Lactic acid (LA) accumulation in tumor microenvironments (TME) has been implicated in immune suppression and tumor progress. Diverse roles of LA have been elucidated, including microenvironmental pH regulation, signal transduction, post-translational modification, and metabolic remodeling. This review summarizes LA functions within TME, focusing on the effects on tumor cells, immune cells, and stromal cells. Reducing LA levels is a potential strategy to attack cancer, which inevitably affects the physiological functions of normal tissues. Alternatively, transporting LA into the mitochondria as an energy source for immune cells is intriguing. We underscore the significance of LA in both tumor biology and immunology, proposing the burning of LA as a potential therapeutic approach to enhance antitumor immune responses.
Humans ; Tumor Microenvironment/immunology* ; Neoplasms/therapy* ; Lactic Acid/immunology* ; Mitochondria/metabolism* ; Animals ; Signal Transduction

Objective:To explore the role of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in the diagnosis of pathogens in primary infectious diseases of the spine (IDS) and to reveal its pathogen spectrum.Methods:This is a retrospective multi-center case series study. Clinical data of 380 patients with primary IDS who were treated at four medical centers in China from December 2019 to April 2024 were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 82 cases were from the Department of Spine Surgery at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, 129 cases were from the Orthopedics Section Ⅱ (Bone Infection), Public Health Clinical Center Affiliated to Shandong University, 112 cases were from the Department of Spine Surgery, Fuzhou Second General Hospital, and 57 cases were from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shanghai Sixth People′s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. There were 238 males and 242 females, with an age of (61.4±13.1) years (range: 10 to 91 years). Specimens from the site of spinal infection were obtained for pathogen culture, pathological examination, and mNGS detection preoperatively or intraoperatively in all patients. The number, types, and positive rates of pathogens detected by the two methods were analyzed and compared using the Chi-square test.Results:Among the 380 patients, 320 had confirmed pathogenic bacteria, with the highest proportion being pyogenic bacterial infections, accounting for 76.9% (246/320). The most common pathogen was Staphylococcus aureus, accounting for 22.8% (73/320). Brucella accounted for 13.8% (44/320); Mycobacterium tuberculosis accounted for 6.3% (20/320). Fungal infections accounted for 3.4% (11/320), mainly Aspergillus and Candida. In addition, Mycoplasma was detected in 3 cases (0.9%) and Benacox body in 4 cases (1.2%). The pathogen spectrum constructed by mNGS covered 46 types of pathogens, higher than the 22 types detected by traditional methods. The positive rate of mNGS was 80.8% (308/381), significantly higher than the 27.9% (106/381) of traditional methods ( χ2=182.53, P<0.01). Conclusions:mNGS improves the positive rate of pathogen diagnosis in IDS, detecting a broader spectrum of pathogens, and serves as a valuable complement to traditional diagnostic methods. Combining both methods in the diagnosis of IDS can maximize detection rates, providing robust evidence for precise anti-infective treatment.

Objective:To explore the role of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in the diagnosis of pathogens in primary infectious diseases of the spine (IDS) and to reveal its pathogen spectrum.Methods:This is a retrospective multi-center case series study. Clinical data of 380 patients with primary IDS who were treated at four medical centers in China from December 2019 to April 2024 were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 82 cases were from the Department of Spine Surgery at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, 129 cases were from the Orthopedics Section Ⅱ (Bone Infection), Public Health Clinical Center Affiliated to Shandong University, 112 cases were from the Department of Spine Surgery, Fuzhou Second General Hospital, and 57 cases were from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shanghai Sixth People′s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. There were 238 males and 242 females, with an age of (61.4±13.1) years (range: 10 to 91 years). Specimens from the site of spinal infection were obtained for pathogen culture, pathological examination, and mNGS detection preoperatively or intraoperatively in all patients. The number, types, and positive rates of pathogens detected by the two methods were analyzed and compared using the Chi-square test.Results:Among the 380 patients, 320 had confirmed pathogenic bacteria, with the highest proportion being pyogenic bacterial infections, accounting for 76.9% (246/320). The most common pathogen was Staphylococcus aureus, accounting for 22.8% (73/320). Brucella accounted for 13.8% (44/320); Mycobacterium tuberculosis accounted for 6.3% (20/320). Fungal infections accounted for 3.4% (11/320), mainly Aspergillus and Candida. In addition, Mycoplasma was detected in 3 cases (0.9%) and Benacox body in 4 cases (1.2%). The pathogen spectrum constructed by mNGS covered 46 types of pathogens, higher than the 22 types detected by traditional methods. The positive rate of mNGS was 80.8% (308/381), significantly higher than the 27.9% (106/381) of traditional methods ( χ2=182.53, P<0.01). Conclusions:mNGS improves the positive rate of pathogen diagnosis in IDS, detecting a broader spectrum of pathogens, and serves as a valuable complement to traditional diagnostic methods. Combining both methods in the diagnosis of IDS can maximize detection rates, providing robust evidence for precise anti-infective treatment.

Metformin is currently a strong candidate anti-tumor agent in multiple cancers. However, its anti-tumor effectiveness varies among different cancers or subpopulations, potentially due to tumor heterogeneity. It thus remains unclear which hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patient subpopulation(s) can benefit from metformin treatment. Here, through a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9-based knockout screen, we find that DOCK1 levels determine the anti-tumor effects of metformin and that DOCK1 is a synthetic lethal target of metformin in HCC. Mechanistically, metformin promotes DOCK1 phosphorylation, which activates RAC1 to facilitate cell survival, leading to metformin resistance. The DOCK1-selective inhibitor, TBOPP, potentiates anti-tumor activity by metformin in vitro in liver cancer cell lines and patient-derived HCC organoids, and in vivo in xenografted liver cancer cells and immunocompetent mouse liver cancer models. Notably, metformin improves overall survival of HCC patients with low DOCK1 levels but not among patients with high DOCK1 expression. This study shows that metformin effectiveness depends on DOCK1 levels and that combining metformin with DOCK1 inhibition may provide a promising personalized therapeutic strategy for metformin-resistant HCC patients.
Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use* ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/metabolism* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats ; Genome ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms/metabolism* ; Metformin/therapeutic use* ; Mice ; Phosphorylation ; Synthetic Lethal Mutations ; Transcription Factors/metabolism* ; rac GTP-Binding Proteins/metabolism*

Objective:To evaluate the clinical effect of laparoscopic surgery after transformation therapy for patients with stage Ⅳ gastric cancer.Methods:Clinical data of 55 patients with stage Ⅳ gastric cancer underwent transformation therapy at Zhejiang Provincial People′s Hospital from January 2018 to January 2021 were reviewed retrospectively. All patients had distant metastasis and underwent multi-disciplinary treatment (MDT) directed transformation therapy. 21 patients was appraised to have indications of laparoscopic exploration. Of which 18 patients underwent D2 radical laparoscopic gastrectomy, 1 patient underwent gastrojejunostomy and 2 patient underwent laparoscopic biopsy. The remission of patients after conversion therapy and the related intraoperative and postoperative indicators were analyzed.Results:After the transformation therapy, there were 2 cases of complete response (CR), 22 cases of partial response (PR), 14 cases of stable disease (SD) and 17 cases of progressive disease (PD). The objective response rate was 69.09%(38/55). 18 cases finally completed laparoscopic gastric cancer surgery (1 case converted to laparotomy), including total gastrectomy in 10 cases, distal gastrectomy in 8 cases, and R0 resection in 12 cases (R0 resection rate 12/18). In all 18 cases, the surgical time was (223±28)min, the intraoperative blood loss was (100±48)ml, and the number of lymph nodes resected was (28±8). The median postoperative hospital stay was 12(10.25, 19.25)d. After surgery, there were 2 cases of grade Ⅲ complications, 5 cases of grade Ⅱ complications and 1 case of grade Ⅰ complications. There was no perioperative death. The 1-year survival rate was 12/18. The median progression-free survival time was 11 months and the median overall survival time was 19 months.Conclusions:Laparoscopic surgery for stage Ⅳ gastric cancer after transformation therapy is safe and clinical effect is fine.

Objective:To explore the needs of nurses participating in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) intravenous thrombolysis to optimize the AIS intravenous thrombolysis nursing model.Methods:This research adopted phenomenological research method. Objective sampling method was used to interview 15 nurses from 5 designated hospitals for stroke treatment in Shenzhen from June to July 2020, and the data were analyzed by the Colaizzi content analysis method.Results:The needs of nurses for optimizing the AIS intravenous thrombolysis nursing model could be summarized into five themes: the need to configure stroke emergency nurses, the need to standardize the training for stroke nursing staff, the need to build an intelligent information platform for AIS treatment, the need to optimize the green channel for stroke, and the need to improve the quality control system of AIS intravenous thrombolysis.Conclusions:It is necessary to configure stroke emergency nurses, standardize stroke nursing related training, and build an intelligent information platform for AIS treatment to optimize the AIS intravenous thrombolysis nursing model.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the carrier rate of deafness-related genetic variants among 53 873 newborns from Zhengzhou. METHODS: Heel blood samples of the newborns were collected with informed consent from the parents, and 15 loci of 4 genes related to congenital deafness were detected by microarray. RESULTS: In total 2770 newborns were found to carry deafness-related variants, with a carrier rate of 5.142%. 1325 newborns (2.459%) were found to carry heterozygous variants of the GJB2 gene, 1071 (1.988%) were found with SLC26A4 gene variants, 205 were found with GJB3 gene variants (0.381%), and 120 were found with 12S rRNA variants (0.223%). Five newborns have carried homozygous GJB2 variants, two have carried homozygous SLC26A4 variants, five have carried compound heterozygous GJB2 variants, and four have carried compound heterozygous SLC26A4 variants. 33 neonates have carried heterozygous variants of two genes at the same time. CONCLUSION The carrier rate of deafness-related variants in Zhengzhou, in a declining order, is for GJB2, SLC26A4, GJB3 and 12S rRNA. The common variants included GJB2 235delC and SLC26A4 IVS7-2A>G, which are similar to other regions in China. To carry out genetic screening of neonatal deafness can help to identify congenital, delayed and drug-induced deafness, and initiate treatment and follow-up as early as possible.

Objective To investigate the role and mechanism of nico-tinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase 4 (NAPHD oxidase 4,Nox4)-mediated reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation on high-dose dexamethasone (DEX) induced apoptosis in osteoblasts.Methods According to culture conditions,3rd passage of murine osteoblastic MC3T3-E 1 cells were divided into control group,Dexamethasone group,Dexamethasone+NAC (N-acetyl-L-cysteine) group,NAC group,Dexamethasone+DPI (Diphenyleneiodonium) group and DPI group.24 hours after culture,the morphology of osteoblasts was observed by inverted phase contrast microscope.Cell viability was determined by MTT assay.The generation of ROS in osteoblasts was measured using a fluorescent probe DCFH-DA.The apoptosis of each group was observed through Hoechst staining.The mRNA level and protein expression of Nox4 were detected by real-time quantitative PCR and Western Blot.In addition,after silence of Nox4 with small interfering RNA (siRNA),the ROS generation was further detected by a fluorescent probe DCFH-DA.Results After treatment with 1000 nmol DEX for 24 hours,compared to control group,the results of inverted phase contrast microscope and MTT showed that osteoblasts in DEX group exhibited more obvious signs of shrinkage and deformation with decreased cell viability.After intervene with NAC and DPI,morphology of osteoblasts was good with increased viability of osteoblasts.Compared to control group (5.86％± 0.28％),the production of ROS in DEX group (45.14％±1.49％) was significantly increased (P=0.000).The apoptotic rates in DEX group (29.60％± 1.52％) was significantly increased compared with control group (4.12％±0.67％) (P=0.000).Compared to DEX group,the production of ROS generation in DEX+NAC group (28.06％±1.61％) and DEX+DPI group (23.70％±1.28％) was significantly decreased (P=0.000).It presented that NAC or DPI significantly decreased the formation of ROS.Compared to DEX group,the apoptotic rate in DEX+NAC group (8.94％± 1.47％) and DEX+DPI group (12.96％±2.03％) was significantly decreased (P=0.000).It presented that NAC or DPI significantly decreased osteoblast apoptosis.In addition,the Nox4 mRNA level in DEX group was 2.67-fold compared with control group (t=-10.301,P=0.009).The difference had statistically significance.The protein expression of Nox4 in DEX group was 2.37-fold compared with control group (t=-15.542,P=0.004).The difference has statistically significance.After silence of Nox4 by siRNA,the generation of ROS in DEX+Nox4 siRNA group (14.53％± 1.00％) was decreased by 16.92％ compared with DEX group 31.45％±0.72％ (P=0.000).The difference had statistically significance.Conclusion Nox4-mediated ROS generation plays an important role in osteoblasts apoptosis induced by high-dose dexamethasone.It provided us the new target in the management of Nox4 to provide possible therapy for steroid-induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head (SANFH).

Based on Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Hospital’s practice of applying big data for prevention of registration traffickers,the paper analyzes the behavioral characteristics of technology-based registration traffickers'malicious occupation from the aspects of abnormal registration,abnormal withdrawal,abnormal grab and abnormal user binding,makes the corresponding technical plans and countermeasures,so as to limit the malicious registration of registration traffickers using the reservation system and guarantee the medical resources can be distributed to patients fairly and impartially.

Objective To investigate the expression and significance of P-glycoprotein in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).Methods One hundred and seventy-one cases of breast invasive ductal carcinoma in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed.According to the expression of ER,PR,Her2,we categorized those paitents into triple negative breast cancer group (58 cases) and non triple negative breast cancer group (113 cases).The different expression of P-glycoprotein was detected by immunohistochemieal technology in two groups.We analyzed the relationship between the expression of P-glycoprotein and clinical and pathological features in TNBC,and investigated the effect of P-gp on the rate of recurrence and metastasis in 3 years.Results (1) The expression of P-gp in TN BC was significantly higher than that of NTNBC (53.45％ vs 37.17％) (P ＜ 0.05).(2) The expression of P-gp in TNBC was associated with TNM stage,histological grade,lymph node status and vascular invasion (P ＜ 0.05),but not with age and size of the tumor (P ＞ 0.05).(3) The rate of recurrence and metastasis in positive expression of P-gp in TNBC was 58.06％,which was significantly higher than negative expression of P-gp in TNBC (44.44％),but no statistically significant was found(P ＞ 0.05).Survival analysis showed that P-glycoprotein expression had no relationshiop to 3-year cumulative survival rate (P =0.161 ＞ 0.05).Conclusions The positive expression of P-gp in TNBC is associated with drug resistance and metastasis,but has no obvious significance to recurrence and metastasis,so as to 3-year cumulative survival rate.