Objective:To investigate the clinical value of modified acute aortic dissection risk score in the early diagnosis of acute aortic dissection (AAD).Methods:The general, clinical, and imaging data of 162 patients who complained of chest and back pain who received treatment between January 2019 and January 2021 in the Department of Emergency, The Second Hospital of Jiaxing, China were collected for this study. The included patients were divided into control (non-AAD, n = 120) and observation (AAD, n = 42) groups according to whether they were diagnosed with AAD. The indexes with statistical significance between the two groups were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression analysis. A score table was established according to the size of OR value. The modified AAD risk score was predicted using the receiver operating curve. Results:Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that male sex, family history, sudden severe chest and back pain, bilateral blood pressure asymmetry, hypertension, abnormal ultrasound, and D-dimer level were independent risk factors for the diagnosis of AAD (statistical values = 7.84, 6.96, 7.04, 11.38, 7.12, 8.15, 15.07, 9.11, all P < 0.05). Taking the total score of 5 as the prediction standard, the specificity and sensitivity in the prediction of the occurrence of AAD were 84.94% and 95.43%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating curve regarding the modified AAD risk score was 0.909. Conclusion:The modified AAD risk score can be used to conveniently and quickly predict the occurrence of AAD and has a high predictive value. This study is highly innovative and scientific.

Objective: To construct the third generation chimeric antigen receptor based on a novel humanized anti-HER2 H1-2 scFv, and to investigate the specific cytotoxicity of H1-2 CAR modified T lymphocytes(CAR-T) against HER2⁺ tumor cells. Method: The expression cassette of the third generation CAR gene and anti-HER2 H1-2 scFv were constructed and cloned into lentivirus transfer plasmid, and then the third generation H1-2 CAR was transduced into human T lymphocytes using lentivirus.Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the expression of cytokines IL2, and LDH release assay was used to detect the cytotoxic effect of the H1-2 CAR-T.Finally, NOD/SCID mice and HER2⁺ breast cancer cell line SKBR3 were used to detect the anti-tumor effect of H1-2 CAR-T in vivo. Results: The third generation H1-2 CAR was successfully constructed.H1-2 CAR-T secreted high dose of IL2 after confrontation with HER2⁺ breast cancer cells.In vitro, the cytolytic rate of H1-2 CAR-T on high expression HER2⁺ tumor cells was significantly higher than that in low expression HER2 or non-expression HER2 tumor cells. At the efficacy to target ratio of 20, the cytolytic rate of H1-2 CAR-T against breast cancer cell SK-BR-3 could reach (90.1±2.8)%, while the cytolytic rate of H1-2 CAR-T against HER2^- breast cancer cell MDA-MB-231 was only (13.5±4.7)%. In the mouse xenograft tumor model, H1-2 CAR-T cells inhibited breast cancer growth in vivo.At the end of the experiments, the average tumor weight in the H1-2 CAR-T cell treatment group was (0.7±0.1) g, the non-transfected T cell therapeutic group was (1.2±0.2) g, and the PBS group was (1.2±0.2) g. There was significant difference between the H1-2 CAR-T therapeutic group and the non-transfected T cell therapeutic group (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the non-transfected T cell therapeutic group and the PBS treatment group (P>0.05). Conclusion The HER2-sepcific H1-2 CAR-T cells specifically kill HER2 positive cells, and further studies on CAR-T cells for the treatment of HER2⁺ cancers are useful.

Objective:To evaluate the feasibility of 8E5 cells and CD19-CAR-Jurkat cells used as reference cells in the detection of lentiviral vector integration sites with different methods.Methods:Single clones of 8E5 cells and CD19-CAR-Jurkat cells were selected using limiting dilution method. Digital PCR was established to detect the copy number of HIV-1 in 8E5 cells and the copy number of CAR in CD19-CAR-Jurkat cells. High-throughput sequencing techniques (whole-genome resequencing, modified genome sequencing and probe hybridization capture) were used to detect integration sites in 8E5 cells and CD19-CAR-Jurkat cells, and optical genome mapping (OGM) technology was used for further confirmation.Results:Three clones of 8E5-D8 cells and six clones of CD19-CAR-Jurkat 2-6 cells were selected using the limiting dilution method. 8E5-D8 and CD19-CAR-Jurkat 2-6 were chosen as candidate cells based on their gene copy numbers detected by digital PCR and flow cytometry. These cells were then expanded and cryopreserved. Digital PCR showed that 8E5-D8 cells contained approximately 1 copy per cell, while CD19-CAR-Jurkat 2-6 cells contained approximately 13 copies per cell. High-throughput sequencing revealed one integration site in 8E5 cells and 13 integration sites in CD19-CAR-Jurkat cells, which matched the copy number detection results. All these integration sites were further confirmed at the submicroscopic level of chromosomes using OGM.Conclusions:Based on the insertion copy numbers and integration sites, 8E5-D8 cells and CD19-CAR-Jurkat 2-6 cells could be used as reference cells in further development of methods for detecting integration sites in CAR-T cell lentiviral vectors.

Objective: To facilitate using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system in human liver and gallbladder cancer cells, we established Cas9 stably expressed human liver and gallbladder cancer cell lines, and validated the gene editing activity of Cas9. Methods: Human liver cancer cell lines (Huh7, PLC/PRF/5, HepG2, Hep3b, SK-HEP-1 and Li-7), human cholangiocarcinoma cells (RBE) and human gallbladder cancer cells (GBC-SD) were infected with 3 Cas9-expressing lentivirus vectors (pLv-EF1α-Cas9-Flag-Neo, pLv-EF1α-Cas9-Flag-Puro, Cas9m1.1), respectively, and Cas9 stably expressed colonies were screened and selected. We extracted the genomic DNA and protein, validated the stable expression of Cas9 by using genomic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blot. Three of cell lines were further infected with Lv-EF1α-mCherry. Then mCherry positive cells were sorted by flow cytometry and infected with designed guide RNA (gRNA) vectors which targeted mCherry gene. Subsequently the gene editing activity of Cas9 was detected by genomic PCR, fluorescence microscopic observation and flow cytometry analysis. Results: One hundred Cas9-expressing human liver and gallbladder cancer cell lines were selected. Among them, 35 cell lines expressed Cas9-Neo, 25 expressed Cas9-puro, and 40 expressed mutant Cas9 (mCas9). We also established 3 cell lines with stable expression of mCherry (Huh7-mCas9-M, PLC/PRF/5-Cas9-M and SK-HEP-1-Cas9-M). The results of genomic PCR and sequencing showed that by lentiviral infection with 2 types of designed gRNA, the long fragment deletion of mCherry gene was found in these 3 cell lines. Moreover, mCherry^-EGFP⁺ cells infected with 2 types of gRNA were observed by fluorescence microscope. The results of flow cytometry showed that mCherry^-EGFP⁺ cells accounted from 0.3% to 93.6%. Conclusion We successfully establish 100 human liver and gallbladder cancer cell lines with stable expression of Cas9 protein and validate their activities of gene editing.