Determination of the Root Canal Length of Teeth of Bantu Patients Attending the Teaching Hospital of Kinshasa University

Background: There is paucity of literature on the determination of the root canal length of Bantu subjects in dental professional practicing in Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo in particular. Aims: The aim of the present study was to determine the root canal length of teeth of Bantu patients extracts attending the Teaching Hospital of Kinshasa University. Methods and Material: Prospective cross-sectional study was carried out in the service of Conservative Dentistry. The patients suffering with pulpitis of permanent teeth which were selected for root canal treatment during the period of January 2014 to December 2016 were included. All patients whose main root canals were inaccessible, teeth carrying prosthesis, teeth with large coronal decay, teeth having periapical periodontitis, supernumerary teeth, wisdom and primary teeth were excluded. Results: The upper canines presented some significant longer canals compared to the lower canine (23.4 ± 2.3 mm and 21.6 ± 1.8 mm). Palatal canals of the first and second molar were respectively longer as compared to the superior teeth canals (21.5 ± 1 mm, 21.3 ± 2 mm). The distal canals of the first and second molar were the longest in the mandibular arch respectively measuring 20.7 ± 2.0 mm and 21.5 ± 1.7 mm. Conclusion: Data obtained from Bantu patients show slightly shorter roots compared to some European populations, but longer than some Asian populations.

Auxiliary Diagnosis of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Based on Spectral Phenotype

Thyroid cancer,a common endocrine malignancy,is one of the leading death causes among endocrine tumors.The diagnosis of pathological section analysis suffers from diagnostic delay and cumbersome operating procedures.Therefore,we intend to construct the models based on spectral data that can be potentially used for rapid intraoperative papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC)diagnosis and characterize PTC characteristics.To alleviate any concerns pathologists may have about using the model,we conducted an analysis of the used bands that can be interpreted pathologically.A spectra acquisition system was first built to acquire spectra of pathological section images from 91 patients.The obtained spectral dataset contains 217 spectra of normal thyroid tissue and 217 spectra of PTC tissue.Clinical data of the corresponding patients were collected for subsequent model interpretability analysis.The experiment has been approved by the Ethics Review Committee of the Wuhu Hospital of East China Normal University.The spectral preprocessing method was used to process the spectra,and the preprocessed signal respectively optimized by the first and secondary informative wavelengths selection was used to develop the PTC detection models.The PTC detection model using mean centering(MC)and multiple scattering correction(MSC)has optimal performance,and the reasons for the good performance were analyzed in combination with the spectral acquisition process and composition of the test slide.For model interpretable analysis,the near-ultraviolet band selected for modeling corresponds to the location of amino acid absorption peak,and this is consistent with the clinical phenomenon of significantly lower amino acid concentrations in PTC patients.Moreover,the absorption peak of hemoglobin selected for modeling is consistent with the low hemoglobin index in PTC patients.In addition,the correlation analysis was performed between the selected wavelengths and the clinical data,and the results show:the reflection intensity of selected wavelengths in normal cells has a moderate correlation with cell arrangement structure,nucleus size and free thyroxine(FT4),and has a strong correlation with triiodothyronine(T3);the reflection intensity of selected bands in PTC cells has a moderate correlation with free triiodothyronine(FT3).

Implantable versatile oxidized bacterial cellulose membrane for postoperative HNSCC treatment via photothermal-boosted immunotherapy

The recurrence of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma(HNSCC)after surgical resection continues to pose a major challenge to cancer treatment.Advanced HNSCC exhibits a low response rate to immune checkpoint blockade(ICB),while photothermal therapy(PTT)can increase the infiltration of immune cells to make tumors more susceptible to cancer immunotherapy.In this regard,we designed and constructed a novel multifunctional nanocomposite comprised of oxidized bacterial cellulose(OBC),thrombin(TB),and gold nanocages(AuNCs)containing anti-programmed death 1(PD-1)antibody(αPD-1@AuNCs),which allows the combination of therapies with remarkable postoperative antitumor immunity to control local tumor recurrence.TheαPD-1@AuNCs displayed high light-to-heat conversion efficiency and induced pyroptosis under near infrared(NIR)irradiation,which activated a potent antitumor immune response.More importantly,the therapeutic system could induce tumor pyroptosis and enhance antitumor immune response by increasing T-cell infiltration and reducing the immune suppressive cells,when combined with local ICB therapy,which effectively avoided the tumor recurrence in a HNSCC postoperative mice model.Overall,the newly developed multifunctional nanocomposites could be a promising candidate for the treatment of postoperative HNSCC.

Cuproptosis:lipoylated TCA cycle proteins-mediated novel cell death pathway

In a recent study published in Science,Tsvetkov et al1.shed a light on a new form of cell death,copper-dependent cell death(termed cuproptosis).They defined“cuproptosis”as a nonapoptotic cell death pathway.They have demonstrated that copper directly binds to lipoylated components of the tricarboxylic acid(TCA)cycle.Then aggregation of these copper-bound,lipoylated mitochondrial proteins and subsequent Fe-S cluster protein loss triggered proteotoxic stress and a distinct form of cell death.