Objective To investigate the optimal timing for glucocorticoid therapy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy(DMD)and analyze the relationship between loss of ambulation(LoA)and dystrophin(DMD)gene mutation types.Methods Clinical and genetic data of DMD patients diagnosed at Hunan Children's Hospital from May 2008 to May 2021 were retrospectively analyzed.Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the impact of glucocorticoid initiation age,rehabilitation duration,and genotype on independent ambulation time.Results A total of 437 patients(aged 3-6 years)were enrolled,with muscle weakness being the primary presenting symptom.Genetic testing revealed deletions(289 cases,61.1％),point mutations(148 cases,31.3％),and duplications(36 cases,7.6％)in the DMD gene.Nonsense mutations predominated among point mutations(72/148,64.3％).Patients initiating glucocorticoids at 3-5 years showed significantly delayed LoA versus untreated patients[P<0.1,HR=0.47,median age 13(13-NA)].Patients with exon 43(Exon43)deletions experienced significantly earlier LoA than other genotypes[P<0.1,HR=3.04,median age 10(10-NA)].Rehabilitation>1 year significantly delayed LoA compared to no rehabilitation.Conclusion Optimal glucocorticoid initiation occurs at 3-5 years of age;rehabilitation exceeding 1 year prolongs independent ambulation;Exon43 deletions predict earlier LoA,informing clinical trial design.

Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics and gene mutations of 4 patients with the male phenotype of 17α-hydroxylase /17, 20-lyase deficiency(17-OHD), in order to improve the recognition and appropriate management of atypical cases.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical features, biochemical findings, and gene mutations of 4 patients with the male phenotype of 17-OHD treated in our hospital between 2018 and 2023.Results:The social gender of all 4 patients with 17-OHD was male. None of the 4 patients had hypertension or hypokalemia, but all had micropenis and gynecomastia. Two patients had adrenal hyperplasia, while adrenal morphology was normal in the other two. One patient had decreased bone mass. There were typical changes in the steroid synthesis-related hormone spectrum: progesterone was significantly elevated in all 4 patients, 17-hydroxyprogesterone was not markedly abnormal, cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate(DHEAS) and estradiol levels were low, and testosterone levels were also low.Conclusion:17-OHD is a rare type of congenital adrenal hyperplasia, with the male phenotype being even rarer. Early symptoms are often atypical, resulting in high rates of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis. Patients without hypertension and hypokalemia are particularly prone to diagnostic confusion. Male patients with unexplained progesterone elevation, poor secondary sexual development, and gynecomastia should undergo timely steroid hormone profiling and genetic testing to avoid misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis.

Objective To investigate the optimal timing for glucocorticoid therapy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy(DMD)and analyze the relationship between loss of ambulation(LoA)and dystrophin(DMD)gene mutation types.Methods Clinical and genetic data of DMD patients diagnosed at Hunan Children's Hospital from May 2008 to May 2021 were retrospectively analyzed.Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the impact of glucocorticoid initiation age,rehabilitation duration,and genotype on independent ambulation time.Results A total of 437 patients(aged 3-6 years)were enrolled,with muscle weakness being the primary presenting symptom.Genetic testing revealed deletions(289 cases,61.1％),point mutations(148 cases,31.3％),and duplications(36 cases,7.6％)in the DMD gene.Nonsense mutations predominated among point mutations(72/148,64.3％).Patients initiating glucocorticoids at 3-5 years showed significantly delayed LoA versus untreated patients[P<0.1,HR=0.47,median age 13(13-NA)].Patients with exon 43(Exon43)deletions experienced significantly earlier LoA than other genotypes[P<0.1,HR=3.04,median age 10(10-NA)].Rehabilitation>1 year significantly delayed LoA compared to no rehabilitation.Conclusion Optimal glucocorticoid initiation occurs at 3-5 years of age;rehabilitation exceeding 1 year prolongs independent ambulation;Exon43 deletions predict earlier LoA,informing clinical trial design.

Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics and gene mutations of 4 patients with the male phenotype of 17α-hydroxylase /17, 20-lyase deficiency(17-OHD), in order to improve the recognition and appropriate management of atypical cases.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical features, biochemical findings, and gene mutations of 4 patients with the male phenotype of 17-OHD treated in our hospital between 2018 and 2023.Results:The social gender of all 4 patients with 17-OHD was male. None of the 4 patients had hypertension or hypokalemia, but all had micropenis and gynecomastia. Two patients had adrenal hyperplasia, while adrenal morphology was normal in the other two. One patient had decreased bone mass. There were typical changes in the steroid synthesis-related hormone spectrum: progesterone was significantly elevated in all 4 patients, 17-hydroxyprogesterone was not markedly abnormal, cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate(DHEAS) and estradiol levels were low, and testosterone levels were also low.Conclusion:17-OHD is a rare type of congenital adrenal hyperplasia, with the male phenotype being even rarer. Early symptoms are often atypical, resulting in high rates of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis. Patients without hypertension and hypokalemia are particularly prone to diagnostic confusion. Male patients with unexplained progesterone elevation, poor secondary sexual development, and gynecomastia should undergo timely steroid hormone profiling and genetic testing to avoid misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis.

Objective:To explore the impact of CACNA1C rs58619945 genotype on the cortical thickness of attentional networks in patients with Bipolar 1 disorder type (BD-Ⅰ). Methods:From August 2013 and August 2019, a total of 155 BD-Ⅰ patients were recruited from the outpatient and inpatient Departments of the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, along with 82 healthy controls (HC) from the community and university. Genotype for the CACNA1C rs58619945 locus was determined for all BD-I patients and HC subjects, followed by 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging scans to measure the cortical thickness in the alert, orienting, and executive control subnetworks. General linear models (GLMs) were used to evaluate the impact of CACNA1C rs58619945 on the cortical thickness of attentional networks. Concurrently, attentional dimension functions were assessed using repeatable battery for the assessment of neuropsychological status (RBANS) and Cambridge neuropsychological test automated battery rapid visual information processing (CANTAB RVP) test. This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University(Ethics No. 2023-056). Results:Compared with the HC group, the BD-Ⅰ patients had shown reduced thickness in bilateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral posterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral superior temporal cortex( P<0.05). A significant interaction between the CACNA1C genotype and the cortical thickness(HC vs.BD) of right prefrontal cortex, right posterior parietal cortex and right superior temporal cortex was noted( P<0.05). Partial correlation analysis has demonstrated a significant correlation between CANTAB RVP and RBANS attention indices and cortical thickness in the right prefrontal cortex, right posterior cingulate cortex( P<0.05), and right superior temporal cortex predominantly among carriers of the BD-Ⅰ G allele. Conclusion:The G allele of CACNA1C rs58619945 is associated with cortical thickness of the right prefrontal cortex, right posterior cingulate cortex, and right superior temporal cortex in BD-Ⅰ, which are part of the alerting and orienting network.

BACKGROUND: Implantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) is a potential alternative for promoting bone defects healing or osseointegration in osteoporosis. However, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulated and excessive inflammation in the osteoporotic microenvironment could weaken the self-replication and multi-directional differentiation of transplanted BMSCs. METHODS: In this study, to improve the hostile microenvironment in osteoporosis, Poloxamer 407 and hyaluronic acid (HA) was crosslinked to synthetize a thermos-responsive and injectable hydrogel to load MnO2 nanoparticles as a protective carrier (MnO2 @Pol/HA hydrogel) for delivering BMSCs. RESULTS: The resulting MnO2 @Pol/HA hydrogel processed excellent biocompatibility and durable retention time, and can eliminate accumulated ROS effectively, thereby protecting BMSCs from ROS-mediated inhibition of cell viability, including survival, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation. In osteoporotic bone defects, implanting of this BMSCs incorporated MnO2 @Pol/HA hydrogel significantly eliminated ROS level in bone marrow and bone tissue, induced macrophages polarization from M1 to M2 phenotype, decreased the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., TNFa, IL-1b, and IL-6) and osteogenic related factors (e.g., TGF-b and PDGF). CONCLUSION This hydrogel-based BMSCs protected delivery strategy indicated better bone repair effect than BMSCs delivering or MnO2 @Pol/HA hydrogel implantation singly, which providing a potential alternative strategy for enhancing osteoporotic bone defects healing.

Objective: To investigate the in vitro antibacterial activity of triclosan combined with different antibacterial agents against triclosan-resistant multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (A.baumannii). Methods: A total of 626 A. baumannii strains were collected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from 2016 to 2017. The sensitivity of these A. baumannii strains to common antibiotics was detected by VITEK 2-compact automatical microbiological analyzer and the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of triclosan were detected by agar dilution method. Checkerboard method was used to detect the changes in MIC values of triclosan against 16 triclosan-resistant multidrug-resistant A. baumannii strains after it was used in combination with four external ointments, including gentamicin, erythromycin, chloramphenicol and kanamycin, and three common antibiotics of imipenem, meropenem and ciprofloxacin, respectively. Fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) was used to evaluate the joint bacteriostatic effects. Results: Among the 626 A. baumannii strains, 17 were resistant to triclosan with a drug resistance rate of 2.7% (17/626). These triclosan-resistant strains had high MIC values for ciprofloxacin, imipenem, ceftazidime and other commonly used clinical antibiotic and most of them were multidrug-resistant. After triclosan was used in combination with seven different antibacterial drugs, the MIC values of all drugs decreased to various degrees compared with those when they were used alone. Triclosan in combination with gentamicin, chloramphenicol and ciprofloxacin showed synergistic effects on 62.5%, 56.25% and 62.5% of the 16 strains and additive effects on 37.5%, 43.75% and 37.5%, respectively. When it was used in combination with erythromycin, kanamycin, imipenem and meropenem, synergistic effects on 37.5%, 25%, 12.5% and 12.5%, additive effects on 37.5%, 56.25%, 62.5% and 62.5%, and indifferent effects on 25%, 18.75%, 25% and 25% of the strains were detected, respectively. No antagonistic effect was found between triclosan and any of the above antibiotics. Conclusions Triclosan combined with gentamicin, chloramphenicol and ciprofloxacin had better in vitro antibacterial effects against the triclosan-resistant multidrug-resistant A. baumannii strains in this study with synergistic and additive effects. Some indifferent effects were found between triclosan and kanamycin, erythromycin, imipenem and meropenem, but no antagonistic effects were detected.

Objective: To investigate the value of amniotic fluid metabolite detection by mass spectrometry combined with gene mutation analysis in the prenatal diagnosis of glutaric acidemia type Ⅰ (GA-Ⅰ). Method: From January 2009 to December 2016, Department of Pediatric Endocrinology and Genetic, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine carried out prenatal diagnosis for 24 cases of pregnant women with GA-Ⅰproband. 24 pregnant women without organic acidemia proband for conventional prenatal diagnosis at the same period were used as the control group. The pregnant women of the two groups had the amniocentesis at 16 to 20 weeks of gestation.The levels of glutaryl carnitine (C5DC) and octanoylcarnitine (C8) in amniotic fluid were detected by tandem mass spectrometry, and the levels of glutaric acid was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. All the amniotic fluid cells underwent GCDH gene testing. Result: A total of 4 cases of fetuses were diagnosed by gene mutation analysis combined with mass spectrometry detection, the levels of C5DC (1.58(0.89-2.85) μmol/L), C5DC/C8 (19.74(12.40-25.93))and glutaric acid (129.96 (90.09-66.02) mmol/mol Cr) were significantly higher than the upper limit of the reference, of which in one case with the proband only on mutation was detected, and in the amniotic fluid cells also only one mutation was detected, the diagnosis was made according to the significantly increased levels of amniotic fluid C5DC, C5DC/C8 and glutaric acid. Twenty cases of fetuses were identified as non-GA-Ⅰchildren, of whom in 2 cases of proband only one mutation was detected, and also in amniotic fluid cells one mutation was detected, in 2 cases the diagnosis was excluded because the normal levels of C5DC, C5DC/C8 and glutaric acid. There were 2 cases whose levels of C5DC or glutaric acid were slightly higher than the upper limit of the reference, but the diagnosis was excluded according to genetic testing. Conclusion Prenatal diagnosis cannot be made by gene analysis when the proband mutation is not clear, and it cannot determine whether the fetus is patient when the mass spectrometry detection of amniotic fluid metabolite is mildly abnormal, while mass spectrometry detection of amniotic fluid C5DC, C5DC/C8 and glutaric acid levels combined with GCDH gene analysis can make up the deficiencies, and make the prenatal diagnosis of GA-Ⅰ more reliably.

Objective To study the predisposing factors of postoperative complications of esophageal cancer,and analyze the different genetic expression of mRNA,DNA methylation and mutations with different esophageal cancer staging.Methods A total of 706 patients with esophageal cancer from the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and Jiangsu People's Hospital from 2010 to 2013 and 2015 to 2016 were involved in this study.Data of genetic information from 107 patients with esophageal cancer were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database.Results The analysis showed that age was correlated with SEP (P =0.011),and pTNM staging was correlated with the occurrence of AF (P =0.010) and CL (P =0.030).The postoperative nutritional pattern was also significantly associated with the occurrence of AF (P =0.041).There was a significant difference in the expression of EPHA3 mRNA in patients with esophageal cancer in different TNM stage (P =0.006),DNA methylation level of NOTCH1 (P =0.027),and mutations genes such as ZNF750 (P =0.037) and MALAT1 (P =0.044).Conclusion Postoperative complications of esophageal cancer could be associated with patients'age,TNM staging and postoperative nutritional patterns.The expression of EPHA 3 mRNA and the DNA methylation of NOTCH 1 show significant difference in different TNM stages of esophageal cancer,and both of them have higher expression in advanced patients.Mutation of ZNF750 and MALAT1 are negatively correlated with the staging of esophageal carcinoma.

Objective To study the predisposing factors of postoperative complications of esophageal cancer,and analyze the different genetic expression of mRNA,DNA methylation and mutations with different esophageal cancer staging.Methods A total of 706 patients with esophageal cancer from the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and Jiangsu People's Hospital from 2010 to 2013 and 2015 to 2016 were involved in this study.Data of genetic information from 107 patients with esophageal cancer were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database.Results The analysis showed that age was correlated with SEP (P =0.011),and pTNM staging was correlated with the occurrence of AF (P =0.010) and CL (P =0.030).The postoperative nutritional pattern was also significantly associated with the occurrence of AF (P =0.041).There was a significant difference in the expression of EPHA3 mRNA in patients with esophageal cancer in different TNM stage (P =0.006),DNA methylation level of NOTCH1 (P =0.027),and mutations genes such as ZNF750 (P =0.037) and MALAT1 (P =0.044).Conclusion Postoperative complications of esophageal cancer could be associated with patients'age,TNM staging and postoperative nutritional patterns.The expression of EPHA 3 mRNA and the DNA methylation of NOTCH 1 show significant difference in different TNM stages of esophageal cancer,and both of them have higher expression in advanced patients.Mutation of ZNF750 and MALAT1 are negatively correlated with the staging of esophageal carcinoma.