Objective·To investigate the changes in transcriptome and chromatin accessibility during the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells(hESCs)into neural progenitor cells(NPCs)using in vitro differentiation models and high-throughput multi-omics sequencing technologies.Methods·hESCs were first induced to differentiate into NPCs in vitro using the embryoid body formation method,and cells at both stages were collected.The cell phenotypes were identified by reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR(RT-qPCR)and immunofluorescence(IF)staining.Transcriptome sequencing(RNA-seq)was conducted to detect and analyze the differentially expressed genes(DEGs)between hESCs and NPCs.The assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing(ATAC-seq)was employed to assess chromatin accessibility changes between hESCs and NPCs.Motif enrichment analysis was performed on differentially accessible chromatin regions to discover potential regulatory transcription factors.Finally,an integrated analysis of RNA-seq and ATAC-seq data and the protein-protein interaction(PPI)network were performed to identify key genes and regulatory pathways involved in the early stages of neural differentiation in vitro.Results·Both RT-qPCR and IF results indicated that the expression levels of pluripotency markers(NANOG and POU5F1)were high at the hESC stage but significantly decreased at the NPC stage,while early neural differentiation markers(PAX6,SOX1,and NES)were minimally expressed at the hESC stage but markedly upregulated at the NPC stage.RNA-seq analysis revealed that compared to the hESC stage,there were 5 597 genes upregulated and 3 654 genes downregulated at the NPC stage.Gene function enrichment analysis showed that the upregulated genes at the NPC stage were enriched in the functions related to neural development.ATAC-seq analysis demonstrated a total of 27 491 genomic regions had significant changes in chromatin accessibility during the differentiation from hESC to NPC,with 12 381 regions showing increased accessibility and 15 110 regions showing decreased accessibility.Motif enrichment analysis revealed that transcription factor genes such as DLX1 and LHX2 might play an important role in the differentiation process from hESCs into NPCs.Integrated analysis of RNA-seq and ATAC-seq data revealed that overlapping genes with high expression at the NPC stage were mainly enriched in axon guidance,forebrain development,and neuron migration.After neural differentiation,the expression levels of CTNND2 and LHX2 genes increased,and the chromatin accessibility of related genomic regions also increased.PPI network analysis indentified candidate downstream genes including PRKACA,CDH2,and ERBB4.Conclusion·The in vitro differentiation model of hESCs combined with high-throughput multi-omics sequencing technologies can be used to depict the changes in transcriptome and chromatin accessibility during the differentiation of hESCs into NPCs.In this process,the expression levels of genes related to axon guidance,forebrain development,and neuronal migration pathways increase and related chromatin accessibility is enhanced.

Objective·To investigate the changes in transcriptome and chromatin accessibility during the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells(hESCs)into neural progenitor cells(NPCs)using in vitro differentiation models and high-throughput multi-omics sequencing technologies.Methods·hESCs were first induced to differentiate into NPCs in vitro using the embryoid body formation method,and cells at both stages were collected.The cell phenotypes were identified by reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR(RT-qPCR)and immunofluorescence(IF)staining.Transcriptome sequencing(RNA-seq)was conducted to detect and analyze the differentially expressed genes(DEGs)between hESCs and NPCs.The assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing(ATAC-seq)was employed to assess chromatin accessibility changes between hESCs and NPCs.Motif enrichment analysis was performed on differentially accessible chromatin regions to discover potential regulatory transcription factors.Finally,an integrated analysis of RNA-seq and ATAC-seq data and the protein-protein interaction(PPI)network were performed to identify key genes and regulatory pathways involved in the early stages of neural differentiation in vitro.Results·Both RT-qPCR and IF results indicated that the expression levels of pluripotency markers(NANOG and POU5F1)were high at the hESC stage but significantly decreased at the NPC stage,while early neural differentiation markers(PAX6,SOX1,and NES)were minimally expressed at the hESC stage but markedly upregulated at the NPC stage.RNA-seq analysis revealed that compared to the hESC stage,there were 5 597 genes upregulated and 3 654 genes downregulated at the NPC stage.Gene function enrichment analysis showed that the upregulated genes at the NPC stage were enriched in the functions related to neural development.ATAC-seq analysis demonstrated a total of 27 491 genomic regions had significant changes in chromatin accessibility during the differentiation from hESC to NPC,with 12 381 regions showing increased accessibility and 15 110 regions showing decreased accessibility.Motif enrichment analysis revealed that transcription factor genes such as DLX1 and LHX2 might play an important role in the differentiation process from hESCs into NPCs.Integrated analysis of RNA-seq and ATAC-seq data revealed that overlapping genes with high expression at the NPC stage were mainly enriched in axon guidance,forebrain development,and neuron migration.After neural differentiation,the expression levels of CTNND2 and LHX2 genes increased,and the chromatin accessibility of related genomic regions also increased.PPI network analysis indentified candidate downstream genes including PRKACA,CDH2,and ERBB4.Conclusion·The in vitro differentiation model of hESCs combined with high-throughput multi-omics sequencing technologies can be used to depict the changes in transcriptome and chromatin accessibility during the differentiation of hESCs into NPCs.In this process,the expression levels of genes related to axon guidance,forebrain development,and neuronal migration pathways increase and related chromatin accessibility is enhanced.

Objective:Anterior cruciate ligament injury is the most common type of knee joint ligament injury.Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction has a high failure rate,with bone tunnel abnormalities as the most significant factor in these failures.Digital orthopedic technology can effectively develop implementation plans for the revision,thus increasing the success rate.This study aims to develop a surgical plan for anterior cruciate ligament revision by employing multiplanar reconstruction(MPR)for measuring bone tunnel position and diameter,and simulating bone tunnel creation via 3D printing preoperatively. Methods:A total of 12 patients who underwent anterior cruciate ligament revision at the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University between 2014 and 2021 were retrospectively studied.The data included patient demographics,preoperative formulated knee joint 3D printing models,and preoperative knee CT scans.The study measured the bone tunnel's diameter and position to guide the establishment of revision bone tunnels during surgery,reassessed the postoperative bone tunnels,and evaluated knee joint functional scores[including International Knee Documentation Committee Knee Evaluation Form(IKDC)score,Lysholm score,and Tegner exercise level score]. Results:Preoperative measurements revealed suboptimal femoral tunnels positions in 4 patients and tibial tunnels positions in 2 patients.MPR and 3D printing technology were used to guide the establishment of a new bone canal during surgery,and postoperative measurements were satisfactory for all patients.Preoperative measurements demonstrated the interclass correlation coefficient for femoral tunnels and tibial tunnels diameters were 0.843(P<0.05)and 0.889(P<0.001),respectively.Meanwhile,the intraclass correlation coefficient were 0.811(P<0.05)and 0.784(P<0.05),respectively.The intraoperative diameter of femoral and tibial tunnels showed excellent correlation with postoperative CT measurements,with intraclass correlation coefficient values of 0.995(P<0.001)and 0.987(P<0.001),respectively.All bone tunnel positions were within the normal range.At the final follow-up,knee joint function scores in all 12 patients improved significantly compared to pre-surgery(P<0.001),and the reoperation rate was zero. Conclusion:MPR and 3D printing technology can accurately measure the parameters of reconstructed anterior cruciate ligament bone tunnels.Personalized revision plans for patients with reconstruction failure enhances the success rate of revision surgery and improves patient prognosis.

Objective:To observe the effects of acupuncture and moxibustion on interleukin(IL)-9/IL-9 receptor(IL-9R)in the colon tissue of rats with ulcerative colitis(UC)and investigate the protective mechanism of acupuncture and moxibustion on the intestinal mucosal barrier in UC rats. Methods:Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into a normal control(NC)group and a modeling group.UC models were prepared by giving 4%dextran sulfate sodium(DSS)water for 7 d.After the successful construction of the UC rat model,the modeling group was randomly divided into a UC group,a herb-insulated moxibustion(HM)group,and an electroacupuncture(EA)group.HM and EA interventions at bilateral Tianshu(ST25)were performed once a day for 7 d.Hematoxylin-eosin(HE)staining was used to observe the histopathological changes in the colon.The serum concentrations of IL-9,IL-6,IL-1β,and hemoglobin-H(HbH)were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.The protein expression levels of IL-9,IL-9R,claudin-2,zonula occludens-1(ZO-1),and occludin in the colon tissue were measured by Western blotting or immuno-histochemistry.Immunofluorescence was used to detect the co-expression of PU.1 and CD4 with the IL-9 protein. Results:Compared with the NC group,the colon tissue of UC rats was severely damaged and ulcerated with congestion and edema,and the colonic histopathological score increased significantly(P<0.01).The serum HbH concentration decreased significantly(P<0.01),while the serum concentrations of IL-9,IL-6,and IL-1β increased(P<0.01).The protein expression of colonic ZO-1 and occludin decreased significantly(P<0.01),while the protein expression of colonic IL-9 and IL-9R increased(P<0.05).The positive co-expression levels of IL-9/PU.1 and IL-9/CD4 increased in the colon tissue(P<0.05).Compared with the UC group,the colonic mucosal structures were gradually repaired in both HM group and EA group,and healed ulcers could be observed,the colonic histopathological score decreased significantly(P<0.05).The serum concentration of HbH increased(P<0.01),while the serum concentrations of IL-9,IL-6,and IL-1β decreased(P<0.05).The protein expression levels of ZO-1 and occludin increased(P<0.05),while the protein expression levels of IL-9 and IL-9R decreased(P<0.01).The positive co-expression levels of IL-9/PU.1 and IL-9/CD4 decreased in the colon tissue(P<0.05). Conclusion:Both HM and EA can inhibit the protein expression levels of IL-9 and IL-9R in the UC colon by regulating the transcription factor PU.1,promote the repair of intestinal mucosal barrier,and down-regulate protein contents of proinflammatory factors IL-9,IL-6,and IL-1β in the serum,which may be one of the key mechanisms of acupuncture and moxibustion in reducing the inflammation of UC colonic mucosa and protecting the intestinal mucosal barrier.

Objective:To investigate the prevalence of pretreatment drug resistance and the genetic polymorphism of CRF08_BC strains among HIV-1 patients in China.Methods:This cross-sectional survey involved the plasma samples of HIV patients in a national pretreatment HIV drug resistance survey conducted in 2018. RNA was extracted from the samples. The fragments containing protease and partial reverse transcriptase (PR/RT) regions were obtained and sequenced. Drug resistance was analyzed using Stanford HIVdb Program. Differences in polymorphic mutations between drug-resistant and non-drug-resistant HIV-1 strains were analyzed by Chi-square test or Fisher′s exact test. The association between drug-resistant and polymorphic mutations was evaluated using CorMut R package. Molecular transmission networks were constructed using HIV-TRACE software. Results:Totally 465 partial pol sequences were obtained from individuals with CRF08_BC infection in 25 provinces and cities. The total pretreatment drug resistance rate was 17.8% (83/465). The pretreatment drug resistance rates to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and protease inhibitors (PIs) were 16.6% (77/465), 1.1% (5/465) and 0.9% (4/465), respectively. The resistance rate to rilpivirine (RPV) was the highest (15.7%, 73/465). The most common mutation was E138A (11.6%, 54/465). There were six polymorphic mutations (S162C, K102Q, T200A, V179E, I202V, T200M) that co-variated with E138A. The molecular transmission network showed that patients infected with CRF08_BC strains carrying the resistant mutations at position E138 mainly gathered in clusters in Yunnan and Sichuan, and the highest degree of connection was in Lincang, Yunnan. Conclusions:In China, HIV-1 CRF08_BC-infected patients showed a high rate of pretreatment resistance to one of the second-generation NNRTIs, namely RPV. Further researches were warranted to evaluate the impacts of co-mutations of the E138A mutation and polymorphic sites on HIV resistance and replicative capacity.

Objective·To study the relationship between evolution and the developmental process from the perspective of DNA sequence conservation,and explore their inherent principles.Methods·First,conservation rate(CR)was established by analyzing the conservation of amino acid sequences of coding genes in 100 species to quantify the evolutionary conservation of genes.The relationship between CR and developmental potential was verified by using the feature genes involved in embryonic stem cells pathways.Secondly,cell type-specific genes and their characteristics in conservation were studied by analyzing the RNA sequencing(RNA-seq)data of the three early germ layers(ectoderm,mesoderm and endoderm)and their corresponding mature organs(brain,heart,liver,etc).Then,chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing(ChIP-seq)data of enhancer histone H3 acetylated at lysine 27(H3K27ac)from early germ layers and mature organs were collected to search for enhancer sites and identify super enhancers in various cells and tissues by using the ROSE procedure.Functional enrichment and signaling pathway analysis of genes was used to examine the identity correlation between SEs-regulated genes and the corresponding cell characteristics,to clarify whether the SEs identified in this study were consistent with the characteristics reported in previous studies.Finally,PhastCons program was used to calculate the DNA conservation score(CS)of non-coding regulatory regions to study their relationship with developmental potential.Results·In the coding region of DNA,CR was successfully established to quantify the conservation of genes.The gene expression data of early germ layers and mature organs showed that the genes with higher conservation rate were more relevant to the stemness and early developmental process,and the differences between the tissues from early and late development could be distinguished by using CR.In the non-coding regions of DNA,it was found that the conservation of regulatory regions was also correlated with development.The CS of the SE sequences in the early developmental germ layers was significantly higher than that of the SE sequences in the corresponding mature organs.However,cell-specific typical enhancers(TEs)did not show such a trend.Conclusion·During the developmental process,CR of genes expressed in the coding region decreases,and CS of super-enhancer DNA in the non-coding region decreases.

Cloud technology and the Internet of things ( IOT) technology can be used in building the patient-centered critical care medical information platform.The platform could inenable medical staff to efficiently obtain critical care medical information, and raise critical patients′ cure rates. The authors introduced the critical process of rapidly building and improving the urgent care medical information integration platform in a campus of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University Medical School.The IOT platform could effectively interconnect a variety of critical care medical equipments, and features such functions as vital signs monitoring and life support, bedside treatment data retrieval, remote diagnosis and treatment, and cloud sharing. The platform featured the advantages of complete information integration, fast construction, and satisfactory system extensibility. It could improve the medical work efficiency, improve the effect of critical care, and reduce the frequency of contact with patients, hence providing references for rapidly establishing a vital care treatment platform for public health events.

Objective:To explore the resistance to protease inhibitors (PI), nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and integrase inhibitors (INSTIs) of HIV-1 CRF55_01B and the transmission of drug-resistant strains among HIV-1 CRF55_01B infected patients before antiviral treatment in China.Methods:HIV-1 RNA was extracted from plasma samples of the patients infected with CRF55_01B in the national surveillance of HIV drug resistance before antiviral treatment in 2018. A 1 056 bp gene fragment of protease/reverse transcriptase (PR/RT) region and an 846 bp gene fragment of integrase (IN) region were obtained and sequenced. Drug resistance was analyzed by using all drugs included in the Stanford University HIV db Program, HIV-1 molecular network analysis was performed with software HIV-TRACE and polymorphism mutations of CRF55_01B integrase gene region were analyzed.Results:A total of 178 samples from 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China were analyzed, and 170 sequences of CRF55_01B PR/RT region and 170 sequences of IN region of corresponding samples were obtained. The drug resistance rate was 15.3% (26/170). The drug resistance rates of PIs, NRTIs, NNRTIs and INSTIs were 1.2% (2/170), 1.2% (2/170), 15.3% (26/170), 0.6% (1/170), respectively. The level of drug resistance was mostly low. NNRTIs drug resistance mutations were mainly V179D/E co-appeared with other mutations, and 84.1% (143/170) of the infected patients carrying V179D/E alone showed potential drug resistance. INSTIs drug resistance mutation was G163R, and showed low resistance to EVG and RAL. The molecular network access rate was 30.0%(51/170)according to the 0.9% gene distance threshold. The resistant strains were transmitted between men with homosexual transmission and heterosexually transmitted people, and both carried resistant mutations E138G and V179E. In the integrase region, CRF55_01B and CRF01_AE and B subtypes showed high mutation frequency difference in 5 sites (T215A、G134N、I135V, K136R and L101I/V).Conclusions:Before antiviral treatment, CRF55_01B infected patients in China had a high resistance to NNRTIs. Strains carrying both E138G and V179E resistance mutations were transmitting in clusters. The prevalence of CRF55_01B integrase inhibitor resistant strains is low, but some genetic polymorphisms with high mutation rate in the integrase gene region have potential influence on drug sensitivity. The influence of drug resistance of new recombinant strains on antiviral therapy in China needs to be further monitored and analyzed.

Children with atopic dermatitis often have a variety of psychological and behavioral problems, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, autism, and even suicidal tendencies. The mechanism of comorbidity between atopic dermatitis and psychological and behavioral problems is still unclear. Reasonable and effective treatment of atopic dermatitis, as well as correct identification of and early intervention with related psychological and behavioral problems can effectively reduce the occurrence of psychological and behavioral problems, and improve the prognosis of children with atopic dermatitis.

Objective: To analyze the change trend of HIV genetic subtypes and compare the first CD₄⁺T cell counts of newly diagnosed HIV infected patients in Liuzhou from 1998 to 2012, and provide a reference for AIDS prevention and control. Methods: Newly diagnosed HIV-infected patients from 1998 to 2012 in Liuzhou were selected through national HIV/ADIS comprehensive response information management system. Their plasma samples were used for RNA gene extraction, amplification, sequencing and genotyping. Coharan-Armitage trend test was used to analyze the ratio trend of genetic subtypes and phylogenetic clusters of HIV and Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test was used to compare the first CD₄⁺T cell counts (CD₄) of the different subtype HIV infected patients. Results: A total of 1 877 newly diagnosed HIV infected patients were included in the study. From 1998 to 2012, the proportions of CRF01_AE and CRF01_AE (Cluster 1) increased from 78.4% (76/97) to 91.5% (1 441/1 574), from 63.9% (62/97) to 74.0% (1 164/1 574), and the proportion of CRF07_BC decreased from 17.5% (17/97) to 4.6% (72/1 574), respectively (Z=4.632, P<0.001; Z=2.455, P=0.014; Z=-5.943, P<0.001). The median and interquartile range of the first CD₄ of the patients infected with subtype CRF01_AE (Cluster 1), CRF01_AE (Cluster 2), CRF07_BC and CRF08_BC were 230 (83-375), 215 (48-351), 365 (254-503) and 334 (206-479) cell/μl, respectively. The first CD₄ levels of the patients infected with subtype CRF01_AE (Cluster 1) or CRF01_AE (Cluster 2) were significantly lower than those of CRF07_BC (Z=-4.795, P<0.001; Z=-4.238, P<0.001). Conclusion The genetic subtypes of HIV were mainly CRF01_AE in newly diagnosed HIV-infected patients and this subtype proportion was in increase and the first CD₄ levels of the patients were low in Liuzhou during 1998 to 2012.