Quercetin, a bioflavonoid derived from vegetables and fruits, exerts anti-inflammatory effects in various diseases. Our previous study revealed that quercetin could suppress the expression of matrix ...metalloprotease-9 (MMP-9) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) to achieve anti-inflammatory effects in tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-stimulated human retinal pigment epithelial (ARPE-19) cells. The present study explored whether quercetin can inhibit the interleukin-1β (IL-1β)-induced production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in ARPE-19 cells. Prior to stimulation by IL-1β, ARPE-19 cells were pretreated with quercetin at various concentrations (2.5-20 µM). The results showed that quercetin could dose-dependently decrease the mRNA and protein levels of ICAM-1, IL-6, IL-8 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). It also attenuated the adherence of the human monocytic leukemia cell line THP-1 to IL-1β-stimulated ARPE-19 cells. We also demonstrated that quercetin inhibited signaling pathways related to the inflammatory process, including phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), inhibitor of nuclear factor κ-B kinase (IKK)α/β, c-Jun, cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB), activating transcription factor 2 (ATF2) and nuclear factor (NF)-κB p65, and blocked the translocation of NF-κB p65 into the nucleus. Furthermore, MAPK inhibitors including an extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 inhibitor (U0126), a p38 inhibitor (SB202190) and a c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor (SP600125) decreased the expression of soluble ICAM-1 (sICAM-1), but not ICAM-1. U0126 and SB202190 could inhibit the expression of IL-6, IL-8 and MCP-1, but SP600125 could not. An NF-κB inhibitor (Bay 11-7082) also reduced the expression of ICAM-1, sICAM-1, IL-6, IL-8 and MCP-1. Taken together, these results provide evidence that quercetin protects ARPE-19 cells from the IL-1β-stimulated increase in ICAM-1, sICAM-1, IL-6, IL-8 and MCP-1 production by blocking the activation of MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways to ameliorate the inflammatory response.
Catalytic tandem cyclization of ynamides has attracted considerable interest in organic synthesis because of its atom economy in the rapid formation of polycyclic compounds. However, examples on the ...construction of pentacyclic spiroindolines are quite scarce. Herein, we described a BiCl3‐mediated tandem cyclization reaction of tryptamine‐ynamides, which led to the formation of appealing pentacyclic spiroindoline scaffolds in moderate to excellent yields. In addition, such a reaction can lead to the divergent synthesis of tricyclic indole derivatives with moderate yields by engineering substrate structures. The synthetic utility of this methodology has also been demonstrated by further interesting transformations.
We conducted a multi-institutional study in Taiwan and a systematic review of the literature for reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome after coronavirus disease vaccination. This condition, mostly the ...classic form and the acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy subtype, has been reported in 39 cases and has occurred within 2 weeks of vaccine administration.
Aims
The aims of this study of people with oral cavity cancer were to compare the social support, depression, nicotine dependence, physical function and social–emotional function of those who ...continued smoking with those who quit smoking, by matching age and survival time and to identify the predictors of continued smoking during the survival period.
Background
People who continue to smoke after cancer treatment may have an impact on treatment response and survival.
Design
A cross‐sectional survey was conducted.
Methods
This study compared 92 people with oral cavity cancer who continued smoking with 92 people who quit smoking, with matching for age and survival time between January 2015 ‐ November 2015. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to compare the two groups.
Results
The quit smoking group had significantly more social support, less depression and greater social–emotional function than the continued smoking group. People who were unmarried, received surgery without reconstruction, had poor social support and had poor social–emotional function were more likely to continue smoking.
Conclusions
People with oral cavity cancer were more likely to continue smoking after the treatment if they had low social support, depression, greater nicotine dependence and poor social–emotional function. Healthcare professionals should pay more attention to social support, psychological status and nicotine dependence of people who were treated for oral cavity cancer.
Several previous studies have emphasized the importance of situating students in authentic learning or problem‐solving contexts to enhance their learning performances. However, some challenges of ...situated learning have been stated, such as the lack of effective learning support or concrete objective design to improve students’ learning engagement, problem‐solving competences and their active thinking. In this study, a mobile technology‐supported experiential learning system was developed to improve students’ problem‐solving competences as well as their learning performances, attitudes and collective efficacy. Moreover, an experiment was conducted on an environmental science course in an elementary school to compare the effects of this method with those of the conventional situated mobile learning approach on students’ learning effectiveness. The experimental results display that the implemented approach can significantly enhance students’ learning achievements, environmental attitudes and collective efficacy; furthermore, the students who learned with the implemented approach showed higher problem‐solving competence than those who learned with the conventional situated mobile learning approach, implying a noticeable reference for conducting experiential learning activities in environmental science education. Furthermore, the promotion of students’ active thinking in the mobile technology‐supported experiential learning is discussed.
Practitioner Notes
What is already known about this topic
The importance of situating students in authentic learning or problem‐solving contexts to enhance their learning performances has been emphasized.
Some challenges of situated learning have been stated, such as the lack of effective learning support or concrete objective design to improve students’ learning engagement, problem‐solving competences and active thinking.
Properly integrating technology into instruction is most effective in an authentic learning context.
What this paper adds
A mobile technology‐supported experiential learning system was designed to conduct an authentic learning activity.
The proposed approach can significantly enhance students’ learning achievements, environmental attitudes and collective efficacy.
The students who learned with the proposed approach showed higher problem‐solving competence than those who learned with the conventional situated mobile learning approach.
The promotion of students’ active thinking while learning with the mobile technology‐supported experiential learning system is discussed.
Implications for practice and/or policy
The mobile technology‐supported experiential learning system is beneficial to students in an authentic learning environment as it triggers their active thinking.
Such an approach can be designed with authentic learning activities in other courses by replacing the authentic objects and learning materials.
It would be interesting to probe students’ social interactions and learning patterns in an experiential collective learning activity.
Introduction
The potential association between severe postoperative complications (SPC) and the oncological outcomes of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients according to the different ...Naples Prognostic Score (NPS) of the inflammatory nutritional status after minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) is unclear.
Methods
Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was used to evaluate overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) between with or without SPC (Clavien–Dindo grade ≥ III) in low NPS status (NPS = 0 or 1) and high NPS status (NPS = 2 or 3 or 4) patients. Cox multivariable analysis was carried out to analyze the various independent factors of OS and DFS, and a nomogram based on SPC was established.
Results
A total of 20.7% (125/604) ESCC patients developed SPC after MIE. Patients with SPC exhibited poor 5-year OS and DFS compared to those without SPC (all
P
< 0.001). Further analysis revealed that SPC significantly reduced OS and DFS in patients with high NPS status (all
P
< 0.001) but had little effect on the prognosis of patients with low NPS status (all
P
> 0.05). Multivariable Cox analysis revealed that SPC could be an independent influence indicator for OS and DFS in patients with high NPS status. Therefore, a novel nomogram combining SPC and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging has been developed, which was found to be relatively more accurate in predicting OS and DFS than TNM staging alone.
Conclusion
Severe complications can adversely affect the long-term oncological outcome of ESCC patients with high systemic inflammatory response and malnutrition after MIE.
Objectives
To investigate the significant predictors of contralateral upper tract recurrence after radical nephroureterectomy for upper tract urothelial carcinoma.
Methods
Between January 2001 and ...December 2015, 548 patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma who underwent radical nephroureterectomy in a single institution were included in this retrospective cohort study. Several clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes were explored. The crucial end‐point was the diagnosis of contralateral upper tract recurrence after radical nephroureterectomy.
Results
Of the 548 patients, the median age was 68 years (range 24–93 years), and the median follow‐up time after radical nephroureterectomy was 41 months (range 8–191 months). Contralateral upper tract recurrence occurred in 28 patients (5.1%). The median time period between radical nephroureterectomy and contralateral upper tract recurrence was 15.4 months (range 3.4–52.4 months). In the multivariate analysis, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (hazard ratio 3.08, P = 0.003) and tumor multifocality (hazard ratio 2.16, P = 0.043) were independent risk factors.
Conclusion
Preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate <30 and tumor multifocality are significant predictors of contralateral upper tract recurrence after radical nephroureterectomy for upper tract urothelial carcinoma.
In this paper; the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor with a porous silica film was studied. The effect of the thickness and porosity of the porous silica film on the performance of the sensor ...was analyzed. The results indicated that the figure of merit (FOM) of an SPR sensor can be enhanced by using a porous silica film with a low-refractive-index. Particularly; the FOM of an SPR sensor with 40 nm thick 90% porosity porous silica film; whose refractive index is 1.04 was improved by 311% when compared with that of a traditional SPR sensor. Furthermore; it was found that the decrease in the refractive index or the increase in the thickness of the low-refractive-index porous silica film can enlarge the FOM enhancement. It is believed that the proposed SPR sensor with a low-refractive-index porous silica film will be helpful for high-performance SPR sensors development.
Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the standard of care in advanced prostate cancer. We conducted a Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) study to evaluate the association ...between ADT and fracture risk in patient with prostate cancer in Taiwan.
Between 2001 and 2008, data from the Taiwan NHIRD was collected. We separated newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients into four groups: the injection of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists and antagonists group, the orchiectomy group, the oral antiandorgens group and the radical prostatectomy only group. A non-cancer matched control group was also assigned for comparison. T tests, chi-squared tests, multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression were performed. A subsequent fracture event was defined according to the appropriate diagnosis codes (ICD9-CM 800-829) with hospitalization. Patients with fracture before their diagnosis with prostate cancer were excluded.
Overall, 22517 newly diagnosed patients with prostate cancer were enrolled in the study. After exclusion criteria were applied, 13321 patients were separated into the injection group (5020 subjects), the orchiectomy group (1193 subjects), the oral group (6059 subjects) and the radical prostatectomy only group (1049 subjects). The mean age of the overall study population was 74.4 years. Multi-variant analysis disclosed a significantly increased risk of fracture in the injection group, the orchiectomy group, and the oral group (hazard ratio HR = 1.55, 95%, confidence interval CI 1.36 to 1.76, p<0.001, HR = 1.95, 95%, CI 1.61 to 2.37, p<0.001, HR = 1.37, 95%, CI 1.22 to 1.53, p<0.001, respectively). In contrast, a significantly decreased fracture risk was noted in the radical prostatectomy only group (HR = 0.51, 95%, CI 0.35 to 0.74, p = 0.001). Patients receiving osteoporosis medication had a significantly decreased fracture risk (HR = 0.26, 95%, CI 0.19-0.37, p<0.001).
ADT is associated with an increased risk of fracture. For patients receiving long-term prostate cancer castration therapy, doctors should always keep this complication in mind and arrange proper monitoring and provide timely osteoporosis medication.
The incidence of different types of arrhythmia in patients with COVID-19 was as follows: 12.0% (22 studies, 95% CI: 8.6–15.9%) for non-classified arrhythmia, 8.2% (14 studies, 95% CI: 5.5–11.3%) for ...atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter/atrial tachycardia, 10.8% (26 studies, 95% CI: 6.6–15.9%) for conduction disorders, 8.6% (5 studies, 95% CI: 4.5–13.9%) for premature contraction and 3.3% (16 studies, 95% CI: 1.9–4.9%) for ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia. ...due to the involvement of multiple factors, mortality in COVID-19 patients who developed arrhythmia cannot be entirely attributed to arrhythmia alone. ...the strength of the present study is to summarize the current evidence regarding arrhythmia and COVID-19 infection from various populations worldwide. Since COVID-19 infection probably poses increased risk of arrhythmia, significantly affecting mortality, physicians should consider arrhythmia monitoring with early management in addition to supportive care and respiratory support when treating COVID-19 patients.
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