Effects of nitrogen regulation on heavy metal phytoextraction efficiency (Leucaena leucocephala): Application of a nitrogen fertilizer and a fungal agent.

Lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) have been identified as the primary contaminants in soil, posing potential health threats. This study aimed to examine the effects of applying a nitrogen fertilizer and a fungal agent Trichoderma harzianum J2 (nitrogen alone, fungi alone, and combined use) on the phytoremediation of soils co-contaminated with Pb and Cd. The growth of Leucaena leucocephala was monitored in the seedling, differentiation, and maturity stages to fully comprehend the remediation mechanisms. In the maturity stage, the biomass of L. leucocephala significantly increased by 18% and 29% under nitrogen-alone (NCK+) and fungal agent-alone treatments (J2), respectively, compared with the control in contaminated soil (CK+). The remediation factors of Pb and Cd with NCK+ treatment significantly increased by 50% and 125%, respectively, while those with J2 treatment increased by 73% and 145%, respectively. The partial least squares path model suggested that the nitrogen-related soil properties were prominent factors affecting phytoextraction compared with biotic factors (microbial diversity and plant growth). This model explained 2.56 of the variation in Cd concentration under J2 treatment, and 2.97 and 2.82 of the variation in Pb concentration under NCK+ and J2 treatments, respectively. The redundancy analysis showed that the samples under NCK+ and J2 treatments were clustered similarly in all growth stages. Also, Chytridiomycota, Mucoromucota, and Ciliophora were the key bioindicators for coping with heavy metals. Overall, a similar remediation mechanism allowed T. harzianum J2 to replace the nitrogen fertilizer to avoid secondary pollution. In addition, their combined use further increased the remediation efficiency.

Clinical analysis of infectious mononucleosis complicated with acute acalculous cholecystitis.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate specific clinical diagnostic methods for children with infectious mononucleosis (IM) complicated by acute acalculous cholecystitis (AAC). Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 171 cases of IM diagnosed in the infectious disease ward of Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University between January 2020 and December 2020. All IM patients underwent abdominal ultrasound examinations to assess the liver, gallbladder, and spleen. Fourteen patients with symptoms of AAC underwent a follow-up assessment one week later. Results: The estimated incidence of AAC in hospitalized IM children was 8.2%. Both groups of patients presented with fever, abdominal pain, and eyelid edema upon admission. Characteristic radiological findings of AAC were observed, including gallbladder (GB) distention, increased GB wall thickness and increased common bile duct diameter. Analysis of laboratory results revealed no statistically significant differences in leukocyte, absolute lymphocyte count, CD3+, CD3 + CD4+, CD3+ CD8+, Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), or Gamma-Glutamyl Transferase (GGT) levels between the AAC(+) and AAC(-) groups on admission. However, these parameters were not significant risk factors for AAC. After discharge, relevant indicators in non-AAC patients gradually decreased to normal levels, while those in AAC(+) patients did not show a significant decrease. Conclusion: While cases of IM complicated by AAC are relatively uncommon, the utilization of abdominal ultrasound offers a reliable tool for confirming this diagnosis. Routine abdominal ultrasound examinations are recommended for IM patients to improve early detection and treatment of associated conditions.

Diagnostic value of 18F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT for predicting the pathological grade of prostate cancer.

This study was designed to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of relevant parameters of 18F-prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-1007 PET/CT in predicting the pathological grade of primary prostate cancer. Briefly, a prospective analysis was performed on 53 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer by systematic puncture biopsy, followed by 18F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT examination prior to treatment within 10 d. The patients were grouped in accordance with the Gleason grading system revised by the International Association of Urology Pathology (ISUP). They were divided into high-grade group (ISUP 4-5 group) and low-grade group (ISUP 1-3 group). The differences in maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), tumor-to-background ratio (TBR), intraprostatic PSMA-derived tumor volume (iPSMA-TV), and intraprostatic total lesion PSMA (iTL-PSMA) between the high- and low-grade group were statistically significant (p < .001). No significant difference was found for mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean) between the high- and low-grade groups (Z = -1.131, p = .258). Besides, binary multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only iPSMA-TV and iTL-PSMA were independent predictors of the pathological grading, for which the odds ratios were 18.821 [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.040-173.614, p = .010] and 0.758 (95% CI: 0.613-0.938, p = .011), respectively. The area under the ROC of this regression model was 0.983 (95% CI: 0.958-1.00, p < .001). Only iTL-PSMA was a significant parameter for distinguishing ISUP-4 and ISUP-5 groups (Z = -2.043, p = .041). In a nutshell, 18F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT has good application value in predicting the histopathological grade of primary prostate cancer. Three-dimensional volume metabolism parameters iPSMA-TV and iTL-PSMA were found to be independent predictors for pathological grade.

Silencing of NACC1 inhibits the proliferation, migration and invasion of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells via regulating the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.

Nucleus accumbens-associated protein 1 (NACC1) has been reported to serve as an oncogenic role in several types of cancer; however, its role in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains to be determined. The present study aimed to investigate the role of NACC1 in NPC and elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Therefore, NACC1 expression in the normal nasopharyngeal epithelial cell line, NP69, and various NPC cell lines was determined by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blot analyses. NACC1 expression was silenced in the NPC SUNE-1 cell line by transfection with a short hairpin RNA. Cell viability, proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were then evaluated using MTT, colony formation, wound healing, Transwell and western blot assays, respectively. SC79 was employed to activate AKT expression in NACC1-silenced SUNE-1 cells, and the aforementioned cellular processes were observed. The results revealed that NACC1 expression was upregulated in NPC cell lines. NACC1-knocdown inhibited SUNE-1 cell proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT. Moreover, the levels of phosphorylated AKT and mTOR were decreased upon NACC1 silencing. Mechanistically, the presence of SC79 significantly blocked all the effects of NACC1-knockdown on SUNE-1 cells. The findings of the present study demonstrated that NACC1-knockdown effectively suppressed NPC cell proliferation, migration and invasion by inhibiting the activation of the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. NACC1 may thus serve as a potential target for the diagnosis and therapy of NPC.

Caseous calcification of the mitral annulus mimicking benign cardiac tumour of the mitral valve.

Caseous calcification of the mitral annulus (CCMA) is a rare subtype of mitral annular calcification. It usually appears as a large, round, mass-like calcification with an echolucent core, which may be misdiagnosed as an intracardiac mass, cyst, thrombus or abscess of the mitral valve. We present a case report of CCMA that was misdiagnosed by echocardiography as a benign tumour due to its atypical imaging. The mitral valve mass was resected and it was pathologically confirmed to be a myxoid change with calcification. Echocardiography is the preferred initial diagnostic tool. Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) is used to evaluate the vascularity of intracardiac masses or mass-like lesions, but neither echocardiography nor MCE is reliable for identifying atypical lesions. Cardiac computed tomography is helpful in establishing a diagnosis by showing dense calcifications, while cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is used primarily as a credible tool. We therefore recommend that a diagnosis should be made based on various imaging modalities, if necessary, and operators should be skilled to avoid misdiagnosis.

Prognostic value of the advanced lung cancer inflammation index in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic pulmonary resection.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of the preoperative advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI) in early stage non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who received videoassisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) pulmonary surgery as their only therapy. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who were diagnosed with earlystage NSCLC and received a VATS pulmonary resection from January 2014 to June 2016 in the Department of Thoracic Surgery, West China Hospital. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to determine the optimal cut-off values, and patients were divided into low and high ALI groups. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model were used to evaluate potential predictors of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). RESULTS: A total of 292 patients were enrolled in our analysis. Then, 155 and 137 patients were assigned to the low ALI (ALI <50) and high (ALI >50) groups, respectively. The multivariate analyses revealed that preoperative ALI <50 was an independent prognostic factor for both OS [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.603, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.128-6.006, P=0.025] and DFS (HR =2.372, 95% CI: 1.141-4.935, P=0.021), and patients with a low preoperative ALI had worse OS (P<0.001) and DFS (P<0.001) compared with those with a high preoperative ALI. CONCLUSIONS: A low preoperative ALI was significantly correlated with poor survival, and the ALI might serve as a promising marker of prognosis in early-stage NSCLC patients who received a VATS pulmonary resection as their only therapy.

A mycophenolic acid derivative from the fungus Penicillium sp. SCSIO sof101.

Mycophenolic acid (MPA) is a group of metabolite derived from several species of Penicillium, which shows potent bioactivity. In this study, a new derivative of MPA compound named penicacid D (1), was isolated from the marine derived fungus Penicillium sp. SCSIO sof101, along with seven known compounds (2-8). Their structures were elucidated based on the HR-ESI-MS and NMR data. Moreover, the 1H and 13C NMR data of compound 2 and the 13C NMR data of compound 3 are reported. Compounds 1, 4 and 6 exhibited weak activities against Escherichia coli (clinical isolation number 100385570) and Acinetobacter baumannii (clinical isolation number 100069).

Scavenger receptor class a, member 3 is associated with severity of hand, foot, and mouth disease in a case-control study.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) spreads rapidly and has been recognized as a public health problem in recent years in China. Unfortunately, there is no effective vaccine or antiviral drug currently for EV71 infection. In this study, we aim to identify biomarker which are associated with for severity of EV71 infection cases using high-throughput RNA sequencing approach.RNA sequencing of samples from severe HFMD (S) patients group (n = 10) and control HFMD (C) patients group (n = 10) were performed and the results were verified by qPCR. mRNA with the highest expression level was selected to be validated in an independent cohort comprising of 45 severe EV71 infected patients and 45 control by qPCR assay.Seventeen significant differentially expressed genes were identified. Scavenger receptor class A, member 3 (SCARA3) was one of the significantly upregulated genes with the highest expression level and was selected for validation. The mean relative expression levels in severe HFMD and control HFMD patients were 10.1-fold and 5.0-fold, respectively, P value <.001.We found that SCARA3 is associated with severity of HFMD, and it may be a potential prognostic marker to predict the HFMD progression in EV71 infected patients.

Association of blood eosinophilia and vitamin D insufficiency in young infants with cow milk allergy.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cow milk allergy is the most common food allergic disease in young infants and vitamin D has a critical role in regulating intestinal inflammation. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: To determine roles of vitamin D in cow milk allergy, fifty-six young infants with cow milk allergy were enrolled. The serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), total and specific IgE, circulating regulatory T lymphocytes, and blood eosino-phil counts were determined. RESULTS: The serum 25OHD in cow milk allergy and age-matched infants were sim-ilar (68.3±38.9 nmol/L versus 72.9±33.1 nmol/L, p>0.05), 71% Cow milk allergy infants (40/56) had serum 25OHD lower than 75 nmol/L compared to 66% (37/56) in the controls. The cow milk allergy infants with 25OHD lower than 75 nmol/L had persistent blood eosinophilia and delayed resolution of symptoms after cow milk elimination compared to those with 25OHD above 75 nmol/L (odd ratio 3.7, 95% CI 1.1-12.6, p<0.05). The serum 25OHD inversely correlated with blood eosinophil counts after cow milk elimination (r=-0.37, p<0.01). Cow milk allergy infants with 25OHD lower than 50 nmol/L (vitamin D deficiency, n = 22) were in general at younger age (1.6±0.6 months) compared to infants with insufficient (50-75 nmol/L) or normal (>=75 nmol/L) group (4.3±1.2 and 4.6±0.9 months, respectively, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Low serum vitamin D associates with persistent blood eosinophilia and symptoms in young cow milk allergy infants.

Association between preoperative red cell distribution width and prognosis in esophageal cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis / 中国胸心血管外科临床杂志

@#Objective    To explore the relation of preoperative red blood cell distribution width (RDW) with prognosis in esophageal cancer. Methods    The PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, VIP, Wanfang, CNKI and SinoMed databases were searched to identify potential studies assessing the correlation between preoperative RDW and prognosis of esophageal cancer patients from establishment of databases to February 2019. The endpoint events included the overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS) and disease-free survival (DFS). The Stata 12.0 software was applied for the meta-analysis and the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Results    A total of 10 retrospective studies involving 4 260 esophageal cancer patients from China or Japan were included. The score of Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) of the included studies was more than 6 points. The results demonstrated that elevated preoperative RDW was significantly associated with poor CSS (HR=1.50, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.99, P=0.004) and DFS (HR=1.45, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.85, P=0.002), while no significant association between preoperative RDW and OS in esophageal cancer was observed (HR=1.17, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.45, P=0.143). Subgroup analysis based on the pathology revealed that preoperative RDW had high prognostic value in esophageal squamous carcinoma (ESCC) (HR=1.37, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.77, P=0.018). Conclusion    Preoperative RDW may be an independent prognostic factor for Chinese and  Japanese esophageal cancer patients, especially for ESCC patients. However, more prospective studies with bigger sample sizes from other countries are still needed to verify our findings.

A study on the status quo and its influencing factors of depression and anxiety in postoperative patients with thoracic neoplasms / 中国胸心血管外科临床杂志

@#Objective    To investigate the status quo and influencing factors of depression and anxiety in postoperative patients with thoracic neoplasms. Methods    The general information questionnaire and Huaxi emotional-distress index scale (HEI) were adopted to survey 70 patients after surgery of thoracic neoplasms at the thoracic nursing outpatients from September to November 2016. There were 43 males and 27 females with age of 18-78 (56.20±11.34) years. Results    The prevalence rate of depression and anxiety among postoperative patients with thoracic neoplasms was 50.0%, and moderate to severe negative emotions predominated. There was significant difference in educational levels, postoperative hospitalization and postoperative complications (P<0.05), while no significant difference in age, gender, disease types, complicated diseases, surgical procedures, pathological stages and hospitalization expenditures between patients with unhealthy emotions and normal emotions (P>0.05). Conclusion    There is a high prevalence rate of negative emotion among postoperative patients with thoracic neoplasms. Educational levels, postoperative hospitalization and postoperative complications are important factors for negative emotion.

Investigation of depression and anxiety emotion in perioperative patients with thoracic neoplasms / 中国胸心血管外科临床杂志

@#Objective    To understand the status quo of depression and anxiety emotion in perioperative patients with thoracic neoplasms under the concept of enhanced recovery after surgery. Methods    Huaxi emotional-distress index scale (HEI) was adopted to investigate the mental status of 195 patients with thoracic neoplasms in Department of Thoracic Surgery, West China Hospital, and the nursing outpatients between September and November in 2016. There were 118 males and 77 females at age of 17–80 (55.72±12.66) years. Results    There was significant difference in mental health level between the preoperative patients and the postoperative patients (3.70±3.41 vs. 11.01±9.78, P<0.001). The incidence of depression and anxiety emotion in the postoperative patients was significantly higher than that in the preoperative patients (50.00% vs. 9.60%, P<0.001). Besides, there was significant difference of depression and anxiety degree between the preoperative patients and postoperative patients (P<0.001). Moderate to severe depression and anxiety were mostly found in the postoperative patients while mild to moderate depression and anxiety in the preoperative patients. Conclusion    Patients with thoracic neoplasms have much emotional obstacle in perioperative period. The incidence and severity degree of depression and anxiety emotion in postoperative patients are higher than those in preoperative patients.

[18F-Berberine Derivatives: a Potential Molecular Imaging Agent for Tumor Targeting by PET/CT Tumor].

Cancer is one of the main causes of death for human beings. Clinical oncologists increasingly rely upon imaging for diagnosis, stage, response assessment, and follow-up in cancer patient. However, 18F-FDG is not a tumor specific agent, inflammation and infection also have intensive uptake of 18F-FDG, resulting in false positive diagnosis, and some tumors have low uptake of 18F-FDG or even do not uptake 18F-FDG, leading to false negative diagnosis. So it is urgent to develop non-18F-FDG novel tumor targeting agent. Recently, a large number of researches in vitro have demonstrated that berberine has anti-tumor activity against a variety of tumor cells by inducing tumor cell apoptosis through inhibition of mitochondrial respiratory chain etc. So far, there is no credible evidence of berberine targeting in tumor in vivo. We proposed a hypothesis that berberine has the characteristics of tumor targeting biodistribution in vivo, and verified the proposal by 18F-berberine PET/CT imaging in VX2 muscle tumor-bearing rabbit model. In this review, we intend to give an overview of the progress of berberine anticancer, the structural bases of berberine anticancer and the uderlying molecular mechanisms of berberine anticancer indentified so far. We also introduce the first visualization of 18F labeled berberine derivatives targeting tumor in VX2 muscle tumor-bearing rabbit model by PET/CT. These breakthrough findings suggest that 18F-berberine derivatives as a potential PET/CT tumor targeted molecular imaging agent may have important implications for cancer targeting therapy, molecular imaging and modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

[Nuclear cardiology: the present functions and future perspectives].

For the past decade, the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) has shifted from the traditional model by evaluating coronary artery stenosis with morphological imaging methods to a novel model by focusing on the detection of ischemia for risk stratification. The myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) using stress single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has become the most commonly used stress imaging technique for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with suspected or known CAD. It has got strong supports, including those of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ACC/AHA/ASNC) and other numerous clinical guidelines. They all stressed that the SPECT MPI is recommended to be used as the "gate keeper" to coronary angiography in order to prevent unnecessary intervention test and save the cost. However, in China the introduction and application of nuclear cardiology was late and highly unbalanced. This leads to the lack of understanding of nuclear cardiology in some clinicians, and there often is misunderstanding on correct selection of coronary angiography, cardiac CT, CT coronary angiography and others for diagnosis and treatment of CAD which results in a trend of over-application of these traditional techniques. In this article, we will focus on the status of nuclear cardiology, including SPECT, positron emission tomography (PET) MPI in the patients with CAD for the diagnosis of ischemia, risk stratification and management decision-making, and also compare it with the traditional morphological imaging techniques. In addition, we will briefly introduce the recent advances in cardiac hybrid imaging and molecular imaging. The aim of this paper is to popularize the knowledge of nuclear cardiology, and promote the rational application of nuclear cardiology in China.

[Effect of traditional Chinese medicine injections on type I allergy].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate allergic reactions of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) injections, and to determine the contents of serum IgE and histamine in sensitized animal. The correlation between the preceding contents in serum and allergic reactions may be found, thus offering experimental evidences for advancing the accuracy of anticipation by type I allergy. METHOD: We carried out passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) tests,active systemic anaphylaxis (ASA) tests and anaphylactoid reactions using three TCM injections, and determined the contents of serum OVA-sIgE, total serum IgE and histamine in sensitized animals by ELISA method. RESULT: The results of PCA test were negative, and there was no significant difference for total serum IgE level between experimental group and normal saline group. In the study of adjuvant effect in TCM injections + OVA (at the dose level that doesn't cause allergic reactions), the PCA results of SHL and YXC were positive and there was a increase in content of serum OVA-sIgE, while the PCA result of QKL was negative with a unobvious increase in the content of serum OVA-sIgE. The content of total serum IgE wasn't remarkably increased in each group and the results of ASA test were all positive. Three injections all caused anaphylactoid symptoms in guinea pigs in different doses or injection speed and the response intensity was found to be dosage and injection speed dependant. Furthermore, there was no significant difference for the content of total serum IgE in each group, whereas serum histamine concentration in every experimental group was markedly higher than normal saline group. CONCLUSION: SHL and YXC increase the sensitivity of guinea pigs on OVA, and three TCM injections can cause allergic reactions in guinea pig. Allergic reactions of three TCM injections are correlated with specific IgE antibodies and histamine contents.