Associations between immune cell phenotypes and lung cancer subtypes: insights from mendelian randomization analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Lung cancer is a common malignant tumor, and different types of immune cells may have different effects on the occurrence and development of lung cancer subtypes, including lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the causal relationship between immune phenotype and lung cancer is still unclear. METHODS: This study utilized a comprehensive dataset containing 731 immune phenotypes from the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) to evaluate the potential causal relationship between immune phenotypes and LUSC and LUAD using the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method in Mendelian randomization (MR). Sensitivity analyses, including MR-Egger intercept, Cochran Q test, and others, were conducted for the robustness of the results. The study results were further validated through meta-analysis using data from the Transdisciplinary Research Into Cancer of the Lung (TRICL) data. Additionally, confounding factors were excluded to ensure the robustness of the findings. RESULTS: Among the final selection of 729 immune cell phenotypes, three immune phenotypes exhibited statistically significant effects with LUSC. CD28 expression on resting CD4 regulatory T cells (OR 1.0980, 95% CI: 1.0627-1.1344, p < 0.0001) and CD45RA + CD28- CD8 + T cell %T cell (OR 1.0011, 95% CI: 1.0007; 1.0015, p < 0.0001) were associated with increased susceptibility to LUSC. Conversely, CCR2 expression on monocytes (OR 0.9399, 95% CI: 0.9177-0.9625, p < 0.0001) was correlated with a decreased risk of LUSC. However, no significant causal relationships were established between any immune cell phenotypes and LUAD. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that specific immune cell types are associated with the risk of LUSC but not with LUAD. While these findings are derived solely from European populations, they still provide clues for a deeper understanding of the immunological mechanisms underlying lung cancer and may offer new directions for future therapeutic strategies and preventive measures.

Association between triglyceride-glucose index and in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients with sepsis: analysis of the MIMIC-IV database.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore the association between the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and the risk of in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients with sepsis. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational cohort study and data were obtained from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-IV (MIMIC IV2.2) database. The participants were grouped into three groups according to the TyG index tertiles. The primary outcome was in-hospital all-cause mortality. Multivariable logistics proportional regression analysis and restricted cubic spline regression was used to evaluate the association between the TyG index and in-hospital mortality in patients with sepsis. In sensitivity analysis, the feature importance of the TyG index was initially determined using machine learning algorithms and subgroup analysis based on different subgroups was also performed. RESULTS: 1,257 patients (56.88% men) were included in the study. The in-hospital, 28-day and intensive care unit (ICU) mortality were 21.40%, 26.17%, and 15.43% respectively. Multivariate logistics regression analysis showed that the TyG index was independently associated with an elevated risk of in-hospital mortality (OR 1.440 [95% CI 1.106-1.875]; P = 0.00673), 28-day mortality (OR 1.391; [95% CI 1.52-1.678]; P = 0.01414) and ICU mortality (OR 1.597; [95% CI 1.188-2.147]; P = 0.00266). The restricted cubic spline regression model revealed that the risks of in-hospital, 28-day, and ICU mortality increased linearly with increasing TyG index. Sensitivity analysis indicate that the effect size and direction in different subgroups are consistent, the results is stability. Additionally, the machine learning results suggest that TyG index is an important feature for the outcomes of sepsis. CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that a high TyG index is associated with an increased in-hospital mortality in critically ill sepsis patients. Larger prospective studies are required to confirm these findings.

Causal effects of genetically vitamins and sepsis risk: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, observational studies have been conducted to investigate the potential impact of vitamins on sepsis. However, many of these studies have produced inconsistent results. Our Mendelian randomization (MR) study aims to evaluate the causality between vitamins and sepsis from a genetic perspective. METHODS: Our MR study was designed following the STROBE-MR guidelines. Genetic instrumental variables for vitamins including folate, vitamin B12, B6, A (Retinol), C, D, and K were obtained from previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and MR studies. Five different sepsis severity levels were included in the analysis. The genetic instrumental variables were screened for potential confounders using PhenoScanner V2. MR analysis was performed using MR-egger, inverse-variance weighted multiplicative random effects (IVW-RE), inverse-variance weighted multiplicative fixed-effects (IVW-FE), and wald ratio methods to assess the relationship between vitamins and sepsis. Sensitivity analysis was performed using the MR-egger_intercept method, and the MR-PRESSO package and Cochran's Q test were used to evaluate the heterogeneity of the instrumental variables. RESULTS: Our MR study found no statistically significant association between vitamins and sepsis risk, regardless of the type of vitamin (P-value > 0.05). The odds ratios (ORs) for folate, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K, and vitamin C were 1.164 (95% CI: 0.895-1.514), 0.987 (95% CI: 0.969-1.005), 0.975 (95% CI: 0.914-1.041), 0.993 (95% CI: 0.797-1.238), 0.861 (95% CI: 0.522-1.42), 0.955 (95% CI: 0.86-1.059), and 1.049 (95% CI: 0.911-1.208), respectively. Similar results were observed in subgroups of different sepsis severity levels. CONCLUSIONS: Our MR study found no evidence of a causal association between vitamins and sepsis risk from a genetic perspective. Further randomized controlled trials are necessary to confirm these results.

Trick or Drink: Offline and Social Media Hierarchical Normative Influences on Halloween Celebration Drinking.

The current study examined the relationship between perceived societal and personal celebration drinking norms, social media use, and alcohol consumption during Halloween. The study used a survey of a nationally representative, convenience, and cross-sectional sample of underage youth (18-20 years old; N = 525). Participants self-reported their own drinking, perceived descriptive norms among peers and close friends, and alcohol-related social media posting and interaction during Halloween. Results revealed that underage youth's estimation of societal drinking norms related to their proximal close friends' drinking norms, which in turn, influenced self-reported number of drinks consumed during Halloween. Social media posting and interaction with alcohol-related content were associated with greater descriptive normative perceptions and self-reported drinking. Extending the hierarchical social norms approach, our findings showed that normative perceptions about proximal reference groups' drinking, along with alcohol-related social media activities, were associated with greater number of drinks consumed during Halloween.

Isolation and characterization of OsMY1, a putative partner of OsRac5 from Oryza sativa L.

OsRac5 belongs to the rice Rho of plants family, and acts as the molecular switch in the signal pathway which is pivotally involved in the rice fertility control. One of its putative partners, OsMY1, was isolated by yeast two-hybrid screening from rice panicle cDNA library. Bioinformatics analysis shows that OsMY1 contains a coiled-coil domain which generally appeared in the partners of Rho GTPases. By yeast two-hybrid assay, it is confirmed that OsMY1 binds both the wild type (WT) and constitutively active (CA) OsRac5, but does not interact with dominantly negative OsRac5. In addition, the interactions between OsMY1 and WT-OsRac5 or CA-OsRac5 in vivo are demonstrated by bimolecular fluorescence complementation assay. Using PCR-mediated sequence deletion and point mutation of OsMY1, the interaction between OsMY1 and OsRac5 was identified to be mediated by the coiled-coil domain in OsMY1, and their binding was quantified by O-nitro-phenyl-ß-D-galactopyranoside assay. Real-time PCR shows that OsMY1 and OsRac5 are coordinately expressed in rice leaves and panicles with similar expression patterns. Our results suggest that OsMY1 is an important target of OsRac5 and that these two genes are involved in the same biological processes in rice growth and development.

Preparation of polypeptide-metal complexes-coated Hosenkoside A and its inhibitory effect in cervical cancer.

We reported the anti-cervical cancer effect of proprietary saponin content from seeds of Impatiens balsamina L., Hosenkoside A. Our study found that Hosenkoside A significantly promotes cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest after administration, exhibiting anti-tumor effects. Then the transcriptome sequencing results after administration showed that Hosenkoside A had a significant inhibitory effect on Histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3). After sufficient administration time, the inhibition of HDAC3 expression level leads to a significant decrease in lysine acetylation at histone 3 sites 4 and 9, blocking the activation of Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and achieving anti-tumor effects. In addition, we encapsulated Hosenkoside A into polypeptide metal complexes (PMC) to form slow-release spheres. This material breaks down in the tumor environment, not only does it solve the problem of low drug solubility, but it also achieves targeted sustained-release drug delivery. Under the same concentration of stimulation, the PMC complex group showed better anti-tumor effects in both in vitro and in vivo experiments.

Genetic association of lipids and lipid-lowering drugs with sepsis: a Mendelian randomization and mediation analysis.

Background: The impact of lipid-lowering medications on sepsis is still not well defined. A Mendelian randomization (MR) study was carried out to probe the causal connections between genetically determined lipids, lipid-reducing drugs, and the risk of sepsis. Materials and methods: Data on total serum cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I), apolipoprotein B (ApoB), and triglycerides (TG) were retrieved from the MR-Base platform and the Global Lipids Genetics Consortium in 2021 (GLGC2021). Our study categorized sepsis into two groups: total sepsis and 28-day mortality of sepsis patients (sepsis28). The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method was the primary method used in MR analysis. Cochran's Q test and the MR-Egger intercept method were used to assess the heterogeneity and pleiotropy. Results: In the MR analysis, we found that ApoA-I played a suggestively positive role in protecting against both total sepsis (OR, 0.863 per SD increase in ApoA-I; 95% CI, 0.780-0.955; P = 0.004) and sepsis28 (OR, 0.759; 95% CI, 0.598-0.963; P = 0.023). HDL-C levels were also found to suggestively reduce the incidence of total sepsis (OR, 0.891 per SD increase in HDL-C; 95% CI, 0.802-0.990; P = 0.031). Reverse-MR showed that sepsis28 led to a decrease in HDL-C level and an increase in TG level. In drug-target MR, we found that HMGCR inhibitors positively protected against total sepsis (1OR, 0.719 per SD reduction in LDL-C; 95% CI, 0.540-0.958; P = 0.024). LDL-C and HDL-C proxied CETP inhibitors were found to have a protective effect on total sepsis, with only LDL-C proxied CETP inhibitors showing a suggestively protective effect on sepsis28. In Mediated-MR, BMI exhibited a negative indirect effect in HMGCR inhibitors curing sepsis. The indirect impact of ApoA-I explained over 50% of the curative effects of CETP inhibitors in sepsis. Conclusions: Our MR study suggested that ApoA-I and HDL-C protected against sepsis, while HMGCR and CETP inhibitors showed therapeutic potential beyond lipid-lowering effects. ApoA-I explained the effects of CETP inhibitors. Our study illuminates how lipids affect sepsis patients and the effectiveness of new drugs, opening new avenues for sepsis treatment.

Sleep quality and subjective well-being in healthcare students: examining the role of anxiety and depression.

Objective: Sleep issues, negative emotions, and health conditions are commonly co-occurring, whereas their associations among healthcare students have yet to be elucidated. This study aimed to examine whether anxiety and depression mediate the relationship between sleep quality and subjective well-being in healthcare students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among Chinese healthcare students (N = 348). A battery of paper-and-pencil questionnaires-the Sleep Quality Questionnaire (SQQ), World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5), and Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) were applied. Descriptive analysis with means (standard deviations) and counts (proportions), Spearman correlation analysis between the SQQ, WHO-5, and PHQ-4, and mediation analysis via structural equation models were performed. Results: Correlation analysis revealed statistically significant associations between sleep quality, anxiety and depression, and well-being among healthcare students. Mediation analysis identified that poor sleep quality produced relatively low levels of self-reported well-being, which were entirely attributable to anxiety and depression. Conclusion: Sleep quality was associated with subjective well-being, and this interrelationship was fully mediated by anxiety and depression. Interventions aimed at promoting sleep quality of healthcare students may contribute to promoting their well-being by reducing anxiety and depression.

Fancying the New Rich and Famous? Explicating the Roles of Influencer Content, Credibility, and Parental Mediation in Adolescents' Parasocial Relationship, Materialism, and Purchase Intentions.

While social media influencers are gleaning increasing trust and investment from brands, advertisers, and followers, insights on the role of influencers in adolescents' relationship formation and consumption behaviors are still rare. Drawing on the literatures of influencer content value, influencer credibility, parental mediation, and parasocial relationship (PSR), this study proposed a conceptual model that expounds the appeal of influencers among adolescents. To test the model, we administered an online survey - recruited in proportion to demographic quotas (i.e., age, gender and ethnicity) - among 500 United States adolescents (aged 10- to 19-years old) via Qualtrics panel. Results revealed that, the entertainment value of influencer-generated content, influencer expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and followers' perceived similarity to their favorite influencers, are positively related to the perceived PSR between adolescent followers and their favorite influencers, which in turn, are associated with adolescents' materialistic views and purchase intentions. We also explored the role of parental mediation of adolescents' social media use in their PSR with influencers. Results indicate that, neither active mediation nor restrictive mediation is related to the PSR between adolescents and influencers. Active mediation is negatively associated with adolescents' materialism, whereas restrictive mediation is positively related to adolescents' purchase intentions toward influencer-promoted products. This study proposed and tested a comprehensive conceptual model that accounts for the role of influencers in adolescent followers' materialism and purchase intentions. This study yields three major theoretical contributions. First, it adopts and applies the concept of PSR from the literature of media psychology to explicate influencers' appeal among adolescents, which lays a theoretical foundation for future research on the impact of influencers. Second, it advances the current literature on social media influencers by specifying key contributing factors for the development of adolescents' PSR with influencers. Lastly, it explores the roles of the two facets of parental mediation - active and restrictive mediation - in the appeal of influencers among adolescents, which offers directions for future research of parental mediation in the influencer context.

Opsin gene expression regulated by testosterone level in a sexually dimorphic lizard.

Expression of nuptial color is usually energetically costly, and is therefore regarded as an 'honest signal' to reflect mate quality. In order to choose a mate with high quality, both sexes may benefit from the ability to precisely evaluate their mates through optimizing visual systems which is in turn partially regulated by opsin gene modification. However, how terrestrial vertebrates regulate their color vision sensitivity is poorly studied. The green-spotted grass lizard Takydromus viridipunctatus is a sexually dimorphic lizard in which males exhibit prominent green lateral colors in the breeding season. In order to clarify relationships among male coloration, female preference, and chromatic visual sensitivity, we conducted testosterone manipulation with mate choice experiments, and evaluated the change of opsin gene expression from different testosterone treatments and different seasons. The results indicated that males with testosterone supplementation showed a significant increase in nuptial color coverage, and were preferred by females in mate choice experiments. By using quantitative PCR (qPCR), we also found that higher levels of testosterone may lead to an increase in rhodopsin-like 2 (rh2) and a decrease in long-wavelength sensitive (lws) gene expression in males, a pattern which was also observed in wild males undergoing maturation as they approached the breeding season. In contrast, females showed the opposite pattern, with increased lws and decreased rh2 expression in the breeding season. We suggest this alteration may facilitate the ability of male lizards to more effectively evaluate color cues, and also may provide females with the ability to more effectively evaluate the brightness of potential mates. Our findings suggest that both sexes of this chromatically dimorphic lizard regulate their opsin expression seasonally, which might play an important role in the evolution of nuptial coloration.

[The introduction and inspiration to a sexual assault nurse examiner in forensic nursing].

A number of regulations concerning women and children have been introduced recently in Taiwan, and those regulations have improved the safety for women and children. But there remain problems as far as evidence gathering for medical and forensic purposes is concerned, giving rise to continuing difficulties in enforcing the regulations. Sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs) perform one of several recognized forensic nursing roles. The position of SANE was developed to improve medical care for persons who have been sexually assaulted. The SANE education program combines the roles of nursing/medicine, law enforcement, prosecution, and advocacy to provide services involving both compassion and comprehensive medical-legal evaluation by a specially trained professional who has the experience to anticipate their needs during this time of crisis. This paper introduces SANEs in forensic nursing, discusses the way forensic nursing is conducted and introduces Taiwan's SANE training program for sexual assault victims.

[Vitrification of mouse blastocysts using two kinds of straw systems].

OBJECTIVE: To compare open pulled straws with conventional sorans system for the purpose of establishing an effective vitrification method for mouse blastocysts. METHODS: With open pulled straws (OPS) and conventional straws, vitrifi- cation of mouse blastocysts was performed, and the survival and hatching rates of the blastocysts were observed after thawing. RESULTS: After vitrification, the embryo survival in the OPS group (82.3%) was significantly higher than conventional straw group (68.6%, P<0.01), and the hatching rate was also higher (70.3%, P<5 CONCLUSIONS: Vitrification of mouse blastocysts using OPS results in higher survival and hatching rates as compared with conventional straw method.

Tillering and panicle branching genes in rice.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important staple food crops in the world, and rice tillering and panicle branching are important traits determining grain yield. Since the gene MONOCULM 1 (MOC 1) was first characterized as a key regulator in controlling rice tillering and branching, great progress has been achieved in identifying important genes associated with grain yield, elucidating the genetic basis of yield-related traits. Some of these important genes were shown to be applicable for molecular breeding of high-yielding rice. This review focuses on recent advances, with emphasis on rice tillering and panicle branching genes, and their regulatory networks.

Simultaneous determination of nine constituents in Jiangtangjia Tablets by HPLC / 中成药

AIM To establish an HPLC method for the simultaneous content determination of catalpol,acteoside,jionoside B1,martinoside,calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside,ononin,calycosin,formononetin and heterophyllin B in Jiangtangjia Tablets (Rehmanniae Radix,Astragali Radix,Pseudostellariae Radix,etc.).METHODS The analysis of methanol extract of this drug was performed on a 30 ℃ thermostatic Agilent TC-C18 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm,5 μm),with the mobile phase comprising of acetonitrile-0.1％ glacial acetic acid flowing at 0.9 mL/min in a gradient elution manner,and the detection wavelengths were set at 203,210,254,330 nm.RESULTS Nine constituents showed good linear relationships within their own ranges (r ＞ 0.999 0),whose average recoveries were 96.86％-100.30％ with the RSDs of 0.74％-1.68％.CONCLUSION This stable and reliable method can be used for the quality control of Jiangtangjia Tablets.

STAT3 correlates with stem cell-related transcription factors in cervical cancer / 华中科技大学学报（医学）（英德文版）

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered responsible for the high recurrence rate in cervical carcinoma. It has been demonstrated that the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is involved in the oncogenesis and takes part in mediating the effects of maintaining stem cell phenotype and pluripotency by regulating the expression of stem cell-related transcription factors. However, the correlation between STAT3 and stem cell-related transcription factors in cervical cancer has not been elucidated. In this study, we established overexpressing plasmid (GV316-STAT3) and siRNA-STAT3 for transfecting Siha cells. Cells negative or positive for Nanog, Oct4, or Sox2 were selected by flow cytometry. Proliferation and differentiation rate of Siha cells was determined by detecting the efficiency of tumor sphere formation. The expression of Nanog, Oct4 and Sox2 (cancer stem cell markers) and STAT3 was detected by quantitative real-time PCR and immunoblotting for Siha cells and by immunohistochemistry (IHC) for cervical tissues, respectively. The results showed that Nanog+, Oct4+, and Sox2+ Siha-STAT3 over-expressing cells displayed the typical non-adherent spheres. The sphere formation efficiency was significantly different between Siha-STAT3 overexpressing cells and siRNA-STAT3 cells (P<0.05). Meanwhile, the expression levels of Oct4, Nanog and Sox2 mRNA and protein were significantly higher in Siha-STAT3 overexprssing cells than in siRNA-STAT3 cells (P<0.05). In addition, the positive rate of STAT3, Nanog, Oct4 and Sox2 in cervical cancer tissues was higher than that in chronic cervicitis group (P<0.05). There was a significantly positive relationship between STAT3 and Nanog or Oct4 or Sox2 expression (all P<0.001). These results suggested that Oct4+, Sox2+, and Nanog+ cell population possesses stem cell properties in cervical cancer, which may contribute to cervical carcinogenesis and be regulated by STAT3.

Different criteria for radioactive sentinel lymph nodes has different impact on sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study set out to determine the impact of different criteria for radioactive sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) on sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), and the optimal criteria for radioactive SLNs. METHODS: Eighty-four breast cancer patients with cT1-2N0M0 were studied prospectively. Filtered technetium 99 m sulfur colloid was injected in peritumor parenchyma. Three different definitions of SLNs were adopted in each patient: (1) the lymph node with the highest radioactivity. (2) Any lymph node with an in vivo hot spot-to-background activity ratio of at least 3:1 or an ex vivo SLN-to-non-SLN ratio of at least 10:1. (3) All radioactive hot nodes. RESULTS: With three different definitions, the success rate of sentinel node biopsy were all 96.4%, the sensitivity was 78.9%, 92.1%, 97.4% respectively; false negative rate 21.1%, 7.9%, 2.6% respectively; predicting accuracy 90.1%, 96.3%, 98.8% respectively (P < 0.05). The first, the first two, the first three, and the first four highest radioactive sentinel nodes identified 81.1%, 89.2%, 94.6%, 100% of the positive-SLN patients, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The different criteria for radioactive SLNs had different impact on the accuracy, sensitivity, and false negative rate, but not on the success rate, during sentinel node biopsy using radioactive sulfur colloid in breast cancer patients. The first four highest radioactive sentinel nodes could accurately predict the status of axillary metastases. J. Surg. Oncol. 2007;95:635-639. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.