Objective To explore the mechanism by which Sestrin2(SESN2)regulates autophagy activity of chondrocytes by mediating mammalian rapamycin target protein complex 1(mTORC1)signaling pathway.Methods The normal chondrocytes were treated with interleukin-1 β(IL-1β)to establish an osteoarthritis(OA)chondrocyte model,which was divided into the control group and the IL-1 β-treated group.Real-time quantitative PCR(qPCR)and Western blot were used to detect the expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase 13(MMP13),type Ⅱ collagen(COL2A1)and SESN2 in the two groups.The cell models of the chondrocyte overexpression SESN2 group and knockdown SESN2 group were obtained via cell transfection technology,and the expression levels of SESN2 in each group were detected by qPCR while those of SESN2,MMP13,COL2A1,mTORC1 pathway-related proteins and autophagy-related proteins in each group were detected by Western blot.The effects of SESN2 on cell proliferation and migration were detected by CCK-8 and cell scratch assay.Results(1)The expression level of MMP13 in the IL-1 β-treated group was significantly up-regulated,while the expression levels of COL2A1 and SESN2 were significantly decreased.(2)Compared with the control group,the expressions of p-mTORC1,ribosomal protein S6 kinase 1(S6K1),and MMP13 protein in OA chondrocytes in the overexpression group were significantly down-regulated,while the expressions of adenosine 5'-monophosphate(AMP)-activated protein kinase(AMPK)and chondroprotective gene COL2A1 were significantly increased,and the expression level of Beclin-1 and the ratio of microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3-Ⅱ(LC3-Ⅱ)/(LC3-Ⅰ)were increased.Meanwhile,overexpression of SESN2 could up-regulate the proliferation and migration of chondrocytes,but the results were opposite after knockdown of SESN2.Conclusion SESN2 can enhance autophagy,proliferation and migration of chondrocytes by inhibiting mTORC1 pathway,which has provided data for revealing the pathogenesis of OA and exploring new therapeutic methods.

Malignant tumor has become the largest disease threatening human health.The global incidence of cancer is in-creasing year by year.At present,the poor quality of life and drug resistance of patients with advanced and recurrent cancer are be-coming increasingly obvious.Reducing the invasion and metastasis of tumor,improving the survival and prognosis of tumor patients,are urgent problems to be solved in tumor treatment.Agrin is a membrane protein associated with synaptic formation,and recent studies have shown that Agrin plays an important role in the occurrence and development of tumors.Agrin is expressed in malignant tumors and immune cells,playing an important regulatory role in tumor angiogenesis,cell proliferation and migration,chemotherapy resist-ance,and neutrophil infiltration.This article summarizes and analyzes the current research status of Agrin,especially its related role and mechanism in the occurrence and development of malignant tumors.

Objective:To study the clinical manifestations and treatment of neonatal testicular torsion (NTT) and to summarize the experience of diagnosis and treatment.Methods:The clinical data of the patients with NTT admitted to the Department of Pediatric Urology in Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center from January 2015 to January 2021 were analyzed retrospectively. The data included demographic information, testicular torsion duration, clinical presentation, ultrasonography findings, surgical procedures, pathological results, follow-ups, and prognosis.Results:A total of 17 cases were enrolled in this study, and the median age was 5.2 d, ranging from 1 d to 17 d; the weight ranging from 2 800 g to 4 000 g. 11 cases of left testicular torsion and 6 cases of right testicular torsion. The median time from onset to medical attention was 3.8 d, ranging from 10 h to 15 d. The first manifestations being reported were scrotal swelling, color change, or painless mass. Emergency ultrasound revealed that the blood flow signal in the testis was significantly reduced or disappeared, and heterogeneous mass echoes were detected in the scrotum. Surgical exploration was performed in all 17 cases and confirmed to be testicular torsion. There were 15 cases of extravaginal torsion and 2 cases of intravaginal torsion. There were 6 cases of clockwise torsion and 11 cases of anticlockwise torsion. The average degree of twisted testis was 450.8°, ranging from 270° to 720°. The rate of orchiectomy was 88.2% (15/17). All patients were followed up for a minimum of 1 year postoperatively. None of the patients experienced postoperative bleeding or infection at the scrotal incision site. There were no instances of recurrent testicular torsion, and the contralateral testicles showed no abnormalities. In 2 cases where the affected testicle was preserved, ultrasound reevaluation at 6 months postoperatively revealed atrophy of the affected testicle.Conclusions:NTT is rare in clinics and lacks specificity, with a high rate of testis loss. When the newborns exhibit scrotal swelling, color change, or other abnormalities, testicular torsion cannot be ruled out, and early surgical exploration is required.

New threats posed by the emerging circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2 highlight the need to find conserved neutralizing epitopes for therapeutic antibodies and efficient vaccine design. Here, we identified a receptor-binding domain (RBD)-binding antibody, XG014, which potently neutralizes β-coronavirus lineage B (β-CoV-B), including SARS-CoV-2, its circulating variants, SARS-CoV and bat SARSr-CoV WIV1. Interestingly, antibody family members competing with XG014 binding show reduced levels of cross-reactivity and induce antibody-dependent SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein-mediated cell-cell fusion, suggesting a unique mode of recognition by XG014. Structural analyses reveal that XG014 recognizes a conserved epitope outside the ACE2 binding site and completely locks RBD in the non-functional "down" conformation, while its family member XG005 directly competes with ACE2 binding and position the RBD "up". Single administration of XG014 is effective in protection against and therapy of SARS-CoV-2 infection in vivo. Our findings suggest the potential to develop XG014 as pan-β-CoV-B therapeutics and the importance of the XG014 conserved antigenic epitope for designing broadly protective vaccines against β-CoV-B and newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.
Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 ; Antibodies, Neutralizing ; Antibodies, Viral ; COVID-19 ; Epitopes ; Humans ; SARS-CoV-2/genetics* ; Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/genetics*

Objective:Objectives To investigate the predictive value of color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) for the proteinuria following pyeloplasty for congenital ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) in children.Methods:We identified a series of 206 children with a mean age of (20.0±28.8) months (1-132 months), consisted of 171 males and 35 females, diagnosed with congenital UPJO accepted pyeloplasty from January 2014 to September 2018, the preoperative mean urinary Albumin/Creatinine Ratio (ACR) was (17.3±160.1) mg/mmol and the mean β2-microglobulin/Creatinine Ratio (β2-MG/Cr) was (135.6±383.8) μg/mmol, ultrasound showed a mean renal pelvis dilatation of (3.1±1.5) cm and a mean cortical thickness of (0.3±0.1) cm, and classified as grade Ⅰ-Ⅴ according to the blood flow distribution in renal by CDFI, these children were divided into three groups of increased, decreased and unchanged blood flow according to the postoperative CDFI within 1 week, the postoperative urinary protein and renal function indexes within 1 week and 2 years were retrospectively analysed among groups.Results:Within 1 week postoperatively, an increased, decreased and unchanged blood flow occurred in 113 (54.9%), 31(15.0%), 62(30.1%) children, respectively. Urinary ACR in above mentioned groups was (112.3±400.7), (16.1±29.3), (32.7±48.4) mg/mmol, β2-MG/Cr was (887.4±6061.0), (50.2±62.7), (51.9±57.8)μg/mmol, there were significant differences among groups ( P<0.01). Contralateral hydronephrosis occurred in 21(18.6%), 4(12.9%), 8(12.9%) children, urinary N-Acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) was (7.5±5.2), (7.0±5.4)、(5.7±4.5) U/L, these indexes showed no significant differences among groups. There was a positive correlation between the increased blood flow level and the decreased renal pelvis dilatation (Spearman’s correlation coefficient 0.2, P<0.01), ACR (Spearman’s correlation coefficient 0.4, P<0.01) and β2-MG/Cr (Spearman’s correlation coefficient 0.3, P<0.01). After a follow up of 2 years, 67 children were diagnosed with proteinuria in this series, 51 cases of them with an increased blood flow, which had significantly higher percentage than children with a decreased (4 cases, 12.9%) or unchanged blood flow (12 cases, 19.3%). Logistic multivariate analysis indicated that early postoperative (within 1 week) increased blood flow ( OR=1.9, 95% CI 1.5-2.6), contralateral hydronephrosis ( OR=2.2, 95% CI 1.1-4.8) and urinary NAG ( OR=1.1, 95% CI 1.0-1.1) were predictive of proteinuria, the increased blood flow was independent predictor of proteinuria (Ⅰ level increased: OR=1.9, 95% CI 1.5-2.6). Conclusions:The CDFI reveals good predictive value for the postoperative proteinuria, an early marked increased blood flow postoperatively indicated risk of proteinuria in the long term.

Objective To investigate the incidence of osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) in divers of Dalian.Methods From January 2010 to December 2010,all registered 855 divers in Dalian were enrolled in this study.All divers underwent a unified medical examination and a questionnaire including height,weight,blood pressure and hip inspection.Radiological examination (anteroposterior and frog position)was used for all divers.Suspicious persons with hip pain but normal X-ray performance were confirmed by MRI.Results Sixty-eight divers were confirmed as ONFH,and the incidence of ONFH in divers of Dalian was 7.95％.According to the Ficat classification,12 patients (12 hips) were in Phase 1,40 patients (47 hips)in phase Ⅱ,3 patients (3 hips) in phase Ⅲ,13 patients (15 hips) in phase Ⅳ.The mean age of divers was 32.6+5.5 years (range,18-55 years).The onset ages of most patients ranged from 30 years to 50 years,accounted for 83.82％ (57/68).Among all patients,primary school education accounted for 10.58％ (38/359),junior high school education 6.28％ (28/446),high school education 4.26％ (2/47),university education 0 (0/3); seniority less than 5 years accounted for 4.55％ (20/440),6-10 years 9.69％ (28/289),11-15 years 13.04％ (12/92),16-20 years 21.05％ (4/19),more than 20 years 26.67％ (4/15); self-employed accounted for 11.88％ (19/160),private enterprise 8.41％ (38/452),and national enterprise 4.53％ (11/243).Conclusion The incidence of ONFH is high in divers of Dalian,which is different in terms of age,seniority,level of education,enterprise nature.

Objective To study the inhibitory effects of gene combined radiotherapy on mice transplanted with B16 melanoma.Methods Alkaline lysis assay was used to extract and purify the plasmid.Plasmid DNA was injected into tumor by microinjection assay.Mice were inoculated with 5?10~5 of B16 melanoma in right hind legs and the therapy was performed when the diameter of tumor reached at 0.30.5 cm.pNE-mIL-12 and pcDNA-B7-1 plasmids were injected locally three times following with irradiation three times.The tumor growth rate of mice was observed.Results The anti-tumor effect of pNE-mIL-12 combined with pcDNA-B7-1 plasmid following with 2 Gy X-ray irradiation was much better than other groups.It showed that the tumor growth rate was slowed,the survival days of mice were delayed significantly(P

Objective To construct the expression vectors of pSilencer3.1-hif-1? and identify the inhibition of hif-1? in Hela299 cells after transfection with the combinative plasmids.Methods The interfering sequences of hif-1? were designed according to the sequence of hif-1? of GenBank.Three recombinant plasmids of pSilencer3.1-hif-1? were constructed by DNA ligase.Trizol reagent was used to extract the whole RNA of cells and RT-PCR assay was applied to detect the expression of hif-1? mRNA.Lysis assay was used to extract the protein from cells and Western blotting was adopted to observe the expression of HIF-1? protein.Results The vectors were identified to be right after sequencing.The mRNA level was decreased 24 h after transfection with three vectors of pSilencer-hif-1?,and the ratios of hif-1? /GAPDH in control,group transfecting with pSilencer-sihif-1?-1,group transfecting with pSilencer-sihif-1?-2,group transfecting with pSilencer-sihif-1?-3 were 0.55,0.13,0.33,and 0.08,respectively(P

Objective: To explore effect of TfR on immune function after ionizing by investigating changes in TfR expression on splenic lymphocytes of mice after whole body irradiation (WBI) with different dose X-rays. Methods: Direct immunoflurescence antibodies and flow cytometry were used to examine the changes of TfR expression. Results: The cell number of TfR positive expression in spleens increased significantly at 24 hours and 72 hours after WBI with 75 mGy X-rays but the cell number of TfR positive expression in spleens decreased significantly at 24 hours after WBI with 1～6 Gy X-rays. The activity of IL-2, meanwhile, demonstrated a parallel change. Conclusion: These results suggest that the TfR enhances immune function in low dose ionizing radiation but suppresses immune function in high dose. The change of TfR expression may be due to the change of IL-2 activity caused by ionizing radiation.

Objective:To study effects of large dose thymopeptides on T cell subpopulations of patients with malignant tumor under radiotherapy.Methods:Fifty one patients with malignant tumor under radiotherapy were divided into 2 groups with 100 mg and 200 mg thymopeptides respectively.The patients we re given thymopeptides,100 mg/d or 200 mg/d,iv, for 10 days.The positive percent ages of CD4,CD8,CD25 and CD56 in T cells of peripheral blood before and after thymopeptide treatment were determined by flow cytometry.Results:The positive percentages of CD4 and CD25 in T cells of peripheral bl ood after 100 mg/d thymopeptide treatment were significantly higher than those befor e thymopeptide treatment (P<0.05),while those of CD4，CD8，CD25 and CD56 in T cells of peripheral blood after 200 mg/d thymopeptide treatment all increased significantly (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Conclusion:These results suggest that large dose of thymopeptides can increase i mmune function of patients with malignant tumor under radiotherapy,and the curat ive effect of 200 mg/d thymopeptides is better.