Stimulus responsive microcapsules and their aromatic applications

Fragrances and essential oils are promising for a wide range of applications due to their pleasant odors and diverse effects. However, direct addition to consumer products has the disadvantages of short retention time and easy deterioration of odor. At the same time, releasing a large amount of odor in a short time may be an unpleasant experience, which severely limits the practical application of aromatic substances. Microencapsulation perfectly solves these problems. Stimuli-responsive microcapsules, which combine environmental stimulation with microencapsulation, can not only effectively prevent the rapid decomposition and evaporation of aroma components, but also realize the "on-off" intelligent release of aroma substances to environmental changes, which have great promise in the field of fragrances. In this review, the application of stimuli-responsive microcapsules in fragrances is highlighted. Firstly, various encapsulation materials used to prepare stimuli-responsive aromatic microcapsules are described, mainly including some natural polymers, synthetic polymers, and inorganic materials. Subsequently, there is a detailed description of the common release mechanisms of stimuli-responsive aromatic microcapsules are described in detail. Finally, the application and future research directions are given for stimuli-responsive aromatic microcapsules in new textiles, food, paper, and leather.

Fibrinogen like protein-1 knockdown suppresses the proliferation and metastasis of TU-686 cells and sensitizes laryngeal cancer to LAG-3 blockade

OBJECTIVE

To detect the expression of fibrinogen like protein-1 (FGL-1) in laryngeal cancer and evaluate its effect on tumor proliferation, metastasis, and antitumor immunity.

METHODS

ELISA and immunohistochemistry were performed to detect FGL-1 expression in laryngeal cancer. The effects of FGL-1 knockdown on the proliferation, cell cycle progression, apoptosis, migration, and invasion of laryngeal cancer cells were evaluated by the CCK-8, colony formation, flow cytometry, Transwell migration, and western blot assays. We detected changes in tumorigenesis and drug response in vivo following FGL-1 knockdown as well as the effects of anti-LAG3 immunotherapy. Immunohistochemistry was performed to determine CD8 and LAG-3 expression in mouse tumor tissues.

RESULTS

FGL-1 was highly expressed in the plasma and tumor tissues of laryngeal cancer patients. FGL-1 knockdown suppressed the proliferation of TU-686 cells and inhibited the migration and invasion of laryngeal cancer by blocking epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Moreover, silencing FGL-1 inhibited tumorigenicity in vivo and synergized with anti-LAG3 immunotherapy.

CONCLUSIONS

We confirmed the high expression of FGL-1 in laryngeal cancer and identified FGL-1 as a potential marker for immunotherapy in laryngeal cancer.

Albumin binding revitalizes NQO1 bioactivatable drugs as novel therapeutics for pancreatic cancer

NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) is an enzyme significantly overexpressed in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumors compared to the associated normal tissues. NQO1 bioactivatable drugs, such as β-lapachone (β-lap), can be catalyzed to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) for direct tumor killing. However, the extremely narrow therapeutic window caused by methemoglobinemia and hemolytic anemia severely restricts its further clinical translation despite considerable efforts in the past 20 years. Previously, we demonstrated that albumin could be utilized to deliver cytotoxic drugs selectively into KRAS-mutant PDAC with a much expanded therapeutic window due to KRAS-enhanced macropinocytosis and reduced neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) expression in PDAC. Herein, we analyzed the expression patterns of albumin and FcRn across major organs in LSL-Kras^G12D/+;LSL-Trp53^R172H/+;Pdx-1-Cre (KPC) mice. The tumors were the predominant tissues with both elevated albumin and reduced FcRn expression, thus making them an ideal target for albumin-based drug delivery. Quantitative proteomics analysis of tissue samples from 5 human PDAC patients further confirmed the elevated albumin/FcRn ratio. Given such a compelling biological rationale, we designed a nanoparticle albumin-bound prodrug of β-lap, nab-(pro-β-lap), to achieve PDAC targeted delivery and expand the therapeutic window of β-lap. We found that nab-(pro-β-lap) uptake was profoundly enhanced by KRAS mutation. Compared to the solution formulation of the parent drug β-lap, nab-(pro-β-lap) showed enhanced safety due to much lower rates of methemoglobinemia and hemolytic anemia, which was confirmed both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, nab-(pro-β-lap) significantly inhibited tumor growth in subcutaneously implanted KPC xenografts and enhanced the pharmacodynamic endpoints (e.g., PARP1 hyperactivation, γ-H₂AX). Thus, nab-(pro-β-lap), with improved safety and antitumor efficacy, offers a drug delivery strategy with translational viability for β-lap in pancreatic cancer therapy.

[Outcomes at discharge of preterm infants born <34 weeks' gestation]

Objective: To investigate the incidence and trend of short-term outcomes among preterm infants born <34 weeks' gestation. Methods: A secondary analysis of data from the standardized database established by a multicenter cluster-randomized controlled study "reduction of infection in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) using the evidence-based practice for improving quality (REIN-EPIQ) study". This study was conducted in 25 tertiary NICU. A total of 27 192 infants with gestational age <34 weeks at birth and admitted to NICU within the first 7 days of life from May 2015 to April 2018 were enrolled. Infants with severe congenital malformation were excluded. Descriptive analyses were used to describe the mortality and major morbidities of preterm infants by gestational age groups and different admission year groups. Cochran-Armitage test and Jonckheere-Terpstra test were used to analyze the trend of incidences of mortality and morbidities in 3 study-years. Multiple Logistic regression model was constructed to analyze the differences of outcomes in 3 study-years adjusting for confounders. Results: A total of 27 192 preterm infants were enrolled with gestational age of (31.3±2.0) weeks at birth and weight of (1 617±415) g at birth. Overall, 9.5% (2 594/27 192) of infants were discharged against medical advice, and the overall mortality rate was 10.7% (2 907/27 192). Mortality for infants who received complete care was 4.7% (1 147/24 598), and mortality or any major morbidity was 26.2% (6 452/24 598). The incidences of moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia, sepsis, severe intraventricular hemorrhage or periventricular leukomalacia, proven necrotizing enterocolitis, and severe retinopathy of prematurity were 16.0% (4 342/27 192), 11.9% (3 225/27 192), 6.8% (1 641/24 206), 3.6% (939/25 762) and 1.5% (214/13 868), respectively. There was a decreasing of the overall mortality (P<0.001) during the 3 years. Also, the incidences for sepsis and severe retinopathy of prematurity both decreased (both P<0.001). However, there were no significant differences in the major morbidity in preterm infants who received complete care during the 3-year study period (P=0.230). After adjusting for confounders, infants admitted during the third study year showed significantly lower risk of overall mortality (adjust OR=0.62, 95%CI 0.55-0.69, P<0.001), mortality or major morbidity, moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia, sepsis and severe retinopathy of prematurity, compared to those admitted in the first study year (all P<0.05). Conclusions: From 2015 to 2018, the mortality and major morbidities among preterm infants in Chinese NICU decreased, but there is still space for further efforts. Further targeted quality improvement is needed to improve the overall outcome of preterm infants.

AKT/PACS2 Participates in Renal Vascular Hyperpermeability by Regulating Endothelial Fatty Acid Oxidation in Diabetic Mice

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that can cause many microvascular and macrovascular complications, including diabetic nephropathy. Endothelial cells exhibit phenotypic and metabolic diversity and are affected by metabolic disorders. Whether changes in endothelial cell metabolism affect vascular endothelial function in diabetic nephropathy remains unclear. In diabetic mice, increased renal microvascular permeability and fibrosis, as well as increased MAMs and PACS2 in renal endothelial cells, were observed. Mice lacking PACS2 improved vascular leakage and glomerulosclerosis under high fat diet. In vitro, PACS2 expression, VE-cadherin internalization, fibronectin production, and Smad-2 phosphorylation increased in HUVECs treated with high glucose and palmitic acid (HGHF). Pharmacological inhibition of AKT significantly reduced HGHF-induced upregulation of PACS2 and p-Smad2 expression. Blocking fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO) ameliorated the impaired barrier function mediated by HGHF. Further studies observed that HGHF induced decreased FAO, CPT1α expression, ATP production, and NADPH/NADP⁺ ratio in endothelial cells. However, these changes in fatty acid metabolism were rescued by silencing PACS2. In conclusion, PACS2 participates in renal vascular hyperpermeability and glomerulosclerosis by regulating the FAO of diabetic mice. Targeting PACS2 is potential new strategy for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy.

Correction: Functional drug carriers formed by RGD-modified β-CD-HPG for the delivery of docetaxel for targeted inhibition of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/D2RA02301F.].

Functional drug carriers formed by RGD-modified β-CD-HPG for the delivery of docetaxel for targeted inhibition of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

In this study, a drug delivery system was prepared by grafting the targeting molecule arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) onto hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG)-modified β-cyclodextrin (β-CD-HPG) for the targeted inhibition of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells. The obtained β-CD-HPG-RGD with a relatively small size and low surface charge delivered docetaxel (Doc) effectively and displayed a targeting effect to human NPC HNE-1 cells, as confirmed by confocal laser scanning microscopy and flow cytometry. The in vitro drug release analysis exhibited the controlled drug release kinetics of the β-CD-HPG-RGD/Doc nanomedicine. β-CD-HPG-RGD/Doc effectively inhibited the proliferation of HNE-1 cells and promoted apoptosis. Moreover, its biocompatibility in vitro and in vivo was assessed. The results indicate that the β-CD-HPG-RGD/Doc nanomedicine has potential application in NPC targeting therapy.

Predictors of Lung Adenocarcinoma With Leptomeningeal Metastases: A 2022 Targeted-Therapy-Assisted molGPA Model

Objective

To explore prognostic indicators of lung adenocarcinoma with leptomeningeal metastases (LM) and provide an updated graded prognostic assessment model integrated with molecular alterations (molGPA).

Methods

A cohort of 162 patients was enrolled from 202 patients with lung adenocarcinoma and LM. By randomly splitting data into the training (80%) and validation (20%) sets, the Cox regression and random survival forest methods were used on the training set to identify statistically significant variables and construct a prognostic model. The C-index of the model was calculated and compared with that of previous molGPA models.

Results

The Cox regression and random forest models both identified four variables, which included KPS, LANO neurological assessment, TKI therapy line, and controlled primary tumor, as statistically significant predictors. A novel targeted-therapy-assisted molGPA model (2022) using the above four prognostic factors was developed to predict LM of lung adenocarcinoma. The C-indices of this prognostic model in the training and validation sets were higher than those of the lung-molGPA (2017) and molGPA (2019) models.

Conclusions

The 2022 molGPA model, a substantial update of previous molGPA models with better prediction performance, may be useful in clinical decision making and stratification of future clinical trials.

S1PR2/RhoA/ROCK1 pathway promotes inflammatory bowel disease by inducing intestinal vascular endothelial barrier damage and M1 macrophage polarization

Vascular and immune dysfunctions are thought to be related to the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but behind this, the exact mechanism of mucosal vascular endothelial barrier dysfunction and macrophage phenotypic transition is not fully understood. Here, we explored the mechanistic role of sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 2 (S1PR2) and its downstream G protein RhoA/Rho kinase 1 (ROCK1) signaling pathway in the intestinal endothelial barrier damage and M1 macrophage polarization in IBD. We found that the expression of S1PR2 in intestinal mucosal vascular endothelial cells and macrophages of IBD patients and DSS-induced colitis mice as well as vascular endothelial cells and macrophages treated with LPS in vitro was significantly increased. Knocking down or pharmacologically inhibiting S1PR2 significantly downregulated the expression of RhoA and ROCK1 in vascular endothelial cells and macrophages. Furthermore, inhibition of S1PR2 and ROCK1 reversed the impaired vascular barrier function and M1 macrophage polarization in vivo and in vitro, while reducing ER stress in vascular endothelial cells and glycolysis in macrophages. In addition, inhibition of ER stress or glycolysis reversed LPS-induced impairment of vascular endothelial cell barrier function and M1 macrophage polarization. Collectively, our results indicate that the S1PR2/RhoA/ROCK1 signaling pathway may participate in the pathogenesis of IBD by regulating vascular endothelial barrier function and M1 macrophage polarization.

Etched-spiky Au@Ag plasmonic-superstructure monolayer films for triple amplification of surface-enhanced Raman scattering signals

Generally, a high quality surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate often requires a highly-tailorable electromagnetic (EM) field generated at nanoparticle (NP) surfaces by the regulation of the morphologies, components and roughness of NPs. However, most recent universal approaches are restricted to single components, and integrating these key factors into one system to achieve the theoretically maximum signal amplification is still challenging. Herein, we design a triple SERS signal amplification platform by the coordination of spiky Au NPs with rich-tip nanostructures, controllable silver nanoshell, as well as tailorable surface roughness into one nano-system. As a result, the theoretical electromagnetic field of the interfacial self-assembled 2D substrate can be improved by nearly 5 orders of magnitude, and the ideal tracing capability for the model SERS molecule can be achieved at levels of 5 × 10^-11 M. Finally, diverse analytes in pesticide residues, environmental pollutants as well as medically diagnose down to 10^-11 M and can be fingerprinted by the proposed SERS nano-platform. Our integrated triple amplification platform not only provides an effective SERS sensing strategy, but also makes it possible to simultaneously achieve high sensitivity, stability as well as universality into one plasmonic-based SERS sensing system.

Glucolipotoxicity induces endothelial cell dysfunction by activating autophagy and inhibiting autophagic flow

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to determine the role and mechanism of autophagy in endothelial cell dysfunction by glucolipotoxicity.

METHODS

Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were treated with high glucose and high palmitic acid. The number of autophagosomes was evaluated by monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The expression of autophagy-related proteins (LC3 and P62) was assessed by Western blotting. Capillary tube-like formation was evaluated on Matrigel. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was detected by DCFH-DA. Cell apoptosis was measured by Hoechst 33258 staining and flow cytometry. Phosphorylation of AMPK, mTOR, and ULK1 was also analyzed by Western blotting.

RESULTS

We found that glucolipotoxicity induced autophagy initiation and hindered autophagosomes degradation. Moreover, glucolipotoxicity increased the production of intracellular ROS, decreased the ability of tubular formation, and increased cell apoptosis. However, endothelial cell dysfunction was alleviated by 3-methyladenine, an early-stage autophagy inhibitor. Additionally, glucolipotoxicity promoted the phosphorylation of AMPK and ULK1 and inhibited the phosphorylation of mTOR.

CONCLUSIONS

Glucolipotoxicity initiates autophagy through the AMPK/mTOR/ULK1 signaling pathway and inhibits autophagic flow, leading to the accumulation of autophagosomes, thereby inducing apoptosis and impairing endothelial cell function.

Experimental Evidence of Intrinsic Current Generation by Turbulence in Stationary Tokamak Plasmas

High-β_{θe} (a ratio of the electron thermal pressure to the poloidal magnetic pressure) steady-state long-pulse plasmas with steep central electron temperature gradient are achieved in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak. An intrinsic current is observed to be modulated by turbulence driven by the electron temperature gradient. This turbulent current is generated in the countercurrent direction and can reach a maximum ratio of 25% of the bootstrap current. Gyrokinetic simulations and experimental observations indicate that the turbulence is the electron temperature gradient mode (ETG). The dominant mechanism for the turbulent current generation is due to the divergence of ETG-driven residual flux of current. Good agreement has been found between experiments and theory for the critical value of the electron temperature gradient triggering ETG and for the level of the turbulent current. The maximum values of turbulent current and electron temperature gradient lead to the destabilization of an m/n=1/1 kink mode, which by counteraction reduces the turbulence level (m and n are the poloidal and toroidal mode number, respectively). These observations suggest that the self-regulation system including turbulence, turbulent current, and kink mode is a contributing mechanism for sustaining the steady-state long-pulse high-β_{θe} regime.

Macropinocytic dextran facilitates KRAS-targeted delivery while reducing drug-induced tumor immunity depletion in pancreatic cancer

Background: Pancreatic cancer comprises not only cancer cells but also a collection of cross-talking noncancerous cells within tumor. Therefore, selective delivery of cytotoxic agents towards cancer cells and limiting the collateral damage to tumor suppressive benign cells, such as effector lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment, is of great value. Methods: Pancreatic cancer cells harbor oncogenic KRAS which induces a constitutively high level of macropinocytosis. Inspired by such uniquity, we sought to explore the targeting potential of dextran, a biomaterial presumed to be endocytosed in the macropinocytosis dependent manner. Cell entry preference, mechanism and subcellular sorting of dextran with different molecular weights were firstly examined. Triptolide (TP), a potent cytotoxin was then set as the model payload for dextran conjugation. KRAS selectivity and the therapeutic effects of dextran-conjugated TP were investigated via both in vitro cellular studies and in vivo tumor model assessment. Results: Dextran, with a specific molecular weight of 70 kDa rather than other weights, was identified as a robust KRAS-responsive intracellular delivery carrier with enhanced entry upon KRAS mutation. The 70 kDa dextran-conjugated TP (DEX-TP) displayed greater efficacy and cellular deposition efficiency towards KRAS mutant cells than KRAS wild-type cells. Treatment with DEX-TP suppressed tumor progression in KRAS mutant pancreatic cancer orthotopic mouse models with reduced toxicity and significantly extended mouse survival time. Furthermore, the conjugate attained a more favorable therapeutic outcome in the tumor immune microenvironment than the free drug, preserving the fraction of T cells and their effector cytokines. Conclusions: In summary, macropinocytic dextran was able to provide drug delivery selectivity towards KRAS mutant cancer cells and reduce tumor immunity depletion caused by the cytotoxic drug in pancreatic cancer.

Exploiting macropinocytosis for drug delivery into KRAS mutant cancer

KRAS mutations are one of the most common gene mutations linked to cancer, presenting in approximately 25% of all tumors, especially pancreatic, lung, and colorectal cancers. Mutant KRAS has long been considered an undruggable target, stalling progress in direct KRAS targeting for many years, while targeted drug delivery into KRAS mutant cells utilizing their transformed metabolic behavior might present an alternative opportunity. Macropinocytosis, a nonselective, fluid-phase, endocytic route, was found to be upregulated as a metabolic feature in KRAS-driven tumors and plays a critical role in nutrient acquisition from extracellular fluids. With the observation that a variety of drug delivery systems could be internalized by KRAS mutant cancer cells through macropinocytosis, exploiting macropinocytosis for intracellular delivery of therapeutics into KRAS mutant tumor cells is emerging as a new drug delivery expedition. In this article, we summarized cancer biology studies that examined KRAS mutation-induced macropinocytosis, reviewed recent studies exploiting macropinocytosis enhancement for KRAS mutant cancer cell-selective drug delivery, and discussed the potential opportunities, challenges and pitfalls of this strategy.

[Clinical and genetic features of seven children with MYH9-related disease]

Objective: To summarize and analyze of the clinical and genetic characteristics of children with nonmuscle myosin heavy chain 9 (MYH9)-related disease (MYH9-RD). Methods: To screen the patients who were first diagnosed as "chronic/refractory immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) " from April 2016 to May 2019 in Beijing Children's Hospital by genetic and clinical examinations, then the clinical manifestation, laboratory examination and genetics results of 7 children diagnosed with MYH9-RD were collected and summarized retrospectively. Results: Among 7 children diagnosed with MYH9-RD, 3 were males and 4 females. The age of onset was 1.25 (0.41-6.16) years. The course of disease was 2.16 (0.41-8.59) years. The automatic platelet count was (9 (5-30))×10⁹/L. All the cases were found with giant platelets under microscope,and the manual platelet count was (70 (30-100))×10⁹/L. Four cases had skin hemorrhage or epistaxis and 3 cases had no bleeding. All 7 patients had received first-or second-line therapy of ITP, of whom 1 case received splenic embolization, and all the treatments mentioned above were ineffective. Finally, it was confirmed that all 7 patients had heterozygous missense mutations of MYH9 gene by next generation sequencing (NGS), including 2 pedigrees and 5 sporadic cases. Four sporadic mutations occurred in N-terminal globular head domain (HD), and 1 sporadic case with p.D1424N mutations occurred in the C-terminal tail domain (TD). One of the pedigrees also had p.D1424N mutation. The other familial case had a novel variant with one missense variant p.A44D caused by the c.131C>A transition. One of the two p.R702 mutations had kidney damage, and several relatives of the new p.A44D mutations had deafness. Conclusions: In this study, the spontaneous mutations of seven MYH9-RD were common, and all patients were misdiagnosed as ITP, whereas the bleeding was mild and immunotherapy was ineffective. The suspected disease can be identified earlier by manual visual platelet volume and count, which can be confirmed by genetic testing. It is more important to monitor the development of other organs damage instead of thrombocytopenia. For cases with p.R702 mutations the doctor should be aware of kidney damage, and for the cases with novel mutations p.A44D the doctor should be aware of hearing loss.

Osimertinib Improves Overall Survival in Patients with Leptomeningeal Metastases Associated with EGFR-Mutated Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Regardless of Cerebrospinal Fluid T790M Mutational Status

Osimertinib has demonstrated promising efficacy against leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) associated with T790M-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the effect of cerebrospinal fluid's (CSF's) epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) T790M mutation on osimertinib efficacy remains unclear.Seventy-eight patients were studied with EGFR-mutated NSCLC and LM. Case data were collected and EGFR mutation status of circulating cell-free DNA from paired CSF, and plasma of 23 patients with LM was detected using droplet digital PCR. The median overall survival (mOS) was 8.08 months (95% CI: 6.07-10.09) in the study. Forty-four osimertinib-treated patients had an improved mOS of 13.15 (95% CI: 5.74-20.57) and a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 9.50 months (95% CI: 6.77-12.23) when compared with patients treated with first- or second-generation EGFR-TKI (mOS = 3.00 months (95% CI: 1.32-4.68) and median PFS = 1.50 months (95% CI: 0.00-3.14)). In the osimertinib group, mOS values for CSF with and without T790M mutation were 22.15 months (95% CI: 9.44-34.87) and 13.39 months (95% CI: 7.01-19.76), respectively, with no statistical differences. Regardless of the CSF T790M mutation status, osimertinib demonstrated significant efficacy against LM associated with NSCLC.

Opportunities and delusions regarding drug delivery targeting pancreatic cancer-associated fibroblasts

A dense desmoplastic stroma formed by abundant extracellular matrix and stromal cells, including cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and immune cells, is a feature of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), one of the most lethal cancer types. As the dominant cellular component of the PDAC stroma, CAFs orchestrate intensive and biologically diverse crosstalk with pancreatic cancer cells and immune cells and contribute to a unique PDAC tumor microenvironment promoting cancer proliferation, metastasis, and resistance against both chemo- and immunotherapies. Therefore, CAFs and CAF-related mechanisms have emerged as promising targets for PDAC therapy. However, several clinical setbacks and accumulating knowledge of the PDAC stroma have revealed the heterogeneity and multifaceted biological roles of CAFs, and concerns regarding "what to deliver" and "how to deliver" have arisen when designing CAF-targeted drug delivery systems to specifically inhibit tumor-supporting CAFs without impairing tumor-restricting CAFs. In this review, we will discuss the complexity of CAFs in the PDAC stroma as well as the potential opportunities and common misconceptions regarding drug delivery efforts targeting PDAC CAFs.

[Clinical features and prognosis of patients with leptomeningeal metastases]

Objective: To describe the clinical manifestations, neuroimaging, cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) cytology and prognosis of Leptomeningeal metastases(LM). Methods: The clinical manifestations, imaging features and CSF cytology of LM patients admitted to Henan Provincial People's Hospital from May 1, 2015 to May 31, 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The overall survival (OS) was evaluated by the time from the diagnosis of LM to death. Results: A total of 88 patients with LM were enrolled in the study, and the median age was 59 years (range:28-78 years). There were 42 males (47.7%) and 46 females (52.3%). According to the pathological classification, it was lung cancer in 58 cases (65.9%), gastric cancer in 13 cases (14.8%), breast cancer in 7 cases (8.0%), melanoma in 1 case, esophageal cancer in 1 case, gallbladder cancer in 1 case, renal cell carcinoma in 1 case, double source cancer in 2 cases, and unknown source in 4 cases. The median Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) score was 50. LM was the initial manifestation of cancer in 34 patients. All patients had LM-related clinical symptoms, including headache in 73 cases (83.0%), nausea and vomiting in 63 cases (71.6%), abnormal physical and mental behaviors in 37 cases (42.0%), seizure in 41 cases (46.6%). Cranial nerve involvement was observed in 23 patients (39.0%) and spinal nerve involvement in 20(33.9%). There were 61 patients (83.6%) who showed neuroimaging features of LM. Tumor cells or atypical cells were found in 90.8% of patients for the first time, and activated monocytes in 47 cases (54.7%). The median OS was 13.0 weeks (95%CI:2.9-23.1) with the 1-year survival rate of 19.1%. Univariate analysis of survival indicated that lung cancer, lower KPS score, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and whole brain radiotherapy were favorable predictors of survival (P<0.05). Conclusions: The overall prognosis of LM is poor. Good physical condition, TKIs treatment and whole brain radiotherapy might improve clinical outcomes of LM patients.

Synthesis of polystyrene-based fluorescent quantum dots nanolabel and its performance in H5N1 virus and SARS-CoV-2 antibody sensing

Quantum dots (QDs) based fluorescent nanobeads are considered as promising materials for next generation point-of-care diagnosis systems. In this study, we carried out, for the first time, the synthesis of QDs nanobeads using polystyrene (PS) nanobead as the template. QDs loading on PS nanobead surface in this method can be readily achieved by the use of polyelectrolyte, avoiding the time-consuming and uncontrollable silane reagents-involved functionalization procedure that conventional synthesis of silica-based QDs nanobeads often suffer from. Notably, the application of QDs nanobeads in suspension microarray for H5N1 virus detection leads to a sensitivity lower than 25 PFU/mL. In addition, QDs nanobead was also incorporated into lateral flow assay for SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection, leading to more than one order of magnitude detection sensitivity as compared to that of commercial one based on colloid gold.

Effects of Warm Ischemia Time, Cryopreservation, and Grinding Methods on RNA Quality of Mouse Kidney Tissues

Background: High-quality RNA extraction from tissue samples is of key importance for scientific research and translational medicine. Tissue collection and preparation may affect RNA quality. In this study, we investigated effects of warm ischemia time, cryopreservation, and grinding methods on RNA quality. Methods: Total RNA was extracted from mouse kidney tissues with warm ischemia times of 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. Half of the tissues were used to extract RNA immediately, while the others were cryopreserved in the vapor phase of liquid nitrogen for 6 months before RNA extraction. A mortar, homogenizer, and tissue lyser were used to grind tissues. RNA was extracted by TRIzol, and RNA integrity was assessed by the RNA integrity number (RIN) value. Results: For fresh tissues and frozen tissues with warm ischemia time within 60 minutes, RIN values were above 7.0 and remained above 6.0 with warm ischemia time within 120 minutes. For the same warm ischemia time, RIN values of frozen tissues were slightly lower than those of fresh tissues. No significant RIN value alterations were observed among grinding methods, but for RNA extraction efficiency, a mortar was much less efficient than the homogenizer or tissue lyser. For frozen tissues, RNA tended to degrade within 8 minutes at room temperature. Conclusions: Mouse kidney tissues with a warm ischemia time within 120 minutes are suitable for general RNA-related research. For tissues with a warm ischemia time within 60 minutes, cryopreservation may not affect RNA quality. The duration of frozen tissues held at room temperature before grinding affects the integrity of RNA, while grinding methods do not affect RNA integrity.

[Challenges and countermeasures of schistosomiasis control in Hunan Province in the new era]

This paper describes the current epidemic characteristics and endemic status of schistosomiasis, analyzes the main challenges of schistosomiasis control and proposes the emphasis and interventions for future schistosomiasis control activities in Hunan Province, so as to provide insights into the elimination of schistosomiasis in Hunan Province.