Microbial infections are a prevalent challenge in the prevention and treatment of oral diseases. Antibiotic therapy faces clinical limitations due to its single-target mechanism and tendency to induce resistance with repeated use, necessitating novel antibacterial strategies. Stimuli-responsive antibacterial materials, whose antimicrobial activity can be modulated by external stimuli, offer advantages such as remote controllability, potential for localized precision treatment, and a reduced risk of inducing resistance. Among these materials, mechanical force-triggered piezoelectric materials exhibit significant antibacterial activity in the biomedical field owing to their unique piezoelectric effect, excellent stability, and good biocompatibility. Research has shown that piezoelectric materials can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy in response to external forces, which enables antibacterial effects without requiring an external power source. The underlying mechanisms primarily include direct electric field effects, generation of reactive oxygen species, and immune modulation. Preliminary applications in treating oral infections (e.g., dental caries, periodontitis, and peri-implantitis) have confirmed their stability and biocompatibility, establishing a foundation for clinical translation. However, long-term efficacy and biosafety in the complex oral microenvironment require further validation. Future research should focus on optimizing material preparation protocols to enhance antibacterial efficacy and stability, further investigating the underlying antimicrobial mechanisms, and systematically evaluating their therapeutic outcomes and safety profiles across various types of oral infections. This review summarizes the antibacterial effects, mechanisms, stability, safety, and research progress of piezoelectric materials in the stomatologic field, aiming to provide new insights for further research and application in this area.

BACKGROUND:With the development of the aging trend of society,the incidence of femoral neck fractures is increasing.Currently,the preferred surgical treatment is cannulated screw internal fixation.However,post-surgical femoral neck shortening occurs in some cases,resulting in impaired hip functionality.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the incidence of femoral neck shortening following the use of half-threaded cannulated screws for internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures,to analyze the effect on hip function,and to identify factors contributing to neck shortening.METHODS:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the medical records of 102 patients treated with half-threaded cannulated screws in an inverted triangle setup for femoral neck fractures at Affiliated Hai'an Hospital of Nantong University from January 2016 to January 2021.This group included 36 males and 66 females at the mean age of(57.2±7.7)years,with 34 cases of Garden type Ⅰ and Ⅱ fractures and 68 of Garden type Ⅲ and Ⅳ fractures.The mean bone mineral density value T was-2.8 SD.The Harris score was used to evaluate the hip function.During the follow-up period,the occurrence of femoral neck shortening was determined using X-ray imagery,and the factors influencing this shortening were examined using both univariate and multivariate regression analyses.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Among the 102 patients with femoral neck fractures,30 patients developed femoral neck shortening,accounting for 29.4％.72 patients had no femoral neck shortening(70.6％).(2)The Harris score for patients experiencing neck shortening was significantly lower than that for patients without shortening(P＜0.05).(3)The study identified several factors associated with femoral neck shortening following the internal fixation of femoral neck fractures included age,gender,bone mineral density value T,preoperative Garden classification,and quality of reduction.These factors not only affect the shortening of the femoral neck after surgery,but are also directly related to the functional performance of the patient's hip joint.(4)Femoral neck shortening after surgery for femoral neck fracture is associated with various clinical parameters,especially the patient's age,gender,bone mineral density,preoperative classification,and accuracy of reduction during surgery.

BACKGROUND:With the development of the aging trend of society,the incidence of femoral neck fractures is increasing.Currently,the preferred surgical treatment is cannulated screw internal fixation.However,post-surgical femoral neck shortening occurs in some cases,resulting in impaired hip functionality.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the incidence of femoral neck shortening following the use of half-threaded cannulated screws for internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures,to analyze the effect on hip function,and to identify factors contributing to neck shortening.METHODS:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the medical records of 102 patients treated with half-threaded cannulated screws in an inverted triangle setup for femoral neck fractures at Affiliated Hai'an Hospital of Nantong University from January 2016 to January 2021.This group included 36 males and 66 females at the mean age of(57.2±7.7)years,with 34 cases of Garden type Ⅰ and Ⅱ fractures and 68 of Garden type Ⅲ and Ⅳ fractures.The mean bone mineral density value T was-2.8 SD.The Harris score was used to evaluate the hip function.During the follow-up period,the occurrence of femoral neck shortening was determined using X-ray imagery,and the factors influencing this shortening were examined using both univariate and multivariate regression analyses.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Among the 102 patients with femoral neck fractures,30 patients developed femoral neck shortening,accounting for 29.4％.72 patients had no femoral neck shortening(70.6％).(2)The Harris score for patients experiencing neck shortening was significantly lower than that for patients without shortening(P＜0.05).(3)The study identified several factors associated with femoral neck shortening following the internal fixation of femoral neck fractures included age,gender,bone mineral density value T,preoperative Garden classification,and quality of reduction.These factors not only affect the shortening of the femoral neck after surgery,but are also directly related to the functional performance of the patient's hip joint.(4)Femoral neck shortening after surgery for femoral neck fracture is associated with various clinical parameters,especially the patient's age,gender,bone mineral density,preoperative classification,and accuracy of reduction during surgery.

Objective To investigate the preventive effect of ipratropium bromide on sufentanil-induced cough during general anesthesia induction.Methods A total of 201 patients undergoing elective surgery under general anesthesia from June 2022 to September 2024 were selected and divided into the ipratropium bromide group(group P,n=100)and the normal saline group(group C,n=101).Thirty minutes before anesthesia in-duction,group P and group C received oral administration of ipratropium bromide inhalation aerosol(2 puffs,equivalent to 42 μg C20H30BrNO3·H2O)and 0.9%normal saline spray(2 puffs),respectively.Anesthesiolo-gists intravenously administered sufentanil(0.5 μg/kg)within 5 seconds,followed by propofol(2 mg/kg)and rocuronium(0.6 mg/kg)after 3 minutes.Endotracheal intubation was performed using a videolaryngo-scope after achieving satisfactory muscle relaxation.The occurrence of cough within 1 minute after sufentanil administration was recorded.Heart rate(HR),mean arterial pressure(MAP),and pulse oxygen saturation(SpO2)were measured at different time points.Results Within 1 min after sufentanil administration,the in-cidence of severe cough and total cough in group P was significantly lower than that in group C(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in HR,MAP,or SpO2 between the two groups at different times(P>0.05).No adverse reactions such as nausea,vomiting,or arrhythmia occurred in either group.Conclusion In-haling ipratropium bromide 30 min before anesthesia induction could effectively reduce sufentanil-induced cough and decrease the incidence of severe cough.

AIM: To investigate the changes of retinal nerve fiber layer(RNFL)thickness, retinal thickness and blood flow density in different stages of diabetic retinopathy(DR)patients based on optical coherence tomography angiography(OCTA).METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 382 patients(382 eyes)diagnosed with DR in our hospital from February 2023 to February 2024. According to the staging criteria, the patients were divided into mild group(n=121), moderate group(n=133), severe group(n=72), and proliferative group(n=56). The general clinical data of the four groups of patients was compared; OCTA was used to scan and collect data from all patients, and the RNFL thickness, retinal thickness, and blood flow density were compared among the four groups of patients.RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference in age, gender, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and random blood glucose among patients in the mild, moderate, severe, and proliferative groups(all P>0.05). As the stage of DR worsened, the duration of the disease gradually prolonged(P<0.05). The thickness of the RNFL(superior, inferior, temporal, nasal, and average thickness)and retinal thickness significantly increased with the severity of DR(all P<0.001); however, there was no statistically significant difference in inferior RNFL thickness between the moderate and mild groups(P>0.05). The blood flow density in the superficial and deep retinal layers, as well as in the choroidal capillary layer, significantly decreased with the progression of DR(all P<0.05). Nevertheless, there was no statistically significant difference in superficial retinal blood flow density between the moderate and severe groups(P>0.05).CONCLUSION: OCTA can accurately observe the changes in RNFL thickness, retinal thickness, and blood flow density in patients with DR at different stages, which can serve as sensitive indicators for monitoring DR progression.

Objective To investigate the role and mechanism of RNA-Specific adenosine deaminase 3 (Adar3) in regulating macrophage polarization during Coxsackievirus B3(CVB3)-induced viral myocarditis (VM). Methods Bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM) from mice were cultured in vitro and induced into M1/M2 macrophages using interferon-gamma (IFN-γ)/lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or interleukin 4 (IL-4), respectively. The mRNA expression levels of Adar1, Adar2, and Adar3 in each group of cells were assessed by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). Specific siRNAs targeting the Adar3 gene were designed, synthesized, and transiently transfected into M2 macrophages. The mRNA levels of M2 polarization-related marker genes-including arginase 1 (Arg1), chitinase 3-like molecule 3 (YM1/Chi3l3), and resistin-like molecule alpha (RELMα/FIZZ1)-were detected by qRT-PCR. RNA sequencing was performed to analyze the signaling pathways affected by Adar3. The expression levels of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway were further validated using qRT-PCR and Western blot. The adeno-associated virus overexpressing Adar3 was designed, synthesized, and injected into mice via tail vein. Three weeks later, a myocarditis mouse model was established. After an additional week, the phenotype and function of cardiac macrophages, as well as multiple indicators of VM (including echocardiography, body weight, histopathology and serology) were examined. Additionally, the protein levels of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway were assessed. Results Compared to M0-type macrophages, the expression level of Adar3 was significantly increased in M2-type macrophages. After transfection of Adar3 siRNA, the mRNA levels of Arg1, YM1 and FIZZ1 in M2 macrophages were downregulated. RNA sequencing revealed 149 upregulated genes and 349 downregulated genes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis and subsequent validation experiments indicated that Adar3 modulated the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. In vivo experiments demonstrated that Adar3 overexpression alleviated the cardiac dysfunction of VM mice. The proportion of M1 macrophages in the heart decreased, while the proportion of M2 macrophages increased. At the same time, the Adar3 overexpression activated the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Conclusion Adar3 promotes macrophage polarization toward the M2 phenotype by activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, thereby alleviating VM.
Animals ; Adenosine Deaminase/metabolism* ; Macrophages/immunology* ; Wnt Signaling Pathway/genetics* ; Myocarditis/immunology* ; Mice ; Coxsackievirus Infections/metabolism* ; Male ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Enterovirus B, Human/physiology* ; beta Catenin/genetics*

The underlying cause of low response rates to existing immunotherapies is that tumor cells dominate tumor immune escape through surface antigen deficiency and inducing tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment (TIME). Here, we proposed an in situ tumor cell engineering strategy to disrupt tumor immune escape at the root by restoring tumor cell MHC-I/tumor-specific antigen complex (MHC-I/TSA) expression to promote T-cell recognition and by silencing tumor cell CD55 to increase the ICOSL⁺ B-cell proportion and reverse the TIME. A doxorubicin (DOX) and dual-gene plasmid (MAC pDNA, encoding both MHC-I/ASMTNMELM and CD55-shRNA) coloaded drug delivery system (LCPN@ACD) with tumor targeting and charge/size dual-conversion properties was prepared. LCPN@ACD-induced ICD promoted DC maturation and enhanced T-cell activation and infiltration. LCPN@ACD enabled effective expression of MHC-I/TSA on tumor cells, increasing the ability of tumor cell recognition and killing. LCPN@ACD downregulated tumor cell CD55 expression, increased the proportion of ICOSL⁺ B cells and CTLs, and reversed the TIME, thus greatly improving the efficacy of αPD-1 and CAR-T therapies. The application of this in situ tumor cell engineering strategy eliminated the source of tumor immune escape, providing new ideas for solving the challenges of clinical immunotherapy.

OBJECTIVES: We propose a novel deep learning segmentation algorithm (DSRF) based on multi-scale supervision and residual feedback strategy for precise segmentation of the optic chiasm and optic nerves in CT images of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. METHODS: We collected 212 NPC CT images and their ground truth labels from SegRap2023, StructSeg2019 and HaN-Seg2023 datasets. Based on a hybrid pooling strategy, we designed a decoder (HPS) to reduce small organ feature loss during pooling in convolutional neural networks. This decoder uses adaptive and average pooling to refine high-level semantic features, which are integrated with primary semantic features to enable network learning of finer feature details. We employed multi-scale deep supervision layers to learn rich multi-scale and multi-level semantic features under deep supervision, thereby enhancing boundary identification of the optic chiasm and optic nerves. A residual feedback module that enables multiple iterations of the network was designed for contrast enhancement of the optic chiasm and optic nerves in CT images by utilizing information from fuzzy boundaries and easily confused regions to iteratively refine segmentation results under supervision. The entire segmentation framework was optimized with the loss from each iteration to enhance segmentation accuracy and boundary clarity. Ablation experiments and comparative experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of each component and the performance of the proposed model. RESULTS: The DSRF algorithm could effectively enhance feature representation of small organs to achieve accurate segmentation of the optic chiasm and optic nerves with an average DSC of 0.837 and an ASSD of 0.351. Ablation experiments further verified the contributions of each component in the DSRF method. CONCLUSIONS The proposed deep learning segmentation algorithm can effectively enhance feature representation to achieve accurate segmentation of the optic chiasm and optic nerves in CT images of NPC.
Humans ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods* ; Optic Chiasm/diagnostic imaging* ; Optic Nerve/diagnostic imaging* ; Algorithms ; Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma ; Deep Learning ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging* ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods*

Radiation‐induced lung injury (RILI) is one of the common and serious complications in chest cancer patients after undergoing radiotherapy. In recent years, gut microbiota has garnered attention as a research hotspot. Multiple studies found that it has preventive and therapeutic effects on RILI. It can exert its effects through various mechanisms including the regulation of the immune system, the gut‐lung axis and its own metabolites, etc. In this article, the mechanism of RILI was elucidated and the protective mechanism of gut microbiota against RILI was comprehensively analyzed, providing new insights for the prevention and treatment of RILI in clinical practice and offering new methods to improve patient prognosis and enhance the quality of life.

Infectious disease science is a core discipline of medicine and public health, and education in this field is essential for safeguarding public health and global health security. This study examined the development and future trends of infectious disease education in China by analyzing the evolution of the content and structure of nine editions of the textbook InfectiousDiseases published by the People's Medical Publishing House. The study revealed continuous improvements in pathogen classification methods, the selection of classic infectious diseases, and the articulation of prevention strategies, reflecting scientific advancements of the discipline and shifting societal needs. The expansion and diversification of the editorial team highlight the interdisciplinary nature and international perspective of infectious disease science. The continuous updates of the textbook not only provide theoretical guidance for infectious disease prevention and control but also contribute significantly to the training of skilled health professionals and the enhancement of public health emergency response capabilities. Based on the current status, this study suggests to accelerate the dynamic updating of textbooks, strengthen clinical practice education, and promote international collaboration to better meet the demands of future infectious disease education.