Association between serum potassium and Parkinson's disease in the US (NHANES 2005-2020).

Background: Evaluating the correlation between serum potassium and Parkinson's disease (PD) in US adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 20,495 adults aged 40 years or older using NHANES data from 2005 to 2020. The study utilized one-way logistic regression and multifactorial logistic regression to examine the correlation between serum potassium levels and PD. Additionally, a smoothed curve fitting approach was employed to assess the concentration-response relationship between serum potassium and PD. Stratified analyses were carried out to investigate potential interactions between serum potassium levels and PD with variables such as age, sex, race, marital status, education, BMI, smoking and medical conditions like coronary, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia. Results: In this study, a total of 20,495 participants, comprising 403 PD and 20,092 non-PD individuals, were included. After adjusted for covariates, multivariable logistic regression revealed that high serum potassium level was an independent risk factor for PD (OR:1.86, 95% CI:1.45 ~ 2.39, p < 0.01).The linear association between serum potassium and PD was described using fitted smoothing curves. Age, sex, race, education, marital, BMI, coronary, stroke, diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia were not significantly correlated with this positive connection, according to subgroup analysis and interaction testing (P for interaction >0.05). Conclusion: Serum potassium levels are elevated in patients with Parkinson's disease compared to non-PD patients. Additional prospective studies are required to explore the significance of serum potassium levels in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

Trends and hotspots in non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease: a 10-year bibliometric analysis.

Non-motor symptoms are prevalent among individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) and seriously affect patient quality of life, even more so than motor symptoms. In the past decade, an increasing number of studies have investigated non-motor symptoms in PD. The present study aimed to comprehensively analyze the global literature, trends, and hotspots of research investigating non-motor symptoms in PD through bibliometric methods. Studies addressing non-motor symptoms in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), published between January 2013 and December 2022, were retrieved. Bibliometric methods, including the R package "Bibliometrix," VOS viewer, and CiteSpace software, were used to investigate and visualize parameters, including yearly publications, country/region, institution, and authors, to collate and quantify information. Analysis of keywords and co-cited references explored trends and hotspots. There was a significant increase in the number of publications addressing the non-motor symptoms of PD, with a total of 3,521 articles retrieved. The United States was ranked first in terms of publications (n = 763) and citations (n = 11,269), maintaining its leadership position among all countries. King's College London (United Kingdom) was the most active institution among all publications (n = 133) and K Ray Chaudhuri was the author with the most publications (n = 131). Parkinsonism & Related Disorders published the most articles, while Movement Disorders was the most cited journal. Reference explosions have shown that early diagnosis, biomarkers, novel magnetic resonance imaging techniques, and deep brain stimulation have become research "hotspots" in recent years. Keyword clustering revealed that alpha-synuclein is the largest cluster for PD. The keyword heatmap revealed that non-motor symptoms appeared most frequently (n = 1,104), followed by quality of life (n = 502), dementia (n = 403), and depression (n = 397). Results of the present study provide an objective, comprehensive, and systematic analysis of these publications, and identifies trends and "hot" developments in this field of research. This work will inform investigators worldwide to help them conduct further research and develop new therapies.

Vitamin B6 as a novel risk biomarker of fractured ankles.

ABSTRACT: Ankle fractures are the most common intra-articular fractures. Osteoporosis is a common and frequent disease among the elderly with a poor prognosis and high risk of fractured ankles. However, the relationship between vitamin B6 and the incidence of fractured ankles in patients with osteoporosis is unclear.A total of 101 patients with osteoporosis were recruited. Clinical and followed-up information was recorded. And the vitamin B6, albumin, globulin, and hemoglobin in the blood were tested. Pearson's chi-squared and spearman test were performed to analyze the correlation between fractured ankles and relative parameters. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, and Kaplan-Meier method were also performed.There exist strong relation between the expression level of vitamin B6 and fractured ankle (P < .001). The expression of vitamin B6 [Odd ratio (OR) = 12.071, 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.69-31.143, P < .001] has a clear correlation with whether the patients have fractured ankles via the univariate logistic regression analysis. In terms of multivariate logistic regression level, vitamin B6 (OR = 15.384, 95% CI:5.195-45.556, P < .001) was significantly associated with fractured ankle. In addition, expression level of vitamin B6 [hazard ratio (HR) = 11.684, 95% CI: 6.419-21.267, P < .001] was significantly associated with Maintenance time from recovery to recurrence (MRTT) of patients with osteoporosis.Enhanced vitamin B6 is significantly correlated with the poor prognosis of patients with osteoporosis and the increasing incidence of fractured ankles.

Application of Robot Positioning for Cannulated Screw Internal Fixation in the Treatment of Femoral Neck Fracture: Retrospective Study.

BACKGROUND: Femoral neck fracture is a common type of hip fracture. Conventional surgical treatment aims at fixing the fracture site with screws and then gradually promoting bone healing. A robot-assisted orthopedic surgery system is computer technology applied to surgical treatment. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the therapeutic effect and prognostic value of percutaneous cannulated screw internal fixation using robot-assisted positioning in patients with femoral neck fractures. METHODS: From July 2018 to September 2019, 42 cases of femoral neck fracture admitted to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Luohe Medical College were randomly and averagely divided into control and study groups. The patients in the control group were treated with conventional percutaneous cannulated screw internal fixation, while the patients in the study group were treated with robot-assisted percutaneous cannulated screw fixation during surgical treatment. We compared the treatment conditions and results of the operation between the 2 groups. The Harris score was used to evaluate the treatment efficacy. The state of fracture healing was followed up and compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS: The duration of the operation was shorter, there was less fluoroscopy use, and there were fewer drilled holes in the study group than in the control group (all, P<.001). There was no statistical difference in the amount of intraoperative bleeding between the 2 groups (P=.33). The Harris score (P=.045) and number of excellent and good ratings (P=.01) were significantly higher in the study group than in the control group. The difference in the fracture healing rate between the 2 groups was not statistically significant (P=.23). The fracture healing duration of the study group was shorter than that of the control group (P=.001). CONCLUSIONS: The use of robotic positioning aids in the treatment of femoral neck fractures with percutaneous cannulated screw fixation can effectively improve the efficiency of surgery, shorten the duration of surgery, and reduce the radiation damage to patients. Meanwhile, it improves postoperative treatment and recovery rates of the patients and shortens the fracture healing time.

Antisense expression of PKCalpha improved sensitivity of SGC7901/VCR cells to doxorubicin.

AIM: To explore whether antisense blocking of protein kinase C alpha (PKCalpha) would reverse multi-drug resistance (MDR) in the vincristine (VCR)-resistant human gastric cancer cell line SGC7901/VCR. METHODS: SGC7901/VCR cells expressing antisense PKCalpha, SGC7901/VCR/aPKC, were established by transfection with a recombinant plasmid reversely inserted with PKCalpha cDNA. Empty vector (PCI-neo)-transfected cell clones, SGC7901/VCR/neo, served as the control. Western blot method was used to detect PKCalpha content in SGC7901, SGC7901/VCR, SGC7901/VCR/neo and SGC7901/VCR/aPKC cells, using PKCalpha-specific antibody. The sensitivity of SGC7901, SGC7901/VCR, SGC7901/VCR/neo and SGC7901/VCR/aPKC cells to doxorubicin (DOX) in vitro was determined by MTT assay. The uptake of DOX in these cells was detected with fluorescence spectrophotometer. RESULTS: Western blot analysis showed that the PKCalpha protein level was about 8.7-fold higher in SGC7901/VCR cells than that in SGC7901 cells, whereas the protein expression of PKCalpha was reduced by 78% in SGC7901/VCR/aPKC cells when compared with the SGC7901/VCR cells. SGC7901/VCR/aPKC cells had a 4.2-fold increase in DOX cytotoxicity, accompanied by a 1.7-fold increase of DOX accumulation in comparison with SGC7901/VCR cells. CONCLUSION: PKCalpha positively regulates MDR in SGC7901 cells, and inhibition of PKCalpha can partially attenuate MDR in human gastric cancer cells.

Reversal of multidrug resistance in vincristine-resistant human gastric cancer cell line SGC7901/VCR by LY980503.

AIM: To investigate the reversal effect of LY980503, a benflumetol derivative, on multidrug resistance in vincristine (VCR) -resistant human gastric carcinoma cell line SGC7901/VCR. METHODS: Cells of a human gastric cancer cell line, SGC7901, and its VCR-resistant variant, SGC7901/VCR, were cultivated with LY980503 and /or doxorubicin (DOX). The cytotoxicity of drugs in vitro was assayed by MTT method. Based on the flow cytometric technology, the uptake of DOX was detected in these cells by measuring DOX-associated mean fluorescence intensity (MFI). RESULTS: SGC7901/VCR cells were 23.5 times more resistant to DOX in comparison with SGC7901 cells. LY980503 at the concentrations of 2.0 micromol/L-10 micromol/L had no obvious cytotoxicity to SGC7901 and SGC7901/VCR cells. After simultaneous treatment with LY980503 at the concentrations of 2.0, 4.0 and 10 micromol/L, the IC(50) of DOX to SGC7901/VCR cells decreased from 1.6 +/- 0.12 micromol/L to 0.55 +/- 0.024, 0.25 +/- 0.032 and 0.11 +/- 0.015 micromol/L, respectively, thus, increasing the DOX sensitivity by 2.9-fold (P < 0. 05), 6.4-fold (P < 0. 01) and 14.5-fold (P < 0. 01), respectively. In the uptake study of DOX, simultaneous incubation of SGC7901/VCR cells with LY980503 significantly increased the DOX -associated MFI in SGC7901/VCR cells. No such results were found in parental SGC7901 cells. CONCLUSION: LY980503 at non-cytotoxic concen-trations can effectively circumvent resistance of SGC7901/VCR cells to DOX by increasing intracellular DOX accumulation.

Expression of ATP7B in human gastric cardiac carcinomas in comparison with distal gastric carcinomas.

AIM: To analyze expression of ATP7B in gastric cardiac adenocarcinomas, its clinicopathologic significance, in comparison with distal gastric adenocarcinomas. METHODS: Immunohistochemical avidin-biotin peroxidase complex method was applied to detect the expression of ATP7B in 49 cases of cardiac carcinomas, the corresponding adjacent non-neoplastic epithelium and 55 cases of distal gastric carcinomas. RESULTS: The proportion of ATP7B positive samples in gastric cardiac carcinomas (51.0%, 25 of 49) was significantly higher than that in the corresponding adjacent non-neoplastic epithelium (22.4%, 11 of 49) (P = 0.003). ATP7B expression in poorly differentiated gastric cardiac carcinomas was significantly higher than that in well/moderately differentiated gastric cardiac carcinomas (P = 0.030). ATP7B expression in gastric cardiac carcinomas was independent of age, tumor size, nodal stage and metastasis status. ATP7B protein was detected in 30.9% (17/55 cases) of distal gastric carcinomas, markedly lower than that in gastric cardiac carcinomas (P = 0.037). CONCLUSION: ATP7B protein is frequently overexpressed in gastric cardiac carcinomas, and correlated with the differentiation of cardiac carcinoma. ATP7B expression in gastric cardiac carcinomas is significantly higher than that in distal gastric carcinomas, which might partially explain the difference of chemotherapy response and prognosis between these two gastric carcinomas.

Methylation in esophageal carcinogenesis.

Genetic abnormalities of proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes have been demonstrated to be changes that are frequently involved in esophageal cancer pathogenesis. However, hypermethylation of CpG islands, an epigenetic event, is coming more and more into focus in carcinogenesis of the esophagus. Recent studies have proved that promoter hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes is frequently observed in esophageal carcinomas and seems to play an important role in the pathogenesis of this tumor type. In this review, we will discuss current research on genes that are hypermethylated in human esophageal cancer and precancerous lesions of the esophagus. We will also discuss the potential use of hypermethylated genes as targets for detection, prognosis and treatment of esophageal cancer.

[Drug-resistant proteins in breast cancer: recent progress in multidrug resistance].

Breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) is a new multidrug resistance-related transmembrane transporter. BCRP is a 655-amino acid, 72.6 kDa protein, localized in the plasma membrane. As a member of the ATP-binding cassette family of drug transporters, BCRP has only one ATP-binding cassette and six putative transmembrane domains, suggesting that BCRP is a half-transporter, which may function as a homodimer or heterodimer. The BCRP-overexpressing tumor cells are resistant to mitoxantrone, adriamycin, daunorubicin, etoposide, topotecan and irinotecan, but lack resistance to paclitaxel and vincristine. Fumitremorgin C and GF120918 can effectively reverse multidrug resistance in BCRP-overexpressing tumor cells, associated with an increase in drug accumulation. In normal human tissues, low to high expressions of BCRP in placental syncytiotrophoblasts, in the epithelium of the small intestine and colon, in the liver canalicular membrane, in ducts of the breast, in endothelium of the blood vessel and in stem cells were reported. This expression profile allows speculation on a role of BCRP in protection of the fetus and in the regulation of transport of chemicals through the epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract. BCRP can account for chemoresistance of some clinical cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia, non-small cell lung cancer,and breast cancer.