Asian Biomedicine最新文献

Background: Retroperitoneal sarcoma (RPS) is rare and difficult to treat with a high recurrent rate. Very little data regarding primary RPS exists in Thailand.

Objectives: To study the outcome of treatment of primary RPS at a tertiary University Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

Methods: All patients who had RPS undergoing the first surgical resection at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital from June 2003 to December 2019 were retrospectively enrolled in the study. Perioperative management, results of treatment, postoperative complications, and outcome were analyzed.

Results: Thirty-eight patients entered the study. Large abdominal mass was the most common presentation (90%). Liposarcoma was the most common histology (58%). Twenty patients (53%) had preoperative core needle biopsy and 21 (55%) underwent preoperative radiotherapy (RT). The tumor size ranged from 3 cm to 48 cm (median 22 cm). Five patients (13%) had total mass removal only while 33 (87%) had complete gross resection with ≥1 visceral organ resection. Surgical margins classified as R0, R1, and R2 were 61%, 34%, and 5%, respectively. Five patients (16%) had postoperative complications. There was no 30-day postoperative mortality. The local recurrence rate was 34%. Survival analysis revealed a 5-year overall survival rate of 37% and 5-year disease-free survival rate of 29%. The 5-year and 10-year recurrent rates were 71% and 95%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that preoperative radiation was the only factor reducing recurrence (19% vs. 53%, OR: 0.21, P = 0.011).

Conclusion: The preliminary study of outcome of the treatment of primary RPS at our institution showed a fair prognosis of this rare malignancy despite our aggressive surgical approaches. Preoperative radiation may help reduce recurrence in selected primary RPS patients.

Background: The health benefits of coixol, an active compound of adlay seed, have attracted certain attention. Adlay seed is often adopted in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of various inflammatory disorders. Thus, it is hypothesized that coixol could protect neuronal cells.

Objectives: The preventive effects of coixol against Abeta_25-35-induced damage in nerve growth factor-differentiated PC12 cells were explored.

Methods: Differentiated PC12 cells were treated with coixol at 0.125 μM, 0.25 μM, 0.5 μM, 1 μM, and 2 μM for 48 h. Then, cells were further exposed to Abeta_25-35 at 20 μM for 24 h.

Results: Coixol treatments at 0.25-2 μM exhibited antiapoptotic effect via increasing Bcl-2 mRNA expression, mitochondrial membrane potential, and Na⁺-K⁺ ATPase activity as well as decreasing Bax mRNA expression, caspase-3 activity, and intracellular Ca²⁺ release. In addition, coixol treatments at 0.25-2 μM alleviated oxidative and inflammatory responses via lowering reactive oxygen species level, increasing glutathione content, promoting the activity of glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and catalase, decreasing the generation of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and prostaglandin E₂. Furthermore, coixol treatments at 0.25-2 μM diminished intracellular Ca²⁺ release, and restricted nuclear factor kappa B-binding activity and phosphorylation of p65 and p38. Coixol treatments at 0.5-2 μM increased protein generation of nuclear factor E2-related factor 2, and limited protein production of inducible nitric oxide synthase and receptor of advanced glycation end product.

Conclusion: Our novel findings suggested that coixol was a compelling agent against beta-amyloid peptide-induced neurotoxicity.

Background: Depression is one of the most common mental disorders. Although depression is typically diagnosed by identifying specific symptoms and through history, no recognized standard for depression diagnosis exists. This assures the development of objective diagnostic tools for depression.

Objectives: We investigated the differences in the resting-state electroencephalograms (EEGs) of patients with depression and healthy controls (HCs) to distinguish patients from HCs by using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier with the following two feature selection approaches: t test and receiver operating characteristic analysis.

Methods: We used the EEG data from the Patient Repository of EEG Data + Computational Tools; this study included 21 patients with depressive disorder (MDD) and 21 HCs. The relative frequency power, alpha interhemispheric asymmetry, left-right coherence, strength, clustering coefficient (CC), shortest path length, sample entropy (SampEn), multiscale entropy (MSE), and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) data were extracted to determine candidate EEG features associated with depression.

Results: With the t-test selection, the SVM classifier demonstrated the highest performance with the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 96.66%, 95.93%, and 97.550% for the eye-open condition and 91.33%, 90.59%, and 91.81% for the eye-closed condition, respectively. For comparisons of features in the 2 selection approaches, the most influential features were relative frequency power and left-right coherence.

Conclusion: Using this information to distinguish patients with MDD from HC subjects with the SVM classifier resulted in a mean accuracy over 90%. Although this result may not be robust enough for clinical applications, further exploration is necessary given the simplicity, objectivity, and efficiency of the classifier.

Background: Thailand has the world's highest prevalence of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), especially in the endemic area of liver fluke Opisthorchis viverrini infection. However, other regions of Thailand still have relatively high CCA prevalence.

Objectives: We aimed to determine CCA risk factors in areas not endemic for OV infection.

Methods: A case--control study was performed at a referral center during December 2016-December 2017. We collected blood samples and information from CCA patients and identified them as cases. The control group comprised patients who visited a gastrointestinal clinic for colorectal cancer screening colonoscopy. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine risk factors for CCA.

Results: Of 138 participants, O. viverrini infection rate was higher in the case than in the control group (57.1% vs. 36.1%, P = 0.023). Male, O. viverrini infection, smoking, alcohol consumption, and biliary tract diseases were independent risk factors, whereas diabetes, obesity, and cirrhosis were not associated with CCA. By age and sex-adjusted analysis, chronic biliary tract diseases, especially choledochal cysts and smoking, were risk factors for CCA, with adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 12.7 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.4-116.9) and 3.8 (95% CI: 1.3-11.8), respectively, while O. viverrini infection became insignificant risk for CCA (aOR 1.8, 95% CI: 0.8-4.1).

Conclusions: In contrast with endemic areas for O. viverrini infection, chronic biliary tract diseases and smoking are major risk factors, whereas O. viverrini infection has trivial contribution to the development of CCA.

Stroke represents a significant global health issue, primarily in the form of ischemic stroke. Despite the availability of therapeutic interventions, the recovery from chronic stroke, occurring 3 months post-initial stroke, poses substantial challenges. A promising avenue for post-acute stroke patients is mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) therapy, which is derived from various sources and is globally recognized as the most utilized and extensively studied stem cell therapy. This systematic review, adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, aims to synthesize evidence regarding the impact of MSCs therapy on patients with chronic ischemic stroke. Employing an advanced search strategy across databases such as PubMed, PubMed Central, Google Scholar, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and ClinicalTrial.gov, a total of 70 studies were identified, with 4studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Although positive outcomes were observed in terms of efficacy and safety, certain limitations, such as small sample sizes, study heterogeneity, and the absence of placebo groups, undermine the overall strength of the evidence. It is crucial to address these limitations in future research, highlighting the importance of larger sample sizes, standardized methodologies, and comparative trials to improve the assessment of MSCs' efficacy and safety. Moving forward, key priorities include exploring underlying mechanisms, determining optimal administration modes and dosages, and conducting comparative trials. By addressing these aspects, we can propel MSCs therapies toward greater efficacy, safety, and applicability across diverse patient populations.

Background: BCa is the most common cancer of the urinary system. TPH1 has been reported to be associated with distinct tumorigenesis. However, the role of TPH1 in BCa remains to be clarified.

Objectives: Our aim is to demonstrate the molecular mechanism of TPH1 in BCa carcinogenesis and development.

Methods: In research, we explored the effect of TPH1 on T24 cells. Colony formation, soft agar, and cell proliferation assays were used to determine the survival and proliferative capacity of cells. Moreover, TPH1^-/- cell lines were analyzed using CRISP-CAS9, and the recovery experiment was conducted. Realtime fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR) and Western blot were used to detect HIF-1α mRNA levels and TPH1 protein.

Results: The TPH1 expression is lower in tumor tissues than in normal tissues. Colony formation, soft agar, and cell proliferation assays revealed that the overexpression of TPH1 declined cells survival. Moreover, the deficiency of TPH1 increased the number of clones. These results suggested that survival rate of TPH1 overexpression was repressed in cells. In addition, we found that HIF-1α activity was significantly downregulated with an increase in TPH1. The transcriptional activity of survivin was increased with TPH1^-/- cells. Then, the proliferative ability of TPH1^-/- cells was almost similar to the wild type levels with the treatment of LW6, TPH1 might play a major role to repress HIF-1α activity.

Conclusions: Taken together, these results suggested that increasing TPH1 activity could inhibit survival and proliferation of cells via HIF-1α pathway. TPH1 may be a potential target for human BCa therapy.

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 virus produces severe acute respiratory syndrome. The severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection is determined by a number of factors, including inherited ones.

Objectives: Our goal is to investigate the link between ACE2 G8790A (rs2285666) and AT2R A1675G (rs14035430) gene polymorphisms in COVID-19 patients with and without lung involvement.

Methods: A total of 160 COVID-19 patients were divided into 2 groups based on their clinical symptoms: those without lung involvement (control group) and those with lung involvement (infected group). The ACE2 G8790A and AT2R A1675G gene polymorphisms were analyzed using the PCR-RFLP methods.

Results: The GG genotype, G allele of ACE2 G8790A, and GG genotype of AT2R A1675G were significantly higher in the control group and had a protective effect against COVID-19 as well as decreased the development of lung involvement (OR = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.10-0.84; OR = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.22-0.72; and OR = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.14-0.78, respectively). Moreover, we found that the AA genotype, A allele of ACE2 G8790A, and AG genotype of AT2R A1675G increased the risk of COVID-19 in the infected group (OR = 3.50, 95% CI = 1.18-10.3; OR = 2.49, 95% CI = 1.39-4.48; and OR = 3.08, 95% CI = 1.28-7.38, respectively).

Conclusions: These results revealed that a greater frequency of COVID-19 lung involvement in the Turkish population was connected with the AA genotype, the A allele of ACE2 G8790A, and the AG genotype of AT2R A1675G.

Background: The prognosis for relapsed or refractory childhood cancer is approximately 20%. Genetic alterations are one of the significant contributing factors to the prognosis of patients.

Objective: To investigate the molecular profile of relapsed or refractory childhood cancers in Thai cases.

Methods: The study design is a descriptive study of patients <18 years old, suspected or diagnosed of relapsed or refractory childhood cancer who underwent whole exome sequencing (WES).

Results: WES was successfully performed in both the tumor and the blood or saliva samples obtained from 4 unrelated patients. Six different variants were identified in the NCOR2, COL6A3, TP53, and SMAD4 genes. These alterations were found to be associated with tumor aggressiveness.

Conclusion: This study is the first one to demonstrate genetic alterations by using WES in relapsed or refractory childhood cancer in Thai cases.

Background: Data about prediction of left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD)/three-vessel disease (TVD) in patients with chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) are lacking.

Objectives: This study aimed to develop a model for predicting patients at risk of LMCAD/TVD.

Methods: This study used retrospective data from patients with CCS scheduled for invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and who were retrospectively recruited between January 2018 and December 2020. Predictors were obtained and analyzed by using logistic regression analysis, and generated the prediction score. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated. The cut-off value and area under the curve (AUC) were analyzed by using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

Results: We recruited 162 patients with CCS. There were 75 patients in the non-LMCAD/TVD and 87 patients in the LMCAD/TVD groups. After the multivariate analysis, new onset of heart failure (HF) or left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) and suspected CAD, ST elevation (STE) in aVR, STE in V₁ and lateral ST depression (STD) were associated with increased risk of LMCAD/TVD. Based on these 4 predictors, the prediction score was created. The cut-off value of the prediction score by using ROC curve analysis was 3.0. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 71.26%, 86.67%, 86.11%, and 72.22%, respectively, with an AUC of 0.855.

Conclusions: The CCS patients with new onset of HF or LVSD and suspected CAD, STE in aVR, and STE in V₁ and lateral STD were associated with increased risk of LMCAD/TVD. The novel prediction score could predict LMCAD/TVD in those patients with acceptable sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV.