To investigate intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) MRI for evaluating the sensitivity of radiotherapy on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).The reproducibility between intra-observer and inter-observer was relatively good. D (0.72×10-3 mm2/s±0.14 vs. 0.54×10-3 mm2/s±0.23; P < 0.001) and D* (157.92×10-3 mm2/s±15.21 vs. 120.36×10-3 mm2/s±10.22; P < 0.0001) were significantly higher in effective group than poor-effective group, whereas the difference of f (18.79%±2.51 vs. 16.47%±1.51) and ADC (1.21×10-3 mm2/s±0.11 vs. 1.33×10-3 mm2/s±0.23) could not reach statistical significant between the 2 groups (P > 0.05).IVIM may be potentially useful in assessing the radiosensitivity of NPC. The higher D value combining with higher D* value might indicate the more radiosensitive of NPC, and increased D* might reflect increased blood vessel generation and parenchymal perfusion in NPC.Sixty consecutive patients (20 female, range, 27-83 years, mean age, 52 years) newly diagnosed NPC in the stage of T3 or T4 were enrolled. Forty-two of them were divided into effective group clinically after a standard radiotherapy according to the RECIST criteria. IVIM with 13 b-values (range, 0-800 s/mm2) and general MRI were performed at 3.0T MR scanner before and after radiotherapy. The parameters of IVIM including perfusion fraction (f), perfusion-related diffusion (D*), pure molecular diffusion (D) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were calculated. Two radiologists major in MRI diagnose analyzed all images independently and placed regions of interest (ROIs). Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to evaluate intra-observer and inter-observer agreement. And Mann-Whitney test was used to assess the differences between the two groups.
Degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DLS) is one of the common orthopedic diseases which causes low back pain in patients, which seriously affects people's daily life and work. As a method of conservative treatment of this disease, manipulation is widely used in clinical practice. We will summarize the current published evidence of manipulation in the treatment of DLS, and evaluate the effectiveness and safety of manipulation through systematic review and meta-analysis, so as to provide more reliable evidence for future clinical practice.We will conduct a comprehensive search of the following 9 databases until January 2019: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technique Journals Database, Wan Fang Database, and Chinese Biomedical Database. The 2 researchers will independently search, screen, extract data, and evaluate the quality of the literatures. The primary outcomes include clinical effectiveness, Japanese Orthopaedic Association scores, and the secondary outcomes include visual analog scale scores, symptom scores, and adverse events. Bias risk tools provided by Cochrane Collaboration will be used for literature quality assessment, and RevMan 5.3 software will be used for meta-analysis.The results of this study will systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of manipulation intervention for people with DLS, especially in improving lumbar function scores and pain scores.The systematic review of this study will summarize the current published evidence of manipulation for the treatment of DLS, which can further guide the promotion and application of it.This study does not require ethical approval and the results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.CRD42019139933.
Some epidemiologic surveillance studies have recorded adverse drug reactions to radiocontrast agents. We aimed to investigate the incidence and management of acute adverse reactions (AARs) to Ultravist-370 and Isovue-370 in patients who underwent contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) scanning.Data from 137,473 patients were analyzed. They had undergone enhanced CT scanning with intravenous injection of Ultravist-370 or Isovue-370 during the period of January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2012 in our hospital. We investigated and classified AARs according to the American College of Radiology and the Chinese Society of Radiology (CSR) guidelines for iodinated contrast media. We analyzed risk factors for AARs and compared the AARs induced by Ultravist-370 and Isovue-370.Four hundred and twenty-eight (0.31%) patients experienced AARs, which included 330 (0.24%) patients with mild AARs, 82 (0.06%) patients with moderate AARs, and 16 (0.01%) patients with severe AARs (including 3 cases of cardiac arrest and one case of death). The incidence of AARs was higher with Ultravist-370 than with Isovue-370 (0.38% vs 0.24%, P < 0.001), but only for mild AARs (0.32% vs 0.16%, P < 0.001). Analyses on risk factors indicated that female patients (n = 221, 0.43%, P < 0.001), emergency patients (n = 11, 0.51%, P < 0.001), elderly patients aged 50 to 60 years (n = 135, 0.43%, P < 0.001), and patients who underwent coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) (n = 55, 0.51%, P < 0.001) had a higher risk of AARs. Cutaneous manifestations (50.52%)-especially rash (59.74%)-were the most frequent mild AARs. Cardiovascular manifestations accounted for most moderate and severe AARs (62.91% and 48.28%, respectively). After proper management, the symptoms and signs of 96.5% of the AARs resolved within 24 hours without sequelae.Ultravist-370 and Isovue-370 are safe for patients undergoing enhanced CT scanning. The incidence of AARs is higher with Ultravist-370 than with Isovue-370, but this difference is limited only to the mild AARs. The incidence of AARs could be affected by multiple factors.
Solid stress, originating from rigid and elastic components of extracellular matrix and cells, is a typical physical hallmark of tumors. Mounting evidence indicates that elevated solid stress drives metastasis and affects prognosis. However, the molecular mechanism of how cancer cells sense solid stress, thereby exacerbating malignancy, remains elusive. In this study, our clinical data suggest that elevated stress in metastatic solid tumors is highly associated with the expression of cytoskeleton-associated protein 4 (CKAP4). Intriguingly, CKAP4, as a sensitive intracellular mechanosensor, responds specifically to solid stress in a subset of studied tumor micro-environmental elements through liquid-liquid phase separation. These micron-scaled CKAP4 puncta adhere tightly onto microtubules and dramatically reorchestrate their curvature and branching to enhance cell spreading, which, as a result, boosts cancer cell motility and facilitates distant metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, the intrinsically disordered region 1 (IDR1) of CKAP4 binds to microtubules, while IDR2 governs phase separation due to the Cav1.2-dependent calcium influx, which collectively remodels microtubules. These findings reveal an unprecedented mechanism of how cancer cells sense solid stress for cancer malignancy and bridge the gap between cancer physics and cancer cell biology.
The interactions of biological molecules compose the molecular basis of biological processes, especially the interactions of proteins. Research of protein-protein interactions is vital to understanding the essence of life, finding the mechanism of diseases and developing new drugs to improve people's health. It has achieved many valuable results researching protein-protein interactions by bioinformatics but there are also some problems to be resolved. The research work of protein interactions from the databases of protein-protein interactions, the methods of predicting protein-protein interactions, the web-servers that can supply services of predicting protein-protein interactions and the research of protein interaction networks were reviewed in this article.
Hydration with sodium bicarbonate is one of the strategies to prevent contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI). The purpose of this study was to determine how strong is the evidence for sodium bicarbonate to prevent CI-AKI after coronary angiography (CAG) and/or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We conducted PubMed, EMBASE, and CENTRAL databases to search for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the efficacy of sodium bicarbonate with sodium chloride to prevent CI-AKI after CAG and/or PCI. Relative risk (RR), standardized mean difference (SMD), or weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) was calculated. Heterogeneity, publication bias, and study quality were evaluated, sensitivity analyses, cumulative analyses, and subgroup analyses were performed. The risk of random errors was assessed by trial sequential analysis (TSA). Sixteen RCTs (3537 patients) met the eligibility criteria. Hydration with sodium bicarbonate showed significant beneficial effects in preventing CI-AKI (RR 0.67; 95% CI: 0.47–0.96, P = 0.029), decreasing the change in serum creatinine (SCr) (SMD −0.31 95% CI: −0.55 to −0.07, P = 0.011) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (SMD −0.17 95% CI: −0.30 to −0.04, P = 0.013). But no significant differences were observed in the requirement for dialysis (RR 1.11; 95% CI: 0.60–2.07, P = 0.729), mortality (RR 0.71; 95% CI: 0.41–1.21, P = 0.204) and reducing the length of hospital stay (LHS) (WMD −1.47; 95% CI: −4.14 to 1.20, P = 0.279). The result of TSA on incidence of CI-AKI showed the required information size (RIS = 6614) was not reached and cumulative z curve did not cross TSA boundary. The result of TSA on the requirement for dialysis and mortality demonstrated the required information sizes (RIS = 170,510 and 19,516, respectively) were not reached, and the cumulative z-curve did not cross any boundaries. The evidence that sodium bicarbonate reduces the incidence of CI-AKI is encouraging but more well-designed randomized controlled trails are required to allow definitive firm conclusion to be drawn.
Abstract Background With the development of experimental techniques and bioinformatics, the quantity of data available from protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is increasing exponentially. Functional modules can be identified from protein interaction networks. It follows that the investigation of functional modules will generate a better understanding of cellular organization, processes, and functions. However, experimental PPI data are still limited, and no modularity analysis of PPIs in pathogens has been published to date. Results In this study, we predict and analyze the functional modules of E. coli O157:H7 systemically by integrating several bioinformatics methods. After evaluation, most of the predicted modules are found to be biologically significant and functionally homogeneous. Six pathogenicity-related modules were discovered and analyzed, including novel modules. These modules provided new information on the pathogenicity of O157:H7. The modularity of cellular function and cooperativity between modules are also discussed. Moreover, modularity analysis of O157:H7 can provide possible candidates for biological pathway extension and clues for discovering new pathways of cross-talk. Conclusions This article provides the first modularity analysis of a pathogen and sheds new light on the study of pathogens and cellular processes. Our study also provides a strategy for applying modularity analysis to any sequenced organism.
ABSTRACT Introduction: Payment for watershed ecosystem services (PWES), a policy instrument for compensating for the externality of watershed ecosystem/environmental services, has gained in policy importance in China over the past two decades. Many scholars and researchers have contributed to the conceptualization of this policy framework by developing operational mechanisms as well as compensation standards for PWES. Outcomes: This article reviews 27 PWES schemes piloted in China and in 10 other countries, with a particular emphasis on successful cases of land-use conversion programs, such as the Paddy Land to Dry Land Program and Sloping Land Conversion Program that have been implemented in China. Discussion: By comparing different cases, the authors attempt to answer the following questions: what were the ecological and institutional contexts in which these schemes were established and how did they work? What were the actual efficiencies and impacts of these piloted schemes? Which scheme worked better in certain ecological, socio- economic, and institutional contexts? Conclusion: Based on case studies, the authors draw the following conclusions about Chinese PWES: (1) to establish an acceptable standard for a PWES program, it is necessary to estimate the economic and social costs regarding the livelihoods of households; (2) multi-stakeholder negotiation mechanism for PWES, including intermediaries, such as the local government, NGO/NPOs, village committees, and user associations, should be used; (3) ES, non-market services, should acquire positive externalities to accomplish an optimal win–win pattern concerning both environmental goals and the livelihoods of local resource users.
The interaction between proteins is one of the most important features of protein functions. In general, the protein-protein interactions (PPIs) network of an organism is very complex, consisting of huge amount of PPIs. Functional modules can be identified from the complex protein interaction networks. It follows that the investigation of functional modules will generate a better understanding of cellular organization, processes and functions. However, it is a great challenge to apply modularity analysis to under-studied organism, even though this organism has already been sequenced, as there are few or none experimental validated PPI data for them. Therefore, by integrating several bioinformatics methods, we provide a solution for modularity analysis of any sequenced organism. By this way, new information may be found for the organism in different level, such as protein-protein interaction, pathways or cellular process. For the computation part, it takes one to two weeks. The main impact factors are computer power and size of the PPI network. It takes longer time for the manually analysis of biological meanings of the modules.
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