins by fast Fourier transform (FFT) and then established the best model applying partial least squares regression (PLSR) to screen out all possible mutants, especially those with high performance. In protein engineering, the innovative sequence activity relationship (ISAR) method can make a reasonable prediction using limited experimental data and significantly reduce the experimental cost. The half-life (T 1/2) of (R)-ω-transaminase was fitted with the amino acid sequence by the ISAR algorithm, resulting in an R 2 of 0.8929 and a cvRMSE of 4.89. At the same time, the mutants with higher T 1/2 than the existing ones were predicted, laying the groundwork for better (R)-ω-transaminase in the later stage. The ISAR algorithm is expected to provide a new technique for protein evolution and screening.

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is one of the most important indicators in assessing the health and well-being of HIV-positive patients. The present study investigated the HRQoL of HIV patients referred to Abadan's Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) center in 2019. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 134 HIV+ patients referred to Abadan's VCT center were selected through convenience sampling. Demographic information was collected through a researcher-made checklist; the patients' status and health information were collected through electronic medical records of HIV+ patients and their records at the VCT center. The HRQoL index was assessed using the World Health Organization (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out using simple and multiple linear regression as well as a t-test in SPSS software. A P value < 0.05 was considered as the significance level in all tests. The mean of the HRQoL in all the participating patients was 56.42 ± 22.66. The highest and lowest mean scores of HRQoL domains were related to social relationships (57.53 ± 24.73) and environmental health (53.68 ± 19.07). There was a positive significant relationship between the marital status, residency, years of education, duration of infection, transmission route, and antiretroviral (ARV) therapy with the score of the HRQoL. The results showed a moderate score for the mean HRQoL and its domains. The present study revealed the necessity of improving HIV+ patients' living conditions, employment status, health education, and mental health care.

OBJECTIVE: Respiratory failure is the leading cause of mortality in COVID-19 patients, characterized by a generalized disbalance of inflammation. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between immune-inflammatory index and mortality in PSI IV-V patients with COVID-19. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of COVID-19 patients from Feb. to Apr. 2020 in the Zhongfa Xincheng Branch of Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, China. Patients who presented high severity of COVID-19-related pneumonia were enrolled for further analysis according to the Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) tool. RESULTS: A total of 101 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were identified at initial research. The survival analysis revealed that mortality of the PSI IV-V cohort was significantly higher than the PSI I-III group (p = 0.0003). The overall mortality in PSI IV-V patients was 32.1% (9/28). The fatal cases of the PSI IV-V group had a higher level of procalcitonin (p = 0.022) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (p = 0.033) compared with the survivors. Procalcitonin was the most sensitive predictor of mortality for the severe COVID-19 population with area under receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.78, higher than the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (0.75) and total lymphocyte (0.68) and neutrophil (0.67) counts. CONCLUSION: Procalcitonin and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio may potentially be effective predictors for mortality in PSI IV-V patients with COVID-19. Increased procalcitonin and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio were associated with greater risk of mortality.

The microarray cancer data obtained by DNA microarray technology play an important role for cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. However, predicting the different types of tumors is a challenging task since the sample size in microarray data is often small but the dimensionality is very high. Gene selection, which is an effective means, is aimed at mitigating the curse of dimensionality problem and can boost the classification accuracy of microarray data. However, many of previous gene selection methods focus on model design, but neglect the correlation between different genes. In this paper, we introduce a novel unsupervised gene selection method by taking the gene correlation into consideration, named gene correlation guided gene selection (G3CS). Specifically, we calculate the covariance of different gene dimension pairs and embed it into our unsupervised gene selection model to regularize the gene selection coefficient matrix. In such a manner, redundant genes can be effectively excluded. In addition, we utilize a matrix factorization term to exploit the cluster structure of original microarray data to assist the learning process. We design an iterative updating algorithm with convergence guarantee to solve the resultant optimization problem. Experimental results on six publicly available microarray datasets are conducted to validate the efficacy of our proposed method.

PTEN/AKT signaling plays pivotal role in myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury (MIRI), and miRNAs are involved in the regulation of AKT signaling. This study was designed to investigate the interaction between miR-129 and PTEN in MIRI. A MIRI rat model and a hypoxia reoxygenation (H/R) H9C2 cell model were constructed to simulate myocardial infarction clinically. TTC staining, creatine kinase (CK) activity, TUNEL/Hoechst double staining, Hoechst staining and flow cytometer were used for evaluating myocardial infarction or cell apoptosis. miR-129 mimic transfection experiment and luciferase reporter gene assay were conducted for investigating the function of miR-129 and the interaction between miR-129 and PTEN, respectively. Real-time PCR and western blotting were performed to analyze the gene expression. Compared to the control, MIRI rats presented obvious myocardial infarction, higher CK activity, increased expression of caspase-3 and PTEN, decreased expression of miR-129, and insufficient AKT phosphorylation. Consistently, H/R significantly increased the apoptosis of H9C2 cells, concomitant with the downregulation of miR-129, upregulation of PTEN and caspase-3, and insufficient phosphorylation of AKT, while miR-129 mimic obviously inhibited the expression of PTEN and caspase-3, increased the AKT phosphorylation, and decreased the cell apoptosis. Additionally, miR-129 mimic obviously decreased the relative luciferase activity in H9C2 cells. To our best knowledge, this study firstly found that the low expression of miR-129 accelerates the myocardial cell apoptosis by directly targeting 3'UTR of PTEN. miR-129 is an important biomarker for MIRI, as well as a potential therapy target.

Large quantities of bacteria, including Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, colonize the surface of the respiratory mucosa of healthy people. They interact and coexist with the local mucosal immune system of the human airway, maintaining the immune stability and balance of the respiratory system. While suffering from chronic respiratory diseases, the microbial population in the airway changes and the proportion of Proteobacteria is increased in patients with asthma. The abundance of the microbial population in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is decreased, and conversely, the proportion of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria increased. The diversity of airway microorganisms in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients is decreased, while pathogenic bacteria and conditional pathogenic bacteria are proliferated in large numbers. The proportion of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria is increased in patients with upper airway cough syndrome (UACS), which replaces the dominance of Streptococcus and Neisseria in the pharynx of a normal population. Therefore, a clear understanding of the immune process of the airway flora and the immune dysfunction of the flora on the pathogenesis of chronic respiratory diseases can provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment of human respiratory diseases.

BACKGROUND: Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF) has been used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for treating cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the underlying pharmacological mechanisms of the effects of TwHF on CVD remain elusive. This study revealed the pharmacological mechanisms of TwHF acting on CVD based on a pharmacology approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The active compounds were selected from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database according to the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME). The potential targets of TwHF were obtained from the SwissTargetPrediction database. The CVD-related therapeutic targets were collected from the DrugBank, the GeneCards database, and the OMIM database. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was generated by the STITCH database. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were performed by R package. The network of drug-targets-diseases-pathways was constructed by the Cytoscape software. RESULTS: The 41 effective ingredients of TwHF and the 178 common targets of TwHF and CVD-related were collected. Furthermore, AKT1, amyloid precursor protein (APP), mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha (PIK3CA), and cellular tumor antigen p53 (TP53) were identified as the core targets involved in the mechanism of TwHF on CVD. Top ten GO (biological processes, cellular components, and molecular functions) and KEGG pathways were screened with a P value ≤0.01. Finally, we constructed the network of TwHF-targets-CVD-GO-KEGG. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that the main active compound of TwHF, the core targets, and pathways maybe provide new insights into the development of a natural therapy for the prevention and treatment of CVD.

Acacia catechu (L.f.) Willd is a profoundly used traditional medicinal plant in Asia. Previous studies conducted in this plant are more confined to extract level. Even though bioassay-based studies indicated the true therapeutic potential of this plant, compound annotation was not performed extensively. This research is aimed at assessing the bioactivity of different solvent extracts of the plant followed by annotation of its phytoconstituents. Liquid chromatography equipped with high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) is deployed for the identification of secondary metabolites in various crude extracts. On activity level, its ethanolic extract showed the highest inhibition towards α-amylase and α-glucosidase with an IC50 of 67.8 ± 1 μg/mL and 10.3 ± 0.1 μg/mL respectively, inspected through the substrate-based method. On the other hand, the plant extract showed an antioxidant activity of 23.76 ± 1.57 μg/mL, measured through radical scavenging activity. Similarly, ethyl acetate and aqueous extracts of A. catechu showed significant inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus with a zone of inhibition (ZoI) of 13 and 14 mm, respectively. With the LC-HRMS-based dereplication strategy, we have identified 28 secondary metabolites belonging to flavonoid and phenolic categories. Identification of these metabolites from A. catechu and its biological implication also support the community-based usage of this plant and its medicinal value.

BACKGROUND: The orthognathic strategies to treat patients with a concave profile but different tissue conditions remain controversial. The aim of this case-control study was to investigate the outcome predictability of orthognathic surgery in cleft lip and palate (CLP) patients and matched controls. METHODS: Fifty consecutive CLP and 45 matched non-CLP patients who received whole-piece Le Fort I and bilateral sagittal split osteotomy to correct class III skeletal relations were enrolled. The outcome discrepancies (ODs) from simulations among all groups were evaluated with consideration of the possible influences from planned surgical movements (PSM). Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to determine threshold values of PSMs that yielded clinically relevant OD. RESULTS: Unilateral CLP (UCLP) patients had comparable postsurgical OD to non-CLP patients in both jaws, whereas bilateral CLP (BCLP) patients had greater deviations from predicted results. Vertical movement of the A - point > 1.33 mm and yaw correction > 1.65° in the BCLP patients was associated with clinically relevant maxillary OD. CONCLUSIONS: The OGS outcomes of BCLP patients were less predictable than those of the UCLP and noncleft patients. Vertical movements of the A - point > 1.33 mm and yaw correction > 1.65° in BCLP patients increased OD to a clinically relevant extent.

Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) is a severe autoinflammatory disorder with a still not clearly defined molecular mechanism. To better understand the disease, we used scattered datasets from public domains and performed a weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify key modules and hub genes underlying sJIA pathogenesis. Two gene expression datasets, GSE7753 and GSE13501, were used to construct the WGCNA. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were applied to the genes and hub genes in the sJIA modules. Cytoscape was used to screen and visualize the hub genes. We further compared the hub genes with the genome-wide association study (GWAS) genes and used a consensus WGCNA to verify that our conclusions were conservative and reproducible across multiple independent datasets. A total of 5,414 genes were obtained for WGCNA, from which highly correlated genes were divided into 17 modules. The red module demonstrated the highest correlation with the sJIA module (r = 0.8, p = 3e -29), whereas the green-yellow module was found to be closely related to the non-sJIA module (r = 0.62, p = 1e -14). Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated that the red module was mostly enriched in the activation of immune responses, infection, nucleosomes, and erythrocytes, and the green-yellow module was mostly enriched in immune responses and inflammation. Additionally, the hub genes in the red module were highly enriched in erythrocyte differentiation, including ALAS2, AHSP, TRIM10, TRIM58, and KLF1. The hub genes from the green-yellow module were mainly associated with immune responses, as exemplified by the genes KLRB1, KLRF1, CD160, and KIRs. We identified sJIA-related modules and several hub genes that might be associated with the development of sJIA. Particularly, the modules may help understand the mechanisms of sJIA, and the hub genes may become biomarkers and therapeutic targets of sJIA in the future.

In this study, we aimed to document adverse pregnancy outcomes and maternal complications among pregnant women who acquired asymptomatic bacteriuria in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We used hospital-based prospective cohort study design in which we followed 44 pregnant women with asymptomatic bacteriuria confirmed by urine culture result of ≥105cfu/ml of urine. We documented adverse pregnancy outcomes and maternal complications in terms of frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Additionally, we used Pearson's correlation coefficient to investigate associations of selected variables with perinatal death as one of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Of the 44 pregnant women enrolled in the study, complete data was collected from 43 participants with one lost to follow-up. Six (14%) of women developed fever and were treated with antibiotic during pregnancy, 26 (60.5%) delivered with cesarean section, two (4.3%) perinatal deaths within seven days of delivery, one miscarriage, and 4 (9.3%) newborns were found underweight. The mean birth weight of the newborns was 3.1 kg ± 0.60. Almost half 21(48.8%) were born before 37 weeks of gestational age. Fourteen (32.6%) of newborns were born asphyxiated. Twenty-two (51.2%) of newborns developed early neonatal fever within 48 hours of delivery and treated with antibiotic. Correlation coefficient analysis revealed that weight and gestational age of newborns at birth, Apgar score at 1st and 5th minutes of birth and miscarriage were positively correlated and significantly associated with perinatal death. The occurrence of unsought pregnancy outcomes were frequent, and substantial number of pregnant women developed maternal complications. Therefore, screening pregnant women for asymptomatic bacteriuria and treating may reduce the possible maternal complications and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Here, we report the participation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor in the mediation of cardiovascular and circulating vasopressin responses evoked by a hemorrhagic stimulus. In addition, once NMDA receptor activation is a prominent mechanism involved in nitric oxide (NO) synthesis in the brain, we investigated whether control of hemorrhagic shock by NMDA glutamate receptor was followed by changes in NO synthesis in brain supramedullary structures involved in cardiovascular and neuroendocrine control. Thus, we observed that intraperitoneal administration of the selective NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist dizocilpine maleate (MK801, 0.3 mg/kg) delayed and reduced the magnitude of hemorrhage-induced hypotension. Besides, hemorrhage induced a tachycardia response in the posthemorrhage period (i.e., recovery period) in control animals, and systemic treatment with MK801 caused a bradycardia response during hemorrhagic shock. Hemorrhagic stimulus increased plasma vasopressin levels during the recovery period and NMDA receptor antagonism increased concentration of this hormone during both the hemorrhage and postbleeding periods in relation to control animals. Moreover, hemorrhagic shock caused a decrease in NOx levels in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), and ventral periaqueductal gray matter (vPAG). Nevertheless, treatment with MK801 did not affect these effects. Taken together, these results indicate that the NMDA glutamate receptor is involved in the hemorrhagic shock by inhibiting circulating vasopressin release. Our data also suggest a role of the NMDA receptor in tachycardia, but not in the decreased NO synthesis in the brain evoked by hemorrhage.

BACKGROUND: Tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase (TDO2) converts tryptophan into kynurenine in the initial limiting step of the kynurenine pathway. During the past decade, the overexpression of TDO2 has been found in various human tumors. However, the role of TDO2 in hepatocellular carcinoma is controversial, and we sought to clarify it in this study. METHODS: Western blot analysis and immunochemistry were used to detect the expression of TDO2 in human tissue specimens. The effect of TDO2 on cell proliferation in vitro was assessed using CCK8 and colony formation assays, and a xenograft mouse model was used to detect the effect of TDO2 on tumor growth in vivo. Flow cytometry was used to assess the cell cycle status. RESULTS: Low TDO2 expression was found in HCC and was associated with poor prognosis and adverse clinical outcomes. Conversely, TDO2 could restrain the proliferation of HCC cells in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, TDO2 upregulated the expression of p21 and p27, inducing cell-cycle arrest. CONCLUSIONS: The loss of TDO2 expression in HCC was correlated with a poor prognosis and adverse clinical outcomes. At the same time, TDO2 could restrain the growth of HCC in vivo and in vitro. The results indicate that TDO2 is a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.

INTRODUCTION: Translational models of myelomeningocele (MMC) are needed to test novel in utero interventions. An ideal animal model for MMC has locomotor function at birth and is low cost enough to allow for high throughput. The rat MMC model is limited by immature locomotor function at birth. The ovine MMC model is a costly surgical model. Guinea pigs are uniquely suited for an MMC model being a small animal model with locomotor function at birth. We aimed to develop a retinoic acid (RA) model of MMC in the guinea pig and to evaluate if pregnant guinea pigs could tolerate uterine manipulation. METHODS: Time-mated Dunkin Hartley guinea pig dams were dosed with 60 mg/kg of RA between gestation age (GA) 12 and 15 days in the development of an RA model. Fetuses were grossly evaluated for MMC lesions at Cesarean section after GA 31 days. Evaluation of the ability of pregnant guinea pig dams to tolerate uterine surgical intervention was performed by hysterotomy of a separated group of time-mated guinea pigs at GA 45, 50, and 55. RESULTS: Forty-two pregnant guinea pigs were dosed with RA, with a total of 189 fetuses. The fetal demise rate was 38% (n = 71). A total of 118 fetuses were viable, 83% (n = 98) were normal fetuses, 8% (n = 10) had a neural tube defect, and 8% (n = 10) had a hematoma or other anomalies. No fetuses developed an MMC defect. None of the fetuses that underwent hysterotomy survived to term. CONCLUSION: RA dosed at 60 mg/kg in guinea pigs between GA 12 and 15 did not result in MMC. Dunkin Hartley guinea pigs did not tolerate a hysterotomy near term in our surgical model. Further work is needed to determine if MMC can be induced in guinea pigs with alternate RA dosing.

AIM: One of the main problems in dentistry is the injury caused by the long-term application of an ill-fitting denture. The existence of multiple microorganisms along with the susceptibility of the tissue conditioners to colonize them can lead to denture stomatitis. This study is aimed at developing a tissue conditioner incorporated with Carum copticum L. (C. copticum L.) for the effective treatment of these injuries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Carum copticum L. essential oil composition was determined by gas chromatography-mass (GC-mass) spectrometry. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil against the standard strains of bacterial and fungal species was determined by broth microdilution methods as suggested by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). The physical and chemical properties of the prepared tissue conditioner were investigated by viscoelasticity, FTIR assays, and the release study performed. Furthermore, the antibiofilm activity of the Carum copticum L. essential oil-loaded tissue conditioner was evaluated by using the XTT reduction assay and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). RESULTS: The main component of the essential oil is thymol, which possesses high antimicrobial activity. The broth microdilution assay showed that the essential oil has broad activity as the minimum inhibitory concentration was in the range of 32-128 μg mL-1. The viscoelasticity test showed that the essential oil significantly diminished the viscoelastic modulus on the first day. The FTIR test showed that Carum copticum L. essential oil was preserved as an independent component in the tissue conditioner. The release study showed that the essential oil was released in 3 days following a sustained release and with an ultimate cumulative release of 81%. Finally, the Carum copticum L. essential oil exhibited significant activity in the inhibition of microbial biofilm formation in a dose-dependent manner. Indeed, the lowest and highest amounts of biofilm formation on the tissue conditioner disks are exhibited in the Streptococcus salivarius and Candida albicans by up to 22.4% and 71.4% at the 64 μg mL-1 concentration of C. copticum L. with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The obtained results showed that the Carum copticum L. essential oil-loaded tissue conditioner possessed suitable physical, biological, and release properties for use as a novel treatment for denture stomatitis.

Nowadays, production of functional foods has become very essential. Inulin is one of the most functional hydrocolloid compounds used in such products. In the present study, the production of a synbiotic yogurt containing 1, 2.5, and 5% (w/v) inulin has been investigated. The yogurt was fermented with Lactobacillus brevis PML1 derived from Tarkhineh, an Iranian cereal-dairy fermented food. Furthermore, the physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity, sensory attributes, and microbial viability properties were investigated on the 0th, 7th, and 14th days of storage after fermentation. The viable cells of L. brevis PML1 reached 108 CFU/g, and the product resisted to simulated digestive juices. Moreover, the synbiotic yogurt impressively increased the production of antimicrobial compounds and had the most profound antimicrobial effect on S. typhimurium. The physiochemical properties were in the normal range, and the fat content of the synbiotic yogurt was reduced remarkably. The antioxidant capacity of the fermented yogurt was significantly increased (p < 0.05), which was equal to those of DPPH (69.18 ± 1.00%) and BHA (89.16 ± 2.00%). The viability of L. brevis PML1 was increased during storage. Sensory analysis showed that there were significant differences in terms of the impressive parameters between the samples and the control (p < 0.05). Addition of 2.5% inulin not only improved the physical properties but also retained the viability of the probiotic after 14 days of storage, in addition to the viability of L. brevis with a viability count above 6 log CFU/g in the yogurt. Therefore, a novel synbiotic product containing L. brevis PML1, which can exert the desired properties, can be used as a suitable carrier for the delivery of the probiotic strain, exerting its beneficial health effects.

In this study, we designed a low-power visible ray (V) drive module based on a light-emitting diode (LED) to initiate fat reduction using light source irradiation. A chemical phantom of muscle and fat was fabricated, and the performance of the proposed LED drive module was tested using this chemical phantom. The LED light source could reduce fat by irradiating the skin 4-5 cm deep. The device exhibits a negative feedback and parallel amplification to maintain a stable circuit based on low-power consumption. Muscles have a high-water content and low impedance, whereas fats have a low water content and significant salt content. Therefore, fat exhibits high impedance. Chemical phantoms were fabricated according to these impedance values, and the fat reduction effect using the LED circuits was analyzed. When the fat phantom was irradiated by the light source, the fat impedance lowered, and we confirmed that fat reduction could be obtained. This study is expected to be applicable to family medicine and weight management health care.

The study is aimed at exploring the effect of microribonucleic acid- (miR-) 210 on the chemosensitivity of breast cancer and its potential molecular mechanism. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) was applied to detect the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of cisplatin (DDP) on cell, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was carried out to measure the relative expression level of miR-210. The IC50 value of DDP on cells was detected via CCK-8 after downregulating the expression of miR-210 in MCF-7/DDP cells. Flow cytometry and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) confirmed the effect of themiR-210 downregulation on the apoptosis of drug-resistant MCF-7/DDP cells. Besides, the impacts of the miR-210 downregulation on apoptosis-related proteins and Janus-activated kinase- (JAK-) signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) signaling pathway-related proteins were examined by Western blotting. The interaction between miR-210 and the target protein was detected through luciferase activity assay, qPCR, and Western blotting. Drug-resistant MCF-7/DDP cells had significantly stronger resistance to DDP and a remarkably higher expression level of miR-210 than control parental MCF-7 cells (p < 0.05). After the downregulation of the miR-210 expression, MCF-7/DDP cells had markedly reduced resistance but obviously increased sensitivity to DDP (p < 0.05). MiR-210 downregulation increased the apoptosis of MCF-7/DDP cells (p < 0.05). In addition, after miR-210 was knocked down, the expression level of b-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) was decreased, while the expression levels of Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinase-3 (caspase-3) were increased. Besides, miR-210 was able to suppress the expression of protein inhibitor of the activated STAT 4 (PIAS4) gene by directly targeting its 3' untranslated region (3'UTR). The expression of miR-210 has a correlation with chemoresistance of breast cancer MCF-7 cells. MiR-210 regulates the JAK-STAT signal transduction pathway by targeting PIAS4, thus exerting an effect on breast cancer chemosensitivity.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the data characteristics of tongue and pulse of non-small-cell lung cancer with Qi deficiency syndrome and Yin deficiency syndrome, establish syndrome classification model based on data of tongue and pulse by using machine learning methods, and evaluate the feasibility of syndrome classification based on data of tongue and pulse. METHODS: We collected tongue and pulse of non-small-cell lung cancer patients with Qi deficiency syndrome (n = 163), patients with Yin deficiency syndrome (n = 174), and healthy controls (n = 185) using intelligent tongue diagnosis analysis instrument and pulse diagnosis analysis instrument, respectively. We described the characteristics and examined the correlation of data of tongue and pulse. Four machine learning methods, namely, random forest, logistic regression, support vector machine, and neural network, were used to establish the classification models based on symptom, tongue and pulse, and symptom and tongue and pulse, respectively. RESULTS: Significant difference indices of tongue diagnosis between Qi deficiency syndrome and Yin deficiency syndrome were TB-a, TB-S, TB-Cr, TC-a, TC-S, TC-Cr, perAll, and the tongue coating texture indices including TC-CON, TC-ASM, TC-MEAN, and TC-ENT. Significant difference indices of pulse diagnosis were t4 and t5. The classification performance of each model based on different datasets was as follows: tongue and pulse < symptom < symptom and tongue and pulse. The neural network model had a better classification performance for symptom and tongue and pulse datasets, with an area under the ROC curves and accuracy rate which were 0.9401 and 0.8806. CONCLUSIONS: It was feasible to use tongue data and pulse data as one of the objective diagnostic basis in Qi deficiency syndrome and Yin deficiency syndrome of non-small-cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: HIV testing remains a problem among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries, and yet, HIV testing is a cornerstone in the fight against HIV. However, there is scanty literature on the utilization of HIV testing services by adolescents especially in rural settings. This study is aimed at determining the uptake of HIV testing services and associated factors among adolescents aged 10-19 years in Lira District, Northern Uganda. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study done among 277 randomly selected adolescents aged 10-19 years attending outpatient clinics in Pentecostal Assembly of God (PAG) Mission Hospital, Ngetta Health Center III, and Boroboro Health Center III. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire. Data collected included sociodemographic characteristics, history of test and receipt of HIV results in the last three months, and facility-related factors affecting uptake of HIV testing services. Data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, and logistic regression at a 95% level of significance in SPSS version 25. RESULTS: The uptake of HIV testing services was 43% (119/277) among the study participants. Adolescents who had completed primary education (aOR: 5.47; 95% CI: 1.07-28.15; p = 0.042), are employed (aOR: 2.77; 95% CI: 1.16-6.60; p = 0.022), had used a condom in the last sexual intercourse (aOR: 4.46; 95% CI: 1.78-11.15; p = 0.001), and are involved in HIV testing outreaches (cOR: 10.86; 95% CI: 3.81-30.93; p ≤ 0.001) were more likely to uptake HIV testing services compared to those who had tertiary education, are unemployed, had never used a condom, and are not involved in HIV testing outreaches. CONCLUSION: Utilization of HIV testing services by adolescents aged 10-19 in Lira District, Northern Uganda, is generally low. The Ministry of Health should strengthen HIV testing services targeting adolescents to increase uptake of HIV testing services.

INTRODUCTION: HNSCC is the sixth most frequent type of malignant carcinoma with a low prognosis rate. In addition, autophagy is important in cancer development and progression. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential significance of ARGs in the diagnosis and treatment of HNSCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Expression data and clinical information of HNSCC samples were collected from the TCGA database, and a list of ARGs was obtained from the MSigDB. Then, we used R software to perform differential expression analysis and functional enrichment analysis. Further analysis was also performed to find out the survival-related ARGs in HNSCC, and two prognosis-related ARGs, FADD and NKX2-3, were selected to construct a prognosis prediction model. Moreover, some methods were applied to validate the prognosis prediction model. Finally, we used cell lines and clinical tissue samples of HNSCC to analyze the importance of FADD and NKX2-3. RESULTS: We screened a total of 38 differentially expressed ARGs, and enrichment analysis showed that these genes were mainly involved in autophagy. Then, we selected FADD and NKX2-3 to construct a prognosis model and the risk score calculated by the model was proved to be effective in predicting the survival of HNSCC patients. Additionally, significant differences of the clinicopathological parameters could also be observed in the risk scores and the expression of NKX2-3 and FADD. The expression of FADD and NKX2-3 in cell lines and HNSCC tissue samples also showed the same trends. CONCLUSIONS: ARGs may be a potential biomarker for HNSCC prognosis, and targeted therapies for FADD and NKX2-3 are possible to be a new strategy of HNSCC treatment.

Cancer chemotherapies may result in resistance, and therefore, contemporary treatments including natural products may find an increasing consideration. As per Persian medicine (PM), many natural products have been used for malignant and chronic diseases. Triphala, with a combination of Terminalia chebula Retz., Terminalia bellirica Retz., Phyllanthus emblica L., and honey, is a multi-ingredient traditional formulation attributed to anticancer activities in PM. This study is aimed at evaluating the cytotoxic activity of this preparation on HepG2, the human liver cancer cell line. Hydroalcoholic extracts were prepared from the formulation and its components. Compared with the control and Cisplatin, the extracts were tested using MTT assay at different concentrations. All concentrations of the preparation, as well as Cisplatin, were effective significantly against HepG2 cells. All extract preparations at multiple concentrations were significantly effective as evidenced by MTT assay when compared to the control group. The IC50 level for Triphala extract was 77.63 ± 4.3 μg/ml. Based on the results, Triphala and its components have cytotoxic activity on the HepG2 cancer cell line and they can reduce the survival rate significantly.

Since the discovery of horseradish peroxidase-like activity of magnetite nanoparticles in 2007, many researchers have investigated different types of nanoparticles that show enzyme-like activities, namely, nanozymes. Nanozymes possess high efficiency, stability, and low production costs compared to natural enzymes. Thus, nanozymes have already been widely studied in various domains including medical science, food industry, chemical engineering, and agriculture. This review presents the utilization of nanozymes in medicine and focuses particularly on their therapeutic applications in chronic inflammatory diseases because of their antioxidant-like activity. Furthermore, the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases with nanozymes of different materials was introduced emphatically.

As a new type of noncoding RNA, circular RNA (circRNA) is stable in cells and not easily degraded. This type of RNA can also competitively bind miRNAs to regulate the expression of their target genes. The role of circRNA in the mechanism of intestinal oxidative stress (OS) in weaned piglets is still unclear. In our research, diquat (DQ) was used to induce OS in small intestinal epithelial cells (IPEC-J2) to construct an OS cell model. Mechanistically, dual luciferase reporter assays, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and western blotting were performed to confirm that circGLI3 directly sponged miR-339-5p and regulated the expression of VEGFA. Overexpression of circGLI3 promoted IPEC-J2 cell proliferation, increased the proportion of S-phase cells (P < 0.01), and reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation when IPEC-J2 cells were subjected to OS. circGLI3 can increase the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in IPEC-J2 cells and reduce the malondialdehyde (MDA) content and levels of inflammatory factors. Therefore, overexpression of circGLI3 reduced oxidative damage, whereas miR-339-5p mimic counteracted these effects. We identified a regulatory network composed of circGLI3, miR-339-5p, and VEGFA and verified that circGLI3 regulates VEGFA by directly binding miR-339-5p. The expression of VEGFA affects IPEC-J2 cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, and ROS content and changes the levels of antioxidant enzymes and inflammatory factors. This study reveals the molecular mechanism by which circGLI3 inhibits OS in the intestine of piglets and provides a theoretical basis for further research on the effect of OS on intestinal function.

OBJECTIVE: This study is aimed at comparing the image quality and diagnostic performance of mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and lesion-to-spinal cord signal intensity ratio (LSR) derived from turbo spin-echo diffusion-weighted imaging (TSE-DWI) and echo-planar imaging- (EPI-) DWI in patients with a solitary pulmonary lesion (SPL). METHODS: 33 patients with SPL underwent chest imaging using EPI-DWI and TSE-DWI with b = 600 s/mm2 in free breathing. A comparison of the distortion ratio (DR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was drawn between the two techniques using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The interprotocol reproducibility between quantitative parameters of EPI-DWI and TSE-DWI was evaluated using a Bland-Altman plot. ADCs and LSRs derived from EPI-DWI and TSE-DWI were calculated and compared between malignant and benign groups using the Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: TSE-DWI had similar SNR and CNR compared with EPI-DWI. DR was significantly lower on TSE-DWI than EPI-DWI. ADC and LSR showed slightly higher values with TSE-DWI, while the Bland-Altman analysis showed unacceptable limits of agreement between the two sequences. ADC and LSR of both DWI techniques differed significantly between lung cancer and benign lesions (P < 0.05). The LSR(EPI-DWI) showed the highest area under the curve (AUC = 0.818), followed by ADC(EPI-DWI) (AUC = 0.789), ADC(TSE-DWI) (AUC = 0.781), and LSR(TSE-DWI) (AUC = 0.748), respectively. Among these parameters, the difference in diagnostic accuracy was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: TSE-DWI provides significantly improved image quality in patients with SPL as compared with EPI-DWI. However, there was no difference in diagnostic efficacy between these two techniques, according to ADC and LSR.

BACKGROUND: This study was aimed at revealing neuroimaging findings in COVID-19 patients and at discussing their relationship with epidemiological data and some laboratory parameters. Materials and Method. This study included 436 cases of COVID-19 and 40 cases of non-COVID-19 acute/subacute thromboembolism who underwent at least one neuroimaging procedure due to neurological symptoms between April 2020 and December 2020. The group of COVID-19-positive acute/subacute thromboembolism cases was compared with both the group of normal brain imaging cases and the non-COVID-19 acute/subacute thromboembolism group in terms of demographic data and laboratory parameters. RESULTS: When the acute/subacute thromboembolism group and neuroimaging findings were compared in terms of negative group, presence of comorbid disease, D-dimer level, and lymphocyte count in COVID-19 patients, a statistically significant difference was found (p = 0.047, 0.014, and <0.001, respectively). COVID-19-positive and COVID-19-negative acute/subacute thromboembolism cases that were compared in terms of gender, neuroimaging reason, C-reactive protein, D-dimer level and lymphocyte count, a statistically significant difference was found (p = 0.003, <0.001, 0.005, 0.02, and <0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Acute thromboembolic events are common in patients with COVID-19 due to a potentially increased procoagulant process. Neurological evaluation and, if necessary, detailed neuroimaging should be performed, especially in cases with high D-dimer levels.

OBJECTIVE: To clarify the therapeutic mechanisms of compound Xuanju capsule-treated rheumatoid arthritis (RA) based on network pharmacology tactics. METHOD: The TCMSP, TCMID and STITCH databases were used to screen the active ingredients and targets in the compound Xuanju capsule; the OMIM, TTD, PharmGKB and GeneCards databases were applied to screen the RA-related disease targets. Then, the obtained targets were imported into Cytoscape 3.7.1 software to construct the active ingredient-target network and the RA-related disease-target network. The active ingredient-target PPI network, the RA-related disease-target PPI network and the common target PPI network were built by using the STRING platform and Cytoscape 3.7.1 software. The GO and KEGG analyses of the common targets were analyzed by using the Metascape and Bioinformatics online tools. RESULTS: A total of 51 active ingredients and 513 corresponding ingredient targets were harvested from the compound Xuanju capsule; 641 RA-related disease targets were obtained. After two PPI networks were constructed and merged, 116 RA-related targets of compound Xuanju capsules were identified and analyzed. 116 RA-related targets of compound Xuanju capsules are mainly involved in the biological processes and molecular functions, such as the cytokine-mediated signaling pathways, the response to lipopolysaccharide and the blood vascular development, the cytokine activity, the cytokine receptor binding and the receptor regulator activity. Furthermore, 116 RA-related targets of compound Xuanju capsules are concentrated in signaling pathways such as the IL-17, TNF, Th17 cell differentiation, Toll receptor and RA signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: The compound Xuanju capsule had the action characteristics of multiple components, multiple targets, and multiple pathways in the treatment of RA, which might primarily reduce the release of proinflammatory factors (such as IL-6 and TNF-α) and increase the production of anti-inflammatory factors (such as IL-10) by regulating inflammation-related signaling pathways (such as IL-17), thereby alleviating the inflammatory damage and improving the bone tissue repair.

The role of PTPRT in breast cancer was not comprehensively explored and well analyzed. Our study comprehensively searched available databases to analyze the clinical role of PTPRT in breast cancer. We found PTPRT was an antioncogene and could be used to distinguish different stages, age groups, molecular types, and grades for breast cancer. PTPRT might be primary resistance biomarkers for taxane, anthracycline, and ixabepilone but not be acquired resistance biomarkers. Higher PTPRT expression levels were associated with longer overall survival and recurrence-free survival. PTPRT was negatively associated with Ki67 and CDK4/6 but positively associated with BCL-2. PTPRT might be associated with cell cycle and microtubule, and tumor infiltration in B cell and macrophage cell. PTPRT could predict chemotherapy effectiveness and prognosis for breast cancer patients. PTPRT might inhibit tumor growth via disrupting the microtubule dynamics and cell cycle in breast cancer.

PURPOSE: This study explored the effects of genioplasty (Gep) and anterior subapical osteotomy of the maxilla and mandible (ASOMx+ASOMd) on the pharyngeal airway dimensions of patients with bimaxillary protrusion (BiP). METHOD: Thirty-two patients were divided into 2 groups. Group 1 received ASOMx+ASOMd, and group 2 received ASOMx+ASOMd+Gep. The cephalograms of the patients were collected before surgery and 2 months after surgery. Changes in the landmarks, related cephalometric angles (gonial, SN-GoGn, Y-axis, and SN-C2C4 angles), and 2 pharyngeal airway dimensions (uvulo-pharyngeal airway [UOP] and tongue-pharyngeal airway [TOP]) were analyzed. RESULTS: Before surgery, the parameters (incisor superius, incisor inferius, menton, most superior and anterior point of the hyoid bone, tip of the uvula, inferoanterior point on the second cervical vertebra, and inferoanterior point on the fourth cervical vertebra) and measured angles (SNA, SNB, ANB, gonial, SN-GoGn, Y-axis, and C4C2-SN) of both groups showed no significant differences. Following ASOMx, the patients in groups 1 and 2 exhibited a setback by 7.0 and 6.6 mm, respectively. After ASOMd, groups 1 and 2 exhibited 4.9 and 5.3 mm setbacks, respectively. No significant difference in the amount of setback was observed between groups 1 and 2. The postoperative horizontal and vertical positions of Me in group 2 were significantly forward by 6.1 mm and upward by 1.5 mm, respectively. Regarding pharyngeal airway dimensions, TOP was decreased in group 1 (1.7 mm) and group 2 (1.3 mm). In the postoperative Pearson correlation coefficient test, the horizontal and vertical positions of Me showed no significant correlation with TOP in both groups. Therefore, Gep did not prevent the reduction of TOP in group 2. CONCLUSION: After bimaxillary anterior subapical osteotomy, the TOP of patients with BiP was decreased, and this situation was unavoidable, regardless of whether Gep was performed.

OBJECTIVES: Psychometric properties of the Czech version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI-CZ) have been evaluated only in patients with chronic insomnia, and thus, it is unclear whether PSQI-CZ is suitable for use in other clinical and nonclinical populations. This study was aimed at examining the validity and reliability of the PSQI-CZ and at assessing whether the unidimensional or multidimensional scoring of the instrument would be recommended. METHODS: A total of 524 adult subjects from the Czech population participated in the study. The internal consistency of PSQI was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha. The known-group validity was tested using the Kruskal-Wallis H test to verify the difference between patients with sleep disorders and healthy control sample. For testing the structural validity, a cross-validation approach was used with both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). For EFA, the maximum likelihood method with direct oblimin rotation and parallel analysis was used. RESULTS: The internal consistency of PSQI-CZ items was moderate (α = 0.75). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed high specificity (0.79) and moderate sensitivity (0.64) using an optimal cut-off score of 10. The EFA revealed a 3-factor structure with factors labelled as "sleep duration and efficiency," "sleep disturbances and quality," and "sleep latency." The CFA showed that the emerged 3-factor model had a partly acceptable fit, which was better than other previously supported models. CONCLUSIONS: A high cut-off score of 10 is recommended to define poor sleep quality. Given the inconsistency of structural analyses, alternative scoring was not recommended. However, the individual components in addition to a total score should be interpreted when assessing sleep quality. We recommend editing and verifying the PSQI-CZ translation.

Obesity, as the most common metabolic disorder in the world, is characterized by excess body fat. This study is aimed at determining the effects of melatonin supplementation on body weight, nody mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and body fat mass percentage (BFMP) in people with overweight or obesity. Thirty eight overweight or class-I obese adult individuals were recruited in the study (8 men and 30 women). Participants prescribed a weight-loss diet and then randomly were allocated to melatonin or placebo groups. Participants received either a 3-milligram melatonin or placebo tablet per day for 12 weeks. In order to assess differences at the significance level of 0.05, repeated measure ANOVA and paired t-test were used. According to the results, a significant reduction was found in participants' body weight, WC, and BMI in both groups (p = 0.001). However, for the last six weeks, significant reductions of these parameters were observed only in the melatonin group (p = 0.01). The BFMP of participants in the melatonin group showed a significant reduction at the end of the study compared to the initial measurements (p = 0.008). Nevertheless, the results of the present study alone are not sufficient to conclude on the effects of melatonin consumption on anthropometric indices, and it seems that further studies are required in this regard.