Y chromosome microdeletions are an important cause of male infertility. At present, research on the Y chromosome is mainly focused on analyzing the loss of large segments of the azoospermia factor a/b/c (AZFa/b/c) gene, and few studies have reported the impact of unit point deletion in the AZF band on fertility. This study analyzed the effect of sperm quality after sY1192 loss in 116 patients. The sY1192-independent deletion accounted for 41.4% (48/116). Eight patterns were found in the deletions associated with sY1192. The rate of sperm detection was similar in the semen of patients with the independent sY1192 deletion and the combined sY1192 deletions (52.1% vs 50.0%). The patients with only sY1192 gene loss had a higher probability of sperm detection than the patients whose sY1192 gene locus existed, but other gene loci were lost (52.1% vs 32.0%). The hormone levels were similar in patients with sY1192 deletion alone and in those with sY1192 deletion and other types of microdeletions in the presence of the sY1192 locus. After multiple intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) attempts, the pregnancy rate of spouses of men with sY1192-independent deletions was similar to that of other types of microdeletions, but the fertilization and cleavage rates were higher. We observed that eight deletion patterns were observed for sY1192 microdeletions of AZFb/c, dominated by the independent deletion of sY1192. After ICSI, the fertilization rate and cleavage rate of the sY1192-independent microdeletion were higher than those of other Y chromosome microdeletion types, but there was no significant difference in pregnancy outcomes.
Humans ; Female ; Pregnancy ; Male ; Chromosomes, Human, Y/genetics* ; Adult ; Chromosome Deletion ; Pregnancy Outcome/genetics* ; Infertility, Male/genetics* ; Spermatozoa/physiology* ; Semen Analysis ; Sex Chromosome Disorders of Sex Development/genetics* ; Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic ; Azoospermia/genetics* ; Sex Chromosome Aberrations

This article reports a child with cardioaciocutaneous syndrome (CFCS) caused by a rare microdeletion of chromosome 19p13.3, and a literature review is conducted. The child had unusual facies, short stature, delayed mental and motor development, macrocephaly, and cardiac abnormalities. Whole-exome sequencing identified a 1 040 kb heterozygous deletion in the 19p13.3 region of the child, which was rated as a "pathogenic variant". This is the first case of CFCS caused by a loss-of-function mutation reported in China, which enriches the genotype characteristics of CFCS. It is imperative to enhance the understanding of CFCS in children. Early identification based on its clinical manifestations should be pursued, and genetic testing should be performed to facilitate diagnosis.
Humans ; Chromosome Deletion ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 19/genetics* ; Ectodermal Dysplasia/genetics* ; Facies ; Failure to Thrive/genetics* ; Heart Defects, Congenital/genetics*

OBJECTIVE: To explore the synergistic effect of flumatinib (FLU) combined with histone deacetylase inhibitor chidamide (CHI) and underlying mechanism on Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph⁺ ALL) SUP-B15 cells. METHODS: CCK-8 method was used to examine the effects of FLU, CHI alone and combination therapy on the proliferation of SUP-B15 cells. Flow cytometry was utilized to analyze the cell cycle and apoptosis. RT-qPCR and Western blot methods were performed to detect target gene expression. RESULTS: FLU combined with CHI significantly inhibited the proliferation, induced G₀/G₁ phase arrest, and increased the apoptosis rate in SUP-B15 cells compared with FLU and CHI alone. The 50 genes were identified by overlapping the two drugs' targets of action with Ph⁺ ALL oncogenic genes in the public databases, and p53 and c-Myc transcription factors and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways were enriched in the overlapped genes. The combination of FLU and CHI significantly reduced the mRNA level of BCR::ABL fusion gene, up-regulated the protein and mRNA levels of p53, BAX, and Caspase-3, and down-regulated the protein and mRNA levels of c-Myc, PIK3CA, PIK3CB, and AKT2 compared with single-drug therapy. The analysis of GEO database and our center cohort showed that c-Myc, PIK3CA, PIK3CB, and AKT2 were significantly up-regulated while p53 was down-regulated in Ph⁺ ALL patients compared to healthy controls. CONCLUSION FLU combined with CHI synergistically inhibits cell proliferation, promotes apoptosis, and induces cycle arrest by targeting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway through the p53/c-Myc axis in Ph⁺ ALL.
Humans ; Aminopyridines/pharmacology* ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/drug therapy* ; Apoptosis/drug effects* ; Benzamides/pharmacology* ; Cell Proliferation/drug effects* ; Philadelphia Chromosome ; Drug Synergism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Signal Transduction ; Pyridines/pharmacology* ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases/metabolism*

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effect of Y chromosome AZFc microdeletion on pregnancy outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). METHODS: From 2016 to 2023, 6 765 cases of oligozoospermia in our hospital were selected as the research objects. The results of Y chromosome microdeletion test were retrospectively analyzed. According to the inclusion exclusion criteria and the principle of propensity distribution 1∶2, 180 patients were included in the study. Sixty patients with Y chromosome AZFc microdeletion and ICSI assisted pregnancy were enrolled into the experimental group. The other 120 patients without Y chromosome microdeletion and ICSI assisted pregnancy were included in the control group. Baseline characteristics, five male sex hormones, laboratory embryo culture and pregnancy outcomes were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in male age, female age, infertility years, gravidity and parity between the two groups (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in the five sex hormones of men (P>0.05). Except for transplantable embryos (P<0.05), there was no significant difference in other indicators in the process of embryo culture. There was no difference in pregnancy outcome indicators between the two groups except for the preterm birth rate (P<0.05). CONCLUSION ICSI assisted pregnancy with Y chromosome AZFc microdeletion has no significant effect on pregnancy outcome. And close follow-up of offspring is required.
Humans ; Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic ; Pregnancy ; Female ; Chromosomes, Human, Y ; Male ; Chromosome Deletion ; Pregnancy Outcome ; Retrospective Studies ; Sex Chromosome Disorders of Sex Development ; Sex Chromosome Aberrations ; Adult ; Infertility, Male/genetics* ; Oligospermia/genetics* ; Pregnancy Rate

BACKGROUND

Turner syndrome (TS) is the most common sex chromosomal abnormality in females resulting from a missing X chromosomal material. This in turn results in a range of clinical manifestations. This study aimed to provide the data on the cases of TS confirmed via chromosomal analysis in a cytogenetics laboratory in the Philippines as well as the role of genetic counseling.

A review of the karyotyping results of the Cytogenetics Laboratory, Institute of Human Genetics, National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippine Manila from 1991 to 2020.

TS accounted for 2.64% of all the samples received from 1991 to 2020. For 30 years, the most common karyotype in TS was the classical TS or the standard monosomy 45, X noted in 195 patients or 37.69% of all patients diagnosed with TS. Mosaicism with a normal female karyotype was noted in 50 patients (9.62%). For the TS variants, the most common is isochromosome Xq seen in 125 patients (24.04%). This is followed by TS with marker chromosome in 55 patients (10.58%) and ring X chromosome in 23 patients (4.42%). Deletion Xp and deletion Xq were noted in 22 patients (4.23%) and 20 patients (3.85%), respectively.

From this study, it can be noted that chromosomal analysis or standard karyotyping is a vital and useful diagnostic tool in TS. The information obtained from it may be useful in clinical decision-making of families and healthcare providers. Its importance in providing adequate genetic counseling cannot be overemphasized.

Chromosome karyotyping is a critical way to diagnose various hematological malignancies and genetic diseases, of which chromosome detection in raw metaphase cell images is the most critical and challenging step. In this work, focusing on the joint optimization of chromosome localization and classification, we propose ChromTR to accurately detect and classify 24 classes of chromosomes in raw metaphase cell images. ChromTR incorporates semantic feature learning and class distribution learning into a unified DETR-based detection framework. Specifically, we first propose a Semantic Feature Learning Network (SFLN) for semantic feature extraction and chromosome foreground region segmentation with object-wise supervision. Next, we construct a Semantic-Aware Transformer (SAT) with two parallel encoders and a Semantic-Aware decoder to integrate global visual and semantic features. To provide a prediction with a precise chromosome number and category distribution, a Category Distribution Reasoning Module (CDRM) is built for foreground-background objects and chromosome class distribution reasoning. We evaluate ChromTR on 1404 newly collected R-band metaphase images and the public G-band dataset AutoKary2022. Our proposed ChromTR outperforms all previous chromosome detection methods with an average precision of 92.56% in R-band chromosome detection, surpassing the baseline method by 3.02%. In a clinical test, ChromTR is also confident in tackling normal and numerically abnormal karyotypes. When extended to the chromosome enumeration task, ChromTR also demonstrates state-of-the-art performances on R-band and G-band two metaphase image datasets. Given these superior performances to other methods, our proposed method has been applied to assist clinical karyotype diagnosis.
Humans ; Metaphase ; Karyotyping/methods* ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods* ; Algorithms ; Chromosomes, Human/genetics*

The probiotic strain Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) with high biocompatibility and susceptibility to genetic modification is often applied in bacterial therapies for cancer. However, most studies have used plasmids as vectors to construct engineering strains from EcN. Plasmid-based expression systems suffer from genetic instability, and they need antibiotic selective pressure to maintain high copy number. This study aimed to employ EcN for synthesizing the photosensitizer 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA). Firstly, the key genes of 5-ALA synthesis, hemA^M and hemL, were integrated into the EcN genome by the phage integration technique. Then, chemically inducible chromosomal evolution (CIChE) was adopted to increase the copy number of hemA^M and hemL and thus improved the stable synthesis of 5-ALA. The in vitro cell experiments verified that the constructed engineering strain can deliver stably synthesized 5-ALA to tumor cells and inhibit their growth. This study provided a basis for applying the engineering strains of EcN in the photodynamic therapy for tumors.
Escherichia coli/metabolism* ; Aminolevulinic Acid/metabolism* ; Photosensitizing Agents/pharmacology* ; Plasmids/genetics* ; Chromosomes, Bacterial/genetics* ; Genetic Engineering ; Humans ; Probiotics ; Photochemotherapy

Objective: To explore the clinical, pathological, diagnostic, treatment, and prognostic features of children with mature B-cell lymphoma (MBCL) . Methods: This retrospective study included pediatric patients with MBCL with chromosome 11 long-arm abnormalities who were diagnosed and treated at our hospital from December 2018 to February 2023. Results: Among the 11 pediatric patients with MBCL, nine were male and two were female, with a median age of 9 (2-13) years and a median disease course of 1.8 (0.5-24) months. The clinical manifestations were cervical lymph node enlargement in four patients, nasal congestion and snoring in four patients, abdominal pain in two patients, and difficulty breathing in one patient. There were seven cases of Burkitt's lymphoma, two of follicular lymphoma, and two of advanced B-cell lymphoma according to the pathological morphology examination. No patients had central nervous system or bone marrow involvement, and no extensive metastasis was observed on B-ultrasound or positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT). One patient had a huge tumor lesion. The Revised International Pediatric Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Staging System classified four patients as stage Ⅱ, five as stage Ⅲ, and two as stage Ⅳ. 11q probe detection showed five cases of 11q gain, three of 11q loss, and three of both gain and loss. FISH showed positive MYC expression in three patients, including eight with advanced B-cell lymphoma with 11q abnormalities and three with Burkitt's lymphoma with 11q abnormalities. According to the 2019 edition of the National Health Commission's diagnostic and treatment guidelines for invasive MBCL in children, one patient was classified as Group A, two as Group B, and eight as Group C. Early evaluation of the efficacy showed complete remission. After mid-term evaluation, the intensity of chemotherapy was reduced in Group B and Group C. Among two cases of chemotherapy, the remaining nine cases had a median follow-up of 32 (6-45) months, and none had event-related survival. Conclusion: The incidence of MBCL with 11q abnormalities in children is low, clinical symptoms are mild, and progression is slow. The absence of MYC, BCL2, BCL6 rearrangements, C-MYC negative and 11q abnormalities on FISH is an important diagnostic indicator, and reducing the intensity of chemotherapy can improve prognosis.
Humans ; Female ; Male ; Child ; Adolescent ; Burkitt Lymphoma/genetics* ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11 ; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography ; Retrospective Studies ; Lymphoma, Follicular ; Chromosome Aberrations

Objective: To analyze the report content, the methods and results of prenatal diagnosis of high risk of sex chromosome aneuploidy (SCA) in non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). Methods: A total of 227 single pregnancy pregnant women who received genetic counseling and invasive prenatal diagnosis at Drum Tower Hospital Affiliated to the Medical School of Nanjing University from January 2015 to April 2022 due to the high risk of SCA suggested by NIPT were collected. The methods and results of prenatal diagnosis were retrospectively analyzed, and the results of chromosome karyotype analysis and chromosome microarray analysis (CMA) were compared. The relationship between NIPT screening and invasive prenatal diagnosis was analyzed. Results: (1) Prenatal diagnosis methods for 277 SCA high risk pregnant women included 73 cases of karyotyping, 41 cases of CMA and 163 cases of karyotyping combined with CMA, of which one case conducted amniocentesis secondly for further fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) testing. Results of invasive prenatal diagnosis were normal in 166 cases (59.9%, 166/277), and the abnormal results including one case of 45,X (0.4%, 1/277), 18 cases of 47,XXX (6.5%, 18/277), 36 cases of 47,XXY (13.0%, 36/277), 20 cases of 47,XYY (7.2%, 20/277), 1 case of 48,XXXX (0.4%, 1/277), 20 cases of mosaic SCA (7.2%, 20/277), 5 cases of sex chromosome structural abnormality or large segment abnormality (1.8%, 5/277), and 10 cases of other abnormalities [3.6%, 10/277; including 9 cases of copy number variation (CNV) and 1 case of balanced translocation]. Positive predictive value (PPV) for SCA screening by NIPT was 34.7% (96/277). (2) Among the 163 cases tested by karyotyping combined with CMA, 11 cases (6.7%, 11/163) showed inconsistent results by both methods, including 5 cases of mosaic SCA, 1 case of additional balanced translocation detected by karyotyping and 5 cases of additional CNV detected by CMA. (3) NIPT screening reports included 149 cases of "sex chromosome aneuploidy"(53.8%, 149/277), 54 cases of "number of sex chromosome increased" (19.5%, 54/277), and 74 cases of "number of sex chromosome or X chromosome decreased" (26.7%, 74/277). The PPV of "number of sex chromosome increased" and "number of sex chromosome or X chromosome decreased" were 72.2% (39/54) and 18.9% (14/74), respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (χ²=34.56, P<0.01). Conclusions: NIPT could be served as an important prenatal screening technique of SCA, especially for trisomy and mosaicism, but the PPV is comparatively low. More information of NIPT such as the specific SCA or maternal SCA might help improving the confidence of genetic counseling and thus guide clinic management. Multi technology platforms including karyotyping, CMA and FISH could be considered in the diagnosis of high risk of SCA by NIPT.
Female ; Pregnancy ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; DNA Copy Number Variations ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence ; Aneuploidy ; Prenatal Diagnosis/methods* ; Sex Chromosome Aberrations ; Sex Chromosomes/genetics*

Humans ; Staphylococcus lugdunensis/genetics* ; Peptides, Cyclic ; Chromosomes ; Operon/genetics* ; Staphylococcal Infections/genetics* ; Bacterial Proteins/genetics* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents