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Background: Previous studies indicated that glucosamine supplements may have a general anticancer effect. This study aimed to assess whether the potential effect differs across different types of cancers in a large prospective cohort study. Methods: All participants from the UK Biobank who were free of cancers and had complete information on glucosamine use at baseline were included and followed up from 2006 until 2021. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the associations between regular glucosamine use and different site-specific cancers. Subgroup analyses were performed to explore potential interactions. Several sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of the main findings. Results: A total of 450,207 eligible participants (mean age: 56.2 years; females: 53.3%) were included, of whom 84,895 (18.9%) reported regular glucosamine use at baseline. During a median of 12.5 years follow-up, glucosamine use was significantly associated with an increased risk of overall cancer [HR, 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.01–1.06], skin cancer (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.07–1.15), and prostate cancer (HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01–1.13), and with a reduced risk of lung cancer (HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.79–0.97) after adjusting for potential confounders. Statistical interaction was observed for gender, age, and education for the association of glucosamine use with overall cancer risk (all Pinteraction Conclusions: Regular glucosamine use was associated with lower risk of lung cancer but higher risk of skin cancer, prostate cancer, and overall cancer. Impact: The roles of glucosamine use potentially differ in the development of different site-specific cancers.

Background. Qinggan Huoxue recipe (QGHXR), a traditional Chinese medicinal formula, has a protective effect against liver fibrosis. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Objective. This study investigated the antifibrotic role of QGHXR and its underlying mechanisms. Methods. The composition of QGHXR was determined using ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Female C57BL/6J mice were fed either a Lieber–DeCarli liquid diet or pair-fed control diet and intraperitoneally injected with CCl4 for 8 weeks (n = 8). In week 5, the mice were administered 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg QGHXR via oral gavage daily for 4 weeks. Results. UPLC-MS result showed that QGHXR contained 45 compounds including salvianolic acid A, scutellarin, baicalin, rutin, and chai saponin D. QGHXR alleviated pathological alterations in the liver. The alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level was reduced to 44.88 ± 4.39 U/L, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) to 76.25 ± 4.17 U/L, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) to 60.75 ± 5.41 U/L, and acetaldehyde to 38.54 ± 1.01 U/L compared with that of the control group (ALT 72.38 ± 5.19 U/L, AST 119.63 ± 9.82 U/L, and ALP 98.63 ± 6.71 U/L and acetaldehyde 64.86 ± 4.70 U/L). QGHXR inhibited lipid overproduction and fibrotic gene expression. The serum concentration of chemokine C-X-C ligand 16 (CXCL16) was reduced to 62.83 ± 6.80 pg/ml compared with that of the control group (130.91 ± 13.72 pg/mL). QGHXR downregulated CXCL16 mRNA and protein expressions. Pharmacological CXCL16 treatment reversed the QGHXR-induced protective effects in ethanol plus CCl4 fed mice. QGHXR reduced CXCL16 levels (91.97 ± 5.86 pg/ml) in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells compared with that of the control group (148.68 ± 8.62 pg/ml) and inhibited toll-like receptor 4 and nuclear factor-kappa B phosphorylation. Conclusions. This study demonstrated that QGHXR mitigates experimental alcoholic liver fibrosis by CXCL16 inhibition, and may be considered a potential therapeutic agent for treating liver fibrosis.

The first sodium borate-squarate, Na2(C4O4)(H3BO3)(H2O)4·H3BO3, with strong SHG response obtained by the synergy effect between two planar NLO-active motifs.

Formation enthalpy (left), voltage and theoretical specific capacity (right) of Li1−xFeS2 based on different Li concentrations.

Timely and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 is critical for controlling the pandemic.

Treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a challenge because it still leads to unsatisfactory clinical prognosis. This is due to the toxicity and poor targeting of chemotherapeutic agents, as well as metastasis of the tumor. In this study, we designed a targeted liposome with nanostructures to overcome these problems. In the liposomes, epirubicin and curcumin were encapsulated to achieve their synergistic antitumor efficacy, while Epi-1 was modified on the liposomal surface to target epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM). Epi-1, a macrocyclic peptide, exhibits active targeting for enhanced cellular uptake and potent cytotoxicity against tumor cells. The encapsulation of epirubicin and curcumin synergistically inhibited the formation of neovascularization and vasculogenic mimicry (VM) channels, thereby suppressing tumor metastasis on SKOV3 cells. The dual drug loaded Epi-1-liposomes also induced apoptosis and downregulated metastasis-related proteins for effective antitumor in vitro. In vivo studies showed that dual drug loaded Epi-1-liposomes prolonged circulation time in the blood and increased the selective accumulation of drug at the tumor site. HE staining and immunohistochemistry with Ki-67 also showed that targeted liposomes elevated antitumor activity. Also, targeted liposomes downregulated angiogenesis-related proteins to inhibit angiogenesis and thus tumor metastasis. In conclusion, the production of dual drug loaded Epi-1-liposomes is an effective strategy for the treatment of EOC.

Chronic liver disease(CLD) is a slow-developing and long-term disease that can cause serious damage to the liver. Thus far, it has been associated with viral hepatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD), alcoholic liver disease(ALD), hepatic fibrosis(HF), liver cirrhosis (LC), and liver cancer. Qinghao Biejia Decoction (QBD) is a classic ancient Chinese herbal prescription with strong immune-enhancing, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor effects. In this study, we used a network pharmacology approach to investigate the molecular mechanisms of QBD in the inflammation-carcinoma transformation process of chronic liver disease. Two key drug targets, MAPK1 and PIK3CA, were screened using network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques, revealing dihydroartemisinin, artesunate, 12-O-Nicotinoylisolineolone, caffeic acid, and diincarvilone A as active ingredients involved in QBD mechanisms. The main signaling pathways involved were the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway and MAPK signaling pathway. In summary, our results indicated that QBD affects the inflammatory transformation of chronic liver disease through MAPK1 and PIK3CA and signaling pathways MAPK and PI3K/AKT. These data provide research direction for investigating the mechanisms underlying the inflammation-carcinoma transformation process in QBD for chronic liver disease.

This article investigates the multirobot cooperative navigation problem based on raw visual observations. A fully end-to-end learning framework is presented, which leverages graph neural networks to learn local motion coordination and utilizes deep reinforcement learning to generate visuomotor policy that enables each robot to move to its goal without the need of environment map and global positioning information. Experimental results show that, with a few tens of robots, our approach achieves comparable performance with the state-of-the-art imitation learning-based approaches with bird-view state inputs. We also illustrate our generalizability to crowded and large environments and our scalability to ten times number of the training robots. In addition, we demonstrate that our model trained for multirobot case can also improve the success rate in the single-robot navigation task in unseen environments.

To examine the relationship between absent social support and depression among older adults from elderly care social organizations in Anhui Province, China.A cross-sectional study using a multi-stage stratified random sampling method was conducted in six selected cities of Anhui Province, China. A linear regression model was employed to estimate the association between absent social support and depression.All in all, 1167 older people were included. Social support and the three dimensions studied were all negatively correlated with depression. These findings suggest that older people from elderly care organizations, who reported higher social support, were less likely to develop depression. This association also existed after stratified analysis in different areas: household (urban/rural), age and gender.A higher level of social support was correlated with lower chances of experiencing depression. These findings are consistent with the majority of previous literature having reported on social support among elderly populations. However, some of our findings differ from those of other studies.Our study suggests that improved social support could help to prevent depression among older adults.

Deterioration of flesh quality has bad effects on consumer satisfaction. Therefore, effects of safe mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS) on flesh quality of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) muscle were studied. A total of 540 healthy fish (215.85 ± 0.30 g) were randomly divided into six groups and fed six separate diets with graded levels of MOS (0, 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 mg kgOptimal MOS could improve tenderness (27.4%), pH (5.5%) while decreasing cooking loss (16.6%) to enhance flesh quality. Meanwhile, optimal MOS improved flavor inosine 5'-monophosphate (IMP) of 11.8%, sweetness and umami-associated amino acid, healthy unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) of 14.9% and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) especially C20:5n-3 (15.8%) and C22:6n-3 (38.3%). Furthermore, the mechanism that MOS affected pH, tenderness and cooking loss could be partly explained by the reduced lactate, cathepsin and oxidation, respectively. The enhanced flesh quality was also associated with enhanced antioxidant ability concerning improving antioxidant enzymes activities and the corresponding transcriptional levels, which were regulated through NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling. Based on pHDietary MOS is a promising alternative strategy to improve flesh quality of fish muscle. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.