OBJECTIVES: Exposure to rare earth elements (REEs) has been linked to various systemic diseases, but their impact on the offspring blood-brain barrier (BBB) via the gut-brain axis remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the effects of maternal exposure to neodymium oxide (Nd₂O₃) on the BBB integrity of offspring rats, and to evaluate the potential protective role of bifidobacterium tetrad viable tablets (BTVT) against Nd₂O₃-induced intestinal and BBB damage. METHODS: Healthy adult SD rats were mated at a 1:1 male-to-female ratio, with the day of vaginal plug detection marked as gestational day 0. A total of 60 pregnant rats were randomly assigned to the following groups: Control, 50 mg/(kg·d) Nd₂O₃, 100 mg/(kg·d) Nd₂O₃, 200 mg/(kg·d) Nd₂O₃, and 200 mg/(kg·d) Nd₂O₃ + BTVT group. Treatments were administered by daily oral gavage throughout pregnancy and lactation. On postnatal day 21 (weaning), offspring feces, brain, and colon tissues were collected. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining was used to assess structural changes in brain and intestinal tissues. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in feces were quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Evans Blue (EB) dye extravasation assessed BBB permeability. Gene and protein expression levels of tight junction proteins occludin and zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) were measured by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blotting (WB), respectively. Neodymium levels in brain tissue were determined via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). RESULTS: HE staining revealed that maternal Nd₂O₃ exposure caused mucosal edema, increased submucosal spacing, and lymphocyte infiltration in offspring colon, as well as neuronal degeneration and vacuolization in brain tissue. BTVT intervention alleviated these changes. GC-MS analysis showed that levels of acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, and isobutyric acid significantly decreased, while valeric acid and isovaleric acid increased in offspring of Nd₂O₃-exposed mothers (P<0.05). BTVT significantly restored levels of acetic, propionic, and isobutyric acids and reduced valeric acid content (P<0.05). EB permeability was significantly elevated in Nd₂O₃-exposed offspring brains (P<0.05), but reduced with BTVT treatment (P<0.05). RT-PCR and WB showed downregulation of occludin and ZO-1 expression following Nd₂O₃ exposure (P<0.05), which was reversed by BTVT (P<0.05). ICP-MS results indicated significantly increased brain neodymium levels in offspring from all Nd₂O₃-exposed groups (P<0.05), while BTVT significantly reduced neodymium accumulation compared to the 200 mg/(kg·d) Nd₂O₃ group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Maternal exposure to Nd₂O₃ during pregnancy and lactation disrupts intestinal health and BBB integrity in offspring, elevates brain neodymium accumulation, and induces neuronal degeneration. BTVT effectively mitigates Nd₂O₃-induced intestinal and BBB damage in offspring, potentially through modulation of the gut-brain axis.
Animals ; Female ; Blood-Brain Barrier/pathology* ; Pregnancy ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Rats ; Male ; Neodymium/toxicity* ; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects/prevention & control* ; Lactation ; Maternal Exposure/adverse effects* ; Brain

Objective To investigate the status quo of fear of disease progression(FoP)in patients after pituitary neuroendocrine tumour surgery and analyse the medication effects of positive coping style on disease perception and FoP.Methods Convenient sampling method was used to select 345 patients with pituitary neuroendocrine tumours who underwent surgical operations in the neurosurgery department of a Grade IIIA hospital in Shanxi Province from January 2022 to January 2023 as the research objects.A general data questionnaire,disease perception questionnaire,medical coping style questionnaire and fear of progression questionnaire-short form(FoP-Q-SF)were used in the investigation.Pearson correlation was employed to analyse the correlations of the disease perception,active coping style and FoP among the patients.Structural equation models were used to analyse the mediating effects of positive coping styles on disease perception and FoP.Results The FoP score of patients after pituitary neuroendocrine tumour surgery was found at(35.02±4.92).FoP was positively correlated with the disease perception(r=0.672,P<0.01),and negatively with the active coping style(r=-0.679,P<0.01).Positive coping styles were positively correlated with disease perception(r=-0.610,P<0.01).Disease perception not only had a direct effect on FoP,but also had an indirect effect on FoP via active coping style,with an intermediate effect value of 0.202(P<0.001),accounting for 25.5%of total effect.Conclusion Postoperative positive coping style in patients with pituitary neuroendocrine tumour is a mediating variable between the disease perception and FoP.Medical staff should dynamically assess and early identify coping styles of patients and adopt personalised guidance programs,therefore to guide the patients to actively cope with the disease,so as to reduce the negative disease perception and alleviate the fear of disease progression of the patients.

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic value of synthetic MRI methods in the differentiation of benign and malignant breast lesions.Methods:Clinical and imaging data of 93 breast patients confirmed by pathology in the Second Affifiliated Hospital of Xi′an Jiaotong University from May 2019 to April 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. All patients underwent synthetic MRI technique, and the quantitative parameters of T 1, T 2, and proton density (PD) values were measured. Independent samples t-test and Wilcoxon test were used to compare the differences in clinical and imaging characteristics between the benign and malignant breast lesions. ROC curve was used for the comparison of the diagnostic efficacy of the quantitative parameters in differentiating malignant from benign breast lesions. Results:Of the 93 patients with breast lesions, 62 cases were malignant and 31 cases were benign. The quantitative T 2 values for benign and malignant lesions were 103 (93, 126)ms and 83 (77, 90)ms respectively, and the quantitative PD values were 87.7 (72.7, 96.7)pu and 73.5(63.3, 79.4)pu respectively. There were statistically significant differences between benign and malignant lesion( P<0.05). Taking quantitative T 2 values of 90.5 ms and PD values of 84.8 pu as the cut-off value, the area under the ROC curve in differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions were 0.87 and 0.75, accuracy values were 80.6% and 78.5%, specificity values were 87.1% and 54.8%, sensitivity values were 77.4% and 90.3% respectively. Conclusion:Synthetic MRI methods can be applied in the examination of breast lesions and has the potential to be an effective diagnostic method for the differential diagnosis between benign and malignant lesions of breast.

Rearranged during transfection (RET) fusions are found in 0.7% to 2% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Fusions between RET gene and other domains represent the distinct biological and clinicopathological subtypes of NSCLC. Recent years have witnessed the remarkable advancement of RET fusion-positive advanced NSCLC therapy. Conventional chemotherapy produced moderate clinical benefits. Prior to the introduction of targeted therapy or in the context of unavailability, platinum-based systemic regimens are initial therapy options. Immunotherapy predicted minimal response in the presence of RET fusions while currently available data have been scarce, and the single-agent immunotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy regimens are not recommended as initial systemic therapy in this population. The repurpose of multi-target kinase inhibitors in patients with RET fusion-positive NSCLC showed encouraging therapeutic activity, with only cabozantinib and vandetanib being recommended as initial or subsequent options under certain circumstances. However, there are still unmet clinical needs. Pralsetinib and selpercatinib have been developed as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) selectively targeting RET variation of fusions or mutations, and both agents significantly improved the prognosis of patients with RET fusion-positive NSCLC. Pralsetinib and selpercatinib have been established as preferred first-line therapy or subsequent therapy options. As observed with other TKIs treatment, resistance has also been associated with RET targeted inhibition, and the acquired resistance eventually affect the long-term therapeutic effectiveness, leading to limited subsequent treatment options. Therefore, it is essential to identify resistance mechanisms to TKI in RET fusion-positive advanced NSCLC to help reveal and establish new strategies to overcome resistance. Here, we review the advances in the treatment of RET fusion-positive advanced NSCLC.
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Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/genetics* ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms/genetics* ; Mutation ; Protein Kinase Inhibitors/therapeutic use* ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret/genetics*

Objective To investigate hand hygiene status of health care workers (HCWs)in a hospital,and pro-vide guides for improving hand hygiene compliance.Methods Hand hygiene intervention was adopted in a hospital between 2012 and 2014,hand hygiene compliance among HCWs and healthcare-associated infection in patients be-tween August 1 and August 31 of each year were investigated and analyzed statistically.Results In 2102 -2014, hand hygiene compliance rate of HCWs was 59.55%,62.13%,and 65.16% respectively,which showed a increased trend (χ2 =10.018,P =0.002),HAI rate was 2.13%,1 .48% and 1 .06% respectively,which showed a decreased trend (χ2 =82.377,P <0.001 );hand hygiene compliance rate of doctors was lower than nurses (57.97% vs 65.97%);Of different hand hygiene moments,hand hygiene compliance rate was the lowest before touching a pa-tient(41 .32%),and highest after body fluid exposure (76.47%).Conclusion Comprehensive hand hygiene inter-vention in this hospital has achieved preliminary results,improvement of HCWs’hand compliance is helpful for pre-venting HAI.

Objective To determine the distribution and drug resistance of pathogens isolated from wounds in orthopedic patients.Methods Wound samples were collected from 999 orthopedic patients in the Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University during July 2010 and June 2012.Pathogens were isolated and identified.The antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed by Kirby-Bauer method.Extended spectrum β-1actamases (ESBLs) were detected by double-disk diffusion test,and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was detected by cefoxitin disk diffusion test.WHONET 5.4 was used for drug resistance analysis.Results A total of 1056 strains of pathogens were isolated,of which gram-positive cocci,gramnegative organisms and fungi accounted for 69.98％ (739/1056),28.79％ (304/1056),and 1.23％(13/1056),respectively.The top 5 pathogens were Staphylococcus aureus (265.25.09％).Pseudomonas aeruginosa (245,23.20％),Acinetobacter baumannii (199,18.84％) and Escherichia coli (86,8.14％).The resistant rates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to cefoperazone/sulbactam,ciprofloxacin,levofloxacin and piperacillin/tazobactam were 13.58％,21.25％,21.67％ and 22.45％,while the highest resistance rate was to compound sulfamethoxazole (98.04％).Acinetobacter baumannii was highly resistant to most antibacterial agents except cefoperazone/sulbactam (14.29％),and 11 out of 199 strains were pandrug resistant.Enterobacteriaceae were completely susceptible to imipenem and meropenem,and their resistance rates to cefoperazone/sulbactam,piperacillin/tazobactam and amikacin were 1.16％-28.12％.ESBLs positive rates of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were 48.84％ (42/86) and 34.38％(11/32),respectively.Staphylococcus aureus were susceptible to vancomycin,teicoplanin and linezolid,but were highly resistant to ampicillin (100.00％),penicillin G (99.25％) and erythromycin (80.06％).The rate of MRSA was 41.51％ (110/265).Enterococcus were highly resistant to erythromycin,rifampin,levofloxacin,high-concentration gentamicin,minocycline and nitrofurantoin,but were susceptible to teicoplanin and linezolid,and the rate of vancomycin intermediate strain was 4.55％ (1/22).Conclusions The pathogens of wound infections in orthopedic patients were of wide variety.Staphylococcus aureus,Pseudomonas aeruginosa,Acinetobacter baumannii,Escherichia coli and Enterobacter cloacae were the most prevalent pathogens,and most strains were multi-drug resistant.

Purpose:To study the effect of P14ARF gene on human glioma cell line (U 251) Methods:We transfected P14ARF gene into human malignant glioma cell line with liposomal transfection reagent, we assessed cell growth properties,cell cycle.Results:After successful transfection, the human malignant glioma cell line U 251 proliferation rate was slower. The cell cycle was suppressed at G 1 and G 2.Conclusions:The findings suggest that p14ARF gene may be able to inhibit the growth of glioma cell in vitro.