Objective To explore risk factors for cardiac valve calcification (CVC) in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients and evaluate its impact on cardiovascular events and mortality. Methods Retrospective selection of 223 patients with MHD admitted to the Department of Nephrology of Jinshan Hospital, Fudan University from June 30, 2019 to June 30, 2024, and enrollment completed within one week of June 30, 2019. Patients were divided into CVC and non-CVC groups. Baseline data and 5-year follow-up data were collected. The binary logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the risk factors for CVC. Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to analyze the survival rate of patients. Cox proportional hazard regression model was applied to evaluate the impact of CVC on the survival rates of MHD patients. Results Totally, 223 MHD patients with an average age of (58.4±13.5) years and an average dialysis duration of (64.0±55.4) months were involved. Among them, 136(61.0%) were males, 117(52.5%) were complicated with CVC. Age, dialysis duration, diabetic kidney disease (DKD), the serum corrected total calcium and phosphate, intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH), high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP), and homocysteine (Hcy) were independent related factors for CVC (P＜0.05). Both all-cause mortality (46.6% vs 28.7%) and cardiovascular mortality (33.3% vs 16.0%) were significantly higher in the CVC group than those in the non-CVC group (P＜0.01). Conclusions Age, dialysis duration, the primary disease, calcium and phosphate, and inflammation- and nutrition-related serum indicators are associated with CVC in MHD patients. CVC significantly increases mortality risk of MHD patients.

INTRODUCTION: Lecanemab has shown promise in treating early Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its safety and efficacy in Chinese populations remain unexplored. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and 6-month clinical outcomes of lecanemab in Chinese patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild AD. METHODS: In this single-arm, real-world study, participants with MCI due to AD or mild AD received biweekly intravenous lecanemab (10 mg/kg). The study was conducted at Hainan Branch, Ruijin Hospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Patient enrollment and baseline assessments commenced in November 2023. Safety assessments included monitoring for amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) and other adverse events. Clinical and biomarker changes from baseline to 6 months were evaluated using cognitive scales (mini-mental state examination [MMSE], montreal cognitive assessment [MoCA], clinical dementia rating-sum of boxes [CDR-SB]), plasma biomarker analysis, and advanced neuroimaging. RESULTS: A total of 64 patients were enrolled in this ongoing real-world study. Safety analysis revealed predominantly mild adverse events, with infusion-related reactions (20.3%, 13/64) being the most common. Of these, 69.2% (9/13) occurred during the initial infusion and 84.6% (11/13) did not recur. ARIA-H (microhemorrhages/superficial siderosis) and ARIA-E (edema/effusion) were observed in 9.4% (6/64) and 3.1% (2/64) of participants, respectively, with only two symptomatic cases (one ARIA-E presenting with headache and one ARIA-H with visual disturbances). After 6 months of treatment, cognitive scores remained stable compared to baseline (MMSE: 22.33 ± 5.58 vs . 21.27 ± 4.30, P = 0.733; MoCA: 16.38 ± 6.67 vs . 15.90 ± 4.78, P = 0.785; CDR-SB: 2.30 ± 1.65 vs . 3.16 ± 1.72, P = 0.357), while significantly increasing plasma amyloid-β 42 (Aβ42) (+21.42%) and Aβ40 (+23.53%) levels compared to baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Lecanemab demonstrated a favorable safety profile in Chinese patients with early AD. Cognitive stability and biomarker changes over 6 months suggest potential efficacy, though high dropout rates and absence of a control group warrant cautious interpretation. These findings provide preliminary real-world evidence for lecanemab's use in China, supporting further investigation in larger controlled studies. REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT07034222.
Humans ; Alzheimer Disease/drug therapy* ; Male ; Female ; Aged ; Middle Aged ; Cognitive Dysfunction/drug therapy* ; Aged, 80 and over ; Amyloid beta-Peptides/metabolism* ; Biomarkers ; East Asian People

Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins ; Apoptosis ; Antiviral Agents/pharmacology* ; Mitochondrial Proteins ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology*

Axon initial segment (AIS) is the most excitable subcellular domain of a neuron for action potential initiation. AISs of cortical projection neurons (PNs) receive GABAergic synaptic inputs primarily from chandelier cells (ChCs), which are believed to regulate action potential generation and modulate neuronal excitability. As individual ChCs often innervate hundreds of PNs, they may alter the activity of PN ensembles and even impact the entire neural network. During postnatal development or in response to changes in network activity, the AISs and axo-axonic synapses undergo dynamic structural and functional changes that underlie the wiring, refinement, and adaptation of cortical microcircuits. Here we briefly introduce the history of ChCs and review recent research advances employing modern genetic and molecular tools. Special attention will be attributed to the plasticity of the AIS and the ChC-PN connections, which play a pivotal role in shaping the dynamic network under both physiological and pathological conditions.
Animals ; Neuronal Plasticity/physiology* ; Cerebral Cortex/cytology* ; Axons/physiology* ; Nerve Net/physiology* ; Humans ; Synapses/physiology* ; GABAergic Neurons/physiology*

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness， safety， economy， innovation， suitability and accessibility of recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis fusion protein （EC）， and to provide evidence for selecting skin detection methods for tuberculosis infection diagnosis and auxiliary diagnosis of tuberculosis. METHODS The effectiveness and safety of EC compared with purified protein derivative of tuberculin （TB-PPD） were analyzed by the method of systematic review. Cost minimization analysis， cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-utility analysis were used to evaluate the short-term economy of EC compared with TB-PPD， and cost-utility analysis was used to evaluate the long-term economy. The evaluation dimensions of innovation， suitability and accessibility were determined by systematic review and improved Delphi expert consultation， and the comprehensive score of EC and TB-PPD in each dimension were calculated by the weight of each indicator. RESULTS The scores of effectiveness， safety， economy， innovation and suitability of EC were all higher than those of TB-PPD. The affordability scores of the two drugs were consistent， while the availability score of EC was lower than those of TB-PPD. After considering dimensions and index weight， the scores of effectiveness， safety， economy， innovation， suitability， accessibility and the comprehensive score of EC were all higher than those of TB-PPD. CONCLUSIONS Compared with TB-PPD， EC performs better in all dimensions of effectiveness， safety， economy， innovation， suitability and accessibility. However， it is worth noting that EC should further improve its availability in the dimension of accessibility.

Background: and Purpose To evaluate whether the thrombus enhancement sign (TES) can be used to differentiate embolic large vessel occlusion (LVO) from in situ intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS)-related LVO in the anterior circulation of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Methods: Patients with LVO in the anterior circulation who underwent both non-contrast computed tomography (CT) and CT angiography and mechanical thrombectomy were retrospectively enrolled. Both embolic LVO (embo-LVO) and in situ ICAS-related LVO (ICAS-LVO) were confirmed by two neurointerventional radiologists after reviewing the medical and imaging data. TES was assessed to predict embo-LVO or ICAS-LVO. The associations between occlusion type and TES, along with clinical and interventional parameters, were investigated using logistic regression analysis and a receiver operating characteristic curve. Results: A total of 288 patients with AIS were included and divided into an embo-LVO group (n=235) and an ICAS-LVO group (n=53). TES was identified in 205 (71.2%) patients and was more frequently observed in those with embo-LVO, with a sensitivity of 83.8%, specificity of 84.9%, and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.844. Multivariate analysis showed that TES (odds ratio [OR], 22.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 9.4–53.8; P<0.001) and atrial fibrillation (OR, 6.6; 95% CI, 2.8–15.8; P<0.001) were independent predictors of embolic occlusion. A predictive model that included both TES and atrial fibrillation yielded a higher diagnostic ability for embo-LVO, with an AUC of 0.899. Conclusion TES is an imaging marker with high predictive value for identifying embo- and ICAS-LVO in AIS and provides guidance for endovascular reperfusion therapy.

The neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) was first found to be a membrane protein that maternal antibodies transmitted to fetuses and newborns, and also expressed in multiple organs and tissues for whole life in adults. It plays a significant role to central regulate the lifespan of immunoglobulin G and serum albumin, as well as its involvement in innate and adaptive immune responses. In modern biopharmaceuticals, FcRn is a great potential drug delivery target and a highlighted subject for current research. This paper briefly describes the basic biological properties and action mechanism of FcRn, as well as the commonly used drug carrier design strategies of FcRn, especially the functional applications of prolonging half-life, targeted drug delivery, transmembrane and antigen presentation and so on. We propose that these distribution in different tissues and the diverse biological activities may have significant implications of targeting FcRn for novel drug delivery systems and immunotherapy.

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are the most widely used method to identify genetic risk loci associated with orofacial clefts (OFC). However, despite the increasing size of cohort, GWASs are still insufficient to detect all the heritability, suggesting there are more associations under the current stringent statistical threshold. In this study, we obtained an integrated epigenomic dataset based on the chromatin conformation of a human oral epithelial cell line (HIOEC) using RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, H3K27ac ChIP-seq, and DLO Hi-C. Presumably, this epigenomic dataset could reveal the missing functional variants located in the oral epithelial cell active enhancers/promoters along with their risk target genes, despite relatively less-stringent statistical association with OFC. Taken a non-syndromic cleft palate only (NSCPO) GWAS data of the Chinese Han population as an example, 3664 SNPs that cannot reach the strict significance threshold were subjected to this functional identification pipeline. In total, 254 potential risk SNPs residing in active cis-regulatory elements interacting with 1 718 promoters of oral epithelium-expressed genes were screened. Gapped k-mer machine learning based on enhancers interacting with epithelium-expressed genes along with in vivo and in vitro reporter assays were employed as functional validation. Among all the potential SNPs, we chose and confirmed that the risk alleles of rs560789 and rs174570 reduced the epithelial-specific enhancer activity by preventing the binding of transcription factors related to epithelial development. In summary, we established chromatin conformation datasets of human oral epithelial cells and provided a framework for testing and understanding how regulatory variants impart risk for clefts.
Chromatin ; Cleft Lip/genetics* ; Cleft Palate/genetics* ; Epithelium ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Humans

China/epidemiology* ; Enterovirus ; Enterovirus A, Human ; Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease/epidemiology* ; Humans ; Infant ; Retrospective Studies ; Vaccines