Science Progress最新文献

The incidence of cancer is increasing and evolving as a major source of mortality. Nanotechnology has garnered considerable scientific interest in recent decades and can offer a promising solution to the challenges encountered with traditional chemotherapy. Nanoparticle utilization holds promise in combating cancer and other diseases, offering exciting prospects for drug delivery systems and medicinal applications. Metallic nanoparticles exhibit remarkable physical and chemical properties, such as their minute size, chemical composition, structure, and extensive surface area, rendering them versatile and cost-effective. Research has demonstrated their significant and beneficial impact on cancer treatment, characterized by enhanced targeting abilities, gene activity suppression, and improved drug delivery efficiency. By incorporating targeting ligands, functionalized metal nanoparticles ensure precise energy deposition within tumors, thereby augmenting treatment accuracy. Moreover, beyond their therapeutic efficacy, metal nanoparticles serve as valuable tools for cancer cell visualization, contributing to diagnostic techniques. Utilizing metal nanoparticles in therapeutic systems allows for simultaneous cancer diagnosis and treatment, while also facilitating controlled drug release, thus revolutionizing cancer care. This narrative review investigates the advancements of metal nanoparticles in cancer treatment, types and mechanisms in targeting cancer cells, application in clinical scenarios, and potential toxicity in medicine.

Introduction: Endothelial dysfunction is an early precursor of atherosclerosis and is common in patients with psoriasis, presumably primarily due to psoriasis-related inflammation. We investigated endothelial function, arterial stiffness, and circulating markers of endothelial activation in young patients with psoriasis vulgaris of varying severity, all of whom were effectively treated achieving PASI 90.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 80 patients (54 men/26 women, 30-45 years) who were effectively treated with topical therapy, methotrexate, adalimumab, secukinumab or guselkumab, and 20 healthy controls. Endothelial dysfunction was measured by flow-mediated dilation and arterial stiffness was measured by pulse wave velocity and common carotid artery stiffness. The following circulating biomarkers of endothelial activation were measured: ICAM-1, VCAM-1, E- and P-selectin, GDF-15, and TRAIL.

Results: Endothelial function and arterial stiffness parameters did not differ between patients with effectively treated psoriasis and the control group. Circulating endothelial activation biomarkers did not show relevant differences between the groups of effectively treated patients or controls.

Discussion: Although cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with psoriasis, effective antipsoriatic treatment appears to slow the progression of atherosclerosis, even when there are cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking or obesity. This may suggest that antipsoriatic treatment exerts a cardioprotective effect.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that early and effective treatment of varying-severity psoriasis vulgaris in young patients appears to prevent arterial dysfunction related to psoriasis and consequent cardiovascular risk.The study is registered at http://clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT05957120).

Objectives: The frozen elephant trunk (FET) technique is effective for treating extended aortic arch aneurysms. This study compares hand-made and factory-made devices in this context.

Methods: A retrospective case-control study was conducted on 68 patients who underwent FET for distal aortic arch aneurysm at our institution. We used two different types of devices: hand-made stent graft in group Z (17 cases, 25.0%) and a commercialized stent graft in group J (51 cases, 75.0%). The study compared demographic characteristics and the outcomes between the two groups.

Results: In-hospital mortality was equivalent in both groups (5.9%). Spinal cord injury rates were 5.9% in group Z and 3.9% in group J. Group Z had a higher rate of aortic events (55.9% vs 96.9%, p < 0.001) and more frequent stent migration. The number of cases with aneurysm diameter shrinkage was lower in group Z. The landing zone angle at insertion influenced aneurysm changes, being 17.6 degrees in shrink cases and 26.7 degrees in unchanged or enlarged cases (p = 0.045).

Conclusions: FROZENIX device notably reduced incidences of postoperative complications compared to hand-made prostheses. Factors such as insertion angle and stent size, rather than changes in the landing zone angle, appeared to influence aneurysm shrinkage. The use of FROZENIX in TARFET procedures has shown benefits in reducing complications and improving long-term prognosis, taking into account the landing zone angle.

Background: This study investigated the correlation between admission partial pressure of arterial oxygen (PaO₂) levels and both in-hospital mortality and 1-year all-cause mortality among patients diagnosed with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pneumonia.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients with COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to the First Hospital of Jinzhou Medical University. Restricted cubic spline regression and logistic regression analyses were employed to assess the relation between PaO₂ levels and the risk of in-hospital mortality and all-cause mortality within 1 year. Subgroup analyses were performed, stratified by age, sex, presence of cardiac disease, diabetes, hypertension, whether supplemental oxygen was provided during arterial blood gas analysis, and severity of pneumonia.

Results: The study included 737 participants with in-hospital and 1-year all-cause mortality rates of 15.7% and 26.7%, respectively. Restricted cubic spline analysis revealed an L-shaped association between admission PaO₂ levels and in-hospital mortality (P nonlinear <0.001) and a U-shaped relation with 1-year all-cause mortality (P nonlinear <0.001), with a nadir risk of 82 mmHg. Threshold analyses indicated an odds ratio of 0.931 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.91-0.952) for in-hospital mortality and 0.951 (95% CI: 0.933-0.969) for 1-year all-cause mortality when PaO₂ was <82 mmHg. Conversely, when PaO₂ was ≥82 mmHg, the odds ratio for in-hospital mortality was 1.022 (95% CI: 0.991-1.055), and for 1-year all-cause mortality was 1.029 (95% CI: 1.004-1.054).

Conclusions: This study revealed a nonlinear relation between PaO₂ levels at admission and both in-hospital mortality and 1-year all-cause mortality in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, with a notable inflection point observed at approximately 82 mmHg.

Rectal Schwannomas are exceptionally uncommon tumors that arise from the peripheral nerve plexus. These neoplasms are incidentally discovered as submucosal tumor-like lesions during routine colonoscopy in individuals without symptoms. Surgical resection accompanied by biopsy is considered the standard approach for diagnosis and treatment. We describe here the first successful utilization of submucosal tunneling endoscopic resection (STER) technique for removal of a rare rectal Schwannoma. A 59-year-old asymptomatic female was found to have a 15 × 12 mm submucosal tumor during colonoscopy. Submucosal tunneling endoscopic resection achieved en bloc resection and pathology confirmed Schwannoma. The patient was discharged uneventfully with no adverse events. This study highlights the efficacy and safety of STER for removing rare rectal Schwannomas.

Due to the exceptional detection capabilities, the forward-looking sonar could be adopted in simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUVs). This paper primarily investigates the application of the factor graph optimization SLAM algorithm based on feature maps in AUV. It achieves this by combining the smallest of constant false alarm rate (SO-CFAR) and adaptive threshold (ADT) to filter noise from the forward-looking sonar and extract feature point clouds. Furthermore, a weighted iterative closest point (WICP) algorithm is employed for feature point registration, which is extracted from the sonar image. The experimental result based on field data demonstrates that the proposed method, with an 8.52% improvement in root mean square error (RMSE) compared with dead reckoning (DR).

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to verify the diagnostic performance of an AI system for the automatic detection of teeth, caries, implants, restorations, and fixed prosthesis on panoramic radiography.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. A dataset comprising 1000 panoramic radiographs collected from 500 adult patients was analyzed by an AI system and compared with annotations provided by two oral and maxillofacial radiologists.

Results: A strong correlation (R > 0.5) was observed between AI perception and observers 1 and 2 in carious teeth (0.691-0.878), implants (0.770-0.952), restored teeth (0.773-0.834), teeth with fixed prostheses (0.972-0.980), and missing teeth (0.956-0.988).

Discussion: Panoramic radiographs are commonly used for diagnosis and treatment planning. However, they often suffer from artifacts, distortions, and superimpositions, leading to potential misinterpretations. Thus, an automated detection system is required to tackle these challenges. Artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized various fields, including dentistry, by enabling the development of intelligent systems that can assist in complex tasks such as diagnosis and treatment planning.

Conclusion: The automatic detection by the AI system was comparable to oral radiologists and may be useful for automatic identifications in panoramic radiographs. These findings signify the potential for AI systems to enhance diagnostic accuracy and efficiency in dental practices, potentially reducing the likelihood of diagnostic errors caused by unexperienced professionals.

Tumor abnormal protein (TAP) test also called abnormal glycoprotein chain test assesses the level of abnormal glycosylation in the body by measuring the agglutination of 10 different agglutinins, including wheat germ agglutinin, cuttle bean agglutinin, and so on. The lectins are proteins containing one or more binding sites with a strong affinity for particular carbohydrate chains that can specifically identify and bind to abnormal glycan molecules on malignant cells. It has been widely used clinically in recent years for the early diagnosis of tumourigenesis. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the mechanisms by which lectins bind to a set of glycans. As the incidence of head and neck cancer is high, with squamous cell carcinoma being the most common type. The lack of highly specific and sensitive tests makes early screening difficult, and treatment is often delayed, resulting in organ loss or even death, and often has a negative psychological impact. This narrative review will analyze the principle and current status of clinical application of TAP detection to prove TAP test will offer more sensitive methods for the precancerous risk assessment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, as well as for tracking metastases and recurrence.

Objectives: To investigate the characteristics of outpatients in the pediatric otolaryngology department of a tertiary Japanese hospital before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: In this retrospective study conducted at a tertiary center in Japan, pediatric patients aged 0-15 years who visited the pediatric otolaryngology department between 2017 and 2022 were included. The number of outpatients in the department was compared between before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2017-December 2022) by year, age, sex, and the disease for which the patient was examined. Additionally, the diseases that most substantially contributed to the change in outpatient visits were evaluated in detail regarding their severity.

Results: Among a total of 9219 outpatients, there were no significant differences between 2017-2019 and 2020-2022 (4650 vs. 4569). In contrast, the number of new outpatients decreased by 27.5% (from 1242 to 900) in each of the three years during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the number of patients aged 1-6 years decreased as did that of male patients. Of eight disease categories, oral cavity- and pharyngeal- related diseases decreased the most significantly, by approximately 50%, and the decrease in the number of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is thought to have had an impact on the decrease in the number of patients. Furthermore, in cases in which polysomnography testing was performed for OSA, the proportion of patients with moderate and severe categories showed a significant decrease.

Conclusions: The number of new pediatric ORL patients, particularly those with severe OSA, reduced during the COVID 19 pandemic. These results may provide indications about the characteristics of OSA incidence and exacerbations.

In the context of the digital economy era, it is urgent for Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to engage in social value cocreation activities. The government and consumers' roles in SOEs' social value cocreation system cannot be ignored. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the tripartite social value cocreation model involving the government, SOEs, and consumers. In this respect, this study constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model of the government, SOEs, and consumers, and explores the influencing factors and evolutionary mechanism of the system overall. Matlab software is used to analyze the simulation data. The results reveal that the prerequisite for SOEs' successful social value cocreation is that consumers receive additional social value benefits greater than the level of improvement in social welfare. The allocation coefficient of consumers' additional social value benefits, the degree of the government's digital empowerment subsidy, and the level of the punishment for SOEs that violate the government's cocreation requirements will accelerate the achievement of equilibrium in the social value cocreation system, without affecting the final equilibrium result. By analyzing the strategic choices and interactive relationships among the government, SOEs, and consumers in social value cocreation in-depth, this study offers suggestions to promote the government, SOEs, and consumers' participation in social value cocreation. This research contributes to clarifying SOEs' social value cocreation model and has significant implications for promoting enterprises' high-quality development.