ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the intervention effect of Renqing Mangjue on the malignant transformation of gastric mucosal epithelial cells induced by N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine （MNNG） and to explore its molecular mechanism in preventing precancerous lesions of gastric cancer based on the cyclic guanosine monophosphate （cGMP）/protein kinase G （PKG）/mitogen-activated protein kinase （MEK）/extracellular signal-regulated kinase （ERK） signaling pathway. MethodsHuman gastric mucosal epithelial cells （GES-1） were initially induced by MNNG to establish a precancerous cell model （MC cells）. The effective concentration of MNNG for inducing malignant transformation in GES-1 cells was screened using the cell proliferation activity decection （CCK-8） assay， and the effective concentration of Renqing Mangjue for inhibiting the proliferation of transformed GES-1 cells was also determined. GES-1 cells were divided into a blank control group， a model group， and treatment groups with Renqing Mangjue at concentrations of 1， 3， 10， and 30 mg·L^-1. Furthermore， the effects of Renqing Mangjue on the migratory ability and epithelial-mesenchymal transition （EMT） characteristics of GES-1 malignant transformed cells were evaluated using Transwell migration assays， wound healing assays， and real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction （Real-time PCR）. Additionally， candidate chemical components and target sites of Renqing Mangjue were obtained from the TCMIP v2.0 database， and disease targets at various stages of gastric cancer precursors were sourced from the Gene Expression Omnibus （GEO） database. Pathway enrichment analysis was performed using the Metascape database to predict the potential mechanisms of action of Renqing Mangjue. Finally， the protective mechanism of Renqing Mangjue against gastric cancer precursors was validated through Western blot analysis. ResultsAt a concentration of 20 μmol·L^-1， MNNG exhibited an inhibition rate of approximately 50% on GES-1 cells （P<0.01）， and at this concentration， the GES-1 cells displayed biological characteristics indicative of malignant transformation. In contrast， Renqing Mangjue had no significant effect on the proliferation of normal GES-1 cells， but significantly inhibited the proliferation of MC cells （P<0.01） and markedly reduced their migratory capacity （P<0.01）. Moreover， it also increased the mRNA expression level of E-cadherin during the EMT process （P<0.05）， while inhibiting the expression of both N-cadherin and the transcription factor Snail mRNA （P<0.05， P<0.01）. Network predictions suggested that Renqing Mangjue may prevent gastric cancer precursors through modulating the cGMP/PKG and MAPK/ERK signaling pathways. Furthermore， Western blot results indicated that Renqing Mangjue upregulated the expression of PKG and NPRB （B-type natriuretic peptide receptor） proteins in the cGMP/PKG pathway （P<0.01）， while downregulating the expression of the downstream proteins MEK and ERK （P<0.05， P<0.01）. ConclusionIn summary， Renqing Mangjue can prevent gastric cancer precursors by inhibiting the proliferation and migration of malignant transformed GES-1 cells， thereby delaying the EMT process. The underlying mechanisms may be related to the activation of the cGMP/PKG pathway and the inhibition of the MEK/ERK signaling pathway.

The diagnosis of hematological disorders is currently established from the combined results of different tests, including those assessing morphology (M), immunophenotype (I), cytogenetics (C), and molecular biology (M) (collectively known as the MICM classification). In this workflow, most of the results are interpreted manually (i.e., by a human, without automation), which is expertise-dependent, labor-intensive, time-consuming, and with inherent interobserver variability. Also, with advances in instruments and technologies, the data is gaining higher dimensionality and throughput, making additional challenges for manual analysis. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a promising tool in clinical hematology to ensure timely diagnosis, precise risk stratification, and treatment success. In this review, we summarize the current advances, limitations, and challenges of AI models and raise potential strategies for improving their performance in each sector of the MICM pipeline. Finally, we share perspectives, highlight future directions, and call for extensive interdisciplinary cooperation to perfect AI with wise human-level strategies and promote its integration into the clinical workflow.

Objective:To explore the clinical phenotype and genetic variant in a Chinese pedigree affected with Hunter syndrome and create immortalized cell lines for the affected pedigree members.Methods:A pedigree of six members who had visited Xi′an Children′s Hospital in July 2022 was selected as the study subject. Clinical data was collected. Whole exome sequencing was carried out for the pedigree members. Candidate variant was verified by Sanger sequencing. In addition, peripheral B lymphocytes were transfected with Epstein-Barr virus to create immortalized cell lines, which were then subjected to enzyme activity analysis.Results:The patient, a five-year-and-seven-month-old boy, had exhibited stiff limbs and enlarged joints. He had developed hernia, scaphocephaly, and barrel chest from 3 months of age. His uncle also had stiff limbs, poor hearing, blindness, and right oblique inguinal hernia. Above features had resembled those of Hunter syndrome. Genetic testing revealed that both the child and his uncle had harbored an IDS (NM_000202.8): c. 823G>A (p.D275N) variant, which was unreported previously. Bioinformatic analysis indicated that the D275 to be a highly conserved site, and the D275N variant may affect the stability of the protein′s spatial conformation, thereby decrease the catalytic activity of the enzyme. The successfully constructed immortalized lymphoblastoid cell lines for the child and his parents showed increased volume, irregular shape, burr structure and cluster growth. And the value of IDS activity of the patient′s immortalized lymphoblastoid cells was below the limit of detection. Based on the guidelines from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), the variant was classified as likely pathogenic (PS3+ PM2_Supporting+ PM5+ PP1+ PP3). Conclusion:Above finding has enriched the phenotypic and mutational spectra of Hunter syndrome, and provided a basis for the genetic counseling for this pedigree. The creation of immortalized cell lines has offered a model for further investigation of the impact of variant on the function of IDS and development of targeted drugs.

Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics of a child with Congenital disorder of glycosylation due to compound heterozygous variants of COG6 gene ( COG6-CDG). Methods:A child who was admitted to Xi′an Children′s Hospital on January 10, 2023 was selected as the study subject. Clinical data were collected. Pathogenic variants were analyzed by whole exome sequencing, and candidate variants were verified by Sanger sequencing, in vitro experiments and bioinformatic analysis. This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Xi′an Children′s Hospital (No. 20230101). Results:The child, a 1-month-8-day-old male, was admitted for diarrhea and weight loss for one month. He had presented with cholestasis, diarrhea, facial dysmorphism, poor response, bilateral Simian crease, and brain atrophy. After discharge, he had continued to have high fever, feeding difficulty, and deceased finally. Whole exome sequencing results showed that he had harbored compound heterozygous variants of the COG6 gene, namely c. 807delT (p.F269Lfs*37) and c. 1746+ 1G>C (p.Gly565_Met582del). Sanger sequencing verified that the variants were inherited from his father and mother, respectively. In vitro experiments verified that the c. 1746+ 1G>C variant could affect the mRNA splicing and produce a truncated protein, whilst the c. 807delT variant could significantly reduce gene expression at both mRNA and protein levels. Based on the guidelines from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics and the Association for Molecular Pathology (ACMG-AMP), the variants were classified as pathogenic (PVS1+ PM3+ PM2_Supporting) and likely pathogenic (PVS1+ PM2_Supporting), respectively. Conclusion:The c. 807delT (p.F269Lfs*37) and c. 1746+ 1G>C (p.Gly565_Met582del) compound heterozygous variants of the COG6 gene probably underlay the pathogenesis of this child. Above finding has enriched the mutational spectrum of COG6-CDG and provided a basis for the genetic counseling for this family.

Objective To explore the clinical efficacy of two procedures in thoracoscopic anterior mediastinal tumor resection. Methods A retrospective study was conducted on patients who underwent thoracoscopic anterior mediastinal tumor resection at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, the 910th Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force from October 2016 to January 2024. Patients were divided into two groups according to the surgical approach: a modified approach group (bilateral intercostal ports+two subcostal ports) and a classic subxiphoid approach group (one subxiphoid port+two subcostal ports). Perioperative data and postoperative improvement of myasthenia gravis (MG) subgroup were compared between the two groups. Results A total of 55 patients were included, including 27 males and 28 females with a mean age of (49.4±15.1) years. There were 23 patients in the modified approach group and 32 patients in the classic subxiphoid approach group. The modified approach group had shorter operation time [(129.0±20.5) min vs. (148.9±16.7) min, P<0.001], less intraoperative blood loss [(63.0±16.6) mL vs. (75.0±10.8) mL, P<0.001], shorter postoperative drainage tube removal time [(3.1±0.4) d vs. (3.9±0.6) d, P<0.001] and shorter postoperative hospital stay [(4.2±0.4) d vs. (5.0±0.6) d, P<0.001), and lower proportion of intraoperative cardiac dysfunction [4 (17.4%) vs. 14 (43.8%), P=0.040]. There was no statistical difference in maximum diameter of tumor resected [(4.5±1.7) cm vs. (4.0±0.9) cm, P=0.193] and postoperative drainage volume [(396.4±121.5) mL vs. (399.9±161.3) mL, P=0.932]. There was 1 patient of perioperative collateral injury in the modified approach group (pericardial injury), and 6 patients in the classic subxiphoid approach group (1 patient of diaphragm injury, 1 patient of liver contusion, 4 patients of pericardial injury). There was no statistical difference in pain scores at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after surgery (P>0.05). The postoperative improvement of MG symptoms in the modified approach group was better than that in the classic subxiphoid approach group at 1 year after surgery (complete stable remission rate: 77.8% vs. 50.0%; effective rate: 100.0% vs. 91.6%). No conversion to open chest surgery occurred in either group, and there were no postoperative rehospitalizations or deaths related to surgery within 30 days after surgery in both groups. Conclusion The modified approach is safe and controllable with more open surgical field and more reliable complete resection range than the classic subxiphoid approach group.

Objective:To analyze the gene variants of a patient affected with Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy in a pedigree and further explore the genotype-phenotype correlation for providing basis for family genetic counseling.Methods:The clinical features and family history of family members were collected.Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification(MLPA)was utilized to detect copy number variation of target genes.The pathogenic variations were ana-lyzed by whole exome sequencing(WES).The suspected gene variations were verified by Sanger sequencing.For the splice site mutations,mini-gene was constructed and expressed in vitro to detect the number of transcript and cDNA se-quence.Results:The proband of this family is a male,with no obvious involvement of the lower limbs.Laboratory tests showed an elevated level of creatine kinase(CK)in peripheral blood(700-1600 U/L),and electromyography showed myogenic damage.MLPA did not detect pathogenic exon copy number variation in dystrophin(DMD)gene.Genetic testing showed the proband carried a maternal hemizygotic splicing variation of DMD gene(NM_004006.2):c.2622+2T＞C.An in vitro mini-gene splicing assay confirmed that this splicing mutation could affect RNA splicing.According to clinical features and genetic testing results,the proband was speculated first proof of Duchenne/Becker muscular dys-trophy(DMD/BMD)caused by DMD gene mutation.Conclusion:This study identified the pathogenic variation of a proband with DMD/BMD of DMD gene,which enriched the variation spectrum of DMD/BMD in China.It was con-firmed that the splicing variation of the DMD gene c.2622+2T＞C can produce multiple transcripts leading to different functional impairments,and based on the specificity of temporal and spatial expression,it corresponded to the mild clin-ical manifestations of the patient,providing some reference value for the correlation between genotype and phenotype.

Objective:To analyze the functional differences between virus-specific CD4 +T cells and CD8 +T cells in patients infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) who develop liver injury and those who do not. Methods:45 cases of EBV infections were enrolled, including 28 cases developing liver injuries and 17 that did not. Mononuclear cells from peripheral blood were isolated. CD4 +T cells and CD8 +T cells were purified and cultured using recombinant EBV core antigen 2 (EBNA2) for 96 h with stimulation. The CCK-8 method was used to detect cell proliferation. Flow cytometry was used to detect the proportion of CD4 +T cells and CD8 +T cells. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the levels of CD4 +T cells secreting cytokines and CD8 +T cells secreting molecular toxicity. Real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect the mRNA levels of transcription factors and molecular toxicity in CD4 +T cell subsets. Flow cytometry was used to detect the immune checkpoints at molecular levels in CD8 +T cells. The inter-group comparison was performed using a t-test or Mann-Whitney test. Results:There was no statistically significant difference ( P > 0.05) in the proliferation proportion of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, CD4 +T cells, and CD8 +T cells after stimulation with recombinant EBNA2 between the EBV-infected non-liver injury group and the infected liver injury group ( P > 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of CD4 +T cells secreting related cytokines and the mRNA levels of transcription factors after stimulation with recombinant EBNA2 between the EBV-infected non-liver injury group and the infected liver injury group ( P > 0.05).The levels of perforin secreted by CD8 +T cells and granzyme B after stimulation with recombinant EBNA2 were higher in the EBV infection-induced liver injury group than those in the non-liver injury group [(75.51±23.33) pg/ml vs. (58.99±18.39) pg/ml, P = 0.017] [(117.8±44.55) pg/ml vs. (90.22±34.21) pg/ml, P = 0.034]. The mRNA levels of Fas ligand and tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand in CD8 +T cells in the liver injury group caused by EBV infection were approximately 1.5 and 1.2 times higher than those in the non-liver injury group, respectively, and the difference was statistically significant ( P < 0.001), but there was no statistically significant difference in the proportional expression of programmed cell death-1 and cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 in CD8 +T cells between the EBV-infected non-liver injury group and infected liver injury group ( P > 0.05) Conclusion:Patients with liver injury caused by EBV infection have strong virus-specific CD8 + T cell toxic effects, which may mediate EBV-induced liver injury.

Megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts (MLC, OMIN: 604004) caused by mutations in the MLC1 gene, is an rare autosomal recessive disorder. More patients are with infancy and young children onset, whereas adult cases are rare. Only 2 patients from 1 family have been reported in domestic adult cases. Now a 58-year-old female MLC patient is reported. The clinical manifestations of the patient included large head circumference, slow responses, walking difficulties, seizures and paroxysmal loss of consciousness. The result of whole exome sequencing revealed a homozygous insertion mutation c.920_943dup in the MLC1 gene. The mutation in this patient has not been reported in the Human Gene Mutation Database.

In clinical, manually scoring by technician is the major method for sleep arousal detection. This method is time-consuming and subjective. This study aimed to achieve an end-to-end sleep-arousal events detection by constructing a convolutional neural network based on multi-scale convolutional layers and self-attention mechanism, and using 1 min single-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) signals as its input. Compared with the performance of the baseline model, the results of the proposed method showed that the mean area under the precision-recall curve and area under the receiver operating characteristic were both improved by 7%. Furthermore, we also compared the effects of single modality and multi-modality on the performance of the proposed model. The results revealed the power of single-channel EEG signals in automatic sleep arousal detection. However, the simple combination of multi-modality signals may be counterproductive to the improvement of model performance. Finally, we also explored the scalability of the proposed model and transferred the model into the automated sleep staging task in the same dataset. The average accuracy of 73% also suggested the power of the proposed method in task transferring. This study provides a potential solution for the development of portable sleep monitoring and paves a way for the automatic sleep data analysis using the transfer learning method.
Sleep ; Sleep Stages ; Arousal ; Data Analysis ; Electroencephalography

ObjectiveTo investigate the intervention effect of Qufeng Gutong Babu ointment （QFGT） on rats with osteoarthritis （OA） with cold-dampness obstruction， and preliminarily clarify its mechanism. MethodSD male rats were divided into 6 groups， namely， the blank group， model group， positive control drug Huoxue Zhitong ointment （HXZTG） group （1.26 cm²·d^-1）， and low， medium， and high-dose QFGT group （75， 150， 300 mg·d^-1）. OA model was prepared by joint cavity injection of papain and L-cysteine. On the second day of modeling， climate factors were applied to establish an animal model of combination of disease and syndrome of OA rats with cold-dampness obstruction. Standard VonFrey fiber was used to evaluate the threshold of mechanical pain. Weight bearing difference score and joint function score of both hind limbs were recorded. Hematoxylin-eosin （HE） staining and safranine fixation green staining were used to observe the pathological changes and cartilage degeneration of rat knee joint. Immunohistochemistry （IHC） was used to detect the expression of interleukin-1β （IL-1β）， interleukin-8 （IL-8）， tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α）， matrix metalloproteinase-9 （MMP-9）， and cathepsin K （CTSK）. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of kinase B （Akt）， phosphorylated protein kinase B （p-Akt）， phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase （PI3K）， nuclear factor 1 （NFATc1）， MMP-9， and CTSK in T cells. ResultCompared with the normal group， the model group showed significant mechanical pain sensitivity reaction after modeling （P<0.01）， and the weight bearing difference of both hind limbs and joint function score were significantly increased （P<0.05， P<0.01）. Compared with the model group， both the high-dose QFGT group and the HXZTG group significantly reduced the mechanical pain sensitivity， weight difference， and joint function score of rats （P<0.05， P<0.01）， and the medium-dose QFGT group also improved the joint function to a certain extent， and the degeneration of the knee joint cartilage of rats was significantly reduced （P<0.05， P<0.01）. QFGT and HXZTG both inhibited the protein expression of IL-1β， IL-8， TNF-α， MMP-9， CTAK， PI3K， p-Akt， Akt， and other related proteins in articular cartilage of rats with OA to a certain extent （P<0.05， P<0.01）. ConclusionQFGT can inhibit the release of inflammatory factors and matrix metalloproteinases by inhibiting the PI3K/Akt signal pathway in articular articular cartilage of rats with OA with cold-dampness obstruction， thus ultimately weakening local cartilage degeneration and improving joint function.