Pemphigus Foliaceus Complicated by Kaposi Varicelliform Eruption

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Establishment of discriminative models for predicting the infiltration degree of patients with lung adenocarcinoma based on clinical laboratory indicators

Objective·To establish a multifactorial discriminative model for predicting the degree of infiltration in patients with non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma based on clinically accessible laboratory indicators, such as tumor markers, coagulation function indicators, routine blood count indicators, and biochemical indicators.Methods·A retrospective study was conducted on 202 patients with lung adenocarcinoma admitted to Shanghai Chest Hospital in 2022. Multifactorial Logistic regression analysis was applied to screen independent factors that influenced the predictive infiltration degree of lung adenocarcinoma and to establish a regression model. In addition, machine learning was used to construct a discriminative model, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the discriminative ability of the model to discriminate the degree of infiltration in lung adenocarcinoma patients.Results·A total of 202 patients with lung adenocarcinoma were included in the study, and divided into pre-invasive lesion group (n=59) and invasive lesion group (n=143). Multifactorial Logistic regression analysis revealed that urea, percentage of basophilic granulocytes, and albumin were independent factors for predicting the degree of infiltration of lung adenocarcinoma (all P<0.05). The predictive model expression was P = eX/ (1 + eX), where X = (0.534×urea) + (1.527×percentage of basophilic granulocytes) - (1.916×albumin) + 6.373. Machine learning results showed that the model performed best when urea, fibrinogen, albumin, percentage of basophilic granulocytes, prealbumin and carcino embryonic antigen (CEA) were included. After comparing the performance of 8 machine learning algorithms (based on ridge regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, neural network, random forest, k-nearest neighbors, support vector machine, decision tree, and adaptive boosting algorithms) using the DeLong test, the ridge regression algorithm with the highest AUC was selected. The AUC of the predictive model was calculated to be 0.744 (95% CI 0.656-0.832), with a sensitivity of 70.8% and a specificity of 70.2%.Conclusion·A comprehensive differentiation model constructed by urea, fibrinogen, albumin, percentage of basophilic granulocytes, prealbumin and CEA can effectively predict the infiltration degree of the enrolled lung adenocarcinoma patients, holding the potential to provide more precise guidance for the clinical grading and adjunctive treatment of lung adenocarcinoma

IL-27 alleviates the bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis by regulating the Th17 cell differentiation

BACKGROUND: Interleukin-27 (IL-27) is a multifunctional cytokine with both pro-inflammatory and immunoregulatory functions. At present, the role of IL-27 in pulmonary fibrosis remains unknown. METHODS: In this study, we observed the expression of IL-27/IL-27R in a mouse model of bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis. We verified the role of IL-27 using hematoxylin and eosin as well as Masson’s staining methods and measuring the content of hydroxyproline as well as collagen I and III. We assessed the differentiation of T lymphocytes in the spleen and measured the concentration of cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and the expression level of relevant proteins in the JAK/STAT and TGF-ß/Smad signaling pathways in lung tissue. RESULTS: Increased IL-27 expression in BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis was noted. IL-27 treatment may alleviate pulmonary fibrosis and increase the survival of mice. IL-27 inhibited the development of CD4(+) IL-17(+), CD4(+) IL-4(+) T, and CD4(+) Foxp3(+) cells and the secretion of IL-17, IL-4, IL-6, and TGF-ß. IL-27 induced the production of CD4(+) IL-10(+) and CD4(+) INF-γ(+) T cells. IL-27 decreased the levels of phosphorylated STAT1, STAT3, STAT5, Smad1, and Smad3 but increased the level of SOCS3. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that IL-27 potentially attenuates BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis by regulating Th17 differentiation and cytokine secretion

Clinicopathological risk factors for recurrence after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radical hysterectomy in cervical cancer

Background: Cervical cancer is one of the common gynecological malignancies with a high recurrence rate after surgery. This study aimed to analyze the clinicopathological risk factors for recurrence after the surgical treatment of cervical cancer and provide the basis for the prevention of recurrence and an improvement of prognosis. Methods: A total of 424 cervical cancer cases between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2011 undergoing surgical treatment were studied retrospectively, of which 23 cases had recurrences. Relevant recurrence risk factors were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses between recurrence group and non-recurrence group. Results: Using univariate analysis, tumor differentiation, clinical stage, pelvic lymph node metastasis, postoperative radiotherapy and postoperative chemotherapy were related to recurrence of cervical cancer. Multivariate COX model analysis revealed that pelvic lymph node metastasis and postoperative chemotherapy had an impact on recurrence rate. Moderately and highly differentiated tumor, advanced clinical stage, and positive pelvic lymph nodes indicated a high recurrence rate of cervical cancer. Postoperative chemotherapy and radiotherapy can effectively reduce the recurrence rate. Conclusions: In conclusion, cervical lymph node metastasis and postoperative chemotherapy are two independent factors for recurrence of cervical cancer after radical surgery

Synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of paclitaxel loaded in six-arm star-shaped poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)

BACKGROUND: Star-shaped polymers provide more terminal groups, and are promising for application in drug-delivery systems. METHODS: A new series of six-arm star-shaped poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (6-s-PLGA) was synthesized by ring-opening polymerization. The structure and properties of the 6-s-PLGA were characterized by carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography, and differential scanning calorimetry. Then, paclitaxel-loaded six-arm star-shaped poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (6-s-PLGA-PTX-NPs) were prepared under the conditions optimized by the orthogonal testing. High-performance liquid chromatography was used to analyze the nanoparticles’ encapsulation efficiency and drug-loading capacity, dynamic light scattering was used to determine their size and size distribution, and transmission electron microscopy was used to evaluate their morphology. The release performance of the 6-s-PLGA-PTX-NPs in vitro and the cytostatic effect of 6-s-PLGA-PTX-NPs were investigated in comparison with paclitaxel-loaded linear poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (L-PLGA-PTX-NPs). RESULTS: The results of carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy suggest that the polymerization was successfully initiated by inositol and confirm the structure of 6-s-PLGA. The molecular weights of a series of 6-s-PLGAs had a ratio corresponding to the molar ratio of raw materials to initiator. Differential scanning calorimetry revealed that the 6-s-PLGA had a low glass transition temperature of 40°C–50°C. The 6-s-PLGA-PTX-NPs were monodispersed with an average diameter of 240.4±6.9 nm in water, which was further confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. The encapsulation efficiency of the 6-s-PLGA-PTX-NPs was higher than that of the L-PLGA-PTX-NPs. In terms of the in vitro release of nanoparticles, paclitaxel (PTX) was released more slowly and more steadily from 6-s-PLGA than from linear poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid). In the cytostatic study, the 6-s-PLGA-PTX-NPs and L-PLGA-PTX-NPs were found to have a similar antiproliferative effect, which indicates durable efficacy due to the slower release of the PTX when loaded in 6-s-PLGA. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that 6-s-PLGA may be promising for application in PTX delivery to enhance sustained antiproliferative therapy