5 pg/ml vs. 500.8 pg/ml) (P  less then  0.001). In the control group, 3 patients had folic acid below normal level ( less then  6 ng/mL) while 12 cases had folic acid below normal (P  less then  0.05). Also, none of the control group had low vitamin B12 concentrations ( less then  180 pg/ml), while 7 cases had vitamin b12 below normal (P  less then  0.05). Our results suggest that lead may induce folate and vitamin B12 dysregulation. Although we found that vitamin D levels were insufficient in both case and control groups, they were significantly higher in the case group. The interpretation of this result is unclear given inconsistent literature reports on this relationship.PURPOSE Cancer survivors that use multiple psychotropic medications are at an increased risk of psychotropic polypharmacy. We examined the association between psychotropic polypharmacy and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among cancer survivors living in the USA. METHODS We used the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data for 2010, 2012, and 2014 to identify adult cancer survivors. Psychotropic polypharmacy was defined as use of at least two classes of psychotropic prescription medications. The physical component summary (PCS) and the mental component summary (MCS) were obtained from the 12-item Short Form Health Survey version 2 to measure HRQoL. Adjusted ordinary least square regressions were performed to evaluate the association between psychotropic polypharmacy and HRQoL. RESULTS Among 31 million US cancer survivors (weighted from a sample of 2609), 16.3% reported psychotropic polypharmacy. Lung cancer survivors had the highest prevalence of psychotropic polypharmacy (22.5%), followed by survivors of breast cancer (17.8%), colorectal, and other gastrointestinal cancers (16.0%). The unadjusted PCS and MCS scores for those with psychotropic polypharmacy were significantly lower than those without psychotropic polypharmacy, overall, and for each cancer type. In multivariable regressions, cancer survivors with psychotropic polypharmacy had significantly lower PCS scores (β =  - 3.63, p  less then  0.0001) and MCS scores (β =  - 2.28, p = 0.0138) compared to those without psychotropic polypharmacy. CONCLUSION Cancer survivors requiring multiple psychotropic medications have poorer quality of life.PURPOSE This study intended to examine whether correcting for response styles of the widely used self-rated health (SRH) question would affect its predictive validity in estimating respondents' mortality risks. METHODS We used data on a sample of 3319 men and 3250 women aged 60 and above from a nationally representative survey in China. Response styles were estimated with both ratings on two health anchoring vignettes and self-rated items in domains unrelated to health. Gender-stratified logistic regressions were used to estimate the effects of SRH on 4-year mortality risks. We compared the results before and after adjusting for response styles. RESULTS In the unconditional model, the effects of the five-point SRH on 4-year mortality risks were significant in both older women and men, and stronger among Chinese older men based on discrete change in probabilities of mortality at means. Gender difference was observed in response styles. Men assigned lower ratings to the vignettes than women, reflecting their higher standards in defining good health. Women presented higher proportions of extreme responses and lower proportions of midpoint responses. Correcting for response styles had no effect on the predictive validity of SRH for Chinese older men, but had some positive effects for Chinese older women when no other covariates were included. CONCLUSION Adjusting for response styles contributed to a small improvement in predicting mortality risks only among Chinese older women under restricted conditions, but not men.Three new 5,6-dihydro-α-pyrones derivatives, named (S)-rugulactone (1) pulchrinervialactone A (2), and pulchrinervialactone B (4), along with one known pyrone, cryptobrachytone C (3), and three known amide derivatives (5-7) have been isolated from the leaves of Cryptocarya pulchrinervia.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/gdc6036.html  The structures of 1-7 were elucidated based on extensive spectroscopic data and comparison with literatures. The configurations of compounds 3 and 4 were established by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. This is also the first report in finding (S)-rugulactone (1) as a natural product. In addition, the preliminary cytotoxic activity of the isolated compounds was evaluated against P-388 cells using the [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay. All the pyrones, except compound 4, were active significantly inhibiting the growth of P-388 cells, while the amides derivatives (5-7) showed moderate to weak activities. Therefore, compounds 1-3 could be potentially examined further for anticancer agents.Autophagy is a catabolic process that degrades dysfunctional proteins and organelles and plays critical roles in cancer development. Our preliminary screening identified that extracts of the fruits of Arctium lappa and the fruits of Forsythia suspensa notably suppressed the proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells and downregulated the autophagy. In this study, we explored the effect of arctigenin (ARG), a bioactive lignan in both extracts, on cell proliferation and autophagy-related proteins in HepG2 cells. ARG inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells. Analysis of autophagy-related proteins demonstrated that ARG might block the autophagy that leads to sequestosome 1/p62 (p62) accumulation. The stage of inhibition in autophagy by ARG differed from those by the autophagy inhibitors 3-methyladenine (3-MA) or chloroquine (CQ). ARG could also inhibit starvation-induced autophagy. Further analysis of apoptosis-related proteins indicated that ARG did not affect caspase-3 activation and PARP cleavage, suggesting that the antiproliferative effect of ARG can occur independently of apoptosis. In summary, our study showed that ARG suppresses cell proliferation and inhibits autophagy, and might lead to the development of agents for autophagy research and cancer chemoprevention.