Lung ultrasound to diagnose infectious pneumonia of newborns: A prospective multicenter study.

INTRODUCTION: Whether lung ultrasound (LUS) can be used for pathogenic diagnosis remains controversial. This study was conducted to clarify whether ultrasound has diagnostic value for etiology. METHODS: A total of 135 neonatal pneumonia patients with an identified pathogen were enrolled from the newborn intensive care units of 10 tertiary hospitals in China. The study ran from November 2020 to December 2021. The infants were divided into various groups according to pathogens, time of infection, gestational age, and disease severity. The distribution of pleural line abnormalities, B-line signs, and pulmonary consolidation, as well as the incidence of air bronchogram and pleural effusion based on LUS, were compared between these groups. RESULTS: There were significant differences in pulmonary consolidation. The sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis of severe pneumonia based on the extent of pulmonary consolidation were 83.3% and 85.2%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the identification of mild or severe pneumonia based on the distribution of pulmonary consolidation was 0.776. CONCLUSION: LUS has good performance in diagnosing and differentiating the severity of neonatal pneumonia but cannot be used for pathogenic identification in the early stages of pneumonia.

Effects of Astragaloside IV on treatment of breast cancer cells execute possibly through regulation of Nrf2 via PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has from ancient times been applied in China for the treatment of breast cancer with its own unique theoretical system. Sanhuang decoction composed of astragalus membranaceus, prepared rhubarb, and rhizoma curcumae longae has traditionally been used for antioxidant stress, inflammatory reaction, and angiogenesis. However, the role and mechanism of Sanhuang decoction in breast cancer remains unknown. The present study demonstrated the antitumor activity of Sanhuang decoction against breast cancer xenografts in nude mice. Notably, Sanhuang decoction promoted severe necrosis and induced cell death. In addition, Sanhuang decoction obviously regulated the inflammation and oxidative stress. Despite these, Sanhuang decoction could increase the expression of Nrf2. Moreover, si-Nrf2 exhibited the opposite effects compared with the Sanhuang decoction treatment group and reversed the antibreast cancer role of Sanhuang decoction. Further, Sanhuang decoction remarkably suppressed the expression of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Taken together, Sanhuang decoction was firstly evaluated to possess potent antibreast cancer effect in vivo through regulation of inflammation and oxidative stress accomplished by up-regulation of Nrf2 via PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway and Sanhuang decoction might be a powerful candidate formula for antibreast cancer.

[Expression and promoter methylation of SIX2 gene in peripheral blood of pediatric patients with nephroblastoma].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the transcriptional expression and promoter methylation status of SIX2 gene in peripheral blood of pediatric children with nephroblastoma and discuss their clinicopathological correlations. METHODS: Approved by the hospital ethics committee, peripheral blood samples were collected from 45 children with Wilms' tumor(case group) at the Department of Pediatric Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Zhengzhou University from October 2008 to January 2012. And another 15 pediatric cases gender-and-age matched, were selected as the control group (excluding cancer and other malignant diseases). The real-time quantitative (qRT)-PCR and methylation-specific PCR (MSP) were used to detect the mRNA expression level and methylation status of SIX2 gene.t or χ(2) test were used. Then analyzed their clinicopathological correlations in the case group and how SIX2 gene methylation affected its transcription. RESULTS: Relative quantity(RQ) of SIX2 mRNA in the case group was higher than that of the control group (1.93 ± 1.10 vs 0.57 ± 0.39, t = 5.354, P = 0.000). There were 8 SIX2 gene methylation-positive cases in the case group versus 12 cases in the control group. And the methylation positive ratio was extremely lower in the case group (χ(2) = 19.600, P = 0.000). RQ values in the case group was associated with tumor size, clinical stage, pathological type, lymph node metastasis, treatment and outcome (all P < 0.05). RQ values in the methylated group was lower than that of the unmethylated group both in case and control group (1.35 ± 0.44 vs 1.95 ± 1.15, 0.43 ± 0.29 vs 1.13 ± 0.20, t = 2.459 and 3.896, P = 0.020 and 0.002) . RQ values of case group was higher than that of the control group in methylated group (t = 5.624, P = 0.000) . No statistical significance existed in RQ values between the case and control groups of unmethylated group (t = 1.222, P = 0.229) . CONCLUSIONS: A close correlation between SIX2 low methylation and high mRNA expression in blood suggests that aberrant promoter methylation is possibly one of gene expression regulations, and may be correlated with the occurrence and development of Wilms' tumor. And SIX2 gene in methylated Wilms' tumor may play the role of oncogenes. A negative correlation exists between the overexpression in transcriptional level and its methylation status.