OBJECTIVE To evaluate the quality differences of Alpinia katsumadai from different habitats. METHODS High- performance liquid chromatography（HPLC） was used to establish the fingerprints of A. katsumadai from 18 batches of different habitats， and the quality of A. katsumadai from different habitats was comprehensively evaluated by similarity evaluation， cluster analysis （CA）， principal component analysis （PCA）， orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis （OPLS-DA） and the content determination results of alpinetin， pinocembrin， cardamonin and alnustone in A. katsumadai. RESULTS The similarity of HPLC fingerprints for 18 batches of A. katsumadai was ＞0.9. Eleven common peaks were identified from the chromatogram， and four of them were specifically characterized. Both CA and PCA grouped 18 batches of A. katsumadai into 3 categories， extracting 2 principal components （the cumulative variance contribution rate reached 89.798%）. OPLS-DA identified 9 quality difference markers， namely the components corresponding to peaks 4， 9， 3， 2， 7 （pinocembrin）， 8 （cardamonin）， 6 （alpinetin）， 10 and 11 （alnustone）. The content of alpinetin， pinocembrin， cardamonin， and alnustone ranged from 4.507 1-11.579 7， 5.154 4-14.183 3， 5.109 5-13.588 3 and 4.494 6-11.277 2 mg/g， respectively. CONCLUSIONS The quality of A. katsumadai from different habitats is quite different， and the quality of A. katsumadai from Hainan is the best.

Objective:To explore the clinical application of portable head and neck magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device in neurosurgery.Methods:A total of 213 patients with brain diseases who were scanned by portable head and neck MRI device in Center of Neurosurgery, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University from June to September 2022 were selected. The portable head and neck MRI images and 3.0T conventional MRI images of 10 randomly selected patients were compared; the differences in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of different sequences were analyzed. Thirty-one patients accepted tracheal intubation/tracheotomy, or ventilator-assisted breathing were selected as special patient group, and another 30 patients were as general patient group; the differences in comprehensive diagnostic scores of portable head and neck MRI images were compared. Noise intensity differences in different sequences between 3.0T conventional MRI and portable head and neck MRI were statistically compared. Twenty hospitalized volunteers with normal hearing in our center from July to August 2022 were selected, conventional 3.0T MRI and portable head and neck MRI were performed successively, and the noise intensity of different sequences in them was evaluated by using a 5-point system.Results:Compared with those in 3.0T conventional MRI images, the SNR and CNR of T1WI, T2WI, and Liquid attenuated reverse recovery sequence (FLAIR) sequences in portable head and neck MRI images were significantly lower ( P<0.05). No significant difference was noted in the comprehensive diagnostic scores of portable head and neck MRI images between special patients and general patients ( P>0.05). Compared with that in the 3.0T conventional MRI, the noise intensity of different sequences in portable head and neck MRI was significantly reduced ( P<0.05). These volunteers had significantly reduced noise intensity scores of different sequences in portable head and neck MRI compared with that in conventional 3.0T MRI ( P<0.05). Conclusion:Portable head and neck MRI device is easy to use, enjoying high safety, imaging quality and suitability, which meets the clinical needs for neurosurgery patients.

Objective:To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of reinfection of 2019-nCoV and influencing factors, and provide evidence for effective prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic.Methods:The incidence data of COVID-19 in Ningbo from January 1, 2020 to November 30, 2022 were collected from the infectious disease surveillance system of Chinese information system for disease control and prevention. The incidence of reinfection of 2019-nCoV was investigated by using questionnaire. logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the influences of gender, age, time interval from the first infection, history of underlying disease, 2019-nCoV vaccination dose and disease severity on the reinfection.Results:A total of 897 previous 2019-nCoV infection cases were investigated, of which 115 experienced the reinfection of 2019-nCoV, the reinfection rate was 12.82%. The interval between the two infections M( Q1, Q3) was 1 052 (504, 1 056) days. Univariate analysis showed that age, 2019-nCoV vaccination dose, history of underlying disease, type of 2019-nCoV variant causing the first infection, time interval from the first infection and severity of the first infection were associated with the reinfection rate (all P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk for reinfection in age group 30- years was higher than that in age group ≥60 years ( OR=2.10, 95% CI: 1.11-3.97). No reinfection occurred in those with time interval from the first infection of <6 months, and the risk for reinfection was higher in those with the time interval of ≥12 months than in those with the time interval of 6- months ( OR=6.68, 95% CI: 3.46-12.90). The risk for reinfection was higher in the common or mild cases than in the asymptomatic cases ( OR=2.64, 95% CI: 1.18-5.88; OR=2.79, 95% CI: 1.27-6.11). Conclusion:The time interval from the first infection was an important influencing factor for the reinfection of 2019-nCoV, and the probability of the reinfection within 6 months was low.

Objective : To identify biomarkers for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) using bioinformatics tools, so as to provide insights into diagnosis and targeted therapy of ESCC. Methods: The gene expression datasets GSE23400, GSE45670, GSE20347 and GSE17351 were screened and downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of ESCC were screened using the online tool GEO2R, and the common DEGs among the four datasets were determined using Venn diagram. Gene Ontology (GO) annotations and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were performed using the DAVID database, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis was performed using the STRING database. The key modules were identified using molecular complex detection (MCODE) plugin in the Cytoscape software, and hub genes with the highest connectivity degree were identified using the CytoHubba plugin, and the gene expression was validated on the UALCAN platform. Survival analysis of hub genes was performed using the Kaplan-Meier plotter database. Results: Totally 146 common DEGs were screened, including 102 up-regulated genes and 44 down-regulated genes. GO annotation analysis showed that the common DEGs were mainly enriched in biological processes of cell cycle, sister chromatid separation in the late mitotic phase and cell cycle regulation, enriched in cellular components of spindle and centrosome, and molecular functions of enzyme binding and ATP binding. KEGG pathway analysis showed that DEGs was significantly enriched in cell cycle, extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interactions and oocyte meiosis. A total of 10 hub genes were screened, and gene expression validation and survival analysis identified 7 genes associated with prognosis of ESCC, including CCNB1, CDK1, BUB1B, ZWINT, AURKA, MAD2L1 and MCM4, which were all highly expressed in ESCC specimens. Conclusion Seven hub genes of ESCC are identified based on bioinformatics, which may serve as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for ESCC.

Objective:To investigate the etiological diagnostic value of metagenomic sequencing in central nervous system (CNS) infectious diseases.Methods:A total of 170 patients with central nervous system infection admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2018 to June 2020 were selected as the study subjects according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. General clinical data and pathogen test results were collected. All included patients underwent routine examination and mNGS test, and were divided into the conventional method test group and mNGS test group according to the test results. The measurement data conforming to normal distribution were represented by ± s; The measurement data that did not conform to normal distribution were represented by median and interquartile range. The classification data were expressed by the number of cases and percentage( n,%), and were compared by χ2 test or Fisher's exact test. Consistency test was represented by Kappa value. The detection of pathogenic microorganisms by the two methods and the rule of pathogen spectrum were compared and analyzed. Results:The overall positive rate of mNGS in CNS infectious diseases was higher than that of conventional methods (58.23% vs. 18.82%), and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.01). Among the 20 samples which were both positive by the two methods, 10 cases were completely pathogenic, 5 cases were partially consistent and 5 cases were completely inconsistent. In the detection of tuberculous nervous system infection, the positive rates were 66.7%, 53.8%, 44.0%, 40.0%, 4.0% in blood T-SPOT, cerebrospinal fluid mNGS, ADA, Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA and tuberculous specific antibody, respectively. The positive rate of acid-fast staining was 0. The positive rate of mNGS combined with conventional method was 80.8%. Conclusions:The detection rate of mNGS in CNS infection is better than that of conventional methods. However, it does not show obvious superiority in the detection rate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated nervous system infection. In general, mNGS detection of pathogenic bacteria is more extensive, which is conducive to a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the bacterial characteristics of central nervous system infection. The combination of the two methods can make up for the deficiency of clinical routine detection to a certain extent, and can maximize the detection rate.

Objective:To investigate the infection rate in close contacts of COVID-19 patients before and after the last negative nucleic acid test, evaluate the effect of dynamic nucleic acid test in determining the infectivity of COVID-19 patients.Methods:Dynamic nucleic acid test results of COVID-19 cases were collected in a retrospective cohort study. COVID-19 cases with negative nucleic acid test results before their first positive nucleic acid tests were selected as study subjects. Close contacts of the index cases and the secondary close contacts were kept isolation for medical observation to assess their risk of infection.Results:This study included 89 confirmed cases from two local COVID-19 epidemics in Ningbo. A total of 5 609 close contacts were surveyed, the overall infection rate was 0.20%. No close contacts of the COVID-19 cases before the last negative nucleic acid test were infected, and the infection rate in the close contacts of the COVID-19 cases after the last negative nucleic acid test was 1.33%, all of these close contacts lived together with the index cases. No secondary close contacts were infected.Conclusion:COVID-19 patient becomes infectious after the last nucleic acid is negative, and has no infectivity before the last nucleic acid negative.

Objective To investigate the effects of the number of harvested lymph nodes in neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) combined with surgery on prognosis of middle-low rectal cancer.Methods The retrospective case-control study was conducted.The clinicopathological data of 373 patients with middle-low rectal cancer who underwent nCRT combined with surgery in the Fujian Medical University Union Hospital from January 2009 to December 2013 were collected.There were 241 males and 132 females,aged from 26 to 81 years,with the age of (55 ± 11) years.Observation indicators:(1) treatment situations;(2) follow-up and survival;(3)influencing factors for the number of harvested lymph nodes;(4) prognostic analysis of the different number of harvested lymph nodes as cut-off for grouping;(5) stratified analysis.Follow-up using telephone interview and outpatient examination was performed to detect postoperative survival of patients once every three months within postoperative 2 years and once every 6 months during the postoperative third year up to March 2016.The endpoint of follow-up was tumor recurrence,retastasis or death.Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean±SD,and comparison between groups was done using the independent sample t test.Measurement data with skewed distribution were represented as M (range),and comparison between groups was done using the Kruska1-Wallis H test.Count data was described as absolute numbers.Univariate and multivariate analyses were done by the multiple linear regression model.Survival rate was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method,and Logrank test was used for survival analysis.Results (l) Treatment situations:373 patients underwent nCRT combined with surgery,including 329 combined with sphincter-sparing rectal resection and 44 combined with abdominoperineal rectal resection.The number of harvested lymph nodes was 12 ± 6 in 373 patients.There were 185 patients with the number of harvested lymph nodes ＜ 12 and 188 with the number of harvested lymph nodes ≥ 12.(2) Follow-up and survival:373 patients were followed up for 5-77 months,with a median follow-up time of 43 months.During the follow-up,the 1-,3-,5-year disease-free survival rates were respectively 90.4％,76.3％,and 67.5％ in the 373 patients.(3) Influencing factors for the number of harvested lymph nodes:univariate analysis showed that distance between the tumor and anal verge,tumor diameter,tumor pathological N staging,and regression grade of rectal cancer were associated factors for the number of harvested lymph nodes (t =3.156,2.992,x2=8.183,10.839,P＜0.05).Multivariate analysis showed that distance between the tumor and anal verge,regression grade of rectal cancer,and tumor pathological N staging were independent factors for the number of harvested lymph nodes (t=3.308,2.690,2.584,95％ confidence interval:0.808-3.180,0.446-2.873,0.332-2.448,P＜0.05).(4) Prognostic analysis of the different number of harvested lymph nodes as cut-off for grouping:with the number of harvested lymph nodes of 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,and 16 as cut-off for grouping,there was no significant difference in the 3-year disease-free survival rate,cumulative local recurrence rate,and cumulative distant metastasis rate between ＜6 group and ≥6 group,between ＜7 group and ≥7 group,between＜8 group and ≥8 group,between ＜9 group and ≥9 group,between ＜10 group and ≥ 10 group,between ＜11 group and ≥ll group,between ＜12 group and ≥12 group,between ＜13 group and ≥13 group,between ＜ 14 group and ≥ 14 group,between ＜ 15 group and ≥ 15 group,between ＜ 16 group and ≥ 16 group,respectively (P＞0.05).(5) Stratified analysis:with the number of harvested lymph nodes of 7,8,9,and 10 as cut-off for grouping in 45 of 373 patients with Ⅱ-Ⅲ regression grade of rectal cancer and negative lymph nodes (NO staging),there was no significant difference in the 3-year disease-free survival rate between ＜7 group and ≥ 7group,between ＜8 group and ≥8 group,between ＜9 group and ≥9 group,between＜10 group and ≥ 10 group,respetively (x2 =3.946,5.346,6.375,4.297,P＜0.05).Conclusions The number of lymph nodes as 12 is not the independent factor for prognosis of patients with middle-low rectal cancer after nCRT combined with surgery.The number of harvested lymph nodes as 7 to 10 is the important factor for evaluating the prognosis of middle-low rectal cancer patients with Ⅱ-Ⅲ regression grade of rectal cancer and negative lymph nodes after nCRT combined with surgery.

Objective To propose a multi-scale convolutional neural network ( CNN) based lesions detection method of fundus image,and evaluate its application in diabetic retinopathy ( DR) assisted diagnosis. Methods A multi-scale CNN based on lesions detection method of fundus image was proposed. Compared with the existing detection methods,the problem of poor robustness based on threshold segmentation and morphological segmentation was overcome. The idea of multi-scale grids detection without relying on manual pixel-by-pixel labeling was adopted in this algorithm,and the detection performance of small lesions was significantly improved. In addition, multiple DR lesions with high accuracy could be detected by the proposed loss function under the condition of weak labels and small data sets. Results At the level of lesions,the sensitivity and specificity of hard exudation lesions detection were 92. 17％ and 97. 17％,respectively. Compared with single-scale method,the sensitivity and accuracy of multi-scale method proposed in this paper increased by 7. 41％ and 5. 02％,respectively,and compared with other algorithm using the same public dataset IDRiD, the specificity of this algorithm increased by 55. 82％. This method could effectively detect the lesions in fundus images,and could give the basic range of the lesions. The average detection time of fundus images with a large number of lesions was 1. 59 seconds. Conclusions The DR lesions in the fundus image can be quickly and reliably identified,the location information of the lesions can be marked,and the influence of subjective factors can be reduced by using this algorithm, and it can be used to assist the clinician to conduct more effectively.

Objective: To screen out the potential gene biomarkers to predict responses to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in patients with rectal cancer and to explore the main downstream pathways of resistance. Methods: The gene expression profiles (GSE35452) of locally advanced rectal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy from 46 specimens (24 responders, TRG 0/1, and 22 non-responders, TRG 2/3) were downloaded from the GEO database. The differentially expressed genes were identified to screen out the potential biomarkers by use of the GCBI platform. GO and KEGG pathways enrichment analysis were performed to integrate enrichment results of differentially expressed genes. Signal-signal interaction network was constructed and analyzed to screen out potential main downstream pathways. Results: A total of 1079 differentially expressed genes were screened, including 657 up-regulated and 422 down-regulated ones. Among these genes, REG4 had the maximum fold change value of -6.029 491. In GO term, these differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched in molecule metabolic process, cell cycle, DNA-dependent transcription, signal transduction and apoptotic process. The KEGG pathways enrichment analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes were enriched in 65 KEGG pathways, including metabolic pathways, cell cycle and metabolism pathways. Signal-signal interaction network analysis showed that MAPK signaling pathway and cell cycle pathway might play a determinant role in the development of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy resistance. Further analysis showed that CDKN1B, CDKN2A, RBL1, TFDP1, CCND2, CCNE2, CDC6 and CDK6 in cell cycle might induce chemoradiotherapy resistance by blocking G1/S phase cell cycle arrest, decreasing the apoptosis of tumor cells and increasing S phase ratio of chemoradiotherapy resistance. Conclusion G1/S phase cell cycle arrest blocking plays an important role in the development of chemoradiotherapy resistance in patients with rectal cancer. Moreover, the key genes, such as REG4, may be useful in predicting responses to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of Cyr61 in angiotensin Ⅱ (AngⅡ)-induced functional changes in HEK293 cells and explore the mechanism. METHODS: Cyr61 knockdown in cultured HEK293T cells was achieved by transfection of the cells with CRISPR/Cas9 KO plasmid. The changes in apoptosis and expression levels of Cyr61 and Bcl-2 in the cells with or without Cyr61 knockdown in response to treatment with 10 mol/L AngⅡ for 48 h were analyzed using flow cytometry, qRT-PCR and Western blotting. RESULTS: The cells with Cyr61 knockdown showed significantly decreased expression of Cyr61 protein as compared with the control cells ( < 0.05). AngⅡ treatment for 48 h significantly increased the expression of Cyr61 and lowers the expression of Bcl-2 at both the protein and mRNA levels in HEK293T cells. In HEK293T cells with Cyr61 knockdown, AngⅡ treatment resulted in significantly increased expression of Bcl-2 in HEK293T cells as compared with that of the control group ( < 0.05). AngⅡ treatment caused significantly increased apoptotic rate in HEK293T cells as compared with the cells with Cyr61 knockdown [(26.94 ± 3.73)% (3.87 ± 0.83)%, < 0.05), and the apoptosis rate was significantly lowered to (15.76 ± 1.31)% in HEK293T cells with Cyr61 knockdown following AngⅡ treatment ( < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The up-regulation of Cyr61 expression is related with AngⅡ-induced injury in HEK293T cells, and down-regulating Cyr61 expression can effectively protect HEK293T cells against AngⅡ-induced injury.
Angiotensin II ; Apoptosis ; Cysteine-Rich Protein 61 ; HEK293 Cells ; Humans ; Up-Regulation