This report outlines a highly sensitive and facile electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensing platform based on a novel high-quantum-yield Au-nanocluster (AuNC) probe for glutathione (GSH) detection. ...Owing to the prominent quenching effect of GSH on the ECL of the AuNCs, the proposed ECL nanosensor showed a wide response to GSH in the ranges of 1.0 × 10-9–1.0 × 10-5M and 1.0 × 10-5–1.0 × 10-1M and a low detection limit of 3.2 × 10-10M. In addition, the proposed system exhibited good selectivity for GSH in the presence of other chemical/biological interferences. Moreover, since no further functionalization of AuNC-based sensor interface was necessary, together with the stability, high sensitivity and selectivity of the proposed nanosensor, this convenient approach was able to successfully detect GSH in both of human urine samples and blood samples with excellent recoveries, which indicated its promising application under physiological conditions. Of significant importance is that this study not only helps in gaining a better understanding of the applicability of the ECL properties of AuNCs, but also provides a new avenue for the design and development of ECL sensors based on the novel high-quantum-yield AuNC-based probe and other functional-metal-based NC probes.
•Facile ECL sensing platform based on high-quantum-yield AuNC probe.•A high performance ECL method for glutathione determination.•Detection of glutathione in human urine samples.•This sensing platform can be adapted to measure other physiologically important compounds.•A new avenue for design and development of other functional-metal NC probe-based ECL sensors.
Betulinic acid (BA) is a lupane‐type pentacyclic triterpene, distributed ubiquitously throughout the plant kingdom. BA and its derivatives demonstrate multiple bioactivities, particularly an ...antitumor effect. This review critically describes the recent research on isolation, synthesis, and derivatization of BA and its natural analogs betulin and 23‐hydroxybetulinic acid. The subsequent part of the review focuses on the current knowledge of antitumor properties, combination treatments, and pharmacological mechanisms of these compounds. A 3D‐QSAR analysis of 62 BA derivatives against human ovarian cancer A2780 is also included to provide information concerning the structure–cytotoxicity relationships of these compounds.
Background
Psychological issue is the most common co-morbidity of women with breast cancer (BC) after receiving treatment. Effective coping with this problem is significant importance. The aim of ...this meta-analysis is to evaluate the benefits of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on psychological distress among breast cancer survivors.
Methods
PUBMED, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were systematically searched from their inception to June 30, 2014. Two reviewers independently reviewed and extracted the data. The primary outcomes of interest were psychological domains. Review Manager 5.3 was used to pool collected data.
Results
Nine articles involving 964 participants were identified. Compared with those in control group, patients in MBSR group have a significant improvement on psychological domains: depression mean difference (MD), 5.09; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 3.63–6.55;
P
< 0.00001, anxiety (MD, 2.79; 95 % CI, 1.62–3.96;
P
< 0.00001), stress (MD, 4.10; 95 % CI, 2.46–5.74;
P
< 0.00001). MBSR can also improve the overall quality of life (QOL) (MD, −1.16; 95 % CI, −2.21 to −0.12;
P
= 0.03).
Conclusions
On the basis of our findings, MBSR shows a positive effect on psychological function and QOL of breast cancer survivors. This approach can be recommended to breast cancer patients as a part of their rehabilitation.
The in-situ health condition of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) reinforced structures has become an important topic, which can reflect the structural performance of the retrofitted structures ...and judge the design theory. An optical fiber-based structural health monitoring technique is thus suggested. To check the effectiveness of the proposed method, experimental testing on smart CFRP reinforced steel beams under impact action has been performed, and the dynamic response of the structure has been measured by the packaged FBG sensors attached to the surface of the beam and the FBG sensors inserted in the CFRP plates. Time and frequency domain analysis has been conducted to check the structural feature of the structures and the performance of the installed sensors. Results indicate that the packaged Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors show better sensing performance than the bare FBG sensors in perceiving the impact response of the beam. The sensors embedded in the CFRP plate show good measurement accuracy in sensing the external excitation and can replace the surface-attached FBG sensors. The dynamic performance of the reinforced structures subjected to the impact action can be straightforwardly read from the signals of FBG sensors. The larger impact energies bring about stronger impact signals.
Silicosis is a global occupational disease characterized by lung dysfunction, pulmonary inflammation, and fibrosis, for which there is a lack of effective drugs. Pirfenidone has been shown to exert ...anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic properties in the lung. However, whether and how pirfenidone is effective against silicosis remains unknown. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of pirfenidone in the treatment of early and advanced silicosis in an experimental mouse model and explored its potential pharmacological mechanisms. We found that pirfenidone alleviated silica-induced lung dysfunction, secretion of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6) and deposition of fibrotic proteins (collagen I and fibronectin) in both early and advanced silicosis models. Moreover, we observed that both 100 and 200 mg/kg pirfenidone can effectively treat early-stage silicosis, while 400 mg/kg was recommended for advanced silicosis. Mechanistically, antibody array and bioinformatic analysis showed that the pathways related to IL-17 secretion, including JAK-STAT pathway, Th17 differentiation, and IL-17 pathway, might be involved in the treatment of silicosis by pirfenidone. Further in vivo experiments confirmed that pirfenidone reduced the production of IL-17A induced by silica exposure via inhibiting STAT3 phosphorylation. Neutralizing IL-17A by anti-IL-17A antibody improved lung function and reduced pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis in silicosis animals. Collectively, our study has demonstrated that pirfenidone effectively ameliorated silica-induced lung dysfunction, pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis in mouse models by inhibiting the secretion of IL-17A.
Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is an independent risk factor for hypertension (HTN). The oral microbiota plays a pathophysiological role in cardiovascular diseases; however, there ...are few reports directly investigating and identifying the organisms involved in OSAHS-related HTN. Therefore, this study aimed to identify those organisms. We obtained 139 oral samples and determined the microbiome composition using pyrosequencing and bioinformatic analyses of the 16S rRNA. We examined the fasting levels of cytokines and homocysteine in all participants and analyzed the correlations between the oral microbiota and homocysteine levels. We determined the molecular mechanism underlying HTN by investigating the genetic composition of the strains in the blood. We detected higher relative abundances of Porphyromonas and Aggregatibacter and elevated proinflammatory cytokines in patients with OSAHS of varying severity compared with individuals without OSAHS; however, the two organisms were not measured in the blood samples from all participants. High levels of specific Porphyromonas bacteria were detected in patients with OSAHS with and without HTN, whereas the relative abundance of Aggregatibacter was negatively correlated with the homocysteine level. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of controls and patients with OSAHS resulted in area under the curve values of 0.759 and 0.641 for patients with OSAHS with or without HTN, respectively. We found that the predictive function of oral microbiota was different in patients with OSAHS with and without HTN. However, there was no direct invasion by the two organisms causing endothelial cell injury, leading to speculation regarding the other mechanisms that may lead to HTN. Elucidating the differences in the oral microbiome will help us understand the pathogenesis of OSAHS-related HTN.
Abstract
Background
Insomnia is a common but frequently overlooked sleep disorder after stroke, and there are limited effective therapies for insomnia following stroke. Traditional Chinese medicine ...(TCM), including acupuncture and the Chinese herbal medication (CHM) Suanzaoren decoction (SZRD), has been reported as an alternative option for insomnia relief after stroke in China for thousands of years. Here, this study aims to investigate the efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture (EA) in combination with SZRD in the treatment of insomnia following stroke.
Methods
A total of 240 patients with post-stroke insomnia will be included and randomized into four groups: the EA group, SZRD group, EA & SZRD group, and sham group. The same acupoints (GV20, GV24, HT7, and SP6) will be used in the EA group, EA & SZRD group, and sham group, and these patients will receive the EA treatment or sham manipulation every other day for 4 consecutive weeks. SZRD treatments will be given to participants in the SZRD group and EA & SZRD group twice a day for 4 consecutive weeks. The primary outcome measures include Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores and polysomnography. Secondary outcome measures include the Insomnia Severity Index, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, brain magnetic resonance imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and nocturnal melatonin concentrations. The primary and secondary outcomes will be assessed at baseline (before treatment), during the 2nd and 4th weeks of the intervention, and at the 8th and 12th weeks of follow-up. Safety assessments will be evaluated at baseline and during the 4th week of the intervention.
Discussion
This study will contribute to assessing whether the combination of these two therapies is more beneficial for post-stroke insomnia than their independent use, and the results of this clinical trial will improve our understanding of the possible mechanisms underlying the effects of combination therapies.
Trial registration
Chinese Clinical Trials Register
ChiCTR2000031413
. Registered on March 30, 2020
This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of nurse resources in Chinese hospitals and the link between nurse resources and nurse and patient outcomes.
Survey data were used from 9688 nurses and ...5786 patients in 181 Chinese hospitals to estimate associations between nurse workforce characteristics and nurse and patient outcomes in China. Nurse and patient assessments in China were compared with a similar study in Europe.
Thirty-eight percent of nurses in China had high burnout and 45% were dissatisfied with their jobs. Substantial percentages of nurses described their work environment and the quality of care on their unit as poor or fair (61% and 29%, respectively) and graded their hospital low on patient safety (36%). These outcomes tend to be somewhat poorer in China than in Europe, though fewer nurses in China gave their hospitals poor safety grades.
Nurses in Chinese hospitals with better work environments and higher nurse-assessed safety grades had lower odds of high burnout and job dissatisfaction (ORs ranged from 0.56 to 0.75) and of reporting poor or fair quality patient care (ORs ranged from 0.54 to 0.74), and patients in such hospitals were more likely to rate their hospital highly, to be satisfied with nursing communications, and to recommend their hospitals (significant ORs ranged from 1.24 to 1.40). Higher patient-to-nurse ratios were associated with poorer nurse outcomes (each additional patient per nurse increases both burnout and dissatisfaction by a factor of 1.04) and higher likelihoods of nurses reporting poor or fair quality of care (OR=1.05), but were unrelated to patient outcomes. Higher percentages of baccalaureate nurses were strongly related to better patient outcomes, with each 10% increase in the percent of baccalaureate nurses increasing patient satisfaction, high ratings, and willingness to recommend their hospital by factors ranging from 1.11 to 1.13.
Nursing is important in quality and safety of hospital care and in patients’ perceptions of their care. Improving quality of hospital work environments and expanding the number of baccalaureate-prepared nurses hold promise for improving hospital outcomes in China.
Cajaninstilbene acid (CSA) is one of the active components isolated from pigeon pea leaves. In this study, anti-inflammatory effects of CSA and its synthesized derivatives were fully valued with ...regard to their activities on the production of nitric oxide (NO) and pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in vitro cell model, as well as their impacts on the migration of neutrophils and macrophages in fluorescent protein labeled zebrafish larvae model by live image analysis. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory mechanism of this type of compounds was clarified by western-blot and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The results showed that CSA, as well as its synthesized derivatives 5c, 5e and 5h, exhibited strong inhibition activity on the release of NO and inflammatory factor TNF-α and IL-6 in lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-stimulated murine macrophages. CSA and 5c greatly inhibited the migration of neutrophils and macrophages in injury zebrafish larvae. CSA and 5c treatment greatly inhibited the phosphorylation of proteins involved in nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. Moreover, we found that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) inhibitor GW9662 could reverse partly the roles of CSA and 5c, and CSA and 5c treatment greatly resist the decrease of PPARγ mRNA and protein induced by LPS stimulation. Our results identified the promising anti-inflammatory effects of CSA and its derivatives, which may serve as valuable anti-inflammatory lead compound. Additionally, the mechanism studies demonstrated that the anti-inflammatory activity of CSA and its derivative is associated with the inhibition of NF-κB and MAPK pathways, relying partly on resisting the LPS-induced decrease of PPARγ through improving its expression.
The spikelet number per spike (SNS) contributes greatly to grain yield in wheat. Identifying various genes that control wheat SNS is vital for yield improvement. This study used a recombinant inbred ...line population genotyped by the Wheat55K single-nucleotide polymorphism array to identify two major and stably expressed quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for SNS. One of them (QSns.sau-2SY-2D.1) was reported previously, while the other (QSns.sau-2SY-7A) was newly detected and further analyzed in this study. QSns.sau-2SY-7A had a high LOD value ranging from 4.46 to 16.00 and explained 10.21–40.78％ of the phenotypic variances. QSns.sau-2SY-7A was flanked by the markers AX-110518554 and AX-110094527 in a 4.75-cM interval on chromosome arm 7AL. The contributions and interactions of both major QTLs were further analyzed and discussed. The effect of QSns.sau-2SY-7A was successfully validated by developing a tightly linked kompetitive allele specific PCR marker in an F2:3 population and a panel of 101 high-generation breeding wheat lines. Furthermore, several genes including the previously reported WHEAT ORTHOLOG OF APO1 (WAPO1), an ortholog of the rice gene ABERRANT PANICLE ORGANIZATION 1 (APO1) related to SNS, were predicted in the interval of QSns.sau-2SY-7A. In summary, these results revealed the genetic basis of the multi-spikelet genotype of wheat line 20828 and will facilitate subsequent fine mapping and breeding utilization of the major QTLs.
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