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Background: Although many epidemiological studies and meta-analyses have reported an association between autoimmune disorders and prostate cancer, none has reported a clear correlation or the direction of the association. The purpose of our study was to explore the potential relationship between autoimmunity-related disorders and prostate cancer using Mendelian randomization (MR). Methods: We retrieved literature from PubMed using the keywords “autoimmune disorder” AND “prostate cancer” to find more clues on the correlation between prostate cancer and autoimmunity-related disorder. Based on this literature search, we selected 16 autoimmunity-related disorders that had genome-wide association study (GWAS) data and may be associated with prostate cancer. The inverse variance weighting (IVW) method was applied as our primary analysis for two-sample MR and multivariate MR analysis to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). We further verified the robustness of our conclusions using a series of sensitivity analyses. Results: The autoimmunity-related diseases selected include rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, coxarthrosis, gonarthrosis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease, primary sclerosing cholangitis, asthma, type 1 diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune hyperthyroidism, psoriatic arthropathies, and polymyalgia rheumatica. The results of inverse variance weighting (IVW suggested that six diseases were associated with the development of prostate cancer. The three diseases that may increase the risk of prostate cancer are rheumatoid arthritis (P = 0.001), coxarthrosis (P

Abstract Background The TyG index, a prominent metric for assessing insulin resistance, has gained traction as a prognostic tool for cardiovascular disease. Nevertheless, the understanding of the prognostic significance of the extent of coronary artery stenosis in individuals afflicted with H-type hypertension remains limited. Methods A retrospective study was conducted at Wuhan Third Hospital, including a cohort of 320 inpatients who were diagnosed with hypertension in combination with coronary artery disease. The study period spanned from January 1, 2021, to February 1, 2023. The study cohort was stratified based on the severity of stenosis into three distinct groups: low stenosis, medium stenosis, and high stenosis, as determined by the Gensini score derived from coronary angiography findings. The present study aimed to investigate the association between the severity of coronary stenosis and the number of lesion branches, utilizing the TyG index as a testing indicator. The predictive ability of TyG for coronary lesion severity was assessed using logistic regression analysis. Results The results of our study indicate a positive correlation between elevated levels of TyG and an increased susceptibility to severe stenosis in individuals diagnosed with H-type hypertension. Upon careful consideration of potential confounding variables, it has been observed that the TyG index exhibits a robust association with the likelihood of severe stenosis in individuals with H-type hypertension (odds ratio [OR] = 4000, 95% confidence interval CI 2.411–6.635, p = 0.0001), as well as the prevalence of multivessel disease (OR = 1.862, 95% CI 1.036–3.348, p

Abstract Stimulating and harnessing circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is not only a sine qua non for fundamentally unveiling chirogenesis in physical chemistry, but also a pivotal prerequisite for implementation of such phenomenon in research fields including chiral optoelectronics and theranostics. Herein, red‐emissive carbonized polymer dots (CPDs)‐based helical structures were synthesized in this work via biomolecule‐tailored organic–inorganic co‐assembly strategy. The surface states‐related chirality exhibits enhanced circular dichroism (CD) and CPL activities with anisotropic factors as high as gCD,max = 5.4 × 10−3 and glum,max = 1.5 × 10−2, respectively. The obtained CPL signals can be further manipulated in an excitation‐dependent manner, indicating that a synergistic‐competition phenomenon exists between configurational chirality and intermolecular energy‐transfer dynamics, which is further supported by simulations based on density function theory (DFT). Such tunable CPL behavior triggers revolutionary designs and applications of these chiral CPDs into the realm of chirality‐related biological issues and next‐generation chiral optoelectronics.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous materials with huge specific surface area and abundant active sites, which are composed of metal ions or clusters and organic ligands in the form of coordination bonds. In recent years, MOFs have been successfully applied in many fields due to their excellent physical, chemical, and biological properties. Electrochemical sensors have advantages such as economy, portability, and sensitivity, making them increasingly valued in the field of sensors. Many studies have shown that the electrode materials will affect the performance of electrochemical sensors. Therefore, the research on electrode materials is still one of the hotspots. MOFs are also commonly used to construct electrochemical sensors. However, electrochemical sensors prepared from single MOFs have shortcomings such as insufficient conductivity, low sensitivity, and poor electrochemical catalytic ability. In order to compensate for these defects, a new type of nanocomposite material with very ideal conductivity was formed by adding metal nanoparticles (MNPs) to MOFs. The combination of the two is expected to be widely applied in the field of sensors. This review summarizes the applications of various MNPs/MOFs composites in the field of electrochemical sensors and provides some references for the development of MNPs/MOFs composites-based electrochemical sensors in the future.

CdSe/CdS dot-in-rods (DRs) tailored by chiral biomolecules are promising candidates for biological theranostics. The authors of this study synthesised chiral CdSe/CdS DRs with different sizes using the post-ligand-exchange method. Their high-resolution imaging and cytotoxicity performances were investigated, respectively. The results suggested that the chiral cysteine coverage strategy could significantly enhance the biocompatibility of CdSe/CdS DRs in bioimaging and bioimaging-guided therapies. Numerous photodynamic and chemodynamic therapy studies for brain glioma cells demonstrated enantioselective efficacy, wherein chiral DRs could exhibit improved oxygen species and hydroxyl radical generations under corresponding circularly polarised light radiation. d-DRs with right-handed circularly polarised light activation could generally present 3.14/1.5 times higher efficacy than left-handed or linearly polarised light irradiated samples. Wound-healing assay/migration and invasion assays asserted that the applications of chiral DRs could suppress the infiltrative growth and metastasis of glioma cells by reducing the migration and invasion ability by nearly 50%. In vivo experiments also confirmed that d-DRs exerted more substantial enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effects in the tumour tissue, leading to better bioimaging ability and efficient tumour ablation. Such adjuvant approaches would be a viable alternative to cancer treatments with a high possibility of recurrence and poor prognosis.

Abstract Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women, and its incidence increases annually. Traditional therapies have several side effects, leading to the urgent need to explore new smart drug-delivery systems and find new therapeutic strategies. Graphene-based nanomaterials (GBNs) are potential drug carriers due to their target selectivity, easy functionalization, chemosensitization and high drug-loading capacity. Previous studies have revealed that GBNs play an important role in fighting breast cancer. Here, we have summarized the superior properties of GBNs and modifications to shape GBNs for improved function. Then, we focus on the applications of GBNs in breast cancer treatment, including drug delivery, gene therapy, phototherapy, and magnetothermal therapy (MTT), and as a platform to combine multiple therapies. Their advantages in enhancing therapeutic effects, reducing the toxicity of chemotherapeutic drugs, overcoming multidrug resistance (MDR) and inhibiting tumor metastasis are highlighted. This review aims to help evaluate GBNs as therapeutic strategies and provide additional novel ideas for their application in breast cancer therapy.

As an acute respiratory infectious disease, COVID-19 threatens the safety of global public health. Given the current lack of specific treatment against this disease, research and development of vaccines have become sharp weapons for overcoming the pandemic. mRNA vaccines have become the lead in COVID-19 vaccination strategies due to their advantages, such as rapid industrial production and efficacy. A total of 137 COVID-19 vaccines have entered the clinical trial stage, among which 23 are mRNA vaccines, accounting for 17% of the total vaccines. Herein, we summarize the research and developmental processes of mRNA vaccines as well as the approach for protecting the human body against infection. Focusing on the latest clinical trial data of two COVID-19 mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Modena, we discuss their effectiveness and safety. Finally, we analyze the challenges and problems that mRNA vaccines face in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.

In recent decades, many serious respiratory infections have broken out all over the world, including SARS-CoV, MERS, and COVID-19. They are characterized by strong infectivity, rapid disease progression, high mortality, and poor prognosis. Excessive immune system activation results in cytokine hypersecretion, which is an important reason for the aggravation of symptoms, and can spread throughout the body leading to systemic multiple organ dysfunction, namely, cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Although many diseases related to CRS have been identified, the mechanism of CRS is rarely mentioned clearly. This review is intended to clarify the pathogenetic mechanism of CRS in the deterioration of related diseases, describe the important signaling pathways and clinical pathophysiological characteristics of CRS, and provide ideas for further research and development of specific drugs for corresponding targets to treat CRS.

Response to metformin, first-line therapy for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), exists interindividual variation. Considering that transporters belonging to the solute carrier (SLC) superfamily are determinants of metformin pharmacokinetics, we evaluated the effects of promoter variants in organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) (SLC22A1 rs628031), OCT2 (SLC22A2 rs316019), multidrug and toxin extrusion protein 1 (MATE1) (SLC47A1 rs2289669), and MATE2 (SLC47A2 rs12943590) on the variation in metformin response. The glucose-lowering effects and improvement of insulin resistance of metformin were assessed in newly diagnosed, treatment-naive type 2 diabetic patients of Han nationality in Chaoshan China (n = 93) receiving metformin. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG), fasting insulin (FINS), glycated hemoglobin A1 (HbA1C), homeostasis model assessment-insulin sensitivity (HOMA-IS), and homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were the main metformin efficacy measurements. There were significant correlations between both SLC47A1 rs2289669 and SLC47A2 rs12943590 and the efficacy of metformin in individuals with T2DM. In normal weight T2DM patients, significant associations between the AA and GG genotypes of the rs2289669 variant of SLC47A1 and a greater reduction in FINS and HOMA-IR were detected. A significant correlation was observed between the AG genotype of the rs12943590 polymorphism of SLC47A2 and a greater reduction in HOMA-IR. Gene–environment interaction analysis showed that in the FINS interaction model, the second-order of dose30_g-SLC47A2 rs12943590 was statistically significant. The variants of SLC47A1 rs2289669 and SLC47A2 rs12943590 could be predictors of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetic patients treated with metformin. The second-order interaction of dose30_g-SLC47A2 rs12943590 may have a significant effect on FINS in patients with T2DM on metformin treatment. These findings suggest that promoter variants of SLC47A1 and SLC47A2 are important determinants of metformin transport and response in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

In this paper, we first reported the complete mitogenomes of Psittacula derbiana and Psittacula eupatria. Respectively, P. derbiana and P. eupatria mitogenomes are 16,887 and 17,139 bp base pairs long. The overall base compositions of complete mitogenomes of P. derbiana and P. eupatria are 30.9% A, 22.4% T, 32.8% C, 13.9% G and 31.7% A, 22.0% T, 33.2% C, 13.1% G, respectively. All genes exhibit the typical mitochondrial gene arrangement and transcribing directions. The Neighbor-joining analysis suggested that Psittacula species are closely related to Eclectus roratus. The results obtained here could contribute to future studies on molecular evolution and population genetics in Psittacula species.

Genetic studies often use genomic DNA from whole blood cells, of which the majority are the polymorphonuclear myeloid cells. Those cells undergo dramatic change of nuclear morphology following cellular differentiation. It remains elusive if the nuclear morphological change accompanies sequence alternations from the intact genome. If such event exists, it will cause a serious problem in using such type of genomic DNA for genetic study as the sequences will not represent the intact genome in the host individuals. Using exome sequencing, we compared the coding regions between neutrophil, which is the major type of polymorphonuclear cells, and CD4+ T cell, which has an intact genome, from the same individual. The results show that exon sequences between the two cell types are essentially the same. The minor differences represented by the missed exons and base changes between the two cell types were validated to be mainly caused by experimental errors. Our study concludes that genomic DNA from whole blood cells can be safely used for genetic studies.

Genetic aberrations contribute to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, half of AML cases do not contain the well-known aberrations detectable mostly by cytogenetic analysis, and these cases are classified as normal karyotype AML. Different outcomes of normal karyotype AML suggest that this subgroup of AML could be genetically heterogeneous. But lack of genetic markers makes it difficult to further study this subgroup of AML. Using paired-end RNAseq method, we performed a transcriptome analysis in 45 AML cases including 29 normal karyotype AML, 8 abnormal karyotype AML and 8 AML without karyotype informaiton. Our study identified 134 fusion transcripts, all of which were formed between the partner genes adjacent in the same chromosome and distributed at different frequencies in the AML cases. Seven fusions are exclusively present in normal karyotype AML, and the rest fusions are shared between the normal karyotype AML and abnormal karyotype AML. CIITA, a master regulator of MHC class II gene expression and truncated in B-cell lymphoma and Hodgkin disease, is found to fuse with DEXI in 48% of normal karyotype AML cases. The fusion transcripts formed between adjacent genes highlight the possibility that certain such fusions could be involved in oncological process in AML, and provide a new source to identify genetic markers for normal karyotype AML.