Association between albumin-to-globulin ratio and the risk of overall survival in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients with anlotinib treatment: a retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Researches about the association between serum albumin-to-globulin ratio (AGR) and the prognosis of lung cancer are limited. We aimed to investigate the relationship between AGR and overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with anlotinib. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 196 advanced NSCLC patients with anlotinib treatment between June 1, 2018 and June 1, 2021. The exposure was AGR, calculated by baseline serum albumin / (serum total protein - serum albumin). The outcome was OS, defined as the period from the date of initial treatment with anlotinib to death or the last follow-up. The univariate and multivariate linear regression models and generalized additive models (GAM) were used to analyze the relationship between AGR and OS. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the OS. RESULTS: After adjusting for potential confounders, a non-linear relationship was observed between AGR and OS, which had an inflection point of 1.24. The hazard ratio and the confidence intervals on the left and the right sides of the inflection point were 13.05 (0.52 to 327.64) and 0.20 (0.07 to 0.57), respectively. It suggested that AGR was positively associated with OS when AGR was larger than 1.24, for every 1 unit increase in AGR, the risk of death lowered approximately by 80%. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between AGR and the OS for advanced NSCLC patients with anlotinib is non-linear. AGR level is an independent protective factor for OS in advanced NSCLC patients who received anlotinib therapy.

Multi-dimensional visualization of ingestion, biological effects and interactions of microplastics and a representative POP in edible jellyfish.

Due to their ubiquity and potential risks, microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) are concerning environmental issues. Yet there are still significant knowledge gaps in understanding the tissue-specific accumulation and dynamic change of MPs and NPs in the aquatic organism and how these micro/nano-scale emerging contaminants interact with other environmental pollutants such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Here, in vivo imaging systems (IVIS), radioisotope tracing, and histological staining were innovatively used to reveal the fate and toxicity of fluorescently-labeled MPs/NPs and 14C-labeled 2,4,4'-trichlorobiphenyl (PCB28) in edible jellyfish Rhopilema esculentum. These contaminants' ingestion, biological effects, and interactions were visualized at cellular, tissue, and whole-body multidimensional levels. Both MPs and NPs were shown to be preferentially accumulated in the mouthlets of oral arms, and most ingested MPs/NPs were present in the extracellular environment instead of being internalized into the mesoglea. Moreover, the presence of MPs or NPs in the seawater significantly inhibited the bioaccumulation of PCB28 in the jellyfish tissue, thus alleviating physiological alteration, gastric damage, and apoptosis caused by PCB28. This study provides a multi-dimensional visualization strategy to display the distribution and biological effects of typical pollutants in marine organisms and offers new insights for understanding the impacts of MPs/NPs and POPs on marine ecosystems.

Perineural invasion confers poorer clinical outcomes in patients with T1/T2 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: a single center, retrospective cohort study.

Background: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) poses a significant clinical challenge, demanding a thorough understanding of prognostic indicators for effective patient management. Despite reports suggesting the impact of perineural invasion (PNI) on the prognosis of early-stage ICC patients, there has been a dearth of comprehensive research specifically targeting this subgroup. This study seeks to investigate the influence of PNI on survival outcomes in early-stage ICC patients and aims to enhance the prognostic value of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) T category. Methods: A cohort of 268 early-stage (T1-T2N0M0) ICC patients, who underwent curative-intent resection (R0) between 2011 and 2015 at the Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, were enrolled in this study. Lasso and Cox regression analyses were employed to explore differences in clinical and prognostic data. Kaplan-Meier curves were generated to illustrate the clinical significance of the combination of PNI and T category. Results: Among the 268 patients, 24.6% exhibited PNI. Patients with PNI demonstrated shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS) [median RFS: 16 months (interquartile range, 9.5-19 months)] and overall survival (OS) [median OS: 16.53 months (interquartile range, 10-25 months)]. PNI emerged as an independent risk factor for both RFS and OS in T1- and T2-stage patients (all P<0.05), whereas tumor size was only an independent risk factor for OS (P=0.004). PNI was associated with all prognostic markers for ICC patients, including gender, jaundice, cholangitis, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, cancer antigen 199 (CA199), preoperative serum albumin, and preoperative platelet count (all P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in RFS (P=0.270) and OS (P=0.360) between T2 patients without PNI and T1 patients with PNI. Conclusions: This study underscores PNI as a robust prognostic factor in early-stage ICC, emphasizing the necessity of incorporating PNI into the AJCC T category for precise risk stratification. Clinically, understanding the impact of PNI on survival outcomes can guide tailored treatment strategies for early ICC patients.

Uptake and accumulation of erythromycin in leafy vegetables and induced phytotoxicity and dietary risks.

Erythromycin (ERY), a widely used macrolide antibiotic, is omnipresent in soil and aquatic environments, which may potentially contaminate food crops but remains to be explored. Two leafy vegetables, pakchoi (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis) and water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica Forsk.), were grown in laboratory-constructed soil or hydroponic systems to investigate the dynamic accumulation of ERY in edible plants. Results indicate 14C-ERY could be absorbed by water spinach and pakchoi in both systems. Autoradiographic imaging and concentration data of plant tissues suggested that ERY had limited translocation from roots to shoots in these two vegetables. The accumulation level of ERY was similar between the two vegetables in the soil system; but in the hydroponic system, pakchoi had a higher ERY accumulation than water spinach, with the bioconcentration factor of 2.74-25.98 and 3.65-11.67 L kg-1, respectively. The ERY intake via vegetable consumption was 0.01-2.17 ng kg-1 day-1, which was much lower than the maximum acceptable daily intake (700 ng kg-1 day-1), indicating negligible risks of consuming vegetables with roots exposed to ERY at environmentally relevant levels. In addition, ERY was found to cause growth inhibition and oxidative stress to pakchoi, even at low concentrations (7 and 22 µg L-1). This work contributes to a better understanding of plant uptake and translocation of ERY in soils and water, and has important implications for the reasonable evaluation of the implied risks of ERY to vegetables and human health.

Nanoscale Detection of Magnon Excitations with Variable Wavevectors Through a Quantum Spin Sensor.

We report the optical detection of magnons with a broad range of wavevectors in magnetic insulator Y3Fe5O12 thin films by proximate nitrogen-vacancy (NV) single-spin sensors. Through multimagnon scattering processes, the excited magnons generate fluctuating magnetic fields at the NV electron spin resonance frequencies, which accelerate the relaxation of NV spins. By measuring the variation of the emitted spin-dependent photoluminescence of the NV centers, magnons with variable wavevectors up to ∼5 × 107 m-1 can be optically accessed, providing an alternative perspective to reveal the underlying spin behaviors in magnetic systems. Our results highlight the significant opportunities offered by NV single-spin quantum sensors in exploring nanoscale spin dynamics of emergent spintronic materials.

Different Subgroups of Cholinergic Neurons in the Basal Forebrain Are Distinctly Innervated by the Olfactory Regions and Activated Differentially in Olfactory Memory Retrieval.

The mammalian basal forebrain (BF), a heterogenous structure providing the primary cholinergic inputs to cortical and limbic structures, plays a crucial role in various physiological processes such as learning/memory and attention. Despite the involvement of the BF cholinergic neurons (BFCNs) in olfaction related memory has been reported, the underlying neural circuits remain poorly understood. Here, we combined viral trans-synaptic tracing systems and ChAT-cre transgenic mice to systematically reveal the relationship between the olfactory system and the different subsets of BFCNs. The retrograde adeno-associated virus and rabies virus (AAV-RV) tracing showed that different subregional BFCNs received diverse inputs from multiple olfactory cortices. The cholinergic neurons in medial and caudal horizontal diagonal band Broca (HDB), magnocellular preoptic area (MCPO) and ventral substantia innominate (SI; hereafter HMS complex, HMSc) received the inputs from the entire olfactory system such as the olfactory bulb (OB), anterior olfactory nucleus (AON), entorhinal cortex (ENT), basolateral amygdala and especially the piriform cortex (PC) and hippocampus (HIP); while medial septum (MS/DB) and a part of rostral HDB (hereafter MS/DB complex, MS/DBc), predominantly from HIP; and nucleus basalis Meynert (NBM) and dorsal SI (hereafter NBM complex, NBMc), mainly from the central amygdala. The anterograde vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) tracing further validated that the major target of the OB to the BF is HMSc. To correlate these structural relations between the BFCNs and olfactory functions, the neurons activated in the BF during olfaction related task were mapped with c-fos immunostaining. It was found that some of the BFCNs were activated in go/no-go olfactory discrimination task, but with different activated patterns. Interestingly, the BFCNs in HMSc were more significantly activated than the other subregions. Therefore, our data have demonstrated that among the different subgroups of BFCNs, HMSc is more closely related to the olfactory system, both structurally and functionally. This work provides the evidence for distinct roles of different subsets of BFNCs in olfaction associated memory.