Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as the predominant histological subtype of lung cancer, accounts for approximately 85% of all lung cancer cases. In recent years, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), represented by programmed death 1/programmed death ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitors, have achieved breakthrough advancements in patients with driver gene-negative NSCLC. They have been established as a key component of first-line treatment regimens and have significantly improved clinical outcomes. However, limited clinical evidence has emerged showing the phenomenon of histological transformation from NSCLC to small cell lung cancer (SCLC) in patients experiencing disease progression after ICIs monotherapy or combination therapy. Systematic research data on the clinical characteristics, molecular biological basis, and subsequent treatment strategies for such transformation events are currently lacking. This article reports a case of SCLC transformation occurring in a patient with KRAS-mutated lung adenocarcinoma after 16 months of ICIs combination therapy and provides a systematic review of 22 similar published cases. The study demonstrates that small cell transformation is a critical mechanism of immunotherapy resistance, and transformed patients exhibit poor prognosis. The research emphasizes the importance of dynamic monitoring of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and standardized repeat biopsies during treatment, providing a basis for clinical practice. This aids in enhancing the recognition and management capabilities for this rare histological transformation, ultimately improving patient outcomes.
Humans ; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors/therapeutic use* ; Lung Neoplasms/immunology* ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/immunology* ; Small Cell Lung Carcinoma/genetics* ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Female

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a highly aggressive hematologic malignancy with a poor prognosis, despite advancements in treatment. Many patients struggle with relapse or refractory disease. Investigating the role of the super-enhancer (SE) regulated gene ubiquitin-specific protease 20 (USP20) in T-ALL could enhance targeted therapies and improve clinical outcomes. Analysis of histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac) chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) data from six T-ALL cell lines and seven pediatric samples identified USP20 as an SE-regulated driver gene. Utilizing the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) and BloodSpot databases, it was found that USP20 is specifically highly expressed in T-ALL. Knocking down USP20 with short hairpin RNA (shRNA) increased apoptosis and inhibited proliferation in T-ALL cells. In vivo studies showed that USP20 knockdown reduced tumor growth and improved survival. The USP20 inhibitor GSK2643943A demonstrated similar anti-tumor effects. Mass spectrometry, RNA-Seq, and immunoprecipitation revealed that USP20 interacted with hypoxia-inducible factor 1 subunit alpha (HIF1A) and stabilized it by deubiquitination. Cleavage under targets and tagmentation (CUT&Tag) results indicated that USP20 co-localized with HIF1A, jointly modulating target genes in T-ALL. This study identifies USP20 as a therapeutic target in T-ALL and suggests GSK2643943A as a potential treatment strategy.

Astragalus membranaceus possesses the function of enhancing immunity, protecting the liver, diuretic, anti-aging, anti-stress, anti-hypertensive, and more extensive antibacterial effects. Polysaccharides, one kind of the major active ingredients of A. membranaceus, are considered to be responsible for their versatile use. Now, a systematic summary of research progress and prospects of polysaccharides from A. membranaceus polysaccharides (AMPs) is necessary to facilitate their further study and application. In this review, the optimal extraction methods, structural features, biological activities, and applications of AMPs were emphasized. The structure-activity relationships are also analyzed and elucidated. Solvent, ultrasonic, microwave, enzyme-assisted, ultra-high pressure, and combined methods have been used to extract AMPs. Among them, solvent extraction is the most commonly used method because it is simple and easy to operate, but the efficiency needs to be improved further. The ultra-high pressure method is the most efficient but has a low economic return. AMPs exhibited various bioactivities, including immunomodulation, antitumor, and antidiabete. The structure-activity relationships revealed that different structure configurations, chain conformations, and physical properties would have different bioactivities. However, the new method for purification of certain polysaccharides, detailed structure-activity relationships (SAR), mechanisms of bioactivities, and quality control of AMPs need to be extensively investigated.

Bacterial infection is a major threat to global public health, and can cause serious diseases such as bacterial skin infection and foodborne diseases. It is essential to develop a new method to rapidly diagnose clinical multiple bacterial infections and monitor food microbial contamination in production sites in real-time. In this work, we developed a 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid gold nanoparticles (4-MPBA-AuNPs)-functionalized hydrogel microneedle (MPBA-H-MN) for bacteria detection in skin interstitial fluid. MPBA-H-MN could conveniently capture and enrich a variety of bacteria within 5 min. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection was then performed and combined with machine learning technology to distinguish and identify a variety of bacteria. Overall, the capture efficiency of this method exceeded 50%. In the concentration range of 1 × 10⁷ to 1 × 10¹⁰ colony-forming units/mL (CFU/mL), the corresponding SERS intensity showed a certain linear relationship with the bacterial concentration. Using random forest (RF)-based machine learning, bacteria were effectively distinguished with an accuracy of 97.87%. In addition, the harmless disposal of used MNs by photothermal ablation was convenient, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive. This technique provided a potential method for rapid and real-time diagnosis of multiple clinical bacterial infections and for monitoring microbial contamination of food in production sites.

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Objective:To establish the qualitative and quantitative methods of Lomatogonium carinthiacum(Wulf.)Reichb.in the prescription of Mongolian medicine Polypill Zhuanglun-5 decoction,and solve the phe-nomenon of Lomatogonium carinthiacum(Wulf.)Reichb.being replaced.Methods:Microscopic identification method was used to observe the pollen grains in the powder;The reference substance of swertiamarin and Lomato-gonium carinthiacum(Wulf.)Reichb.were used as the control,and the ethyl acetate methanol water formic acid(12∶2∶2∶0.5)was used as the developing agent for TLC identification;HPLC was used under the condin-tion including Agilent Eclipse Plus C18(250 mm × 4.6 mm,5 μm)as chromatographic column and 0.2％phosphoric acid solution(A)-acetonitrile(B)as mobile phase with gradient elution at 238 nm of detection wavelength were used.Contents of Zhuanglun-5 decoction from different manufacturers were determined with swertiamarin as reference substance.Results:Among the 12 batches of Zhuanglun-5 decoction,8 batches were Lomatogonium carinthiacum(Wulf.)Reichb.,2 batches were Viola yedoensis,and 2 batches were other medicinal materials.The content of swertiamarin in 8 batches of Zhuanglun-5 decoction ranged from 0.2 to 11.7 mg·g-1.Conclusion:The established identification method is simple and effective,and the content determination method is stable and has strong specificity.It can provide technical support for the supervision of the preparation,and has a reference effect for the improvement of traditional Chinese and Mongolian pharmaceuti-cal preparation standards.

Objective To compare the outcomes of transvaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery(vNOTES)and laparoendoscopic single-site surgery(LESS)for total uterine excision in obese patients with benign uterine lesions,and to investigate the utility of vNOTES in this patient population.Methods A total of 100 obese patients(BMI>28.0 kg/m2)diagnosed with benign uterine lesions requiring total uterine and bilateral salpingectomy between January 2022 and January 2023 were included in this study.They were randomly assigned to two groups:the LESS group(n=51)and the vNOTES group(n=49).Patient demographics,surgical duration,intraoperative blood loss,changes in hemoglobin levels,pain scores,time to first flatus postoperatively,length of hospital stay,pelvic floor function,sexual quality of life,and postoperative complications were compared between the two groups.Results The two groups did not show any statistically significant differences in terms of blood loss,pre-and postoperative hemoglobin changes,pelvic floor function,sexual quality of life,or postoperative complications(P>0.05).However,the vNOTES group exhibited shorter surgical durations,time to first flatus postoperatively,and length of hospital stay compared to the LESS group(P<0.05).Additionally,the vNOTES group demonstrated lower intraoperative pain scores than the LESS group.(P<0.05).Conclusions In obese patients with benign uterine lesions,vNOTES total uterine excision surgery demonstrated shorter surgical durations and postoperative hospital stays,lower postoperative pain scores,and better adherence to the principles of en-hanced recovery after surgery(ERAS),indicating its potential for broader application.

The long-term presence of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in the environmental water samples not only affects the life safety of aquatic organisms and disturbs the ecoenvironment, but also poses a serious threat to human health. In this study, amino-functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4-NH2) were firstly prepared by solvothermal method. Subsequently, polyethyleneimine (PEI) with a branched chain structure was successfully grafted onto Fe3O4 nanoparticles by Schiff base reaction in aqueous solution at room temperature using glutaraldehyde as a cross-linking agent, and a recyclable PEI-grafted magnetic nano-sorbent (Fe3O4@PEI) was synthesized and applied for the detection of NSAIDs in the environmental water samples. The compositional properties of Fe3O4@PEI were investigated by different characterization methods and the parameters affecting the extraction of NSAIDs were optimized. Due to high adsorption of Fe3O4@PEI for NSAIDs, the quantitative analysis of four NSAIDs in the environmental water samples, ketoprofen, naproxen, diclofenac and tolfenamic acid, was performed in combination with high-performance liquid chromatography. A good linear relationship between the chromatographic peak area and concentration was observed in the range of 1−500 µg/mL. The recoveries of the samples at three different spiked levels ranged from 85.6% to 107.8%; the intra-day precision was less than 7.8% (n=6); and the inter-day precision was less than 9.5% (n=3). The method is simple, rapid, accurate and reliable, and can be used for the analysis of NSAIDs in the environmental water samples．

ObjectiveIn order to improve the recognition accuracy of named entities in medical record texts and realize the effective mining and utilization of medical record knowledge， a Bert-Radical-Lexicon（BRL） neural network model is constructed to recognize medical record entities with respect to the characteristics of medical record texts. MethodWe selected 408 medical records related to hypertension from the the Complete Library of Famous Medical Records of Chinese Dynasties and constructed a dataset consisting of 1 672 medical records by manually labeling. Then， we randomly divided the dataset into three subsets， including the training set（1 004 cases）， the testing set （334 cases） and the validation set（334 cases）. Based on this dataset， we built a BRL model that fused various text features of medical records， as well as its variants BRL-B， BRL-L and BRL-R， and a baseline model Base for experiments. During the model training phase， we trained the above models using the training set to reduce the risk of overfitting. We continuously monitored the performance of each model on the validation set during training and saved the model with the best performance. Finally， we evaluated the performance of these models on the testing set. ResultCompared with other models， the BRL model had the best performance in the medical records named entity recognition task， with an overall recognition precision of 90.09%， a recall of 90.61%， and the harmonic mean of the precision and recall（F1） of 90.35% for eight types of entities， including disease， symptom， tongue manifestation， pulse condition， syndrome， method of treatment， prescription and traditional Chinese medicine（TCM）. Compared with the Base model， the BRL model improved the overall F1 value of entity recognition by 5.22%， and the F1 value of pulse condition entity increased by 6.92%， which was the largest increase. ConclusionBy incorporating a variety of medical record text features in the embedding layer， the BRL neural network model has stronger named entity recognition ability， and thus extracts more accurate and reliable TCM clinical information.

Currently, there are practical and technical difficulties in the construction of clinical questions in the development of clinical practice guidelines. Clinicians or guideline developers seldom construct clinical questions based the actual case scenario, leading to some information loss between structured and actual clinical connotation. To overcome this challenge, we proposed a case-guided questions construction approach, and carried out case research and verification in the formulation of the guideline. We found that this method could more efficiently and scientifically assist the formulation of clinical questions, and provide reference for clinicians or guideline developers.