Correlation between matrix metalloproteinase-2, matrix metalloproteinase-9, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 and white matter hyperintensities in patients with cerebral small vessel disease based on cranial magnetic resonance 3D imaging.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the correlation between serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) levels and their ratios with the severity of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) in patients with cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). METHODS: This cross-sectional study was done on a prospective cohort of patients with CSVD. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of WMHs were performed using Fazekas grading and lesion prediction algorithm (LPA) methods. Biomarkers MMP-2, MMP-9, and TIMP-1 were measured to explore their correlation with the severity of WMHs. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 144 patients with CSVD. There were 63 male and 81 female patients, with an average age of 67.604 ± 8.727 years. Among these, 58.33% presented with white matter hyperintensities at Fazekas grading level 1, with an average total template volume of WMHs of 4.305 mL. MMP-2 (P = 0.025), MMP-9 (P = 0.008), TIMP-1 (P = 0.026), and age (P = 0.007) were identified as independent correlates of WMHs based on Fazekas grading. Independent correlates of the total template volume of WMHs included MMP-2 (P = 0.023), TIMP-1 (P = 0.046), age (P = 0.047), systolic blood pressure (P = 0.047), and homocysteine (Hcy) (P = 0.014). In addition, age (P = 0.003; P < 0.001), interleukin-6 (IL-6) (P < 0.001; P = 0.044), Hcy (P < 0.001; P < 0.001), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) (P = 0.016; P = 0.043), and chronic kidney disease (P < 0.001; P < 0.001) were associated with both WMHs Fazekas grading and the total template volume of WMHs. CONCLUSION: Serum levels of MMP-9, MMP-2, and TIMP-1 were independently associated with the Fazekas grading, while serum TIMP-1 and MMP-2 levels were independently related to the total template volume of WMHs. The association of TIMP-1 and MMP-2 with the severity of CSVD-related WMHs suggests their potential role as disease-related biomarkers. However, further research is required to uncover the specific mechanisms underlying these interactions.

[Stenting of subtotal conclusion of internal carotid artery and comparing the cerebral embolic load of proximal balloon protection device with distal filter protection device].

OBJECTIVE: To study the safety, efficacy and perioperative complications of endovascular therapy in the treatment of subtotal conclusion of internal carotid artery(ICA) in patients. To compare the cerebral embolic load of proximal balloon protection device versus distal filter protection device during the operation. METHODS: Review all the operations of stenting for subtotal conclusion of ICA in Xuanwu hospital. New cerebral infarction after stenting was assessed by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Count the number of new ischemic lesions of every patient. RESULTS: 35 patients with subtotal conclusion of ICA received endovascular stenting. Proximal protective device was used for 21 patients. Distal protective device was used for 14 patients. All procedures succeeded. 32 patients received the cerebral MRI 1 week before and within 48 hours after the operation. Compared with filter protection(n = 14), proximal balloon device(n = 18) resulted in a significant reduction in the incidence of new cerebral infarction (6/18 vs 10/14, P = 0.03). The number of new cerebral ischemic lesions were significant reduced by proximal balloon device (1/18 vs 4/14, P = 0.0006) . There were no serious cardiovascular events in 35 patients during the operation and the following up 3 months. 3 patients had restenosis which was demonstrated by ultrasound of ICA at 3 months after stenting. CONCLUSIONS: Endovascular stenting may be a safe and valid method for the treatment of subtotal occlusion of ICA. For the stenting of subtotal occlusion of ICA, proximal balloon protection device as compared with filter protection may reduce the embolic load to the brain more effectively. The stenting of subtotal occlusion of ICA still needs the randomized trails to confirm the safety and validity.

Correlation between lipid-lowering therapy and cerebral microbleeds.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate if there is a correlation between lipid-lowering treatment with statins and the occurrence, number, and location of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) among patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease (ICVD), and also to compare treatment with atorvastatin and rosuvastatin in terms of the occurrence of CMBs and their differences. METHODS: In this retrospective study, we included patients who were diagnosed with ICVD and underwent susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) in a grade A tertiary hospital from October 1, 2014 to October 1, 2022. We collected information on previous statin use, past medical history, clinical test indicators, and imaging data. RESULTS: We found that out of 522 patients, 310 patients (59.4%) had no CMB and 212 patients (40.6%) had CMBs. There was no statistically significant correlation between prior statin use, the occurrence, and number of CMBs in patients diagnosed with ICVD (P < 0.05). As for the location of CMB, there was a statistically significant correlation between prior statin use and lobar CMBs (P < 0.048). However, there was no statistically significant correlation between the use of atorvastatin and rosuvastatin and the occurrence of CMBs (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: There was no independent correlation between previous statin use, and the occurrence, and number of CMBs in patients with ICVD. As for CMBs in different locations, there was a correlation between previous use of statin and lobar CMBs. There was no significant difference between atorvastatin and rosuvastatin in the occurrence of CMBs in patients with ICVD.

Concentration and potential health risk of heavy metals in market vegetables in Chongqing, China.

Concentration and daily intake (DI) of heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Mn, Cu, Cd and Cr) in market vegetables in Chongqing of China are investigated and their potential health risk for local consumers is simultaneously evaluated by calculating the target hazard quotient (THQ). The results showed that the measured Pb and Cd concentrations exceeded the safety limits given by FAO/WHO and Chinese regulations, indicating serious contamination of market vegetables by these metals. As respective DI values for Pb, Mn and Cd were also above the international guideline bases, health risk to the consumers is obvious. The individual THQ for Pb and Cd in pakchoi and Cd in mustard, and the combined THQ for all metals in each vegetable species excluding cos lettuce were above the threshold 1.0, implying the obviously adverse effect on health. Therefore, attention should be paid particularly to the potential hazardous exposure to vegetable heavy metals, especially for Pb and Cd, over a lifetime for people in Chongqing.

Inhibition activities of polysaccharide (RG4-1) from Gentiana rigescens against RSV.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most important cause of lower respiratory tract infection in infants and young children. With the emergence of drug-resistant strains of RSV, new antiviral agents are needed urgently. Gentiana rigescens is a kind of Chinese herb, belonging to Gentianaceae, which has long been used as a folk medicine for curing inflammation, bacterial infection, viral infection, and so on. In this research, polysaccharide designated RG4-1 was isolated from G. rigescens by hot water extraction, ethanol precipitation, and macroreticular adsorbing resin column chromatography, and its antiviral activity, cytotoxicity, and possible antiviral mechanisms were assayed by cytopathogenic effect inhibition assay, 3-(4,5-dimethythiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and plaque reduction assay. RG4-1 was a fructose-binding lectin. In host cell cultures, RG4-1 was found to be an effective antiviral component against RSV. It showed good inhibitory effect against RSV when it was added 2 h after virus infection with 50% effective concentration of 12.86 µg/ml. RG4-1 also displayed its direct inactivation, attachment inhibition effect, and penetration inhibition effect against RSV. A time-dependent experiment was set up to confirm that RG4-1 blocked RSV infection at early stages of the infection. But RG4-1 seemed to be ineffective against intracellular virus and viral biosynthesis.

[Effect of an active component from Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl against respiratory syncytial virus in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To study the extraction of an active component LC-4 from Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl and anti-respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) effect in vitro. METHODS: The extration from boiling water of Forsythia suspensa were extracted by hot water extraction and were precipitated by ethanol and were elicited by macroporous adsorptive resins column chromatography. Then the antiviral active component LC-4 was separated from the production by eluting. The cytotoxicities and antiviral effect of LC-4 were tested by the Neutral Red assay and the cytopathic effect (CPE) inhibition assay. Ribavirin was used as the positive drug in the study. The antiviral effect of prevention and treatment of maximum dose of non-cytotoxicity of LC-4 was tested in Hela cell line. RESULTS: LC-4 showed that the concentration were 25.4 microg/ml with the medium cytotoxicity and were 2.11 microg/ml with the medium effective concentration (EC50). The corresponding treatment index of LC-4 was 12.04. It also exhibited obviously inhibition effect on RSV replications when LC-4 was added at 2 h, 4 h, 6 h and 8 h after infection (P < 0.05). The CPE was significant difference in comparison with control group, when the concentration of LC-4 between 31.25 microg/ml and 3.91 microg/ml was added at 2 h before infection (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: LC-4 could significantly prevent and inhibit RSV replications in vitro.

[Identification of RhCcEe Mixed Visual Field in Patients with Regular Blood Transfusion and Efficacy Analysis of the Matched Transfusion].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the feasibility of RhCcEe blood group antigen mixed visual field identification in patients with regular blood transfusion, to follow up and evaluate the efficacy of matched transfusion and its clinical significance. METHODS: RhCcEe genotyping for 142 patients with regular transfusion in our hospital was carried out by PCR-SSP method. According to the results of genotyping, 48 patients voluntarily selected the continuous transfusion of RhCcEe matched red blood cells, 46 patients received random blood transfusion (RhCcEe mismatched transfusion), 42 patients received partial RhCcEe matched transfusion (unable to provide fully matched RhCcEe donors each time), and 6 patients' blood transfusion data were lost. After 3-6 months of the RhCcEe matched transfusion, all patients were tested by RhCcEe microcolumn gel card and compared with the results before RhCcEe matched transfusion. The positive rates of alloantibodies, DAT and the percentage of red blood cell invalid transfusion were followed up and evaluated for the above-mentsioned 3 types of regular transfusion patients in the past 5 years. RESULTS: Out of the 48 patients who underwent conti-nuous RhCcEe matched transfusion, only 1 case showed stratification, the remaining 47 cases had clear gel card results without stratification, suggesting that PCR-SSP genotyping was feasible. In addition, another 42 patients who could not receive RhCcEe matched transfusion each time and 46 patients with random blood transfusion were found to have a mixed vision phenomenon again. but the results was still difficult to confirm the results. For the transfusion results in the past 5 years, follow-up analysis showed that there were 1 case alloantibody (anti-Jka) (1/48) , 1 case of DAT positive (1/48) and 2 cases of invalid transfusion (2/48) in the RhCcEe matched transfusion group; 7 cases of alloantibodies (3 anti-E, 1 anti-E+anti-c, 1 anti-C, 1 anti-M, 1 anti-Fya) (7/46), 6 case of DAT positive (6/46) and 9 case of invalid transfusion (9/46) in the random transfusion group; 6 cases of alloantibodies (1 anti-E, 1 anti-E+autoantibody, 1 anti-C, 1 anti-c, 1 anti-M and 1 other antibody) (6/42) and 7 case of DAT positive (7/42) and 8 case of invalid transfusion (8/42) in the partial RhCcEe matched transfusion group. The statistical analysis showed that the positive rate of alloantibodies and the invalid infusion rate of RBC in each group were significant differences between RhCcEe matched transfusion group and the random transfusion group as well as betwen Rhce fe matched transfusion group and the partial matched transfusion group（P＜0.05）, but there was no statistical difference between the random transfusion group and the partial matched transfusion group（P>0.05）. CONCLUSION: PCR-SSP genotyping technique can be used to detect RhCcEe mixed vision in patients with regular blood transfusion. Continuous RhCcEe matched transfusion can effectively prevent the occurrence of alloimmunization, and improve the clinical transfusion efficacy and safety of the patients with regular blood transfusion, which has very important clinical significance.

A comprehensive health classification model based on support vector machine for proseal laryngeal mask and tracheal catheter assessment in herniorrhaphy.

Purpose: In order to classify different types of health data collected in clinical practice of hernia surgery more effectively and improve the classification performance of support vector machine (SVM). Methods: A prospective randomized study was conducted. Sixty patients undergoing hernia repair under general anesthesia were randomly divided into two groups, PLMA group (n = 30) and ETT group (n = 30), for airway management. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, respiratory parameters and the incidence of complications related to ProSeal laryngeal mask airway (PLMA) and endotracheal tube (ETT) were collected in clinical experiments in order to evaluate the operation condition. On the basis of this experiment, at first, expert credibility is introduced to process the index value; secondly, the classification weight of the index is objectively determined by the information entropy output of the index itself; finally, a comprehensive classification model of support vector machine based on key sample set is proposed and its advantages are evaluated. Result: After classifying the experimental data, we found that SVM can accurately judge the effect of surgery by data. In this experiment, PLMA method is better than ETT method in xenon repair operation. Discussion: SVM has great accuracy and practicability in judging the outcome of xenon repair operation. Conclusion: The proposed index classification weight model can deal with the uncertainties caused by uncertain information and give the confidence of the uncertain information. Compared with the traditional SVM method, the proposed method based on SVM and key sample set greatly reduces the number of samples that misjudge the effect of samples, and improves the practicability of SVM method. It is concluded that PLMA is superior to the ETT technique to hernia surgical. The idea of constructing classification model based on key sample set proposed in this paper can also be used for reference in other data mining methods.

An improved embryonated chicken egg model for the evaluation of antiviral drugs against influenza A virus.

Influenza is a serious global public health problem and an economic burden. With the continual emergence of new influenza A virus strains, new antiviral drugs are needed urgently. In this study, an improved embryonated chicken egg model for evaluating antiviral activity against Influenza A virus was developed. In the model, the influenza A virus was injected into the allantoic cavity and ribavirin was injected into the albumen of the egg. The levels of influenza A virus in the allantoic fluid was titrated by the hemagglutination test after incubation for 72 h at 35.5 degrees C and 12 h at 4 degrees C. Ribavirin treatment at a dose of 25 mg/kg to 100 mg/kg decreased significantly the hemagglutination titers both of Influenza virus A/FM1, H1N1 (IVA1) (p < 0.01) and influenza virus A/Wuhan/359/95, H3N2 (IVA3) (p < 0.01). In a time-dependent drug addition assay, significant efficacy of ribavirin against both IVA1 and IVA3 was observed when the drug was administered before and shortly after viral inoculation (p < 0.01 or p < 0.05). In conclusion, ribavirin treatment showed significant antiviral activity against IVA1 and IVA3 in this model, suggesting that the improved model would be useful for evaluating the anti-influenza virus activity of potential inhibitors.

Phytoremediation of Mn-contaminated paddy soil by two hyperaccumulators (Phytolacca americana and Polygonum hydropiper) aided with citric acid.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the phytoremediation potential of two hyperaccumulator plants, Phytolacca americana L. and Polygonum hydropiper L., on manganese-contaminated paddy soils. The biomass growth, Mn concentrations in plant tissues, and potential Mn removal efficiency from soils of these two plants were studied with citric acid, and the mechanisms of citric acid on these two plants were analyzed by examining the root activity, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) in leaves, as well as the concentrations of O2·- and H2O2 in leaves. The results showed that the biomass of these two plants were both promoted under low level of citric acid (3 mmol kg-1). The concentration of Mn in the plants and the amount of Mn removed from the soil by the plants through harvesting were enhanced at low and intermediate (10 mmol kg-1) citric acid application levels. The results also showed that root activity was enhanced at the low citric acid level and significantly inhibited under the intermediate and high levels (15 mmol kg-1), which indicates the facilitative function of the low level of citric acid and the inhibitive function of the high level of citric acid application on plant biomass growth. Under the low and intermediate levels of citric acid application, O2·- in the plant leaves increased sharply, and the SOD, POD, and CAT activities also increased sharply, which made the level of H2O2 very similar to that of the control, ensuring the health of the plants. At the high level of citric acid application, however, the O2·- continued to rise sharply, while the activity of the three antioxidant enzymes declined sharply, causing the concentration of hydrogen peroxide to be much higher than that in the control, thus endangering the plants. The present study shows the potential of P. hydropiper for use in the phytoremediation of soil contaminated with a relatively low level of manganese.

Copper and Zinc in a paddy field and their potential ecological impacts affected by wastewater from a lead/zinc mine, P. R. China.

As well known, at normal levels, copper and zinc are essential micronutrients for plants, animals, and humans. However, excessive Cu and Zn are toxic and disturb a wide range of biochemical and physiological processes. Using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS; Perkin-Elmer 3030, USA), soil and rice plant (Oryza sativa L.) samples collected from a paddy field in Lechang lead-zinc mine area, Guangdong Province, China were analyzed and their potential ecological impacts to local human and livestock were evaluated. The results showed that the paddy soils were contaminated with Cu and Zn. Both metals in soils had low bio-available fractions for paddy plants, animal and human by three chemically analytical techniques. Generally, were concentrations of copper and zinc root >> straw > stalk > grain with hull > grain without hull (i.e. unpolished rice) and in the normal ranges indicating no ecological risk for local livestock and residents. All positive correlation coefficients, however, between heavy metals in rice plant and total, exchangeable (step 1 in Tessier's method established in 1979) and DTPA-extractable fractions in soils were found in this study indicating that elevated heavy metal in soils would increase long-term exposition and possible consequence of ecological hazard through food chains.

Heavy metals of vegetables and soils of vegetable bases in Chongqing, Southwest China.

There is a growing concern over environmental and ecological safety in China owing to rapid urbanization and industrialization and increasing reliance on agrochemicals in the last several decades. Excessive accumulation for some essential trace elements (e.g., zinc, copper) or low concentration of toxic elements (e.g., cadmium, lead) in agricultural soils may not only result in environmental contamination but also affect food quality and safety. This study is conducted to investigate eight heavy metal elements (Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Hg, and Pb) of soils and vegetables in twenty vegetable bases in Chongqing, one of the municipalities directly under the jurisdiction of central government. The results shows that soils investigated in this study are heavily contaminated with cadmium and lead, which exceed the national (China) and local (Chongqing) background values. All the study vegetables are below the national sanitary standards for vegetables in China with one exception of lead concentration of vegetables in the district of Dadakou. All the 20 bases in this study can be divided into three groups: group 1 including Rongchang, Wanzhou, Bishan, Yubei, Jiangjin, Wansheng and Fuling, group 2 containing Dadukou, Changshou, Jiulongpo, Ba'nan, Yongchuan and Jiangbei and group 3 comprising Nan'an, Beibei, Shapingba, Dazu, Tongnan, Tongliang and Hechuan. The soil contamination is group III > group I > group II while the order of the plant contamination is reverse.