BACKGROUND:Duchenne muscular dystrophy is recognized as a fatal X-linked recessive inheritance. It is caused by the dystrophin gene mutation, resulting in the deficiency of dystrophin and consequent degeneration and necrosis of muscle fibers gradual y. Becker muscular dystrophy is also caused by the mutation of the same gene, but presented with less severe clinical symptoms compared with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Frameshift mutation destroys the reading frames, and thus the translation cannot proceed smoothly to transcript functional proteins. In-frame mutation cannot destroy the reading frames and hence the translation can proceed smoothly. But in-frame mutation involves the whole hydrophobic regions. The three-dimensional structure of these regions and their functionality are not interpreted clearly. The effects of these regions on disease development need to be clarified in detail from the point of structure and function.
OBJECTIVE:By analyzing Kate and Dolittle scale mean hydrophobicity profile, to investigate the dystrophin hydrophobic regions using Swiss-model so as to provide the supplement explanation on the reading frame rule.
METHODS:Form 2002 to 2013, 1 038 cases diagnosed as Duchenne muscular dystrophy or Becker muscular dystrophy were col ected in the First Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in China and Leiden DMD information database was searched with deletion of codon mutation information available. The correlation between clinical types and genotypes was analyzed upon resources col ected above. The mean hydrophobicity profile of dystrophin was analyzed by Bioedit as wel as the reconstruction of hydrophobic domains using Swiss-model. Thus, the important functional domain of dystrophin was confirmed by analysis and the correlation between clinical types and genotypes.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Four hydrophobic regions were confirmed:Calponin homology domain CH2 on actin-binding domain, repeat 16 domain, Hinge Ⅲ domain and EF Hand domain. Duchenne muscular dystrophy was developed as a result of the destruction of the 1st, 2nd and 4th hydrophobic regions which were the conjunction of dystrophin and associated protein in dystrophin-glycoprotein complex. When the 3rd hydrophobic was deleted, the repeat domain located on central rob domain remained its continuity so that the clinical symptoms were less severe. These findings indicate that the dystrophin hydrophobic regions act as an important role on the pathogenesis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

OBJECTIVEAccurate segmentation of lung fields in chest radiographs (CXR) is very useful for automatic analysis of CXR. In this work, we propose to use dense matching of local features and label fusion to automatically segment the lung fields in CXR.

METHODSFor an input CXR, the dense Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) descriptors and raw image patches were extracted as the local features for each pixel. The nearest neighbors of the local features were then quickly searched by dense matching directly from the whole feature dataset of the reference images. The dense matching included three steps: limited random initialization, propagation of nearest neighbor field, and limited random search, with iteration of the last two steps for several times. The label image patches for each pixel were extracted according to the nearest neighbor field and weighted by the matching similarity. Finally, the weighted label patches were rearranged as the label class probability image of the input CXR, from which thresholds were obtained for segmentation of the lung fields.

RESULTSThe Jaccard index of the proposed method reached 95.5% on the public JSRT dataset.

CONCLUSIONA high accuracy and robustness can be obtained by adopting dense matching of local features and label fusion to segment the lung fields in CXR, and the result is better than that of current segmentation method.

Algorithms ; Cluster Analysis ; Humans ; Lung ; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; Radiography, Thoracic

Humans ; COVID-19 Vaccines/therapeutic use* ; HIV-1 ; Immunity, Humoral ; COVID-19/prevention & control* ; SARS-CoV-2

OBJECTIVETo study genotype-phenotype correlation of a family with late infantile metachromatic leukodystrophy(MLD).

METHODSClinical data were collected and ARSA gene was tested by PCR and sequencing in a pedigree.

RESULTSThe male proband onset with walking dysfunction at 19 months, arylsulfatase A activity of leucocyte from his peripheral blood was 20.2 nmol/mg.17h, and his cranial MRI showed wildly symmetrical demyelination. Homozygosis for novel c.622delC (p.His208Metfs46X) in exon 3 of ARSA gene was identified in proband, and heterozygous for the same mutation in parents and grandma of the proband.

CONCLUSIONLate infantile metachromatic leukodystrophy is characterized by rapid and progressive regression of neuropsychiatric and motor development. There is a significant correlation between the mutation of c.622delC(p.His208Metfs*46) in the ARSA gene and the phenotype presenting as O/O patients.

Base Sequence ; Cerebroside-Sulfatase ; deficiency ; genetics ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Family Health ; Female ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; genetics ; Genotype ; Humans ; Infant ; Leukodystrophy, Metachromatic ; diagnostic imaging ; enzymology ; genetics ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Mutation ; Pedigree ; Phenotype ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Radiography ; Sequence Deletion

BackgroundMajor depressive disorder is one of the most disabling mental diseases. Currently， medication in combination with physiotherapy and psychotherapy remains the most commonly used treatment modality for the disease， whereas only a few randomized controlled studies have been conducted on physiotherapy， and even fewer studies have focused on medication combined with physiotherapy. ObjectiveTo explore the efficacy and safety profile of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation （rTMS） versus modified electroconvulsive therapy （MECT） in combination with antidepressants in the treatment of major depressive disorder， so as to provide an optimized treatment plan for patients with major depressive disorder. MethodsPatients with major depressive disorder （n=335） hospitalized in Shandong Daizhuang Hospital from January 1， 2019 to April 30， 2023 were included， all of whom met the diagnostic criteria of the International Classification of Diseases， tenth edition （ICD-10）. Depending on their disease condition， patients were subjected to either MECT in combination with drugs （n=141） or rTMS in combination with drugs （n=194） after admission. Depressive symptoms were assessed using Hamilton Depression Scale-24 item （HAMD-24） at the baseline and the end of the 1^st， 2^nd， 3^rd and 4^th week of treatment， and the adverse reactions were documented in patient's medical records. ResultsAnalysis of variance on HAMD-24 revealed a significant effect of time （F=3.081， P=0.042）， but no effect of group （F=1.023， P=0.313）， and the interaction effect between the time and the groups was not statistically significant （F=1.642， P=0.191）. No statistical difference was reported between two groups in response rate and full remission rate （P>0.05）. Throughout the course of treatment， 58 cases （41.13%） of recent memory impairment and 74 cases （52.48%） of headache or neck muscle pain occurred in MECT combined with drugs group， and 27 cases （13.92%） in rTMS combined with drugs group experienced headache or head skin discomfort. ConclusionAntidepressants in combination with rTMS or MECT show equivalent efficacy in the treatment of major depressive disorder， while rTMS combined with antidepressants demonstrates a superior safety profile compared to MECT.