ObjectivePancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) exhibits a limited response to current treatments due to its dense fibrotic stroma and highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. In recent years, advancements in cellular immunotherapy, particularly chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M) therapy, have offered new hope for pancreatic cancer treatment. Although CAR-M therapy demonstrates dual potential in directly killing tumor cells and remodeling the immune microenvironment, it still faces challenges such as complex in vitro preparation processes and low in vivo targeting and delivery efficiency. Therefore, developing strategies for efficient and targeted in vivo delivery of CAR genes has become crucial for overcoming current therapeutic limitations. This study aims to develop an orally administrable nano-gene delivery system for the targeted delivery of CAR genes to pancreatic tumor sites. MethodsCore nano-gene particles (PNP/pCAR) were constructed by loading plasmid DNA encoding CAR (pCAR) with cationic polypeptides (PNP). Subsequently, PNP/pCAR was surface-modified with β-glucan to prepare the targeted nanoparticles (βGlus-PNP/pCAR). The loading efficiency of PNP for pCAR was quantitatively assessed by gel retardation assay. The particle size, Zeta potential, morphology, and storage stability of PNP/pCAR were characterized using a Malvern particle size analyzer and transmission electron microscopy. At the cellular level, RAW 264.7 macrophages were selected. The cytotoxicity of PNP/pCAR was evaluated using the CCK-8 assay. The cellular uptake efficiency and lysosomal escape ability of the nanoparticles were assessed via flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Transfection efficiency was quantitatively evaluated by detecting the expression of the reporter gene GFP using flow cytometry. At the in vivo level, an orthotopic pancreatic cancer mouse model was established. Cy7-labeled βGlus-PNP/pCAR nanoparticles were administered orally, and the fluorescence distribution in mice was dynamically monitored at 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 h post-administration using a small animal in vivo imaging system. Forty-eight hours after oral gavage, the mice were euthanized, and pancreatic tumor tissues were collected for further analysis of intratumoral fluorescence signals using the imaging system. Additionally, βGlus-PNP/pCAR-GFP nanoparticles loaded with the reporter gene (GFP) were administered orally. Forty-eight hours post-administration, pancreatic tumor tissues were harvested to prepare frozen sections, and GFP expression was observed and analyzed under a fluorescence microscope. ResultsThe PNP carrier exhibited a high loading capacity for pCAR. The successfully prepared PNP/pCAR nanoparticles were regular spheres with a hydrodynamic diameter of approximately (120±10) nm and a Zeta potential of about +(6±1) mV. They maintained good structural stability after incubation in PBS buffer for 7 d. Cell experiments demonstrated that PNP/pCAR exhibited no significant cytotoxicity in RAW 264.7 cells while being efficiently internalized and effectively escaping lysosomal degradation. The transfection positive rate of PNP/pCAR-GFP in RAW 264.7 cells reached (25±3)%, surpassing that of Lipofectamine 2000-loaded pCAR-GFP (Lipo/pCAR-GFP), which was (20±1)%.In vivo experiments revealed that, compared to unmodified PNP/pCAR, βGlus-PNP/pCAR exhibited strongerin situ pancreatic tumor targeting ability after oral administration. Furthermore, oral administration of βGlus-PNP/pCAR-GFP resulted in significant GFP protein expression detectable within pancreatic tumor tissues. ConclusionThis study successfully constructed and validated an orally administrable, pancreatic cancer-targeting polypeptide-based nano-gene delivery system. It provides an important technological foundation in delivery systems and experimental basis for the subsequent development of in situ CAR-M-based therapeutic strategies for pancreatic cancer.

ObjectivePancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) exhibits a limited response to current treatments due to its dense fibrotic stroma and highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. In recent years, advancements in cellular immunotherapy, particularly chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M) therapy, have offered new hope for pancreatic cancer treatment. Although CAR-M therapy demonstrates dual potential in directly killing tumor cells and remodeling the immune microenvironment, it still faces challenges such as complex in vitro preparation processes and low in vivo targeting and delivery efficiency. Therefore, developing strategies for efficient and targeted in vivo delivery of CAR genes has become crucial for overcoming current therapeutic limitations. This study aims to develop an orally administrable nano-gene delivery system for the targeted delivery of CAR genes to pancreatic tumor sites. MethodsCore nano-gene particles (PNP/pCAR) were constructed by loading plasmid DNA encoding CAR (pCAR) with cationic polypeptides (PNP). Subsequently, PNP/pCAR was surface-modified with β-glucan to prepare the targeted nanoparticles (βGlus-PNP/pCAR). The loading efficiency of PNP for pCAR was quantitatively assessed by gel retardation assay. The particle size, Zeta potential, morphology, and storage stability of PNP/pCAR were characterized using a Malvern particle size analyzer and transmission electron microscopy. At the cellular level, RAW 264.7 macrophages were selected. The cytotoxicity of PNP/pCAR was evaluated using the CCK-8 assay. The cellular uptake efficiency and lysosomal escape ability of the nanoparticles were assessed via flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Transfection efficiency was quantitatively evaluated by detecting the expression of the reporter gene GFP using flow cytometry. At the in vivo level, an orthotopic pancreatic cancer mouse model was established. Cy7-labeled βGlus-PNP/pCAR nanoparticles were administered orally, and the fluorescence distribution in mice was dynamically monitored at 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 h post-administration using a small animal in vivo imaging system. Forty-eight hours after oral gavage, the mice were euthanized, and pancreatic tumor tissues were collected for further analysis of intratumoral fluorescence signals using the imaging system. Additionally, βGlus-PNP/pCAR-GFP nanoparticles loaded with the reporter gene (GFP) were administered orally. Forty-eight hours post-administration, pancreatic tumor tissues were harvested to prepare frozen sections, and GFP expression was observed and analyzed under a fluorescence microscope. ResultsThe PNP carrier exhibited a high loading capacity for pCAR. The successfully prepared PNP/pCAR nanoparticles were regular spheres with a hydrodynamic diameter of approximately (120±10) nm and a Zeta potential of about +(6±1) mV. They maintained good structural stability after incubation in PBS buffer for 7 d. Cell experiments demonstrated that PNP/pCAR exhibited no significant cytotoxicity in RAW 264.7 cells while being efficiently internalized and effectively escaping lysosomal degradation. The transfection positive rate of PNP/pCAR-GFP in RAW 264.7 cells reached (25±3)%, surpassing that of Lipofectamine 2000-loaded pCAR-GFP (Lipo/pCAR-GFP), which was (20±1)%.In vivo experiments revealed that, compared to unmodified PNP/pCAR, βGlus-PNP/pCAR exhibited strongerin situ pancreatic tumor targeting ability after oral administration. Furthermore, oral administration of βGlus-PNP/pCAR-GFP resulted in significant GFP protein expression detectable within pancreatic tumor tissues. ConclusionThis study successfully constructed and validated an orally administrable, pancreatic cancer-targeting polypeptide-based nano-gene delivery system. It provides an important technological foundation in delivery systems and experimental basis for the subsequent development of in situ CAR-M-based therapeutic strategies for pancreatic cancer.

Renal lymphatic vessel density is clinically relevant in kidney disease but is still assessed by slow, subjective visual estimation. We evaluated a weakly supervised, attention-based multiple-instance learning framework for automated detection and quantification of renal lymphatic vessel density on D2-40-stained whole-slide images (WSIs). Methods: Two independent internal datasets from Tongji Hospital were collected, including 198 cases of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 50 cases of hypertensive nephropathy (HTN). All biopsies were immunohistochemically stained for D2-40 and digitized as WSIs. Pathologists provided only slide-level labels (D2-40 high vs. D2-40 low). Tissue regions were automatically segmented, tiled into patches, and encoded using a pretrained convolutional neural network. Patch embeddings were then analyzed with a clustering-constrained attention multiple-instance learning (CLAM) model. Unlike conventional multiple-instance learning (MIL) methods that only weight instances, CLAM jointly performs attention-based instance selection and instance-level clustering to distinguish positive from negative evidence within each slide, yielding more discriminative slide-level features and interpretable attention maps. Performance was compared with a classic MIL model trained on the same features. Results: CLAM achieved area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.942 and 0.858 on the CKD and HTN datasets, respectively, outperforming classic MIL (0.866 and 0.801). Attention maps highlighted lymphatic-rich regions consistent with renal pathologists’ assessments. Conclusions: This clustering-constrained, attention-based weakly supervised framework enables fully automated, reproducible quantification of renal lymphatic vessel density from WSIs, providing renal pathologists with rapid visual and numerical support for diagnosis and risk stratification in CKD and HTN.

Objective:To observe the effect of Guilu Taohong Formula on semen quality in varicocele(VC)models of rats,and to explore its possible mechanism.Methods:Forty-eight male SD rats were randomly divided into four groups(sham group,model group,Guilu Taohong Formula group and L-carnitine group).After the establishment of models,the rats were treated with intra-gastric administration for eight consecutive weeks.The general condition of the rats was observed.After the gavage,the testicular and epididymal indices were calculated.Semen quality was assessed using an automatic semen analyzer.Apoptosis of testicular cells was assessed by TUNEL staining.And the expression levels of B-cell lymphocytoma-2(Bcl-2),Bcl-2-associated X protein(Bax)and cys-teine aspartate protease-3(caspase-3)in testicular tissue were detected by Western blot.Results:Compared with the sham group,testicular index,epididymal index,sperm concentration,the percentage of progressive motility of sperm(PR％)and the expression level of Bcl-2 decreased in model group(P＜0.01).An increased apoptosis rate of spermatogenic cells and the expression levels of Bax and caspase-3 proteins were observed in model group as well(P＜0.01).Compared with the model group,the testicular index,epidid-ymal index,sperm concentration,PR％and the expression level of Bcl-2 in Guilu Taohong Formula group increased significantly(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).A decreased apoptosis rate of spermatogenic cells and the expression levels of Bax and caspase-3 proteins were de-tected in Guilu Taohong Formula group as well(P＜0.01).Similarly,the L-carnitine group showed increased testicular index,epidid-ymal index,sperm concentration,PR％and the expression level of Bcl-2 protein(P＜0.05,P＜0.01),where showed decreased ap-optosis rate of spermatogenic cells and the expression levels of Bax and caspase-3 proteins compared with model group(P＜0.01,P＜0.05).Conclusion:Guilu Taohong Formula improves semen quality in VC model rats and reduces the apoptosis rate of spermato-genic cells in testicular tissue,which may be related to the promotion of Bcl-2 protein expression and the inhibition of Bax and caspase-3 protein expression levels.

Objective To compare the accuracy and clinical application value of contrast-induced fractional flow reserve(cFFR),resting full-cycle ratio(RFR),and quantitative flow ratio(QFR)in evaluating coronary artery borderline lesions,using fractional flow reserve(FFR)as the gold standard.Methods A retrospective study was conducted including 143 patients with 143 lesions who underwent coronary angiography(CAG)and were tested for cFFR,RFR,QFR,and FFR at Peking University Third Hospital from September 2020 to January 2022.Clinical data,CAG lesion anatomical data,and target vessel cFFR,RFR,QFR,and FFR measurements were collected.The correlation and diagnostic concordance of cFFR,RFR,QFR,and FFR were analyzed.Results The mean age of the 143 patients was 66(58,71)years,with 90(62.9％)being male.Among them,60(42.0％)patients were diagnosed with unstable angina,and 115(80.4％)target lesions were located in the left anterior descending artery.Correlation analysis showed that RFR,QFR,and cFFR were all significantly correlated with FFR(r=0.956,r=0.861,r=0.751,P＜0.001).Bland-Altman analysis demonstrated high agreement between cFFR,RFR,QFR,and FFR.Receiver operating characteristics(ROC)curve analysis showed that the area under the curve(AUC)for RFR corresponding to FFR ≤0.80 was 0.92(95％CI 0.87-0.96),for QFR was 0.89(95％CI 0.83-0.95),and for cFFR was 0.96(95％CI 0.94-0.99).Conclusions cFFR,RFR,and QFR show high concordance with FFR,with similar diagnostic consistency between the three methods and FFR.

Patient-Reported Outcomes(PRO)is a subjective outcome indicator based on the concept of"patient-centered",in which patients report their own information such as health status,functional status,and treatment feelings,which is an ef-fective supplement to traditional objective outcome indicators.Based on the development status of the Patient Reported Outcome Measure(PROM),it systematically analyzed the concepts related to PRO with the goal of clarifying the Patient Experience Data(PED)with research value,and proposed six core types of PROs in the medical field,including health-related quality of life,health preference,health behavior,symptom burden,functional status and patient-reported experience.For each type of PRO,the key characteristics of the study were analyzed,the evidence and application directions of related PED and the production based on PED were described,and the existing international mainstream PROMs were reviewed.It is hoped that the connotation of PRO-related concepts can be comprehensively expounded,and PEDs with research significance and value can be explored,so as to provide guidance for the focus of PRO-related research in China,so as to promote the application and development of PRO in China.

Patient-Reported Outcomes(PRO)refers to a subjective outcome measure based on the concept of"patient-cen-tered",in which patients report their own health status,functional status,treatment feelings and other information,which is an ef-fective supplement to traditional objective outcome indicators.With the continuous promotion of PRO research,its application in the world is also constantly enriched.It takes the different application scenarios of PRO as the starting point and the evidence-based evidence that PRO can generate as the evaluation object,reviews the application status of PRO in the US,the European Union,the UK,Canada and other countries,regions or organizations,and summarizes the main application methods of PRO in different medical decision-making scenarios,in order to provide international experiences for the application research of PRO in China.

Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response triggered by infection and often leads to acute kidney injury(AKI).The pathogenesis of sepsis-associated AKI is complex,involving multiple factors such as renal ischemia,inflammation and oxidative stress.In recent years,pyroptosis,a pro-inflammatory form of programmed cell death,has gradually attracted the attention of researchers.Pyroptosis is activated by inflammasomes(e.g.,the NOD-like receptor pyrin domain-related protein 3 inflammasome,NLRP3 inflammasome),accompanied by Gas-dermin D(GSDMD)-mediated formation of cell membrane pores and release of cellular contents,which leads to exacerbation of local and systemic inflammatory responses.The mechanism of pyroptosis in sepsis-associated AKI has not been fully elucidated,but AKI is directly involved in the process of renal functional impairment by indu-cing the death of renal tubular epithelial cells and exacerbating the local inflammatory response.Blockade of key molecules in the pyroptosis pathway,such as GSDMD or NLRP3 inflammasome,can significantly alleviate renal injury,suggesting that the pyroptosis pathway may be a potential therapeutic target for sepsis-associated AKI.This review summarizes the recent research progress on pyroptosis in sepsis-associated AKI,and discuss its cen-tral role in the pathogenesis,particularly focusing on the inflammasome and GSDMD pathways.Additionally,this paper analyzes the potential of focal death inhibition as a therapeutic strategy and proposes future research direc-tions with the expectation of providing references for the treatment of sepsis-related AKI.

Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) and osteoporosis (OP) are two very common metabolic diseases. A growing body of experimental evidence supports a pathophysiological link between MAFLD and OP. MAFLD is often associated with the development of OP. Rutaecarpine (RUT) is one of the main active components of Chinese medicine Euodiae Fructus. Our previous studies have demonstrated that RUT has lipid-lowering, anti-inflammatory and anti-atherosclerotic effects, and can improve the OP of rats. However, whether RUT can improve both fatty liver and OP symptoms of MAFLD mice at the same time remains to be investigated. In this study, we used C57BL/6 mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 4 months to construct a MAFLD model, and gave the mice a low dose (5 mg·kg^-1) and a high dose (15 mg·kg^-1) of RUT by gavage for 4 weeks. The effects of RUT on liver steatosis and bone metabolism were then evaluated at the end of the experiment [this experiment was approved by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (approval number: IMB-20190124D₃03)]. The results showed that RUT treatment significantly reduced hepatic steatosis and lipid accumulation, and significantly reduced bone loss and promoted bone formation. In summary, this study shows that RUT has an effect of improving fatty liver and OP in MAFLD mice.

Objective To mine and analyze the routine blood test data of children with allergic rhinitis (AR), identify routine blood parameters related to childhood allergic rhinitis, establish an effective diagnostic model, and evaluate the performance of the model. Methods This study was a retrospective study of clinical cases. The experimental group comprised a total of 1110 children diagnosed with AR at the First Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Medical University during the period from December 12, 2020 to December 12, 2021, while the control group included 1109 children without a history of allergic rhinitis or other allergic diseases who underwent routine physical examinations during the same period. Information such as age, sex and routine blood test results was collected for all subjects. The levels of routine blood test indicators were compared between AR children and healthy children using comprehensive intelligent baseline analysis, with indicators of P≥0.05 excluded; variables were screened by Lasso regression. Binary Logistic regression was used to further evaluate the influence of multiple routine blood indexes on the results. Five kinds of machine model algorithms were used, namely extreme value gradient lift (XGBoost), logistic regression (LR), gradient lift decision tree (LGBMC), Random forest (RF) and adaptive lift algorithm (AdaBoost), to establish the diagnostic models. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to screen the optimal model. The best LightGBM algorithm was used to build an online patient risk assessment tool for clinical application. Results Statistically significant differences were observed between the AR group and the control group in the following routine blood test indicators: mean cellular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), hemoglobin (HGB), absolute value of basophils (BASO), absolute value of eosinophils (EOS), large platelet ratio (P-LCR), mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), platelet count (PLT), absolute values of leukocyte neutrophil (W-LCC), leukocyte monocyte (W-MCC), leukocyte lymphocyte (W-SCC), and age. Lasso regression identified these variables as important predictors, and binary Logistic regression further analyzed the significant influence of these variables on the results. The optimal machine learning algorithm LightGBM was used to establish a multi-index joint detection model. The model showed robust prediction performance in the training set, with AUC values of 0.8512 and 0.8103 in the internal validation set. Conclusion The identified routine blood parameters can be used as potential biomarkers for early diagnosis and risk assessment of AR, which can improve the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosis. The established model provides scientific basis for more accurate diagnostic tools and personalized prevention strategies. Future studies should prospectively validate these findings and explore their applicability in other related diseases.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Rhinitis, Allergic/blood* ; Child ; Biomarkers/blood* ; Retrospective Studies ; Early Diagnosis ; Child, Preschool ; ROC Curve ; Logistic Models ; Hematologic Tests ; Algorithms ; Adolescent ; Machine Learning