Effect of one-lung ventilation on the correlation between left and right cerebral saturation.

BACKGROUND: To investigate if the correlation between left and right cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (SctO2) was affected by one-lung ventilation (OLV) in patients undergoing lung cancer surgery. METHODS: Patients who underwent surgery for lung cancer were enrolled. Left and right SctO2 were collected during anesthesia. The primary outcome was the correlation between left and right SctO2 at 30 min after OLV which was analysed by Pearson correlation and linear regression model. Secondary outcomes included the trend of left-right SctO2 change over the first 30 min after OLV, correlation of left-right SctO2 during OLV for each patient; maximal difference between left-right SctO2 and its relationship with postoperative delirium. RESULTS: Left-right SctO2 was moderately correlated at baseline (r = 0.690, P < 0.001) and poorly correlated at 30 min after OLV (r = 0.383, P < 0.001) in the Pearson correlation analysis. Linear regression analysis showed a poor correlation between left and right SctO2 at 30 min after OLV (r = 0.323, P < 0.001) after adjusting for confounders. The linear mixed model showed a change in left-right SctO2 over the first 30 min after OLV that was statistically significant (coefficient, -0.042; 95% CI, -0.070--0.014; P = 0.004). For the left-right SctO2 correlation during OLV in each patient, 62.9% (78/124) patients showed a strong correlation, 19.4% (24/124) a medium correlation, and the rest a poor correlation. The maximal difference between the left and right SctO2 was 13.5 (9.0, 20.0). Multivariate analysis showed that it was not associated with delirium (odds ratio [OR], 1.023; 95% CI, 0.963-1.087; P = 0.463). CONCLUSIONS: The correlation between left and right SctO2 was affected by one-lung ventilation in patients undergoing lung cancer surgery. This result indicates the requirement of bilateral SctO2 monitoring to reflect brain oxygenation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was a secondary analysis of a cohort study approved by the Clinical Research Review Board of Peking University First Hospital (#2017-1378) and was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry on 10/09/2017 ( http://www.chictr.org.cn , ChiCTR-ROC-17012627).

Inhibition of Cerebral High-Mobility Group Box 1 Protein Attenuates Multiple Organ Damage and Improves T Cell-Mediated Immunity in Septic Rats.

Sepsis remains one of the leading causes of mortality in intensive care units, but there is a shortage of effective treatments. A dysregulated host immune response and multiple organ injury are major factors for the pathogenesis and progression of sepsis, which require specific mechanism and treatment. In the present study, we performed an intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of BoxA, a specific antagonist of high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1), in septic rats that were produced by cecal ligation and puncture surgery; we further assessed the functional changes of multiple organs and splenic T lymphocytes. We found that the inhibition of cerebral HMGB1 significantly alleviated multiple organ damage under septic exposure, including damage to the heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys; reversed the immune dysfunction of T cells; and increased the survival of septic rats. These data suggest that central HMGB1 might be a potential therapeutic target for septic challenge and that inhibition of brain HMGB1 can protect against multiple organ dysfunction induced by sepsis.

Disaster Nursing Development in China and Other Countries: A Bibliometric Study.

PURPOSE: China is a country with frequent disasters, and nurses play indispensable roles in the disaster process. The Chinese disaster nursing specialty developed with several deficiencies. This study aimed to identify the limitations in the development of disaster nursing in China and to provide a reference for the future by comparing relevant studies between China and other countries. DESIGN: A systematic literature review was conducted in English and Chinese databases to identify disaster nursing articles published from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2016. METHODS: This study followed the systematic literature collection tactic and bibliometric method. Basic information such as country, number of publications, and discussed disaster types were described through frequency distributions. Article themes were extracted and divided into the four phases of the International Council of Nurses Framework of Disaster Nursing Competencies. FINDINGS: 1,384 articles were included in the analysis, containing 781 written in Chinese and 603 written in English (with 56 of them written by Chinese researchers). The number of Chinese disaster nursing articles and other publications increased sharply between 2007 and 2009 but dropped significantly afterwards, while the total number of articles in other countries fluctuated, with a general upward trend. Compared to other countries, there were fewer research methods used and less focus on disaster prevention and preparedness in China, an imbalanced focus on disaster types, and a lack of focus on prevention, preparedness, and recovery phases. CONCLUSIONS: In China, there is a lack of stable development of disaster nursing research, a lack of study types, and less focus on disaster prevention, preparedness, and recovery. Varied study methods and an increased focus on disaster prevention and preparedness are required in the future. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study analyzed the deficiencies in Chinese disaster nursing, which led to recommendations and proposed directions for future studies and a clinical focus in this field, in compliance with the United Nations guidelines for disaster management.

[Sensitive Bands Extraction and Prediction Model of Tomato Chlorophyll in Glass Greenhouse].

In order to predict the content of chlorophyll in tomato rapidly and accurately, this study, with spectrum technology, focused on the extraction of sensitive spectral bands of tomato chlorophyll in glass greenhouse environment and created an effective estimation model. During the period of cultivating tomatoes, leaf spectra were measured with an ASD FieldSpec HH spectrophotometer and chlorophyll content was measured with Type 752 UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Based on the original spectra, absorbance spectra, first derivative spectra and continuum removal spectra, spectral data was preprocessed, in which the effectiveness of spectral features of chlorophyll content of tomato was highlighted and spectral response characteristics of the absorbance spectra in the visible part was enhanced. It was shown that both the continuum removal spectra and the first derivative spectra have strong blue and red absorption valley and green reflection peak. In this paper, the original spectrum, absorbance spectrum, first derivative spectrum and continuum removal spectrum were analyzed and compared, and then optimal spectral feature parameters were extracted with methods of Inter-Correlation analysis and multivariate collinearity diagnosis. Sensitive bands from original spectrum are 639, 672, 696, 750 and 768 nm. Sensitive bands from absorbance spectrum are 638, 663, 750 and 763 nm. Sensitive bands from first derivative spectrum are 516, 559 and 778 nm. Sensitive bands from continuum removal spectrum are 436, 564, 591, 612, 635, 683 and 760 nm. The stepwise multiple regressions were used to develop the prediction models of the chlorophyll content of tomato leaf. The result showed that the prediction model, which used the values from continuum removal spectrum at 436, 564, 591, 612, 635, 683, 760 nm as input variables, had the best predictive ability. The calibration R-Square was 0.88 and the validation R-Square was 0.82.

Atorvastatin-modified dendritic cells in vitro ameliorate experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis by up-regulated Treg cells and shifted Th1/Th17 to Th2 cytokines.

Conventional therapies for autoimmune diseases produce nonspecific immune suppression, which are usually continued lifelong to maintain disease control, and associated with a variety of adverse effects. In this study, we found that spleen-derived dendritic cells (DCs) from the ongoing experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG) rats can be induced into tolerogenic DCs by atorvastatin in vitro. Administration of these tolerogenic DCs to EAMG rats on days 5 and 13 post immunization (p.i.) resulted in improved clinical symptoms, which were associated with increased numbers of CD4(+)CD25(+) T regulatory (Treg) cells and Foxp3 expression, decreased lymphocyte proliferation among lymph node mononuclear cells (MNC), shifted cytokine profile from Th1/Th17 to Th2 type cytokines, decreased level of anti-R97-116 peptide (region 97-116 of the rat acetylcholine receptor α subunit) IgG antibody in serum. These tolerogenic DCs can migrate to spleen, thymus, popliteal and inguinal lymph nodes after they were injected into the EAMG rats intraperitoneally. Furthermore, these tolerogenic DCs played their immunomodulatory effects in vivo mainly by decreased expression of CD86 and MHC class II on endogenous DCs. All these data provided us a new strategy to treat EAMG and even human myasthenia gravis (MG).

[Visible-NIR spectral feature of citrus greening disease].

Citrus greening (Huanglongbing, or HLB) is a devastating disease caused by Candidatus liberibacter which uses psyllids as vectors. It has no cure till now, and poses a huge threat to citrus industry around the world. In order to diagnose, assess and further control this disease, it is of great importance to first find a quick and effective way to detect it. Spectroscopy method, which was widely considered as a fast and nondestructive way, was adopted here to conduct a preliminary exploration of disease characteristics. In order to explore the spectral differences between the healthy and HLB infected leaves and canopies, this study measured the visible-NIR spectral reflectance of their leaves and canopies under lab and field conditions, respectively. The original spectral data were firstly preprocessed with smoothing (or moving average) and cluster average procedures, and then the first derivatives were also calculated to determine the red edge position (REP). In order to solve the multi-peak phenomenon problem, two interpolation methods (three-point Lagrangian interpolation and four-point linear extrapolation) were adopted to calculate the REP for each sample. The results showed that there were, obvious differences at the visible & NIR spectral reflectance between the healthy and HLB infected classes. Comparing with the healthy reflectance, the HLB reflectance was higher at the visible bands because of the yellowish symptoms on the infected leaves, and lower at NIR bands because the disease blocked water transportation to leaves. But the feature at NIR bands was easily affected by environmental factors such as light, background, etc. The REP was also a potential indicator to distinguish those two classes. The average REP was slowly moving toward red bands while the infection level was getting higher. The gap of the average REPs between the healthy and HLB classes reached to a maximum of 20 nm. Even in the dataset with relatively lower variation, the classification accuracy of threshold segmentation method by the REP could reach to more than 90%. The four-point linear extrapolation method had slightly better result than the three-point Lagrangian interpolation method. This study provided useful theoretical foundation to detect HLB by spectral reflectance.

The characterization of a concentration-sensitive α-adrenergic-like octopamine receptor found on insect immune cells and its possible role in mediating stress hormone effects on immune function.

Octopamine (OA), the insect equivalent of norepinephrine, links the nervous system and immune system in insects. This study examines the underlying molecular mechanisms (i.e. second messenger systems) mediating OA effects on insect immune cells. At low concentrations (<1µM), OA stimulatedhemocyte spreading and phagocytosis in the larval Lepidopteran (caterpillar) Chilo suppressalis, whereas at high concentrations (>10 µM), OA inhibited hemocyte spreading and phagocytosis. Similarly, OA concentration had differential effects on two intracellular signaling pathways, Ca(2+) and cAMP. Low concentrations of OA increased intracellular Ca(2+), but only high concentrations of OA (>1 µM) led to an increase in both Ca(2+) and cAMP. We identified an α-adrenergic-like octopamine receptor in this species (CsOA1) and confirmed that it is expressed in hemocytes. After heterologous expression in HEK-293 cells, the CsOA1 receptor produced the same OA concentration-dependent responses on intracellular Ca(2+) and cAMP as had been observed in hemocytes. These findings support earlier work showing that OA has both stimulatory and suppressive effects on immune responses, depending on the OA concentration. Our evidence suggests that these biphasic effects are mediated by an octopamine receptor signaling through intracellular Ca(2+) and cAMP second messenger pathways. Stress hormones/neuromodulators have complex effects on immune function in animals across phyla. This complexity may be mediated, in part, by conserved connections between adrenergic-like G-coupled protein receptors and second messenger systems.

The apoptotic effect and associated signalling of HSP90 inhibitor 17-DMAG in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

Primary liver cancer is one of the highly malignant tumours. The traditional surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy only established 6% of 5-year survival rate in HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma). Therefore there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic strategies. HSP90 (heat shock protein 90) is one of the important molecular chaperones and was identified with high expression in the primary liver cancer. In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic effect of specific HSP90 inhibitor 17-DMAG (17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxy geldanamycin) in HCC cells. The time and concentration effects of 17-DMAG were investigated in HCC cells. Cell proliferation was measured by MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide] assay and cell counting. Apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry with staining of Annexin V-FITC/PI (propidium iodide). The protein levels of survivin, cyclin D1, p53 and NF-κB (nuclear factor κB) were measured by Western blotting. 17-DMAG inhibited the proliferation of HCC cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Treatment with 400 nmol/l 17-DMAG for 48 h significantly induced early-stage apoptosis (22.4%). Conversely, it induced less late-stage apoptosis (3.03%). The 5 mg/l of cisplatin induced significantly less early-stage apoptosis (6.5%), but similar proportion of late-stage apoptosis (4.89%) compared with 17-DMAG. Inhibition of HSP90 activity by 400 nmol/l 17-DMAG decreased protein levels of survivin, cyclin D1 and NF-κB protein levels, whereas increased p53 protein level. HSP90 plays a key role in HCC cell growth and survival through regulation of survivin, cyclin D1, p53 and nucleus NF-κB protein levels and the specific HSP90 inhibitor 17-DMAG can play a therapeutic role in HCC treatment.

Genome-Wide Identification and Transcriptional Expression Profiles of PP2C in the Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Pan-Genome.

The gene family protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) is related to developmental processes and stress responses in plants. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a popular cereal crop that is primarily utilized for human consumption and nutrition. However, there is little knowledge regarding the PP2C gene family in barley. In this study, a total of 1635 PP2C genes were identified in 20 barley pan-genome accessions. Then, chromosome localization, physical and chemical feature predictions and subcellular localization were systematically analyzed. One wild barley accession (B1K-04-12) and one cultivated barley (Morex) were chosen as representatives to further analyze and compare the differences in HvPP2Cs between wild and cultivated barley. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these HvPP2Cs were divided into 12 subgroups. Additionally, gene structure, conserved domain and motif, gene duplication event detection, interaction networks and gene expression profiles were analyzed in accessions Morex and B1K-04-12. In addition, qRT-PCR experiments in Morex indicated that seven HvMorexPP2C genes were involved in the response to aluminum and low pH stresses. Finally, a series of positively selected homologous genes were identified between wild accession B1K-04-12 and another 14 cultivated materials, indicating that these genes are important during barley domestication. This work provides a global overview of the putative physiological and biological functions of PP2C genes in barley. We provide a broad framework for understanding the domestication- and evolutionary-induced changes in PP2C genes between wild and cultivated barley.

Nanoparticle-delivered VEGF-silencing cassette and suicide gene expression cassettes inhibit colon carcinoma growth in vitro and in vivo.

The strategies for tumor-specific expression of suicide genes and target tumor angiogenesis have been tested in tumors. However, the anti-tumor efficacy of the combination of these two strategies, particularly, delivering suicide gene and anti-angiogenesis agent by nanoparticles, has not yet been evaluated in colon carcinoma. We constructed a cassette to silence VEGF-A expression and express a fused yCDglyTK gene driven by tumor-specific promoter (shVEGF-CDTK). The DNA carrying shVEGF-CDTK was delivered into colon carcinoma cells by calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CPNPs). Cell proliferation was measured by MTT assay, and apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. The anti-tumor effect of the combined cassette was tested in xenograft animal model. With 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC), CPNP-delivered shVEGF-CDTK DNA (CPNP-shVEGF-CDTK) showed high expression of fused yCDglyTK gene and effectively silenced VEGF-A expression in vitro and in vivo, which significantly inhibited colon carcinoma cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in vitro. With 5-FC, the systemic delivery of CPNP-shVEGF-CDTK significantly inhibited tumor growth in the colon carcinoma xenograft animal model. The combined cassette is obviously effective in inhibiting tumor cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis in vitro and tumor growth in vivo than the CPNP-shVEGF or CPNP-CDTK alone. The combination of VEGF-A-silencing and tumor-specific expression of suicide gene is an effective strategy for colon carcinoma treatment.