Yijuan Wang

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is one of the main syndromes of coronary artery disease with high mortality. The identification of biomarkers associated with disease occurrence and progression could improve early detection and risk prediction. This study was aimed to reveal the clinical significance and function of miR-3646 in ACS. The expression of miR-3646 was evaluated in ACS patients, healthy volunteers, and non-ACS patients and estimated the clinical significance of miR-3646. The ACS modeling rats were also established in this study to explore the potential mechanism underlying the function of miR-3646. miR-3646 was upregulated in ACS patients compared with healthy volunteers and non-ACS patients. The expression of miR-3646 was positively correlated with the severity and progression of ACS patients and could discriminate ACS patients from healthy volunteers and non-ACS patients. The knockdown of miR-3646 could reverse the inflammatory response induced by ACS.miR-3646 serves as a diagnostic biomarker for ACS. The knockdown of miR-3646 could alleviate ACS by reversing inflammatory response. These results provide a potential therapeutic target of ACS.

The apparent temperature (APT), or human-perceived temperature, is commonly defined as a function of the surface air temperature (SAT), vapour pressure (or humidity) and wind speed. This paper demonstrates that the APT over China, as revealed by daily station- observed data, has generally increased faster than the SAT during summertime in the past 50 years (1968-2017). The rate of increase in APT was significantly faster than that of SAT in 60.1% of stations, and the difference between the average China-wide APT and SAT was 0.11°C decade−1. This phenomenon is occurring nationwide, but it is more intense over western, north-eastern and eastern coastal China. The more rapid increasing trend in APT indicates that human beings actually experience surplus heat stress under a certain change in SAT, and the increased SAT explains 67.0% of the average APT warming for the country, contributing to the change in the base APT. Apart from the increasing SAT, a decrease in surface wind speed and an increase in surface vapour pressure have also been observed, contributing to 21.6% of the increase in APT and explaining the remaining 11.4%, respectively.

The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of erythropoietin (EPO) for improving cancer‑associated malignant anemia. A search was performed for randomized clinical trials, conducted according to the Cochrane manual, using electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and ClinicalTrails.gov up to 15 August 2015. A total of 6 eligible studies from 5 articles enrolling a total of 453 patients were entered into the current meta-analysis. Upon EPO treatment, there were significant differences in the change in hemoglobin (HB) levels compared with the placebo at short‑term follow‑up [mean difference (MD)=0.66; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.14‑1.18; I2=Not applicable; P=0.01) and long‑term follow‑up (MD=0.10; 95% CI, 0.02‑0.18; I2=Not applicable; P=0.01) under the random effects model. For changes in hematocrit (HCT) compared with the placebo, the results revealed there were significant differences at short‑term follow‑up (MD=2.47; 95% CI, 0.75‑4.19; I2=Not applicable; P=0.005) and long‑term follow‑up (MD=7.60; 95% CI, 6.15‑9.05; I2=Not applicable; P<0.00001) under the random effects model. Compared with the placebo in short‑term follow‑up under the fixed effects model with homogeneity, the result was a significant difference for the transfusion ratio [relative risk (RR)=0.81; 95% CI, 0.67‑ 0.97; I2=34%; P=0.02) and the transfusion requirements (MD=‑0.45; 95% CI, ‑0.92, 0.03; I2=6%; P=0.07). Funnel plots did not detect any publication bias. These results suggest that EPO was beneficial to alleviate cancer‑associated anemia and improve survival outcomes for patients with cancer.

To evaluate the efficacy of members of the H2RA family for the treatment of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD). We performed a thorough electronic search on PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) for eligible randomized clinical trials that investigated H2RAs and the treatment of GERD up to July 28, 2015. A comprehensive network meta-analysis was conducted to compare the effects of each subset of H2RAs. A total of 13 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in our network meta-analysis. Our results showed that, compared with placebos, H2RAs were more effective for the treatment of GERD. Within the H2RA family, famotidine 80 mg per day (OR = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.06 - 0.38) was determined to be the most effective, followed by famotidine 40 mg per day (odds ratio (OR) = 0.23, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.11 - 0.44); ranitidine 1,200 mg per day (OR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.13 - 0.63); ranitidine 600 mg per day (OR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.14 - 0.47); ranitidine 300 mg per day (OR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.15 - 0.55); cimetidine 1,600 mg per day (OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.14 - 0.73); nizatidine 600 mg per day (OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.24 - 1.24); and finally nizatidine 300 mg per day (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.25 - 1.26). The placebo was determined to be the least effective treatment. Compared with other H2RAs, famotidine had the best short-term therapeutic effect in adults with GERD, especially at a dosage of 80 mg per day.