Unrestricted molecular motions enable mild photothermy for recurrence-resistant FLASH antitumor radiotherapy.

Ultrahigh dose-rate (FLASH) radiotherapy is an emerging technology with excellent therapeutic effects and low biological toxicity. However, tumor recurrence largely impede the effectiveness of FLASH therapy. Overcoming tumor recurrence is crucial for practical FLASH applications. Here, we prepared an agarose-based thermosensitive hydrogel containing a mild photothermal agent (TPE-BBT) and a glutaminase inhibitor (CB-839). Within nanoparticles, TPE-BBT exhibits aggregation-induced emission peaked at 900 nm, while the unrestricted molecular motions endow TPE-BBT with a mild photothermy generation ability. The balanced photothermal effect and photoluminescence are ideal for phototheranostics. Upon 660-nm laser irradiation, the temperature-rising effect softens and hydrolyzes the hydrogel to release TPE-BBT and CB-839 into the tumor site for concurrent mild photothermal therapy and chemotherapy, jointly inhibiting homologous recombination repair of DNA. The enhanced FLASH radiotherapy efficiently kills the tumor tissue without recurrence and obvious systematic toxicity. This work deciphers the unrestricted molecular motions in bright organic fluorophores as a source of photothermy, and provides novel recurrence-resistant radiotherapy without adverse side effects.

A prognostic model related to necrotizing apoptosis of breast cancer based on biorthogonal constrained depth semi-supervised nonnegative matrix decomposition and single-cell sequencing analysis.

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common malignant tumours in women, and its prognosis is poor. The prognosis of BC patients can be improved by immunotherapy. However, due to the heterogeneity of BC, the identification of new biomarkers is urgently needed to improve the prognosis of BC patients. Necrotic apoptosis has been shown to play an essential role in many cancers. First, this study proposed a novel clustering algorithm called biorthogonal constrained depth semisupervised nonnegative matrix factorization (DO-DSNMF). The DO-DSNMF algorithm added multilayer nonlinear transformation to the coefficient matrix obtained after decomposition, which was used to mine the nonlinear relationship between samples. In addition, we also added orthogonal constraints on the basis matrix and coefficient matrix to reduce the influence of redundant features and samples on the results. We applied the DO-DSNMF algorithm and analysed the differences in survival and immunity between the subtypes. Then, we used prognosis analysis to construct the prognosis model. Finally, we analysed single cells using single-cell sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from the GSE75688 dataset in the GEO database. We identified two BC subtypes based on the BC transcriptome data in the TCGA database. Immune infiltration analysis showed that the necrotizing apoptosis-related genes of BC were related to various immune cells and immune functions. Necrotizing apoptosis was found to play a role in BC progression and immunity. The role of prognosis-related NRGs in BC was also verified by cell experiments. This study proposed a novel clustering algorithm to analyse BC subtypes and constructed an NRG prognostic model for BC. The prognosis and immune landscape of BC patients were evaluated by this model. The cell experiment supported its role in BC, which provides a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of BC.

Analysis of m7G-Related signatures in the tumour immune microenvironment and identification of clinical prognostic regulators in breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is a malignant tumour that seriously threatens women's life and health and exhibits high inter-individual heterogeneity, emphasising the need for more in-depth research on its pathogenesis. While internal 7-methylguanosine (m7G) modifications affect RNA processing and function and are believed to be involved in human diseases, little is currently known about the role of m7G modification in breast cancer. METHODS AND RESULTS: We elucidated the expression, copy number variation incidence and prognostic value of 24 m7G-related genes (m7GRGs) in breast cancer. Subsequently, based on the expression of these 24 m7GRGs, consensus clustering was used to divide tumour samples from the TCGA-BRCA dataset into four subtypes based on significant differences in their immune cell infiltration and stromal scores. Differentially expressed genes between subtypes were mainly enriched in immune-related pathways such as 'Ribosome', 'TNF signalling pathway' and 'Salmonella infection'. Support vector machines and multivariate Cox regression analysis were applied based on these 24 m7GRGs, and four m7GRGs-AGO2, EIF4E3, DPCS and EIF4E-were identified for constructing the prediction model. An ROC curve indicated that a nomogram model based on the risk model and clinical factors had strong ability to predict the prognosis of breast cancer. The prognoses of patients in the high- and low-TMB groups were significantly different (p = 0.03). Moreover, the four-gene signature was able to predict the response to chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, we identified four different subtypes of breast cancer with significant differences in the immune microenvironment and pathways. We elucidated prognostic biomarkers associated with breast cancer and constructed a prognostic model involving four m7GRGs. In addition, we predicted the candidate drugs related to breast cancer based on the prognosis model.

Gold nanoparticle doped Cuhemin nanosheets with a remodeling tumor microenvironment for multiple radiotherapy sensitization.

Effective radiosensitizers are urgently needed due to the serious negative effects that high radiation doses might have. We created an integrated nano-system (Cuhemin-Au) made of Cuhemin nanosheets and Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) for sensitizing radiotherapy to solve this issue. This system can manifest enzyme-like activities to universally suppress the resistance pathways in breast cancer cells for amplifying radiation damage. Cuhemin-Au NPs increase the energy deposition of radiation owing to the high X-ray attenuation coefficient of Au. In addition, Cuhemin-Au has peroxidase (POD)-like and glucose oxidase (Gox)-like activity, and can also consume intracellular GSH, which can reduce intracellular GSH levels to reduce tumor cells' capacity to repair DNA and deplete intracellular glucose via their characteristic Gox-like catalytic activities, which can cause an increase in the oxidative stress and further produce H2O2. Cuhemin-Au then produced ˙OH, which upsets redox equilibrium and destroys mitochondria, leading to radiation sensitivity, after reacting with enough hydrogen peroxide in tumor cells. Cuhemin-Au combined with low dose RT (4 Gy) could significantly limit tumor development with fewer adverse effects, according to in vivo and in vitro experiments. This platform generated a fresh concept for the construction of a radiotherapy sensitization system and accomplished synergistic radiotherapy sensitization.

Injectable thermo-sensitive hydrogel loaded hollow copper sulfide nanoparticles for ROS burst in TME and effective tumor treatment.

Introduction: Lung cancer the most prevalent cause of cancer-related deaths, and current therapies lack sufficient specificity and efficacy. This study developed an injectable thermosensitive hydrogel harboring hollow copper sulfide nanoparticles and ß-lapachone (Lap) (CLH) for lung tumor treatment. Methods: The hydrogel-encapsulated CLH system can remotely control the release of copper ions (Cu2+) and drugs using photothermal effects for non-invasive controlled-release drug delivery in tumor therapy. The released Cu2+ consumes the overexpressed GSH in TME and the generated Cu+ further exploits the TME characteristics to initiate nanocatalytic reactions for generating highly toxic hydroxyl radicals. In addition, in cancer cells overexpressing Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (phosphate): quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), Lap can catalyze the generation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) through futile redox cycles. H2O2 is further converted into highly toxic hydroxyl radicals via the Fenton-like reaction, leading to a burst of reactive oxygen species in TME, which further enhances the therapeutic effect of chemokines. Results: Analysis of the antitumor efficacy in a subcutaneous A549 lung tumor model mice showed a significant delay in tumor growth and no systemic toxicity was detected. Discussion: In conclusion, we have established a CLH nanodrug platform that enables efficient lung tumor therapy through combined photothermal/chemodynamic therapy (CDT) treatment and self-supplying H2O2 to achieve cascade catalysis, leading to explosive amplification of oxidative stress.

Ferrostatin-1 alleviates ventilator-induced lung injury by inhibiting ferroptosis.

Ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) has become an increasingly common complication in the clinic concerning mechanical ventilation. Previous research showed that VILI is the result of a response to cascade inflammation; however, the inflammatory mechanism involved remains unclear. As a newly recognized form of cell death, ferroptosis can release damage-related molecules (DAMPs) to trigger and amplify the inflammatory response and is involved in several inflammatory diseases. The present study aimed to investigate a previously unrecognized role of ferroptosis in VILI. A mouse model of VILI and a model of cyclic stretching (CS)-induced lung epithelial cell injury were established. Mice and cells were pretreated with ferrostain-1, an inhibitor of ferroptosis. Lung tissue and cells were then harvested to determine lung injury, inflammatory responses, indicators and protein expression associated with ferroptosis. Compared to the control group, mice subjected to high tidal volumes (HTV) for 4 h showed more severe pulmonary edema and inflammation and the activation of ferroptosis. Ferrostain-1 significantly ameliorated histological injury and inflammation in the VILI mouse and alleviated CS-induced lung epithelial cell injury. Mechanistically, ferrostain-1 markedly limited the activation of ferroptosis and recovered functionality of the SLC7A11/GPX4 axis both in vitro and in vivo, thus demonstrating its potential as a novel therapeutic target for VILI.

Imaging genetic association analysis of triple-negative breast cancer based on the integration of prior sample information.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the more aggressive subtypes of breast cancer. The prognosis of TNBC patients remains low. Therefore, there is still a need to continue identifying novel biomarkers to improve the prognosis and treatment of TNBC patients. Research in recent years has shown that the effective use and integration of information in genomic data and image data will contribute to the prediction and prognosis of diseases. Considering that imaging genetics can deeply study the influence of microscopic genetic variation on disease phenotype, this paper proposes a sample prior information-induced multidimensional combined non-negative matrix factorization (SPID-MDJNMF) algorithm to integrate the Whole-slide image (WSI), mRNAs expression data, and miRNAs expression data. The algorithm effectively fuses high-dimensional data of three modalities through various constraints. In addition, this paper constructs an undirected graph between samples, uses an adjacency matrix to constrain the similarity, and embeds the clinical stage information of patients in the algorithm so that the algorithm can identify the co-expression patterns of samples with different labels. We performed univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis on the mRNAs and miRNAs in the screened co-expression modules to construct a TNBC-related prognostic model. Finally, we constructed prognostic models for 2-mRNAs (IL12RB2 and CNIH2) and 2-miRNAs (miR-203a-3p and miR-148b-3p), respectively. The prognostic model can predict the survival time of TNBC patients with high accuracy. In conclusion, our proposed SPID-MDJNMF algorithm can efficiently integrate image and genomic data. Furthermore, we evaluated the prognostic value of mRNAs and miRNAs screened by the SPID-MDJNMF algorithm in TNBC, which may provide promising targets for the prognosis of TNBC patients.

Transforming growth factor-ß1 attenuates inflammation and lung injury with regulating immune function in ventilator-induced lung injury mice.

Ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) is a lung injury induced or aggravated by mechanical ventilation. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß1 is a cytokine that mediates immune function, enabling inflammatory attenuation and tissue repair. Here, we hypothesized that it plays an important role in the attenuation of VILI and inflammation. Ventilation with high tidal volume was performed on C57BL/6 mice to establish a VILI model. After 4 h of ventilation, mice were sacrificed (end of ventilation [EOV]) or extubated for resuscitation at 4 h (post-ventilation 4 h [PV4h]), 8 h (PV8h) and 24 h post-ventilation (PV1d). Recombinant mouse TGF-ß1 (rTGF-ß1) and the neutralization antibody of TGF-ß1 (nTAb) were used in vivo to examine the effect of TGF-ß1 on immune function and inflammatory attenuation in VILI mice. Lung injury was exacerbated at the same trend as the interleukin (IL)-1ß level, peaking at PV1d, whereas IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α levels gradually reduced. Most active phagosomes, swollen round mitochondria, and cavitating lamellar bodies were observed at PV4h. The CD4+ T cells were significantly increased from PV4h to PV1d, and the CD8a + T cells were higher in the PV4h and PV1d groups; furthermore, the mice in the PV8h group showed highest proportion of CD4+CD8a+ T cells and CD4+/CD8a+ ratio. CD19 + and CD5 + CD19 + B cells in VILI mice began to increase at PV1d. The pulmonary expression of latent and monomer TGF-ß1 increased at PV4h and PV8h. Treatment of rTGF-ß1 only induced high expression of latent and monomer TGF-ß1 at EOV to decrease pulmonary levels of IL-1ß, IL-6, and TNF-α; however, lung injury attenuated from EOV to PV1d. TGF-ß1 induced the delayed elevation of CD4+/CD8a+ T cells ratio and activation of pulmonary CD4+CD8a+ double-positive T cells under certain conditions. Elastic fibers and celluloses, although relatively less proteoglycan, were observed with the overexpression of TGF-ß1 at PV4h and PV8h. In conclusion, TGF-ß1 attenuates the inflammatory response and lung injury of VILI via immune function regulation.

microRNA-130b-3p delivery by mesenchymal stem cells-derived exosomes confers protection on acute lung injury.

OBJECTIVE: Researchers have investigated miR-130b-3p in lung disease pathology, such as lung fibrosis. The present study was performed to elucidate the miR-130b-3p-involved mechanism in acute lung injury (ALI) through delivery by mesenchymal stem cells-derived exosomes (MSCs-Exo). METHODS: ALI mouse models were induced via intratracheal administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and treated with MSCs-Exo. Lung dry-wet (W/D) ratio, inflammatory factors in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, pathological damage and apoptosis in the lung tissues were analyzed. Expression levels of miR-130b-3p and TGFBR1 were measured in the mouse lung tissues, and the interaction between miR-130b-3p and TGFBR1 was studied. RESULTS: MSCs-Exo relieved LPS-induced ALI in mice by reducing lung W/D ratio and inflammatory response, and attenuating lung tissue pathological damage and reducing the alveolar cell apoptosis. miR-130b-3p delivery by MSCs-Exo reduced LPS-induced ALI in mice. TGFBR1 was determined to be a downstream target gene of miR-130b-3p. Inhibition of TGFBR1 could remit LPS-induced ALI in mice. The protection mediated by MSCs-Exo carrying miR-130b-3p could be rescued by elevating TGFBR1 expression. CONCLUSION: miR-130b-3p delivery by MSCs-Exo confers protection on ALI in mice via the downregulation of TGFBR1.

Association between perinatal pain and postpartum depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: In recent years, clinical studies have shown that perinatal pain could increase the risk of postpartum depression, while such a conclusion appears controversial. Therefore, we conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the association between perinatal pain and postpartum depression, and to evaluate the effectiveness of epidural labor analgesia in reducing the risk of postpartum depression. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and Cochrane Library were searched from inception to Jan 30th, 2022. The effect size of the meta-analysis was calculated using odds ratio and 95 % confidence interval. Statistical analysis was performed using Stata 15.0 software. RESULTS: There were 19 studies included with a total of 96,378 patients. Among the included studies, 10 investigated the association between perinatal pain and the risk of postpartum depression, and 9 reported that between labor analgesia and the risk of postpartum depression. The results of meta-analysis showed that perinatal pain increased the risk of postpartum depression [OR = 1.43, 95% CI (1.23, 1.67), p<0.05], and epidural analgesia could reduce the risk of postpartum depression [OR = 0.42, 95% CI (0.33, 0.55), p < 0.05]. LIMITATIONS: Source of heterogeneity in the association between perinatal pain and PPD could not be identified due to the limitations of the original studies. There were mainly cohort studies included in the assessment for effectiveness of epidural analgesia in reducing the incidence of postpartum pain. Therefore, we look forward to more RCTs to confirm our results. CONCLUSION: Perinatal pain is one of the risk factors for postpartum depression, and epidural analgesia could reduce the risk of PPD. This result might provide guidance for clinical practice. However, psychological health counseling should be combined with epidural analgesia for perinatal pain to reduce the risk of PPD.

The triggering receptor expressed by myeloid cells-1 activates TLR4-MyD88-NF-κB-dependent signaling to aggravate ventilation-induced lung inflammation and injury in mice.

The triggering receptor expressed by myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) plays an important role in infectious and autoimmune diseases but how it contributes to ventilation-induced lung injury (VILI) and inflammation is unclear. Here, we examine the possibility that TREM-1 activates signaling dependent on Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (Myd88) and nuclear factor (NF)-κB, which leads in turn to VILI. In a mouse model of VILI, which we validated based on lung edema and histopathology as well as cytokine levels, we examine mRNA and protein levels of TREM-1, TLR4, MyD88, NF-κB and its inhibitory protein I-κB in animals subjected to ventilation at normal or high tidal volume. The extent of lung edema, injury and inflammation were higher in the high tidal volume animals, as were the expression levels of all proteins examined. Treatment with TREM-1 agonist aggravated these effects, whereas treatment with TREM-1 antagonist attenuated them. Our results suggest that aggravation of VILI by TREM-1 in mice may be associated with TLR4-MyD88-NF-κB-dependent signaling.

Effects of dexmedetomidine versus midazolam for premedication in paediatric anaesthesia with sevoflurane: A meta-analysis.

Background Dexmedetomidine (DEX), an α2-adrenergic receptor agonist, produces ideal sedation and early postoperative recovery for premedication in paediatric surgery, reducing preoperative anxiety and facilitating smooth induction of anaesthesia. We performed a meta-analysis to compare the effects of DEX and midazolam (MDZ) in paediatric anaesthesia with sevoflurane. Methods PubMed, Ovid, Web of Science, and Public Health Management Corporation were searched through December 2016 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared DEX and MDZ in children undergoing sevoflurane anaesthesia. The risk ratio (RR) with 95% incidence interval (95%CI) was used for dichotomous variables. Results Twelve RCTs involving 422 patients in the DEX group and 448 patients in the MDZ group were included. Patients in the DEX group had a significantly lower incidence of unsatisfactory sedation (RR [95%CI] = 0.71 [0.57-0.89]), unsatisfactory parental separation (RR [95%CI] = 0.56 [0.35-0.87]), and rescue analgesia (RR [95%CI] = 0.52 [0.35-0.77]) than patients in the MDZ group. However, both groups had a similar incidence of unsatisfactory mask acceptance, emergence agitation, and postoperative nausea and vomiting. Conclusion Compared with MDZ, DEX is beneficial in paediatric anaesthesia with sevoflurane because of its lower incidence of unsatisfactory sedation, parental separation, and rescue analgesia.

Antineoplastic effect of calycosin on osteosarcoma through inducing apoptosis showing in vitro and in vivo investigations.

Recently, increasing studies have documented that tumorigenesis closely relates to apoptotic processes. Thus, inducing apoptosis is an anti-cancer strategy against osteosarcoma. Here we investigated the anti-proliferative effect of calycosin on human osteosarcoma cell (143B) in vitro. The results showed that calycosin dose-dependently inhibited 143B cell proliferation as reflected in tetrazolium salt (MTT) assay (P<0.01). In addition, calycosin effectively down-regulated cellular mRNA expressions of IκBα, NF-κB p65 and cyclin D1 through RT-PCR assay (P<0.01). Next, calycosin-mediated inhibitory effect on 143B tumor-bearing nude mice and the underlying mechanism were evaluated and discussed. As a result, calycosin administration significantly blocked solid tumor growth in 143B-harbored nude mice (P<0.01). Furthermore, intracellular Bcl-2 protein expression was effectively reduced in 143B-harbored tumor tissue through western blotting analysis (P<0.01), while intratumoral Apaf-1 and cleaved Caspase-3 protein levels were up-regulated, respectively (P<0.01). Taken together, calycosin possesses the anti-osteosarcoma potential, in which the mechanism involved was associated with activation of apoptotic, thus inducing apoptosis.