Effects of Excitation Angle on Air-Puff-Stimulated Surface Acoustic Wave-Based Optical Coherence Elastography (SAW-OCE)

Increased stiffness of tissues has been recognised as a diagnostic feature of pathologies. Tissue stiffness characterisation usually involves the detection of tissue response from mechanical stimulation. Air-puff optical coherence elastography (OCE) can generate impulse surface acoustic waves (SAWs) on tissue surface without contact and evaluate the mechanical properties of tissue. This study endeavours to explore the optimal excitation angle for air-puff OCE, a parameter that lacks standardisation at present, by investigating the relationship between the frequency bandwidth and peak-to-peak signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of SAWs for different excitation angles (relative to the normal surface) of air-puff on the sample, from 5° to 85°, with an interval of 5° applied on the phantom. Due to the unevenness of human hands, 20°, 45° and 70° angles were employed for human skin (10 healthy adults). The results show that a smaller excitation angle could produce higher wave frequency bandwidth; a 5° angle generated an SAW with 1747 Hz frequency bandwidth, while an 85° angle produced an SAW with 1205 Hz. Significant differences were not shown in peak-to-peak SNR comparison between 5° and 65° on the phantom, but between 65° and 85° at the excitation position, a reduction of 48.6% was observed. Furthermore, the group velocity of the SAWs was used to evaluate the bulk Young’s modulus of the human tissue. The outcomes could provide essential guidance for air-puff-based elastography studies in clinical applications and future tissue research.<br/

Hepatoma-Derived Growth Factor and DDX5 Promote Carcinogenesis and Progression of Endometrial Cancer by Activating β-Catenin

Background: Our previous work determined the correlation between high nuclear expression of hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF) and clinicopathological data of endometrial cancer (EC); however, the modulatory mechanisms and biological role of HDGF in EC have not been reported.Methods: Lentiviral particles carrying human HDGF short hairpin RNA (shHDGF-1, -2, and -3) vector and plasmids for HDGF, DDX5, and β-catenin expression were, respectively introduced into EC cells to evaluate the effects and molecular mechanisms underlying EC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and metastasis. Quantitative real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blotting were used to determine HDGF and DDX5 expression. Co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP), mass spectrometry, and an immunofluorescence co-localization study were conducted to explore the relationship between HDGF, DDX5, and β-catenin. Immunohistochemistry was used to analyze the clinical associations between HDGF and DDX5 in EC.Results: Knocking down HDGF expression significantly decreased EC cellular proliferation, migration, invasion in vitro, as well as tumorigenesis and metastasis in vivo. Conversely, HDGF overexpression reversed these effects. Stable knockdown-based HDGF suppression activated the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, along with downstream β-catenin-mediated cell cycle and epithelial-mesenchymal transition signaling. Furthermore, co-IP combined with mass spectrometry and an immunofluorescence co-localization study indicated that HDGF interacts with DDX5, whereas β-catenin was associated with DDX5 but not HDGF. Overexpression of DDX5 reversed the suppression of shHDGF. Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that high expression of DDX5 constituted an unfavorable factor with respect to the clinicopathological characteristics of EC tissues and that HDGF and DDX5 high expression (HDGF+/DDX5+) led to a worse prognosis for patients with EC (P &lt; 0.001). In addition, we found that the expression of HDGF and DDX5 was positively correlated in EC tissues (r = 0.475, P &lt; 0.001).Conclusion: Our results provide novel evidence that HDGF interacts with DDX5 and promotes the progression of EC through the induction of β-catenin

Over-expression of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4 gamma 1 correlates with tumor progression and poor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of the present study was to analyze the expression of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4 gamma 1 (<it>EIF4G1</it>) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its correlation with clinicopathologic features, including patients' survival time.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using real-time PCR, we detected the expression of <it>EIF4G1 </it>in normal nasopharyngeal tissues, immortalized nasopharyngeal epithelial cell lines NP69, NPC tissues and cell lines. <it>EIF4G1 </it>protein expression in NPC tissues was examined using immunohistochemistry. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier method. The effect of <it>EIF4G1 </it>on cell invasion and tumorigenesis were investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The expression levels of <it>EIF4G1 </it>mRNA were significantly greater in NPC tissues and cell lines than those in the normal nasopharyngeal tissues and NP69 cells (<it>P </it>< 0.001). Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the expression of <it>EIF4G1 </it>protein was higher in NPC tissues than that in the nasopharyngeal tissues (<it>P </it>< 0.001). In addition, the levels of <it>EIF4G1 </it>protein in tumors were positively correlated with tumor T classification (<it>P </it>= 0.039), lymph node involvement (N classification, <it>P </it>= 0.008), and the clinical stages (<it>P </it>= 0.003) of NPC patients. Patients with higher <it>EIF4G</it>1 expression had shorter overall survival time (<it>P </it>= 0.019). Multivariate analysis showed that <it>EIF4G1 </it>expression was an independent prognostic indicator for the overall survival of NPC patients. Using shRNA to knock down the expression of <it>EIF4G1 </it>not only markedly inhibited cell cycle progression, proliferation, migration, invasion, and colony formation, but also dramatically suppressed <it>in vivo </it>xenograft tumor growth.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data suggest that <it>EIF4G1 </it>can serve as a biomarker for the prognosis of NPC patients.</p

Rule-based deduplication of article records from bibliographic databases

We recently designed and deployed a metasearch engine, Metta, that sends queries and retrieves search results from five leading biomedical databases: PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Because many articles are indexed in more than one of these databases, it is desirable to deduplicate the retrieved article records. This is not a trivial problem because data fields contain a lot of missing and erroneous entries, and because certain types of information are recorded differently (and inconsistently) in the different databases. The present report describes our rule-based method for deduplicating article records across databases and includes an open-source script module that can be deployed freely. Metta was designed to satisfy the particular needs of people who are writing systematic reviews in evidence-based medicine. These users want the highest possible recall in retrieval, so it is important to err on the side of not deduplicating any records that refer to distinct articles, and it is important to perform deduplication online in real time. Our deduplication module is designed with these constraints in mind. Articles that share the same publication year are compared sequentially on parameters including PubMed ID number, digital object identifier, journal name, article title and author list, using text approximation techniques. In a review of Metta searches carried out by public users, we found that the deduplication module was more effective at identifying duplicates than EndNote without making any erroneous assignments

Remodeling the Epigenetic Landscape of Cancer—Application Potential of Flavonoids in the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer

Epigenetics, including DNA methylation, histone modification, and noncoding RNA regulation, are physiological regulatory changes that affect gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence. Although epigenetic disorders are considered a sign of cell carcinogenesis and malignant events that affect tumor progression and drug resistance, in view of the reversible nature of epigenetic modifications, clinicians believe that associated mechanisms can be a key target for cancer prevention and treatment. In contrast, epidemiological and preclinical studies indicated that the epigenome is constantly reprogrammed by intake of natural organic compounds and the environment, suggesting the possibility of utilizing natural compounds to influence epigenetics in cancer therapy. Flavonoids, although not synthesized in the human body, can be consumed daily and are common in medicinal plants, vegetables, fruits, and tea. Recently, numerous reports provided evidence for the regulation of cancer epigenetics by flavonoids. Considering their origin in natural and food sources, few side effects, and remarkable biological activity, the epigenetic antitumor effects of flavonoids warrant further investigation. In this article, we summarized and analyzed the multi-dimensional epigenetic effects of all 6 subtypes of flavonoids (including flavonols, flavones, isoflavones, flavanones, flavanols, and anthocyanidin) in different cancer types. Additionally, our report also provides new insights and a promising direction for future research and development of flavonoids in tumor prevention and treatment via epigenetic modification, in order to realize their potential as cancer therapeutic agents

Secondary metabolites from the deep-sea derived fungus Aspergillus terreus MCCC M28183

Aspergillus fungi are renowned for producing a diverse range of natural products with promising biological activities. These include lovastatin, itaconic acid, terrin, and geodin, known for their cholesterol-regulating, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and antibiotic properties. In our current study, we isolated three dimeric nitrophenyl trans-epoxyamides (1–3), along with fifteen known compounds (4–18), from the culture of Aspergillus terreus MCCC M28183, a deep-sea-derived fungus. The structures of compounds 1–3 were elucidated using a combination of NMR, MS, NMR calculation, and ECD calculation. Compound 1 exhibited moderate inhibitory activity against human gastric cancer cells MKN28, while compound 7 showed similar activity against MGC803 cells, with both showing IC50 values below 10 μM. Furthermore, compound 16 exhibited moderate potency against Vibrio parahaemolyticus ATCC 17802, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 7.8 μg/mL. This promising research suggests potential avenues for developing new pharmaceuticals, particularly in targeting specific cancer cell lines and combating bacterial infections, leveraging the unique properties of these Aspergillus-derived compounds

Action Real-Time Strategy Gaming Experience Related to Increased Attentional Resources: An Attentional Blink Study

Action real-time strategy gaming (ARSG) is a cognitively demanding task which requires attention, sensorimotor skills, team cooperation, and strategy-making abilities. A recent study found that ARSG experts had superior visual selective attention (VSA) for detecting the location of a moving object that could appear in one of 24 different peripheral locations (Qiu et al., 2018), suggesting that ARSG experience is related to improvements in the spatial component of VSA. However, the influence of ARSG experience on the temporal component of VSA—the detection of an item among a sequence of items presented consecutively and quickly at a single location—still remains understudied. Using behavioral and electrophysiological measures, this study examined whether ARSG experts had superior temporal VSA performance compared to non-experts in an attentional blink (AB) task, which is typically used to examine temporal VSA. The results showed that the experts outperformed the non-experts in their detection rates of targets. Furthermore, compared to the non-experts, the experts had faster information processing as indicated by earlier P3 peak latencies in an AB period, more attentional resources distributed to targets as indicated by stronger P3 amplitudes, and a more flexible deployment of attentional resources. These findings suggest that experts were less prone to the AB effect. Thus, long-term ARSG experience is related to improvements in temporal VSA. The current findings support the benefit of video gaming experience on the development of VSA

Multimorbidity status and risk factors among adults aged 45-64 years in 15 provinces of China in 2018: Based on association rule analysis

BackgroundMultimorbidity imposes a heavy burden on individuals, families, and society. There are relatively few studies exploring patterns of multimorbidity among middle-aged adults in China. ObjectiveTo explore the current status of multimorbidity, associated risk factors, and multimorbidity patterns among adults aged 45-64 years in China, so as to provide a scientific basis to prevent and control multimorbidity in China. MethodsA total of 5494 adults aged 45-64 years from the Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) in 2018 were selected. Of these, 2494 (45.39%) were men and 3000 (54.61%) were women. The nine diseases included were hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, obesity, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), myocardial infarction, stroke, asthma, and tumor. The prevalence of each disease or multimorbidity was expressed as N (%). Comparisons of multimorbidity prevalence between different groups were performed using the χ2 test or Cochran-Armitage trend test. Association rule with the Apriori algorithm was used to explore the pattern of multimorbidity, with parameters set at a minimum conditional support of 3.00%, a minimum rule confidence of 50.00%, and a lift of >1.20. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the associations between selected risk factors and multimorbidity. ResultsIn 2018, 37.44% of participants reported multimorbidity in 15 provinces of China. The prevalence of diseases in descending order was dyslipidaemia (39.99%), hypertension (39.48%), obesity (16.42%), MCI (14.47%), diabetes (14.16%), tumor (1.09%), stroke (1.04%), myocardial infarction (0.71%), and asthma (0.64%). A total of seven multimorbidity patterns were identified in this group. Obesity paired with hypertension, and diabetes paired with dyslipidemia were the two major patterns of multimorbidity in the general population and age or sex subgroups. The multimorbidity patterns of different populations were concentrated in the combination of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. The risk of multimorbidity was lower in females than in males (OR=0.85, 95%CI: 0.75, 0.97). The multimorbidity risk was 1.56 times higher in the 55-64 years group than in the 45-54 years group (OR=1.56, 95%CI: 1.40, 1.75). Drinking in the past year increased the risk of multimorbidity by 25% (OR=1.25, 95%CI: 1.08, 1.45) compared to no alcohol comsumption in the past year. High and medium levels of physical activity were associated with a decreased OR (high: OR=0.74, 95%CI: 0.65, 0.85; medium: OR=0.81, 95%CI: 0.70, 0.93) with low level of physical activity as reference. ConclusionIn 2018, there was a high prevalence rate of multimorbidity among middle-aged adults in China. The main multimorbidity patterns were obesity-hypertension and diabetes-dyslipidemia. Surveillance and interventions should be strengthened particularly for men, individuals with alcohol consumption or insufficient physical activity, and those with major multimorbidity patterns