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Background. Transcriptional dysregulation plays a critical role in the onset and development of malignant tumors. Employing gene dysregulation to forecast the change of tumors is valuable for cancer diagnosis. However, the prognostic prediction for HCC using combined gene models remains insufficient. Methods. The expression profiles of GSE103512 and TCGA-LIHC were downloaded. Gene Ontology (Go) was used to evaluate the overlapping differential genes (DEG) in TCGA and GSE103512. The core genes in the critical module most significantly related to HCC were obtained by WGCNA. Eight genes most significantly related to HCC and OS were identified by reweighted coexpression network analysis and Cox regression. Results. We selected eight genes, FZEB1, CDK1, RAD54L, COL1A2, ATP1B3, CASP8, USP39, and HOXB7. Moreover, we constructed an eight-gene model and forecasted the prognosis of HCC. ROC curve of the eight-mRNA prognostic model was screened out ( AUC = 0.635 ), suggesting that this model exhibited a good prediction performance. Survival analysis showed that the survival rate of patients in the high-risk group was significantly lower than that in the low-risk group. Conclusion. The eight-mRNAs model might forecast the OS of HCC patients and advance remedial decision-making.

PAEMQCT can partition a molecular real space into its atomic realms by PAEM and FAEM, whose atomic charges (ACs) are independent on the basis set size and their values are between those from QTAIM and Hirshfeld.

Objective. Although the prognostic effect of statins on patients with prostate cancer (PCa) has been frequently evaluated, a consistent result is still lacking. We aimed to evaluate the association between statin use and mortality among patients with PCa after definite therapies. Methods. A systematic search of PubMed and other databases for cohort studies about the effect of statins on patients with PCa was performed until April 2022. Meta-analysis was performed using R software version 4.1.2. Results. 24 cohort studies involving 369, 206 participants were finally included. We found statin use significantly reduced the risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM) with a pooled hazard ratio (pHR) = 0.76 (95% CI: 0.69–0.84, 18 studies), especially for postdiagnostic statin users: pHR = 0.81 (95% CI: 0.77–0.85) and patients who accepted androgen deprivation therapy (ADT): pHR = 0.69 (95% CI: 0.59–0.81). Statin use was also associated with a 24% reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality (ACM): pHR = 0.76 (95% CI: 0.68–0.85, 17 studies), especially for postdiagnostic statin users: pHR = 0.81 (95% CI: 0.78–0.85) and patients treated with ADT: pHR = 0.72 (95% CI: 0.63–0.82) or radiotherapy (RT): pHR = 0.68 (95% CI: 0.50–0.93). Conclusion. In conclusion, the use of statins could promote the prognosis of patients with PCa, especially for postdiagnostic users. For patients who received either ADT or radical prostatectomy (RP), statin use could decrease the PCSM. As for those who received either ADT or RT, statin use could decrease the ACM.

Objective To detect viral load in Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection children after hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) by chip digital PCR (cdPCR). Methods The plasmid pUC57-UL83 containing the HCMV UL83 gene and HCMV AD169 strain were used to evaluate the sensitivity of cdPCR. Either HSV-1, HSV-2, VZV, EBV, HHV-6, or HHV-7 was used to evaluate the specificity of HCMV cdPCR. The cdPCR was compared with quantitative PCR (qPCR) by detecting HCMV infection of 125 children whole blood samples following HSCT. Results The limit of detection (LOD) of HCMV cdPCR was 103 copies/ml and the qPCR LOD was 297 copies/ml for plasmid pUC57-UL83. The result of HCMV cdPCR was 146 copies/ml for HCMV AD169 strain, indicating that the sensitivity of cdPCR was higher than that of qPCR. There is no cross-reaction between HCMV cdPCR and other herpes viruses. The incident of HCMV infection was 30.40% in 125 children following HSCT by cdPCR. The range of the HCMV viral load was from 107 copies/ml to 6600 copies/ml by cdPCR. Conclusions cdPCR is more sensitive than qPCR for detecting HCMV viral load. Furthermore, the cdPCR could be used to detect the viral load of HCMV infection before or after HSCT in children.

Hypochlorous acid (HClO) is a common reactive oxygen species (ROS), with a high chemical reactivity. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is an enzyme that catalyzes in vivo redox reactions between H2O2 and Cl− to produce HClO. Abnormal levels of HClO and MPO may lead to oxidative stress, irreversible tissue damage and, thus, serious diseases; they are thus becoming important biomarkers and therapeutic targets. In this work, using HClO-induced site-specific cleavage of phosphorothioate-modified DNA to trigger rolling circle amplification (RCA), RCA-assisted biosensors have been developed for the highly sensitive and specific detection of HClO and MPO. Only two DNA oligonucleotides are used in the sensing systems. The powerful signal-amplification capability of RCA endows the sensing systems with a high sensitivity, and the specific fluorescent response of thioflavin T (ThT) to G-quadruplexes in RCA products makes a label-free signal output possible. The proposed biosensors were demonstrated to work well not only for the sensitive and specific quantitation of HClO and MPO with detection limits of 1.67 nM and 0.33 ng/mL, respectively, but also for the screening and inhibitory capacity evaluation of MPO inhibitors, thus holding great promise in disease diagnosis and drug analysis.

Researches indicated that melatonin (MLT) could ameliorate oxidative damage and increase sperm motility for conservation sperms, whereas the underlying mechanism remains unknown. And elucidating this, present study was designed to investigate the energy metabolism of sperm throughout preservation at 17 °C and activating with 37 °C. Herein, semen of ten Landrace boars (16∼18 months of age) were diluted and treated with gradient concentrations of MLT (0 nM, 1 nM, 10 nM, 1 μM, 1 mM and 5 mM), and kept away from light in the incubator of 17 °C for 5 days (preservation), and the sperm motility was evaluated after 37 °C incubation for 10 min (activating). The results showed that 1.0 μM MLT treated-sperms had higher motility than other treatments from the 2nd onward. On the 3rd day 17 °C storage, 1.0 μM MLT significantly decreased the ATP content and the mRNA abundance of mitochondrial DNA encoding genes, including NADH dehydrogenase subunits (NDs) 1-4 and 4L, cytochrome b (CYTB), cytochrome c oxidases (COXs) 1 and 3, ATP synthase 6, but increased the hexokinase activity (HK) and the malondialdehyde (MDA) content compared to that of the control. Whereas after 10 min 37 °C incubation, 1.0 μM MLT increased the ATP content, and the mRNA expressions of ND2 and 4L, CYTB, COX1, ATP6, and the activities of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I and superoxide dismutase (SOD), but depressed the pyruvate kinase (PK) activity in contrast to that at 17 °C. Furthermore, 1.0 μM MLT treated sperms had a higher MLT receptor 1 (MT1) protein level at 17 °C storage than that after 10 min 37 °C incubation, no changes of the MT2 expression were observed at different temperature. This study suggests that MLT might mediate via MT1 in a temperature-dependent manner regulating sperm ATP generation and antioxidative enzyme activity in vitro.

IntroductionWith the shortage of bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine, it is important to find an alternative to BCG instillation, which is the most commonly used adjuvant treatment for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients after transurethral resection of bladder tumor treatment (TURBt) to delay tumor recurrence. Hyperthermia intravesical chemotherapy (HIVEC) with mitomycin C (MMC) is a potential treatment choice. We aim to compare HIVEC with BCG instillation for the preventive efficacy of bladder tumor recurrence and progression.MethodsA network meta-analysis (NMA) was taken with MMC instillation and TURBt as the attached comparators. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with NIMBC patients after TURBt were included. Articles with pure BCG unresponsive patients and combined therapies were excluded. The study protocol was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO, CRD42023390363).ResultsIt was found that HIVEC had a non-significant 22% relative reduction in bladder tumor recurrence compared with BCG instillation [HIVEC vs. BCG: HR 0.78, 95% credible interval (CrI) 0.55–1.08] and a nonsignificant higher risk of bladder tumor progression (BCG vs. HIVEC: HR 0.77, 95% CrI 0.22–3.03).DiscussionHIVEC is a potential alternative to BCG, and it is expected to be the standard therapy for NMIBC patients after TURBt during the global shortage of BCG.Systematic Review RegistrationPROSPERO identifier, CRD42023390363

IntroductionUrolithiasis is one of the most common diseases for urologists and it is a heavy burden for stone formers and society. The theory of the oral–genitourinary axis casts novel light on the pathological process of genitourinary system diseases. Hence, we performed this study to characterize the crosstalk between oral health conditions and urolithiasis to provide evidence for prevention measures and mechanisms of stone formation.Materials and methodsThis population-based cross-sectional study included 86,548 Chinese individuals who had undergone a comprehensive examination in 2017. Urolithiasis was diagnosed depending on the results of ultrasonographic imaging. Logistic models were utilized to characterize the association between oral health conditions and urolithiasis. We further applied bidirectional Mendelian randomization to explore the causality between oral health conditions and urolithiasis.ResultsWe observed that presenting caries indicated a negative correlation with the risk for urolithiasis while presenting gingivitis [OR (95% CI), 2.021 (1.866–2.187)] and impacted tooth [OR (95% CI), 1.312 (1.219–1.411)] shown to be positively associated with urolithiasis. Furthermore, we discovered that genetically predicted gingivitis was associated with a higher risk of urolithiasis [OR (95% CI), 1.174 (1.009–1.366)] and causality from urolithiasis to impacted teeth [OR(95% CI), 1.207 (1.027–1.418)] through bidirectional Mendelian randomization.ConclusionThe results cast new light on the risk factor and pathogenesis of kidney stone formation and could provide novel evidence for the oral–genitourinary axis and the systematic inflammatory network. Our findings could also offer suggestions for tailored clinical prevention strategies against stone diseases.

This paper presents high quality YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) thin films on LaAlO3 substrate for microwave devices prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The double-sided YBCO films cover a large area and have been optimized for key parameters relevant to microwave device applications, such as surface morphology and surface resistance (R s). This was achieved by improving target quality and increasing oxygen pressure during deposition, respectively. To evaluate the suitability of the YBCO films for microwave devices, a pair of microwave filters based on microstrip fabricated on films from this work and a commercial company were compared. The results show that the YBCO films in this work could completely meet the requirements for microwave devices.

Background Placental infarction can result from the partial or complete obstruction of the uterine spiral artery, interrupting maternal blood flow and causing progressive villus tissue necrosis. This, in turn, can adversely impact placental transport, endocrine signaling, metabolic activity, and immune function, resulting in severe fetal growth restriction, fetal ischemic stroke, and even stillbirth. Prenatal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can allow clinicians to evaluate the fetus and the structure of the placenta to detect any morphological changes during pregnancy. The present case highlights the advantages of using MRI to diagnose placental and fetal cerebral ischemic lesions, providing clinical guidance to assist with the appropriate management of placental and fetal abnormalities. Case presentation: A 33-year-old female who was 26 weeks and 4 days pregnant presented with blood pressure that was elevated for 1 week detected during prenatal examination and was hospitalized for moderate preeclampsia and fetal distress. MRI examination in our hospital revealed placental infarction, fetal acute cerebral ischemic stroke, and intrauterine distress. Pathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of placental infarction, and a male stillbirth was induced by drug treatment/ Conclusion MRI scans can allow for the qualitative and quantitative diagnosis of circulatory and central nervous system abnormalities in the context of placental disease, providing guidance to support appropriate clinical decision-making and the termination of pregnancy following fetal ischemic stroke.

Tumor development relies on a complex and aberrant tissue environment in which cancer cells receive the necessary nutrients for growth, survive through immune escape, and acquire mesenchymal properties that mediate invasion and metastasis. Stromal cells and soluble mediators in the tumor microenvironment (TME) exhibit characteristic anti-inflammatory and protumorigenic activities. Ubiquitination, which is an essential and reversible posttranscriptional modification, plays a vital role in modulating the stability, activity and localization of modified proteins through an enzymatic cascade. This review was motivated by accumulating evidence that a series of E3 ligases and deubiquitinases (DUBs) finely target multiple signaling pathways, transcription factors and key enzymes to govern the functions of almost all components of the TME. In this review, we systematically summarize the key substrate proteins involved in the formation of the TME and the E3 ligases and DUBs that recognize these proteins. In addition, several promising techniques for targeted protein degradation by hijacking the intracellular E3 ubiquitin-ligase machinery are introduced.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a fatal human brain tumor of grade IV/4 by WHO classification, with a very poor prognosis. At the molecular level and clinical, GBM has at least two types, primary and secondary. Each has a different tumorigenesis and clinical presentation. In this chapter, some major molecular biomarkers and diagnostic hallmarks of GBM will be reviewed and discussed.

BackgroundChronic nonbacterial osteomyelitis (CNO) is an auto-inflammatory bone disease that usually develops in childhood. Spinal involvement is a common manifestation of CNO, but it is rare for CNO to lead to rapid progression of scoliosis deformity. Here we present a 9-year-old girl with acute scoliosis with CNO and scoliosis progressed rapidly in 2 months.Case PresentationA 9-year-old girl presented bilateral shoulder inequality with pain in the left hypochondrium for 2 months. Standing spinal x-rays showed right convex scoliosis with a 25° Cobb angle. Chest magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed that the T8 vertebra was flattened and local bone was destroyed with bone marrow edema. The bone biopsy showed evidence of fibrosis and chronic inflammatory changes with no specific diagnosis. One month later, her scoliosis and bone destruction deteriorated obviously. Thoracic vertebra MRI showed that the T8 vertebra had a compression fracture. 99mTc-MDP whole-body bone scintigraphy showed intense uptake at T8/9 and the right sacroiliac joint. She was diagnosed with CNO accompanied by rapidly progressive scoliosis. The scoliosis was successfully treated with adalimumab and zoledronic acid, which showed significant improvement after 6 months of follow-up.ConclusionZoledronic acid and adalimumab successfully treated CNO with rapidly progressive scoliosis, but could not prevent vertebral compression.

Currently, porcine coronaviruses are prevalent in pigs, and due to the outbreak of COVID-19, porcine coronaviruses have become a research hotspot. porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus (TGEV), and Porcine Deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) mentioned in this study mainly cause diarrhea in pigs. These viruses cause significant economic losses and pose a potential public health threat. In this study, specific primers and probes were designed according to the M gene of PEDV, the S gene of TGEV, and the M gene of PDCoV, respectively, and TaqMan probe-based multiplex real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was developed for the simultaneous detection of PEDV, TGEV, and PDCoV. This method has high sensitivity and specificity, and the detection limit of each virus can reach 2.95 × 100 copies/μl. An assay of 160 clinical samples from pigs with diarrhea showed that the positive rates of PEDV, TGEV, and PDCoV were 38.13, 1.88, and 5.00%; the coinfection rates of PEDV+TGEV, PEDV+PDCoV, TGEV+PDCoV, PEDV+TGEV+PDCoV were 1.25, 1.25, 0, 0.63%, respectively. The positive coincidence rates of the multiplex qRT-PCR and single-reaction qRT-PCR were 100%. This method is of great significance for clinical monitoring of the porcine enteric diarrhea virus and helps reduce the loss of the breeding industry and control the spread of the disease.

The prognosis of bladder cancer patients is strongly related to both the immune-infiltrating cells and the expression of lncRNAs. In this study, we analyzed the infiltration of immune cells in 403 bladder cancer samples obtained from TCGA by applying the ssGSEA to these samples, then dividing them into high/low immune cell infiltration groups. Based on these groupings, we found 404 differentially expressed immune infiltration-related lncRNAs, which were successively analyzed by univariate Cox regression, then Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), and finally stepwise multiple Cox regression. Then 12 differentially expressed immune infiltration-related lncRNAs were identified and used to construct a prognostic signature for bladder cancer. Subsequently, Kaplan-Meier analysis, univariate Cox regression, multivariate Cox regression, and multivariate time-dependent ROC analyses (for 1, 3, 5 years) all revealed that this signature performed well in predicting overall survival and served as an independent prognostic factor for patients with bladder cancer. Finally, both TIMER and CIBESORT showed that this 12-lncRNA prognostic signature for bladder cancer was associated with the infiltration of immune cell subtypes. Besides, nomogram considered risk score and clinical characteristics was assembled and showed great performance. More importantly, we found our signature could well distinguish the drug response of patients with bladder cancer. High risk patients showed a better response to cisplatin, doxorubicin, and anti- CTLA4 immunotherapy, low risk patients showed a better response to methotrexate and anti-PD1 immunotherapy compared with each other.

The separation and detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have a significant impact on clinical diagnosis and treatment by providing a predictive diagnosis of primary tumors and tumor metastasis. But the responsive release and downstream analysis of live CTCs will provide more valuable information about molecular markers and functional properties. To this end, specific capture and controllable release methods, which can achieve the highly efficient enrichment of CTCs with strong viability, are urgently needed. DNA networks create a flexible, semi-wet three-dimensional (3D) microenvironment for cell culture, and have the potential to minimize the loss of cell viability and molecular integrity. More importantly, responsive DNA networks can be reasonably designed as smart sensors and devices to change shape, color, disassemble, and giving back to external stimuli. Here, a strategy for specifically collecting cells using a dual-aptamer DNA network is designed. The proposed strategy enables effective capture, 3D encapsulation, and responsive release of CTCs with strong viability, which can be used for downstream analysis of live cells. The programmability of CRISPR/Cas12a, a powerful toolbox for genome editing, is used to activate the responsive release of captured CTCs from the DNA network. After activation by a specified double-strand DNA (dsDNA) input, CRISPR/Cas12a cleaves the single-stranded DNA regions in the network, resulting in molecular to macroscopic changes in the network. Accompanied by the deconstruction of the DNA network into fragments, controllable cell release is achieved. The viability of released CTCs is well maintained and downstream cell analysis can be performed. This strategy uses the enzymatic properties of CRISPR/Cas12a to design a platform to improve the programmability and versatility of the DNA network, providing a powerful and effective method for capturing and releasing CTCs from complex physiological samples.

The reproduction of various properties of oligopeptides have proven the correctness of the ABEEMσπ PFF in describing the polarisation effect of peptides, matching of the charge and geometric parameters, and transferability of the parameters.

Metal-free nitrogen-doped carbon catalysts with pyrrolic-N as the active site were efficiently synthesized via a direct carbonization method, which exibited a high two-electron oxygen reduction reaction performance.

Herein, we demonstrate that MnO2 nanosheets are an excellent carrier of CRISPR/Cas12a due to the two important roles played by them.

Improving the biodegradation efficiency of terephthalic acid (TA) wastewater processes is highly challenging, particularly in large-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors.

Both unary Bi and binary BiSn catalysts exhibit high faradaic efficiencies toward the production of formic acid via electrocatalytic CO2 reduction approach. The electrocatalytic abilities are directly related to the structures and morphologies of the metal-based catalysts.

An efficient 6-exo-trig radical cascade reaction of biaryl ynones with NaNO2 was developed to afford nitro-functionalized spiro[5.5]trienones with yields of up to 88%.

We report a facile synthesis method of CuO/Co3O4 heterostructural catalysts with remarkable benzene catalytic oxidation capability.

Introduction: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common urinary tumors. The risk of metastasis for patients with RCC is about 1/3, among which 30–40% have lymph node metastasis, and the existence of lymph node metastasis will greatly reduce the survival rate of patients. However, the necessity of lymph node dissection is still controversial at present. Therefore, a new predictive model is urgently needed to judge the risk of lymph node metastasis and guide clinical decision making before operation. Method: We retrospectively collected the data of 189 patients who underwent retroperitoneal lymph node dissection or enlarged lymph node resection due to suspected lymph node metastasis or enlarged lymph nodes found during an operation in Tongji Hospital from January 2016 to October 2021. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (lasso) regression analyses were used to identify preoperative predictors of pathological lymph node positivity. A nomogram was established to predict the probability of lymph node metastasis in patients with RCC before surgery according to the above independent predictors, and its efficacy was evaluated with a calibration curve and a DCA analysis. Result: Among the 189 patients, 54 (28.60%) were pN1 patients, and 135 (71.40%) were pN0 patients. Three independent impact factors were, finally, identified, which were the following: age (OR = 0.3769, 95% CI = 0.1864–0.7622, p < 0.01), lymph node size according to pre-operative imaging (10–20 mm: OR = 15.0040, 95% CI = 1.5666–143.7000, p < 0.05; >20 mm: OR = 4.4013, 95% CI = 1.4892–7.3134, p < 0.01) and clinical T stage (cT1–2 vs. cT3–4) (OR = 3.1641, 95% CI = 1.0336–9.6860, p < 0.05). The calibration curve and DCA (Decision Curve Analysis) showed the nomogram of this predictive model had good fitting. Conclusions: Low age, large lymph node size in pre-operative imaging and high clinical T stage can be used as independent predictive factors of pathological lymph node metastasis in patients with RCC. Our predictive nomogram using these factors exhibited excellent discrimination and calibration.