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Nanomedicine holds great promise to enhance cancer therapy. However, low active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) loading content, unpredictable drug release, and potential toxicity from excipients limit their translational capability. We herein report a full-API nanodrug composed of FDA-approved 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), human essential element Fe 3+ , and natural bioactive compound curcumin with an ideal API content and pH-responsive release profile for continuous spatiotemporal cancer therapy achieved by multi-step tandem endogenous biosynthesis. First, ALA enzymatically converts into photosensitizer protoporphyrin IX (PpIX). Afterward, multiple downstream products including carbon monoxide (CO), Fe 2+ , biliverdin (BV), and bilirubin (BR) are individually biosynthesized through the PpIX-heme-CO/Fe 2+ /BV-BR metabolic pathway, further cooperating with released Fe 3+ and curcumin, ultimately eliciting mitochondria damage, membrane disruption, and intracytoplasmic injury. This work not only provides a paradigm for exploiting diversified metabolites for tumor suppression, but also presents a safe and efficient full-API nanodrug, facilitating the practical translation of nanodrugs. Nanomedicine is important in cancer therapy, but loading, drug release, and therapeutic effectiveness issues limit the translation to the clinic. Here, authors report a full-API nanodrug with an ideal API content and pH-responsive release for continuous spatiotemporal cancer therapy based on PpIX-heme-CO/Fe 2+ /BV-BR metabolic pathway.

The Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile - Taiwan Version (HELP-T) assesses the lifestyle profiles of the older adults through participation in activities across seven domains: exercise, diet, social and productive activities, leisure, activities of daily living, stress management and spiritual participation, and other health behaviors. This study aimed to develop a short form of HELP-T (HELP-T-SF) to reduce assessment time and evaluate its psychometric properties. This three-phase study comprised item reduction using archival data (2012-2013), field testing (n = 223; 2023), and psychometric evaluation (n = 117; 2024) among community-dwelling older adults. Data collection included the HELP-T-SF, original HELP-T, WHO-5 Well-Being Index, and quality-of-life questions. Analysis employed classical test theory. The finalized HELP-T-SF, consisting of 20 items. Internal consistency for the total score was Cronbach's α = 0.78 (95% CI: 0.54 to 0.89); test-retest reliability over 7-14 days was ICC (3,1) = 0.78 (95% CI: 0.54 to 0.89); correlation with the long form was r = 0.75 (95% CI: 0.56 to 0.86). Convergent validity showed moderate correlations with well-being and quality of life. The short form reduced assessment time to 10-15 minutes. The HELP-T-SF is a valid tool for assessing lifestyle profiles in community-dwelling older adults, assisting practitioners in lifestyle medicine for understanding older adults's lifestyle profile, setting client-centered goals and designing personalized lifestyle interventions.

This study investigates the impact of technology-assisted sports training on the physiological and psychological performance of recreational exercisers (non-athletes), with particular attention to the moderating role of sport involvement (SI). A quasi-experimental design was employed, with 48 participants randomly assigned to either an experimental group (technology-assisted training) or a control group (traditional coaching) for an eight-week training program. Performance measures included exercise self-efficacy (ESE) and squat speed (SS). Data were analyzed using ANCOVA and linear mixed models. The results showed that technology-assisted training significantly improved SS (p = 0.026), but had no significant effect on ESE (p = 0.905). Furthermore, SI moderated the relationship between training method and ESE: participants with low SI demonstrated significant improvements in ESE under traditional coaching (p = 0.006), whereas those with high SI showed no significant differences between training methods. These findings suggest that while sports technology can enhance physical performance, it does not necessarily improve exercise self-efficacy. For individuals with low sport involvement, traditional coaching remains essential, highlighting the importance of combining technology with interpersonal interaction. Future training strategies should be customized according to participants’ levels of sport involvement to optimize both performance and psychological motivation, thereby promoting broader health engagement and exercise participation.

The Chang Gung Research Database (CGRD) is a de-identified database derived from original medical records of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CGMH), which comprises seven medical institutes located from the northeast to southern regions of Taiwan. The volume of medical services performed in CGMH is large, and clinical and scientific studies based on the CGRD are reported to be of high quality. However, the CGRD as a useful database for research has not been analyzed before. The objective of the study was to analyze the CGRD with regard to its characteristics and coverage of Taiwan's population. We performed a nationwide cohort study using population-based data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). All patients who had any medical record of outpatient visits or admission between January 1, 1997, and December 31, 2010, were included, and the sex ratio, age distribution, socioeconomic status, urbanicity, severity of illness, prevalence of specific disease, and coverage of the CGRD were analyzed. The sex ratio, age distribution, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity of the population of the CGRD are different from those of Taiwan NHIRD and medical centers in Taiwan (all the pairwise p < 0.05). The severity of comorbidities, and prevalence of specific diseases of the population of the CGRD are significantly higher than those of Taiwan NHIRD and medical centers in Taiwan for both outpatient and inpatient samples (all the pairwise p < 0.05). The overall coverage of the CGRD was 21.2% for outpatients and 12.4% for inpatients. The disease-specific coverage of the CGRD was 27-34% for outpatients and 14-21% for inpatients. The CGRD is a multi-institutional, original medical record-based research database with high overall and disease-specific coverage of Taiwan. The population of the CGRD has significantly higher severity of comorbidities, and prevalence of specific diseases than those of Taiwan NHIRD and medical centers in Taiwan.

Identification of potential factors that can stratify a tumor’s response to specific therapies will aid in the selection of cancer therapy. The aim was to highlight the role of programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) in bladder cancer. In this study, 92 of muscle-invasive bladder cancers and 28 of non- muscle invasive bladder cancers were selected for immunohistochemical staining analysis. Furthermore, human and murine bladder cancer cell lines were used to examine the correlation between PD-L1 and radiation response. Our data revealed that PD-L1 was overexpressed in the bladder tumor specimens compared with adjacent non-malignant specimens. Furthermore, the staining of PD-L1 was significantly linked to higher clinical stage, lower complete response rates and reduced disease-free survival rates. By in vitro and in vivo experiments, irradiation up-regulated the expression of PD-L1 in tumor cells and its increase correlated with the irradiation dose. In immunocompetent mouse models, blocking PD-L1 induced a longer tumour growth delay following irradiation. The inhibition of T cell functions including proliferation and cytotoxicity against tumor cells was responsible to the effects of PD-L1 on radiation response. In conclusion, PD-L1 could be a significant clinical predictor for clinical stage and treatment response of bladder cancer.

Identification of potential tumor markers will help stratify and identify a tumor's malignant potential and its response to specific therapies. IL-6 has been reported to be a predictor in various cancers. Therefore, the present study was performed to highlight the role of IL-6 in improving treatment and determining prognosis of bladder cancer. The human bladder cancer cell lines HT1376 and HT1197 were selected for cell and animal experiments, in which biological changes after experimental manipulation of IL-6 were explored, including tumor behavior and related signaling in bladder cancer. In addition, clinical specimens from 85 patients with muscle-invasive, and 50 with non-muscle invasive bladder cancers were selected for immunohistochemical staining to evaluate the predictive capacity of IL-6 in relation to clinical outcome. The data revealed that IL-6 was overexpressed in the bladder cancer specimens compared with non-malignant tissues at both mRNA and protein levels. Positive staining of IL-6 was significantly correlated with higher clinical stage, higher recurrence rate after curative treatment, and reduced survival rate. Tumor growth and invasive capability were attenuated when IL-6 was blocked. The underlying changes included decreased cell proliferation, less epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), decreased DNA methyltransferase 1 expression and attenuated angiogenesis. In conclusion, our findings showed that IL-6 could be a significant predictor for clinical stage and prognosis of bladder cancer. Moreover, targeting IL-6 may be a promising strategy for treating bladder cancer.

The interleukin‐23 (IL‐23)/IL‐17 immune axis has been linked to the pathology of psoriasis, but how this axis contributes to skin inflammation in this disease remains unclear. We measured inflammatory cytokines associated with the IL‐23/IL‐17 immune axis in the serum of patients with psoriasis using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays. Psoriasis was induced in male C57BL/6J mice using imiquimod (IMQ) cream, and animals received intraperitoneal injections of recombinant mouse anti‐IL‐23A or anti‐IL‐17A antibodies for 7 days. The potential effects of the IL‐23/IL‐17 immune axis on skin inflammation were assessed based on pathology scoring, hematoxylin–eosin staining of skin samples, and quantitation of inflammatory cytokines. Western blotting was used to evaluate levels of the following factors in skin: ACT1, TRAF6, TAK1, NF‐κB, and pNF‐κB. The serum of psoriasis patients showed elevated levels of several cytokines involved in the IL‐23/IL‐17 immune axis: IL‐2, IL‐4, IL‐8, IL‐12, IL‐17, IL‐22, IL‐23, and interferon‐γ. Levels of IL‐23p19 and IL‐17 were increased in serum and skin of IMQ‐treated mice, while ACT1, TRAF6, TAK1, NF‐κB, and pNF‐κB were upregulated in the skin. A large proportion of NF‐κB p65 localized in nucleus of involucrin+ cells in the epidermis and in F4/80+ cells of the dermis of psoriatic lesional skin. Treating these animals with anti‐IL‐23 or anti‐IL‐17 antibodies improved pathological score and immune imbalance, mitigated skin inflammation and downregulated ACT1, TRAF6, TAK1, NF‐κB, and pNF‐κB in skin. Our results suggest that skin inflammation mediated by the IL‐23/IL‐17 immune axis in psoriasis involves activation of the ACT1/TRAF6/TAK1/NF‐κB pathway in keratinocytes and macrophage.

Hydroxyapatite (HA), especially in the form of HA nanoparticles (HANPs), has excellent bioactivity, biodegradability, and osteoconductivity and therefore has been widely used as a template or additives for drug delivery in clinical applications, such as dentistry and orthopedic repair. Due to the atomically anisotropic distribution on the preferred growth of HA crystals, especially the nanoscale rod-/whisker-like morphology, HA can generally be a good candidate for carrying a variety of substances. HA is biocompatible and suitable for medical applications, but most drugs carried by HANPs have an initial burst release. In the adsorption mechanism of HA as a carrier, specific surface area, pore size, and porosity are important factors that mainly affect the adsorption and release amounts. At present, many studies have developed HA as a drug carrier with targeted effect, porous structure, and high porosity. This review mainly discusses the influence of HA structures as a carrier on the adsorption and release of active molecules. It then focuses on the benefits and effects of different types of polymer-HA composites to re-examine the proteins/drugs carry and release behavior and related potential clinical applications. This literature survey can be divided into three main parts: 1. interaction and adsorption mechanism of HA and drugs; 2. advantages and application fields of HA/organic composites; 3. loading and drug release behavior of multifunctional HA composites in different environments. This work also presents the latest development and future prospects of HA as a drug carrier.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is an aggressive head and neck cancer. Evidence showed that some pathogenic bacteria are associated with periodontitis and oral cancer. The change in oral microbiome composition and the role of the specific periodontal pathogen Streptococcus mutans in OSCC were investigated. We analyzed the microbiome of oral biofilms to identify if the oral microbiome composition was associated with OSCC. The role of S. mutans with clinical prognosis for OSCC was also examined. We further examined the role of S. mutans infection in OSCC progression in preclinical experiments. The microbiome assay by oral biofilms revealed that there was different microbiota composition between OSCC patients and health participants. Furthermore, the microbiota profiles showed thatS. mutans abundance was associated with the development of OSCC development. Using the 16S rRNA PCR analysis, the presence of S. mutans was associated with advanced clinical stage and poor disease control. Furthermore, in the 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide-induced mouse model, the presence of S. mutans was associated with elevated invasive oral cancer incidence. By cellular and xenograft tumor model using oral cancer cells, S. mutans infection was associated with the increased tumor aggressiveness, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and interleukin-6 (IL-6) production; it also correlated with the recruitment of myeloid-derived-suppressor cells. When IL-6 signaling inhibited, the effects of S. mutans on tumor aggressiveness were attenuated. In conclusion, S. mutans may have the additive effect on oral cancer development and progression. Good oral hygiene to eradicate S. mutans or targeting IL-6 signaling could be a promising strategy for OSCC associated with S.mutans infection.

Multi-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) materials are promising candidates for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with narrow electroluminescence (EL) spectra. Current researches focus on fabricating hyperfluorescence OLEDs to improve EL efficiencies of MR-TADF emitters by co-doping them with TADF sensitizers in a single host layer. However, in many cases, the polarity of the single host could be not suitable for both blue MR-TADF emitters and blue TADF sensitizers, resulting in broadened EL spectra in high-polar hosts or decreased EL efficiencies in low-polar hosts. Herein, we wish to report an efficient sensitization strategy for blue MR-TADF emitters by constructing an interlayer-sensitizing configuration, in which the blue TADF sensitizers and blue MR-TADF emitters are separated into two closely aligned host layers with high polarity and low polarity, respectively. Based on this strategy, efficient blue hyperfluorescence OLEDs are realized and verified by employing various TADF sensitizers and different MR-TADF emitters, furnishing outstanding external quantum efficiencies of up to 38.8% and narrow EL spectra. These results validate the feasibility and universality of this interlayer sensitization strategy, which provides an effective alternative to high-performance blue hyperfluorescence OLEDs.A promising sensitization strategy is proposed for blue MR-TADF emitters by constructing interlayer-sensitizing configuration, and high-performance blue hyperfluorescence OLEDs with high EQEs and narrow EL spectra are realized.