Melanoma is a malignant tumor with a high degree of malignancy. The incidence of melanoma keeps increasing annually. In this study, a melanoma targeted hyaluronic acid (HA) nanogel was synthesized via crosslinking of thiolated HA with terminally functionalized F127-TPGS mixed micelles. Its stability in vitro was evaluated by the average particle size, and the cytotoxicity of the nanogel was investigated by in vitro cell based assays. Next, cell uptake studies were performed to quantitatively and qualitatively investigate the uptake of the nanogels in B16F10 cells. A small sized nanogel with a diameter of 30 nm was synthesized, which was proven to be minimally cytotoxic against both 3T3 or B16F10 cells. Compared with 3T3 cells with low levels of CD44, B16F10 cells with high levels of CD44 showed significantly higher cell uptake efficiency (P<0.05).

Overexpression of exogenous lineage-determining factors succeeds in directly reprogramming fibroblasts to various cell types. Several studies have reported reprogramming of fibroblasts into induced cardiac progenitor cells (iCPCs). CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene activation is a potential approach for cellular reprogramming due to its high precision and multiplexing capacity. Here we show lineage reprogramming to iCPCs through a dead Cas9 (dCas9)-based transcription activation system. Targeted and robust activation of endogenous cardiac factors, including GATA4, HAND2, MEF2C and TBX5 (G, H, M and T; GHMT), can reprogram human fibroblasts toward iCPCs. The iCPCs show potentials to differentiate into cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells . Addition of MEIS1 to GHMT induces cell cycle arrest in G2/M and facilitates cardiac reprogramming. Lineage reprogramming of human fibroblasts into iCPCs provides a promising cellular resource for disease modeling, drug discovery and individualized cardiac cell therapy.

Lung cancer is a most common malignant tumor of the lung and is the cancer with the highest morbidity and mortality worldwide. For patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who have undergone epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations, targeted drugs can be used for targeted therapy. There are many methods for detecting EGFR gene mutations, but each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. This study aims to predict the risk of EGFR gene mutation by exploring the association between the histological features of the whole slides pathology of non-small cell lung cancer hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and the patient's EGFR mutant gene. The experimental results show that the area under the curve (AUC) of the EGFR gene mutation risk prediction model proposed in this paper reached 72.4% on the test set, and the accuracy rate was 70.8%, which reveals the close relationship between histomorphological features and EGFR gene mutations in the whole slides pathological images of non-small cell lung cancer. In this paper, the molecular phenotypes were analyzed from the scale of the whole slides pathological images, and the combination of pathology and molecular omics was used to establish the EGFR gene mutation risk prediction model, revealing the correlation between the whole slides pathological images and EGFR gene mutation risk. It could provide a promising research direction for this field.

The property of medicine is the "identity card" of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and the key to crack the theory of property of TCM. Based on molecular thermodynamics, the effects of interaction between TCM and organs in vitro were studied from the perspective of micro-energy release and absorption in order to construct a new idea of characterizing meridian theory. Scutellaria baicalensis, for example, application of isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) were used to determine the energy changes during the interaction of Scutellaria baicalensis and its main active ingredient baicalin with brain, heart, lung, spleen and kidney in vitro, comparison including the association constant (K_a) and disassociation constant (K_d), combined with thermodynamic parameters, such as stoichiometry ratio (n), enthalpy change (ΔH), entropy change (ΔS), Gibbs free energy (ΔG), it is found that the interaction intensity between Scutellaria baicalensis and lung is significantly stronger than that of other organs, which is consistent with the theory of the return of Scutellaria baicalensis in ancient books. In addition, baicalin, the main active ingredient, showed the same action pattern as Scutellaria baicalensis. The thermodynamic parameters analysis showed that the action was a weak bond-induced spontaneous chemical binding reaction driven by both entropy and enthalpy. The results of specific curl measurement further proved the interaction between baicalin and lung, and were consistent with the results of ITC titration, indicating that ITC could be used to characterize the meridian tropism of TCM. Therefore, based on ITC, it is scientific and feasible to characterize the meridian of TCM by the energy change of the interaction between the decoction of TCM and its active components and the in vitro tissues respectively. This experiment provides a new idea for the discussion of meridian of TCM.

This work investigates the effects of Guilingji (GLJ) on D-galactose-induced aging and changes in serum metabolites by UHPLC-Q exactive orbitrap-MS in rats. The rat model of aging by subcutaneous injection of D-galactose (300 mg·kg^-1) was used to analyze the effect of different concentrations of GLJ (37.5, 75, 150 mg·kg^-1) on an open field test in aging rats. Rat serum was collected after 8 weeks and subjected to LC-MS to analyze the anti-aging effect of GLJ. Animal experimentation was approved according to the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of Shanxi University (SXULL2014032). GLJ significantly improved the autonomous activity of rats. Compared with the control group, 23 metabolites in the treated group changed significantly, involving three main pathways. The group that was given GLJ had altered regulation of 4 serum metabolites in two pathways. Our results indicate that GLJ can delay aging behavior in rats; the mechanism of this anti-ageing effect remains to be determined.

Recently, the hepatotoxicity issue regarding to Psoraleae Fructus (PF) has attracted remarkable concerns, which highlights the urgent need to explore the toxicity attenuation method for PF. In this study, we proposed an alcohol soaking and water rinsing method for pre-processing PF based on the record in the classics - "Lei Gong Pao Zhi Lun", aiming to attenuate the potential hepatotoxicity of PF. The optimal pre-processing methods and parameters were investigated by U*12(10⁸) uniform design coupled with 3D-cultured human-derived liver organoids model and high-content imaging. The results showed that there were significant variations among the hepatotoxicity intensities of different pre-processed PF products. Four factors, including the concentration of alcohol, the ratio of material and alcohol in alcohol soaking, the time of alcohol soaking and the times of water rinsing, were found as independent significant factors (all P<0.01). The optimal pre-process parameters were further predicted and verified as follows: the alcohol concentration is 80%, the times of alcohol soaking is 3, the ratio of alcohol and material of alcohol soaking is 3, the time for alcohol soaking is 30 h, the ratio of water and material of water rinsing is 2, the times of water rinsing is 3, the time water rinsing is 12 h and the time of steaming is 5 h. This research demonstrated that the alcohol soaking and water rinsing method can effectively reduce the potential hepatotoxicity of PF. This method provides a reference for reducing the risk of PF liver injury from the perspective of Chinese medicinal materials pre-processing.

BACKGROUND: The patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma should select targeted drugs based on the type of tumor epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation. However, it is difficult to collect tumor tissue of advanced lung adenocarcinoma, and some experts agree that peripheral blood can be used as a substitute for tumor tissue as a test specimen. This paper aimed to investigate the clinical value of ddPCR and super-amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) in detecting EGFR gene mutation in peripheral blood of patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma. METHODS: A total of 119 patients diagnosed in Beijing Chest Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University from February 2016 to February 2019 were collected, and the sensitivity and specificity of plasma ctDNA EGFR gene mutation detected by ddPCR and super-arms were compared. Some patients with positive EGFR gene mutations received oral treatment with first-line EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKI). The patients were divided into subgroups according to the test results. In group 1, both ddPCR and super-arms showed positive EGFR gene mutation results, with 21 cases. In group 2, ddPCR and super-arms detection of EGFR gene mutation were all negative, with 16 cases. In group 3, the ddPCR test was positive and the super-arms test was negative, with 5 cases. In group 4, the ddPCR test result was negative while the super-arms test result was positive. Since the number of patients in group 4 was 0, no statistics were included. Objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were used to evaluate the short-term outcome, and progression-free survival (PFS) was compared with survival analysis to evaluate the long-term outcome. RESULTS: EGFR mutations were detected in 58 (48.7%) of 119 patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma. The coincidence rate between ddPCR and EGFR gene mutation in tumor tissues was 82.4% (Kappa=0.647, P<0.001), the sensitivity was 74.1%, and the specificity was 90.2%. However, the coincidence degree of super-arms test and tissue test was 71.4%, the sensitivity was only 58.6%, and the specificity was 83.6%. The ORR and DCR values in group 3 were lower than those in group 1 and 2, but there was no significant difference in ORR between groups (P>0.05). Survival analysis showed that the PFS of the three groups was compared. The difference was not statistically significant (χ²=2.221, P=0.329). CONCLUSIONS ddPCR, as a high sensitivity and specificity liquid gene detection method, can be used as a reliable method to detect the mutation of plasma ctDNA EGFR gene in patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma. The results of plasma genetic testing can also be used as the basis for predicting the efficacy of EGFR-TKIs in patients.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic value of ultrasound for pediatric pancreatitis in different ages via summarizing the ultrasonographic characterizations of pediatric acute pancreatitis (AP) and chronic pancreatitis (CP) patients in different ages. Methods: From January 2013 to June 2018, ultrasonographic images and related clinical data of 81 AP and CP children hospitalized in Children′s Hospital of Capital Institute of Pediatrics were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into two age groups: 0-5 and 5-18 years (23 and 58 patients respectively). The ultrasonography of 23 little children(≤5 years old) and 58 big kids (>5 years old) was compared. Results: All 23 little children were diagnosed as AP, including recurrent AP. 41 of 58 big kids (71%) were diagnosed as AP, and 17 (29%) were as CP. There were no significant differences between AP little children and AP big kids on the incidence of abnormal findings in pancreatic ultrasound, enlargement of pancreas, increased echogenicity of pancreas, heterogeneous pancreas, dilation of pancreatic duct, ductal calculus, calcification, unsmooth capsule of pancreas, increased echogenicity of peripancreatic tissue and peripancreatic fluid collection, pseudocyst, common bile duct dilatation and portal vein system thrombosis. Diffuse enlargement of the pancreas was seen more frequently in little children than big kids (88% vs 52%), while localized pancreatic enlargement occurred more often in big kids than little children (48% vs 13%), and both the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). Ultrasonography indicated that 9 (39%) little children with common bile duct dilatations were eventually diagnosed as choledochal cysts by surgery, while 6 (15%) of the 8 big kids with common bile duct dilatations were confirmed to be choledochal cysts by surgery, and the difference on the incidence of choledochal cysts was statistically significant (P<0.05). All the CP patients were big kids. 47%(8/17) of CP big kids had parenchymal atrophy, 100%(17/17) had heterogeneous pancreas, 82%(14/17) had pancreatic duct dilation, 29%(5/17) had pseudocyst, 18%(3/17) had pancreatic calcification and ductal calculus. Conclusions In ultrasonography for little children, the presence of congenital anatomy abnormalities, especially choledochal cyst, which can cause pancreatitis potentially, should be paid special attention to. In ultrasonography for big kids, overall scanning of the pancreas is necessary and the lesions in pancreatic body and tail should be carefully checked. Additionally, CP should be not be neglected in big kids.

Objective: To observe the effect of medical instant hemostasis gauze combined with filament speed instant gauze on the drainage and flap healing after modified radical mastectomy. Methods: From August 2015 to August 2016, a total of 80 patients with modified radical mastectomy for breast cancer admitted to Huanxing Tumor Hospital, Chaoyang District, Beijing were selected.According to the random number table method, 80 patients who were ready for modified radical mastectomy for breast cancer were randomly divided into study group (40 cases) and control group (40 cases). Two kinds of hemostatic materials (medical hemolytic hemostatic gauze combined with fibril quick hemostatic gauze) were applied to the surgical wounds in the study group during the operation, while no medical hemostatic materials were used in the control group during the operation, and the other treatment was the same as that in the study group.Total drainage volume and drainage tube removal time were compared between the two groups 1 to 5 days after operation. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in the age, body mass index, and effusion production between the two groups (all P>0.05). The total drainage volume of the study group was (289.23±5.36) ml, and the total drainage volume of the control group was (492.15±8.56) ml.The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (t=8.543, P<0.05). The drainage time of the study group was (6.24±1.23) days, and the extraction time of the control group was (10.12±2.21) days.The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (t=6.203, P<0.05). Conclusion In addition to hemostatic function, using absorbable hemostatic gauze combined with surgicel fibrillar during the surgical process can significantly reduce postoperative subcutaneous fluid accumulation.

At the end of December 2019, acute respiratory infectious diseases caused by a new type of coronavirus were prevalent in Wuhan and other cities of China. Different from radiology examinations, the protocols of nuclear medical imaging examinations are complicated, in which more workplaces and staff are needed, resulting more complex management of patients and higher protection requirements. Combined with the characteristics of SPECT and PET imaging procedures, this paper puts forward some suggestions on the protective process of imaging examinations for patients with confirmed or suspected novel coronavirus infection. The main purpose is to protect medical staff from virus infection, effectively reduce the risk of virus transmission during the examination process, and ensure the medical quality and safety.