Background: Shared decision making using patient decision aids (PtDAs) was established over a decade ago, but few studies have evaluated its efficacy in Asian countries. We therefore evaluated the application of PtDAs in a decision conflict between two muscle relaxant reversal agents, neostigmine and sugammadex, and sequentially analyzed the regional differences and operating room turnover rates. Methods: This multicenter, outcome-assessor-blind, randomized controlled trial included 3,132 surgical patients from two medical centers admitted between March 2020 and August 2020. The patients were randomly divided into the classical and PtDA groups for pre-anesthesia consultations. Their clinicodemographic characteristics were analyzed to identify variables influencing the choice of reversal agent. On the day of the pre-anesthesia consultation, the patients completed the four SURE scale (sure of myself, understand information, risk-benefit ratio, encouragement) screening items. The operating turnover rates were also evaluated using anesthesia records. Results: Compared with the classical group, the PtDA group felt more confident about receiving sufficient medical information (P < 0.001), felt better informed about the advantages and disadvantages of the medications (P < 0.001), exhibited a superior understanding of the benefits and risks of their options (P < 0.001), and felt surer about their choice (P < 0.001). Moreover, the PtDA group had a significantly greater tendency to choose sugammadex over neostigmine (P < 0.001). Conclusions PtDA interventions in pre-anesthesia consultations provided surgical patients with clear knowledge and better support. PtDAs should be made available in other medical fields to enhance shared clinical decision-making.

Anti-HIV Agents/therapeutic use* ; China ; Consensus ; HIV ; HIV Infections/prevention & control* ; Humans ; Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) depend on glycolysis for energy and substrates for biosynthesis. To understand the mechanisms governing the metabolism of hESCs, we investigated the transcriptional regulation of glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1, SLC2A1), a key glycolytic gene to maintain pluripotency. By combining the genome-wide data of binding sites of the core pluripotency factors (SOX2, OCT4, NANOG, denoted SON), chromosomal interaction and histone modification in hESCs, we identified a potential enhancer of the GLUT1 gene in hESCs, denoted GLUT1 enhancer (GE) element. GE interacts with the promoter of GLUT1, and the deletion of GE significantly reduces the expression of GLUT1, glucose uptake and glycolysis of hESCs, confirming that GE is an enhancer of GLUT1 in hESCs. In addition, the mutation of SON binding motifs within GE reduced the expression of GLUT1 as well as the interaction between GE and GLUT1 promoter, indicating that the binding of SON to GE is important for its activity. Therefore, SON promotes glucose uptake and glycolysis in hESCs by inducing GLUT1 expression through directly activating the enhancer of GLUT1.

The E3 ligase HERC4 is overexpressed in human breast cancer and its expression levels correlated with the prognosis of breast cancer patients. However, the roles of HERC4 in mammary tumorigenesis remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that the knockdown of HERC4 in human breast cancer cells dramatically suppressed their proliferation, survival, migration, and tumor growth in vivo, while the overexpression of HERC4 promoted their aggressive tumorigenic activities. HERC4 is a new E3 ligase for the tumor suppressor LATS1 and destabilizes LATS1 by promoting the ubiquitination of LATS1. miRNA-136-5p and miRNA-1285-5p, expression of which is decreased in human breast cancers and is inversely correlated with the prognosis of breast cancer patients, are directly involved in suppressing the expression of HERC4. In summary, we discover a miRNA-HERC4-LATS1 pathway that plays important roles in the pathogenesis of breast cancer and represents new therapeutic targets for human breast cancer.

OBJECTIVEThe NOD/SCID/IL2Rγ (NSG) mouse strain is the most widely used immunodeficient strain for xenograft transplantation. However, the existing SCID mutation is a spontaneous mutation of the Prkdc gene, which leads to leaky T cell developmental block and difficulty in genotyping. It is therefore important to develop a new strain of NSG mice with targeted disruption of Prkdc and IL2Rγ genes.

METHODSTargeted disruption of Prkdc and IL2Rγ genes was achieved using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. By intercrossing the knockout and NOD mice, we obtained a novel strain of NOD/SCID/IL2Rγ(NSG) mice, denoted as cNSG (Chinese NSG) mice.

RESULTSIn addition to the NOD mutation, cNSG mice exhibited a complete absence of T cells, B cells and NK cells. cNSG mice allowed more efficient engraftment of human cancer cells than the commonly used immunodeficient nude mice.

CONCLUSIONcNSG mice will provide an important xenotransplantation model for biomedical research.

OBJECTIVETo examine the expression patterns of short palate, lung and nasal epithelium clone 1 (SPLUNC1) gene in human tissues.

METHODSIn situ hybridization was used to detect the expression of SPLUNC1 gene in 37 different human tissues.

RESULTSWe found that SPLUNC1 gene was not expressed in squamous epithelial cells of the palate, epidermis, esophagus, or the esophagus-cardia junction, metaplastic squamous cells in the nasopharynx, trachea, or uterus cervix, or tumor cells of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma or lung squamous cell carcinoma. SPLUNC1 gene was not expressed in the single layer columnar epithelia cells in the stomach, gallbladder, jejunum, colon, endometrium, or uterus cervix. SPLUNC1 expression was detected mainly in pseudostratified columnar epithelial cells in the nasopharynx, trachea and bronchi, and was gradually down-regulated from the upper to lower end of the respiratory tract, but was not detected in the lung tissues. SPLUNC1 expression was detected not only in the duct and serous gland cells in the parotid and submandibular glands, but also in cells of submucosal serous glands in the nasopharynx and lung, but not in the cells of the mucosal glands. The parietal cells of the gastric submucosa and epithelial cells of the lobula and ducts of the mammary glands expressed SPLUNC1. The adenocarcinoma cells in the lung, stomach, colon, mammary gland, uterus endometrium and cervix showed strong expressions of SPLUNC1 gene.

CONCLUSIONSPLUNC1 expression is highly cell-specific in association with the cell functions.

Epithelial Cells ; metabolism ; Gene Expression ; Glycoproteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Organ Specificity ; Phosphoproteins ; genetics ; metabolism

BACKGROUNDArrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is a heritable cardiac disease predominantly caused by mutations in desmosomal protein genes. Previous genetic analyses of the Chinese ARVC population are limited to small size and restriction to a single gene. This study was aimed to investigate the genotype in a large series of Chinese patients with ARVC through comprehensively screening nine ARVC-causing genes.

METHODSA total of 100 unrelated ARVC patients and 300 age, gender and ethnicity matched healthy controls were genetically tested with multiplexing targeted resequencing for nine previously reported ARVC-causing genes, including plakophilin-2, desmoplakin, desmoglein-2, desmocollin-2, plakoglobin, transforming growth factor beta-3, transmembrane protein 43, desmin and Lamin A/C.

RESULTSFifty-nine mutations were identified in 64% of the patients, among which, 93% were located in desmosomal protein genes. Plakophilin-2 mutations accounted for 54% of the total and 58% of the desmosomal mutations, with a truncating mutation type making up about 2/3 of the plakophilin-2 mutations. Only four mutations were found in non-desmosomal genes; two in transmembrane protein 43 and two in transforming growth factor beta-3. Two of them (one of each gene) appeared as single missense mutations. No mutation was identified in desmin or Lamin A/C. Multiple mutations were found in 23% of the patients, with plakophilin-2 being found in 57% of the multi-mutation carriers.

CONCLUSIONSPlakophilin-2 was the most common gene mutation that was identified in Chinese ARVC patients. Non-desmosomal genes should be added to desmosomal protein genes when performing molecular genetic screening in patients with suspected ARVC.

Adult ; Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia ; genetics ; metabolism ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Desmin ; genetics ; Desmoglein 2 ; genetics ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mutation ; Plakophilins ; genetics ; Young Adult ; gamma Catenin ; genetics

OBJECTIVETo compare the gene expression profiles of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell line 5-8F-EGFP and the liver metastatic 5-8F-H3B-EGFP cells.

METHODSThe fluorescence-labeled cDNA were prepared separately from the total RNA extracted from the two cell lines and hybridized with Human_U133A2.0 Genechip (Affymetrix, USA) containing approximately 18 400 known gene. The gene expression profiles were analyzed with special software and cluster analysis.

RESULTSA total of 3767 genes were identified to have significant differential expressions between these two cell lines (P<0.05), among which 281 genes showed twofold or higher differential expressions. Using MILANO software, we found 16 genes with probable close relation with liver metastasis of NPC.

CONCLUSIONThe 16 genes differentially expressed between the two cell lines can be of importance in the investigation of the molecular mechanism of NPC liver metastasis and identification of molecular markers for prognostic evaluation.

Carcinoma ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; genetics ; secondary ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; genetics ; pathology ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Transcriptome

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVEDetection of label retaining cells (LRCs) has been a method to confirm existence of stem cells, and bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) has commonly been used for labeling. In this study, to verify stem cells in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), LRCs were established and detected in NPC cell line 5-8F.

METHODSThe 5-8F cells were cultured with BrdU and inoculated subcutaneously into nude mice. By immunohistochemistry, immunocytochemistry, and immunofluorescence, BrdU was detected in 5-8F cells and xenograft tumors.

RESULTSBrdU was strongly positive in cells on the 2nd and the 7th day after being added BrdU, while negative when cells were cultured without BrdU. However, only sporadic cells were positive on the 14th day after BrdU being washed out, and these cells were thought to be LRCs. The average percentage of LRCs was (0.67 +/- 0.32)%. After being cultivated with BrdU for 48 h, 5-8F cells were inoculated into nude mice subcutaneously. After chasing 8 weeks, only sporadic LRCs were detected in xenograft tumors, with a proportion of (0.55 +/- 0.36)%, and these LRCs were located at cancer margin.

CONCLUSIONThe existence of LRCs in 5-8F cells indicates the existence of cancer stem cells in NPC.

Animals ; Bromodeoxyuridine ; metabolism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Female ; Humans ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Nude ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Neoplasm Transplantation ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo prepare an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) microarray using known and predicted EBV-coded genes as the cDNA probes to detect the EBV gene expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tissues.

METHODSThe EBV gene probes were amplified by PCR using a pair of primers designed in both sides of the multiple clone site (MCS) of the T/A vector. After purification of the PCR products, 85 EBV genes and 8000 human genes were printed onto the same slide as the detection chip consisting of both EBV and human genes. This genechip was used to detect the differential gene expression in NPC and non-cancerous nasopharynx (NP) tissues.

RESULTSDetection of the human gene expression profile using the prepared genechip resulted in the identification of numerous human genes in the tissue specimens. Some EBV genes were also detected in the tissues using the genechip, but the signals of the genes appeared rather weak without distinctly visible fluorescence, and were not comparable to the strong signal intensities of the human genes.

CONCLUSIONThe EBV microarray, though constructed successfully, can not meet the needs for clinical application due to the limited detection sensitivity and the relative small quantity of EBV gene expression in NPC samples. Further improvements of the research methods are warranted.

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; virology ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Genome, Viral ; genetics ; Herpesvirus 4, Human ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Humans ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; virology ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; methods