Objective:To study the effects of the combined application of NaF and Nisin on Streptococcus mutans(S.mutans).Meth-ods:The minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC)of Nisin and NaF against S.mutans was determined by microdilution method respec-tively.The fractional inhibitory concentration(FIC)was calculated by checkerboard method.The inhibition effect of the combination of NaF and Nisin at(NF)the same MIC concentration on acid production and acid resistance of S.mutans was detected.Crystal violet staining was used to detect the effects of NF in the inhibition of the biofilm formation,and the damage and dispersion of the established biofilms.The changes of the biofilms were observed by CLSM.Results:The MIC of NaF and Nisin was 0.6 mg/mL and 20 mg/mL re-spectively.The FIC was 0.75.The 1/8×MIC NF showed significantly higher inhibition on acid production and biofilm formation than 1/4×MIC NaF or Nisin(P＜0.05),but it has no obvious dispersion effect on established biofilms.The 1/2×MIC NF showed stronger in-hibition effect on the acid resistance of S.mutans in the membrane than 1×MIC NaF or Nisin(P＜0.05).At the concentration of 2x MIC,any component didn't cause obvious damage on the established biofilm structure.Conclusion:Nisin and NaF have synergistic in-hibitory effects on the proliferation,acid production,acid resistance and biofilm formation of S.mutans.

Background:Duodenal neuroendocrine tumors(DNETs)are rare tumors,their disease characteristics are currently not well understood.At present,there are no research data on non-ampullary region DNETs in China.Aims:To analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with non-ampullary region DNETs in order to guide clinical practice.Methods:The clinical data ofnon-ampullary region DNETs diagnosed in the First Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Military Medical University from June 2011 to July 2022 were collected.Using the method of retrospective study,analyze the clinical characteristics of patients.Results:Twenty-two non-ampullary region DNETs patients were screened.Among them,8(36.4%)patients'tumor diameter<2 cm,14(63.6%)patients'tumor diameter≥2 cm.When non-ampullary region DNETs were diagnosed,the main clinical symptoms were abdominal distension(59.1%),followed by abdominal pain(41.0%).When diagnosed,half(50%)of patients with non-ampullary DNETs with tumor diameter<2 cm have no clinical symptoms.The clinical symptoms of non-ampullary DNETs patients with tumor diameter≥2 cm were mainly abdominal distension(85.7%),followed by abdominal pain(57.1%),and a few(14.3%)patients had no clinical symptoms.After diagnosed,the survival time of patients with tumor diameter<2 cm was longer than that of patients with tumor diameter≥2 cm(P=0.048).By the end of follow-up,the median survival time of patients with non-ampullary region DNETs was 451.0 months.Six patients had died,all of their tumor diameter were≥2 cm at diagnosis.Three of patients who died had stage Ⅳ at diagnosis,and all had liver metastases.Patients with tumor diameter<2 cm underwent surgical treatment and all survived after surgery.Conclusions:Abdominal distension is the main clinical manifestation of non-ampullary region DNETs patients,and the organ that is more likely to metastasize is the liver.The survival time of patients with non-ampullary region DNETs with tumor diameter<2 cm was longer than that of patients with tumor diameter≥2 cm.

BACKGROUND: The presence of fibrosis is a criterion for subtype classification in the newly updated hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) guidelines. The present study aimed to summarize differences in clinical characteristics and prognosis of non-fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (NFHP) and fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (FHP) and explore factors associated with the presence of fibrosis. METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, patients diagnosed with HP through a multidisciplinary discussion were enrolled. Collected data included demographic and clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, and radiologic and histopathological features. Logistic regression analyses were performed to explore factors related to the presence of fibrosis. RESULTS: A total of 202 patients with HP were enrolled, including 87 (43.1%) NFHP patients and 115 (56.9%) FHP patients. Patients with FHP were older and more frequently presented with dyspnea, crackles, and digital clubbing than patients with NFHP. Serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen, carbohydrate antigen 125, carbohydrate antigen 153, gastrin-releasing peptide precursor, squamous cell carcinoma antigen, and antigen cytokeratin 21-1, and count of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) eosinophils were higher in the FHP group than in the NFHP group. BAL lymphocytosis was present in both groups, but less pronounced in the FHP group. Multivariable regression analyses revealed that older age, <20% of lymphocyte in BAL, and ≥1.75% of eosinophil in BAL were risk factors for the development of FHP. Twelve patients developed adverse outcomes, with a median survival time of 12.5 months, all of whom had FHP. CONCLUSIONS Older age, <20% of lymphocyte in BAL, and ≥1.75% of eosinophil in BAL were risk factors associated with the development of FHP. Prognosis of patients with NFHP was better than that of patients with FHP. These results may provide insights into the mechanisms of fibrosis in HP.
Humans ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; Prospective Studies ; Alveolitis, Extrinsic Allergic/diagnosis* ; Fibrosis ; Carbohydrates

Four new triterpenoids, together with six known analogues, were isolated from an aqueous extract of the Ziziphus jujuba var. spinosa seeds, by multiple column chromatographic separation methods using stationary phases of macroporous adsorption resin, MCI resin, normal phase silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, and Toyopearl HW-40C as well as preparative thin-layer chromatography and reversed-phase HPLC. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic data analysis, the new structures were trivially named jujubaceanothoside A (1), 23-epijujuboside A (2), and jujubosides J and K (3 and 4), while the known analogues were identified as jujubosides A-C (5-7) and II (8), alphitolic acid (9), and betulinic acid (10). The structure of 1 was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction.

Objective: This retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study assessed the duration of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms during the second wave in Brunei Darussalam. Methods: Data from COVID-19 cases admitted to the National Isolation Centre during 7–30 August 2021 were included in the study. Symptom onset and daily symptom assessments were entered into a database during hospitalization and disease was categorized by severity. The time between symptom onset and hospital admission, the duration of symptoms and length of hospitalization were assessed separately by age group, disease severity and vaccination status using one-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni post hoc corrections. Results: Data from 548 cases were included in the study: 55.7% (305) of cases were male, and cases had a mean age of 33.7 years. Overall, 81.3% (446) reported symptoms at admission (mean number of symptoms and standard deviation: 2.8 ± 1.6), with cough (59.1%; 324), fever (38.9%; 213) and sore throat (18.4%; 101) being the most common. Being older, having more severe disease and being unvaccinated were significantly associated with the time between symptom onset and hospital admission, symptom duration and length of hospitalization. Discussion: Knowing which factors predict the duration of COVID-19 symptoms can help in planning management strategies, such as the duration of isolation, predict the length of hospitalization and treatment, and provide more accurate counselling to patients regarding their illness.

Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) complicated with intra- and extra-intestinal tumors, and so as to provide reference for clinical practice.Methods:From October 2008 to March 2022, the clinical data of 2 360 IBD patients diagnosed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Military Medical University were collected, and the IBD patients complicated with intra- and extra-intestinal tumors were screened out. IBD with colorectal cancer, small intestine cancer and intestinal lymphoma were enrolled into intra-intestinal tumor group, IBD complicated with other tumors except intra-intestinal tumors were enrolled into extra-intestinal tumor group. The clinical characteristics of the 2 groups were retrospectively compared, and the risk factors affecting survival of IBD complicated intra- and extra-intestinal tumor were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier method was used to draw the survival curve, Cox regression model was performed to analyze the prognostic risk factors, and independent sample t test, Fisher′s exact test and log-rank test were used for statistical analysis. Results:A total of 43 IBD patients with intra- and extra-intestinal tumor were screened out, and the overall tumor incidence rate was 1.82% (43/2 360). The rate of IBD complicated with intra-intestinal tumor accounted for 1.27% (30/2 360). Among them, the rate of ulcerative colitis (UC) complicated with intra-intestinal tumor was 1.48% (25/1 685), and the rate of Crohn′s disease (CD) complicated with intra-intestinal tumor was 0.74% (5/675). The rate of IBD with extra-intestinal tumor accounted for 0.55% (13/2 360). Among them, the rate of UC complicated with extra-intestinal tumor was 0.71% (12/1 685), and the rate of CD complicated with extra-intestinal tumor was 0.15% (1/675). There were no significant differences in the rate of intra- and extra-intestinal tumors between UC and CD patients (both P>0.05). In the intra-intestinal tumor group, the age when diagnosed with IBD and the age when tumor diagnosed were (37.0±13.8) years old and (47.7±13.5) years old, which were both lower than those of the extra-intestinal tumor group ((51.8±6.2) years old and (60.7±7.8) years old), and the differences were statistically significant ( t=-3.69 and -3.24, P=0.001 and 0.002). The lesion location when tumor diagnosed of UC patients with intra-intestinal tumor mainly was extensive colonic type(64.0%, 16/25), followed by left part colonic type and rectal type in turn (28.0%, 7/25 and 8.0%, 2/25). In UC patients with extra-intestinal tumor, mainly was rectal type (8/12), followed by left part colonic type (3/12) and extensive colonic type (1/12) in turn. There was statistically significant difference bwtween the UC patients with intra- and extra-intestinal tumor in the extent of lesions when tumor diaghosed (Fisher′s exact test, P<0.001). The activity of IBD of intra-intestinal tumor group when tumor diagnosed mainly was severe activity phase (46.7%, 14/30), followed by moderate activity phase, mild activity phase and remission phase in turn (33.3%, 10/30; 20.0%, 6/30 and 0). The activity of IBD of extra-intestinal tumor group when tumor diagnosed mainly was remission phase (7/13), followed by moderate activity phase, mild activity phase and severe activity phase in turn (3/13, 2/13 and 1/13). There were statistically significant differences between the 2 groups in the composition of IBD activity when tumor diagnosed (Fisher′s exact test, P<0.001). The survival analysis indicated the median survival time of IBD complicated with intra-intestinal tumor group was 145.9 months, and that of the extra-intestinal tumor group was 29.9 months. The results of multivariate Cox analysis showed that the occurrence of extra-intestinal tumor was an independent risk factor of patient survival rate( HR=5.119, 95% confidence interval 1.485 to 17.643, P=0.010). Conclusions:IBD patients had a high risk of developing intra- and extra-intestinal tumors. The intra-intestinal tumor group mainly is extensive colonic type and severe active period, while the extra-intestinal tumor group mainly is rectal type and remission period. Compared with that of the extra-intestinal tumor group, the age at time of IBD onset and tumor diagnosed of intestinal tumor are younger, and the survival time is longer.

Background: The efficacy of ustekinumab (UST) in the treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been affirmed abroad, but its efficacy and safety have not been reported in China due to its short term of use. Aims: To analyze the clinical efficacy and safety of UST in the treatment of IBD. Methods: The clinical data of IBD patients treated with UST from November 2020 to June 2022 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Medical University were analyzed retrospectively. Results: A total of 46 patients with IBD treated with UST were enrolled, including 41 patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and 5 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). At the 8

Objective:To summarize the clinical outcomes of en-bloc kidney transplantation from small infant donors to adult recipients at a single center.Methods:A total of 22 en-bloc transplantations from pediatric donors to adult recipients were performed from July 2013 to October 2017 in Institute of Organ Transplantation Affiliated Tongji Hospital Tongji Medical College Huazhong University of Science. Clinical data were retrospectively analyzed. The average age of 22 donors was (2.9±1.7) months with an average weight of (4.9±1.4) kg and 15 of them were aged under 3 months. The average weight of 22 adult recipients was (46.3±5.6) kg and most recipients were female. The causes of early graft failure and recipient death were examined during follow-ups. The recipients with functioning grafts post-transplantation were divided into single kidney survival group and en-bloc kidney survival group based upon the occurrence of unilateral vascular thrombosis. Medium/long-term renal graft function was compared between two groups.Results:Early graft failure occurred in 4 recipients. The causes were bilateral renal vascular thrombosis ( n=2), renal rupture ( n=1) and multiple organ failure followed by death ( n=1). Eighteen recipients were discharged after a recovery of renal graft function. One case had a removal of bilateral renal grafts due to new-onset graft tumor and another two died from interstitial pneumonia and complicate systematic disorder respectively during follow-ups. Among the remaining 15 recipients, 10 achieved bilateral renal survival (median follow-up: 59 months) and 5 unilateral renal survival (median follow-up: 48 months). The average eGFR of bilateral renal survival group was significantly higher than that of unilateral renal survival group at Year 1 post-transplantation (95±27 vs 61±24 ml/min/1.73 m 2, P<0.05) while the gap narrowed at Year 3 and there was no statistical significance (95±21 vs 69±31 ml/min/1.73 m 2, P=0.12). Conclusions:Although en-bloc kidney transplantation from infant donors can expand organ donor pool, there is a higher risk of early graft failure and unilateral renal vascular thrombosis. Nevertheless, satisfactory renal transplant outcomes may be achieved in patients with unilateral renal graft survival.

Objective:To examine 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) RNA in clinical specimens of COVID-19 patients in Anhui province, and provide evidence for laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19 and risk assessment of clinical specimens.Methods:ORF1ab gene and N gene of 2019-nCoV were detected by real-time fluorescence RT-PCR in 466 clinical specimens of 197 COVID-19 cases. Chi-square test was used to analyze the differences in positive rates of specimens with clinical classification and time of onset.Results:The positive rates of 2019-nCoV in throat swab, sputum, serum, blood sample were 88.83%, 94.67%, 6.78% and 5.08%. The positive rate for 2019-nCoV RNA in throat swabs and sputum differed significantly ( χ2=8.994, P=0.003) in common cases during 7 days after illness onset. Conclusions:The positive rate of RNA in sputum was higher than throat swabs. 2019-nCoV RNA was detected in serum and blood specimens of COVID-19 cases. There was a risk of serum and blood specimens for transmission of COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to construct a network of programmed celldeath ligand 1 (PD-L1) co-expression genes and screen potential biomarkers for PD-L1 expression in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) by bioinformatics analysis. Moreover, the genes and pathways participating in PD-L1 and regulating the tumor immune status were determined. METHODS: The HNSCC transcriptomic dataset in TCGA was selected to retrieve gene sets on the cBioPortal platform, where PD-L1 co-expressional genes were acquired. With these genes, GO-BP, KEGG, and string analyses were performed in R clusterProfiler. Cytoscape was used for network analysis and hub gene screening. RESULTS: A total of 117 co-expression genes were obtained, most of which were enriched in immune regulation and response to viral processes. Node degree analysis indicated that STAT1, IFNG, CXCL10, CCR5, FCGR3A, CXCL9, GBP5, CD86, GZMB, IRF1 were the highest connected genes and functioned as hub genes. Survival analysis of these hub genes resulted in CCR5, CXCL9, and GZMB as the prognostic biomarkers for patients with HNSCC, all of which were involved in immune regulation and their expression levels were related to PD-L1 (Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.30, 0.35, 0.39; P<0.01). High expression levels of these three hub genes were protective factors in patients with HNSCC. CONCLUSIONS PD-L1 co-expression hub genes are related to immunity, among which CCR5, CXCL9, and GZMB are prognostic markers with the possibility to be involved in programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/PD-L1-induced tumor immune escape. These genes provide new clues to study the mechanism and precision target medicine of PD-1/PD-L1 in HNSCC.
B7-H1 Antigen ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Computational Biology ; Head and Neck Neoplasms ; Humans ; Receptors, IgG ; Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck