A review of high-intensity focused ultrasound as a novel and non-invasive interventional radiology technique.

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a non-invasive interventional radiology technology, which has been generally accepted in clinical practice for the treatment of benign and malignant tumors. HIFU can cause targeted tissue coagulative necrosis and protein denaturation by thermal or non-thermal effects, guided by diagnostic ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging, without destruction of the normal adjacent tissue, under sedation or general anesthesia. HIFU has become an important alternative to standard treatments of solid tumors, including surgery, radiation, and medications. The aim of this review is to describe the development, principle, devices, and clinical applications of HIFU.

Prevalence and risk factors of stroke-related sarcopenia at the subacute stage: A case control study.

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of stroke-related sarcopenia (SRS) in hospitalized patients receiving rehabilitation treatment. Methods: Approximately, 259 patients with stroke that satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria were consecutively recruited between June 2020 and July 2022. The epidemiologic data, history, clinical data, and measured data of the skeletal muscle index were collected. The patients were divided into the sarcopenia and non-sarcopenia group for comparison and analysis with the univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: SRS was presented in 121 (46.7%) patients with a mean age of 59.6 ± 9.7 years, including 42 women and 79 men. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed the following parameters to be significant (p < 0.05) risk factors for SRS: college degree or above (OR, 2.1, 95% CI, 1.1-4.1), ICU stay (OR, 1.7, 95% CI, 1.06-2.8), pneumonia (OR, 1.9, 9% CI, 1.1-3.6), walking ability (OR, 2.6, 95% CI, 1.5-4.6), cognitive impairment (OR, 1.8, 95%, 1.1-2.9), aphasia (OR, 2.1, 95% CI, 1.2-3.5), nasogastric feeding (OR, 3.7, 95%, 1.9-7.3), age (OR, 1.04, 95% CI, 1-1.1), and creatine kinase (OR, 1.1, 95% CI,0.9-1.2). Conclusions: Older age, light weight, severer clinical conditions, cognitive impairment, and significantly decreased levels of albumin, RAG, creatinine, uric acid, red blood cell count, hemoglobin, prealbumin, iron, and creatine kinase are more significantly present in patients with SRS compared with those without SRS.

Dual-ligand lanthanide metal-organic framework for ratiometric fluorescence detection of the anthrax biomarker dipicolinic acid.

Dipicolinic acid (DPA) is a unique biomarker of Bacillus anthracis. Development of a simple, fast, sensitive and timely DPA detection method is of great importance and interest for preventing mass disease outbreaks and treatment of anthrax. In this work, a novel lanthanide-doped fluorescence probe was constructed by coordination of Eu3+ with bifunctional UiO-66-(COOH)2-NH2 MOFs materials for efficient monitoring DPA. UiO-66-(COOH)2-NH2 MOFs were prepared using Zr4+ as a metal node, 1,2,4,5-benzenetetracarboxylic acid (H4BTC) and 2-aminoterephthalic acid (NH2-BDC) as bridging ligand through a simple one-pot synthesis method. By virtue their abundant carboxyl groups, UiO-66-(COOH)2-NH2 can readily grasp Eu3+ to form UiO-66-(COOH)2-NH2/Eu with coordinated water molecules at Eu sites. Upon interaction with DPA molecules, the coordinated H2O molecules were replaced by DPA molecules which transfer energy to Eu3+ in UiO-66-(COOH)2-NH2/Eu and sensitize Eu3+ luminescence. Meanwhile, DPA has a characteristic absorption band at 270 nm, which overlapped with the excitation spectrum of NH2-BDC, allowing the fluorescence of UiO-66-(COOH)2-NH2/Eu at 453 nm to be greatly quenched by DPA through inner filter effect (IFE). Therefore, the rationally designed UiO-66-(COOH)2-NH2/Eu complex not only exhibits strong hydrophilicity and high dispersion, but also serves as ratiometric fluorescence sensing platform for monitoring DPA concentration. This sensing platform showed a satisfactory linear relationship from 0.2 µM to 40 µM with a limit of detection of 25.0 nM and a noticeable fluorescence color change from blue to red, holding a great promise in practical applications.

Identification and phylogenetic analysis of the genus Syringa based on chloroplast genomic DNA barcoding.

DNA barcoding is a supplementary tool in plant systematics that is extensively used to resolve species-level controversies. This study assesses the significance of using two DNA barcoding loci (e.g., psbA-trnH and trnC-petN) in distinguishing 33 plant samples of the genus Syringa. Results showed that the average genetic distance K2P of psbA-trnH DNA marker was 0.0521, which is much higher than that of trnC-petN, which is 0.0171. A neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree based on psbA-trnH and trnC-petN indicated that the identification rate of psbA-trnH and trnC-petN alone were 75% and 62.5%, respectively. The barcode combination of psbA-trnH+trnC-petN could identify 33 samples of the genus Syringa accurately and effectively with an identification rate of 87.5%. The 33 Syringa samples were divided into four groups: Group I is series Syringa represented by Syringa oblata; Group II is series Villosae represented by Syringa villosa; Group III is series Pubescentes represented by Syringa meyeri; and Group IV is section Ligustrina represented by Syringa reticulata subsp. pekinensis. These research results provided strong evidence that the combinatorial barcode of psbA-trnH+trnC-petN had high-efficiency identification ability and application prospects in species of the genus Syringa.

L-histidine functionalized ZiF-8 with aggregation-induced emission for detection of tetracycline.

In this study, we constructed zinc based metal-organic framework functionalized by L-histidine (His@ZiF-8). The His@ZiF-8 had high porosity, large surface area, abundant carboxyl and amino group, which has been found to greatly enhance the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) of tetracycline (TC). After the His@ZiF-8 enrichment with TC, the TC exhibited strong fluorescence emission peak at 565 nm based on AIE. Under the optimal conditions, the fluorescence intensity of TC exhibited a good linear relationship with TC concentration within 0.1-80 µM with a low limit of detection of 28.6 nM. Antibiotic analogs such as neomycin, chloramphenico, ampicillin, kanamycin, and erythromycin have no obvious interference. In addition, the developed method was successfully used to the detection of TC in milk, river water, and honey.

Accuracy of Calf Circumference Measurement, SARC-F Questionnaire, and Ishii's Score for Screening Stroke-Related Sarcopenia.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the accuracy of sarcopenia diagnosis in patients with stroke using calf circumference (CC), SARC-F questionnaire, and Ishii's score in comparison with the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 (AWGS) sarcopenia diagnostic criteria. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 364 consecutive patients with stroke were enrolled and evaluated with the CC measurement, SARC-F questionnaire, and Ishii's score. The diagnostic accuracy was analyzed. Results: Based on the AWGS criteria, sarcopenia was present in 180 (49.5%) patients, with an age range of 49-74 (mean 63 ± 14.7) years. In all patients, the cutoff value of CC in the accuracy of diagnosing sarcopenia was 30.5 cm, with an AUC of 0.85, sensitivity of 81.8%, specificity of 90.1%, Kappa value of 0.72, and Youden index of 0.72. In the accuracy of diagnosing sarcopenia in all patients, Ishii's score had a cutoff value of 118, AUC of 0.78, sensitivity of 90.1%, specificity of 36.0%, Kappa value of 0.4, and Youden index of 0.55. For accuracy of diagnosing sarcopenia, the SARC-F questionnaire had a cutoff value of 5, AUC of 0.731, sensitivity of 94.7%, specificity of 40%, Kappa value of 0.34, and Youden index of 0.41. Conclusions: Based on the AWGS criteria, calf circumference measurement has the optimal performance in screening stroke-related sarcopenia compared with the SARC-F questionnaire and Ishii's score. In patients with stroke, the cutoff value of calf circumference for sarcopenia is < 31 cm in men and 30 cm in women, and with an AUC of 0.85.

Rhomboid domain containing 1 promotes the growth of non-small cell lung cancer through the activation of EGFR and regulation of the BIK-mediated apoptosis.

RHBDD1 overexpression is found in various malignancies, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and it is correlated with NSCLC patients' poor overall survival. This study aims to explore the function of RHBDD1 in regulating the progression of NSCLC and its potential molecular basis. qPCR, immunohistochemistry, and/or western blotting were used to evaluate the expression of RHBDD1 in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. RHBDD1 knockdown and overexpression were performed, CCK-8 assay and cell clone formation were applied to study the function of RHBDD1 in cell proliferation in vitro. Flow cytometry and immunofluorescence tests were employed to determine the regulation of apoptosis, cell cycle, and endoplasmic reticulum stress by RHBDD1. As a result, RHBDD1 was found significantly upregulated in NSCLC tissues and cells and associated with pathological tumor staging. RHBDD1 knockdown inhibited the proliferation of NSCLC cells both in vitro and in vivo, promoted their apoptosis, caused cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase, characterized with reduced CDK2, suppressed TGF-α secretion, and inhibited the EGFR/Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway. In contrast, RHBDD1 overexpression showed the opposite effects. These effects of the manipulated expression of RHBDD1 on NSCLC were restored by EGFR or MEK inhibitor. Additionally, RHBDD1 knockdown and overexpression resulted in decreased and increased BIK cleavage, respectively, but the effects could be blocked by a proteasome inhibitor. In conclusion, our research shows that RHBDD1 promotes the progression of NSCLC through enhancement of proliferation and induction of apoptosis by regulating the EGFR/Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway and the level of BIK protein level.

Silver nanoparticles combined with amino-functionalized UiO-66 for sensitive detection of glutathione.

Herein, a fluorescent nanosensor has been constructed for detection of glutathione (GSH) based on NH2-UiO-66 and AgNPs. The NH2-UiO-66 was synthesized where 2-amino-terephthalic acid as the organic ligand and Zr4+ as the center metal ions. The AgNPs can enhance the fluorescence of NH2-UiO-66 based on metal enhanced fluorescence (MEF) effect. Moreover, in the present of GSH, the fluorescence of NH2-UiO-66@AgNPs was quenched via electrostatic interaction and Ag-S reaction. The present sensing strategy shows good linear relation with the concentration of GSH in the range of 0.2-1.0 µM and 1.0-30 µM, and the limit of detection is 79 nM. Furthermore, our fluorescent nanosensor was utilized to detect GSH in human serum with a recovery of 96.8-102.5%. The results indicated that NH2-UiO-66@AgNPs is successfully applied for high sensitive and selective detection of GSH in human serum.

Microbubble contrast agent SonoVue combined with oxytocin improves the efficiency of high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation for adenomyosis.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the combined enhancing effects of microbubble-contrast SonoVue and oxytocin on high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation of adenomyosis. METHODS: 330 patients with adenomyosis were randomly assigned to SonoVue and oxytocin group (group A, n = 82), oxytocin (group B, n = 85), SonoVue (group C, n = 81), or the control (group D, n = 82) for HIFU ablation. In group A, oxytocin was dripped 0.32 IU/min, and HIFU ablation was started one minute after SonoVue injection. In group B, oxytocin was dripped 0.32 IU/min during ablation. In group C, HIFU ablation was started one minute after SonoVue injection. In group D, neither oxytocin nor SonoVue was applied. The clinical data, treatment results, and complications were analyzed. RESULTS: All participants underwent HIFU treatment safely, and the mean energy efficiency factor (EEF) in the four groups was 4.7 ± 0.9J/mm3, 8.5 ± 0.6J/mm3, 8.9 ± 0.7J/mm3, and 12.6 ± 1.8J/mm3, respectively, with the mean ablation time (AT) of 633.7 ± 55.1 s, 874.2 ± 65.6 s, 936.3 ± 85.2 s, and 1103.2 ± 96.2 s, respectively. The non-perfused volume ratios (NPVR) were 90.4 ± 8.8%, 88.7 ± 9.1%, 89.4 ± 7.2%, 80.5 ± 7.9%, respectively. In addition, EEF and AT were the shortest in group A (p < 0.05). NPVR was significantly higher in group A than in the control group D (p < 0.05). The incidence rates of adverse events were not significantly different in the four groups (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the control group, oxytocin combined with SonoVue in HIFU for adenomyosis can significantly decrease the energy and time needed for the ablation and safely enhance the treatment efficiency by improving the cavitation and heating of HIFU ablation and increasing the non-perfused volume ratio.

Luminol-Eu-based ratiometric fluorescence probe for highly selective and visual determination of tetracycline.

In this work, a ratiometric fluorometric method based on luminol-Europium complex (luminol-Eu) was constructed for the detection of tetracycline (TC). Luminol-Eu, synthesized by self-assembly reaction, displayed a strongly emission peak at 453 nm under excitation at 360 nm which was derived from the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) of the luminol-Eu. In the present of TC, the fluorescence of luminol-Eu at 453 nm was quenched based on inner filter effect (IFE). Meantime, the characteristic emission peak of Eu3+ at 626 nm can be observed thank to antenna effect (AE). Therefore, we proposed a ratiometric fluorometric method for detection of TC, which allowed detection of TC from 0.5 to 80 µM with the detection limit of 39 nM. In addition, the luminol-Eu-based test paper was prepared for visual semi-quantitative detection of TC in real samples based on the color of luminol-Eu change from blue to red under 365 nm ultraviolet light. All of those results indicated that the ratiometric fluorometric strategy was fast, sensitive, and visual for detection of TC.

Factors affecting effects of ultrasound guided high intensity focused ultrasound for single uterine fibroids: a retrospective analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate factors affecting effects of ultrasound guided high intensity focused ultrasound (USgHIFU) in the treatment of single uterine fibroids (UFs) with different magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features. METHODS: A total of 207 patients with single symptomatic UFs who were treated with HIFU were retrospectively analyzed. All UFs were grouped according to MRI features, and factors affecting HIFU ablation were set as independent variables. Non-perfusion volume ratio (NPVR) and energy efficiency factor (EEF) were set as dependent variables to establish multiple linear regression models with a stepwise method. RESULTS: All patients had successful HIFU treatment, with the mean NPVR of 74.7 ± 15.1% and the mean EEF of 7.4 ± 5.2 j/mm3. The NPVR was negatively correlated with transmural type of UFs, hyperintense on T2 weighted image (T2WI), enhancement type on T1 weighted image (T1WI), distance from UFs ventral side to skin and posterior location of UFs, but positively correlated with anterior location of UFs, hypointense on T2WI and anteverted uterus (uterine location). The EEF was negatively correlated with size, anterior location of UFs and hypointense on T2WI, but positively correlated with distance from UFs ventral side to skin, enhancement type on T1WI and transmural type of UFs. The UFs size and enhancement type on T1WI were the greatest factors affecting the ablation effect. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of HIFU treatment for single UFs is affected by multiple factors, and the UFs of hypointense on T2WI, large size, mild enhancement on T1WI and anteverted uterus can be easily ablated with high ablation efficiency.