Objective:To analyze the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination on virus mutation.Methods:The whole genome sequencing sequences of 2 659 local SARS-CoV-2 specimens from Jiangsu Province in 2023 were selected for analysis, and relevant information such as demographic and clinical characteristics were collected, and the effects of infection and vaccination on the genome-wide mutation rate and S gene′s selective pressure of the virus were analyzed by univariate and multivariate linear regression models.Results:The average age of these infected patients was 55.0 (31.0, 74.0) years, 1 150 cases (43.2%) in the age group of ≥60 years, 1 367 cases (51.4%) were males, 2 044 cases (76.9%) had a history of COVID-19 vaccination, and 1 629 cases (61.3%) had the first-time infection. The clinical symptoms of the infected patients were mainly mild, with a total of 2434 cases (91.5%), and 29 cases (1.1%) with severe symptoms or more. The average substitution rate of SARS-CoV-2 was 9.69 (9.38, 9.98)×10 -4 subs/site/year, and the dN/dS value of the S gene was 6.08 (5.56, 8.66), which was significantly greater than that of 1 ( P<0.001), indicating positive selection. The result of univariate and multivariate linear regression model analysis showed that the SARS-CoV-2 substitution rate was higher in those with vaccination history and reinfection, aged 20-30 years, ≥60 years, and the SARS-CoV-2 substitution rate was lower in males with moderate clinical symptoms and severe disease and above. Those with a history of vaccination and reinfection, aged 50-60 years old, ≥60 years old have smaller S gene dN/dS. Conclusions:Under the immune pressure exerted by vaccination and infection, the genome-wide mutation of SARS-COV-2 accelerated, but the non-synonymous mutation rate of the S gene decreased. The mechanism causing these phenomena needs further study.

The aim of this study was to explore the impact of chronic apical periodontitis(CAP)on atherosclerosis in apoE-/-mice fed high-fat diet(HFD).This investigation focused on the gut microbiota,metabolites,and intestinal barrier function to uncover potential links between oral health and cardiovascular disease(CVD).In this study,CAP was shown to exacerbate atherosclerosis in HFD-fed apoE-/-mice,as evidenced by the increase in plaque size and volume in the aortic walls observed via Oil Red O staining.16S rRNA sequencing revealed significant alterations in the gut microbiota,with harmful bacterial species thriving while beneficial species declining.Metabolomic profiling indicated disruptions in lipid metabolism and primary bile acid synthesis,leading to elevated levels of taurochenodeoxycholic acid(TCDCA),taurocholic acid(TCA),and tauroursodeoxycholic acid(TDCA).These metabolic shifts may contribute to atherosclerosis development.Furthermore,impaired intestinal barrier function,characterized by reduced mucin expression and disrupted tight junction proteins,was observed.The increased intestinal permeability observed was positively correlated with the severity of atherosclerotic lesions,highlighting the importance of the intestinal barrier in cardiovascular health.In conclusion,this research underscores the intricate interplay among oral health,gut microbiota composition,metabolite profiles,and CVD incidence.These findings emphasize the importance of maintaining good oral hygiene as a potential preventive measure against cardiovascular issues,as well as the need for further investigations into the intricate mechanisms linking oral health,gut microbiota,and metabolic pathways in CVD development.

Objective:The degree of involvement of extraocular muscles varies across different regions of retrobulbar tissue in patients with thyroid eye disease, but the mechanism is unclear. This study aims to explore the relationship between differential expression of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor(TSHR) in different parts of the extraocular muscles and the varying degrees of muscle involvement.Methods:The medial, lateral, superior, and inferior rectus muscle were separated from the retrobulbar tissue of rats, and the expression level of TSHR in four extraocular muscles was detected by immunofluorescence and qPCR. Extraocular muscle tissue of patients with strabismus was collected to detect the expression of TSHR and the cell types expressed by fluorescence.Results:The results of qPCR showed that the expression of TSHR in the medial rectus muscle was significantly higher than that in the lateral, superior, and inferior rectus muscle(medial rectus vs lateral rectus, P=0.012; medial rectus vs superior rectus, P=0.015; medial rectus vs inferior rectus, P=0.013), but there was no difference in insulin-like growth factor 1(IGF-1R) expression. Immunofluorescence showed that TSHR was co-expressed with PAX7, a molecular marker of muscle satellite cells, and the expression level in the medial rectus muscle of rats and humans was significantly higher than those in the other three extraocular muscles. Conclusion:The high specific expression of TSHR in the satellite cells of the medial rectus muscle may be the reason why the medial rectus muscle is most susceptible to involvement in thyroid eye disease.

Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death that depends on iron and reactive oxygen spe-cies.Different from apoptosis,necrosis,and autophagy,ferroptosis is characterized by the accumulation of lipid peroxides in cells.Studies have discovered that ferroptosis is closely associated with the occurrence and develop-ment of tumors and inducing ferroptosis in tumor cells can enhance the therapeutic effects of drugs on tumors.This article summarizes the latest research progress in ferroptosis regarding its mechanisms and associations with tumors,aiming to provide a reference for further understanding the interaction mechanisms between ferroptosis and tumors and offering new insights and targets for the treatment of tumors.

Myeloid sarcoma (MS) is a tumor mass formed by the proliferation of one or more myeloid primitive cells outside the marrow, which is mostly related to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). It is reported that 2.5% to 9.1% of AML patients have MS, and AML with spinal canal MS is very rare. Spinal canal MS often has an acute onset and is difficult to diagnose. It is easy to cause missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis, which will lead to a delay in accurate diagnosis seriously affecting the treatment and quality of life among these patients. The clinical data, diagnosis and treatment process of a case of MS with multiple space occupying lesions in the spinal canal diagnosed and treated by the Department of Hematology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital are reported, in order to provide reference for clinical workers.

Periodontitis is the most widespread oral disease and is closely related to the oral microbiota. The oral microbiota is adversely affected by some pharmacologic treatments. Systemic antibiotics are widely used for infectious diseases but can lead to gut dysbiosis, causing negative effects on the human body. Whether systemic antibiotic-induced gut dysbiosis can affect the oral microbiota or even periodontitis has not yet been addressed. In this research, mice were exposed to drinking water containing a cocktail of four antibiotics to explore how systemic antibiotics affect microbiota pathogenicity and oral bone loss. The results demonstrated, for the first time, that gut dysbiosis caused by long-term use of antibiotics can disturb the oral microbiota and aggravate periodontitis. Moreover, the expression of cytokines related to Th17 was increased while transcription factors and cytokines related to Treg were decreased in the periodontal tissue. Fecal microbiota transplantation with normal mice feces restored the gut microbiota and barrier, decreased the pathogenicity of the oral microbiota, reversed the Th17/Treg imbalance in periodontal tissue, and alleviated alveolar bone loss. This study highlights the potential adverse effects of long-term systemic antibiotics-induced gut dysbiosis on the oral microbiota and periodontitis. A Th17/Treg imbalance might be related to this relationship. Importantly, these results reveal that the periodontal condition of patients should be assessed regularly when using systemic antibiotics in clinical practice.
Humans ; Mice ; Animals ; Dysbiosis ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology* ; Virulence ; Microbiota ; Periodontitis/chemically induced* ; Cytokines

Obstructive sleep apnea （OSA） is a sleep disorder with a slow course and is often accompanied by multiple serious complications， having highly consistent pathogenic characteristics with the latent pathogen. By exploreing its pathogenesis and treatment based on the latent pathogen theory in traditional Chinese medicine， it is believed that congenital healthy qi deficiency is the root， while internal latent phlegm and stasis is the branch， and external pathogenic seven emotions are causing factors. In terms of treatment， it is necessary to target at root deficiency and use nourishing medicinals according to depletion degree of lungs， spleen， and kidneys. When protecting the healthy qi， it is important to prevent the generation and inducing of latent pathogen. Simultaneously， it is also critical to put focus on phlegm stasis by clearing existing latent pathogens with medicinals having the function of dissolving phlegm and dispelling stasis， as well as regulating liver and lung qi. All these are expected to provide new ideas and methods for the treatment of OSA patients in clinical practice.

Objective:To evaluate the detection ability of two kinds of high-throughput method to determine neutralizing antibodies based on a microneutralization test (MNT).Methods:Serum samples were collected from the early phase and follow-up period (117 samples in total) for neutralizing antibody testing. They were tested using MNT, pseudovirus neutralization assay (PBNA), competitive inhibition assay (including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA)) to evaluate the correlation coefficients and threshold values for the effectiveness of these high-throughput neutralizing antibody assays.Results:The correlation coefficients for PBNA, ELISA, and CLIA relative to MNT were 0.760, 0.778, and 0.725, respectively, for individuals infected with 2019-nCoV. The area under the ROC curve was 0.901 for a cutoff value of 50 for the PBNA assay, 0.934 for a cutoff value of 1∶8 for the ELISA assay and 0.838 for a cutoff value of 1.28AU/ml for the CLIA assay when the threshold value for the microneutralization test was taken as 1: 10 (less than 1: 10 is considered negative).Conclusions:The high-throughput method for the detection of COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies are scientific and feasible, and provide an important technical tool for the regular prevention and control of the epidemic.

Periodontitis is a widespread oral disease characterized by continuous inflammation of the periodontal tissue and an irreversible alveolar bone loss, which eventually leads to tooth loss. Four-octyl itaconate (4-OI) is a cell-permeable itaconate derivative and has been recognized as a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Here, we explored, for the first time, the protective effect of 4-OI on inhibiting periodontal destruction, ameliorating local inflammation, and the underlying mechanism in periodontitis. Here we showed that 4-OI treatment ameliorates inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide in the periodontal microenvironment. 4-OI can also significantly alleviate inflammation and alveolar bone loss via Nrf2 activation as observed on samples from experimental periodontitis in the C57BL/6 mice. This was further confirmed as silencing Nrf2 blocked the antioxidant effect of 4-OI by downregulating the expression of downstream antioxidant enzymes. Additionally, molecular docking simulation indicated the possible mechanism under Nrf2 activation. Also, in Nrf2^-/- mice, 4-OI treatment did not protect against alveolar bone dysfunction due to induced periodontitis, which underlined the importance of the Nrf2 in 4-OI mediated periodontitis treatment. Our results indicated that 4-OI attenuates inflammation and oxidative stress via disassociation of KEAP1-Nrf2 and activation of Nrf2 signaling cascade. Taken together, local administration of 4-OI offers clinical potential to inhibit periodontal destruction, ameliorate local inflammation for more predictable periodontitis.
Alveolar Bone Loss/prevention & control* ; Animals ; Antioxidants/pharmacology* ; Inflammation ; Kelch-Like ECH-Associated Protein 1/metabolism* ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Molecular Docking Simulation ; NF-E2-Related Factor 2/metabolism* ; Periodontitis/prevention & control* ; Succinates

Objective:To summarize the clinical features of neuroblastoma (NB) with bone metastasis in infants and the prognostic factors.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on 32 patients aged ≤12 months who were enrolled in Beijing Children′s Hospital, Capital Medical University from January 2010 to December 2019 and had imaging findings suggesting signs of distant bone metastasis.The control group was included NB children, aged ≤12 months, who were admitted to Beijing Children′s Hospital, Capital Medical University during the same period, without signs of distant bone destruction.The clinical manifestations and auxiliary examinations of infants with bone metastasis were summarized, and the efficacy evaluation and survival analysis of infants with regular treatment and follow-up were conducted until December 31, 2020. Kaplan- Meier survival analysis was used for prognostic analysis, and Log Rank test was used for univariate prognostic analysis. Results:There were 32 NB infants with bone metastases, involving 12 males (37.5%) and 20 females (62.5%), accounting for 16.0% (32/200 cases) of infants diagnosed with NB du-ring the same period.The median age of onset was 9 (4.5-12.0) months.The main primary site included the retroperitoneal and adrenal region in 24 cases(75.0%) and mediastinum in 3 cases (9.4%). Among the 32 cases, 14 cases (43.8%) had simple bone metastasis, 19 cases (59.4%) had distant lymph nodes, 18 cases (56.3%) had bone marrow, and 3 cases (9.4%) had intracranial and meningeal metastasis.Bone metastasis mainly occurred in the skull, with 11 cases of single bone metastases and the remaining with 2 or more bone metastases.Compared with 168 NB infants without bone metastasis, the prognosis of those with bone metastasis was significantly worse [3-year overall survival(OS) rate 97.6% vs.82.7%, P=0.001]. Univariate analysis showed that the prognosis of NB children with bone marrow metastasis, meningeal and intracranial metastasis, MYCN gene amplification, and high-risk group was poor (all P<0.05). Two patients returned to the local hospital for treatment after diagnosis.A total of 30 children were recruited for efficacy evaluation and prognostic analysis.Twenty-nine children underwent surgery, of which 6 cases received surgery before chemotherapy and 23 cases received surgery after chemotherapy.One case received chemotherapy only.The mean course of chemotherapy was 6.2 (4-13) times.One case was treated with radiotherapy, 1 case was treated with Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) therapy, and 1 case was treated with stem cell transplantation.A total of 18 cases (62.1%) event-free survived, and 12 cases (40.0%) had a mean event at 7 (1.5-32.0) months.Among them, 7 cases survived and 5 cases died (16.7%). The expected 3-year event-free survival rate and OS rate were 57.1% and 82.7%, respectively. Conclusions:The most common sites of infant NB metastasis are bone and bone marrow, and the most common sites of bone metastasis are skull.Infants with bone metastasis had a worse prognosis than those without bone metastasis, and infants with bone and bone marrow metastasis had a worse prognosis than infants with single bone metastasis.