Causal role of immune cells in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Mendelian randomization study

OBJECTIVES

Innate and adaptive immunity play different roles in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, previous studies on the relationship between immune cells and COPD reported inconsistent results.

METHODS

The causal connection between 731 immune cells and COPD was established using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis through publicly accessible genetic data. The heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropism of the findings were confirmed using sensitivity analysis.

RESULTS

In the B-cell panel, B-cell activating factor receptor (BAFF-R) on CD20- and CD20 on IgD-CD38bright (OR (95% CI): 0.93 (0.88, 0.99) and 0.97 (0.95, 0.98), respectively) were discovered to be protective. In the cDC panel, CD62L- plasmacytoid DC AC, CD80 on monocytes and CD11c on myeloid DCs (OR (95% CI): 0.94 (0.92, 0.97), 0.97 (0.94, 0.99) and (0.97 (0.95, 0.98), respectively) exerted protective effects. However, unswitched memory AC (OR (95%CI): 1.08 (1.01,1.15)) and CD 19 on IgD- CD 27- (OR (95%CI): 1.06 (1.02,1.10)) were hazardous in the B-cell panel. However, among the 731 immune cell phenotypes, no causal relationship was found for COPD on immune cells.

CONCLUSION

This study found a potential causal relationship between immune cells in COPD, ruling out reverse causation. This study provides new avenues for studying the mechanisms of COPD.

Associations between mixed exposure to phthalates and latent tuberculosis infection among the general U.S. population from NHANES 2011-2012

Background

People are constantly exposed to phthalates, but few reliable studies have focused on the connection between phthalate exposure and latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI).

Methods

Data were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database (2011-2012). The LTBI was assessed by QuantiFERON®-TB Gold-In-Tube (QFT) or tuberculin skin testing (TST). The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) per log10 unit change in the concentration of phthalate metabolites were calculated using crude and adjusted logistic regression models. The relationships between mixed phthalate concentrations and LTBI were assessed using Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models.

Results

According to the results of the multivariable logistic regression, in a fully adjusted model, only monobenzyl phthalate (MBZP) was negatively associated with LTBI in Q3 (OR (95% CI): 0.485 (0.286,0.823), P = 0.007). According to the restricted cubic spline (RCS) model, there was a linear dose‒response association between all 11 phthalate metabolites and LTBI (p for nonlinearity >0.05). We found a significant positive correlation between mixed phthalate metabolites and LTBI by using fully adjusted BKMR model.

Conclusions

Our analysis demonstrated that LTBI in the general U.S. population is linearly linked with exposure to single or combined phthalates.

High risks adverse events associated with usage of aspirin in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

BACKGROUND

Despite potential benefits and widespread prescription of aspirin among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, limited research has investigated its adverse effects (AEs) in COPD population.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective analysis of adverse drug events (ADEs) reported in the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) between Q1 2013 and Q2 2022. COPD patients were categorized into two groups based on aspirin use. ADEs related to aspirin use were identified using combined reporting odds ratio (ROR), proportional reporting ratio (PRR), information component (IC) methods.

RESULTS

A total of 56,660 ADEs reports associated with COPD patients were included in the study. Among these reports, 144 adverse events were linked to aspirin use in COPD patients, including fatigue (4.12%), diarrhea (3.13%), dyspnea exertional (2.03%), rhinorrhea (1.99%), weight increased (1.89%) and vomiting (1.84%), muscle spasms (1.79%), cardiac disorder (1.74%), heart rate increased (1.69%) and peripheral swelling (1.59%). Subgroup analysis indicates that age and gender might affect the AEs frequency in COPD patients using aspirin.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings identify 10 most frequently reported ADEs associated with aspirin use in COPD patients, thus offer valuable insights into the AEs of aspirin for safer clinical utilization in COPD management.

Association between depression and COPD: results from the NHANES 2013-2018 and a bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis

BACKGROUND

Observational studies showed a bidirectional association between depression and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, it is unclear whether the observed association is causal. Thus we estimated the relationship using observational studies combined with bidirectional Mendelian randomization [MR].

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study included 9977 participants from the 2013-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and used weighted logistic regression analysis to assess the association between depression and COPD, followed by a bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis to verify their causality.

RESULTS

Adjusted-weighted logistic regression in observational studies showed a significant association between COPD and mild depression (OR (95% CI): 1.81 (1.30, 2.52), P = 0.002) and COPD and depression (OR (95% CI): 1.93 (1.49, 2.50), P < 0.001). MR suggested depression may play a causal role in COPD risk (OR (95% CI): 1.45 (1.32, 1.60), P < 0.001), but more evidence for reverse causation is lacking (reverse MR OR (95% CI): 1.03 (0.99, 1.07), P = 0.151).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, our study found depression may play a potential causal role in the morbidity of COPD suggesting depression might be the etiology of COPD. This finding needs to be validated in further prospective cohort studies with large sample sizes and adequate follow-up time.

Identification of potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) based on TMT-labeled LC-MS/MS and machine learning

OBJECTIVES

To explore the molecular mechanisms underlying aggressive progression of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma and identify potential biomarkers.

METHODS

Samples were collected and sequenced using tandem mass tag-labeled liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified and further analyzed using Mfuzz and protein-protein interaction analysis (PPI). Parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were performed to validate the DEPs.

RESULTS

Five thousand, two hundred and three DEPs were identified and quantified from the tumor/normal comparison group or the N1/N0 comparison group. Mfuzz analysis showed that clusters of DEPs were enriched according to progressive status, followed by normal tissue, tumors without lymphatic metastases, and tumors with lymphatic metastases. Analysis of PPI revealed that DEPs interacted with and were enriched in the following metabolic pathways: apoptosis, tricarboxylic acid cycle, PI3K-Akt pathway, cholesterol metabolism, pyruvate metabolism, and thyroid hormone synthesis. In addition, 18 of the 20 target proteins were successfully validated with PRM and IHC in another 20 paired validation samples. Based on machine learning, the five proteins that showed the best performance in discriminating between tumor and normal nodules were PDLIM4, ANXA1, PKM, NPC2, and LMNA. FN1 performed well in discriminating between patients with lymph node metastases (N1) and N0 with an AUC of 0.690. Finally, five validated DEPs showed a potential prognostic role after examining The Cancer Genome Atlas database: FN1, IDH2, VDAC1, FABP4, and TG. Accordingly, a nomogram was constructed whose concordance index was 0.685 (confidence interval: 0.645-0.726).

CONCLUSIONS

PDLIM4, ANXA1, PKM, NPC2, LMNA, and FN1 are potential diagnostic biomarkers. The five-protein nomogram could be a prognostic biomarker.

[Simultaneous combined radical surgery for hepatic and renal alveolar echinococcosis: an analysis of 10 clinical cases]

Objective: To examine the feasibility, safety and efficacy of simultaneous combined radical surgery for hepatic and renal alveolar echinococcosis (AE). Methods: Clinical dates of consecutive 10 hepatic and renal AE patients who accepted surgical treatment in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University during April 2013 to September 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. There were 8 males and 2 females, aged (42.5±10.3) years (range: 27 to 52 years). Seven of them had previously palliative surgical treatment with poor compliance to post-operative medication. All of the patients had hepatic-renal combined AE lesions, and two of them had left lateral and left renal lesions for each, which sized for (726.4±576.1)cm³ (range: 117.0 to 1 998.0 cm³). Extra-hepatic or renal lesions infiltrated to right diaphragm, inferior vena cava, right adrenal gland, abdominal wall, right psoas muscle, duodenum wall and right pulmonary lobe (respectively were 7, 7, 6, 2, 1, 1, 2 cases). Surgery were performed mainly with simultaneous combined surgery and vascular reconstruction techniques for this series. Hemi-hepatectomy or extended right lobectomy was applied in 8 patients, while 2 other patients received ex vivo liver resection and autotransplantation, additionally, one patient had partial hepatectomy for left lateral lobular lesion. Total right nephrectomy, partial right nephrectomy and partial left nephrectomy were respectively performed on 7, 3 and 1 patient(s). Additionally, extra-hepatic or renal lesions were eradicated followed by relevant repairments or reconstructions. Results: Surgeries went well and there was no intra-or post-operative liver or renal dysfunction occurred. During recovery period, 3 cases experienced with hydrothorax and managed well after drainage and supportive treatment, and one patient developed peri-renal urinary leakage and cured by "J" catheter. The subjects were followed-up for 6 to 81 months (median: 21 months), no death, organ dysfunction, chronic or acute kidney diseases occurred. One case encountered with abdominal hernia at post-operative 7^th month and was successfully managed with laparoscopic repair with artificial mesh. No disease recurrence in all patients, which reached clinical cure at last. Conclusion: When complied strictly to indications, simultaneous combined radical surgery could be a feasible, safe and efficient approach for patients with hepatic and renal AE, which is primary or relapsed from previous hepatic AE surgery or interventional therapies as well as neighboring organ AE invasions.

Adjustable flexure mount to compensate for deformation of an optic surface

An adjustable mounting structure is proposed to compensate for surface deformation of a mirror caused by the assembly process. The mount adopts a six-point support based on the kinematic mount principle. Three of the support points are adjustable, and they are moved along the axial direction by actuators. Surface deformation is expressed by Zernike coefficients in this paper, and a sensitivity matrix of the surface deformation is established by varying the unit displacement of each adjustment support point and getting the corresponding Zernike coefficient changes. The surface deformation is measured, and the compensation adjustment of each adjustable support point is then obtained by anti-sensitivity calculation. Finally, the feasibility of present support structure design and surface figure compensating method are verified by experiments. The experimental results show that the present structure and method could significantly reduce the surface deformation caused by the assembly process. The surface deformation is 4.6 nm RMS after assembly and it is decreased to 1.3 nm RMS after four iterations of compensation, which is close to the 1.1 nm RMS after optical polishing.

Estrogen and progesterone promote breast cancer cell proliferation by inducing cyclin G1 expression

Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer among women in most countries (WHO). Ovarian hormone disorder is thought to be associated with breast tumorigenesis. The present study investigated the effects of estrogen and progesterone administration on cell proliferation and underlying mechanisms in breast cancer MCF-7 cells. It was found that a single administration of estradiol (E2) or progesterone increased MCF-7 cell viability in a dose-dependent manner and promoted cell cycle progression by increasing the percentage of cells in the G2/M phase. A combination of E2 and progesterone led to a stronger effect than single treatment. Moreover, cyclin G1 was up-regulated by E2 and/or progesterone in MCF-7 cells. After knockdown of cyclin G1 in MCF-7 cells using a specific shRNA, estradiol- and progesterone-mediated cell viability and clonogenic ability were significantly limited. Additionally, estradiol- and progesterone-promoted cell accumulation in the G2/M phase was reversed after knockdown of cyclin G1. These data indicated that estrogen and progesterone promoted breast cancer cell proliferation by inducing the expression of cyclin G1. Our data indicated that novel therapeutics against cyclin G1 are promising for the treatment of estrogen- and progesterone-mediated breast cancer progression.

[The clinical practice of improvement the "Volume and Quality" of functional liver in autologous liver transplantation for the patients with alveolar echinococcosis]

Objective: To investigate the clinical significance of accurate assessment of "volume and quality" of functional liver in Autologous liver transplantation (ALT) in the treatment of the advanced hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (HAE). Methods: The clinical data of 12 patients with advanced HAE who underwent ALT at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University from May 2015 to July 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The preoperative hepatic functions of 12 patients were 8 Child-Pugh Grade A, 1 Grade B, and 3 Grade C. Three of the patients had moderate or severe jaundice. Three of the patients calculated functional liver graft volume (GV) and standard liver volume (SLV) ratio (GV/SLV) were <30%. After the protection of liver function, anti-infection, percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography drainage (PTCD), selective portal vein embolization (PVE), and staging liver resection, liver function Child-Pugh grade of 11 patients was raised to A grade, and the other patient was B grade, meanwhile the bilirubin was reduced to 2 times the normal value. The GV/SLV ratios of 3 patients with low GV/SLV ratio had reached 44.4%, 47.2% and 56.2% respectively. In this study, the GV/SLV ratios of the 12 patients were between 73.2% and 40.8% with an average of 55.6%. Operation time was 11.5-20.5 h, with an average of 12.3 h. Anhepatic phase time was 193-375 min with median 253.5 min. The red blood cell suspension was 0-6 U during the operation. The average hospitalization was 10-42 d, with the average 22.7 d. Total hospital costs were 121 600-434 800 Yuan, with the median cost of 174 400 Yuan. One patient died of septic shock a week after surgery. Conclusion: (1)ALT may provide feasibility for the advanced HAE. (2)Accurate assessment of functional liver "volume and quality" appeared as the key points to the ALT. (3)Precise surgery and individualized treatment could improve and protect the functional liver "volume and quality" .

A morphometric study of the lumbar spinous process in the Chinese population

Our goal was to analyze the anatomical parameters of the lumbar spine spinous process for an interspinous stabilization device designed for the Chinese population and to offer an anatomical basis for its clinical application. The posterior lumbar spines (T₁₂-S₁) of 52 adult cadavers were used for measuring the following: distance between two adjacent spinous processes (DB), distance across two adjacent spinous processes (DA), thickness of the central spinous processes (TC), thickness of the superior margin of the spinous processes (TS), thickness of the inferior margin of the spinous processes (TI), and height of the spinous processes (H). Variance and correlation analyses were conducted for these data, and the data met the normal distribution and homogeneity of variance. DB decreased gradually from L_1-2 to L₅-S₁. DA increased from T₁₂-L₁ to L_2-3 and then decreased from L_2-3 to L_4-5. The largest H in males was noted at L₃ (25.45±5.96 mm), whereas for females the largest H was noted at L₄ (18.71±4.50 mm). Usually, TS of the adjacent spinous process was lower than TI. Based on the anatomical parameters of the lumbar spinous processes obtained in this study, an “H”-shaped coronal plane (posterior view) was proposed as an interspinous stabilization device for the Chinese population. This study reports morphometric data of the lumbar spinous processes in the Chinese population, which provides an anatomical basis for future clinical applications.

Posterior hemivertebra resection and monosegmental fusion in the treatment of congenital scoliosis

INTRODUCTION

Posterior hemivertebra resection combined with multisegmental or bisegmental fusion has been applied successfully for congenital scoliosis. However, there are several immature bones and their growth can be influenced by long segmental fusion in congenital patients. Posterior hemivertebra resection and monosegmental fusion was therefore suggested for treatment of congenital scoliosis caused by hemivertebra.

METHODS

Between June 2001 and June 2010, 60 congenital scoliosis patients (aged 2-18 years) who underwent posterior hemivertebra resection and monosegmental fusion were enrolled in our study. A standing anteroposterior x-ray of the whole spine was obtained preoperatively, postoperatively and at the last follow-up appointment to analyse the Cobb angle in the coronal and sagittal planes as well as the trunk shift.

RESULTS

The mean preoperative coronal plane Cobb angle was 41.6°. This was corrected to 5.1° postoperatively and 5.3° at the last follow-up visit (correction 87.3%). The compensatory cranial curve was improved from 18.1° preoperatively to 7.1° postoperatively and 6.5° at the last follow-up visit while the compensatory caudal curve was improved from 21.5° to 6.1° after surgery and 5.6° at the last follow-up visit. The mean sagittal plane Cobb angle was 23.3° before surgery, 7.3° after surgery and 6.8° at the last follow-up visit (correction 70.1%). The trunk shift of 18.5mm was improved to 15.2mm.

CONCLUSIONS

Posterior hemivertebra resection and monosegmental fusion seems to be an effective approach for treatment of congenital scoliosis caused by hemivertebra, allowing for excellent correction in both the frontal and sagittal planes.

Slowly progressive hemiparesis in childhood as a consequence of Rasmussen encephalitis without or with delayed-onset seizures

Five young children developed slowly progressive hemiparesis as the initial manifestation of Rasmussen encephalitis (RE). Three have remained seizure free over an observational period of 1.3-1.9 years. In the remaining two patients, seizures occurred after 0.5 and 0.6 years respectively. We suggest that RE might be presently underdiagnosed and should be suspected in cases of new onset hemiparesis. In this series, three out of five patients showed oligoclonal bands on examination of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which represented additional diagnostic hints towards an immune-mediated condition. According to recently published formal diagnostic criteria, evidence of progressive cerebral hemiatrophy or bioptic identification of RE-typical inflammation confirms the diagnosis in such cases. Long-term immunotherapy is recommended in order to prevent further tissue loss and functional decline.

Comparison between sensitivities of phase and intensity detection in surface plasmon resonance

We have experimentally and theoretically compared intensity and phase measurements of surface plasmon resonance, in order to check the widely claimed superiority of the phase method. Both experiment and theory show a slightly higher sensitivity for intensity detection. Simulations confirm that this result is generally true for a wide range of resonance conditions. The basic reason is that phase measurements must be performed by measuring light intensities in some way, and therefore both modes of operation are limited in similar ways by photon statistics. Sensitivity can only be improved by using larger light intensities.

Null alleles reveal novel requirements for Bic-D during Drosophila oogenesis and zygotic development

In the Drosophila ovary, the Bicaudal-D (Bic-D) gene is required for the differentiation of one of 16 interconnected cystocyte sister cells into an oocyte. A new class of Bic-Dnull alleles reveals a novel requirement for Bic-D for zygotic viability. In the germ line, the null mutations show that developmental processes that take place in germarial region 1, even those that create asymmetry, are independent of Bic-D function. Bic-D is then required to establish oocyte identity in one cystocyte and is essential, not only for the oocyte-specific accumulation of all oocyte markers that we have tested so far, but also for the posterior migration of the oocyte. In addition, normal polarity amongst the nurse cells requires Bic-D, indicating that the creation of different nurse cell identities may depend on oocyte determination. Our results show that different processes in early oogenesis require different amounts of Bic-D in a process-specific way and certain later processes can proceed at low levels of Bic-D. This suggests that the patterning of the female germ line and the development of an oocyte depend on differential responses to a single activity that is capable of initiating distinct oogenesis processes and can establish different cell fates.