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Cancer is a key cause of death worldwide. Despite the development of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and even immunotherapy, surgery remains the standard treatment for cancer patients. Recently, many studies have shown that propofol, a commonly used anesthetic drug, can affect the prognosis of cancer. In this review, we provide an overview of the molecular mechanisms of propofol in the development of cancer. Propofol not only affects epigenetic pathways, such as those involving miRNA, lncRNA and histone acetylation, but also modulates genetic signaling pathways, including the hypoxia, NF‐κB, MAPK, SLUG and Nrf2 pathways. In addition, propofol influences the immune function of patients and impacts the degree of immunosuppression. Furthermore, we briefly summarize the clinical trials on the effect of propofol in cancer development. Ultimately, further studies distinguishing the types of tumors in clinical trials are needed to clarify the correlation between propofol and cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between the rs498872 single nucleotide polymorphism ( SNP) and glioma risk has been studied, but these studies have yielded conflicting results. In order to explore this association, we performed a meta-analysis. A comprehensive literature search was performed using Pub Med and EMBASE database, with the last search up to August 23, 2013. Six articles including 10 case-control studies in English with 18 002 controls and 8434 cases were eligible for the meta-analysis. Subgroup analyses were conducted by source of controls and ethnicity. The combined results showed that rs498872 polymorphism was significantly associated with glioma risks ( TT vs CC: OR = 1.337, 95% CI = 1.222-1.462; TC vs CC: OR = 1.173, 95% CI = 1.081-1.272; dominant model: OR = 1.199, 95% CI = 1.101-1.306; recessive model: OR = 1.237, 95% CI = 1.135-1.347; additive model: OR = 1.156, 95% CI = 1.085-1.232). Moreover, there was increased cancer risk in all genetic models after stratification of the SNP data by the source of controls and ethnicity, and no evidence of publication bias was produced. Our meta-analysis suggested that rs498872 polymorphism was associated with increased risk of glioma. However, additional studies exploring the combined effects of rs498872 polymorphisms in Asian population should be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis of optical quality β-barium borate microwires and nanowires (MNWs) is reported using an organic-free hydrothermal method with BaCl2·6H2O, NaOH, and H3BO3 as source materials, and assisted with post-annealing. As-synthesized MNWs, with diameters ranging from 500 nm to 2 μm and lengths up to several hundred micrometers, show good optical-waveguiding capabilities. Based on evanescent coupling between a single BBO MNW waveguide and a fiber taper, propagation losses of 0.30 dB μm−1 (at 532 nm) and 0.21 dB μm−1 (at 671 nm) are evaluated, respectively. An evident second-harmonic generation (SHG) signal at 532 nm with a measured conversion efficiency of about 8.4% is observed when excited by waveguided 1064 nm, picosecond laser pulses within a BBO MNW with a length of the order of 100 μm. The dependence of the SHG conversion efficiency on the MNW diameter is also investigated. These results show a much-higher SHG efficiency for BBO single-crystal MNWs compared with bulk crystal, which suggests potential applications in future micro-/nanoscale nonlinear optical applications such as optical modulation and frequency conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]