Effect of Statins on the Risk of Different Stages of Prostate Cancer: A Meta-Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this article was to investigate the relationship between statins and the risk of different stages or grades of prostate cancer. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was performed for articles published until December 18, 2020, on the PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases. The pooled relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were then analyzed using the STATA.16.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 588,055 patients from 14 studies were included in the analysis. We found that the use of statins expressed a significant correlation with a lower risk of advanced prostate cancer (RR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.73-0.91; RR = 0.86, 95% CI: 0.75-0.99, respectively). However, no evidence suggested that the use of statins was beneficial for the prevention of localized prostate cancer incidence. Similarly, the pooled results also revealed no association between the use of statins and the risk of high-grade and low-grade prostate cancer. CONCLUSION: It has been found that the use of statins is associated with a lower risk of advanced prostate cancer but was not related to the risk of localized, low-grade, or high-grade prostate cancer.

Serum biomarkers of isoniazid-induced liver injury: Aminotransferases are insufficient, and OPN, L-FABP and HMGB1 can be promising novel biomarkers.

Isoniazid (INH)-induced liver injury is a great challenge for tuberculosis treatment. Existing biomarkers cannot accurately determine the occurrence of this injury in the early stage. Therefore, developing early specific sensitive biomarkers of INH-induced liver injury is urgent. A rat model of liver injury was established with gastric infusion of INH or INH plus rifampicin (RFP). We examined seven potential novel serum biomarkers, namely, glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH), liver-fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP), high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1), macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor (MCSF1R), osteopontin (OPN), total cytokeratin 18 (K18), and caspase-cleaved cytokeratin-18 (ccK18), to evaluate their sensitivity and specificity on INH-induced liver injury. With the increase of drug dosage, combining with RFP and prolonging duration of administration, the liver injury was aggravated, showing as decreased weight of the rats, upgraded liver index and oxidative stress level, and histopathological changes of liver becoming marked. But the activity of serum aminotransferases decreased significantly. The area under the curve (AUC) of receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve of OPN, L-FABP, HMGB1, MCSF1R, and GLDH was 0.88, 0.87, 0.85, 0.71, and 0.70 (≥0.7), respectively, and 95% confidence interval of them did not include 0.5, with statistical significance, indicating their potential abilities to become biomarkers of INH-induced liver injury. In conclusion, we found traditional biomarkers ALT and AST were insufficient to discover the INH-induced liver injury accurately and OPN, L-FABP, and HMGB1 can be promising novel biomarkers.

Vitamin D deficiency and Schizophrenia in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Observational Studies.

Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disorder in which there is an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Accumulating data show that there may be an association between vitamin D deficiency and schizophrenia. We conducted an updated meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between schizophrenia and blood vitamin D level. All published observational articles have been searched from five databases until September 2019. In total, 36 articles with a total of 12528 participants were included in this study. Patients with schizophrenia have significantly lower levels of vitamin D than controls. The subgroup analyses based on study design, hospitalization status, quality score, type of biomarker [25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25-hydroxyvitamin D3], and the country did not explain between-study heterogeneity; however, meta-regression on match factors indicted that match of BMI could account for some degree of heterogeneity. No significant differences in publication bias were observed. Also, subjects with schizophrenia were more likely to have vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency compared to controls. In conclusion, our analyses are consistent with the hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency is associated with schizophrenia. More well-designed randomized control trials are needed to determine whether this association is causal.

Pharmacokinetics of trazodone sustained-release tablets in healthy subjects: Three open-label, randomized crossover studies
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OBJECTIVE: To characterize the pharmacokinetics of trazodone hydrochloride (HCl) sustained-release tablets (TSR) and trazodone immediate-release formulation (TIR) and investigate the effects of food on the pharmacokinetics of the drug in healthy subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three open-label, randomized crossover trials of single-dose, multiple-dose, and food-drug interaction testing were conducted. A validated high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence method was used to measure the plasma concentration of trazodone, and a non-compartment model was used to obtain the pharmacokinetic parameters. AUC and Cmax dose proportionality were analyzed using a power model. RESULTS: TSR lacked dose proportionality over a dose range of 25 - 150 mg. In the food-drug interaction study, no significant changes in the pharmacokinetic parameters of the drug under the fed conditions were observed. Multiple dosage of TSR and TIR reached steady state after 7 days, with no accumulation phenomenon observed. The peak time and peak concentrations of TSR were significantly longer and lower, respectively, than those of TIR. CONCLUSION: TSR showed clear sustained-release characteristics, and food exhibited no significant effects on the pharmacokinetic parameters of trazodone. TSR and TIR reached steady state levels after 7 consecutive days of administration, with no accumulation phenomenon observed.

Neurofibroma discharged from the anus with stool: A case report and review of literature.

Isolated neurofibromas that affect the gastrointestinal tract are rare and almost always manifest as neurofibromatosis type 1 or multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2b. In this paper, we present a case of a 24-year-old female with abdominal pain who discharged a neurofibroma in her stool without any blood on it. A colonoscopy showed multiple small polyps in the sigmoid colon and a nodule in the ileocecus. The pathology results and the immunohistochemical stains of the removed neoplasm from the ileocecus confirmed the diagnosis was a bowel neurofibroma. We report a rare case of ileocecal neurofibroma due to the patient's affected gastrointestinal tract, without any associated systemic syndrome other than a neurofibroma discharged in the stool.

Efficacy of Brucea javanica Oil Emulsion Injection Combined with the Chemotherapy for Treating Gastric Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis sought to assess the efficacy and safety of Brucea javanica oil emulsion injection (BJOEI) combined with chemotherapy for treating gastric cancer (GC). METHOD: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) regarding BJOEI to treat GC were searched in PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI), the Wan-Fang Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (SinoMed) up to January 9, 2017. The clinical total effective rate, performance status, adverse drug reactions (ADRs), and other outcomes were analyzed with Review Manager 5.3 and Stata12.0 software. RESULTS: 13 RCTs involving 912 patients were included in the present meta-analysis. The results demonstrated that, compared with receiving chemotherapy alone, BJOEI combined with chemotherapy was more effective in improving clinical total effective rate (RR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.22~1.56, P < 0.00001), performance status (RR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.30~2.04, P < 0.00001), and relieving ADRs such as myelosuppression, neutropenia, thrombopenia, and liver damage. Statistically significant difference was observed between the experimental group and control group. CONCLUSION: The pooled analysis showed that using BJOEI on the basis of the chemotherapy had a remarkable therapeutic effect for patients with GC, whereas more evidence-based medical researches were required to further support our study.