Schizophrenia is a common chronic mental disorder.Cognitive dysfunction is one of its core symptoms,which severely affects the social functioning of patients.Currently,antipsychotic medication treatments have poor efficacy in improving cognitive functions.Recent studies have found that metformin can improve cognitive dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia.However,the mechanism of action remains unclear.This review summarizes the therapeutic effects of metformin on cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia patients such as improving insulin resistance,repairing neuronal damage,regulating neuroimmunity,and combating oxidative stress,thereby providing new insights for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.

With the increasing variety and quantity of energy consuming equipment in hospitals, the phenomenon of high energy consumption in hospitals is becoming increasingly prominent. In June 2021, this study established an energy consumption control strategy for hospitals based on the energy consumption characteristics of medical service units, targeting the current situation and shortcomings of hospital energy consumption management, and then conducted exploration of strategy application. The strategy was designed to deepen the analysis of the energy consumption hierarchy and energy consumption characteristics of medical service units in the hospital′s energy consumption system, extract personalized energy consumption control indexes, and optimize or build energy consumption control systems with the help of self-control and information technology, through collaboration among multiple departments. These measures above aimed to reduce ineffective energy consumption in the energy consumption terminal of medical service units, promote the deep integration of energy consumption system operation status and energy consumption demand characteristics of medical service units, and realize precise energy consumption control.In June 2021 and March 2022, two tertiary hospitals carried out energy consumption control practices based on the energy consumption characteristics of operating rooms and wards respectively. After practices, the energy-saving rates of operating rooms and wards were both>10.0%, achieving good application results. This strategy can provide references for hospitals in China to promote energy conservation and emission reduction.

Antipsychotic medications are commonly used to treat schizophrenia,but they can have negative effects on lipid metabolism,leading to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases,reduced life expectancy,and difficulties with treatment adherence.The specific mechanisms by which antipsychotics disrupt lipid metabolism are not well understood.Sterol regulatory element-binding proteins(SREBPs)are important transcriptional factors that regulate lipid metabolism.Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9(PCSK9),a gene regulated by SREBPs,plays a critical role in controlling levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C)and has become a focus of research on lipid-lowering drugs.Recent studies have shown that antipsychotic drugs can affect lipid metabolism through the SREBP/PCSK9 pathway.A deep understanding of the mechanism for this pathway in antipsychotic drug-related metabolic abnormalities will promote the prevention of lipid metabolism disorders in patients with schizophrenia and the development and application of new drugs.

[Objective]To comprehensively compare the feasibility of three different treatment strategies consisting of low-dose chemotherapy(LDC),surgery and surgery with adjuvant low-dose chemotherapy(SLDC)for children with solitary bone lesions of eosinophilic granuloma(SBL-EG).[Methods]We retrospectively reviewed the records of 149 pediatric patients with SBL-EG at our institutions from 2002 to 2014. Our study included 86 patients who received LDC ,33 patients who received surgery and 30 patients who received SLDC. The duration of hospital stay ,time to symptom relief,recovery time,cost,complications and relapse-free sur-vival(RFS)of each strategy were analyzed.[Results]Hospital stay,time to symptom relief,recovery time and cost in the LDC group were significantly shorter or less than those in the surgery or SLDC group (P < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were observed in the above-mentioned factors between the surgery and SLDC groups (P > 0.05). Chemotherapy-related adverse events in the LDC and SLDC groups included nausea(8.62%),aminotransferase elevation(7.76%),slight hair loss(4.31%), immunity decline (21.55%),growth retardation (10.34%) and moon face (7.76%). LDC and SLDC treatment resulted in a significantly longer RFS (147 months and 126 months ,respectively) than surgery alone (114 months)(P = 0.005 and 0.019 , respectively). However ,there was no statistically significant difference in RFS between the LDC and SLDC groups (P = 0.732).[Conclusions]Compared with surgery or SLDC,LDC appears to promote more rapid recovery,less invasion,increase safety and eco-nomic treatment strategy for pediatric patients with SBL-EG.

Purpose To identify the role of tyrosine kinase receptor Axl for anti-apoptosis which was induced by cisplatin (DDP) and methotrexate (MTX) chemotherapy and to analyze the relationship between P-Axl and apoptosis-related proteins in osteosarcoma.Methods Osteosarcoma cell lines MG63,143B and U2OS were used in apoptosis assays,Axl siRNA transfection,cytotoxicity assays,cell cycle analysis,etc.A total of 41 cases of osteosarcom patients were included for immunohistochemistry of EnVision two-step staining and clinico-pathological relative analysis.TUNEL assay was performed in ten cases for apoptosis detection.Results Among the osteosarcoma cell lines,Gas6/Axl could obviously protect tumor cells from apoptosis induced by DDP and MTX (P ＜ 0.05).Axl siRNA transfection enhanced cell apoptosis,whereas Gas6 prone to function upon previous knockdown by Axl siRNA.Among the 41 cases,the positive rate of P-Axl,BCL-2,and Bax was 85.4％,70.7％,and 36.6％,respectively.In contrast,the positive rate of them was 22.2％,11.1％,and 11.1％ in osteofibrous dysplasia,respectively.The expression levels of these apoptosisrelated factors were significantly higher in osteosarcoma than in osteofibrous dysplasia (P ＜ 0.05).Through clinico-pathological analysis,there were significant relationships between the survival status and BCL-2 or Bax expression (P ＜ 0.05).Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated that BCL-2 was positively correlated to P-Axl with statistical significance (r =0.842,P ＜ 0.0001).By Cox univariate analysis,BCL-2 or Bax was correlated with the patients' prognosis.TUNEL assay also demonstrated that P-Axl high expression inhibited apoptosis in osteosarcoma tissues.Conclusion Gas6/Axl protects osteosarcoma cells from the apoptosis induced by DDP and MTX chemotherapy and inhibits apoptosis in osteosarcoma tissue,possibly through the regulation of apoptosis-related protein BCL-2.

A technique of diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) was developed for the in situ measurement of reactive phosphorus species in natural waters, sediments and potentially soils. Polyacrylamide / basic magnesium carbonate was used as the novel binding phase of DGT. Various factors, such as initial concentration, deployment time, pH and ionic strength, which may affect the adsorption of phosphate to the DGT were investigated. H2 SO4(0. 25 mol/ L, 10 mL) was used for elution of phosphate from the binding gel, and an elution efficiency of 85±5% was obtained. The DGT measurement was independent of ionic strength (0. 001-0. 05 mol/ L) and pH (4. 10-9. 15). The results indicated that the maximum adsorption capacities of DGT were limited to 20. 4 μg per disc ( T = 25℃, pH = 7. 00, [ P] = 2 mg / L). Good agreement was obtained between the measurement results of DGT method and molybdenum blue method in the P concentration from 0. 001 to 20 mg / L. The method detection limit (MDL) was 102. 4 ng / L. Field performances of DGT in synthetic seawater, the coastal seawater of Xiamen, Lake Yihai, Lake Chaohu and Nanfei River indicated that the basic magnesium carbonate-DGT method was more reliable than the commonly used ferrihydrite-DGT method.

Objective To investigate the expression level and clinical significance of melanoma antigen gene A (MAGEA) in osteosarcoma patients. Methods Compare gene expression profiles in osteosarcoma cell lines and osteoblasts with gene microarrays. Validation of differentially expressed genes was carried out by real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. Corresponding protein levels were measures by Western blot analysis in osteosarcoma cell lines and by immunohistochemistry in osteosarcoma tissues. The staining intensity of immuno-histochemistry was correlated with clinical outcome , and its prognostic significance was analyzed. Results Sev-eral genes belonging to MAGEA increased significantly in all osteosarcoma cell lines and tumor tissue , but not in normal osteoblast cell. Patients with MAGEA expression has higher risk of lung metastasis (relative risk 2.79, 95% confidence interval, 1.12-6.93; P = 0.028) and lower five-year survival rates (39.6% ± 8.4% vs. 80% ± 8.9%, P = 0.01) compared with patients without MAGEA expression. Conclusions The expression of MAGEA increased in osteosarcoma , which inversely correlating with outcome of osteosarcoma patients.

OBJECTIVETo detect the expression of SCUBE3 in human osteosarcoma cell lines and surgical specimens of osteosarcomas and investigate its association with the patients' prognosis.

METHODSThe expression of SCUBE3 protein was detected in 5 osteosarcoma cell lines using Western blotting. CCK8 assay was used to assess the effect of SCUBE3 suppression mediated by two specific small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) on the proliferation of U2OS osteosarcoma cells, and the cell cycle changes were detected using flow cytometry. Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of SCUBE3 in 60 osteosarcoma tissues, and Kaplan-Meier method was performed for survival analysis of the patients.

RESULTSCompared with osteoblast hFOB1.19 cells, the osteosarcoma cell lines all showed significantly higher expressions of SCUBE3. In U2OS cells, suppression of SCUBE3 expression by siRNA significantly inhibited the cell proliferation (P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that patients with high SCUBE3 expression had worse prognosis than those with low SCUBE3 expression (P=0.036).

CONCLUSIONSCUBE3 is up-regulated in the 5 osteosarcoma cell lines and in primary osteosarcoma tissues to promote the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells. A high SCUBE3 expression in osteosarcoma tissues is associated with a poor prognosis of the patients, suggesting that SCUBE3 can serve as a potential therapeutic target for osteosarcoma.

Bone Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Calcium-Binding Proteins ; metabolism ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Osteosarcoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; Prognosis ; RNA, Small Interfering ; Up-Regulation

Objective To study the growth inhibition,apoptosis induction effects of cinobufagin(CB)on human osteosarcoma(OS) cell line U2OS,MG63 and SaO2 in vitro and the underlying mechanism of action of cinobufagin in OS cells.Methods Cell viability was assessed by MTT assay.Cell-cycle status,apoptosis-inducing effects were evaluated by flow cytometry,fluorescent staining and DNA fragmentation assays.Inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) and Bcl-2 family proteins including Bax,cleaved-PARP,xIAP,cIAP-1,survivin and p65 were tested by Western blot.Results MTT assay showed that CB could inhibited the growth of U2OS,MG63 and SaO2 cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner.The 48 h IC50 of CB on U2OS,MG63 and SaO2 cells were (104.83± 16.96) nmol/L,(47.07±7.5) nmol/L,and (136.72±10.08) nmol/L respectively.The induction of G2/M cell-cycle arrest was seen in the cells treated with CB.After cells were cultured for 12 h in the presence of 100 nmol/L CB,the percentages of cells in the G0/G1 phase were decreased,while G2/M phase were increased in U2OS,MG63 and SaOS2 cells,respectively.The results showed CB inhibited the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells through blocking the cell cycle in G2/M phase.Induction of apoptosis was confirmed by Hoechst 33258 and Annexin V/PI staining.After treating with 100 nmol/L CB for 48 h,the extents of apoptosis were 33.6％±6.4％,36.4％±7.8％ and 29.3％±5.1％,respectively.These results indicate that the anti-tumor activity of cinobufagin in osteosarcoma cells was due to a G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis inducing effect.Western blot showed that CB could induce the apoptosis related family proteins Bax,cleaved-PARP up-regulation,xIAP,cIAP-1,survivin and p65 downregulation in OS cells.Conclusion CB can inhibit the cell viability and induce G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in U2OS,MG63 and SaO2 cells.The apoptosis-inducing effect of CB is confirmed by the regulation of apoptosis related proteins IAPs and Bcl-2 in vitro.

Objective To detect the expression of SCUBE3 in human osteosarcoma cell lines and surgical specimens of osteosarcomas and investigate its association with the patients' prognosis. Methods The expression of SCUBE3 protein was detected in 5 osteosarcoma cell lines using Western blotting. CCK8 assay was used to assess the effect of SCUBE3 suppression mediated by two specific small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) on the proliferation of U2OS osteosarcoma cells, and the cell cycle changes were detected using flow cytometry. Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of SCUBE3 in 60 osteosarcoma tissues, and Kaplan-Meier method was performed for survival analysis of the patients. Results Compared with osteoblast hFOB1.19 cells, the osteosarcoma cell lines all showed significantly higher expressions of SCUBE3. In U2OS cells, suppression of SCUBE3 expression by siRNA significantly inhibited the cell proliferation (P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that patients with high SCUBE3 expression had worse prognosis than those with low SCUBE3 expression (P=0.036). Conclusion SCUBE3 is up-regulated in the 5 osteosarcoma cell lines and in primary osteosarcoma tissues to promote the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells. A high SCUBE3 expression in osteosarcoma tissues is associated with a poor prognosis of the patients, suggesting that SCUBE3 can serve as a potential therapeutic target for osteosarcoma.