[Multivariate saturation treatment for pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms with liver metastasis]

Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (pNENs) are relatively rare clinical diseases, accounting for about 4%-5% of all primary pancreatic tumors, and 60% of patients had had distant metastases when pNENs were diagnosed, with liver being the most frequently involved metastatic organ. Currently, treatment options for pNENs with liver metastasis include surgery, local embolization and ablation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy represented by everolimus and bevacizumab, somatostatin receptor therapy and immunotherapy. However, how to accurately evaluate the condition of patients at different stages of the disease, choose the above-mentioned treatment methods and optimize the treatment effect is a hot and difficult research topic. As a new tumor treatment concept in the era of intelligent medicine recently proposed by the author, the concept of multivariate saturation treatment used artificial intelligence technology to integrate existing tumor treatment methods, combined with the individual heterogeneity of patients; used the deep learning technology of artificial intelligence to accurately assess disease stages and predict the possible response of the corresponding treatment; used the robotic surgery platform to adopt the most suitable surgical method for the patient, which was dynamically adjusted at different stages of tumor treatment to maximize and optimize the treatment effect. Multivariate saturation treatment can provide the possibility to achieve the optimal prognosis of the patient.

[Fitting and predicting trend of COVID-19 by SVEPIUHDR dynamic model]

Objective: To fit and predict the trend of COVID-19 epidemics in the United States (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK), and analyze the effect of vaccination. Methods: Based on the SEIR dynamic model, considering the presymptomatic infections, isolation measures, vaccine vaccination coverage, etc., we developed a SEIR with vaccine inoculation, Presymptomatic infectious, unconfirmed infectious, hospital isolation and domiciliary isolation dynamics model. The publicly released incidence data of COVID-19 from November 6, 2020 to January 31, 2021 in USA and from November 23, 2020 to January 31, 2021 in UK were used to fit the model and the publicly released incidence data of COVID-19 from February 1, 2021 to April 1 were used to evaluate the predicting power of the model by software R 4.0.3 and predict changes in the daily new cases in the context of different vaccination coverage. Results: According to the cumulative confirmed cases, the fitting bias and the predicting bias of the SVEPIUHDR model for USA and UK were less than 5%, respectively. From the model prediction results, the cumulative cases after COVID-19 vaccination in USA in early April reached 31 864 970. If there had not had such vaccination, the cumulative cases of COVID-19 would have reached to 35 317 082, with a gap of more than 3.4 million cases. In UK, the cumulative cases of COVID-19 after the vaccination was estimated to be 4 195 538 in early April, compared with 4 268 786 cases if no COVID-19 vaccination had been provided, there would have heen a gap of more than 70 000 cases. Conclusion: SVEPIUHDR model shows a good prediction effect on the epidemic of COVID-19 in both USA and UK.

[Mn2+-doped Prussian blue nanoparticles for T1-T2 dual-mode magnetic resonance imaging and photothermal therapy in vitro]

OBJECTIVE

To prepare Mn²⁺-doped Prussian blue nanoparticles (Mn-PB NPs) for T1-T2 dual-mode magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and photothermal therapy in vitro.

OBJECTIVE

Mn-PB NPs were prepared based on manganese chloride, ferrous chloride and potassium ferricyanide using the microemulsion method. The performance of T1-T2 dual-mode MRI with Mn-PB NPs and the photothermal property of the nanoparticles were assessed. CCK-8 assay and AM/PI double staining were used to evaluate the effect of photothermal therapy in vitro using the parepared nanoparticles.

OBJECTIVE

The prepared Mn-PB NPs had a mean particle size of 39.46±0.42 nm with a Zeta potential of -25.9±1.2 mV and exhibited a good dispersibility and uniform particle size. In MRI using the nanoparticles, the r1 and r2 values reached 0.68 and 3.65 (mmol/L)^-1s^-1, respectively, indicating good performance of Mn-PB NPs for T1 and T2 enhancement in MRI. When irradiated with 808 nm laser for 10 min, Mn-PB NPs showed a temperature rise to 90 ℃ to cause significant reduction of cell survival. CCK-8 assay and AM/PI double staining confirmed that Mn-PB NPs were capable of efficient killing of HepG2 cells upon 808 nm laser irradiation.

OBJECTIVE

The Mn-PB NPs prepared in this work have uniform particle size and show good performances both in MRI for T1 and T2 enhancement and in photothermal therapy in vitro without obvious cytotoxicity.

Proteomics analysis of hip articular cartilage identifies differentially expressed proteins associated with osteonecrosis of the femoral head

OBJECTIVE

The cartilage degeneration that accompanies subchondral bone necrosis plays an important role in the development of osteonecrosis of femoral head (ONFH). To better understand the molecular basis of cartilage degradation in ONFH, we compared the proteomic profiles of ONFH cartilage with that of fracture control.

DESIGN

Hip cartilage samples were collected from 16 ONFH patients and 16 matched controls with femoral neck fracture. Proteomics analysis was conducted using tandem mass tag-based quantitation technique. Gene ontology (GO) analysis, KEGG pathway and protein-protein interaction analysis were used to investigate the functions of the altered proteins and biological pathways. Differentially expressed proteins including alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein (AHSG) and Cytokine-like protein 1 (Cytl1) were validated by Western blot (WB) and immunohistochemistry (IHC).

RESULTS

303 differentially expressed proteins were identified in ONFH cartilage with 72 up-regulated and 231 down-regulated. Collagen turnover, glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis, metabolic pathways, and complement and coagulation cascades were significantly modified in ONFH cartilage. WB and IHC confirmed the increased expression of AHSG and decreased expression of Cytl1 in ONFH cartilage.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results reveal the implication of altered protein expression in the development of ONFH, and provide novel clues for pathogenesis studies of cartilage degradation in ONFH.

Single-cell transcriptomics reveals the heterogeneity of the decidual endothelial cells that participate in labor onset

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the heterogeneity of decidual endothelial cells and their changes during delivery.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Single-cell RNA sequencing was used to characterize the transcriptomes of decidual endothelial cells before and after the onset of labor.

RESULTS

Decidual endothelial cells (9748 cells) were divided into five subgroups with different functions according to differences in the transcriptome. The functions of cluster 5 were enriched in vascular development and response to growth factors. After the onset of labor, the activities of each cluster were different, including the interleukin 17 pathway and regulation of ERK1 and ERK2 cascade. The downregulated genes were related to scavenger receptor (cluster 5), which may reflect the process of endothelial activation. In terms of genetic changes, cluster 5 may be more actively involved in labor than the other clusters.

CONCLUSIONS

Peripartum decidual endothelial cells are heterogeneous and participate in labor to varying degrees. One of the five subtypes of endothelial cells may be more actively involved in labor onset. Our findings may enable the assessment of decidual endothelial cells and labor onset.

[Endemic situation of schistosomiasis in national surveillance sites of Zhejiang Province from 2015 to 2019]

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the endemic situation of schistosomiasis in national surveillance sites of Zhejiang Province, so as to provide the scientific evidence for formulating the new schistosomiasis surveillance program and consolidating schistosomiasis elimination achievements.

METHODS

A total of 54 to 55 national surveillance sites and 6 risk monitoring sites were assigned in historical endemic regions of Zhejiang Province from 2015 to 2019, where the Schistosoma japonicum infections in humans, livestock, snails and wild feces were monitored. All data pertaining to the surveillance results were descriptively analyzed.

RESULTS

There were 34 530 person-time local residents receiving serological screening for S. japonicum infections in national surveillance sites of Zhejiang Province from 2015 to 2019, and the seroprevalance of S. japonicum infections were 0.29% to 0.68%; however, no egg-positives were detected. During the period from 2015 to 2019, there were 62 086 person-time mobile populations receiving serological screening for S. japonicum infections in national surveillance sites of Zhejiang Province, and the seroprevalance of S. japonicum infections were 0.32% to 0.56%; additionally, there were 27 egg-positives identified, including 3 imported cases with schistosomiasis haematobia and one case with acute schistosomiasis japonica, indicating that the adjusted prevalence of Schistosoma infections were 0.01% to 0.07% among mobile populations. A total of 829 livestock were examined for S. japonicum infections, with no positives detected. There were 10.55 hm² and 2.89 hm² snail habitats found in national surveillance sites and risk monitoring sites of Zhejiang Province during the 5-year period, respectively; however, no S. japonicum infections were identified in snails. Moreover, a total of 305 wild feces were tested for S. japonicum infections, and no egg-positives were identified.

CONCLUSIONS

The schistosomiasis elimination achievement have been consolidated in Zhejiang Province; however, the risk factors of re-emerging schistosomiasis have not been completely eliminated, such as residual snails and imported schistosomiasis cases. Further surveillance and control activities of snails and the source of S. japonicum infections should be reinforced.

Accurate diagnosis of colorectal cancer based on histopathology images using artificial intelligence

BACKGROUND

Accurate and robust pathological image analysis for colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnosis is time-consuming and knowledge-intensive, but is essential for CRC patients' treatment. The current heavy workload of pathologists in clinics/hospitals may easily lead to unconscious misdiagnosis of CRC based on daily image analyses.

METHODS

Based on a state-of-the-art transfer-learned deep convolutional neural network in artificial intelligence (AI), we proposed a novel patch aggregation strategy for clinic CRC diagnosis using weakly labeled pathological whole-slide image (WSI) patches. This approach was trained and validated using an unprecedented and enormously large number of 170,099 patches, > 14,680 WSIs, from > 9631 subjects that covered diverse and representative clinical cases from multi-independent-sources across China, the USA, and Germany.

RESULTS

Our innovative AI tool consistently and nearly perfectly agreed with (average Kappa statistic 0.896) and even often better than most of the experienced expert pathologists when tested in diagnosing CRC WSIs from multicenters. The average area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) of AI was greater than that of the pathologists (0.988 vs 0.970) and achieved the best performance among the application of other AI methods to CRC diagnosis. Our AI-generated heatmap highlights the image regions of cancer tissue/cells.

CONCLUSIONS

This first-ever generalizable AI system can handle large amounts of WSIs consistently and robustly without potential bias due to fatigue commonly experienced by clinical pathologists. It will drastically alleviate the heavy clinical burden of daily pathology diagnosis and improve the treatment for CRC patients. This tool is generalizable to other cancer diagnosis based on image recognition.

Peripheral blood T-cell receptor repertoire as a predictor of clinical outcomes in gastrointestinal cancer patients treated with PD-1 inhibitor

BACKGROUND

Identifying valid biomarkers for patient selection impressively promotes the success of anti-PD-1 therapy. However, the unmet need for biomarkers in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers remains significant. We aimed to explore the predictive value of the circulating T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire for clinical outcomes in GI cancers who received anti-PD-1 therapy.

METHODS

137 pre- and 79 post-treated peripheral blood samples were included. The TCR repertoire was evaluated by sequencing of complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) in the TRB gene. The Shannon index was used to measure the diversity of the TCR repertoire, and Morisita's overlap index was used to determine TCR repertoire similarities between pre- and post-treated samples.

RESULTS

Among all enrolled patients, 76 received anti-PD-1 monotherapy and 61 received anti-PD-1 combination therapy. In the anti-PD-1 monotherapy cohort, patients with higher baseline TCR diversity exhibited a significantly higher disease control rate (77.8% vs. 47.2%; hazard ratio [HR] 3.92; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14-13.48; P = 0.030) and a longer progression-free survival (PFS) (median: 6.47 months vs. 2.77 months; HR 2.10; 95% CI 1.16-3.79; P = 0.014) and overall survival (OS) (median: NA vs. 8.97 months; HR 3.53; 95% CI 1.49-8.38; P = 0.004) than those with lower diversity. Moreover, patients with a higher TCR repertoire similarity still showed a superior PFS (4.43 months vs. 1.84 months; HR 13.98; 95% CI 4.37-44.68; P < 0.001) and OS (13.40 months vs. 6.12 months; HR 2.93; 95% CI 1.22-7.03; P = 0.016) even in the cohort with lower baseline diversity. However, neither biomarker showed predictive value in the anti-PD-1 combination therapy cohort. Interestingly, the combination of TCR diversity and PD-L1 expression can facilitate patient stratification in a pooled cohort.

CONCLUSION

The circulating TCR repertoire can serve as a predictor of clinical outcomes in anti-PD-1 therapy in GI cancers.

Serum metabolic markers and metabolic pathways in rats with metabolomic cecal ligation and puncture-induced sepsis

The aim of this study was to explore the dynamic changes in characteristic serum metabolic markers and pathways during early sepsis in rats. By using cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), we made rat models of sepsis, which were randomly divided into 5 groups with 10 rats in each group: group A, group B, group C, group D, and group E. We collected 2 mL of arterial blood at 0, 6, 12, 24, and 48 hours from rats in group A-E respectively and isolated serum via centrifugation. Next, adopting metabolomics analysis methods, we screened for metabolites from the animal serum with statistically and biologically significant abundance changes, and used the KEGG database to analyze the respective metabolic pathways. In all, our findings reveal that D-glucosamine 6-phosphate, D-glucosamine phosphate, α-D-glucosamine 1-phosphate, D-glucosamine 1-phosphate, and 5-hydroxy isocyanate decline continuously from 12 hours, while L-phenylalanine, (S) -α-amino-β-phenylpropionic acid, 5-methoxy indole acetic acid salt, 5-methoxy indole acetic acid, goose deoxyglycolic acid salt, goose deoxyglycolic acid, and Chen's deoxygenated sugar alcohol started to decrease from 6 hours. Additionally, 3.2,3-Bis-O-(geranyl geranyl)-sn-glycerol- 1-phosphoric acid-L-serine levels rose continuously from 12 hours. We found 13 differentially regulated ions, primarily ones involved in pathways responsible for the metabolism of sugar, amino acids, and lipids, which are related to the disorder of energy metabolism. Our findings mark serum-derived D-glucosamine and its phosphorous derivatives as characteristic metabolic markers of sepsis in rats.

Losartan promotes myocardial apoptosis after acute myocardial infarction in rats through inhibiting Ang II-induced JAK/STAT pathway

OBJECTIVE

To study the pro-apoptotic effect of Losartan on myocardial cells after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in rats.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Before intervention, a total of 48 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into the Sham group (n=12), AMI group (n=12), 5 mg/kg Losartan group (n=12) and 1 mg/kg AG-490 group (n=12). The rats in the Sham group and AMI group received gavage with normal saline, those in the Losartan group received gavage with Losartan for 7 d and those in the AG-490 group were intravenously injected with AG-490 at 30 min before the operation. At 4 d after drug administration, the anterior descending coronary artery was ligated to establish the AMI model in the AMI group and Losartan group, while the same operation was performed, and the anterior descending coronary artery was only threaded in the Sham group. The rats were sacrificed at 24 h after operation. Then, the myocardial apoptosis was detected via terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, and the protein expressions of Janus kinase 2 (JAK2), the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), the B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) and the Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax) were detected via immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Moreover, the myocardial cells of rats were incubated with angiotensin II (Ang II) at the same concentration at different time points and blocked with Losartan. Finally, the changes in protein expressions of p-JAK2, p-STAT3, Bax, and Bcl-2 were detected via Western blotting.

RESULTS

Losartan treatment could increase the number of apoptotic myocardial cells after AMI in rats. In Losartan group, the protein expressions of JAK2, STAT3, and Bcl-2 declined, while the protein expression of Bax was increased, and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was also increased, which are consistent with the conditions under the treatment with the JAK-STAT pathway inhibitor AG-490. With the prolonged time of stimulation (5 min, 30 min, 2 h, and 24 h) in myocardial cells using 1.0×10-6 mol/L Ang II, the protein expressions of p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 were increased and reached the peak at 24 h. After the application of Losartan, the increased protein expressions of p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 returned to normal levels, and the protein expression of Bax was increased, while that of Bcl-2 was decreased.

CONCLUSIONS

Losartan promotes myocardial apoptosis after AMI in the rats through inhibiting the Ang II-induced JAK/STAT pathway.

[Multimodality navigation for liver resection of complicated alveolar echinococcosis]

Objective: To investigate the clinical application of multimodality navigation for liver resection in the treatment of complicated alveolar echinococcosis (AE). Methods: From October 2019 to February 2020, the clinical data and perioperative results of patients with AE treated by surgery in our department were retrospectively studied. Hepatic parenchyma disconnection plane and liver resection were navigated and performed with three-dimensional reconstruction and HITACHI real-time multi-image fusion interventional navigation system (RVS). Results: All of six patients were successful performed radical liver resection without mortality. The operation time was (301±106)min and the median blood loss was 200 ml. Two patients needed blood transfusion intraoperative (33.33%). The postoperative hospital stay was (10.8±2.8) day, and the cost of hospitalization was (82 584±995.61) yuan. Clavien-Dindo grade Ⅲ complication occurred in one patient. Conclusions: Multimodality navigation might provide precise intraoperative navigation of the surgical plane and effectively assist liver resection for the treatment of complicated AE.