Objective To investigate the effect of remifentanil and fentanyl on N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor currents in rat spinal cord dorsal horn neurons.Methods Whole-cell patch-clamp technique was used to record the NMDA receptor currents.The primary cultured E14SD rat spinal cord dorsal horn neurons (DH cells) were randomly divided into 3 groups (n =10 each):remifentanil group (group R),fentanyl group (group F) and control group (group C).DH cells were perfused with 4 nmol/L remifentanil (group R) or 10 μmol/L fentanyl (group F) for 60 min followed by washout.NMDA receptor currents were recorded immediately after administration (T0),at 15,30,45 and 60 min of action of drugs (T1-4),and at 15 and 30 min (T5-6) after washout.Results Compared with group C,no significant change in the peak NMDA receptor current was found at each time point in group F and at T0 and T1 in group R (P ＞ 0.05),and the peak NMDA receptor current was significantly increased at T2-6 in group R (P ＜ 0.01).The peak NMDA receptor current was significantly higher at T2-6 than at T0,while lower at T2-4 and T6 than at T5 in group R (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion Remifentanil can increase NMDA receptor function in rat spinal cord horn neurons,and the peak effect is reached after washout,but fentanyl dose not have the effect.

Based on the chemical structures of magnolol and honokiol,a series of small molecular derivatives were designed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.Through the Discovery Studio,five compounds (6a-6e) exhibited the inhibitory activity against Aβ and Tau proteins in all of the designed compounds.Then the five compounds are chemically synthesized and their biological activities were tested by thioflavin T.The result showed that compound 6a had inhibitory effect on the aggregation of two kinds of target proteins at the concentration of 100 μmol/L,which deserves further research.

Objective To construct a machine learning model for predicting benign and malignant pulmonary nodules based on CT features.Methods A total of 129 patients with single solid nodules on CT from January 2021 to January 2023 in Hai'an People's Hospital were selected.All of them underwent chest CT scan,and the quantitative parameters,morphological features and radiomics features were recorded.The differentiation of benign and malignant pulmonary nodules was carried out according to relevant diagnostic criteria.The cases were divided into the training set and the internal test set.The constructed models included radiomics labels,morphological model,CT model and combined model.Results There were 98 cases in the training set(27 malignance and 71 benign)and 31 cases in the internal test set(7 malignance and 24 benign).Univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences in age,lesion diameter,mean density,burr sign,pleural depression sign,vacuole sign and air bronchial sign between malignant group and benign group(P<0.05).Compared with benign group,malignant group had higher proportions of burr sign,pleural depression sign,vacuole sign,air bronchial sign,and larger lesion diameter and mean density(P<0.05).LinkDocAI intelligent diagnosis system for pulmonary nodules was used to outline regions of interest and from which 1 000 radiomics features were extracted.The feature selection was performed in 98 cases,and 20 features were screened out after standardized treatment and correlation testing,excluding missing features,low importance feature values and highly correlated features.Through LASSO regression and 10-fold cross validation,λ1se was selected as the optimal λ to construct radiomics labels,and the two most meaningful features(LBP_Glszm_ZoneEntropy and Gradient_Shape_MinorAxis)were enrolled.CT model was considered as the optimal model in this study,and it had an area under receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.912 and 0.889 in the training set and the internal testing set,respectively.Conclusion The machine learning model to predict benign and malignant lung nodules based on CT features has good predictive efficiency,and it can realize the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant pulmonary nodules.

Given that the current Newcastle disease virus (NDV) infection in wild birds poses the threat to poultry, surveillance of Newcastle disease in captive wild birds was carried out in Jilin, China in 2018. Here, an NDV strain obtained from toco toucan was firstly characterized.The results showed that the F gene of the NDV isolate Toucan/China/3/2018 is classified as genotype II in class II. Sequence analysis of the F0 cleavage site was 113 RQGR/L 117 , which supports the result of the intracerebral pathogenicity index assay indicating classification of the isolate as low-pathogenicity. Experimental infection demonstrated that Toucan/ China/3/2018 can effectively replicate and transmit among chickens. To our knowledge, this is the first report on genetically and pathogenically characterizing NDV strain isolated from toucan, which enriches the epidemiological information of NDV in wild birds.

OBJECTIVETo explore the detection efficiency of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

METHODSImmunomagnetic negative enrichment by nanometer magnetic beads and label-free capture with Captor(TM) system were used to isolate and enrich CTCs from peripheral blood of HCC patients, and epithelial and HCC markers were applied to identify CTCs by immunofluorescence staining. CTCs were detected in 50 HCC patients before and after hepatectomy to test the method for isolation, enrichment and identification. The dynamic changes of pre- and post-operative CTCs' numbers were compared. The clinical data were analyzed using SPSS 19.0 software.

RESULTSNegative enrichment methods by nanometer magnetic beads and label-free capture using Captor(TM) system were both suitable for CTCs isolation and enrichment in HCC patients. The positive detection rate of CTCs in HCC patients via negative enrichment was 96.0% (48/50), the preoperative median number of CTCs was 16 per 7.5 ml blood, and the postoperative median number was 17 per 7.5 ml blood.

CONCLUSIONSBoth negative enrichment and Captor(TM) system are suitable for isolation and enrichment of CTCs in HCC patients. There is a significant difference in the numbers of CTCs before and after operation, and dynamic detection of CTCs will provide helpful prognostic information for HCC patients in clinics.

Adult ; Aged ; Antigens, Neoplasm ; metabolism ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cell Adhesion Molecules ; metabolism ; Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule ; Female ; Hepatectomy ; Humans ; Immunomagnetic Separation ; methods ; Liver Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; metabolism ; pathology

Recent studies have found that the brain-gut-microbiome axis(BGMA)is closely related to the occurrence and development of Alzheimer's disease(AD). BGMA can affect AD in various aspects such as neuro-immune regulation and intestinal microflora, and is a potential new target for the treatment of AD.The "Sanjiao" acupuncture method is proposed by professor Han Jingxian, a famous Chinese medicine practitioner, based on his theory of "dysfunction of Qi activity of Sanjiao leads to aging" , and has been widely used in the treatment of AD and other age-related diseases in clinical practice.This article reviews the theory of "dysfunction of Qi activity of Sanjiao leads to aging" and the relationship between the "Sanjiao" acupuncture method and BGMA, with the hope that the "San Jiao" acupuncture method can become a new target for treatment of AD in the future.

OBJECTIVE: To isolate the collagen phagocytic subpopulation of fibroblast (CPSF) and non-collagen phagocytic subpopulation of fibroblast (nCPSF) and to identify their differentially expressed genes.
 METHODS: The CPSF and nCPSF was isolated by using collagen-fluorescein-isothiocynate-latex bead (COL-FITC-LB) phagocytosis technique and FCM sorting method. Microarray analysis was used to screen the differentially expressed genes, which were verified by real-time PCR. 
 RESULTS: CPSF and nCPSF was successfully isolated. Seventeen differentially expressed genes were identified. Compared with nCPSF, the expression of 12 or 5 genes was up-regulated or down-regulated in CPSF. Three of the 12 up-regulated genes were urokinase plasminogen activator receptor-associated protein (uPARAP), cytochrome b-245, beta polypeptide (CYBB) and Hook homolog 1 (HOOK1), which were confirmed by real-time PCR. uPARAP mRNA expression level in CPSF was 2788 times of that in nCPSF. CYBB mRNA expression in CPSF was only 0.85 times of that in nCPSF. HOOK1 mRNA expression in CPSF was 1.96 times of that in nCPSF (P<0.05). 
 CONCLUSION A novel method is successfully established to isolate CPSF and nCPSF. uPARAP is the main differentially expressed gene in CPSF and nCPSF, which is obviously involved in the fibroblast collagen phagocytosis. It might be a potential biomarker for treatment of collagen diseases.
Collagen ; genetics ; Down-Regulation ; Fibroblasts ; cytology ; Humans ; Microarray Analysis ; Phagocytosis ; Up-Regulation

Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics and maternal and fetal prognosis of pregnant women with acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP). Methods: The clinical data of 86 AFLP pregnant women admitted to the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from September 2017 to August 2022 were collected, and their general data, clinical characteristics, laboratory tests and maternal and fetal outcomes were retrospectively analyzed. Results: (1) General information: the age of the 86 pregnant women with AFLP was (30.8±5.4) years, and the body mass index was (21.0±2.5) kg/m². There were 50 primiparas (58.1%, 50/86) and 36 multiparas (41.9%, 36/86). There were 64 singleton pregnancies (74.4%, 64/86) and 22 twin pregnancies (25.6%, 22/86). (2) Clinical characteristics: the main complaints of AFLP pregnant women were gastrointestinal symptoms, including epigastric pain (68.6%, 59/86), nausea (47.7%, 41/86), anorexia (46.5%, 40/86), vomiting (39.5%, 34/86). The main non-gastrointestinal symptoms were jaundice of skin and/or scleral (54.7%, 47/86), edema (38.4%, 33/86), fatigue (19.8%, 17/86), bleeding tendency (16.3%, 14/86), polydipsia or polyuria (14.0%, 12/86), skin itching (8.1%, 7/86), and 17.4% (15/86) AFLP pregnant women had no obvious symptoms. (3) Laboratory tests: the incidence of liver and kidney dysfunction and abnormal coagulation function in AFLP pregnant women was high, and the levels of blood ammonia, lactate dehydrogenase and lactic acid were increased, and the levels of hemoglobin, platelet and albumin decreased. However, only 24 cases (27.9%, 24/86) of AFLP pregnant women showed fatty liver by imageology examination. (4) Pregnancy outcomes: ① AFLP pregnant women had a high incidence of pregnancy complications, mainly including renal insufficiency (95.3%, 82/86), preterm birth (46.5%, 40/86), hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (30.2%, 26/86), gestational diabetes mellitus (36.0%, 31/86), fetal distress (24.4%, 21/86), pulmonary infection (23.3%, 20/86), disseminated intravascular coagulation (16.3%, 14/86), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (16.3%, 14/86), hepatic encephalopathy (9.3%, 8/86), and intrauterine fetal death (2.3%, 2/86). ② Treatment and outcome of AFLP pregnant women: the intensive care unit transfer rate of AFLP pregnant women was 66.3% (57/86). 82 cases were improved and discharged after treatment, 2 cases were transferred to other hospitals for follow-up treatment, and 2 cases (2.3%, 2/86) died. ③ Neonatal outcomes: except for 2 cases of intrauterine death, a total of 106 neonates were delivered, including 39 cases (36.8%, 39/106) of neonatal asphyxia, 63 cases (59.4%, 63/106) of neonatal intensive care unit admission, and 3 cases (2.8%, 3/106) of neonatal death. Conclusions: AFLP is a severe obstetric complication, which is harmful to mother and fetus. In the process of clinical diagnosis and treatment, attention should be paid to the clinical manifestations and laboratory tests of pregnant women, early diagnosis and active treatment, so as to improve maternal and fetal outcomes.
Pregnancy ; Infant, Newborn ; Female ; Humans ; Adult ; Retrospective Studies ; Premature Birth/epidemiology* ; Pregnancy Complications/diagnosis* ; Fatty Liver/diagnosis* ; Fetal Death ; Stillbirth