Diagnostic and prognostic role of circRNAs in pancreatic cancer: a meta-analysis

BackgroundCircular RNAs (circRNAs) are types of endogenous noncoding RNAs produced by selective splicing that are expressed highly specifically in various organisms and tissues and have numerous clinical implications in the regulation of cancer development and progression. Since circRNA is resistant to digestion by ribonucleases and has a long half-life, there is increasing evidence that circRNA can be used as an ideal candidate biomarker for the early diagnosis and prognosis of tumors. In this study, we aimed to reveal the diagnostic and prognostic value of circRNA in human pancreatic cancer (PC).MethodsA systematic search for publications from inception to 22 July 2022 was conducted on Embase, PubMed, Web of Science (WOS), and the Cochrane Library databases. Available studies that correlated circRNA expression in tissue or serum with the clinicopathological, diagnostic, and prognostic values of PC patients were enrolled. Odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate clinical pathological characteristics. Area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity were adopted to assess diagnostic value. Hazard ratios (HRs) were utilized to assess disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS).ResultsThis meta-analysis enrolled 32 eligible studies, including six on diagnosis and 21 on prognosis, which accounted for 2,396 cases from 245 references. For clinical parameters, high expression of carcinogenic circRNA was significantly associated with degree of differentiation (OR = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.47–2.34), TNM stage (OR = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.35–0.62), lymph node metastasis (OR = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.32–0.48), and distant metastasis (OR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.13–0.51). As for clinical diagnostic utility, circRNA could discriminate patients with pancreatic cancer from controls, with an AUC of 0.86 (95% CI: 0.82–0.88), a relatively high sensitivity of 84%, and a specificity of 80% in tissue. In terms of prognostic significance, carcinogenic circRNA was correlated with poor OS (HR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.76–2.26) and DFS (HR = 1.96, 95% CI: 1.47–2.62).ConclusionIn summary, this study demonstrated that circRNA may act as a significant diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for pancreatic cancer

Mulberry biomass-derived nanomedicines mitigate colitis through improved inflamed mucosa accumulation and intestinal microenvironment modulation

The therapeutic outcomes of conventional oral medications against ulcerative colitis (UC) are restricted by inefficient drug delivery to the colitis mucosa and weak capacity to modulate the inflammatory microenvironment. Herein, a fluorinated pluronic (FP127) was synthesized and employed to functionalize the surface of mulberry leaf-derived nanoparticles (MLNs) loading with resveratrol nanocrystals (RNs). The obtained FP127@RN-MLNs possessed exosome-like morphologies, desirable particle sizes (around 171.4 nm), and negatively charged surfaces (â 14.8 mV). The introduction of FP127 to RN-MLNs greatly improved their stability in the colon and promoted their mucus infiltration and mucosal penetration capacities due to the unique fluorine effect. These MLNs could efficiently be internalized by colon epithelial cells and macrophages, reconstruct disrupted epithelial barriers, alleviate oxidative stress, provoke macrophage polarization to M2 phenotype, and down-regulate inflammatory responses. Importantly, in vivo studies based on chronic and acute UC mouse models demonstrated that oral administration of chitosan/alginate hydrogel-embedding FP127@RN-MLNs achieved substantially improved therapeutic efficacies compared with nonfluorinated MLNs and a first-line UC drug (dexamethasone), as evidenced by decreased colonic and systemic inflammation, integrated colonic tight junctions, and intestinal microbiota balance. This study brings new insights into the facile construction of a natural, versatile nanoplatform for oral treatment of UC without adverse effects.We are grateful to Dr. J. Sun from University of Oxford for his corrections and improvement of this manuscript. Funding: This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82072060 and 22008201), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWU-XDPY22006), the Venture & Innovation Support Program for Chongqing Overseas Returnees (2205012980212766), the Natural Science Foundation Project of Chongqing (cstc2020jcyj-msxmX0292), and the Natural Science Foundation Project of Chongqing for Distinguished Young Scholar. Author contributions: W.Y., M.W., X.S., and B.X. designed experiments, supervised the project, and wrote the manuscript draft. W.Y., Y.M., H.X., Z.Z., J.W., C.X., W.S., and E.Z. performed the experiments. R.L.R., S.C.K., M.W., X.S., and B.X. edited and revised the manuscript. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare that there is no con flict of interest regarding the publication of this article

Structural and functional changes of the cerebellum in temporal lobe epilepsy

AimsThis study aimed to comprehensively explore the cerebellar structural and functional changes in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and its association with clinical information.MethodsThe SUIT toolbox was utilized to perform cerebellar volume and diffusion analysis. In addition, we extracted the average diffusion values of cerebellar peduncle tracts to investigate microstructure alterations. Seed-based whole-brain analysis was used to investigate cerebellar–cerebral functional connectivity (FC). Subgroup analyses were performed to identify the cerebellar participation in TLE with/without hippocampal sclerosis (HS)/focal-to-bilateral tonic–clonic seizure (FBTCS) and TLE with different lateralization.ResultsTLE showed widespread gray matter atrophy in bilateral crusII, VIIb, VIIIb, left crusI, and left VIIIa. Both voxel and tract analysis observed diffusion abnormalities in cerebellar afferent peduncles. Reduced FC between the right crus II and the left parahippocampal cortex was found in TLE. Additionally, TLE showed increased FCs between left lobules VI–VIII and cortical nodes of the dorsal attention and visual networks. Across all patients, decreased FC was associated with poorer cognitive function, while increased FCs appeared to reflect compensatory effects. The cerebellar structural changes were mainly observed in HS and FBTCS subgroups and were regardless of seizure lateralization, while cerebellar–cerebral FC alterations were similar in all subgroups.ConclusionTLE exhibited microstructural changes in the cerebellum, mainly related to HS and FBTCS. In addition, altered cerebellar–cerebral functional connectivity is associated with common cognitive alterations in TLE

Synthesis and White-Light Emission of ZnO/HfO2: Eu Nanocables

ZnO/HfO2:Eu nanocables were prepared by radio frequency sputtering with electrospun ZnO nanofibers as cores. The well-crystallized ZnO/HfO2:Eu nanocables showed a uniform intact core–shell structure, which consisted of a hexagonal ZnO core and a monoclinic HfO2 shell. The photoluminescence properties of the samples were characterized. A white-light band emission consisted of blue, green, and red emissions was observed in the nanocables. The blue and green emissions can be attributed to the zinc vacancy and oxygen vacancy defects in ZnO/HfO2:Eu nanocables, and the yellow–red emissions are derived from the inner 4f-shell transitions of corresponding Eu3+ ions in HfO2:Eu shells. Enhanced white-light emission was observed in the nanocables. The enhancement of the emission is ascribed to the structural changes after coaxial synthesis

Web Crippling Capacity of Cold-Formed Stainless Steel SHS and RHS

This paper investigates the ultimate capacities of domestic cold-formed stainless steel square and rectangular hollow sections (SHS and RHS) undergoing web crippling. The finite element (FE) software Abaqus was employed during the investigation. It verifies the validity of FE models against experimental results available in the literature and performs an extensive parametric study comprised of 224 FE analyses to obtain the web crippling capacities of cold-formed stainless steel SHS and RHS, considering various materials, cross-sectional dimensions, bearing lengths and loading conditions in the parametric study. Based on the obtained FE results, the applicability of existing web crippling design provisions to domestic cold-formed stainless steel SHS and RHS is evaluated. The results indicate that the technical code of cold-formed steel structures (exposure draft) cannot be used for the studied cold-formed stainless steel SHS and RHS. On the other hand, it is shown that the American Specification SEI/ASCE 8-22 and proposed direct strength method (DSM) can lead to safe and accurate design predictions. Therefore, the SEI/ASCE 8-22 and DSM can be used to predict the capacities of domestic cold-formed stainless steel SHS and RHS undergoing web crippling

Ultrathin Air-Stable n-Type Organic Phototransistor Array for Conformal Optoelectronics

Abstract Development of conformal n-channel organic phototransistor (OPT) array is urgent for future applications of organic complementary circuits in portable and wearable electronics and optoelectronics. In this work, the ultrathin conformal OPT array based on air-stable n-type PTCDI-C13H27 was fabricated. The OPT array shows excellent electrical and photoelectrical performance, good device uniformity, and remains stable in electron mobility by 83% after 90 days compared to the initial values. Eventhough mobility, on-state current, off-state current, and photocurrent of PTCDI-C13H27 thin film phototransistor show slight decrease with the decreased bending radius, the device still remains the stable photosensitivity as high as 104 when the device is freely adhered on the 2D surfaces and 3D hemispherical sphere, which is in a class with the highest photosensitivity for perylene diimide derivatives. These results present the promising application potential of our conformable air-stable n-type PTCDI-C13H27 OPTs as the photodetection system of curved artificial compound eyes in wearable and portable electronics and optoelectronics

Risk factors of disease flares in a Chinese lupus cohort with low-grade disease activity

Objective Recurrent disease flare is one of the key problems in lupus patients. A Chinese Flare-Prevention Lupus Initiative Cohort (FLIC) was established. Risk factors of disease flare were evaluated accordingly.Methods Patients with low-grade disease activity (the Safety of Estrogens in Lupus Erythematosus National Assessment–SLE Disease Activity Index (SELENA-SLEDAI) =≤6, daily prednisone ≤20 mg, no British Isles Lupus Assessment Group A or no more than one B organ domain score) from January 2014 to August 2020 were included in the FLIC. Disease flares were defined by the modified SELENA-­SLEDAI Flare Index. Low disease activity status (LDAS) and remission were also assessed. The cumulative flare rate was estimated by an event per 100 person-years analysis. Cox proportional hazards models were performed to identify risk factors of subsequent disease flares after adjusting clinical confounders. Survival was assessed with the Kaplan-Meier method.Results 448 eligible patients with low-grade disease activity were included in FLIC. During a mean follow-up of 30.4 months, 170 patients flared. The cumulative lupus flare rate was 22.2 events per 100 patient-years. Compared with patients without flare, those with lupus flares were taking more prednisone, had higher disease activity index and with less patients attained LDAS/remission at baseline. They also had higher rates of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) and antiribosomal P antibody. Cox regression analysis confirmed that attainment of either LDAS or remission at baseline were independent protective factors against subsequent disease flare (LDAS but not in remission: HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.38~0.88; remission: HR 0.46, 95% CI 0.30~0.69), while aPL was a risk factor of lupus flares (HR 1.95, 95% CI 1.36~2.78). Kaplan-Meier curves indicated that attaining LDAS or remission and absence of aPL at baseline had the least flare risk.Conclusions In our real-world cohort study, not attaining LDAS or remission at baseline and aPL positivity was associated with higher risk of disease flares in patients with low-grade SLE