Objective To investigate the expression of long non-coding RNA(lncRNA)LINC02695 in human retinal microvascular endothelial cells(HRMECs)in high glucose(HG)environment and its effect on the proliferation,migration and neovascularization of HRMECs.Methods HRMECs was divided into four groups:the normal glucose(NG)group(5.5 mmol/L),the HG group(30.0 mmol/L),the HG+LINC02695 silenced group(HG+si-LINC02695),and the HG+silenced control group(HG+si-NC).Real-time quantita-tive fluorescent PCR(qPCR)was used to detect the expression of LINC02695 and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)mRNA in HRMECs of each group.The cell proliferation of each group was measured by Cell Counting Kit-8(CCK-8)method.The migration ability of cells in each group was detected by Transwell as-say.The tube forming ability of cells in each group was detected by tube forming experiment.Results The qPCR results showed that compared with the NG group,LINC02695 and VEGF were highly expressed in the HG group(P＜0.05).Compared with the HG group,VEGF mRNA expression level in the HG+si-LINC02695 group was significantly decreased(P＜0.05).The results of CCK-8 experiment showed that the proliferation ability of the HG group was significantly enhanced compared with the NG group(P＜0.05).Compared with the HG group,the cell proliferation ability of the HG+si-LINC02695 group was significantly decreased(P＜0.05).The results of Transwell experiment showed that the cell migration ability of the HG group was significantly increased compared with the NG group(P＜0.05).Compared with the HG group,the cell migration ability of the HG+si-LINC02695 group was significantly decreased(P＜0.05).The results of tube formation experiment showed that compared with the NG group,the tube formation ability of the HG group was significantly increased(P＜0.05).Compared with the HG group,canalization ability of cells in the HG+si-LINC02695 group was significantly decreased(P＜0.05).Conclusion LINC02695 may be involved in promoting the proliferation,migration and angiogenesis of HRMECs induced by HG.

Objective To observe the drainage pathways of interstitial fluid(ISF)and substance clearance pattern in rat brain with fluorescence tracing imaging and treacer-based MRI.Methods Thirty-three male SD rats were randomly divided into fluorescence tracing group(F group,n=18)and treacer-based MRI group(MRI group,n=15),then further divided into thalamic,hippocampal and caudate nucleus subgroups,respectively.Evans blue was injected to rats in F group,and cardiac perfusion was performed after injection,then brain tissue was harvested,and frozen sections were made to observe the drainage pathways of IFS in different subgroups.MRI was performed on rats in MRI group before and after injection of gadolinium-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid(Gd-DTPA)to observe signal intensity in ROI of brain regions in different subgroups,the signal unit ratio was calculated,and the changing trend was explored.Results ISF in thalamus,hippocampus and caudate nucleus had different dominant drainage pathways,and the time of tracer reached to adjacent brain regions and whole brain in F group were different.In MRI group,within 4 h after injection of Gd-DTPA,there were differences in direction and clearance rate among tracer in thalamus,hippocampus and caudate nucleus,mainly manifesting as the tracer in thalamus and hippocampus drained to the ipsilateral cortex and lateral ventricle,while the tracer in the caudate nucleus diffused to the cortex and midbrain,and there were differences of the peak time of tracer signal among adjacent drainage brain regions.Conclusion Fluorescence and MR dual-mode imaging showed that there were differences in the dominant drainage pathways of IFS and clearance rates of small molecule substances among hypothalamus,hippocampus and caudate nucleus of rats.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors(TKIs)have emerged as the first-line small molecule drugs in many cancer therapies,exerting their effects by impeding aberrant cell growth and proliferation through the mod-ulation of tyrosine kinase-mediated signaling pathways.However,there exists a substantial inter-individual variability in the concentrations of certain TKIs and their metabolites,which may render patients with compromised immune function susceptible to diverse infections despite receiving theo-retically efficacious anticancer treatments,alongside other potential side effects or adverse reactions.Therefore,an urgent need exists for an up-to-date review concerning the biological matrices relevant to bioanalysis and the sampling methods,clinical pharmacokinetics,and therapeutic drug monitoring of different TKIs.This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the advancements in pretreatment methods,such as protein precipitation(PPT),liquid-liquid extraction(LLE),solid-phase extraction(SPE),micro-SPE(p-SPE),magnetic SPE(MSPE),and vortex-assisted dispersive SPE(VA-DSPE)achieved since 2017.It also highlights the latest analysis techniques such as newly developed high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC)and high-resolution mass spectrometry(HRMS)methods,capillary electro-phoresis(CE),gas chromatography(GC),supercritical fluid chromatography(SFC)procedures,surface plasmon resonance(SPR)assays as well as novel nanoprobes-based biosensing techniques.In addition,a comparison is made between the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches while pre-senting critical challenges and prospects in pharmacokinetic studies and therapeutic drug monitoring.

177Lu-prostate specific membrane antigen(PSMA)radio-ligand therapy has been approved abroad for advanced prostate cancer and has been in several clinical trials in China.Based on domestic clinical practice and experimental data and referred to international experience and viewpoints,the expert group forms a consensus on the clinical application of 177Lu-PSMA radio-ligand therapy in prostate cancer to guide clinical practice.

Objective To develop a CT-based weighted radiomic model that predicts tumor response to programmed death-1(PD-1)/PD-ligand 1(PD-L1)immunotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.Methods The patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated by PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors in the Peking Union Medical College Hospital from June 2015 to February 2022 were retrospectively studied and classified as responders(partial or complete response)and non-responders(stable or progressive disease).Original radiomic features were extracted from multiple intrapulmonary lesions in the contrast-enhanced CT scans of the arterial phase,and then weighted and summed by an attention-based multiple instances learning algorithm.Logistic regression was employed to build a weighted radiomic scoring model and the radiomic score was then calculated.The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve(AUC)was used to compare the weighted radiomic scoring model,PD-L1 model,clinical model,weighted radiomic scoring + PD-L1 model,and comprehensive prediction model.Results A total of 237 patients were included in the study and randomized into a training set(n=165)and a test set(n=72),with the mean ages of(64±9)and(62±8)years,respectively.The AUC of the weighted radiomic scoring model reached 0.85 and 0.80 in the training set and test set,respectively,which was higher than that of the PD-L1-1 model(Z=37.30,P<0.001 and Z=5.69,P=0.017),PD-L1-50 model(Z=38.36,P<0.001 and Z=17.99,P<0.001),and clinical model(Z=11.40,P<0.001 and Z=5.76,P=0.016).The AUC of the weighted scoring model was not different from that of the weighted radiomic scoring + PD-L1 model and the comprehensive prediction model(both P>0.05).Conclusion The weighted radiomic scores based on pre-treatment enhanced CT images can predict tumor responses to immunotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
Humans ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/drug therapy* ; Lung Neoplasms/drug therapy* ; B7-H1 Antigen/therapeutic use* ; Retrospective Studies ; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Immunotherapy

Anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) is one of the key enzyme in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway, and its catalytic activity is important for the synthesis of plant anthocyanin. In this study, specific primers were designed according to the transcriptome data of Lonicera japonica Thunb., and the CDS, gDNA and promoter sequences of ANR genes from Lonicera japonica Thunb. and Lonicera japonica Thunb. var. chinensis (Wats.) Bak. were cloned. The results showed that the CDS sequences of LjANR and rLjANR were 1 002 bp, the gDNA sequences were 2 017 and 2 026 bp respectively, and the promoter sequences were 1 170 and 1 164 bp respectively. LjANR and rLjANR both contain 6 exons and 5 introns, which have the same length of exons and large differences in introns. The promoter sequences both contain a large number of light response, hormone response and abiotic stress response elements. Bioinformatics analysis showed that both LjANR and rLjANR encoded 333 amino acids and were predicted to be stable hydrophobic proteins without transmembrane segments and signal peptides. The secondary structures of LjANR and rLjANR were predicted to be mainly consisted of α-helix and random coil. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis showed that LjANR and rLjANR had high homology with Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis, Camellia sinensis and Camellia oleifera, and were closely related to them. The expression levels of LjANR and rLjANR were the highest in flower buds and the lowest in roots. The expression patterns at different flowering stages were similar, with higher expression levels in S1 and S2 stages and then gradually decreased until reaching the lowest level in S4 stage, after a slow increase in S5 stage, the expression levels decreased again. The expression levels of ANR genes in the two varieties showed significant differences in roots, S2 and S5 stages, while the differences in stems, flower buds, S1, S3 and S6 stages were extremely significant. The prokaryotic expression vector pET-32a-LjANR was constructed for protein expression. The target protein was successfully expressed of about 59 kD. This study lays a foundation for further study on the function of ANR gene and provides theoretical guidance for breeding new varieties of Lonicera japonica Thunb.

Aging ; Cardiovascular Diseases/genetics* ; Clonal Hematopoiesis ; Humans ; Mutation

Objective: To analyze the course of disease and epidemiological parameters of COVID-19 and provide evidence for making prevention and control strategies. Methods: To display the distribution of course of disease of the infectors who had close contacts with COVID-19 cases from January 1 to March 15, 2020 in Guangdong Provincial, the models of Lognormal, Weibull and gamma distribution were applied. A descriptive analysis was conducted on the basic characteristics and epidemiological parameters of course of disease. Results: In total, 515 of 11 580 close contacts were infected, with an attack rate about 4.4%, including 449 confirmed cases and 66 asymptomatic cases. Lognormal distribution was fitting best for latent period, incubation period, pre-symptomatic infection period of confirmed cases and infection period of asymptomatic cases; Gamma distribution was fitting best for infectious period and clinical symptom period of confirmed cases; Weibull distribution was fitting best for latent period of asymptomatic cases. The latent period, incubation period, pre-symptomatic infection period, infectious period and clinical symptoms period of confirmed cases were 4.50 (95%CI:3.86-5.13) days, 5.12 (95%CI:4.63-5.62) days, 0.87 (95%CI:0.67-1.07) days, 11.89 (95%CI:9.81-13.98) days and 22.00 (95%CI:21.24-22.77) days, respectively. The latent period and infectious period of asymptomatic cases were 8.88 (95%CI:6.89-10.86) days and 6.18 (95%CI:1.89-10.47) days, respectively. Conclusion: The estimated course of COVID-19 and related epidemiological parameters are similar to the existing data.
COVID-19 ; Cohort Studies ; Contact Tracing ; Humans ; Incidence ; Prospective Studies

UDP-glucose: flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase (UF3GT) uses flavones, dihydroflavonol or anthocyanin as the acceptor and uridine 5′-diphosphate-sugar as the donor to catalyze the production of flavonoid 3-O-glycoside compounds. Based on sequence homology and transcriptome data, we screened and cloned a UF3GT gene named CtUF3GT (GenBank No. OM948976) from safflower. Biological information analysis demonstrate that CtUF3GT has highly conserved PSPG motif. The open reading frame of CtUF3GT is 1 446 bp, encoding 481 amino acids, with a presumed molecular weight of 52.36 kD and a theoretical isoelectric point of 5.33. Multiple sequence alignment indicate that CtUF3GT has a high homology with UF3GT from Asteraceae, and phylogenetic analysis showed that CtUF3GT clusters with functional identified UF3GTs from other species. The purified recombinant protein glucosylated kaempferol and quercetin to biosynthesis of kaempferol 3-O-glucoside and quercetin 3-O-glucoside, respectively. And CtUF3GT prefered to use kaempferol as substrate. qRT-PCR analysis showed that the UF3GT gene was most highly expressed in flowers, followed by leaves, with very low expression in bracts and stems, and no expression in roots. The expression of UF3GT gene showed a trend of increasing and then decreasing at different stages of flower development. The expression of CtUF3GT gene in safflower with different flower color was highly significant (P < 0.01) at S1, S2, S5, S6 and S7 stages of flower development, in which the expression of CtUF3GT in white safflower was 5.3 and 3.1 times higher than that in red safflower at S6 and S7 stages. This study lays the foundation for further exploring the role of CtUF3GT in the mechanism of safflower flavonoid secondary metabolite biosynthesis and accumulation.

Background: and Purpose To explore the causal relationships of elements of the exposome with ischemic stroke and its subtypes at the omics level and to provide evidence for stroke prevention. Methods We conducted a Mendelian randomization study between exposure and any ischemic stroke (AIS) and its subtypes (large-artery atherosclerotic disease [LAD], cardioembolic stroke [CE], and small vessel disease [SVD]). The exposure dataset was the UK Biobank involving 361,194 subjects, and the outcome dataset was the MEGASTROKE consortium including 52,000 participants. Results: We found that higher blood pressure (BP) (systolic BP: odds ratio [OR], 1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01 to 1.04; diastolic BP: OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.05; pulse pressure: OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.06), atrial fibrillation (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.25), and diabetes (OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.18) were significantly associated with ischemic stroke. Importantly, higher education (OR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.60 to 0.79) decreased the risk of ischemic stroke. Higher systolic BP (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.10), pulse pressure (OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.14), diabetes (OR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.45), and coronary artery disease (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.25 to 2.00) could cause LAD. Atrial fibrillation could cause CE (OR, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.71 to 2.11). For SVD, higher systolic BP (OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.07), diastolic BP (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.12), and diabetes (OR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.10 to 1.36) were causal factors. Conclusions The study revealed elements of the exposome causally linked to ischemic stroke and its subtypes, including conventional causal risk factors and novel protective factors such as higher education.