Self-Immolative Photosensitizers for Self-Reported Cancer Phototheranostics.

Photosensitizers to precise target and change fluorescence upon light illumination could accurately self-report where and when the photosensitizers work, enabling us to visualize the therapeutic process and precisely regulate treatment outcomes, which is the unremitting pursuit of precision and personalized medicine. Here, we report self-immolative photosensitizers by adopting a strategy of light-manipulated oxidative cleavage of C═C bonds that can generate a burst of reactive oxygen species, to cleave to release self-reported red-emitting products and trigger nonapoptotic cell oncosis. Strong electron-withdrawing groups are found to effectively suppress the C═C bond cleavage and phototoxicity via studying the structure-activity relationship, allowing us to elaborate NG1-NG5 that could temporarily inactivate the photosensitizer and quench the fluorescence by different glutathione (GSH)-responsive groups. Thereinto, NG2 with 2-cyano-4-nitrobenzene-1-sulfonyl group displays excellent GSH responsiveness than the other four. Surprisingly, NG2 shows better reactivity with GSH in weakly acidic condition, which inspires the application in weakly acidic tumor microenvironment where GSH elevates. To this end, we further synthesize NG-cRGD by anchoring integrin αvß3 binding cyclic pentapeptide (cRGD) for tumor targeting. In A549 xenografted tumor mice, NG-cRGD successfully deprotects to restore near-infrared fluorescence because of elevated GSH in tumor site, which is subsequently cleaved upon light irradiation releasing red-emitting products to report photosensitizer working, while effectively ablating tumors via triggered oncosis. The advanced self-immolative organic photosensitizer may accelerate the development of self-reported phototheranostics in future precision oncology.

Tumor-Derived Exosomes and Their Role in Breast Cancer Metastasis.

Breast cancer has been the most common cancer in women worldwide, and metastasis is the leading cause of death from breast cancer. Even though the study of breast cancer metastasis has been extensively carried out, the molecular mechanism is still not fully understood, and diagnosis and prognosis need to be improved. Breast cancer metastasis is a complicated process involving multiple physiological changes, and lung, brain, bone and liver are the main metastatic targets. Exosomes are membrane-bound extracellular vesicles that contain secreted cellular constitutes. The biogenesis and functions of exosomes in cancer have been intensively studied, and mounting studies have indicated that exosomes play a crucial role in cancer metastasis. In this review, we summarize recent findings on the role of breast cancer-derived exosomes in metastasis organotropism and discuss the potential promising clinical applications of targeting exosomes as novel strategies for breast cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Relationship between clinical belonging, professional identity, and nursing information ability among nursing interns: Model construction.

BACKGROUND: Clinical belonging refers to the feeling that clinical medical staff feel recognized and accepted by others or groups. The level of clinical belonging of nursing interns affects students' learning motivation and confidence, which in turn affects their clinical practice behavior. AIM: To explore the effects of professional identity and nursing information ability on clinical belonging among nursing interns and establish a relationship model for these factors. METHODS: The researchers used the convenience sampling method to select 682 nursing interns from China. The survey was conducted using a general information questionnaire, clinical sense of belonging scale, nursing information ability self-assessment scale, and a nursing student professional identity questionnaire. The mediating effect of nursing information ability between their professional identity and clinical sense of belonging was analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and the path analysis in structural equation modeling. RESULTS: The total scores of clinical belonging, professional identity, and nursing information ability of nursing interns were (104.29 ± 13.11) points, (57.89 ± 7.16) points, and (70.29 ± 6.20) points, respectively. Nursing information ability had a direct effect on the clinical sense of belonging (effect value = 0.46, P < 0.05). Occupational identity had a direct effect (effect value = 0.52, P < 0.05) and an indirect effect (effect value = 0.21, P < 0.05) on clinical belonging. CONCLUSION: Nursing administrators in nursing colleges and hospitals should take effective measures to improve the professional identity and nursing information ability of nursing interns, as well as the clinical sense of belonging among nursing interns.

Hemispheric Processing of Chinese Scientific Metaphors: Evidence via Hemifield Presentation.

The role of the two hemispheres in processing metaphoric language is controversial. In order to complement current debates, the current divided visual field (DVF) study introduced scientific metaphors as novel metaphors, presenting orientation mapping from the specific and familiar domains to the abstract and unfamiliar domains, to examine hemispheric asymmetry in metaphoric processing. Twenty-four Chinese native speakers from science disciplines took part in the experiment. The participants were presented with four types of Chinese word pairs: scientific metaphors, conventional metaphors, literal word pairs, and unrelated word pairs. The first word in each pair was presented centrally, and the second was presented to the left visual field (the Right Hemisphere) or the right visual field (the Left Hemisphere). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when participants read the target words and judged whether words in each pair were related. The data demonstrated that both hemispheres were involved at the initial stage of metaphor processing, but the right hemisphere took a more privileged role. The significant activation of the left hemisphere for scientific metaphoric processing supports the fine-coarse coding hypothesis. During right-visual-field presentation, the left hemisphere, responsible for the processing of closely related domains, has to integrate the loosely associated domains of scientific metaphor, which greatly increased cognitive taxes. Moreover, the data of late positive components (LPCs) revealed different hemispheric activation between scientific metaphors and conventional metaphors. Compared with literal pairs, conventional metaphors elicited significantly higher LPCs during right visual field presentation, while the scientific metaphor elicited significantly lower LPCs during left visual field presentation. These results suggest different processing mechanisms between novel metaphors and conventional metaphors and the special role of the right hemisphere in novel metaphoric processing at the later mapping stage.

Bilingual Processing Mechanisms of Scientific Metaphors and Conventional Metaphors: Evidence via a Contrastive Event-Related Potentials Study.

To study the different mechanisms of understanding figurative language in a speaker's native language (L1) and their second language (L2), this study investigated how scientific metaphors in Chinese (L1) and English (L2) are electrophysiologically processed via event-related potential experimentation. Compared with the metaphors from daily life or in literary works, scientific metaphors tend to involve both a more complicated context structure and a distinct knowledge-inferencing process. During the N400 time window (300-500 ms), English scientific metaphors elicited more negative N400s than Chinese ones at the parietal region. In the late positive component (LPC) time window (550-800 ms), English scientific metaphors elicited less positive LPCs than Chinese ones at the parietal region, and larger late negativities encompassing smaller areas of the brain. The findings might indicate that for late unbalanced bilingual speakers, L2 scientific metaphor comprehension requires more effort in information retrieval or access to the non-literal route. Altogether, the possible findings are that non-native and non-dominant language processing involves decreased automaticity of cognitive mechanisms, and decreased sensitivity to the levels of conventionality of metaphoric meanings.

Comprehending scientific metaphors in the bilingual brain: Evidence from event-related potentials.

While the processing mechanisms of novel and conventional metaphors were widely investigated in previous monolingual studies, little attention has been devoted to how metaphoric utterances are processed by the bilingual brain as well as how scientific context might modulate such processes. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), this paper investigates the way in which scientific metaphors are electrophysiologically processed in Chinese (L1) and English (L2), with the aim of investigating the different mechanisms for understanding metaphorical language in first (L1) and second (L2) languages. By time-locking the N400 and later LPC time windows, the research show how meaning integration differs between L1 and L2 at different stages when comprehending figurative language. We found that compared with Chinese scientific metaphors, English scientific metaphors elicited greater N400, smaller late positive component (LPC), and greater late negativity, and English literals elicited greater late negativity. Our findings suggest that the dynamics of processing figurative meaning in bilingual brains over time show a complex pattern, with language, context, inference and salience jointly modulating temporal dynamics and possible cerebral asymmetries, supporting the revised hierarchical model.

The epidemiology of acute occupational hand injuries treated in emergency departments in Foshan City, South China.

BACKGROUND: Despite the magnitude of occupational hand injuries, there are no authoritative guidelines for hand injury prevention, and little research has been done to investigate the epidemiology of acute occupational hand injuries in South China or other developing areas. In this study, the epidemiology of acute occupational hand injuries treated in emergency departments (EDs) in Foshan City, South China, was examined and data were supplied to assist with preventive strategies in similar developing regions. METHODS: A multicenter study was prospectively designed and conducted in 5 large hospital EDs in Foshan City from July 2010 to June 2011. An anonymous questionnaire was designed specifically to collect the data for this study. RESULTS: A total of 2142 patients with acute occupational hand injury completed the questionnaire within the 1-year study period. Results indicated that most occupational hand injuries were caused by machinery. Hand injury type and site of the injury did not correspond to age, but were related to gender and job category. July and August 2010 were the peak periods of admission to EDs, while January and February 2010 were the trough periods. CONCLUSION: Epidemiological data enhance our knowledge of acute occupational hand injuries and could play a role in the prevention and treatment of future occupational hand injuries.