Gold Nanopyramid Arrays for Non-Invasive Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy-Based Gastric Cancer Detection via sEVs.

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common and lethal types of cancer affecting over one million people, leading to 768,793 deaths globally in 2020 alone. The key for improving the survival rate lies in reliable screening and early diagnosis. Existing techniques including barium-meal gastric photofluorography and upper endoscopy can be costly and time-consuming and are thus impractical for population screening. We look instead for small extracellular vesicles (sEVs, currently also referred as exosomes) sized ⌀ 30-150 nm as a candidate. sEVs have attracted a significantly higher level of attention during the past decade or two because of their potentials in disease diagnoses and therapeutics. Here, we report that the composition information of the collective Raman-active bonds inside sEVs of human donors obtained by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) holds the potential for non-invasive GC detection. SERS was triggered by the substrate of gold nanopyramid arrays we developed previously. A machine learning-based spectral feature analysis algorithm was developed for objectively distinguishing the cancer-derived sEVs from those of the non-cancer sub-population. sEVs from the tissue, blood, and saliva of GC patients and non-GC participants were collected (n = 15 each) and analyzed. The algorithm prediction accuracies were reportedly 90, 85, and 72%. "Leave-a-pair-of-samples out" validation was further performed to test the clinical potential. The area under the curve of each receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.96, 0.91, and 0.65 in tissue, blood, and saliva, respectively. In addition, by comparing the SERS fingerprints of individual vesicles, we provided a possible way of tracing the biogenesis pathways of patient-specific sEVs from tissue to blood to saliva. The methodology involved in this study is expected to be amenable for non-invasive detection of diseases other than GC.

Identification and structure activity relationship of novel flavone derivatives that inhibit the production of nitric oxide and PGE2 in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells.

In an effort to identify novel anti-inflammatory compounds, a series of flavone derivatives were synthesized and biologically evaluated for their inhibitory effects on the production of nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), representative pro-inflammatory mediators, in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. Their structure-activity relationship was also investigated. In particular, we found that compound 3g displayed more potent inhibitory activities on PGE2 production, similar inhibitory activities on NO production and less weak cytotoxicity than luteolin, a natural flavone known as a potent anti-inflammatory agent.

Identification of novel estrogen receptor (ER) agonists that have additional and complementary anti-cancer activities via ER-independent mechanism.

In this study, a series of bis(4-hydroxy)benzophenone oxime ether derivatives such as 12c, 12e and 12h were identified as novel estrogen receptor (ER) agonists that have additional and complementary anti-proliferative activities via ER-independent mechanism in cancer cells. These compounds are expected to overcome the therapeutic limitation of existing ER agonists such as estradiol and tamoxifen, which have been known to induce the proliferation of cancer cells.

Salivary gland dysfunction after radioactive iodine (I-131) therapy in patients following total thyroidectomy: emphasis on radioactive iodine therapy dose.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate symptoms, images of salivary gland dysfunction, and related clinical factors in thyroid cancer patients with total thyroidectomy followed by radioiodine therapy (RIT). METHODS: We included 164 patients who underwent thyroid ultrasonography or contrast-enhanced neck computed tomography more than 6 months later after RIT. Correlation between subjective symptoms and various RIT doses was also evaluated. RESULTS: Swelling and decreased salivary volume were the most common symptoms and images. RIT dose was the only factor with a positive correlation (P<.001). CONCLUSION: The dose of RIT should be carefully determined to minimize gland dysfunction.

Video laryngoscopy versus direct laryngoscopy for tracheal intubation during in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

AIM: Tracheal intubation during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a high-risk procedure. Here, we investigated the efficacy of video laryngoscopy for tracheal intubation during CPR. METHODS: Data regarding tracheal intubation during CPR from in-hospital cardiac arrests occurring between January 2011 and December 2013 (n=229) were prospectively collected and retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The initial laryngoscopy method was video laryngoscopy in 121 patients (52.8%) and direct laryngoscopy in 108 patients (47.2%). The rate of successful intubation at the first attempt was higher with video laryngoscopy (71.9%; 87/121) than with direct laryngoscopy (52.8%; 57/108; p=0.003). The rate of success at the first attempt was higher for experienced (73.0%; 84/115) than inexperienced operators, including residents (52.6%; 60/114; p=0.001). Mortality at day 28 after CPR was not significantly different between patients with successful tracheal intubation at the first attempt and without (68.1% [98/144] vs. 67.1% [57/85]; p=0.876). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, a predicted difficult airway (odds ratio [95% confidence interval]=0.22 [0.10-0.49]; p<0.001), intubation by an experienced operator (2.63 [1.42-4.87]; p=0.002), and use of video laryngoscopy rather than direct laryngoscopy (2.42 [1.30-4.45]; p=0.005) were independently associated with a successful tracheal intubation at the first attempt. CONCLUSION: Use of video laryngoscopy during CPR from in-hospital cardiac arrest is independently associated with successful tracheal intubation at the first attempt.

A three-year autoregressive cross-lagged panel analysis on nicotine dependence and average smoking.

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have been limited to the use of cross sectional data to identify the relationships between nicotine dependence and smoking. Therefore, it is difficult to determine a causal direction between the two variables. The purposes of this study were to 1) test whether nicotine dependence or average smoking was a more influential factor in smoking cessation; and 2) propose effective ways to quit smoking as determined by the causal relations identified. METHODS: This study used a panel dataset from the central computerized management systems of community-based smoking cessation programs in Korea. Data were stored from July 16, 2005 to July 15, 2008. 711,862 smokers were registered and re-registered for the programs during the period. 860 of those who were retained in the programs for three years were finally included in the dataset. To measure nicotine dependence, this study used a revised Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence. To examine the relationship between nicotine dependence and average smoking, an autoregressive cross-lagged model was explored in the study. RESULTS: The results indicate that 1) nicotine dependence and average smoking were stable over time; 2) the impact of nicotine dependence on average smoking was significant and vice versa; and 3) the impact of average smoking on nicotine dependence is greater than the impact of nicotine dependence on average smoking. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the existing data obtained from previous research. Collectively, reducing the amount of smoking in order to decrease nicotine dependence is important for evidence-based policy making for smoking cessation.

Application of social network analysis to health care sectors.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the feasibility of social network analysis as a valuable research tool for indicating a change in research topics in health care and medicine. METHODS: Papers used in the analysis were collected from the PubMed database at the National Library of Medicine. After limiting the search to papers affiliated with the National Institutes of Health, 27,125 papers were selected for the analysis. From these papers, the top 100 non-duplicate and most studied Medical Subject Heading terms were extracted. NetMiner V.3 was used for analysis. Weighted degree centrality was applied to the analysis to compare the trends in the change of research topics. Changes in the core keywords were observed for the entire group and in three-year intervals. RESULTS: The core keyword with the highest centrality value was "Risk Factor," followed by "Molecular Sequence Data," "Neoplasms," "Signal Transduction," "Brain," and "Amino Acid Sequence." Core keywords varied between time intervals, changing from "Molecular Sequence Data" to "Risk Factors" over time. "Risk Factors" was added as a new keyword and its social network was expanded. The slope of the keywords also varied over time: "Molecular Sequence Data," with a high centrality value, had a decreasing slope at certain intervals, whereas "SNP," with a low centrality value, had an increasing slope at certain intervals. CONCLUSIONS: The social network analysis method is useful for tracking changes in research topics over time. Further research should be conducted to confirm the usefulness of this method in health care and medicine.