Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics and prognosis of dengue fever inpatients in Guangzhou area, so that to provide references for clinical diagnosis and treatment.Methods:The demographic data, laboratory findings, clinical manifestations, and outcomes of 116 dengue fever cases admitted to Guangzhou Red Cross Hospital, Jinan University and the First Affiliated Hospital, Jinan University from August 1st to December 21st, 2024 were retrospectively analyzed.Results:Among the 116 patients, 99 cases (85.34%) were classified as non-severe dengue, while 17(14.66%) progressed to severe dengue (SD). The cohort was comprised of 62(53.45%) males and 54(46.55%) females, with an age of 63.5(22.0) years, and the hospitalization duration was 6(4) days, with the fever duration of 6(2) days. Sixty-two patients (53.45%) were complicated with comorbidities, among which hypertension (66.13%(41/62)), diabetes mellitus (25.81%(16/62)) and coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (22.58%(14/62)) accounted for the highest proportion. Primary clinical manifestations included fever (113 cases, 97.41%), with 86.21%(100/116) experiencing fever ≥five days, followed by fatigue (92 cases, 79.31%), myalgia (65 cases, 56.03%), anorexia (56 cases, 48.28%), cough/sputum (55 cases, 47.41%), and headache (54 cases, 46.55%). Early laboratory findings revealed leukopenia (2.22(1.75)×10 9/L], lymphopenia (0.63(0.50)×10 9/L), and thrombocytopenia (77.00(57.00)×10 9/L). Among 17 SD cases, 17 cases experienced severe organ damage, two cases had severe gastrointestinal bleeding, and two cases had septic shock. Among the patients with severe organ damage, there were eight cases of severe cardiac injury, followed by six cases of severe respiratory system injury, four cases of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, three cases of acute kidney injury, three cases of neurological injury, and three cases of disseminated intravascular coagulation. Severe cardiac injury was manifested with acute heart failure in five cases, malignant arrhythmia in three cases, stress cardiomyopathy in one case, and acute myocardial infarction in one case. Severe respiratory system injuries were manifested with acute respiratory distress syndrome in five cases, severe pneumonia in three cases, and acute pulmonary embolism in one case. Neurological damage was manifested with viral meningitis in one case, acute cerebral infarction in one case, and sensorineural hearing loss in one case. All patients were cured or discharged after symptomatic supportive treatment and active prevention and treatment of complications. Conclusions:In 2024, dengue fever inpatients in Guangzhou area predominantly consist of elderly patients, who are complicated with comorbidities and present a high proportion of severe cases. Severe patients are primarily characterized by organ damage, with cardiovascular system injury being the most common severe manifestation. Dengue patients have a good prognosis.

The coinfection of respiratory viruses and bacteria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, despite the development of vaccines and powerful antibiotics. As a macromolecule that is difficult to absorb in the gastrointestinal tract, a homogeneous polysaccharide from Houttuynia cordata (HCPM) has been reported to exhibit anti-complement properties and alleviate influenza A virus (H1N1)-induced lung injury; however, the effects of HCPM without in vitro antiviral and antibacterial activities on more complicated pulmonary diseases resulting from viral-bacterial coinfection remains unclear. This study established a representative coinfection murine pneumonia model infected with H1N1 (0.2 LD₅₀) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA, 10⁷ CFU). HCPM significantly improved survival rate and weight loss, and ameliorated gut-lung damage and inflammatory cytokine production. Interestingly, the therapeutic effect of HCPM on intestinal damage preceded that in the lungs. Mechanistically, HCPM inhibited the overactivation of the intestinal complement (C3a and C5a) and suppressed the activation of the NLR family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) pathway, which contributes to the regulation of the Treg/Th17 cell balance in the gut-lung axis. The results indicate the beneficial effects of an anti-complement polysaccharide against viral-bacterial coinfection pneumonia by modulating crosstalk between multiple immune regulatory networks.

Cancer is a serious global health problem and a major cause of human death. Conventional cancer treatments often run the risk of impairing vital organ functions. Anticancer peptides (ACPs) are considered to be one of the most promising therapeutic agents against common human cancers due to their small sizes, high specificity, and low toxicity. Since ACP recognition is highly limited to the laboratory, expensive, and time-consuming, we proposed pLM4ACP, a model for predicting ACPs based on machine learning and protein language models. In this model, the protein language model ProtT5 was used to extract the features of ACPs, and the extracted features were input into the support vector machine (SVM) classification algorithm for optimization and performance evaluation. The model showcased significantly higher accuracy than other methods, with the overall accuracy of 0.763, F1-score of 0.767, Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.527, and area under the curve of 0.827 on the independent test set. This study constructs an efficient anticancer peptide prediction model based on protein language models, further advancing the application of artificial intelligence in the biomedical field and promoting the development of precision medicine and computational biology.
Machine Learning ; Antineoplastic Agents/chemistry* ; Humans ; Peptides/chemistry* ; Support Vector Machine ; Algorithms ; Computational Biology/methods* ; Neoplasms/drug therapy*

Purpose To explore the diagnostic efficacy of 99Tcm labeled fibroblast activation protein inhibitor(FAPI)SPECT/CT for metastatic lesions in advanced colorectal cancer and its impact on decisions regarding immunotherapy,and to compare it with 18F-FDG PET/CT.Materials and Methods A total of 34 patients with advanced colorectal cancer who underwent both 99Tcm-FAPI SPECT/CT and 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging from August 2022 to November 2023 in Fuzhou University Affiliated Provincial Hospital were prospectively included.The gold standard was based on biopsy or clinical and imaging follow-up results.Chi-square tests and rank sum tests were used to compare differences between the groups.Results Among the 34 patients,17 patients subsequently received immunotherapy.The uptake of 99Tcm-FAPI was significantly higher than that of 18F-FDG for the primary tumor site(Z=-2.389,P=0.017),peritoneal metastasis(Z=-2.497,P=0.013)and liver metastasis(Z=-0.106,P=0.015).The diagnostic efficacy of 99Tcm-FAPI SPECT/CT for patients with peritoneal metastasis was superior to that of 18F-FDG PET/CT(χ2=4.65,P=0.033).Metastatic lesions that did not uptake 99Tcm-FAPI had a better clinical prognosis after immunotherapy(χ2=11.839,P=0.006),and maximum standardized uptake value(SUVmax)-FDG/SUVmax-FAPI ratio was a promising predictive factor for a better prognosis after immunotherapy,with an optimal cut-off value of 5.04.Conclusion 99Tcm-FAPI SPECT/CT has superior diagnostic efficacy for peritoneal metastasis in advanced colorectal cancer compared with 18F-FDG PET/CT.SUVmax-FDG/SUVmax-FAPI ratio is a promising radiomic parameter for predicting patient prognosis after immunotherapy,which can help guide clinical decision-making further.

Purpose To explore the diagnostic efficacy of 99Tcm labeled fibroblast activation protein inhibitor(FAPI)SPECT/CT for metastatic lesions in advanced colorectal cancer and its impact on decisions regarding immunotherapy,and to compare it with 18F-FDG PET/CT.Materials and Methods A total of 34 patients with advanced colorectal cancer who underwent both 99Tcm-FAPI SPECT/CT and 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging from August 2022 to November 2023 in Fuzhou University Affiliated Provincial Hospital were prospectively included.The gold standard was based on biopsy or clinical and imaging follow-up results.Chi-square tests and rank sum tests were used to compare differences between the groups.Results Among the 34 patients,17 patients subsequently received immunotherapy.The uptake of 99Tcm-FAPI was significantly higher than that of 18F-FDG for the primary tumor site(Z=-2.389,P=0.017),peritoneal metastasis(Z=-2.497,P=0.013)and liver metastasis(Z=-0.106,P=0.015).The diagnostic efficacy of 99Tcm-FAPI SPECT/CT for patients with peritoneal metastasis was superior to that of 18F-FDG PET/CT(χ2=4.65,P=0.033).Metastatic lesions that did not uptake 99Tcm-FAPI had a better clinical prognosis after immunotherapy(χ2=11.839,P=0.006),and maximum standardized uptake value(SUVmax)-FDG/SUVmax-FAPI ratio was a promising predictive factor for a better prognosis after immunotherapy,with an optimal cut-off value of 5.04.Conclusion 99Tcm-FAPI SPECT/CT has superior diagnostic efficacy for peritoneal metastasis in advanced colorectal cancer compared with 18F-FDG PET/CT.SUVmax-FDG/SUVmax-FAPI ratio is a promising radiomic parameter for predicting patient prognosis after immunotherapy,which can help guide clinical decision-making further.

Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics and prognosis of dengue fever inpatients in Guangzhou area, so that to provide references for clinical diagnosis and treatment.Methods:The demographic data, laboratory findings, clinical manifestations, and outcomes of 116 dengue fever cases admitted to Guangzhou Red Cross Hospital, Jinan University and the First Affiliated Hospital, Jinan University from August 1st to December 21st, 2024 were retrospectively analyzed.Results:Among the 116 patients, 99 cases (85.34%) were classified as non-severe dengue, while 17(14.66%) progressed to severe dengue (SD). The cohort was comprised of 62(53.45%) males and 54(46.55%) females, with an age of 63.5(22.0) years, and the hospitalization duration was 6(4) days, with the fever duration of 6(2) days. Sixty-two patients (53.45%) were complicated with comorbidities, among which hypertension (66.13%(41/62)), diabetes mellitus (25.81%(16/62)) and coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (22.58%(14/62)) accounted for the highest proportion. Primary clinical manifestations included fever (113 cases, 97.41%), with 86.21%(100/116) experiencing fever ≥five days, followed by fatigue (92 cases, 79.31%), myalgia (65 cases, 56.03%), anorexia (56 cases, 48.28%), cough/sputum (55 cases, 47.41%), and headache (54 cases, 46.55%). Early laboratory findings revealed leukopenia (2.22(1.75)×10 9/L], lymphopenia (0.63(0.50)×10 9/L), and thrombocytopenia (77.00(57.00)×10 9/L). Among 17 SD cases, 17 cases experienced severe organ damage, two cases had severe gastrointestinal bleeding, and two cases had septic shock. Among the patients with severe organ damage, there were eight cases of severe cardiac injury, followed by six cases of severe respiratory system injury, four cases of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, three cases of acute kidney injury, three cases of neurological injury, and three cases of disseminated intravascular coagulation. Severe cardiac injury was manifested with acute heart failure in five cases, malignant arrhythmia in three cases, stress cardiomyopathy in one case, and acute myocardial infarction in one case. Severe respiratory system injuries were manifested with acute respiratory distress syndrome in five cases, severe pneumonia in three cases, and acute pulmonary embolism in one case. Neurological damage was manifested with viral meningitis in one case, acute cerebral infarction in one case, and sensorineural hearing loss in one case. All patients were cured or discharged after symptomatic supportive treatment and active prevention and treatment of complications. Conclusions:In 2024, dengue fever inpatients in Guangzhou area predominantly consist of elderly patients, who are complicated with comorbidities and present a high proportion of severe cases. Severe patients are primarily characterized by organ damage, with cardiovascular system injury being the most common severe manifestation. Dengue patients have a good prognosis.

Objective The aim of this study was to explore the role and mechanism of ferroptosis in SiO2-induced cardiac injury using a mouse model. Methods Male C57BL/6 mice were intratracheally instilled with SiO2 to create a silicosis model.Ferrostatin-1(Fer-1)and deferoxamine(DFO)were used to suppress ferroptosis.Serum biomarkers,oxidative stress markers,histopathology,iron content,and the expression of ferroptosis-related proteins were assessed. Results SiO2 altered serum cardiac injury biomarkers,oxidative stress,iron accumulation,and ferroptosis markers in myocardial tissue.Fer-1 and DFO reduced lipid peroxidation and iron overload,and alleviated SiO2-induced mitochondrial damage and myocardial injury.SiO2 inhibited Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2(Nrf2)and its downstream antioxidant genes,while Fer-1 more potently reactivated Nrf2 compared to DFO. Conclusion Iron overload-induced ferroptosis contributes to SiO2-induced cardiac injury.Targeting ferroptosis by reducing iron accumulation or inhibiting lipid peroxidation protects against SiO2 cardiotoxicity,potentially via modulation of the Nrf2 pathway.

Objective　To analyze the clinical characteristics and treatment measures of elderly patients with severe dengue (SD) in Guangdong Province, providing a scientific basis for the clinical treatment of elderly SD patients. Methods Clinical data of elderly patients with SD hospitalized in four cities in Guangdong Province from January 2014 to December 2023 were collected. The clinical characteristics of elderly patients between the younger elderly (<80 years old) and the older elderly (≥80 years) were compared, and different treatment measures and clinical outcomes were statistically analyzed. Results Among the 114 elderly SD patients, 34.21% were the older elderly, and 81.58% had underlying diseases, including hypertension (64.04%), chronic heart disease (42.98%), cerebrovascular disease (28.07%), and diabetes (21.05%). Among elderly SD patients, 42.11% had normal or elevated white blood cell counts, 81.58% had a platelet count of <50×109/L and 52.63% had albumin levels <30 g/L. There was no statistically significant difference in symptoms, signs, and laboratory indicators between the younger elderly and the older elderly (P>0.05). The incidence rates of severe plasma leakage, severe bleeding, and severe organ damage in severe manifestation were 29.82%, 34.21%, and 63.16% respectively, with no statistically significant difference between the younger elderly and the older elderly (P>0.05). All patients were treated with intravenous infusion, organ support, nutritional support, and other treatments upon admission, with the usage rates of human serum albumin, platelets, red blood cells, glucocorticoids, intravenous immunoglobulin, antibiotics, and antifungal drugs being 60.53%, 55.26%, 19.30%, 35.96%, 30.70%, and 78.95% respectively. Mechanical ventilation and renal replacement therapy were administered to 22.81% and 8.77% of patients. Finally, 32.46% of patients were admitted to the intensive care unit, and 16.67% died. Conclusions Elderly patients with SD often have underlying diseases and severe organ damage is more common, with a high mortality rate. The clinical characteristics of the younger elderly and older elderly patients are similar. In clinical practice, early identification of severe cases and developing individualized comprehensive treatment measures based on underlying diseases and clinical characteristics are key to treating elderly patients with SD.

Objective:To systematically integrate qualitative studies on psychological experience of breast cancer patients in rehabilitation period, so as to provide basis for improving psychological care and rehabilitation efficacy.Methods:Qualitative research on psychological experience of breast cancer patients during rehabilitation was electronically retrieved in databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang data, and China Biology Medical disc. The search period was from database establishment to September 2023. The quality evaluation of the literature was conducted using the 2020 version of the quality evaluation criteria for qualitative research of the Joanna Briggs Institute Evidence-Based Health Care Center. The results were integrated using the aggregative Meta integration method.Results:A total of 18 articles were included. Sixty-six research topics were extracted and categorized into 10 new categories, forming three integrated results, namely, psychological adjustment of patients with negative emotions and rehabilitation needs in the process of coping, family and social factors affecting patient rehabilitation experience, and patients perceiving that the healthcare system was not yet perfect.Conclusions:Medical and nursing staff should pay attention to the psychological problems of breast cancer patients in the rehabilitation period, understand their rehabilitation needs, provide targeted counseling and services, pay attention to the family and social support factors of breast cancer patients, help them improve their quality of life, and actively promote rehabilitation.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of ultrasound and acoustic and laser cleaning of curved root canals. METHODS: A total of 92 molars with independent root canals with a curvature of 20°-40° were prepared and standardized at 04 25# and stained with gentian violet solution for 72 h. Among them, 52 were randomly divi-ded into four groups for final rinsing (n=13): NI group, PUI group, EDDY group, and PIPS group. Ten samples in each group were cut horizontally along the long axis perpendicular to the root and divided into curved upper, curved, and apical segments. Images were taken with a stereomicroscope and Image J measurements were taken to calculate the depth of rinse penetration. The remaining three samples from each group were split along the long axis of the dentin, photographed by scanning electron microscope to record the dentin tubule exposure and staining layer, and scored for staining layer by double-blind method. SPSS 26.0 software was used to perform statistical analysis and select the best flushing method. An extra 40 samples were randomly divided into four groups for detection of flushing fluid penetration depth (n=10): 10, 20, 30, and 40 s. RESULTS: In the upper part, the mean depth of infiltration was not significantly different between the experimental and control groups (P>0.05). The PIPS group had a significantly lower smear layer score than the control group and the EDDY group (P<0.01). In the curved segment, the mean depth of infiltration was significantly greater in the PUI group than in the control group (P<0.05); the tarnish layer score was lower in each experimental group than in the control group. At the top, the mean depth of infiltration was greater in the PUI and PIPS groups than in the control group (P<0.05), and the smear layer score was lower in the PIPS group than in the other groups (P<0.05). After the time was changed, the depth of infiltration of PUI increased only in the apical segment as the flushing time increased. CONCLUSIONS The PUI and PIPS methods facilitate the penetration of irrigation solution into the dentin canal in curved root canals, especially in the apical segment. The PIPS technique is effective in removing the smear layer in curved root canals.
Humans ; Dental Pulp Cavity ; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning ; Root Canal Irrigants ; Root Canal Preparation/methods* ; Smear Layer ; Sodium Hypochlorite ; Therapeutic Irrigation/methods* ; Double-Blind Method