INTRODUCTION: Comparison of patient health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores to a reference group is needed to quantify the HRQOL impact of disease or treatment. This study aimed to establish population norms for 2 HRQOL questionnaires-EuroQol 5-dimension 5-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core Question-naire 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) according to age, sex and ethnicity-and to explore relationships between the EQ-5D-5L, EORTC QLQ-C30 and sociodemographic characteristics. We used a representative sample of adult Singapore residents aged 21 years and above. METHOD: This study used data collected from a cross-sectional household survey in which 600 adult Singaporeans completed questions on sociodemo-graphic characteristics-the EQ-5D-5L and the EORTC QLQ-C30. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to explore associations between sociodemographic characteristics, the EQ-5D-5L scores and the EORTC QLQ-C30 scores. Regression-based population norms were computed for each subgroup using a post-stratification method. RESULTS: In multiple linear regression analysis, age was significantly associated with EQ-5D-5L index and visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, while no sociodemographic characteristics were significantly associated with EORTC QLQ-C30 summary scores. The normative EQ-5D-5L index and VAS scores decreased in adults aged 65 years and above, and EQ-5D-5L index scores were slightly lower in females than males and in non-Chinese than Chinese. The normative EORTC QLQ-C30 summary scores were slightly higher in Chinese than in the non-Chinese group and in the 45-64 age group than other age groups. CONCLUSION This study provides population norms for the EQ-5D-5L and EORTC QLQ-C30 for the general adult population in Singapore. Future studies of patient populations in Singapore using EQ-5D-5L or QLQ-C30 can use these normative data to interpret the HRQOL data collected.
Humans ; Quality of Life ; Singapore ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Aged ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult ; Health Status ; Age Factors ; Linear Models ; Aged, 80 and over

Constructing an efficient and easy-to-operate multigene expression system is currently a crucial part of plant genetic engineering. In this study, a fragment carrying three independent gene expression cassettes and the expression unit of the gene-silencing suppressor protein(RNA silencing suppressor 19 kDa protein, P19) simultaneously was designed and constructed. This fragment was cloned into the commonly used plant expression vector pCAMBIA300, and the plasmid pC1300-TP2-P19 was obtained. Each gene expression cassette consists of different promoters, fusion tags, and terminators. The target gene can be flexibly inserted into the corresponding site through enzymatic digestion and ligation or recombination and fused with different protein tags, which provides great convenience for subsequent detection. The enhanced green fluorescent protein(eGFP) reporter gene was individually constructed into each expression cassette to verify the feasibility of this vector system. The results of tobacco transient expression and laser-confocal microscopy showed that each expression cassette presented independent and normal expression. Meanwhile, the three key enzyme genes in the betanin synthesis pathway, BvCYP76AD, BvDODA1, and DbDOPA5GT, were constructed into the three expression cassettes. The results of tobacco transient expression phenotype, protein immunoblotting(Western blot), and chemical detection of product demonstrated that the three exogenous genes were highly expressed, and the target compound betanin was successfully produced. The above results indicated that the constructed multigene expression system for plants in this study was efficient and reliable and can achieve the co-transformation of multiple plant genes. It can provide a reliable vector platform for the analysis of plant natural product synthesis pathways, functional verification, and plant metabolic engineering.
Nicotiana/metabolism* ; Genetic Vectors/metabolism* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Plant Proteins/metabolism* ; Plants, Genetically Modified/metabolism* ; Genetic Engineering/methods* ; Green Fluorescent Proteins/metabolism* ; Gene Expression

Tropane alkaloids (TAs) are a class of anticholinergic drugs widely used in clinical practice and mainly extracted from plant, among which Atopa belladonna is the main commercial drug source. It is of great industrial value to obtain TAs in large quantities by plant metabolic engineering. In TAs pathway, cytochrome oxidase CYP82M3 catalyze the synthesis of tropinone and then tropinone reductase I (TRI) compete with TRII for tropinone to form tropine leading to the TAs synthesis (drainage). In this study, based on the "increasing flow and drainage" metabolic engineering strategy, two genes, namely HnCYP82M3 and DsTRI from Hyoscyamus niger and Datura stramonium, respectively, were overexpressed in the hair roots of A. belladonna, with a view to promote the TAs accumulation. The HnCYP82M3 gene was cloned from the root of H. niger, and it encoded amino acid with 91.7% sequence identity with AbCYP82M3 from A. belladonna. Overexpression of HnCYP82M3 alone did not affect the content of TAs in hair roots of A. belladonna, indicating that CYP82M3 was not a key enzyme in TAs biosynthesis. Simultaneous overexpression of HnCYP82M3 and DsTRI greatly promoted the accumulation of the three TAs, and the contents of hyoscyamine, anisodamine and scopolamine were 4.97 times, 2.83 times and 2.19 times that of the control, respectively, and the increase amplitude was greater than that of single overexpression of DsTRI. This study showed that the "increasing flow and drainage" strategy of enzyme genes co-expression at branch points was a promising metabolic engineering method to effectively improve the biosynthesis of TAs in A. belladonna, and laid a theoretical and technical foundation for the large-scale industrial acquisition of TAs.

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of closed-loop rehabilitation therapy by brain-computer interface(BCI)combined with exoskeleton robotic hand in patients with hand dysfunction after cerebral infarction and analyze the influence of patients'cognitive function and implicit motor imagery ability on the recognition rate of BCI.Methods A total of 50 patients with cerebral infarction were randomly assigned to the observation group and the control group,25 patients in each group.Both groups received routine rehabilitation programs.In addition to the conventional rehabilitation treatment,the observation group received the closed-loop BCI rehabilitation trainingby brain-computer interface(BCI)combined with exoskeleton robotic hand.The scores of Fugl-Meyer Assessment of the Upper Extremity(FMA-UE),Action Research Arm Test(ARAT),Wolf Motor Function Test(WMFT),and Modified Ashworth scale(MAS)of the wrist flexors were compared between the two groups before and after treatment.Before intervention,the mental rotation test and Montreal Cognitive Assessment(MoCA)were used to assess the baseline implicit motor imagery ability and cognitive level of patients in the observation group.The correlation analysis between these scores and the recognition rate of BCI was conducted to analyze the relevant factors affecting the closed-loop rehabilitation effects of BCI.Results The two groups showed no significant difference in all outcomes before treatment(both P>0.05).After intervention,the observation group exhibited the significantly higher scores of FMA-UE,ARAT,and WMFT(all P<0.05),and significantly lower MAS scores of wrist and finger flexors compared with the control group(all P<0.05).In addition,the recognition rate of BCI was positively correlated with the accuracy of mental rotation test and MoCA score(P<0.05),and negatively corre-lated with the reaction time of mental rotation test(P<0.05).Conclusions Closed-loop rehabilitation training with BCI combined with exoskeleton robot hand can promote the recovery of upper limbs and hand motor function in patients with cerebral infarction.Additionally,the implicit motor imagery ability and cognitive function of patients are suggested to be used for screening the patients suitable for BCI training before the implementation of BCI treatment.

Objective:To study the distribution of species type, biotype and genotype of human Brucella isolated and identified in Nanjing. Methods:A total of 89 strains of human Brucella were collected from microbiology laboratories of three sentinel hospitals in Nanjing from 2017 to 2022. The species type was identified using biological methods and Brucella nucleic acid detection (BCSP31-PCR and AMOS-PCR). Further biotyping of Brucella melitensis isolates was conducted by serological results of A and M factors. Meanwhile, genotype analysis was performed using multiple-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Results:From 2017 to 2022, 89 strains of Brucella isolated and identified in Nanjing were all Brucella melitensis. Among them, Brucella melitensis biotype 3 accounted for 82.02% (73/89), and biotype 1 accounted for 17.98% (16/89). MLVA typing showed that 89 strains of Brucella melitensis belong to the "Eastern Mediterranean" cluster and could be divided into 50 MLVA genotypes; among which panel 1 had 3 genotypes, namely Type 42 (84.27%, 75/89), Type 63 (8.99%, 8/89) and Type 43 (6.74%, 6/89). The results of MLST-9 and MLST-21 were both ST8, and the core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST) classified 89 strains into 11 genotypes. SNP analysis revealed a total of 4 013 SNP loci, with SNPs ranging from 0 to 409 across different strains, involving 59 SNP genotypes. Conclusions:The human Brucella strains isolated and identified in Nanjing are all Brucella melitensis, mainly biotype 3. The MLVA cluster is the "Eastern Mediterranean" cluster. The traditional MLST-9 and MLST-21 typing results are all ST8 type, while cgMLST divides all the strains into 11 genotypes with higher resolution.

Objective To systematically evaluate the risk factors for postoperative delirium after surgery for Stanford type A aortic dissection. Methods We searched the CNKI, SinoMed, Wanfang data, VIP, PubMed, Web of Science, EMbase, The Cochrane Library database from inception to September 2022. Case-control studies, and cohort studies on risk factors for postoperative delirium after surgery for Stanford type A aortic dissection were collected to identify studies about the risk factors for postoperative delirium after surgery for Stanford type A aortic dissection. Quality of the included studies was evaluated by the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS). The meta-analysis was performed by RevMan 5.3 software and Stata 15.0 software. Results A total of 21 studies were included involving 3385 patients. The NOS score was 7-8 points. The results of meta-analysis showed that age (MD=2.58, 95%CI 1.44 to 3.72, P＜0.000 01), male (OR=1.33, 95%CI 1.12 to 1.59, P=0.001), drinking history (OR=1.45, 95%CI 1.04 to 2.04, P=0.03), diabetes history (OR=1.44, 95%CI 1.12 to 1.85, P=0.005), preoperative leukocytes (MD=1.17, 95%CI 0.57 to 1.77), P=0.000 1), operation time (MD=21.82, 95%CI 5.84 to 37.80, P=0.007), deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) time (MD=3.02, 95%CI 1.04 to 5.01, P=0.003), aortic occlusion time (MD=8.94, 95%CI 2.91 to 14.97, P=0.004), cardiopulmonary bypass time (MD=13.92, 95%CI 5.92 to 21.91, P=0.0006), ICU stay (MD=2.77, 95%CI 1.55 to 3.99, P＜0.000 01), hospital stay (MD=3.46, 95%CI 2.03 to 4.89, P＜0.0001), APACHEⅡ score (MD=2.76, 95%CI 1.59 to 3.93, P＜0.000 01), ventilation support time (MD=6.10, 95%CI 3.48 to 8.72, P＜0.000 01), hypoxemia (OR=2.32, 95%CI 1.40 to 3.82, P=0.001), the minimum postoperative oxygenation index (MD=−79.52, 95%CI −125.80 to −33.24, P=0.000 8), blood oxygen saturation (MD=−3.50, 95%CI −4.49 to −2.51, P＜0.000 01), postoperative hemoglobin (MD=−6.35, 95%CI −9.21 to −3.50, P＜0.000 1), postoperative blood lactate (MD=0.45, 95%CI 0.15 to 0.75, P=0.004), postoperative electrolyte abnormalities (OR=5.94, 95%CI 3.50 to 10.09, P＜0.000 01), acute kidney injury (OR=1.92, 95%CI 1.34 to 2.75, P=0.000 4) and postoperative body temperature (MD=0.79, 95%CI 0.69 to 0.88, P＜0.000 01) were associated with postoperative delirium after surgery for Stanford type A aortic dissection. Conclusion The current evidence shows that age, male, drinking history, diabetes history, operation time, DHCA time, aortic occlusion time, cardiopulmonary bypass time, ICU stay, hospital stay, APACHEⅡ score, ventilation support time, hypoxemia and postoperative body temperature are risk factors for the postoperative delirium after surgery for Stanford type A aortic dissection. Oxygenation index, oxygen saturation, and hemoglobin number are protective factors for delirium after Stanford type A aortic dissection.

Objective:To study the risk factors of venous thromboembolism(VTE)and the predictive value of the improved VTE score model to identify the risk of VTE in gynecological surgery patients.Methods:From Janu-ary 1,2020 to December 31,2022,41 patients with VTE after gynecological surgery were selected as the VTE group,and a total of 164 patients with adjacent gynecological surgeries during the same period were selected as the non-VTE group with a ratio of 1 :4.Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis were used to ana-lyze the risk factors of VTE after gynecological surgery,and a modified VTE risk factor rapid assessment model(referred to as the improved VTE score model)was constructed.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was used to study the predictive value for VTE for in gynecological surgery,and compared with the Caprini score model(Caprini table for short).Results:①Multivatiate Logistic regression analysis showed that there were independent risk factors for postoperative VTE in gynecology surgery(OR＞1,P＜0.05),including age≥60 years,BMI≥28 kg/m2,malignant tumors,surgery time＞3 hours,history of thrombosis,and the increased D-di-mer difference before and after surgery.②The Area under Curve(AUC)of ROC was 0.963 in the improved VTE score model with a Youden index 81.10％,sensitivity 87.80％and specificity 93.29％.The AUC of the Caprini score model was 0.888 with Youden index 63.41％,sensitivity 73.17％and specificity 90.24％.The improved VTE score model the Caprini score model identified 92.68％and 85.37％of VTE patients as high-risk or ex-tremely high-risk,respectively,but the difference was not statistically significant(P＜0.05).Conclusions:More attention should be paid to the six independent risk factors for postoperative VTE in gynecology surgery.The two score models showed a similar identified level.However,the improved VTE score model is more simple and easier to operate,has better practicality,and has certain clinical promotion value.

Objective: To investigate the levels of cytidine/uridine monophosphate kinase 2(CMPK2) expression in CD4+T cells of systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) patients and its correlation with clinical indicators. Additionally, to explore whether CMPK2 can induce pyroptosis in CD4+T cells of SLE patients through NLRP3, potentially providing a new target for the diagnosis and treatment of SLE. Methods: RT-qPCR and Western blot analyses were used to assess the gene and protein expression levels of CMPK2 in SLE CD4+T cells and healthy controls(HC). Pearson or Spearman correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between CMPK2 mRNA expression levels and clinical indicators. Subsequently, the expression levels of pyroptosis-related proteins, including NLRP3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD(ASC), caspase-1, gasdermin D(GSDMD), and the N-terminal domain of GSDMD(GSDMD-N), were examined in SLE CD4+T cells and HC. Furthermore, the protein expression levels of NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1, GSDMD, and GSDMD-N were detected after silencingCMPK2in SLE CD4+T cells. Results: CMPK2 expression was significantly elevated in SLE CD4+T cells, exhibiting a positive correlation with SLE disease activity index(SLEDAI), anti-dsDNA antibody, anti-nucleosome antibody, anti-C1q antibody, and a negative correlation with complement C3 and C4 levels. Additionally, the expression levels of pyroptosis-related proteins, including NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1, GSDMD, and GSDMD-N significantly increased in SLE CD4+T cells(P<0.05), Moreover, the levels of cytokines IL-1β and IL-18 in the cell culture supernatants were elevated, and there was a notable increase in the rate of cellular pyroptosis(P<0.05). Silencing CMPK2 led to a reduction in the levels of these markers(P<0.05). Conclusion CMPK2 is highly expressed in SLE CD4+T cells and may serve as a diagnostic marker for SLE. Moreover, it is likely involved in the pathogenesis of SLE by promoting CD4+T cell pyroptosis through NLRP3.

Objective To evaluate tolerability,safety and pharmacokinetics of JS026 and JS026-JS016 single dose intravenous infusion in healthy adults.Methods This phase 1,randomized,double-blind,placebo-controlled,dose-escalation study totally included 48 participants:32 healthy subjects were enrolled in JS026 single intravenous infusion groups and 16 healthy subjects were enrolled in JS026-JS016 groups.JS026 was sequentially administered from low dose to high dose(30-1 000 mg),with intravenous infusion of JS026 or placebo in JS026 single-dose groups,and intravenous infusion of JS026-JS016 or placebo in the combination drug groups.Blood was collected according to the time point designed for trial.Serum concentrations of JS026 and JS016 were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbnent assay(ELISA),and pharmacokinetics parameters were calculated by WinNonlin 8.2.The power model method was used to evaluate the linear analysis of dose and drug exposure.Results 47 subjects completed trial and 1 subject lost to follow-up.After a single intravenous injection of JS026 of 30 mg,100 mg,300 mg,600 mg,and 1 000 mg,mean Cmax were(9.47±1.53),(33.20±4.95),(96.10±13.70),(177.00±22.20)and(353.00±56.70)μg·mL-1,respectively;mean AUC0-∞ were(4 225.00±607.00),(1.78 × 104±3 268.00),(5.83 × 104±1 038.00),(1.07 × 105±152.00),(1.66 × 105±327.00)μg·h·mL-1,respectively;mean t1/2 of JS026 were 563-709 h.The Cmax and AUC0-∞ of JS026 were basically similar alone or in combination with JS016.The results of Power model showed that Cmax and AUC0-∞ increased approximately linearly with the increasing dose of JS026.Treatment emergent adverse event was not increasing when dose increased and most of adverse event associated with drugs were abnormal on laboratory tests and haematuria,thus JS026 and JS016 was well tolerated in all groups.Conclusion The single intravenous infusion of JS026 can almost be thought to be a linear relationship between the doses and drug serum exposure.JS016 had no significant effect on serum concentration of JS026 and JS026 was well tolerated and safe in healthy subjects within 30-1 000 mg.

Objective To establish a recurrence risk prediction model for meningioma based on HOXA9 DNA methylation.Methods Meningioma-related datasets were downloaded from GEO database for screening homeobox genes(HOXs)with prognostic values using differential methylation and ROC curve analysis and Cox regression analysis.The differentially methylated CpG sites with high predictive efficacy were selected to establish the risk prediction model using Lasso-Cox regression analysis,based on which the patients were divided into high-and low-risk groups by the cutoff value.The methylation levels of CpG sites were verified at the cell and tissue levels using methylation-specific PCR(MS-PCR).Clinical meningioma tissue samples were used to validate the predictive efficacy of the model.Results HOXA9 methylation level was significantly up-regulated in meningiomas(P<0.001)and showed a high diagnostic efficiency(AUC=0.884)as an independent risk factor for overall survival(P<0.01)positively correlated with the degree of malignancy and poor prognosis of meningioma(P<0.05).Risk stratification by HOXA9 methylation was more accurate than WHO grading for predicting recurrence and patient survival time.The AUCs of the sites cg03217995 and cg21001184 were both above 0.8 for meningioma diagnosis and above 0.6 for predicting recurrence.The patients'clinical characteristics differed significantly between the high-and low-risk groups(P<0.001),and the prediction score of the model was an independent prognostic factor for meningioma(P<0.05).MS-PCR results showed that the methylation levels of the two sites increased significantly in meningioma cells.In clinical samples,the combined model showed a high prediction efficiency(AUC=0.857),and the predicted risk of progression was highly consistent with the patients'actual condition.Conclusion High HOXA9 methylation level is a predictor for poor prognosis of meningiomas,and the combined prediction model based on its CpG sites provides a new approach to early screening of meningioma patients at risk of progression.