[Analysis of lung cancer screening through low-dose spiral computed tomography among petroleum company staffs in Sichuan-Chongqing Area in 2020].

Objective: To provide scientific evidence for early lung cancer screening, to analyze the incidence of pulmonary nodules among petroleum company staffs in Sichuan-Chongqing Area. Methods: In January 2021 , 6002 petroleum company staffs in Sichuan-Chongqing Area which scanned by low-dose spiral computed tomography (LDCT) of chest in medical examination center in 2020 were retrospectively collected as objects. Their imaging and clinical data were collected. χ(2) test was used to analyze the differences in the detection rates of lung nodules and suspected lung cancer nodules among workers in petroleum company staffs of different genders, ages and types of work. Results: Among the 6002 objects, 3853 (64.2%) were male and 2149 (35.8%) were female, with an average age of (47.25±12.13) years old. A total of 431 cases (7.2%) of pulmonary nodules and 57 cases (0.9%) of suspected lung cancer nodules were detected. 45 cases were followed up with surgical treatment, and 41 cases (91.1%) of lung cancer were diagnosed by postoperative pathology. There were significant differences in the detection rates of pulmonary nodules and suspected lung cancer nodules between different age groups (χ(2)=51.23, 18.81 , P<0.001). The detection rates of pulmonary nodules in the age groups 51-60 years old and ≥61 years old were higher than those in the age groups≤40 years old and 41-50 years old (P<0.05). The detection rate of suspected lung cancer nodules in the age group≥ 61 years old was higher than those in the age groups≤40 years old, 41-50 years old and 51-60 years old (P< 0.05) . And the detection rate of suspected lung cancer pulmonary nodules in oil workers was higher than that of ordinary workers (P<0.05) . Among female objects, the detection rate of pulmonary nodules in oil workers was higher than that in ordinary workers (χ(2)=8.09, P=0.004) . The detection rate of pulmonary nodules in oil workers aged ≥61 years old was higher than ordinary workers (χ(2)=37.94, P<0.001) . Among male objects, the detection rate of suspected lung cancer pulmonary nodules in oil workers was higher than that in ordinary workers (χ(2)=8.42, P=0.004) . The detection rates of suspected lung cancer pulmonary nodules in oil workers aged 51-60 years old and ≥61 years old groups were higher than those of ordinary workers (χ(2)=4.70, 8.74; P=0.030, 0.003) . Conclusion: LDCT is suitable for early lung cancer screening for petroleum company staffs. During the clinical screening process, LDCT should be used as a routine physical examination item for petroleum workers older than 51 years old.

Evodiamine inhibits gastrointestinal motility via CCK and CCK1 receptor in water-avoidence stress rat model.

AIM: Evodiamine (EVO) has been reported to play an important role in regulating gastrointestinal motility, but the evidence is insufficient, and the mechanism remains unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate the possible role of EVO in stress-induced colonic hypermotility and the potential mechanisms via both in vivo and in vitro investigations. METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to water avoidance stress (WAS) for 1 h or sham WAS daily for 10 consecutive days to construct the rat model. The colonic contractile activity was studied in an organ bath system. The serum CCK-8 level was detected using an enzyme immunoassay kit, and gastrointestinal transit was detected by intragastric administration of India ink. RESULTS: WAS induced gastrointestinal hypermotility in male rats. EVO significantly inhibited the contractile activity of colonic muscle strips; this effect was not blocked by TTX and the CCK1 receptor antagonist devazepide. Chronic WAS induced a slight but nonsignificant increase in the serum CCK-8 level, while EVO elevated the serum CCK-8 level in the WAS rats in a dose-dependent manner. Exogenous CCK-8 significantly inhibited the contractile activity of the colonic muscle strips; this effect was not blocked by TTX but was completely blocked by devazepide. Both EVO and CCK-8 inhibited gastrointestinal transit, and the effect of EVO could be partially blocked by devazepide. SIGNIFICANCE: EVO can reverse stress-induced gastrointestinal hypermotility. This effect may partially occur as a result of promoting the release of CCK and then activating the CCK1 receptor instead of directly activating the CCK1 receptor.

Pharmacokinetic and myocardial enzyme profiles of two administration routes of epirubicin in breast cancer patients.

To evaluate the changes in myocardial enzymes and plasma epirubicin concentration following administration by micro-pump (MP) and intravenous drip (ID) in breast cancer patients.11 self-controlled breast cancer patients were recruited for a trial with epirubicin administration by MP for 48 h and by ID for 1 h during 2 cycles of treatment. Plasma concentration of epirubicin at different time points was determined using LC-MS/MS. The levels of myocardial enzymes before and after chemotherapy were compared. Another group of patients receiving epirubicin by ID (n=4) or MP (n=9) were monitored for 4 months.8 patients completed the self-controlled study. The peak concentration of epirubicin in the MP group and the ID group were 21.84±18.85 ng/mL and 294.80±225.54 ng/mL, respectively. The MP group had a longer duration (54~60 h) of plasma concentration of epirubicin not less than 10 ng/mL than that of the ID group (8~14 h). There was significant difference for the alteration of myocardial enzymes before and after chemotherapy (p<0.05) in the ID group, whereas the MP group showed no significant difference (p>0.05). The increased range of myocardial enzymes after chemotherapy in the ID group was larger than that of the MP group and the difference was significant (p<0.05). There is an increased cardiotoxicity in patients receiving epirubicin by ID during the 4-month trial.Administration of epirubicin by MP maintained an effective drug concentration for a longer period of time than by ID. The higher peak plasma concentration observed following epirubicin administration by ID may lead to cardiac toxicity.

Two EST-derived marker systems for cultivar identification in tree peony.

Tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews), a woody deciduous shrub, belongs to the section Moutan DC. in the genus of Paeonia of the Paeoniaceae family. To increase the efficiency of breeding, two EST-derived marker systems were developed based on a tree peony expressed sequence tag (EST) database. Using target region amplification polymorphism (TRAP), 19 of 39 primer pairs showed good amplification for 56 accessions with amplicons ranging from 120 to 3,000 bp long, among which 99.3% were polymorphic. In contrast, 7 of 21 primer pairs demonstrated adequate amplification with clear bands for simple sequence repeats (SSRs) developed from ESTs, and a total of 33 alleles were found in 56 accessions. The similarity matrices generated by TRAP and EST-SSR markers were compared, and the Mantel test (r = 0.57778, P = 0.0020) showed a moderate correlation between the two types of molecular markers. TRAP markers were suitable for DNA fingerprinting and EST-SSR markers were more appropriate for discriminating synonyms (the same cultivars with different names due to limited information exchanged among different geographic areas). The two sets of EST-derived markers will be used further for genetic linkage map construction and quantitative trait locus detection in tree peony.

Optimal Design for Marker-assisted Gene Pyramiding in Cross Population.

Marker-assisted gene pyramiding aims to produce individuals with superior economic traits according to the optimal breeding scheme which involves selecting a series of favorite target alleles after cross of base populations and pyramiding them into a single genotype. Inspired by the science of evolutionary computation, we used the metaphor of hill-climbing to model the dynamic behavior of gene pyramiding. In consideration of the traditional cross program of animals along with the features of animal segregating populations, four types of cross programs and two types of selection strategies for gene pyramiding are performed from a practical perspective. Two population cross for pyramiding two genes (denoted II), three population cascading cross for pyramiding three genes(denoted III), four population symmetry (denoted IIII-S) and cascading cross for pyramiding four genes (denoted IIII-C), and various schemes (denoted cross program-A-E) are designed for each cross program given different levels of initial favorite allele frequencies, base population sizes and trait heritabilities. The process of gene pyramiding breeding for various schemes are simulated and compared based on the population hamming distance, average superior genotype frequencies and average phenotypic values. By simulation, the results show that the larger base population size and the higher the initial favorite allele frequency the higher the efficiency of gene pyramiding. Parents cross order is shown to be the most important factor in a cascading cross, but has no significant influence on the symmetric cross. The results also show that genotypic selection strategy is superior to phenotypic selection in accelerating gene pyramiding. Moreover, the method and corresponding software was used to compare different cross schemes and selection strategies.

Effects of endogenous ouabain on the development of hypertension in 1k1c hypertensive rats.

This study was designed to evaluate the role of endogenous ouabain (EO) in the development of hypertension in 1ktc (one kidney, one clip) hypertensive rats. First, the EO content of the serum of 1k1c hypertensive rats and normal Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats was detected by the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay method (ELISA). Second, blood pressure changes in the 1k1c rats were recorded directly after the 1k1c rats were injected randomly with anti-ouabain antibody, normal rabbit IgG, and normal saline, respectively. The results showed that EO levels in the serum of 1k1c hypertensive rats were significantly higher than those of normal SD rats (2.25 +/-0.92 microg/l vs. 1.12 +/- 0.17 microg/l, p< 0.01), and correlated significantly with systolic blood pressure (r= 0.59, p< 0.05). Anti-ouabain antibody was able to significantly decrease the blood pressure of 1k1c hypertensive rats in a dose-dependent manner, while normal rabbit IgG or normal saline was not. These results indicate that endogenous ouabain might play an important role in the development of hypertension in 1k1c hypertensive rats.