Neuregulin-1 therapy improved cardiac function and reduced ANPmRNA expression in post myocardial infarction rats with cardiac dysfunction

Objective To observe the influence of neuregulin-1 on the cardiac function of post-myocardial infarction rats.Methods Left ventricular MI was created in Sprague-Dawley rats by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary.Six months after the operation,rats were evaluated with echocardiology methods.36 rats that had an infarct area and a EF around 60%were randomized into 3 groups:MI group(n=12)were injected a blank vehicle fluid intravenously for 5 days,after which they continued to be raised on standard food and water for 30 days.MI+NRG group(n=12),received NRG-110μg·kg-^(1) intravenously for 5 days,after which they continued to be raised on standard food and water for 30 days.MI+Capt group(n=12)received captopril orally(dissolved in their drinking water 2g/L)for 30days,after which tap water substituted the solution for 5 days.Final echocardiographic and hemodynamic measurements were made at the end of 1 month of therapy.Total RNA was extracted from frozen left ventricular tissues,and was reverse transcribed into firststrand PCR was performed with primers for BNP、ANP.Results Rats treated with neuregulin had a smaller LVDs(P=0.014),a betterLVEF(P=0.004),and a tendency towards less lung perfusion than untreated rats.Neuregulin decreased the expression of ANP mRNA in the ventricle(P=0.025).Conclusion Neuregulin markedly improved the cardiac function of rats that survived myocardial infarction,and decreased the expression of ANP mRNA in the ventricle.

Preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio plus platelet-to-lymphocyte ratioin predicting survival for patients with stage Ⅰ-Ⅱgastric cancer

Background:The preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio(NLR) and the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio(PLR) are associated with poor prognosis of gastric cancer.We aimed to determine whether the combination of NLR and PLR(NLR-PLR) could better predict survival of patients after curative resection for stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ gastric cancer.Methods:We collected data from the medical records of patients with stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ gastric cancer undergoing curative resection between December 2000 and November 2012 at the Sun Yat-sen Cancer Center.The preoperative NLRPLR was calculated as follows:patients with both elevated NLR(≥2.1) and PLR(≥ 120) were given a score of 2,and patients with only one or neither were given a score of 1 or 0,respectively.Results:Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank tests revealed significant differences in overall survival(OS) among patients with NLR-PLR scores of 0,1 and 2(P < 0.001).Multivariate analysis showed that OS was independently associated with the NLR-PLR score[hazard ratio(HR) = 1.51,95%confidence interval(CI) 1.02-2.24,P = 0.039]and TNM stage(HR = 1.36,95%CI 1.01-1.83,P= 0.041).However,other systemic inflammation-based prognostic scores,including the modified Glasgow prognostic score,the prognostic nutritional index,and the combination of platelet count and NLR,were not.In TNM stage-stratified analysis,the prognostic significance of NLR-PLR was maintained in patients with stage Ⅰ(P < 0.001) and stage Ⅱ cancers(P= 0.022).In addition,the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the NLR-PLR score was higher than those of other systemic inflammation-based prognostic scores(P = 0.001).Conclusion:The preoperative NLR-PLR score is a useful predictor of postoperative survival in the patients with stage l-ll gastric cancer and may help identify high-risk patients for rational therapy and timely follow-up.

A nomogram to predict prognosis for gastric cancer with peritoneal dissemination

Objective： To identify independent prognostic factors to be included in a nomogram to predict the prognosis ofgastric cancer patients with peritoneal dissemination.Methods： This is a retrospective study on 684 patients with a histological diagnosis of gastric cancer withperitoneal dissemination from the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center as the development set, and 62 gastriccancer patients from the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University as the validation group. Chi-square testand Cox regression analysis were used to compare the clinicopathological variables and the prognosis of gastriccancer patients with peritoneal dissemination. The Harrell＇s concordance index （C-index） and calibration curvewere determined for comparisons of predictive ability of the nomogram.Results： Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that serum carcinoembryonic antigen （CEA） level（P=0.032）, ascites grading （P=0.008）, presence of extraperitoneal metastasis （P〈0.001）, seeding status （P=0.016） andperformance status （P=0.009） were independent prognostic factors for gastric cancer patients with peritonealdissemination in the development set. The nomogram model was constructed using these five factors. Internalvalidation showed that the C-index of the model was 0.641. For the external validation, the C-index of this modelwas 0.709.Conclusions： We developed and validated a nomogram to predict the prognosis for gastric cancer patients withperitoneal dissemination. This nomogram may play an important clinical role in guiding palliative therapy for thesetypes of patients, although it may need more data for optimization.

Soft Electronics for Health Monitoring Assisted by Machine Learning

Due to the development of the novel materials,the past two decades have witnessed the rapid advances of soft electronics.The soft electronics have huge potential in the physical sign monitoring and health care.One of the important advantages of soft electronics is forming good interface with skin,which can increase the user scale and improve the signal quality.Therefore,it is easy to build the specific dataset,which is important to improve the performance of machine learning algorithm.At the same time,with the assistance of machine learning algorithm,the soft electronics have become more and more intelligent to realize real-time analysis and diagnosis.The soft electronics and machining learning algorithms complement each other very well.It is indubitable that the soft electronics will bring us to a healthier and more intelligent world in the near future.Therefore,in this review,we will give a careful introduction about the new soft material,physiological signal detected by soft devices,and the soft devices assisted by machine learning algorithm.Some soft materials will be discussed such as two-dimensional material,carbon nanotube,nanowire,nanomesh,and hydrogel.Then,soft sensors will be discussed according to the physiological signal types(pulse,respiration,human motion,intraocular pressure,phonation,etc.).After that,the soft electronics assisted by various algorithms will be reviewed,including some classical algorithms and powerful neural network algorithms.Especially,the soft device assisted by neural network will be introduced carefully.Finally,the outlook,challenge,and conclusion of soft system powered by machine learning algorithm will be discussed.

Risk-stratification model to select conversion surgery for advanced gastric cancer patients

Objective: Conversion surgery is a surgery with a purpose of R0 resection in primary advanced gastric cancer(GC) that responded well to systemic chemotherapy. This study aimed to explore the efficacy of conversion surgery for advanced GC.Methods: A total of 618 advanced GC patients receiving systemic chemotherapy were stratified into low-,moderate-and high-risk groups based on a nomogram-predicted probability of overall survival. The survival of conversion surgery and chemotherapy alone groups was compared using the log-rank test and Cox regression analysis after propensity score matching(PSM).Results: A nomogram with good discrimination(concordance index: 0.65) and accurate calibration was constructed. After PSM, the median survival time(MST) of conversion surgery was 26.80 months, compared with16.60 months of chemotherapy alone(P<0.001). Conversion surgery was associated with a longer MST for patients in the low-risk group(30.40 months vs. 20.90 months, P=0.013), whereas it was not associated with prolonged survival in the moderate-and high-risk groups(P=0.221 and P=0.131, respectively).Conclusions: Conversion surgery was associated with longer survival, especially for low-risk population.

Research advancement of DNA-based intelligent hydrogels:Manufacture, characteristics, application of disease diagnosis and treatment

DNA-based hydrogels are exceptional materials for biological applications because of their numerous advantages such as biodegradability,biocompatibility,hydrophilicity,super absorbency,porosity,and swelling.Among these advantages,the ability of DNA-based hydrogels to respond to specific physical and chemical triggers and undergo reversible phase transitions has garnered significant attention in the fields of disease diagnosis(biosensors)and treatment(drug delivery).This article focuses on the recent advancements in the research of DNA-based hydrogels and discusses the different types of these hydrogels,the synthetic methods,their unique properties,and their applications in biosensors and drug delivery.The types of DNA hydrogels are categorized based on their building blocks,and the process of synthesis as well as the unique characteristics of DNA-based hydrogels are described.Then,DNA-based responsive hydrogels utilized as intelligent materials for the development of biosensors are reviewed.Furthermore,this article also presents the current status of DNA-based responsive hydrogels in drug delivery for cancer treatment,wound healing,and other therapeutic applications.Ultimately,this paper discusses the current challenges in expanding the practical application of DNA-based hydrogels.

Micromesh reinforced strain sensor with high stretchability and stability for full-range and periodic human motions monitoring

The development of strain sensors with high stretchability and stability is an inevitable requirement for achieving full-range and long-term use of wearable electronic devices.Herein,a resistive micromesh reinforced strain sensor(MRSS)with high stretchability and stability is prepared,consisting of a laser-scribed graphene(LSG)layer and two styrene-block-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-block-poly-styrene micromesh layers embedded in Ecoflex.The micromesh reinforced structure endows the MRSS with combined characteris-tics of a high stretchability(120%),excellent stability(with a repetition error of 0.8%after 11000 cycles),and outstanding sensitivity(gauge factor up to 2692 beyond 100%).Impressively,the MRSS can still be used continauously within the working range without damage,even if stretched to 300%.Furthermore,compared with different structure sensors,the mechanism of the MRSS with high stretchability and stability is elucidated.What's more,a multilayer finite element model,based on the layered structure of the LSG and the morphology of the cracks,is proposed to investigate the strain sensing behavior and failure mechanism of the MRSS.Finally,due to the outstanding performance,the MRSS not only performes well in monitoring full-range human motions,but also achieves intelligent recognitions of various respiratory activities and ges-tures assisted by neural network algorithms(the accuracy up to 94.29%and 100%,respectively).This work provides a new approach for designing high-performance resistive strain sensors and shows great potential in full-range and long-term intelligent health management and human-machine interac-tions applications.

Shape- and size-dependent catalysis activities of iron-terephthalic acid metal-organic frameworks

Precise control of the size and morphology of metal-organic frameworks(MOFs) presents an important direction for extending these inorganic-organic materials to many more advanced applications. However, because of the limit of the crystal-growth rule and mechanism, good-control of the size and morphology of MOFs remains challenging. In this contribution, an iron-terephthalic acid metal-organic framework with different shapes(octahedron, spindle and bipyramidal hexagonal) was easily and reproducibly synthesized via a solvothermal method. Sodium acetate and glycerol were used as modulators. Mechanism studies showed that the crystal nucleation rate and orientational growth both play important roles in determining the final shape of the MOFs. Further investigations showed that the as prepared MOFs exhibit shape-dependent catalytic activities, which means that MOFs can be designed to perform different catalytic functions. This investigation not only provides an effective guideline for the precise control of the size and morphology of metal-organic frameworks, but also extends MOFs to much more advanced applications in terms of catalyst chemistry.

Maintenance of the activity of mono-dispersed Au and Ag nano-particles embedded in agar gel for ion-sensing and antimicrobial applications

Composite materials were synthesized by encapsulating Au and Ag nanoparticles in an agar gel matrix. These metallic nano-particles were found to be separately stored, so their optical, catalytic, and antibacterial properties were retained both in the composite gel and a composite membrane. The composite gels were stable under hard external conditions. Based on this, a sensor for the detection of Hg2+ was developed using the Au nanoparticle/agar composite gel. Antibacterial materials were achieved using the Ag nanoparticle/agar composite gel and composite membrane. These two Ag nanoparticle-based materials showed good antibacterial activity against Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus.

Spectrofluorimetric analysis of captopril based on its obstruction effect of the nanomaterial surface energy transfer between acridine orange and gold nanoparticles

A simple and sensitive method for detection of captopril was established based on its obstructive effect on nanomaterial sur- face energy transfer （NSET）. It was found that the acridine orange （AO） could be adsorbed onto the surface of citrated-gold nanoparticles （AuNPs） through electrostatic interaction. Incidentally, the fluorescence of AO was quenched owing to the dipole-dipole interaction of NSET between AO fluorophore and the AuNPs. However, captopril could obstruct the occurrence of NSET between AO and AuNPs effectively with the formation of Au-S covalent bonds between it and the AuNPs. Consequently, AO molecules were moved away from the surface of AuNPs leading to a decline of the energy transfer efficiency. Moreover, the fluorescence of AO could be gradually restored with the addition of captopril. Under the optimal conditions, the recovered fluorescence intensity correlated linearly with the concentration of captopril in the range of 400 nmol/L-2.0μmol/L with a detection limit of 71 μmol/L. Besides, the proposed method was successfully applied for the detection of captopril in troches with the recovery of 93%-102% and the RSD lower than 2.24%. The results were in good agreement with those obtained from the HPLC method,

Facile synthesis of gold nanoflowers as SERS substrates and their morphological transformation induced by iodide ions

We report a new strategy to prepare gold nanoflowers （AuNFs） using a two-step seed-mediated method. The as-prepared AuNFs were employed as surface-enhance Raman scattering （SERS） substrates, showing strong signal enhancement. We further found that iodide ions （I^-） could selectively induce the morphological transformation of AuNFs to spheres, resulting in a blue-shift of the localized surface plasmon resonance （LSPR） bands, a color change of the AuNFs solution from blue to red, and decreased SERS activity. This behavior allows the AuNFs to be used in the determination of I^-.

Synergistic in-situ growth of silver nanoparticles with nanozyme activity for dual-mode biosensing and cancer theranostics

A multifunctional nanocomposite of AgNPs@GQDs is prepared by synergistic in-situ growth of silver nanoparticles(AgNPs)on the complex of tannic acid(TA)and graphene quantum dots(GQDs)for the construction of dual-mode biosensing platform and cancer theranostics.The nanocomposite exhibits a hydrogen peroxide(H_(2)O_(2))-responsive degradation,in which Ag^(0)is oxidized to Ag^(+)along with the release of oxidized TA and GQDs.The degradation induces the decreased absorbance and enhanced fluorescence(FL)intensity due to the suppression of Forster resonance ene rgy transfer(FRET)in AgNPs@GQDs,which is employed for colorimetric/fluorescence dual-mode sensing of H_(2)O_(2).The intrinsic peroxidase-like activity of GQDs nanozyme can effectively catalyze the oxidation reaction,enhancing the detection sensitivity significantly.Based on the generation of H_(2)O_(2)from the oxidation of glucose with the catalysis of glucose oxidase(GOx),this nanoprobe is versatilely used for the determination of glucose in human serum.Further,through combining the H_(2)O_(2)-responsive degradation of AgNPs@GQDs with high H_(2)O_(2)level in cancer cells,the nanocomposites exhibit good performance in cancer cell recognition and therapy,in which the synergistic anticancer effect of Ag^(+)and oxidized TA contribute to effective cell death,and the liberated GQDs are used to monitor the therapeutic effect by cell imaging.

pH-Responsive Magnetic I-Motif Container Coupled with DNA Walker for Construction of Dual-Signal Electrochemical Biosensor

Herein,a dual-signal electrochemical biosensor has been developed by self-assembly of pH-activatable i-motif probes on magnetic microparticles(MMPs)coupled with DNA walker for signal amplification.In this study,the cytosine(C)-rich single-stranded DNAs are hybridized with DNA initiators to obtain the long-nicked duplexes with repeated units,which are further captured on MMPs to form the magnetic i-motif containers.The resulting duplexes contain abundant G-C base pairs,thus providing extensive binding sites for doxorubicin(DOX).At acidic pH,the C-rich sequences are folded into i-motif structure,resulting in the release of DOX and walker initiators.In this case,the liberated DOX is adsorbed on gra-phene quantum dots-modified glassy carbon electrode viaπ-πinteraction,while the walker initiators as a moving part can catalyze the hybridization between MB-modified fueler DNA and tracker DNA on electrode,contributing to the generation of dual electrochemical signals induced by MB and DOX.Importantly,the magnetic separation can effectively reduce the background,achieving sensitive biosensing of pH ranging from 4.0 to 7.4 with excellent stability.Moreover,the proposed dual-signal electrochemical biosensor has been successfully applied for accurate monitoring of pH in human serum,which holds great potential in pH-dependent bioassays,especially in ultra-micro analysis for clinical applications.

A Novel Molecular Imprinted Polymers-Based Lateral Flow Strip for Sensitive Detection of Thiodiglycol

Traditional detection of thiodiglycol(TDG),a metabolic marker for sulfur mustard poisoning,requires not only professional operators,but also expensive reagents and large instruments.Herein,we developed a novel molecular imprinted polymers(MIPs)-based lateral flow assay(LFA)strategy for the quick,sensitive,and selective detection of TDG.Gold nanoparticles(Au NPs),MIPs,and metallothioneins(MTs)were respectively loaded on the conjugate pad,test line(T line)and control line(C line).After adding TDG,Au NPs on the conjugate pad reacted with TDG through the Au-S bond first.Then,under the action of capillary force,the conjugates of TDG and Au NPs were trapped by the MIPs as they traveled to the T line,and the residual Au NPs bound with the MTs on the C line,exhibiting two obvious red bands on T line and C line,respectively.In contrast,a single red band could be observed on C line without TDG.This method exhibited a wide linear range from 10.0 pg/m L to 10,000.0 ng/m L and its limit of detection(LOD)was as low as 0.41 pg/m L.This method was successfully utilized to detect TDG in human urine,presenting significant potential in the point-of-care testing of TDG in clinical samples of the sulfur mustard poisoning patients.