Antioxidant Carbon Dots Nanozyme Loaded in Thermosensitive in situ Hydrogel System for Efficient Dry Eye Disease Treatment.

Purpose: Dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial ocular surface disease with a rising incidence. Therefore, it is urgent to construct a reliable and efficient drug delivery system for DED treatment. Methods: In this work, we loaded C-dots nanozyme into a thermosensitive in situ gel to create C-dots@Gel, presenting a promising composite ocular drug delivery system to manage DED. Results: This composite ocular drug delivery system (C-dots@Gel) demonstrated the ability to enhance adherence to the corneal surface and extend the ocular surface retention time, thereby enhancing bioavailability. Furthermore, no discernible ocular surface irritation or systemic toxicity was observed. In the DED mouse model induced by benzalkonium chloride (BAC), it was verified that C-dots@Gel effectively mitigated DED by stabilizing the tear film, prolonging tear secretion, repairing corneal surface damage, and augmenting the population of conjunctival goblet cells. Conclusion: Compared to conventional dosage forms (C-dots), the C-dots@Gel could prolong exhibited enhanced retention time on the ocular surface and increased bioavailability, resulting in a satisfactory therapeutic outcome for DED.

Efficacy Analysis of DSA-Guided Bronchial Arterial Chemoembolization Interventional Therapy in Patients with Middle-Advanced Primary Bronchial Lung Cancer.

Objective: To investigate the clinical efficacy of digital subtraction angiography- (DSA-) guided bronchial arterial chemoembolization (BACE) in patients with primary bronchial lung cancer. Methods: A total of 178 patients with primary intermediate and advanced bronchial lung cancer admitted to our hospital from February 2019 to March 2020 were selected as the subjects, and they were divided into control group (84 cases) and observation group (94 cases) according to the different chemotherapy regimens adopted by the patients. The control group was treated with traditional perfusion chemotherapy, and the observation group was treated with DSA-guided BACE interventional therapy, treated for 4 cycles, and followed up until the end of June 2021. The short-term clinical efficacy, hemoptysis remission, and incidence of adverse reactions were compared between the two groups. The mortality and recurrence rates between the two groups from treatment to the end of follow-up were counted, and the quality of life after treatment and 1 year after treatment were compared. Results: The short-term remission rate (73.40% vs. 58.33%), disease control rate (93.62% vs. 84.52%), hemoptysis remission rate (75.00% vs. 41.51%), the quality of life after chemotherapy cycle (90.86 ± 2.55 vs. 78.04 ± 2.21), and the quality of life after 1 year of follow-up (85.68 ± 2.23 vs. 70.27 ± 1.72) in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The incidence of adverse reactions (9.57% vs. 20.24%), mortality (10.64% vs. 21.43%), and recurrence rate (11.70% vs. 27.38%) during the follow-up period in the observation group were significantly lower than those in control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: DSA-guided BACE interventional therapy for patients with primary middle-advanced bronchial lung cancer has significant efficacy, which can not only reduce the mortality and recurrence rate of patients but also improve the quality of life of patients, with fewer adverse reactions and high safety, which is worthy of promotion.

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization improves clinical efficacy and life quality of patients with lung cancer and reduces adverse reactions.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical efficacy and safety of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for patients with lung cancer (LC). METHODS: A total of 513 inpatients with LC admitted to our hospital from January 2012 to January 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. Based on different treatment methods, they were assigned into a control group (CG; n=249) for traditional bronchial artery infusion (BAI) and an experimental group (EG; n=264) for TACE, with shared chemotherapy drugs and treatment courses. The two groups were compared with respect to clinical efficacy, pre- and post-treatment pulmonary function, adverse reactions, as well as negative emotions and quality of life (QoL) scores. RESULTS: The curative effect in EG was far superior to CG (P<0.05). In comparison with CG, the pulmonary function in EG was better and the incidence of adverse reactions was lower after treatment (P<0.05). The negative emotions and the QoL were improved in both groups, with more distinct improvement in EG compared with CG (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: With higher safety and efficacy, TACE can improve the clinical efficacy and QoL of patients with LC while relieving bad mood and reducing adverse reactions.

Clinical Evidence-Guided Anti-rheumatoid Arthritis Study of Shuji Tablet in Adjuvant-Induced Arthritis Rats and Mechanism Exploration via Network Pharmacological Approach.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a kind of chronic autoimmune disease with several tissues damaged. Shuji tablet (SJT) is a prescription approved for treating lumbago and leg pain in the clinic. However, the efficacy of SJT against RA is still unknown. This study aims to evaluate the therapeutic effect of SJT on adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) rats and explore the mechanism via a network pharmacological approach. Methods: AIA rats were treated with SJT for 30 days at the dosages of 3.6, 1.8, and 0.9 g/kg, respectively, and the anti-RA effect was determined by measuring paw swelling, systemic symptoms score, arthritis index, and histopathological change. ELISA assay was used to evaluate the level of inflammatory cytokines in serum. The mechanism exploration and target prediction of SJT against RA were performed via a network pharmacological approach. Results: SJT showed excellent alleviation on AIA rats, with evidence of reducing paws swelling, decreasing systemic symptoms score, and arthritis index. Furthermore, SJT significantly reduced the serum cytokines of IL-6, IL-1ß, TNF-α in AIA rats. Histopathological examination showed SJT remarkably reduced synovial hyperplasia, cartilage damage, and inflammatory infiltration in the secondary-side paws. According to network pharmacological analysis, 208 candidate compounds and 445 potential targets of SJT were identified, and 4465 RA therapy-related targets were searched out. Subsequently, 292 target genes of SJT were speculated to be associated with RA treatment, among which the top 5 "response values" targets were STAT3, AKT1, JUN, HSP90AA1, TNF. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis suggested that 45 signaling pathways were associating with SJT treating RA. The top 10 signaling pathways were PI3K-Akt, MAPK, AGE-RAGE pathway in diabetic complications, Ras, HIF-1, TNF, Chemokine, IL-17, FoxO, and Rap1. Conclusion: Our experimental study showed that SJT significantly alleviated rheumatoid arthritis of AIA rats. Network pharmacology showed that the key targets of SJT against RA probably were STAT3, AKT1, JUN, HSP90AA1, TNF, and the potential mechanism was associated with modulation on the signaling pathways of PI3K-Akt, MAPK, Ras, AGE-RAGE, HIF-1, TNF, chemokine, IL-17, FoxO, Rap 1. Our study strongly provides evidence for Shuji tablet in RA therapy and would enlarge its application in the clinic.

Prognostic factors influencing the survival of patients with carcinoma of the gastric cardia receiving preoperative interventional embolization chemotherapy.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics of patients with gastric cardia cancer (GCC) to identify the main factors the influence the survival rate after interventional embolization chemotherapy (IEC). One hundred and fifty-six patients with advanced GCC were treated with IEC via the left gastric artery. Survival time was defined as from the date of diagnosis until death or the end of this study in June 2015. The median survival time was 15 months (range 3 to 29 months). The Cox proportional hazard model found that patients' age (p < 0.001), sex (p = 0.039), weight loss more than 10% in the prior 3 months (p = 0.014), body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.047), and hematocrit value less than 37% (p < 0.001) were correlated with mortality after removal of cases of poorly differentiated carcinoma and undifferentiated carcinoma from the analysis. Kaplan-Meier curves of survival according to patients' age showed significant differences by the log-rank test (p = 0.0015). The median survival time was 17 months among patients of aged < 50 years. In conclusion, BMI, weight loss > 10% in the prior 3 months, albumin, and hematocrit were prognostic indicators for patients with advanced GCC, and patients younger than 50 years have a higher survival rate after IEC.

A meta-analysis of comprehensive care on quality of life in patients with lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficacy of comprehensive care on quality of life in patients with lung cancer. METHODS: The clinical studies about comprehensive care on quality of life in patients with lung cancer were searched in the Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, and WANFANG databases. The score of society function, emotional function, somatic function, cognitive function was collected in each of the included studies. And the data were pooled by Stata version 11.0 software. RESULT: Finally, three clinical studies including 536 cases were included in this meta-analysis. Significant statistical heterogeneity was existed in the three papers (P < 0.05). The data were pooled by random effect model. The combined results showed that the quality of life for lung cancer patients can be significantly improved in the aspects of society function (standardized mean difference [SMD] =0.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.10-0.71), emotional function (SMD = 0.45, 0.12-0.78), somatic function (SMD = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.51-1.44), and cognitive function (SMD = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.44-0.83). CONCLUSION: Quality of life for lung cancer patients can be significantly improved through comprehensive care.

Preventative effects of prostaglandin E1 in combination with iodized olive oil on liver fibrosis after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization in a rabbit model of CCl4-induced liver fibrosis.

To explore the preventative effects of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) on a rabbit model of CCl4-induced liver fibrosis after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), we generated a rabbit model of CCl4-induced liver fibrosis by treatment with 40% CCl4 in iodized olive oil for 16 weeks. Body mass and serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), albumin:globulin ratio (A:G), total bilirubin (TBIL), and direct bilirubin (DBIL) were measured. After TACE, the levels of hyaluronic acid (HA), procollagen III (PC III), laminin (LN), and collagen IV (IV-C) were measured, and the severity of liver fibrosis as well as the morphology of liver tissues were determined. Body mass in the model group was significantly decreased from 10 to 16 weeks, and the serum levels of ALT, AST, TP, TBIL, and DBIL levels were significantly increased while the model was being generated; the levels of ALB and A:G were significantly decreased. After TACE, serum levels of HA, PC III, and LN in the group injected with 1.0 mL iodized olive oil (Group B) were higher than in the group that were injected with 1.0 mL iodized olive oil + 0.2 mL PGE1 (Group C), whereas the serum levels of IV-C were lower. The severity of liver fibrosis was ameliorated in Group C. The combination of PGE1 and iodized olive oil prevented the development of liver fibrosis following TACE.