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Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are characterized by localized dilation of the abdominal aorta. They are associated with several serious consequences, including compression of adjacent abdominal organs, pain, treatment-related financial expenditure. The main complication of AAA is aortic rupture, which is responsible for about 200,000 deaths per year worldwide. An increasing number of researchers are dedicating their efforts to study AAA, resulting in significant progress in this field. Despite the commendable progress made thus far, there remains a lack of established methods to effectively decelerate the dilation of aneurysms. Therefore, further studies are imperative to expand our understanding and enhance our knowledge concerning AAAs. Although numerous factors are known to be associated with the occurrence and progression of AAA, the exact pathway of development remains unclear. While asymptomatic at most times, AAA features a highly unpredictable disease course, which could culminate in the highly deadly rupture of the aneurysmal aorta. Current guidelines recommend watchful waiting and lifestyle adjustment for smaller, slow-growing aneurysms, while elective/prophylactic surgical repairs including open repair and endovascular aneurysm repair are recommended for larger aneurysms that have grown beyond certain thresholds (55 mm for males and 50 mm for females). The latter is a minimally invasive procedure and is widely believed to be suited for patients with a poor general condition. However, several concerns have recently been raised regarding the postoperative complications and possible loss of associated survival benefits on it. In this review, we aimed to highlight the current status of diagnosis and treatment of AAA by an in-depth analysis of the findings from literatures., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2023 Lin, Chen, Yao and Yan.)

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has poor prognosis and high mortality. CircCMTM3 was significantly up-regulated in HCC. However, the mechanism of circCMTM3 in HCC is not full elucidated., Methods: The expression level of circCMTM3, PARK7, GPX4, and Ki67 in HCC cells and tissues were quantified by qRT-PCR, IHC, and Western blotting. The level of GSH, total iron, Fe 2+ , and MDA were detected by their kits. CCK-8 and flow cytometry analysis were used to evaluated cell proliferation and lipid ROS level, respectively. m6A level of circCMTM3 was assessed by MeRIP-PCR. RNA pulldown, RIP, and FISH detected the interaction between circCMTM3, WTAP, and PARK7. Tumor xenograft model was constructed to validate the function of cicrCMTM3 and WTAP., Results: CircCMTM3 and WTAP were enhanced in HCC tissues and cells. Knockdown of WTAP inhibited m6A modification of circCMTM3, which promoted HCC ferroptosis. circCMTM3 silencing suppressed the expression and stability of PARK7 through binding with IGF2BP1 in HCC cells, which finally induced ferroptosis. In vivo studies demonstrated that silencing WTAP and circCMTM3 suppressed tumor growth and promoted HCC ferroptosis in nude mice by regulating PARK7 signaling., Conclusion: CircCMTM3 promoted the carcinogenesis through inhibiting ferroptosis by recruiting IGF2BP1 to increase PARK7 stability in HCC, suggesting that cicrCMTM3 may be an important marker for HCC treatment., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None declared., (Copyright © 2022 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are momentous energy storage devices, which have been rapidly developed due to their high energy density, long lifetime, and low self-discharge rate. However, the frequent occurrence of fire accidents in laptops, electric vehicles, and mobile phones caused by thermal runaway of the inside batteries constantly reminds us of the urgency in pursuing high-safety LIBs with high performance. To this end, this Review surveyed the state-of-the-art developments of high-temperature-resistant separators for highly safe LIBs with excellent electrochemical performance. Firstly, the basic properties of separators (e. g., thickness, porosity, pore size, wettability, mechanical strength, and thermal stability) in constructing commercialized LIBs were introduced. Secondly, the working mechanisms of advanced separators with different melting points acting in the thermal runaway stage were discussed in terms of improving battery safety. Thirdly, rational design strategies for constructing high-temperature-resistant separators for LIBs with high safety were summarized and discussed, including graft modification, blend modification, and multilayer composite modification strategies. Finally, the current obstacles and future research directions in the field of high-temperature-resistant separators were highlighted. These design ideas are expected to be applied to other types of high-temperature-resistant energy storage systems working under extreme conditions., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Programming ultrasensitive and stimuli-responsive DNAzyme-based probes that contain logic gate biocomputation hold great potential for precise molecular imaging. In this work, a DNA computation-mediated DNAzyme platform that can be activated by 808 nm NIR light and target c -MYC was designed for spatiotemporally controlled ultrasensitive AND-gated molecular imaging. Particularly, the sensing and recognition function of the traditional DNAzyme platform was inhibited by introducing a blocking sequence containing a photo-cleavable linker (PC-linker) that can be indirectly cleaved by 808 nm NIR light and thus enables the AND-gated molecular imaging. According to the responses toward three designed SDz, nPC-SDz, and m -SDz DNAzyme probes, the fluorescence recovery in diverse cell lines (MCF-7, HeLa, and L02) and inhibitor-treated cells was investigated to confirm the AND-gated sensing mechanism. It is worth noting that thanks to the strand displacement amplification and the ability of gold nanopyramids (Au NBPs) to enhance fluorescence, the fluorescence intensity increased by ∼7.9 times and the detection limit decreased by nearly 40.5 times. Moreover, false positive signals can be also excluded due to such AND-gated design. Furthermore, such a designed "AND-gate" sensing manner can also be applied to spatiotemporally controlled ultrasensitive in vivo molecular imaging, indicating its promising potential in precise biological molecular imaging.

Discrimination of malignancy from thyroid nodules poses challenges in clinical practice. We aimed to identify the plasma metabolomic biomarkers in discriminating papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) from benign thyroid nodule (BTN). Metabolomics profiling of plasma was performed in two independent cohorts of 651 subjects of PTC (n = 215), BTN (n = 230), and healthy controls (n = 206). In addition, 132 patients with thyroid micronodules (<1 cm) and 44 patients with BTN suspected malignancy by ultrasound were used for biomarker validation. Recursive feature elimination algorithm was used for metabolic biomarkers selecting. Significant differential metabolites were demonstrated in patients with thyroid nodules (PTC and BTN) from healthy controls (P = 0.0001). A metabolic biomarker panel (17 differential metabolites) was identified to discriminate PTC from BTN with an AUC of 97.03% (95% CI: 95.28-98.79%), 91.89% sensitivity, and 92.63% specificity in discovery cohort. The panel had an AUC of 92.72% (95% CI: 87.46-97.99%), 86.57% sensitivity, and 92.50% specificity in validation cohort. The metabolic biomarker signature could correctly identify 84.09% patients whose nodules were suspected malignant by ultrasonography but finally histological benign. Moreover, high accuracy of 87.88% for diagnosis of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma was displayed by this panel and showed significant improvement in accuracy, AUC and specificity when compared with ultrasound. We identified a novel metabolic biomarker signature to discriminate PTC from BTN. The clinical use of this biomarker panel would have improved diagnosis stratification of thyroid microcarcinoma in comparison to ultrasound., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Purpose: Whether or not young patients with squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity (OC-SCC) have a difference in prognosis remains a controversy. This study aimed to analyze the clinical characteristics and difference of survival rates between adult patients less than 40 years of age and those 40 years of age and older., Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using the database of patients diagnosed with OC-SCC between 1990 and 2013 in the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, but patients older than 85 years, younger than 18 years, or died within 6 months of diagnosis were excluded. Patients were categorized into two groups: the young group (< 40 years of age) and the older group (≥ 40 years of age). Cox regression, survival and subgroups analyses were performed. The primary endpoints included the rates of 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS)., Results: A total of 1902 OC-SCC patients were identified. The percentage of female in the young group was significantly higher than that in the older group (40.27% vs 31.03%, p < 0.001). This study failed to find the difference in TNM classification or tumor stage between the two groups (p > 0.05). The young group was more likely to receive adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy (42.48% vs 26.91%, p < 0.001). The 5-year OS rate (71% vs. 57%, p < 0.001) and DSS rate (72% vs 58%, p < 0.001) in patients under 40 years were significantly higher than those for the older group., Conclusion: Our findings suggested that OC-SCC in younger patients did not present at a more advanced stage. In addition, young age is an independent predictor for better survival.

Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is a common head and neck cancer. Despite recently improved management of LSCC, chemotherapy resistance of patients remains a challenge. In this study, we identified that long noncoding RNA FOXD2-AS1 regulates LSCC therapeutic resistance by augmenting LSCC stemness. LSCC chemotherapy-resistant patients showed increased FOXD2-AS1 expression compared with that in chemotherapy-sensitive patients, which predicted poor prognosis. Gain- or loss-of-function experiments showed that upregulated FOXD2-AS1 maintained cancer stemness, reducing the response to chemotherapy, while FOXD2-AS1 downregulation had the opposite effects. FOXD2-AS1 acted as a scaffold for STAT3 and PRMT5, promoting STAT3 transcriptional activity, which is essential to maintain cancer stemness and promote chemotherapeutic resistance. Interfering with FOXD2-AS1 using short hairpin RNA rescued LSCC's chemotherapeutic sensitivity. Thus, FOXD2-AS1 promotes LSCC chemotherapeutic resistance and is an upstream activator of STAT3, making FOXD2-AS1 a potential therapeutic target to improve the chemotherapy effect in LSCC patients.

Introduction: Clinically, we have observed that some oral cancer patients have a history of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer; we have named this condition radiotherapy-associated cancer (RAC). Gingival cancer, which is usually juxtaposed with other oral cancer subtypes, is seldom reported individually, and there are few reports on the association between the incidence of oral cancer and history of radiation therapy. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate the clinicopathological features and prognosis of second primary gingival squamous cell carcinoma after head and neck radiotherapy., Materials and Methods: The data collected included 450 patients diagnosed with gingival squamous cell carcinoma from 1964 to 2012 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer, among whom 52 patients had a history of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. We retrospectively analysed the differences in the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis between sporadic gingival squamous cell carcinoma and radiation-associated gingival carcinoma, with an emphasis on gingival carcinoma., Results: Sporadic gingival squamous cell carcinoma is less likely to have more advanced T stage, and the second primary tumour is more likely to be located in the molar area of the maxillary gingiva than in the mandibular gingiva (75.6% vs 24.4%, P < 0.05). The 5-year overall survival of patients with second primary gingival carcinoma was influenced by age distribution, T classification, N classification, clinical TNM stage, histological grade and radiation history in head and neck. Mandibular gingival carcinoma was more likely to have an increased neck lymph node metastasis than maxillary gingival carcinoma (P = 0.001), but there was no significant difference in 5-year overall survival between these two groups (P = 0.828). The main therapy for gingiva carcinoma is surgery or comprehensive treatment based on surgery., Conclusions: Second primary gingival squamous cell carcinoma after radiotherapy demonstrated particular clinicopathologic features, such as prominent sites and TNM stage; and there was statistically significant difference in 5-year overall survival and prognosis between second primary gingival carcinoma after radiotherapy and sporadic gingival carcinoma., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)