Background: Acupuncture has been used for many breast cancer treatment-related problems, but how long the effect lasts is unknown. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate how long the effect of ...acupuncture on breast cancer-related hot flushes and menopause symptoms lasts.
Methods: The research design followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Statement, without language restrictions. Seven databases from inception through February 2019 were accessed; only randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that examined the maintenance effect of acupuncture on hot flushes or menopause symptoms after treatment were included. Cochrane criteria were followed and RevMan 5.2 software was used to analyze trials.
Results: In total, 943 patients from 13 RCTs were analyzed. The meta-analysis showed that acupuncture had no significant long-term maintenance effect on the frequency or severity of hot flushes (p = 0.29; p = 0.34), but had a significant 3-month maintenance effect of ameliorating menopause symptoms at 3 months after treatment ended (p = 0.001). No adverse events were reported.
Conclusions: Acupuncture significantly alleviated menopause symptoms for at least 3 months, but not hot flushes. Breast cancer patients concerned about the adverse effects of hormone therapy could consider acupuncture as an alternative. Additional acupuncture at 3 months after the initial treatment course could be considered. A large-scale study may help to define the optimal guideline for this issue.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
(Thunb. ex Thunb.) Nakai, a perennial herbaceous plant that belongs to the family of Asteraceae, is widely distributed at mid-low altitude regions in Taiwan.
is commonly used as traditional herbal ...medicine for the treatment of inflammation, bronchitis, pneumonia, and diarrhea. In March 2020, disease symptoms such as shoot proliferation, phyllody, virescence, purple top, and witches' broom were observed on
at the sansheng community park in Mailiao, Yunlin County, Taiwan. Totally, eight I. chinensis plants were checked and half of them were symptomatic. These disease symptoms are similar to those associated with peanut witches' broom (PnWB) disease identified in the same area (Liu et al. 2015). Three samples mixed with leaf, stem, and flower were tested including one healthy and two symptomatic
. The total DNA of each sample was extracted and examined by nested PCR for the amplification of 16S rDNA with the phytoplasma universal primer pairs P1/P7 followed by R16F2n/R16R2 (Lee et al. 1993). A specific signal of expected size (1.2 kb) for 16S rDNA was only detected in the symptomatic
, but not in healthy
. The nucleotide sequence (accession no. MT416114) of the amplified DNA fragment using primer pairs P1/P7 from symptomatic
is identical to that of GenBank accession NZ_AMWZ01000008 (complement 31109 to 32640) of phytoplasma associated with PnWB disease (Chung et al. 2013). Analysis of the virtual RFLP pattern of MT416114 generated by iPhyClassifier revealed that the phytoplasma detected in symptomatic
belongs to a 16SrII-V subgroup. The total protein of each sample was also extracted and examined by western blotting using the polyclonal antibody raised against Imp protein of purple coneflower witches' broom phytoplasma (Chien et al. 2020), which is identical with that (accession no. ADD59806) of PnWB phytoplasma. An expected signal of 19 kDa specific for Imp was detected in symptomatic
, but not in healthy
. Subsequent PCR, DNA sequencing and western blotting assays further confirmed that the gene encoding a SAP11-like protein was only detected in symptomatic
, and shares 100% identity with that (accession no. EMR14684) of PnWB phytoplasma. Our results indicate that PnWB phytoplasma causes disease in
, a common weed, which may act as an alternative natural host and facilitate the spreading of phytoplasma disease in Taiwan.
Background and purpose
To assess the efficacy of various antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for controlling post‐stroke epilepsy.
Methods
This nationwide cohort study was conducted by using data from 2004 to ...2008 on new occurrence of post‐stroke epilepsy obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. The examined AEDs were phenytoin (PHT), valproic acid (VPA), carbamazepine (CBZ) and new AEDs. Recurrent seizures requiring either emergency room (ER) visits or hospitalization were used to measure the efficacy of seizure control. The Kaplan−Meier failure curve and Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were used to compare the risk of seizure recurrence in patients taking various AEDs.
Results
In all, 3622 late‐onset post‐stroke epilepsy patients were selected. Overall, 1.05 and 0.70 recurrent seizure incidences occurred per 100 person‐months based on ER visits 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.95–1.15 and hospitalizations (95% CI 0.62–0.78), respectively. The incidences of ER visits for patients using different AEDs were 1.26, 0.70, 0.43 and 0.38 per 100 person‐months for PHT, VPA, CBZ and new AEDs, respectively. Compared with patients using PHT, the adjusted hazard ratios for ER visits were 0.56 (95% CI 0.42–0.74; P < 0.001), 0.37 (95% CI 0.18–0.75; P = 0.006) and 0.28 (95% CI 0.15–0.52; P < 0.001) for patients using VPA, CBZ and new AEDs, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratios of hospitalizations for seizure recurrence yielded similar results.
Conclusions
This large nationwide, population‐based study demonstrated that late‐onset post‐stroke epilepsy patients using VPA and new AEDs have better seizure control than those using PHT as demonstrated by lower risks of ER visits and hospitalization.
Resveratrol, a phytochemical found in various plants and Chinese herbs, is associated with multiple tumor-suppressing activities, has been tested in clinical trials. However, the molecular mechanisms ...involved in resveratrol-mediated tumor suppressing activities are not yet completely defined. Here, we showed that treatment with resveratrol inhibited cell mobility through induction of the mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) in lung cancer cells. We also found that downregulation of FOXC2 (forkhead box C2) is critical for resveratrol-mediated suppression of tumor metastasis in an in vitro and in vivo models. We also identified a signal cascade, namely, resveratrol-∣miRNA-520h-∣PP2A/C-∣Akt → NF-κB → FOXC2, in which resveratrol inhibited the expression of FOXC2 through regulation of miRNA-520h-mediated signal cascade. This study identified a new miRNA-520h-related signal cascade involved in resveratrol-mediated tumor suppression activity and provide the clinical significances of miR-520h, PP2A/C and FOXC2 in lung cancer patients. Our results indicated a functional link between resveratrol-mediated miRNA-520h regulation and tumor suppressing ability, and provide a new insight into the role of resveratrol-induced molecular and epigenetic regulations in tumor suppression.
Impaired executive function (EF) is suggested to be one of the core features in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, little is known about whether the extent of worse EF in ASD ...than typically developing (TD) controls is age-dependent. We used age-stratified analysis to reveal this issue.
We assessed 111 youths with ASD (aged 12.5 ± 2.8 years, male 94.6%) and 114 age-, and sex-matched TD controls with Digit Span and four EF tasks of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB): Spatial Span (SSP), Spatial Working Memory (SWM), Stockings of Cambridge (SOC), and Intradimensional/Extradimensional Shift Test (I/ED).
Compared to TD controls, youths with ASD performed poorer on the Digit Span, SWM, SOC, and I/ED tasks. The performance of all the tasks improved with age for both groups. Age-stratified analyses were conducted due to significant age × group interactions in visuospatial planning (SOC) and set-shifting (I/ED) and showed that poorer performance on these two tasks in ASD than TD controls was found only in the child (aged 8-12 years) rather than the adolescent (aged 13-18 years) group. By contrast, youths with ASD had impaired working memory, regardless of age. The increased magnitude of group difference in visuospatial planning (SOC) with increased task demands differed between the two age groups but no age moderating effect on spatial working memory.
Our findings support deficits in visuospatial working memory and planning in youths with ASD; however, worse performance in set-shifting may only be demonstrated in children with ASD.
Summary
Background
Measuring fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) is a simple and non‐invasive method for assessing airway inflammation. IL‐17 plays an important role in T cell‐dependent ...inflammatory response that occurs in allergic asthma, it could act as a potent activator of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) to amplify FeNO levels.
Objectives
To evaluate the differences in the CD4+IL‐17A+ T cell counts, serum IL‐17 levels, and FeNO levels in children with mild intermittent to moderate to severe persistent asthma classified by using the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA).
Methods
One hundred and twenty asthmatic children divided into the mild intermittent (n = 42), mild persistent (n = 42), and moderate to severe persistent (n = 36) groups, and 20 healthy controls were recruited for the study. Information obtained at visits included the assessment of asthma severity according to GINA guidelines and C‐ACT, lung function parameters, FeNO levels, CD4+IL‐17A+ T cells counts from PBMCs, iNOS production by sputum cells and serum IL‐17 levels.
Results
Serum IL‐17 and FeNO levels were significantly higher in mild to severe persistent asthmatic patients than in intermittent asthmatics or healthy controls (P < 0.05). The percentage of CD4+IL‐17A+ T cells was higher in moderate to severe persistent asthmatics than in mild asthmatics (P < 0.01). Moderate to severe asthmatics (n = 5) exhibited greater iNOS production in sputum cells than mild cases (n = 5). Decreased iNOS expression in sputum cells was noted in all subjects after IL‐17 neutralizing antibody (P < 0.05). Serum IL‐17 levels were positively correlated with FeNO (rho = 0.74; P < 0.01), negatively correlated with C‐ACT (rho = −0.63; P < 0.01) in asthmatics.
Conclusion and Clinical Relevance
CD4+ IL‐17A+ T cells counts and serum IL‐17 levels in conjunction with augmented FeNO levels are systemic markers of childhood asthma, using these markers, prediction and potential therapeutics for persistent asthmatics may be developed.
Embryonic development is largely conserved among mammals. However, certain genes show divergent functions. By generating a transcriptional atlas containing >30,000 cells from post-implantation ...non-human primate embryos, we uncover that ISL1, a gene with a well-established role in cardiogenesis, controls a gene regulatory network in primate amnion. CRISPR/Cas9-targeting of ISL1 results in non-human primate embryos which do not yield viable offspring, demonstrating that ISL1 is critically required in primate embryogenesis. On a cellular level, mutant ISL1 embryos display a failure in mesoderm formation due to reduced BMP4 signaling from the amnion. Via loss of function and rescue studies in human embryonic stem cells we confirm a similar role of ISL1 in human in vitro derived amnion. This study highlights the importance of the amnion as a signaling center during primate mesoderm formation and demonstrates the potential of in vitro primate model systems to dissect the genetics of early human embryonic development.
Summary
Background
Limited data are available on the efficacy and safety of antiviral therapy in geriatric patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.
Aim
To evaluate the efficacy and ...safety of pegylated interferon (pegIFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) therapy in geriatric HCV‐infected patients.
Methods
Ninety‐one geriatric patients (age ≥65 years; the elderly group) with HCV infection and 91 gender‐ and HCV genotype‐matched middle‐aged patients (age 50–64 years; the younger group) were assigned to receive weekly pegIFN injection plus weight‐based oral RBV for 24 weeks. The on‐ and off‐treatment virological responses were evaluated for treatment efficacy.
Results
In intention‐to‐treat analysis, the sustained virological response (SVR) rate was substantially decreased in the elderly patients (elderly group vs. younger group, 40.7% vs. 61.5%, respectively; P = 0.005). The SVR rate was significantly lower in geriatric patients than in middle‐aged patients with HCV genotype non‐1 (54.3% vs. 82.9%; P = 0.01), but the difference was not significant with HCV genotype 1 (32.1% vs. 48.2%; P = 0.083). Furthermore, the older patients infected with HCV genotype non‐1 who achieved a rapid virological response had a similar SVR rate to that of the younger patients. The withdrawal rate was 13.2% in the elderly group and 7.7% in the younger group.
Conclusions
Compared with middle‐aged patients, the therapeutic efficacy of pegylated interferon plus ribavirin therapy is lower in hepatitis C virus‐infected geriatric patients with an acceptable withdrawal rate. Considering prolonged lifespan in geriatric patients, we recommend treating geriatric hepatitis C virus‐infected patients who have significant hepatic fibrosis and no other health problems.
Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 240 loci that are associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D)
; however, most of these loci have been identified in ...analyses of individuals with European ancestry. Here, to examine T2D risk in East Asian individuals, we carried out a meta-analysis of GWAS data from 77,418 individuals with T2D and 356,122 healthy control individuals. In the main analysis, we identified 301 distinct association signals at 183 loci, and across T2D association models with and without consideration of body mass index and sex, we identified 61 loci that are newly implicated in predisposition to T2D. Common variants associated with T2D in both East Asian and European populations exhibited strongly correlated effect sizes. Previously undescribed associations include signals in or near GDAP1, PTF1A, SIX3, ALDH2, a microRNA cluster, and genes that affect the differentiation of muscle and adipose cells
. At another locus, expression quantitative trait loci at two overlapping T2D signals affect two genes-NKX6-3 and ANK1-in different tissues
. Association studies in diverse populations identify additional loci and elucidate disease-associated genes, biology, and pathways.
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