Characterization of parotid gland tumors using diffusion-relaxation correlation spectrum imaging: a preliminary study.

AIM: To assess the performance of diffusion-relaxation correlation spectrum imaging (DR-CSI) in the characterization of parotid gland tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-five pleomorphic adenomas (PA) patients, 9 Warthin's tumors (WT) patients and 7 malignant tumors (MT) patients were prospectively recruited. DR-CSI (7 b-values combined with 5 TEs, totally 35 diffusion-weighted images) was scanned for pre-treatment assessment. Diffusion (D)-T2 signal spectrum summating all voxels were built for each patient, characterized by D-axis with range 0∼5 × 10-3 mm2/s, and T2-axis with range 0∼300ms. With boundaries of 0.5 and 2.5 × 10-3 mm2/s for D, all spectra were divided into three compartments labeled A (low D), B (mediate D) and C (high D). Volume fractions acquired from each compartment (VA, VB, VC) were compared among PA, WT and MT. Diagnostic performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristic analysis and area under the curve (AUC). RESULTS: Each subtype of parotid tumors had their specific D-T2 spectrum. PA showed significantly lower VA (8.85 ± 4.77% vs 20.68 ± 10.85%), higher VB (63.40 ± 8.18% vs 43.05 ± 7.16%), and lower VC (27.75 ± 8.51% vs 36.27 ± 11.09) than WT (all p<0.05). VB showed optimal diagnostic performance (AUC 0.969, sensitivity 92.00%, specificity 100.00%). MT showed significantly higher VA (21.23 ± 12.36%), lower VB (37.09 ± 6.43%), and higher VC (41.68 ± 13.72%) than PA (all p<0.05). Similarly, VB showed optimal diagnostic performance (AUC 0.994, sensitivity 96.00%, specificity 100.00%). No significant difference of VA, VB and VC was found between WT and MT. CONCLUSIONS: DR-CSI might be a promising and non-invasive way for characterizing parotid gland tumors.

[Effects of cinepazide maleate injection on blood pressure in patients with acute ischemic stroke and hypertension].

Objective: To investigate the blood pressure change in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and hypertension treated with cinepazide maleate injection. Methods: This was a subgroup analysis of post-marketing clinical confirmation study of cinepazide maleate injection for acute ischemic stroke: a randomized, double-blinded, multicenter, placebo-parallel controlled trial, which conducted in China from August 2016 to February 2019. Eligible patients fulfilled the inclusive criteria of acute anterior circulation ischemic stroke with National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores of 7-25. The primary endpoints were mean blood pressure of AIS patients treated with cinepazide maleate or control, which were assessed during the treatment period (14 days), and the proportion of the patients with normal blood pressure was analyzed after the treatment period. Furthermore, a subgroup analysis was performed to investigate a possible effect of the history of hypertension on outcomes. Results: This analysis included 809 patients with hypertension. There was no significant difference in patients blood pressure and the proportion of patients with normal blood pressure (60.5% vs. 59.0%,P>0.05) between cinepazide maleate group and control group. Conclusion: Administration of cinepazide maleate injection does not affect the management of clinical blood pressure in patients with AIS.

Acoustic manipulation dynamics of levitated particle with screw-shaped reflecting surface.

Existing single-axis acoustic levitation devices with an axisymmetric reflector can manipulate particles in a variety of ways. However, the mechanism by which particles are suspended in a single-axis acoustic levitator with a non-axisymmetric reflector remains poorly understood. This work addresses this issue by proposing a novel single-axis ultrasonic levitator design that includes a flat plane emitter and a screw-plane reflector. The node positions of the standing wave formed in this levitator were predicted by calculating the Gor'kov potential according to a numerical model. The analysis results demonstrate that the nodes were distributed off-axis and their positions varied in a spiral manner when changing the distance between the emitter and reflector. Corresponding experiments based on the proposed design were also conducted, and the results indicated that the distance changes between the emitter and reflector could induce some spiral trajectories of a polyethylene-foam particle placed in the ultrasonic field. Moreover, the trajectory of the suspended particle was found to distribute along a conical surface centered on the central axis of this device. This work provides a new approach for ultrasonic particle manipulation by changing the geometry of the reflector.

Clinical and molecular characteristics of epidermal growth factor receptor exon 20 insertion mutations in non-small-cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the genomic and immune characteristics of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertion (ex20ins) mutations from a retrospective dataset with molecular spectrum, tumor mutational burden (TMB), and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, as well as to evaluate the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). METHODS: A total of 283 patients with EGFR ex20ins mutations who were diagnosed with NSCLC at our hospital from August 2013 to September 2020 were enrolled in this single-center retrospective study. RESULTS: Among the 283 patients with EGFR ex20ins mutations, 182 patients received next-generation sequencing (NGS) test, and 51 different subtypes of insertion variants were recorded. The most common mutations were A767_V769dup (21.4%), S768_D770dup (19.2%) and A763_Y764insFQEA (7.1%). The most common co-occurring mutations were EGFR amplification (37.9%), TP53 mutation (35.0%) and PIK3CA mutation (8.7%). PD-L1 status was available for 141 patients, and 75.9% (107/141) of these samples showed negative PD-L1 expression. In the 36 cases with TMB tested by NGS, the median TMB was 4.6 mutations/Mb. Then 12 patients received ICIs monotherapy or combination therapy. No severe adverse events were observed. CONCLUSION: Low PD-L1 expression and TMB were observed in NSCLC patients harboring EGFR ex20ins mutations. Further investigations are needed to confirm the therapeutic sensitivity of ICIs in this subgroup of EGFR mutations.

CircPRKCI regulates proliferation, migration and cycle of lung adenocarcinoma cells by targeting miR-219a-5p-regulated CAMK1D.

OBJECTIVE: Circular ribonucleic acids (circRNAs) are considered as the key regulatory factors for human malignancies in recent years, and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a common malignancy worldwide, but the molecular mechanism of circRNAs in LUAD has not been completely investigated. Therefore, the mechanism by which circRNA protein kinase C iota (circPRKCI) regulates LUAD cell migration proliferation, and cycle was preliminarily explored in this research, so as to provide new ideas for the treatment of LUAD. PATIENTS AND METHODS: First of all, the circPRKCI expression level in LUAD tissues was tested via quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay, and the relationship between circPRKCI and the patients' prognosis was analyzed. Then, circPRKCI expression was inhibited by small interfering RNA (siRNA), and the influence of circPRKCI on t LUAD cells' ability to proliferate was verified via 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) and cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assays. Moreover, the influence of circPRKCI on LUAD cells' ability to migrate was testified by transwell assay, and the regulation of LUAD cell cycle by circPRKCI was confirmed by flow cytometry. The micro RNAs (miRNAs) with binding sites to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of circPRKCI and the genes binding to miRNAs were discovered using bioinformatics websites, and their associative relation was further explored through Dual-Luciferase reporter gene assay, qRT-PCR assay, Pearson correlation analysis and reverse experiment. RESULTS: It was verified via qRT-PCR assay that circPRKCI was expressed at a remarkably higher level in LUAD tissues relative to that in paracancerous normal tissues. The highly expressed circPRKCI led to poor prognosis of patients. Besides, qRT-PCR assessment results indicated that circPRKCI expression level rose notably in LUAD cell lines, while it was lowered markedly in LUAD cells transfected with si-circPRKCI. According to CCK-8 and EdU assay results, the proliferative ability of LUAD cells was weakened clearly after knocking down circPRKCI. It was manifested in the results of transwell assay that the knockdown of circPRKCI significantly repressed the capacity of LUAD cells to migrate. Furthermore, the results of cell cycle test displayed that inhibiting circPRKCI could induce the arrest of LUAD cell cycle in the G1 phase. It was discovered through bioinformatics websites that miR-219a-5p had binding sites to circPRKCI 3'UTR, and the results of Dual-Luciferase reporter gene assay revealed that circPRKCI was able to bind to miR-219a-5p. It was uncovered by the qRT-PCR assay results that miR-219a-5p was lowly expressed in LUAD tissues, and its relative expression had an inverse relation with that of circPRKCI according to the Pearson correlation analysis. In addition, it was shown in the results of reverse experiment that miR-219a-5p could regulate the influence of circPRKCI on the malignant phenotype of LUAD. It was found by means of bioinformatics websites that calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase ID (CAMK1D) was a downstream target gene of miR-219a-5p and could the two conjugated with each other based on the results of Dual-Luciferase reporter gene assay. Moreover, qRT-PCR assay findings illustrated that CAMK1D was evidently highly expressed in LUAD tissues, and the results of Pearson correlation analysis revealed that CAMK1D expression exhibited a negative association with that of miR-219a-5p and a positive correlation with that of circPRKCI. CONCLUSIONS: CircPRKCI is significantly highly expressed in LUAD, and the highly expressed circPRKCI is capable of facilitating LUAD cell migration, proliferation and cycle. CircPRKCI may regulate the malignant phenotype of LUAD via the miR-219a-5p/CAMK1D axis.

Correlations between microbiota and metabolites after faecal microbiota transfer in irritable bowel syndrome.

Faecal microbiota transfer (FMT) consists of the infusion of donor faecal material into the intestine of a patient with the aim to restore a disturbed gut microbiota. In this study, it was investigated whether FMT has an effect on faecal microbial composition, its functional capacity, faecal metabolite profiles and their interactions in 16 irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. Faecal samples from eight different time points before and until six months after allogenic FMT (faecal material from a healthy donor) as well as autologous FMT (own faecal material) were analysed by 16S RNA gene amplicon sequencing and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GS-MS). The results showed that the allogenic FMT resulted in alterations in the microbial composition that were detectable up to six months, whereas after autologous FMT this was not the case. Similar results were found for the functional profiles, which were predicted from the phylogenetic sequencing data. While both allogenic FMT as well as autologous FMT did not have an effect on the faecal metabolites measured in this study, correlations between the microbial composition and the metabolites showed that the microbe-metabolite interactions seemed to be disrupted after allogenic FMT compared to autologous FMT. This shows that FMT can lead to altered interactions between the gut microbiota and its metabolites in IBS patients. Further research should investigate if and how this affects efficacy of FMT treatments.

[Investigation of acute poisoning event caused by carbofuran].

Objective: To analyze the epidemiological characteristics and response process of an acute poisoning event caused by carbofuran in buttered tea and provide scientific evidence for the investigation of similar events in the future. Methods: Field epidemiological survey, animal experiments and laboratory tests were conducted for an acute poisoning event occurred in Suopo township of Danba county of Sichuan province in 2018. Descriptive epidemiological method was used to analyze the epidemiological characteristics of the acute poisoning event. Results: A total of 26 poisoning cases occurred in 3 villages. The total attack rate was 41.27%. No death cases were reported. The 26 cases occurred in a few minutes after drinking buttered tea, the main symptoms were vomit, dizziness, miosis and nausea. A dog showed the same symptoms after drinking a sample of buttered tea. Carbofuran was detected in buttered tea, vomitus and zanba samples. Conclusions: The acute poisoning was caused by carbofuran in buttered tea, the transmission mode was point source spread. Effective epidemiological investigation and simple animal experiment can provide evidence for the rapid sample detection and clinical treatment of cases in emergency response. Timely case treatment and strict poisoning source control are the key measures to reduce casualty and prevent the spread of poisoning.

Effects of zoledronic acid on bone mineral density around prostheses and bone metabolism markers after primary total hip arthroplasty in females with postmenopausal osteoporosis.

INTRODUCTION: To investigate the effect of zoledronic acid on periprosthetic bone mineral density (BMD) and bone metabolism markers after primary total hip arthroplasty in females with postmenopausal osteoporosis. METHODS: From November 2015 to April 2016, 40 female patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomized into two groups: a control group (calcium + calcitriol) and a zoledronic acid group (calcium + calcitriol + zoledronic acid). At 1 week and 3, 6, and 12 months after operation, BMD was obtained through dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). At pre-operation and at 3, 6, and 12 months after the operation, levels of bone metabolism markers were obtained by serum examination. RESULTS: Loss of BMD was significantly more pronounced in the control group than in the ZOL group in zones 1, 4, 6, and 7 at 6 months and in zones 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 at 12 months after the operation. The levels of bone-resorption marker (ß-CTX) were significantly lower in the ZOL group than in the control group at 3, 6, and 12 months after operation. The levels of bone-formation marker (TP1NP) performed statistically differences only at 12 months after the operation in these two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Receiving an intravenous infusion of 5 mg zoledronic acid after THA can effectively reduce periprosthetic BMD loss and improve bone remodeling in females with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Zoledronic acid significantly inhibited bone mass loss in zones 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 after THA and inhibited bone-resorption marker (ß-CTX) to improve bone remodeling. Zoledronic acid treatment is potentially important for patients with osteoporosis after THA.

Grading meningiomas using mono-exponential, bi-exponential and stretched exponential model-based diffusion-weighted MR imaging.

AIM: To prospectively evaluate and compare the potential of various diffusion metrics obtained from mono-exponential model (MEM), bi-exponential model (BEM), and stretched exponential model (SEM)-based diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the grading of meningiomas. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Consecutive 93 patients with histopathologically confirmed meningiomas received DWI of multiple b-values. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), pure molecular diffusion (D), pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D*), perfusion fraction (f), water molecular diffusion heterogeneity index (alpha), and distributed diffusion coefficient (DDC) were calculated and compared between low-grade and high-grade meningiomas. Receiver operating characteristic and multivariable stepwise logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of different parameters. RESULTS: The mean and normalised ADC, D, f, and DDC values were significantly lower in high-grade meningiomas than those in low-grade meningiomas (all p<0.05). The AUCs of D and DDC were significantly higher than that of f in the differentiation (all p<0.05). D was the only variable that could be used to independently differentiate high-grade and low-grade meningiomas (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Different models of DWI, including MEM, BEM, and SEM, are useful in the differentiating high-grade and low-grade meningiomas; however, D obtained from BEM is the most promising diffusion parameter for predicting the grade of meningiomas.

Association of serum galectin-3 with risks of death and vascular events in acute ischaemic stroke patients: the role of hyperglycemia.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Whether the association between galectin-3 and stroke outcome is modified by fasting plasma glucose (FPG) is unknown. The aim was to evaluate the prognostic effect of galectin-3 amongst ischaemic stroke patients stratified by FPG. METHODS: In all, 3082 ischaemic stroke patients were included in this study and serum galectin-3 was tested at baseline. The primary outcome was a composite outcome of death and vascular events, and secondary outcomes were death, stroke recurrence and vascular events within 1 year after stroke. RESULTS: Increased galectin-3 was significantly associated with the primary outcome, stroke recurrence and vascular events in the patients with hyperglycemia but not in those with normoglycemia (P for interaction < 0.05 for all). The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 1.72 (1.05-2.84), 2.64 (1.14-6.12) and 2.68 (1.33-5.38) for the primary outcome, stroke recurrence and vascular events, respectively. A linear association between galectin-3 and the primary outcome was observed in hyperglycemic patients (P for linearity = 0.007). CONCLUSION: Increased galectin-3 was associated with the primary outcome, stroke recurrence and vascular events within 1 year after stroke in the patients with hyperglycemia, suggesting that galectin-3 may be an important prognostic factor for ischaemic stroke patients with hyperglycemia.

The study on pathological mechanism and solution method for spinal cord ischemia reperfusion injury.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed at investigating the pathological mechanism changing of injury during reperfusion injury, reperfusion time correlation and compliance, finding the blood supply and improving the secondary damage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 180 patients who underwent a surgical procedure and that received normal saline intraperitoneally immediately after the patients' aortic occlusions were investigated. Patients were divided in three groups. Experimental conditions and programs were designed for various approaches. RESULTS: Thirty min after the onset of ischemia, we found a decrease in the local blood flow in the lumbar spinal cord, almost -77.48% of the baseline, which was reversed partially by initial reperfusion, even exceeding the baseline level. However, 1 hour after reperfusion, the blood flow was again decreased to the level below the baseline, followed by a decline to 207.13% ± 38.25 PU for 3 h without any recovery. Attenuating this secondary damage with neuroprotective strategies requires an understanding of these pathophysiologic processes. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed the pathological mechanism changes during reperfusion injury and reperfusion time correlation and compliance, and analyzed some of the important pathophysiologic processes involved in secondary damage after spinal cord injury. Moreover, our research discusses a number of pharmacologic therapies that have either been studied or have future potential for this devastating injury.

The role of three-dimensional pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling in grading and differentiating histological subgroups of meningiomas.

AIM: To evaluate the usefulness of pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling (pCASL) imaging in grading and differentiating histological subtypes of meningiomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this prospective study, conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images and pCASL were acquired with a 3 T MRI system before surgery in 125 consecutive patients with suspected meningiomas. Finally, the perfusion parameters were collected from 84 grade I and 23 grade II meningiomas. On the pCASL perfusion map, the mean absolute cerebral blood flow (CBF) values from the meningioma (CBFtumour), peritumoural oedema (CBFPTO), white matter of contralateral centrum semi-ovale (CBFwm) and normal grey matter (CBFgm) were calculated. Additionally, the associations of these perfusion parameters with the value of ki-67 index were analysed. RESULTS: The CBFwm value correlated negatively with the largest diameter of the tumour, which limited its usage as a reference for ratio calculation. The CBFtumour values of grade II and grade I meningiomas did not differ significantly: 137.36±71.85 ml/min/100 g versus 123.58±135.80 ml/min/100 g (p=0.641). The CBFPTO value was higher for grade II meningioma as than for grade I meningiomas: 30.30±15.56 ml/min/100 g versus 22.33±9.87 ml/min/100 g (p=0.037). The CBFtumour value was highest in angiomatous meningioma and lowest in fibrous meningioma, thus enabling the differentiation of subtypes of meningioma. The CBFtumour value did not correlate with the ki-67 index of meningioma. CONCLUSION: The CBFPTO value, rather than the CBFtumour value, from pCASL imaging may serve as a key factor in distinguishing different grades of meningiomas. Moreover, angiomatous meningiomas and fibrous meningiomas can be identified by CBFtumour value.

[The difference expression and diagnostic value of RPL5 in papillary thyroid carcinoma of children and adults].

Objective: To study the difference expression and diagnostic value of ribosomal protein L5 (RPL5) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) of children and adults. Methods: Realtime-PCR was performed to detect the expression of RPL5 in 22 PTC tissues and 13 pericarcinous tissues. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and Youden's index were used to evaluate the diagnostic value of RPL5 in PTC of children and adults. Results: The expression of RPL5 in PTC tissues was higher than in pericarcinous tissues. The area under curve (AUC) was 0.820 (P=0.001), and Youden's index was 0.568. The expression of RPL5 in PTC of adults was higher than children (P<0.05). The AUC and Youden's index were respectively 0.721 (P=0.069) and 0.414 in children, whereas being respectively 0.896 (P=0.0005) and 0.709 in adults. RPL5 in diagnosis of PTC of adults was better than CK19, Galectin-3 and TPO, which are commonly used for the pathologic diagnosis of PTC. Conclusion: The expression of RPL5 in PTC is higher than pericarcinous tissues, and its expression in PTC of adults is higher than children. Furthermore, PTC is a potential indicator for diagnosis of PTC.

Nonlinear wave propagation in porous materials based on the Biot theory.

Nonlinearity must be considered with some porous granular media because of the large deformation under seismic waves. In this study, the propagation of nonlinear waves in porous media is studied based on the Biot theory and the governing equations are obtained by the Lagrangian formulation. Three new nonlinear parameters are introduced to consider the coupled nonlinearity between the solid and fluid components in porous media. It is shown that an additional nonlinear wave with a double frequency is generated by the coupling effect of linear fast and slow waves. When only a shear wave is applied at the source, no double-frequency nonlinear wave is predicted and three nonlinear longitudinal waves are generated. On the basis of the practical case studies, the effect of strong nonlinearity is computed under the influence of a one-dimensional single longitudinal wave source and a single shear wave source.

[Influence of extremely low-frequency magnetic field on circadian rhythm of cryptochrome in mouse embryonic fibroblasts].

Objective: To investigate the influence of extremely low-frequency magnetic field on periodical expression of cryptochrome (Cry) gene in mouse embryonic fibroblast NIH3T3 cells. Methods: The NIH3T3 cells were divided into magnetic field group and sham-exposure group. The NIH3T3 cells in the magnetic field group were stimulated by horse serum and then exposed to an extremely low-frequency magnetic field (50 Hz and 0.3 mT) for 48 hours, and those in the sham-exposure group were also stimulated by horse serum and then exposed to a coil for 48 hours. The NIH3T3 cells were collected, total RNA was extracted, and cDNA was obtained via reverse transcription. Real-time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR was used to measure the changes in transcription cycles of Cry and Period genes in both groups. Results: There was no significant difference in the proliferation rate at 0, 12, 24, and 48 hours of exposure between the two groups (P>0.05) . Both sham-exposure group and magnetic field group showed a rhythmic change in the expression of Cry gene, and compared with the sham-exposure group, the magnetic field group had a significantly shortened circadian rhythm of Cry gene in NIH3T3 cells (t=2.57, P<0.05) . Both groups had rhythmic and periodical expression of Period gene and there was no significant difference between the two groups (t=0.70, P>0.05) . Conclusion: Extremely low-frequency magnetic field can significantly shorten the circadian rhythm of Cry gene in mouse embryonic fibroblasts, while there is no significant change in the circadian rhythm of Period gene.

Imaging features of intracranial psammomatous meningioma.

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to describe the imaging features of intracranial psammomatous meningioma (IPM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-three patients with a histopathological diagnosis of IPM between January 2007 and August 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Twenty-two patients underwent contrast-enhanced MRI scanning, and 16 underwent non-enhanced CT. RESULTS: A total of 23 adult patients (3 men, 20 women; mean age, 55.3±7.0 years) with 30 IPMs, including 3 patients with multiple IPMs, were recruited. Twenty tumours (66.7%) were located at the cerebral convexity. The mean size of the lesions was 2.42±0.92cm (range, 1.2-4.8cm). All tumours had a regular shape. On CT scans, 13 masses (13/22) were totally replaced with calcifications, and calcifications were observed in 21 cases (21/22) with higher density. There were 22 cases (22/30) of IPMs presenting adjacent hyperostosis, while 8 cases (8/30) presented no skull changes that were not close to the skull. Nearly half of the cases (14/29) showed mixed hypo- and hyperintensity on T2-weighted images and DWI. PTBE was present in 8 tumours and absent in the other 22, among which only 4 tumours were accompanied by severe oedema. CONCLUSIONS: These radiological findings may facilitate correct diagnosis for IPMs and thus presurgical planning, prognosis evaluation and treatment of meningiomas.

The relationship between quality of life and clinical phenotype in patients with treatment resistant and non-treatment resistant depression.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this investigation is to determine the differences in quality of life (QOL) and clinical phenotype between patients with treatment resistant (TRD) and non-treatment resistant depression (NTRD). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The severity, QOL, and cognitive function of 107 TRD and 173 NTRD patients were evaluated and calculated by the Hamilton Depression Scale-17 (HAMD-17), the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), and the P300 component of event-related potentials (ERP), respectively. RESULTS: The scores of HAMD-17 showed no significant statistical differences between TRD (28.8±6.7) and NTRD patients (29.3±8.2). The scores of anxiety/somatization (t=4.535, p=0.002), core item (t=3.514, p=0.005) and sleep item (t=6.079, p=0.000) were statistically significantly higher in TRD patients than in NTRD patients. The scores of physiological function (75.46±20.1, 88.23±21.4), body pain (61.39±17.1, 77.19±21.2) and social functioning (40.27±20.6, 58.82±22.1) in SF-36 were statistically significantly lower in TRD patients than in NTRD patients. The P300 latency of ERP was statistically significantly longer in TRD patients than in NTRD patients. Each item in the quality of life was negatively related to the items in HAMD-17 in TRD patients, especially for anxiety/somatization, and sleep items. The QOL was negatively related to core item and retardation item in NTRD patients, and the QOL was negatively related to the P300 latency of ERP in both groups, p<0.05. The sleep disorder, anxiety/somatization and core items were more serious in TRD patients than in NTRD patients, when the severity of depression was not significantly different. The QOL was significantly lower in TRD patients than in NTRD patients, the anxiety/somatization and sleep disorder were the main symptomatic factors that caused decreased QOL in TRD patients. CONCLUSIONS: The abilities of abstract generalization, thinking transfer, and performing a function, were significantly lower in TRD patients than in NTRD patients, which were important factors which caused decreased QOL in TRD patients.

Effect of ZEB2 silencing on cisplatin resistance in gastric cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of ZEB2 silencing on cisplatin resistance in gastric cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The resulting cell line, SGC7901/DDP, was transfected with ZEB2 siRNA, non-specific siRNA, or vehicle control. The effectiveness of ZEB2 silencing was evaluated by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot. MTT viability assay was used to determine the cisplatin-sensitivity of cells. Cell apoptosis was measured by flow cytometry. RESULTS: A significant decrease in ZEB2 in mRNA and protein level was seen in cells transfected with ZEB2 siRNA, compared to that in cells transfected with non-specific siRNA or vehicle. Transfection with ZEB2 siRNA in cisplatin-resistant SGC7901/DDP cells resulted in a significant decrease in cell viability in response to the cisplatin treatment, and cell viability decreased with increasing cisplatin concentrations. A higher apoptotic rate was also seen in cells transfected with ZEB2 siRNA under cisplatin treatment. CONCLUSIONS: ZEB2 silencing can effectively make gastric cells sensitive to cisplatin treatment in vitro.