T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a highly aggressive hematologic malignancy with a poor prognosis, despite advancements in treatment. Many patients struggle with relapse or refractory disease. Investigating the role of the super-enhancer (SE) regulated gene ubiquitin-specific protease 20 (USP20) in T-ALL could enhance targeted therapies and improve clinical outcomes. Analysis of histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac) chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) data from six T-ALL cell lines and seven pediatric samples identified USP20 as an SE-regulated driver gene. Utilizing the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) and BloodSpot databases, it was found that USP20 is specifically highly expressed in T-ALL. Knocking down USP20 with short hairpin RNA (shRNA) increased apoptosis and inhibited proliferation in T-ALL cells. In vivo studies showed that USP20 knockdown reduced tumor growth and improved survival. The USP20 inhibitor GSK2643943A demonstrated similar anti-tumor effects. Mass spectrometry, RNA-Seq, and immunoprecipitation revealed that USP20 interacted with hypoxia-inducible factor 1 subunit alpha (HIF1A) and stabilized it by deubiquitination. Cleavage under targets and tagmentation (CUT&Tag) results indicated that USP20 co-localized with HIF1A, jointly modulating target genes in T-ALL. This study identifies USP20 as a therapeutic target in T-ALL and suggests GSK2643943A as a potential treatment strategy.

Given the increasing concern regarding antibacterial resistance, the antimicrobial properties of naphthoquinones have recently attracted significant attention. While 1,4-naphthoquinone and its derivatives have been extensively studied, the antibacterial properties of 5,8-dihydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone derivatives remain relatively unexplored. This study presents a comprehensive in vitro and in vivo analysis of the antibacterial activity of 35 naturally sourced and chemically synthesized derivatives of 5,8-dihydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone. Kirby-Bauer antibiotic testing identified three compounds with activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), with one compound (PNP-02) demonstrating activity comparable to vancomycin in minimum inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), and time-kill assays. Microscopic and biochemical analyses revealed that PNP-02 adversely affects the cell wall and cell membrane of MRSA. Mechanistic investigations, including proteomic sequencing analyses, Western blotting, and RT-qPCR assays, indicated that PNP-02 compromises cell membrane integrity by inhibiting arginine biosynthesis and pyrimidine metabolism pathways, thereby increasing membrane permeability and inducing bacterial death. In an in vivo mouse model of skin wound healing, PNP-02 exhibited antibacterial efficacy similar to vancomycin. The compound demonstrated low toxicity to cultured human cells and in hemolysis assays and remained stable during serum incubation. These findings suggest that PNP-02 possesses promising bioactivity against MRSA and represents a potential novel antibacterial agent.
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus/genetics* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/chemistry* ; Naphthoquinones/administration & dosage* ; Animals ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Mice ; Humans ; Staphylococcal Infections/microbiology* ; Molecular Structure

Objective:To explore the optimization of the standardized assessment tool for clinical diagnosis of Chinese developmental dyslexia (DD).Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted from May to December 2023, in which 130 primary school children in grades 1 to 3 with clinical signs of literacy lag and positive screening results on the screening scales were recruited from the outpatient clinic of Child Health Care Medical Division, Shanghai Children′s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Chinese dyslexia screening behavior checklist for primary students (CDSBC) was used as the screening scales, and supplemented by dyslexia checklist for Chinese children. Referring to the standard procedure of the"expert advice on diagnosis and intervention of Chinese developmental dyslexia", the developmental dyslexia scale for standard mandarin (DDSSM) was used to evaluate the children′s literacy-related cognitive abilities and conduct the diagnostic assessment, and divided the children into learning backward group and the DD group. The t-test and χ2 test were used to compare the differences in the distribution of intelligence, literacy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder between the two groups. Spearman′s correlation was used to analyze the correlation between the scores for each cognitive ability in the DDSSM and the CDSBC. Results:Of the 130 children, 90 were male, aged (8.3±1.0) years; 40 were female, aged (8.1±0.9) years. A final diagnosis of DD was made in 59 cases, of which 41 were males. There was no statistically significant difference in operational intelligence quotient (101±15 vs.100±15, t=0.53, P>0.05) and statistically significant difference in literacy of DDSSM (32±5 vs.21±4, t=11.56, P<0.001) between the learning backward group and the DD group. Eighteen cases (25.4%) of the learning backward group were children with attention deficit subtype attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD-I), and 16 cases (27.1%) in DD group, the difference in incidence between the two groups was not statistically significant ( χ2=0.05, P>0.05). There were correlations between the DDSSM (for oral vocabulary, morphological awareness and orthographic awareness) and the CDSBC total score ( r=-0.42, -0.32, -0.35, all P<0.01), but the correlations for visuospatial perception and rapid automatized naming with CDSBC total score were not statistically significant ( r=-0.09 and -0.20,both P>0.05). Conclusion:For literacy-related cognitive abilities, screening scales CDSBC are not sufficiently useful for assessment, so the introduction of standardized assessment tools DDSSM is an optimization of the clinical diagnosis of Chinese DD, which is crucial for achieving accurate diagnosis and intervention.

Objective:To construct a traditional Chinese medicine syndrome differentiation model for tinnitus using automatic machine learning technology, and to explore the key factors that affect the results of tinnitus syndrome differentiation.Methods:The clinical characteristics of 594 patients with subjective tinnitus in seven medical units in Shanghai from January 2021 to January 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The Auto-sklearn automatic machine learning method was used to compare 15 algorithms, and the model with the best classification effect was selected to analyze the key factors affecting tinnitus.Results:The results showed that the optimal algorithm for classification results was the random forest, its accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, AUC and kappa coefficient were 87.37%, 88.34%, 89.06%, 96.63%, 88.38%, 97.50%, and 83.37%, respectively. It is concluded that the key factors affecting the classification of the pattern of kidney yin deficiency and fire effulgence, the pattern of liver fire disturbing upward, the pattern of stagnation and binding of phlegm and fire, the pattern of spleen and stomach deficiency, the pattern of wind and heat attacking the external are smooth pulse, string pulse, smooth pulse, weak tongue, and floating pulse respectively.Conclusions:Random forest can provide a good classification prediction function for structured clinical data, suggesting that machine learning technology has clinical application value in assisting the diagnosis of subjective tinnitus.

The blood brain barrier (BBB) is a physical and metabolic barrier that maintains central nervous system homeostasis and protects brain tissues from potentially hazardous circulating substances. This article reviews the biological characteristics of caludin-5 during cerebral ischemia, its role in BBB integrity and permeability, as well as the research progress of related drug therapy based on calludin-5.

Pericytes are located between capillary endothelial cells, astrocytes and neurons. They have many functions such as maintaining the integrity of blood-brain barrier and regulating cerebral blood flow. Loss of pericytes can lead to pathological processes such as brain microcirculation dysfunction and blood-brain barrier destruction, and is associated with a variety of diseases, but there are few studies on the correlation between them and cerebral small vessel disease. This article mainly reviews the role of pericytes in the pathogenesis of cerebral small vessel disease.

As an important imaging marker of cerebral small vessel disease, white matter hyperintensity is closely associated with the clinical manifestations such as cognitive impairment, gait abnormalities, and urinary incontinence. Current studies have shown that the destruction of blood-brain barrier and inflammation response are the important pathophysiological mechanisms of white matter hyperintensity. As the most common immune cell in the inflammatory response of the central nervous system, microglia activation is the key to the occurrence and development of white matter hyperintensity. This article reviews the pathophysiological mechanisms of microglia involved in brain white matter hyperintensity.

Objective:To explore the expression of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase 1(IDO-1), lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG-3) and T cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain-containing molecule 3 (TIM-3) in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), and the value of them on prognosis.Methods:From May 2014 to November 2015, 119 DTC patients (33 males, 86 females, media age: 42 years) who underwent surgical treatment in Shanghai Sixth People′s Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. The expressions of IDO-1, LAG-3 and TIM-3 in the specimens were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and the expression differences between cancer tissues and normal tissues were analyzed by χ2 test. The correlation of IDO-1, LAG-3 and TIM-3 with clinical characteristics were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The patients were followed up for 5 years, and the relationships of the progression-free survival (PFS) rate with the expressions of the three immune checkpoints were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard models. Results:The overall 5-year PFS rate for 119 DTC patients (median follow-up time: 55(2-66) months) was 76.47%(91/119). The positive expression rates of LAG-3 and TIM-3 in cancer tissues were 21.85%(26/119) and 78.15%(93/119) respectively, which were significantly higher than those in normal thyroid tissues (7.34%(8/109) and 62.39%(68/109); χ2 values: 9.43, 6.81, both P<0.05). While the positive expression rate of IDO-1 was 70.59%(84/119) in cancer tissues, which did not show a significant difference from that in normal thyroid tissues (64.22%(70/109); χ2=1.05, P>0.05). Factors associated with the positive expression of LAG-3 included tumors with a single lesion (odds ratio ( OR)=0.248, 95% CI: 0.086-0.716, P=0.010). Log-rank test ( χ2=4.96, P=0.026) and multivariate Cox regression analysis (hazard ratio ( HR)=2.239, 95% CI: 1.013-4.592, P=0.046) suggested that LAG-3 positive expression was an independent risk factor of PFS. The same analysis of TIM-3 found no clinicopathological factors related to TIM-3 positive expression ( OR: 0.309-3.084, all P>0.05) and no association between TIM-3 positive expression and PFS ( χ2=0.008, P=0.929). Conclusion:The expressions of LAG-3 and TIM-3 are significantly increased in DTC tissues, and the higher expression of LAG-3 is associated with the worse prognosis, suggesting that LAG-3 may be a potential target for immunotherapy in DTC patients.

A large number of studies have confirmed that endothelial dysfunction is one of the important pathogenesis of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). Endothelial dysfunction interacts with blood-brain barrier dysfunction, chronic cerebral hypoperfusion, oxidative stress, inflammation and other mechanisms to jointly promote the occurrence and development of CSVD. This article reviews the role of endothelial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of CSVD and its intervention strategies.

Objective Articular cartilage injury is one of the most common orthopedic diseases with high morbidity and morbidity,especially in the elderly. Articular cartilage injury causes degenerative changes of articular cartilage, such as osteoarthritis, which can lead to disability, pain during joint movement and deformation of bone and joint. The prevalence of osteoarthritis accounts for 10% ～12% of the total population in the world. It is a common disease. The prevalence of osteoarthritis has increased to 49. 7% for the elderly aged over 65 years old ( Statistics of the World Health Organization ( who) in 2010 show that with the development of social aging and obesity and other adverse factors,these figures will continue to rise. It is known that osteoarthritis is related to aging,trauma,genetic susceptibility,obesity and inflammation,but the specific cause of osteoarthritis has not been fully identified, which leads to many obstacles in clinical treatment of osteoarthritis. At present,most of the clinical and research work in this field is focused on the restoration of cartilage trauma. In this review, we summarize and discuss the methods of cartilage defect repair,as well as the hot spots and directions of future research work.