Sparganosis of a thoracic vertebra misdiagnosed as bone metastasis from lung cancer.

Sparganosis is a rare parasitic infection caused by plerocercoid tapeworm larvae. We described a case of a 27-year-old man presenting with numbness in both legs and masses in the right lung and spine, initially thought to have spinal metastasis from lung cancer. However, after pathological and parasitological examinations, the patient was found to have spinal sparganosis, likely due to a history of consuming raw frogs.

HMGB1 Inhibits HNF1A to Modulate Liver Fibrogenesis via p65/miR-146b Signaling.

High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is essential for the pathogenesis of liver injury and liver fibrosis. We previously revealed that miR-146b promotes hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) activation and proliferation. Nevertheless, the potential mechanisms are still unknown.

Strong Electrochemiluminescence from MOF Accelerator Enriched Quantum Dots for Enhanced Sensing of Trace cTnI.

The development of a sensitive and practical electrochemiluminescence (ECL) bioassay relies on the use of ECL signal tags whose signal intensity is high and stable. In this work, strong ECL emission was achieved from metal organic framework (MOF) accelerator enriched quantum dots (CdTe), which were applied as an efficient ECL signal tag for trace biomarker detection. It is particularly noteworthy that a novel mechanism to drastically enhance the ECL intensity of CdTe is established because isoreticular metal organic framework-3 (IRMOF-3) with 2-amino terephthalic acid (2-NH-BDC) as the organic ligand not only allows for loading a large amount of CdTe via the encapsulating effect and internal/external decoration but also functions as a novel coreactant accelerator for promoting the conversion of coreactant SO into the sulfate radical anion (SO), further boosting the ECL emission of CdTe.

A sensitive electrochemiluminescent aptasensor based on perylene derivatives as a novel co-reaction accelerator for signal amplification.

Herein, a novel signal amplification strategy was designed using the perylene derivative as the co-reaction accelerator toward graphene-CdTe quantum dots (G-CdTe)/S2O8(2-) system to construct a highly sensitive electrochemiluminescent (ECL) aptasensor for thrombin (TB) detection. Firstly, the G-CdTe nanocomposites were prepared by one-step method of in situ generating CdTe quantum dots onto the surface of the graphene oxide by using 3-mercaptopropionic acid as the CdTe QDs stabilizer. Then, a kind of perylene derivative (PTC-Lys), was synthesized by covalently binding L-lysine to 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic acid, which was further immobilized onto the G-CdTe by the π-π* stacking and cross-linked the detection thrombin aptamer (TBA II) to obtain the TBA II/PTC-Lys/G-CdTe signal probes.

Electrochemiluminescence of Supramolecular Nanorods and Their Application in the "On-Off-On" Detection of Copper Ions.

In this work, an "on-off-on" switch system has been successfully applied through the construction of an electrochemiluminscent biosensor for copper ion (Cu(2+) ) detection based on a new electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emitter of supramolecular nanorods, which was achieved through supramolecular interactions between 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic acid (PTCA) and aniline. The initial "signal-on" state with strong and stable ECL emission was obtained by use of the supramolecular nanorods with a new signal amplification strategy involving a co-reaction accelerator. In addition, ECL quencher probes (Fc-NH2 /Cu-Sub/nano-Au) were fabricated by immobilizing aminoferrocene (Fc-NH2 ) on Cu-substrate strand modified Au nanoparticles.

Target-catalyzed hairpin assembly and intramolecular/intermolecular co-reaction for signal amplified electrochemiluminescent detection of microRNA.

Herein, a new electrochemiluminescence (ECL) strategy for enzyme-free microRNA-21 (miR-21) amplified detection was designed based on target-catalyzed hairpin assembly by combining the signal-amplification capability of both intramolecular and intermolecular ECL co-reaction. In this strategy, two hairpin DNA probes of H1 and H2 were designed as capture probes and detection probes, respectively. To be specific, the capture probes of H1 were immobilized on the multilayer interface of AuNPs and thiosemicarbazide (TSC) assembly on the single-walled carbon nanohorns decorated electrode, while the detection probes of H2 was anchored on the nanocarriers of gold nanoparticals functionalized reduced graphene oxide (Au-rGO) which were tagged with the self-enhanced ruthenium complex (PEI-Ru(ΙΙ)) in advance.

Hybrid Decompression Technique Versus Anterior Cervical Corpectomy and Fusion for Treating Multilevel Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy: Which One Is Better?

Background: The hybrid decompression technique (corpectomy combined with discectomy) and anterior cervical corpectomy with fusion (ACCF) both provide good neurological recovery and disease stabilization for the treatment of multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). However, no single study has been large enough to determine definitively which one is superior for this condition.

Objective: A meta-analysis was conducted to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of the hybrid decompression technique versus ACCF for the treatment of multilevel CSM.

[Diagnostic implications of atypical squamous cells of unknown significance with abnormal DNA ploidy for early cervical lesions].

Objective: To investigate the clinical significance of atypical squamous cells of unknown significance (ASCUS) with abnormal DNA ploidy in the early diagnosis of cervical lesions.

Methods: Eight thousand four hundred and forty-eight patients were included in this study and all had DNA quantitative analysis and cervical liquid-based cytology. Among 1041 cases with DNA aneuploidy and/or abnormal cervical liquid-based cytology and additional cervical biopsy, histological review was performed in 247 ASCUS cases with abnormal DNA ploidy.

Free-radical-promoted conversion of graphite oxide into chemically modified graphene.

The preparation of chemically modified graphene (CMG) generally involves the reduction of graphite oxide (GO) by using various reducing reagents. Herein, we report a free-radical-promoted synthesis of CMG, which does not require any conventional reductant. We demonstrated that the phenyl free radical can efficiently promote the conversion of GO into CMG under mild conditions and produces phenyl-functionalized CMG.

One-pot formation of SnO2 hollow nanospheres and alpha-Fe2O3@SnO2 nanorattles with large void space and their lithium storage properties.

In this work, uniform SnO(2) hollow nanospheres with large void space have been synthesized by a modified facile method. The void space can be easily controlled by varying the reaction time. The formation of interior void space is based on an inside-out Ostwald ripening mechanism.

Preparation, characterization and photocatalytic properties of ZnTiO3 powders.

A novel photocatalyst ZnTiO(3) powder was prepared by a modified alcoholysis method, using ethylene glycol as reagent/solvent and acetylacetone as stabilizer. A series of analytical techniques were used to characterize the crystallinity, composition, bandgap, morphology, specific surface area and grain size of ZnTiO(3) powders. The relationship between the physicochemical property and the photocatalytic activity was deeply investigated, too.