Tag: pubmed

BMC Med Genomics. 2026 Jul 6. doi: 10.1186/s12920-026-02423-5. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA interaction constructs a competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) network, which is closely related to inflammation. However, their roles in allergic rhinitis (AR) remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the regulatory role of ceRNA networks in AR pathogenesis by analyzing long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs), then constructing a lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA interaction network.

METHODS: An AR mouse model was established using ovalbumin (OVA). Pathological examination was performed on the nasal mucosa of the mice, and ELISA was conducted on the mouse serum. High-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the expression profiles of lncRNAs, circRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs in the nasal mucosa of AR mice. A fold change > 2 and a q-value < 0.05 were used to identify the significantly differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs, circRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs in AR. Then, bioinformatics and statistical methods were used to construct ceRNA networks, while RT-PCR was employed to validate RNA seq results.

RESULTS: A total of 216 mRNAs, 241 lncRNAs, 659 circRNAs, and 19 miRNAs were identified as significantly differentially expressed. Among them, 145 mRNAs were up-regulated and 71 were down-regulated; 138 lncRNAs were up-regulated and 103 were down-regulated; 304 circRNAs were up-regulated and 355 were down-regulated; 16 miRNAs were up-regulated and 3 were down-regulated. Additionally, 223 miRNA -mRNA pairs, 50 miRNA-lncRNA pairs, and 17 circRNA-miRNA pairs were obtained, and a network diagram of lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA pairs was drawn. Functional enrichment analysis based on the ceRNA network confirmed that lncRNAs are involved in the regulation of the Wnt signaling pathway, ECM-receptor interaction, and the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. In contrast, circRNAs are implicated in the modulation of adipocyte lipolysis, as well as ECM-receptor interactions and protein digestion and absorption. Some DE-lncRNAs and DE-mRNAs determined by RNA sequencing were verified by RT-PCR, and their trends were similar to those observed in RNA seq.

CONCLUSION: We established a ceRNA network based on lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA interactions for AR, providing a solid foundation for future investigations into its underlying molecular mechanisms and the identification of novel drug targets.

PMID:42410433 | DOI:10.1186/s12920-026-02423-5

BMC Biol. 2026 Jul 6. doi: 10.1186/s12915-026-02674-9. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Austrofundulus limnaeus is an extremophile vertebrate native to small temporary ponds of Venezuela. Embryos of A. limnaeus must survive variable and often extreme conditions, including long periods of anoxia. Neuroepithelial cells derived from these embryos, WS40NE cells, provide a unique tool to understand how the proteome changes in response to anoxic stress.

RESULTS: Using label-free proteomics, 19,604 peptides and 3487 proteins were quantified in normoxic, 4d anoxic, and 24 h recovery WS40NE cells. Of these, 2612 proteins (74.9%) were statistically significantly differentially abundant in at least one comparison: 1988 comparing normoxia to 4 days anoxia (57.0%), 923 comparing 4 days anoxia to 24 h recovery (26.5%), and 1814 comparing normoxia to 24 h recovery (52.0%). Further, interaction networks of proteins with similar expression patterns suggest that relative mitochondrial capacity may increase during anoxia, including upregulation and/or preferred stabilization of proteins involved in mitochondrial metabolism and mitochondrial transcription and translation. This is in sharp contrast to trends in proteins that support cytoplasmic translation.

CONCLUSIONS: These data support an active role for mitochondria in mediating the survival of the anoxia-tolerant WS40NE cell line and highlight the value of this non-traditional vertebrate model for uncovering novel mechanisms of cellular resilience.

PMID:42410428 | DOI:10.1186/s12915-026-02674-9

J Transl Med. 2026 Jul 6. doi: 10.1186/s12967-026-08570-8. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Lipid metabolism reprogramming is a hallmark of cancer, yet its systemic manifestations and functional implications in bladder cancer (BC) remain poorly understood. This study aimed to identify plasma lipidomic profiles with diagnostic, staging, and prognostic value in BC, and to explore their associations with thromboinflammatory mechanisms, particularly NETosis and thrombin generation.

METHODS: Plasma lipidomics was characterized by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry from 87 BC patients (non-muscle-invasive BC, NMIBC, and muscle-invasive BC, MIBC) and 30 controls. NETosis markers, active DNaseI concentration, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, IL-6, prothrombin F1+2, thrombin-antithrombin (TAT) complexes, and thrombin generation tests (TGT) were assessed in parallel. Statistical analyses in R included PCA, ROC curve analysis, elastic net penalized logistic regression, Cox regression, natural cubic spline modeling for survival analyses, and pathway enrichment analyses.

RESULTS: BC patients exhibited increased total lipid load and distinct lipidomic signatures. Phosphatidylcholine (PC) levels decreased with disease severity and were independently associated with poor overall survival (up to 85% reduction in MIBC). Multivariable elastic net models integrating lipidomic and clinical variables achieved high diagnostic accuracy for discriminating BC patients from controls (AUC = 0.943) and for distinguishing MIBC from NMIBC (AUC = 0.860). BC patients displayed increased NETosis, inflammation, and thrombin formation, while decreased active DNaseI. Potentially diagnostic lipids correlated with NETosis, inflammatory markers and TAT, and inversely with active DNaseI and TGT parameters. Given the cross-sectional and observational design, these findings should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating and do not allow causal inference.

CONCLUSIONS: Plasma lipidomic profiling identifies biomarkers with diagnostic and prognostic potential in BC and reveals associations with NETosis, active DNaseI dysfunction, and thrombin generation. While causality cannot be inferred from this exploratory study, these findings support lipidomics as a minimally invasive tool for BC stratification and as a window into cancer-associated immunothrombosis, providing a rationale for future longitudinal and mechanistic studies targeting lipid-neutrophil interactions.

PMID:42410426 | DOI:10.1186/s12967-026-08570-8

BMC Med. 2026 Jul 6. doi: 10.1186/s12916-026-05032-2. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the third leading cause of cancer deaths, urgently requires innovative early detection strategies. This prospective study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) methylation, mutation, and/or alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) for HCC early detection model development.

METHODS: Peripheral blood samples were prospectively collected from 635 participants (288 HCC, 347 non-HCC), who were randomly assigned (6:4) to the training and validation sets to develop and validate a multi-omics early detection (MOED) model. The model was externally validated on 797 subjects (160 HCC, 637 non-HCC) and further blindly tested on 452 community-recruited high-risk individuals.

RESULTS: The methylation-based model showed superior performance over AFP and mutation-based models in the training set. In the validation set, the MOED model, integrating methylation with AFP levels ≥ 400 ng/mL, slightly increased sensitivity from 87.1% (95% CI: 79.6%-92.6%) to 88.8% (95% CI: 81.6%-93.9%) at 95.7% specificity (95% CI: 91.0%-98.4%), whereas adding mutation data did not improve the performance. In the independent validation set, the locked MOED exhibited 91.9% (95% CI: 86.5%-95.6%) overall sensitivity, 83.3% (95% CI: 51.6%-97.9%) stage 0 sensitivity, and 98.4% overall specificity (95% CI: 97.1%-99.2%). In high-risk individuals, the model demonstrated 92.9% (95% CI: 64.2%-99.6%) sensitivity, 90.6% (95% CI: 87.4%-93.1%) specificity, 24.1% (95% CI: 13.9%-37.9%) positive predictive value (PPV) and 99.7% (95% CI: 98.4%-100.0%) negative predictive value (NPV).

CONCLUSIONS: The MOED model, integrating cfDNA methylation and AFP, is highly effective for HCC detection and promising for screening in high-risk populations.

PMID:42410425 | DOI:10.1186/s12916-026-05032-2

BMC Nurs. 2026 Jul 6. doi: 10.1186/s12912-026-04983-4. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Social media addiction is common among university students and may have consequences for their physical activity. This study examines the relationship between nursing students’ social media addiction and both their engagement in physical activity and their perceptions of the benefits and barriers of exercise.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study involved 346 nursing students enrolled at three universities in different regions of Türkiye. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS), and the Exercise Benefit/Barrier Scale (EBBS), which measure social media addiction and perceptions of exercise benefits and barriers, respectively. Data were analyzed with t tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and linear regression, with sex, year of study, and body mass index treated as comparison or control variables.

RESULTS: A weak but statistically significant negative correlation was found between social media addiction and exercise benefit perception (r = – 0.188, p < 0.01), and this association persisted after adjusting for age, sex, year of study, and BMI (β = -0.164, p = 0.001). Longer daily social media use was associated with higher addiction scores (heaviest-use group 107.30 ± 35.26; p < 0.001), and students who exercised regularly scored lower than those who did not (p = 0.046). No significant difference in social media addiction was found between female and male students.

CONCLUSION: Because the design is cross-sectional, these findings reflect an association rather than a causal link: higher social media addiction was weakly related to a less favorable perception of exercise benefits. Approaches that encourage physical activity may be worth evaluating in future longitudinal and interventional studies.

PMID:42410422 | DOI:10.1186/s12912-026-04983-4

BMC Med Educ. 2026 Jul 6. doi: 10.1186/s12909-026-09878-1. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Digitalization, which is rapidly increasing its influence across many fields, has also led to a significant transformation in dentistry, evolving into a fundamental component that dentists are expected to master alongside traditional practices. Within this transformation in digital dentistry, teledentistry and artificial intelligence applications have emerged as prominent areas of focus. This study aimed to evaluate dental students’ knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regarding teledentistry and artificial intelligence-supported systems. It also investigated their views on the future applications of these technologies and compared the awareness and expectations of preclinical and clinical students.

METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among dentistry students at the Faculty of Dentistry, Sakarya University, including both preclinical and clinical levels. Data were collected using an 18-item structured questionnaire developed by the researchers and administered online via Google Forms. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach’s Alpha, and multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of teledentistry knowledge levels. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were calculated, and Chi-square tests were used to compare categorical variables. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: A total of 368 students participated in the study, of whom 237 were female and 131 were male; 156 were preclinical and 212 were clinical students. Clinical students demonstrated significantly higher knowledge regarding the purpose of artificial intelligence-based system usage in teledentistry compared with preclinical students (p < 0.05). Additionally, a significant difference was found in the sources of information about teledentistry between the two groups (p < 0.05). Social media was the most common information source for both groups, while a higher proportion of preclinical students reported having no prior knowledge of teledentistry (64.7%). Most participants identified artificial intelligence and big data analytics as the most influential technologies for the future development of teledentistry.

CONCLUSIONS: Integrating teledentistry and artificial intelligence more extensively into undergraduate dental education may enhance future dentists’ competence in digital dentistry and better prepare them to adapt to rapidly evolving technological advancements in the profession. The findings also indicate that dental students generally demonstrate positive attitudes toward AI-supported teledentistry despite having limited knowledge levels, with clinical students showing higher levels of awareness compared with preclinical students.

PMID:42410419 | DOI:10.1186/s12909-026-09878-1

BMC Surg. 2026 Jul 6. doi: 10.1186/s12893-026-03942-9. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) has become the recommended treatment approach for patients with borderline resectable or locally advanced pancreatic cancer. However, pancreatic peritumoral fibrosis and proximity of the tumor to major vessels make surgery after NAT challenging. The feasibility and safety of robotic approaches remain unclear.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on consecutive pancreatic cancer patients who underwent either open pancreatic surgeries (OPS) or robotic pancreatic surgeries (RPS) following NAT between February 2017 and April 2025. Outcomes, including R0 resection rates, postoperative complication rates, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS), were compared between the two groups.

RESULTS: The rate of combined vascular resection and reconstruction was significantly higher in OPS group compared to RPS group following NAT. A total of 43 patients underwent surgical resection which did not require venous segmental resection and reconstruction, including 23 RPS and 20 OPS, were finally included in the analysis. The two groups were well balanced in baseline characteristics, except for BMI. In the RPS group, one case (4.3%) was converted into laparotomy. The RPS group was associated with longer operative time (340.0 min vs. 254.0 min, p = 0.015). The number of harvested lymph nodes was significantly higher in the RPS group compared to the OPS group(25 vs. 18, p = 0.049). There were no significant differences in R0 resection rates between the groups. The overall complication rate was significantly lower in the RPS group (21.7% vs. 55.0%, p = 0.024), while the rates of severe complications, clinically relevant pancreatic fistula, and postoperative hemorrhage did not differ between groups. Postoperative hospital stay was slightly shorter in the RPS group, though not statistically significant. There were no significant differences in DFS or OS.

CONCLUSION: In carefully selected patients with pancreatic cancer following neoadjuvant therapy who did not require vascular segmental resection and reconstruction, a robotic approach appeared technically feasible and was associated with favorable short-term postoperative outcomes and a greater lymph node yield. These findings should be considered exploratory, and further prospective studies are warranted to better define the role of robotic surgery in this setting.

PMID:42410418 | DOI:10.1186/s12893-026-03942-9

Nutrition. 2026 Jul 6;150:113307. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2026.113307. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of training conducted using simulation- and booklet-based training techniques on breastfeeding self-efficacy, breastfeeding, and breast-related problems.

METHODS: This randomized controlled trial was conducted between July and December 2023 in obstetric outpatient clinics with women receiving antenatal care (control group: 22, booklet-based training group: 22, and simulation-based training group: 22). A total of five interviews with all participants were conducted. The data were collected with a Personal Information Form, the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale (BSES), and the Breastfeeding Experience Scale (BES). Data analysis was conducted using the SPSS software using descriptive statistics, chi-square, Kruskal Wallis test, and Bonferroni correction test.

RESULTS: In the study, the groups were homogeneous in terms of obstetric and birth-related characteristics (P > 0.05). The total BSES scale scores of the women in the booklet-based and simulation-based groups were higher than those in the control group in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th interviews after the training (η² = 0.292; 0.543; 0.640; and 0.682 according to the times). The mean BES scale scores of the women in the booklet-based and simulation-based groups were lower than those of the women in the control group in the 4th and 5th interviews postpartum after the training given (η² = 0.368; 0.508 according to the times).

CONCLUSION: Booklet- and simulation-based breastfeeding training given starting from the antenatal period was effective in increasing breastfeeding self-efficacy, as well as in identifying and solving postpartum problems at an early stage.

PMID:42407201 | DOI:10.1016/j.nut.2026.113307

J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2026 Jun 27;182:107529. doi: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2026.107529. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Virtual patient models require comprehensive knowledge of carotid tissue biomechanics across physiologically relevant deformation states and patient variation. This study aims to characterize the passive biomechanical behavior of the human common carotid artery (CCA) while incorporating the in situ axial pre-stretch, as well as exploring the effect of age, laterality, and sample orientation across CCA samples.

METHODS: Planar biaxial testing was performed on CCA segments from 10 human body donors (50% female; one young adult of 19 years and nine older adults of 78-98 years). A thick-walled Holzapfel-Gasser-Ogden constitutive model was fitted to the data and used to simulate inflation-extension experiments. Simulated inflation experiments incorporated the measured axial pre-stretch. Extension experiments explored the effect of axial stretching at constant pressure of 100 mmHg. Bilateral and regional (anterior-posterior and proximal-distal) differences were statistically compared at 60, 100 and 140 mmHg. Additionally, the effect of age was explored.

RESULTS: Minimal regional and bilateral differences were observed: the loaded inner diameter, circumferential stiffness and reduced axial force were larger in the right than in the left CCA, while axial material stiffness was larger in the left CCA. Circumferential stiffness was larger anteriorly than posteriorly at 60 mmHg. Aged human CCAs visually showed different mechanical behaviors than those from the young donor.

CONCLUSION: This study quantifies the passive mechanical properties of the human CCA under physiological loading conditions. Minimal bilateral and regional differences in mechanical behavior were shown. Samples from the young donor behaved distinctively differently, exemplifying the effect of ageing.

PMID:42407173 | DOI:10.1016/j.jmbbm.2026.107529

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2026 Jul 6;322:120475. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2026.120475. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Evidence on the independent and interactive associations of green space and air pollution with novel blood lipid biomarkers remains limited. This longitudinal cohort study aimed to examine the independent and interactive associations of green space and air pollution exposure with blood lipid biomarkers.

METHODS: The study included 17,242 adults undergoing health examinations in Shijiazhuang, China (2021-2023). Linear mixed-effects models estimated associations of green space and air pollution exposure with blood lipid biomarkers, including the non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (NHHR) and the atherogenic index of plasma (AIP). Interaction terms, restricted cubic splines, and mediation analyses evaluated interaction effects, nonlinear exposure-response relationships, and mediation effects.

RESULTS: Associations with green space were most pronounced within the 500-m buffer. Each one-standard deviation (SD) increase in NDVI was associated with lower NHHR (β = -0.103; 95% CI: -0.114, -0.091) and AIP (β = -0.009; 95% CI: -0.012, -0.006). Among air pollutants, PM₂.₅ showed a stronger positive association with NHHR (β = 0.085 per SD; 95% CI: 0.081, 0.089), whereas PM₁₀ exhibited a stronger association with AIP (β = 0.006 per SD; 95% CI: 0.005, 0.007). Significant interactions were observed between NDVI and multiple air pollutants for both biomarkers (P_interaction < 0.05). Air pollution mixture indices statistically mediated part of the associations between green space exposure and NHHR (13.5%) and AIP (34%).

CONCLUSION: Green space exposure was associated with more favorable lipid biomarkers, whereas air pollution showed adverse associations. Green space is associated with weaker air pollution-related dyslipidemia.

PMID:42407152 | DOI:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2026.120475