Intensive follow-up vs conventional follow-up for patients with non-metastatic colorectal cancer treated with curative intent: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The frequency and content of follow-up strategies remain controversial for colorectal cancer (CRC), and scheduled follow-ups have limited value. AIM: To compare intensive and conventional follow-up strategies for the prognosis of non-metastatic CRC treated with curative intent using a meta-analysis. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched for potentially eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from inception until April 2023. The Cochrane risk of bias was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. The hazard ratio, relative risk, and 95% confidence interval were used to calculate survival and categorical data, and pooled analyses were performed using the random-effects model. Additional exploratory analyses were performed for sensitivity, subgroups, and publication bias. RESULTS: Eighteen RCTs involving 8533 patients with CRC were selected for the final analysis. Intensive follow-up may be superior to conventional follow-up in improving overall survival, but this difference was not statistically significant. Moreover, intensive follow-up was associated with an increased incidence of salvage surgery compared to conventional follow-up. In addition, there was no significant difference in the risk of recurrence between intensive and conventional follow-up strategies, whereas intensive follow-up was associated with a reduced risk of interval recurrence compared to conventional follow-up. Finally, the effects of intensive and conventional follow-up strategies differed when stratified by tumor location and follow-up duration. CONCLUSION: Intensive follow-up may have a beneficial effect on the overall survival of patients with non-metastatic CRC treated with curative intent.

Thioredoxin is implicated in the anti­apoptotic effects of grape seed proanthocyanidin extract during hyperglycemia.

Diabetic retinopathy has long been recognized as a microvascular disease, however, recent research has indicated that diabetic retinopathy may also be considered a neurodegenerative disease. The elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of diabetic retinopathy is imperative for the development of preventive and treatment strategies for patients with diabetes. In the present study, grape seed proanthocyanidin extract (GSPE) was used to upregulate the expression of thioredoxin (Trx), in order to evaluate its potential as a novel agent for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, including diabetic retinopathy. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was performed to observe the morphology of retinal neurons, whereas flow cytometry and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase 2'­deoxyuridine, 5'­triphosphate nick­end labeling were employed to investigate cellular apoptosis. Reverse transcription­quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were performed to assess the mRNA and protein expression of target proteins in order to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms. In vivo, it was found that the photoreceptor cell was damaged in diabetic mice but following GSPE treatment, the process could be inhibited. In vitro, the results of the current study demonstrated that, under hyperglycemic culture conditions, the expression of 78 kDa glucose­regulated protein, which is an endoplasmic reticulum stress marker, was upregulated. In addition, the expression of Trx was downregulated and cell apoptosis was enhanced. Notably, treatment with GSPE was revealed to inhibit the neurodegenerative process induced by hyperglycemia. However, treatment with the Trx inhibitor PX12 in combination with GSPE was demonstrated to potentiate apoptosis compared with GSPE treatment alone under hyperglycemic conditions. Furthermore, the protein expression of apoptosis signal­regulating kinase (ASK) 1 and Trx­interacting protein (Txnip) was also upregulated by hyperglycemia, whereas GSPE was revealed to counteract this upregulation. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that Trx may be implicated in the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of GSPE against hyperglycemia­induced cell degeneration and apoptosis. The molecular mechanisms may also involve inhibition of the activation of the Trx/ASK1/Txnip signaling pathway.

What if we ignore the random effects when analyzing RNA-seq data in a multifactor experiment.

Identifying differentially expressed (DE) genes between different conditions is one of the main goals of RNA-seq data analysis. Although a large amount of RNA-seq data were produced for two-group comparison with small sample sizes at early stage, more and more RNA-seq data are being produced in the setting of complex experimental designs such as split-plot designs and repeated measure designs. Data arising from such experiments are traditionally analyzed by mixed-effects models. Therefore an appropriate statistical approach for analyzing RNA-seq data from such designs should be generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) or similar approaches that allow for random effects. However, common practices for analyzing such data in literature either treat random effects as fixed or completely ignore the experimental design and focus on two-group comparison using partial data. In this paper, we examine the effect of ignoring the random effects when analyzing RNA-seq data. We accomplish this goal by comparing the standard GLMM model to the methods that ignore the random effects through simulation studies and real data analysis. Our studies show that, ignoring random effects in a multi-factor experiment can lead to the increase of the false positives among the top selected genes or lower power when the nominal FDR level is controlled.

Effect of lipo-chitooligosaccharide on early growth of C4 grass seedlings.

Although lipo-chitooligosaccharides (LCOs) are important signal molecules for plant-symbiont interactions, a number of reports suggest that LCOs can directly impact plant growth and development, separate from any role in plant symbioses. In order to investigate this more closely, maize and Setaria seedlings were treated with LCO and their growth was evaluated. The data indicate that LCO treatment significantly enhanced root growth. RNA-seq transcriptomic analysis of LCO-treated maize roots identified a number of genes whose expression was significantly affected by the treatment. Among these genes, some LCO-up-regulated genes are likely involved in root growth promotion. Interestingly, some stress-related genes were down-regulated after LCO treatment, which might indicate reallocation of resources from defense responses to plant growth. The promoter activity of several LCO-up-regulated genes using a ß-glucuronidase reporter system was further analysed. The results showed that the promoters were activated by LCO treatment. The data indicate that LCO can directly impact maize root growth and gene expression.