Objective To evaluate the feasibility of percutaneous transsplenic portal vein catheterization (PTSPC). Methods Thirty patients with portal hypertension underwent gastroesophageal variceal embolization via PTSPC route, 2 of which simultaneously underwent portal vein stenting. This study included the patients with portal venous obstruction ( tumor embolus or thrombus) or the patients with serious liver atrophy caused by liver cirrhosis. The patients who had severe coagulation insufficiency (with prothrombin time ＞ 20 s) were excluded. Of the 30 patients, 17 had primary hepatocellular carcinoma with main portal venous tumor embolus, 13 had cirrhosis with severe liver atrophy and(or) slight or moderate ascite. Before this study, all of 30 patients had a history of variceal bleeding, and 16 patients had a normal coagulation level, 10 patients had a mildly prolonged prothrombin time (14-17 s), 4 patients had a moderately prolonged prothrombin time (18-20 s). All of 30 patients underwent upper abdomen CT enhanced scanning before this procedure, and the site, direction, and depth of splenic vein branch puncture were decided by CT images. The technology of PTSPC, procedure-related complications, and its clinical application were retrospectively analyzed. Results PTSPC was performed successfully in 28 of 30 patients. Two cases failed because of a small intrasplenic vein. Procedure-related complications occurred in 6 patients (20. 0% ), which had decrease of hemoglobin concentration ( 15-50 g/L). Four of them needed blood transfusion. In the six patients, one patient (3.3%) with abdominal cavity hemorrhage had a serious drop of blood pressure 2 hours after procedure, whose clinical symptoms were relieved after four units of packed RBC and a great quantity of fluid were transfused. Twenty-eight patients whose PTSPC were successfullyperformed underwent variceal embolization, 2 of them were placed with portal vein covered stents. During a median follow-up period of 6 months (range: one to forty-two months), 14 patients died of hepatocellular carcinoma 1 to 12 months after procedure, and 2 patients died of hepatic failure caused by liver cirrhosis at fourteen months and twenty-three months after procedure, respectively. Variceal rebleeding was observed in 4 patients, the cumulative rebleeding rate at 1 year was 14.3%. Conclusion PTSPC is a feasible procedure, which provides a useful route for endovascular treatment of portal vein. However, hemorrhage at the puncture site after procedure should be noticed.

BACKGROUNDPeptide nucleic acid (PNA) has many characteristics useful in molecular biology. This paper described an effective way to raise the cell ingestion rate of PNA so as to kill gastric cancer cells.

METHODSHeteroduplexes of PNAs and oligonucleotides, wrapped by Lipofectamine 2000, were used to infect SGC7901 cells. The inhibitive effect of heteroduplexes was evaluated by analyzing cell clone forming and cell growth rate. Telomerase activity of SGC7901 cells was detected by polymerase chain reaction enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (PCR-ELISA) and silver staining assay.

RESULTSPNAs showed a dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation. The percentage of proliferation inhibition was 99.4% after 7 days; the rate of cloning inhibition was 98.2% after 8 days; whereas for oligonucleotide groups, at the same concentration, the percentages were 50.1% and 67.5% respectively. Antisense PNA-DNA-Lipofectamine 2000 group (AP-D-L group) exhibited significantly different percentages from the control groups (P < 0.05). The test result indicated that telomerase activity of the AP-D-L group was inhibited (P < 0.05). At the same time, the impact on cell morphology was observed.

CONCLUSIONSThe results showed that PNAs are potent antisense reagents. The telomerase-associated therapies are very promising for the treatment of malignant tumours.

Cell Division ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; DNA-Binding Proteins ; Humans ; Peptide Nucleic Acids ; therapeutic use ; Stomach Neoplasms ; pathology ; therapy ; Telomerase ; antagonists & inhibitors ; metabolism ; Transfection

Objective To explore the feasibility and efficacy of an MRI-visible,targeted,nano-vector which is synthesized by attaching a targeting ligand,the GD2 single chain antibody (scAb GD2),to the distal ends of PEG-g-PEI-SPION as a carrier for gene delivery into human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) and in vitro cellular MR imaging.Methods scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION was synthesized as previously reported.Gel electrophoresis was performed to assess the pDNA condensation ability of scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION.The particle size and Zeta potential of scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION/pDNA nanocomplexes were observed by dynamic light scattering.Cytotoxicity of scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPI-ON was evaluated by CCK-8 assay using hBMSCs.Gene transfection efficiency of scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION in hBMSCs was quantified by flow cytometry,PEG-g-PEI-SPION,scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION,scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION+ free AbGD2 and scAbIgG2a-PEG-g-PEI-SPION group was established.The cellular internalization of scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION/pDNA nanocomplexes was observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy and Prussian blue staining.MRI of scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION was performed by cellular MRI scanning in vitro.Results scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION condensed pDNA to form stable nanocomplexes of 80-100 nm in diameter and showed low cytotoxicity to hBMSCs.At the same N/P ratio,the transfection efficiency of scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION group was significantly higher than those of other groups (P＜0.001).At the optimal N/P ratio of 20,scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION/pDNA obtained the highest transfection efficiency of (59.60 ± 4.50) ％ in hBMSCs.Furthermore,hBMSCs labeled with scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION showed sensitive low signal intensity on MRI T2/T2 *-weighted images in vitro.Conclusion scAbGD2-PEG-g-PEI-SPION is an efficient MRL visible targeted nano vector for gene delivery into hBMSCs.

Objective: To our knowledge, no definitive conclusion has been reached regarding the relationship between glucocorticoids and hypertension. Here, we aimed to explore the characteristics of glucocorticoids in participants with dysglycemia and hypertension, and to analyze their association with blood pressure indicators. Methods: The participants of this study were from the Henan Rural Cohort study. A total of 1,688 patients 18-79 years of age were included in the matched case control study after application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Statistical methods were used to analyze the association between glucocorticoids and various indices of blood pressure, through approaches such as logistic regression analysis, trend tests, linear regression, and restricted cubic regression. Results: The study population consisted of 552 patients with dysglycemia and hypertension (32.7%). The patients with co-morbidities had higher levels of serum cortisol ( Conclusions Serum deoxycortisol was positively correlated with systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, mean arterial pressure, mean blood pressure, and mean proportional arterial pressure. Glucocorticoids (deoxycortisol and cortisol) increase the risk of hypertension in people with dysglycemia, particularly in those with T2DM.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Blood Pressure ; Case-Control Studies ; China/epidemiology* ; Cohort Studies ; Female ; Glucocorticoids/blood* ; Glycemic Load ; Humans ; Hydrocortisone/blood* ; Hypertension/etiology* ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Rural Population ; Young Adult

Objective: To analyze the clinical epidemiological characteristics including composition of pathogens , clinical characteristics, and disease prognosis acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) in Chinese children. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical and laboratory data of 1 610 children <15 years of age with ABM in 33 tertiary hospitals in China from January 2019 to December 2020. Patients were divided into different groups according to age,<28 days group, 28 days to <3 months group, 3 months to <1 year group, 1-<5 years of age group, 5-<15 years of age group; etiology confirmed group and clinically diagnosed group according to etiology diagnosis. Non-numeric variables were analyzed with the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test, while non-normal distrituction numeric variables were compared with nonparametric test. Results: Among 1 610 children with ABM, 955 were male and 650 were female (5 cases were not provided with gender information), and the age of onset was 1.5 (0.5, 5.5) months. There were 588 cases age from <28 days, 462 cases age from 28 days to <3 months, 302 cases age from 3 months to <1 year of age group, 156 cases in the 1-<5 years of age and 101 cases in the 5-<15 years of age. The detection rates were 38.8% (95/245) and 31.5% (70/222) of Escherichia coli and 27.8% (68/245) and 35.1% (78/222) of Streptococcus agalactiae in infants younger than 28 days of age and 28 days to 3 months of age; the detection rates of Streptococcus pneumonia, Escherichia coli, and Streptococcus agalactiae were 34.3% (61/178), 14.0% (25/178) and 13.5% (24/178) in the 3 months of age to <1 year of age group; the dominant pathogens were Streptococcus pneumoniae and the detection rate were 67.9% (74/109) and 44.4% (16/36) in the 1-<5 years of age and 5-<15 years of age . There were 9.7% (19/195) strains of Escherichia coli producing ultra-broad-spectrum β-lactamases. The positive rates of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) culture and blood culture were 32.2% (515/1 598) and 25.0% (400/1 598), while 38.2% (126/330)and 25.3% (21/83) in CSF metagenomics next generation sequencing and Streptococcus pneumoniae antigen detection. There were 4.3% (32/790) cases of which CSF white blood cell counts were normal in etiology confirmed group. Among 1 610 children with ABM, main intracranial imaging complications were subdural effusion and (or) empyema in 349 cases (21.7%), hydrocephalus in 233 cases (14.5%), brain abscess in 178 cases (11.1%), and other cerebrovascular diseases, including encephalomalacia, cerebral infarction, and encephalatrophy, in 174 cases (10.8%). Among the 166 cases (10.3%) with unfavorable outcome, 32 cases (2.0%) died among whom 24 cases died before 1 year of age, and 37 cases (2.3%) had recurrence among whom 25 cases had recurrence within 3 weeks. The incidences of subdural effusion and (or) empyema, brain abscess and ependymitis in the etiology confirmed group were significantly higher than those in the clinically diagnosed group (26.2% (207/790) vs. 17.3% (142/820), 13.0% (103/790) vs. 9.1% (75/820), 4.6% (36/790) vs. 2.7% (22/820), χ²=18.71, 6.20, 4.07, all P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in the unfavorable outcomes, mortility, and recurrence between these 2 groups (all P>0.05). Conclusions: The onset age of ABM in children is usually within 1 year of age, especially <3 months. The common pathogens in infants <3 months of age are Escherichia coli and Streptococcus agalactiae, and the dominant pathogen in infant ≥3 months is Streptococcus pneumoniae. Subdural effusion and (or) empyema and hydrocephalus are common complications. ABM should not be excluded even if CSF white blood cell counts is within normal range. Standardized bacteriological examination should be paid more attention to increase the pathogenic detection rate. Non-culture CSF detection methods may facilitate the pathogenic diagnosis.
Adolescent ; Brain Abscess ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Escherichia coli ; Female ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Meningitis, Bacterial/epidemiology* ; Retrospective Studies ; Streptococcus agalactiae ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; Subdural Effusion ; beta-Lactamases