Efficacy and immune-inflammatory mechanism of acupuncture-related therapy in animal models of knee osteoarthritis: a preclinical systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Many KOA patients have not reached indications for surgery, thus we need to find effective non-surgical treatments. Acupuncture is thought to have the potential to modulate inflammation and cytokines in KOA through the immune system. However, the mechanisms have not been elucidated, and there is no network Meta-analysis of acupuncture on KOA animals. So we evaluate the effect and mechanism of acupuncture-related therapy in KOA animals. METHODS: A comprehensive search was conducted in multiple databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CBM, CNKI, WanFang, and VIP Database to identify relevant animal studies focusing on acupuncture therapy for KOA. The included studies were assessed for risk of bias using SYRCLE's Risk of Bias tool. Subsequently, pair-wise meta-analysis and network meta-analysis were performed using Stata 15.0 software, evaluating outcomes such as Lequesne index scale, Mankin score, IL-1ß, TNF-α, MMP3, and MMP13. RESULTS: 56 RCTs with 2394 animals were included. Meta-analysis showed that among the 6 outcomes, there were significant differences between acupuncture and model group; the overall results of network meta-analysis showed that the normal group or sham operation group performed the best, followed by the acupotomy, acupuncture, and medicine group, and the model group had the worst effect, and there were significant differences between 6 interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncture-related therapy can be a possible treatment for KOA. The mechanism involves many immune-inflammatory pathways, which may be mediated by DAMPs/TLR/NF-κB/MAPK,PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway, or IFN-γ/JAK-STAT pathway. It needs to be further confirmed by more high-quality animal experiments or meta-analysis. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO identifier: CRD42023377228.

Enhanced anaerobic oxidation of methane with the coexistence of iron oxides and sulfate fertilizer in paddy soil.

Iron oxides and sulfate are usually abundant in paddy soil, but their role in reducing methane emissions is little known. In this work, paddy soil was anaerobically cultivated with ferrihydrite and sulfate for 380 days. An activity assay, inhibition experiment, and microbial analysis were conducted to evaluate the microbial activity, possible pathways, and community structure, respectively. The results showed that anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) was active in the paddy soil. The AOM activity was much higher with ferrihydrite than sulfate, and an extra 10% of AOM activity was stimulated when ferrihydrite and sulfate coexisted. The microbial community was highly similar to the duplicates but totally different with different electron acceptors. The microbial abundance and diversity decreased due to the oligotrophic condition, but mcrA-carrying archaea increased 2-3 times after 380 days. Both the microbial community and the inhibition experiment implied that there was an intersection between iron and sulfur cycles. A "cryptic sulfur cycle" might link the two cycles, in which sulfate was quickly regenerated by iron oxides, and it might contribute 33% of AOM in the tested paddy soil. Complex links between methane, iron, and sulfur geochemical cycles occur in paddy soil, which may be significant in reducing methane emissions from rice fields.

miR-1251-5p Overexpression Inhibits Proliferation, Migration, and Immune Escape in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma by Targeting NPTX2.

Background: miR-1251-5p was identified as a tumor suppressor in a variety of malignancies; however, its biological function in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is unknown. Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used to download expression information, including miR-1251-5p, in 521 ccRCC tissues and 71 ordinary tissues, and bioinformatics was used to explore possible target mRNAs. The relationship between miR-1251-5p, target mRNA activity, and clinical factors was examined. To estimate the biological activity of miR-1251-5p and target mRNA in ccRCC cells, we used MTT, colony formation, enzyme-linked immunosorbent, and Transwell assays. We employed a dual-luciferase reporter assay and a western blot to examine the molecular mechanisms of miR-1251-5p in ccRCC cells. In addition, the expressions of miR-1251-5p and target mRNA were further verified in the GEO database. Results: Our findings revealed that miR-1251-5p binds with NPTX2's 3'-UTR. In TCGA and GEO datasets, miR-1251-5p activity is found to be lower in ccRCC tissues than that in nearby conventional tissues, although NPTX2 activity is higher. In ccRCC sufferers, miR-1251-5p and NPTX2 act as biomarkers that indicate a bad prognosis. Meanwhile, in miR-1251-5p tissues, NPTX2 expression and multiple clinical variables (survival status, grade, T staging, N staging, M staging, and clinical stage) had significant differences (p < 0.05). Structurally, miR-1251-5p inhibited proliferation, migration, and immune escape of ccRCC cells by targeting NPTX2. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that miR-1251-5p constrained ccRCC cell advancement, migration, and immune evasion via targeting NPTX2, providing novel insights into ccRCC target treatment.

Synergistic effect of glycated chitosan and photofrin photodynamic therapy on different breast tumor model.

Metastases and recurrence of cancer are the main causes of failure and death. Induction of a long-term tumor specific immunity seems to be a great strategy to deal with this challenge. Laser immunotherapy (LIT), using immunomodulatory techniques in combination with photodynamic therapy (PDT), so as to enhance an already robust immune response, has been proposed and investigated by numerous researchers. In our study, mice bearing EMT6 breast tumors and 4T1 metastatic breast tumors were addressed in various permutations of the different components in LIT. The survival rates and the tumor growth curve of EMT6 breast tumors bearing mice were analyzed. We compared the level of inflammatory reaction, cell apoptosis and activated immune cells infiltration of local tumors. We validated the systemic effect of LIT through the 4T1 metastatic breast tumors bearing mice. The results not only proved that concomitant with Glycated chitosan (GC) can improve the effect of inhibiting the tumor growth, improving survival, enhancing local inflammatory reaction and attracting acted immune cells to tumor by photodynamic therapy with Photofrin, but also intuitively proved the systemic effect and long-term effect of LIT.

Retrospective analysis of therapeutic effect and prognostic factors on early glottic carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the therapeutic effect of surgery, radiotherapy and photodynamic therapy on early glottic carcinoma and prognostic factors. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of 202 cases with early glottic carcinoma (Tis-T2N0M0) underwent surgery (n=152), radiotherapy (n=20) and PDT (n=30) from 2000 to 2013 The KPS score, the disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), local control (LC), larynx preservation rate, laryngeal function were evaluated. The methods of χ (2)test or Fisher's exact probability method, Kaplan Meier method, log-rank test of Kaplan-Meier method, Cox proportional hazards model were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: There was no statistical significance in OS, DFS and LC among the three groups. The laryngeal function preservation rate of RT group, PDT group and Surgery group were 90%, 86.7% and 65.1% respectively, with the former two groups significantly superior to Surgery group. While there is no statistical significance between RT group and PDT group. Single factor analysis showed that KPS score before treatment, vocal fold mobility limitation and differentiation degree could have an effect on prognosis. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that anterior commissure invasion, T stage and KPS score before treatment were independent adverse prognostic factors for OS. T stage and differentiation degree were adverse prognostic factors for DFS. T stage was also an adverse factor of LC. Thirty-three cases experienced local recurrence or cervical lymph node metastasis. Three groups showed no statistical difference in local recurrence or lymph node metastasis, with twenty-two cases in Surgery group, four in RT group and seven in PDT group. CONCLUSIONS: The therapeutic effect was approximate in surgery group, radiotherapy group and photodynamic group, and all three treatment regimens achieved good clinical effect. Radiotherapy and photodynamic therapy may be the first or very important treatment on early stage glottic squamous cell cancer (Tis∼T2N0M0). However only 6 patients underwent PDT for T2 disease, making definitive treatment conclusions for this subgroup unclear.