Tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) is a prevalent malignancy that afflicts the head and neck area and presents a high incidence of metastasis and invasion. Accurate diagnosis and effective treatment are essential for enhancing the quality of life and the survival rates of TSCC patients. The current treatment modalities for TSCC frequently suffer from a lack of specificity and efficacy. Nanoparticles with diagnostic and photothermal therapeutic properties may offer a new approach for the targeted therapy of TSCC. However, inadequate accumulation of photosensitizers at the tumor site diminishes the efficacy of photothermal therapy (PTT). This study modified gold nanodots (AuNDs) with the TSCC-targeting peptide HN-1 to improve the selectivity and therapeutic effects of PTT. The Au-HN-1 nanosystem effectively targeted the TSCC cells and was rapidly delivered to the tumor tissues compared to the AuNDs. The enhanced accumulation of photosensitizing agents at tumor sites achieved significant PTT effects in a mouse model of TSCC. Moreover, owing to its stable long-term fluorescence and high X-ray attenuation coefficient, the Au-HN-1 nanosystem can be used for fluorescence and computed tomography imaging of TSCC, rendering it useful for early tumor detection and accurate delineation of surgical margins. In conclusion, Au-HN-1 represents a promising nanomedicine for imaging-based diagnosis and targeted PTT of TSCC.
Tongue Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging* ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell/diagnostic imaging* ; Animals ; Gold/chemistry* ; Mice ; Photothermal Therapy/methods* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Photosensitizing Agents ; Metal Nanoparticles ; Humans ; Cell Line, Tumor

Objective:To understand the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected pregnant women and influencing factors in China and provide reference for the improvement of the health status of HIV-infected pregnant women and their newborns.Methods:Based on a mother-child cohort of HIV-infected pregnant women and children (PMTCT-MC-2005) established in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, this study enrolled pregnant women with or without HIV infection as study subjects from January 2017 to June 2023, a total of 1 646 pregnant women (558 HIV-infected and 1 088 HIV-uninfected) were included, and 34 cases with missing data were excluded. The χ2 test was used to analyze the difference in the incidence adverse pregnancy outcome between two groups, and used logistic regression model to identify the influencing factors of adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected pregnant women. Results:A total of 1 612 pregnant women were included in the study, in whom 541 were infected with HIV and 1 071 were not infected with HIV. The incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome was 18.8% (303/1 612), the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome was 33.1% (179/541) in the HIV-infected pregnant women and 11.6% (124/1 071) in the pregnant women without HIV infection. The results of multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that the influencing factors of adverse pregnancy outcome were age <35 years at delivery (a OR=0.64, 95% CI: 0.43-0.95) compared with the age ≥35 years and the duration of antiviral treatment over 10 years (a OR=0.43, 95% CI: 0.23-0.79) compared with less than one year. Conclusions:The incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected pregnant women was high in some regions of China during 2017-2023. It is necessary for HIV-infected women to get pregnancy at appropriate time based on antiretroviral treatment effect and strengthen self-care to reduce the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome.

Pain modulation encompasses a complex neurobiological process, in which the lateral habenula (LHb) plays a crucial role in integrating, regulating and modulating pain signals. It is also involved in pain-related memory functions associated with perception, transmission and regulation of pain. Furthermore, the LHb collaborates with structures such as the spinal dorsal horn, forebrain, and amygdala to form an essential neural circuit that contributes to sensitization, development of tolerance, and adaptation processes related to pain. However, there remains limited understanding regarding the specific roles and interactions among different neuron subtypes within the LHb concerning pain regulation. Additionally, further investigation is warranted to explore functional changes and plasticity within both the LHb and its associated neural circuits in chronic pain models. Future research endeavors should utilize advanced neuroimaging techniques alongside optogenetics and gene editing technologies to elucidate intricate neural circuits, cellular architecture, and molecular mechanisms governing LHb function in pain regulation. In conclusion, this paper aims to comprehensively review existing literature on the involvement of the LHb and its neural circuits in modulating pain, thereby enhancing our understanding of their neurobiological mechanisms while providing novel targets for precise therapeutic strategies aimed at alleviating pain.

Objective:To understand the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected pregnant women and influencing factors in China and provide reference for the improvement of the health status of HIV-infected pregnant women and their newborns.Methods:Based on a mother-child cohort of HIV-infected pregnant women and children (PMTCT-MC-2005) established in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, this study enrolled pregnant women with or without HIV infection as study subjects from January 2017 to June 2023, a total of 1 646 pregnant women (558 HIV-infected and 1 088 HIV-uninfected) were included, and 34 cases with missing data were excluded. The χ2 test was used to analyze the difference in the incidence adverse pregnancy outcome between two groups, and used logistic regression model to identify the influencing factors of adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected pregnant women. Results:A total of 1 612 pregnant women were included in the study, in whom 541 were infected with HIV and 1 071 were not infected with HIV. The incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome was 18.8% (303/1 612), the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome was 33.1% (179/541) in the HIV-infected pregnant women and 11.6% (124/1 071) in the pregnant women without HIV infection. The results of multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that the influencing factors of adverse pregnancy outcome were age <35 years at delivery (a OR=0.64, 95% CI: 0.43-0.95) compared with the age ≥35 years and the duration of antiviral treatment over 10 years (a OR=0.43, 95% CI: 0.23-0.79) compared with less than one year. Conclusions:The incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected pregnant women was high in some regions of China during 2017-2023. It is necessary for HIV-infected women to get pregnancy at appropriate time based on antiretroviral treatment effect and strengthen self-care to reduce the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome.

Pain modulation encompasses a complex neurobiological process, in which the lateral habenula (LHb) plays a crucial role in integrating, regulating and modulating pain signals. It is also involved in pain-related memory functions associated with perception, transmission and regulation of pain. Furthermore, the LHb collaborates with structures such as the spinal dorsal horn, forebrain, and amygdala to form an essential neural circuit that contributes to sensitization, development of tolerance, and adaptation processes related to pain. However, there remains limited understanding regarding the specific roles and interactions among different neuron subtypes within the LHb concerning pain regulation. Additionally, further investigation is warranted to explore functional changes and plasticity within both the LHb and its associated neural circuits in chronic pain models. Future research endeavors should utilize advanced neuroimaging techniques alongside optogenetics and gene editing technologies to elucidate intricate neural circuits, cellular architecture, and molecular mechanisms governing LHb function in pain regulation. In conclusion, this paper aims to comprehensively review existing literature on the involvement of the LHb and its neural circuits in modulating pain, thereby enhancing our understanding of their neurobiological mechanisms while providing novel targets for precise therapeutic strategies aimed at alleviating pain.

Purpose: To intelligently diagnose whether there is bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) in female with decent detrusor contraction ability by focusing on urodynamic study (UDS) data. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the UDS data of female patients during urination. Eleven easily accessible urinary flow indicators were calculated according to the UDS data of each patient during voiding period. Eight diagnosis models based on back propagation neural network with different input feature combination were constructed by analyzing the correlations between indicators and lower urinary tract dysfunction labels. Subsequently, the stability of diagnostic models was evaluated by five-fold cross-validation based on training data, while the performance was compared on test dataset. Results: UDS data from 134 female patients with a median age of 51 years (range, 27–78 years) were selected for our study.Among them, 66 patients suffered BOO and the remaining were normal. Applying the 5-fold cross-validation method, the model with the best performance achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) value of 0.949±0.060 using 9 UDS input features. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for BOO diagnosis model in the testing process are 94.4%, 100%, and 89.3%, respectively. Conclusions The 9 significant indicators in UDS were employed to construct a diagnostic model of female BOO based on machine learning algorithm, which performs preferable classification accuracy and stability.

A 14-year-old boy presented with coma and convulsion following a 3-day high fever of unknown origin was initially diagnosed with a central nervous system infection with uncertain pathogen. Direct microscopic examination of wet slides of cerebrospinal fluid cytology revealed active amoeboid trophozoites with different shapes. The amoeba trophozoite could be seen at high magnification after Wright′s-Giemsa staining. A diagnosis of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis was made according to the cellular morphology results of the cerebrospinal fluid, imaging data, and clinical symptoms. After high-throughput gene detection targeting the infection pathogen and specific PCR verification of amoeba species, it was confirmed that the infection was caused by Naegleria fowleri. Timely antiamoebic treatment and other related treatments were implemented, but the patient progressed to brain death after 50 days, leading to the discontinuation of treatment by the family.

Objective To investigate the relationship between the expression levels of serum microRNA-181a(miR-181a)and sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 1(S1PR1)messenger RNA(mRNA)and the occur-rence of acute exacerbation in patients with bronchial asthma.Methods From January 2021 to May 2023,a to-tal of 132 patients with bronchial asthma in acute exacerbation stage from Shijiazhuang Emergency Center were selected as the acute stage group,89 patients with bronchial asthma in remission stage were selected as the remission stage group and 90 healthy personnel for physical examination were selected as the control group.The acute stage group was divided into mild group(50 cases),moderate group(45 cases)and severe group(37 cases).Clinical data were collected and pulmonary function[ratio of forced expiratory volume to forced vital capacity in the first second(FEV1/FVC)and percentage of peak expiratory flow rate to expected value(PEF％pred)]was examined.Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR was used to detect the serum miR-181a and S1PR1 mRNA expression.Pearson method was used to analyze the correlation between serum miR-181a and S1PR1 mRNA and lung function indicators in patients with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma.Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors affecting the occurrence of acute exacerbation in patients with bronchial asthma.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was used to e-valuate the value of serum miR-181a and S1PR1 mRNA in predicting the occurrence of acute exacerbation in patients with bronchial asthma.Results The FEV1/FVC,PEF％pred and relative expression level of serum miR-181a in control group,remission stage group and acute stage group were decreased successively,while the relative expression level of S1PR1 mRNA were increased successively(P＜0.05).The relative expression lev-el of serum miR-181a in mild group,moderate group and severe group was decreased successively,and the rel-ative expression level of S1PR1 mRNA was increased successively(P＜0.05).In patients with acute exacer-bation of bronchial asthma,serum miR-181a and S1PR1 mRNA were negatively correlated(P＜0.05),serum miR-181a was positively correlated with FEV1/FVC,PEF％pred(P＜0.05),and serum S1PR1 mRNA was negatively correlated with FEV1/FVC,PEF％pred(P＜0.05).Low level of FEV1/FVC,low level of PEF％pred,low relative expression level of miR-181a and high relative expression level of S1PR1 mRNA were inde-pendent risk factors affecting the occurrence of acute exacerbation in patients with bronchial asthma(P＜0.05).The area under the curve(AUC)of the combination of serum miR-181a and S1PR1 mRNA for predic-ting the acute exacerbation in patients with bronchial asthma was 0.890,which was higher than the AUC of the two predicted alone(P＜0.05).Conclusion The serum miR-181a in patients with bronchial asthma is lowly expressed,while S1PR1 mRNA is highly expressed.Both are related to the occurrence and severity of acute exacerba-tion as well as lung function,and have high predictive efficacy for the occurrence of acute exacerbation.

Objective:To analyze the clinical features of adrenal metastases and summarize the experience of diagnosis and treatment.Methods:The clinicopathological data of 210 patients with adrenal metastases admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital from Jan. 1990 to Jun. 2021 were retrospectively analyzed, and the relevant literature was reviewed. The clinical characteristics, primary tumor types, imaging examination methods and diagnosis and treatment methods of adrenal metastases were summarized.Results:Among 210 patients, 153 were males and 57 were females, with an average age of (60±12) years. The average maximum diameter of the tumor was (4.7±2.6) cm, the maximum was 14.5 cm, and the minimum was 0.5 cm. Tumor occurred in 84 cases on the left, 81 cases on the right, and 44 cases bilateral. The primary tumors of 210 patients were 72 cases of lung cancer, 48 cases of renal cancer, 29 cases of hepatobiliary cancer, 18 cases of colorectal cancer, 11 cases of gastric esophageal cancer, 6 cases of pancreatic cancer, 5 cases of breast cancer, 3 cases of melanoma, and 18 cases of other tumors. 108 patients had no obvious clinical symptoms of discomfort, only found in the review of primary tumor or routine physical examination. 102 were primary disease-related symptoms, and 210 patients had no abnormal endocrine signs such as moon face and buffalo back. The median time from diagnosis of primary tumor to adrenal metastasis was 3 months. 95 cases were diagnosed with primary tumor at the same time. The longest time was 228 months. Of the 210 patients, 203 underwent CT, 99 PET-CT, 74 B-ultrasound and 25 MRI. A total of 122 patients were clinically diagnosed as adrenal metastasis by history and imaging examination. One patient was treated with adrenal photon knife, one patient was treated with adrenal artery embolization chemotherapy, and 21 patients were treated with adrenal radiotherapy or CT-guided adrenal radiofrequency ablation. A total of 88 patients were diagnosed as adrenal metastasis by histopathology. Among them, 12 patients were diagnosed by adrenal puncture under CT guidance, 74 patients were diagnosed by adrenal surgery, and 2 patients were further treated with metastatic tumor resection after adrenal metastasis was diagnosed by puncture. Finally, all patients were diagnosed as adrenal metastasis of malignant tumor by pathology, and they continued to be treated with primary tumor.Conclusions:Lung cancer is the most common type of primary adrenal metastases in our hospital. Most of the elderly men have no obvious endocrine-related symptoms and signs. CT is an effective means of examination, supplemented by B ultrasound or MRI diagnostic accuracy will be further improved, but the diagnosis still depends on histopathological examination. For patients with isolated adrenal metastasis, surgical treatment can significantly improve the prognosis. However, comprehensive treatment should be carried out according to the general situation of patients, the type and biological behavior of primary tumors, and the characteristics of metastatic tumors, so as to achieve the best curative effect.