Submucosal injection material has shown protective effect against gastrointestinal injury during endoscopic surgery in clinic. However, the protective ability of existing submucosal injection material is strictly limited by their difficult injectability and short barrier time. Herein, we report a shear-thinning gellan gum hydrogel that simultaneously has easy injectability and long-lasting barrier function, together with good hemostatic property and biocompatibility. Shear-thinning property endows our gellan gum hydrogel with excellent endoscopic injection performance, and the injection pressure of our gellan gum hydrogel is much lower than that of the small molecule solution (50 wt% dextrose) when injected through the endoscopic needle. More importantly, our gellan gum hydrogel shows much stronger barrier retention ability than normal saline and sodium hyaluronate solution in the ex vivo and in vivo models. Furthermore, our epinephrine-containing gellan gum hydrogel has a satisfactory hemostatic effect in the mucosal lesion resection model of pig. These results indicate an appealing application prospect for gellan gum hydrogel utilizing as a submucosal injection material in endoscopic surgery.

Rifapentine is a rifamycin derivate approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1998 for the treatment of active, drug-susceptible tuberculosis (TB). In 2014, rifapentine was approved for the treatment of latent TB infection in patients at high risk of progression to active disease and is currently under evaluation by the European Medicines Agency. Expanding indications of rifapentine largely affect diabetes patients, since about one-third of them harbor latent TB. Clinical consequences of rifapentine use in this population and potentially harmful interactions with hypoglycemic agents are widely underexplored and generally considered similar to the ones of rifampicin. Indeed, rifapentine too may decrease blood levels of many oral antidiabetics and compete with them for protein-binding sites and/or transporters. However, the two drugs differ in protein-binding degree, the magnitude of cytochrome P450 induction and auto-induction, the degree of renal elimination, and so on. Rifapentine seems to be more suitable for use in diabetes patients with renal impairment, owing to the fact that it does not cause renal toxicity, and it is eliminated via kidneys in smaller proportions than rifampicin. On the other hand, there are no data related to rifapentine use in patients >65 years, and hypoalbuminemia associated with diabetic kidney disease may affect a free fraction of rifapentine to a greater extent than that of rifampicin. Until more pharmacokinetic information and information on the safety of rifapentine use in diabetic patients and drug–drug interactions are available, diabetes in TB patients treated with rifapentine should be managed with insulin analogs, and glucose and rifapentine plasma levels should be closely monitored.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth leading cancer in the world. The dysregulated expressions of the thrombospondin (THBS) family were reported to associate with GC, but their relations with tumor stage, prognosis, and correlations with tumor immunity have not been systematically reported.Methods: We used versatile public databases such as Oncomine, GEPIA, UALCAN, Kaplan–Meier Plotter, LinkedOmics, STRING, cBioPortal, TIMER, and TISIDB to analyze the expression and mutations of different THBSs in GC, along with their functional networks, survival analysis, and tumor–immune interactions.Results: The mRNA levels of THBS2, THBS4, and COMP were significantly higher in the tumor tissues; the expression levels of THBS1, THBS2, and THBS4 were higher in stages 2–4 than that of stage 1; patients with high expression of THBS1, THBS2, THBS4, and COMP had poor OS; the genes correlated with THBSs were enriched in focal adhesion, glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis, ECM-receptor interaction, and hedgehog signaling pathway; THBS1 and THBS4 expression had significant correlations with tumor purity, and all the THBSs expression correlated with macrophage and dendritic cells infiltration.Conclusions: THBS2, THBS4, and COMP were potentially diagnostic markers for GC; THBS1, THBS2, THBS4, and COMP were potentially prognostic markers for GC; investigating the relations of THBSs and tumor immunology might help in immunotherapy of GC, while more studies are needed to confirm these results.

Background: Transfemoral (TF) and transapical (TA) are two commonly used accesses in transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Currently, the influence of TAVI access choice on 30-day and 1-year outcomes is unclear. The purpose of this study was to compare the 30-day and 1-year outcomes between TF-TAVI and TA-TAVI.Methods: Studies published from 2002 to September 2014 were collected by searching PubMed and Web of Knowledge. Studies were selected by two independent investigators. 30-day and 1-year outcomes were endpoints. Odds ratios (ORs) and hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were computed. Fixed effect model was used if I2 < 50%; if I2 > 50%, random effect model was used.Results: 14 studies met inclusion criteria and were included in our analysis (3837 patients in TF group, 1881 patients in TA group). Two were retrospective trials and the others were prospective trials. Our meta-analysis showed that compared with TA group, TF group had a lower 30-day mortality (7.5% versus 11.6%) and higher 1-year survival [HR 0.75, 95% CI (0.66, 0.86)], but the Logistic EuroSCORE was higher in TA group (P = 0.00). TF group had a significantly higher stroke rate of 4.0% compared with 2.2% in TA group at ≤30 days. The incidence of major vascular complications was significantly higher in TF group compared with TA group (8.2% versus 5.3%). MI was more common in TA group (2.4%) compared with TF group (1.2%), but there were no significant difference [0.46, 95% CI (0.20, 1.06)].Conclusions: TF-TAVI had a higher 30-day and 1-year survival rate compared with TA-TAVI, but these differences might be because of the higher Logistic EuroSCORE in TA group. Stroke and major vascular complications rates were higher in TF-TAVI patients at ≤30 days.