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The diaphanous-related formin subfamily includes diaphanous homolog 1 (DIAPH1), DIAPH2, and DIAPH3. DIAPHs play a role in the regulation of actin nucleation and polymerization and in microtubule stability. DIAPH3 also regulates the assembly and bipolarity of mitotic spindles. Accumulating evidence has shown that DIAPHs are anomalously regulated during malignancy. In this study, we reviewed The Cancer Genome Atlas database and found that DIAPHs are abundantly expressed in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD). Furthermore, we analyzed the gene alteration profiles, protein expression, prognosis, and immune reactivity of DIAPHs in PAAD using data from several well-established databases. In addition, we conducted gene set enrichment analysis to investigate the potential mechanisms underlying the roles of DIAPHs in the carcinogenesis of PAAD. Finally, we performed the experimental validation of DIAPHs expression in several pancreatic cancer cell lines and tissues of patients. This study demonstrated significant correlations between DIAPHs expression and clinical prognosis, oncogenic signature gene sets, T helper 2 cell infiltration, plasmacytoid dendritic cell infiltration, myeloid-derived suppressor cell infiltration, ImmunoScore, and immune checkpoints in PAAD. These data may provide important information regarding the role and mechanisms of DIAPHs in tumorigenesis and PAAD immunotherapy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Hu, Li, Xu, Xie, Liu, Xu, Gong and Wu.)

Background and Aims: There is sparse information on the prognostic value of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) for the outcomes in patients with left ventricular thrombus (LVT). Methods: Patients diagnosed with LVT by transthoracic echocardiography between November 2009 to July 2020 at our institution were included. The endpoints were all-cause mortality and systemic embolism. Results: Ninety-two subjects were finally included in the study. The mean age of the cohort was 56.73 ± 14.12, and 80.4% of the patients were male. The median BNP (1st quartile-3rd quartile) was 437.5 (112.74-1317.5). The total all-cause mortality rate was 30.44% (28/92), and the 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year cumulative survival rates were 85.4, 75.5, and 66.5%, respectively. Systemic embolism was identified in 10 subjects. COX multivariate analysis showed that Log BNP (HR, 4.16; 95%CI, 1.81-9.56; P = 0.001) and BMI (HR, 0.86; 95%CI, 0.73-0.99; P = 0.048) were significantly associated with all-cause mortality. In addition, patients with BNP levels in the upper median (≥ 437.5 pg/ml) had significantly higher all-cause mortality rate compared to those with lower median BNP (<437.5 pg/ml; P = 0.004). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for BNP and all-cause mortality was 0.71. In the linear trend test, BNP quartiles were significantly related to all-cause mortality in all models, and the P -values for trend in models 1, 2, and 3 were 0.005, 0.006, and 0.048, respectively. Conclusion: BNP level is a prognostic factor for all-cause mortality in LVT patients, and elevated BNP is indicative of a higher risk of LVT., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 An, Gao, Wang, Hou, Zhang, Gong, Rao, Li and Qin.)