No abstract

Objective: To compare the clinical effects of three minimally invasive surgeries on the treatment of impacted upper ureteral calculi. Methods: 135 patients with impacted upper ureteral calculi were selected and randomly divided into three groups (Group A-C) (n=45), which were treated with transurethral ureteroscopic lithotripsy, minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy, and retroperitoneal laparoscopic ureterolithotomy respectively. Relevant results of the three groups were compared. Results: The surgery time of Group C was significantly longer than those of Group A and Group B (P < 0.05). The postoperative hospitalization time of Group B was significantly longer than those of Group A and Group C (P < 0.05). 37.78% (17/45) of Group A patients required extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, being significantly more than those in Group B (6.67%, 3/45) and Group C (0, 0/45) (P < 0.05). The postoperative calculus clearance rate of Group A (51.11%, 82.22%) was significantly lower than those of Group B (91.11%, 97.78%) and Group C (93.33%, 100%) (P < 0.05). The incidence rates of postoperative complications in Group A-C were 11.11% (5/45), 8.89% (4/45) and 6.67% (3/45) respectively without significant differences (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The three surgical methods for impacted upper ureteral calculi should be selected according to practical conditions to improve therapeutic effects and to ensure safe surgery.

Specific patterns of brain atrophy may be helpful in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the present study, we set out to evaluate the utility of grey-matter volume in the classification of AD and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) compared to normal control (NC) individuals. Voxel-based morphometric analyses were performed on structural MRIs from 35 AD patients, 27 aMCI patients, and 27 NC participants. A two-sample two-tailed t-test was computed between the NC and AD groups to create a map of abnormal grey matter in AD. The brain areas with signifi cant differences were extracted as regions of interest (ROIs), and the grey-matter volumes in the ROIs of the aMCI patients were included to evaluate the patterns of change across different disease severities. Next, correlation analyses between the grey-matter volumes in the ROIs and all clinical variables were performed in aMCI and AD patients to determine whether they varied with disease progression. The results revealed significantly decreased grey matter in the bilateral hippocampus/ parahippocampus, the bilateral superior/middle temporal gyri, and the right precuneus in AD patients.The grey-matter volumes were positively correlated with clinical variables. Finally, we performed exploratory linear discriminative analyses to assess the classifying capacity of grey-matter volumes in the bilateral hippocampus and parahippocampus among AD, aMCI, and NC. Leave-one-out crossvalidation analyses demonstrated that grey-matter volumes in hippocampus and parahippocampus accurately distinguished AD from NC. These fi ndings indicate that grey-matter volumes are useful in the classifi cation of AD.

The marginal division (MrD) is a neostriatum subregion that links the limbic system and basal nucleus of Meynert; it is an important subcortical center that is involved in learning and memory. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder and the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. AD clinically manifests as gradually progressive cognitive decline with behavioral disorders. Prior to full dementia, AD patients typically experience a transient state, i.e., mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Amnestic MCI individuals, but not all MCI individuals, frequently convert to AD dementia. To specify whether and how the functional relationships between the MrD and other brain regions change during AD, functional connectivity was assessed using resting-state functional MRI data and associated neuropsychological tests in AD and MCI patients (amnestic-type). Compared with normal controls, a different decreased functional connectivity pattern was observed between the MrD and caudate, the amygdala/parahippocampal region, the inferior frontal gyrus, the superior temporal gyrus, and the cerebellum for AD/MCI patients. Moreover, the functional connectivity between the MrD and the identified regions was significantly correlated with the neuropsychological scores among the MCI and AD subjects. Our results suggest that the MrD functional network is disrupted during AD.

Development of novel chemoembolization agents to improve the treatment efficacy of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) against liver cancer remains an urgent need in clinical practice. Herein, a versatile composite microsphere with...

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disorder. Previous studies have shown abnormally increased apoptosis of chondrocytes in patients and animal models of OA. TNF-α and nitric oxide have been reported to induce chondrocyte ageing; however, the mechanism of chondrocyte apoptosis induced by IL-1β has remained unclear. The aim of this study is to identify the role of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) - c-Jun pathway in regulating induction of Bim, and its implication in chondrocyte apoptosis. This study showed that Bim is upregulated in chondrocytes obtained from the articular cartilage of OA patients and in cultured mouse chondrocytes treated with IL-1β. Upregulation of Bim was found to be critical for chondrocyte apoptosis induced by IL-1β, as revealed by the genetic knockdown of Bim, wherein apoptosis was greatly reduced in the chondrocytes. Moreover, activation of the JNK-c-Jun pathway was observed under IL-1β treatment, as indicated by the increased expression levels of c-Jun protein. Suppression of the JNK-c-Jun pathway, using chemical inhibitors and RNA interference, inhibited the Bim upregulation induced by IL-1β. These findings suggest that the JNK-c-Jun pathway is involved in the upregulation of Bim during OA and that the JNK-c-Jun-Bim pathway is vital for chondrocyte apoptosis.

Adiponectin exhibits protective effects against intestinal I/R injury, which may involve the AMPK/HO-1 pathway.

Although immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma using immune checkpoint inhibitors has achieved certain success, only a subset of patients benefits from this therapeutic strategy. The combination of immunostimulatory chemotherapeutics represents a promising strategy to enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy. However, it is hampered by the poor delivery of conventional chemotherapeutics. Here, it is shown that H‐ferritin nanocages loaded with doxorubicin (DOX@HFn) show potent chemo‐immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma tumor models. DOX@HFn is constructed with uniform size, high stability, favorable drug loading, and intracellular acidity‐driven drug release. The receptor‐mediated targeting of DOX@HFn to liver cancer cells promote cellular uptake and tumor penetration in vitro and in vivo. DOX@HFn triggers immunogenic cell death to tumor cells and promotes the subsequent activation and maturation of dendritic cells. In vivo studies in H22 subcutaneous hepatoma demonstrate that DOX@HFn significantly inhibits the tumor growth with >30% tumors completely eliminated, while alleviating the systemic toxicity of free DOX. DOX@HFn also exhibits robust antitumor immune response and tumoricidal effect in a more aggressive Hepa1‐6 orthotopic liver tumor model, which is confirmed by the in situ magnetic resonance imaging and transcriptome sequencing. This study provides a facile and robust strategy to improve therapeutic efficacy of liver cancer.