The prophylactic and therapeutic effects of moxibustion combined with traditional Chinese medicine decoction for treating chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression in early-stage breast cancer: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history of use in breast cancer, but lacking systematic evidence to support its clinical benefits. In this study, we evaluated the prophylactic and therapeutic effects of moxibustion combined with decoctions for treating chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression (CIM) in early-stage breast cancer patients. METHODS: This is a randomized controlled clinical trial single-blinded for TCM decoction but not moxibustion. Patients are equally divided into the control group without decoction and moxibustion treatment (control), the decoction+moxibustion group (MD), and the placebo+moxibustion group (MP), according to the following stratification factors: age (below 40s, 40s, 50s, and 60s or above), chemotherapy regimen (anthracyclines, taxanes, anthracyclines+taxane, and others), and chemotherapy strategy (adjuvant and neoadjuvant). The TCM decoction is Wenshen Shengbai Decoction. The anticipated sample size is 462 cases (154 cases in each group). All participants are expected to treat with chemotherapy and recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF). The primary outcomes include the proportion of patients with relief of leukopenia and/or neutropenia, the myelosuppression-associated serious adverse event including grade 3-4 leukopenia and/or neutropenia, and febrile neutropenia, and the dose of rhG-CSF. The secondary outcomes include chemotherapy adherence, stratified analysis, adverse reactions, quality of life by EORTC Breast-Cancer-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire including EORTC QLQ-C30 (V3.0) and QLQ-BR23, TCM Constitution, and 3-year disease-free survival and overall survival. Baseline information including age, surgical approach, chemotherapy regimen and strategy, pathological stage, and molecular subtype will be recorded. DISCUSSION: This will be the first randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of moxibustion combined with TCM decoction in treating CIM in early-stage breast cancer patients, aiming to standardize the TCM decoction and moxibustion method, thus providing evidence for its clinical benefit. TRIAL REGISTRATION: chictr.org.cn ChiCTR-INR-16009557 . Registered on 23 October 2016.

HF promoted increased nitrogen doping in TiO2(B) photocatalyst.

Increased nitrogen doping in TiO2(B) with obviously enhanced visible light absorption ability was achieved via a facile pretreatment of HF followed by an annealing process in NH3. The optimized samples showed a 2.8 times photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate and 4.2 times RhB degradation rate compared with the original TiO2(B).

Monodispersed silver-palladium nanoparticles for ethanol oxidation reaction achieved by controllable electrochemical synthesis from ionic liquid microemulsions.

Alloyed nanoparticles are promising electrocatalysts for electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices. However, syntheses of alloyed nanoparticles with controllable size and stoichiometry remain challenging. In this study, continuous, uniform and monodispersed bimetallic AgPd nanoparticles (NPs) with diameters ∼10 nm are achieved by electrochemical synthesis from quaternary ionic liquid microemulsion (ILM) for use as electrocatalysts for ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). It is found that the ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl), acts not only as a soft template and co-surfactant for the formation of micro-reactors, but also as an electrolyte for enhancing conductivity. The stoichiometry (AgxPdy), size and size distribution of AgPd NPs can be accurately tuned by varying electrolyte composition, electrodeposition conditions, and ionic liquids concentrations. Attributed to the high surface area, optimal stoichiometric ratio, and strong attachment onto substrates without using organic binders, the as-deposited AgxPdy NPs exhibit extraordinary electrocatalytic activity and stability for EOR. It is found that the mass activity of Ag49Pd51 NPs/Pt electrode reaches 3360 mA mg-1 for EOR in 1.0 M ethanol and 1.0 M KOH aqueous solution, which is much higher than commercial Pd/C catalyst (210.5 mA mg-1) and also the highest among state-of-the-art AgPd NPs electrocatalysts reported to date for EOR in alkaline media.

Surface Assistant Charge Separation in PEC Cu2S-Ni/Cu2O Cathode.

Fabrication of a high efficiency photocathode is a challenging issue in photoelectrocatalysis (PEC). In this work, a Cu2S-Ni/Cu2O photocathode was constructed via electrodeposition followed by a two-step overlayer deposition procedure including direct-current magnetron sputtering (DCMS) and ion exchange reaction. We found that the presence of Ni in the inner-layer could not only affect the morphology but also enhance the formation rate of the outer-layer Cu2S. The XPS results indicate that the Ni exist as NiOx instead of Ni0. The photocurrent of Cu2S-Ni/Cu2O achieved 2 times of it on the pristine Cu2O. The charge dynamic characterizations, including electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), Tafel slopes, and photoluminescence (PL) spectra, demonstrated that the Ni can promote the hydrogen evolution reaction follow the Heyrovsky reaction, while Cu2S shows a crucial role on the surface charge separation. At last, surface photovoltage microscopy (SPVM) technology was used to reveal the function of each overlayer. It gives direct evidence for the charge transportation pathway in the system and explains the function of each component.