Most patients with differentiated thyroid cancer have a good prognosis after radioiodine-131 therapy,but a small number of patients are insensitive to radioiodine-131 therapy and even continue to develop disease.At present,some targeted drugs can improve progression-free survival in patients with radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer(RAIR-DTC),such as sorafenib and levatinib,have been approved for the treatment of RAIR-DTC.However,due to the presence of primary and acquired drug resistance,drug efficacy in these patients is unsatisfactory.This review introduces the acquired drug resistance mechanism of sorafenib in the regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK)and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase(PI3K)pathways and proposes related treatment strategies,in order to provide a reference for similar drug resistance mechanism of sorafenib and effective treatment of RAIR-DTC.

Objective To summarize the epidemiological and clinical features of infectious diseases of the central nervous system(CNS)by a single-center analysis.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the data of 1247 cases of CNS infectious diseases diagnosed and treated in the First Medical Center of PLA General Hospital from 2001 to 2020.Results The data for this group of CNS infectious diseases by disease type in descending order of number of cases were viruses 743(59.6％),Mycobacterium tuberculosis 249(20.0％),other bacteria 150(12.0％),fungi 68(5.5％),parasites 18(1.4％),Treponema pallidum 18(1.4％)and rickettsia 1(0.1％).The number of cases increased by 177 cases(33.1％)in the latter 10 years compared to the previous 10 years(P<0.05).No significant difference in seasonal distribution pattern of data between disease types(P>0.05).Male to female ratio is 1.87︰1,mostly under 60 years of age.Viruses are more likely to infect students,most often at university/college level and above,farmers are overrepresented among bacteria and Mycobacterium tuberculosis,and more infections of Treponema pallidum in workers.CNS infectious diseases are characterized by fever,headache and signs of meningeal irritation,with the adductor nerve being the more commonly involved cranial nerve.Matagenomic next-generation sequencing improves clinical diagnostic capabilities.The median hospital days for CNS infectious diseases are 18.00(11.00,27.00)and median hospital costs are ￥29,500(￥16,000,￥59,200).The mortality rate from CNS infectious diseases is 1.6％.Conclusions The incidence of CNS infectious diseases is increasing last ten years,with complex clinical presentation,severe symptoms and poor prognosis.Early and accurate diagnosis and standardized clinical treatment can significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality rate and ease the burden of disease.

Objective     To summarize the surgical treatment experience in neonates with coarctation of the aorta (CoA) and aortic arch hypoplasia (AAH). Methods     The neonates with CoA and AAH who underwent surgical treatment in the Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital from 2013 to 2020 were retrospectively enrolled. The postoperative complications, long-term survival rate, and freedom from aortic reobstruction were analyzed. Patients undergoing extended end-to-end anastomosis were allocated into an extended end-to-end group, those undergoing extended end-to-side anastomosis into an extended end-to-side group, and those undergoing pulmonary autograft patch aortoplasty into a patch aortoplasty group. Results     Finally 44 patients were  enrolled, including 37 males and 7 females, aged 5.00-30.00 (19.34±7.61) days and weighted 2.00-4.50 (3.30±0.60) kg. There were 19 patients of extended end-to-end anastomosis, 19 patients of extended end-to-side anastomosis, and 6 patients of pulmonary autograft patch aortoplasty. The mean values of the Z scores of the proximal, distal, and isthmus of the aortic arch were –2.91±1.52, –3.40±1.30, and –4.04±1.98, respectively. The mean follow-up time was 45.6±3.7 months. There were 2 early deaths and no late deaths. Aortic reobstruction occurred in 8 patients, and 3 patients underwent reoperation intervention. The 5-year rate of freedom from reobstruction was 78.8%. The Cox multivariable regression analysis showed that the related factors for postoperative reobstruction were the Z score of the preoperative proximal aortic arch (HR=0.152, 95%CI 0.038-0.601, P=0.007) and the postoperative left main bronchus compression (HR=15.261, 95%CI 1.104-210.978, P=0.042). Conclusion     Three surgical procedures for neonates with CoA and AAH are safe and effective, but the aortic reobstruction rate in long term is not low. The smaller Z score of the preoperative proximal aortic arch and the postoperative left main bronchus compression are risk factors for long-term aortic reobstruction.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of pre-sintering heating rate and powder size on dental recycled zirconia. Methods: Recycled zirconia powders were sieved to obtain the large (50 μm With the same particle size, the recycled zirconia pre-sintered at different heating rates showed no significant differences in the relative densities, and the open porosities (P>0.05). When the pre-sintering heating rates were 2 ℃/min, 5 ℃/min, and 8 ℃/min, the flexural strengths of the large-particle recycled zirconia were (421.2±54.7), (444.2±70.1) and (427.5±68.4) MPa, the flexural strengths of the small-particle recycled zirconia were (750.1±74.1), (777.2±95.5) and (746.7±73.0) MPa, respectively. The flexural strength of commercial zirconia was (988.4±129.8) MPa. The flexural strengths of the recycled zirconia were significantly lower than that of the commercial zirconia (P<0.05). At the same pre-sintering heating rate, the flexural strengths of the small-particle recycled zirconia were significantly higher than that of the large-particle recycled zirconia (P<0.05). Conclusions: Compared with the large particles, small-particle recycled zirconia powders can effectively improve the properties of recycled zirconia, while the pre-sintering heating rate has no effect on the properties of the recycled zirconia.
Ceramics ; Dental Materials/chemistry* ; Heating ; Materials Testing ; Powders ; Surface Properties ; Yttrium ; Zirconium

COVID-19 ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Incidence ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Singapore/epidemiology*

Aim To investigate the protective effects of the 10 compounds from Clematis filamentosa Dunn, on H

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the characteristic changes of the plasma cytokine profile in Chinese patients with idiopathic multicentric Castleman diseases (iMCD). METHODS: The plasma samples from 22 patients with confirmed diagnosis of iMCD were collected before treatments; Specimens from 17 patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, 10 non Hodgkin's lymphoma, and 15 healthy donors were used as control. Seventeen kinds of cytokines were measured by cytokine beads array (CBA) and ELISA respectively. RESULTS: Six cytokines were measured by ELISA. The concentrations of IL-2, IL-6, IL-21 and VEGF were significantly higher in the plasma of iMCD patients than those of the healthy donors (P＜0.01) and the level of IL-21 was highest in the iMCD group. There was no significant difference in the levels of IL-1β and IL-4 between the iMCD and healthy donor groups. Thirteen cytokines were measured by CBA assay, besides IL-6 level was confirmed to be higher in iMCD group than that in healthy controls (P＜0.01）, IL-12-p70 and IL-33 levels were also higher in iMCD group than those in control group (P＜0.05）, no significant difference of the rest cytokines was found between iMCD and the control group. CONCLUSION IL-6 and VEGF has shown to involved in the pathogenesis of iMCD, the results of preliminary study imply the role of IL-2 、IL-21、IL-12-p70 and IL-33 in this rare lymphoproliferative disease. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanism of these cytokines, which may shed some light on the identification of novel therapeutic targets against iMCD.
Castleman Disease ; Cytokines ; Humans ; Interleukin-12 ; Interleukin-1beta ; Plasma

Objective: To investigate the current status and real performance of the detection of RUNX1-RUNX1T1 fusion transcript levels and WT1 transcript levels in China through interlaboratory comparison. Methods: Peking University People's Hospital (PKUPH) prepared the samples for comparison. That is, the fresh RUNX1-RUNX1T1 positive (+) bone morrow nucleated cells were serially diluted with RUNX1-RUNX1T1 negative (-) nucleated cells from different patients. Totally 23 sets with 14 different samples per set were prepared. TRIzol reagent was added in each tube and thoroughly mixed with cells for homogenization. Each laboratory simultaneously tested RUNX1-RUNX1T1 and WT1 transcript levels of one set of samples by real-time quantitative PCR method. All transcript levels were reported as the percentage of RUNX1-RUNX1T1 or WT1 transcript copies/ABL copies. Spearman correlation coefficient between the reported transcript levels of each participated laboratory and those of PKUPH was calculated. Results: ①RUNX1-RUNX1T1 comparison: 9 samples were (+) and 5 were (-) , the false negative and positive rates of the 20 participated laboratories were 0 (0/180) and 5% (5/100) , respectively. The reported transcript levels of all 9 positive samples were different among laboratories. The median reported transcript levels of 9 positive samples were from 0.060% to 176.7%, which covered 3.5-log. The ratios of each sample's highest to the lowest reported transcript levels were from 5.5 to 12.3 (one result which obviously deviated from other laboratories' results was not included) , 85% (17/20) of the laboratories had correlation coefficient ≥0.98. ②WT1 comparison: The median reported transcript levels of all 14 samples were from 0.17% to 67.6%, which covered 2.6-log. The ratios of each sample's highest to the lowest reported transcript levels were from 5.3-13.7, 62% (13/21) of the laboratories had correlation coefficient ≥0.98. ③ The relative relationship of the reported RUNX1-RUNX1T1 transcript levels between the participants and PKUPH was not always consistent with that of WT1 transcript levels. Both RUNX1-RUNX1T1 and WT1 transcript levels from 2 and 7 laboratories were individually lower than and higher than those of PKUPH, whereas for the rest 11 laboratories, one transcript level was higher than and the other was lower than that of PKUPH. Conclusion: The reported RUNX1-RUNX1T1 and WT1 transcript levels were different among laboratories for the same sample. Most of the participated laboratories reported highly consistent result with that of PKUPH. The relationship between laboratories of the different transcript levels may not be the same.
China ; Core Binding Factor Alpha 2 Subunit ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; RUNX1 Translocation Partner 1 Protein ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Transcription, Genetic ; WT1 Proteins

OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression of CD160 on the surface of human natural killer (NK) cells and its possible relationship with hematological malignancies.

METHODSCD160 expression on human leukemia cell line NK92 cells was confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot. The proliferation characteristics and cell surface markers of this cell line were determined. Cytotoxicity of NK92 against 2 human myeloid leukemia cell lines, K562 and THP-1 was analyzed ex vivo. CD160 blocking antibody CL1-R2 was employed to clarify its role in NK cell mediated cytolysis. Then, the expression of CD160 on NK cells in peripheral blood from various patients with hematological malignancies were measured by flow cytometry.

RESULTSThe mRNA and protein levels of CD160 expressions on NK92 cells were confirmed by RT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. The flow cytometry results demonstrated that the strong positive expression of CD160 could be detected on the NK92 cell surface. NK92 could effectively kill K562 and THP-1 cells, while the cytolysis effect was abrogated in the presence of CD160 blocking antibody CL1-R2. The high levels of HVEM were expressed on both target cells, but the HLA class I molecules were absent on K562. The expression of CD160 on CD3CD56 NK cells in peripheral blood from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) recipients was significant lower than that in the normal controls (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe cytolysis function of human NK cells is mediated partially by CD160 molecule. The decrease of CD160 expression on NK cells from patients with various hematological malignancies implies that down-regulation of CD160 expression may be a novel mechanism of tumor immune escape.

Objective To explore the application value of spectral CT quantitative analysis in differentiating adenocarcinoma or squamous carcinoma from inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT). Methods A total of 115 patients with 62 adenocarcinomas, 33 squamous carcinomas and 20 IMTs underwent spectral CT scans to obtain spectral images at arterial phase (AP) and venous phase (VP). The imaging data were analyzed retrospectively. The iodine concentration of adenocarcinoma, squamous carcinomas and IMT were measured. The normalized iodine concentration in AP (NICAP), normalized iodine concentration in VP (NICVP) and normalized iodine concentration difference between AP and VP (ICD) were calculated. The above quantitative parameters among three groups were analyzed with analysis of variance and ROC curve. Results NICAP (0.15 ± 0.04), NICVP (0.37 ± 0.08) and ICD(0.23 ± 0.06)of the adenocarcinoma were lower than those of IMT (0.21 ± 0.05,0.50 ± 0.06,0.28 ± 0.08). There were significant differences in NICAP, NICVP and ICD between adenocarcinoma and IMT (P<0.05). NICAP (0.13 ± 0.03), NICVP (0.35±0.06) and ICD (0.22±0.05) of the squamous carcinoma were lower than those of IMT (0.21± 0.05,0.50±0.06,0.28±0.08). The differences in NICAP, NICVP and ICD were significant between squamous carcinoma and IMT (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in NICAP, NICVP and ICD between adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma (P>0.05). The best spectral quantitative parameter for differentiating the adenocarcinoma from IMT was NICVP, which yielded a sensitivity of 92.3% and a specificity of 86.7%with the threshold of 0.425. NICVP was also the best spectral quantitative parameter for differentiating squamous carcinomas from IMT. With the threshold of 0.44, a sensitivity of 84.6% and a specificity of 92.3% were found. Conclusion Spectral CT imaging with the quantitative iodine concentration analysis may help to increase the accuracy of differentiating adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma from IMT.