Surgical treatment of multiple magnet ingestion by children: A single-center experience from China.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of magnet ingestion in children has escalated concurrent with the rise in popularity of magnetic playthings, bearing the capacity to induce substantial morbidity. AIM: The objective of this study was to encapsulate our accumulated expertise in handling pediatric cases featuring multiple magnetic foreign bodies within the gastrointestinal tract sometimes necessitating surgical intervention, as well as to formulate a clinical management algorithm. METHODS: This was a retrospective review of patients with multiple magnetic foreign bodies in the digestive tract, admitted to Shenzhen Children's Hospital, between January 2018 and December 2022. RESULTS: A total of 100 cases were included in this study, including 66 males and 34 females. The main clinical manifestation ns were abdominal pain and vomiting. All patients had abdominal x-ray, all of which indicated foreign bodies in the digestive tract. 33 patients had to undergo a surgical intervention. Among these cases, the gastrointestinal complications occurred in 31 patients, including gastric rupture (n = 9), intestinal obstruction (n = 11) and intestinal perforation (n = 30). Postoperative intestinal obstruction occurred in 6 children. There was no statistical significant difference in age and gender between the Surgical group and Non-surgical group, but the Surgical group had a higher number of magnets ([7.5(2-44) vs 4(2-20)], p = 0.009), a longer interval between time of misingestion to clinical visit ([48(7.2-480) vs 5(2-336)]hours, p < 0.001), and a longer length of hospital stay ([10(6-19) vs 2(1-8)]days, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Multiple magnet ingestion in children can lead to serious complications and carry severe risks. Timely diagnosis and effective treatment are crucial for managing such patients.

Toxicity and potential underlying mechanism of Karenia selliformis to the fish Oryzias melastigma.

Karenia selliformis can produce toxins such as gymnodimines, and form microalgal blooms causing massive mortality of marine life such as fish and shellfish, and resulting in serious economic losses. However, there are a few of studies on the toxic effects of K. selliformis on marine organisms and the underlying mechanisms, and it is not clear whether the toxins produced by K. selliformis affect fish survival through the food chain. In this study, a food chain was simulated and composed by K. selliformis-brine shrimp-marine medaka to investigate the possibility of K. selliformis toxicity transmission through the food chain, in which fish behavior, histopathology and transcriptomics changes were observed after direct or indirect exposure (through the food chain) of K. selliformis. We found that both direct and indirect exposure of K. selliformis could affect the swimming behavior of medaka, manifested as decreased swimming performance and increased "frozen events". Meanwhile, exposure to K. selliformis caused pathological damage to the intestine and liver tissues of medaka to different degree. The effect of direct exposure to K. selliformis on swimming behavior and damage to fish tissues was more severe. In addition, K. selliformis exposure induced significant changes in the expression of genes related to energy metabolism, metabolic detoxification and immune system in medaka. These results suggest that toxins produced by K. selliformis can be transferred through the food chain, and that K. selliformis can destroy the intestinal integrity of medaka and increase the absorption of toxins, leading to energy metabolism disorders in fish, affecting the metabolic detoxification capacity of the liver. Our finding provides novel insight into the toxicity of K. selliformis to marine fish.

Possible Role of Docosahexaenoic Acid in Response to Diarrhetic Shellfish Toxins in the Mussel Perna viridis.

Marine bivalves are rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a polyunsaturated fatty acid known to be beneficial for human health; however, the potential role of DHA in protecting shellfish from the toxicity of diarrhetic shellfish toxins (DSTs) remains poorly understood. Here, we aimed to study the effect of DHA on the response of the bivalve, Perna viridis, to DSTs by using LC-MS/MS, RT-qPCR, and histological examination. In this study, we observed that the DHA content decreased significantly with esterification of DSTs in the digestive gland of the mussel P. viridis after 96 h of exposure to Prorocentrum lima, a DST-producing dinoflagellate. The addition of DHA significantly increased the esterification level of DSTs and increased the expression of Nrf2 signaling pathway-related genes and enzyme activities, alleviating the damage of DSTs to digestive glands. These results suggested that DHA may mediate the esterification of DSTs and activation of the Nrf2 signaling pathway in P. viridis to protect mussels from the toxic effects of DSTs. This study may provide new insights regarding the response of bivalves to DSTs and lay the foundation for uncovering the role of DHA in environmental adaptation of bivalves.

Specific determination of hepatitis B e antigen by antibodies targeting precore unique epitope facilitates clinical diagnosis and drug evaluation against hepatitis B virus infection.

Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) is a widely used marker both for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) clinical management and HBV-related basic research. However, due to its high amino acid sequence homology to hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg), most of available anti-HBe antibodies are cross-reactive with HBcAg resulting in high interference against accurate measurement of the status and level of HBeAg. In the study, we generated several monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting various epitopes on HBeAg and HBcAg. Among these mAbs, a novel mAb 16D9, which recognizes the SKLCLG (aa -10 to -5) motif on the N-terminal residues of HBeAg that is absent on HBcAg, exhibited excellent detection sensitivity and specificity in pairing with another 14A7 mAb targeting the HBeAg C-terminus (STLPETTVVRRRGR, aa141 to 154). Based on these two mAbs, we developed a novel chemiluminescent HBeAg immunoassay (NTR-HBeAg) which could detect HBeAg derived from various HBV genotypes. In contrast to widely used commercial assays, the NTR-HBeAg completely eliminated the cross-reactivity with secreted HBcAg from precore mutant (G1896A) virus in either cell culture or patient sera. The improved specificity of the NTR-HBeAg assay enables its applicability in cccDNA-targeting drug screening in cell culture systems and also provides an accurate tool for clinical HBeAg detection.

Prevention effect of low-temperature atomization inhalation for radiation induced oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiotherapy.

Purpose: To investigate the prevention effect of low-temperature atomization inhalation for radiation induced oral mucositis (OM) in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) undergoing radiotherapy. Patients and methods: A total of 68 patients with HNC (including nasopharyngeal cancer) undergoing radiotherapy were divided into an intervention group (33 cases) and a control group (35 cases). During radiotherapy, the intervention group received low-temperature (between 4°C and 8°C) atomization inhalation; while the control group received normal temperature (between 18°C and 24°C) atomization inhalation. Atomization inhalation was performed twice a day, 20 minutes per time, using distilled water. The incidence and severity of OM was evaluated every week during radiotherapy. The comparation was made between the two groups. Results: The two groups were comparable among age, sex, Eastern Cooperative Oncology group (ECOG) score, body mass index (BMI) before radiotherapy, BMI loss during radiotherapy, original tumor site, pathological type, TNM stage, and mean oral cavity irradiated dose. There was a significant difference in the incidence of OM between the two groups (P<0.05). There were fewer patients with severe OM in the intervention group compared to the control group (P<0.05). The onset time of OM in the intervention group was delayed by about 4 days compared to that in the control group (P<0.05). Low-temperature atomization inhalation helped to avoid radiotherapy interruption in the intervention group. No patient in the intervention group suffered any adverse reaction for low-temperature atomization inhalation treatment. Conclusions: Low-temperature atomization inhalation can reduce the incidence and severity of OM, and slow down the progression process of it. It can be used as a new prevention method during radiotherapy, and should be promoted in clinical practice.

Suppressing microRNA-29c promotes biliary atresia-related fibrosis by targeting DNMT3A and DNMT3B.

This study was designed to investigate the potential role of microRNA-29c (miR-29c) in biliary atresia-related fibrosis. The expression of miR-29c was determined in 15 pairs of peripheral blood samples from infants with biliary atresia (BA) and infants with non-BA neonatal cholestasis using quantitative real-time PCR. EMT was established by induction with TGF-ß1 in HIBEpiC cells. MiR-29c was inhibited by lipofectamine transfection. The expressions of proteins related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), i.e., E-cadherin, N-cadherin and vimentin, were determined using quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting. Direct interaction between miR-29c and DNMT3A and DNMT3B was identified using a luciferase reporter assay. The expressions of DNMT3A and DNMT3B were suppressed by treatment with SGI-1027. Patients with BA showed significantly lower miR-29c levels in peripheral blood samples than the control subjects. In vitro, TGF-ß1-induced EMT significantly decreased the expression of miR-29c. Downregulation of miR-29c had a promotional effect on BA-related fibrosis in HIBEpiC cells, as confirmed by the decrease in E-cadherin and increase in N-cadherin and vimentin levels. MiR-29c was found to target the 3'UTR of DNMT3A and DNMT3B and inhibit their expression. Suppression of DNMT3A and DNMT3B reversed the effects of miR-29c downregulation on BA-related fibrosis in HIBEpiC cells. These data suggest that BA-related fibrosis is closely associated with the occurrence of EMT in HIBEpiC cells. MiR-29c might be a candidate for alleviating BA-related fibrosis by targeting DNMT3A and DNMT3B.

[Identification of peptide mimotopes of an abroad-spectrum neutralizing epitope of highly pathogenic avian influenza hemagglutinin].

A monoclonal antibody (8H5), which showed strong neutralization activity against 33 strains of H5N1 viruses isolated from hosts at various regions from 2002 to 2006, was characterized in our lab recently. This result indicated the presence of highly conserved neutralizing site on hemagglutinin (HA) of various H5N1 subtypes. In the present study, the peptide phage display technique was applied to generate mimotope of the conserved neutralizing epitope recognized by 8H5 mAb. Five peptides displayed on phage were identified to specifically bind to 8H5 mAb. One of the five peptides, 123, was further displayed on the virus-like particle assembled from aa 1-149 fragment of HBcAg. The chimeric particle HBc-T123 conserved the specific binding to 8H5 mAb, and competed with H5N1 viruses for 8H5 mAb. The antiserum induced by HBc-T123 intensively stained on SF21 cells infected by recombinant baculovirus containing HA gene of YU22 virus, indicating the production of cross-reactive antibody to H5N1 HA.

[Carbohydrate metabolism during fruit development of bayberry (Myrica rubra Sieb. et Zucc.)].

The dynamics of dry and fresh weight, the glucose, fructose, sucrose, titratable acid contents, and activities of sucrose-metabolizing and hexose-metabolizing enzymes were examined in developing fruits of bayberry (Myrica rubra Sieb. et Zucc. cvs. 'Wuzi' and 'Biqi'). The results showed the dry and fresh weight of bayberry fruit increased with fruit development and maturation (Fig. 1), with the highest increase rate of dry matters and water occurring during later stage of fruit development (about 10 d before maturation). The change in titratable acid followed a course of "low-high-low" in developing bayberry fruits (Fig. 3). The titratable acid content reached its peak at about 18 d before fruit maturation, and then decreased rapidly. The sugar compositions in fruits of bayberry cv. 'Wuzi' were different from those in fruits of bayberry cv. 'Biqi'. The main sugar accumulated in fruits of bayberry cv. 'Wuzi' was sucrose, accounting for 2/3 of total sugars but the sucrose content in fruits of bayberry cv. 'Biqi' was below 50% of total sugars. The fructose content in fruits of bayberry cv. 'Wuzi' was 4% higher, but that in fruits of bayberry cv. 'Biqi' was 12% lower than glucose content (Fig. 2). The activities of sucrose cleavage enzymes (invertase and cleavage activity of SS) in the fruit of bayberry cv. 'Biqi' increased with fruit development and maturation, but those activities in fruit bayberry cv. 'Wuzi' were almost stable during fruit development with lower levels of enzyme activities in fruit of cv. 'Wuzi' than in cv. 'Biqi' throughout fruit development (Fig. 4 and Fig. 5A). The SPS activity increased during fruit development (Fig. 6), however, the activity peak of synthetic activity of SS occurred at the middle stage of fruit development (Fig. 5B). The FRK activity in fruit of bayberry cv. 'Wuzi' was higher than that of HXK, but the reverse was in fruit of bayberry cv. 'Biqi' (Fig. 7). These results suggested that the 2-3 weeks before fruit maturation was a key phase for the bayberry development and the formation of fruit quality. There was a correlation between water transport and dry matter accumulation. The different sucrose constitutions between two varieties may be attributed to the differences in the activity levels of the sucrose cleavage enzymes while the difference in the ratio of glucose content to fructose content may be caused by the different activity levels of the hexose-metabolizing enzymes.