Thymocyte selection-associated high mobility group box (TOX), a member of the high mobility group protein super-family, plays an important role in T cell development, functional maintenance, and exhaustion. It has been recently found that TOX exerts critical immunoregulatory functions during pathogen infections, and TOX expression is strongly associated with the intensity and tolerance of host immune responses. This review systematically summarizes the structural and functional features of TOX and focuses on its expression dynamics, mechanisms of action, and immunomodulatory effects during viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections, which provides a theoretical support to better understanding of the role of TOX in infectious diseases and provides new insights into development of potential immunotherapeutic strategies targeting TOX.

Objective To investigate the pathomorphological features of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue(MALT)lymphoma of the lacrimal gland and the expression and significance of BCL10 and MALT1 in tumor tissues.Methods Diseased lacrimal gland tissue specimens from 19 patients with lacrimal gland MALT lymphoma(19 eyes,including nine right eyes and ten left eyes)were selected as the experimental group,and normal lacrimal gland tissue specimens from eight patients with orbital content removal(eight eyes,including three right eyes and five left eyes)were selected as the control group.Hematoxylin-eosin(HE)staining was performed to observe the mor-phological characteristics of the lacrimal gland tissues,and immunohistochemical(IHC)staining was performed to observe the expression of BCL10 and MALT1 in the lacrimal gland tissues.Results In the experimental group,marginal B cells,monocyte-like tumor cells,small lymphocyte-like tumor cells,and plasma cell-like tumor cells appeared in the marginal zone.Large cells were occasionally distri-buted among these cells.The tumor cells invaded the lymphoid follicles and epithelium,destroyed normal tissue structure,and formed follicular colonization and lymphoepithelial lesions.The positive expression area of BCL10 and MALT1 in the experimental group was sig-nificantly larger than that in the control group(Z=-2.177,P=0.029;t=3.237,P=0.003).Conclusion Lacrimal gland MALT lymphoma shows pathological changes in diffusely distributed marginal B cells and tumor cells with diverse morphology,acquired lymphoid follicles,and scattered distribution of large cells.This may be related to apoptosis blockage caused by the upregulation of BCL10 and MALT1 expression.

Objective:To verify the predictive value of the Second Revision of the International Staging System (R2-ISS) in newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma (MM) who underwent first-line autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in a new drug era in China.Methods:This multicenter retrospective cohort study enrolled patients with newly diagnosed MM from three centers in China (Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University; the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University) from June 2008 to June 2018. A total of 401 newly diagnosed patients with MM who were candidates for ASCT were enrolled in this cohort, all received proteasome inhibitor and/or immunomodulator-based induction chemotherapy followed by ASCT. Baseline and follow-up data were collected. The patients were regrouped using R2-ISS. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the survival curve and two survival curves were compared using the log-rank test. Cox regression analysis were performed to analyze the relationship between risk factors and survival.Results:The median age of the patients was 53 years (range 25-69 years) and 59.5% (240 cases) were men. Newly diagnosed patients with renal impairment accounted for 11.5% (46 cases). According to Revised-International Staging System (R-ISS), 74 patients (18.5 %) were diagnosed with stage Ⅰ, 259 patients (64.6%) with stage Ⅱ, and 68 patients (17.0%) with stage Ⅲ. According to the R2-ISS, the distribution of patients in each group was as follows: 50 patients (12.5%) in stage Ⅰ, 95 patients (23.7%) in stage Ⅱ, 206 patients (51.4%) in stage Ⅲ, and 50 patients (12.5%) in stage Ⅳ. The median follow-up time was 35.9 months (range, 6-119 months). According to the R2-ISS stage, the median PFS in each group was: 75.3 months for stage Ⅰ; 62.0 months for stage Ⅱ, 39.2 months for stage Ⅲ, and 30.3 months for stage Ⅳ; and the median OS was not reached, 86.6 months, 71.6 months, and 38.5 months, respectively. There were statistically significant differences in PFS and OS between different groups (both P<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that stages Ⅲ and Ⅳ of the R2-ISS were independent prognostic factors for PFS ( HR=2.37, 95% CI 1.30-4.30; HR=4.50, 95% CI 2.35-9.01) and OS ( HR=4.20, 95% CI 1.50-11.80; HR=9.53, 95% CI 3.21-28.29). Conclusions:The R2-ISS has significant predictive value for PFS and OS for transplant-eligible patients with MM in the new drug era. However, the universality of the R2-ISS still needs to be further verified in different populations.

Objective To explore the influencing factors of massive hemorrhage during cesarean section of pernicious placenta previa,and establish a risk prediction model.Methods The clinical data of 340 pregnant women with pernicious placenta previa who underwent cesarean section for termination of pregnancy in this hospital from January 2017 to December 2021 were collected.They were divided into the common hemorrhage group (the amount of intraoperative blood loss<2000 mL,n=200) and massive hemorrhage group (the a-mount of intraoperative blood loss ≥2000 mL,n=140).The clinical characteristics of pregnant women,clini-cal data of this pregnancy,situation of the fetus,and imaging information were compared between the two groups.Combining the variables with a P value<0.05 in the univariate analysis and the possible influencing factors of massive hemorrhage during cesarean section in pregnant women with pernicious placenta previa in clinical practice,the binary multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted,and a risk prediction model was established.Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to evaluate the fitting effect and discrimination of the model.Results The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the number of abortions,placental thickness,combining with placental implantation,number of previous cesarean sections and fetal gender were the independent influencing factors for massive hemorrhage (≥2000 mL) during cesarean section in pregnant women with pernicious placenta previa (P<0.05).The prediction model formula:P=Log (Y/1-Y),Y=0.396+1.371×(number of abor-tions=three times)+1.248×(number of abortions ≥ four times)-0.351×(placental thickness)+0.624× (combining with placental implantation)+0.974×(two or more previous cesarean sections)+0.638 × (female=0,male=1).The results of Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test showed that the prediction mod-el had good calibration ability (x2=77.825,P<0.001).The area under the ROC curve was 0.768 (95％CI:0.717-0.820),the specificity was 83.0％,the positive predictive value was 70.2％,and the negative predic-tive value was 73.5％.Conclusion The risk prediction model of massive hemorrhage during cesarean section in pregnant women with pernicious placenta previa has good performance.It is helpful to identify high-risk pregnant women in the prenatal evaluation,and provide a basis for formulating the blood transfusion plan in clinic,and prevention and treatment of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Objective To use color Doppler ultrasound to measure the hemodynamic indexes,and to es-tablish the diagnostic prediction model of inflammatory fetal distress.Methods A total of 213 pregnant women admitted to the obstetrics department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Military Medical U-niversity were collected as the research subjects and divided into the control group and case group according to whether or not fetal distress occurred,including 93 cases in the control group and 120 cases in the case group.The predictive value of PI,RI,S/D values of middle cerebral artery,umbilical artery and uterine artery for pre-dicting fetal distress was analyzed The diagnostic model was constructed by logistic regression analysis.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve,calibration curve and clinical decision curve were adopted to an-alyze and evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the model for adverse perinatal outcome and the clinical benefit of the patients.Results The univariate analysis results showed that MCA-PI,MCA-RI,MCA,S/D and CPR in the case group were lower than those in the control group,while UA-RI,UA,S/D and UtA-RI were higher than those in the control group.The multivariate regression analysis further showed that MCA-PI,MCA-RI and CPR were the independent protective factors for predicting fetal distress,while UA-R1 and UA-S/D served as the independent risk factors affecting the fetal outcome.Based on five independent influencing fac-tors,the risk prediction model was constructed,and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.880(95％CI:0.834-0.925).The sensitivity,specificity and accuracy were 0.93,0.70 and 0.83 respec-tively,and the goodness of fit was good.Conclusion The hemodynamic indexes measured by color Doppler ul-trasound have good predictive value for the diagnosis of fetal distress.The risk prediction model established by the combined indexes has a certain reference value for the intervention in advance of pregnant women with fe-tal distress occurence.

Objective To analyze the rebleeding rate in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) after endoscopic treatment of esophagogastric variceal bleeding and then assessed the risk factors of the rebleeding in the patients. Methods This study retrospectively recruited 169 hepatitis B-associated HCC patients complicated with PVTT and esophagogastric variceal bleeding treated by endoscopy in Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Ditan Hospital from September 2008 to December 2016. Among them, 47 patients had PVTT Ⅱ, 67 patients had PVTT Ⅲ, and 55 patients had PVTT Ⅳ. Their clinicopathological and follow-up data were retrieved from the medical records and statistically analyzed. Continuous data were compared among groups using ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis H test. Categorial data were compared among groups using Chi-square test or corrected Fisher test. The Kaplan-Meier curves and Log-rank test were performed to analyze the rebleeding rate and cumulative survival rates after treatment. The univariate multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to identify the risk factors affecting the rebleeding of patients. Results Compared with PVTT Ⅱ and Ⅲ, PVTT Ⅳ patients had a higher serum level of the direct bilirubin ( Z =6.153, P =0.046). The endoscopy treatment successfully blocked esophagogastric variceal bleeding in all patients. There was no significant difference in the rebleeding rates within six months and a year after the treatment (all P > 0.05). It was also no statistically significant difference in cumulative survival rates in six months and l-, 2-, and 3-year after the treatment in PVTT Ⅱ, Ⅲ, and Ⅳ patients (all P > 0.05). Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that hepatic encephalopathy ( HR =3.643, 95% CI : 2.099-6.325, P < 0.001), γ-glutamyltransferase ( HR =1.002, 95% CI : 1.000-1.005, P =0.029), AFP ( HR =1.000, 95% CI : 1.000-1.000, P =0.002) and numbers of tumor lesions ( HR =1.647, 95% CI : 1.011-2.684, P =0.045) were all independent risk factors for 1-year rebleeding in these PVTT patients with esophagogastric variceal bleeding after endoscopic treatment. Conclusion Endoscopic hemostasis is a feasible treatment option for HCC patients with PVTT and esophagogastric variceal bleeding. However, there was no significant difference in the rebleeding and cumulative survival rates in these patients. Furthermore, hepatic encephalopathy, γ-glutamyltransferase, AFP and numbers of tumor lesions were all independent risk factors for 1-year rebleeding in these patients.

Metformin is currently a strong candidate anti-tumor agent in multiple cancers. However, its anti-tumor effectiveness varies among different cancers or subpopulations, potentially due to tumor heterogeneity. It thus remains unclear which hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patient subpopulation(s) can benefit from metformin treatment. Here, through a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9-based knockout screen, we find that DOCK1 levels determine the anti-tumor effects of metformin and that DOCK1 is a synthetic lethal target of metformin in HCC. Mechanistically, metformin promotes DOCK1 phosphorylation, which activates RAC1 to facilitate cell survival, leading to metformin resistance. The DOCK1-selective inhibitor, TBOPP, potentiates anti-tumor activity by metformin in vitro in liver cancer cell lines and patient-derived HCC organoids, and in vivo in xenografted liver cancer cells and immunocompetent mouse liver cancer models. Notably, metformin improves overall survival of HCC patients with low DOCK1 levels but not among patients with high DOCK1 expression. This study shows that metformin effectiveness depends on DOCK1 levels and that combining metformin with DOCK1 inhibition may provide a promising personalized therapeutic strategy for metformin-resistant HCC patients.
Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use* ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/metabolism* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats ; Genome ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms/metabolism* ; Metformin/therapeutic use* ; Mice ; Phosphorylation ; Synthetic Lethal Mutations ; Transcription Factors/metabolism* ; rac GTP-Binding Proteins/metabolism*

Objective:To develop the Health Promotion Behavior Intention Questionnaire for enterostomy patients and test its reliability and validity.Method:Based on the theory of planned behavior, the first draft of the questionnaire was formed through literature review, group discussion, correspondence with Delphi experts and pre-test. The convenient sampling method was used to select 419 patients with enterostomy who visited Stoma Outpatient Department of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from December 2020 to June 2021 to conduct a questionnaire survey. Item analysis and reliability and validity tests were carried out on the questionnaires.Results:The Health Promotion Behavior Intention Questionnaire for enterostomy patients included 15 items. Exploratory factor analysis extracted four common factors, namely, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention. The cumulative variance contribution rate was 83.166%. The content validity index of item level was 0.875-1.000 and the content validity index of questionnaire level was 0.983. The Cronbach's α coefficient of the total questionnaire was 0.921 and the retest reliability coefficient was 0.848.Conclusions:The Health Promotion Behavior Intention Questionnaire for enterostomy patients has good reliability and validity and it can be used as a tool to evaluate the health promotion behavior intention of patients with enterostomy.

Objective:Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common infectious complication after emergency abdominal surgery (EAS). To a large extent, most SSI can be prevented, but there are few relevant studies in China. This study mainly investigated the current situation of SSI occurrence after EAS in China, and further explored risk factors for SSI occurrence.Methods:Multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted. Clinical data of patients undergoing EAS in 33 hospitals across China between May 1, 2019 and June 7, 2019 were prospectively collected, including perioperative data and microbial culture results from infected incisions. The primary outcome was the incidence of SSI after EAS, while the secondary outcomes were postoperative hospital stay, ICU occupancy rate, length of ICU stay, hospitalization cost, and mortality within postoperative 30 days. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze the risk factors of SSI after EAS.Results:A total of 660 EAS patients aged (47.9±18.3) years were enrolled in this study, including 56.5% of males (373/660). Forty-nine (7.4%) patients developed postoperative SSI. The main pathogen of SSI was Escherichia coli [culture positive rate was 32.7% (16/49)]. As compared to patients without SSI, those with SSI were more likely to be older (median 56 years vs. 46 years, U=19 973.5, P<0.001), male [71.4% (35/49) vs. 56.1% (343/611), χ 2=4.334, P=0.037] and diabetes [14.3% (7/49) vs. 5.1% (31/611), χ 2=5.498, P=0.015]; with-lower preoperative hemoglobin (median: 122.0 g/L vs. 143.5 g/L, U=11 471.5, P=0.006) and albumin (median: 35.5 g/L vs. 40.8 g/L, U=9452.0, P<0.001), with higher blood glucose (median: 6.9 mmol/L vs. 6.0 mmol/L, U=17 754.5, P<0.001); with intestinal obstruction [32.7% (16/49) vs. 9.2% (56/611), χ 2=25.749, P<0.001], with ASA score 3-4 [42.9% (21/49) vs. 13.9% (85/611), χ 2=25.563, P<0.001] and with high surgical risk [49.0% (24/49) vs. 7.0% (43/611), χ 2=105.301, P<0.001]. The main operative procedure resulting in SSI was laparotomy [81.6%(40/49) vs. 35.7%(218/611), χ 2=40.232, P<0.001]. Patients with SSI experienced significantly longer operation time (median: 150 minutes vs. 75 minutes, U=25 183.5, P<0.001). In terms of clinical outcome, higher ICU occupancy rate [51.0% (25/49) vs. 19.5% (119/611), χ 2=26.461, P<0.001], more hospitalization costs (median: 44 000 yuan vs. 15 000 yuan, U=24 660.0, P<0.001), longer postoperative hospital stay (median: 10 days vs. 5 days, U=23 100.0, P<0.001) and longer ICU occupancy time (median: 0 days vs. 0 days, U=19 541.5, P<0.001) were found in the SSI group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the elderly (OR=3.253, 95% CI: 1.178-8.985, P=0.023), colorectal surgery (OR=9.156, 95% CI: 3.655-22.937, P<0.001) and longer operation time (OR=15.912, 95% CI:6.858-36.916, P<0.001) were independent risk factors of SSI, while the laparoscopic surgery (OR=0.288, 95% CI: 0.119-0.694, P=0.006) was an independent protective factor for SSI. Conclusions:For patients undergoing EAS, attention should be paid to middle-aged and elderly patients and those of colorectal surgery. Laparoscopic surgery should be adopted when feasible and the operation time should be minimized, so as to reduce the incidence of SSI and to reduce the burden on patients and medical institutions.

Objective:Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common infectious complication after emergency abdominal surgery (EAS). To a large extent, most SSI can be prevented, but there are few relevant studies in China. This study mainly investigated the current situation of SSI occurrence after EAS in China, and further explored risk factors for SSI occurrence.Methods:Multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted. Clinical data of patients undergoing EAS in 33 hospitals across China between May 1, 2019 and June 7, 2019 were prospectively collected, including perioperative data and microbial culture results from infected incisions. The primary outcome was the incidence of SSI after EAS, while the secondary outcomes were postoperative hospital stay, ICU occupancy rate, length of ICU stay, hospitalization cost, and mortality within postoperative 30 days. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze the risk factors of SSI after EAS.Results:A total of 660 EAS patients aged (47.9±18.3) years were enrolled in this study, including 56.5% of males (373/660). Forty-nine (7.4%) patients developed postoperative SSI. The main pathogen of SSI was Escherichia coli [culture positive rate was 32.7% (16/49)]. As compared to patients without SSI, those with SSI were more likely to be older (median 56 years vs. 46 years, U=19 973.5, P<0.001), male [71.4% (35/49) vs. 56.1% (343/611), χ 2=4.334, P=0.037] and diabetes [14.3% (7/49) vs. 5.1% (31/611), χ 2=5.498, P=0.015]; with-lower preoperative hemoglobin (median: 122.0 g/L vs. 143.5 g/L, U=11 471.5, P=0.006) and albumin (median: 35.5 g/L vs. 40.8 g/L, U=9452.0, P<0.001), with higher blood glucose (median: 6.9 mmol/L vs. 6.0 mmol/L, U=17 754.5, P<0.001); with intestinal obstruction [32.7% (16/49) vs. 9.2% (56/611), χ 2=25.749, P<0.001], with ASA score 3-4 [42.9% (21/49) vs. 13.9% (85/611), χ 2=25.563, P<0.001] and with high surgical risk [49.0% (24/49) vs. 7.0% (43/611), χ 2=105.301, P<0.001]. The main operative procedure resulting in SSI was laparotomy [81.6%(40/49) vs. 35.7%(218/611), χ 2=40.232, P<0.001]. Patients with SSI experienced significantly longer operation time (median: 150 minutes vs. 75 minutes, U=25 183.5, P<0.001). In terms of clinical outcome, higher ICU occupancy rate [51.0% (25/49) vs. 19.5% (119/611), χ 2=26.461, P<0.001], more hospitalization costs (median: 44 000 yuan vs. 15 000 yuan, U=24 660.0, P<0.001), longer postoperative hospital stay (median: 10 days vs. 5 days, U=23 100.0, P<0.001) and longer ICU occupancy time (median: 0 days vs. 0 days, U=19 541.5, P<0.001) were found in the SSI group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the elderly (OR=3.253, 95% CI: 1.178-8.985, P=0.023), colorectal surgery (OR=9.156, 95% CI: 3.655-22.937, P<0.001) and longer operation time (OR=15.912, 95% CI:6.858-36.916, P<0.001) were independent risk factors of SSI, while the laparoscopic surgery (OR=0.288, 95% CI: 0.119-0.694, P=0.006) was an independent protective factor for SSI. Conclusions:For patients undergoing EAS, attention should be paid to middle-aged and elderly patients and those of colorectal surgery. Laparoscopic surgery should be adopted when feasible and the operation time should be minimized, so as to reduce the incidence of SSI and to reduce the burden on patients and medical institutions.