Coexistence of liver abscess, hepatic cystic echinococcosis and hepatocellular carcinoma: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Human cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a life-threatening zoonosis caused by the Echinococcus granulosus (sensu lato). Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world. The coexistence of CE and HCC is exceedingly rare, and only several well-documented cases have been reported. In addition to this coexistence, there is no report of the coexistence of CE, HCC, and liver abscess to date. Herein, we aimed to report a case of coexistence of liver abscess, hepatic CE, and HCC. CASE SUMMARY: A 65-year-old herdsman presented to the department of interventional therapy with jaundice, right upper abdominal distension and pain for 10 d. Laboratory test showed that he had positive results for HBsAg, HBeAb, HBcAb, and echinococcosis IgG antibody. The test also showed an increased level of alpha fetoprotein of 3400 ng/mL. An abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan revealed an uneven enhanced lesion of the liver at the arterial phase with enhancement and was located S4/8 segment of the liver. In addition, CT scan also revealed a mass in the S6 segment of the liver with a thick calcified wall and according to current guideline and medical images, the diagnoses of hepatic CE (CE4 subtype) and HCC were established. Initially, transarterial chemoembolization was performed for HCC. In the follow-up, liver abscess occurred in addition to CE and HCC; thus, percutaneous liver puncture drainage was performed. In the next follow-up, CE and HCC were stable. The liver abscess was completely resolved, and the patient was discharged with no evidence of recurrence. CONCLUSION: This is the first reported case on the coexistence of liver abscess, hepatic CE, and HCC. Individualized treatment and multidisciplinary discussions should be performed in this setting. Therefore, treatment and diagnosis should be based on the characteristics of liver abscess, hepatic CE, and HCC, and in future clinical work, it is necessary to be aware of the possibility of this complex composition of liver diseases.

Malignant risk of pediatric Bethesda category III thyroid nodules subcategorized by nuclear atypia and other: A single institution experience.

BACKGROUND: The 2023 Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (TBSRTC) divides AUS diagnoses into two major subcategories: atypia of undetermined significance (AUS) nuclear atypia (AUS-N) and other (AUS-O). This study aims to compare the histological outcome and malignant rate of pediatric AUS thyroid nodules classified into AUS-N and AUS-O subcategories. DESIGN: A search of our institutional electronic pathology database for the period from January 2012 to July 2023 was conducted to identify pediatric (<21 years old) thyroid nodules that were interpreted as AUS and subsequently had surgery. Cases were further divided into AUS-N and AUS-O subcategories. Results of follow-up surgical resections were collected. The malignant rate was calculated and compared between AUS-N and AUS-O groups. RESULTS: The study identified 62 thyroid nodules from 58 pediatric patients. Among these nodules, 29 and 33 were subcategorized as AUS-N and AUS-O, respectively. Both groups exhibited a female predominance and displayed a similar nodule size distribution. Histological analysis revealed 15 carcinomas in AUS-N nodules, including 11 cases of classic papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and four cases of follicular type of PTC. In contrast, in the AUS-O group, a total of five carcinomas were documented, including two PTCs and three oncocytic thyroid carcinomas. Notably, the malignant rate of AUS-N nodules (52%) is significantly higher than that of AUS-O nodules (15%) (p = .002). CONCLUSION: In pediatric AUS thyroid nodules, the malignant risk in AUS-N is significantly higher than that in AUS-O. These findings may guide more appropriate clinical triage and/or improve management of pediatric patients with AUS thyroid nodules.

Standard Radio-Iodine Labeling Protocols Impaired the Functional Integrity of Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cell Exosomes.

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are an extensively studied cell type in clinical trials due to their easy availability, substantial ex vivo proliferative capacity, and therapeutic efficacy in numerous pre-clinical animal models of disease. The prevailing understanding suggests that their therapeutic impact is mediated by the secretion of exosomes. Notably, MSC exosomes present several advantages over MSCs as therapeutic agents, due to their non-living nature and smaller size. However, despite their promising therapeutic potential, the clinical translation of MSC exosomes is hindered by an incomplete understanding of their biodistribution after administration. A primary obstacle to this lies in the lack of robust labels that are highly sensitive, capable of directly and easily tagging exosomes with minimal non-specific labeling artifacts, and sensitive traceability with minimal background noise. One potential candidate to address this issue is radioactive iodine. Protocols for iodinating exosomes and tracking radioactive iodine in live imaging are well-established, and their application in determining the biodistribution of exosomes has been reported. Nevertheless, the effects of iodination on the structural or functional activities of exosomes have never been thoroughly examined. In this study, we investigate these effects and report that these iodination methods abrogate CD73 enzymatic activity on MSC exosomes. Consequently, the biodistribution of iodinated exosomes may reflect the biodistribution of denatured exosomes rather than functionally intact ones.

Microalgal-bacterial treatment of ice-cream wastewater to remove organic waste and harvest oil-rich biomass.

The diversity of microalgae and bacteria allows them to form beneficial consortia for efficient wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of a new microalgal-bacterial combination in the treatment of ice cream wastewater for biomass harvest. The bacterium Novosphingobium sp. ICW1 was natively isolated from ice cream wastewater and the microalga Vischeria sp. WL1 was a terrestrial oil-producing strain of Eustigmatophyceae. The ice cream wastewater was diluted 4 folds for co-cultivation, which was relatively less inhibitory for the growth of Vischeria sp. WL1. Four initial algal-bacterial combinations (v:v) of 150:0 (single algal cultivation), 150:1, 150:2, and 150:4 were assessed. During 24 days of co-cultivation, algal pigmentation was dynamically changed, particularly at the algal-bacterial combination of 150:4. Algal growth (in terms of cell number) was slightly promoted during the late phase of co-cultivation at the combinations of 150:2 and 150:4, while in the former the cellular oil yield was obviously elevated. Treated by these algal-bacterial combinations, total carbon was reduced by 67.5 ~ 74.5% and chemical oxygen demand was reduced by 55.0 ~ 60.4%. Although single bacterial treatment was still effective for removing organic nutrients, the removal efficiency was obviously enhanced at the algal-bacterial combination of 150:4. In addition, the harvested oils contained 87.1 ~ 88.3% monounsaturated fatty acids. In general, this study enriches the biotechnological solutions for the sustainable treatment of organic matter-rich food wastewater.

High throughput screening of pure silica zeolites for CF4 capture from electronics industry gas.

The capture and separation of CF4 from CF4/N2 mixture gas is a crucial issue in the electronics industry, as CF4 is a commonly used etching gas and the ratio of CF4 to N2 directly affects process efficiency. Utilizing high-throughput computational screening techniques and grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations, we comprehensively screened and assessed 247 types of pure silicon zeolite materials to determine their adsorption and separation performance for CF4/N2 mixtures. Based on screening, the relationships between the structural parameters and adsorption and separation properties were meticulously investigated. Four indicators including adsorption selectivity, working capacity, adsorbent performance score (APS), and regenerability (R%) were used to evaluate the performance of adsorbents. Based on the evaluation, we selected the top three best-performing zeolite structures for vacuum swing adsorption (LEV, AWW and ESV) and pressure swing adsorption (AVL, ZON, and ERI) processes respectively. Also, we studied the preferable adsorption sites of CF4 and N2 in the selected zeolite structures through centroid density distributions at the molecule level. We expect the study may provide some valuable guidance for subsequent experimental investigations on adsorption and separation of CF4/N2.

Prediction of Ablation Rate for High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Therapy of Adenomyosis in MR Images Based on Multi-model Fusion.

This study aimed to develop a model based on radiomics and deep learning features to predict the ablation rate in patients with adenomyosis undergoing high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy. A total of 119 patients with adenomyosis who received HIFU therapy were retrospectively analyzed. Participants were included in the training and testing queues in a 7:3 ratio. Radiomics features were extracted from T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) images, and VGG-19 was used to extract advanced deep features. An ensemble model based on multi-model fusion for predicting the efficacy of HIFU in adenomyosis was proposed, which consists of four base classifiers and was evaluated using accuracy, precision, recall, F-score, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The predictive performance of the combined model combining radiomics and deep learning features outperformed the radiomics and deep learning feature models alone, with accuracy of 0.848 and 0.814 in training and test sets, and AUC of 0.916 and 0.861, respectively. Compared with the base classifiers that make up the multi-model fusion model, the fusion model also exhibited better prediction performance. The fusion model incorporating both radiomics and deep learning features had certain predictive value for the ablation rate of adenomyosis under HIFU therapy and could help select patients with adenomyosis who would benefit from HIFU therapy.

Factors associated with the persistence of human papillomavirus after surgery in patients with cervical cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the rate of human papillomavirus (HPV) persistence after surgery in patients with cervical cancer, and to analyze the factors associated with HPV persistence and viral load after surgery. METHODS: Medical records of women who underwent surgery for treatment of cervical cancer between 1 January 2018 and 30 June 2019 at Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, were retrospectively analyzed. Patients with persistent HPV infection after 2 years of follow-up were identified. Univariate and multivariate analyses were employed to determine the impact of various factors including patient age, menopausal status, parity, and surgical margin status on HPV persistence. The Wilcoxon test was used to analyze the factors that influenced postoperative HPV viral load. RESULTS: Altogether, 607 women were eligible for the final analysis. The persistence rates of HPV at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after surgery were 17.3, 13.7, and 10.2 %, respectively. In univariate analysis, the factors that were predictive of the persistence of HPV infection were old age, postmenopausal status, and positive vaginal incision margin with cancer. In multivariate analysis, the significant independent predictive factors were postmenopausal status and positive vaginal incision margin with cancer (P < 0.05, odds ratio (OR) = 2.289, 95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.262-4.150 and OR = 3.271, 95 % CI: 1.253-8.537, respectively). A vaginal lesion with cancer or squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) and positive vaginal incision margin influenced HPV viral load at 6 months after surgery (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Postmenopausal patients and those with positive vaginal incision margin with cancer are at an increased risk of HPV persistence after surgical treatment for cervical cancer. Vaginal lesions with cancer or SILs and positive vaginal incision margin are risk factors for high HPV viral load after surgery.

Giving birth after fertility-sparing treatment for primary leiomyosarcoma of the fallopian tube.

Primary leiomyosarcoma of the fallopian tube (PLFT) is an extremely rare gynecological malignancy that has only been described in case reports. Fertility-sparing treatment for PLFT has not been reported previously. A 24-year-old nulligravida woman was diagnosed with stage IC1 PLFT in the right fallopian tube after experiencing right lower quadrant pain for 2 weeks. She underwent laparoscopic right salpingectomy to preserve fertility followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine/docetaxel. She subsequently became pregnant spontaneously, delivering a term baby 27 months after treatment. This appears to be the only report of the use of fertility-preserving treatment for PLFT. The success of the treatment provides valuable information on the preservation of fertility in young women with PLFT.

Effect of magnetic resonance imaging in liver metastases.

This letter to the editor is a commentary on a study titled "Liver metastases: The role of magnetic resonance imaging." Exploring a noninvasive imaging evaluation system for the biological behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the key to achieving precise diagnosis and treatment and improving prognosis. This review summarizes the role of magnetic resonance imaging in the detection and evaluation of liver metastases, describes its main imaging features, and focuses on the added value of the latest imaging tools (such as T1 weighted in phase imaging, T1 weighted out of phase imaging; diffusion-weighted imaging, T2 weighted imaging). In this study, I investigated the necessity and benefits of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid for HCC diagnostic testing and prognostic evaluation.

Exploitation of inland salt lake water by dilution and nutrient enrichment to cultivate Vischeria sp. WL1 (Eustigmatophyceae) for biomass and oil production.

Salt lakes are significant components of global inland waters. Salt lake (SL) water can provide precious mineral resource for microbial growth. The prospect of utilizing diluted SL water for cultivation of a terrestrial oil-producing microalga Vischeria sp. WL1 was evaluated under laboratory conditions. Based on the detected mineral element composition, the water from Gouchi Salt Lake was diluted 2, 4, 6 and 8 folds and used with supplementation of additional nitrogen, phosphorus and iron (SL+ water). It was found that 4 folds diluted SL+ water was most favorable for biomass and oil production. When cultivated in this condition, Vischeria sp. WL1 gained a biomass yield of 0.82 g L-1 and an oil yield of 0.56 g L-1 after 24 days of cultivation, which is comparable to the optimum productivity we previously established. In addition, total monounsaturated fatty acid contents (64.4∼68.1 %) of the oils resulted from cultures in diluted SL+waters were higher than that in the control (55.5 %). It was also noteworthy that in all these cultures the oil contents (652.0∼681.0 mg g-1) accounted for the most of the biomass, which are far more than the protein and starch contents. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using SL water as a cost-effective mineral resource to cultivate microalgae for biomass and oil production.

VEGFA/NRP-1/GAPVD1 axis promotes progression and cancer stemness of triple-negative breast cancer by enhancing tumor cell-macrophage crosstalk.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has long been considered a major clinical challenge due to its aggressive behavior and poor prognosis. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are known as the main cells responsible for tumor origination, progression, recurrence and metastasis. Here, we report that M2-type tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) contribute to cancer stemness in TNBC cells via the secretion of VEGFA. Reciprocally, elevated VEGFA expression by TAM-educated TNBC cells acts as a regulator of macrophage polarization, therefore constitute a feed-back loop between TNBC cells and TAMs. Mechanistically, VEGFA facilitates the CSC phenotype via the NRP-1 receptor and downstream GAPVD1/Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway in TNBC cells. Our study underscores the crosstalk between TNBC cells and TAMs mediated by VEGFA and further clarifies the role and underlying mechanisms of the VEGFA/NRP-1/GAPVD1 axis in regulating cancer stemness. We also document an immunosuppressive function of VEGFA in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Therefore, the present study indicates crosstalk between TNBC cells and TAMs induced by VEGFA and provides a potential implication for the combination of immunotherapy and VEGFA-targeted agents in TNBC therapy.

Hydroxysafflor Yellow A Promotes HaCaT Cell Proliferation and Migration by Regulating HBEGF/EGFR and PI3K/AKT Pathways and Circ_0084443.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect and possible mechanism of hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) on human immortalized keratinocyte cell proliferation and migration. METHODS: HaCaT cells were treated with HSYA. Cell proliferation was detected by the cell counting kit-8 assay, and cell migration was measured using wound healing assay and Transwell migration assay. The mRNA and protein expression levels of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like growth factor (HBEGF), EGF receptor (EGFR), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (AKT), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot, respectively. Circ_0084443-overexpressing HaCaT cells and empty plasmid HaCaT cells were constructed using the lentiviral stable transfection and treated with HSYA. The expression of circ_0084443 was detected by qRT-PCR. RESULTS: HSYA (800 µmol/L) significantly promoted HaCaT cell proliferation and migration (P<0.05 or P<0.01). It also increased the mRNA and protein expression levels of HBEGF, EGFR, PI3K, AKT, mTOR and HIF-1α, and increased the phosphorylation levels of PI3K and AKT (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Furthermore, HSYA promoted HaCaT cell proliferation and migration via the HBEGF/EGFR and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathways (P<0.01). Circ_0084443 attenuated the mRNA expression levels of HBEGF, EGFR, PI3K, AKT, mTOR and HIF-1α (P<0.05). HSYA inhibited the circ_0084443 expression, further antagonized the inhibition of circ_0084443 on HBEGF, EGFR, PI3K, AKT, mTOR and HIF-1α, and promoted the proliferation of circ_0084443-overexpressing HaCaT cells (P<0.05 or P<0.01). However, HSYA could not influence the inhibitory effect of circ_0084443 on HaCaT cell migration (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: HSYA played an accelerative role in HaCaT cell proliferation and migration, which may be attributable to activating HBEGF/EGFR and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways, and had a particular inhibitory effect on the keratinocyte negative regulator circ_0084443.

A novel open-source CADs platform for 3D CT pulmonary analysis.

Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems play vital roles in the early detection of pulmonary nodules for reducing lung cancer mortality rates. To provide better services for professional doctors, this paper proposes an efficient open-source CAD platform with flexible equipments, user-friendly interfaces, and completed functions for 3D CT pulmonary nodule analysis. For the platform's design and implementation, we fully consider application scenarios and system requirements. The platform supplies core functions for (1) Basic Image Processing, (2) Intelligent Image Analysis, (3) Multi-View Image Visualization, (4) Report Editing and Generation, (5) User Information Management, and (6) Inference Service Monitoring. Specifically, other state-of-the-art or user-defined algorithms can be integrated as plugin modules with no interference for system architecture. System evaluation with use-case testing demonstrates the effectiveness and universality of the proposed platform.

Cognitive impairment experienced by Chinese breast cancer survivors.

To identify cognitive function in Chinese breast cancer survivors. Research questions were: is cognitive function was associated with breast cancer and/or chemotherapy treatment and/or psychological functioning:? and did women with breast cancer experience more cognitive and psychological issues than age-matched women without cancer? Breast cancer survivors with chemotherapy (n = 106, mean age = 50.2 ± 9.5), breast cancer survivors without chemotherapy (n = 100, mean age = 50.5 ± 10.0) and matched healthy controls (n = 96, mean age = 47.9 ± 9.1) completed a battery of cognitive and psychosocial functioning. Demographic characteristics were also collected. The Perceived Cognitive Impairment score for cancer groups was significantly higher than for the healthy group (p = 0.04), but not between the cancer groups. Processing speed was significantly slower in the cancer groups than in the healthy group (both p < 0.001), but not between the cancer groups. Age, living status and education were significantly associated with the FACT-Cog (all p < 0.05). The correlations between the FACT-Cog score and BSI score were strong (r = 0.60 p < 0.01), and between the HADS anxiety and depression scales were strong (r = 0.53 and 0.50, p < 0.01) but correlations were weaker between performance based cognitive tests and measures of psychological functioning. Breast cancer groups indicated more cognitive impairment and reduced psychological functioning compared to the healthy group. However, there was no differences between the breast cancer groups. Chinese breast cancer survivors experienced excess cognitive impairment not associated with usual ageing. Assessment and intervention to address cognitive impairment should be made available to breast cancer survivors.

Patterns of Gene Expression Profiles Associated with Colorectal Cancer in Colorectal Mucosa by Using Machine Learning Methods.

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) has a very high incidence and lethality rate and is one of the most dangerous cancer types. Timely diagnosis can effectively reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer. Changes in para-cancerous tissues may serve as an early signal for tumorigenesis. Comparison of the differences in gene expression between para-cancerous and normal mucosa can help in the diagnosis of CRC and understanding the mechanisms of development. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify specific genes at the level of gene expression, which are expressed in normal mucosa and may be predictive of CRC risk. METHODS: A machine learning approach was used to analyze transcriptomic data in 459 samples of normal colonic mucosal tissue from 322 CRC cases and 137 non-CRC, in which each sample contained 28,706 gene expression levels. The genes were ranked using four ranking methods based on importance estimation (LASSO, LightGBM, MCFS, mRMR, and RF) and four classification algorithms (decision tree [DT], K-nearest neighbor [KNN], random forest [RF], and support vector machine [SVM]) were combined with incremental feature selection [IFS] methods to construct a prediction model with excellent performance. RESULT: The top-ranked genes, namely, HOXD12, CDH1, and S100A12, were associated with tumorigenesis based on previous studies. CONCLUSION: This study summarized four sets of quantitative classification rules based on the DT algorithm, providing clues for understanding the microenvironmental changes caused by CRC. According to the rules, the effect of CRC on normal mucosa can be determined.

Intratumoral injection of norcantharidin liposome emulsion hybrid delivery system amplifies the cancer-fighting effects of oral sorafenib against hepatocellular carcinoma.

Interventional therapies are increasingly used in clinical trials for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Sorafenib is the front-line remedy for HCC, however, chemoresistance occurs immutably and affects the effectiveness of treatment. In a previous study, a norcantharidin liposome emulsion hybrid (NLEH) delivery system for HCC was developed. This study aims to examine the therapeutic effects of the combination of intratumoral injection of NLEH and sorafenib in treating HCC. Sorafenib combined with NLEH activated the apoptosis pathway by synergistically upregulating caspase-9, promoting cytotoxicity, apoptosis (64.57%), and G2/M cell cycle arrest (48.96%). Norcantharidin could alleviate sorafenib resistance by counteracting sorafenib-induced phosphorylation of Akt. Additionally, intratumoral injection of NLEH exhibited a sustained accumulation in the tumor within 24 h and didn't distribute to other major organs. Intratumoral injection of NLEH in combination with oral sorafenib displayed the most potent tumor growth inhibitory effect (77.91%) in vivo. H&E staining results and the indicators of the renal and liver function tests demonstrated the safety of this combination therapy. Overall, these results showed that intratumoral injection of NLEH in combination with oral sorafenib treatment represented a rational potential therapeutic option for HCC.

Lung Cancer Risk Attributable to Active Smoking in China: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: No consensus exists on the relative risk ( RR) of lung cancer (LC) attributable to active smoking in China. This study aimed to evaluate the unified RR of LC attributable to active smoking among the Chinese population. Methods: A systematic literature search of seven databases was conducted to identify studies reporting active smoking among smokers versus nonsmokers in China. Primary articles on LC providing risk estimates with their 95% confidence intervals ( CIs) for "ever" "former" or "current" smokers from China were selected. Meta-analysis was used to estimate the pooled RR of active smoking. Results: Forty-four unique studies were included. Compared with that of nonsmokers, the pooled RR (95% CI) for "ever" "former" and "current" smokers were 3.26 (2.79-3.82), 2.95 (1.71-5.08), and 5.16 (2.58-10.34) among men, 3.18 (2.78-3.63), 2.70 (2.08-3.51), and 4.27 (3.61-5.06) among women, and 2.71 (2.12-3.46), 2.66 (2.45-2.88), and 4.21 (3.25-5.45) in both sexes combined, respectively. Conclusion: The RR of LC has remained relatively stable (range, 2-6) over the past four decades in China. Early quitting of smoking could reduce the RR to some extent; however, completely refraining from smoking is the best way to avoid its adverse effects.

Impact of delay extubation on the reintubation rate in patients after cervical spine surgery: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of cervical airway obstruction after cervical spine surgery (CSS) ranges from 1.2 to 14%, and some require reintubation. If not addressed promptly, the consequences can be fatal. This study investigated delayed extubation's effect on patients' reintubation rate after cervical spine surgery. METHODS: We performed a retrospective case-control analysis of cervical spine surgery from our ICU from January 2021 to October 2022. Demographic and preoperative characteristics, intraoperative data, and postoperative clinical outcomes were collected for all 94 patients. Univariable analysis and multivariable logistic regression were used to analyze postoperative unsuccessful extubation risk factors following cervical spine surgery. RESULTS: The patients in the early extubation (n = 73) and delayed extubation (n = 21) groups had similar demographic characteristics. No significant differences were found in the reintubation rate (0 vs. 6.8%, p = 0.584). However, the delayed extubation group had significantly more patients with 4 and more cervical fusion segments (42.9 vs. 15.1%, p = 0.013),more patients with an operative time greater than 4 h (33.3 vs. 6.8%, p = 0.004)and all patients involved C2-4 (78 vs. 100%, p = 0.019).Also, patients in the delayed extubation group had a longer duration of ICU stay (152.9 ± 197.1 h vs. 27.2 ± 45.4 h, p < 0.001) and longer duration of hospital stay (15.2 ± 6.9 days vs. 11.6 ± 4.1 days, p = 0.003). Univariate and multivariate analysis identified the presences of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) (OR 0.02, 95% CI 0-0.39, p = 0.009) and respiratory diseases (OR: 23.2, 95% CI 2.35-229.51, p = 0.007) as unfavorable prognostic factor for reintubation. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis of patients with cervical spondylosis who received CSS indicated that delayed extubation was associated with the presence of respiratory diseases and CSM, longer operative time, more cervical fusion segments, and longer duration of ICU and hospital stays.

Pyroptosis and Inflammasome-Related Genes-NLRP3, NLRC4 and NLRP7 Polymorphisms Were Associated with Risk of Lung Cancer.

Background: Cancer development and tumor immune microenvironment remodeling are closely linked to pyroptosis and inflammasome activation. However, little information is available in single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in pyroptosis and inflammasome-related genes in patients with lung cancer. This study aims to evaluate the associations between pyroptosis-related gene (NLRP3, NLRC4, and NLRP7) polymorphisms and the risk of lung cancer. Methods: The MassARRAY platform was used to genotype six SNPs of the NLRP3, NLRC4, and NLRP7 genes in 660 lung cancer cases and 660 controls. Results: Individuals with rs35829419-A, rs385076-C, and rs775882-T alleles exhibited a higher risk of lung cancer (p < 0.01), while rs212704-T appears protective (p = 0.006). The rs35829419-AA, rs385076-TC/CC, and rs775882-CT/TT genotypes were associated with various degrees of elevated risk of lung cancer (p<0.02), whereas rs212704-TT was associated with a reduced risk of the disease (p=0.014). Genetic models analysis showed that rs35829419, rs385076, and rs775882 was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, while rs212704 was related to a reduced risk in all three models (p < 0.05). The four SNPs remained significant in smoker and nonsmoker subgroups (p < 0.05). However, rs35829419 was correlated with risk of adenocarcinoma and small cell lung cancer, and rs212704 was only protective for squamous cell carcinoma. The rs385076 and rs775882 were associated with all three pathological types (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Besides providing candidate markers for identification of high-risk populations and early prevention of the disease, our research also provided new insight into anti-tumor strategies targeting inflammasomes and pyroptosis.

A China-developed adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine: review of the development and application of Ad5-nCov.

INTRODUCTION: The global spread of COVID-19 has prompted the development of vaccines. A recombinant adenovirus type-5 vectored COVID-19 vaccine (Ad5-nCoV) developed by Chinese scientists has been authorized for use as a prime and booster dose in China and several other countries. AREAS COVERED: We searched published articles as of 4 May 2023, on PubMed using keywords related to Adenovirus vector, vaccine, and SARS-CoV-2. We reported the progress and outcomes of Ad5-nCov, including vaccine efficacy, safety, immunogenicity based on pre-clinical trials, clinical trials, and real-world studies for primary and booster doses. EXPERT OPINION: Ad5-nCoV is a significant advancement in Chinese vaccine development technology. Evidence from clinical trials and real-world studies has demonstrated well-tolerated, highly immunogenic, and efficacy of Ad5-nCoV in preventing severe/critical COVID-19. Aerosolized Ad5-nCoV, given via a novel route, could elicit mucosal immunity and improve the vaccine efficacy, enhance the production capacity and availability, and reduce the potential negative impact of preexisting antibodies. However, additional research is necessary to evaluate the long-term safety and immunogenicity of Ad5-nCoV, its efficacy against emerging variants, its effectiveness in a real-world context of hybrid immunity, and its cost-effectiveness, particularly with respect to aerosolized Ad5-nCoV.