The KCNQ potassium channels play a crucial role in modulating neural excitability, and their dysfunction is closely associated with epileptic disorders. While variants in KCNQ2 have been extensively studied, KCNQ3-related disorders have rarely been reported. With advances in next-generation sequencing technologies, an increasing number of cases of KCNQ3-related disorders have been identified. However, the correlation between genotype and phenotype remains poorly understood. In this study, we established a variant library consisting of 24 missense mutations in KCNQ3 and introduced these mutations into three different template types: KCNQ3, KCNQ3-A315T (Q3*), and KCNQ3-KCNQ2 tandem (Q3-Q2). We then analyzed the effects of these mutations on the KCNQ3 channel function using patch-clamp recording. The most informative parameter across all three backgrounds was the current density of the mutant channels. The current density patterns in the Q3* and Q3-Q2 backgrounds were similar, with most mutations resulting in an almost complete loss of function (LOF), they were concentrated in the pore-forming domain of KCNQ3. In contrast, mutations in the voltage-sensing domain or C-terminus did not show significant differences from the wild-type channel. Interestingly, these LOF mutations were typically associated with self-limited familial neonatal epilepsy, while neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) were more closely associated with mutations that did not significantly differ from the wild-type. V_1/2, another important parameter of the electrophysiological properties, could not be accurately determined in the majority of KCNQ3 mutations due to its nearly complete LOF in the Q3* and Q3-Q2 backgrounds. Intriguingly, the V_1/2 of functional mutations were primarily leftward shifted, indicating a gain-of-function (GOF) effect, which was typically associated with NDD. In addition to previously reported mutations, we identified G553R as a novel GOF mutation. In the co-transfection background, parameters such as V_1/2 could be determined, but the dysfunctional effects of these mutations were mitigated by the co-expression of wild-type KCNQ3 and KCNQ2 subunits, resulting in no significant differences between most mutations and the wild-type channel. Furthermore, we applied KCNQ modulators to reverse the electrophysiological abnormalities caused by KCNQ3 variants. The LOF mutations were reversed by the application of Pynegabine (HN37), a KCNQ opener, while the GOF mutation responded well to Amitriptyline (AMI), a KCNQ inhibitor. These findings provide essential insights into the pathogenic mechanisms underlying KCNQ3-related disorders and may inform clinical decision-making.
KCNQ3 Potassium Channel/genetics* ; Humans ; Mutation, Missense/genetics* ; KCNQ2 Potassium Channel/genetics* ; Patch-Clamp Techniques ; HEK293 Cells ; Animals ; Phenylenediamines/pharmacology* ; Carbamates

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of oral and facial muscle functional training in treating adult obstructive sleep apnea(OSA)and to identify clinical indicators influencing treatment outcomes.METHODS Through a prospective cohort study,patients diagnosed with OSA in the study unit were recruited to undergo a 3-month myofunctional therapy,including soft palate-related muscles,tongue muscles,buccal muscles,and labial muscles in multiple muscle groups,once a day,five times a week,with the use of offline clinic guidance,and the APP program video follow up training for effective training.Data were collected on multiple dimensions including physical signs,sleep breathing monitoring parameters,and airway measurements from imaging studies.Treatment efficacy was assessed by comparing subjective and objective sleep indicators before and after training.Patients were categorized into effective and ineffective groups based on treatment outcomes.Differences in baseline clinical indicators between these groups were analyzed using univariate and multivariate regression analyses.RESULTS The study finally included 58 people,51 males and 7 females,age(38.36±8.96)years,BMI(27.14±3.68)kg/m2,AHI of the enrolled patients was reduced from(31.27±22.28)times/h pre-training to(26.27±21.38)times/h post-training,the minimum oxygen saturation was increased from(78.43±10.07)%to(80.50±10.06)%,snoring index decreased from(62.80±75.20)times/h to(36.40±43.19)times/h,and ESS score decreased from 7.00±5.31 pre-training to 5.50±3.17.By comparing the effective and ineffective groups,it was found that there was a statistically significant difference in the tongue position and ESS scores between the two groups(both P<0.05),while no significant differences were found in gender,age,neck circumference,posterior soft palate area,uvula area,posterior tongue area,or posterior epiglottic area(all P>0.05).Univariate logistic regression analysis indicated that tongue position,AHI,and ESS scores were factors affecting the efficacy of oral and facial muscle function training.Multivariate regression analysis revealed that AHI was an independent prognostic factor for this training in OSA patients.CONCLUSION Oral and facial muscle function training can improve both subjective and objective sleep breathing indices in OSA patients.Tongue position,AHI,and ESS scores may serve as prognostic factors for OSA treatment,aiding in guiding subsequent individualized intervention therapies.

Radiotherapy (RT) can potentially induce systemic immune responses by initiating immunogenic cell death (ICD) of tumor cells. However, RT-induced antitumor immunologic responses are sporadic and insufficient against cancer metastases. Herein, we construct multifunctional self-sufficient nanoparticles (MARS) with dual-enzyme activity (GOx and peroxidase-like) to trigger radical storms and activate the cascade-amplified systemic immune responses to suppress both local tumors and metastatic relapse. In addition to limiting the Warburg effect to actualize starvation therapy, MARS catalyzes glucose to produce hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), which is then used in the Cu⁺-mediated Fenton-like reaction and RT sensitization. RT and chemodynamic therapy produce reactive oxygen species in the form of radical storms, which have a robust ICD impact on mobilizing the immune system. Thus, when MARS is combined with RT, potent systemic antitumor immunity can be generated by activating antigen-presenting cells, promoting dendritic cells maturation, increasing the infiltration of cytotoxic T lymphocytes, and reprogramming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Furthermore, the synergistic therapy of RT and MARS effectively suppresses local tumor growth, increases mouse longevity, and results in a 90% reduction in lung metastasis and postoperative recurrence. Overall, we provide a viable approach to treating cancer by inducing radical storms and activating cascade-amplified systemic immunity.

Objective To investigate the effects of insulin therapy on the mechanical behavior of solids,characteristics of fluid flow,and bone marrow stromal cells(BMSCs)differentiation in the distal femoral cancellous bone of type 2 diabetic rats under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions.Methods The finite element models of cancellous bones and fluids in the distal femurs of rats in the control,diabetes,treatment,and placebo groups in 4-week and 8-week insulin treatment experiments under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions were established based on micro-CT scanning images.The mechanical and cell differentiation parameters of the models in each group were analyzed using the fluid-solid interaction numerical simulation method.Correlations between mechanical,cell differentiation,and microstructural morphology parameters were also analyzed.Results Insulin therapy under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions improved the solid and fluid mechanical parameters and BMSC differentiation parameters in type 2 diabetic rats.In the 4-week experiment,insulin treatment under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions increased the differentiation areas of bone in type 2 diabetic rats from 64.024%to 69.372%and from 73.225%to 75.336%,respectively;in the 8-week experiment,insulin treatment under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions increased the differentiation areas of bone in type 2 diabetic rats from 67.239%to 72.910%and from 76.147%to 78.291%,respectively.Morphological parameters BV/TV,Tb.N,Tb.Th,Tb.Sp,and structure model index were significantly correlated with the differentiation areas of the bone and cartilage(P<0.05).Conclusions Under vigorous exercise conditions,BMSCs on the surface of cancellous bone in the 8-week insulin treatment group were more likely to differentiate into bone tissue.This study is of great significance for further understanding the effects of insulin on the bone under normal activity and vigorous exercise conditions,and provides theoretical guidance for the selection of the insulin therapy cycle and exercise mode in the clinical treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Bariatric surgery is an important means to achieve weight loss in patients and improve obesity-related metabolic disorders. Evaluating the treatment compliance of patients after bariatric surgery can help medical and nursing staff develop personalized intervention plans. This paper summarizes the current status, assessment tools, and comparison of assessment tools of patient treatment compliance after bariatric surgery, providing a basis for medical and nursing staff to reasonably select treatment compliance assessment tools for patients after bariatric surgery.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy has become an indispensable weapon against high-risk resectable cancers, which benefits from tumor downstaging. However, the utility of chemotherapeutics alone as a neoadjuvant agent is incapable of generating durable therapeutic benefits to prevent postsurgical tumor metastasis and recurrence. Herein, a tactical nanomissile (TALE), equipped with a guidance system (PD-L1 monoclonal antibody), ammunition (mitoxantrone, Mit), and projectile bodies (tertiary amines modified azobenzene derivatives), is designed as a neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy setting, which aims at targeting tumor cells, and fast-releasing Mit owing to the intracellular azoreductase, thereby inducing immunogenic tumor cells death, and forming an in situ tumor vaccine containing damage-associated molecular patterns and multiple tumor antigen epitopes to mobilize the immune system. The formed in situ tumor vaccine can recruit and activate antigen-presenting cells, and ultimately increase the infiltration of CD8⁺ T cells while reversing the immunosuppression microenvironment. Moreover, this approach provokes a robust systemic immune response and immunological memory, as evidenced by preventing 83.3% of mice from postsurgical metastasis or recurrence in the B16-F10 tumor mouse model. Collectively, our results highlight the potential of TALE as a neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy paradigm that can not only debulk tumors but generate a long-term immunosurveillance to maximize the durable benefits of neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Antibody-drug conjugates(ADCs)are commonly heterogeneous and require extensive assessment of exposure-efficacy and exposure-safety relationships in preclinical and clinical studies.In this study,we report the generation of a monoclonal antibody against monomethyl auristatin E(MMAE)and the development,validation,and application of sensitive and high-throughput enzyme-linked immunosor-bent assays(ELISA)to measure the concentrations of MMAE-conjugated ADCs and total antibodies(tAb,antibodies in ADC plus unconjugated antibodies)in cynomolgus monkey sera.These assays were suc-cessfully applied to in vitro plasma stability and pharmacokinetic(PK)studies of SMADC001,an MMAE-conjugated ADC against trophoblast cell surface antigen 2(TROP-2).The plasma stability of SMADC001 was better than that of similar ADCs coupled with PEG4-Val-Cit,Lys(m-dPEG24)-Cit,and Val-Cit linkers.The developed ELISA methods for the calibration standards of ADC and tAb revealed a correlation be-tween serum concentrations and the OD450 values,with R2 at 1.000,and the dynamic range was 0.3-35.0 ng/mL and 0.2-22.0 ng/mL,respectively;the intra-and inter-assay accuracy bias％ranged from-12.2％to-5.2％,precision ranged from-12.4％to-1.4％,and the relative standard deviation(RSD)was less than 6.6％and 8.7％,respectively.The total error was less than 20.4％.The development and validation steps of these two assays met the acceptance criteria for all addressed validation parameters,which suggested that these can be applied to quantify MMAE-conjugated ADCs,as well as in PK studies.Furthermore,these assays can be easily adopted for development of other similar immunoassays.

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is one of the main reasons causing blindness in patients with diabetic retinopathy. In recent years, with the recognition of the pathogenic role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in DME, many clinical trials of intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF drugs have been carried out at home and abroad, proving that it has significant effects in improving visual acuity and reducing macular edema, and has become the first-line treatment of DME. However, there are still many challenges in routine clinical application of anti-VEGF drugs, such as frequent injections, insensitivity to treatment, and it is unclear whether repeated injections will cause damage to retina. The pathophysiological process of DME is very complicated, in addition to VEGF, there are many inflammatory factors and growth factors involved. Clinical trials of long-acting anti-VEGF agents, drugs of other targets and gene therapy are also being carried out. It is believed that with the in-depth research and progress of clinical trials, the gradual application of anti-VEGF drugs, other drugs and therapy in clinical practice are just around the corner, which is expected to provide more convenient and effective treatments for DME patients in the future.

Objective:To investigate the predictive value of YKL-40 at admission on stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) and poor outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS).Methods:Patients with AIS admitted to Taixing People’s Hospital from February 2020 to March 2021 were enrolled prospectively. The poor outcome was defined as 3-6 points on the modified Rankin Scale at 90 d after onset. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the independent predictors of SAP and poor outcome, and the predictive value of serum YKL-40 on SAP and poor outcome was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results:A total of 377 patients with AIS were enrolled. The median serum YKL-40 was 127.16 μg/L. One hundred and four patients (27.6%) had SAP, and 126 (33.4%) had poor outcomes at 90 d after onset. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that after adjusting for confounding factors, YKL-40 was the independent predictors of SAP (odds ratio [ OR] 1.005, 95% confidence interval [ CI] 1.003-1.008; P=0.001) and poor outcome at 90 d ( OR 1.009, 95% CI 1.006-1.011; P=0.001). The ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve of YKL-40 for predicting SAP was 0.769 (95% CI 0.713-0.824; P<0.001), the best cutoff value was 168.70 μg/L, and the sensitivity and specificity were 71.2% and 75.1% respectively; the area under the curve of YKL-40 for predicting poor outcome at 90 d was 0.787 (95% CI 0.735-0.840; P<0.001), the best cutoff value was 195.56 μg/L, and the sensitivity and specificity were 68.3% and 84.1% respectively. Conclusion:Higher serum YKL-40 at admission has a good predictive value for SAP and poor outcome at 90 d in patients with AIS.

Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of 100 mg or 200 mg yimitasvir phosphate combined with sofosbuvir in patients with non-cirrhotic chronic hepatitis C virus ( HCV) genotype 1 infection who were treatment-na?ve or had a virologic failure to prior interferon-based treatment.Methods A multicenter, randomized, open-label, phase 2 clinical trial was conducted.The patients were randomly assigned to yimitasvir phosphate 100 mg+sofosbuvir 400 mg group (Group 100 mg) and yimitasvir phosphate 200 mg+sofosbuvir 400 mg group ( Group 200 mg) in a 1∶1 ratio with the stratified factors of " treatment-naive" or"treatment-experienced" for 12 weeks and followed up for 24 weeks after the end of treatment.During the clinical trial, HCV RNA was tested in all patients.Resistance of virus in patients who didn′t achieved sustained virological response (SVR) was monitored.Safety and tolerability were assessed by monitoring adverse events , physical examination , laboratory examination, electrocardiogram, and vital signs during the study.The primary end point was SVR12 after the end of therapy.Descriptive statistics were used for categorical variables and eight descriptive statistics were used for continuous variables.Descriptive statistics were used and summarized according to HCV genotypes and treatment groups.Safety data were presented using descriptive statistics and summarized according to treatment groups.Results A total of 174 subjects were screened from July 31, 2017 to September 26, 2018.One hundred and twenty-nine patients were successfully enrolled and received treatment , and 127 completed the study.There were 64 patients and 65 patients assigned to Group 100 mg and Group 200 mg, respectively.Among the 129 patients who underwent randomization and were treated , 18.6% were treatment-experienced and: 100%were HCV genotype 1b infection.The total SVR rate was 98.4%(127／129), with 98.4%(63／64, 95%confidence interval [CI]: 91.60%-99.96%) in the Group 100 mg, and 98.50%(64／65, 95%CI: 91.72%-99.96%) in the Group 200 mg.There was no significant difference between the two groups (χ2 ＝0.000 2, P＝0.989 2).The SVR rates in treatment-naive group and treatment-experienced group were 98.10%(95%CI: 93.29%-99.77%) and 100.00%(24／24, 95%CI: 85.75%-100.00%), respectively.Virological failure during treatment ( including breakthrough , rebound and poor efficacy) and relapse after treatment did not occur during the trial.By Sanger sequencing , 11.6%(15／129) patients had baseline NS5A Y93H／Y or Y93H resistance-associated substitutions ( RAS), 1.6%( 2／129) patients had baseline NS5A L31M RAS.No mutation was observed in NS5B S282 at baseline.There was no S282 mutation in HCV NS5B.A total of 100 (77.5%) subjects had adverse events.No adverse events ≥Grade 3 or severe adverse events related to the study treatment.No patient prematurely discontinued study treatment owing to an adverse event.No life-threatening adverse event was reported.Conclusion Twelve weeks of yimitasvir phosphate 100 mg or 200 mg combined with sofosbuvir 400 mg daily is a highly effective and safe regimen for patients without cirrhosis with HCV genotype 1b infection who had not been treated previously or had a virologic failure to prior interferon-based treatment.