Publications by authors named "Xinri Zhang"

Objectives: To investigate the mediating role of the activation degree of arginine-proline metabolism in the association of coal dust and decreased lung function.

Methods: Cumulative dust exposure (CDE) represented coal dust exposure, whereas the hydroxyproline-to-arginine concentration ratio (Hyp/Arg) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid gauged arginine-proline metabolism activation. Pulmonary function indicators, including predicted value of forced vital capacity (FVC%pred), forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC%), and the ratio of actual to predicted value of FEV1 (FEV1%pred), diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLCO%pred), difference value between alveolar air and arterial partial oxygen pressure (P (A-a) O 2 ), and 6-minute walking distance test (6MWT), were assessed.

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The human microbiome plays a crucial role in maintaining health, with advances in high-throughput sequencing technology and reduced sequencing costs triggering a surge in microbiome research. Microbiome studies generally incorporate five key phases: design, sampling, sequencing, analysis, and reporting, with sequencing strategy being a crucial step offering numerous options. Present mainstream sequencing strategies include Amplicon sequencing, Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing (mNGS), and Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing (tNGS).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study compares the effectiveness of two inhalation devices for delivering beclomethasone dipropionate plus formoterol fumarate (BDP/FF) in Chinese adults with asthma: a pressurized metered-dose inhaler (pMDI) and a breath-activated dry powder inhaler (DPI) called NEXThaler.
  • After a four-week period where all patients initially used the pMDI, they were randomly assigned to use either the pMDI or DPI for an additional 12 weeks, measuring their pre-dose morning peak expiratory flow (PEF) as the primary outcome.
  • Results showed that both devices delivered similar PEF outcomes, with around 88% of patients completing the
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Purpose: Pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) is a common complication of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome worldwide. Pulmonary vascular alterations associated with PAH have multifactorial causes, in which endothelial cells play an important role. Autophagy is closely related to endothelial cell injury and the development of PAH.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aims to create an effective clinical prediction system for coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) to improve diagnosis in patients exposed to coal dust.
  • Researchers enrolled patients from August to December 2021 and used machine learning algorithms combined with feature selection methods to find the best predictive model for CWP.
  • The support vector machine (SVM) algorithm emerged as the most effective model, achieving high accuracy in predicting early-stage CWP with AUC values of 97.78%, 93.7%, and 95.56% across different feature selection methods.
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Palbociclib is the first CDK4/6 inhibitor approved by FDA and has been studied in many types of cancer. However, some studies showed that it could induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of cancer cells. To test the effect of palbociclib on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, we treated NSCLC cells with different concentrations of palbociclib and detected its effects via MTT, migration and invasion assays, and apoptosis test.

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Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors, and its death rate is much higher than that of colon, kidney, breast, and prostate cancers, and its 5-year survival rate is only 18%. Lung cancer has no specific clinical symptoms in its early stages and lacks effective detection, making early detection difficult. The survival rate for advanced lung cancer is meager, with a median survival of only 12 months for stage IIIB/IV non-small cell lung cancer treated with platinumbased chemotherapy.

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Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer‑related mortality worldwide. Non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common pathological subtype of lung cancer and is associated with low 5‑year overall survival rates. Therefore, novel and effective chemotherapeutic drugs are urgently required for improving the survival outcomes of patients with lung cancer.

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Objectives: To determine the incidence of pneumoconiosis worldwide and its influencing factors.

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Setting: Cohort studies on occupational pneumoconiosis.

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Coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) is a fatal occupational disease caused by inhalation of coal dust particles, which leads to progressive pulmonary fibrosis. Recently, as new signal carriers for intercellular communication, exosomal miRNAs have been validated in the pathogenesis of multiple diseases. However, the research on exosomal miRNAs in CWP is still in the preliminary stage.

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Background: Previous studies have revealed the relationship between cold spells and morbidity and mortality due to respiratory diseases, while the detrimental effects of cold spells on the length of hospital stay and hospitalization expenses remain largely unknown.

Methods: We collected hospitalization data for respiratory diseases in 11 cities of Shanxi, China during 2017-2019. In each case, exposure to meteorological variables and air pollution was estimated by the bilinear interpolation approach and inverse distance weighting method, respectively, and then averaged at the city level.

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What Is Already Known About This Topic?: Numerous epidemiological studies have documented the association between ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO) and mortality and morbidity of respiratory diseases, however, research on the effect of NO on the length of hospital stay (LOS) and hospitalization expenditure is limited.

What Is Added By This Report?: This study collected the respiratory hospitalization, hospital expenditure, and LOS for respiratory diseases from 2017-2019 in Shanxi, China, and comprehensively evaluated the association between ambient NO exposure and respiratory hospitalization, expenditure, and LOS.

What Are The Implications For Public Health Practice?: This study provides evidence on the association between ambient NO and respiratory burden, suggesting that continuously reducing the NO concentrations could prevent respiratory disease-associated hospital admissions and decrease the relative burden in Shanxi Province and other similar regions.

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Progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases (PF-ILDs) result in high mortality and lack effective therapies. The pathogenesis of PF-ILDs involves macrophages driving inflammation and irreversible fibrosis. Fc-γ receptors (FcγRs) regulate macrophages and inflammation, but their roles in PF-ILDs remain unclear.

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Purpose: This paper aims to develop a successful deep learning model with data augmentation technique to discover the clinical uniqueness of chest X-ray imaging features of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP).

Patients And Methods: We enrolled 149 CWP patients and 68 dust-exposure workers for a prospective cohort observational study between August 2021 and December 2021 at First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University. Two hundred seventeen chest X-ray images were collected for this study, obtaining reliable diagnostic results through the radiologists' team, and confirming clinical imaging features.

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Introduction: Limertinib (ASK120067) is a newly developed third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting both sensitizing EGFR and EGFR Thr790Met (T790M) mutations. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of limertinib in patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR T790M-mutated NSCLC.

Methods: This is a single-arm, open-label, phase 2b study conducted at 62 hospitals across the People's Republic of China.

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is an opportunistic fungus that can cause severe and potentially fatal pneumonia (PCP) in immunodeficient patients. In this study, we investigated the genetic polymorphisms of at eight different loci, including six nuclear genes (ITS, 26S rRNA, , , and β-Tub) and two mitochondrial genes (mtLSU-rRNA and ) in three PCP cases, including two patients with HIV infection and one without HIV infection in Shanxi Province, P.R.

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Silicosis is a leading cause of occupational disease-related morbidity and mortality worldwide, but the molecular basis underlying its development remains unclear. An accumulating body of evidence supports gasdermin D (GSDMD)-mediated pyroptosis as a key component in the development of various pulmonary diseases. However, there is little experimental evidence connecting silicosis and GSDMD-driven pyroptosis.

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By retrospectively analyzing the energy spectrum of squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, small cell lung cancer (SCLC), and pulmonary metastases that underwent dual-layer detector spectral computed tomography (DLCT) 3-phase scan of the chest, we explored the value of a multiparameter energy spectrum in the assessment of pathological types of lung tumors. Cases of squamous cell carcinoma ( = 20), adenocarcinoma ( = 24), SCLC ( = 26), and metastases ( = 14) were collected. Then the largest cross-sectional area (LCA) of the lesion, computed tomography (CT) values in the plain scan phase, arterial and venous phases (HU, HUa, and HUv), iodine concentration, and effective atomic number in the arterial and venous phases (ICa, ICv, Zeff[a], and Zeff[v]) were measured and compared among the nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), SCLC and metastases, and other 3 groups of SCLC, squamous cell carcinoma, and adenocarcinoma.

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Background: Ambient sulfur dioxide (SO) has been associated with morbidity and mortality of respiratory diseases, however, its effect on length of hospital stays (LOS) and cost for these diagnoses remain unclear.

Methods: We collected hospital admission information for respiratory diseases from all 11 cities in the Shanxi Province of China during 2017-2019. We assessed individual-level exposure by using an inverse distance weighting approach based on geocoded residential addresses.

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Silicosis caused by inhalation of silica particles leads to more than ten thousand new occupational exposure-related deaths yearly. Exacerbating this issue, there are currently few drugs reported to effectively treat silicosis. Tetrandrine is the only drug approved for silicosis treatment in China, and despite more than decades of use, its efficacy and mechanisms of action remain largely unknown.

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Silicosis is a global occupational disease characterized by lung dysfunction, pulmonary inflammation, and fibrosis, for which there is a lack of effective drugs. Pirfenidone has been shown to exert anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic properties in the lung. However, whether and how pirfenidone is effective against silicosis remains unknown.

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Background: Few studies have examined the effects of ambient particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm (PM) on hospital cost and length of hospital stay for respiratory diseases in China.

Methods: We estimated ambient air pollution exposure for respiratory cases through inverse distance-weighted averages of air monitoring stations based on their residential address and averaged at the city level.

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Objective: This study was designed to explore the clinical characteristics, outcomes, and related influencing factors for asymptomatic patients with positive Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) nucleic acid test.

Methods: Clinical data of 1568 patients with positive SARS-Cov-2 nucleic acid test (SNAT) were collected retrospectively. The patients were assigned to an asymptomatic group and a symptomatic group according to the existence of clinical symptoms when they got positive result in nucleic acid test, and the clinical data of the two groups were analyzed and compared.

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Ivosidenib is an isocitrate dehydrogenase mutant inhibitor that the US Food and Drug Administration recently approved for the treatment of leukemia. Studies suggested that ivosidenib may inhibit the progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the present study, we explored RNAs and their potential regulatory mechanisms by which ivosidenib treats NSCLC cells.

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Glucose-regulating protein 78 (GRP78) is a molecular chaperone in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that promotes folding and assembly of proteins, controls the quality of proteins, and regulates ER stress signaling through Ca binding to the ER. In tumors, GRP78 is often upregulated, acting as a central stress sensor that senses and adapts to changes in the tumor microenvironment, mediating ER stress of cancer cells under various stimulations of the microenvironment to trigger the folding protein response. Increasing evidence has shown that GRP78 is closely associated with the progression and poor prognosis of lung cancer, and plays an important role in the treatment of lung cancer.

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