Prevention of allergic airway hyperresponsiveness and remodeling in mice by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Astragaliradix</Emphasis> Antiasthmatic decoction

Background

Astragali radix Antiasthmatic Decoction (AAD), a traditional Chinese medication, is found effective in treating allergic diseases and chronic cough. The purpose of this study is to determine whether this medication could suppress allergen-induced airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and remodeling in mice, and its possible mechanisms.

Methods

A mouse model of chronic asthma was used to investigate the effects of AAD on the airway lesions. Mice were sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA), and the extent of AHR and airway remodeling were characterized. Cells and cytokines in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were examined.

Results

AAD treatment effectively decreased OVA-induced AHR, eosinophilic airway inflammation, and collagen deposition around the airway. It significantly reduced the levels of IL-13 and TGF-β1, but exerted inconsiderable effect on INF-γ and IL-10.

Conclusions

AAD greatly improves the symptoms of allergic airway remodeling probably through inhibition of Th2 cytokines and TGF-β1.

     

Simple weak-acid derivatives of paclitaxel for remote loading into liposomes and improved therapeutic effects

Liposomes are among the most successful nanocarriers; several products have been marketed, all of which were prepared by active loading methods. However, poorly water-soluble drugs without ionizable groups are usually incorporated into the lipid bi-layer of liposomes by passive loading methods, with serious drug leakage during blood circulation. Furthermore, there have been few improvements in their anti-cancer activity and safety. Herein, we designed and synthesized three weak-acid modified paclitaxel (PTX) derivatives with a one-step reaction for the remote loading of liposomal formulations. By comparison, PTX-succinic acid liposomes (PTX-SA LPs) exhibited the highest encapsulation efficiency (97.2 ± 1.8%) and drug loading (8.84 ± 0.16%); meanwhile, there was almost no change in their particle size or zeta potential within one month. Furthermore, compared with Taxol®, the PTX-SA LPs showed a 4.35-fold prolonged half-time, enhanced tumor accumulation, and an increased maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of more than 30 mg kg⁻¹. As a result, the PTX-SA LPs displayed significantly improved in vivo anti-cancer efficacy in comparison with Taxol®. Therefore, weak-acid modification is proved to be a simple and effective method to achieve remote loading and high encapsulation efficiency of poorly soluble drugs, showing great potential for clinical application.

A remote loading liposomal formulation of weak-acid paclitaxel derivative with high encapsulation efficiency and high drug loading, improved therapeutic efficiency and negligible toxicity.     

Self-assembly of photoresponsive azo-containing phospholipids with a polar group as the tail

Vesicles or micelles prepared from amphiphiles with azobenzene (Az) moieties and long alkyl chains have attracted much attention in drug delivery systems. To induce release behavior from smart carriers via trans–cis photoisomerization of the Az groups, UV light exposure is typically used, but it can damage DNA and hardly penetrates cells. In this paper, Az-containing phospholipids without long alkyl tails were designed and synthesized; in these compounds, the end group of the Az moiety was substituted with a –NO₂ and –OCH₃ group (abbreviated N6 and M6, respectively). N6 self-assembled into H-aggregates with an interdigitated bilayered structure in water through the antiparallel orientation due to π–π interactions of the Az group, the attractive van der Waals forces, and the interactions and bending behavior of the phosphocholine groups. Vesicles showing visible light stimuli-responsive behavior were obtained by mixing N6 and M6, and the release of encapsulated calcein was triggered by visible light.

A mixture of a nitro- and methoxy-substituted azo-containing phospholipids without long alkyl tails formed vesicles showing visible light stimuli-responsive behavior. Release of encapsulated calcein from the vesicles was triggered by visible light.     

本科护生不确定压力与职业自我效能的相关性研究

目的探讨本科护生职业自我效能的现状,分析不确定压力对护生职业自我效能的影响。方法采取整群便利抽样法,2020年4月10—17日,选取浙江省4所高校1526名护理本科生为研究对象。采用护生一般情况问卷、护生职业自我效能问卷(PSQNS)及不确定压力问卷对其进行横断面调查。采用多重线性回归分析护生职业自我效能的影响因素。共发放问卷1526份,回收有效问卷1474份,有效回收率为96.6%。结果1474名本科护生PSQNS总分为(91.10±14.11)分,条目均分为(3.37±0.52)分,得分率为67.48%,处于中等水平。多重线性回归分析结果显示,护理专业喜爱程度、不确定压力、在校学业成绩、选择护理专业原因及家庭经济状况是本科护生职业自我效能的影响因素(P<0.05),可解释33.4%的变异。结论本科护生的职业自我效能有待提升;护理教育者可以通过降低护生的不确定压力,提高其职业自我效能。     

Functional photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging for the assessment of breast intraductal lesions: preliminary clinical findings

This study aimed to identify features of breast intraductal lesions in photoacoustic/ultrasound (PA/US) imaging and compare PA/US with color Doppler flow/ultrasound (CDFI/US) in the evaluation of breast intraductal lesions. In the nine patients with 10 breast intraductal lesions and 8 patients with 8 benign lesions, total vessel scores evaluated from PA/US are significantly greater than those from CDFI/US (p=0.005). PA internal vessel scores and oxygen saturation (SO₂) score are significantly increased in breast intraductal lesions than in benign lesions (p=0.016, p=0.006). With a cutoff PA score (sum of PA internal vessel score and SO₂ score) of 2.5, we obtained a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 87.5% in differentiation of two groups. PA/US upgraded 40% of breast intraductal lesions, and downgraded 50% of benign lesions from the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System grading results based on CDFI/US. PA/US functional imaging has the potential in differentiating breast intraductal lesions.     

Multi-scale GCN-assisted two-stage network for joint segmentation of retinal layers and discs in peripapillary OCT images

An accurate and automated tissue segmentation algorithm for retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) images is crucial for the diagnosis of glaucoma. However, due to the presence of the optic disc, the anatomical structure of the peripapillary region of the retina is complicated and is challenging for segmentation. To address this issue, we develop a novel graph convolutional network (GCN)-assisted two-stage framework to simultaneously label the nine retinal layers and the optic disc. Specifically, a multi-scale global reasoning module is inserted between the encoder and decoder of a U-shape neural network to exploit anatomical prior knowledge and perform spatial reasoning. We conduct experiments on human peripapillary retinal OCT images. We also provide public access to the collected dataset, which might contribute to the research in the field of biomedical image processing. The Dice score of the proposed segmentation network is 0.820 ± 0.001 and the pixel accuracy is 0.830 ± 0.002, both of which outperform those from other state-of-the-art techniques.     

中华口腔医学杂志2019口腔种植学术研讨会——并发症及风险防控会议纪要

由《中华口腔医学杂志》编委会和中华口腔医学会共同主办的"中华口腔医学杂志2019口腔种植学术研讨会——并发症及风险防控"于2019年11月23至24日在广东省珠海市粤海酒店召开。本次研讨会分为牙周与种植并发症、修复设计与机械并发症、无牙颌的种植并发症以及上颌窦与骨增量并发症共4个版块,每个版块由专家主题演讲和专题讨论相结合,对各种种植并发症和风险问题进行集中研讨和辩论,对一些种植并发症及风险问题形成初步共识,以指导临床工作。