Preparation and characterisation of novel casein-gum Arabic composite microcapsules for targeted in vivo delivery of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum A3

The health benefits of probiotics in the body are predicated on their ability to remain viable in harsh gastrointestinal conditions and complex pathological microenvironments. Casein and gum Arabic (GA), with dual emulsifying and stabilising effects in colloidal systems. Therefore, the objective of this research was to develop a novel microcapsule to encapsulate Lactiplantibacillus plantarum A3 using casein and GA as wall materials to improve the survival of the bacteria during gastrointestinal digestion, storage and lyophilization. The casein and GA composite microcapsules were prepared and characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that the microcapsules had stable morphology, uniform size and spherical shape. The results revealed that the encapsulation of microcapsules significantly improved the survival of L. plantarum A3 in gastrointestinal fluid environment (5.52 × 109 cfu/ml) and lyophilization treatment (6.25 × 109 cfu/ml). Furthermore, the microencapsulated L. plantarum A3 exhibited an improved ability to regulate intestinal microbiota by effectively increasing the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria and decreasing the relative abundance of Firmicutes in vivo. The findings of the study will help to design a lactic acid bacteria encapsulation system based on the gastrointestinal environment and provide a basis for the development of probiotic functional products.

CD72, a new immune checkpoint molecule, is a novel prognostic biomarker for kidney renal clear cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND

The incidence and mortality of clear cell carcinoma of the kidney increases yearly. There are limited screening methods and advances in treating kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC). It is important to find new biomarkers to screen, diagnose and predict the prognosis of KIRC. Some studies have shown that CD72 influences the development and progression of colorectal cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, and acute lymphoid leukemia. However, there is a lack of research on the role of CD72 in the pathogenesis of KIRC. This study aimed to determine whether CD72 is associated with the prognosis and immune infiltration of KIRC, providing an essential molecular basis for the early non-invasive diagnosis and immunotherapy of KIRC.

METHODS

Using TCGA, GTE, GEO, and ImmPort databases, we obtained the differentially expressed mRNA (DEmRNA) associated with the prognosis and immunity of KIRC patients. We used the Kruskal-Wallis test to identify clinicopathological parameters associated with target gene expression. We performed univariate and multivariate COX regression analyses to determine the effect of target gene expression and clinicopathological parameters on survival. We analyzed the target genes' relevant functions and signaling pathways through enrichment analysis. Finally, the correlation of target genes with tumor immune infiltration was explored by ssGSEA and Spearman correlation analysis.

RESULTS

The results revealed that patients with KIRC with higher expression of CD72 have a poorer prognosis. CD72 was associated with the Pathologic T stage, Pathologic stage, Pathologic M stage, Pathologic N stage, Histologic grade in KIRC patients, Laterality, and OS event. It was an independent predictor of the overall survival of KIRC patients. Functional enrichment analysis showed that CD72 was significantly enriched in oncogenic and immune-related pathways. According to ssGSEA and Spearman correlation analysis, CD72 expression was significantly associated with tumor immune cells and immune checkpoints.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that CD72 is associated with tumor immunity and may be a biomarker relevant to the diagnosis and prognosis of KIRC patients.

Association between maternal rheumatoid arthritis and small for gestational age neonates: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

According to reports, maternal rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been suggested as a possible adverse factor for developing small for gestational age (SGA) in offspring. However, some studies have also indicated a need for a more statistically significant association between the two. Understanding the relationship between maternal RA and the risk of SGA is crucial for identifying potential adverse outcomes and implementing appropriate interventions. Therefore, this study aims to elucidate the association between maternal RA and the risk of offspring developing SGA.

Methods

This study was registered on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (ID: CRD42022357590). A systematic literature search was conducted to identify eligible studies up to August 2022. Quality assessment was performed according to the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. The Q test and I2 test tested and estimated heterogeneity among studies. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CI were calculated using random or fixed effects models depending on the heterogeneity. Subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses, and publication bias assessments were also performed.

Results

Seven studies, including 12,323,918 participants, were included in the analysis. The results showed a statistically significant association between maternal RA and SGA (OR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.29-2.23, p < 0.001). Sensitivity analysis showed stable results. The funnel plot of the symmetric distribution and the results of Begg's and Egger's tests showed no publication bias.

Conclusion

Maternal RA is associated with an increased risk of SGA in offspring. However, more studies are still needed to explore the potential mechanisms underlying maternal RA and SGA association.

Systematic review registration

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/, identifier [CRD42022357590].

Association between pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis and preeclampsia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

To examine the association between pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the risk of preeclampsia.

METHODS

This study was registered on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under the number CRD42022361571. The primary outcome was preeclampsia. Two evaluators independently reviewed the included studies, assessed their risk of bias, and extracted the data. Unadjusted and adjusted ratios with 95% confidence intervals and 95% prediction intervals were calculated. Heterogeneity was quantified using the І2 statistic, where І2 ≥ 50% indicated the presence of significant heterogeneity. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to test the robustness of the overall findings.

RESULTS

A total of 8 studies, including 10,951,184 pregnant women, of whom 13,333 were diagnosed with RA, met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis revealed that pregnant women with RA were significantly more likely to develop preeclampsia than those without RA (pooled odds ratio, 1.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.52-1.80; P < .001; І2 < .001).

CONCLUSION

RA during pregnancy is associated with higher odds of preeclampsia.

Pre- and Post-Pandemic (COVID-19) Mental Health of International Students: Data from a Longitudinal Study

Purpose

International students are highly vulnerable to the risk of mental health worsening before and during the pandemic (COVID-19). This study investigated international students' mental health pre- and post-pandemic (COVID-19).

Methods

It is a longitudinal study, and data were collected online, pre-pandemic (N = 470) and during the pandemic (N = 420). Using a random sampling technique, a self-administered questionnaire was used to measure mental health, including depression and anxiety.

Results

Findings show that international students' mental health was good in pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, international students were found to be more depressed and anxious during the pandemic. Findings also investigated that in the pre-pandemic phase, young students' and mainly females' mental health was worsened.

Conclusion

This study concluded that students' mental problems are alarming, so the university should provide psychological services for the student's mental health. Post-pandemic is leaving long-lasting psychological effects and will require further investigation.

Effect of swallowing training combined with nutritional intervention on the nutritional status and quality of life of laryngeal cancer patients with dysphagia after operation and radiotherapy

BACKGROUND

Dysphagia is a common complication in patients with laryngeal cancer after surgery and radiotherapy.

OBJECTIVES

To explore the effect of swallowing training administered in combination with nutritional intervention on the nutritional status and quality of life of laryngeal cancer patients with dysphagia after surgery and radiotherapy.

METHODS

Sixty-six patients with laryngeal cancer who developed dysphagia were randomly divided into control group and intervention group (n=33 in each group). Patients in both groups received total laryngectomy and prophylactic radiotherapy and were provided routine health counseling and swallowing training. Patients in the intervention group were additionally provided with nutritional intervention. All patients were evaluated using video fluoroscopic swallowing examination (VFSE), Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment on nutritional status (PG-SGA) score, and Quality of Life Questionnaire-core 30 (QLQ-c30) score immediately after radiotherapy and three months later.

RESULTS

Prior to swallowing training, there was no significant between-group difference with respect to VFSE evaluation, PG-SGA score, or QLQ-c30 score. Both groups showed improvement in these measures at three months after radiotherapy; however, the improvement in the intervention group was significantly better than that in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

Swallowing training combined with nutritional intervention can improve swallowing function, nutritional status, and the quality of life of laryngeal cancer patients with dysphagia after operation and radiotherapy.

Connecting particle interactions to agglomerate morphology and rheology of boehmite nanocrystal suspensions

HYPOTHESIS

The rheology of complex suspensions, such as nuclear waste slurries at the Hanford and Savannah River sites, imposes significant challenges on industrial-scale processing. Investigating the rheology and connecting it to the agglomerate morphology and underlying particle interactions in slurries will provide important fundamental knowledge, as well as prescriptive data for practical applications. Here, we use suspensions of nano-scale aluminum oxyhydroxide minerals in the form of boehmite as an analog of the radioactive waste slurry to investigate the correlation between particle interactions, agglomerate morphology, and slurry rheology.

EXPERIMENTS

A combination of Couette rheometry and small-angle scattering techniques (independently and simultaneously) were used to understand how agglomerate structure of slurry changes under flow and how these structural changes manifest themselves in the bulk rheology of the suspensions.

FINDINGS

Our experiments show that the boehmite slurries are thixotropic, with the rheology and structure of the suspensions changing with increasing exposure to flow. In the slurries, particle agglomerates begin as loose, system-spanning clusters, but exposure to moderate shear rates causes the agglomerates to irreversibly consolidate into denser clusters of finite size. The structural changes directly influence the rheological properties of the slurries such as viscosity and viscoelasticity. Our study shows that solution pH affects the amount of structural rearrangement and the kinetics of the rearrangement process, with an increase in pH leading to faster and more dramatic changes in bulk rheology, which can be understood via correlations between particle interactions and the strength of particle network. Nearly identical structural changes were also observed in Poiseuille flow geometries, implying that the observed changes are relevant in pipe flow as well.

Differentiation between malignant and benign breast masses: combination of semi-quantitative analysis on DCE-MRI and histogram analysis of ADC maps

AIM

To investigate the performance of combined semi-quantitative analysis on dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and histogram analysis of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for distinguishing malignant from benign breast masses.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study included 178 patients with breast masses (benign:malignant=88:9) who underwent both DCE-MRI and DWI. The semi-quantitative parameters, derived from DCE-MRI, included maximum slope of increase (MSI), signal intensity slope (SI_slope), initial percentage of enhancement (E_initial), percentage of peak enhancement (E_peak), early signal enhancement ratio (ESER), and second enhancement percentage (SEP). Histogram parameters derived from apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps included ADC_min, ADC_max, ADC_mean, ADC₁₀, ADC₂₅, ADC₅₀, ADC₇₅, ADC₉₀, skewness, and kurtosis. All parameters were compared between malignant and benign groups, and their differences were tested using independent-samples t-test or Mann-Whitney test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the diagnostic value of each significant parameter.

RESULTS

Among semi-quantitative parameters, SI_slope exhibited the best diagnostic performance in predicting malignancy (cut-off value, 0.096; ROC, 0.756; sensitivity, 86.7%; specificity, 61.4%). Among histogram parameters, ADC₁₀ exhibited the best diagnostic performance in predicting malignancy (cut-off value, 1.051; ROC, 0.885; sensitivity, 86.7%; specificity, 84.1%). The optimal diagnostic performance of combined ADC₁₀ and SI_slope (area under curve [AUC], 0.888; sensitivity, 82.2%; specificity, 95.5%) was significantly better than SI_slope alone (p<0.001). Moreover, the combination showed higher AUC (0.888 versus 0.885) than ADC₁₀ alone, but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.914).

CONCLUSION

SI_slope and ADC₁₀ are significant predictors for breast malignancy. The combination of DCE-MRI and DWI improves differentiating performance.

Citrullinated vimentin stimulates proliferation, pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, and PADI4 and RANKL expression of fibroblast-like synoviocytes in rheumatoid arthritis

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to investigate the possible effects of vimentin (Vim) and citrullinated Vim (cVim) on proliferation capacity, pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, and the expression of peptidylarginine deiminase type 4 (PADI4) and receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B ligand (RANKL) in cultured fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) patients.

METHOD

Human native Vim was citrullinated with rabbit PAD in vitro and detected using a Western blot assay with anti-modified citrulline antibody (anti-MC Ab). FLSs from RA or OA synovial samples were stimulated with Vim or cVim. Cell proliferation capacity was determined using the Celltiter 96 AQueous cell proliferation assay. The concentrations of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1, and IL-17 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The expression of PADI4 and RANKL was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and a Western blot assay.

RESULTS

Our Western blot assay with anti-MC Ab indicated that the amount of cVim increased significantly after Vim had been incubated with rabbit PAD in vitro. The proliferation capacity and secretion of TNF-α and IL-1 were significantly enhanced in the FLSs of RA patients when treated with cVim. However, when treated with Vim, an inhibitory effect on the proliferation capacity was noted in the FLSs from RA and also from OA patients. cVim significantly increased the expression of PADI4 and RANKL in the FLSs from RA patients.

CONCLUSION

cVim seems to have remarkable biological effects on RA as confirmed by the stimulation of proliferation capacity, pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, and PADI4 and RANKL expression in the FLSs of RA patients.

Comparative proteomic analysis for the detection of biomarkers in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas

AIMS

To search for novel potential protein biomarkers for the early detection and better intervention of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

METHODS

Eight pairs of matched PDAC and non-cancerous pancreas tissues were profiled with two-dimensional electrophoresis; differentially expressed proteins were identified by mass spectrometry. Expression patterns of TBX4 (T-box transcription factor TBX4) and HSP60 (60 KDa heat shock protein) were studied with immunohistochemistry using tissue microarrays.

RESULTS

A total of 48 differentially expressed proteins were identified; 30 of them are novel potential biomarkers. Immunohistochemistry showed that TBX4 expression could be seen in both centroacinar cells and small ducts in normal pancreas and tumour cells in 5/5 (100%) well differentiated, 35/38 (92.1%) moderately differentiated, and 11/18 (61.1%) poorly differentiated PDAC tissues with different staining intensity. However, in normal acinar cells and tumour cells in the other 3/38 (7.9%) moderately differentiated and 7/18 (38.9%) poorly differentiated PDAC tissues, there was no visible TBX4 expression. The expression difference of TBX4 between moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated PDAC tissues was statistically significant (p<0.01). In addition, there was obvious morphology difference between TBX4 negatively stained and positively stained tumour cells, which suggests different cellular origins. Strong expression of HSP60 could be seen in both acinar cells and small ducts in normal pancreas tissues and tumour cells in PDAC tissues except for islets and tumour stoma; no correlation was found between HSP60 expression and differentiation of PDAC tissues.

CONCLUSIONS

30 novel potential biomarkers differentially expressed in PDAC tissues were identified. TBX4 may be a differentiation related protein; its prognostic value for PDAC deserves further study.