Pemetrexed plus Platinum as the First-Line Treatment Option for Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

To compare the efficacy and toxicities of pemetrexed plus platinum with other platinum regimens in patients with previously untreated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A meta-analysis was performed using trials identified through PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases. Two investigators independently assessed the quality of the trials and extracted data. The outcomes included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), response rate (RR), and different types of toxicity. Hazard ratios (HRs), odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled using RevMan software. Results: Four trials involving 2,518 patients with previously untreated advanced NSCLC met the inclusion criteria. Pemetrexed plus platinum chemotherapy (PPC) improved survival compared with other platinum-based regimens (PBR) in patients with advanced NSCLC (HR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.83–1.00, p = 0.04), especially in those with non-squamous histology (HR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.77–0.98, p = 0.02). No statistically significant improvement in either PFS or RR was found in PPC group as compared with PBR group (HR = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.94–1.13, p = 0.57; OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 0.95–1.39, p = 0.15, respectively). Compared with PBR, PPC led to less grade 3–4 neutropenia and leukopenia but more grade 3–4 nausea. However, hematological toxicity analysis revealed significant heterogeneities. Conclusion: Our results suggest that PPC in the first-line setting leads to a significant survival advantage with acceptable toxicities for advanced NSCLC patients, especially those with non-squamous histology, as compared with other PRB. PPC could be considered as the first-line treatment option for advanced NSCLC patients, especially those with non-squamous histology

Enhanced Gas Sensing Performance of Electrospun Pt-Functionalized NiO Nanotubes with Chemical and Electronic Sensitization

Pt-functionalized NiO composite nanotubes were synthesized by a simple electrospinning method, and their morphology, chemistry, and crystal structure have been characterized at the nanoscale. It was found that the Pt nanoparticles were dispersed uniformly in the NiO nanotubes, and the Pt-functionalized NiO composite nanotubes showed some dendritic structure in the body of nanotubes just like thorns growing in the nanotubes. Compared with the pristine NiO nanotube based gas sensor and other NiO-based gas sensors reported previously, the Pt-functionalized NiO composite nanotube based gas sensor showed substantially enhanced electrical responses to target gas (methane, hydrogen, acetone, and ethanol), especially ethanol. The NiO–Pt 0.7% composite nanotube based gas sensor displayed a response value of 20.85 at 100 ppm at ethanol and 200 °C, whereas the pristine NiO nanotube based gas sensor only showed a response of 2.06 under the same conditions. Moreover, the Pt-functionalized NiO composite nanotube based gas sensor demonstrated outstanding gas selectivity for ethanol against methane, hydrogen, and acetone. The reason for which the Pt-functionalized NiO composite nanotube based gas sensor obviously enhanced the gas sensing performance is attributed to the role of Pt on the chemical sensitization (catalytic oxidation) of target gases and the electronic sensitization (Fermi-level shifting) of NiO

Unraveling the Role of RNase L Knockout in Alleviating Immune Response Activation in Mice Bone Marrow after Irradiation

Ionizing radiation (IR) induces severe hematopoietic injury by causing DNA and RNA damage as well as activating the immune responses, necessitating the development of effective therapeutic strategies. Ribonuclease L (RNase L) as an innate immune response pathway is triggered by exogenous and endogenous abnormal dsRNA under viral infection and dyshomeostasis, thereby activating the immune responses. Thus, we investigated the effect of RNase L on irradiation-induced bone marrow damage using RNase L knockout (RNase L−/−) mice. Phenotypic analysis revealed that RNase L knockout mitigates irradiation-induced injury in the bone marrow. Further investigation into the mechanism of RNase L by RNA-seq, qRT-PCR, and CBA analysis demonstrated that RNase L deficiency counteracts the upregulation of genes related to immune responses induced by irradiation, including cytokines and interferon-stimulated genes. Moreover, RNase L deficiency inhibits the increased levels of immunoglobulins in serum induced by irradiation. These findings indicate that RNase L plays a role in the immune response induced by irradiation in the bone marrow. This study further enhances our understanding of the biological functions of RNase L in the immune response induced by irradiation and offers a novel approach for managing irradiation-induced bone marrow injury through the regulation of RNase L activation

Marine Bromophenol Bis (2,3-Dibromo-4,5-dihydroxy-phenyl)-methane Inhibits the Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells via Modulating β1-Integrin/FAK Signaling

Bis (2,3-dibromo-4,5-dihydroxy-phenyl)-methane (BDDPM) is a natural bromophenol compound derived from marine algae. Previous reports have shown that BDDPM possesses antimicrobial activity. In the present study, we found that BDDPM has cytotoxic activity on a wide range of tumor cells, including BEL-7402 cells (IC50 = 8.7 μg/mL). Further studies have shown that prior to the onset of apoptosis, the BDDPM induces BEL-7402 cell detachment by decreasing the adherence of cells to the extracellular matrix (ECM). Detachment experiments have shown that the treatment of BEL-7402 cells with low concentrations of BDDPM (5.0 μg/mL) significantly inhibits cell adhesion to fibronectin and collagen IV as well as cell migration and invasion. High doses of BDDPM (10.0 μg/mL) completely inhibit the migration of BEL-7402 cells, and the expression level of MMPs (MMP-2 and MMP-9) is significantly decreased. Moreover, the expression of β1-integrin and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is found to be down-regulated by BDDPM. This study suggests that BDDPM has a potential to be developed as a novel anticancer therapeutic agent due to its anti-metastatic activity and also indicates that BDDPM, which has a unique chemical structure, could serve as a lead compound for rational drug design and for future development of anticancer agents

Free-walking: Pedestrian inertial navigation based on dual foot-mounted IMU

The inertial navigation system (INS), which is frequently used in emergency rescue operations and other situations, has the benefits of not relying on infrastructure, high positioning frequency, and strong real-time performance. However, the intricate and unpredictable pedestrian motion patterns lead the INS localization error to significantly diverge with time. This paper aims to enhance the accuracy of zero-velocity interval (ZVI) detection and reduce the heading and altitude drift of foot-mounted INS via deep learning and equation constraint of dual feet. Aiming at the observational noise problem of low-cost inertial sensors, we utilize a denoising autoencoder to automatically eliminate the inherent noise. Aiming at the problem that inaccurate detection of the ZVI detection results in obvious displacement error, we propose a sample-level ZVI detection algorithm based on the U-Net neural network, which effectively solves the problem of mislabeling caused by sliding windows. Aiming at the problem that Zero-Velocity Update (ZUPT) cannot suppress heading and altitude error, we propose a bipedal INS method based on the equation constraint and ellipsoid constraint, which uses foot-to-foot distance as a new observation to correct heading and altitude error. We conduct extensive and well-designed experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The experimental results indicate that the position error of our proposed method did not exceed 0.83% of the total traveled distance