Platinum-based chemotherapy resistance is a key factor of poor prognosis and recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Herein, RNAseq analysis revealed that elevated tubulin folding cofactor E (TBCE) expression is associated with platinum-based chemotherapy resistance. High expression of TBCE contributes to worse prognoses and earlier recurrence among liver cancer patients. Mechanistically, TBCE silencing significantly affects cytoskeleton rearrangement, which in turn increases cisplatin-induced cycle arrest and apoptosis. To develop these findings into potential therapeutic drugs, endosomal pH-responsive nanoparticles (NPs) were developed to simultaneously encapsulate TBCE siRNA and cisplatin (DDP) to reverse this phenomena. NPs (siTBCE + DDP) concurrently silenced TBCE expression, increased cell sensitivity to platinum treatment, and subsequently resulted in superior anti-tumor effects both in vitro and in vivo in orthotopic and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. Taken together, NP-mediated delivery and the co-treatment of siTBCE + DDP proved to be effective in reversing chemotherapy resistance of DDP in multiple tumor models.

Objective:To observe and analyze the atypical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings and misdiagnosis reasons of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), and to explore the value of conventional MRI signs combined with minimum apparent diffusion coefficient value (ADCmin) and imaging features of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the diagnosis and differentiation of atypical PCNSL.Methods:The clinical and imaging data of 15 patients with atypical PCNSL confirmed by clinical and pathological findings from Lianyungang Second People′s Hospital and the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from January 2015 to December 2020 was collected. All cases were examined by plain MRI, enhanced and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), and 3 cases were examined by MRS. The conventional MRI features, DWI signal features and MRS imaging features of 15 cases of atypical PCNSL were observed and analyzed, and the MRI findings of atypical PCNSL and the causes of misdiagnosis were summarized and analyzed. The ADCmin of tumor parenchyma, the mean ADC values of proximal peritumor, distal peritumor and contralateral white matter were detected and compared to explore the variation rules of ADC values in different regions.Results:Of the 15 cases of PCNSL, 14 cases were single and 1 case was multiple, with a total of 21 lesions. (1) Single lesions in rare sites: 4 cases in the superficial part of the brain, 1 case in the bridge arm, 1 case in the cerebellar hemisphere, 1 case in the suprasellar saddle, and 1 case in the third ventricle. (2) Atypical MRI findings: cystic degeneration or necrosis in 5 lesions (5/21), accompanied by hemorrhage in 1 lesion (1/21); There were 3 isosensitive lesions on DWI, and isosensitive lesions on ADC false color images. There were 5 ring enhancement lesions and 3 sheet enhancement lesions. (3) Multi-center growth pattern: 1 case with a total of 7 lesions, located in the right thalamus, basal ganglia and corona radiata, showing multiple nodules and ring enhancement. 1H-MRS examination showed that choline (Cho) peak increased, creatine (Cr) peak decreased, N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) peak decreased, and obvious Lip peak appeared in all the 3 cases with single lesions. 2 cases showed high Lip peak as the first peak. The ADCmin values of tumor parenchyma, proximal peritumor, distal peritumor and contralateral white matter showed a parabola pattern of first rise and then decline, as follows: (0.54±0.06)×10 -3 mm 2/s, (1.55±0.10)×10 -3 mm 2/s, (1.45±0.09)×10 -3 mm 2/s, (0.85±0.03)×10 -3 mm 2/s, overall difference was statistically significant ( F=630.570, P<0.001). The pairwise comparison was statistically significant (all P<0.05). Conclusions:Atypical PCNSL is easy to be misdiagnosed. Conventional MRI feature analysis combined with DWI and MRS imaging features and comparison of ADC values in different tumor areas are helpful for the diagnosis and differentiation of PCNSL and are expected to improve diagnostic accuracy.

The functional coupling between motor cortex and effector muscles during autonomic movement can be quantified by calculating the coupling between electroencephalogram (EEG) signal and surface electromyography (sEMG) signal. The maximal information coefficient (MIC) algorithm has been proved to be effective in quantifying the coupling relationship between neural signals, but it also has the problem of time-consuming calculations in actual use. To solve this problem, an improved MIC algorithm was proposed based on the efficient clustering characteristics of K-means ++ algorithm to accurately detect the coupling strength between nonlinear time series. Simulation results showed that the improved MIC algorithm proposed in this paper can capture the coupling relationship between nonlinear time series quickly and accurately under different noise levels. The results of right dorsiflexion experiments in stroke patients showed that the improved method could accurately capture the coupling strength of EEG signal and sEMG signal in the specific frequency band. Compared with the healthy controls, the functional corticomuscular coupling (FCMC) in beta (14~30 Hz) and gamma band (31~45 Hz) were significantly weaker in stroke patients, and the beta-band MIC values were positively correlated with the Fugl-Meyers assessment (FMA) scale scores. The method proposed in this study is hopeful to be a new method for quantitative assessment of motor function for stroke patients.
Algorithms ; Electroencephalography ; Electromyography ; Humans ; Motor Cortex ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Stroke

Objective To investigate the relationship between prognostic nutritional index (PNI) and neutropenia after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with colorectal cancer. Methods The clinical data of 44 patients with colorectal cancer performed adjuvant chemotherapy in Shunyi District Hospital from December 2014 to January 2018 were retrospectively analyzed, and the patients were divided into group A (grade 0-2 neutropenia) and group B (grade3-4 neutropenia) according to the degree of neutropenia. The serum albumin, peripheral lymphocyte counts, and neutrophil counts within 1 week before chemotherapy were collected, and the PNI was calculated. The chi-square test and rank sum test were used to compare the clinical data, body mass index (BMI), baseline neutrophil count, and PNI between the two groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the risk factors for neutropenia after chemotherapy. Results The baseline median neutrophil counts and median PNI in group A were 3.17×109/L [(1.38-7.79)×109/L] and 50.40 (37.40-57.05), and in group B were 2.54 ×109/L [(1.22-3.87) ×109/L] and 45.50 (37.95-50.95). The baseline neutrophil counts and PNI in group A were significantly higher than those in group B, the differences between the two groups were statistically significant (Z= -2.085, P= 0.037; Z= -2.615, P= 0.009). Logistic regression analysis showed that PNI was an independent risk factor for neutropenia after chemotherapy (HR=0.803, 95％CI 0.646-0.998, P= 0.048). Conclusion PNI has a certain role in predicting neutropenia after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with colorectal cancer.

Objective To explore the value of MRI in differential diagnosis of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) and high grade glioma (HGG) in deep brain.Methods Features of routine MRI and DWI of 28 PCNSL (PCNSL group) and 30 HGG patients (HGG group) with single lesion in deep brain confirmed clinically and pathologically were analyzed,then apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and relative ADC (rADC) were measured.The optimal diagnostic threshold (OT) and diagnostic performance of ADC and rADC values were calculated according to the ROC curve.Results The incidence of capsule,necrosis,hemorrhage,enhancement heterogeneity and DWI signal strength were significantly different between the two groups (all P＜0.05).ADC values were statistically different between lesions and the control side of the brain white matter in PCNSL and HGG patients (both P＜0.001).ADC values and rADC values of PCNSL lesions were significantly lower than those of HGG lesions (all P＜0.001).Taking ADC=0.86 × 10-3 mm2/s as a threshold,the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy in differential diagnosis of PCNSL and HGG was 92.9％,80.0％ and 86.2％,respectively,and the area under curve was 0.946 (P＜ 0.001).Taking rADC =1.02 as a threshold,the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy in differential diagnosis of PCNSL and HGG was 92.9％,86.7％ and 89.7％,respectively,and the area under curve was 0.957 (P＜0.001).Conclusion MRI differential diagnosis can provide reliable information for clinical treatment of PCNSL and HGG in deep brain.

[Abstract] Objective： ： To explore the impact of γ-chain (γc) family cytokines (IL-2, IL-7, IL-15, IL-21) on T cell phenotypes in ex vivo culture to provide experimental evidence for ex vivo cell preparation in adoptive immunotherapy. Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from peripheral blood of healthy volunteers; nylon column sorting, CD3+ magnetic beads sorting, CD3- magnetic beads sorting and natural sedimentation were used to sort T cells from PBMCs. The purity, recovery rate and viability of T cells sorted by the above methods were compared. The CD3/CD28 magnetic beads-activated CD3+T cells were cultured inAIMV medium with IL-2 or mixed cytokines (IL-7, IL-15, IL-21). The expansion fold and phenotypes of T cells in ex vivo culture were detected by flow cytometry. Results： ： The purity of T cells sorted by CD3- magnetic beads sorting was significantly higher than that sorted by nylon column, CD3+ magnetic beads sorting and natural sedimentation ([94.06±1.07]% vs [86.74±1.06]%, [89.61±1.40]%, [88.48 ± 1.86]%, P<0.05); The recovery rate of T cells sorted by natural sedimentation was significantly higher than that by other three methods ([60.29±1.53]% vs [45.03±2.79]%, [20.15±3.41]%, [42.98±2.82]%, P<0.05). Comprehensively, the natural sedimentation method is the best option. The ex vivo expansion fold of T cells in IL-2 group was significantly higher than that in mixed group ([262.6±143.2] times vs [73.0±25.8] times, P<0.05). The proportions of early memory T cells, Tscm+Tscm-like and Tcmin the mixed group were significantly higher than those in the IL-2 group ([55.6±1.82]% vs [39.6±1.52]%, [16.6±1.82]% vs [9.8±1.30]%, [39.0±1.58]% vs [29.2±1.79]%; all P < 0.05). Conclusion： ： Natural sedimentation sorting has advantages of low cost, high recovery and purity. Mixed cytokines of IL-7, IL-15 and IL-21 are beneficial for production of early memory T cells. This study provides an experimental data of ex vivo T cell preparation for cancer adoptive immunotherapy.

Objective:To establish an LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of acetaminophen and its five metabolites in mice plasma,and investigate the metabolism of acetaminophen by using the method.Methods:Para aminobenzoic acid was used as the internal standard.The plasma samples were precipitated by methanol,and then separated on a C18 column with the mobile phase of methanol and 5 mmol·L-1 ammonium acetate buffer solution containing 0.1% formic acid (55∶45).The flow rate was 0.5 ml·min-1,and the column temperature was 25℃.An electrospray ionization source was applied and operated in a positive ion mode using MRM:APAP,-,m/z 152.0→110.0;APAP-cys,-,m/z 271.2→140.1;APAP-glut,-,m/z 457.0→328.0;APAP-NAC,-,m/z 313.4 →208.0;APAP-sulf,-,m/z 232.4→152.1;APAP-gluc,-,m/z 328.2→152.1;IS,-,m/z 138.2→120.0.Results:The method exhibited good linearity over the concentration range of 0.2-10 μg·ml-1for APAP,1.0-20 μg·ml-1 for APAP-gluc,1.0-20 μg·ml-1 for APAP-sulf,1.0-20 μg·ml-1 for APAP-glut,0.4-15 μg·ml-1 for APAP-NAC and 0.2-10 μg·ml-1 for APAP-cys (r≥0.990 0).The inter-day accuracy and precision of acetaminophen and its five metabolites were all below 15%.The average recovery was between 85% and 115%,and RSDs were all below 15%.Conclusion:The LC-MS/MS method is proved to be quick,sensitive and accurate,and suitable for the determination of acetaminophen and its five metabolites in mice plasma.

Objective:To research on the genetic polymorphism distributions of fifteen short tandem repeat ( STR ) loci (D8S1179,D21S11,D7S820,CSF1PO,D3S1358,TH01,D13S317,D16S539,D2S1338,D19S433,VWA,TPOX,D18S51,D5S818, FGA) in Han race of Yunnan. Methods:A total of 313 specimens were collected from the unrelated individuals in Yunnan Han popu-lation. Genome DNA was extracted and amplified by multiplex PCR technique,the PCR products were analyzed by ABI-3130 genetic analyzer capillary electrophoresis detection, collected statistics of each STR loci genotypic frequency, and carried out the Hardy-Weinberg Genetic balance test. Results: No significant deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium was observed ( P>0. 05 ) , the heterozygosity of the fifteen STR loci in Yunnan Han population were found to be 0. 636-0. 901, Probability match was 0. 034-0. 220. Discrimination power of signal STR loci was 0. 780-0. 966, power of paternity exclusion was 0. 336-0. 797, polymorphism information content was 0. 555-0. 860,the combined accumulation discrimination power and exclusion probability for the 15 STR loci in Yunnan Han population were determined to be more than 0. 999 999 99 and 0. 999 998 408. The allele frequency of the 15 STR loci had a similarity compared with other areas in China,but also had a slight regional differences. Conclusion: The 15 STR loci( D8S1179, D21S11,D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, VWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818, FGA ) demonstrate high genetic polymorphism in Yunnan Han population, they have a high forensic science application value in paternity testing and individual identification.

Coloring Agents ; Diagnostic Uses of Chemicals ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Esophagoscopy ; Esophagus ; pathology ; Humans ; Iodine

Due to the characteristics and environmental factors, electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are usually interfered by noises in the course of signal acquisition, so it is crucial for ECG intelligent analysis to eliminate noises in ECG signals. On the basis of wavelet transform, threshold parameters were improved and a more appropriate threshold expression was proposed. The discrete wavelet coefficients were processed using the improved threshold parameters, the accurate wavelet coefficients without noises were gained through inverse discrete wavelet transform, and then more original signal coefficients could be preserved. MIT-BIH arrythmia database was used to validate the method. Simulation results showed that the improved method could achieve better denoising effect than the traditional ones.
Algorithms ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Databases, Factual ; Electrocardiography ; Humans ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Wavelet Analysis