Chitosan-based promising scaffolds for the construction of tailored nanosystems against osteoporosis: Current status and future prospects.

Despite advancements in therapeutic techniques, restoring bone tissue after damage remains a challenging task. Tissue engineering or targeted drug delivery solutions aim to meet the pressing clinical demand for treatment alternatives by creating substitute materials that imitate the structural and biological characteristics of healthy tissue. Polymers derived from natural sources typically exhibit enhanced biological compatibility and bioactivity when compared to manufactured polymers. Chitosan is a unique polysaccharide derived from chitin through deacetylation, offering biodegradability, biocompatibility, and antibacterial activity. Its cationic charge sets it apart from other polymers, making it a valuable resource for various applications. Modifications such as thiolation, alkylation, acetylation, or hydrophilic group incorporation can enhance chitosan's swelling behavior, cross-linking, adhesion, permeation, controllable drug release, enzyme inhibition, and antioxidative properties. Chitosan scaffolds possess considerable potential for utilization in several biological applications. An intriguing application is its use in the areas of drug distribution and bone tissue engineering. Due to their excellent biocompatibility and lack of toxicity, they are an optimal material for this particular usage. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of osteoporosis, including its pathophysiology, current treatment options, the utilization of natural polymers in disease management, and the potential use of chitosan scaffolds for drug delivery systems aimed at treating the condition.

Correlation analysis between body mass index and foot length in Chinese adolescents: a regional study.

This study aims to analyse the relationship between body mass index and foot length in Chinese adolescents and to provide theoretical guidance for preventing a flat foot in Chinese adolescents. This study recruited 1477 students aged 14-23 years. The participants' height, weight, and body mass index were measured, as well as baseline data, including age, gender and foot length. Differences in foot length (bilateral) and flat foot distribution were statistically significant except for the normal foot and high arch foot distribution based on different body mass index groups. Linear correlation analysis demonstrated that body height, weight and body mass index were positively correlated with bilateral foot length regardless of gender. Body mass index acted as a risk factor for flat foot (bilateral) through disordered multi-classification logistic regression analysis. Body mass index was positively correlated with left and right foot length regardless of gender and acted as a risk factor for a flat foot in Chinese adolescents. Practitioner summary: Significant differences exist in the anthropometric data of various races and ethnic groups. The study was investigated in the form of a cross-sectional study. BMI was positively correlated with bilateral foot length and acted as a risk factor for a flat foot in Chinese adolescents.

A Controlled Strengthened Dominance Relation for Evolutionary Many-Objective Optimization.

Maintaining a balance between convergence and diversity is particularly crucial in evolutionary multiobjective optimization. Recently, a novel dominance relation called "strengthened dominance relation" (SDR) is proposed, which outperforms the existing dominance relations in balancing convergence and diversity. In this article, two points that influence the performance of SDR are studied and a new dominance relation, which is mainly based on SDR, is proposed (CSDR). An adaptation strategy is presented to dynamically adjust the dominance relation according to the current generation number. The CSDR is embedded into NSGA-II to substitute the Pareto dominance, labeled as NSGA-II/CSDR. The performance of our proposed method is validated by comparing it with five state-of-the-art algorithms on commonly used benchmark problems. NSGA-II/CSDR outperforms other algorithms in the most test instances considering both convergence and diversity.

Strategies in the delivery of Cas9 ribonucleoprotein for CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing.

CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has gained rapidly increasing attentions in recent years, however, the translation of this biotechnology into therapy has been hindered by efficient delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 materials into target cells. Direct delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 system as a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex consisting of Cas9 protein and single guide RNA (sgRNA) has emerged as a powerful and widespread method for genome editing due to its advantages of transient genome editing and reduced off-target effects. In this review, we summarized the current Cas9 RNP delivery systems including physical approaches and synthetic carriers. The mechanisms and beneficial roles of these strategies in intracellular Cas9 RNP delivery were reviewed. Examples in the development of stimuli-responsive and targeted carriers for RNP delivery are highlighted. Finally, the challenges of current Cas9 RNP delivery systems and perspectives in rational design of next generation materials for this promising field will be discussed.

Comparative analysis of the surgical treatment results for multiple myeloma bone disease of the spine and the long bone/soft tissue.

The present retrospective study was designed to compare the pain relief, surgery duration, life quality, survival time and relative prognostic factors in multiple myeloma (MM) bone disease patients with different surgical sites. A total of 65 cases were enrolled and divided into two groups. Group A included patients with lesions located in the spine, while Group B included patients with lesions located in the long bone or soft tissue. Pain relief was measured by the visual analogue scale (VAS), neurological impairment was determined according to Frankel classification, and survival was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was also used to estimate the effect of factors on the prediction of survival. The hospitalization time, preoperative duration of symptoms, method of surgery, complications, recurrence and survival time were evaluated and compared retrospectively. Pain relief and improvement of life quality were observed in all the patients in groups A and B. No significant differences were detected for the majority of parameters compared between groups A and B, with the exception of the surgery duration, as well as the postoperative VAS score at 1 and 6 months after surgery. The multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed several risk factors significantly associated with survival, including the preoperative VAS score, postoperative chemotherapy, prothrombin time activity (PTA), albumin, lactate dehydrogenase and urine protein level. In conclusion, surgical treatment was an effective therapeutic method in patients with MM. Postoperative analgesic use should be individualized according to the different surgical sites and postoperative periods. Furthermore, preoperative pain, PTA, albumin, urine protein level and postoperative chemotherapy are associated with prognosis.