MicroRNA-223 is involved in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis by affecting histamine-N-methyltransferase.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most prevalent skin diseases around the world. Excessive histamine plays a critical role as an inflammatory factor in the pathogenesis of AD. Deregulated microRNAs (miRNAs) were involved in atopic dermatitis by targeting various genes. MiR-223 had been reported to play a vital role in hematopoiesis. In this study, we identified upregulated miR-223 in the whole blood cells of a large group of AD patients. What's more, we found for the first time that one of the major histamine degradation enzymes, histamine-N-methyltransferase (HNMT), was increased in AD patients and AD model mice. Although there was one miR-223 binding site in the 3'- untranslated region of the HNMT gene, HNMT were not inhibited by miR-223. Taken together, it suggested that miR-223 participates in AD through upregulating HNMT indirectly to degrade the excessive histamine.

Gabarapl1 mediates androgen-regulated autophagy in prostate cancer.

Autophagy plays an important role in prostate cancer development. It promotes tumor cell survival and was found to be associated with androgen pathway. In the present study, we found that GABA(A) receptor-associated protein like 1 (Gabarapl1), a ubiquitin-like modifier, participates in the regulation of autophagy. Gabarapl1 is transcriptionally regulated by androgen receptor (AR) and has a repressive role in autophagy. Androgen deprivation downregulates Gabarapl1 in an AR dependent manner, resulting in the increase of autophagy flux. Elevated Gabarapl1 also represses the proliferation of prostate cancer cells. In summary, our study provides evidence to show that Gabarapl1 is a mediator involved in androgen-regulated autophagy process.

Assessment of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction based on the intraventricular velocity difference by vector flow mapping.

OBJECTIVES: The diastolic intraventricular velocity difference represents diastolic function of the left ventricle (LV). Here we analyzed the LV diastolic intraventricular velocity difference in patients with impaired LV function based on the ventricular flow rate profile by vector flow mapping. METHODS: Patients with LV diastolic dysfunction were divided into 2 groups: chronic heart failure with restricted filling (group 1; n = 27) and hypertension with abnormal relaxation (group 2; n = 34). Healthy participants were identified as controls (group 3; n = 22). Left ventricular inflow color Doppler findings were analyzed by the vector profile model with the vector flow mapping technology offline. The flow velocity rates at the base and apex of the LV were measured from vector profiles with the vector flow mapping technology. The diastolic intraventricular velocity difference was calculated from flow velocity rates. RESULTS: The diastolic intraventricular velocity difference calculated from vector flow mapping was significantly lower in both groups with LV diastolic dysfunction than the control group (mean ± SD, 79.95 ± 9.88 cm/s in controls versus 40.35 ± 6.80 cm/s in group 1 and 48.50 ± 6.03 cm/s in group 2; P < .001 for both). The diastolic intraventricular velocity difference had a significant association with the ejection fraction (P = .0002) and deceleration time (P = .0306). The peak atrial contraction velocity was negatively related to the diastolic intraventricular velocity difference (P = .0003). CONCLUSIONS: The diastolic intraventricular velocity difference derived from the LV velocity rate by the vector profile model on vector flow mapping can be potentially used for quantitative assessment of LV diastolic function. Vector flow mapping proved to be clinically practical for reflecting LV diastolic dysfunction in pathologic states.

Spatial distribution of wall shear stress in common carotid artery by color Doppler flow imaging.

The purpose of this study is to provide a novel approach for measuring the spatial distribution of wall shear stress (WSS) in common carotid artery in vivo. WSS distributions were determined by digital image processing from color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) in 50 healthy volunteers. In order to evaluate the feasibility of the spatial distribution, the mean values of WSS distribution were compared to the results of conventional WSS calculating method (Hagen-Poiseuille formula). In our study, the mean value of WSS distribution from 50 healthy volunteers was (6.91 ± 1.20) dyne/cm(2), while it was (7.13 ± 1.24) dyne/cm(2) by Hagen-Poiseuille approach. The difference was not statistically significant (t = -0.864, p = 0.604). Hence, the feasibility of the spatial distribution of WSS was proved. Moreover, this novel approach could provide three-dimensional distribution of shear stress and fusion image of shear stress with ultrasonic image for each volunteer, which made WSS "visible". In conclusion, the spatial distribution of WSS could be used for WSS calculation in vivo. Moreover, it could provide more detailed values of WSS distribution than those of Hagen-Poiseuille formula.

Artificial intelligence empowered digital health technologies in cancer survivorship care: A scoping review.

Objective: The objectives of this systematic review are to describe features and specific application scenarios for current cancer survivorship care services of Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital health technologies (DHTs) and to explore the acceptance and briefly evaluate its feasibility in the application process. Methods: Search for literatures published from 2010 to 2022 on sites MEDLINE, IEEE-Xplor, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Scopus systematically. The types of literatures include original research, descriptive study, randomized controlled trial, pilot study, and feasible or acceptable study. The literatures above described current status and effectiveness of digital medical technologies based on AI and used in cancer survivorship care services. Additionally, we use QuADS quality assessment tool to evaluate the quality of literatures included in this review. Results: 43 studies that met the inclusion criteria were analyzed and qualitatively synthesized. The current status and results related to the application of AI-driven DHTs in cancer survivorship care were reviewed. Most of these studies were designed specifically for breast cancer survivors' care and focused on the areas of recurrence or secondary cancer prediction, clinical decision support, cancer survivability prediction, population or treatment stratified, anti-cancer treatment-induced adverse reaction prediction, and so on. Applying AI-based DHTs to cancer survivors actually has shown some positive outcomes, including increased motivation of patient-reported outcomes (PROs), reduce fatigue and pain levels, improved quality of life, and physical function. However, current research mostly explored the technology development and formation (testing) phases, with limited-scale population, and single-center trial. Therefore, it is not suitable to draw conclusions that the effectiveness of AI-based DHTs in supportive cancer care, as most of applications are still in the early stage of development and feasibility testing. Conclusions: While digital therapies are promising in the care of cancer patients, more high-quality studies are still needed in the future to demonstrate the effectiveness of digital therapies in cancer care. Studies should explore how to develop uniform standards for measuring patient-related outcomes, ensure the scientific validity of research methods, and emphasize patient and health practitioner involvement in the development and use of technology.

The Association Between Leucine and Diabetic Nephropathy in Different Gender: A Cross-Sectional Study in Chinese Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate how leucine are associated with diabetic nephropathy (DN) in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients and the gender difference of this association. Methods: We retrieved 1,031 consecutive patients with T2D who meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria from the same tertiary care center and extracted clinical information from electronic medical record. Plasma leucine was measured by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) was conducted to examine potential non-linear relationship between leucine and the risk of DN. Logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI). Additive interaction was used to estimate the interaction effect between leucine and gender for DN. Results: We found there was a negative correlation between leucine and the risk of DN. After stratifying all patients by gender, this relationship only remained significant in women (OR:0.57, CI:0.41-0.79). Conclusions: In conclusion, T2D patients with high levels of leucine have a lower risk of developing DN in female.

Author Correction: Correlative Evaluation of Mental and Physical Workload of Laparoscopic Surgeons Based on Surface Electromyography and Eye-tracking Signals.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

Correlative Evaluation of Mental and Physical Workload of Laparoscopic Surgeons Based on Surface Electromyography and Eye-tracking Signals.

Surgeons' mental and physical workloads are major focuses of operating room (OR) ergonomics, and studies on this topic have generally focused on either mental workload or physical workload, ignoring the interaction between them. Previous studies have shown that physically demanding work may affect mental performance and may be accompanied by impaired mental processing and decreased performance. In this study, 14 participants were recruited to perform laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) procedures in a virtual simulator. Surface electromyography (sEMG) signals of the bilateral trapezius, bicipital, brachioradialis and flexor carpi ulnaris (FCU) muscles and eye-tracking signals were acquired during the experiment. The results showed that the least square means of muscle activity during the LC phases of surgery in an all-participants mixed effects model were 0.79, 0.81, and 0.98, respectively. The observed muscle activities in the different phases exhibited some similarity, while marked differences were found between the forearm bilateral muscles. Regarding mental workload, significant differences were observed in pupil dilation between the three phases of laparoscopic surgery. The mental and physical workloads of laparoscopic surgeons do not appear to be generally correlated, although a few significant negative correlations were found. This result further indicates that mental fatigue does markedly interfere with surgeons' operating movements.

Anticancer activity of sesquiterpenoids extracted from Solanum lyratum via the induction of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis.

Sesquiterpenoids are a major type of compound found in Solanum lyratum (S. lyratum). The present study aimed to investigate whether sesquiterpenoids from S. lyratum demonstrated cytotoxicity against the MCF-7, HCT-8, A-549, SGC-7901 and BEL-7402 cell lines, and the mechanism of solajiangxin H and lyratol D, which exhibited high cytotoxicity against SGC-7901 cells (half maximal inhibitory concentration, IC50=4.8 and 5.9 µg/ml), was associated with mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. The results of the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay indicated that 15 sesquiterpenoids had cytotoxicity against the aforementioned cultured cells. The results of DAPI staining and western blot analysis, used to study the anticancer mechanisms of solajiangxin H and lyratol D in SGC-7901 cells, suggested that solajiangxin H and lyratol D induced the apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells significantly (P<0.01), downregulated the expression of the antiapoptotic proteins B-cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2 and survivin, and upregulated the expression of the proapoptotic proteins Bcl-2-like protein 4, second mitochondria-derived activator of caspase, cleaved (c)-caspase-3 and c-caspase-9. The present study therefore demonstrated that 15 sesquiterpenoids from S. lyratum exhibited anticancer activity in MCF-7, HCT-8, A-549, SGC-7901 and BEL-7402 cells, and that the anticancer mechanisms of solajiangxin H and lyratol D may be associated with mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. Additionally, the present study provides evidence in support of the hypothesis that S. lyratum may be a promising candidate for the development of novel cancer therapies.

[Significance of -191G/C single nucleotide polymorphisms in the promoter region of ATP-binding cassette transporter gene in coronary artery disease].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of -191G/C single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the promoter region of ATP-binding cassette transporter A1(ABCA1) gene on plasma lipids and its significance in coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: By polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), -191G/C SNP in the promoter region of ABCA1 gene was analyzed in 204 patients with CAD and 114 control subjects and the distribution of the -191G/C genotypes compared between the two groups and also between different clinical phenotypes of CAD. The clinical indexes associated with CAD were also compared between the patients with the three genotypes of CAD. RESULTS: The frequency distribution of GG, GC, and CC genotypes significantly differed between CAD group and the control group, and the former group had obvious higher CC genotype frequency and the C allele frequency (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). In CAD patients, the frequency distribution of GG, GC, and CC genotypes varied significantly between those with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and those with stable angina pectoris (SAP). The CC genotype showed obviously higher frequency in ACS group than in SAP group and the C allele was more frequent in the former group (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). However, no significant difference was noted in the body mass index, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, or very low-density lipoprotein cholesterols between the three genotypes. CONCLUSIONS: The -191G/C SNP in the promoter region of ABCA1 is associated with increased CAD and the C allele may relate to the stability of CAD without detectable changes in plasma lipids.

ß-Asarone inhibits gastric cancer cell proliferation.

ß-Asarone is the main volatile oil of Chinese herb Rhizoma Acori Tatarinowii. It exhibits a wide range of biological activities in many human organs. However, few studies have investigated the effect of ß-asarone on gastric cancer. The present study investigated the effect of ß-asarone on the proliferation and apoptosis of three types of differentiated human gastric cancer cell lines (SGC-7901, BGC-823 and MKN-28) in vitro as well as the related molecular mechanisms. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay, Annexin V/PI double staining, immunofluorescence test and transmission electron microscopy all confirmed that ß-asarone had an obvious dose-dependent inhibitive effect on the proliferation of human gastric cancer cells and induced apoptosis of the cell lines. Transwell invasion, wound-healing and matrix­cell adhesion experiments confirmed that ß-asarone inhibited the invasion, migration and adhesion of human gastric cancer BGC-823 cells. Quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting found that ß-asarone significantly activated caspase-3, caspase-8, caspase-9, Bax, Bak and suppressed Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and survivin activity. Moreover, ß-asarone increased the expression of RECK, E-cadherin and decreased the expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, MMP-14 and N-cadherin. The present study demonstrated that ß-asarone effectively inhibits the proliferation of human gastric cancer cells, induces their apoptosis and decreased the invasive, migratory and adhesive abilities.

[Distribution of -477C/T single nucleotide polymorphism in the promoter region of ABCA1 gene and its significance for plasma lipids levels in normal Chinese Han population].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the distribution of -477C/T single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the promoter region of ATP binding cassette transporter (ABCA1) gene and its relation to plasma lipid levels in normal Chinese Han population. METHODS: The three genotypes of -477C/T polymorphisms in the promoter region of the ABCA1 gene were detected using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in 113 normal Chinese Han subjects. RESULTS: -477C/T SNP was present in normal Chinese Han population, and 37.2% (42) of the examined subjects belonged to the genotype of CC, 46.9% (53) belonged to CT and 15.9% (18) to TT. The individuals with the TT genotype had a lower plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level than those with the CC genotype (P<0.05). No association was found between the genotypes and plasma levels of total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein, very low-density lipoprotein and body mass index. CONCLUSION: The TT genotype significantly influences the plasma levels of HDL-C in normal Chinese Han individuals.

Visualization analysis of research hotspots based on CiteSpace II: taking medical devices as an example.

Biomedical engineering has been one of the hottest fields in biology and engineering. As an important branch, the medical device has achieved significant progress in the past decades. As a useful method in evaluative bibliometrics, mapping knowledge has been used to explore the trend of one field. In the present study, we retrieve literatures about the medical device from the Web of Science™ (2004-2013), and acquire 26,793 related records, then analyze time range, region distribution, and main research directions of the literatures, and try to use keywords combined with mapping knowledge to explore the main trends of the medical device, and then aim to provide more information for medical device research. Through the study, we discover: 1) the publications regarding medical devices show an upward trend over the past decade in general; 2) the percentage of publications in the USA (38.49%) is the highest all over the world; 3) engineering (20.64%) is the hottest research direction, and takes up about one-fifth of the total publications; 4) the Journal of the American Medical Association and The New England Journal of Medicine are among the two journals that are the most highly cited, followed by Science and The Lancet; and 5) keywords of the medical device include in vitro, quality-of-life, outcomes, management, mortality, depression, and so on. With the help of mapping knowledge, we dig out some hot topics of medical devices and provide more information through trend analysis, and we discover that our findings are related to previous research and further research can enlarge the number of records and optimize the algorithm. We provide a systematic approach for researchers to keep abreast of the development and state of the research of medical devices.

Anti-proliferation effects and molecular mechanisms of action of tetramethypyrazine on human SGC-7901 gastric carcinoma cells.

AIM: To investigate the effects of tetramethypyrazine (TMP) on proliferation and apoptosis of the human gastric carcinoma cell line 7901 and its possible mechanism of action. METHODS: The viability of TMP-treated 7901 cells was measured with a 3-(4, 5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay (MTT) and cell apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry. The distribution of cells in different phases of cell cycle after exposure of TMPs was analyzed with flow cytometry. To investigate the molecular mechanisms of TMP-mediated apoptosis, the expression of NF-xBp65, cyclinD1 and p16 in SGC-7901 cells was analyzed by reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blotting. RESULTS: TMP inhibited the proliferation of human gastric carcinoma cell line 7901 in dose and time dependent manners. Cell growth was suppressed by TMP at different concentrations (0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 mg/ml), the inhibition rate is 0.46%, 4.36%, 14.8%, 76.1% (48h) and 15.5%, 18.5%, 41.2%, 89.8% (72h) respectively. When the concentration of TMPs was 2.0mg/ml, G1-phase arrest in the SGC-7901 cells was significant based on the data for cell cycle distribution. RT-PCR demonstrated that NF-xBp65 and cyclin D1 mRNA expression was significantly down-regulated in 7901 cells treated with 2.0 mg/ml TMP for 72h (p<0.05), while the p16 mRNA level was up-regulated (p<0.05). The protein expression of NF-xBp65 and cyclin D1 decreased gradually with the increase in TMP concentration, compared with control cells (p<0.05), while expression of protein p16 was up-regulated (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: TMP exhibits significant anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects on the human gastric carcinoma cell line SGC-7901. NF-xBp65, cyclinD1 and p16 may also play important roles in the regulation mechanisms.