Search

ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided percutaneous laser ablation (PLA) for the treatment of elderly patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC).MethodsFrom September 2015 to April 2017, 38 elderly patients with PTMC confirmed through fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) were treated with PLA. Before the treatment, the location and volume of the nodule together with the patients’ symptoms were evaluated. Twenty-four hours after the treatment, contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) was performed to evaluate the completeness of the ablation. To evaluate the volume of the ablation area and recurrence or metastasis, ultrasound examination was performed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the treatment and every 6 months thereafter. FNAB was performed for any suspicious recurrence or metastasis lesions.ResultThe ablation of all the 38 patients was all achieved completely as confirmed by CEUS. No obvious complications were found. The success rate of single ablation was 100%. The average follow-up time was 64.58 ± 5.29 months (60–78 months). By the time of the last follow-up, 31 (81.58%) ablation lesions disappeared completely and seven (18.42%) ablation lesions showed scar-like changes. The volume of nodules was 40.69 ± 16.45 mm3 before operation, which decreased to 0.22 ± 0.76 mm3 by the end of 42 months, and all nodules disappeared 4 years after ablation (P < 0.01). At 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, and 42 months after ablation, the average volume reduction rates (VRRs) were 12.09%, 31.21%, 50.9%, 72.06%, 84.79%, 95.65%, and 100%, respectively. Of all the patients enrolled, one patient (2.6%) had local recurrence and was treated with PLA again. No regrowth of treated nodule or lymph node metastasis and distant metastases was detected.ConclusionUltrasound-guided PLA is effective and safe for the treatment of elderly patients with PTMC who are ineligible for surgery.

Background: Docetaxel is an important chemotherapy-agent for breast cancer treatment. One of its side-effects is weight gain, which increases the all-cause mortality rate. Considering gut microbiota is one important factor for weight regulation, we hypothesized that probiotics could be potentially used to reduce the docetaxel-related weight gain in breast cancer patients.Methods: From 10/8/2018 to 10/17/2019, 100 breast cancer (Stage I-III) patients underwent four cycles of docetaxel-based chemotherapy were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive probiotics (Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Enterococcus faecalis) or placebo (supplementary material of the probiotics capsule) treatment for 84 days with three capsules per time, twice/day. The primary outcome: the changes in body weight and body-fat percentage of the patients were measured by a designated physician using a fat analyzer, and the secondary outcomes: the fasting insulin, plasma glucose, and lipids were directly obtained from the Hospital Information System (HIS); The metabolites were measured using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS); The fecal microbiome was analyzed using bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequence. All indicators were measured 1 day before the first cycle of docetaxel-based chemotherapy and 21 days after the last cycle of docetaxel-based chemotherapy.Results: Compared with the placebo group, the probiotic group showed significantly smaller changes in body weight (Mean [SD] 0.77 [2.58] vs. 2.70 [3.08], P = 0.03), body-fat percentage (Mean [SD] 0.04 [1.14] vs. 3.86 [11.09], P = 0.02), and low density lipoprotein (LDL) (Mean [SD]−0.05[0.68] vs. 0.39 [0.58], P = 0.002). Moreover, five of the 340 detected plasma metabolites showed significant differences between the two groups. The change of biliverdin dihydrochloride (B = −0.724, P = 0.02) was inverse correlated with weight gain. One strain of the phylum and three strains of the genus were detected to be significantly different between the two groups. Also, the changes of Bacteroides (B = −0.917, P < 0.001) and Anaerostipes (B = −0.894, P < 0.001) were inverse correlated with the change of LDL.Conclusions: Probiotics supplement during docetaxel-based chemotherapy for breast cancer treatment may help to reduce the increase in body weight, body-fat percentage, plasma LDL, and minimize the metabolic changes and gut dysbacteriosis.Clinical Trial Registration:http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=24294, ChiCTR-INQ-17014181.

The construction of diabatic potential energy surfaces (PESs) for the SiH2+ system, related to the ground (12A′) and excited states (22A′), has been successfully achieved. This was accomplished by utilizing high-level ab initio energy points, employing a neural network fitting method in conjunction with a specifically designed function. The newly constructed diabatic PESs are carefully examined for dynamics calculations of the Si+(2P1/2, 3/2) + H2 reaction. Through time-dependent quantum wave packet calculations, the reaction probabilities, integral cross sections (ICSs), and differential cross sections (DCSs) of the Si+(2P1/2, 3/2) + H2 reaction were reported. The dynamics results indicate that the total ICS is in excellent agreement with experimental data within the collision energy range studied. The results also indicate that the SiH+ ion is hardly formed via the Si+(2P3/2) + H2 reaction. The results from the DCSs suggest that the "complex-forming" reaction mechanism predominates in the low collision energy region. Conversely, the forward abstraction reaction mechanism is dominant in the high collision energy region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate cancer has the second highest incidence among male malignancies. Only a few studies exist on the inhibitory effects of maslinic acid (MA) on prostate cancer. Herein we found that MA inhibits prostate cancer cell proliferation by decreasing CDK2, CDK4, and CDK6 expression and concurrently increasing p27, Rb, p-Rb expression. Further, MA was observed to induce prostate cancer cell autophagy by increasing the expression of p53, p-p53, ULK1, Beclin1, Atg7, and Atg5 and the ratio of LC3-II/I and concurrently decreasing the expression of ERK1/2 and mTOR. In addition, MA induced RM-1 cell ferroptosis by regulating glutathione, glutamate, and oxidized glutathione concentrations, inhibiting SLC7A11 activity, and downregulating GPX4 expression. Integrated metabolome and transcriptome analysis led to the identification of key pathways (e.g., pathways in cancer and glutathione metabolism). Real-time quantitative PCR confirmed that MA regulates the expression of ABCA1 , JUN , and NFKBIA. In vivo , we demonstrated that 50 mg/kg MA significantly inhibited the growth of tumors established using RM-1 cells. To summarize, we report that MA inhibits prostate cancer cell growth both in vitro and in vivo by inducing autophagy and ferroptosis via transcriptomic and metabolomic reprogramming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jinci spring is a famous karst spring in Shanxi Province, and its backflow is an ecological restoration goal of the Shanxi Provincial government. Composed of Nanlao spring, Shengmu spring, and Shanli spring, Jinci spring is exposed at the foot of Xuanweng mountain in the western mountains of Taiyuan, twenty-five kilometers away from the city center, and it is a concentrated discharge point for karst water in the Jinci spring area. Karst water in the spring area is mainly supplied by atmospheric precipitation infiltration and leakage from rivers and reservoirs. Karst water in the Jinci spring area is an important water source for people's life and industrial and agricultural production in Taiyuan City. In recent years, with the intensification of climate change, large-scale development of karst water, coal mining and other human activities, especially after the construction of the second reservoir of the Fenhe river, the karst hydrogeological conditions in the spring area have undergone fundamental changes, with the spring area expanding from 2,030 km2 to 2,713 km2, which has affected the evaluation, management and protection of karst water resources in the spring area. The original zoning of protected areas can no longer meet the needs of water resource management and protection. Therefore, it is urgent to re-zone the protected areas and formulate corresponding protection measures. In terms of the problems on water quality and quantity, there exist differences in the causes, regions, and protective measures, and thus LIANG Yongping et al. proposed the concepts of "water quantity vulnerability" and "water quality vulnerability", as well as a method of "first classifying, and then grading" for the zoning of karst aquifer protected areas.This study focuses on the hydrogeological conditions of special recharge, runoff, and discharge in the karst water system of North China, as well as the main influencing factors of the antifouling performance of karst aquifer systems. It combines European methods and "water vulnerability assessment" to evaluate the antifouling performance. Based on infiltration duration of karst water in the unsaturated zone, leakage of rivers and reservoirs, precipitation infiltration in different regions, and replacement of karst aquifer media structure with water abundance, this study selects four factors to evaluate the antifouling performance of karst aquifers in North China, including the thickness of unsaturated zone, the amount of infiltration recharge, the lithology of overlying strata, and the water abundance of karst aquifers. Taking the newly divided karst water system in the Jinci spring area as the evaluation object, this study aims to evaluate the vulnerability of karst water system in the spring area and to zone the protected areas.The results show as follows, (1) The protected areas are mainly distributed in Jinci park and its surrounding areas. (2) The first-class protected areas are mainly distributed in the main stream of the Fenhe river, the exposed areas of carbonate rocks in the front of western mountains of Taiyuan, and the leakage sections of carbonate rocks in Tunlanchuan, the Tianchi river and the Liulin river. (3) The second-class protected areas are mainly distributed in the north of the spring area and the north bank of the Fenhe river. (4) The quasi-protected areas are mainly distributed in the south bank of the Fenhe river and the Taiyuan basin in the southeast. The newly zoned protected areas for spring water quality can provide a basis for the rational protection and scientific utilization of karst water resources in the Jinci spring area [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the treatment of MRSA-infected wounds, the spatiotemporally sequential delivery of antibacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs is a promising strategy. In this study, ROS-responsive HA-PBA/PVA (HPA) hydrogel was prepared by phenylborate ester bond cross-linking between hyaluronic acid-grafted 3-amino phenylboronic acid (HA-PBA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to achieve spatiotemporally controlled release of two kinds of drug to treat MRSA-infected wound. The hydrophilic antibiotic moxifloxacin (M) was directly loaded in the hydrogel. And hydrophobic curcumin (Cur) with anti-inflammatory function was first mixed with Pluronic F127 (PF) to form Cur-encapsulated PF micelles (Cur-PF), and then loaded into the HPA hydrogel. Due to the different hydrophilic and hydrophobic nature of moxifloxacin and Cur and their different existing forms in the HPA hydrogel, the final HPA/M&Cur-PF hydrogel can achieve different spatiotemporally sequential delivery of the two drugs. In addition, the swelling, degradation, self-healing, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant property, and biocompatibility of hydrogels were tested. Finally, in the MRSA-infected mouse skin wound, the hydrogel-treated group showed faster wound closure, less inflammation and more collagen deposition. Immunofluorescence experiments further confirmed that the hydrogel promoted better repair by reducing inflammation (TNF-α) and promoting vascular (VEGF) regeneration. In conclusion, this HPA/M&Cur-PF hydrogel that can spatiotemporally sequential deliver antibacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs showed great potential for the repair of MRSA-infected skin wounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]