Uncovering the risk factors of pulmonary hypertension and its mechanisms is crucial for the prevention and treatment of the disease.In the current study,we showed that experimental periodontitis,which was established by ligation of molars followed by orally smearing subgingival plaques from patients with periodontitis,exacerbated hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension in mice.Mechanistically,periodontitis dysregulated the pulmonary microbiota by promoting ectopic colonization and enrichment of oral bacteria in the lungs,contributing to pulmonary infiltration of interferon gamma positive(IFNγ+)T cells and aggravating the progression of pulmonary hypertension.In addition,we identified Prevotella zoogleoformans as the critical periodontitis-associated bacterium driving the exacerbation of pulmonary hypertension by periodontitis,and the exacerbation was potently ameliorated by both cervical lymph node excision and IFNγ neutralizing antibodies.Our study suggests a proof of concept that the combined prevention and treatment of periodontitis and pulmonary hypertension are necessary.

Objective:To establish a brain metastasis (BM) prediction model for limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) patients who achieved complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) after thoracic chemoradiotherapy, and to explore the value of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) in different risk groups.Methods:Clinical data of 274 patients with LS-SCLC who achieved CR/PR after thoracic chemoradiotherapy in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital from January 2010 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed, including 144 cases in the PCI group and 130 in the non-PCI group. The nomogram was developed based on variables determined by univariate and multivariate analyses in the non-PCI group. The bootstrap method, receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve, calibration curve and decision curve analysis (DCA) were employed to evaluate the predictive power and clinical benefits of the model. Patients were stratified into high- and low-risk groups based on risk scores. The brain metastases-free survival (BMFS), progression-free survival (PFS), extracranial progression-free survival (ePFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared between patients with and without PCI in different risk-stratified populations using the log-rank test.Results:The nomogram included five variables: systemic immune inflammation index (SII), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), pro-gastrin-releasing peptide precursor (ProGRP), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and blood calcium. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of the nomogram in predicting 1- and 2-year BMFS was 0.761 and 0.822. In the low-risk group, there was no significant difference in the BMFS ( P=0.374), PFS ( P=0.551), ePFS ( P=0.508) and OS ( P=0.767) between the PCI and non-PCI groups. In the high-risk group, PCI could significantly increase the BMFS ( P<0.001) and PFS ( P=0.022), while there was no significant difference in the ePFS ( P=0.963) and OS ( P=0.632). And propensity score-matching (PSM) analysis showed similar results. Conclusions:PCI does not improve OS in LS-SCLC patients regardless of high or low risk of BM. However, PCI significantly prolong the BMFS and PFS in patients at a high risk of BM.

Objective:To analyze the failure mode after immunotherapy and the prognostic significance of combined radiotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods:Clinical data of 220 advanced NSCLC patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) as the first-line therapy in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from January 2017 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The baseline characteristics, the first-line treatment regimen, modes and locations of failure, radiotherapy purpose, location and prescription dose of all patients were collected. The main parameter was the overall survival (OS). Survival analysis was conducted by Kaplan-Meier method. Survival comparison was performed by log-rank test.Results:A total of 220 patients were enrolled in the study in which 65 cases (29.5%) exhibited a state of oligometastasis. Among 72 patients who received radiotherapy, 29 cases (40%) received chest radiotherapy and 53 cases (74%) received metastatic radiotherapy. The median follow-up time was 25.6 months. Up to the last follow-up, disease progression had been observed in 140 patients, with 84 patients (38.2%) of them demonstrating a state of oligometastasis. Among 120 patients with disease progression and confirmed location of progression, 62 patients (51.7%) failed in first-line immunotherapy because of the primary lesion progression (mainly in the chest cavity), 34 patients (28.3%) due to the appearance of new metastases, and the remaining 24 patients(20.0%) due to primary lesion progression and new distant metastases. Among 72 patients treated with the first-line immunotherapy combined with local radiotherapy, 17 patients (24%) received planned radiotherapy, another 17 patients (24%) received salvage radiotherapy, and the remaining 38 patients (53%) received radiotherapy to relieve symptoms. The prognosis of patients significantly differed according to the purpose of radiotherapy ( P=0.030). The median OS of patients who did not receive radiotherapy was 29.1 months, those who received planned radiotherapy did not reach the median OS, and the median OS of those who received salvage radiotherapy was 28.7 months, and the median OS of those who received local radiotherapy to relieve symptoms was only 19.0 months. Conclusions:The progression of primary lesions is the main failure mode of the first-line immunotherapy. Chest cavity is the main location of tumor progression. Local radiotherapy for intrathoracic lesions may improve the survival benefit further for advanced NSCLC patients after the first-line immunotherapy.

Objective:To investigate the expression of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2B1 (HNRNPA2B1) in human esophageal cancer tissues and its clinical significance.Methods:Single-cell data for esophageal cancer were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (GSE160269 dataset, last updated on November 29, 2020) to analyze the expression of HNRNPA2B1. Transcriptional sequencing data for esophageal cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, including the fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads (FPKM) quantitative data (173 samples, consisting of 162 esophageal cancer tissues and 11 adjacent normal tissues), and survival data in the phenotype category were downloaded. Analysis of FPKM quantitative data from the TCGA database for esophageal cancer was performed. The top 250 genes most correlated with HNRNPA2B1 were selected and the R4.3.0 clusterProfiler package was used to conduct Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses on the selected gene set. FPKM quantitative data from the TCGA database for esophageal cancer were imported into the CIBERSORTx website to obtain immune cell abundance scores, and the correlation between HNRNPA2B1 and the degree of immune cell infiltration was analyzed. The clinicopathological data of patients from esophageal cancer tissue microarrays including 114 cases of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues and 66 cases of adjacent normal tissues were collected. The patients underwent surgery from January 2006 to December 2008, and the follow-up period extended until July 2015. Cytokeratin (CK) and HNRNPA2B1 expression in esophageal cancer tissue microarrays were detected by using multi-color immunohistochemical (mIHC) staining, and multispectral tissue imaging was conducted. The R4.3.0 survival package and survminer package in TCGA database were used to calculate the optimal cut-off value of HNRNPA2B1 expression and the proportion of CK + HNRNPA2B1 + cells in tissue microarrays was used to calculate the cut-off value of HNRNPA2B1 expression based on which patients were categorized into high and low expression groups. The overall survival (OS) of both groups was compared and the factors influencing OS were analyzed by using the Cox proportional hazards model. Results:In the GSE160269 dataset of single-cell data for esophageal cancer, the expression level of HNRNPA2B1 in tumor epithelial cells was higher than that in normal epithelial cells, and HNRNPA2B1 was highly expressed in various immune cell subtypes. The high expression level of HNRNPA2B1 was positively correlated with regulatory T cells, naive B cells and memory CD4 + T cells. GO enrichment analysis revealed that HNRNPA2B1 was primarily involved in the biological process of nuclear division, cellular components were mainly enriched in chromosomal regions, and molecular functions were mainly enriched in ATP hydrolysis activity. KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that HNRNPA2B1 was primarily involved in biological processes such as the cell cycle, spliceosome, and DNA replication. Results from mIHC and multispectral tissue imaging demonstrated that CK was predominantly expressed in the cell membranes of tumor cells and normal esophageal epithelial cells, while HNRNPA2B1 was primarily expressed in the nuclei of tumor cells and normal esophageal cells. The expression level of HNRNPA2B1 in esophageal cancer tissues was higher than that in the normal paracancerous tissues ( U = 2 984.00, P < 0.05). Results of tissue microarrays and the survival analysis on the data in the TCGA database indicated that esophageal cancer patients with low HNRNPA2B1 expression had a better OS compared to those with high expression (both P < 0.05). Cox multivariate regression analysis revealed that age ( HR = 1.919, 95% CI: 1.158-3.182, P = 0.011), TNM stage ( HR = 2.404, 95% CI: 1.374-4.207, P = 0.002), T stage ( HR = 2.349, 95% CI: 1.150-4.789, P = 0.019), and the expression of HNRNPA2B1 in tumor epithelial cells ( HR = 2.160, 95% CI: 1.280-3.647, P = 0.004) were independent factors influencing OS in esophageal cancer patients. Conclusions:The high expression of HNRNPA2B1 protein in esophageal cancer tissues may play a role in the developement and progression of esophageal cancer, serving as a crucial biological indicator for prognostic assessment of esophageal cancer.

In recent years, the biopharmaceutical industry has developed rapidly, creating urgent demand for high-quality, innovative, and application-oriented talents. In the context of "first-class undergraduate education", it is of great significance to reform and explore biopharmaceutics blended learning to foster professional talents who can adapt to the industrial development. The blended teaching of biopharmaceutics course in Hubei University was based on small private online course (SPOC) and ChaoXing platform, aiming to meet the first-class "AIC (advanced, innovation, challenge)". The course strengthened the three phases of teaching: before, during, and after class, and innovated teaching methods actively to achieve curriculum goals, and integrated typical cases organically. In addition, the course improved the discriminative power of assessment by strengthening the formative performance evaluation. Moreover, the course provided guidance for students to improve the learning efficiency through investigating the students' learning behavior and employing the marginal utility curve to analyze the characteristics of group activities. Furthermore, the course also offered students personalized learning guidance based on their career planning. The reform of biopharmaceutics blended teaching has achieved significant outcomes, such as improving students' satisfaction, students' innovation and entrepreneurship ability, and curriculum construction level, thus may serve as a reference for the teaching reform and research of the related courses.
Humans ; Biopharmaceutics ; Curriculum ; Learning ; Students

Objective:To explore the distribution features of resident CD8 + T cells infiltration in human esophageal cancer tissues and its clinical significance. Methods:Data from the Cancer Genome Atlas database were retrieved, the correlation between CD103 + CD8 + T cells and infiltration degree of conventional type 1 dendritic cell (cDC1), conventional type 2 dendritic cell (cDC2), type 3 dendritic cell(DC3) was investigated. From January 2006 to December 2008, 78 esophageal cancer tissues and 75 adjacent normal tissues from 78 esophageal cancer patients were collected by Shanghai Outdo Biotechnology Co., Ltd, the clinical data of patients was followed up by telephone until July 2015. The distribution of CD8 + T cells and CD103 + CD8 + T cells in cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues was detected by multi-color labeling techniques and multispectral tissue imaging. The differences of the number and the ratio of CD8 + T cells and CD103 + CD8 + T cells in cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues were compared. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves of patients with tissue infiltration of CD8 + T cells and CD103 + CD8 + T cells at different levels were drawn through the R language " survminer" package, and the best cut-off value was obtained. TNM stage, pathological stage and other clinical parameters of patients with high and low infiltration of CD8 + T cells, CD103 + CD8 + T cells were compared. Wilcoxon rank sum test, chi-square test, log-rank test and Cox proportional risk regression model statistical analysis were used to evaluate the prognostic value of the above indicators. Spearman correlation analysis was used for correlation analysis. Results:In the cancer tissues of patients with esophageal cancer, the infiltration degree of CD103 + CD8 + T cells was positively correlated with the infiltration degree of cDC1 cells, cDC2 cells and DC3 cells ( r=0.67, 0.53 and 0.47, all P<0.001). The percentage of CD8 + T cells in all cells in the whole tissue core of tumor tissues (63.09% (42.14%, 76.21%)) was higher than that of adjacent normal tissues (2.56% (1.68%, 5.38%)), and the difference was statistically significant ( U=41.00, P<0.001). The proportion of CD103 + CD8 + T cells in all cells in the whole tissue core of tumor tissues (7.92% (1.60%, 20.61%)) was higher than that of adjacent normal tissues (0.04% (0.01%, 0.10%)), and the difference was statistically significant ( U=857.50, P<0.001). The percentage of high CD8 + T cells infiltration in esophageal cancer tissues of patients with pathological stage Ⅰ+ Ⅱ was lower than that of patients with stage Ⅲ+ Ⅳ (57.9%, 33/57 vs. 85.7%, 18/21); the percentage of high CD103 + CD8 + T cells in CD8 + T cells in esophageal cancer tissues of patients with TNM stage Ⅰ+ Ⅱ was lower than that of patients with stage Ⅲ+ Ⅳ (21.6%, 8/37 vs. 48.8%, 20/41), and the differences were both statistically significant ( χ2=5.25 and 6.23, P=0.022 and 0.013). The results of Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and univariate Cox proportional risk regression model showed that the overall survival (OS) of patients with high CD8 + T cell infiltration was longer than that of patients with low CD8 + T cell infiltration ( HR=0.57, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.34 to 0.96, P=0.034). There was no significant difference in OS between patients with high CD103 + CD8 + T cell infiltration and patients with low CD103 + CD8 + T cell infiltration ( HR=0.66, 95% CI 0.40 to 1.08, P>0.05). Conclusion:The high infiltration of CD103 + CD8 + T cells in esophageal cancer tissues are expected to be used as a prognostic predictor for patients with esophageal cancer, which is an important component of anti-tumor immune response in tumor microenvironment of esophageal cancer.

Objective:To investigate the radiation dose and fractionation regimens for limited stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) in Chinese radiation oncologists.Methods:Over 500 radiation oncologists were surveyed through questionnaire for radiation dose and fractionation regimens for LS-SCLC and 216 valid samples were collected for further analysis. All data were collected by online questionnaire designed by WJX software. Data collection and statistical analysis were performed by SPSS 25.0 statistical software. The differences in categorical variables among different groups were analyzed by Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. Results:Among 216 participants, 94.9% preferred early concurrent chemoradiotherapy, 69.4% recommended conventional fractionation, 70.8% preferred a total dose of 60 Gy when delivering conventional radiotherapy and 78.7% recommended 45 Gy when administering hyperfractionated radiotherapy.Conclusions:Despite differences in LS-SCLC treatment plans, most of Chinese radiation oncologists prefer to choose 60 Gy conventional fractionated radiotherapy as the main treatment strategy for LS-SCLC patients. Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO), National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and Chinese Medical Association guidelines or expert consensus play a critical role in guiding treatment decision-making.

Objective:To understand the level of iodine nutrition in the areas with iodine deficiency and high iodine in Anyang City of Henan Province, and to provide a basis for taking targeted prevention and treatment measures and scientific adjustment of intervention strategies.Methods:In 2019, three areas with iodine deficiency (median iodine in water < 10 μg/L) and three areas with high water iodine (median iodine in water > 100 μg/L) were selected from counties (cities and districts) in Anyang City by stratified random sampling. Children aged 8-10 and pregnant women were selected in areas with high iodine and areas with iodine deficiency, respectively. Urine samples and salt samples were collected and tested, and children's thyroids were examined by B-mode ultrasound.Results:A total of 654 salt samples were collected in iodine deficiency areas, among which non-iodized salt accounted for 1.83% (12/654). A total of 628 salt samples were collected from areas with high iodine, among which non-iodized salt accounted for 6.05% (38/628). The difference in non-iodized salt rate between the two areas was statistically significant (χ 2=15.19, P < 0.05). A total of 654 urine samples were collected from children in iodine deficiency areas, with a median of 211.15 μg/L of urinary iodine, and 628 urine samples were collected from high iodine areas, with a median of 390.50 μg/L of urinary iodine. The difference was statistically significant ( U=- 18.34, P < 0.05). A total of 300 urine samples were collected from pregnant women in iodine deficiency areas, with a median of 223.95 μg/L, and 127 urine samples were collected from pregnant women in high iodine areas, with a median of 258.00 μg/L. The difference was statistically significant ( U=- 4.07, P < 0.05). The thyroid volume of 560 children in the iodine deficient areas was detected, and the swelling rate was 1.43% (8/560). The thyroid volume of 628 children in high iodine areas was detected, and the swelling rate was 2.07% (13/628). Conclusion:The iodine nutrition level of the population in the iodine deficiency areas of Anyang City is appropriate, while the iodine nutrition level of the population in the water source high iodine areas is excessive.

Objective:To evaluate the 5-year survival outcome of patients with unresectable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with Endostar in combination with platinum-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy.Methods:From March 2009 to June 2015, 115 patients with the unresectable locally advanced NSCLC from two prospective studies[Clinical trials 2009-2012(ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01894) and 2012-2015(ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01733589)] were treated with Endostar in combination with platinum-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy. A total dose of 60-66 Gy was delivered in 30-33 fractions. Endostar was given 1 week prior to the beginning of radiotherapy, and repeated fortnightly during the concurrent chemoradiotherapy. After long-term follow up, survival outcome was evaluated in 104 patients treated with radiation dose of ≥60 Gy. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis. Univariate survival analysis was performed using the log-rank test.Results:Of 104 eligible patients, 60.6% of them had squamous carcinoma and 65.4% were classified in stage Ⅲ B. All the patients received ≥2 cycles of Endostar and 93.3% of them received 4 cycles of Endostar. The median follow-up time was 68.3 months. The median overall survival (OS) and median progression-free survival (PFS) were 31.3 and 13.9 months, respectively. The 3-year and 5-year OS were 45.6% and 35.7%, respectively. The 3-year and 5-year PFS were 27.1% and 24.9%, respectively. Univariate analysis indicated that sex, ECOG, pathological type, clinical stage, radiotherapy technique, chemotherapy regimen, chemotherapy cycle and cycle of Endostar use were not associated with OS. Late radiation injury occurred in 14.4% of patients, and no grade 4-5 late injury was observed. Conclusion:Patients with unresectable locally advanced NSCLC treated with Endostar fortnightly in combination with platinum-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy achieve better OS than historical data with tolerable toxicities.

Objective:To analyze and explore the common radiomics features of radiation pneumonitis (RP) in patients with lung cancer and esophageal cancer, and then establish a prediction model that can predict the occurrence of RP in two types of cancer after radiotherapy.Methods:Clinical data of 100 patients with stage Ⅲ lung cancer and 100 patients with stage Ⅲ esophageal cancer who received radical radiotherapy were retrospectively analyzed. The RP was graded by imaging data and clinical information during follow-up, and the planning CT images were collected. The whole lung was used as the volume of interest to extract radiomics features. The radiomics features, clinical and dosimetric parameters related to RP were analyzed, and the model was constructed by machine learning.Results:A total of 1691 radiomics features were extracted from CT images. After ANOVA and LASSO dimensionality reduction in lung cancer and esophageal cancer patients, 8 and 6 radiomics features associated with RP were identified, and 5 of them were the same. Using the random forest to construct the prediction model, lung cancer and esophageal cancer were alternately used as the training and validation sets. The AUC values of esophageal cancer and lung cancer as the independent validation set were 0.662 and 0.645.Conclusions:It is feasible to construct a common prediction model of RP in patients with lung cancer and esophageal cancer. Nevertheless, it is necessary to further expand the sample size and include clinical and dosimetric parameters to increase its accuracy, stability and generalization ability.