Planning analysis for locally advanced lung cancer: dosimetric and efficiency comparisons between intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), single-arc/partial-arc volumetric modulated arc therapy (SA/PA-VMAT)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>To analyze the differences between the intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), single/partial-arc volumetric modulated arc therapy (SA/PA-VMAT) techniques in treatment planning for locally advanced lung cancer.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>12 patients were retrospectively studied. In each patient's case, several parameters were analyzed based on the dose-volume histograms (DVH) of the IMRT, SA/PA-VMAT plans respectively. Also, each plan was delivered to a phantom for time comparison.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The SA-VMAT plans showed the superior target dose coverage, although the minimum/mean/maximum doses to the target were similar. For the total and contralateral lungs, the higher V_5/10, lower V_20/30and mean lung dose (MLD) were observed in the SA/PA-VMAT plans (<it>p </it>< 0.05, respectively). The PA-VMAT technique improves the dose sparing (V₂₀, V₃₀and MLD) of the controlateral lung more notably, comparing to those parameters of the IMRT and SA-VMAT plans respectively. The delivered monitor units (MUs) and treatment times were reduced significantly with VMAT plans, especially PA-VMAT plans (for MUs: mean 458.3 <it>vs</it>. 439.2 <it>vs</it>. 435.7 MUs, <it>p </it>< 0.05 and for treatment time: mean 13.7 <it>vs</it>. 10.6 <it>vs</it>. 6.4 minutes, <it>p </it>< 0.01).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The SA-VMAT technique achieves highly conformal dose distribution to the target. Comparing to the IMRT plans, the higher V_5/10, lower V_20/30and MLD were observed in the total and contralateral lungs in the VMAT plans, especially in the PA-VMAT plans. The SA/PA-VMAT plans also reduced treatment time with more efficient dose delivering. But the clinical benefit of the VMAT technique for locally advanced lung cancer needs further investigations.</p

Vitamin B2 enhances development of puberty ovaries via regulation of essential elements and plasma endocrine hormones

Purpose: To investigate the effect of vitamin B2 (VB2) on ovarian development during puberty.Methods: Four groups of domestic hens (Jinghong-1 strain, 12 hens/group) were housed under standard conditions and fed basal diet with or without graded doses of VB2 (10 – 40 mg/kg). At 10 weeks old, 9 hens were sacrificed from each group. Plasma levels of AST, ALT, steroid hormones and growth hormones were determined. In addition, some essential mineral elements in the ovarian tissue of the hens were assayed.Results: Treatment with VB2 significantly improved ovary and liver organ indices (p &lt; 0.01), but had no deleterious effect on the liver. The different doses of VB2 exerted regulatory effects on homeostasis of essential elements in the ovary (p &lt; 0.01). Moreover, VB2 treatment elevated plasma levels of progesterone (PR) and estrogen (ES), suggesting that it might regulate steroid hormone levels.Conclusion: These results indicate that VB2 enhances the development of the ovaries during puberty.Keywords: Domestic hen, Ovarian development, Vitamin B2, Steroid hormones, Mineral element

Design and synthesis of active heparan sulfate-based probes

A chemoenzymatic approach for synthesizing heparan sulfate oligosaccharides with a reactive diazoacetyl saccharide residue is reported. The resultant oligosaccharides were demonstrated to serve as specific inhibitors for heparan sulfate sulfotransferases, offering a new set of tools to probe the structural selectivity for heparan sulfate-binding proteins

Co-delivery of gemcitabine and Triapine by calcium carbonate nanoparticles against chemoresistant pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a malignant disease with high mortality, and its systemic treatment strategy mainly focuses on chemotherapy. Yet, the overall prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients is still extremely poor with a low survival rate. Gemcitabine (GEM) is a widely used chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. However, GEM chemoresistance remains the major challenge. In this study, we prepared calcium carbonate nanoparticles (CaCO3 NPs) loaded with a nucleotide reductase inhibitor (Triapine) and GEM to suppress the GEM resistance of pancreatic cancer cells (PANC-1/GEM) and solve the problem of poor solubility of Triapine. CaCO3-GEM-Triapine NPs nano-formulations enhanced the therapeutic effect of GEM-based chemotherapy by inhibiting cancer cell proliferation, migration, and resistance to GEM using both 2D PANC-1/GEM cells and 3D tumor spheroids. The study indicated that CaCO3 NPs loaded with GEM and Triapine could provide an effective treatment option to overcome drug resistance in pancreatic cancer

μ-Biphenyl-3,3′,4,4′-tetra­carboxyl­ato-κ2 O 3:O 3′-bis­[triaqua­(2,2′-bipyridyl-κ2 N,N′)nickel(II)] hexa­hydrate

The asymmetric unit of the title complex, [Ni2(C16H6O8)(C10H8N2)2(H2O)6]·6H2O, contains one NiII atom, one 2,2′-bipyridine ligand, three coordinated water mol­ecules, one-half of a fully deprotonated biphenyl-3,3′,4,4′-tetra­carboxyl­ate anion and three lattice water mol­ecules. The NiII atom displays a distorted NiN2O4 octa­hedral coordination formed by one carboxyl­ate O atom, three water O atoms and two N atoms of the chelating ligand. The complete biphenyl-3,3′,4,4′-tetra­carboxyl­ate ligand displays inversion symmetry and links two symmetry-related NiII atoms into a binuclear complex. Neighbouring complex mol­ecules are linked through O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds into a three-dimensional structure. Additional O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds between the lattice water mol­ecules help to consolidate the crystal packing

Under the different sectors: the relationship between low-carbon economic development, health and GDP

Developing a modern low-carbon economy while protecting health is not only a current trend but also an urgent problem that needs to be solved. The growth of the national low-carbon economy is closely related to various sectors; however, it remains unclear how the development of low-carbon economies in these sectors impacts the national economy and the health of residents. Using panel data on carbon emissions and resident health in 28 province-level regions in China, this study employs unit root tests, co-integration tests, and regression analysis to empirically examine the relationship between carbon emissions, low-carbon economic development, health, and GDP in industry, construction, and transportation. The results show that: First, China’s carbon emissions can promote economic development. Second, low-carbon economic development can enhance resident health while improving GDP. Third, low-carbon economic development has a significant positive effect on GDP and resident health in the industrial and transportation sector, but not in the construction sector, and the level of industrial development and carbon emission sources are significant factors contributing to the inconsistency. Our findings complement existing insights into the coupling effect of carbon emissions and economic development across sectors. They can assist policymakers in tailoring low-carbon policies to specific sectors, formulating strategies to optimize energy consumption structures, improving green technology levels, and aiding enterprises in gradually reducing carbon emissions without sacrificing economic benefits, thus achieving low-carbon economic development

Low-dose dobutamine cardiovascular magnetic resonance segmental strain study of early phase of intramyocardial hemorrhage rats

BACKGROUND: This study investigates the segmental myocardial strain of the early phase of intramyocardial hemorrhage (IMH) caused by reperfused myocardial infarction (MI) in rats by low-dose dobutamine (LDD) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) feature-tracking. METHODS: Nine sham rats and nine rats with 60-min myocardial ischemia followed by 48-h reperfusion were investigated using CMR, including T2*-mapping sequence and fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP)-cine sequence. Another FISP-cine sequence was acquired after 2 min of dobutamine injection; the MI, IMH, and Non-MI (NMI) areas were identified. The values of peak radial strains (PRS) and peak circumferential strains (PCS) of the MI, IMH and NMI segments were acquired. The efficiency of PRS and PCS (EPRS and EPCS, respectively) were calculated on the basis of the time of every single heartbeat. RESULTS: The PRS, PCS, EPRS, and EPCS of the sham group increased after LDD injection. However, the PRS, PCS, EPRS, and EPCS of the IMH segment did not increase. Moreover, the PRS and PCS of the MI and NMI segments did not increase, but the EPRS and EPCS of these segments increased. The PRS, PCS, EPRS, and EPCS of the IMH segment were lower than those of the MI and NMI segments before and after LDD injection, but without a significant difference between MI segment and NMI segment before and after LDD injection. CONCLUSIONS: LDD could help assess dysfunctions in segments with IMH, especially using the efficiency of strain. IMH was a crucial factor that decreased segmental movement and reserved function

Myocardial infarction size as an independent predictor of intramyocardial haemorrhage in acute reperfused myocardial ischaemic rats

BACKGROUND: In previous studies, haemorrhage occurred only with large infarct sizes, and studies found a moderate correlation between the extent of necrosis and haemorrhage, but the extent of infarction size in these studies was limited. This study aimed to find the correlations between intramyocardial haemorrhage (IMH), myocardial infarction (MI), and myocardial oedema (ME) from small to large sizes of MI in a 7.0-T MR scanner. METHODS: Different sizes of myocardial infarction were induced by occluding different sections of the proximal left anterior descending coronary artery (1-3 mm under the left auricle). T2*-mapping, T2-mapping and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) sequences were performed on a 7.0 T MR system at Days 2 and 7. T2*- and T2-maps were calculated using custom-made software. All areas were expressed as a percentage of the entire myocardial tissue of the left ventricle. The rats were divided into two groups based on the T2* results and pathological findings; MI with IMH was referred to as the + IMH group, while MI without IMH was referred to as the -IMH group. RESULTS: The final experimental sample consisted of 25 rats in the + IMH group and 10 rats in the -IMH group. For the + IMH group on Day 2, there was a significant positive correlation between IMH size and MI size (r = 0.677, P \u3c 0.01) and a positive correlation between IMH size and ME size (r = 0.552, P \u3c 0.01). On Day 7, there was a significant positive correlation between IMH size and MI size (r = 0.711, P \u3c 0.01), while no correlation was found between IMH size and ME size (r = 0.429, P = 0.097). The MI sizes of the + IMH group were larger than those of the -IMH group (P \u3c 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Infarction size prior to reperfusion is a critical factor in determining IMH size in rats