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Sonodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy: A growing alternative way of microbial inactivation.
Background Hyperuricemia is a common metabolic disease and has become a public health problem because of its increasing prevalence and association with comorbidities. Allopurinol and febuxostat are recommended as the first-line treatments for hyperuricemia and gout. But cardiovascular safety between febuxostat and allopurinol is still controversial. The purpose of this study is to compare the cardiovascular safety of XOIs and placebo in hyperuricemic patients with or without gout. Methods PubMed, Embase via OVID, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP were searched from their earliest records to February 8th 2021. ClinicalTrials.gov was also searched for unpublished data. The reference lists of included studies and relevant review articles investigating the cardiovascular safety of XOIs in hyperuricemia patients are screened for potentially eligible studies. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating allopurinol (100~900 mg/d), febuxostat (20~120 mg/d), or placebo for hyperuricemia were included. The ous remains uncertain.This study aimed to investigate drug retention rates for various TNF inhibitors (TNFis) commonly prescribed to Korean patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in the Korean College of Rheumatology Biologics registry (KOBIO; December 2012-June 2016). Discontinuation was defined as switching or stopping the biologic agent. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox's proportional hazard models were used for further analysis. The reasons for discontinuation of TNFis were also assessed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify possible predictors of discontinuation. Data from 1,005 patients with AS were analyzed with a median follow-up period of 14 months. Seventy-six percent of patients were first-line biologic users. Discontinuation of TNFis occurred in 24.2% (switching in 9.6%) of patients during follow-up. An estimate of the drug failure showed that the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for golimumab compared to etanercept was 0.441 (95% confidence interval 0.277-0.703, p less then 0.001). Reasons for discontinuation included lack of efficacy (32.6%), adverse events (23.6%), clinical improvement (11.2%), and others (32.6%). Predictors of discontinuation using a multivariate analysis were a shorter disease duration (HR 0.973, p = 0.044) and being negative for HLA-B27 (HR 1.623, p = 0.0093). In conclusion, few Korean patients with AS switched to other TNFis during their treatment. The drug retention rate for golimumab was higher than for other agents.Background Hypoxia is associated with a poorer clinical outcome and resistance to chemotherapy in solid tumors; identifying hypoxic-related colorectal cancer (CRC) and revealing its mechanism are important. The aim of this study was to assess hypoxia signature for predicting prognosis and analyze relevant mechanism. Methods Patients without chemotherapy were selected for the identification of hypoxia-related genes (HRGs). A total of six independent datasets that included 1,877 CRC patients were divided into a training cohort and two validation cohorts. Functional annotation and analysis were performed to reveal relevant mechanism. Results A 12-gene signature was derived, which was prognostic for stage II/III CRC patients in two validation cohorts [TCGA, n = 509, hazard ratio (HR) = 2.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.18 - 3.89, P = 0.01; metavalidation, n = 590, HR = 2.46, 95% CI = 1.59 - 3.81, P less then 0.001]. High hypoxic risk was correlated with worse prognosis in CRC patients without adjuvant chemotherapy (HR = 5.1, 95% CI = 2.51 - 10.35, P less then 0.001). After integration with clinical characteristics, hypoxia-related gene signature (HRGS) remained as an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis. Furthermore, enrichment analysis found that antitumor immune response was suppressed in the high hypoxic group. Conclusions HRGS is a promising system for estimating disease-free survival of stage II/III CRC patients. Hypoxia tumor microenvironment may be via inhibiting immune response to promote chemoresistance in stage II/III CRC patients.Programs to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission do not reduce the number of infants exposed during pregnancy and breastfeeding. HIV-exposed but uninfected children (HEU) present higher risk of morbidity and mortality than HIV-unexposed and uninfected children (UU). In this line, the study of immune biomarkers in HIV could improve prediction of disease progression, allowing to diminish comorbidity risk. Dried blood specimens (DBS) are an alternative to serum for collecting and transporting samples in countries with limited infrastructure and especially interesting for groups such as pediatrics, where obtaining a high sample volume is challenging. This study explores the usefulness of DBS for immune profile monitoring in samples from 30 children under clinical follow-up in Kinshasa 10 HIV-infected (HIV+), 10 HEU, and 10 UU. We have measured the gene expression levels of 12 immune and inflammatory markers (CD14, IL-6, TNFα, HVEM, B7.1, HIF-1α, Siglec-10, IRAK-M, CD163, B7H5, PD-L1, and Galectin-9) in DBS samples by reverse transcription of total RNA and RT-qPCR. Principal component analysis, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Mann-Whitney test were performed in order to study group differences. HIV+ children presented significantly higher levels of seven biomarkers (CD14, IL-6 HVEM, B7.1, Siglec-10, HIF-1α, and CD163) than the UU group. Proteasome inhibition In HEU, we found seven biomarkers significantly elevated (CD14, IL-6, HVEM, B7.1, Siglec-10, HIF-1α, and IRAK-M) vs. UU. Six biomarkers (CD14, IL-6, HVEM, B7.1, Siglec-10, and HIF-1α) showed a significantly higher expression in both HIV+ and HEU vs. UU, with HVEM and CD14 being significantly overexpressed among HIV+ vs. HEU. Our data reveal the utility of DBS for immune response monitoring. Moreover, significant differences in specific biomarker expression across groups strongly suggest the effect of HIV infection and/or HIV exposure on these immune biomarkers' expressions.Background Scalp psoriasis is usually refractory to treatment. Excimer devices have been proved to be a promising therapeutic option in psoriasis. Greater efficacy of phototherapy can be achieved by concurrent use of coal tar derivatives. Objective We aimed to compare efficacy and safety between 308-nm excimer lamp monotherapy and a combination of 308-nm excimer lamp and 10% liquor carbonis detergens in the treatment of scalp psoriasis. Methods In this randomized, evaluator-blinded, prospective, comparative study, 30 patients with scalp psoriasis received either 308-nm excimer lamp monotherapy or a combination of 308-nm excimer lamp and 10% liquor carbonis detergens twice per week until complete remission of the scalp or for a total of 30 sessions. Efficacy was evaluated by the improvement of Psoriasis Scalp Severity Index (PSSI) score, itch score, and Scalpdex score. Results Both treatments induced significant improvement in PSSI score with greater reduction observed in the combination group. At 30th visit, a 75% reduction in PSSI (PSSI75) was attained by 4 (28.6%) and 9 (69.2%) patients treated with monotherapy and combination therapy, respectively (P less then 0.05). Conclusions Excimer lamp is well-tolerated in patients with scalp psoriasis and liquor carbonis detergens can be used as a combination therapy to improve the efficacy of excimer lamp.Background There is currently no agreement on the optimal management of caesarean scar pregnancy. Caesarean scar pregnancy is currently categorised into two subtypes according to the site of implantation. This may consequently result in the difference in treatment options. However, the comparison of the success rate of each treatment option according to the subtypes has not been fully investigated. Methods 71 patients who were treated by uterine curettage (D and C), or uterine artery embolization with curettage (UAE) or hysteroscopy in conjunction with laparoscopy between January 2016 and March 2020 were included. Data on maternal age, gestational sac age, the sac diameter, the interval between two pregnancies, the number of previous caesarean sections, amount of bleeding and β-hCG levels were collected and analysed dependent on the subtypes. Results There was no difference in the clinical parameters of the cases who received different options of treatment, as well as no difference in the clinical parameters between type 1 and type 2 caesarean scar pregnancy. The primary success rate for type 1 caesarean scar pregnancy by D and C, or UAE, or hysteroscopy in conjunction with laparoscopy was 95, or 100 or 100%, respectively. The primary success rate for type 2 caesarean scar pregnancy by D and C, or UAE, or hysteroscopy in conjunction with laparoscopy was 27, or 67, or 95% respectively. Conclusion Our data demonstrates that hysteroscopy in conjunction with laparoscopy for type 2 caesarean scar pregnancy was the most successful compared to other options, but for type 1 caesarean scar pregnancy, D and C could be the cost-effective option.Currently, there is an increasing interest in treating patients at risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to prevent the development of this chronic disease. In this sense, research has focused attention on the early identification of predictive factors of this disease. Autoantibodies and markers of systemic inflammation can be present before clinical arthritis and RA development. So, the phase of inflammatory arthralgia preceding clinical arthritis is an important part of the window of opportunity and, starting treatment might prevent progression to chronic arthritis. Additionally, the early diagnosis and treatment initiation, in patients with inflammatory arthritis at risk of persistence and/or erosive progression, are fundamental because may allow optimal clinical responses, better chances of achieving sustained remission, preventing irreversible organ damage and optimizing long-term outcomes. This review aims to give an overview of clinical risk factors for developing RA, both in suspected arthralgia and in undifferentiated arthritis. Besides taking into consideration the role of serological markers (immunological and acute phase reactants) and clinical features assessed at consultation such as articular affection and patient's clinical perception. Other features as sociodemographic and environmental factors (lifestyle habits, microbiota, periodontal disease among others), have been included in this revision to give an insight on strategies to prevent development of RA and/or to treat it in early stages.Lung development is not completed at birth, but expands beyond infancy, rendering the lung highly susceptible to injury. Exposure to various influences during a critical window of organ growth can interfere with the finely-tuned process of development and induce pathological processes with aberrant alveolarization and long-term structural and functional sequelae. This concept of developmental origins of chronic disease has been coined as perinatal programming. Some adverse perinatal factors, including prematurity along with respiratory support, are well-recognized to induce bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a neonatal chronic lung disease that is characterized by arrest of alveolar and microvascular formation as well as lung matrix remodeling. While the pathogenesis of various experimental models focus on oxygen toxicity, mechanical ventilation and inflammation, the role of nutrition before and after birth remain poorly investigated. There is accumulating clinical and experimental evidence that intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) as a consequence of limited nutritive supply due to placental insufficiency or maternal malnutrition is a major risk factor for BPD and impaired lung function later in life.
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