Association between sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation in college students.

Suicide among college students is a challenging problem globally. Yet, the association between sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation remains unclear. This study aims to understand if depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between sleep quality and suicide ideation and whether the interaction between depressive symptoms and sleep quality on suicidal ideation is additive. A total of 1182 college students were recruited, and sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation were assessed using questionnaires. Univariate analysis, logistic regression analysis, linear regression models, and the Sobel test were performed. The results showed that, among college students, poor sleep quality was positively associated with suicidal ideation, and the association was mediated through depressive symptoms. Moreover, there was a significant additive interaction between poor sleep quality and depressive symptoms on suicidal ideation. These findings suggest that, in the process of preventing and treating suicidal ideation in college students with sleep disorders, we should focus on the evaluation and intervention of depressive symptoms and adopt multidisciplinary team interventions for college students with sleep disorders and depression.

Enhancing adoptive T cell therapy for solid tumor with cell-surface anchored immune checkpoint inhibitor nanogels.

The efficacy of Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) for solid tumor is still mediocre. This is mainly because tumor cells can hijack ACT T cells' immune checkpoint pathways to exert immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 (aPD1) can counter the immunosuppression, but the synergizing effects of aPD1 to ACT was still not satisfactory. Here we demonstrate an approach to safely anchor aPD1-formed nanogels onto T cell surface via bio-orthogonal click chemistry before adoptive transfer. The spatial-temporal co-existence of aPD1 with ACT T cells and the responsive drug release significantly improved the treatment outcome of ACT in murine solid tumor model. The average tumor weight of the group treated by cell-surface anchored aPD1 was only 18 % of the group treated by equivalent dose of free aPD1 and T cells. The technology can be broadly applicable in ACTs employing natural or Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells.

Systematic evaluation of the prognostic and immunological role of PDLIM2 across 33 cancer types.

The protein PDLIM2 regulates the stability of various transcription factors and is required for polarized cell migration. However, the clinical relevance and immune infiltration of PDLIM2 in cancer are not well-understood. We utilized The Cancer Genome Atlas and Genotype-Tissue Expression database to characterize alterations in PDLIM2 in pan-cancer. TIMER was used to explore PDLIM2 expression and immune infiltration levels. We assessed the correlation between PDLIM2 expression and immune-associated gene expression, immune score, tumor mutation burden, and DNA microsatellite instability. PDLIM2 significantly affected the prognosis of various cancers. Increased expression of PDLIM2 was significantly correlated with the tumor grade in seven types of tumors. The expression level of PDLIM2 was positively correlated with immune infiltrates, including B cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells in bladder urothelial, kidney renal papillary cell, and colon adenocarcinoma. High expression levels of PDLIM2 tended to be associated with higher immune and stromal scores. PDLIM2 expression was associated with the tumor mutation burden in 12 cancer types and microsatellite instability in 5 cancer types. PDLIM2 levels were strongly correlated with diverse immune-related genes. PDLIM2 can act as a prognostic-related therapeutic target and is correlated with immune infiltrates in pan-cancer.

Prognostic and Immunological Roles of MMP-9 in Pan-Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) can degrade the extracellular matrix and participate in tumor progression. The relationship between MMP-9 and immune cells has been reported in various malignant tumors. However, there is a lack of comprehensive pan-cancer studies on the relationship between MMP-9 and cancer prognosis and immune infiltration. METHOD: We used data from TCGA and GTEx databases to comprehensively analyze the differential expression of MMP-9 in normal and cancerous tissues. Survival analysis was performed to understand the prognostic role of MMP-9 in different tumors. We then analyzed the expression of MMP-9 across different tumors and at different clinical stages. Based on the results, we assessed the correlation between MMP-9 expression and immune-associated genes and immunocytes. Finally, we calculated the tumor mutation burden (TMB) of 33 cancer types and analyzed the correlation between MMP-9 and TMB, DNA microsatellite instability, and DNA repair genes. RESULTS: MMP-9 significantly affected the prognosis and metastasis of various cancers. It was associated based on overall survival, disease-specific survival in five tumors, progression-free interval in seven tumors, and clinical stage in eight tumors, as well as with prognosis and metastasis in adrenocortical carcinoma and kidney renal clear cell carcinoma. It was also coexpressed with immune-related genes and DNA repair genes. The expression of MMP-9 was positively correlated with the markers of T cells, tumor-associated macrophages, Th1 cells, and T cell exhaustion. Furthermore, MMP-9 expression was highly correlated with macrophage M0 in 28 tumors. In addition, its expression was associated with TMB in eight cancer types and DNA microsatellite instability in six cancer types. CONCLUSION: MMP-9 is related to immune infiltration in pan-cancer and can be used as a biomarker related to cancer prognosis and metastasis. Our findings provide prognostic molecular markers and new ideas for immunotherapy.

Enhanced curcumin solubility and antibacterial activity by encapsulation in PLGA oily core nanocapsules.

Infections caused by bacteria represent an emerging public health threat due to the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Curcumin (CUR), a naturally derived substance, is found to be effective against several bacteria. However, its use is limited by its low water solubility and rapid degradation profile. Polymeric nanocapsules (NCs) represent an interesting drug delivery system with high incorporation rates due to their liquid core. The present study aimed to develop poly-(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) NCs for the delivery of CUR for enhancing its solubility and antibacterial activity. The particle size, polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential and drug entrapment efficiency of CUR NCs with optimal formulation were 158 nm, 0.156, -29.1 mV and 92.64%, respectively. The water solubility of CUR in NCs increased about 1500 fold compared to that of free CUR. TEM and AFM images proved the core-shell structure of PLGA NCs with narrow size distributions. The in vitro release profile of CUR from PLGA NCs showed a burst release in the initial 24 h followed by a sustained release of the interior CUR over 10 days. In vitro antibacterial experiments demonstrate that the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of CUR NCs were lower than those of free CUR for all different bacterial strains, especially for Gram-negative bacteria. CUR NCs exhibited broad-spectrum antibacterial effects compared with free CUR. These data suggest that these CUR-loaded PLGA NCs may provide a promising strategy as novel antibacterial agents.