The serine protease inhibitors (Serpins) represent a diverse protein superfamily that holds paramount significance in governing vital pathophysiological processes. Their influence on critical biological pathways renders serpins highly coveted targets for drug discovery endeavors. Among the numerous members of this family, two distinct proteins, Kallistatin (encoded by the SERPINA4 gene) and Pigment Epithelium-Derived Factor (PEDF, encoded by the SERPINF1 gene), stand out as secreted proteins that are abundantly present in peripheral blood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGranulomas, organized aggregates of immune cells which form in response to (), are characteristic but not exclusive of tuberculosis (TB). Despite existing investigations on TB granulomas, the determinants that differentiate host-protective granulomas from granulomas that contribute to TB pathogenesis are often disputed. Thus, the goal of this narrative review is to help clarify the existing literature on such determinants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and their associated morbidities demands a deeper understanding of underlying mechanism and causative factors, with the hope of developing novel therapeutic strategies. Autophagy, a conserved biological process, involves the degradation of damaged organelles or protein aggregates to maintain cellular homeostasis. Disruption of this crucial process leads to increased genomic instability, accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), decreased mitochondrial functions, and suppression of ubiquitination, leading to overall decline in quality of intracellular components.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFamily resilience is critical for families recovering and growing from a cancer crisis; however, there remains a lack of universal family resilience assessment tools for families of patients with cancer. This study aimed to modify the Family Resilience Assessment Scale (FRA) and examine its psychometric properties. First, the FRA scale was modified into the Family Resilience Assessment Scale for Family Cancer (FRAS-FC) based on cultural adaptations and cancer population applicability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The global incidence of prostate cancer (PCa) is rising, necessitating improved diagnostic strategies. This study explores coagulation parameters' predictive value for clinically significant PCa (csPCa) and develops a nomogram.
Research Design And Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed data from 702 patients who underwent prostate biopsy at Shandong Provincial Hospital (SDPH) and 142 patients at Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute (SDCHI).
The binary solution (sucrose/erythritol solution) and ternary solution (compound sucrose/erythritol with maltitol/fructooligosaccharide) were prepared as osmotic dehydration (OD) pretreatment before hot-pump-dried (HPD). Based on the analysis of OD solutions, the analysis of quality of dehydrated yellow peach slices (DYPS) were emphasized on the soluble sugar content, macro-µ-structure and thermal stability. Following with sucrose and maltitol (SM)-OD pretreatment, DYPS showed the decreased free sugar content and improved cohesiveness (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the treatment of joints, mucosa, and full-thickness wounds, traditional implant surgery presents not only inconvenience but also a significant risk of wound infection. Additionally, the pharmaceutical application of mangiferin(MGF) has been severely restricted due to its poor water solubility. In this study, we reported the synthesis and characterization of sodium-mangiferin (MGF-Na(S)) using the salt formation method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Few studies have been conducted on direct-to-implant (DTI) breast reconstruction failure, and consistent conclusions are lacking. Thus, this study aimed to comprehensively analyze the risk factors of reconstruction failure.
Methods: Patients who underwent DTI breast reconstruction after mastectomy at a single center between July 18, 2014, and January 13, 2020, were retrospectively included in this study.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol
December 2024
Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate differences in clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) attributed to rare versus common pathogens.
Methods: Data on PJI patients who underwent hip or knee arthroplasty at our center from April 2013 to December 2022 were retrospectively collected. Among the 219 enrolled patients, we compared 32 cases of PJI caused by rare pathogens with 187 controls of PJI caused by common pathogens, analyzing demographic information, clinical characteristics, and treatment outcomes.
To investigate the risk factors associated with post-prematurity respiratory disease (PPRD) in very preterm infants. A prospective cohort study was conducted, enrolling 369 very preterm infants who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, within one week of birth from January 2019 to June 2023. Data on maternal and infant clinical characteristics, neonatal morbidities, and treatments during hospitalization were collected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study investigates lignin's influence on the hygroscopic behavior of poplar wood. Delignification was achieved using an acidic NaClO solution, and digital image correlation (DIC) was employed to measure strain distribution during shrinking and swelling across relative humidity (RH) ranging of 0 % to 97 %. Results showed that lignin removal increased equilibrium moisture content (EMC) by up to 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadionuclide therapy is expected to be a powerful tool for glioma treatment. Here, we introduce a novel nuclear nanomedicine based on polydopamine (PDA), incorporating fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) and macrocyclic chelator (DOTA) for specific cancer targeting and 177Lu labeling. The synthesized nanoradiopharmaceutical, 177Lu-DOTA-PEG-PDA-FAPI, exhibits good stability in serum, saline and PBS over 5 days.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe root bark of Turcz. has been traditionally used for the topical treatment of skin disorders like pruritus. This study was designed to investigate the inflammatory and skin barrier protective effects of in mice with calcipotriol (MC903)-induced atopic dermatitis (AD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTranscriptome analysis in single cells, enabled by single-cell RNA sequencing, has become a prevalent approach in biomedical research, ranging from investigations of gene regulation to the characterization of tissue organization. Over the past decade, advances in single-cell RNA sequencing technology, including its underlying chemistry, have significantly enhanced its performance, marking notable improvements in methodology. A recent development in the field, which integrates RNA metabolic labeling with single-cell RNA sequencing, has enabled the profiling of temporal transcriptomes in individual cells, offering new insights into dynamic biological processes involving RNA kinetics and cell fate determination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe systematically study the transport properties of arsenene nanoribbon tunneling field-effect transistors (TFETs) along the armchair directions using first-principles calculations based on density functional theory combined with the non-equilibrium Green's function approach. The pristine nanoribbon TFET devices with and without underlap (UL) exhibit poor performance. Introducing a H defect in the left UL region between the source and channel can drastically enhance the ON-state currents and reduce the SS to below 60 mV/decade.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiological age (BA) is a marker to accurately assess aging, facilitating the prediction of age-related diseases and promoting healthy aging. In recent years, first- and second-generation organ-system-specific BA has been developed using chronological age (CA) or aging-related outcomes (mortality) as training phenotypes and data from questionnaires, physical examinations, clinical biochemistry, imaging, and multi-omics to investigate the specificity of organ systems aging. Here, we review the methodologies for constructing BA, current efforts to assess organ system-specific BA, and related genome-wide association studies (GWAS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcotropic viral integration site 1 (EVI1/MECOM) is frequently upregulated in myeloid malignancies. Here, we present an Evi1-transgenic mouse model with inducible expression in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs). Upon induction of Evi1 expression, mice displayed anemia, thrombocytopenia, lymphopenia, and erythroid and megakaryocyte dysplasia with a significant expansion of committed myeloid progenitor cells, resembling human myelodysplastic syndrome/myeloproliferative neoplasm-like (MDS/MPN-like) disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Women are known to be at higher risk for gallbladder disease than men, suggesting a role of female hormones in the pathogenesis of gallbladder disease. This study aimed to assess menopausal characteristics, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and their joint effect on long-term risk of cholecystectomy in women.
Methods: A total of 184,677 women were included from the UK Biobank.
By using a limited-proteolysis strategy that employs a large amount of trypsin to generate peptides directly from native proteins, we found that ligand-induced protein local stability shifts can be sensitively detected on a proteome-wide scale. This enabled us to develop the peptide-centric local stability assay, a modification-free approach that achieves unprecedented sensitivity in proteome-wide target identification and binding-region determination. We demonstrate the broad applications of the peptide-centric local stability assay by investigating interactions across various biological contexts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo explore the associations of plasma acylcarnitine and bile acid levels with the risk of incident coronary heart disease (CHD) in Chinese adults. The baseline survey of China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) took place in 10 areas across China during 2004-2008, and the first resurvey took place from July to October 2008, with collection of data via questionnaire, physical examination and blood samples. The current study was based on 2 159 individuals with targeted mass spectrometry metabolomic measurements from the first resurvey of CKB.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCogn Process
December 2024
Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a specific mathematics learning disorder, characterized by the atypical development of number sense, arithmetic calculation, and atypical development of brain structures and brain activations in core brain regions for number processing. The current study examined the intervention effect of a 2-month abacus training on DD students. Results showed that compared with the non-trained control group, the DD students with abacus training showed higher scores in number sense, calculation, and sustained attention abilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFear learning is pivotal for organismal survival, ensuring the ability to avoid potential threats through learning based on experiencing minimal fear information. In reality, fear learning requires to form a structured representation of fear experiences from multiple dimensions in order to support flexible use in ever-changing environment. Yet, the underlying neural mechanisms of constructing dimensional fear space remain elusive.
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