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Background: Whether patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with unexpected pleural dissemination (UPD) could get survival benefit from tumor resection remained controversial.Methods: Totally, 169 patients with NSCLC with UPD were included between 2012 and 2016. Patients were divided into the tumor resection and open-close group. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared with a log-rank test. The multivariable Cox analysis was applied to identify prognostic factors.Results: Sixty-five patients received open-close surgery and 104 patients underwent main tumor and visible pleural nodule resection. Tumor resection significantly prolonged OS (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.408, P < 0.001), local PFS (HR: 0.283, P < 0.001), regional PFS (HR: 0.506, P = 0.005), and distant metastasis (HR: 0.595, P = 0.032). Multivariable Cox analysis confirmed that surgical method was an independent prognostic factor for OS, local PFS and regional PFS, except distant metastasis. Subgroup analyses indicated that tumor resection could not improve OS in the patients who received targeted therapy (HR: 0.649, P = 0.382), however, tumor resection was beneficial for the patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy alone (HR: 0.322, P < 0.001). In the tumor resection group, lobectomy (HR: 0.960, P = 0.917) and systematic lymphadenectomy (HR: 1.512, P = 0.259) did not show survival benefit for OS.Conclusions: Main tumor and visible pleural nodule resection could improve prognosis in patients with UPD who could not receive adjuvant targeted therapy. Sublobar resection without systematic lymphadenectomy may be the optimal procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) as alternative screening method had been proven to have very high sensitivity and specificity for detecting common aneuploidies such as T21, T18, and T13, with low false positive and false negative rates. Unfortunately, recent studies suggested that the NIPT achieved lower accuracy in sex chromosomal aneuploidies (SCAs) detection than autosomal aneuploidies detection. BGISEQ-500 powered by Combinatorial Probe-Anchor Synthesis (CPAS) and DNA Nanoballs (DNBs) technology that combined linear amplification and rolling circle replication to reduce the error rate while enhancing the signal. Therefore, NIPT based on CPAS might be a good method for SCAs screening in routine clinical practice. In the study, we intended to evaluate the clinical utility of NIPT based on CPAS on screening for fetal SCAs. Results: A total of 570 pregnant women were included in the retrospective study. Maternal blood samples were collected for NIPT; amniocentesis was performed on all pregnant women. NIPT was carried out by BGISEQ-500 sequencing platform based on CPAS. Karyotype analysis of amniotic cells was performed by standard G-banding techniques. 43 out of the total 570 pregnant women tested by NIPT showed fetal SCAs (19 of 45,X, 12 of 47,XXY, 10 of 47,XXX, and 2 of 47,XYY). The following amniocentesis confirmed that 26 cases were true positive (7 of true positive 45,X, 9 of true positive 47,XXY, 9 of true positive 47,XXX as well as 1 of 47,XYY) and the positive predictive value (PPV) for fetal SCAs was 60.47%. In addition, the PPV of advanced maternal age group (67.74%) was higher than the other indications group (45.45%) or serological screening high-risk /critical-risk group (0%). Conclusions: NIPT based on CPAS could be a potential method for SCAs screening. However, it still had high false positive rates, especially for 45,X. The pregnant women with fetal SCAs detected by NIPT, especially those with non-age-related prenatal diagnostic indications, should be advised to accept invasive prenatal karyotype analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sarcocystis species are intracellular protozoan parasites that can pose a threat to animal health and food safety. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of infection with Sarcocystis infection in sheep from China. Results: In total, 52.51% (335/638) of tissue samples from domestic sheep contained sarcocysts through examination by light microscopy. The organisms were identified as S. tenella and S. arieticanis by molecular assays. Macroscopic S. gigantea and S. medusiformis were not found. The average sarcocysts loading was 18.07 ± 29.87 per square centimeter in the myocardium of domestic sheep. Furthermore, two specimens of argali (Ovis ammon) were examined and sarcocysts were found in the myocardium of one animal. According to the sequence of the cox1 gene of sarcocysts from argali, it was speculated as S. tenella. Conclusions: We found a high prevalence and parasite load of Sarcocystis in sheep from both central and northwest China. This report is the first to indicate that argali may be a natural intermediate host for S. tenella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: PU box-binding protein (PU.1) is a master gene of hematopoietic lineage and an important specific transcription factor in osteoclast lineage. There is proof of its expression in adipose tissue, and it is known to significantly and negatively affect adipogenesis. However, it is unclear whether there are any other molecules involved in this process., Methods: We wished to explore the effect of PU.1's co-activator microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) on the adipogenic differentiation of ovine primary preadipocytes. The expression vectors pcDNA-MITF and pcDNA-PU.1, and MITF siRNA and PU.1 siRNA were transfected or co-transfected into ovine tail primary preadipocytes. Real-time PCR and western blot analysis were applied to investigate the expression levels of PU.1 and MITF. The morphologic changes in the cells were observed under a microscope at a magnification of × 200 after staining with Oil Red O. The triglyceride (TG) content in cells was also determined after transfection., Results: MITF and its co-activator PU.1 synergistically exhibited an opposite expression pattern to that of CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein-β (C/EBPβ) during adipogenic differentiation of ovine primary preadipocytes. Before induction of differentiation, overexpression of MITF or PU.1 inhibited the expression of C/EBPβ and adipogenesis in the cells; and knockdown of MITF or PU.1 promoted the expression of C/EBPβ and adipogenesis in the cells. The inhibitory or promotive effect was enhanced when MITF and PU.1 were co-overexpressed or co-silenced. However, when MITF and/or PU.1 were overexpressed after day 2 of differentiation, no changes in adipogenesis of the cells were observed., Conclusions: MITF and its co-activator PU.1 inhibited adipogenesis of ovine primary preadipocytes by restraining C/EBPβ.

Background: The silent information regulator SIR2/SIRT1gene has been demonstrated as regulating lifespan in many model organisms, including yeast, worms, fruit flies and rodents. SIRT1, the human homolog of SIR2, is considered a candidate gene as a modifier of human life expectancy., Methods: In the current study we included 616 long-lived individuals and 846 matched younger controls to investigate associations between 8 common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (i.e., rs12778366, rs3758391, rs3740051, rs33957861, rs7896005, rs12413112, rs11599176 and rs4746720) in the SIRT1 gene and human longevity., Results: The 8 SNPs had strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) and were in an LD block, which was characterized by 4 common haplotypes that capture 99.3% of the genetic variation present within it. We found no evidence for statistically significant associations between the tested SIRT1 SNPs and longevity at the allele, genotype or haplotype levels., Conclusions: Current findings show that several common variants in SIRT1 are not associated with human longevity.