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Background: Although several pharmacoeconomic studies have assessed the cost-effectiveness of maintenance immunosuppressive regimens for heart transplant recipients, economic comparisons between various combination drug therapies remain sparse., Aim: This study used an economic evaluation based on network meta-analysis to assess the cost-effectiveness of four immunosuppressive regimens for adult heart transplant recipients in China., Method: We conducted a systematic search for clinical trials in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, and VIP database. A validated Markov model was adapted to reflect the Chinese medical landscape. Four maintenance immunosuppression regimens were considered: tacrolimus/mycophenolate mofetil (TAC/MMF), cyclosporine/mycophenolate mofetil (CSA/MMF), everolimus/cyclosporine (EVL/CSA), and sirolimus/tacrolimus (SRL/TAC). The probabilities of health events were derived from a comprehensive literature review. Direct medical costs, adjusted for 2022 values, were from public documents and websites, while utilities for quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were taken from previous studies. Primary outcomes were mean lifetime cost, QALYs, and cost-effectiveness, with a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold set at three times China's GDP per capita in 2022. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to test the robustness of the results., Results: The base case analysis identified TAC/MMF as the most cost-effective regimen, producing a mean of 6.31 QALYs per patient at a cost of Chinese Yuan (CNY) 534,182.89. Sensitivity analyses consistently reinforced TAC/MMF as the most cost-effective and robust choice., Conclusion: TAC/MMF is the most cost-effective maintenance immunosuppressive regimen for heart transplant recipients within the Chinese health system. The study findings are reinforced by sensitivity analyses, affirming their robustness amid various uncertainties., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Background: Both venetoclax plus a hypomethylating agent (VEN/HMA) and cytarabine, aclarubicin, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (CAG) are low-intensity regimens for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that show good efficacy and safety. It is unknown how VEN/HMA compares with the CAG regimen for the treatment of newly diagnosed AML., Methods: The outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed AML treated with VEN/HMA were compared with those of patients treated with a CAG-based regimen. Propensity score matching between these two cohorts at a 1:1 ratio was performed according to age at diagnosis, sex, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, state of fitness, and European LeukemiaNet (ELN) 2022 risk stratification to minimize bias., Results: A total of 84 of 96 patients in the VEN/HMA cohort were matched with 84 of 147 patients in the CAG cohort. VEN/HMA resulted in a better response than the CAG-based regimens, as indicated by a higher composite complete remission (CRc) rate (82.1% vs. 60.7%; p = .002) and minimal residual disease negativity rate (88.2% vs. 68.2%; p = .009). In patients with an ELN adverse risk, VEN/HMA was associated with a higher CRc rate compared to CAG (80.5% vs. 58.3%; p = .006). VEN/HMA was associated with longer event-free survival (EFS) (median EFS, not reached vs. 4.5 months; p = .0004), whereas overall survival (OS) was comparable between the two cohorts (median OS, not reached vs. 18 months; p = .078)., Conclusions: The VEN/HMA regimen may result in a better response than CAG-based treatment in older patients with newly diagnosed AML., (© 2024 American Cancer Society.)

The aging process can affect the physical and chemical properties as well as adsorption capacity of biochar. This study focuses on the heavy metal cadmium (Cd) as the research object, and artificially ages biochar prepared from rice straw and corn straw through accelerated freeze-thaw cycles, alternating dry wet cycles, and ultraviolet light treatment, in order to evaluate the effects of different aging conditions on the physical and chemical properties of the two different types of biochar and on their adsorption capacities for Cd. After aging, the pH of rice and corn biochar decreased to varying degrees, respectively. The surface structure was ruptured, the average pore diameter was decreased, and the specific surface area was increased by 27.3%, 21.9%, and 9.8% (rice) and 95.4%, 27.7%, and 13.4% (corn). Ultraviolet light aging has the most significant impact on the elemental content of biochar, and the C content was decreased by 12.4% (rice) and 9.3% (corn). The O content was increased by 11.2% (rice) and 44.1% (corn), and the numbers of O/C, H/C, (O + N)/C, and oxygen-containing functional groups were increased. These results demonstrate that the aging process reduces the degree of aromatization of biochar, while enhancing its polarity and Cd adsorption capacity. Rice straw biochar (RSB) has a greater ability to adsorb Cd than corn straw biochar (CSB). In addition, ultraviolet light aging is particularly effective in increasing heavy metal adsorption., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Two types of microplastics (MPs) (micro polyethylene (mPE) and micro polypropylene (mPP)) were studied alongside and cadmium (Cd) to determine how they affected soil-wheat systems, both individually and in mixed combinations. This was accomplished by carrying out a pot experiment to reveal their respective interaction effects. Results showed that in different Cd pollution levels soils (0, 1, and 5 mg kg -1 ), chlorophyll concentrations in wheat leaves decreased markedly with rising levels of mPE/mPP. In the single mPE treatment, as the mPE content in the soil increased, the aboveground and root biomass improved. By contrast, in the single mPP treatment, when the mPP content was low, the aboveground biomass of wheat increased and with the mPP content increased, the aboveground biomass of wheat decreased. This result was also shown in the combined contamination of mPE/mPP and Cd (1 mg kg -1 ) in the root biomass. With an increase in Cd concentration (that is, at 5 mg kg -1 ) in the combined contamination, this phenomenon continued in the aboveground biomass while in the roots, there was a promotion effect. At Cd contaminated soil (1 mg kg -1 ), MPs inhibited Cd enrichment in aboveground wheat, but at 5 mg kg -1 , Cd enrichment was promoted instead, in both aboveground and roots. Adding mPE/mPP diminished pH and the Cd effective state concentration in soil. The combined contamination of mPE/mPP and Cd affected the Cd biological enrichment in the wheat to some extent, which was influenced by the types of MP and pollution levels of Cd in the soil., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

This study analyzed the role of micro polyethylene (mPE) and micro polypropylene (mPP) on cadmium (Cd) adsorption and desorption in soil. Cd adsorption in soils reached equilibrium within 240 min with or without mPP/mPE. The largest Cd adsorption amount was 923.88 mg kg -1 in the control treatment (no MPs). The Cd adsorption amount in the mPP treatment was 872.21 mg kg -1 , greater than that in the mPE treatment (780.21 mg kg -1 ). MPs reduced the soil adsorption of Cd to some extent. Soils supplemented with mPE were more inhibitory to Cd adsorption than mPP. The pseudo-second-order model equation proved to be the most optimal equation for describing Cd adsorption dynamics in the presence of different MPs, while the Freundlich equation was best for describing isothermal adsorption of Cd in the presence of MPs. MPs facilitate the desorption of metals from the soil., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Many efforts have been devoted to investigating the effect of the interaction between the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) and environment (G × E) on depression, but they yield mixed results. The inconsistency has suggested that G × E effects may be more complex than originally conceptualized, and further study is warranted. This study explored the association among 5-HTTLPR, peer victimization and depressive symptoms and the underlying mediating role of inhibitory control in this association. A total of 871 Chinese Han adolescents (M age  = 15.32 years, 50.3% girls) participated and provided saliva samples from which the 5-HTTLPR was genotyped. This study found that 5-HTTLPR interacted with peer victimization in predicting depressive symptoms. Adolescents carrying L allele reported more depressive symptoms than SS carriers when exposed to higher level of peer victimization. Furthermore, adolescents' inhibitory control deficits mediated the association between 5-HTTLPR × peer victimization and depressive symptoms. These findings suggested that one pathway in which G × E may confer vulnerability to depressive symptoms is through disruptions to adolescents' inhibitory control system., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Behavioral genetics studies and new empirical evidence suggest that depression cannot simply be explained by the influence of single genes but that gene-gene-environment interactions are important to better understanding the etiology of depression. The present study investigated the main and interactive effects of COMT gene Val158Met polymorphism, DAT1 gene rs27072 polymorphism, and peer relationships (i.e., peer acceptance and rejection) on adolescent depressive symptoms. In a sample of 1045 Chinese Han adolescents (M age  = 12.34 ± 0.47 years, 50.1% girls), saliva samples, self-reported depressive symptoms and within-classroom peer nominations were collected. After controlling for gender, age, and SES, the three-way interaction of COMT, DAT1, and peer acceptance significantly concurrently predicted adolescent depressive symptoms. Adolescents with ValVal genotype of COMT and CC genotype of DAT1 were more sensitive to acceptance, compared to their counterparts carrying other combined genotypes. However, a similar three-way interaction was not significant in the case of peer rejection. Additionally, the split-half validation generally replicated these findings. More importantly, this study underscores complex polygenic underpinnings of depression and lends support for the gene-gene-environment interactions implicated in the etiology of depressive symptoms.