Analysis of risk factors leading to anxiety and depression in patients with prostate cancer after castration and the construction of a risk prediction model.

BACKGROUND: Cancer patients often suffer from severe stress reactions psychologically, such as anxiety and depression. Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the common cancer types, with most patients diagnosed at advanced stages that cannot be treated by radical surgery and which are accompanied by complications such as bodily pain and bone metastasis. Therefore, attention should be given to the mental health status of PC patients as well as physical adverse events in the course of clinical treatment. AIM: To analyze the risk factors leading to anxiety and depression in PC patients after castration and build a risk prediction model. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the data of 120 PC cases treated in Xi'an People's Hospital between January 2019 and January 2022. The patient cohort was divided into a training group (n = 84) and a validation group (n = 36) at a ratio of 7:3. The patients' anxiety symptoms and depression levels were assessed 2 wk after surgery with the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), respectively. Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors affecting negative mood, and a risk prediction model was constructed. RESULTS: In the training group, 35 patients and 37 patients had an SAS score and an SDS score greater than or equal to 50, respectively. Based on the scores, we further subclassified patients into two groups: a bad mood group (n = 35) and an emotional stability group (n = 49). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that marital status, castration scheme, and postoperative Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score were independent risk factors affecting a patient's bad mood (P < 0.05). In the training and validation groups, patients with adverse emotions exhibited significantly higher risk scores than emotionally stable patients (P < 0.0001). The area under the curve (AUC) of the risk prediction model for predicting bad mood in the training group was 0.743, the specificity was 70.96%, and the sensitivity was 66.03%, while in the validation group, the AUC, specificity, and sensitivity were 0.755, 66.67%, and 76.19%, respectively. The Hosmer-Lemeshow test showed a χ2 of 4.2856, a P value of 0.830, and a C-index of 0.773 (0.692-0.854). The calibration curve revealed that the predicted curve was basically consistent with the actual curve, and the calibration curve showed that the prediction model had good discrimination and accuracy. Decision curve analysis showed that the model had a high net profit. CONCLUSION: In PC patients, marital status, castration scheme, and postoperative pain (VAS) score are important factors affecting postoperative anxiety and depression. The logistic regression model can be used to successfully predict the risk of adverse psychological emotions.

Observational Study: Clinical characteristics and Survival Rates in Patients with Prostate Cancer with Normal Prostate-Specific Antigen Concentrations.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the clinical characteristics of patients with prostate cancer with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentrations of less than 4 ng/mL (normal PSA) to provide clinical insights regarding diagnosis and treatment. Methods: We recruited 35 patients with prostate cancer with normal PSA who were admitted to Xi'an People's Hospital from January 2013 to January 2018, and further determined their clinical characteristics, serum PSA concentration, prostate volume, tumor pathology, surgical margins, seminal vesicle invasion, lymph node metastasis, Gleason score, TNM staging, risk classification, and survival, and described the patients' interventions and treatments. All patients and their families signed informed consent forms before enrollment. Results: In our study, we observed a 3-year survival rate of 77.14% for patients with prostate cancer and normal PSA concentrations. This outcome can be attributed to several clinical characteristics, including the absence of obvious clinical presentation, a high detection rate of seminal vesicle invasion, as well as high Gleason scores and risk levels. The primary outcome, 3-year survival rate, reflects the long-term prognosis of this specific patient subgroup. We also conducted correlation analyses to better understand the relationships between these clinical characteristics and patient survival.

A Review on the Mechanism and Structure-activity Relationship of Resveratrol Heteroaryl Analogues.

Resveratrol is one of the most interesting naturally-occurring nonflavonoid phenolic compounds with various biological activities, such as anticancer, neuroprotection, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory. However, there is no clinical usage of resveratrol due to either its poor activity or poor pharmacokinetic properties. Heteroarenes-modified resveratrol is one pathway to improve its biological activities and bioavailability, and form more modification sites. In this review, we present the progress of heteroaryl analogues of resveratrol with promising biological activities in the latest five years, ranging from the synthesis to the structure-activity relationship and mechanism of actions. Finally, introducing heteroarenes into resveratrol is an effective strategy, which focuses on the selectivity of structure-activity relationship in vivo.

DNA repair pathways-targeted cyclovirobuxine inhibits castration-resistant prostate cancer growth by promoting cell apoptosis and cycle arrest.

BACKGROUND: Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is a deadly malignancy without effective therapeutics. Cyclovirobuxine (CVB) can play an anticancer role by inhibiting mitochondrial function, regulating tumor cell apoptosis, dysregulating autophagy, and other mechanisms. This study aimed to examine the function and mechanism of CVB in CRPC to provide new insights into CRPC treatment. METHODS: The effect of CVB on PC3 and C4-2 cell viability was determined using a CCK8 assay. Core therapeutic targets of CVB in CRPC cells were identified using RNA sequencing, online database, and PPI network analyses. Western blotting, RT-qPCR and molecular docking were performed to evaluate the regulation of core targets by CVB. Utilizing GO and KEGG enrichment analyses, the probable anti-CRPC mechanism of CVB was investigated. Immunofluorescence, flow cytometry and colony formation assays were used to verify the potential phenotypic regulatory role of CVB in CRPC. RESULTS: CVB inhibited CRPC cell activity in a concentration-dependent manner. Mechanistically, it primarily regulated BRCA1-, POLD1-, BLM-, MSH2-, MSH6- and PCNA-mediated mismatch repair, homologous recombination repair, base excision repair, Fanconi anemia repair, and nucleotide excision repair pathways. Immunofluorescence, Western blot, flow cytometry and colony formation experiments showed that CVB induced DNA damage accumulation, cell apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest and inhibited CRPC cell proliferation. CONCLUSION: CVB can induce DNA damage accumulation in CRPC cells by targeting DNA repair pathways and then induce cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, eventually leading to inhibition of the long-term proliferation of CRPC cells.

Non-coding RNAs in enzalutamide resistance of castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Enzalutamide (Enz) is a next-generation androgen receptor (AR) antagonist used to treat castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Unfortunately, the relapsing nature of CRPC results in the development of Enz resistance in many patients. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are RNA molecules that do not encode proteins, which include microRNAs (miRNA), long ncRNAs (lncRNAs), circular RNAs (circRNAs), and other ncRNAs with known and unknown functions. Recently, dysregulation of ncRNAs in CRPC, particularly their regulatory function in drug resistance, has attracted more and more attention. Herein, we introduce the roles of dysregulation of different ncRNAs subclasses in the development of CRPC progression and Enz resistance. Recently determined mechanisms of Enz resistance are discussed, focusing mainly on the role of AR-splice variant-7 (AR-V7), mutations, circRNAs and lncRNAs that act as miRNA sponges. Also, the contributions of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and glucose metabolism to Enz resistance are discussed. We summarize the different mechanisms of miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs in the progression of CRPC and Enz resistance, and highlight the prospect of future therapeutic strategies against Enz resistance.

A Comprehensive Evaluation Framework of Water-Energy-Food System Coupling Coordination in the Yellow River Basin, China.

For mankind's survival and development, water, energy, and food (WEF) are essential material guarantees. In China, however, the spatial distribution of WEF is seriously unbalanced and mismatched. Here, a collaborative governance mechanism that aims at nexus security needs to be urgently established. In this paper, the Yellow River Basin in China with a representative WEF system, was selected as a case. Firstly, a comprehensive framework for WEF coupling coordination was constructed, and the relationship and mechanism between them were analyzed theoretically. Then, we investigated the spatiotemporal characteristics and driving mechanisms of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) with a composite evaluation method, coupling coordination degree model, spatial statistical analysis, and multiscale geographic weighted regression. Finally, policy implications were discussed to promote the coordinated development of the WEF system. The results showed that: 1) WEF subsystems showed a significant imbalance of spatial pattern and diversity in temporal changes; 2) the CCD for the WEF system varied little and remained at moderate coordination. Areas with moderate coordination have increased, while areas with superior coordination and mild disorder have decreased. In addition, the spatial clustering phenomenon of the CCD was significant and showed obvious characteristics of polarization; and 3) the action of each factor is self-differentiated and regionally variable. For different factors, GDP per capita was of particular importance, which contributed most to the regional development's coupling coordination. For different regions, GDP per capita, average yearly precipitation, population density, and urbanization rate exhibited differences in geographical gradients in an east-west direction. The conclusion can provide references for regional resource allocation and sustainable development by enhancing WEF system utilization efficiency.

Recent Advances of Curcumin Derivatives in Breast Cancer.

Curcumin is a potential plant-derived drug for the treatment of breast cancer. Poor solubility and bioavailability are the main factors that limit its clinical application. Various structural modification strategies have been developed to improve the anti-breast cancer activity of curcumin. This review focuses on the difference of modification sites and heterocyclic/non-heterocyclic modifications to systematically summarize curcumin derivatives with better anti-breast cancer activity.

Spatial analysis of production-living-ecological functions and zoning method under symbiosis theory of Henan, China.

Land space is the carrier of human production, living activities, and ecological civilization construction. How to promote the orderly, moderate, and sustainable development and utilization of land space is a scientific problem to be solved. As a key element in China's spatial planning, the quantitative analysis of spatial pattern and functional zoning has become a focus of China's current development. Based on the analysis of land space symbiosis development, this study takes Henan province as the case study; appropriate indicators were selected from the perspective of "production-living-ecological" functions (PLEFs) index that was developed including three subsystems of the production function, living function, and ecological function. The entropy weight method and geographic information system (GIS) spatial method were used to analyze the PLEF status and spatial pattern in Henan province. The PLEF score showed a certain geographical pattern, where in the southwestern areas of Henan province have higher PLEFs than that in the northeastern areas. The PLEFs have an obvious positive correlation in the spatial distribution by spatial correlation analysis. In addition, this study designs a three-dimensional magic cube evaluation model to analyze the symbiotic function type of land space. The results indicated that the PLEFs of Henan province were classified into 13 symbiotic function types of areas, which can better reflect the spatial differentiation characteristics. Moreover, we proposed paths to promote the development and management of each type function area.

A Land Space Development Zoning Method Based on Resource-Environmental Carrying Capacity: A Case Study of Henan, China.

As a key element in China's spatial planning, the development zoning of land space has become a focus of China's current activity. During its rapid social and economic development, China has faced severe and diverse challenges regarding sustainable development, such as farmland occupation, environmental degradation, urban land disorder expansion, etc. Against this backdrop, research on the linkage between resource-environmental carrying capacity (RECC) and the development zoning of land space in the process of sustainable development has received increased attention, and an accurate evaluation of the RECC would provide useful guidance for Chinese policy makers to carry out the development zoning of land space. This paper uses Henan Province as an example to construct a comprehensive evaluation model of "resource carrying capacity (RCC)-eco-environmental carrying capacity (EECC)-socio-economic carrying capacity (SECC)", which calculates the level of RECC in a provincial area. In addition, this paper designs a correlation model between the RECC and the development zoning of land space, which uses a three-dimensional magic cube evaluation model to analyze the development zoning layout of land space. The results showed that a geographical pattern exists, where in the southwestern areas of Henan Province have a higher RECC than the central and northeastern areas. The results also indicated that the land space patterns of Henan Province can be divided into seven types of areas through a three-dimensional magic cube evaluation model, which can better reflect the spatial differentiation characteristics of the comprehensive index of RECC. The results of this study offer an important reference for policy-makers to make decisions and also provide a scientific and pragmatic basis for the formulation of sustainable development strategies.

[A robust classification method for five types of leukocytes in peripheral blood based on mean-shift clustering].

A new leukocyte classification method for recognition of five types of human peripheral blood smear based on mean-shift clustering is proposed. The key idea of the proposed method is to extract the texture features of leukocytes in a visual manner which can benefit from human eyes. Firstly, some feature points are extracted in a gray leukocyte image by mean-shift. Secondly, these feature points are used as seeds of the region growing to expand feature regions which can express texture in visual mode to a certain extent. Finally, a parameter vector of these regions is extracted as the texture feature. Combing the vector with the geometric features of the leukocyte, the five typical classes of leukocytes can be recognized successfully using artificial neural network (ANN). A total number of 1 310 leukocyte images have been tested and the accurate rate of recognition for neutrophil, eosinophil, basophil, lymphocyte and monocyte are 95.4%, 93.8%, 100%, 93.1% and 92.4%, respectively, which shows the feasibility and high robustness of the proposed method.

[Transfected miR-1908 inhibits renal fibrosis via targeting transforming growth factor beta 1].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the regulatory role of miR-1908 in renal fibrosis. METHODS: The level of miR-1908 and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-ß1) mRNA during renal fibrosis were detected with real-time quantitative PCR. Bioinformatics and luciferase reporter gene analyses were applied to determine the targeting relationship between miR-1908 and TGF-ß1 mRNA. After primary human renal interstitial fibroblasts were transfected with miR-1908 adenoviral expression vector in vitro, Western blotting was used to detect the protein levels of TGF-ß1, smad2/3 and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) in the cells. Six weeks after intraperitoneal injection of miR-1908 adenoviral vector, the renal tissue sections of the renal fibrosis mouse models were stained with Masson staining. RESULTS: Human miR-1908 showed a gradually decreasing expression during renal fibrosis process, which was completely contrary to the changes of TGF-ß1 mRNA. Overexpression of miR-1908 suppressed the expressions of TGF-ß1, smad2/3 and MMP-2 in human primary renal interstitial cells. The renal fibrosis was significantly relieved in the mice injected with miR-1908 adenovirus vector injection compared with the ones without injection. CONCLUSION: miR-1908 could inhibit renal fibrosis through targeting TGF-ß1.

[C/EBPß promotes NF-κB-mediated invasion and migration of human renal carcinoma 786-O cells].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the regulatory role of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta (C/EBPß) in invasion and migration of 786-O human renal cancer cells. METHODS: C/EBPß adenoviral overexpression vector (pAd-C/EBPß) and C/EBPß siRNA were constructed and respectively transfered into 786-O cells. Wound healing and Transwell(TM) invasion methods were used to detect the invasion and migration of the cells. Laser scanning confocal microscopy was applied to determine the translocation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), the central regulator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT); Western blotting was performed to examine the levels of EMT key markers E-cadherin, vimentin and tenascin. RESULTS: When C/EBPß was overexpressed, invasion and migration of 786-O cells were enhanced, translocation of NF-κB increased, E-cadherin level was reduced, and vimentin and tenascin levels were elevated. When C/EBPß was knocked down, the results were completely opposite to those of C/EBPß overexpression: invasion and migration of 786-O cells were inhibited, translocation of NF-κB decreased, E-cadherin level was elevated, and vimentin and tenascin expressions were suppressed. Moreover, the above changes were not found in the cells that co-treated with pAd-C/EBPß and C/EBPß siRNA. CONCLUSION: C/EBPß could promote the invasion and migration of human renal carcinoma 786-O cells, and had an inducing effect on nuclear translocation of NF-κB in 786-O cells.

[Comparison of the analgesic effect of acupuncture between otopoint-penetrative needling and otopoint-straight needling for cervical type and nerve-root type cervicospondylopathy].

OBJECTIVE: To confirm the better analgesic effect of otopoint-penetrative needling for cervical type and nerve-root type cervicospondylopathy. METHODS: A total of 98 cervicospondylopathy outpatients (50 cases of cervical type and 48 cases of nerve-root type) were randomly divided into treatment group (otopoint-penetrative needling) and control group (otopoint-straight needling) in the light of paring method of comprehensive factors of sexes, ages and the state of disease. The main oto-points used were bilateral Jingzhui Area (AH 13) in combination with Jian-Jianguanjie-Suogu (Shoulder-Shoulder-joint-Collarbone) Area, etc. The simplified McGill Pain Scaling was used to give the score of patient's pain before the treatment, 5 min and 30 min after the treatment. RESULTS: Results of sequential trial indicated that the analgesic effect of otopoint-penetrative needling was significantly superior to that of otopoint-straight needling 30 min after the treatment (P < 0.05). Findings of matched-pair t test showed that no marked differences were found between two groups in the pain scores before the treatment, while after the treatment, the pain scores of otopoint-penetrative needling group were significantly lower than those of otopoint-straight needling group (P < 0.001, 0.01), meaning that the analgesic effect of otopoint-penetrative needling was significantly better than that of otopoint-straight needling 5 min and 30 min after the treatment in both men and women, in both cervical type and nerve-root type patients, and in both young and older patients. CONCLUSION: The analgesic effect of otopoint-penetrative needling is obviously superior to that of otopoint-straight needling.

Algorithm for near-field reconstruction based on radial-shearing interferometry.

A new iterative algorithm to be used to precisely reconstruct near-field distribution from an interferogram of a laser output generated by a cyclic radial-shearing interferometer is proposed. First, by use of a window function around the zero-frequency part of the Fourier transform of the interferogram and calculation of the inverse Fourier transform of the zero-frequency part, we obtain the background intensity distribution of the interferogram. Then, according to the iterative algorithm, the near-field distribution of the laser output is precisely reconstructed from the background intensity distribution obtained in the first step. A numerical simulation and an actual experiment of the near-field reconstruction of the laser output with arbitrary amplitude distribution are implemented successfully.