Lower serum insulin-like growth factor 2 level in patients with bipolar disorder is associated with the severity of manic symptoms during manic episodes.

Objective: Accumulating evidence has indicated that neurodevelopmental defects may underlie the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD). Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are a family of neurotrophic factors that are essential for the survival and development of neurons. The present study aims to investigate whether IGF-2 signaling is implicated in the pathophysiological processes of BD. Method: 50 healthy controls and 78 patients with BD, including 23 patients who diagnosed acute depressive episode and 55 patients who diagnosed acute manic episode, were recruited in this study. The 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) and the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) were used to assess the severity of the depressive and manic symptoms, respectively. The serum IGF-2 level was determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for between-group comparisons and spearman analysis was used to analyze correlations. Results: Patients with BD had lower serum IGF-2 levels (66.08 ± 21.22 ng/ml) when compared to healthy controls (88.72 ± 31.55 ng/ml). BD patients were divided into manic episode and depressive episode subgroups. We found that serum IGF-2 levels were reduced in both the mania and depression subgroups (mania: 67.19 ± 21.52 ng/ml, depression: 63.43 ± 20.67 ng/ml; P < 0.001), while no significant difference was observed between two groups (P > 0.05). Spearman correlation analyses revealed that the levels of serum IGF-2 were negatively correlated with the YMRS scores in BD patients (r = -0.522, P < 0.001). Furthermore, IGF-2 was found to be an independent contributor to the severity of symptoms in patients with manic episodes (B = -0.610, t = -5.299, P < 0.001). Conclusion: Lower serum IGF-2 levels were found in BD patients and correlated with the severity of the manic symptoms in these patients during manic episodes. These results suggest that reduced IGF-2 levels might be involved in the pathophysiology of BD, and serum IGF-2 could be a peripheral biomarker for the evaluation of the severity of manic symptoms in BD patients.

Corrigendum: Lower serum insulin-like growth factor 2 level in patients with bipolar disorder is associated with the severity of manic symptoms during manic episodes.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1354999.].

[Expression and prognostic value of IL-6 and ß-catenin in oral squamous cell carcinoma].

PURPOSE: To investigate the expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and ß-catenin in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and its clinicopathological significance. METHODS: The serum IL-6 concentration in 110 OSCC patients and 109 healthy controls were determined by chemiluminescence analysis. IL-6 and ß-catenin expression levels in 68 tumor specimens of OSCC patients undergoing surgical treatment and 6 normal mucosal tissues were determined by immunohistochemistry method. The correlation between IL-6 and ß-catenin and clinicopathological parameters and their prognostic value were analyzed. SPSS 22.0 software package was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Chemiluminescence method showed that the serum IL-6 content of OSCC patients was significantly increased (P＜0.001). Immunohistochemical results demonstrated that high expression of IL-6 in OSCC tissues was remarkably associated with cervical lymph node metastasis(P=0.017), pathological differentiation(P=0.014), recurrence and distant metastasis (P=0.048). OSCC patients with high IL-6 expression showed a poor prognosis by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that high expression of IL-6 was an independent risk factor affecting the prognosis of patients with OSCC(P＜0.05). ß-catenin hyperexpression was associated with pathological differentiation(P=0.006) and overall poor survival in OSCC patients. Spearman correlation analysis showed a positive correlation between IL-6 and ß-catenin expression in OSCC (P＜0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Serum IL-6 is expected to be a biomarker for detection of OSCC, and IL-6 and ß-catenin expression in tumour tissues can be used as markers to evaluate the poor prognosis of OSCC.

A pooled analysis of adding olanzapine to guideline-recommended antiemetic therapy for breast cancer patients treated with an anthracycline and cyclophosphamide in prospective and retrospective studies.

PURPOSE: As an antipsychotic agent that targets multiple neurotransmitter receptors, olanzapine has been added to antiemetic therapies. For better understanding the application of olanzapine in antiemetic strategies for breast cancer patients who suffered anthracycline plus cyclophosphamide-induced nausea and vomiting, we comprehensively reviewed the antiemetic researches related to olanzapine and pooled-analyzed the results to confirm the efficacy and safety of olanzapine in breast cancer. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched from inception through Sep 15, 2021. Both prospective and retrospective studies were eligible. The primary outcomes were complete response (defined as no vomiting and no use of rescue medications) and no nausea rate, and the secondary outcome was treatment-related adverse events. RESULTS: Four studies with 466 breast cancer patients were identified in the pooled analysis. In the acute period (0-24 h), the olanzapine group had significantly higher rates of complete response (71.3% vs 48.1%, odds ratio [OR]: 2.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.39-5.11, p = 0.003) and no nausea (70.0% vs 43.0%, OR: 3.55, 95% CI 1.76-7.18, p = 0.04) than the placebo group, while in the delayed period, the olanzapine group was also superior to the placebo group in terms of the complete response (82.5% vs 63.3%, OR: 3.81, 95% CI 1.58-9.15, p = 0.003) and no nausea (66.3% vs 51.9%, OR: 2.08, 95% CI 1.03-4.21, p = 0.04) rates. During the overall period in prospective studies, the proportions of complete response (50.0% vs 34.2%, OR: 1.93, p = 0.04) and no nausea (51.3% vs 25.3%, OR: 3.40, p = 0.0006) in the olanzapine group were higher than those in the placebo group. CONCLUSION: Highly emetogenic chemotherapy breast patients could benefit from olanzapine-contained antiemetic therapy. Furthermore, since the cost is low, olanzapine is worth further clinical application and promotion.

Reducing coherent noise in interference systems using the phase modulation technique.

The phase modulation technique is adopted to reduce the coherent noise that arises from spurious interference. By choosing an appropriate driving signal, the method can reduce the coherent function of coherent noise to a great degree while keeping the coherent function of a coherent signal nearly unchanged. Simulation results show that for the grating interferometer, the phase error caused by coherent noise is reduced by 81.53% on average. For the Twyman interferometer, the fringe quality and contrast deteriorated by coherent noise are significantly improved. Furthermore, an experiment is set up in the phase-modulated Twyman interferometer to verify the feasibility of the principle. It is concluded that the method is effective to reduce the coherent noise in interference systems.

NY-ESO-1 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma: A potential new marker for early recurrence after surgery.

NY-ESO-1 belongs to the cancer testis antigens (CTA) family, and is identified in a variety of tumors. Certain studies have demonstrated that NY-ESO-1 predicts tumor recurrence and treatment response. No reports are currently available regarding the correlation between NY-ESO-1 and the recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following surgery. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the association between NY-ESO-1 and relapse of HCC and to explore the possible mechanisms for this correlation. A total of 120 HCC patients were analyzed for the expression of NY-ESO-1 by immunohistochemistry (IHC). A stable NY-ESO-1 over-expressed HepG2 cell line (ESO-HepG2) was established to determine the biological effects of NY-ESO-1 on cell proliferation, cell cycle and migration by using the xCELLigence DP system, flow cytometry and xCELLigence SP system. NY-ESO-1 was positive in 28 of 120 (23.3%) HCC tumor tissues. NY-ESO-1 was not detectable in adjacent normal liver tissues. A close correlation was found between NY-ESO-1 expression and the recurrence of HCC following surgery (P=0.007). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS) for patients positive for NY-ESO-1 (log-rank test, P=0.003). The Cox regression model demonstrated that NY-ESO-1 expression was a significant independent predictor for the recurrence of HCC following curative surgery (P=0.022). Compared with HepG2 cells, ESO-HepG2 cells have increased migration but not proliferation ability. In conclusion, NY-ESO-1 expression is associated with worse HCC outcome following surgery, and the mechanism for this finding may be that NY-ESO-1 increases tumor cell migration.