Objective This study aimed to evaluate whether the onset of the plateau phase of slow hepatitis B surface antigen decline in patients with chronic hepatitis B treated with intermittent interferon therapy is related to the frequency of dendritic cell subsets and expression of the costimulatory molecules CD40,CD80,CD83,and CD86. Method This was a cross-sectional study in which patients were divided into a natural history group(namely NH group),a long-term oral nucleoside analogs treatment group(namely NA group),and a plateau-arriving group(namely P group).The percentage of plasmacytoid dendritic cell and myeloid dendritic cell subsets in peripheral blood lymphocytes and monocytes and the mean fluorescence intensity of their surface costimulatory molecules were detected using a flow cytometer. Results In total,143 patients were enrolled(NH group,n = 49;NA group,n = 47;P group,n = 47).The results demonstrated that CD141/CD1c double negative myeloid dendritic cell(DNmDC)/lymphocytes and monocytes(%)in P group(0.041[0.024,0.069])was significantly lower than that in NH group(0.270[0.135,0.407])and NA group(0.273[0.150,0.443]),and CD86 mean fluorescence intensity of DNmDCs in P group(1832.0[1484.0,2793.0])was significantly lower than that in NH group(4316.0[2958.0,5169.0])and NA group(3299.0[2534.0,4371.0]),Adjusted P all<0.001. Conclusion Reduced DNmDCs and impaired maturation may be associated with the onset of the plateau phase during intermittent interferon therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B.

Objective To explore characteristics of clinical parameters and cytokines in patients with drug-induced liver injury(DILI)caused by different drugs and their correlation with clinical indicators. Method The study was conducted on patients who were up to Review of Uncertainties in Confidence Assessment for Medical Tests(RUCAM)scoring criteria and clinically diagnosed with DILI.Based on Chinese herbal medicine,cardiovascular drugs,non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs(NSAIDs),anti-infective drugs,and other drugs,patients were divided into five groups.Cytokines were measured by Luminex technology.Baseline characteristics of clinical biochemical indicators and cytokines in DILI patients and their correlation were analyzed. Results 73 patients were enrolled.Age among five groups was statistically different(P=0.032).Alanine aminotransferase(ALT)(P=0.033)and aspartate aminotransferase(AST)(P=0.007)in NSAIDs group were higher than those in chinese herbal medicine group.Interleukin-6(IL-6)and tumor necrosis factor alpha(TNF-α)in patients with Chinese herbal medicine(IL-6:P<0.001;TNF-α:P<0.001)and cardiovascular medicine(IL-6:P=0.020;TNF-α:P=0.001)were lower than those in NSAIDs group.There was a positive correlation between ALT(r=0.697,P=0.025),AST(r=0.721,P=0.019),and IL-6 in NSAIDs group. Conclusion Older age may be more prone to DILI.Patients with NSAIDs have more severe liver damage in early stages of DILI,TNF-α and IL-6 may partake the inflammatory process of DILI.

This work aimed to investigate the differences of pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of four alkaloids in Ermiao Pills and Sanmiao Pills in normal and arthritic model rats. The rat model of arthritis was established by injecting Freund's complete adjuvant, and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC-MS/MS) in the positive ion multiple reaction monitoring(MRM) mode was used for the determination of four alkaloids in plasma and tissues of normal and arthritic rats after administration of Ermiao Pills and Sanmiao Pills, respectively. The differences in pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of the four active components were compared, and the effect of Achyranthis Bidentatae Radix on the major components of Sanmiao Pills was explored. This study established an UPLC-MS/MS for simultaneous determination of four alkaloids, and the specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, and stability of this method all met the requirements. Pharmacokinetics study found that as compared with normal rats, the AUC and C_(max) of phellodendrine, magnoflorine, berberine and palmatine in model rats were significantly decreased after administration of Ermiao Pills, the clearance rate CL/F was significantly increased, and the distribution and tissue/plasma concentration ratio of the four alkaloids in the liver, kidney, and joint were significantly reduced. Achyranthis Bidentatae Radix increased the AUC of phellodendrine, berberine, and palmatine, reduced the clearance rate, and significantly increased the distribution of the four alkaloids in the liver, kidney, and joints in arthritic rats. However, it had no significant effect on the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of the four alkaloids in normal rats. These results suggest that Achyranthis Bidentatae Radix may play a guiding role in meridian through increasing the tissue distribution of effective components in Sanmiao Pills under arthritis states.
Rats ; Animals ; Berberine/pharmacokinetics* ; Tissue Distribution ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry/methods* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacokinetics* ; Alkaloids/pharmacokinetics* ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid/methods* ; Arthritis

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic efficiency and clinical application value of an artificial intelligence-assisted diagnosis model based on a three-dimensional convolutional neural network (3D CNN) on echocardiographic videos of patients with hypertensive heart disease, chronic renal failure (CRF) and hypothyroidism with cardiac involvement. Methods: This study is a retrospective study. The patients with hypertensive heart disease, CRF and hypothyroidism with cardiac involvement, who admitted in Henan Provincial People's Hospital from April 2019 to October 2021, were enrolled. Patients were divided into hypertension group, CRF group, and hypothyroidism group. Additionally, a simple random sampling method was used to select control healthy individuals, who underwent physical examination at the same period. The echocardiographic video data of enrolled participants were analyzed. The video data in each group was divided into a training set and an independent testing set in a ratio of 5 to 1. The temporal and spatial characteristics of videos were extracted using an inflated 3D convolutional network (I3D). The artificial intelligence assisted diagnosis model was trained and tested. There was no case overlapped between the training and validation sets. A model was established according to cases or videos based on video data from 3 different views (single apical four chamber (A4C) view, single parasternal left ventricular long-axis (PLAX) view and all views). The statistical analysis of diagnostic performance was completed to calculate sensitivity, specificity and area under the ROC curve (AUC). The time required for the artificial intelligence and ultrasound physicians to process cases was compared. Results: A total of 730 subjects aged (41.9±12.7) years were enrolled, including 362 males (49.6%), and 17 703 videos were collected. There were 212 cases in the hypertensive group, 210 cases in the CRF group, 105 cases in the hypothyroidism group, and 203 cases in the normal control group. The diagnostic performance of the model predicted by cases based on single PLAX view and all views data was excellent: (1) in the hypertensive group, the sensitivity, specificity and AUC of models based on all views data were 97%, 89% and 0.93, respectively, while those of models based on a single PLAX view were 94%, 95%, and 0.94, respectively; (2) in the CRF group, the sensitivity, specificity and AUC of models based on all views data were 97%, 95% and 0.96, respectively, while those of models based on a single PLAX view were 97%, 89%, and 0.93, respectively; (3) in the hypothyroidism group, the sensitivity, specificity and AUC of models based on all views data were 64%, 100% and 0.82, respectively, while those of models based on a single PLAX view were 82%, 89%, and 0.86, respectively. The time required for the 3D CNN model to measure and analyze the echocardiographic videos of each subject was significantly shorter than that for the ultrasound physicians ((23.96±6.65)s vs. (958.25±266.17)s, P<0.001). Conclusions: The artificial intelligence assisted diagnosis model based on 3D CNN can extract the dynamic temporal and spatial characteristics of echocardiographic videos jointly, and quickly and efficiently identify hypertensive heart disease and cardiac changes caused by CRF and hypothyroidism.
Male ; Humans ; Artificial Intelligence ; Retrospective Studies ; Echocardiography/methods* ; Heart Diseases ; Hypertension ; Hypothyroidism

Objectives: To investigated the safety and efficacy of treating patients with acute non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and elevated levels of N-terminal pro-hormone B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) with levosimendan within 24 hours of first medical contact (FMC). Methods: This multicenter, open-label, block-randomized controlled trial (NCT03189901) investigated the safety and efficacy of levosimendan as an early management strategy of acute heart failure (EMS-AHF) for patients with NSTEMI and high NT-proBNP levels. This study included 255 patients with NSTEMI and elevated NT-proBNP levels, including 142 males and 113 females with a median age of 65 (58-70) years, and were admitted in the emergency or outpatient departments at 14 medical centers in China between October 2017 and October 2021. The patients were randomly divided into a levosimendan group (n=129) and a control group (n=126). The primary outcome measure was NT-proBNP levels on day 3 of treatment and changes in the NT-proBNP levels from baseline on day 5 after randomization. The secondary outcome measures included the proportion of patients with more than 30% reduction in NT-proBNP levels from baseline, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) during hospitalization and at 6 months after hospitalization, safety during the treatment, and health economics indices. The measurement data parameters between groups were compared using the t-test or the non-parametric test. The count data parameters were compared between groups using the χ² test. Results: On day 3, the NT-proBNP levels in the levosimendan group were lower than the control group but were statistically insignificant [866 (455, 1 960) vs. 1 118 (459, 2 417) ng/L, Z=-1.25,P=0.21]. However, on day 5, changes in the NT-proBNP levels from baseline in the levosimendan group were significantly higher than the control group [67.6% (33.8%,82.5%)vs.54.8% (7.3%,77.9%), Z=-2.14, P=0.03]. There were no significant differences in the proportion of patients with more than 30% reduction in the NT-proBNP levels on day 5 between the levosimendan and the control groups [77.5% (100/129) vs. 69.0% (87/126), χ²=2.34, P=0.13]. Furthermore, incidences of MACE did not show any significant differences between the two groups during hospitalization [4.7% (6/129) vs. 7.1% (9/126), χ²=0.72, P=0.40] and at 6 months [14.7% (19/129) vs. 12.7% (16/126), χ²=0.22, P=0.64]. Four cardiac deaths were reported in the control group during hospitalization [0 (0/129) vs. 3.2% (4/126), P=0.06]. However, 6-month survival rates were comparable between the two groups (log-rank test, P=0.18). Moreover, adverse events or serious adverse events such as shock, ventricular fibrillation, and ventricular tachycardia were not reported in both the groups during levosimendan treatment (days 0-1). The total cost of hospitalization [34 591.00(15 527.46,59 324.80) vs. 37 144.65(16 066.90,63 919.00)yuan, Z=-0.26, P=0.80] and the total length of hospitalization [9 (8, 12) vs. 10 (7, 13) days, Z=0.72, P=0.72] were lower for patients in the levosimendan group compared to those in the control group, but did not show statistically significant differences. Conclusions: Early administration of levosimendan reduced NT-proBNP levels in NSTEMI patients with elevated NT-proBNP and did not increase the total cost and length of hospitalization, but did not significantly improve MACE during hospitalization or at 6 months.
Male ; Female ; Humans ; Aged ; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain ; Simendan/therapeutic use* ; Non-ST Elevated Myocardial Infarction ; Heart Failure/drug therapy* ; Peptide Fragments ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Biomarkers ; Prognosis

Objective: Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) was used to analyze the developing mouse molars, in order to construct a spatiotemporal development atlas of pulp cells, and further to reveal the developmental process and regulatory mechanism of tooth development. Methods: Ten mandibular first molars from C57BL/6 mice in postnatal day (PN) 0 and 3 were respectively dissected and digested to obtain single-cell suspensions. scRNA-seq was performed on 10× Genomics platform. PN 7 mouse molar scRNA-seq data were obtained from our previous study. PN 0, 3, and 7 scRNA-seq data were integrated for following analysis. The initial quality control, mapping and single cell expression matrix construction were performed by Cell Ranger. Quality control, standardization, dimensional reduction and cluster analysis were performed by using Seurat. Monocle was used to generate the pseudotime trajectory. Scillus was used to perform gene ontology analysis. In order to detect the spatiotemporal change of different population of pulp cells, the marker genes of each cluster were demonstrated by RNAscope in situ hybridization. Results: There were twenty-six cell clusters within mouse molars, which were identified as eight different cell types, including dental pulp cells, dental follicle cells, epithelial cells, immune cells, endothelial cells, perivascular cells, glial cells and erythrocytes. We further re-clustered and analyzed dental pulp cells. Cluster 0 were mature pulp cells, which located at the upper portion of crown. The main functions of cluster 0 were osteogenesis and extracellular structure organization. Cluster 1 were apical papilla cells, which located at the apical part of roots, whose main functions were extracellular structure organization and organ development. Cluster 2 were cycling cells, which were actively proliferated, resided in the lower portion of the crown. Cluster 3 and 4 were preodontoblasts and odontoblasts, respectively. Their functions were closely related to biomineralization. The proportion of mature pulp cells increased with the development process, while the proportion of cycling cells and odontoblast lineage decreased. According to the expression pattern of marker genes of each cluster, we constructed a cell atlas of dental pulp. Pseudotime trajectory analysis found there were two development trajectories within dental pulp. They both started from SPARC related modular calcium binding 2 (Smoc2)+ dental papilla cells, then went through DNA topoisomerase Ⅱ alpha (Top2a)+ cycling cells, and finally divided into coxsackie virus and adenovirus receptor (Cxadr)+ mature pulp cells or dentin sialophosphoprotein (Dspp)+ odontoblasts two lineages. Conclusions: scRNA-seq could fully discover the intercellular heterogeneity of cells on transcriptome level, which provides a powerful tool to study the process and regulatory mechanism of organ development.

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of mitoxantrone hydrochloride liposome injection in the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) in a real-world setting.Methods:This was a real-world ambispective cohort study (MOMENT study) (Chinese clinical trial registry number: ChiCTR2200062067). Clinical data were collected from 198 patients who received mitoxantrone hydrochloride liposome injection as monotherapy or combination therapy at 37 hospitals from January 2022 to January 2023, including 166 patients in the retrospective cohort and 32 patients in the prospective cohort; 10 patients in the treatment-na?ve group and 188 patients in the relapsed/refractory group. Clinical characteristics, efficacy and adverse events were summarized, and the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were analyzed.Results:All 198 patients were treated with mitoxantrone hydrochloride liposome injection for a median of 3 cycles (range 1-7 cycles); 28 cases were treated with mitoxantrone hydrochloride liposome injection as monotherapy, and 170 cases were treated with the combination regimen. Among 188 relapsed/refractory patients, 45 cases (23.9%) were in complete remission (CR), 82 cases (43.6%) were in partial remission (PR), and 28 cases (14.9%) were in disease stabilization (SD), and 33 cases (17.6%) were in disease progression (PD), with an objective remission rate (ORR) of 67.6% (127/188). Among 10 treatment-na?ve patients, 4 cases (40.0%) were in CR, 5 cases (50.0%) were in PR, and 1 case (10.0%) was in PD, with an ORR of 90.0% (9/10). The median follow-up time was 2.9 months (95% CI 2.4-3.7 months), and the median PFS and OS of patients in relapsed/refractory and treatment-na?ve groups were not reached. In relapsed/refractory patients, the difference in ORR between patients with different number of treatment lines of mitoxantrone hydrochloride liposome injection [ORR of the second-line, the third-line and &ge;the forth-line treatment was 74.4% (67/90), 73.9% (34/46) and 50.0% (26/52)] was statistically significant ( P = 0.008). Of the 198 PTCL patients, 182 cases (91.9%) experienced at least 1 time of treatment-related adverse events, and the incidence rate of &ge;grade 3 adverse events was 66.7% (132/198), which was mainly characterized by hematologic adverse events. The &ge; grade 3 hematologic adverse events mainly included decreased lymphocyte count, decreased neutrophil count, decreased white blood cell count, and anemia; non-hematologic adverse events were mostly grade 1-2, mainly including pigmentation disorders and upper respiratory tract infection. Conclusions:The use of mitoxantrone hydrochloride liposome injection-containing regimen in the treatment of PTCL has definite efficacy and is well tolerated, and it is a new therapeutic option for PTCL patients.

Objective: To analyze the prevalence and the risk factors of fungal sepsis in 25 neonatal intensive care units (NICU) among preterm infants in China, and to provide a basis for preventive strategies of fungal sepsis. Methods: This was a second-analysis of the data from the "reduction of infection in neonatal intensive care units using the evidence-based practice for improving quality" study. The current status of fungal sepsis of the 24 731 preterm infants with the gestational age of <34⁺⁰ weeks, who were admitted to 25 participating NICU within 7 days of birth between May 2015 and April 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. These preterm infants were divided into the fungal sepsis group and the without fungal sepsis group according to whether they developed fungal sepsis to analyze the incidences and the microbiology of fungal sepsis. Chi-square test was used to compare the incidences of fungal sepsis in preterm infants with different gestational ages and birth weights and in different NICU. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to study the outcomes of preterm infants with fungal sepsis, which were further compared with those of preterm infants without fungal sepsis. The 144 preterm infants in the fungal sepsis group were matched with 288 preterm infants in the non-fungal sepsis group by propensity score-matched method. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the risk factors of fungal sepsis. Results: In all, 166 (0.7%) of the 24 731 preterm infants developed fungal sepsis, with the gestational age of (29.7±2.0) weeks and the birth weight of (1 300±293) g. The incidence of fungal sepsis increased with decreasing gestational age and birth weight (both P<0.001). The preterm infants with gestational age of <32 weeks accounted for 87.3% (145/166). The incidence of fungal sepsis was 1.0% (117/11 438) in very preterm infants and 2.0% (28/1 401) in extremely preterm infants, and was 1.3% (103/8 060) in very low birth weight infants and 1.7% (21/1 211) in extremely low birth weight infants, respectively. There was no fungal sepsis in 3 NICU, and the incidences in the other 22 NICU ranged from 0.7% (10/1 397) to 2.9% (21/724), with significant statistical difference (P<0.001). The pathogens were mainly Candida (150/166, 90.4%), including 59 cases of Candida albicans and 91 cases of non-Candida albicans, of which Candida parapsilosis was the most common (41 cases). Fungal sepsis was independently associated with increased risk of moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) (adjusted OR 1.52, 95%CI 1.04-2.22, P=0.030) and severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) (adjusted OR 2.55, 95%CI 1.12-5.80, P=0.025). Previous broad spectrum antibiotics exposure (adjusted OR=2.50, 95%CI 1.50-4.17, P<0.001), prolonged use of central line (adjusted OR=1.05, 95%CI 1.03-1.08, P<0.001) and previous total parenteral nutrition (TPN) duration (adjusted OR=1.04, 95%CI 1.02-1.06, P<0.001) were all independently associated with increasing risk of fungal sepsis. Conclusions: Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis are the main pathogens of fungal sepsis among preterm infants in Chinese NICU. Preterm infants with fungal sepsis are at increased risk of moderate to severe BPD and severe ROP. Previous broad spectrum antibiotics exposure, prolonged use of central line and prolonged duration of TPN will increase the risk of fungal sepsis. Ongoing initiatives are needed to reduce fungal sepsis based on these risk factors.
Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Humans ; Birth Weight ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal ; Retrospective Studies ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Infant, Extremely Low Birth Weight ; Gestational Age ; Infant, Extremely Premature ; Sepsis/epidemiology* ; Retinopathy of Prematurity/epidemiology* ; Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia/epidemiology*

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare 9 perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (PFSA) with carbon chain lengths (C4-C12) to inhibit human placental 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 (3β-HSD1), aromatase, and rat 3β-HSD4 activities. METHODS: Human and rat placental 3β-HSDs activities were determined by converting pregnenolone to progesterone and progesterone secretion in JEG-3 cells was determined using HPLC/MS-MS, and human aromatase activity was determined by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: PFSA inhibited human 3β-HSD1 structure-dependently in the order: perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS, half-maximum inhibitory concentration, IC ₅₀: 9.03 ± 4.83 μmol/L) > perfluorodecanesulfonic acid (PFDS, 42.52 ± 8.99 μmol/L) > perfluoroheptanesulfonic acid (PFHpS, 112.6 ± 29.39 μmol/L) > perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS) = perfluoropentanesulfonic acid (PFPS) = perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) = perfluorododecanesulfonic acid (PFDoS) (ineffective at 100 μmol/L). 6:2FTS (1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorooctanesulfonic acid) and 8:2FTS (1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorodecanesulfonic acid) did not inhibit human 3β-HSD1. PFOS and PFHpS are mixed inhibitors, whereas PFDS is a competitive inhibitor. Moreover, 1-10 μmol/L PFOS and PFDS significantly reduced progesterone biosynthesis in JEG-3 cells. Docking analysis revealed that PFSA binds to the steroid-binding site of human 3β-HSD1 in a carbon chain length-dependent manner. All 100 μmol/L PFSA solutions did not affect rat 3β-HSD4 and human placental aromatase activity. CONCLUSION Carbon chain length determines inhibitory potency of PFSA on human placental 3β-HSD1 in a V-shaped transition at PFOS (C8), with inhibitory potency of PFOS > PFDS > PFHpS > PFBS = PFPS = PFHxS = PFDoS = 6:2FTS = 8:2FTS.
Humans ; Pregnancy ; Female ; Rats ; Animals ; Placenta ; Progesterone/pharmacology* ; Aromatase/pharmacology* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Fluorocarbons ; Alkanesulfonic Acids ; Structure-Activity Relationship ; Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenases/pharmacology*

Objective:To develop the method based on deep learning to predict the dose distribution of breast-conserving postoperative intensity-modulated radiotherapy(IMRT) for breast cancer, and to evaluate accuracy of the prediction model.Methods:The data of 110 left-sided breast-conserving postoperative IMRT for breast cancer patients were reviewed, among them, 80 cases were randomly selected for training set, 10 cases for validation set and the remaining 20 cases were used as test set.Firstly, the four-channel characteristics of the patients′ computed tomography(CT) images, regions of interest, distances between voxel and planning target volume(PTV), and corresponding dose distributions were taken as input data.The established U-Net was used for training and obtaining prediction model which was utilized to perform dose prediction on the test set, in order to verify the influence of the features of distance between voxel and PTV in dose prediction, and to compare the dose prediction result with the actual manual planned dose.Results:By incorporating the features of distance between voxel and PTV, the model achieved higher accuracy in predicting the dose distribution.The dose scores and dose volume histogram(DVH) scores of the testing set, consisting of 20 patients, were 2.10±0.18 and 2.28±0.08, respectively, and the predicted dose distribution was closer to the manually planned distribution( t=2.52, 2.40, P<0.05). The deviation between the predicted doses of the PTV and the organ at risk (OAR) and the manually planned doses were within 4%, the average dose to the contralateral breast was increased by 13 cGy, all of them within the clinically acceptable range. Except for the statistically significant differences in D2, D98( Di represents the dose received by i%of the PTV volume), Dmean(mean dose) of PTV 60 and V5( Vi was the volume percentage of OAR receiving i Gy dose.), Dmeanof the ipsilateral lung ( t=3.74, 2.91, 2.99, 3.47, 2.29, P < 0.05), there were no statistically significant differences in other parameters. Conclusions:The deep learning-based method can accurately predict the dose distribution of breast-conserving postoperative IMRT for breast cancer, and it has been proven through experiments that by incorporating the features of distance between voxel and PTV can effectively improve the prediction accuracy, which helps physicists to improve the quality and consistency of treatment planning.