Non-invasive model for predicting esophageal varices based on liver and spleen volume.

BACKGROUND: Upper endoscopy is the gold standard for predicting esophageal varices in China. Guidelines and consensus suggest that patients with liver cirrhosis should undergo periodic upper endoscopy, most patients undergo their first upper endoscopy when esophageal variceal bleeds. Therefore, it is important to develop a non-invasive model to early diagnose esophageal varices. AIM: To develop a non-invasive predictive model for esophageal varices based on liver and spleen volume in viral cirrhosis patients. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study based on viral cirrhosis crowd in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University. By collecting the basic information and clinical data of the participants, we derived the independent risk factors and established the prediction model of esophageal varices. The established model was compared with other models. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, calibration plot and decision curve analysis were used to test the discriminating ability, calibration ability and clinical practicability in both the internal and external validation. RESULTS: The portal vein diameter, the liver and spleen volume, and volume change rate were the independent risk factors of esophageal varices. We successfully used the factors to establish the predictive model [area under the curve (AUC) 0.87, 95%CI: 0.80-0.95], which showed better predictive value than other models. The model showed good discriminating ability, calibration ability and the clinical practicability in both modelling group and external validation group. CONCLUSION: The developed non-invasive predictive model can be used as an effective tool for predicting esophageal varices in viral cirrhosis patients.

Improvement effects of esculetin on the formation and development of atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is one of the potential causes of death in patients with cardiovascular disease. With the discovery of new anti atherosclerotic drugs becoming the pursuit of the pharmaceutical industry, natural products have attracted more and more attention because of their unique efficacy in the treatment of atherosclerosis. More and more studies have shown that esculetin, a coumarin mainly found in cortex fraxini, can improve atherosclerosis by participating in cellular antioxidant responses and reducing inflammation related pathogenesis. This paper summarizes the researches of esculetin on anti-atherosclerosis in the past two decades. Esculetin plays an anti atherosclerotic role through reducing blood triglyceride level, preventing the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) and the production of matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9), inhibiting the oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL) and the secretion of adhesion factors and chemokines, and increasing the outflow level of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Esculetin is safe and reliable, easy to be absorbed by the body and can be synthesized in a variety of ways. Although there are still few clinical studies on anti-atherosclerosis, in vivo experiments have proved that esculetin has high bioavailability. From the current research, the anti-atherosclerotic effect of esculetin is positive and encouraging. However, much work remains to be done to clarify the molecular mechanism of esculetin in the treatment of atherosclerosis.

Hairpin loop-enhanced fluorescent copper nanoclusters and application in S1 nuclease detection.

Novel highly fluorescent copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) were prepared by using 24 adenine-thymine pair dsDNA (AT24) with six-base (X6) loops (AT24-X6-hairpin DNA) as an effective template. The AT24 double strand stem serves as a template for CuNC formation, and the six-base sequence loop acts as specific regions to enhance the fluorescence intensity of CuNCs. Relative to the AT24-CuNCs, AT24-X6-hairpin CuNCs have greater fluorescence (5 times enhancement). What's more, the influence of the hairpin loop with different base types and base numbers on the fluorescence of CuNCs was first proposed and investigated. By choosing an AT24 double strand stem, any types of base loops can enhance the fluorescence of CuNCs. However, the fluorescence enhancement would be reduced with an increasing number of hairpin loop sequences. Besides this, the successful detection of S1 nuclease demonstrates its potential to be a new and robust fluorescent probe for sensing applications.