OBJECTIVE: To investigate the biological activity and antitumor effect of pegylated recombinant human interleukin 2 (PEG-rhIL-2) obtained by site-specific conjugation of polyethylene glycol (PEG) with non-natural amino acids, and to explore its antitumor mechanism. METHODS: The binding activities of PEG-rhIL-2 at three different sites (T41, Y45, and V91) to human interleukin 2 receptors α (IL-2R_α) and β (IL-2R_β) and were detected by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology. Western blot was used to detect the levels of the Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (JAK-STAT5) signaling pathway activated by different doses of rhIL-2 and PEG-rhIL-2 in CTTL-2 and YT cells. Blood was collected after a single administration in mice to detect the drug concentration at different time points and evaluate the pharmacokinetic parameters of Y45-PEG-rhIL-2. Mouse hepatoma cell line Hepa1-6, pancreatic cancer cell line Pan-02, and colon cancer cell line MC-38 were selected. Tumor models were constructed in C57BL/6 mice. Different doses of Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 and excipient control were administrated respectively to evaluate the tumor suppression effect of the drug. In the MC-38 colon cancer model, the tumor suppression effect of Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 combined with anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) monoclonal antibody was evaluated. Hepa1-6 mouse tumor models were constructed and rhIL-2, Y45-rhIL-2 and Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 were administrated respectively. The proportion of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes was analyzed by flow cytometry. RESULTS: The SPR detection results showed that the binding activities of PEG-rhIL-2 to IL-2R_α/IL-2R_β were both reduced. The affinity of Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 to IL-2R_α was reduced to approximately 1/250, and its affinity to IL-2R_β was reduced to 1/3. Western blot results showed that the activity of Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 in stimulating JAK-STAT5 signaling in CTLL-2 cells expressing heterotrimeric IL-2 receptor complex IL-2R_αβγwas reduced to approximately 1/300, while its activity in YT cells expressing heterodimeric IL-2 receptor complex IL-2R_βγwas reduced to approximately 1/3. The pharmacokinetic evaluation after a single dose in the mice showed that the elimination half-life of Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 was 17.7 h. Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 has pharmacokinetic characteristics superior to those of rhIL-2. Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 showed dose-dependent tumor suppression activity, and the combination of Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 and anti-PD-1 antibody had a better tumor-inhibiting effect than the single use of Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 or anti-PD-1 antibody. Flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that 72 h after the administration of Y45-PEG-rhIL-2, the proportion of tumor-infiltrating cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CD8⁺T cells) increased by 86.84%. At 120 h after administration, the ratio of CD8⁺T cells to regulatory T cells (Treg) increased by 75.10%. CONCLUSION Y45-PEG-rhIL-2 obtained by site-specific conjugation via non-natural amino acids changed its receptor binding activity and inhibited tumor growth in dose-dependent manner in multiple tumor models by regulating CD8⁺T cells.
Interleukin-2/pharmacokinetics* ; Animals ; Mice ; Humans ; Recombinant Proteins/pharmacology* ; Polyethylene Glycols/chemistry* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacokinetics* ; Signal Transduction/drug effects* ; STAT5 Transcription Factor/metabolism* ; Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit/metabolism* ; Interleukin-2 Receptor beta Subunit/metabolism*

ObjectiveTo investigate the efficacy and safety of cinobufagin tablets combined with thalidomide/dexamethasone （TD） regimen in the treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma （NDMM） with phlegm and stasis obstruction. MethodsThe clinical data of 50 patients with NDMM of phlegm and stasis obstruction who were hospitalized at the Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine from June 1st， 2015 to July 31th， 2019 were retrospectively analyzed， and they were divided into a control group （bortezomib/dexamethasone-containing regimen， 27 cases） and an observation group （cinobufagin tablets combined with TD regimen， 23 cases）. The clinical efficacy and safety were compared between the two groups after two or three courses of treatment. The primary outcomes were clinical remission rate including overall response rate and deep remission rate， one-year and two-year overall survival rate， and adverse effects. The secondary outcomes were the proportion of plasma cells in bone marrow， hemoglobin， β2-microglobulin， lactate dehydrogenase， serum creatinine， blood urea nitrogen， bone pain score， and KPS functional status score （KPS score） before and after treatment. ResultsIn terms of clinical efficacy， there was no statistically significant difference （P＞0.05） in the overall response rate ［the observation group 69.57%（16/23） vs the control group 70.37% （19/27）］ and deep remission rate ［the observation group 56.52% （13/23） vs the control group 55.56% （15/27）］ between groups after the treatment. The one-year overall survival rates of the observation group and the control group were 90.9% and 92.4%， and the two-year overall survival rates were 81.8% and 80.9% respectively， with no statistically significant differences between groups （P＞0.05）. During the treatment， no renal function injury occurred in both groups. The incidence of peripheral nerve injury in the observation group was 8.70%， which was lower than 48.15% in the control group （P＜0.01）. After the treatment， the proportion of myeloma plasma cells， β2-microglobulin， serum creatinine level， and bone pain score decreased， while the hemoglobin level and KPS score increased in both groups （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）. Compared between groups after treatment， the bone pain score of the observation group was lower than that of the control group， while the KPS score was higher than that of the control group （P＜0.05）. ConclusionThe clinical efficacy of cinobufagin tablets combined with TD in the treatment of NDMM is equivalent to bortezomib/dexamethasone-containing regimen， but the former is more helpful in relieving the pain and improving the quality of life， and has better safety.

Objective To evaluate the methylation levels of DNA at six specific CpG sites located in the mRNA region of histone cluster 4 subfamily F member 6(HIST1H4F)gene and determine their diagnostic signifi-cance about lung cancer.Methods The DNA methylation levels of 15 cases of lung cancer and adjacent paired nor-mal lung tissue were detected using pyrophosphate sequencing.Based on preliminary evaluation,a methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme-fluorescence quantitative PCR(MSRE-qPCR)method was developed to detect DNA methylation levels in the test group(60 cases of lung adenocarcinoma,38 cases of squamous cell carcinoma,30 cases of benign diseases,and 26 cases of normal lung tissue)and the validation group(36 cases of lung adenocarci-noma,16 cases of squamous cell carcinoma,21 cases of benign diseases,and 23 cases of normal lung tissue).The diagnostic value was evaluated using ROC curves.Results The results of pyrophosphate sequencing showed that the methylation levels of lung cancer were significantly higher than that of paired normal lung tissue(P<0.005).The detection results of MSRE-qPCR showed that the areas under the ROC curve for diagnosing lung cancer in the test group and validation group were 0.894 and 0.888,with sensitivity of 76.5%and 73.1%,and specificity of 92.9%and 97.7%,respectively.The methylation levels were significantly positively correlated with smoking in lung cancer patients(r=0.273,P<0.01).Conclusion The six CpG sites in the mRNA region of the HIST1H4F gene can serve as biomarkers for diagnosing lung cancer,providinga new molecular target for clinical lung cancer diagnosis.

Objective To monitor the susceptibility of clinical isolates to antimicrobial agents in tertiary hospitals in major regions of China in 2022.Methods Clinical isolates from 58 hospitals in China were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using a unified protocol based on disc diffusion method or automated testing systems.Results were interpreted using the 2022 Clinical &Laboratory Standards Institute(CLSI)breakpoints.Results A total of 318 013 clinical isolates were collected from January 1,2022 to December 31,2022,of which 29.5％were gram-positive and 70.5％were gram-negative.The prevalence of methicillin-resistant strains in Staphylococcus aureus,Staphylococcus epidermidis and other coagulase-negative Staphylococcus species(excluding Staphylococcus pseudintermedius and Staphylococcus schleiferi)was 28.3％,76.7％and 77.9％,respectively.Overall,94.0％of MRSA strains were susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and 90.8％of MRSE strains were susceptible to rifampicin.No vancomycin-resistant strains were found.Enterococcus faecalis showed significantly lower resistance rates to most antimicrobial agents tested than Enterococcus faecium.A few vancomycin-resistant strains were identified in both E.faecalis and E.faecium.The prevalence of penicillin-susceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae was 94.2％in the isolates from children and 95.7％in the isolates from adults.The resistance rate to carbapenems was lower than 13.1％in most Enterobacterales species except for Klebsiella,21.7％-23.1％of which were resistant to carbapenems.Most Enterobacterales isolates were highly susceptible to tigecycline,colistin and polymyxin B,with resistance rates ranging from 0.1％to 13.3％.The prevalence of meropenem-resistant strains decreased from 23.5％in 2019 to 18.0％in 2022 in Pseudomonas aeruginosa,and decreased from 79.0％in 2019 to 72.5％in 2022 in Acinetobacter baumannii.Conclusions The resistance of clinical isolates to the commonly used antimicrobial agents is still increasing in tertiary hospitals.However,the prevalence of important carbapenem-resistant organisms such as carbapenem-resistant K.pneumoniae,P.aeruginosa,and A.baumannii showed a downward trend in recent years.This finding suggests that the strategy of combining antimicrobial resistance surveillance with multidisciplinary concerted action works well in curbing the spread of resistant bacteria.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the current situation of pharmaceutical management in compact medical consortium of Guangdong province， and to provide decision-making basis for promoting the high-quality construction and sustainable development of the provincial medical consortium. METHODS A self-designed questionnaire was used to select 50 compact medical consortiums in Guangdong province. The survey was answered by the heads of the pharmacy department of the general hospitals. The survey covered the basic scale of the consortium， the appointment of chief pharmacists， the implementation of pharmaceutical management and pharmaceutical care homogenization within the consortium， the difficulties in promoting the homogenization， and the expected provincial support. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed on the survey results. RESULTS A total of 50 questionnaires were collected， and the effective recovery rate was 100%. There were 16 chief pharmacists （32.00%） in charge of the pharmacy department of the general hospital in the medical consortium. Thirty-seven medical consortiums （74.00%） had established a drug supply support system within the consortium， 35 medical consortiums （70.00%） had carried out pharmaceutical management and coordination work within the medical consortium， 23 medical consortiums （46.00%） had established a clinical medication guidance system， 25 medical consortiums chenwenying2016@163.com （50.00%） had established a bidirectional communication mechanism， and only 8 medical consortiums （16.00%） had developed new models of pharmaceutical care. At present， the difficulties in promoting the homogenization of pharmaceutical management and pharmaceutical care within the medical consortium were mainly found in three aspects： the wide gap in management level of each member unit， the lack and uneven level of pharmaceutical personnel， and insufficient policy support and implementation. Most medical consortiums hoped that relevant departments could promote the homogenization of pharmaceutical work by holding special training courses or special supervision. CONCLUSIONS At present， the compact medical consortium in Guangdong province has achieved initial results in the implementation of the chief pharmacist system， the homogenization of pharmaceutical management and pharmaceutical care. However， it is still necessary to improve the coverage of chief pharmacist appointments in the medical consortium， implement the homogenization of pharmaceutical management， and accelerate the homogenization process of pharmaceutical care.

【Objective】 To investigate the penile appearance, sexual function, psychological status and related influencing factors of adult patients who underwent hypospadias repair surgery in their minors, so as to provide reference for the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of hypospadias. 【Methods】 This study included 50 adult hypospadias patients who underwent urethroplasty in our hospital during May 2005 and Aug. 2018. The present appearance, sexual function and psychological status were evaluated. The correlation and consistency between hypospadias objective scoring evaluation (HOSE) and pediatric penile perception score (PPPS) were analyzed. Factors affecting the results were determined with univariate and multivariate regression analysis. 【Results】 The satisfaction rate of HOSE was significantly correlated with the urethral length and complications (P=0.024, P=0.033). The satisfaction rate of PPPS was significantly correlated with the number of urethral operations and postoperative complications (P=0.041, P=0.023). There was a weak correlation between HOSE and PPPS (r=0.291, P=0.040), but almost no consistency (Kappa=0.2, P=0.107). Sixty percent of the patients paid attention to the ventral appearance of penis, whose dissatisfaction rate of PPPS was higher than those who did not pay attention to the ventral appearance of the penis (19/30 vs. 6/20, P=0.021). Patients with multiple operations (>1), postoperative complications or unsatisfactory penile appearance were more likely to have inferiority complex (52.6% vs. 22.6%, P=0.029; 59.1% vs.14.3%, P=0.001;61.5% vs. 24.3%, P=0.015). Multivariate regression analysis showed that dissatisfaction with the appearance of the penis was an independent risk factor for patients’ perception of their own physical defects. Among the patients who believed that they had physical defects, the percentage of patients with grade IV penile erectile hardness was significantly lower than that of those who denied they had physical defects (9/17 vs. 27/33, P=0.047). 【Conclusion】 The undesirable postoperative penis appearance is likely to have a negative impact on patients’ long-term psychological state, which might further damage the sexual function in adulthood. Surgeons should pay attention to the penile appearance during the conduction of hypospadias repair.

BACKGROUND: Observational research has reported that systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is related to common female hormone-dependent cancers, but the underlying causal effect remains undefined. This study aimed to explore the causal association of these conditions by Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. METHODS: We selected instrumental variables for SLE from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) conducted in European and East Asian populations. The genetic variants for female malignant neoplasms were obtained from corresponding ancestry GWASs. We utilized inverse variance weighted (IVW) as the primary analysis, followed by sensitivity analysis. Furthermore, we conducted multivariable MR (MVMR) to estimate direct effects by adjusting for the body mass index and estradiol. Finally, we implemented reverse direction MR analysis and gave a negative example to test the reliability of MR results. RESULTS: We found SLE was significantly negatively associated with overall endometrial cancer risk (odds ratio [OR] = 0.961, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.935-0.987, P  = 3.57E-03) and moderately inversely related to endometrioid endometrial cancer (ENEC) (OR = 0.965, 95% CI = 0.936-0.995, P  = 0.024) risk in the European population by IVW. We replicated these results using other MR models and detected a direct effect by MVMR (overall endometrial cancer, OR = 0.962, 95% CI = 0.941-0.983, P  = 5.11E-04; ENEC, OR = 0.964, 95% CI = 0.940-0.989, P  = 0.005). Moreover, we revealed that SLE was correlated with decreased breast cancer risk (OR = 0.951, 95% CI = 0.918-0.986, P  = 0.006) in the East Asian population by IVW, and the effect was still significant in MVMR (OR = 0.934, 95% CI = 0.859-0.976, P  = 0.002). The statistical powers of positive MR results were all >0.9. CONCLUSION This finding suggests a possible causal effect of SLE on the risk of overall endometrial cancer and breast cancer in European and East Asian populations, respectively, by MR analysis, which compensates for inherent limitations of observational research.
Female ; Humans ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Mendelian Randomization Analysis ; Neoplasms, Hormone-Dependent ; Reproducibility of Results ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/genetics* ; Carcinoma, Endometrioid ; Breast Neoplasms ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of surgical treatment of concealed penis based on the idea of flap transfer in the treatment of hypospadias.Methods:Retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of children with concealed penis admitted to the Urology Department of Chengdu Second People’s Hospital and Department of Pediatric Surgery at Children’s Medical Center of Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, from July 2017 to July 2021. The control group used the traditional surgical method and the experimental group used a modified surgical approach based on the idea of flap transfer in the treatment of hypospadias. Short-term complications such as flap ischemia, edema, and skin dehiscence were statistically analyzed in the two groups, as well as the Boemers rating of penile appearance (good, general, poor), Vancouver scar scale (VSS) (mild, moderate, severe), overall penis shape (tower, cylindrical, inverted tower) at 6 months after surgery. Count data were analyzed using the Chi-square test.Results:298 children, aged 2.5 to 13.7 years, with a mean age of 6.4 years, were enrolled in the study. 103 children were in the control group, and 195 children were in the experimental group. All enrolled patients were operated successfully in the first stage and were discharged 3-4 days after the operation, with an average recovery time of 3-4 weeks. After a follow-up of more than 6 months, in the control group, 2 cases (1.9%) of flap ischemia and 3 cases (2.9%) of skin dehiscence occurred after surgery. Two children (1.0%) in the experimental group had skin dehiscence after surgery, and the difference in the recent complication rate between the two groups was not significant [4.9%(5/103) vs. 1.0%(2/195), P>0.05]. The proportion of Boemers rated"good"in the experimental group was higher than that in the control group [93.3% (182/195) vs. 71.8% (74/103), P<0.01]. The proportion of moderate to severe scarring assessed by VSS was lower in the experimental group than in the control group [6.2% (12/195) vs. 26.2% (27/103), P<0.01]. The proportion of the overall penis shape of the penis close to the cylindrical shape of the normal penis in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group [81.5% (159/195) vs. 60.2% (62/103), P<0.01]. Conclusion:Compared with the traditional surgical method, the modified surgical approach based on the idea of flap transfer in the treatment of hypospadias attaches more importance to the overall planning of the flap and the tension distribution of the fascial layer, which can be more effective to solve the problem of insufficient coverage of the concealed penile skin and reduce postoperative scar formation. Moreover, the appearance of the external genitalia is natural and closer to normal, the surgical effect is exact, and the long-term postoperative complications are lower.