BACKGROUND:The stemness index may be associated with the prognosis and immune infiltration of sarcoma,but the specific regulatory mechanism and characteristic genes have yet to be fully elucidated. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the correlation between stem cells and prognosis as well as immune infiltration in sarcoma employing the gene stemness index model and to identify the ferroptosis signature genes associated with sarcoma stem cells. METHODS:The sarcoma RNA sequencing data and related clinical information were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA).The sarcoma RNA sequencing data were grouped using the sarcoma stemness index.Survival data were used to analyze prognosis between groups.Differentially expressed genes were obtained for pathway enrichment and immune infiltration analysis.Ferroptosis-related differential genes were used to construct a protein interaction network and analyze prognostic correlation.Rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines were cultured and divided into adherent cell group and stem cell group.The adherent cell group received no intervention,while the stem cell group was treated with serum-free culture to enrich stem cells in rhabdomyosarcoma cells.qRT-PCR was used to evaluate stemness markers,ferroptosis-related genes,and mRNA expression of ferroptosis-related markers in the cells. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Patients were divided into high and low stemness index groups based on the median stemness index.The progression-free survival of patients in the high stemness index group was lower than that in the low stemness index group by disease risk prediction,suggesting poor prognosis.(2)According to GO and KEGG analysis,the groups with high and low stemness indices differed from one another.There were differences in immune infiltration between the high and low stemness index groups.Nine of the 23 ferroptosis-related genes in the differential genes have the potential to establish a highly correlated network of protein interactions.Patients with high expression of IDO1,IFNG,and AQP5 have a better prognosis,while those with high expression of CA9 have a poor prognosis.(3)The qRT-PCR results demonstrated a significant upregulation of stem cell-related markers NANOG,SOX2,and OCT4 mRNA expressions in the stem cell group compared to the adherent cell group(P<0.05).Compared to the adherent cell group,the stem cell group exhibited decreased mRNA expression level of ferroptosis-related marker SLC7A11(P<0.05)while showing increased levels of ACSL4,GPX4,FTH1,and COX2(P<0.05).Compared to the adherent cell group,the stem cell group displayed decreased mRNA expression level of differentially expressed gene CA9 alongside elevated levels of IDO1,IFNG,and AQP5(P<0.05).Stem cells were strongly associated with sarcoma survival and ferroptosis by bioinformatics analysis and experimental verification.Sarcoma stem cells have aberrant expression of CA9,IDO1,IFNG,and AQP5,which may serve as new targets for sarcoma therapy as well as diagnostic indicators.

ObjectiveTo explore the clinical characteristics and risk factors for 30-day mortality in hospitalized patients with bloodstream infections (BSI) caused by carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP). MethodsData were obtained retrospectively from the electronic medical records of inpatients at a tertiary A-grade hospital in Shanghai from January 2016 to December 2023. The collected variables included age, gender, department, surgical treatment, empirical antibiotic therapy, Pitt Bacteremia score (PBS), Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), INCREMENT-CPE score (ICS), length of hospital stay, the time from CRKP-BSI to discharge and, etc. The follow-up period ended upon discharge, with the follow-up outcomes defined as in-hospital mortality or discharge. The endpoint was defined as death within 30 days (including day 30) caused by CRKP-BSI or infection-related complications. Patients who survived within 30 days after CRKP-BSI were classified into the survival group, while those who died within 30 days were classified into the death group. Independent risk factors for 30-day mortality in patients with CRKP-BSI were analyzed using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. ResultsA total of 71 hospitalized patients with CRKP-BSI, comprising 51 males and 20 females, with an average age of (65.12±18.25) years, were included during the study period. The M (P₂₅, P₇₅) of hospital stay were 37.00 (24.00, 56.00) days, and M (P₂₅, P₇₅) of the duration from CRKP-BSI to discharge or death were 18.00 (7.00, 35.00) days. There were 20 deaths (28.17%) in the death group and 51 survivors (71.83%) in the survival group. The results of multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the ICS as an independent risk factor for 30-day mortality in CRKP-BSI patients (HR=1.379, 95%CI: 1.137‒1.671, P=0.001). Each 1-point increase in the ICS was associated with a 37.9% increase in the risk of mortality. ConclusionThe ICS is found to be a risk factor for 30-day mortality in patients with CRKP-BSI, which may facilitate the prediction for the risk of 30-day mortality and thereby support clinical decision-making for patients with CRKP-BSI.

Objective To explore the correlation of MET status in patients with advanced prostatic acinar adenocarcinoma with the clinical pathological parameters and prognosis. Methods The specimen from 135 patients with advanced prostatic acinar adenocarcinoma was included. The expression of c-MET protein was detected via immunohistochemistry, and MET gene amplification was assessed by fluorescence in situ hybridization. The relationships of c-MET expression and gene amplification with clinicopathological features and prognosis were analyzed. Results The positive expression rate of c-MET was 52.60% (71/135). Compared with the c-MET expression in adjacent tissues, that in tumor tissues showed lower heterogeneous expression. Among the cases, 1.71% (2/117) exhibited MET gene polyploidy, but no gene amplification was detected. Positive c-MET expression was significantly correlated with high Gleason scores and grade groups (P=0.0073). However, no significant relationship was found between c-MET expression and progression-free survival or post-treatment t-PSA levels. Conclusion c-MET protein is expressed at a relatively low level in advanced prostatic acinar adenocarcinoma, suggesting that c-MET may not be a viable target for ADC drug development in prostatic acinar adenocarcinoma.

Debates persist regarding the efficacy and safety of azvudine, particularly its real-world outcomes. This study involved patients aged ≥60 years who were admitted to 25 hospitals in mainland China with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between December 1, 2022, and February 28, 2023. Efficacy outcomes were all-cause mortality during hospitalization, the proportion of patients discharged with recovery, time to nucleic acid-negative conversion (T _NANC), time to symptom improvement (T _SI), and time of hospital stay (T _HS). Safety was also assessed. Among the 5884 participants identified, 1999 received azvudine, and 1999 matched controls were included after exclusion and propensity score matching. Azvudine recipients exhibited lower all-cause mortality compared with controls in the overall population (13.3% vs. 17.1%, RR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.67-0.90; P = 0.001) and in the severe subgroup (25.7% vs. 33.7%; RR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.66-0.88; P < 0.001). A higher proportion of patients discharged with recovery, and a shorter T _NANC were associated with azvudine recipients, especially in the severe subgroup. The incidence of adverse events in azvudine recipients was comparable to that in the control group (2.3% vs. 1.7%, P = 0.170). In conclusion, azvudine showed efficacy and safety in older patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the SARS-CoV-2 omicron wave in China.

Emotional task is one of the main methods to study the attention bias and emotional function of affective disorder.Functional near-infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS)studies based on emotional tasks in patients with affective disorders have shown that facial emotion recognition task,the emotional stroop effect,and the emotion induction task combined with fNIRS technology have clinical value in the diagnosis and treatment of affective disorders.The defects of attention function and emotional processing in patients with affective disorders are related to abnormal activation of the left prefrontal cortex,especially the differences in brain activation patterns are related to depressive symptoms in patients with depressive disorders.The future direction of using fNIRS to study emotional tasks is to combine a variety of neuroimaging methods to conduct large-sample longitudinal cohort studies to obtain more objective bases for diagnosis and treatment,and to compare the differences in activation areas of different emotional stimulation materials.

Background::Programmed death 1 (PD-1) blockade plus chemotherapy has become the new first-line standard of care for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Yet not all NSCLC patients benefit from this regimen. This study aimed to investigate the predictors of PD-1 blockade plus chemotherapy in untreated advanced NSCLC.Methods::We integrated clinical, genomic, and survival data from 287 patients with untreated advanced NSCLC who were enrolled in one of five registered phase 3 trials and received PD-1 blockade plus chemotherapy or chemotherapy alone. We randomly assigned these patients into a discovery cohort ( n = 125), a validation cohort ( n = 82), and a control cohort ( n = 80). The candidate genes that could predict the response to PD-1 blockade plus chemotherapy were identified using data from the discovery cohort and their predictive values were then evaluated in the three cohorts. Immune deconvolution was conducted using transcriptome data of 1014 NSCLC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas dataset. Results::A genomic variation signature, in which one or more of the 15 candidate genes were altered, was correlated with significantly inferior response rates and survival outcomes in patients treated with first-line PD-1 blockade plus chemotherapy in both discovery and validation cohorts. Its predictive value held in multivariate analyses when adjusted for baseline parameters, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression level, and tumor mutation burden. Moreover, applying both the 15-gene panel and PD-L1 expression level produced better performance than either alone in predicting benefit from this treatment combination. Immune landscape analyses revealed that tumors with one or more variation in the 15-gene panel were associated with few immune infiltrates, indicating an immune-desert tumor microenvironment.Conclusion::These findings indicate that a 15-gene panel can serve as a negative prediction biomarker for first-line PD-1 blockade plus chemotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC.

Objective: To investigate the changes of microorganisms and metabolites in joint effusion of patients with Rheumatoid arthritis(RA), Osteoarthritis(OA) and Urarthritis(UA). To provide new ideas for the study of the effect of microbiota on the pathogenesis of arthritis. Methods: Joint effusion samples were collected from 20 patients with RA, 20 patients with OA, and 20 patients with UA. 16S rRNA gene sequencing and untargeted ultra-high performance Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry(LC-MS) were used to explore the differences in microorganisms and metabolites among the three groups. Pearson correlation analysis was used to detect the correlation between effusion microbiota and metabolites. Results: There were differences in microbial diversity and microbiota composition among the three groups. Combined with VIP>1 from OPLS-DA andP<0.05 from two-tailed Students t-test, 45 differential metabolites(Between RA and OA groups), 38 differential metabolites(Between UA and OA groups) and 16 differential metabolites(Between RA and UA groups), were identified. GO analysis and KEGG pathway analysis showed that the differential metabolic pathways among the three groups were mainly concentrated in citric acid cycle(TCA cycle), nucleotide metabolism, amino acid metabolism and glycolysis pathway. Correlation analysis of joint effusion microbiota and metabolites suggested that bacteria enriched in the three groups of joint effusion, such asPrevotella,Clostridium ruminosus,Prevotellaceae＿UCG-001, were related to many key metabolites such as lysozyme, uric acid, glucose, and L-glutamine. Conclusion This study shows that there are a variety of bacterial flora in joint cavity effusion of RA, OA, and UA patients, and the differential metabolites produced by them are involved in the pathogenesis of the three types of arthritis by affecting a variety of metabolic pathways.

Objective To investigate the molecular mechanism of ferroptosis in glioblastoma(GBM)and to provide insights for identifying new therapeutic targets.Methods GSE108474 was selected from gene expression omnibus(GEO)database and differentially expressed genes(DEGs)in GBM were obtained by using GEO2R,compared with the gene set in the Ferroptosis database(FerrDb)to identify ferroptosis-related gene.GO and KEGG enrich-ment analyses were conducted using DAVID database.A protein-protein interaction network was created using String website.Hub genes with high connectivity were confirmed using Cytoscape software.Prognostic and immune infiltration analyses were performed using TIMER website.RNA expression levels and gene correlation analyses were carried out using GEPIA website.Differential expression of hub gene proteins was analyzed by using the HPA database.Tumor immune characteristic correlations were examined using TISIDB database.Differences in mRNA expression of hub genes between tumor cells A172 and U251MG and normal astrocytes HA1800 were compared u-sing the quantitative real-time PCR.Results Out of 5 331 differentially expressed genes,114 were related to fer-roptosis.GO and KEGG enrichment analysis suggested that these 114 genes might play roles in positive regulation of gene expression,and affect tumor progression through ferroptosis and autophagy pathways.10 hub genes were i-dentified in the protein-protein interaction network,among which cluster of differentiation 44(CD44),murine double minute 2(MDM2)and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3(STAT3)were found to be highly expressed in tumors with lower survival rates.CD44,MDM2 and STAT3 mRNA expression were higher in GBM cells compared to normal cells.Protein expression of CD44,MDM2 and STAT3 was higher in high-grade glioma tis-sues than that in normal tissues.The expression of three genes in the tumor was negatively correlated with ferropto-sis.Immune infiltration analysis revealed that CD44,MDM2 and STAT3 in the tumor were related to the infiltration of neutrophils,CD4+T cells,and dendritic cells,and the expression of three genes was related to various chemo-kines and their receptors.Conclusion CD44,MDM2 and STAT3 may play a role in tumor ferroptosis and immune regulation,which have the potential to become a therapeutic target for GBM.

Objective To establish a mice model of atopic dermatitis with acute itching and investigate the antipruritic effect and its mechanism of Xiaofeng Zhiyang granules(XFZYG).Methods A mice model of atopic dermatitis was prepared by induction method.Mice were sensitized by calcipotriol and ovalbumin(OVA)applying to the right ear daily for 10 days,and then stimulated by OVA injected intradermally into the right cheek to resulting in acute itching.These mice were divided into 5 groups:blank control group,model group,low dose(7.2 g/kg)and high dose(14.4 g/kg)of XFZYG,and positive control group(montelukast 5 mg/kg).Drugs were administered by gavage at 12 h and 30 min before stimulation.The leukotriene levels in the serum of the mice were measured by Elisa and the basophil ratio and activation status in the blood were measured by flow cytometry.Results The mean number of scratches in the model group was 56 between 30 min and 60 min after stimulation,while the mean number of scratches in the low and high dose of XFZYG groups were 42 and 23 respectively,which were significantly lower than those in the model group(P<0.05).The serum leukotriene levels and the proportion of basophils in the low and high dose of XFZYG groups were significantly lower than those in the model group(P<0.05).Conclusion XFZYG had certain therapeutic effect on acute itching of atopic dermatitis in mice,and the mechanism of its action was related to the reduction of leukotriene level and basophil ratio in serum of mice with atopic dermatitis.

Objective To investigate the impact of whole body vibration training combined with intermittent blood flow restriction on the motor function and community activity in elderly stroke patients with hemiplegia.Methods A total of 80 convalescent hemiplegic patients after stroke who were hospitalized in the Rehabilitation Medicine Department of Yichang Central People's Hospital(Xiling Campus)from October 2021 to December 2023 were included and randomly divided into control group(n=25),vibration group(n=28)and combination group(n=27)using the random number table method.All patients received conventional rehabilitation training,on the basis;the vabration group received whole body vibration training,while the combination group received whole body vibration training combined with intermittent blood flow restriction.Before and after 6 weeks of training,the balance function was evaluated with Berg balance scale(BBS),while the gait function was tested with 6-minute walking test(6MWT)and the Community Balance and Mobility scale(CB&M)was used to assess the community activity ability.The community balance and mobility(CB&M)were evaluated in the first and third month after discharge.Results There was no significant difference in BBS,CB&M scores and 6MWT walking distance between the three groups before training(P>0.05).After 6 weeks of training,the three groups showed significant increases in the BBS,CB&Mscores and the walk distance of 6MWT(P<0.001).Furthermore,compared with the control group,the combination group and the vibration group were significantly beter(P<0.05),and there was no signifi-cant difference between the combination group and the vibration group(P>0.05).At the first and third month of follw-up after discharge,the CB&M scores of the three groups were significantly higher than those of the control group(P<0.05),while there was no significant difference between the CB&M scores of the combination group and the vibration group at the first month of follow-up(P>0.05).But the CB&M scores of the combination group was higher than those of the vibration group at the third month of follow-up,and the difference was statistically signifi-cant(P<0.05).Conclusion On the basis of conventional rehabilitation,whole body vibration training combined with intermittent blood flow restriction can significantly enhance balance function,balance confidence,walking ability and mobility in early stage of community life for elderly stroke patients with hemiplegia,potentially facilitat-ing their return to community life.