Objective: To explore the value of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in predicting the prognosis of patients with glioblastoma (GBM) receiving chemoradiotherapy. Methods: The GBM patients undergoing complete resection were included in this prospective study. All patients received diffusionweighted imaging (DWI) followed by standard radiation and chemotherapy. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of proximal area, middle area and distal area were measured. The patients were classified according to the median and minimum ADC values. The overall survival (OS) and the progression-free survival (PFS) were evaluated. Results: The 6-month and 12-month OS rates of 83 patients included in this study were 99% and 82%, respectively, and the 6-month and 12-month PFS rates were 84% and 66%, respectively. The OS and PFS of the patients with the average ADC values>0.979×10-3 mm2/sin the proximal area were superior to those of the patients with the average ADC values ≤ 0.979×10-3 mm2/s (OS: P = 0.019; PFS: P = 0.005). The PFS of the patients with the minimum ADC value>0.894×10-3 mm2/s in the proximal area was superior to that of the patients with the minimum ADC value ≤ 0.894×10-3 mm2/s (P = 0.018). The differences in OS and PFS were not statistically significant with respect to the middle area and the distal area (all P>0.05). Conclusion: DWI can provide additional useful information in predicting the efficacy of chemoradiotherapy in the patients with GBM.

N alkylated Partially deacetylated chitin(DAC 85)was prepared via reductive N alkylation in aceques MeOH with lauraldehyde.Further,O carboxymethlation of N alkylatedchitosan was performed in 55% NaOH with carboxymethy chloride.A new type amphiphilic chitosan derivative was achieved.Elementary analysis and IR spectrume was performed to study the characterization of the chitosan derivative.

Objective: To investigate the factors affecting the depressive symptoms among patients with colorectal cancer in Chengdu City, so as to provide insights into mental health improvement among colorectal cancer patients. Methods: Patients with colorectal cancer were enrolled from three hospitals in Chengdu City using the convenient sampling method. The basic information, life styles and cancer diagnosis and therapy were collected, and the depressive symptoms were evaluated using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale ( SDS ). In addition, factors affecting the depressive symptoms were identified using the multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 384 patients with colorectal cancer were enrolled, including 247 men ( 64.32% ), and the subjects had a mean age of ( 57.47±11.39 ) years and a mean SDS score of 37.73±9.15. The detection rate of depressive symptoms was 15.36%. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that colorectal cancer patients with a history of radiotherapy had a high risk of developing depressive symptoms ( OR=0.468, 95%CI: 0.245-0.895 ), while patients with alcohol consumption ( OR=0.407, 95%CI: 0.172-0.963 ) and drinking tea ( OR=0.470, 95%CI: 0.244-0.904 ) had a low risk of developing depressive symptoms. Conclusions The detection of depressive symptoms is 15.36% among patients with colorectal cancer in Chengdu City, and a history of radiotherapy, alcohol consumption and drinking tea affect the development of depressive symptoms among patients with colorectal cancer.

Objective:To preliminarily investigate the effects of tumor treating field (TTF) arrays on the positioning accuracy of radiotherapy setup in the treatment of glioblastoma.Methods:The kilovolt cone-beam CT (CBCT) and an X-ray volumetric imaging (XVI) system were used to verify the radiotherapy setup of 29 patients treated with conventional radiotherapy and 12 patients treated with TTF concurrent radiotherapy, respectively. The errors of radiotherapy position isocenter and treatment plan isocenter were evaluated in six directions, namely lateral (Lat), head pin (Lng), dorsoventral (Vrt), roll, pitch, and rotation (Rtn). Then, the plan isocenter was redetermined according to the setup error data. Moreover, the dose distribution was recalculated without changing the radiation field parameters. Finally, the V40, Dmean, D98% and D2% of both PTV and CTV and the Dmean, D20 cm 3, and D30 cm 3 of scalp tissue were evaluated. Results:When patients were treated with TTF concurrent radiotherapy wearing TTF arrays, the setup errors increased by 2 mm and 1.3 mm on average (maximum: 3.5 mm and 2.7 mm) toward the foot and dorsal directions, respectively. In addition, the setup errors in both Roll and Rtn directions increased by about 1.1° toward one side. The V40 and D98% of PTV decreased by up to 4.78% and 6%, respectively. The Dmean, D20 cm 3, and D30 cm 3 to scalp tissue increased by up to 2.6%, 3.2%, and 3.5%, respectively. The errors of other dose parameters for both CTV and PTV were within 2%. Conclusions:TTF arrays have significant effects on the setup errors of patients in the Lng and Vrt directions and increase the setup difficulty in the Roll and Rtn directions, while there is no significant error in the Lat and Pitch directions. Moreover, too large setup errors can significantly reduce the dose to PTV.

We developed large-scale preparation of phycoerythrin from Porphyra haitanensis, a main economic red algae in China. Firstly, P. haitanensis thallus was broken by using "swelling and smash" method. Then times of grads ammonium sulfate precipitation applied to the crude extraction were compared. Desalted solution was further purified with one-step chromatography using hydroxyapatite and properties on spectrum and molecular weight were identified finally. The results indicated that after four times of ammonium sulfate precipitation (15%, 50%, 10% and 40%), the absorption spectrum purity of P. haitanensis achieved 0.9 (A564/A280), and 507.82 mg phycoerythrin (A564/A280 > 3.2) was obtained from 7 kg fresh algae after further hydroxyapatite chromatography. This research provides a potential way for preparation of phycoerythrin in large sclae.
Ammonium Sulfate ; chemistry ; Chromatography ; methods ; Phycoerythrin ; isolation & purification ; Porphyra ; chemistry

Objective:Hybrid attention U-net (HA-U-net) neural network was designed based on U-net for automatic delineation of craniospinal clinical target volume (CTV) and the segmentation results were compared with those of U-net automatic segmentation model.Methods:The data of 110 craniospinal patients were reviewed, Among them, 80 cases were selected for the training set, 10 cases for the validation set and 20 cases for the test set. HA-U-net took U-net as the basic network architecture, double attention module was added at the input of U-net network, and attention gate module was combined in skip-connection to establish the craniospinal automatic delineation network model. The evaluation parameters included Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), Hausdorff distance (HD) and precision.Results:The DSC, HD and precision of HA-U-net network were 0.901±0.041, 2.77±0.29 mm and 0.903±0.038, respectively, which were better than those of U-net (all P<0.05). Conclusion:The results show that HA-U-net convolutional neural network can effectively improve the accuracy of automatic segmentation of craniospinal CTV, and help doctors to improve the work efficiency and the consistent delineation of CTV.

Objective:To preliminarily explore the effects of tumor treating fields (TTF) arrays on the dose distribution in the treatment of Glioblastoma (GBM) using combined radiotherapy and concurrent TTF.Methods:EDR2 and MatriXX plate ionization chamber were employed to measure the absorbed doses of tissues at different depths (< 1 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm, 1 cm, 1.5 cm, 3 cm, 5 cm, 10 cm, and 15 cm) in the case that TTF arrays and latex-free foam were attached and not attached on the surface. Then the absorbed doses were calculated, compared, and analyzed. For the volumetric arc therapy (VMAT) of 10 GBM patients, deep dose verification was performed using the Sun Nuclear ArcCheck 3D dose verification system and the D99%, Dmean, and D1% of tumors and OARs were assessed. Results:The surface dose increased by 173% in the case that TTF arrays and latex-free foam were attached to the surface compared with the case of the surface with nothing attached. The surface dose increased by 61.7% due to the attachment of low-density latex-free foam. The dose deviation gradually decreased with an increase in the depth and stabilized (about 4%) at a depth of greater than 1.5 cm. As indicated by the VMAT verification result, the D99%, Dmean, and D1% of PTV and CTV decreased by 1.1%-1.2% and the Dmean and D1% of OARs (i.e., brainstem, pituitary gland, optic chiasma, optic nerve, eyeball, and eye crystal) decreased by 0.7%-1.5% in the case that TTF array and latex-free foam were attached on the surface compared with the case the surface with nothing attached. Conclusions:The combined radiotherapy and concurrent TTF in the GBM treatment will lead to a slight reduction of the absorbed doses of targets and OARs but a significant increase in the absorbed doses of the scalp. Therefore, it is recommended that the scalp doses should be reduced as far as possible in the design of the radiation treatment plan to reduce the adverse reactions on the scalp of GBM patients.

Nanomaterial-based drug sustainable release systems have been tentatively applied to bone regeneration. They, however, still face disadvantages of high toxicity, low biocompatibility, and low drug-load capacity. In view of the low toxicity and high biocompatibility of polymer nanomaterials and the excellent load capacity of hollow nanomaterials with high specific surface area, we evaluated the hollow polydopamine nanoparticles (HPDA NPs), in order to find an optimal system to effectively deliver the osteogenic drugs to improve treatment of bone defect. Data demonstrated that the HPDA NPs synthesized herein could efficiently load four types of osteogenic drugs and the drugs can effectively release from the HPDA NPs for a relatively longer time in vitro and in vivo with low toxicity and high biocompatibility. Results of qRT-PCR, ALP, and alizarin red S staining showed that drugs released from the HPDA NPs could promote osteogenic differentiation and proliferation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs) in vitro. Image data from micro-CT and H&E staining showed that all four osteogenic drugs released from the HPDA NPs effectively promoted bone regeneration in the defect of tooth extraction fossa in vivo, especially tacrolimus. These results suggest that the HPDA NPs, the biodegradable hollow polymer nanoparticles with high drug load rate and sustainable release ability, have good prospect to treat the bone defect in future clinical practice.
Animals ; Bone Regeneration ; Indoles ; Nanoparticles ; Osteogenesis ; Pharmaceutical Preparations ; Polymers ; Rats

The association among plasma trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), FMO3 polymorphisms, and chronic heart failure (CHF) remains to be elucidated. TMAO is a microbiota-dependent metabolite from dietary choline and carnitine. A prospective study was performed including 955 consecutively diagnosed CHF patients with reduced ejection fraction, with the longest follow-up of 7 years. The concentrations of plasma TMAO and its precursors, namely, choline and carnitine, were determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and the FMO3 E158K polymorphisms (rs2266782) were genotyped. The top tertile of plasma TMAO was associated with a significant increment in hazard ratio (HR) for the composite outcome of cardiovascular death or heart transplantation (HR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.13-1.91, P = 0.004) compared with the lowest tertile. After adjustments of the potential confounders, higher TMAO could still be used to predict the risk of the primary endpoint (adjusted HR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.01-1.74, P = 0.039). This result was also obtained after further adjustment for carnitine (adjusted HR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.01-1.74, P = 0.039). The FMO3 rs2266782 polymorphism was associated with the plasma TMAO concentrations in our cohort, and lower TMAO levels were found in the AA-genotype. Thus, higher plasma TMAO levels indicated increased risk of the composite outcome of cardiovascular death or heart transplantation independent of potential confounders, and the FMO3 AA-genotype in rs2266782 was related to lower plasma TMAO levels.
Carnitine ; Choline/metabolism* ; Chronic Disease ; Heart Failure/genetics* ; Humans ; Methylamines ; Oxygenases ; Prospective Studies

BACKGROUND: Perioperative treatment has become an increasingly important aspect of the management of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Small-scale clinical studies performed in recent years have shown improvements in the major pathological remission rate after neoadjuvant therapy, suggesting that it will soon become an important part of NSCLC treatment. Nevertheless, neoadjuvant immunotherapy may be accompanied by serious adverse reactions that lead to delay or cancelation of surgery, additional illness, and even death, and have therefore attracted much attention. The purpose of the clinical recommendations is to form a diagnosis and treatment plan suitable for the current domestic medical situation for the immune-related adverse event (irAE). METHODS: This recommendation is composed of experts in thoracic surgery, oncologists, thoracic medicine and irAE related departments (gastroenterology, respirology, cardiology, infectious medicine, hematology, endocrinology, rheumatology, neurology, dermatology, emergency section) to jointly complete the formulation. Experts make full reference to the irAE guidelines, large-scale clinical research data published by thoracic surgery, and the clinical experience of domestic doctors and publicly published cases, and repeated discussions in multiple disciplines to form this recommendation for perioperative irAE. RESULTS: This clinical recommendation covers the whole process of prevention, evaluation, examination, treatment and monitoring related to irAE, so as to guide the clinical work comprehensively and effectively. CONCLUSIONS Perioperative irAE management is an important part of immune perioperative treatment of lung cancer. With the continuous development of immune perioperative treatment, more research is needed in the future to optimize the diagnosis and treatment of perioperative irAE.