Objective:To investigate the role of multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) in detecting non-neoplastic abnormal phenotypes, including monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis (MBL), Fcγ receptor Ⅲb (FcγRⅢB), and CD36 deficiencies.Methods:A retrospective and observational study was conducted on a total of 24 864 patients who underwent one-step screening for leukemia/lymphoma at Hebei Yanda Ludaopei Hospital from January 3, 2020, to March 31, 2024. Clinical data and MFC results of the patients were collected. Patients were grouped by age, group of <45 years (11 495 cases), group of 45-<60 years (5 322 cases), group of ≥60 years (7 081 cases) and disease nature, benign group (8 336 cases), malignant group (15 562), and other diseases group (966 cases). The incidence of non-neoplastic abnormal phenotypes was analyzed across groups.Results:The incidence rates of MGUS, MBL, FcγRⅢB, and CD36 deficiencies were 0.072% (18/24 864), 0.511% (127/24 864), 0.221% (55/24 864), and 0.004% (1/24 864), respectively. MBL incidence was lower in the malignant group than in the benign group ( P<0.001), while MGUS incidence was higher in the malignant group than in the benign group ( P=0.034). The incidence rate of MBL among subtypes within the benign group varied significantly ( P<0.001 ), with the highest incidence in patients with pancytopenia at 2.72% (48/1 765). In the malignant group, the incidence of MBL differed significantly across various disease types ( P<0.001), among which MDS/MPN exhibited the highest incidence at 1.95% (3/154) and 1.30% (2/154). Conclusion:Utility of multiparameter flow cytometry method for one-step screening of leukemia and lymphoma shows variety in detecting non-neoplastic abnormal phenotypes, facilitating the identification of diseases.

Objective:To explore and screen the immunophenotypic characteristics of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) by multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC).Methods:A retrospective and descriptive study. A total of 130 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients who registrated in Hebei Yanda Lu Daopei Hospital were studied, among which there were 44 classical APL (cAPL), 24 microgranular variant of APL (APLv) and 62 non-APL patients (including NPM1 mut AML and AML with KMT2A rearrangement). MFC immunotyping was used to analyze and compare the median expression intensity (MEI) of side scatter (SSC), along with the ratio of the MEI on leukemic cells with those on lymphocytes (T/L MEIR), the median fluorescence intensity (MDFI) of CD34, myeloperoxidase (MPO), CD64 and CD9 on leukemic cells, as well as the ratios of these MDFIs on leukemic cells with those on lymphocytes (T/L MDFIR). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the multiparameters model for distinguishing cAPL and non-APL, APLv and non-APL. Results:The MEI and T/L MEIR of SSC in the cAPL group were higher than those in the APLv and non-APL groups ( P<0.05), and these two parameters in APLv group were higher than those in the non-APL group, respectively ( P<0.05). The MDFIs of CD34 in cAPL and APLv groups were higher than those in the non-APL group ( P<0.05), and the T/L MDFIR of CD34 was higher in APLv group than non-APL group ( P<0.05). The MDFIs of MPO and CD9, as well as the T/L MDFIRs in cAPL and APLv groups were both higher than those in the non-APL group, respectively ( P<0.05). The MDFI and T/L MDFIR of CD64 in the cAPL group were higher than those in non-APL group, respectively ( P<0.05). ROC curve results showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of MEI of SSC, the MDFI of CD64 and CD9, as well as the T/L MEIR of SSC and T/L MDFIR of CD9 were 0.932, 0.816, 0.893, 0.960 and 0.894 for diagnosing cAPL, respectively, and the AUC of these parameters were 0.725, 0.737, 0.791, 0.729 and 0.736 for diagnosis APLv, respectively ( P<0.05). Conclusion:MFC method can analyze and screen the immunophenotypic characteristics of APL for differential diagnosis of cAPL, APLv and non-APL patients.

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of moxibustion for knee osteoarthritis and the methodological quality of systematic reviews(SRs).Methods SRs of moxibustion for knee osteoarthritis were retrieved from CNKI,VIP,Wanfang Data,SinoMed,PubMed,Cochrane Library,Embase and Web of Science was conducted from the establishment of the databases to February 10,2022.AMSTAR 2 was used to assess the methodological quality of SRs.The randomized controlled trials(RCTs)included in these SRs were screened and summarized according to inclusion standard.RevMan 5.4 software was used for Meta-analysis,and GRADE approach was used to assess the certainty of evidence.Results A total of 15 SRs were included.The evaluation results of the AMSTAR 2 showed that the methodological quality was very low for 14 SRs,and low for other 1 SR.A total of 36 RCTs were included.Meta-analysis results showed that compared with the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs(NSAIDs),the moxibustion group had better effects on improvement of WOMAC scores[mean difference(MD)=-5.95;95%confidence interval(CI):-9.25 to-2.65;low quality],relieving pain[MD=-1.26;95%CI:-2.19 to-0.32;very low quality],and improving effective rate[risk ratio(RR)=1.16;95%CI:1.11 to 1.22;low quality].In the moxibustion group,some patients experienced blisters,and most healed in 3 days.Conclusion Moxibustion has advantages in pain reduction and improving effective rate compared with routine Western therapy for knee osteoarthritis.However,well-designed high-quality RCTs are needed for further verification.

Objective:To explore the characteristics of intestinal microbiota in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and further explore the relationship between microbiota and CD4 +T lymphocyte subsets and disease activity. Methods:Fecal samples were collected from 96 patients with SLE, and 96 sex- and age-matched healthy controls (HCs). The gut microbiota were investigated via 16s rRNA sequencing. Flow cytometry was used to detect peripheral CD4 +T lymphocyte subsets of Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg cells. Indicators of disease activity such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), complement C3 and C4, Systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index(SLEDAI) for each patient were recorded. Differential abundance analysis was carried out using the edgeR algorithm. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare alpha diversity indices, bacterial abundances, and the F/B ratio between groups. R (version 4.0.1) was used for comparative statistics, and Pearson′s correlation analysis was used to assess the correlations between the relative abundances of bacterial genera and serum levels of ESR, CRP, C3 and C4 in the samples. Results:The alpha estimators of richness (ACE and Chao 1) were significantly reduced in SLE feces samples compared with those of HCs ( P<0.01). Bacterial diversity estimators, including the Shannon ( P<0.01) and Simpson′s ( P<0.01) indices, were also significantly lower in SLE. Significant differences in gut microbiota composition between SLE and HCs were found using the edgeR algorithm. Compared with HC, 24 species of bacteria were significantly different in SLE patients at the genus level ( P<0.05). Moreover, there was a significant positive correlation between CRP and Coprococcus ( r=0.30, P=0.014), C4 and Corynebacterium ( r=0.31, P=0.013) and Faecalibacterium( r=0.25, P=0.048), Hemoglobin and Morganella( r=0.41, P=0.001), as well as SLIDA and Corynebacterium( r=0.25, P=0.047). In terms of lymphocyte subsets, there was significant positive correlation between B cells, Treg cells and Eubacterium eligens group, as well as CD8 +T, CD4 +T, NK cells and Corynebacterium. In additional, Th1 was positively correlated with Shigella Escherichia coli ( r=0.52, P=0.008), and Th2 was positively correlated with Dielma ( r=0.51, P<0.001). Conclusion:The abundance and diversity of intestinal flora in SLE patients were significantly reduced, and the differentially expressed bacteria were closely related to the CD4 +T lymphocyte subsets and disease activity indicators of patients.

Objective:To investigate the relationship between the levels of serum cytokines and chemokines and the prognosis of patients with acute B-ALL after receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell immunotherapy and acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) in patients after bridging allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT).Methods:According to the case-control principle, Forty-two patients with B-ALL who received CD19-CAR-T cell immunotherapy bridged to allo-HSCT at Heibei Yanda Ludaopei Hospital from September 18, 2019 to May 9, 2022 were enrolled. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the changes of aGVHD-related cytokines and chemokine levels between CAR-T cell immunotherapy and bridging transplantation in different patients at the same time. Their plasma levels of cytokines and chemokines related to aGVHD were monitored at the day before CAR-T therapy and after CAR-T treatment at day 4, 7,14,21,28. The receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn to evaluate the predictive value of cytokines and chemokines in predicting the occurrence and the death of aGVHD patients. Kaplan-Meier method and Log-rank tests were used for Overall survival (OS) analysis. Results:Twenty-four of total 42 patients had aGVHD, of which 11 patients died and 31 patients survived. There was no significant difference in cytokines and chemokines between the aGVHD group and the non-aGVHD group on the day before CAR-T cell treatment. According to statistical analysis, the serum Elafin levels of aGVHD group was higher than that of non-aGVHD group at the 21st day [4 482 (2 811, 6 061) ng/L vs 2 466 (1 948, 3 375) ng/L, Z=3.145, P=0.001] and the 28st day [4 391 (2 808, 5594) ng/L vs 2 463 (1 658, 2 830) ng/L, Z=2.038, P=0.048] separately. At the 14th day, serum cytokines and chemokines levels between the two group were as follows,MIP-1 α [21.02 (12.36, 30.35) ng/L vs 5.56 (3.64, 10.79) ng/L], sCD25 [422.47 (257.99, 1 233.78) IU/ml vs 216.11 (133.75,457.39) IU/ml], Elafin [4 101 (2 393, 5 006) ng/L vs 2 155 (1 781, 3 033) ng/L], IL-6 [119.08 (23.97, 183.43) ng/L vs 8.39 (2.91, 17.42) ng/L] and IL-8 [13.56 (12.50, 24.52) ng/L vs 2.83 (1.73,6.87) ng/L] were at higher levels ( Z=2.653, P=0.007; Z=2.176, P=0. 030; Z=2.058, P=0.041; Z=3.329, P<0.001; Z=3.162, P=0.001). The KM survival curve showed that the cumulative survival rates of patients with higher serum levels of MIP-1α, sCD25, Elafin, IL-6 and IL-8 were lower than those with low levels at day 14, and the difference was statistically significant (χ 2=12.353, 4.890, 6.551, 10.563, 20.755, P<0.05). Conclusion:The outcomes of patients treated with CAR-T cell therapy bridged to allo-HSCT was correlated with serum MIP-1α, sCD25, Elafin, IL-6 and IL-8 levels after receiving CAR-T therapy. High concentrations of MIP-1α, sCD25, Elafin, IL-6 and IL-8 suggest poor prognosis and can be used as biomarkers to suggest appropriate clinical selection of therapy.

Objective:To screen the endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) signature-related differentially expressed genes (DEG) in gastric cancer and to construct a prognostic risk model based on a bioinformatics.Methods:Transcriptome sequencing data (RNA-seq) of 375 gastric cancer and 32 paracancerous tissue samples downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and the corresponding clinical information were obtained as training set samples; data of 387 gastric cancer patients (GSE84437) from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were downloaded as validation set samples. All data were obtained on December 25, 2021. A total of 785 ERS signature-related genes (ERS-RG) were obtained from the GeneCards database. DEG between gastric cancer tissues and paracancerous tissues in the TCGA database was analyzed. The identified gastric cancer DEG were intersected with ERS-RG from the GeneCards database to obtain gastric cancer ERS signature-related DEG, which were analyzed for gene ontology (GO) function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment. Univariate Cox proportional risk model was used to screen ERS signature-related DEG with prognostic value in gastric cancer, and LASSO regression analysis was performed to construct a polygenic prognostic risk model, and to calculate the prognostic risk score. The patients in training set and validation set were divided into high-risk group and low-risk group according to the median of the prognostic risk score (2.369); Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to compare the overall survival (OS) and to draw time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of patients in the two groups; nomogram was drawn based on the prognostic independent influencing factors of gastric cancer. The characteristic immune cell infiltration abundance between the two groups was analyzed by using the inverse convolution-based CIBERSORT algorithm. Cytolytic activity scores were calculated by using the geometric mean of granzyme A and perforin 1 expression. According to the median prognostic risk score (2.369) and median tumor mutation burden (TMB) (3.000), all patients with gastric cancer were divided into high risk score-high TMB group, high risk score-low TMB group, low risk score-high TMB group and low risk score-low TMB group to compare the OS of patients in each group.Results:A total of 444 ERS signature-related DEG in gastric cancer including 168 down-regulated genes and 276 up-regulated genes were obtained, which were mainly enriched in biological processes such as protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, extracellular matrix (ECM) receptor interactions and unfolded protein responses (all P < 0.05). Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that 12 prognostic-related ERS signature-related DEG in gastric cancer were screened out. LASSO regression analysis was performed to obtain a prognostic risk score = 0.052×NOS3+0.137×PON1+0.067×CXCR4+0.131×MATN3+0.116×ANXA5+0.090×SERPINE1. The results of Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the OS of the low-risk group in both the training and validation sets was better than that of the high-risk group (all P < 0.01). The results of the time-dependent ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC for the 3-year, 5-year, 8-year OS rates was 0.695, 0.786, 0.698, respectively in the training set, while the AUC for the 3-year 5-year, 8-year OS rates was 0.580, 0.625, 0.627, respectively in the validation set. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that prognostic risk score ( HR = 3.598, 95% CI 2.290-5.655, P < 0.001) and tumor stage ( HR = 1.344, 95% CI 1.057-1.709, P < 0.05) were independent factors influencing the prognosis of gastric cancer. Among 375 gastric cancer patients in the TCGA database, the expression levels of ATF6, HSPA5, XBP1 and ATF4 in the high-risk group were higher than those in the low-risk group (all P < 0.05); CIBERSORT results showed that the abundance of activated CD4 memory T cells in the high-risk group was lower than that in the low-risk group, and the abundance of both M0 and M2 macrophages in the high-risk group was higher than that in the low-risk group (all P < 0.05). The expression levels of common immune checkpoints (CD274, CTLA4, TNFRSF9, TIGIT, PDCD1, LAG3) in the high-risk group were all higher than those in the low-risk group (all P < 0.05). Cytolytic activity score in the high-risk group was higher than that in the low-risk group ( P < 0.05). The prognostic risk score was negatively correlated with TMB ( r = -0.20, P < 0.001). Patients in the low-risk score-high TMB group had the best OS and those in the high-risk score-low TMB group had the worst OS (both P < 0.001). Conclusions:The prognostic risk score model is established based on 6 ERS signature-related DEG in gastric cancer and its prognostic risk score may be effective as an independent prognostic factor to predict the prognosis of gastric cancer patients.

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate whether the addition of pemetrexed is effective in improving progression-free survival (PFS) in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)–mutated patients with or without concomitant alterations. Materials and Methods: This multicenter clinical trial was conducted in China from June 15, 2018, to May 31, 2019. A total of 92 non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients harboring EGFR-sensitive mutations were included and divided into concomitant and non-concomitant groups. Patients in each group were randomly treated with EGFR–tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) monotherapy or EGFR-TKI combined with pemetrexed in a ratio of 1:1. PFS was recorded as the primary endpoint. Results: The overall median PFS of this cohort was 10.1 months. There were no significant differences in PFS between patients with and without concomitant and between patients received TKI monotherapy and TKI combined with pemetrexed (p=0.210 and p=0.085, respectively). Stratification analysis indicated that patients received TKI monotherapy had a significantly longer PFS in non-concomitant group than that in concomitant group (p=0.002). In concomitant group, patients received TKI combined with pemetrexed had a significantly longer PFS than patients received TKI monotherapy (p=0.013). Molecular dynamic analysis showed rapidly emerging EGFR T790M in patients received TKI monotherapy. EGFR mutation abundance decreased in patients received TKI combined chemotherapy, which supports better efficacy for a TKI combined chemotherapy as compared to TKI monotherapy. A good correlation between therapeutic efficacy and a change in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) status was found in 66% of patients, supporting the guiding role of ctDNA minimal residual disease (MRD) in NSCLC treatment. Conclusion EGFR-TKI monotherapy is applicable to EGFR-sensitive patients without concomitant alterations, while a TKI combined chemotherapy is applicable to EGFR-sensitive patients with concomitant alterations. CtDNA MRD may be a potential biomarker for predicting therapeutic efficacy.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of norcantharidin (NCTD) on the proliferation and apoptosis of triple-negative breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231.Western blot was used to detect the effect of NCTD on the expression levels of apoptosis-related proteins Bax/Bcl-2, cleaved-PARP/PARP/PARP, cleved-caspase-9, cleaved-caspase-3 and MCL-1 in MDA-MB-231 cells.Also, the expression levels of autophagy-related proteins LC3-II/LC3-I, Parkin and PINK1 in MDA-MB-231 cells were measured by Western blot.Flow cytometry was used to measure the effect of NCTD on the changes of mitochondrial membrane potential and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS).The effect of NCTD on autophagy flow in cells expressing mCherry-EGFP-LC3 was detected by a confocal microscope.Moreover, the effects of NCTD combined with chloroquine (CQ) or 3-methyladenine (3-MA) on the apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells were detected by flow cytometry.The results showed that NCTD significantly increased the expression levels of Bax/Bcl-2, cleaved-PARP/PARP, cleaved-caspase-9, cleasved-caspase-3 and LC3-II/LC3-I proteins, and promoted the mitochondrial translocation of Parkin, and blocked the autophagic flow in MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, NCTD combined with CQ accelerated apoptosis, while NCTD combined with 3-MA decreased apoptosis.These results suggest that NCTD can induce autophagy accumulation and lead to apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells.

Objective:To investigate the significance of multicolor flow cytometry (MFC) monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD) in the course of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) after CD19-chimeric antigen receptor(CAR)-T cell immunotherapy for patients with refractory, relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (r/r B-ALL).Methods:37 patients with r/r B-ALL admitted to Hebei Yanda Lu Daopei Hospital from January to July 2019, aged 15 (6, 19) years old, including 24 males and 13 females, were treated with CD19-CAR-T cell immunotherapy bridging allo-HSCT. MFC with cytoplasmic CD79a antibody to set up B-cell gates was used to monitor patients′ bone marrow (BM), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and tissue samples on day 0 (prior to the CAR-T cell immunotherapy), day 15, day 28 post CAR-T cell immunotherapy, and post transplantation.The MRD values of these samples were analyzed to evaluate the residual tumor cells and metastasis. The killing effect of the CAR-T cells was evaluated by the recovery of CD19+B cells before transplantation and the period between the timepoint when CD19+B cells was recovered and the timepoint when CAR-T cells were infused. Peripheral blood CAR-T cells were counted at different time points. Statistic analysis was performed by Kaplan-Meie assay and Log-rank test to analyze the difference of univariate cumulative survival.Results:(1)Among the 37 patients, 8 died and 29 survived. 5 patients relapsed after transplantation, of which 4 relapsed patients died and 1 survived. (2)MFC MRD negative remission rate of the death group was lower than that of the survival group at the following time points: post-CAR-T therapy and prior to transplantation (5/8 vs. 28/29, χ 2=7.540, P=0.006); day 15 of the CAR-T cell reinfusion (3/8 vs. 24/29, χ 2=6.512, P=0.011); day 28 of the reinfusion (3/8 vs. 276/29, χ 2=10.065, P=0.002). The probability of extramedullary MFC MRD positive tumor infiltration in the death group was higher than that in the survival group(7/8 vs. 14/29, χ 2=3.931, P=0.047). After CAR-T cell immunotherapy, the recovery period of CD19-positive cells in the death group, or the time for CAR-T cells to kill CD19-positive cells, was shorter than that in the survival group [42.00 days(30.00,49.00) vs. 55.00 days(41.50,73.50), Z=0.022, P=0.020]. Conclusion:The positive results of MRD by MFC at the following timepoints may predict unfavorable outcomes, such as post-CAR-T therapy and prior to transplantation, day 15 and 28 of the CAR-T cell immunotherapy, which may provide some guidance for clinical management.

Objective:This study aims to analyze the counts (per kilogram of body weight) or percentages of transplanted lymphocyte subgroups in children with non-infectious pulmonary complications (NIPC) and air-leak syndrome (ALS) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) and explore its significance in the progression of lung complications after transplantation.Methods:The patients with NIPC and ALS after allo-HSCT from January 2013 to December 2019 in Hebei Yanda Ludaopei Hospital were retrospectively studied and the influencing factors in the progress of NIPC after HSCT were statistically analyzed.Results:Of the 2026 children who received HSCT treatment, 59 patients (34 males and 25 females) developed NIPC, the probability was 2.9% (59/2 026), and the probability of combined ALS was 1.4% (28/206). The differences in the comparison between NIPC progressed to ALS group (ALS group) and failed to progress to ALS group (non-ALS group) in the patient′s age( P=0.028), disease condition before transplantation( P=0.022), NIPC onset time( P=0.004) were significant. The P values of the percentage of NKT-like cells in the bone marrow ( P=0.008) or peripheral stem cells ( P=0.003) accounted for the lymphocytes. CD4+CD25+dim cells in bone marrow ( P=0.029) or peripheral stem cells ( P=0.036) accounted for the CD4+lymphocytes and the ratio of CD4/CD8 in bone marrow( P=0.004) or peripheral stem cells ( P=0.020) were less than 0.05, which meant the differences in patients′ refusion cells were significant. In the binary logistic regression model, the percentage of bone marrow NKT-like cells to lymphocytes, the ratio of bone marrow CD4+/CD8+and the percentage of peripheral stem NK cells to lymphocytes were important risk factors for the progression of NIPC to ALS. The rest factors were excluded from the model (AUC=0.918, P<0.05). Conclusion:During allo-HSCT transplantation, a high proportion of NKT-like cell and NK cell levels, and a high CD4+/CD8+ratio in the infusion of donors with high immune tolerance have an important correlation with the progression of the NIPC.