Objective To assess the tear film stability and morphological characteristics of the tarsal gland in myopic children.Methods In this prospective descriptive study,myopic children who performed refractive examinations in the Pediatric Ophthalmology & Refraction Clinic,Jinan Mingshui Eye Hospital from November 2021 to November 2022 were in-cluded.An Ocular Surface Disease Index(OSDI)questionnaire survey was carried out;tear meniscus height(TMH),non-invasive first breakup time(NIf-BUT)and images of the tarsal glands were obtained by OCULUS Keratograph 5M compre-hensive ocular surface analyzer.In addition,the atrophy and tortuosity of tarsal glands were scored to analyze the tear film stability and clinical characteristics of tarsal glands in myopic children.Results A total of 48 myopic children(91 eyes)aged from 7 to 16(10.25±2.23)years were recruited,including 27 males(56.25％)and 21 females(43.75％).The aver-age TMH was(0.19±0.04)mm(95％CI:0.18-0.19)and the average NIf-BUT was(5.40±2.62)s(95％CI:4.90-5.94);the TMH was positively correlated with NIf-BUT(r=0.223,P=0.034).The tarsal gland atrophy score was 1(0,1).The tortuosity score of the upper and lower tarsal gland was 0(0,1)and 0(0,0),respectively,with a statistically significant difference(Z=3.692,P＜0.001).In all subjects,49 eyes(53.85％)had tarsal gland atrophy,and 37 eyes(40.66％)had tarsal gland tortuosity.There were significant differences in TMH and NIf-BUT between children aged＜12 years and children aged ≥12 years(both P＜0.05).There was a significant difference in TMH between children with an OSDI score＜13 and children with an OSDI score ≥ 13(t=2.305,P=0.026).There was a significant difference in NIf-BUT between mild and moderate myopia children(t=2.300,P=0.024);the spherical equivalent was positively correlated with NIf-BUT(r=0.283,P=0.023).Conclusion Children with mild to moderate myopia show low tear film stability and a certain proportion of abnormal morphology in tarsal glands.In addition to the refractive status of children,attention should also be paid to ocular surface health in the refraction clinic.

Background: and Purpose The eye-movement examination can be applied as a noninvasive method to identify multiple-system atrophy (MSA). Few studies have investigated eye movements during the early stage of MSA with predominant parkinsonism (MSA-P). We aimed to determine the characteristic oculomotor changes in the early stage of MSA-P. Methods: We retrospectively selected 17 patients with MSA-P and 40 with Parkinson’s disease (PD) with disease durations of less than 2 years, and 40 age-matched healthy controls (HCs).Oculomotor performance in the horizontal direction was measured in detail using videonystagmography. Results: We found that the proportions of patients with MSA-P and PD exhibiting abnormal eye movements were 82.4% and 77.5%, respectively, which were significantly higher than that in the HCs (47.5%, p<0.05). Compared with HCs, patients with MSA-P presented significantly higher abnormal proportions of fixation and gaze-holding (17.6% vs. 0%), without-fixation (47.1% vs. 0%), prolonged latency in reflexive saccades (29.4% vs. 5.0%), memory-guided saccades (93.3% vs. 10.0%), and catch-up saccades in smooth-pursuit movement (SPM, 41.2% vs. 0) (all p<0.05). Compared with those with PD, patients with MSA-P presented a significantly higher proportion of catch-up saccades in SPM (41.2% vs. 2.5%, p<0.001). Conclusions MSA-P presented the characteristic of catch-up saccades in SPM in the early stage, which may provide some value in differentiating MSA-P from PD.

As a representative chemotherapeutic drug, docetaxel (DTX) has been used for breast cancer treatment for decades. However, the poor solubility of DTX limits its efficacy, and the DTX based therapy increases the metastasis risk due to the upregulation of C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) expression during the treatment. Herein, we conjugated CXCR4 antagonist peptide (CTCE) with DTX (termed CTCE-DTX) as an anti-metastasis agent to treat breast cancer. CTCE-DTX could self-assemble to nanoparticles, targeting CXCR4-upregulated metastatic tumor cells and enhancing the DTX efficacy. Thus, the CTCE-DTX NPs achieved promising efficacy on inhibiting both bone-specific metastasis and lung metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer. Our work provided a rational strategy on designing peptide-drug conjugates with synergistic anti-tumor efficacy.

Objective:To summarize the clinical features and pathological changes of peripheral tissues from patients with neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID) diagnosed by genetic tests.Methods:Repeat-primed polymerase chain reaction was used to confirm the GGC repeated expansion in the 5′ untranslated region of the NOTCH2NLC gene in patients with suspected NIID who had visited the Department of Neurology of Peking University First Hospital from January 2018 to February 2020. The clinical data and pathological changes of peripheral tissues from patients with genetically diagnosed NIID were collected retrospectively and analysed. Immunostaining with anti-p62 and anti-ubiquitin antibody was performed on peripheral biopsy specimens.Results:Totally nine patients with NIID who had GGC repeated expansion in the NOTCH2NLC gene were found. Five patients were familial (from three faimilies), and four patients were sporadic. The age of onset was 36-61(51.33±7.12) years. The most common symptoms in this NIID group were episodic emotion and personality change (8/9), paroxysmal disturbance of consciousness (6/9) and intermitant head discomfort (6/9). Other symptoms included cognitive dysfunction, limb weakness, limb sensory disturbance, bladder dysfunction, ataxia, seizures and psychiatric symptoms. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed high signals along the corticomedullary junction on diffusion-weighted image in eight out of nine patients. Skin biopsied samples from nine patients demonstrated the presence of eosinophilic intranuclear inclusions (IIs), appearing in the nucleus of fibroblasts, fat cells and ductal epithelial cells of sweat glands on hematoxylin-eosin staining. IIs were positive on anti-p62 and anti-ubiquitin immunostaining. Electron microscopy indicated the IIs were composed of a pile of filament materials without membrane. Muscle biopsies from two patients showed no obvious neurogenic or myogenic pathologic changes, except in one patient several rimmed vacuoles fibers were found. In one patient sural nerve biopsy showed severe demyelinating pathological changes. No IIs were found in the muscles and peripheral nerve tissue either by histological examination or by immunohistochemical staining with anti-p62 or anti-ubiquitin, while IIs were found by immunofluorescence staining with both anti-p62 and anti-ubiquitin in three patient′s tissue. Conclusions:The phenotype of this NIID patient group is adult-onset NIID, with episodic encephalopathy as the main clinical manifestation. Skin biopsy has high pathological diagnostic value for NIID. The immunofluorescence staining with anti-p62 and anti-ubiquitin is easier to detect the presence of IIs than histological staining and immumohistochemical staining.

Objective: To monitor and analyze the epidemiological characteristics of influenza in schools and understand the disease burden of students, and to provide a scientific reference for instructing the prevention of influenza in schools. Methods: A school influenza surveillance sentinel to conduct influenza like case (ILI) surveillance and outbreak surveillance. Through network, we understood the burden of flu disease among students. Descriptive epidemiology was used to analyze influenza like case surveillance and questionnaire survey data. Results: Surveillance confirmed that from the 42th week of 2019 to the 1st week of 2020, the cumulative reported ILI of 3 school influenza surveillance sites in Jinan accounted for 7.91% (ILI%) of the total number of surveillance personnel during the same period, with the highest ILI% (24.19%) of kindergarten children, ILI% gradually decreased with the increase of grade, and teachers were the lowest. The reporting of ILI was concentrated in the 49th to 52nd week of 2019, during which the reported influenza like cases accounted for 84.81% of the total number of ILI reported during the surveillance period. Two influenza outbreaks were monitored. The pathogens were H3N2 and B (Victoria). The epidemics mainly occurred in the lower grades of elementary school. A survey of 2 297 students found that 577 people had fever and respiratory symptoms since October 2019. Among them, 85.26% of them went to the hospital, 32.75% of those who used anti influenza drugs such as oseltamivir, and 64.81% of those who used antibiotics. 42.63% received infusion therapy, 3.99% were hospitalized, and the average cost of inpatients was 6 686 yuan. The sick students were absent from school for an average of 3.77 days, and the parents of the sick children missed work for an average of 4.26 days. Conclusion Surveillance of influenza like cases in schools is an important way to proactively discover influenza epidemic trends and outbreaks, and to accurately grasp the characteristics of influenza epidemics in schools. The key populations affected by influenza are kindergarten children and lower grades of primary school students. Suffering from influenza has caused a heavy disease burden on students and children in kindergartens, and is also an important factor that causes student absenteeism and parents to miss work.

An adult man of methylmalonic acidemia combined with hyperhomocysteinemia is reported. He presented with progressive walking instability with mental and behavioral alterations when aged 24 years. Physical examination showed significant cerebellar ataxia and pyramidal signs. Brain magnetic resonance imaging revealed symmetric lesions of bilateral cerebellum. His plasma total homocysteine and urine methylmalonic acid were significantly elevated. Compound heterozygous mutations, c.482G>A and c.217C>T, were found in his MMACHC gene, confirming the diagnosis of cblC deficiency. Improved clinical manifestations and decreased plasma total homocysteine were observed one month after treatment.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus continually lead to worldwide human infections and deaths. Currently, there is no specific viral protein-targeted therapeutics. Viral nucleocapsid protein is a potential antiviral drug target, serving multiple critical functions during the viral life cycle. However, the structural information of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein remains unclear. Herein, we have determined the 2.7 Å crystal structure of the N-terminal RNA binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein. Although the overall structure is similar as other reported coronavirus nucleocapsid protein N-terminal domain, the surface electrostatic potential characteristics between them are distinct. Further comparison with mild virus type HCoV-OC43 equivalent domain demonstrates a unique potential RNA binding pocket alongside the -sheet core. Complemented by binding studies, our data provide several atomic resolution features of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein N-terminal domain, guiding the design of novel antiviral agents specific targeting to SARS-CoV-2.

Objective To evaluate the performance of an artificial intelligence ( AI ) assisted diagnosis system for diabetic retinopathy ( DR) based on deep learning theory. Methods Diagnostic performance of a robot assisted diagnosis system called SongYue for DR was trained by using 25297 retinal images tagged by fundus doctors from multiple hospitals in China. Four types of DR detection model consisting of abnormal DR,referable DR,severe non-proliferative and proliferative DR as well as proliferative DR according to fundus leisions identification were established. The ability of the system to distinguish DR was determined by using receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis,sensitivity and specificity of the system. Results SongYue system achieved an area under the ROC curve ( AUC) of 0. 920 for successfully distinguishing normal images from those DR with a sensitivity of 96. 0％at a specificity of 87. 9％. The AUC of SongYue for referable DR was 0. 925,sensitivity was 90. 4％,and specificity was 95. 2％. For severe non-proliferative and proliferative DR,AUC was 0. 845,sensitivity was 72. 7％,and specificity was 96. 2％. For proliferative DR, AUC was 0. 855, sensitivity was 73. 5％, and specificity was 97. 3％. Conclusions SongYue robot assisted diagnosis system has high AUC,sensitivity and specificity for identifying DR, showing good clinical applicable benefits.

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a rare hereditary cerebrovascular disease caused by a NOTCH3 mutation. However, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms remain unidentified. Here, we generated non-integrative induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from fibroblasts of a CADASIL patient harboring a heterozygous NOTCH3 mutation (c.3226C>T, p.R1076C). Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) differentiated from CADASIL-specific iPSCs showed gene expression changes associated with disease phenotypes, including activation of the NOTCH and NF-κB signaling pathway, cytoskeleton disorganization, and excessive cell proliferation. In comparison, these abnormalities were not observed in vascular endothelial cells (VECs) derived from the patient's iPSCs. Importantly, the abnormal upregulation of NF-κB target genes in CADASIL VSMCs was diminished by a NOTCH pathway inhibitor, providing a potential therapeutic strategy for CADASIL. Overall, using this iPSC-based disease model, our study identified clues for studying the pathogenic mechanisms of CADASIL and developing treatment strategies for this disease.

Objective: To find the differential expression profiles of circRNA in whole blood and predict its target genes in blood of patients with tuberculosis in Xinjiang, and explore the relationship between circRNA and the development of tuberculosis. Methods: The circRNAs expression in peripheral blood from 3 pulmonary tuberculosis patients and 3 healthy individuals were tested by using circRNA microarray assay. The whole blood from 43 patients with tuberculosis, 40 healthy individuals and 43 patients with pneumonia were collected to verify the results by real-time quantitative PCR system. The possibility of differentially expressed circRNA target genes were predicted by circRNA target gene prediction database. Results: In the results of microarray assay 835 circRNAs were found to be expressed differentially in whole blood between the tuberculosis patients and healthy controls of Xinjiang area, of which 249 circRNAs were up-regulated and 586 circRNAs were down-regulated in the patients. The expressions of four significantly different circRNA were verified by real time quantitative PCR and the results showed that hsa_circ_0008276, hsa_circ_0003452, hsa_circ_0001846 and hsa_circ_0090508 were down-regulated (P＜0.05), and hsa_circ_0090508 was the more specific than the other three circRNAs. The results of circRNA target genes prediction suggested that has-miR-1294, has-miR-604, has-miR-616, has-miR-663b and has-miR-486-3p may be the potential target genes of hsa_circ_0090508. Conclusion The differentially expressed circRNA hsa_circ_0090508 was significantly downregulated in the patients with tuberculosis and may affect the regulation mechanism of tuberculosis through target genes.