In view of the excellent biocompatibility as well as the low cost, nanoscale ZnO shows great potential for drug delivery application. Moreover, The charming character enable nanoscale ZnO some excellent features (e.g. dissolution in acid, ultrasonic permeability, microwave absorbing, hydrophobic/hydrophilic transition). All of that make nanoscale ZnO reasonable choices for smart drug delivery. In the recent decade, more and more studies have focused on controlling the drug release behavior via smart drug delivery systems based on nanoscale ZnO responsive to some certain stimuli. Herein, we review the recent exciting progress on the pH-responsive, ultrasound-responsive, microwave-responsive and UV-responsive nanoscale ZnO-based drug delivery systems. A brief introduction of the drug controlled release behavior and its effect of the drug delivery systems is presented. The biocompatibility of nanoscale ZnO is also discussed. Moreover, its development prospect is looked forward.
Lymphatic metastasis of esophageal cancer is one of the main ways of esophageal cancer metastasis and it is as well one of the most important factors influencing the prognosis of esophageal cancer patients. Compared to intravenous administration of chemotherapy, local chemotherapy has the less toxicity and less systemic side effects. Nano carbon is a safe and effective carrier for intraoperative lymphatic chemotherapy. It plays an important role in tracing and targeting lymph node during the lymphatic chemotherapy. Lymphatic chemotherapy can induce tumor into necrosis and apoptosis. For esophageal cancer, lymphatic chemotherapy is also to be proved to improve the rate of lymph node dissection and the number of metastatic lymph nodes, decrease tumor size, improve the quality of life and survival rate. In conclusion, lymphatic chemotherapy can be considered an assistant therapy to eliminate the tumor cell in lymph nodes and micrometastatic foci. In this review, the metastatic characteristic of esophageal cancer, the significance, mechanism and application of lymphatic chemotherapy carried by nano carbon are summarized.
ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to offer new suggestions for current clinician training under the guidance of the Healthy China 2030 policy by investigating the patients’ needs.MethodsThis study surveyed adult outpatients from West China Hospital of Sichuan University between March and July, 2019 and February and May, 2020 by self-constructed questionnaires to investigate the expectation and requirements of outpatients towards medical professionals.ResultsA total of 430 questionnaires were distributed, and 402 of them (93.5%) were collected and included in this study. All questionnaire respondents expected that medical graduates should have outstanding expertise and ethical standard. The majority valued qualities such as physical and mental health (90.05%), a bachelor’s degree or higher (73.88%), knowledge on disease control and prevention (61.69%), knowledge on health care (91.29%), ability to continuously update current knowledge (70.65%), and excellent communication (71.14%) and teamwork (62.44%) skills. In addition, most patients expected that new health care providers to possess humanitarianism and professional dedication relevant traits, and could improve diagnoses and treatments via research activities. Patients’ demand for abilities such as disease control and prevention, health care, and integrative cooperation between traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine significantly increased after the COVID-19 pandemic (P<0.05).ConclusionsNowadays, to provide health care services which meet the needs of the public, clinicians are expected to have qualities such as outstanding expertise, humanity, research and knowledge-updating skills, disease control and prevention, health care management, and capability to take the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine.
Objective To assess the impact of earthquake magnitude scale on injury characteristics of patients admitted to an earthquake rescue hospital，and provide references for rescue strategy formulation and medical resourceallocation. Methods We retrospectively analyzed clinical data of patients injured in 2008 “5 • 12” Wenchuan earthquakeand 2013 “4 • 20” Lushan earthquake who were admitted to West China Hospital of Sichuan University. Patient gender，age，time of admission，mechanisms，types and severity of injury and their prognosis were compared between the 2 groups.Results A total of 1 856 patients who were injured in Wenchuan earthquake，including 974 male and 882 female patients with their age of 45.8±22.7 years，and 316 patients who were injured in Lushan earthquake，including 174 male and 142 female patients with their age of 43.0±23.1 years，were enrolled in our study. No significant difference was found in genderor age between these 2 groups （P＞0.05）. Peak time of admission of Wenchuan earthquake patients was significantlylater than that of Lushan earthquake patients，and transfer duration of Wenchuan earthquake patients was significantly longerthan that of Lushan earthquake patients. The percentage of patients with crash injury of heavy objects or buried trauma ofWenchuan earthquake patients was significantly higher than that of Lushan earthquake patients. Injury severity and in-hospitalmortality of Wenchuan earthquake patients were significantly higher than those of Lushan earthquake patients. The proportionof patients with chest or cerebral injury of Lushan earthquake patients was significantly higher than that of Wenchuanearthquake patients. Conclusions Earthquake magnitude scale has a significant influence on mechanisms，types andseverity of injury of patients injured in earthquakes，as well as their timely transfer，management and prognosis. In earthquakeswith a comparatively lower magnitude scale，more thoracic surgeons and neurosurgeons are needed to ensure timelymanagement for patients with chest or cerebral injury.
Zinc oxide quantum dots (ZnO QDs) were synthesized by gel-sol method and employed as the transdermal aloesin (Alo) carriers. ZnO QDs were surface-functionalized with amino using aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). Alo was covalently bonded on the surface of ZnO QDs via N,N'-carbonyldiimidazole to obtain Alo NPs, which were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA). TEM images showed that ZnO QDs were analogously sphere and monodisperse with a reasonably narrow size distribution, of which was around 4 nm. The size of Alo NPs increased to around 8 nm due to the surface modification. The intense bands at around 3 400 cm–1 and 1 200 cm–1 in the FTIR spectrum of Alo NPs from the vibration of -OH indicated the linkage of Alo on the surface of ZnO QDs. The results of TGA analysis showed that the mass ratio of ZnO QDs and Alo were 39.27% and 35.14%, respectively. The penetration of Alo NPs was much higher than raw Alo according to the passive penetration experiments with Franz-type diffusion cells instrument using full-thickness cavy skin, which manifested the improvement of the penetration for Alo delivered by ZnO QDs. The pH-controlled drug release behavior in vitro was investigated. At pH 7.4, only a small amount of Alo (1.45% ± 0.21%) had been released after 2 h. In contrast, as incubation at pH 5.0 of which pH was similar to endosomal environment, Alo was released very fast (87.63% ± 0.46% in 2 h) from Alo NPs, confirming that Alo NPs could response to the pH and realize the intracellular drug release. The inhibitory effect of Alo NPs on tyrosinase was in a dose dependent manner. When the concentration of Alo NPs was 12.5 μg/mL, the inhibition rate was up to 40.32% ± 1.57%. All the results show that the Alo NPs hold a great potential in transdermal tyrosinase inhibition.