Pediatric Nuclear Medicine Examinations and Subsequent Risk of Neoplasm: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.

To evaluate the association between radiation exposure from repeated nuclear medicine (NM) examinations and the subsequent risk of neoplasm in pediatric patients. From 2000 to 2017, participants under 18 years of age who underwent NM scanning were identified using the Health and Welfare Data Science Center (HWDC) dataset, which was extracted from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Both the exposed cohort and unexposed subjects were followed up with until the presence of any malignancy arose, including malignant brain, lymphoid and hematopoietic tumors and benign brain or other central nervous tumors.

A novel squaramide compound alleviates cognitive deficits through activation of Akt and Erk1/2 in a rat model of vascular dementia.

Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia, yet no effective treatment for it exists. Akt and Erk1/2 signaling pathways are involved in neuronal survival. It has been reported that bisperoxovanadium (pyridin-2-squaramide), a novel squaramide compound, protects against cerebral ischemia injury via activation of Akt and Erk1/2.

Enhanced human enterovirus 71 infection by endocytosis inhibitors reveals multiple entry pathways by enterovirus causing hand-foot-and-mouth diseases.

Background: Human enterovirus 71 (EV71) was previously known to enter cells through clathrin or caveolar mediated endocytic pathways. However, we observed chlorpromazine (CPZ) or dynasore (DNS), which inhibit clathrin and dynamin mediated endocytosis, did not suppress EV71 cell entry in particular cell types. So the current knowledge of entry mechanisms by EV71 is not complete.

Common genetic heterogeneity of human interleukin-37 leads to functional variance.

Interleukin-37 (IL-37) is an inhibitory member of the IL-1 family of cytokines. We previously found that balanced selection maintains common variations of the human IL37 gene. However, the functional consequences of this selection have yet to be validated.

The risk of cataract associated with repeated head and neck CT studies: a nationwide population-based study.

Objective: Medical radiation-induced cataracts, especially those resulting from head and neck CT studies, are an issue of concern. The current study aimed to determine the risk of cataract associated with repeated radiation exposure from head and neck CT.

Materials And Methods: This study used information from a random sample of 2 million persons enrolled in the nationally representative Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database.

Polydatin (PD) inhibits IgE-mediated passive cutaneous anaphylaxis in mice by stabilizing mast cells through modulating Ca²⁺ mobilization.

Mast cells play a key role in the pathogenesis of asthma and are a promising target for therapeutic intervention in asthma. This study investigated the effects of polydatin (PD), a resveratrol glucoside, on mast cell degranulation upon cross-linking of the high-affinity IgE receptors (FcεRI), as well as the anti-allergic activity of PD in vivo. Herein, we demonstrated that PD treatment for 30 min suppressed FcεRI-mediated mast cell degranulation in a dose-dependent manner.

Lipopolysaccharide enhances FcεRI-mediated mast cell degranulation by increasing Ca2+ entry through store-operated Ca2+ channels: implications for lipopolysaccharide exacerbating allergic asthma.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can exacerbate asthma; however, the mechanisms are not fully understood. This study investigated the effect of LPS on antigen-stimulated mast cell degranulation and the underlying mechanisms. We found that LPS enhanced degranulation in RBL-2H3 cells and mouse peritoneal mast cells upon FcεRI activation, in a dose- and time-dependent manner.

High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) downregulates cardiac transient outward potassium current (Ito) through downregulation of Kv4.2 and Kv4.3 channel transcripts and proteins.

Transient outward potassium currents (I(to)) are major early repolarization currents in shaping cardiac action potential (AP). Downregulation of I(to) contributes to AP configuration alteration in myocardial infarction (MI) and numerous other heart diseases. High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), a proinflammatory cytokine, has been reported to increase dramatically in the serum of patients with MI, participating in ischemia-reperfusion injury and recovery of post-infarction failing heart.