Protective effect of genistein on radiation-induced intestinal injury in tumor bearing mice

BACKGROUND: Radiation therapy is the most widely used treatment for cancer, but it causes the side effect of mucositis due to intestinal damage. We examined the protective effect of genistein in tumor-bearing mice after abdominal irradiation by evaluation of apoptosis and intestinal morphological changes. METHODS: Mouse colon cancer CT26 cells were subcutaneously injected at the flank of BALB/c mice to generate tumors. The tumor-bearing mice were treated with abdominal radiation at 5 and 10 Gy, and with genistein at 200 mg/kg body weight per day for 1 d before radiation. The changes in intestinal histology were evaluated 12 h and 3.5 d after irradiation. To assess the effect of the combination treatment on the cancer growth, the tumor volume was determined at sacrifice before tumor overgrowth occurred. RESULTS: Genistein significantly decreased the number of apoptotic nuclei compared with that in the irradiation group 12 h after 5 Gy irradiation. Evaluation of histological changes showed that genistein ameliorated intestinal morphological changes such as decreased crypt survival, villus shortening, and increased length of the basal lamina 3.5 d after 10 Gy irradiation. Moreover, the genistein-treated group exhibited more Ki-67-positive proliferating cells in the jejunum than the irradiated control group, and crypt depths were greater in the genistein-treated group than in the irradiated control group. The mean weight of the CT26 tumors was reduced in the group treated with genistein and radiation compared with the control group. CONCLUSION: Genistein had a protective effect on intestinal damage induced by irradiation and delayed tumor growth. These results suggest that genistein is a useful candidate for preventing radiotherapy-induced intestinal damage in cancer patients

EFFECT OF LOW DOSE RADIATION ON DIFFERENTIATION OF BONE MARROW CELLS INTO DENDRITIC CELLS

Low dose radiation has been shown to be beneficial to living organisms using several biological systems, including immune and hematopoietic systems. Chronic low dose radiation was shown to stimulate immune systems, resulting in controlling the proliferation of cancer cells, maintain immune balance and induce hematopoietic hormesis. Since dendritic cells are differentiated from bone marrow cells and are key players in maintaining the balance between immune activation and tolerance, it may be important to further characterize whether low dose radiation can influence the capacity of bone marrow cells to differentiate into dendritic cells. We have shown that bone marrow cells from low dose- irradiated (γ-radiation, 0.2Gy, 15.44mGy/h) mice can differentiate into dendritic cells that have several different characteristics, such as expression of surface molecules, cytokine secretion and antigen uptake capacity, when compared to dentritic cells differentiated from the control bone marrow cells. These differences observed in the low dose radiation group can be beneficial to living organisms either by activation of immune responses to foreign antigens or tumors, or maintenance of self-tolerance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report showing that total-body low dose radiation can modulate the capacity of bone marrow cells to differentiate into dendritic cells

Survey of Public Attitudes toward the Secondary Use of Public Healthcare Data in Korea

Objectives Public healthcare data have become crucial to the advancement of medicine, and recent changes in legal structure on privacy protection have expanded access to these data with pseudonymization. Recent debates on public healthcare data use by private insurance companies have shown large discrepancies in perceptions among the general public, healthcare professionals, private companies, and lawmakers. This study examined public attitudes toward the secondary use of public data, focusing on differences between public and private entities. Methods An online survey was conducted from January 11 to 24, 2022, involving a random sample of adults between 19 and 65 of age in 17 provinces, guided by the August 2021 census. Results The final survey analysis included 1,370 participants. Most participants were aware of health data collection (72.5%) and recent changes in legal structures (61.4%) but were reluctant to share their pseudonymized raw data (51.8%). Overall, they were favorable toward data use by public agencies but disfavored use by private entities, notably marketing and private insurance companies. Concerns were frequently noted regarding commercial use of data and data breaches. Among the respondents, 50.9% were negative about the use of public healthcare data by private insurance companies, 22.9% favored this use, and 1.9% were “very positive.” Conclusions This survey revealed a low understanding among key stakeholders regarding digital health data use, which is hindering the realization of the full potential of public healthcare data. This survey provides a basis for future policy developments and advocacy for the secondary use of health data

Trends for the Past 10 Years and International Comparisons of the Structure of Korean Radiation Oncology

Objective: Study aims include determination of nationwide structural characteristics of radiation oncology facilities, types of radiation therapy equipment, availability of human resources and trends and comparisons with previous surveys. Methods: An annual nationwide survey was conducted to collect the statistics of infrastructure since 1997. All requested questionnaires have been identical for 10 years. The questionnaires included status on basic radiation therapy facilities, human resources and radiation therapy equipment. Journal and statistical data reviews were performed to evaluate the structure of other countries. Results: Radiation oncology facilities have steadily increased for 10 years and reached 60 sites in 2006. Also a steady increase of 1.5 times for linear accelerators, 5.8 times for computed tomography simulators and 3.0 times for radiation treatment planning systems was noted. Meanwhile, cobalt-60 teletherapy units and hyperthermia equipment had steadily deceased for 10 years. The number of human resources has steadily increased for the past 10 years, especially for radiation therapy technologists. However, radiation therapy equipment and human resources per population are relatively low compared with advanced countries. Conclusions: This study will assist preparation of the administrative planning policy of radiation oncology and should be useful to indicate the direction of future development and educational training programs in Korea and possibly in other countries

Effect of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors on Covid-19 patients in Korea.

BackgroundThe effect of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors in coronavirus disease 19 (Covid-19) patients has not been fully investigated. We evaluated the association between RAAS inhibitor use and outcomes of Covid-19.MethodsThis study was a retrospective observational cohort study that used data based on insurance benefit claims sent to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service of Korea by May 15, 2020. These claims comprised all Covid-19 tested cases and the history of medical service use in these patients for the past five years. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, and the rate of ventilator care was compared between the groups.ResultsFrom a total of 7,590 patients diagnosed with Covid-19, two distinct cohorts were generated based on RAAS inhibitors prescribed within 6 months before Covid-19 diagnosis. A total of 1,111 patients was prescribed RAAS inhibitors, and 794 patients were prescribed antihypertensive drugs, excluding RAAS inhibitors. In propensity-score matched analysis, 666 pairs of data set were generated, and all-cause mortality of the RAAS inhibitor group showed no significant difference compared with the non-RAAS inhibitor group (14.6% vs. 11.1%; hazard ratio [HR], 0.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54-1.15; p = 0.22). The rate of ventilator care was not significantly different between the two groups (4.4% vs. 4.1%; HR, 1.04; 95%CI, 0.60-1.79; p = 0.89).ConclusionsRAAS inhibitor treatment did not appear to increase the mortality of Covid-19 patients compared with other antihypertensive drugs, suggesting that they may be safely continued in Covid-19 patients

Predictability of Mortality in Patients With Myocardial Injury After Noncardiac Surgery Based on Perioperative Factors via Machine Learning: Retrospective Study

BackgroundMyocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS) is associated with increased postoperative mortality, but the relevant perioperative factors that contribute to the mortality of patients with MINS have not been fully evaluated. ObjectiveTo establish a comprehensive body of knowledge relating to patients with MINS, we researched the best performing predictive model based on machine learning algorithms. MethodsUsing clinical data from 7629 patients with MINS from the clinical data warehouse, we evaluated 8 machine learning algorithms for accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve, and area under the precision-recall curve to investigate the best model for predicting mortality. Feature importance and Shapley Additive Explanations values were analyzed to explain the role of each clinical factor in patients with MINS. ResultsExtreme gradient boosting outperformed the other models. The model showed an AUROC of 0.923 (95% CI 0.916-0.930). The AUROC of the model did not decrease in the test data set (0.894, 95% CI 0.86-0.922; P=.06). Antiplatelet drugs prescription, elevated C-reactive protein level, and beta blocker prescription were associated with reduced 30-day mortality. ConclusionsPredicting the mortality of patients with MINS was shown to be feasible using machine learning. By analyzing the impact of predictors, markers that should be cautiously monitored by clinicians may be identified

Novel Highly Flexible PCB Design Based on a Via-Less Meander Ground Structure to Transmit mm-Wave RF Signals in 5G Foldable Mobile Products

Recently, new form factors, such as foldable, have increased demand for mobile products.Moreover, mobile phones should support the RF signal frequency up to the mm-wave frequencydue to the expansion of 5G mobile products. Therefore, 5G foldable products require componentsthat facilitate both mm-wave RF transmission and ultra-high flexibility for interconnecting throughthe hinge structure of foldable products. To improve flexibility, a flexible PCB must be thin with noground vias in its bending section; in contrast, the low-loss flexible PCB for mm-wave transmissionmust be thick and have many ground vias, so there is a trade-off relationship between flexibilityand RF characteristics. This paper proposes a new flexible PCB structure that does not experienceproblems regarding signal transmission to the mm-wave band, even when folded 200,000 times.To overcome the physical limits of the trade-off relationship, an interlayer air-gap was formed; astructure with a via-less and meander ground shape is proposed. The simulated loss of the proposedstructure was 0.0254 dB/mm @ 10 GHz, and the isolation between signals ranged from 21.98 dBto 10 GHz. The simulated results of insertion loss and isolation were experimentally verified. Theproposed structure is currently being applied to the RF flexible PCB that interconnects through thehinge of a foldable phone, and is currently being mass-produced