Optimal modes of mind-body exercise for treating chronic non-specific low back pain: Systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Background: There were limited studies that directly compare the outcomes of various mind-body exercise (MBE) therapies on chronic non-specific low back pain (CNLBP). Objectives: To compare the efficacy of the four most popular MBE modes [Pilates, Yoga, Tai Chi (TC), and Qigong] in clinically CNLBP patients, we conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA). Methods: We searched databases for eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (from origin to July 2022). RCTs were eligible if they included adults with CNLBP, and implemented one or more MBE intervention arms using Pilates, yoga, TC, and qigong. In addition, pain intensity and physical function were evaluated using validated questionnaires. Results: NMA was carried out on 36 eligible RCTs involving 3,050 participants. The effect of exercise therapy on pain was in the following rankings: Pilates [Surface under cumulative ranking (SUCRA) = 86.6%], TC (SUCRA = 77.2%), yoga (SUCRA = 67.6%), and qigong (SUCRA = 64.6%). The effect of exercise therapy on function: Pilates (SUCRA = 98.4%), qigong (SUCRA = 61.6%,), TC (SUCRA = 59.5%) and yoga (SUCRA = 59.0%). Conclusion: Our NMA shows that Pilates might be the best MBE therapy for CNLBP in pain intensity and physical function. TC is second only to Pilates in improving pain in patients with CNLBP and has the value of promotion. In the future, we need more high-quality, long-term follow-up RCTs to confirm our findings. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=306905, identifier: CRD42022306905.

Is transcranial direct current stimulation beneficial for treating pain, depression, and anxiety symptoms in patients with chronic pain? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Chronic pain is often accompanied by emotional dysfunction. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been used for reducing pain, depressive and anxiety symptoms in chronic pain patients, but its therapeutic effect remains unknown. Objectives: To ascertain the treatment effect of tDCS on pain, depression, and anxiety symptoms of patients suffering from chronic pain, and potential factors that modulate the effectiveness of tDCS. Methods: Literature search was performed on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library from inception to July 2022. Randomized controlled trials that reported the effects of tDCS on pain and depression and anxiety symptoms in patients with chronic pain were included. Results: Twenty-two studies were included in this review. Overall pooled results indicated that the use of tDCS can effectively alleviate short-term pain intensity [standard mean difference (SMD): -0.43, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.75 to -0.12, P = 0.007] and depressive symptoms (SMD: -0.31, 95% CI, -0.47 to -0.14, P < 0.001), middle-term depressive symptoms (SMD: -0.35, 95% CI: -0.58 to -0.11, P = 0.004), long-term depressive symptoms (ES: -0.38, 95% CI: -0.64 to -0.13, P = 0.003) and anxiety symptoms (SMD: -0.26, 95% CI: -0.51 to -0.02, P = 0.03) compared with the control group. Conclusion: tDCS may be an effective short-term treatment for the improvement of pain intensity and concomitant depression and anxiety symptoms in chronic pain patients. Stimulation site, stimulation frequency, and type of chronic pain were significant influence factors for the therapeutic effect of tDCS. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=297693, identifier: CRD42022297693.

Extended Maxillary Osteotomy Guide: A Design That Allows Manipulation of the Osteotomy Direction on the Posterior and Inner Walls of the Maxilla.

PURPOSE: Design an extended osteotomy guide (EOG) for Le Fort I osteotomy to improve the safety of surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The digital Le Fort I osteotomy guide was designed in MIMICS 23.0. Twenty-eight patients were randomized into 2 groups. Patients in the experimental group used EOG, and patients in the control group used a traditional osteotomy guide (TOG). Virtual designs and actual postoperative outcomes were compared by cone-beam computed tomography. The safety of the operation was confirmed by the accuracy of the osteotomy direction and depth on the inner and posterior walls of the maxilla. RESULTS: All positioning deviations of both osteotomy guides were <0.3 mm (P>0.05). The osteotomy depths on the inner and posterior walls with the EOG and TOG deviated by 0.789±1.179 and 1.811±1.345 mm (P=0.004) and 0.648±0.999 and 1.262±0.942 mm (P=0.030), respectively. The angles of deviation of the osteotomy direction on the inner and posterior walls by the EOG and TOG were 2.025±2.434 and 5.069±2.391 degrees (P<0.001) and 2.772±2.979 and 8.653±4.690 degrees (P<0.001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The EOG was more accurate than TOG for manipulating osteotomy direction and depth on the inner and posterior maxillary walls. Thus, EOG could ensure higher surgical safety than TOG.

Are Mind-Body Exercise Beneficial for Treating Pain, Function, and Quality of Life in Middle-Aged and Old People With Chronic Pain? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Aging is a significant risk factor in chronic pain development with extensive disability and greater health care costs. Mind-body exercise (MBE) has been scientifically proven to affect the pain intensity and physical health. Objectives: To assess the effects of MBE modes (Tai Chi, yoga, and qigong) for treating chronic pain among middle-aged and old people, compared with nonactive and active treatment, as well as function, quality of life, and adverse events. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, and Chinese Scientific Journals Full-Text Database (VIP) till March 2022. No restrictions were chartered within the year and language of publication. We included randomized controlled trials of MBE treatment in middle-aged and elderly people with chronic pain. The overall certainty of evidence was evaluated by using the GRADE approach. Results: A total of 17 studies (n = 1,332) were included in this review. There was low-certainty evidence indicating that MBE had a moderate effect on reducing pain compared with the nonactive and active control group (standard mean difference (SMD): -0.64, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.86 to -0.42, P < 0.001). Very-low-certainty evidence showed that the pooled SMD for the functional improvement was -0.75 (95% CI: -1.13 to -0.37, P < 0.001). Low-certainty evidence presented that no influence was observed in physical component summary (SMD: 0.23, 95% CI: -0.16 to 0.62, P = 0.24) and mental component summary (SMD: -0.01, 95% CI -0.39 to 0.36, P = 0.95). Conclusion: Our results indicated that MBE was an effective treatment for reducing symptoms of middle-aged and elderly people with chronic pain compared with nonactive and active control groups. TC and qigong had obvious benefits for knee osteoarthritis in self-reported function, but the efficacy of chronic low back pain was uncertain. No significant benefit of MBE on quality of life in older adults with chronic pain was found. More high-quality RCTs should be conducted to explore the efficacy and mechanism of MBE on chronic pain in middle-aged and elderly people from various dimensions, such as affective and cognitive dimensions. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=316591, identifier CRD42022316591.

Retraction of "Thermoresponsive Gigaporous Microspheres Facilitate the Efficient Refolding of Recombinant Nitrilase Inclusion Bodies".

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.0c00432.].

One-Pot Fabrication of Hierarchically Bicontinuous Polystyrene Monoliths with Homogeneous Skeletons and Glycopolymer Surfaces.

The hierarchically bicontinuous polystyrene monoliths (HBPMs) with homogeneous skeletons and glycopolymer surfaces are fabricated for the first time based on the medium internal phase emulsion (MIPE) templating method via activator generated by electron transfer for atom transfer radical polymerization (AGET ATRP). The synergistic self-assembly of amphiphilic diblock glycopolymer (ADG) and Pluronic F127 (PF127) at the oil/water interface via hydrogen bonding interaction contributes to the formation of bicontinuous MIPE with deformed neighboring water droplets, resulting in the highly interconnected HBPM after polymerization. There is a bimodal pore size distribution in the HBPM, that is, through pores (150-5000 nm) and mesopores (10-150 nm). The HBPMs as prepared show excellent biocompatibility, homogeneous skeletons, strong mechanical strength, and high bed permeability, overcoming the practical limitations of the second generation of polystyrene (PS) monoliths. Glycoprotein concanavalin A (Con A) can be easily and quickly separated by the HBPM in hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) mode. These results suggest the HBPMs have great potentials in catalysis, separations, and biomedical applications.

Investigating resistin like beta (RETNLB) as a tumor promoter for oral squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Oral cavity cancer ranks the sixth most common malignancy worldwide, of which oral squamous cell carcinoma is the predominant type. This study aimed to investigate the function and the underlying mechanism of resistin like beta (RETNLB) in oral squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: The data of oral squamous cell carcinoma samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas database was used to examine RETNLB expression and assess its correlation with the clinical outcomes. Biological functions of RETNLB on the growth, invasion and migration of cells were determined by cell counting kit 8, clonogenic growth, and Transwell assays. Gene set enrichment analysis was utilized to identify the important gene sets associated with RETNLB expression, which was further confirmed by western blot. RESULTS: We found that RETNLB was upregulated in oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues and cells. High expression of RETNLB was closely linked to age and pathological tumor, and significantly related to poor survival of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients. Further functional experiments showed that knockdown of RETNLB significantly reduced the viability, mobility and invasiveness of cells. Moreover, gene set enrichment analysis suggested that Toll-like receptor signaling pathway was significantly correlated with high RETNLB expression. Further western blot analysis verified that silencing RETNLB could notably suppress the protein levels of Toll-like receptor 2, Toll-like receptor 4 and phosphor- extracellular signal-regulated kinase. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that downregulation of RETNLB may restrain the progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma by inactivating TLR/2/4/ERK pathway.

In-situ grafting temperature-responsive hydrogel as a bifunctional solid-phase microextraction coating for tunable extraction of biomacromolecules.

A temperature-responsive solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coating was prepared via in-situ atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method. By controlling the temperature of solution below and above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the coating, it can switch between hydrophilic and hydrophobic, thus providing a convenient approach for the selective extraction of analytes with different polarities. The average extraction amount of temperature-responsive coating for polar analytes is about 1.5-fold to that of non-polar ones below LCST, and vice versa. Effective extraction of three biomacromolecules was also obtained by controlling the temperature below or above LCST. The adsorption capacity of the coating for the hydrophilic biomacromolecules at 15 °C is 1.5-2 folds that of 50 °C, whereas the adsorption capacity of the coating to BSA at 50 °C is about 3 folds that of 15 °C. This approach holds great promise for SPME because it provides a simple strategy to prepare bifunctional coatings for various applications.

Thermoresponsive Gigaporous Microspheres Facilitate the Efficient Refolding of Recombinant Nitrilase Inclusion Bodies.

In order to assist the refolding of recombinant nitrilase inclusion bodies, a series of thermoresponsive media were prepared by grafting poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-butyl-methacrylate) [P(NIPAM-co-BMA)] brushes onto PS microspheres with various particles and pore sizes via an atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method. The effects of particle sizes, pore sizes, and brush grafting amounts of thermoresponsive microspheres on nitrilase refolding were investigated preliminarily. The results showed that the PS-P(NIPAM-co-BMA) microspheres with the medium particle size (74 µm), gigapore size (320 nm), and high grafting amount (35.6 mg/m2) were the most effective candidates. The final nitrilase activity yield could be up to 84.5% with a high initial protein concentration (1 mg/mL) at 30 °C, which was 52.5% higher than that of a simple dilution refolding method at the initial protein concentration (0.1 mg/mL). After the refolding process, the PS-P(NIPAM-co-BMA) microspheres can be easily separated by self-precipitation, and the activity yield of nitrilase still reached 74.5% after being reused for five batches. These results indicated that the thermoresponsive gigaporous medium was an ideal alternative as an artificial chaperone.

Long noncoding RNA MEG3 silencing protects against hypoxia-induced pheochromocytoma-12 cell injury through inhibition of TIMP2 promoter methylation.

Hypoxia is a common pathological process caused by insufficient oxygen. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been proven to participate in this pathology. Hypoxia is reported to significantly reduce the secretion of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP2) and TIMP2 induces pheochromocytoma-12 (PC12) cell cycle arrest. Thus, our study aimed to explore the mechanism by which lncRNA maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) was implicated in hypoxia-induced PC12 cell injury through TIMP2 promoter methylation. To elucidate the potential biological significance of MEG3 and the regulatory mechanism between MEG3 and TIMP2, a hypoxia-induced PC12 cell injury model was generated. The hypoxia-exposed cells were subjected to a series of overexpression plasmids and short hairpin RNAs, followed by the measurement of levels of MEG3, TIMP2, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), reactive oxygen species (ROS), Bcl-2-associated X protein, B-cell lymphoma-2, and caspase-3, as well as the changes in MMP, cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle progression. On the basis of the findings, MEG3 was upregulated in hypoxia-injured PC12 cells. MEG3 recruited methylation proteins DNMT3a, DNMT3b, and MBD1 and accelerated TIMP2 promoter methylation, which in turn inhibited its expression. Moreover, PC12 cells following MEG3 silencing and TIMP2 overexpression exhibited significantly decreased levels of LDH, MDA, and ROS along with cell apoptosis, yet increased SOD and MMP levels, as well as cell cycle entry to the S phase and cell proliferation. In conclusion, MEG3 silencing suppresses hypoxia-induced PC12 cell injury by inhibiting TIMP2 promoter methylation. This study may provide novel therapeutic targets for hypoxia-induced injury.

Best bone of acetabulum for cup component placement in Crowe types I to III dysplastic hips: a computer simulation study.

BACKGROUND: During cup implantation, vertical height of the cup center (V-HCC) should be precisely controlled to achieve sufficient bone-cup coverage (BCC). Our study aimed to investigate the acetabular bone stock and the quantitative relationship between V-HCC and BCC in Crowe types I to III hips. METHODS: From November 2013 to March 2016, pelvic models of 51 patients (61 hips) with hip dysplasia were retrospectively reconstructed using a computer software. Acetabular height and doom thickness were measured on the mid-acetabular coronal cross section. V-HCC was defined as the vertical distance of cup rotational center to the interteardrop line (ITL). In the cup implantation simulation, the cup was placed at the initial preset position, with a V-HCC of 15 mm, and moved proximally by 3-mm increments. At each level, the BCC was automatically calculated by computer. Analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to compare the differences between groups. RESULTS: There were no significant between-group differences in maximum thickness of the acetabular doom; however, peak bone stock values were obtained at heights of 41.63 ±â€Š5.14 mm (Crowe type I), 47.58 ±â€Š4.10 mm (Crowe type II), and 55.78 ±â€Š3.64 mm (Crowe type III) above the ITL. At 15 mm of V-HCC, median BCC was 78% (75-83%) (Crowe type I), 74% (66-71%) (Crowe type II), and 61% (57-68%) (Crowe type III). To achieve 80% of the BCC, the median V-HCC was 16.27 (15.00-16.93) mm, 18.19 (15.01-21.53) mm, and 24.13 (21.02-28.70) mm for Crowe types I, II, and III hips, respectively. CONCLUSION: During acetabular reconstruction, slightly superior placement with V-HCC <25 mm retained sufficient bone coverage in Crowe I to III hips.

Triphenyltin exposure affects mating behaviors and attractiveness to females during mating in male guppies (Poecilia reticulata).

The impacts of triphenyltin (TPT) on ecological health have been of great concern due to their widespread use and ubiquity in aquatic ecosystems. However, little is known about the effects of TPT on the reproductive behaviors of fishes. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effects of TPT at environmentally relevant concentrations (0, 1 and 10 ng Sn/L) on the mating behaviors and the attractiveness to females during mating in male guppies (Poecilia reticulata). The results showed that TPT exposure disturbed the mating behaviors; the TPT-exposed male fish performed more sneaking attempts, but no changes in sigmoid courtship were displayed. The increases in sneaking attempts might be related to increases in testosterone levels induced by TPT exposure. In the context of a competing male, the TPT-exposed males were less attractive to females during mating. The decreases in attractiveness might be related to decreases in carotenoid-based coloration, shown as decreases in caudal fin redness values and skin carotenoid contents. In addition, TPT-induced total antioxidant capacities, the activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase, and the contents of malondialdehyde in liver and intestinal tissues indicated increases in oxidative stress. Both oxidative stress and coloration are linked to carotenoids. Thus, we speculated that the TPT-exposed males might use carotenoids to cope with increases in oxidative stress at the expense of carotenoid-based coloration. The disruption of mating behaviors and the decrease in attractiveness to females in male fish could result in reproductive failure. The present study underscores the importance of using behavioral tests as a sensitive tool in assessing the impact of pollutants present in aquatic environments.

Protein-binding, cytotoxicity in vitro and cell cycle arrest of ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes.

The cytotoxic activity of two Ru(II) complexes against A549, BEL-7402, HeLa, PC-12, SGC-7901 and SiHa cell lines was investigated by MTT method. Complexes 1 and 2 show moderate cytotoxicity toward BEL-7402 cells with an IC50 value of 53.9 ± 3.4 and 39.3 ± 2.1 µM. The effects of the complexes inducing apoptosis, cellular uptake, reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial membrane potential in BEL-7402 cells have been studied by fluorescence microscopy. The percentages of apoptotic and necrotic cells and cell cycle arrest were studied by flow cytometry. The BSA-binding behaviors were investigated by UV/visible and fluorescent spectra.

A new partial trisomy 12p with artery catheter vagus, congenital cataracts, external auditory canal, and no turbinate.

We describe the prenatal diagnosis and fetal phenotype of partial trisomy 12 (p12-pter) transmitted from a maternal reciprocal translocation 6;12. Genetic analysis was conducted on umbilical cord blood for a fetus accompanied with tricuspid regurgitation and orbital hypertelorism from a 27-year-old gravida 4, para 1 after sonography at gestation 35 weeks. The karyotype was unusual, with 46, XY, der (6), t (6;12) (p24; p12) mat. The pregnancy was terminated at 37 gestational weeks. The aborted fetus displayed dysmorphic features of a round flat face with prominent cheeks and high forehead, hypertelorism, short nose, broad and depressed nasal bridge, anteverted nares, deformed philtrum, open mouth, thin upper vermilion and broad everted lower lip, low-set ears and aural atresia, broad hands with simian creases, and a short neck. Fetal anatomy showed right artery catheter vagus, congenital cataract, no turbinate and external auditory canals. Through karyotype-phenotype analysis of this patient and a review of other reported cases, we believe this is a first report that expands the database of partial trisomy 12p, and is beneficial for future clinical genetic counseling. This study supports that phenotypic variability depends on the type and extent of the associated partial monosomy.