NEK2 promotes the progression of osteoarthritis by stabilizing ATF2 through phosphorylation at Ser-112 and inhibiting autophagy.

NEK2 (NIMA-related kinase 2) has recently gained attention for its potential role in osteoarthritis (OA) chondrocytes, however, its specific involvement remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the role of NEK2 in OA progression and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Primary mouse knee chondrocytes were stimulated with IL-1β to establish an in vitro OA model, followed by the knockdown of NEK2 or ATF2.

Urinary exosomal microRNA-200 family: diagnostic biomarkers for Kawasaki disease and their link to inflammatory markers.

Objective: The microRNA-200 family plays a key role in inflammatory and vascular processes, making it a relevant target for Kawasaki disease, a vasculitis with coronary complications. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic potential of urinary exosomal microRNA-200 family members in Kawasaki disease patients.

Methods: Urine samples from 15 Kawasaki disease patients and 15 healthy controls underwent total exosome isolation and high-throughput sequencing.

A Meta-analysis of Different Acupuncture Modalities Combined With Antidepressants to Reduce Major Depressive Disorder.

Objectives: Acupuncture is an effective therapy for depression. Nevertheless, the results of clinical studies on major depressive disorder (MDD) remain controversial.

Methods: By November 2023, English-language published randomized clinical trials involving acupuncture for treating MDD were searched.

Identifying New Subtypes of Multiple System Atrophy Using Cluster Analysis.

Background: Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a disease with diverse symptoms and the commonly used classifications, MSA-P and MSA-C, do not cover all the different symptoms seen in MSA patients. Additionally, these classifications do not provide information about how the disease progresses over time or the expected outcome for patients.

Objective: To explore clinical subtypes of MSA with a natural disease course through a data-driven approach to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of MSA.

[Spermidine alleviates lipopolysaccharide-induced myocardial injury in mice by suppressing apoptosis, ROS production and ferroptosis].

Objective: To investigate the protective effect of spermidine against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced myocardial injury in mice and the underlying mechanism.

Methods: C57BL/6 mice subjected to intraperitoneal LPS injection with or without pretreatment with daily gavage of spermidine for 2 weeks were examined for myocardial pathologies using HE staining and transmission electron microscopy. In the cell experiment, cultured rat cardiomyocytes (H9c2 cells) were pretreated with 10 or 20 μmol/L spermidine before LPS exposure for 2 h, and the changes in cell viability and levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and cardiac troponin Ⅰ (cTNI) were assessed using CCK-8 kit, LDH detection kit and ELISA, respectively.

Evaluation of children's oral diagnosis and treatment using imaging examination using AI based Internet of Things.

Background: Although cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) plays an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of oral diseases, its image segmentation method needs to be further improved, and there are still objections about the clinical application effect of general anesthesia (GA) on children's dental fear (CDF).

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the application value of CBCT based on intelligent computer segmentation model in oral diagnosis and treatment of children in the context of biomedical signals, and to analyze the alleviating effect of GA on CDF.

Methods: Based on the regional level set (CV) algorithm, the local binary fitting (LBF) model was introduced to optimize it, and the tooth CBCT image segmentation model CV-LBF was established to compare the segmentation accuracy (SA), maximum symmetric surface distance (MSSD), average symmetric surface distance (ASSD), over segmentation rate (OR), and under segmentation rate (UR) between these model and other algorithms.

[Post-stroke dysphagia treated with four-step acupuncture therapy for opening orifices and benefiting throat combined with neuromuscular electrical stimulation: a randomized controlled trial].

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy on post-stroke dysphagia treated with four-step acupuncture therapy for opening orifices and benefiting throat combined with neuromuscular electrical stimulation.

Methods: Sixty patients with post-stroke dysphagia were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, with 30 cases in each group. The neuromuscular electrical stimulation was adopted in the control group.

Association of Tirofiban With Functional Outcomes After Thrombectomy in Acute Ischemic Stroke Due to Intracranial Atherosclerotic Disease.

Background And Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of IV infusion of tirofiban before endovascular thrombectomy for patients with large vessel occlusion due to intracranial atherosclerotic disease. The secondary objective was to identify potential mediators for the clinical effect of tirofiban.

Methods: Post hoc exploratory analysis of the Endovascular Treatment With versus Without Tirofiban for Patients with Large Vessel Occlusion Stroke (RESCUE BT) trial, which was a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial at 55 centers in China from October 2018 to October 2021.

Usage, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of an mHealth-based integrated modality for smoking cessation interventions in Western China.

Introduction: Many smokers have not accessed professional smoking cessation assistance due to limited smoking cessation services. We developed a novel mHealth-based integrated modality for smoking cessation (WeChat + Quitline modality, WQ modality) and applied it to a large public welfare project (China Western-QUIT Program) in western China. This study evaluated the usage, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of the WQ modality in the population of western China.

Effect of Intravenous Tirofiban vs Placebo Before Endovascular Thrombectomy on Functional Outcomes in Large Vessel Occlusion Stroke: The RESCUE BT Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Tirofiban is a highly selective nonpeptide antagonist of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor, which reversibly inhibits platelet aggregation. It remains uncertain whether intravenous tirofiban is effective to improve functional outcomes for patients with large vessel occlusion ischemic stroke undergoing endovascular thrombectomy.

Objective: To assess the efficacy and adverse events of intravenous tirofiban before endovascular thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke secondary to large vessel occlusion.

Impact of Body Temperature in Patients With Acute Basilar Artery Occlusion: Analysis of the BASILAR Database.

Background: A link between body temperature and stroke outcomes has been established but not for acute basilar artery occlusion. We aimed to determine the association between body temperature and clinical outcomes in patients with acute basilar artery occlusion and temperature management range.

Methods: We included patients from the Endovascular Treatment for Acute Basilar Artery Occlusion Study (BASILAR) database with records of both admission body temperature (ABT) and peak body temperature (PBT).

[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm of the biliary tract].

To study the clinical features, diagnosis, surgery treatment and prognosis of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm of the biliary tract (IPMN-B). The data of 16 patients with IPMN-B admitted to The First Hospital of Jilin University and Xi'an Third Hospital from January 2014 to January 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Kaplan-Meier method was used to conduct the survival analysis.

Crosstalk between the Akt/mTORC1 and NF-κB signaling pathways promotes hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension by increasing DPP4 expression in PASMCs.

Abnormal wound healing by pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) promotes vascular remodeling in hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (HPH). Increasing evidence shows that both the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) are involved in the development of HPH. In this study, we explored the crosstalk between mTORC1 and NF-κB in PASMCs cultured under hypoxic condition and in a rat model of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (HPH).

Aqueous semaphorin 3A level correlates with retinal macular oedema and ganglion cell degeneration in patients with retinal vein occlusion.

Purpose: To investigate the semophorin 3A (SEMA3A) level in aqueous humor of patients with retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and explore the correlation of SEMA3A with macular oedema and ganglion cell degeneration in RVO.

Methods: This comparative study prospectively included 41 consecutive patients (41 eyes) with RVO who had intravitreal anti-VEGF injections from March 2014 to March 2015 for cystoid macular oedema (CME) or neovascular glaucoma (NVG). The patients were divided into three groups according to the fluorescein angiograghy (FFA): central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) group (n = 15), branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) group (n = 15) and NVG group (secondary to CRVO, n = 11).

Knockdown of NLRC5 attenuates renal I/R injury in vitro through the activation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

NLRC5, as the largest member of nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat (NLR) family, was involved in various physiological processes, such as inflammation, fibrosis, innate immunity and diabetic nephropathy. However, the role of NLRC5 in acute kidney injury remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of NLRC5 in human renal proximal tubular epithelial cells (HK-2) exposed to hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R).

Neutralization effects of antibody elicited by chimeric HBV S antigen viral-like particles presenting HCV neutralization epitopes.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health problem despite effectual direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) therapy. Development of a prophylactic vaccine is essential to block spread of HCV infection. The HBV small surface antigen (HBsAg-S) can self-assemble into virus-like particles (VLPs), has higher immunogenicity and is used as a vaccine against HBV infections.

Cefminox, a Dual Agonist of Prostacyclin Receptor and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-Gamma Identified by Virtual Screening, Has Therapeutic Efficacy against Hypoxia-Induced Pulmonary Hypertension in Rats.

Prostacyclin receptor (IP) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ) are both potential targets for treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Expression of IP and PPARγ decreases in PAH, suggesting that screening of dual agonists of IP and PPARγ might be an efficient method for drug discovery. Virtual screening (VS) of potential IP-PPARγ dual-targeting agonists was performed in the ZINC database.

Preventive Antibiotics for Poststroke Infection in Patients With Acute Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Aims: To determine if preventive antibiotics is effective in poststroke infection in patients with acute stroke in comparison with no prophylaxis.

Materials And Methods: MEDLINE (1950 to January 2017), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, The Cochrane Library, Issue 1, 2017) and EMBASE (1974 to January 2017) databases were used to search for randomized controlled trials with intervening measures related to the preventive antibiotics in patients with acute stroke. Besides, the reference lists of the retrieved publications were manually searched to explore other relevant studies.

Association of increased urine brain derived neurotrophic factor with lower urinary tract symptoms in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Urinary brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), an ubiquitous neurotrophin, was found to rise in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). We hypothesized that the urinary level of BDNF could be a potential biomarker for lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in patients with BPH. Totally, 76 patients with BPH-caused LUTS and 32 male control subjects without BPH were enrolled.

Suppression of SIRT6 by miR-33a facilitates tumor growth of glioma through apoptosis and oxidative stress resistance.

microRNA-33a (miR-33a) belongs to the miR-33 family that is implicated in the progression of various types of cancers. Aberrant expression of miR-33a has been detected in several human cancers, and has been shown to regulate the migration and invasion as well as proliferation and apoptosis of tumor cells. However, the clinical significance and precise mechanisms underlying the dysfunction of miR-33a in glioma have not been well investigated in previous studies.

Association of RASgrf1 methylation with epileptic seizures.

DNA methylation, one of the mechanisms of epigenetic regulation, has been suggested to be related with epilepsy. RASgrf1 is a paternally imprinted gene and has a differentially methylated region (DMR) at the promoter that can silence gene expression. We have previously observed the down-regulation of RASgrf1 in the temporal neocortex of epilepsy patients and in the hippocampus of epileptic animals.

MTA1 promotes epithelial to mesenchymal transition and metastasis in non-small-cell lung cancer.

The present study assessed the role of metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1) in epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells using a normal lung epithelium cell line, three NSCLC cell lines, a mouse NSCLC model, and 56 clinical NSCLC samples. We observed that MTA1 overexpression decreased cellular adhesion, promoted migration and invasion, and changed cytoskeletal polarity. MTA1 knockdown had the opposite effects.