Prognostic significance of the systemic inflammation response index in gastrointestinal malignancy patients: a pooled analysis of 10,091 participants.

Background: We performed a meta-analysis to investigate the association of the systemic inflammation response index (SIRI) with long-term survival outcomes in patients with gastrointestinal malignancy. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science and Embase were searched for relevant studies evaluating the prognostic significance of the SIRI in gastrointestinal malignancies until May 2023. Results: 30 studies with 10,091 patients were included. The pooled results identified that patients in the high SIRI group had a worse overall survival and disease-free survival, which was observed across various tumor types, tumor stages and primary treatments. Conclusion: An elevated SIRI is negatively associated with worse survival outcomes of gastrointestinal malignancy patients and can be used as a risk stratification index for gastrointestinal malignancies.

Characteristics and molecular mechanism of drug-tolerant cells in cancer: a review.

Drug resistance in tumours has seriously hindered the therapeutic effect. Tumour drug resistance is divided into primary resistance and acquired resistance, and the recent study has found that a significant proportion of cancer cells can acquire stable drug resistance from scratch. This group of cells first enters the drug tolerance state (DT state) under drug pressure, and gradually acquires stable drug resistance through adaptive mutations in this state. Although the specific mechanisms underlying the formation of drug tolerant cells (DTCs) remain unclear, various proteins and signalling pathways have been identified as being involved in the formation of DTCs. In the current review, we summarize the characteristics, molecular mechanisms and therapeutic strategies of DTCs in detail.

A review of deubiquitinases and thier roles in tumorigenesis and development.

Ubiquitin is a small protein that can be added onto target protein for inducing target degradation, thereby modulating the activity and stability of protein. Relatively, deubiquitinases (DUBs), a class catalase that can remove ubiquitin from substrate protein, provide a positive regulation of the protein amount at transcription level, post-translational modification, protein interaction, etc. The reversible and dynamic ubiquitination-deubiquitination process plays an essential role in maintaining protein homeostasis, which is critical to almost all the biological processes. Therefore, the metabolic dysregulation of deubiquitinases often lead to serious consequences, including the growth and metastasis of tumors. Accordingly, deubiquitinases can be served as key drug targets for the treatment of tumors. The small molecule inhibitors targeting deubiquitinases has become one of the hot spots of anti-tumor drug research areas. This review concentrated on the function and mechanism of deubiquitinase system in the proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis and autophagy of tumor cells. The research status of small molecule inhibitors of specific deubiquitinases in tumor treatment is introduced, aiming to provide reference for the development of clinical targeted drugs.

Risk model and factors for prediction of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric cancer-a two-center cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Due to inconsistency in neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) response in advanced gastric cancer (GC), the indications remain the source of controversy. This study focused on identifying factors related to NACT chemosensitivity and providing the best treatment for GC cases. METHODS: Clinical data in 867 GC cases treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were downloaded from two medical centers between January 2014 and December 2020, and analyzed by logistic regression and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) for identifying potential factors that predicted NACT response and might be incorporated in constructing the prediction nomogram. RESULTS: After the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, totally 460 cases were enrolled, among which, 307 were males (66.74%) whereas 153 were females (33.26%), with the age of 24-77 (average, 59.37 ± 10.60) years. Consistent with RECIST standard, 242 patients were classified into effective group (PR or CR) while 218 were into ineffective group (PD or SD), with the effective rate of 52.61%. In training set, LASSO and logistic regression analysis showed that five risk factors were significantly associated with NACT effectiveness, including tumor location, Smoking history, T and N stages, and differentiation. In terms of our prediction model, its C-index was 0.842. Moreover, calibration curve showed that the model-predicted results were in good consistence with actual results. Validation based on internal and external validation sets exhibited consistency between training set results and ours. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified five risk factors which were significantly associated with NACT response, including smoking history, clinical T stage, clinical N stage, tumor location and differentiation. The prediction model that exhibited satisfying ability to predict NACT effectiveness was constructed, which may be adopted for identifying the best therapeutic strategy for advanced GC by gastrointestinal surgeons.

Assessment of indocyanine green fluorescence lymphography on lymphadenectomy during minimally invasive gastric cancer surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, indocyanine green fluorescence lymphography has been introduced for lymphatic mapping in gastric cancer surgery. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of ICGFL in lymph node dissection during minimally invasive surgery for gastric cancer. METHODS: A systematic review of electronic databases including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure was performed from the inception to January 2021 for all studies comparing ICGFL with non-ICGFL in GC patients undergoing minimal access gastrectomy. The primary outcome was the total number of harvested lymph nodes. The secondary endpoints were the number of metastatic LNs, operative time, estimated blood loss, and postoperative complications. The registration number of this protocol is PROSPERO CRD42020203443. RESULTS: A total of 13 studies including 1882 participants were included. In this meta-analysis, the use of ICGFL was associated with a higher number of harvested LNs (40.33 vs. 33.40; MD = 6.93; 95%CI: 4.28 to 9.58; P < 0.0001; I2 = 86%). No significant difference was found between the ICGFL and control groups in terms of metastatic LNs (2.63 vs. 2.42; MD = 0.21; 95%CI: -0.46 to 0.87; P = 0.54; I2 = 0%). In addition, the use of ICGFL could be safely performed without increasing the operative time (P = 0.49), estimated blood loss (P = 0.26) and postoperative complications (P = 0.54). CONCLUSION: The use of ICGFL may be a useful tool facilitating complete lymph node dissection during minimally invasive GC resection. However, more high-quality RCTs with large sample size are needed to validate this issue.

Prognostic value of pan-immune-inflammation value in colorectal cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV) has been reported as a novel prognostic biomarker in multiple malignancies. The aim of this study is to investigate the prognostic value of the PIV in patients with colorectal cancer. Methods: We comprehensively searched electronic databases including PubMed, Embase and Web of Science up to August 2022. The endpoints were survival outcomes. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for survival data were collected for analysis. Results: Six studies including 1879 participants were included. A significant heterogeneity in the PIV cut-off value among studies was observed. The combined results indicated that patients in the high baseline PIV group had a worse overall survival (HR=2.09; 95%CI: 1.67-2.61; P<0.0001; I2 = 7%) and progression-free survival (HR=1.82; 95%CI: 1.49-2.22; P<0.0001; I2 = 15%). In addition, early PIV increase after treatment initiation was significantly associated with decreased overall survival (HR=1.79; 95%CI: 1.13-2.93; P=0.01; I2 = 26%), and a trend toward poor progression-free survival (HR=2.00; 95%CI: 0.90-4.41; P=0.09; I2 = 70%). Conclusion: Based on existing evidence, the PIV could act as a valuable prognostic index in patients with colorectal cancer. However, the heterogeneity in the PIV cut-off value among studies should be considered when interpreting these findings.

MRI versus CT for the detection of pulmonary nodules: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Computed tomography (CT) is the current gold standard for the detection of pulmonary nodules but has high radiation burden. In contrast, many radiologists tried to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to replace CT because MRI has no radiation burden associated. Due to the lack of high-level evidence of comparison of the diagnostic accuracy of MRI versus CT for detecting pulmonary nodules, it is unknown whether CT can be replaced successfully by MRI. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of MRI versus CT for detecting pulmonary nodules. METHODS: Electronic databases PubMed, EmBase, and Cochrane Library were systematically searched from their inception to September 2017 to identify studies in which CT/MRI was used to diagnose pulmonary nodules. According to true positive, true negative, false negative, and false positive extracted from the included studies, we calculate the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and area under the curve (AUC) using Stata version 14.0 software (STATA Corp, TX). RESULTS: A total of 8 studies involving a total of 653 individuals were included. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, and AUC were 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.80-0.96), 0.76 (95%CI: 0.58-0.87), 3.72 (95%CI: 2.05-6.76), 0.12 (95%CI: 0.06-0.27), and 0.91 (95%CI: 0.88-0.93) for MRI respectively, while the pooled sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, and AUC for CT were 1.00 (95%CI: 0.95-1.00), 0.99 (95%CI: 0.78-1.00), 79.35 (95%CI: 3.68-1711.06), 0.00 (95%CI: 0.00-0.06), and 1.00 (95%CI: 0.99-1.00), respectively. Further, we compared the diagnostic accuracy of CT versus MRI and found that compared with MRI, CT shows statistically higher sensitivity (odds ratio [OR] for MRI vs CT: 0.91; 95%CI: 0.85-0.98; P value .010), specificity (OR: 0.82; 95%CI: 0.69-0.97; P value .019), PLR (OR: 0.29; 95%CI: 0.10-0.83; P value 0.02), AUC (OR: 0.91; 95%CI: 0.89-0.94; P value < .001), and lower NLR (OR: 8.72; 95%CI: 1.57-48.56; P value .013). CONCLUSION: Our study suggested both CT and MRI have a high diagnostic accuracy in diagnosing pulmonary nodules, while CT was superior to MRI in sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, and AUC, indicating that in terms of the currently available evidence, MRI could not replace CT in diagnosing pulmonary nodules.

Safety and Efficacy of Laparoscopic Versus Open Gastrectomy in Patients With Advanced Gastric Cancer Following Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy: A Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Given the expanding clinical applications of laparoscopic surgery and neoadjuvant chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer treatment, there is an emerging need to summarize the few evidences that evaluated the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic versus open gastrectomy in patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC) following neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). METHODS: From January 1 to 2, 2021, we searched Ovid Embase, PubMed, Cochrane central register Trials (Ovid), and web of science to find relevant studies published in English, and two authors independently performed literature screening, quality assessment of the included studies, data extraction, and data analysis. This study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021228845). RESULTS: The initial search retrieved 1567 articles, and 6 studies were finally included in the meta-analysis review, which comprised 2 randomized control trials and 4 observational studies involving 288 laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) and 416 open gastrectomy (OG) AGC patients treated with NAC. For intraoperative conditions, R0 resection rate, blood transfusion, intraoperative blood loss, number of lymph nodes dissected, proximal margin, and distal margin were comparable between LG group and open OG group. For postoperative short-term clinical outcomes, LG has significantly less postoperative complications (OR = 0.65, 95%CI: 0.42-1.00, p = 0.05) and shorter postoperative time to first aerofluxus (WMD = -0.57d, 95%CI: -0.89-0.25, p = 0.0004) than OG, and anastomotic leakage, pulmonary infection, pleural effusion, surgical site infection, thrombosis, intestinal obstruction, peritoneal effusion or abscess formation, postoperative time to first defecation, postoperative time to first liquid diet, and postoperative length of stay were comparable between the two groups. For postoperative survival outcomes, there were no significant differences in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The available evidences indicated that LG is an effective and feasible technology for the treatment of AGC patients treated with NAC, and LG patients have much less postoperative complications and faster bowel function recovery than OG patients. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO database (identifier, CRD42021228845).

Prognostic Score System Using Preoperative Inflammatory, Nutritional and Tumor Markers to Predict Prognosis for Gastric Cancer: A Two-Center Cohort Study.

INTRODUCTION: Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Our study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of preoperative inflammatory, nutritional and tumor markers and develop an effective prognostic score system to predict the prognosis of GC patients. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 1587 consecutive GC patients who received curative gastrectomy from two medical centers. A novel prognostic score system was proposed based on independently preoperative markers associated with overall survival (OS) of GC patients. A nomogram based on prognostic score system was further established and validated internally and externally. RESULTS: Based on multivariate analysis in the training set, a novel BLC (body mass index-lymphocyte-carbohydrate antigen 19-9) score system was proposed, which showed an effective predictability of OS in GC patients (log-rank P < 0.001). Moreover, receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that BLC had better performance in predicting OS than the traditional prognostic markers. The C-index of the BLC based-nomogram was 0.710 (95% CI 0.686-0.734), and the areas under ROC curves for predicting 3- and 5-year OS were 0.781 (95% CI 0.750-0.813) and 0.755 (95% CI 0.723-0.786), respectively, which were higher than those of tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging system alone. The calibration curve for probability of 3- and 5-year OS rate showed a good fitting effect between prediction by nomogram and actual observation. Verification in the internal and external validation sets showed results consistent with those in the training set. CONCLUSIONS: The BLC combining inflammatory, nutritional and tumor markers was an independent prognostic predictor for GC patients, and the nomogram based on BLC could accurately predict the personalized survival of patients with GC.

Highly Sensitive and Stretchable Strain Sensor Based on a Synergistic Hybrid Conductive Network.

Highly sensitive and stretchable strain sensors have attracted considerable attention due to their promising applications in human motion detection, soft robot, wearable electronics, etc. However, there is still a trade-off between high sensitivity and high stretchability. Here, we reported a stretchable strain sensor by sandwiching reduced graphene oxide (RGO)-coated polystyrene microspheres (PS@RGO) and silver nanowires (AgNWs) conductive hybrids in an elastic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. Due to the synergistic effect of PS@RGO and AgNWs, the PDMS/PS@RGO/AgNWs/PDMS sensor exhibits a high initial electrical conductivity of 8791 S m-1, wide working range of 0-230%, large gauge factor of 11 at 0-60% of strain and 47 at 100%-230% of strain with a high linear coefficient of 0.9594 and 0.9947, respectively, low limit of detection (LOD) of 1% of strain, and excellent long-term stability over 1000 stretching/releasing cycles under 50% strain. Furthermore, the strain sensor has been demonstrated in detecting human body motion and fan rotation with high stretchability and stability, showing potential application in intelligent robot and Internet of things.

An Intelligent Multi-Sensor Variable Spray System with Chaotic Optimization and Adaptive Fuzzy Control.

During the variable spray process, the micro-flow control is often held back by such problems as low initial sensitivity, large inertia, large hysteresis, nonlinearity as well as the inevitable difficulties in controlling the size of the variable spray droplets. In this paper, a novel intelligent double closed-loop control with chaotic optimization and adaptive fuzzy logic is developed for a multi-sensor based variable spray system, where a Bang-Bang relay controller is used to speed up the system operation, and adaptive fuzzy nonlinear PID is employed to improve the accuracy and stability of the system. With the chaotic optimization of controller parameters, the system is globally optimized in the whole solution space. By applying the proposed double closed-loop control, the variable pressure control system includes the pressure system as the inner closed-loop and the spray volume system as the outer closed-loop. Thus, the maximum amount of spray droplets deposited on the plant surface may be achieved with the minimum medicine usage for plants. Multiple sensors (for example: three pressure sensors and two flow rate sensors) are employed to measure the system states. Simulation results show that the chaotic optimized controller has a rise time of 0.9 s, along with an adjustment time of 1.5 s and a maximum overshoot of 2.67% (in comparison using PID, the rise time is 2.2 s, the adjustment time is 5 s, and the maximum overshoot is 6.0%). The optimized controller parameters are programmed into the hardware to control the established variable spray system. The experimental results show that the optimal spray pressure of the spray system is approximately 0.3 MPa, and the flow rate is approximately 0.08 m3/h. The effective droplet rate is 89.4%, in comparison to 81.3% using the conventional PID control. The proposed chaotically optimized composite controller significantly improved the dynamic performance of the control system, and satisfactory control results are achieved.

Oncogenic role of long non-coding RNA SNHG12 in gastric cancer cells by targeting miR-16.

The long non-coding RNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 12 (SNHG12) has recently been reported to have an oncogenic role in gastric cancer (GC), but the molecular mechanisms remain largely elusive. In the present study, it was observed that SNHG12 was significantly upregulated in GC tissues and cell lines. High expression of SNHG12 was associated with GC progression and poor prognosis of patients. Knockdown of SNHG12 markedly inhibited the proliferation and migration of the BGC823 and HGC27 GC cell lines. MicroRNA (miR)-16 was identified as a target of SNHG12, and its expression was negatively regulated by SNHG12 in BGC823 and HGC27 cells. In addition, the expression of miR-16 was significantly decreased in GC tissues and cell lines, and inversely associated with the expression of SNHG12 in GC tissues. Furthermore, knockdown of miR-16 impaired the inhibitory effects on GC cell proliferation and migration induced by downregulation of SNHG12. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that inhibition of SNHG12 suppresses GC cell proliferation and migration by modulation of miR-16 expression, and thus suggests that the SNHG12/miR-16 interaction may be used as a promising target for GC treatment.

Multidimensional Ternary Hybrids with Synergistically Enhanced Electrical Performance for Conductive Nanocomposites and Prosthetic Electronic Skin.

Graphene and silver nanowires (AgNWs) are ideal fillers for conductive polymer composites, but they tend to aggregate in the polymer matrix due to the lack of surface functional groups and large specific surface area, which is hard for the polymer composites filled with them to reach their full potential. Here, ternary hybrids with multidimensional architectures including 3D polystyrene (PS) microspheres, 2D reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheets, and 1D AgNWs are obtained using a simple, but effective, electrostatic attraction strategy. The electrical conductivity (136.25 S m-1) of the ternary hybrid conductive nanocomposites filled with RGO and AgNWs is significantly higher than that of the nanocomposites containing only RGO (3.255 S m-1) at the same total filler loading due to the synergistic effect of RGO and AgNWs. The conductive nanocomposites simultaneously present a low percolation threshold of 0.159 vol % and a maximum electrical conductivity of 1230 S m-1 at 3.226 vol % filler loading. Moreover, a flexible electronic skin based on the multidimensional ternary hybrids is presented, and it exhibits large stretchability, high gauge factor, and excellent cyclic working durability, which is successfully demonstrated in monitoring prosthetic finger motions.

An Omni-Healable and Highly Sensitive Capacitive Pressure Sensor with Microarray Structure.

Capacitive pressure sensors with high flexibility, sensitivity, and excellent healable properties are desirable for a wide variety of applications, such as e-skin. However, implementing these characteristics onto a device presently remains a great challenge. In this work, a flexible pressure sensor with high sensitivity and strong healable properties has been developed based on healable polyurethane (HPU), silver nanowires and graphene. The HPU-based microstructured capacitive pressure sensor exhibited a high sensitivity of 1.9 kPa-1 (<3 kPa), a fast response time (<100 ms), low detection limit (10 Pa), and long-term durability (1000 cycles). Touch-finger and vocal-cord vibration detection have been demonstrated and exhibit a high sensitivity to both static and dynamic pressure. More notably, the entire pressure sensor including the dielectric layer and electrodes is omni-healable after complete separation. The prototype has experimentally shown tremendous potential for wearable, healable applications, such as healthcare monitoring and human-machine interfaces.

Upregulation of ZBTB7A exhibits a tumor suppressive role in gastric cancer cells.

Gastric cancer presents as a complex solid tumor and is the third leading cause of global cancer­associated mortality. The genetic alterations in gastric cancer remain unclear and deserve further investigation. Mining The Cancer Genome Atlas gastric adenocarcinoma dataset identified a frequent loss of the zinc finger and BTB domain containing 7A (ZBTB7A) gene locus and a significant correlation between low ZBTB7A expression and poor patient survival. ZBTB7A belongs to the POZ/BTB and Kruppel transcription factor family. In the present study, overexpression of ZBTB7A in a gastric cancer cell line induced cell cycle arrest at the S phase. Upregulation of ZBTB7A also promoted apoptosis and repressed cell migration. The results of the present study indicated that ZBTB7A functions as a tumor suppressor in gastric cancer cells. Understanding the role of ZBTB7A in gastric cancer may provide important clinical insight for treatment.

Room-Temperature Nanowelding of a Silver Nanowire Network Triggered by Hydrogen Chloride Vapor for Flexible Transparent Conductive Films.

High contact resistance between silver nanowires (AgNWs) is a key issue in widespread application of AgNW flexible transparent conductive films as a promising candidate to replace the brittle and expensive indium tin oxide. A facile, room-temperature nanowelding method of an AgNW network triggered by hydrogen chloride (HCl) vapor is demonstrated to reduce the sheet resistance of the AgNW network. Under the visible light, O2 and HCl vapor serving as an etching couple induced silver atoms to be transferred from the bottom AgNW at the junction to the top one, and then, these silver atoms epitaxially recrystallized at the contact position with the lattice of the top AgNW as the template, ultimately resulting in the coalescence of the junction between AgNWs. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was spin-coated onto the HCl-vapor-treated (HVT) AgNW network on the polyethylene terephthalate substrate to fabricate PDMS/HVT AgNW films. The fabricated film with low sheet resistance and high transmittance retained its conductivity after 4000 bending cycles. Furthermore, excellent heating performance, electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness, and foldability were obtained in the PDMS/HVT AgNW film. Thus, the role of the simple nanowelding process is evident in enhancing the performance of AgNW transparent conductive films for emerging soft optoelectronic applications.

Highly Sensitive Flexible Pressure Sensor Based on Silver Nanowires-Embedded Polydimethylsiloxane Electrode with Microarray Structure.

Flexible pressure sensors have attracted increasing research interest because of their potential applications for wearable sensing devices. Herein, a highly sensitive flexible pressure sensor is exhibited based on the elastomeric electrodes and a microarray architecture. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate, coated with silver nanowires (AgNWs), is used as the top electrode, while polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) as the dielectric layer. Several transfer processes are applied on seeking facile strategy for the preparation of the bottom electrode via embedding AgNWs into the PDMS film of microarray structure. The flexible pressure sensor integrates the top electrode, dielectric layer, and microarray electrode in a sandwich structure. It is demonstrated that such sensors possess the superiorities of high sensitivity (2.94 kPa-1), low detection limit (<3 Pa), short response time (<50 ms), excellent flexibility, and long-term cycle stability. This simple process for preparing such sensors can also be easily scaled up to construct pressure sensor arrays for detecting the intensity and distribution of the loaded pressure. In addition, this flexible pressure sensor exhibits good performance even in a noncontact way, such as detecting voice vibrations and air flow. Due to its superior performance, this designed flexible pressure sensor demonstrates promising potential in the application of electronic skins, as well as wearable healthcare monitors.