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Background: Gastrointestinal cancer (GIC) is a prevalent and lethal malignant tumor. It is obligatory to investigate innovative biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis. Proteins play a crucial role in regulating the occurrence and progression of GIC. However, the prognostic value of proteins is unclear in GIC. Objective: This paper aims to identify the hub prognosis-related proteins (PAPs) and construct a prognosis model for GIC patients for clinical application. Methods: Protein expression data of GIC was obtained from The Cancer Proteome Atlas (TCPA) and downloaded the clinicopathological data from The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA). Besides, hub proteins were filtrated via univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Moreover, survival analysis and nomogram were used to predict overall survival (OS). We used the calibration curves to assess the consistency of predictive and actual survival rates. The consistency index (C-index) was used to evaluate the prognostic ability of the predictive model. Furthermore, functional enrichment analysis and protein co-expression of PAPs were used to explore their roles in GIC. Results: Finally, a prognosis model was conducted based on ten PAPs (CYCLIND1, DVL3, NCADHERIN, SYK, ANNEXIN VII, CD20, CMET, RB, TFRC, and PREX1). The risk score calculated by the model was an independent prognostic predictor. Compared with the high-risk subgroup, the low-risk subgroup had better OS. In the TCGA cohort, the area under the curve value of the receiver operating characteristic curve of the prognostic model was 0.692. The expression of proteins and risk score had a significant association with the clinicopathological characteristics of GIC. Besides, a nomogram based on GIC clinicopathological features and risk scores could properly predict the OS of individual GIC patients. The C-index is 0.71 in the TCGA cohort and 0.73 in the GEO cohort. Conclusion: The results indicate that the risk score is an independent prognostic biomarker and is related to the malignant clinical features of GIC patients. Besides, several PAPs associated with the survival and clinicopathological characteristics of GIC might be potential biomarkers for GIC diagnosis and treatment.

Prolactinomas have harmful effects on human health. Bromocriptine is the only commercially available drug in China, but about 25% of prolactinoma patients do not respond to it in clinic, its pathogenesis remains unknown. Thus, its pathogenesis needs to be determined to develop new therapeutic methods for prolactinomas. The expression of ERβ, TLR4, and prolactin (PRL) in the pituitary gland of C57BL/6 mice and human prolactinoma specimen was examined by immunofluorescence or immunohistochemistry. The role of TLR4 in prolactinoma was determined using estradiol-induced models of C57BL/6 wild-type and TLR4−/− mice. MMQ cells were treated with estradiol, fulvestrant, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or transfected with TLR4 siRNA to study the expression of ERβ, TLR4, and PRL in these cells. Furthermore, the interaction between ERβ and TLR4 was investigated by immunoprecipitation analysis. The expression of PRL and TLR4 was co-located and increased in the pituitary gland of mice and human prolactinoma specimen compared to that in the control specimen. Meanwhile, TLR4 knockout or treatment with the TLR4 inhibitor TAK242 not only significantly inhibited tumor overgrowth but also decreased the expression of PRL in estradiol-treated mice through p38 MAPK pathway regulation. However, MMQ treated with estradiol and LPS enhanced PRL expression than treated with estradiol or LPS alone. Finally, ERβ or TLR4 inhibition prevented the estradiol-induced PRL increase by regulating the TLR4/p38 MAPK pathway in vitro. Estradiol promoted prolactinoma development by activating the TLR4/p38 MAPK pathway through ERβ, and TLR4 is a potential therapeutic target for prolactinoma treatment.

Background. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Shengxuening combined with conventional iron supplementation in the treatment of anemia during pregnancy. Methods. Electronic searches of Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China Knowledge Network (CNKI), Wanfang database (Wanfang), and China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP) were conducted. A randomized controlled trial of Shengxuening combined with conventional iron supplements for the treatment of anemia in pregnancy was included. The quality of the included trials was assessed using the Cochrane Handbook's Risk of Bias Assessment Tool (version 5.1.0), and data analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 software and Stata 15.0 statistical software. Results. A total of 150 studies were detected and 17 studies with a total of 1741 cases were finally included. Meta-analysis results showed that the effectiveness of Shengxuening combined with conventional iron supplementation was significantly better than that of conventional iron supplementation alone, and the adverse effects were significantly reduced compared with that of iron supplementation alone, and various anemia indicators such as Hb, RBC, MCV, and MCHC and iron metabolism indicators such as SI and TSAT were also significantly increased. Conclusion. The efficacy of the combination of Shengxuening and conventional iron supplementation in the treatment of anemia in pregnancy is better than that of conventional iron supplementation alone, and the adverse effects in the experimental group are much less than those in the control group, but the quality of the included studies is not high, and more high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed for further validation.

In order to explore the clinical effect of color Doppler ultrasonography in the diagnosis of subacute thyroiditis, a method for the diagnosis of subacute thyroiditis by color Doppler ultrasonography was proposed. From November 2019 to November 2020, 90 patients with subacute thyroiditis in our hospital were selected as the experimental group; 90 healthy people were selected as the control group during the same period. Both groups were diagnosed by color Doppler ultrasonography and compared. The experimental results showed that patients with subacute thyroiditis showed mild to moderate enlargement of the involved thyroid gland, and local or diffuse inhomogeneous hypoechoic areas may appear in bilateral or unilateral thyroid glands: irregular edges, unclear boundaries, no “ball feel,” mottled changes, and accompanied by tenderness. The blood flow signal around the hypoechoic area is rich, and the internal blood flow signal is less. There was no significant increase in the blood flow velocity of the superior thyroid artery on the affected side. Color Doppler ultrasound not only is simple, economical, and non-invasive but also has a good diagnostic accuracy for subacute thyroiditis, which can provide an important basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment and is worthy of popularization and application.