Out of the boxes,out of the silos: The need of interdisciplinary collaboration to reduce poor-quality medical products in the supply chain

In this paper, we argue that understanding and addressing the problem of poor-quality medical products requires a more interdisciplinary approach than has been evident to date. While prospective studies based on rigorous standardized methodologies are the gold standard for measuring the prevalence of poor-quality medical products and understanding their distribution nationally and internationally, they should be complemented by social science research to unpack the complex set of social, economic, and governance factors that underlie these patterns. In the following sections, we discuss specific examples of prospective quality surveys and of social science studies, highlighting the value of cross-sector partnerships in driving high-quality, policy-relevant research in this area.     

New approaches to moderate CRISPR-Cas9 activity: Addressing issues of cellular uptake and endosomal escape

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Prediction and validation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell off-target editing in transplanted rhesus macaques

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What is the impact of zinc deficiency for pancreatectomies in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma?

Backgroundand purpose: Zinc is an essential element for human health and plays an important role in metabolic, immunological and other biological processes. The present study was conducted to investigate the association between zinc deficiency (ZD) and the perioperative clinical course in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).MethodsOf 216 patients with PDAC who underwent elective pancreatectomy between 2013 and 2017 at our institution, 206 patients with sufficient clinical data were retrospectively reviewed. The perioperative variables were compared and the risk factors associated with infectious complications were identified.ResultsZD was preoperatively present in 36 (17.5%) of 206 patients with PDAC. In the patients of the ZD group, a higher proportion of males, higher preoperative modified Glasgow prognostic scores, a higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and a higher occurrence of postoperative infectious complications after pancreatectomy were observed, compared to the non-ZD group. By a univariate analysis, three risk factors were significantly associated with infectious complications after pancreatectomy: ZD (vs non-ZD: p = 0.002), serum albumin <3.5 g/dl (vs ≥ 3.5 g/dl: p = 0.005), and the procedure of pancreaticoduodenectomy (vs others: p = 0.013). By multivariate logistic regression analysis, the occurrence of infectious complications was significantly associated with ZD (OR 3.430, 95%CI 1.570 to 7.490, p = 0.002) and the procedure of pancreaticoduodenectomy (OR 2.030, 95%CI 1.090 to 3.770, p = 0.025).ConclusionsThe current study newly demonstrated that ZD could serve as a preoperative predictor of infectious complications after pancreatectomies in the patients with PDAC.     

Efficacy and safety of cold snare polypectomy for sessile serrated polyps ≥ 10 mm: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundCold snare polypectomy (CSP) is a promising technique for the removal of sessile serrated polyps (SSPs) ≥ 10 mm. However, the efficacy and safety of this technique remain undetermined.AimsWe aimed to comprehensively evaluate the efficacy and safety of CSP for SSPs ≥ 10 mm.MethodsPubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Library were searched up to January 2021.ResultsA total of 10 studies consisting of 1727 SSPs (range, 10–40 mm) from 1021 patients were included. The overall rates of technical success, adverse events (AEs) and residual SSPs were 100%, 0.7% and 2.9%, respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that the rates of technical success and AEs were comparable between CSP and cold endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) (99.9% vs. 100% and 1.3% vs. 0.5%, respectively), between the proximal and distal colon (100% vs. 99.9% and 0.3% vs. 0, respectively), and between polyps of 10–19 mm and ≥20 mm (99.8% vs. 100% and 0.9% vs. 0, respectively). However, subgroup analysis showed that the rate of residual SSPs was slightly lower in CSP compared with cold EMR (1.3% vs. 3.9%), as well as in polyps of 10–19 mm compared with those ≥20 mm (3.1% vs. 4.7%).ConclusionCSP was an effective and safe technique for removing SSPs ≥ 10 mm.     

Preoperative comprehensive malignancy risk estimation for thyroid nodules: Development and verification of a network-based prediction model

BackgroundIn order to avoid excessive treatment of thyroid nodules in the clinic, it is necessary to find a simple and practical analysis method to comprehensively and accurately reflect benign or malignant thyroid nodules. This study aimed to construct and validate a comprehensive and reliable network-based predictive model using a variety of imaging and laboratory criteria for thyroid nodules to stratify the risk of malignancy prior to surgery.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed data from patients who underwent surgical treatment for thyroid nodules at the Thyroid and Breast Diagnosis and Treatment Center of Weifang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine between January 2018 and December 2020. Binary logical regression analysis was performed to predict whether nodules were malignant or benign. The developmental dataset included 457 patients (January 2018–December 2020). The validation set included separate data points (n = 225, January 2018–December 2020).ResultsIn this study, criteria that showed significant predictive value for malignant nodules included TI-RADS: 4b (p = 0.065); Bethesda IV, Bethesda V, Bethesda VI (P < 0.0001); BRAF^V600E mutation (P < 0.0001); Calcitonin>5 pg/ml (p = 0.0037); and FNA-Tg>30 ng/ml (p = 0.0003). A 10-grade risk scoring system was developed. The risk of malignancy risk ranged from 2.06% to 100% and was positively associated with increasing risk grade. The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of the development and validation sets were 0.972 and 0.946, respectively.ConclusionA simple, comprehensive and reliable web-based predictive model was designed using a variety of imaging and laboratory criteria to stratify thyroid nodules by probability of malignancy.     

Pan-cancer proteomic map of 949 human cell lines

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