ObjectiveTo investigate the characteristics of gray matter structure and clinical symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease （AD） comorbid with apathy （AD-A）. MethodsThe study included 30 patients with AD-A， 30 AD disease patients without apathy （AD without apathy， AD-NA）， and 30 healthy controls （HCs） matched in gender， age， and years of education. All participants underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and magnetic resonance imaging （MRI） scans. Voxel-based morphometry （VBM） was used to analyze changes in gray matter volume among the three groups. Additionally， the correlation between the identified abnormal brain regions and apathy scale scores was analyzed. ResultsThere were no statistically significant differences among the three groups in terms of age， gender， years of education， or total intracranial volume. Compared with the HCs group， both the AD-A and AD-NA groups showed significantly lower scores in cognitive function （P<0.001）. The AD-A group exhibited significantly higher apathy scale scores compared with the AD-NA group （P<0.001）. Compared with the AD-NA group， the AD-A group showed reduced gray matter volume in the bilateral caudate nucleus， left orbitofrontal cortex， lingual gyrus， inferior frontal gyrus， superior frontal gyrus， entorhinal cortex， right middle frontal gyrus and posterior cingulate cortex （FWE-corrected， P<0.05 for all）. Compared with the HCs group， the AD-A group exhibited reduced gray matter volume in the bilateral middle temporal gyrus， left fusiform gyrus， calcarine sulcus， postcentral gyrus， right inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus （FWE-corrected， P<0.05 for all）. Compared with the HCs group， the AD-NA group showed reduced gray matter volume in the left precuneus， inferior temporal gyrus， and right inferior temporal gyrus （FWE-corrected， P<0.05 for all）. In the AD-A group， changes in the gray matter volume of the left caudate nucleus （r= -0.557， P=0.002） and right middle frontal gyrus （r=-0.620， P=0.001） were negatively correlated with the apathy evaluation scale （AES） scores. ConclusionPatients in the AD-A group exhibited significant atrophy in the frontal-temporal-basal ganglia circuit， and the degree of gray matter atrophy was correlated with the severity of apathy.

Immune checkpoints include a series of receptor-ligand pairs that play a key role in the proliferation, activation, and immune regulatory responses of immune cells. Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), such as programmed death protein 1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) have achieved good therapeutic effects in clinical practice, some patients still experience ineffective treatment and immune resistance. A large amount of evidence has shown that immune checkpoint proteins are related to cell metabolism during immune regulation. On the one hand, immune checkpoints connect to alter the metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells to compete for nutrients required by immune cells. On the other hand, immune checkpoints regulate the metabolic pathways of immune cells, such as phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin (PI3K/AKT/mTOR) to affect the activation of immune cells. Based on a review of the literature, this article reviews the mechanisms by which PD-1, CTLA-4, T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains (TIGIT), T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (TIM-3), cluster of differentiation 47 (CD47), and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) regulate cell metabolic reprogramming, and looks forward to whether targeting the ligand-receptor pairs of immune checkpoints in a "dual regulation" manner and inhibiting metabolic pathways can effectively solve the problem of tumor immune resistance.
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Humans ; Neoplasms/genetics* ; Metabolic Networks and Pathways/immunology* ; Animals ; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors/pharmacology*

Metformin has been demonstrated to attenuate hyperglycaemia by modulating the gut microbiota. However, the mechanisms through which the microbiome mediates metformin monotherapy failure (MMF) are unclear. Herein, in a prospective clinical cohort study of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients treated with metformin monotherapy, metagenomic sequencing of faecal samples revealed that Phocaeicola vulgatus abundance was approximately 12 times higher in nonresponders than in responders. P. vulgatus rapidly hydrolysed taurine-conjugated bile acids, leading to ceramide accumulation and reversing the improvements in glucose intolerance conferred by metformin in high-fat diet-fed mice. Interestingly, C22:0 ceramide bound to mitochondrial fission factor to induce mitochondrial fragmentation and impair hepatic oxidative phosphorylation in P. vulgatus-colonized hyperglycaemic mice, which could be exacerbated by metformin. This work suggests that metformin may be unsuitable for P. vulgatus-rich T2DM patients and that clinicians should be aware of metformin toxicity to mitochondria. Suppressing P. vulgatus growth with cefaclor or improving mitochondrial function using adenosylcobalamin may represent simple, safe, effective therapeutic strategies for addressing MMF.

[Objective]To investigate the efficacy of a blended instruction model which incorporated preceptorship into the clinical anatomy course at Sun Yat-sen University and improve satisfaction and performance of medical students.[Methods]The study recruited participants including 375 Chinese students aged 20-24 years old,2 anatomy professors,49 surgeons and 7 lab technicians. The students were divided into 10 teams and each team was tutored by 1 anatomy professor,2 surgeons and 1 lab technician. After the course ended,the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and Student Experience in Education Questionnaire (SEEQ) were used in the survey to measure the quality of teaching and students' overall educational experience. Students' performance scores were collected and analyzed.[Results]The response rates for CEQ and SEEQ were 60.3％ (226/375) and 54.6％ (200/375),respectively. CEQ indicated a moderate level of overall satisfaction with 7.12 out of 10. Subscales like Clear Goals,Good Teaching and Generic Skills showed moderately positive reception of the course,while subscales like Appropriate Workload and Appropriate Assessment revealed students' concerns about heavy workload and difficult exam. There was no statistically significant difference in perceptions between male and female students. The students who are more satisfied with the quality of the course are also more satisfied with the way it is taught (P<0.01). SEEQ further confirmed the universal appeal of the course,with high scores in dimensions like Learning,Enthusiasm and Individual Rapport among the students. Qualitative responses highlighted areas of improvement,such as consistent teaching methods,practical hands-on experience for the students and alignment between what was taught and tested.The students after the preceptorship introduction achieved better academic performance than before.[Conclusions]The blended instruction model incorporating preceptorship enhances the student satisfaction and performance in clinical anatomy course,and also stimulates students' learning enthusiasm and group interaction. We need further improvement in the teaching quality control,syllabus contents and course assessment for teaching of clinical anatomy.

BACKGROUND:In recent years,High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation(HD-tDCS)has garnered significant attention due to its potential non-invasive modulation of brain function.However,there is still a lack of visual analysis in the literature regarding this technique. OBJECTIVE:To perform a visual analysis of HD-tDCS-related research so as to explore the current status and trends in this field. METHODS:English literature related to HD-tDCS was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database covering the period from January 1,2010 to May 6,2023.The VOSviewer software was used to visualize and analyze the source journals,countries/regions,authors,institutions,cited references,and keywords of the included literature,creating a knowledge map to uncover the research landscape and hotspots. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:A total of 336 articles were included,showing a consistent increase in the annual publication count of HD-tDCS research.Among these,the United States contributed the highest number of publications(141 articles)with 4 221 citations,followed by China with 70 articles and 401 citations.Brain Stimulation was the most prolific journal(28 articles),Marom Bikson was the most productive author(37 articles),and The City College of New York was the most active institution(35 articles).The most frequently mentioned keywords in the field included motor cortex,regulation,working memory,excitability,and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.Notable recent keywords in the last 5 years include attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder,brain networks,and stimulation intensity.Currently,the volume of HD-tDCS research is relatively limited,but is on an upward trajectory,indicating substantial research potential.It is expected that future studies in this domain will continue to focus on the application of HD-tDCS in cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders,while also exploring its therapeutic mechanisms targeting the motor cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex based on brain network analysis.

Dry eye,also known as keratoconjunctivitis sicca,is clinically manifested as dry eyes,itching,burning,blurred vision and other symptoms,which seriously affects the life quality of patients.In recent years,the incidence of dry eye has increased year by year,and it has become one of the common clinical diseases in ophthalmology.At present,the treatment methods of dry eye mainly include drug treatment,surgical treatment and clinical nursing,among which drug is the most commonly used method for the treatment of dry eye.Therefore,this paper summarizes the application and research progress of clinical medication of dry eye based on permeation pathways and inflammatory pathways in recent years,so as to provide some ideas for the follow-up treatment of dry eye and drug development.

Objective To investigate the radiographic anatomical relationship between tibial plateau and distal femur and evaluate the impact of reset tibial plateau of various widths after reduction of the Schatzker Ⅳ-C tibial plateau fractures on postoperative outcomes.Methods We collected and reviewed the X-ray images of the normal knees of 207 standard neutrally-positioned adults(non-fracture group)and pre-and post-operative immediate anterior-posterior X-ray images of the knees of 60 patients with Schatzker Ⅳ-C fractures(fracture group)in our hospital from August 2012 to August 2022.We measured the proximal tibial joint width(TAW),distal femoral width(DFW),and distal femoral joint width(FAW)in both groups and calculated the TAW/DFW and TAW/FAW ratios.In the fracture group,the cases with TAW between FAW and DFW were assigned to the well-reduced group,while those with TAW outside this range between FAW and DFW to the poorly-reduced group.Both groups were assessed using the Hospital for Special Surgery knee score(HSS)one year after operation.Results In the non-fracture group,there were no significant differences in gender or affected side in terms of TAW/DFW and TAW/FAW ratios(P＞0.05),while in the fracture group,there were statistically significant differences in the TAW/DFW and TAW/FAW ratios compared to the non-fracture group(P＜0.05).There was a statistically signifi-cant difference in the one-year postoperative HSS scores between the well-reduced and poorly-reduced groups in the fracture group(P＜0.05).Conclusion The radiographic anatomical relationship between the tibial plateau and distal femur in normal adults is relatively constant,providing a radiological reference for resetting the tibial plateau to a satisfactory width during reduction of Schatzker Ⅳ-C fractures.TAW/DFW＞1 or TAW/FAW＜1 indicates a poor reduction of the fracture and predicts poor postoperative recovery of knee joint function.

Objective To investigate the risk factors for postoperative pulmonary embolism in patients with spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage,and construct and verify the nomogram model.Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 558 patients admitted in the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University and the Three Gorges Hospital Affiliated to Chongqing University.And 393 of them who hospitalized from January 2015 to January 2021 were assigned into a modeling group,and the other 165 patients from February 2021 to January 2023 into a validation group.Univariate and multivariate stepwise logistic regression analyses were used to screen out the risk factors associated with pulmonary embolism after spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage surgery.Then a nomogram model was build based on these factors and verified.Results Based on age,blood loss,Glasgow coma scale(GCS)score,surgical treatments,levels of fibrin degradation products,D-dimer and hemoglobin,plasma osmolality,and deep vein thrombosis,a risk model of pulmonary embolism was built.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis showed the model had good discriminability for the presence of pulmonary embolism,and the area under the curve(AUC)value was 0.908.Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-fit test indicated that the model had a good fit to the verification set(Chi-square=14.805,df=8,P=0.063),the correction curve was close to the ideal curve,and the prediction probability of the model was close to the actual occurrence probability,suggesting the model having good accuracy.Decision curve analysis revealed that the established nomogram model can get benefits under a large range of threshold probabilities.Conclusion We develop a prediction model for postoperative pulmonary embolism in patients with spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage after surgical treatment,which shows good prediction performance in both the training and validation groups,and can be used for accurate,prompt and quick identification for the occurrence of pulmonary embolism in clinical practice.