H-type Hypertension Status and Influencing Factors of the Elderly People Over 80 Years Old Based on Random Forest Model.

Hypertension is a common chronic disease in elderly people over 80 years old. Clinically, H-type hypertension occurs when hypertension coexists with hyperhomocysteinemia level of ≥ 10 umol/L. Effective identification of risk factors for H-type hypertension in the elderly can greatly improve patient prognosis.Consecutively, 494 patients with hypertension admitted to the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University from January 2019 to December 2021 were selected as the study population. They were divided into H-type hypertension (n = 197) and non-H-type hypertension groups (n = 297). Patient data were collected, including basic information, history, and clinical data. The random forest model and LASSO analysis were used to screen the influencing factors for H-type hypertension. Multiple stepwise regression analysis was used to analyze the selected variables.A total of 197 elderly people over 80 years old suffered from H-type hypertension, with an incidence rate of 39.88%. The random forest model and LASSO analysis results showed that the top 8 independent variables in importance ranking were ejection fraction (EF), fibrinogen, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), B-type natriuretic peptide, creatinine, fasting blood glucose, uric acid, and serum triiodothyronine levels. The results of multivariate analysis showed that EF was the protective factor, while fibrinogen, HbA1c, and creatinine were the risk factors for H-type hypertension in elderly people over 80 years old (P < 0.05).Healthcare professionals can indirectly assess the prevalence of H-type hypertension by focusing on EF, fibrinogen, creatinine, and HbA1c in elderly hypertensive patients. This provided proactive intervention and medical services to improve prognosis outcomes.

Activation of free fatty acid receptors, FFAR1 and FFAR4, ameliorates ulcerative colitis by promote fatty acid metabolism and mediate macrophage polarization.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanism of action of fatty acid receptors, FFAR1 and FFAR4, on ulcerative colitis (UC) through fatty acid metabolism and macrophage polarization. METHODS: Dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced mouse model of UC mice was used to evaluate the efficacy of FFAR1 (GW9508) and FFAR4 (GSK137647) agonists by analyzing body weight, colon length, disease activity index (DAI), and histological scores. Real-time PCR and immunofluorescence analysis were performed to quantify the levels of fatty acid metabolizing enzymes and macrophage makers. FFA-induced lipid accumulation in RAW264.7 cells was visualized by Oil Red O staining analysis, and cells were collected to detect macrophage polarization by flow cytometry. RESULTS: The combination of GW9508 and GSK137647 significantly improved DSS-induced UC symptoms, caused recovery in colon length, and decreased histological injury. GW9508 + GSK137647 treatment upregulated the expressions of CD206, lipid oxidation enzyme (CPT-1α) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-10, IL-13) but downregulated those of CD86, lipogenic enzymes (ACC1, FASN, SCD1), and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α). Combining the two agonists decreased FFA-induced lipid accumulation and increased CD206 expression in cell-based experiments. CONCLUSION: Activated FFAR1 and FFAR4 ameliorates DSS-induced UC by promoting fatty acid metabolism to reduce lipid accumulation and mediate M2 macrophage polarization.

Sleep quality and creativity in Chinese college student during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of executive function.

Background: COVID-19 has impacted adolescents' interpersonal relationships, life attitudes, and mental health during the past 3 years. However, previous studies predominantly focused on negative problems, while few studies assessed the situation of teenagers from the perspective of positive psychology. Therefore, this study explores the creativity level of Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between sleep quality and creativity, and the mediating role of executive function. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted across six colleges in Heilongjiang in China, with a sample of 4,258 college students recruited via stratified cluster sampling. Data were collected through an online survey. A mediation model was constructed, and SPSS PROCESS macro was used to analyze the data. Results: The creativity score of Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic was 106.48 ± 13.61. Correlation analysis demonstrated that sleep quality correlated negatively with creativity (r = -0.08, P < 0.01) but positively with executive function (r=0.45, P < 0.01), whilst executive function correlated negatively with creativity (r = -0.10, P < 0.01). Moreover, the mediation model revealed that executive function partially mediated the relationship between sleep quality and creativity in college students (indirect effect = -0.017, SE = 0.004, 95% CI = [-0.025, -0.008]). Executive function accounted for 48.6% of the variance in college students' creativity. Conclusion: School administrators should implement measures such as sleep education to enhance students' sleep quality. Concurrently, curriculum and assessment implementation should enhance executive function. Such measures can contribute to improved student creativity, thus helping students overcome the negative emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Relationship between Achievement Motivation and Job Performance among Chinese Physicians: A Conditional Process Analysis.

BACKGROUND: To explore the relationship between achievement motivation and job performance among physicians, this study investigated the impacts of different personality traits on job performance among the physicians. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 and 1,523 physicians from eight tertiary grade A hospitals in Harbin, China. The type of data collected included the achievement motivation of the physicians, job performance, organizational commitment, personality traits, and other demographic variables. To assess and compare the demographic data, independent t-test and ANOVA were applied. Further, Pearson correlation coefficients were used to evaluate the correlation among the variables. Moderated mediation analysis was performed to test the correlation among the job performance, achievement motivation, organizational commitment, neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. RESULTS: Achievement motivation directly influences job performance and organizational commitment partially mediates the direct effects of achievement motivation on job performance. Additionally, our findings demonstrated that agreeableness and conscientiousness moderate the strength of the relationships between achievement motivation and job performance mediated by organizational commitment. CONCLUSION: We propose that hospital managers should pay attention to the personal growth of the physicians and improve their organizational commitment via creating a positive working climate and training for career planning and education. Moreover, managers should identify conscientiousness and agreeableness individuals and increase their responsibilities geared towards improving the performance of the organization.

Have you ever heard of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine? The awareness of HPV vaccine for college students in China based on meta-analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the awareness of College Students (CSs) of HPV vaccine in China and provide evidence-based recommendations for HPV vaccine's publicity and promotion.Methods: Web of Science, PubMed, Science of Direct, EBSCO, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang Data were searched. A random effects meta-analysis was conducted to determine pooled estimates of Awareness Rate (AR) for HPV vaccine.Results: Of the 36 studies included, the estimated AR of HPV vaccine was 40.27% (95% CI: 30.86%, 50.06%) among Chinese CSs. The AR of HPV vaccine was stratified by factors as gender, major, area, city, survey time, and sampling method of the study. The pooled AR of HPV vaccine among CSs was as follows: 44.17% (95% CI: 31.65%, 57.09%) and 31.93% (95% CI: 13.25%, 54.30%) for females and males; 44.47% (95% CI: 29.90%, 59.55%) and 12.02% (95% CI: 7.69%, 17.15%) for medical-related and nonmedical majors; 44.47% (95% CI: 28.71-60.82%) and 41.16% (95% CI: 26.48-56.64%) for Eastern and Midwestern region; 48.86% (95% CI: 30.63-67.25%) and 33.19% (95% CI: 22.27-45.12%) for first-tier and second- and third-tier city; 29.67 (95% CI: 11.44-52.16%) and 38.81 (95% CI: 27.14-51.21%) for AR before and after HPV vaccine entered in China; 51.51% (95% CI: 32.21%, 70.53%) and 26.21% (95% CI: 17.41%, 36.10%) for nonrandom and random sampling.Conclusion: This review indicates that awareness of HPV vaccine among CSs remains relatively low in China compared with European countries. Our findings may provide useful information to better understand the HPV vaccine awareness status among Chinese CSs.

Role of CircRNAs_100395 in Proliferation and Metastases of Liver Cancer.

BACKGROUND Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a kind of noncoding RNA with high cancer-specific expression, and great potential in regulating tumorigenesis. Among these, circRNA_100395 (circ_100395) has been reported to be downregulated in lung cancer, and participates in the process of tumor cell proliferation and metastasis. However, its expression and function in liver cancer remain unknown. MATERIAL AND METHODS Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to evaluate the expression level of circ_100395 and microRNAs-1228 (miR-1228) in liver cancer samples and the adjacent non-tumor tissues. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, migration, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway of circ_100395 upregulated cells were analyzed using a Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), flow cytometry, Transwell assay, and Western blot analysis. RESULTS We found that circ_100395 was downregulated in cancerous liver tissues relative to the adjacent normal tissues. The overexpression of circ_100395 was negatively associated with tumor differentiation, microvascular invasion, and portal vein tumor thrombosis. However, patients with higher circ_10039 expression tended to have better postoperative disease-free survival time. Moreover, upregulation of circ_100395 in liver cancer cells inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, then silenced the EMT pathway and reduced migration and invasion abilities, while this anti-tumor effect was significantly reversed by the downstream target, miR-1228. CONCLUSIONS circ_100395 appears to be a promising therapeutic target for liver cancer.

[Positive circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood may indicate a poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the value of detecting peripheral blood circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: A total of 296 patients diagnosed with HCC admitted in our department from July 2013 to January 2015 were analyzed, with 39 patients with benign liver disease serving as the control group. The distribution of CTCs in the peripheral blood of HCC patients were detected by CanPatrol(TM) CTCs, and its relationship with the clinical features and prognosis of the patients were analyzed. RESULTS: s CTCs were detected in 64.5% (191/296) of the HCC patients but in none of the control group (P<0.05). Positive CTCs in peripheral blood of HCC patients were significantly correlated with serum AFP level, tumor number, TNM stage, BCLC stage, portal vein tumor thrombus and metastasis (P<0.05). In 127 HCC patients receiving radical surgery, the patients positive for CTCs showed significantly shorter relapse-free survival time (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Positive CTCs in the peripheral blood may indicate a poor prognosis in HCC patients. CTCs may serve as a indicator for monitoring the prognosis of HCC.

Methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 2 overexpression is associated with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 2 (MTHFD2) is the key enzyme in the transformation of folic acid metabolites. MTHFD2 overexpression plays a key role in the progression of human cancers, and depletion of MTHFD2 has shown potential antitumor activities in several types of cancer. However, the role of MTHFD2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been investigated. AIMS: To investigate the expression of MTHFD2 in HCC patients, and its associated clinical implications and possible functions in HCC. METHODS: Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemical staining were used to detect MTHFD2 expression in liver tissues from HCC patients, then associations of MTHFD2 expression with demographic and clinicopathologic features were analysed. The effects of siRNA interference of MTHFD2 on cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, and migration were investigated in HCC cell lines. RESULTS: Significant overexpression of MTHFD2 was observed in HCC tissues, and overexpression of MTHFD2 was correlated with TNM stage, tumor microembolus, tumor metastasis, recurrence and the time of recurrence (P<0.05) in HCC patients. siRNA-mediated silencing of MTHFD2 inhibited migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition progression in HCC cell lines, but no obvious effects on cell proliferation, apoptosis or cell cycle distribution were detected. CONCLUSIONS: MTHFD2 is overexpressed in HCC, and is associated with poor prognosis and cellular features connected to metastatic disease.

[Expression of TPX2 in hepatocellular carcinoma and its clinical significance].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expression of TPX2 and its significance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue and examine the relationship between TPX2 and clinicopathological characteristics of HCC. METHODS: Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemical staining were used to compare the expression of TPX2 in tumor and adjacent non-tumoral tissues. RESULTS: The TPX2 mRNA expression was higher in tumor tissues than that in non-tumoral counterparts (30/50) (P < 0.05). The positive rate of TPX2 protein in tumor tissues was significantly higher than that in non-tumoral counterparts (56.0% vs 16.0%) (P < 0.05). The expression of TPX2 mRNA and protein were correlated with metastasis, recurrence and time of recurrence after curative resection (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: An over-expression of TPX2 may be risk factor of metastasis and recurrence after curative resection so that it is a potential biomarker for early diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.

Dramatic antitumor effects of the dual mTORC1 and mTORC2 inhibitor AZD2014 in hepatocellular carcinoma.

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) has emerged as a critical effector in cell growth, proliferation, survival, angiogenesis, and autophagy through direct interaction with mTORC1 (mTOR complex 1) and mTORC2 (mTOR complex 2). The mTOR axis is aberrantly activated in about 50% of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases and thus has become an attractive target for drug development in this disease. Allosteric inhibitors of mTORC1, rapamycin and its derivatives have been used to study in patients with HCC but have not shown significant clinical utility, likely because of the lack of inhibition of mTORC2. In the present study, we describe that AZD2014, a small molecular ATP-competitive inhibitor of mTOR, was a highly potent inhibitor of mTORC1 and mTORC2 in human HCC cells, which led to a more thorough inhibition of mTORC1 than rapamycin, and the inhibition of mTORC2 prevented the feedback activation of AKT signaling. Compared with rapamycin, AZD2014 resulted in more profound proliferation suppression, apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, and autophagy in HCC cells. Notably, we found blockage of both mTORC1 and mTORC2 by AZD2014 to be more efficacious than blockage of mTORC1 alone by rapamycin in inhibiting the migration, invasion and EMT progression of HCC cells. In conclusion, our current results highlight mechanistic differentiation between rapamycin and AZD2014 in targeting cancer cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, autophagy, migration, invasion and EMT progression, and provide support for further investigation of AZD2014 as an antitumor agent for the treatment of HCC in clinic.

[The preliminary study on the function of methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 2 in hepatocellular carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 2 (MTHFD2) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and its correlation with clinical parameters. METHOD: Fluorogenic quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) was used to measure the MTHFD2 mRNA expression. The MTHFD2 protein expression was detected by immunohistochemical staining in cancerous tissues and adjacent noncancerous counterparts. The relationship of MTHFD2 expression, clinicopathological parameters and the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma was subsequently analysed. RESULTS: The MTHFD2 mRNA expression in cancerous tissues was higher than that in adjacent noncancerous counterparts (31/47) (P<0.05). The positive rate of MTHFD2 protein in cancerous tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent noncancerous counterparts (69.5% vs. 33.9%) (P<0.05). MTHFD2 overexpression was found to correlate with clinical pathological parameters such as tumor metastasis, recurrence and poor prognosis (P<0.05). The patients with overexpressed MTHFD2 had shorter tumor-free survival time. CONCLUSIONS: Overexpression of MTHFD2 in HCC may be a risk factor of tumor metastasis and recurrence. MTHFD2 could be a new biomarker for prognosis of HCC.

[Expression of miR-126/miR-126* in hepatocelluar carcinoma and its correlation with clinical outcomes].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of miR-126/miR-126* in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and its clinical significance. METHODS: The expressions of miR-126/miR-126* in the tumor tissues and non-cancer tissues from 74 HCC cases were detected using real-time quantitative PCR. The correlation between miR-126/miR-126* expression and the clinicopathological features of the patients was analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with the non-cancer tissues, HCC tissues showed significantly lowered expression levels of miR-126/miR-126*. A positive correlation was found between the expressions of miR-126 and miR-126* in the tumor tissues. Lower expressions of miR-126/miR-126* were significantly correlated with tumor recurrence and poor survival of the HCC patients. CONCLUSION: The down-regulation of miR-126/miR-126* may play an important role in HCC metastasis and contributes to poor survival of HCC patients.

[Expression of novel metastasis-promoting gene 1 and its clinical significance in hepatocellular carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expression of NVM-1(novel metastasis-promoting gene 1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue and examine its clinical significance. METHODS: The expression of NVM-1 in 92 cases of HCC tumor tissues and non-tumor tissues was detected by immunohistochemical staining with SP (streptavidin-perosidase). And its clinical significance was evaluated. RESULTS: The staining of NVM-1 was predominantly located in the nucleus of HCC tumor tissue. The positive rate of NVM-1 was 52.2% in all detected cancers and it was higher than that in control non-tumor tissues (28.3%) and benign hepatic lesions (0) . A significant difference of positive rates existed between tumor and non-tumor tissues (P < 0.05). The expression of NVM-1 in HCC was not correlated with hepatic B virus (HBV), size, amount or cirrhosis, etc. However, it was correlated with TNM (P = 0.016), BCLC stage (P = 0.015), poor differentiation (P = 0.000), intrahepatic metastasis (P = 0.002), portal vein tumor thrombus (P = 0.023) and recurrence (P = 0.001). By Kaplan-Meier analysis, the median tumor-free survival time was 5 months in positive expression group and it was significantly shorter than 13 months in negative expression group (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: There is probably a close relation between recurrence and metastasis and the expression of NVM-1 in HCC.