Hope and depression: the mediating role of social support and spiritual coping in advanced cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Depression is the most common mental disorder in patients with advanced cancer, which may lead to poor prognosis and low survival rate. This study aims to explore the serial multiple mediating roles of social support and spiritual coping between hope and depression among patients with advanced cancer. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in China between May and August 2020. A total of 442 advanced cancer patients were investigated by the following self-reported questionnaires: Herth Hope Index (HHI), Spiritual Coping Questionnaire (SCQ, Chinese version), Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). RESULTS: Depression was negatively correlated with hope, social support, and positive spiritual coping (P < 0.01), and positively correlated with negative spiritual coping (P < 0.01). Hope explained 16.0% of the variance in depression. Bootstrap analyses of the hope--social support--positive spiritual coping--depression showed that there were direct [B = -0.220, 95%CI(- 0.354, - 0.072)] and indirect effects of hope on depression mediated solely by social support [B = -0.122, 95%CI(- 0.200, - 0.066)] and positive spiritual coping [B = -0.112, 95%CI(- 0.217,-0.025)], or by both together [B = -0.014, 95%CI(- 0.038,-0.003)]. Similarly, the hope--social support--negative spiritual coping--depression showed that there were direct [B = -0.302, 95%CI(- 0.404, - 0.190)] and indirect effects of hope on depression mediated solely by social support [B = -0.126, 95%CI(- 0.205, - 0.071)] and negative spiritual coping [B = -0.033, 95%CI(- 0.080,-0.002)], or by both together [B = -0.010, 95%CI(- 0.030,-0.001)]. CONCLUSIONS: This study proves the hypothesis that social support and spiritual coping play intermediary roles between hope and depression. Interventions established through hope, social support and spiritual coping can effectively prevent depression from occurring.

Detection of sialic acid using boronic-acid-functionalized metal organic framework UiO-66-NH2@B(OH)2.

Sialic acid (SA) is a crucial component of glycoproteins and glycolipids on the cellular membrane, which is essential for maintaining the function of cell membranes, such as cell recognition and communication. Simultaneously, sialic acid plays a significant role in many physiological and pathological processes. Hence, it is urgent to develop a simple and sensitive strategy for determining sialic acid. In this work, a new metal-organic framework called UiO-66-NH2@B(OH)2 has been designed and synthesized for the recognition and detection of sialic acid. The boronic acid functional group in UiO-66-NH2@B(OH)2 can bind to a diol moiety of the glycerol side chain of sialic acid, which will attenuate or even quench the fluorescence of UiO-66-NH2@B(OH)2, thus opening a new road to detect sialic acid. Based on the measurement results, sialic acid can be quantitatively measured in a linear range of 0.05-2.5 mmoL/L with the UiO-66-NH2@B(OH)2 probe. The detection limit of sialic acid is as low as 0.025 mmol/L. Furthermore, the boronic-acid functionalized probe UiO-66-NH2@B(OH)2 displays high sensitivity and high selectivity to recognize the sialic acid in mouse serum samples. Therefore, the developed UiO-66-NH2@B(OH)2 can be used as a promising probe to identify and detect sialic acid in the practical application.

Functionalized Metal-Organic Framework UiO-66-NH-BQB for Selective Detection of Hydrogen Sulfide and Cysteine.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an important signaling molecule related to many diseases. Thus, H2S has a great impact on the pathological and physiological processes in biological systems. Cysteine (l-Cys) is a building block for proteins and important metabolites. To understand their roles in the physiological metabolic procedures, the measurement of the H2S level and identifying cysteine in the biological system is significant. In this study, through the functionalization of UiO-66-NH2 by 4-(2,2-dicyanoethenyl)benzoic acid (BQB), a novel UiO-66-NH-BQB is successfully synthesized and used as a fluorescence probe to recognize and detect H2S and l-Cys. The fluorescence signals of the probe are enhanced great when it is exposed to H2S or cysteine molecules; thus, it is able to determine quantificationally the H2S concentration in an aqueous solution. The detection limitation of the UiO-66-NH-BQB to H2S concentration is found to be as low as 1.74 µM. The developed fluorescent probe based on UiO-66-NH-BQB displays a high selectivity and excellent biocompatibility, which is very promising for recognition and sensing of biothiols in organisms.

Structural characterization and immuno-enhancing activity of a highly branched water-soluble ß-glucan from the spores of Ganoderma lucidum.

A water soluble ß-glucan (GLSWA-I) with a weight average molecular weight ∼1.57×105g/mol, isolated from the aqueous extract of the broken cellular wall Ganoderma lucidum spores, was purified by anion-exchange and gel-permeation chromatography. The immunological activity test in vivo showed that GLSWA-I could significantly promote dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) induced delayed-type ear swelling in mice. Based on the monosaccharides composition analysis, methylation analysis, IR, 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, the repeating unit of polysaccharide GLSWA-I was elucidated as follows.