Search

Zhi-Ming Pan,1 Hai-Jun Li,1 Jing Bao,1 Nan Jiang,1 Qing Yuan,1 Shelby Freeberg,2 Pei-Wen Zhu,1 Lei Ye,1 Ming-Yang Ma,1 Xin Huang,1 Yi Shao1 1Department of Ophthalmology and Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Ophthalmology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Objective: Many previous studies have reported that pain symptoms can lead to significant brain function and anatomical changes, whereas the intrinsic brain activity changes in acute eye pain (EP) patients remain unknown. Using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method, this study aimed to evaluate the spontaneous brain activity alterations and their relationships with clinical features in acute EP patients.Participants and methods: A total of 20 patients with EP (15 males and 5 females) and 20 healthy controls (HCs; 15 males and 5 females) closely matched in age, sex, and education underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. The ALFF method was applied to assess spontaneous brain activity changes. The ALFF values of the EP patients were distinguished from those of the HCs using a receiver operating characteristic curve. Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationships between the mean ALFF signal values from many brain regions and the clinical features in EP patients.Results: Compared with the HCs, acute EP patients had significantly lower ALFF in the left and right precentral/postcentral gyrus and left precuneus. In contrast, acute EP patients showed higher ALFF values in the right and left parahippocampal gyri and left caudate. However, no relationship was observed between the mean ALFF signal values from the different areas and clinical manifestations in the acute EP patients.Conclusion: We demonstrated that acute EP patients showed abnormal intrinsic brain activities in the precentral/postcentral gyrus and limbic system, which might provide useful information for explaining neural mechanisms in EP patients. Keywords: eye pain, ALFF, blood oxygenation level dependent, resting state, functional magnetic resonance imaging

Xin Huang,1,2,* Dan Li,3,* Hai-Jun Li,3 Yu-Lin Zhong,1 Shelby Freeberg,4 Jing Bao,1 Xian-Jun Zeng,3 Yi Shao1 1Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi Province Clinical Ophthalmology Institute, Nanchang, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Ophthalmology, Eye Center, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Ophthalmology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA *These authors contributed equally to this work Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate changes of brain neural homogeneity in retinal detachment (RD) patients using the regional homogeneity (ReHo) method to understand their relationships with clinical features. Materials and methods: A total of 30 patients with RD (16 men and 14 women), and 30 healthy controls (HCs) (16 men and 14 women) closely matched in age and sex were recruited. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed for all subjects. The ReHo method was used to investigate the brain regional neural homogeneity. Patients with RD were distinguished from HCs by receiver operating characteristic curve. The relationships between the mean ReHo signal values in many brain regions and clinical features in RD patients were calculated by Pearson correlation analysis. Results: Compared with HCs, RD patients had significantly decreased ReHo values in the right occipital lobe, right superior temporal gyrus, bilateral cuneus and left middle frontal gyrus. Moreover, we found that the mean ReHo signal of the bilateral cuneus showed positive relationships with the duration of the RD (r=0.392, P=0.032). Conclusion: The RD patients showed brain neural homogeneity dysfunction in the visual pathway, which may underline the pathological mechanism of RD patients with acute vision loss. Besides, the ReHo values can reflect the progress of the RD disease. Keywords: retinal detachment, neural regional homogeneity, resting state, functional magnetic resonance imaging

Objective: There are no effective systemic therapies for adenoid cystic cancer (ACC) and lack of tumor lines and mouse models have hindered drug development.We aim to develop MYB-activated models for testing new therapeutic agents., Materials and Methods: We studied new ACC patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models and generated a matched cell line from one patient. In addition, we generated a genetically-engineered MYB-NFIB mouse model (GEMM) that was crossed with Ink4a +/ - /Arf +/ - mice to study tumor spectrum and obtain tumor lines. Using human and murine ACC-like tumor lines, we analyzed MYB expression by RNA-Seq and immunoblot and tested efficacy of new MYB inhibitors., Results: We detected MYB-NFIB transcripts in both UFH1 and UFH2 PDX and observed tumor inhibition by MYB depletion using shRNA in vivo. We observed rapid loss of MYB expression when we cultured UFH1 in vitro, but were able to generate a UFH2 tumor cell line that retained MYB expression for 6 months. RNA-Seq expression detected an ACC-like mRNA signature in PDX samples and we confirmed an identical KMT2A/MLL variant in UFH2 PDX, matched cell line, and primary biopsy. Although the predominant phenotype of the MYB-NFIB GEMM was B-cell leukemia, we also generated a MYB-activated ACC-like mammary tumor cell line. We observed tumor inhibition using a novel MYB peptidomimetic in both human and murine tumor models., Conclusions: We generated and studied new murine and human MYB-activated tumor samples and detected growth inhibition with MYB peptidomimetics. These data provide tools to define treatment strategies for patients with advanced MYB-activated ACC., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The purpose of our study was to determine whether rhamnazin inhibits corneal neovascularization in the rat alkali burn model, and alleviates the inflammatory response of the cornea. Rhamnazin inhibited the proliferation of HUVEC cells in a dose-dependent manner, and it also inhibited the migration and luminal formation of HUVEC cells. 20 μM rhamnazin eye drops were applied to an animal model of corneal alkali burn neovascularization 4 times a day for 14 days. The corneal neovascularization in the rhamnazin group was obviously less than that in the PBS control group. In the rhamnazin group, the inflammatory index of the cornea decreased gradually over time, whereas the inflammatory index of the PBS group decreased only slightly with time. The corneal CNV area in the PBS group was significantly larger than that in the rhamnazin group. The expression level of VEGF protein of the rhamnazin group was lower than that in the PBS group, and the expression level of PEDF was significantly higher than that of the PBS group. Rhamnazin downregulated the expression of VEGFR2 protein and decreased the expression levels of p-STAT3, p-MAPK and p-Akt proteins. This study provides a new idea for the study of the molecular mechanism of corneal neovascularization., Competing Interests: None., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Background: Over the last decade, significant advances in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) workflow have resulted in most hospitals reporting door-to-balloon (D2B) times within the 90 min standard. Few programs have been enacted to systematically attempt to achieve routine D2B within 60 min. We sought to determine whether 24-hr in-house catheterization laboratory coverage via an In-House Interventional Team Program (IHIT) could achieve D2B times below 60 min for STEMI and to compare the results to the standard primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) approach., Methods: An IHIT program was established consisting of an attending interventional cardiologist, and a catheterization laboratory team present in-hospital 24 hr/day. For all consecutive STEMI patients, we compared the standard primary PCI approach during the two years prior to the program (group A) to the initial 20 months of the IHIT program (group B), and repeated this analysis for only CMS-reportable patients. The D2B process was analyzed by calculating workflow intervals. The primary endpoint was D2B process times, and secondary endpoints included in-hospital and 6-month cardiovascular outcomes and resource utilization., Results: An IHIT program for STEMI resulted in significant reductions across all treatment intervals with an overall 57% reduction in D2B time, and an absolute reduction in mean D2B time of 71 min. There were no differences pre- and post-program implementation in regard to individual or composite components of in-hospital cardiovascular outcomes; however at 6 months, there was a reduction in cardiovascular rehospitalization after program implementation (30 vs. 5%, P < 0.01). The IHIT program resulted in a significant reduction in length-of-stay (LOS) (90 ± 102 vs. 197 ± 303 hr, P = 0.02), and critical care time (54 ± 97 vs. 149 ± 299 hr, P = 0.02)., Conclusions: Availability of an in-house 24-hr STEMI team significantly decreased reperfusion time and led to improved clinical outcomes and a shorter LOS for PCI-treated STEMI patients., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

In spite of the problems we have encountered in combining adolescent medical and psychiatric patients, we have found this to be a workable model. In summary, several areas are important in making this model functional: staff interest in both medical and psychiatric patients, in-service programs particularly in psychiatry, and open communication between health care givers. Certainly one of the most positive aspects of this unit is that it provides an environment which allows for easier adjustment to the community after hospitalization. Avoidance of such terms as "mental hospital," "crazy person" is less traumatic to the adolescent patient and his family.