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Circulating biomarkers play important roles in diagnosis of malignant tumors. N-glycosylation is an important post-translation patter and obviously affect biological behaviors of malignant tumor cells. However, the role of N-glycosylation sites in early diagnosis of tumors still remains further investigation. In this study, plasma from 20 lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), which were all classified as stage I, as well as 20 normal controls (NL) were labeled and screened by mass spectrometry (MS). Total 39 differential N-glycosylation sites were detected in LUAD, 17 were up-regulated and 22 were down-regulated. In all differential sites, ITGB3-680 showed highest potential in LUAD which showed 99.2% AUC, 95.0% SP and 95.0% SN. Besides, APOB-1523 (AUC: 89.0%, SP: 95.0%, SN: 70.0%), APOB-2982 (AUC: 86.8%, SP: 95.0%, SN: 45.0%) and LPAL2-101 (AUC: 81.1%, SP: 95.0%, SN: 47.4%) also acted as candidate biomarkers in LUAD. Combination analysis was then performed by random forest model, all samples were divided into training group (16 cases) and testing group (4 cases) and conducted by feature selection, machine learning, integrated model of classifier and model evaluation. And the results indicated that combination of differential sites could reach 100% AUC in both training and testing group. Taken together, our study revealed multiple N-glycosylation sites which could be applied as candidate biomarkers for early diagnosis diagnosis of LUAD.

Pleural effusion is a common clinical condition caused by several respiratory diseases, including tuberculosis and malignancy. However, rapid and accurate diagnoses of tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE) and malignant pleural effusion (MPE) remain challenging. Although monocytes have been confirmed as an important immune cell in tuberculosis and malignancy, little is known about the role of monocytes subpopulations in the diagnosis of pleural effusion.Pleural effusion samples and peripheral blood samples were collected from 40 TPE patients, 40 MPE patients, and 24 transudate pleural effusion patients, respectively. Chemokines (CCL2, CCL7, and CX3CL1) and cytokines (IL-1β, IL-17, IL-27, and IFN-γ) were measured by ELISA. The monocytes phenotypes were analyzed by flow cytometry. The chemokines receptors (CCR2 and CX3CR1) and cytokines above in different monocytes subsets were analyzed by real-time PCR. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed for displaying differentiating power of intermediate and nonclassical subsets between tuberculous and malignant pleural effusions.CCL7 and CX3CL1 levels in TPE were significantly elevated in TPE compared with MPE and transudate pleural effusion. Cytokines, such as IL-1β, IL-17, IL-27, and IFN-γ, in TPE were much higher than in other pleural effusions. Moreover, CD14CD14 and CD16 markers on monocytes could be potentially used as novel diagnostic markers for diagnosing TPE and MPE.

Monocytes are involved in the pathogenesis of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). Monocyte/macrophages are the dominant infiltrating cells in the glomeruli of patients with myeloperoxidase-AAV (MPO-AAV). However, how human monocyte subsets extravasate to the kidney in MPO-AAV with renal damage is unclear.30 MPO-AAV patients with renal damage and 22 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Monocyte subsets and monocyte-related chemokines in the blood and kidneys of MPO-AAV patients were detected. The chemoattractant activity of the CX3CL1-CX3CR1 axis on CD16Compared with controls, CD16Enhanced extravasation of CD16

The association of bronchiectasis with myeloperoxidase (MPO) antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (MPO-AAV) has been widely described in recent studies. However, the clinical features and outcomes of MPO-ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis (MPO-ANCA GN) patients with bronchiectasis remain enigmatic.MPO-ANCA GN patients with bronchiectasis were compared to MPO-ANCA GN patients alone. Clinical imaging, pathological tests, and follow-up examination data of patients were collected retrospectively. Progression to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and death was treated as endpoint events.153 cases (52 patients with bronchiectasis) were included in this study. Compared to MPO-ANCA GN patients alone, MPO-ANCA GN patients with bronchiectasis exhibited a lower level of proteinuria (p = 0.019) and relatively higher eGFR level. MPO-ANCA GN patients with bronchiectasis had less frequent incidences of interstitial lung disease (ILD) and emphysema (p0.001, p = 0.016, respectively) but with higher rates of pulmonary infection (p0.001). Bronchiectasis severity (the modified Reiff score) was positively correlated with MPO antibody titers (ρ=0.480, p0.001), but not with shorter renal survival. A relatively higher remission rate was been seen in MPO-ANCA GN patients with bronchiectasis, who showed reduced susceptibility in progressing to ESRD in multivariate analysis (p = 0.043, HR=0.542, 95% CI 0.299-0.982). One-and three-year overall survival rates were 88.2% and 77.3% for MPO-ANCA GN with bronchiectasis cases versus 83.7% and 67.2% for MPO-ANCA GN patients alone (p = 0.431, p = 0.241, respectively).The severity of bronchiectasis was correlated with anti-MPO antibody titers in MPO-ANCA GN patients. For MPO-ANCA GN patients, bronchiectasis associated with good renal prognosis, but it did not improve overall survival.

This paper is devoted to a study of observability estimate for the wave equation with variable coefficients $(h^{jk}(x))_{n\times n}$ ($n\in\mathbb{N})$. We consider both the observation point lies outside the domain and the observation point lies inside the domain. Based on a Carleman estimate for the ultra-hyperbolic operator and a delicate treatment of observation region, we obtain two observability estimates with explicit observability constants. The key improvements are: (1) we improve the requirement of waiting time $T$; (2) we improve the size of the observation region (see Fingure 1 and Fingure 2 for the case of $(h^{jk}(x))_{n\times n}=I_n)$ .

BackgroundEffector memory T cells are pivotal effectors of adaptive immunity with enhanced migration characteristics and are involved in the pathogenesis of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). The diversity of effector memory T cells in chemokine receptor expression has been well studied in proteinase 3 (PR3)-AAV. However, few studies have been conducted in myeloperoxidase (MPO)-AAV. Here, we characterized chemokine receptor expression on effector memory T cells from patients with active MPO-AAV.MethodsClinical data from newly diagnosed MPO-AAV patients and healthy subjects were collected and analyzed. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from patients with active MPO-AAV were analyzed by flow cytometry. The production of effector memory T cell-related chemokines in serum was assessed by ELISA.ResultsWe observed decreased percentages of CD4+and CD8+T cells in the peripheral blood, accompanied by a significant decrease in CCR6-expressing T cells but an increase in CXCR3+T cells, in active MPO-AAV. Furthermore, the decrease in CCR6 and increase in CXCR3 expression were mainly limited to effector memory T cells. Consistent with this finding, the serum level of CCL20 was increased. In addition, a decreasing trend in the TEM17 cell frequency, with concomitant increases in the frequencies of CD4+TEM1 and CD4+TEM17.1 cells, was observed when T cell functional subsets were defined by chemokine receptor expression. Moreover, the proportions of peripheral CD8+T cells and CD4+TEMsubsets were correlated with renal prognosis and inflammatory markers.ConclusionsOur data indicate that dysregulated chemokine receptor expression on CD4+and CD8+effector memory T cells and aberrant distribution of functional CD4+T cell subsets in patients with active MPO-AAV have critical roles related to kidney survival.

Background Effector memory T cells are pivotal effectors of adaptive immunity with enhanced migration characteristics and are involved in the pathogenesis of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). The diversity of effector memory T cells in chemokine receptor expression has been well studied in proteinase 3 (PR3)-AAV. However, few studies have been conducted in myeloperoxidase (MPO)-AAV. Here, we characterized chemokine receptor expression on effector memory T cells from patients with active MPO-AAV. Methods Clinical data from newly diagnosed MPO-AAV patients and healthy subjects were collected and analyzed. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from patients with active MPO-AAV were analyzed by flow cytometry. The production of effector memory T cell-related chemokines in serum was assessed by ELISA. Results We observed decreased percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in the peripheral blood, accompanied by a significant decrease in CCR6-expressing T cells but an increase in CXCR3+ T cells, in active MPO-AAV. Furthermore, the decrease in CCR6 and increase in CXCR3 expression were mainly limited to effector memory T cells. Consistent with this finding, the serum level of CCL20 was increased. In addition, a decreasing trend in the TEM17 cell frequency, with concomitant increases in the frequencies of CD4+ TEM1 and CD4+ TEM17.1 cells, was observed when T cell functional subsets were defined by chemokine receptor expression. Moreover, the proportions of peripheral CD8+ T cells and CD4+ TEM subsets were correlated with renal prognosis and inflammatory markers. Conclusions Our data indicate that dysregulated chemokine receptor expression on CD4+ and CD8+ effector memory T cells and aberrant distribution of functional CD4+ T cell subsets in patients with active MPO-AAV have critical roles related to kidney survival.

Human pose estimation is a fundamental yet challenging task in computer vision. Human pose estimation from a single image is a challenging problem due to the limited information of 2D images and the large variations in configuration and appearance of body parts. Recent works has largely improved the result of human pose estimation because of the development of convolutional neural network. However, there still exists many difficult cases, such as occluded keypoints, complex background and scale variations of human body keypoints, which cannot be well dealt with. In this paper, we design a novel scale-aware network with attentional selection that extracts multi-scale semantic information and meaningful features. Specifically, we propose a Feature Pyramid Supervision Module (FPSM), which can improve the estimation accuracy of scale variations. Meanwhile, a Spatial and Channel Attention Module (SCAM) is designed for recalibrating the spatial and channel features. Based on the proposed algorithm, we achieve state-of-the-art result on LSP dataset and make competitive performance on MPII Human Pose dataset.

In this paper, we prove an optimal three-ball inequality for bi-Laplace equation in some open, connected set. The derivation of such estimate relies on a delicate Carleman estimate for the bi-Laplace equation and some Caccioppoli inequalities to estimate the lower-ters. Based on three -ball inequality, we then derive the vanishing order of solutions, which is a quantitative version of the strong unique continuation property.

CD4+ T cells are involved in the pathogenesis of immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN); T helper (Th) 1, Th17 and Th22 cells promote the occurrence and amplification of inflammatory reactions, while regulatory T (Treg) cells produce the opposite effects. However, whether Th9 cells, a subset of CD4+ T cells, participate in IgAN development is still unknown. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from IgAN patients for Th9 cells detection by flow cytometry. Wild-type (WT) mouse was used to establish an IgAN mouse model while C3aR and C5aR inhibitor treated IgAN mouse. Kidney disease and function was assessed by histology and albumin-to-creatinine ratio. C3aR and C5aR expression was examined by immunohistochemical (IHC) assay. Th9 cell proportions in the blood of IgAN mouse was detected. C3a, C5a and interleukin (IL)-9 levels were tested by ELISA. Moreover, co-culture system between human mesangial cells (HMCs) and CD4+ T cells were constructed with or without C3a, C5a and anti-CCL20 mAb stimulation for transwell assay to examine Th9 cell chemotaxis. We observed the numbers of Th9 cell and the levels of IL-9 were increased in IgAN patients and IgAN mice. Furthermore, C3a and C5a level in serum and kidney, C3aR and C5aR expression was increased in IgAN mice compared to WT mice. Most interestingly, C3aR and C5aR inhibitor could reduce kidney damage, Th9 cell numbers and IL-9 levels. We also observed that C3a and C5a enhanced CCL20 production in HMCs. Notably, C3a and C5a also increased the recruitment of Th9 cells and IL-9 levels by HMCs through enhancing the CCL20-CCR6 pathway. Our results support that C3a and C5a increase the production of CCL20 by HMCs and consequently augment Th9 cell recruitment and IL-9 levels, resulting in IgAN exacerbation.

Spatial and temporal fluctuations in the availability of food resources can affect adaptive foraging strategies substantially, with the potential to promote temporal dietary switching and specialisation among generalist carnivores. To understand this relationship better at the causal level, we examined spatial and temporal variation in diet composition and diversity in the hitherto little-known hog badger (Arctonyx collaris), in comparison to the environmental abundance of principal food resources, in a subtropical forest of central China. Here, hog badgers fed predominantly on earthworms and fruits, complemented with arthropod imagoes and invertebrate larvae, whereas vertebrate prey categories (mammals, birds and reptiles) were consumed infrequently. We observed strong seasonal variation in the consumption of different food categories. Earthworms predominated during spring, fruits in autumn, and earthworms, complemented by arthropods, in summer, with hog badgers apparently hibernating in winter. Fluctuation in dietary preferences between seasons and habitats correlated only partially with environmental food abundance; in autumn, when fruit abundance peaked, and despite a concomitant peak in earthworm abundance, hog badgers exhibited a dietary shift, indicating a preference for fruit, over earthworms. This resulted in autumnal minima in seasonal food niche breadth and evenness values. We conclude that, in this region, hog badgers exhibited a generalist diet but switched between food categories in response to changes in environmental seasonal abundance.