Psychosocial interventions for teenagers with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: A systematic literature review.

OBJECTIVES: Psychosocial interventions can improve teenagers' self-esteem, mental health and bracing compliance. There is a need to compile available evidence of psychosocial care in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. This systematic review aimed to identify and evaluate the effects of existing interventional studies of psychosocial care for the adolescent idiopathic scoliosis population. METHODS: A comprehensive search of relevant literature published from the inception to March 2023 was conducted using nine databases. A google scholar search was performed on 1 July 2023, to update the searching results. Two reviewers independently assessed the methodological quality and extracted details of the included studies. Given the heterogeneity of the selected articles, the findings were synthesized narratively without conducting a meta-analysis. RESULTS: Four randomized controlled trials reported in six articles involving 385 teenagers were included. The interventions appeared acceptable with high recruitment rates and low dropout rates reported. Psychosocial interventions had shown significant positive effects on postoperative pain, engagement in daily and social activities as well as brace use, coping abilities and anxiety. CONCLUSION: Psychosocial interventions are generally feasible and acceptable among the adolescent idiopathic scoliosis population and have produced positive effects on a variety of physical and psychosocial outcomes. Study findings need to be interpreted with caution due to the limited number of available articles and the methodological concerns of the reviewed articles. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Well-designed clinical trials are warranted in people from cultural backgrounds to develop and implement effective psychosocial interventions for teenagers with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, not only for those at the post-surgery stage but also for those receiving conservative treatment.

Convergent evolution of dim light vision in owls and deep-diving whales.

Animals with enhanced dim-light sensitivity are at higher risk of light-induced retinal degeneration when exposed to bright light conditions.1,2,3,4 This trade-off is mediated by the rod photoreceptor sensory protein, rhodopsin (RHO), and its toxic vitamin A chromophore by-product, all-trans retinal.5,6,7,8 Rod arrestin (Arr-1) binds to RHO and promotes sequestration of excess all-trans retinal,9,10 which has recently been suggested as a protective mechanism against photoreceptor cell death.2,11 We investigated Arr-1 evolution in animals at high risk of retinal damage due to periodic bright-light exposure of rod-dominated retinas. Here, we find the convergent evolution of enhanced Arr-1/RHO all-trans-retinal sequestration in owls and deep-diving whales. Statistical analyses reveal a parallel acceleration of Arr-1 evolutionary rates in these lineages, which is associated with the introduction of a rare Arr-1 mutation (Q69R) into the RHO-Arr-1 binding interface. Using in vitro assays, we find that this single mutation significantly enhances RHO-all-trans-retinal sequestration by ∼30%. This functional convergence across 300 million years of evolutionary divergence suggests that Arr-1 and RHO may play an underappreciated role in the photoprotection of the eye, with potentially vast clinical significance.

Electroacupuncture stimulating Zhongji (CV3), Guanyuan (CV4), and bilateral Dahe (KI12) attenuates inflammation in rats with chronic nonbacterial prostatitis induced by estradiol through inhibiting toll-like receptor 4 pathway.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS), also known as chronic nonbacterial prostatitis (CNP), and explore its underlying mechanism. METHODS: A CNP rat was established by surgical castration combined with 17-ß estradiol injection in male Sprague-Dawley rats for thirty consecutive days. The CNP rats received EA treatment once a day for eight days. Chronic pelvic pain was evaluated by mechanical withdrawal threshold measurement. The histological change was assessed by hematoxylin-eosin staining. The inflammatory cytokines in prostates were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The expressions of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), inhibitors of kappa-B alpha (IκBα), and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) were detected by Western blotting. The nuclear translocation of NF-κB and the location of TLR4 were observed with immunofluorescence staining. RESULTS: The results showed that EA decreased the prostate index, upregulated the mechanical withdrawal threshold, restored the histomorphology of the prostate, reduced the inflammatory factor levels, inhibited NF-κB p65 nuclear translocation, and downregulated the expression levels of critical proteins involved in the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway in prostates. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that EA could relieve pelvic pain and attenuate prostatic inflammation in estradiol-induced CNP rats. The underlying mechanism may be related to the inhibition of the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Progress in the study of -deficiency constitution in terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine: a narrative review.

The -deficiency constitution has been a hot topic of interest in recent years. Important research progress has been made in quantitative diagnostic criteria and auxiliary identification technologies, modern biological inter-pretations of the constitution characteristics, the association between the -deficiency constitution and diseases, as well as the mechanisms of regulating the constitution. Yet, there are still some deficiencies and limitations. Herein, we systematically reviewed the research progress on the -deficiency constitution by searching articles published in China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database, Wanfang Database, PubMed, and Embase. The future development direction of the -deficiency constitution should focus on developing objective constitution identification techniques, establishing animal models of -deficiency constitution, conducting constitutional and disease-related research with a high level of evidence, combined with research on the full chain of the nine constitutions so as to obtain more scientific and objective conclusions.

[Study on chemical bibenzyls in Dendrobium gratiosissimum].

Nineteen compounds were isolated and structurally characterized from an ethanol extract of Dendrobium gratiossimum, including dendrogratiol A(1), DDB-1(2), 3,4-dihydroxyl-5,3',4'-trimethoxybibenzyl(3), amoenylin(4), chrysotoxine(5), DTB(6), 3,4,4'-trihydroxyl-5,3'-dimethoxybenzyl(7), 3-methylgiga(8), aloifol(9), gigantol tetramethyl ether(10), batatasin Ⅲ(11), moscatilin(12), moniliformine(13), gigantol(14), DMB(15), flavanthrinin(16), cannithrene-2(17), 3,4-dihydroxyl-5,4'-dimethoxystilbene(18) and 4-hydroxy-3,5,4'-trimethoxystilbene(19). 1 was a new compound, and 2-10, 16, 18 and 19 were obtained from this plant species for the first time. In vitro cytotoxic and antiviral activities of these isolates were evaluated, which displayed that 4 showed moderate cytotoxicity against human hepatoma cell line HepG2 with the IC_(50) of 10.15 µmol·L~(-1); 7 and 12 exhibited moderate inhibitory activity towards HIV virus with the IC_(50) of 9.35 and 9.15 µmol·L~(-1), respectively; and 10 displayed inhibitory activity against IAV virus with the IC_(50) of 8.90 µmol·L~(-1).

PM2.5 affects establishment of immune tolerance in newborn mice by reducing PD-L1 expression.

This study was conducted to determine whether exposure to particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) affects the immune tolerance of neonatal mice via the regulation of PD-L1 expression. One-week-old BALB/c mice were exposed to PM2.5 for 8 days. From day 8 to day 18, the mice were treated with 5 µg house dust mite (HDM) (i. n.) every two days. Adenovirus-carried PD-L1 overexpression vectors were infected into mice via nasal inhalation 6 days after exposure to PM2.5. Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) was examined in mice 19 days after exposure to PM2.5, and the related parameters of airway inflammation were studied on day 22. Co-exposure to PM2.5 and HDM reduced PD-L1 expression but greatly increased infiltration of inflammatory cells, which was reversed by PD-L1 overexpression. Co-exposure to PM2.5 and HDM also elevated serum IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 levels and reduced TGF-ß level. Exposure to PM2.5 alone slightly increased the numbers of dendritic cells (DCs) but reduced the numbers of antigen-presenting cells expressing PD-L1 and Treg cells. Therefore, early exposure to PM2.5 reduced PD-L1 expression in the lungs of neonatal mice, which interfered with immune tolerance establishment and subsequently resulted in allergic airway inflammation.

Expression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 and its phosphorylated form is significantly upregulated in patients with papillary thyroid cancer.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and phosphorylated STAT3 (pSTAT3) in tissues of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) in comparison with the expression in adjacent normal tissues. The expression of STAT3, pSTAT3, fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) was examined in tissues of 42 cases of PTC and the adjacent normal tissues of 20 of the 42 PTC cases using immunohistochemistry and western blotting. The association between the expression levels and the clinicopathological features was analyzed. The expression of STAT3, pSTAT3, FGF2 and VEGF-C in the PTC tissues (76.2, 42.9, 81.0 and 73.8%, respectively) was significantly higher than that in the normal tissues (P<0.05). In the PTC tissues, the expression of STAT3 was linearly correlated with the levels of pSTAT3 and VEGF-C (P<0.05). In conclusion, STAT3 and pSTAT3 are significantly upregulated in PTC tissues, and may potentially be used as markers to screen for PTC with lymph node metastasis.

Evaluation of POSSUM in predicting post-operative morbidity in patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy.

The Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enUmeration of Mortality and Morbidity (POSSUM) is a predictive scoring system for post-operative morbidity. The present study assessed the value of POSSUM in predicting post-operative morbidity following pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). POSSUM scores were prospectively calculated for 265 consecutive cases of PD performed between 2005 and 2007. Expected morbidity was estimated based on POSSUM scores and was compared with observed morbidity. Patients were also stratified into one of four groups based on their individual POSSUM scores and subsequent risk of morbidity. Mean expected morbidity was 43.81% (116 cases) and mean observed morbidity was 39.62% (105 cases) (no statistically significant difference). It is concluded that the POSSUM scoring system has high value for predicting the risk of morbidity in PD patients.