Objective To understand the psychological status of the AIDS affected orphans in Henan Sunshine Homestead.Methods One hundred orphans from three Henan Sunshine Homesteads were investigated by questionnaire and depth-interviews.Results The study showed that the AIDS affected orphans were satisfied with their present living conditions in general,but still had some dissatisfaction.They valued peer relations,but were passive to contact strangers,and also felt lacking of care from the elderly.Nearly 70% of the orphans were some what introverted in nature,and some were in lack of thankful heart to managers of the Homestead and their patrons.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of Rivaroxaban for elderly patients with thrombotic diseases. Methods: This was a retrospective study.A total of 301 elderly patients taking Rivaroxaban from October 2012 to November 2017 at the Second Medical Center of the Chinese PLA General Hospital were consecutively selected.The ages ranged from 60 to 102 years, with an average age of(86.5±8.4)years.Anticoagulation regimens were developed based on comprehensive evaluation of indications, creatinine clearance, ischemia and bleeding risk.Patients were divided into a Rivaroxaban 2.5-5.0 mg/d group(n=72), a 10.0 mg/d group(n=205), and a 15.0-20.0 mg/d group(n=24). Hepatic function, renal function, and coagulation indexes were measured before and after the administration of Rivaroxaban.Fatal bleeding, cardiovascular deaths, all-cause deaths, non-fatal bleeding and thromboembolic events were recorded during the follow-up period. Results: The average dose of Rivaroxaban was(9.3±3.0)mg/d, and the minimum dose was 2.5 mg/d.The average follow-up time was(14.9± 13.9)months and the longest follow-up time was 48 months.One patient had intracranial bleeding.Twenty patients(6.6%)died with a cumulative incidence of 25.2%, three(1.0%)died of cardiac events, and 55.0% died of pneumonia and multiple organ failure.Forty patients(13.3%)had non-fatal hemorrhagic events with a cumulative incidence of 42.4%.Seven patients(2.3%)had thromboembolic events with a cumulative incidence of 16.0%, including 2 cases of non-fatal myocardial infarction, 3 cases of cerebral infarction and 2 cases of deep vein thrombosis.After treatment, levels of prothrombin time and fibrinogen significantly increased while levels of D-dimer significantly deceased(P<0.05). Conclusions Compared with previous reports, low-dose Rivaroxaban is safe and effective for elderly patients with thrombotic diseases.However, the risk of bleeding and ischemia should be comprehensively evaluated, and appropriate doses of Rivaroxaban should be selected individually.

Bacterial ghosts are bacterial cell envelopes devoid of cytoplasmic contents while maintaining their cellular morphology, which can be used as a new vaccine and delivery vector. In this study, a clinical isolate of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) strain DE17 was used to prepare bacterial ghost through three different ways. The results showed that the cleavage efficiency of DE17 bacterial ghost was 99.9% with the lysis plasmid containing the PhiX174 lysis gene E. Scanning electron microscopy showed that transmembrane tunnels were formed in the middle or both ends of the cell envelope of DE17. Furthermore, the DE17 bacterial ghost was prepared with one of cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) named MAP (KLALKLALKALKAALKLA), which will completely inactivate DE17 (OD₆₀₀=0.1) by 10 μmol/L MAP. The cell envelope showed a gully-like structure and obvious transmembrane tunnels were not found through the SEM. However, the DE17 could not be lysed by importing the lysis plasmid (pBV220-MAP), which was used to express MAP. The present study will benefit for research on bacterial ghost preparation methods and provide a reference for biosafety of bacterial ghost vaccines.

BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer, characterized by a high potential of tumor recurrence, has high lifelong monitoring and treatment costs. To date, tumor cells with intrinsic softness have been identified to function as cancer stem cells in several cancer types. Nonetheless, the existence of soft tumor cells in bladder tumors remains elusive. Thus, our study aimed to develop a micro-barrier microfluidic chip to efficiently isolate deformable tumor cells from distinct types of bladder cancer cells. METHODS: The stiffness of bladder cancer cells was determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The modified microfluidic chip was utilized to separate soft cells, and the 3D Matrigel culture system was to maintain the softness of tumor cells. Expression patterns of integrin β8 (ITGB8), protein kinase B (AKT), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) were determined by Western blotting. Double immunostaining was conducted to examine the interaction between F-actin and tripartite motif containing 59 (TRIM59). The stem-cell-like characteristics of soft cells were explored by colony formation assay and in vivo studies upon xenografted tumor models. RESULTS: Using our newly designed microfluidic approach, we identified a small fraction of soft tumor cells in bladder cancer cells. More importantly, the existence of soft tumor cells was confirmed in clinical human bladder cancer specimens, in which the number of soft tumor cells was associated with tumor relapse. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the biomechanical stimuli arising from 3D Matrigel activated the F-actin/ITGB8/TRIM59/AKT/mTOR/glycolysis pathways to enhance the softness and tumorigenic capacity of tumor cells. Simultaneously, we detected a remarkable up-regulation in ITGB8, TRIM59, and phospho-AKT in clinical bladder recurrent tumors compared with their non-recurrent counterparts. CONCLUSIONS The ITGB8/TRIM59/AKT/mTOR/glycolysis axis plays a crucial role in modulating tumor softness and stemness. Meanwhile, the soft tumor cells become more sensitive to chemotherapy after stiffening, that offers new insights for hampering tumor progression and recurrence.
Animals ; Mice ; Humans ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/metabolism* ; Actins/metabolism* ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases/metabolism* ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms ; Glycolysis ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Mammals/metabolism* ; Tripartite Motif Proteins/metabolism* ; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/metabolism* ; Integrin beta Chains