N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine modulates indium-tin oxide nanoparticles-caused interstitial lung diseases in male rats through oxidative stress-activated apoptosis and autophagy.

Indium-tin oxide nanoparticles (Nano-ITO) are widely used in various applications as infrared shielding materials, which increase the risk of occupational exposure. According to reports, Nano-ITO can cause indium lung disease in occupational exposed workers, but the specific mechanism of Nano-ITO-induced pulmonary toxicity remains unclear. In this study, 50 8-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into five groups (10 rats in each group) as follows: control group (physiological saline), 1.

Effects of air pollution and noise exposure on occupational hearing loss in oil workers: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Occupational Hearing Loss (OHL) is a significant health concern among oil workers, influenced by environmental and occupational factors. This study investigates the independent and synergistic effects of air pollution and noise exposure on OHL risk in this high-risk population.

Methods: A prospective cohort study included 1,179 oil workers from Hebei Province, China, with baseline data (2017-2019) and follow-up until 2023.

Clinical characteristics of duodenal-type follicular lymphoma.

Duodenal-Type Follicular Lymphoma (DFL) is a rare extranodular B-cell lymphoma, which mainly involves the duodenum. It typically affects middle-aged individuals and occurs equally in both genders. Common symptoms include upper abdominal discomfort, pain, indigestion, etc.

Development of an ensemble prediction model for acute graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic transplantation based on machine learning.

Background: Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is a major post-transplantation complication and one of the most significant causes of non-relapse-related death. However, the massive and complex clinical data make aGVHD difficult to predict. Machine learning (ML), a branch of artificial intelligence, has since been introduced in medicine due to its ability to process complex, high-dimensional variables quickly and capture nonlinear relationships.

Mathematical Modelling and Optimization of Medication Regimens for Combination Immunotherapy of Breast Cancer.

Immunotherapy is an emerging and effective treatment for cancer. The mRNA-based cancer vaccines enhance the immune response to cancer cells by activating T cells. However, the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen (CTLA-4) receptor signaling inhibits T-cell activation, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the mRNA-based vaccines.

UDP-glycosyltransferases alleviate the toxic effects of deoxynivalenol on the growth performance and gut damage of Kunming mice.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) on alleviating the toxic effects of deoxynivalenol (DON) on Kunming mouse growth performance and gut damage. In this study, a total of 60 3-week-old male Kunming mice were randomly divided into 4 groups and fed the following dietary and drug treatments for 7 weeks: CON, basal diet; CTX, basal diet with i.p.

Exploring the key target molecules of angiogenesis in diabetic cardiomyopathy based on bioinformatics analysis.

Backgrounds: Diabetic cardiomyopathy has a very high incidence and serious clinical consequences, making it an urgent clinical problem to be solved. Angiogenesis is a significant phenotype in the occurrence and development of diabetic cardiomyopathy, especially the damage to angiogenesis of cardiac microvessels, which is inextricably linked to the cardiac risk of diabetic patients. In the current basic and clinical research, there is still a lack of treatment methods that directly target the angiogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy.

Exploring the comprehensive factors influencing tacrolimus pharmacokinetics in early renal transplant recipients: A population pharmacokinetic analysis.

Purpose: To establish a population pharmacokinetic (PopPK) model of tacrolimus in the early stages after renal transplantation and evaluate the model's predictive performance with external data.

Methods: Intravenous and oral tacrolimus were administered to 302 renal transplant recipients in the early posttransplantation stages. Related data were obtained from the electronic medical records.

Improvement of coronary microcirculation in acute myocardial ischemia rats using a nanoscale carrier SiO@PEG loaded with Nicorandil.

Coronary microcirculatory dysfunction, affecting over half of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients, correlates significantly with AMI prognosis. Nicorandil is an effective drug that markedly improves coronary microcirculation, but current clinical formulations of Nicorandil exhibit a relatively short half-life and lack cardiac selectivity. We formulated and synthesized a variety of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) as a drug carrier for loading and delivering Nicorandil.

New Types of Post-Translational Modification of Proteins in Cardiovascular Diseases.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs), which are covalent alterations of proteins after their synthesis, are critical for their proper function and the maintenance of cellular physiology. The significance of PTMs in the context of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) has been increasingly recognized due to their potential to influence protein stability, activity, and localization, thereby affecting the progression of CVDs. The identification and understanding of PTMs in CVDs at the molecular level are vital for the discovery of new biomarkers and new targets for clinical interventions.

Modelling and analysis of an epidemic model with awareness caused by deaths due to fear.

In this paper, we establish a compartmental model in which the transmission rate is associated with the fear of being infected by COVID-19. We provide a detailed analysis of the epidemic model and established results for the existence of a positively invariant set. The expression of the basic reproduction number is characterized.

MFSD6 is an entry receptor for respiratory enterovirus D68.

Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is a leading non-polio enterovirus that causes severe respiratory diseases and poliomyelitis-like illness in children. Viral entry represents a potential multifaceted target for antiviral intervention; however, there are no approved inhibitors to block EV-D68. Here, we identify the functionally undescribed membrane protein major facilitator superfamily-domain-containing protein 6 (MFSD6) as an EV-D68 entry factor amenable to therapeutic intervention.

Study on the effect of occupational exposure on hypertension of steelworkers based on Lasso-Logistic regression model.

Objectives: This study aimed to use a stable and predictive method: Lasso regression model to analyze hypertension's influencing factors and explore the interactions between occupational exposures.

Study Design: This has been a nested case-control study.

Methods: The case group consisted of 959 patients with high blood pressure found during the study.

Age-structured modeling of COVID-19 dynamics: the role of treatment and vaccination in controlling the pandemic.

In addition to non-pharmaceutical interventions, antiviral drugs and vaccination are considered as the optimal solutions to control and eliminate the COVID-19 pandemic. It is necessary to couple within-host and between-host models to investigate the impact of treatment and vaccination. Hence, we propose an age-structured model, where the infection age is used to link the within-host viral dynamics and the disease dynamics at the population level.

Circulating β-hydroxybutyrate levels are associated with major adverse clinical events in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Background And Aims: Acute myocardial infarction is associated with high mortality, and effective biomarkers are required for the risk stratification. In cardiovascular diseases, circulating levels of ketone bodies (KB) such as β-hydroxybutyrate (β-OHB) and acetoacetate are altered. However, the relationship between circulating KB levels and major adverse clinical events (MACE) in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is unknown.

Gestational diabetes and future cardiovascular diseases: associations by sex-specific genetic data.

Background And Aims: Observational studies have highlighted that gestational diabetes mellitus is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, but the causality remains unclear. Herein, the causality between genetic predisposition to gestational diabetes mellitus and the risk of cardiovascular diseases was investigated using sex-specific Mendelian randomization analysis.

Methods: Linkage disequilibrium score regression analysis and two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis were applied to infer the genetic correlation and causality, respectively.

Optimising infliximab induction dosing to achieve clinical remission in Chinese patients with Crohn's disease.

Aims: A strategy based on therapeutic drug monitoring and population pharmacokinetic (popPK) models would likely increase the rate of clinical remission (CR) after infliximab (IFX) induction in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between early IFX levels and antibodies to infliximab (ATI) and CR at week 14 and simulate the probability of attaining the identified exposure target.

Methods: Patients with CD (n = 140) treated with IFX were enrolled to develop the popPK model.

Polyphyly of (Urticaceae) congruent with plastome structural variation.

is a taxonomically challenging group within the nettle family (Urticaceae). The polyphyly of the genus has been proposed by previous studies with respect to five genera (, , , , and ). Extensive homoplasy of morphological characters has made generic delimitation problematic.

[Effects of acupuncture on endothelial active factors and related autonomic neurotransmitters in spontaneous hypertension rats].

Objective: To observe the effects of acupuncture at "antihypertensive acupoint prescription" on endothelial active factors and related autonomic neurotransmitters in spontaneous hypertension rats, and explore the vascular regulation and central regulation mechanisms of acupuncture for anti-hypertension.

Methods: Thirty SPF grade male spontaneous hypertension rats were randomly divided into a model group (15 rats) and an acupuncture group (15 rats). Besides, 15 Wistar Kyoto rats were collected as a blank control group (normal group).