Improving the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of Brassica napus is of significant importance for achieving the national goal of zero growth in chemical fertilizer application and ensuring the green development of the rapeseed industry. This study aims to explore the effects of the nitrate transporter gene BnaNRT1.5s on the nitrogen transport and NUE of B. napus, providing excellent genetic resources for the development of nitrogen-efficient B. napus varieties. The spatiotemporal expression of BnaA05.NRT1.5 as a key nitrogen responsive gene was profiled by qRT-PCR at different growth stages and for different tissue samples of B. napus 'Westar'. Subcellular localization was employed to examine its expression pattern in the cells. Additionally, CRISPR/Cas9 was used to create BnaNRT1.5s knockout lines, which were subjected to hydroponic experiments under high nitrogen (12.0 mmol/L) and low nitrogen (0.3 mmol/L) conditions. After the seedlings were cultivated for 21 days, root and shoot samples were collected for weighing, nitrogen content determination, xylem sap nitrate content assessment, and calculation of total nitrogen and NUE. The B. napus nitrate transporter BnaA05.NRT1.5 was localized to the cell membrane. During the seedling and early bolting stages, BnaA05.NRT1.5 was predominantly expressed in roots, while it was highly expressed in old leaves and mature silique skin during the reproductive stage. Compared with the wild type, the mutant BnaNRT1.5s showed significant increases in the dry weight and total nitrogen of seedlings under both high and low nitrogen conditions. Under low nitrogen conditions, NUE in the roots of BnaNRT1.5s significantly improved. Notably, under both high and low nitrogen conditions, the nitrate content in the shoots of BnaNRT1.5s decreased significantly, while that in the roots increased significantly, resulting in a significantly decreased shoot-to-root nitrate content ratio. BnaNRT1.5s is involved in regulating the transport of nitrate from the roots to the shoots, and its mutation enhances nitrogen absorption and utilization in B. napus seedlings, promoting seedling growth. This study not only provides references for understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms by which BnaNRT1.5s regulates NUE but also offers valuable genetic resources for improving NUE in B. napus.
Brassica napus/genetics* ; Anion Transport Proteins/metabolism* ; Nitrogen/metabolism* ; Nitrate Transporters ; Plant Proteins/metabolism* ; Nitrates/metabolism* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Biological Transport

Objective To explore the progress on the application of in vivo drug analysis techniques in clinical pharmacy work. Methods Relevant literature was reviewed to provide an overview of the characteristics of clinical samples, common in vivo drug analysis methods used in the clinic, the application and existing problems of in vivo drug analysis in clinical pharmacy. Results and Conclusion In recent years, with the increasing demand for individualized and precise treatment in clinical practice and the continuous development of analytical techniques, in vivo drug analysis techniques have been widely used in clinical pharmacy work, which have become one of the important auxiliary techniques to promote rational clinical drug use, improve individualized treatment and reduce the occurrence of adverse reactions. However, in the actual application, there were still problems such as the invasive blood sampling that hinders sampling, the weak ability to interpret drug monitoring results and clinical testing methods that still need to be improved. These problems should be taken seriously and continuously improved and solved in the subsequent research and application.

Objective:To compare and study the improvement of different iterative reconstruction(IR)algorithms of the tomotherapy(TOMO)Radixact system on the image quality of megavoltage computed tomography(MVCT)imaging system,and the influence of that on the precision of automatic registration,and to explore the reconstruction algorithm that is suitable for clinical application.Methods:Using the MVCT imaging system to respectively scan the Tomo-Phantom HE phantom and the Catphan 604 phantom,and to analyze three groups of images were generated by three kinds of reconstruction algorithms,which included the Standard(STD)algorithm,IR General(IR-G)algorithm and IR Soft Tissue(IR-ST)algorithm,in MVCT image.The noise index(NI),uniformity index(UI)of image,modulation transfer function(MTF),low contrast visibility(LCV)index and contrast-to-noise ratio(CNR)of three groups of images were calculated respectively.The Lucy phantom was used to test the accuracy of automatic registration algorithm.The registration data of four dimensions,included left-right(X-axis),head-foot(Y-axis),vertical(Z-axis)and free rotation(Roll)around the Y-axis,were used to conduct verification analysis for the influences of them on the precision of automatic registration.Results:The NI values of IR-G and IR-ST reconstruction algorithms were respectively 39.58±0.10 and 14.62±0.26,which were better than 39.58±0.10 of STD algorithm,and the UI values of them were respectively 19.87±0.83 and 15.84±2.51,which were better than 24.51±1.81 of STD algorithm,and LCV values of them were respectively 2.50±0.03 and 1.74±0.11,which were better than 3.67±0.04 of STD algorithm.All of them appeared significant increase,but the resolution with high contrast of MTF were respectively 0.23 and 0.21,which were lower than 0.32 of STD.The overall image quality of the IR algorithms was superior to that of the STD algorithm.In the accuracy test of the automatic registration algorithm,the registration precisions of IR-G and IR-ST algorithms on Y-axis were respectively(0.360±0.142)mm and(0.245±0.050)mm,which were significantly higher than 0.145±0.136 of STD algorithm,and the differences of them were significant(Z=6.0,15.0,P<0.05).The differences of registration precisions of other directions were not significant(P>0.05).Conclusion:The IR algorithm has advantages in terms of noise,uniformity and resolution with low-contrast,however,it shows reduction on resolution with high-contrast.This reduction of resolution with high-contrast do not lead to the decrease of the precision of automatic registration.

With the aging of population, the elderly (≥65 years old) cancer patients have become one of the main populations for cancer care. For inoperable locally advanced head and neck squamous carcinomas, cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy is the first-line choice. Several large clinical studies have shown that patients under 70 years of age can still benefit from concurrent chemoradiotherapy, while it should be cautious to apply chemotherapy to patients aged 70-80 years. For elderly patients who are intolerant to cisplatin, carboplatin or other regimens with less gastrointestinal and renal toxicity should be considered. Although anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibodies combined with radiotherapy has been proved to be more effective than radiotherapy alone in total patient population, age-subgroup analysis showed limited benefit in elderly patients. The safety of immune checkpoint inhibitors in elderly patients has been validated and those with high programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression may benefit from concurrent or neoadjuvant immunotherapy, however, high-level evidence is still lacking. For patients older than 80 years, radiotherapy alone may be superior to concurrent chemoradiotherapy, and hypofractionated radiotherapy for palliative purposes can be safely used in this population.

Hepatosteatosis is characterized by abnormal accumulation of triglycerides(TG),leading to prolonged and chronic inflammatory infiltration.To date,there is still a lack of effective and economical therapies for hepatosteatosis.Oridonin(ORI)is a major bioactive component extracted from the traditional Chinese medicinal herb Rabdosia rubescens.In this paper,we showed that ORI exerted significant protective ef-fects against hepatic steatosis,inflammation and fibrosis,which was dependent on LXRα signaling.It is reported that LXRα regulated lipid homeostasis between triglyceride(TG)and phosphatidylethanol-amine(PE)by promoting ATCL and EPT1 expression.Therefore,we implemented the lipidomic strategy and luciferase reporter assay to verify that ORI contributed to the homeostasis of lipids via the regulation of the ATGL gene associated with TG hydrolysis and the EPT1 gene related to PE synthesis in a LXRα-dependent manner,and the results showed the TG reduction and PE elevation.In detail,hepatic TG overload and lipotoxicity were reversed after ORI treatment by modulating the ATCL and EPT1 genes,respectively.Taken together,the data provide mechanistic insights to explain the bioactivity of ORI in attenuating TG accumulation and cytotoxicity and introduce exciting opportunities for developing novel natural activators of the LXRα-ATGL/EPT1 axis for pharmacologically treating hepatosteatosis and metabolic disorders.

Radiotherapy is an essential part of comprehensive treatment, as well as a radical treatment for head and neck cancer (HNC). The COVID-19 has continued so far, imposing a great impact on cancer care. Since conventional fractionated radiotherapy (CFRT, 2 Gy/F) requires as long as more than six weeks of treatment time, a huge challenge for epidemic control is created for both hospitals and patients. Hypofractionated radiotherapy (Hypo-RT) may be more suitable than CFRT for patients during pandemic by increasing the fraction size, thus reducing fraction number and treatment duration. Early studies have explored the application of Hypo-RT in HNC in palliative setting, which partially proved its safety and effectiveness. Recently, the efforts have been made in definitive treatment using hypofractionated regimen, as well as its combination with systemic treatment and immunotherapy. Indeed, regarding the pandemic of COVID-19, Hypo-RT has been recommended by several expert consensus in the HNC. In this review, relevant research progress was summarized and clinical implication of Hypo-RT in COVID-19 pandemic era was discussed.

Setting up the innovative and entrepreneurship education and teaching system is the important content of the current university education reform. Through the idea of leading innovation with entrepreneurial practice, we have implemented a series of education reforms in the students of medical laboratory technology, reformed the teaching methods and content, set up the tutors for undergraduates and improved the scientific research ability of students. The results show that the education reforms have enhanced the ability and sense of innovation, providing a good reference for the reform of innovation and entrepreneurship education in medical laboratory technology.

Objective:To investigate the status of frailty and activities of daily living (ADL) in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients, and to explore the effect of frailty phenotype on ADL.Methods:The patients who underwent MHD in Kidney Disease Center of the First Affiliated Hospital from March 2019 to March 2020 were enrolled in this study. The demographic and laboratorial data were collected by cross-sectional survey method. Fried frailty phenotype scale and ADL scale were used to evaluate the frailty and ADL, respectively. The differences of basic data and different frailty phenotypes between the normal function group and the function decline group were compared in terms of ADL, physical self-maintenance ability and instrumental ADL ability. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between frailty and ADL, and binary logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors of ADL.Results:A total of 676 MHD patients were included in this study, including 434 males (64.2%) and 242 females (35.8%). The age was (59.2±19.4) years old, and the median dialysis age was 59.0 (25.3, 110.0) months. There were 159 frailty patients (23.5%), 230 pre-frailty patients (34.0%), and 287 non-frailty patients (42.5%). The ADL was decreased in 163 patients (24.1%), including 131 patients (19.4%) with decreased physical self-maintenance ability and 161 patients (23.8%) with decreased instrumental ADL ability. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the frailty score was positively correlated with total ADL score ( r=0.728, P<0.001), physical self-maintenance ability score ( r=0.669, P<0.001) and instrumental ADL ability score ( r=0.729, P<0.001). Binary logistic regression analysis results showed that older age and lower physical activity, fatigue, slowed steps and lower grip strength in the frailty phenotypes were the independent influencing factors of ADL, physical self-maintenance ability and instrumental ADL ability (all P<0.05). Conclusions:The prevalence of frailty is 23.5% in MHD patients, and 24.1% of MHD patients have decreased ADL. Elder age and lower physical activity, fatigue, reduced step counts, and lower grip strength in frailty phenotypes are the independent influencing factors for poor ADL, poor physical self-maintenance ability and poor instrumental ADL ability.

Objective:To observe the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) caused by lupus nephritis, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) - associated vasculitis, or primary glomerulonephritis who were treated with peritoneal dialysis (PD) and then withdrew PD because of renal recovery.Methods:Data of the above patients were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were diagnosed as RPGN and received PD therapy in Kidney Disease Center, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University from February 2009 to August 2018. The patients were divided into early withdrawal group (PD time≤183 days, n=24) and late withdrawal group (PD time>183 day, n=24). The differences of clinical characteristics between the two groups were compared. The cumulative incidence of adverse events in both groups was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves. Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze the risk factors influencing the prognosis of patients. Results:Forty-eight RPGN patients were included. The median time of maintaining PD was 178(76, 378) days. Compared with the late withdrawal group, the patients in early withdrawal group had lower levels of urine volume, serum albumin and parathyroid hormone, and lower rates of gross hematuria and hypertension at the beginning of PD, and received higher rates of methylprednisolone impulse, combined immunosuppressive agents, and hemodialysis or continuous renal replacement therapy (all P<0.05). At the time of PD withdrawal, the levels of serum creatinine, serum calcium, serum albumin and parathyroid hormone in the early withdrawal group were significantly lower than those in the late withdrawal group (all P<0.05). The Kaplan-Meier curves showed that there was no significant difference in the cumulative survival of patients in both groups (log-rank test χ2=3.485, P=0.062). Cox regression analysis revealed serum creatinine≥209 μmol/L at the time of PD withdrawal was an independent risk factor for poor prognosis ( HR=5.253, 95% CI 1.757-15.702, P=0.003). Conclusions:PD can be used for RPGN patients caused by lupus nephritis, ANCA-associated vasculitis and primary nephritis. Serum creatinine≥209 μmol/L at the time of PD withdrawal is an independent risk factor for poor prognosis.