Targeting caspase-8: a new strategy for combating hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents the most prevalent form of primary liver cancer and has a high mortality rate. Caspase-8 plays a pivotal role in an array of cellular signaling pathways and is essential for the governance of programmed cell death mechanisms, inflammatory responses, and the dynamics of the tumor microenvironment. Dysregulation of caspase-8 is intricately linked to the complex biological underpinnings of HCC.

Decoding ferroptosis: transforming orthopedic disease management.

As a mechanism of cell death, ferroptosis has gained popularity since 2012. The process is distinguished by iron toxicity and phospholipid accumulation, in contrast to autophagy, apoptosis, and other cell death mechanisms. It is implicated in the advancement of multiple diseases across the body.

Early Versus Delayed Usage of Paxlovid in Severe Omicron-Infected Patients With Hypoxemia: A Prospective Multiple-Center Cohort Study.

Background And Aims: Early stage administration of Paxlovid has been shown to improve the prognosis of mild to moderate COVID-19 patients with high risk. However, few evidence was validated in severe COVID-19 patients with hypoxemia. It is also unclear whether delayed usage of Paxlovid affected prognosis in COVID-19 patients or not.

Chromosomal aberrations and prognostic analysis of secondary acute myeloid leukemia-a retrospective study.

Background: Secondary acute myeloid leukemia (S-AML) patients generally have a poor prognosis, but the chromosomal aberrations of S-AML have been rarely reported. We aimed to explore the chromosomal aberrations and clinical significance in patients with S-AML.

Patients And Methods: The clinical characteristics and karyotypes of 26 patients with S-AML were retrospectively analyzed.

Pregnancy-Specific Glycoprotein 9 Enhances Store-Operated Calcium Entry and Nitric Oxide Release in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells.

We explored changes in pregnancy-specific glycoprotein 9 (PSG9) levels in the serum of patients with preeclampsia and the effects and underlying mechanisms of PSG9 effects on calcium (Ca) homeostasis and nitric oxide (NO) release in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Western blotting was used to detect protein expression levels, and an NO fluorescence probe was used to examine NO production. Intracellular Ca concentrations were measured using a Ca-sensitive fluorescent dye under a fluorescence microscope.

A nomogram model predicting the risk of postpartum stress urinary incontinence in primiparas: A multicenter study.

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a common gynecological urinary system disease, and globally, 200 million or more people suffer from it. However, the existing literature mostly focuses on postpartum urinary incontinence (UI) or UI in middle-aged and elderly people, with little focus on primiparas. To analyse urinary incontinence prevalence and its risk factors in primiparas and establish a nomogram prediction model, 360 parturients were recruited from three hospitals between April and September 2021.

Multi-Hit White Matter Injury-Induced Cerebral Palsy Model Established by Perinatal Lipopolysaccharide Injection.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of permanent, but not unchanging, disorders of movement and/or posture and motor function. Since the major brain injury associated with CP is white matter injury (WMI), especially, in preterm infants, we established a "multi-hit" rat model to mimic human WMI in symptomatology and at a histological level. In our WMI model, pups suffering from limb paresis, incoordination, and direction difficulties fit the performance of CP.

[Correlation between neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio combined with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and severity of coronary artery disease in patients with acute coronary syndrome].

Objective: To investigate the correlation between neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) combined with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (LDL-C/HDL-C) and severity of coronary lesions in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

Methods: Patients who were diagnosed with ACS due to chest pain and received emergency coronary angiography in the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China and the Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from January 2017 to June 2020 were enrolled in the final analysis. The data of gender, age, body mass index (BMI), past history, emergency blood routine indicators [neutrophil (NEU), lymphocyte (LYM), monocyte (MON), eosinophil (EOS), basophil (BAS), red blood cell (RBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), blood red cell distribution width (RDW), mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet volume distribution width (PDW)], blood lipid index [triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), HDL-C, LDL-C, very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C)], and coronary angiography were collected.

Pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma enrolled in the randomized KEYNOTE-181 trial in Asia.

Background: In the randomized phase III KEYNOTE-181 study, pembrolizumab prolonged overall survival (OS) compared with chemotherapy as second-line therapy in patients with advanced esophageal cancer and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) combined positive score (CPS) ≥10. We report a post hoc subgroup analysis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) enrolled in KEYNOTE-181 in Asia, including patients from the KEYNOTE-181 China extension study.

Patients And Methods: Three hundred and forty Asian patients with advanced/metastatic ESCC were enrolled in KEYNOTE-181, including the China cohort.

Nanosensing colon cancer biomarker on zeolite-modified gap-fingered dielectrodes.

Nanomaterial on the sensing area elevates the biomolecular immobilization by its right orientation with a proper alignment, and zeolite is one of the suitable materials. In this research, the zeolite nanoparticles were synthesized using rice hush ash as the basic source and the prepared zeolite by the addition of sodium silicate was utilized to attach antibody as a probe on a gap-fingered dielectrode surface to identify the colon cancer biomarker, "colon cancer-secreted protein-2" (CCSP-2). Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy and Field Emission Transmission Electron Microscopy images confirmed the size of the nanoparticle to be ∼15 nm and the occurrence of silica and alumina.

Differentially expressed serum proteins in children with or without asthma as determined using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation proteomics.

Background: Although asthma is one of the most common chronic, noncommunicable diseases worldwide, the pathogenesis of childhood asthma is not yet clear. Genetic factors and environmental factors may lead to airway immune-inflammation responses and an imbalance of airway nerve regulation. The aim of the present study was to determine which serum proteins are differentially expressed between children with or without asthma and to ascertain the potential roles that these differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) may play in the pathogenesis of childhood asthma.

Relevance Function of Linc-ROR in the Pathogenesis of Cancer.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are the key components of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) with a length of 200 nucleotides. They are transcribed from the so-called "dark matter" of the genome. Increasing evidence have shown that lncRNAs play an important role in the pathophysiology of human diseases, particularly in the development and progression of tumors.

Paraoxonase 3 is involved in the multi-drug resistance of esophageal cancer.

Background: Drug resistance prevents the effective treatment of cancers. DNA methylation has been found to participate in the development of cancer drug resistance.

Methods: We performed the wound-healing and invasion assays to test the effect of the paraoxonase gene PON3 on esophageal cancer (EC) cells.

Impact of the PDE4D gene polymorphism and additional SNP-SNP and gene-smoking interaction on ischemic stroke risk in Chinese Han population.

Aims: To investigate the association between phosphodiesterase 4D gene (PDE4D) gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and ischemic stroke (IS) risk, and impact of additional SNP- SNP and gene- smoking interaction on IS risk in Chinese population.

Methods: A total of 1228 subjects (666 males, 562 females) were selected, including 610 IS patients and 618 control subjects. Logistic regression model was used to examine the association between SNPs in PDE4D gene and IS risk.

Quantification of Intracellular Ice Formation and Recrystallization During Freeze-Thaw Cycles and Their Relationship with the Viability of Pig Iliac Endothelium Cells.

Quantitative evaluation of the inherent correlation between cell cryoinjuries and intracellular ice formation (IIF) together with recrystallization (IIR) is of primary importance for both optimization of biopreservation and cryotherapy. The objective of this study is to thoroughly explore the roles of IIF on cell viability by using pig iliac endothelium cells (PIECs) as model cells during freezing and thawing. The experimental results indicated that both the probabilities of IIF (PIF) and IIR (PIR) increased along with the increase of cooling rates (p < 0.

Comparative Study on Two Different Methods for Determination of Hydraulic Conductivity of HeLa Cells During Freezing.

Background: The measurement of hydraulic conductivity of the cell membrane is very important for optimizing the protocol of cryopreservation and cryosurgery. There are two different methods using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to measure the freezing response of cells and tissues. Devireddy et al.

Dehydroepiandrosterone plus climen supplementation shows better effects than dehydroepiandrosterone alone on infertility patients with diminished ovarian reserve of low-FSH level undergoing in-vitro fertilization cycles: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: This study aimed to assess the effect of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) plus climen (estradiol valerate and cyproterone acetate drug combination) on infertility patients with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) and to determine if the combination of DHEA plus climen is superior to DHEA alone in improving ovarian response.

Methods: A total of 124 women were randomized into the DHEA group (n = 64) and the DHEA plus climen group (n = 60) for 12 weeks before being subjected to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles. To investigate if there is a FSH-related difference on the effect of the addition of climen, the DHEA group and the DHEA plus climen group were further divided into four subgroups according to a basal FSH level cut-off of 10 mIU/ml.

Effect of iron oxide nanoparticles on the permeability properties of Sf21 cells.

It was recently reported that nanoparticles could significantly modulate the thermal properties of solutions at subzero temperatures, and as a result, nanoparticles have been widely used in both cryopreservation and cryosurgery. In cryopreservation, the water permeability coefficient of cell membrane is an essential parameter for quantitative investigation of cell dehydration and intracellular ice formation. However, few studies were focused on the effects of nanoparticles on the permeability properties of cell membrane.

Prevention of Osmotic Injury to Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells for Biopreservation: A First Step Toward Biobanking of Endothelial Cells for Vascular Tissue Engineering.

High-survival-rate cryopreservation of endothelial cells plays a critical role in vascular tissue engineering, while optimization of osmotic injuries is the first step toward successful cryopreservation. We designed a low-cost, easy-to-use, microfluidics-based microperfusion chamber to investigate the osmotic responses of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) at different temperatures, and then optimized the protocols for using cryoprotective agents (CPAs) to minimize osmotic injuries and improve processes before freezing and after thawing. The fundamental cryobiological parameters were measured using the microperfusion chamber, and then, the optimized protocols using these parameters were confirmed by survival evaluation and cell proliferation experiments.

Dehydroepiandrosterone improves follicular fluid bone morphogenetic protein-15 and accumulated embryo score of infertility patients with diminished ovarian reserve undergoing in vitro fertilization: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on infertility patients with diminished ovarian reserve undergoing in vitro fertilization.

Methods: This is a prospective study. Ninety-five patients with diminished ovarian reserve were included in this study.

Dimethyl sulfoxide damages mitochondrial integrity and membrane potential in cultured astrocytes.

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a polar organic solvent that is used to dissolve neuroprotective or neurotoxic agents in neuroscience research. However, DMSO itself also has pharmacological and pathological effects on the nervous system. Astrocytes play a central role in maintaining brain homeostasis, but the effect and mechanism of DMSO on astrocytes has not been studied.

Metabolic Dysfunction of Astrocyte: An Initiating Factor in Beta-amyloid Pathology?

Astrocytes, the most important energy regulator in the brain, support brain energy needs. In the meantime, numerous studies have demonstrated that impaired brain glucose metabolism is closely linked to abnormal astrocytic metabolism in AD. Indeed, the interaction between amyloid plaques and perturbed astrocytic homeostasis contributes to AD pathogenesis and astrocytic metabolic dysfunction is thought to be a trigger for A pathology through oxidative stress and neuroinflammation Moreover, astrocytic metabolic dysfunction may regulate A generation via modulating proteolytic processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) by -secretase, -secretase, and -secretase, and may also modulate APP post-translational modifications such as glycosylation, phosphorylation, and tyrosine sulfation.

A clinical study of cytokine-induced killer cells for the treatment of refractory lymphoma.

Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell therapy, an adoptive T-cell immunotherapy, has been reported to be a safe and effective mode of treatment for patients with metastatic diseases, lymphoma and acute leukaemia. To investigate the clinical efficacy of cytokine-induced killer cells for the treatment of refractory lymphoma, the present clinical study was conducted. A total of 8 male patients with a mean age of 41 years (range 22-65) who were pathologically diagnosed with malignant lymphoma (Hodgkin's disease, 2 and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, 6) were enrolled.