Mutant U2AF1-Induced Mis-Splicing of mRNA Translation Genes Confers Resistance to Chemotherapy in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Patients with primary refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have a dismal long-term prognosis. Elucidating the resistance mechanisms to induction chemotherapy could help identify strategies to improve AML patient outcomes. Herein, we retrospectively analyzed the multiomics data of more than 1,500 AML cases and found that patients with spliceosome mutations had a higher risk of developing refractory disease. RNA splicing analysis revealed that the mis-spliced genes in refractory patients converged on translation-associated pathways, promoted mainly by U2AF1 mutations. Integrative analyses of binding and splicing in AML cell lines substantiated that the splicing perturbations of mRNA translation genes originated from both the loss and gain of mutant U2AF1 binding. In particular, the U2AF1S34F and U2AF1Q157R mutants orchestrated the inclusion of exon 11 (encoding a premature termination codon) in the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A2 (EIF4A2). This aberrant inclusion led to reduced eIF4A2 protein expression via nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. Consequently, U2AF1 mutations caused a net decrease in global mRNA translation that induced the integrated stress response (ISR) in AML cells, which was confirmed by single-cell RNA sequencing. The induction of ISR enhanced the ability of AML cells to respond and adapt to stress, contributing to chemoresistance. A pharmacologic inhibitor of ISR, ISRIB, sensitized U2AF1 mutant cells to chemotherapy. These findings highlight a resistance mechanism by which U2AF1 mutations drive chemoresistance and provide a therapeutic approach for AML through targeting the ISR pathway.

SIGNIFICANCE

U2AF1 mutations induce the integrated stress response by disrupting splicing of mRNA translation genes that improves AML cell fitness to enable resistance to chemotherapy, which can be targeted to improve AML treatment.

Measurements of All-Particle Energy Spectrum and Mean Logarithmic Mass of Cosmic Rays from 0.3 to 30 PeV with LHAASO-KM2A

We present the measurements of all-particle energy spectrum and mean logarithmic mass of cosmic rays in the energy range of 0.3-30 PeV using data collected from LHAASO-KM2A between September 2021 and December 2022, which is based on a nearly composition-independent energy reconstruction method, achieving unprecedented accuracy. Our analysis reveals the position of the knee at 3.67±0.05±0.15  PeV. Below the knee, the spectral index is found to be -2.7413±0.0004±0.0050, while above the knee, it is -3.128±0.005±0.027, with the sharpness of the transition measured with a statistical error of 2%. The mean logarithmic mass of cosmic rays is almost heavier than helium in the whole measured energy range. It decreases from 1.7 at 0.3 PeV to 1.3 at 3 PeV, representing a 24% decline following a power law with an index of -0.1200±0.0003±0.0341. This is equivalent to an increase in abundance of light components. Above the knee, the mean logarithmic mass exhibits a power law trend towards heavier components, which is reversal to the behavior observed in the all-particle energy spectrum. Additionally, the knee position and the change in power-law index are approximately the same. These findings suggest that the knee observed in the all-particle spectrum corresponds to the knee of the light component, rather than the medium-heavy components.

Accuracy of quantitative viral secondary standards: a re-examination

Interlaboratory agreement of viral load assays depends on the accuracy and uniformity of quantitative calibrators. Previous work demonstrated poor agreement of secondary cytomegalovirus (CMV) standards with nominal values. This study re-evaluated this issue among commercially produced secondary standards for both BK virus (BKV) and CMV, using digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) to compare the materials from three different manufacturers. Overall, standards showed an improved agreement compared to prior work, against nominal values in both log10 copies/mL and log10 international unit (IU)/mL, with bias from manufacturer-assigned nominal values of 0.0-0.9 log10 units (either copies or IU)/mL. Standards normalized to IU and those values assigned by dPCR rather than by real-time PCR (qPCR) showed better agreement with nominal values. The latter reinforces prior conclusions regarding the utility of using such methods for quantitative value assignment in reference materials. Quantitative standards have improved over the last several years, and the remaining bias from nominal values might be further reduced by universal implementation of dPCR methods for value assignment, normalized to IU.

IMPORTANCE

Interlaboratory agreement of viral load assays depends on accuracy and uniformity of quantitative calibrators. Previous work, published in JCM several years ago, demonstrated poor agreement of secondary cytomegalovirus (CMV) standards with nominal values. This study re-evaluated this issue among commercially produced secondary standards for both BK virus (BKV) and CMV, using digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) to compare the materials from three different manufacturers. Overall, standards showed an improved agreement compared to prior work, against nominal values, indicating a substantial improvement in the production of accurate secondary viral standards, while supporting the need for further work in this area and for the broad adaption of international unit (IU) as a reporting standard for quantitative viral load results.

Cellular hierarchy insights reveal leukemic stem-like cells and early death risk in acute promyelocytic leukemia

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) represents a paradigm for targeted differentiation therapy, with a minority of patients experiencing treatment failure and even early death. We here report a comprehensive single-cell analysis of 16 APL patients, uncovering cellular compositions and their impact on all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) response in vivo and early death. We unveil a cellular differentiation hierarchy within APL blasts, rooted in leukemic stem-like cells. The oncogenic PML/RARα fusion protein exerts branch-specific regulation in the APL trajectory, including stem-like cells. APL cohort analysis establishes an association of leukemic stemness with elevated white blood cell counts and FLT3-ITD mutations. Furthermore, we construct an APL-specific stemness score, which proves effective in assessing early death risk. Finally, we show that ATRA induces differentiation of primitive blasts and patients with early death exhibit distinct stemness-associated transcriptional programs. Our work provides a thorough survey of APL cellular hierarchies, offering insights into cellular dynamics during targeted therapy.

Cross-sectional network analysis of plasma proteins/metabolites correlated with pathogenesis and therapeutic response in acute promyelocytic leukemia

The treatment of PML/RARA+ acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) with all-trans-retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide (ATRA/ATO) has been recognized as a model for translational medicine research. Though an altered microenvironment is a general cancer hallmark, how APL blasts shape their plasma composition is poorly understood. Here, we reported a cross-sectional correlation network to interpret multilayered datasets on clinical parameters, proteomes, and metabolomes of paired plasma samples from patients with APL before or after ATRA/ATO induction therapy. Our study revealed the two prominent features of the APL plasma, suggesting a possible involvement of APL blasts in modulating plasma composition. One was characterized by altered secretory protein and metabolite profiles correlating with heightened proliferation and energy consumption in APL blasts, and the other featured APL plasma-enriched proteins or enzymes catalyzing plasma-altered metabolites that were potential trans-regulatory targets of PML/RARA. Furthermore, results indicated heightened interferon-gamma signaling characterizing a tumor-suppressing function of the immune system at the first hematological complete remission stage, which likely resulted from therapy-induced cell death or senescence and ensuing supraphysiological levels of intracellular proteins. Overall, our work sheds new light on the pathophysiology and treatment of APL and provides an information-rich reference data cohort for the exploratory and translational study of leukemia microenvironment.

Deep learning for the early identification of periodontitis: a retrospective, multicentre study

AIM

To develop a deep-learning model to help general dental practitioners diagnose periodontitis accurately and at an early stage.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

First, the panoramic radiographs (PARs) from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University were input into the convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture to establish the PAR-CNN model for healthy controls and periodontitis patients. Then, the PARs from the Affiliated Hospital of Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were included in the second testing set to validate the effectiveness of the model with data from two centres. Heat maps were produced using a gradient-weighted class activation mapping method to visualise the regions of interest of the model. The accuracy and time required to read the PARs were compared between the model, periodontal experts, and general dental practitioners. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs) were used to evaluate the performance of the model.

RESULTS

The AUC of the PAR-CNN model was 0.843, and the AUC of the second test set was 0.793. The heat map showed that the regions of interest predicted by the model were periodontitis bone lesions. The accuracy of the model, periodontal experts, and general dental practitioners was 0.800, 0.813, and 0.693, respectively. The time required to read each PAR by periodontal experts (6.042 ± 1.148 seconds) and general dental practitioners (13.105 ± 3.153 seconds), which was significantly longer than the time required by the model (0.027 ± 0.002 seconds).

CONCLUSION

The ability of the CNN model to diagnose periodontitis approached the level of periodontal experts. Deep-learning methods can assist general dental practitioners to diagnose periodontitis quickly and accurately.

[Quality of blood smear examinations for malaria parasites in Chenzhou City after malaria elimination]

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the quality of blood smear examinations for malaria parasites in Chenzhou City, so as to provide insights into sustainable consolidation of malaria elimination achievements.

METHODS

All positive blood smears from fever patients were irregularly sampled from each county (district) of Chenzhou City from 2018 to 2022 and reexamined, and no less than 3% negative blood smears were reexamined. The preparation, dyeing, cleanliness and microscopic examination results of blood smear were reexamined, and the quality of blood smear reexaminations was assessed using a descriptive statistical method.

RESULTS

A total of 13 625 fever patients received blood smear examinations for malaria parasites in Chenzhou City from 2018 to 2022, of which 21 were positive and 13 604 were negative; 687 blood samples were reviewed, and the percentage of negative blood smear reexaminations was 4.90% (666/13 604), with a 63.51% rate of qualified negative blood smears preparation, a 67.87% rate of qualified dyeing and a 76.13% rate of qualified cleanliness, and no missing diagnosis found. There were 21 positive blood smears reexamined, and the proportions of qualified blood smears preparation, dyeing and cleanliness were all 85.71%, with 2 smears mistaking Plasmodium species (9.52%). The percentage of qualified negative blood smears preparation was 51.41% in 2022, which reduced by 31.61% in relative to that (75.17%) in 2019 (χ2 = 9.033, P < 0.05), and the percentage of qualified negative blood smears dyeing was 60.19% in 2022, which reduced by 28.82% in relative to that (84.56%) in 2019 (χ2 = 19.498, P < 0.05), while the percentage of qualified negative blood smears cleanliness was 62.96% in 2022, which reduced by 28.93% in relative to that (88.59%) in 2019 (χ2 = 23.826, P < 0.001). In addition, there were no significant differences in the proportion of qualified negative blood smears preparation (χ2 = 0.260, P > 0.05) or dyeing (χ2 = 1.094, P > 0.05) among the three years, while a significant difference was detected in the percentage of qualified negative blood smears cleanliness (χ2 = 12.175, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

No missing diagnosis was seen in blood smear examinations for malaria parasites among fever patients in Chenzhou City after malaria elimination; however, there were reductions in proportions of qualified blood smears preparation, dyeing and cleanliness. Quality control of blood smear examinations is recommended to be reinforced in key regions of Chenzhou City.

Predicting anticancer synergistic drug combinations based on multi-task learning

BACKGROUND

The discovery of anticancer drug combinations is a crucial work of anticancer treatment. In recent years, pre-screening drug combinations with synergistic effects in a large-scale search space adopting computational methods, especially deep learning methods, is increasingly popular with researchers. Although achievements have been made to predict anticancer synergistic drug combinations based on deep learning, the application of multi-task learning in this field is relatively rare. The successful practice of multi-task learning in various fields shows that it can effectively learn multiple tasks jointly and improve the performance of all the tasks.

METHODS

In this paper, we propose MTLSynergy which is based on multi-task learning and deep neural networks to predict synergistic anticancer drug combinations. It simultaneously learns two crucial prediction tasks in anticancer treatment, which are synergy prediction of drug combinations and sensitivity prediction of monotherapy. And MTLSynergy integrates the classification and regression of prediction tasks into the same model. Moreover, autoencoders are employed to reduce the dimensions of input features.

RESULTS

Compared with the previous methods listed in this paper, MTLSynergy achieves the lowest mean square error of 216.47 and the highest Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.76 on the drug synergy prediction task. On the corresponding classification task, the area under the receiver operator characteristics curve and the area under the precision-recall curve are 0.90 and 0.62, respectively, which are equivalent to the comparison methods. Through the ablation study, we verify that multi-task learning and autoencoder both have a positive effect on prediction performance. In addition, the prediction results of MTLSynergy in many cases are also consistent with previous studies.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that multi-task learning is significantly beneficial for both drug synergy prediction and monotherapy sensitivity prediction when combining these two tasks into one model. The ability of MTLSynergy to discover new anticancer synergistic drug combinations noteworthily outperforms other state-of-the-art methods. MTLSynergy promises to be a powerful tool to pre-screen anticancer synergistic drug combinations.

[Changes of uterine morphology and endometrial T2 signal intensity in the fibrotic repair secondary to endometrial injury]

Objective: To investigate the value of uterine morphological parameters and endometrial T2 signal intensity (T2-SI) in evaluating the degree of the fibrotic repair secondary to endometrial injury. Methods: From Sep. 2018 to Feb. 2023, this study prospectively enrolled 29 patients with fibrotic repair secondary to severe endometrial injury (severe group), 17 patients with fibrotic repair secondary to mild to moderate endometrial injury (mild to moderate group), and 40 healthy women of reproductive age (control group) in Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital. The length of uterine cavity (LUC), length of cervix and isthmus (LCI), width of upper uterine cavity (WUUC) and width of lower uterine cavity (WLUC) were measured using magnetic resonance imaging. T2-SI of endometrium and subcutaneous fat of buttocks were measured, and endometrial normalized T2-SI (nT2-SI; T2-SI of endometrium/T2-SI of subcutaneous fat of buttocks) was calculated. Statistical analyses of data were performed using one-way analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U test, intraclass correlation coefficient, Spearman rho test, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results: LUC, WUUC, WLUC and endometrial nT2-SI of severe group [(19.7±3.5) mm, (26.9±6.4) mm, (7.9±1.4) mm, 0.73±0.11, respectively] were significantly lower than those of the control group (all P<0.01), while LCI and WUUC/LUC [(51.3±7.3) mm and 1.38±0.34] were significantly higher than those of the control group (all P<0.001). LUC and WLUC of severe group were significantly lower than those of mild to moderate group [(32.4±5.1) mm and (8.8±1.2) mm; all P<0.05], while LCI and WUUC/LUC were significantly higher than those of mild to moderate group [(41.8±8.6) mm and 0.94±0.16; all P<0.001]. LUC and endometrial nT2-SI of mild to moderate group were significantly lower than those of the control group [ (32.4±5.1) vs (35.3±3.5) mm, 0.68±0.13 vs 0.80±0.12; all P<0.01]. LUC, WUUC, WLUC and endometrial nT2-SI were significantly negatively correlated to the degree of the fibrotic repair secondary to endometrial injury (Spearman rho:-0.794, -0.441, -0.471 and -0.316, respectively; all P<0.05), while LCI and WUUC/LUC were significantly positively correlated to the degree of the fibrotic repair secondary to endometrial injury (Spearman rho: 0.481 and 0.674, respectively; all P<0.05). LUC and WUUC/LUC showed high value in distinguishing severe group from the control group or mild to moderate group (all AUC>0.9, all P<0.001). Conclusion: As noninvasive and quantitative biomarkers, uterine morphological parameters and endometrial nT2-SI could evaluate the degree of the fibrotic repair secondary to endometrial injury.

Observation of Single-Top-Quark Production in Association with a Photon Using the ATLAS Detector

This Letter reports the observation of single top quarks produced together with a photon, which directly probes the electroweak coupling of the top quark. The analysis uses 139  fb^{-1} of 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Requiring a photon with transverse momentum larger than 20 GeV and within the detector acceptance, the fiducial cross section is measured to be 688±23(stat) _{-71}^{+75}(syst)  fb, to be compared with the standard model prediction of 515_{-42}^{+36}  fb at next-to-leading order in QCD.

[Safety and efficacy of yellow zebra guide wire exchange system in the treatment of complete upper digestive stenosis]

To investigate the efficacy and safety of yellow zebra guide wire exchange system in the treatment of complete upper digestive stenosis. To analyze the success rate and adverse events, a retrospective analysis was conducted on patients with complete digestive stenosis in Zhongda Hospital Affiliated to Southeast University from May 2019 to April 2023 and the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from August 2011 to March 2015. A total of 41 patients were included, including 25 males and 16 females, aged (65±12) years (28-94 years). Among them, 40 patients were successfully inserted with yellow zebra guide wire and underwent endoscopic treatment using the outer tube replacement with hard steel wire, with 97.6% (40/41) effective rate. Eleven patients (27.5%) were accompanied by varying degrees of retrosternal pain, without complications such as bleeding or perforation.

Observation of the γγ→ττ Process in Pb+Pb Collisions and Constraints on the τ-Lepton Anomalous Magnetic Moment with the ATLAS Detector

This Letter reports the observation of τ-lepton-pair production in ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions Pb+Pb→Pb(γγ→ττ)Pb and constraints on the τ-lepton anomalous magnetic moment a_{τ}. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.44  nb^{-1} of LHC Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02  TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment in 2018. Selected events contain one muon from a τ-lepton decay, an electron or charged-particle track(s) from the other τ-lepton decay, little additional central-detector activity, and no forward neutrons. The γγ→ττ process is observed in Pb+Pb collisions with a significance exceeding 5 standard deviations and a signal strength of μ_{ττ}=1.03_{-0.05}^{+0.06} assuming the standard model value for a_{τ}. To measure a_{τ}, a template fit to the muon transverse-momentum distribution from τ-lepton candidates is performed, using a dimuon (γγ→μμ) control sample to constrain systematic uncertainties. The observed 95% confidence-level interval for a_{τ} is -0.057 Collapse

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Measurement of Ultra-High-Energy Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission of the Galactic Plane from 10 TeV to 1 PeV with LHAASO-KM2A

The diffuse Galactic γ-ray emission, mainly produced via interactions between cosmic rays and the interstellar medium and/or radiation field, is a very important probe of the distribution, propagation, and interaction of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. In this Letter, we report the measurements of diffuse γ rays from the Galactic plane between 10 TeV and 1 PeV energies, with the square kilometer array of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). Diffuse emissions from the inner (15°10  TeV). The energy spectrum in the inner Galaxy regions can be described by a power-law function with an index of -2.99±0.04, which is different from the curved spectrum as expected from hadronic interactions between locally measured cosmic rays and the line-of-sight integrated gas content. Furthermore, the measured flux is higher by a factor of ∼3 than the prediction. A similar spectrum with an index of -2.99±0.07 is found in the outer Galaxy region, and the absolute flux for 10≲E≲60  TeV is again higher than the prediction for hadronic cosmic ray interactions. The latitude distributions of the diffuse emission are consistent with the gas distribution, while the longitude distributions show clear deviation from the gas distribution. The LHAASO measurements imply that either additional emission sources exist or cosmic ray intensities have spatial variations.

Prediction of synchronous distant metastasis of primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma using the radiomics features derived from 18F-FDG PET and MRI

AIM

To explore the potential of the joint radiomics analysis of positron-emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of primary tumours for predicting the risk of synchronous distant metastasis (SDM) in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

18F-FDG PET and MRI images of PDAC patients from January 2011 to December 2020 were collected retrospectively. Patients (n=66) who received 18F-FDG PET/CT and MRI were included in a development group. Patients (n=25) scanned with hybrid PET/MRI were incorporated in an external test group. A radiomics signature was constructed using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm to select PET-MRI radiomics features of primary PDAC tumours. A radiomics nomogram was developed by combining the radiomics signature and important clinical indicators using univariate and multivariate analysis to assess patients' metastasis risk. The nomogram was verified with the employment of an external test group.

RESULTS

Regarding the development cohort, the radiomics nomogram was found to be better for predicting the risk of distant metastasis (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.93, sensitivity: 87%, specificity: 85%) than the clinical model (AUC: 0.70, p<0.001; sensitivity:70%, specificity: 65%) and the radiomics signature (AUC: 0.89, p>0.05; sensitivity: 65%, specificity:100%). Concerning the external test cohort, the radiomics nomogram yielded an AUC of 0.85.

CONCLUSION

PET-MRI based radiomics analysis exhibited effective prediction of the risk of SDM for preoperative PDAC patients and may offer complementary information and provide hints for cancer staging.

Application of the Ion Chamber Array in Magnetic Resonance Accelerator QA

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S)

The magnetic resonance accelerator (MR-Linac) is gradually widely used due to high-quality soft tissue contrast and real-time tracking. However, the special dosimetry characteristics and wide field sizes of MR-Linac increase the QA difficulty with conventional measurement method. The purpose of this study was to confirm an ion chamber array could be used for measuring the beam quality, the profiles, as well as the positioning accuracy of all MLC leaves efficiently, by comparing results with the conventional method. To propose a new QA approach for solving the common problem in data acquisition caused by the wide fields of MR-Linac.

MATERIALS/METHODS

The research was based on a MR-Linac fixed with 1.5T MR and 7MeV energy photon beam. The conventional QA method adopted the MR water tank with a gantry angle of 0°and an SSD of 133.5 cm, both microdiamond and ionization chamber detector were used to acquire the dose profiles (PDD, inline, crossline and diagonal). Field sizes 1 × 1 cm2, 2 × 2 cm2, 3 × 3 cm2, 5 × 5 cm2, 10 × 10 cm2, 15 × 15 cm2, 22 × 22 cm2, 40 × 22 cm2,57 × 22 cm2 were measured with depth 13mm, 50mm, 100mm for vertical beam. As for the wide fields (larger than 15 × 15 cm2), two profiles of x axis (one from left to right, the other from right to left) needed to be gathered and then stitched into one final profile. A boot phantom with an ionization chamber detector was used for measuring beam quality. We defined the profiles measured by conventional method as the baseline. An ion chamber array was adopted to acquire TPR, PDD, profiles and MLC positioning, comparing to the conventional method. The center of ion chamber array was placed to the isocenter of MR-Linac, the array could move to the right and left offset positions through engaging the pin into correct hole of QA platform, such 'once positioning and twice movements' operation could finish within 3 minutes. The central detector of the ion chamber array was used for measuring beam quality. TPRs for different depths were acquired by stacking solid water on the ion chamber array. As for the profiles, we could get the final profile by 'once positioning and twice movements' efficiently. As for the positioning accuracy of MLC leaves, firstly the central leaf pair was put on y = 0 to measure 'open profile' under the open field. Then we moved the MLC leaves to different positions to get the n profile (n for different leaf positions). The ratio of n profile to open profile could show the positioning accuracy of MLC.

RESULTS

We adopted 2D gamma (1mm / 2%) to compare the profiles between the ion chamber array and the conventional method, the results were within 98%. The beam quality consistency of ion chamber array comparing to the wedge tank was within 1% according to daily measurement. The ion chamber array could reflect the MLC positioning differences, the sensitivity was 0.5 mm.

CONCLUSION

The ion chamber array showed a convenient QA method both for the dosimetry and for the MLC positioning accuracy which did reduce the overall measurement time, it was recommended for daily and monthly QA for MR-Linac.

A Nomogram Based on Radiomics and Genomics Factors for Predicting Radiation Pneumonia in Patients with Limited-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer after Definitive Chemoradiotherapy

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S)

Although definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT) is currently the most effective treatment for limited-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), some patients may develop severe radiation pneumonia (RP). We aimed to develop a nomogram by combining the clinical, radiomics and genomics factors to predict the RP.

MATERIALS/METHODS

Totally 148 limited-stage SCLC patients treated with dCRT were retrospectively enrolled and divided into the training (n = 103) and validation (n = 45) cohorts. All tumor tissue samples were detected by 474 Panel gene sequencing technology. Eight hundred fifty-one radiomics features of lung other than hilum, atelectasis and tumor were extracted from the initial CT images. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method was applied to select and build radiomic signature. Combined with genomic, radiomic and clinical features, a nomogram was established by univariate and multivariate analysis. Concordance index (C-index), calibration curve and decision curve were used to evaluate the predictive ability and application value of the nomogram.

RESULTS

Six selected radiomic features was used to construct radiomic signature. Multivariate analysis showed that NQO1 gene (OR, 8.354; 95% CI, 1.061-65.765; P = 0.044), radiotherapy technique (OR, 9.586; 95% CI, 1.168-78.70; P = 0.035) and radiomic signature (OR, 5.745; 95% CI, 1.879-17.56; P = 0.002) were independent risk factors for RP. Compared with the single clinical (C-index = 0.621 and 0.533), radiomic (C-index = 0.696 and 0.550) or genetic (C-index = 0.561 and 0.433) factor, the C-index of nomogram was the highest, reaching 0.764 and 0.622 in the training group and validation group, respectively. The calibration curves indicated good agreement between the predictions and actual observations. Moreover, decision curves revealed that the nomogram had high clinical practicability.

CONCLUSION

This study further reveals the potential of radiomics and genomics in predicting the occurrence of RP, and may provide individualized prediction for patients with limited-stage SCLC, as well as theoretical and technical support for physicians to optimize clinical decisions.

Ion detector of time-of-flight mass spectrometer with registration of leading and trailing edges

The accuracy of the ion flight time measurement in the time-of-flight mass spectrometer is critical to achieving high resolution. The pulse amplitude variation of the detector pulses leads to the registration time spread at a given pulse detection threshold. This time spread can be eliminated by determining the position of the pulse apex. To determine the position of the pulse apex, the output of the ion detector is fed simultaneously to the two channels of the time-to-digital converter. In this case, the first channel is set to register the leading edge, and the second channel is set to register the trailing edge of the pulse. Using a simple processing of the received data, the position of the pulse tip is determined. Thus, the dependence of the temporal position of the peak on the pulse amplitude is largely eliminated. Examples are given, and the efficiency of using this algorithm to increase the resolution of time-of-flight mass spectral peak registration is demonstrated.

Outcomes of Consolidative Thoracic Radiation within First-Line Chemoimmunotherapy in Extensive-Stage Small-Cell Lung Cancer: Results from a Single Cancer Center

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S)

Thoracic radiation (TRT) benefits local control undoubtedly and survival with some minor controversy in extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) patients undergoing radiotherapy in the chemoradiotherapy era. However, whether TRT could further enhance the benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) maintenance on outcomes in the immunotherapy era is still unclear. This study aims to investigate the role of consolidative TRT in ES-SCLC patients receiving first-line chemoimmunotherapy followed by immunotherapy maintenance.

MATERIALS/METHODS

Outcomes of patients who were treated with first-line chemo-immunotherapy followed by ICIs maintenance for ES-SCLC were reviewed. Based on TRT or not, patients were allocated to TRT group or non-TRT group. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and local-recurrence free survival (LRFS) were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by log-rank test.

RESULTS

A total of 100 patients with no progressive disease after 4 cycles of chemotherapy were retrospectively analyzed between January 2020 and December 2021 and were allocated into TRT group (n = 47) and non-TRT group (n = 53). The median follow-up time was 20.3 months. The median PFS and OS in TRT were 9.1 months and 21.8 months, versus 8.8 months (p = 0.93) and 24.3 months (p = 0.63), respectively, in non-TRT. ICIs agents consisted of Durvalumab (59.0%) and Atezolizumab (41.0%). The median dose of TRT is 50 Gy (IQR: 45 - 54), while the median interval time from chemotherapy completion to TRT was 31 days (IQR: 12 - 44.5). Only 10 (21.3%) patients terminated ICIs in the period of TRT. The rate of intrathoracic progression after the first-line therapy in TRT significantly decreased compared to that with non-TRT (20.0% versus 55.9%, p = 0.003). The median LRFS time in TRT was not reached, but significantly longer than 10.8 months in non-TRT (HR = 0.27, p < 0.01). Second-line chemotherapy significantly prolonged survival compared to that with chemo-free patients (mOS: 24.5 vs. 21.4 months, p = 0.026). The subgroup analysis showed a trend of patients with brain metastases benefit from TRT (21.8 versus 13.7 months, HR 0.61, p = 0.38) while liver metastases did not (13.3 versus 15.0 months, HR 1.80, p = 0.21). Of 47 patients with TRT, only 10.6% of patients experienced grade 3 radiation-induced pneumonitis, while no grade 4 or 5 adverse events occurred. None of patients experienced grade ≥ 3 treatment-related cardiac events.

CONCLUSION

Consolidative TRT in the period of immunotherapy maintenance followed first-line chemo-immunotherapy did not prolong OS and PFS but increased LRFS in ES-SCLC.

FAT4 overexpression promotes antitumor immunity by regulating the β-catenin/STT3/PD-L1 axis in cervical cancer

BACKGROUND

FAT4 (FAT Atypical Cadherin 4) is a member of the cadherin-associated protein family, which has been shown to function as a tumor suppressor by inhibiting proliferation and metastasis. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway activation is highly associated with PD-L1-associated tumor immune escape. Here, we report the mechanism by which FAT4 overexpression regulates anti-tumor immunity in cervical cancer by inhibiting PD-L1 N-glycosylation and cell membrane localization in a β-catenin-dependent manner.

METHODS

FAT4 expression was first detected in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines. Cell proliferation, clone formation, and immunofluorescence were used to determine the tumor suppressive impact of FAT4 overexpression in vitro, and the findings were confirmed in immunodeficient and immunocomplete mice xenografts. Through functional and mechanistic experiments in vivo and in vitro, we investigated how FAT4 overexpression affects the antitumor immunity via the β-catenin/STT3/PD-L1 axis.

RESULTS

FAT4 is downregulated in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines. We determined that FAT4 binds to β-catenin and antagonizes its nuclear localization, promotes phosphorylation and degradation of β-catenin by the degradation complexes (AXIN1, APC, GSK3β, CK1). FAT4 overexpression decreases programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) mRNA expression at the transcriptional level, and causes aberrant glycosylation of PD-L1 via STT3A at the post-translational modifications (PTMs) level, leading to its endoplasmic reticulum (ER) accumulation and polyubiquitination-dependent degradation. We found that FAT4 overexpression promotes aberrant PD-L1 glycosylation and degradation in a β-catenin-dependent manner, thereby increasing cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity in immunoreactive mouse models.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings address the basis of Wnt/β-catenin pathway activation in cervical cancer and provide combination immunotherapy options for targeting the FAT4/β-catenin/STT3/PD-L1 axis. Schematic cartoons showing the antitumor immunity mechanism of FAT4. (left) when Wnts bind to their receptors, which are made up of Frizzled proteins and LRP5/6, the cytoplasmic protein DVL is activated, inducing the aggregation of degradation complexes (AXIN, GSK3β, CK1, APC) to the receptor. Subsequently, stable β-catenin translocates into the nucleus and binds to TCF/LEF and TCF7L2 transcription factors, leading to target genes transcription. The catalytically active subunit of oligosaccharyltransferase, STT3A, enhances PD-L1 glycosylation, and N-glycosylated PD-L1 translocates to the cell membrane via the ER-to-Golgi pathway, resulting in immune evasion. (Right) FAT4 exerts antitumor immunity mainly through following mechanisms: (i) FAT4 binds to β-catenin and antagonizes its nuclear localization, promotes phosphorylation and degradation of β-catenin by the degradation complexes (AXIN1, APC, GSK3β, CK1); (ii) FAT4 inhibits PD-L1 and STT3A transcription in a β-catenin-dependent manner and induces aberrant PD-L1 glycosylation and ubiquitination-dependent degradation; (iii) Promotes activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and infiltration into the tumor microenvironment.

Semi-supervised heterogeneous graph contrastive learning for drug-target interaction prediction

Identification of drug-target interactions (DTIs) is an important step in drug discovery and drug repositioning. In recent years, graph-based methods have attracted great attention and show advantages on predicting potential DTIs. However, these methods face the problem that the known DTIs are very limited and expensive to obtain, which decreases the generalization ability of the methods. Self-supervised contrastive learning is independent of labeled DTIs, which can mitigate the impact of the problem. Therefore, we propose a framework SHGCL-DTI for predicting DTIs, which supplements the classical semi-supervised DTI prediction task with an auxiliary graph contrastive learning module. Specifically, we generate representations for the nodes through the neighbor view and meta-path view, and define positive and negative pairs to maximize the similarity between positive pairs from different views. Subsequently, SHGCL-DTI reconstructs the original heterogeneous network to predict the potential DTIs. The experiments on the public dataset show that SHGCL-DTI has significant improvement in different scenarios, compared with existing state-of-the-art methods. We also demonstrate that the contrastive learning module improves the prediction performance and generalization ability of SHGCL-DTI through ablation study. In addition, we have found several novel predicted DTIs supported by the biological literature. The data and source code are available at: https://github.com/TOJSSE-iData/SHGCL-DTI.

Strong Constraints on Jet Quenching in Centrality-Dependent p+Pb Collisions at 5.02 TeV from ATLAS

Jet quenching is the process of color-charged partons losing energy via interactions with quark-gluon plasma droplets created in heavy-ion collisions. The collective expansion of such droplets is well described by viscous hydrodynamics. Similar evidence of collectivity is consistently observed in smaller collision systems, including pp and p+Pb collisions. In contrast, while jet quenching is observed in Pb+Pb collisions, no evidence has been found in these small systems to date, raising fundamental questions about the nature of the system created in these collisions. The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider has measured the yield of charged hadrons correlated with reconstructed jets in 0.36  nb^{-1} of p+Pb and 3.6  pb^{-1} of pp collisions at 5.02 TeV. The yields of charged hadrons with p_{T}^{ch}>0.5  GeV near and opposite in azimuth to jets with p_{T}^{jet}>30 or 60 GeV, and the ratios of these yields between p+Pb and pp collisions, I_{pPb}, are reported. The collision centrality of p+Pb events is categorized by the energy deposited by forward neutrons from the struck nucleus. The I_{pPb} values are consistent with unity within a few percent for hadrons with p_{T}^{ch}>4  GeV at all centralities. These data provide new, strong constraints that preclude almost any parton energy loss in central p+Pb collisions.

Search for Heavy Neutral Leptons in Decays of W Bosons Using a Dilepton Displaced Vertex in sqrt[s]=13 TeV pp Collisions with the ATLAS Detector

A search for a long-lived, heavy neutral lepton (N) in 139  fb^{-1} of sqrt[s]=13  TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is reported. The N is produced via W→Nμ or W→Ne and decays into two charged leptons and a neutrino, forming a displaced vertex. The N mass is used to discriminate between signal and background. No signal is observed, and limits are set on the squared mixing parameters of the N with the left-handed neutrino states for the N mass range 3  GeV Collapse

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Test of CP Invariance in Higgs Boson Vector-Boson-Fusion Production Using the H→γγ Channel with the ATLAS Detector

A test of CP invariance in Higgs boson production via vector-boson fusion has been performed in the H→γγ channel using 139  fb^{-1} of proton-proton collision data at sqrt[s]=13  TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The optimal observable method is used to probe the CP structure of interactions between the Higgs boson and electroweak gauge bosons, as described by an effective field theory. No sign of CP violation is observed in the data. Constraints are set on the parameters describing the strength of the CP-odd component in the coupling between the Higgs boson and the electroweak gauge bosons in two effective field theory bases: d[over ˜] in the HISZ basis and c_{HW[over ˜]} in the Warsaw basis. The results presented are the most stringent constraints on CP violation in the coupling between Higgs and weak bosons. The 95% C.L. constraint on d[over ˜] is derived for the first time and the 95% C.L. constraint on c_{HW[over ˜]} has been improved by a factor of 5 compared to the previous measurement.

Representation granularity enables time-efficient autonomous exploration in large, complex worlds

We propose a dual-resolution scheme to achieve time-efficient autonomous exploration with one or many robots. The scheme maintains a high-resolution local map of the robot's immediate vicinity and a low-resolution global map of the remaining areas of the environment. We believe that the strength of our approach lies in this low- and high-resolution representation of the environment: The high-resolution local map ensures that the robots observe the entire region in detail, and because the local map is bounded, so is the computation burden to process it. The low-resolution global map directs the robot to explore the broad space and only requires lightweight computation and low bandwidth to communicate among the robots. This paper shows the strength of this approach for both single-robot and multirobot exploration. For multirobot exploration, we also introduce a "pursuit" strategy for sharing information among robots with limited communication. This strategy directs the robots to opportunistically approach each other. We found that the scheme could produce exploration paths with a bounded difference in length compared with the theoretical shortest paths. Empirically, for single-robot exploration, our method produced 80% higher time efficiency with 50% lower computational runtimes than state-of-the-art methods in more than 300 simulation and real-world experiments. For multirobot exploration, our pursuit strategy demonstrated higher exploration time efficiency than conventional strategies in more than 3400 simulation runs with up to 20 robots. Last, we discuss how our method was deployed in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge and demonstrated the fastest and most complete exploration among all teams.

[Research progress of brain MRI in comitant strabismus]

Comitant strabismus is a common type of strabismus, the etiology and pathogenesis of which remain unclear. It is currently believed to be associated with various factors, including anatomy, refractive errors, accommodation, genetics, and neural factors. In recent years, with the improvement of MRI technology and analysis methods, multidimensional presentations of structural and functional changes in different brain regions related to comitant strabismus have been achieved. Undoubtedly, the application of MRI has the potential to contribute to the etiology of strabismus, particularly the study of central mechanisms. This review article summarizes the research progress on cranial MRI in comitant strabismus, with a focus on summarizing the changes and patterns in brain structures, functions, and interconnections in patients with comitant strabismus reported in previous studies. The aim is to provide new insights into the etiology and pathogenesis of comitant strabismus.

Human PBMC scRNA-seq-based aging clocks reveal ribosome to inflammation balance as a single-cell aging hallmark and super longevity

Quantifying aging rate is important for evaluating age-associated decline and mortality. A blood single-cell RNA sequencing dataset for seven supercentenarians (SCs) was recently generated. Here, we generate a reference 28-sample aging cohort to compute a single-cell level aging clock and to determine the biological age of SCs. Our clock model placed the SCs at a blood biological age to between 80.43 and 102.67 years. Compared to the model-expected aging trajectory, SCs display increased naive CD8⁺ T cells, decreased cytotoxic CD8⁺ T cells, memory CD4⁺ T cells, and megakaryocytes. As the most prominent molecular hallmarks at the single-cell level, SCs contain more cells and cell types with high ribosome level, which is associated with and, according to Bayesian network inference, contributes to a low inflammation state and slow aging of SCs. Inhibiting ribosomal activity or translation in monocytes validates such translation against inflammation balance revealed by our single-cell aging clock.

A tera-electron volt afterglow from a narrow jet in an extremely bright gamma-ray burst

Some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have a tera-electron volt (TeV) afterglow, but the early onset of this has not been observed. We report observations with the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory of the bright GRB 221009A, which serendipitously occurred within the instrument field of view. More than 64,000 photons >0.2 TeV were detected within the first 3000 seconds. The TeV flux began several minutes after the GRB trigger, then rose to a peak about 10 seconds later. This was followed by a decay phase, which became more rapid ~650 seconds after the peak. We interpret the emission using a model of a relativistic jet with half-opening angle ~0.8°. This is consistent with the core of a structured jet and could explain the high isotropic energy of this GRB.

A complete graph-based approach with multi-task learning for predicting synergistic drug combinations

MOTIVATION

Drug combination therapy shows significant advantages over monotherapy in cancer treatment. Since the combinational space is difficult to be traversed experimentally, identifying novel synergistic drug combinations based on computational methods has become a powerful tool for pre-screening. Among them, methods based on deep learning have far outperformed other methods. However, most deep learning-based methods are unstable and will give inconsistent predictions even by simply changing the input order of drugs. In addition, the insufficient experimental data of drug combination screening limits the generalization ability of existing models. These problems prevent the deep learning-based models from being in service.

RESULTS

In this paper, we propose CGMS to address the above problems. CGMS models a drug combination and a cell line as a heterogeneous complete graph, and generates the whole-graph embedding to characterize their interaction by leveraging the heterogeneous graph attention network. Based on the whole-graph embedding, CGMS can make a stable, order-independent prediction. To enhance the generalization ability of CGMS, we apply the multi-task learning technique to train the model on drug synergy prediction task and drug sensitivity prediction task simultaneously. We compare CGMS's generalization ability with 6 state-of-the-art methods on a public dataset, and CGMS significantly outperforms other methods in the leave-drug combination-out scenario, as well as in the leave-cell line-out and leave-drug-out scenarios. We further present the benefit of eliminating the order dependency and the discrimination power of whole-graph embeddings, interpret the rationality of the attention mechanism, and verify the contribution of multi-task learning.

AVAILABILITY

The code of CGMS is available via https://github.com/TOJSSE-iData/CGMS.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics.

Lenalidomide overcomes the resistance to third-generation CD19-CAR-T cell therapy in preclinical models of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

PURPOSE

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells against CD19 have been proven to be effective in treating B-cell hematological malignancies. However, the efficacy of this promising therapy is limited by many factors.

METHODS

In this study, the germinal center B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (GCB-DLBCL) cell line OCI-Ly1, and patient-derived xenografted (PDX) mice (CY-DLBCL) were used as the CAR-T cell-resistant model. Meanwhile, the activated B-cell-like (ABC) DLBCL cell line OCI-Ly3 and PDX mice (ZML-DLBCL) were defined as the CAR-T sensitive model. The enhancement of CAR-T cell function by lenalidomide (LEN) was examined in vitro and in vivo.

RESULTS

Lenalidomide effectively enhanced the function of third-generation CD19-CAR-T cells by polarizing CD8⁺ CAR-T cells to CD8 early-differentiated stage and Th1 type, reducing CAR-T cell exhaustion and improving cell expansion. It was further demonstrated that CAR-T cells combined with LEN substantially reduce the tumor burden and prolong the survival time in various DLBCL mouse models. LEN was also found to promote the infiltration of CD19-CAR-T cells into the tumor site by modulating the tumor microenvironment.

CONCLUSION

In summary, the results of the present study suggest that LEN can improve the function of CD19-CAR-T cells, providing a basis for clinical trials using this combination therapy against DLBCL.

[AF4/FMR2 and IL-10 gene single nucleotide polymorphisms are correlated with disease susceptibility and immune infiltration in ankylosing spondylitis]

OBJECTIVE

To explore the correlation of polymorphisms of AF4/FMR2 family genes and IL-10 gene with genetic susceptibility to ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and identify the high-risk factors of AS.

METHODS

This case-control study was conducted among 207 AS patients and 321 healthy individuals. The tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs340630, rs241084, rs10865035, rs1698105, and rs1800896 of the AF4/FMR2 family gene and IL-10 gene of the AS patients were genotyped, and the distribution frequencies of the genotypes and alleles were analyzed to explore the relationship between different genetic models and AS and the gene-gene and gene-environment interactions.

RESULTS

Gender ratio, smoking history, drinking history, hypertension, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein differed significantly between the case group and the control group (P < 0.05). The dominant model and recessive model of AFF1 rs340630, the recessive model of AFF3 rs10865035, and the recessive model of IL-10 rs1800896 were significantly different between the two groups (P=0.031, 0.010, 0.031, and 0.019, respectively). Gene-environment interaction analysis suggested that the interaction model incorporating AFF1 rs340630, AFF2 rs241084, AFF3 rs10865035, AFF4 rs1698105, IL-10 rs1800896, smoking history and drinking history was the best model. The genes related with AF4/FMR2 and IL-10 were enriched in the biological processes of AF4 super extension complex, interleukin family signal transduction, cytokine stimulation and apoptosis. The expression levels of AF4/FMR2 and IL-10 were positively correlated with immune infiltration (r > 0).

CONCLUSION

The SNPs of AF4/FMR2 and IL-10 genes are associated with the susceptibility to AS, and the interactions of AF4/FMR2 and IL-10 genes with the environmental factors contributes causes AS through immune infiltration.

Correlation of pericoronary adipose tissue CT attenuation values of plaques and periplaques with plaque characteristics

AIM

To investigate the relationship between different plaque characteristics and pericoronary adipose tissue (PCAT) computed tomography (CT) attenuation values for plaques and periplaques.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The data from 188 eligible patients with stable coronary heart disease (280 lesions) who underwent coronary CT angiography between March 2021 and November 2021 were collected retrospectively. All PCAT CT attenuation values of plaques and periplaques (the area within 5 and 10 mm proximal and distal to the plaque) were calculated, and multiple linear regression was used to assess their correlation with different plaque characteristics.

RESULTS

PCAT CT attenuation of plaques and periplaques was higher in non-calcified plaques (-73.38 ± 10.41 HU, -76.77 ± 10.86 HU, 79.33 ± 11.13 HU, -75.67 ± 11.24 HU, -78.63 ± 12.09 HU) and mixed plaques (-76.83 ± 8.11 HU, -79 [-85, -68.5] HU, -78.55 ± 11 HU, -78.76 ± 9.9 HU, -78.79 ± 11.06 HU) than in calcified plaques (-86.96 ± 10 HU, -84 [-92, -76] HU, -84.14 ± 11.08 HU, -84.91 ± 11.41 HU, -84.59 ± 11.69 HU; all p<0.05) and higher in distal segment plaques than in proximal segment plaques (all p<0.05). Plaque PCAT CT attenuation was lower in plaques with minimal stenosis than in plaques with mild or moderate stenosis (p<0.05). The significant determinants of PCAT CT attenuation values of plaques and periplaques were non-calcified plaques, mixed plaques, and plaques located in the distal segment (all p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

PCAT CT attenuation values in both plaques and periplaques were related to plaque type and location.

Comparison of higher-order aberrations between implantable collamer lens V4c implantation and simulated spectacle correction in patients with high myopia

PURPOSE

To investigate the differences in higher-order aberrations between non-toric or toric implantable collamer lens (ICL or TICL) V4c implantation and simulated spectacle correction.

METHODS

Patients with high myopia who underwent ICL/TICL V4c implantation were enrolled. The "total no defocus" pattern of iTrace aberrometry to simulate the condition of spectacle correction was measured before ICL/TICL implantation, and higher-order aberrations in this condition were compared to those 3 months after surgery. Related factors with changes in coma were comprehensively analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 89 right eyes of 89 patients were included. Compared to simulated spectacle correction, total-eye coma (P<0.0001 ICL, P<0.0001 TICL) and internal coma (P<0.0001 ICL, P<0.001 TICL) decreased in the ICL- and TICL-treated groups after surgery. Total-eye secondary astigmatism (P<0.0001 ICL, P=0.007 TICL) and internal secondary astigmatism (P<0.0001 ICL, P=0.009 TICL) were also decreased in both groups postoperatively. Spherical error showed positive correlations with variation in total-eye coma (r=0.37, P=0.004 ICL; r=0.56, P=0.001 TICL) and internal coma (r=0.30, P=0.02 ICL and r=0.45, P=0.01 TICL). Axial length revealed negative correlations with changes in total-eye coma (r=-0.45, P<0.001 ICL; r=-0.39, P=0.03 TICL) and internal coma (r=-0.28, P=0.03 ICL and r=-0.42, P=0.02 TICL).

CONCLUSIONS

Both ICL- and TICL-treated groups demonstrated a decrease in coma and secondary astigmatism after 3 months, postoperatively. ICL/TICL may confer a compensatory effect on coma aberration and secondary astigmatism. Patients with a higher myopia achieved a greater improvement in coma and may benefit more from ICL/TICL implantation than from spectacle correction implantation than from spectacle correction.

Sex differences in glycolipidic disorders after exposure to maternal hyperglycemia during early development

PURPOSE

The aim of this review was to summarize sex differences in glycolipid metabolic phenotypes of human and animal models after exposure to maternal hyperglycemia and overview the underlying mechanisms, providing a new perspective on the maternal hyperglycemia-triggered risk of glycolipidic disorders in offspring.

METHODS

A comprehensive literature search within PubMed was performed. Selected publications related to studies on offspring exposed to maternal hyperglycemia investigating the sex differences of glycolipid metabolism were reviewed.

RESULTS

Maternal hyperglycemia increases the risk of glycolipid metabolic disorders in offspring, such as obesity, glucose intolerance and diabetes. Whether with or without intervention, metabolic phenotypes have been shown to exhibit sex differences between male and female offspring in response to maternal hyperglycemia, which may be related to gonadal hormones, organic intrinsic differences, placenta, and epigenetic modifications.

CONCLUSION

Sex may play a role in the different incidences and pathogenesis of abnormal glycolipid metabolism. More studies investigating both sexes are needed to understand how and why environmental conditions in early life affect long-term health between male and female individuals.

[Clinical study of induction chemotherapy followed by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in the treatment of FLT3-ITD(+) acute myeloid leukemia with normal karyotype]

Objective: To assess the efficacy of induction chemotherapy followed by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) in the treatment of FLT3-ITD(+) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with normal karyotype. Methods: The clinical data of FLT3-ITD(+) AML patients with normal karyotype in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from Jan 2018 to March 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The study included 49 patients with FLT3-ITD(+)AML, 31 males, and 18 females, with a median age of 46 (16-59) years old. All patients received induction chemotherapy, and 24 patients received sequential allo-HSCT (transplantation group) . The median follow-up time was 465 days, the one-year overall survival (OS) from diagnosis was (70.0 ± 7.4) %, and one-year disease-free survival (DFS) was (70.3±7.4) %. The one-year OS was significantly different between the transplantation group and the non-transplantation group [ (85.2 ± 7.9) % vs (52.6 ± 12.3) %, P=0.049]. but one-year DFS [ (84.7 ± 8.1) % vs (55.2 ± 11.9) %, P=0.061] was not. No significance was found in one-year OS between patients with low-frequency and high-frequency FLT3-ITD(+) (P>0.05) . There were 12 patients with high-frequency FLT3-ITD(+) in the transplantation and the non-transplantation groups, respectively. The one-year OS [ (68.8 ± 15.7) % in the transplantation group vs (26.2 ± 15.3) % in the non-transplantation group, P=0.027] and one-year DFS [ (45.5 ± 21.3) % in the transplantation group vs (27.8±15.8) % in the non-transplantation group, P=0.032] were significantly different between the two groups. Conclusion: Induction chemotherapy followed by allo-HSCT can enhance the prognosis of FLT3-ITD(+) patients, particularly those with FLT3-ITD high-frequency mutation.

A9 INTESTINAL ORGANOID TRANSPLANTATION REVERSED THE INTESTINAL EPITHELIUM DAMAGE IN EXPERIMENTAL NECROTIZING ENTEROCOLITIS

NOT PUBLISHED AT AUTHOR’S REQUEST

Loading Nanoceria Improves Extracellular Vesicle Membrane Integrity and Therapy to Wounds in Aged Mice

Wound healing is a programmed process through which tissue restores its integrity after an injury. Advancing age is a risk factor for delayed cutaneous wound healing; however, ideal therapeutic approaches for aged wound have not been developed yet. By dissecting the harsh microenvironment of aged wound, we propose an integrated chemical and biological strategy to mitigate two main hostile factors including oxidative stress and ischemia. Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a rising star in regenerative medicine due to their powerful facilitation in tissue repair and regeneration. However, the fragile lipid membrane limits their function under the oxidative stress microenvironment. Nanoceria is an antioxidative nanozyme; here, we reveal that nanoceria-loaded EVs derived from mesenchymal stem cells facilitate cutaneous wound healing in aged mice. DG-CeO₂ was prepared via coating CeO₂ covalently with d-glucose to promote their cellular endocytosis. DG-CeO₂ was packaged into EVs under optimized hypoxic conditions (DG-CeO₂ EVs^Hyp). We further demonstrated that DG-CeO₂ EVs^Hyp had favorable biocompatibility and antioxidative and proangiogenic effects during the cutaneous wound healing in both young and aged mice. Further evidence revealed that DG-CeO₂ EVs^Hyp-transferred miR-92a-3p/125b-5p and their targets associated with aging degeneration may be the potential mechanisms. Collectively, these findings highlight that nanoceria-loaded EVs released by engineered stem cells may represent a potential therapeutic approach for tissue regeneration in aged population.

[Publication and citation analyses of Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control from 2011 to 2020]

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the publications and citations of Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control from 2011 to 2020, so as to provide insights into improving the journal quality and impact.

METHODS

All publications were retrieved from 60 issues of 10 volumes of Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control from 2011 to 2020, and publication and citation analyses were performed using a bibliometric method.

RESULTS

A total of 1 867 articles were published in Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control from 2011 to 2020, with the largest number in 2012 (220 publications) and the lowest in 2020 (135 publications), and original article (36.48%), control experience (17.14%) and control study (10.34%) were the three most common article type. The overall proportion of grant-supported articles was 59.08% (1 103/1 867), and the number of grant per article was (2.34±1.58) grants. The mean duration from submission to publication was (173.48±105.84) days per article, and there was a significant difference in the mean duration from submission to publication among years (F = 30.883, P < 0.01). Jiangsu Province (492 publications, 26.35%), Shanghai Municipality (264 publications, 14.14%) and Hubei Province (230 publications, 12.32%) were the three most productive provinces where the first author lived, and disease control and prevention institutions were the predominant affiliations of the first author (67.22%), with Jiangsu Institute of Schistosomiasis Control, National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Wannan Medical College as the three most productive affiliations. The number of authors was 5.94 authors per publication, and the proportion of co-authored publications was 95.45% in Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control from 2011 to 2020. Journal article was the predominant type of cited (89.97%), and the mean number of citations was (15.70±11.56) citations per publication, with a significant difference in the mean number of citations per publication among years (F = 2.205, P < 0.05). The impact factors of Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control ranged from 0.877 to 1.676 during the period from 2011 to 2020, and the overall Price index was 47.59%.

CONCLUSIONS

Both the academic impact and national transmissibility of Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control appeared a tendency towards a rise from 2011 to 2020. Seeking high-quality contributions, increasing interdisciplinary integration, shortening the duration from submission to publication, expanding the coverage of publication services and enhancing impact are the future priorities of the journal.

[Prevalence and molecular characterization of Cryptosporidium in captive-bred Mustela putorius furo in Jiangsu Province]

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the prevalence and molecular features of Cryptosporidium in captive-bred Mustela putorius furo in Jiangsu Province.

METHODS

A total of 290 fresh stool samples were collected from a ferret farm in Jiangsu Province on May 2017, and the small subunit rRNA (SSU rRNA) gene of Cryptosporidium was amplified in stool samples using nested PCR assay. The actin, cowp and gp60 genes were amplified in positive samples and sequenced to characterize Cryptosporidium species/genotypes.

RESULTS

A total of 18 stool samples were tested positive for Cryptosporidium SSU rRNA gene, with a detection rate of 6.2%. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses of SSU rRNA, actin and cowp genes characterized Cryptosporidium isolated from captive-bred ferrets as Cryptosporidium sp. ferret genotype. In addition, gp60 gene was amplified in 10 out of 18 stool samples tested positive for Cryptosporidium.

CONCLUSIONS

Cryptosporidium is widely prevalent in captive-bred ferrets in Jiangsu Province, and Cryptosporidium sp. ferret genotype is the only Cryptosporidium genotype in ferrets.

Radiomics signature based on CECT for non-invasive prediction of response to anti-PD-1 therapy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

PURPOSE

This study aimed to develop a radiomics signature (RS) based on contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) and evaluate its potential predictive value in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients receiving anti-PD-1 therapy.

METHOD

CECT scans of 76 HCC patients who received anti-PD-1 therapy were obtained in this study (training group = 53 and validation group = 23). The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was applied to select radiomics features of primary and metastatic lesions and establish a RS to predict lesion-level response. Then, a nomogram combined the mean RS (MRS) and clinical variables with patient-level response as the end point.

RESULTS

In the lesion-level analysis, the area under the curves (AUCs) of RS in the training and validation groups were 0.751 (95% CI, 0.668-0.835) and 0.734 (95% CI, 0.604-0.864), respectively. In the patient-level analysis, the AUCs of the nomogram in the training and validation groups were 0.897 (95% CI, 0.798-0.996) and 0.889 (95% CI, 0.748-1.000), respectively. The nomogram stratified patients into low- and high-risk groups, which showed a significant difference in progression-free survival (PFS) (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The RS is a noninvasive biomarker for predicting anti-PD-1 therapy response in patients with HCC. The nomogram may be of clinical use for identifying high-risk patients and formulating individualised treatments.

Utility of navigation system-guided submandibular gland core needle biopsy in the diagnosis of immunoglobulin G4-related sialadenitis

Pathological diagnosis is important for the definite diagnosis of immunoglobulin G4-related sialadenitis (IgG4-RS). Core needle biopsy (CNB) is a scarless technique; however the pathological heterogeneity of IgG4-RS (a particular feature of this disease) could be the potential cause of the inferior diagnostic capability of submandibular gland CNB (SMG-CNB) for IgG4-RS. The aim of this study was to explore technical improvements in SMG-CNB and improve its diagnostic power in IgG4-RS diagnosis. Eighteen patients clinically suspected for IgG4-RS were enrolled and underwent both SMG-CNB and SMG surgical biopsy. A navigation system (Brainlab) was employed during SMG-CNB to obtain representative samples and avoid blood vessel injury. Histopathological and immunopathological findings for the SMG-CNB samples were in good concordance with SMG surgical biopsy. There was no statistically significant difference between SMG-CNB and SMG surgical biopsy in IgG-positive cell count (132.4 ± 59.3 vs 132.2 ± 47.5, P = 0.99), IgG4-positive cell count (102.2 ± 39.7 vs 97.2 ± 27.6, P = 0.67), or IgG4-positive/IgG-positive cell count ratio (78.6% ± 0.1% vs 75.2% ± 0.1%, P = 0.29). A moderate or strong significant correlation was found between SMG-CNB and SMG surgical biopsy for these cell counts and ratio (all P < 0.01). The diagnostic consistency of SMG-CNB and SMG surgical biopsy was 100%. The Brainlab navigation system may assist in collecting representative SMG-CNB samples from typical pathological lesions. Tissues obtained from SMG-CNB are sufficient for the pathological diagnosis of IgG4-RS. Standardized SMG-CNB is expected to replace SMG surgical biopsy for IgG4-RS diagnosis.