GCSB-5 regulates inflammatory arthritis and pain by modulating the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway in a murine model of rheumatoid arthritis.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine whether GCSB-5 has anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects in mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), an animal model of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and investigate the influence of GCSB-5 on the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Materials and methods: The experimental animal study was designed to include five groups: CIA mice treated with GCSB-5 (300 mg/kg), GCSB-5 (600 mg/kg), celecoxib (60 mg/kg), or saline for four weeks, and nontreated control mice. The clinical severity of arthritis was scored. Nociceptive thresholds were measured by using a von Frey dynamic plantar analgesimeter. The MAPK pathway was evaluated in mouse synovium. The expression of channels associated with pain signaling was assessed by western blot and immunohistochemical staining. Results: GCSB-5 treatment diminished the severity of clinical arthritis and increased the nociceptive threshold in mice with CIA. Celecoxib, a positive control drug, also showed comparable changes. Clinical arthritis scores were inversely related to mechanical thresholds. GCSB-5 administration decreased the levels of anti-type II collagen antibody and inflammatory cytokines in the sera of mice with CIA. Furthermore, ERK, p38 MAPK, and JNK phosphorylation were downregulated and TRPV1 and ASIC3 expression were decreased in the synovium of GCSB-5-treated mice compared to salinetreated mice. Interleukin-6-induced TRPV1 and ASIC3 upregulation were also inhibited by GCSB-5 in human RA fibroblast-like synoviocytes in vitro. Conclusion: GCSB-5 decreased inflammatory arthritis and pain in a murine model of RA. The results present evidence that GCSB-5 may be beneficial for relieving pain as well as decreasing inflammation in autoimmune arthritis, such as RA.

Highly Fluorescent Supramolecular Nanoring Composed of Bent-Shaped Cyanostilbene Derivatives and Cucurbit[8]urils.

Supramolecular organic frameworks (SOFs) made of organic guest molecule and cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) in aqueous solution have great potential for diverse applications. Herein, we designed highly fluorescent zero-dimensional (0D) nano-ring SOF with CB[8] as a host and novel bent-shaped cyanostilbene guest. This host-guest complex successfully formed macrocyclic hexamer and showed significantly enhanced fluorescence (ΦF =68 %) compared to non-assembled monomer (ΦF =2 %). Unlike other SOFs, this 0D SOF could be dispersed uniformly without bundling phenomenon in water.

Efficient knowledge distillation for liver CT segmentation using growing assistant network.

Segmentation has been widely used in diagnosis, lesion detection, and surgery planning. Although deep learning (DL)-based segmentation methods currently outperform traditional methods, most DL-based segmentation models are computationally expensive and memory inefficient, which are not suitable for the intervention of liver surgery. To address this issue, a simple solution is to make a segmentation model very small for the fast inference time, however, there is a trade-off between the model size and performance. In this paper, we propose a DL-based real-time 3-D liver CT segmentation method, where knowledge distillation (KD) method, known as knowledge transfer from teacher to student models, is incorporated to compress the model while preserving the performance. Because it is well known that the knowledge transfer is inefficient when the disparity of teacher and student model sizes is large, we propose a growing teacher assistant network (GTAN) to gradually learn the knowledge without extra computational cost, which can efficiently transfer knowledge even with the large gap of teacher and student model sizes. In our results, dice similarity coefficient of the student model with KD improved 1.2% (85.9% to 87.1%) compared to the student model without KD, which is a similar performance of the teacher model using only 8% (100k) parameters. Furthermore, with a student model of 2% (30k) parameters, the proposed model using the GTAN improved the dice coefficient about 2% compared to the student model without KD, and the inference time is 13 ms per a 3-D image. Therefore, the proposed method has a great potential for intervention in liver surgery as well as in many real-time applications.

Pain from intramuscular vaccine injection in adults / Percepción de dolor después de una inyección intramuscular en adultos

Background: Vaccine use has been increasing worldwide, and adult populations are presented with more opportunities to experience pain from vaccine injection. The insertion of a needle through the skin is the most common source of iatrogenic pain, and needle phobia is a major concern in medical practice. However, it is unclear which factors play major roles in the perception of pain from vaccine injection in adults. Aim: To evaluate the influences of patient characteristics on pain perception due to intramuscular vaccine injection in healthy adult volunteers. Material and Methods: The injection of hepatitis B vaccine using a 24 mm, 24-G needle was performed as a uniform stimulus, and the intensity of injection pain was measured immediately after the injection using a 100-mm visual analogue scale (VAS). The influences of patient characteristics on pain intensity were investigated. Results: One hundred sixty volunteers (65 males, 95 females) were enrolled in this study. The average VAS score was 20.8 ± 17.1 (range 0 to 67) in males and 34.4 ± 19.7 (range 2 to 76) in females (P < 0.001). However, there were no correlations between VAS score and age, body mass index or maximal pain score from previous painful experiences. The VAS score was also not affected by the experience of previous vaccine injections, a history of childbirth in females, or religion. Conclusions: Gender appears to be the only major factor that influences the pain of intramuscular vaccine injection. Therefore, pain-reducing methods will be needed when performing injection procedures, particularly in women.

Antecedentes: La inserción de una aguja para inyecciones es la forma más común de inducción de dolor iatrogénico. No se sabe qué factores afectan la percepción del dolor. Objetivo: Evaluar la influencia de características propias de los pacientes en la percepción de dolor después de una inyección intramuscular. Material y Métodos: Se utilizó como estímulo, la inyección intramuscular de vacuna de hepatitis B, mediante una aguja de 24 mm (24 G). La intensidad del dolor fue evaluada inmediatamente después de la inyección utilizando una escala visual análoga de 100 mm (VAS). Se evaluó la influencia de las características de los pacientes en la intensidad del dolor. Resultados: Participaron 160 voluntarios (65 hombres). El puntaje VAS fue 20,8 ± 17,1 (rango 0 a 67) en hombres y 34,4 ± 19,7 (rango 2 a 76) en mujeres (p < 0,01). No hubo asociación entre el puntaje VAS y edad, índice de masa corporal, haber experimentado previamente dolor, haber dado a luz en mujeres o religión. Conclusiones: El género es la única variable que se asocia con la percepción de dolor después de una inyección intramuscular.