Reduced B cell frequencies in cord blood of HIV-exposed uninfected infants: an immunological and transcriptomic analysis.

Introduction: In the course of immune development, HIV-exposed uninfected (HEU) infants exhibit abnormal immune function and increased infectious morbidity compared to HIV-unexposed uninfected (HUU) infants. Yet the specific functional phenotypes and regulatory mechanisms associated with in-utero HIV and/or ART exposure remain largely obscure. Methods: We utilized flow cytometry and RNA-seq technologies to conduct the immunological and transcriptomic profiling in cord blood from 9 HEU mother-infant pairs and 24 HUU pairs. On top of that, we compared the cord blood dataset with the maternal venous blood dataset to characterize unique effects induced by in-utero HIV and/or ART exposure. Results: Flow cytometry immunophenotyping revealed that the level of B lymphocyte subsets was significantly decreased in HEU cord blood as compared to HUU (P < 0.001). Expression profiling-based cell abundance assessment, includes CIBERSORT and ssGSEA algorithm, showed a significantly reduced abundance of naive B cells in HEU cord blood (both P < 0.05), supporting the altered composition of B lymphocyte subsets in HEU. Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated suppressed innate immune responses and impaired immune regulatory function of B cells in HEU cord blood. Furthermore, through differential expression analysis, co-expression network analysis using WGCNA, and feature selection analysis using LASSO, we identified a 4-gene signature associated with HEU status. This signature effectively assesses B cell levels in cord blood, enabling discrimination between HEU and HUU infants. Discussion: Our study provides the first comprehensive immunological and transcriptomic characterization of HEU cord blood. Additionally, we establish a 4-gene-based classifier that holds potential for predict immunological abnormalities in HEU infants.

Diagnostic and prognostic value of ferroptosis-related genes in patients with Myelodysplastic neoplasms.

This study delves into the emerging role of ferroptosis in Myelodysplastic Neoplasms (MDS) and aims to identify a prognostic ferroptosis-related gene signature for MDS. Utilizing RNA-seq data and clinical information from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, the researchers extracted ferroptosis-related genes from the FerrDb website and conducted differential expression analysis using the 'limma' package in R. Hub ferroptosis-related genes in MDS were screened using the "RandomForest" and "carat" R packages. Kaplan -Meier and Cox regression analyses were employed to assess the prognostic role of three identified hub genes (BNIP3, MDM2, and RRM2). Receiver operator characteristic curve analysis confirmed the diagnostic efficacy of these genes. The study delved further into immune infiltration correlations, ncRNA-transcription factor coregulatory network analysis, and the identification of potential therapeutic drugs targeting hub ferroptosis-related genes in MDS. The researchers constructed a 3-gene signature-based risk score using datasets GSE58831 and GSE19429, demonstrating high accuracy (AUC > 0.75) in both datasets for survival prediction in MDS. A nomogram analysis reinforced the prognostic value of the risk-scoring model. Immunological analysis revealed an association between the risk score and immune infiltration. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) data indicated significant expression differences in MDM2, RRM2, and BNIP3 between MDS and healthy bone marrow samples. Notably, MDM2 and RRM2 showed decreased expression, while BNIP3 exhibited increased expression in MDS samples. This comprehensive study concludes that BNIP3, MDM2, and RRM2 hold diagnostic and prognostic significance in MDS and provide valuable insights into immune cell landscapes and potential therapeutic avenues for this condition.

Ferroptosis triggers airway inflammation in asthma.

Ferroptosis is a regulatory cell death characterized by intracellular iron accumulation and lipid peroxidation that leads to oxidative stress. Many signaling pathways such as iron metabolism, lipid metabolism, and amino acid metabolism precisely regulate the process of ferroptosis. Ferroptosis is involved in a variety of lung diseases, such as acute lung injury, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary fibrosis. Increasing studies suggest that ferroptosis is involved in the development of asthma. Ferroptosis plays an important role in asthma. Iron metabolism disorders, lipid peroxidation, amino acid metabolism disorders lead to the occurrence of ferroptosis in airway epithelial cells, and then aggravate clinical symptoms in asthmatic patients. Moreover, several regulators of ferroptosis are involved in the pathogenesis of asthma, such as Nrf2, heme oxygenase-1, mevalonate pathway, and ferroptosis inhibitor protein 1. Importantly, ferroptosis inhibitors improve asthma. Thus, the pathogenesis of ferroptosis and its contribution to the pathogenesis of asthma help us better understand the occurrence and development of asthma, and provide new directions in asthma treatment. This article aimed to review the role and mechanism of ferroptosis in asthma, describing the relationship between ferroptosis and asthma based on signaling pathways and related regulatory factors. At the same time, we summarized current observations of ferroptosis in eosinophils, airway epithelial cells, and airway smooth muscle cells in asthmatic patients.

Determinants affecting the blood mercury levels of preschool children in Shanghai, China: A cross-sectional study.

Infants and children are vulnerable to mercury (Hg)-induced toxicity, which has detrimental effects on their neurological development. This study measured blood Hg levels (BMLs) and identified potential factors influencing BMLs, including demographic and socioeconomic factors, lifestyle, and daily dietary habits, among 0 to 7-year-old children in Shanghai. Our study recruited 1474 participants, comprising 784 boys and 690 girls. Basic demographic and lifestyle information were obtained and blood Hg were analyzed using the Direct Mercury Analyzer 80. The blood Hg concentrations of children in Shanghai ranged from 0.01 to 17.20 µg/L, with a median concentration of 1.34 µg/L. Older age, higher familial socioeconomic status, higher residential floors, and a higher frequency of consuming aquatic products, rice, vegetables, and formula milk were identified as risk factors. Other potential influencing factors including the mother's reproductive history (gravidity and parity), smoking (passive smoking), supplementation of fish oil and calcium need to be further investigated. These findings can be useful in establishing appropriate interventions to prevent children's high blood Hg concentrations in Shanghai and other similar metropolitan cities.

Dynamics of PD-1 expression are associated with treatment efficacy and prognosis in patients with intermediate/high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes under hypomethylating treatment.

Hypomethylating agents (HMAs) are widely used in patients with higher-risk MDS not eligible for stem cell transplantation. However, the general response rate by HMAs is lesser than 50% in MDS patients, while the relapse rate is high. Emerging evidence indicates that demethylating effects committed by HMAs may facilitate the up-regulation of a range of immune checkpoints or cancer suppressor genes in patients with MDS, among which the programmed death protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligands are demonstrated to be prominent and may contribute to treatment failure and early relapse. Although results from preliminary studies with a limited number of enrolled patients indicate that combined administration of PD-1 inhibitor may yield extra therapeutic benefit in some MDS patients, identifications of this subgroup of patients and optimal timing for the anti-PD-1 intervention remain significant challenges. Dynamics of immune checkpoints and associated predictive values during HMA-treatment cycles remained poorly investigated. In this present study, expression levels of immune checkpoints PD-1 and its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2 were retrospectively analyzed by quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) in a total of 135 myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) cohort with higher-risk stratification. The prognostic value of dynamics of these immune checkpoints during HMA cycles was validated in two independent prospective cohorts in our center (NCT01599325 and NCT01751867). Our data revealed that PD-1 expression was significantly higher than that in younger MDS patients (age ≤ 60) and MDS with lower IPSS risk stratification (intermediate risk-1). A significantly up-regulated expression of PD-1 was seen during the first four HMA treatment cycles in MDS patients, while similar observation was not seen concerning the expression of PD-L1 or PD-L2. By utilizing binary logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) models, we further identified that higher or equal to 75.9 PD-1 expressions after 2 cycles of HMA treatment is an independent negative prognostic factor in predicting acute myeloid leukemia (AML) transformation and survival. Collectively, our data provide rationales for monitoring the expression of PD-1 during HMA treatment cycles, a higher than 75.9 PD-1 expression may identify patients who will potentially benefit from the combined therapy of HMA and PD-1 inhibitors.

PD-1 and TIGIT Are Highly Co-Expressed on CD8+ T Cells in AML Patient Bone Marrow.

Despite the great success of immune-checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment for multiple cancers, evidence for the clinical use of ICIs in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains inadequate. Further exploration of the causes of immune evasion in the bone marrow (BM) environment, the primary leukemia site, and peripheral blood (PB) and understanding how T cells are affected by AML induction chemotherapy or the influence of age may help to select patients who may benefit from ICI treatment. In this study, we comprehensively compared the distribution of PD-1 and TIGIT, two of the most well-studied IC proteins, in PB and BM T cells from AML patients at the stages of initial diagnosis, complete remission (CR), and relapse-refractory (R/R) disease after chemotherapy. Our results show that PD-1 was generally expressed higher in PB and BM T cells from de novo (DN) and R/R patients, while it was partially recovered in CR patients. The expression of TIGIT was increased in the BM of CD8+ T cells from DN and R/R patients, but it did not recover with CR. In addition, according to age correlation analysis, we found that elderly AML patients possess an even higher percentage of PD-1 and TIGIT single-positive CD8+ T cells in PB and BM, which indicate greater impairment of T cell function in elderly patients. In addition, we found that both DN and R/R patients accumulate a higher frequency of PD-1+ and TIGIT+ CD8+ T cells in BM than in corresponding PB, indicating that a more immunosuppressive microenvironment in leukemia BM may promote disease progression. Collectively, our study may help guide the combined use of anti-PD-1 and anti-TIGIT antibodies for treating elderly AML patients and pave the way for the exploration of strategies for reviving the immunosuppressive BM microenvironment to improve the survival of AML patients.

Lower BCL11B expression is associated with adverse clinical outcome for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome.

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is an aggressive and genetically heterogeneous disease with poor prognosis. Cellular immune disorder is a common characteristic of this disease and is thought to be related to clinical outcome. Alterations in T cell clonal expansion and T cell dysfunction has been detected in MDS patients. Little is known about whether there are immune biomarkers to evaluate the T cell alterations with clinical outcome. Previous studies have demonstrated that B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 11B (BCL11B) plays an important role in regulating T cell development and proliferation. In this study, the prognostic value of BCL11B for MDS patients was explored by analyzing RNA-seq data from 270 patients in two datasets in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and real-time quantitative PCR data (qRT-PCR) of 31 bone marrow (BM) samples of MDS and 6 BM samples of patients with MDS progress to secondary acute myeloid leukemia (sAML) from our clinical center. The results demonstrated that BCL11B is significantly down-regulated in MDS patients as compared with healthy individuals (HIs). Importantly, lower BCL11B expression was found in MDS patients who were of high/very high risk, older than 60 y, or male and patients with sAML. Furthermore, low BCL11B expression appeared to be associated with poor overall survival (OS) for MDS patients, though the data were not yet significant enough at this point. In addition, BCL11B low-expressing MDS patients had shorter restricted mean survival time (RMST) than those with high BCL11B expression. Interestingly, BCL11B positively correlated with naive and activated memory CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells, and the T cell receptor complex genes CD3E and CD3G, but it negatively correlated with regulatory T cells (Treg). Additionally, co-occurrence of low BCL11B expression and CD3E and CD3G was associated with poor OS and shorter RMST. In conclusion, lower BCL11B expression in BM samples of MDS patients was associated with adverse clinical outcome.

Concurrence of Myelodysplastic syndromes and large granular lymphocyte leukemia: clinicopathological features, mutational profile and gene ontology analysis in a single center.

The concurrence of Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and large granular lymphocyte leukemia (LGLL) has been reported in a small group of patients and might suggest an etiologic relationship rather than a simple coincidence. In this present study, clinicopathological features were detailed in ten cases of MDS concurrent with LGLL (MDS-LGLL). These cases included seven patients with T-LGLL, two with mixed-phenotype LGLL, and one with CLPD-NK. Subsequently, gene mutation screening for commonly myeloid-related or lymphoid-related genes was performed in MDS-LGLL patients by using next generation sequencing (NGS). The genes with the highest frequency of mutations were ASXL1 (3/10, 30%) and STAG2 (3/10, 30%) among a panel of 114 genes. LGLL-associated mutations of STAT3 (2/10, 20%) and STAT5b (1/10, 10%) were also detected. Moreover, whole-exome sequencing (WES) and gene ontology (GO) analysis for one patient in his different phases revealed increased enrichment of histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) mono-methylation (GO:0097692) pathway and decreased enrichment of translocation of ZAP-70 to immunological synapse (R-HAS-202430) pathway upon progression from MDS to MDS-LGLL.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells in chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia: overactivated WNT/ß-catenin signalling by parallel RNA sequencing and dysfunctional phenotypes.

Sophisticated cross-talk between bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BM MSCs) and haematopoietic/leukaemic stem cells in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and myeloid leukaemia have been emphasized in previous reports. However, mesenchymal elements in patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML) were poorly investigated. By utilizing a parallel RNA-sequencing method, we investigated the transcriptional profile and functional defects of primary BM MSCs from patients with CMML for the first time. Within a 24-patient cohort, transcriptional and functional analysis reveals a prominent enrichment of WNT/ß-catenin signalling and multiple biology processes. Deregulated expression of WNT/ß-catnin factors CTNNB1, CMYC, LEF1, and FRZB is associated with impaired proliferation, senescence phenotype, and abnormal secretion in CMML MSCs. The impaired ability to support healthy CD34+ haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) correlates with activation of WNT/ß-catenin signalling in CMML MSCs. Furthermore, we observed an association between WNT/ß-catenin factors and treatment response to hypomethylating agents (HMAs) in a cohort of patients with MDS/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). Taken together, our study provides evidence for transcriptional and functional abnormalities in CMML MSCs, and suggests potential prognostic value of evaluating WNT/ß-catenin signalling in patients with CMML.

Decitabine With or Without Micro-Transplantation for the Treatment of Intermediate or High-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndrome: A Chinese Single-Center Retrospective Study of 22 Patients.

The treatment outcomes of intermediate or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) remain unsatisfactory. This study was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-mismatched hematopoietic stem cell micro-transplantation (MST) in patients with MDS. A total of 22 patients with MDS, ranging between the ages of 39 and 74, were enrolled in this study. Eleven patients were given decitabine (DAC), a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, combined with HLA-mismatched MST (MST-DAC group), and the remaining patients were given decitabine only (DAC group). The median overall survival (OS) of the MST-DAC group was higher than that of the DAC group (24 vs. 14.3 months; HR 0.32; 95% CI: 0.11-0.96; p = 0.04), although it is a study with small samples. The overall response rate (ORR), marrow complete remission (mCR), plus hematological improvement (HI) rates of the MST-DAC group were higher than that of the DAC group (81.8 vs. 54.5%, p = 0.36; 63.6 vs. 27.3%, p = 0.09, respectively); however, there were no statistical differences between the two groups, which may be attributed to the limited number of cases evaluated in this study. No graft-vs.-host disease was observed in the MST-DAC group. Patients in the MST-DAC group demonstrated a slightly lower incidence of hematological and non-hematological adverse events (AEs). DAC combined with HLA-mismatched MST may provide a novel, effective, and safe treatment for use in intermediate or high-risk MDS pathologies.

Hypomethylating agents in the treatment of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia: a meta-analysis and systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: The present meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy, toxicities of both hypomethylating agents (decitabine and azaciticine) in the treatment of CMML patients. METHODS: All available cohort studies of patients with CMML treated with decitabine and azacitidine were identified. The primary endpoints of this meta-analysis were response to hypomethylating agents. Pooled estimates of treatment response and drug-related adverse events were calculated using fixed or random effect models. RESULTS: Fourteen studies with 600 CMML patients (decitabine: n=196; azacitidine: n=404) were identified and included for meta-analysis. HMAs yielded a pooled ORR estimate of 43% (95% CI: 36%-50%) in patients with CMML. Patients received either azacitidine or decitabine exhibited comparable incidence of ORR (43% vs. 45%, P=0.810), while significantly higher incidence of mCR was observed in patients treated with decitabine (23% vs. 10%, P=0.000). Decitabine treatment was also associated with higher incidence of transfusion independence (42% vs. 20%, P=0.044). Both HMAs led to objective hematologic or non-hematologic AEs (27%-43%), while dosage modification/delay were more frequent in patients treated with azacitidine (81% vs. 67%, P=0.021). CONCLUSION: This current study may provide preliminary data in evaluating the efficacy and safety of HMAs in patients with CMML. Decitabine and azacitidine are comparable effective and safe in treating CMML. However, it is necessary to point out that any comparison of decitabine and azacitidine with respect to clinical outcomes can only be done in the context of a randomized controlled trial.

C-Type Lectin-Like Molecule-1 as a Biomarker for Diagnosis and Prognosis in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Preliminary Study.

OBJECTIVE: AML is a heterogeneous disease both in genomic and proteomic backgrounds, and variable outcomes may appear in the same cytogenetic risk group. Therefore, it is still necessary to identify new antigens that contribute to diagnostic information and to refine the current risk stratification. METHODS: The expression of C-type lectin-like molecule-1 (CLL-1) in AML blasts was examined in 52 patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed/refractory AML and was compared with two other classic markers CD33 and CD34 in AML, in order to assess the value of CLL-1 as an independent biomarker or in combination with other markers for diagnosis in AML. Subsequently, the value of CLL-1 as a biomarker for prognosis was assessed in this malignant tumor. RESULTS: The results showed that CLL-1 was expressed on the cell surface of the majority of AML blasts (78.8%) and also expressed on leukemic stem cells in varying degree but absent on normal hematopoietic stem cells. Notably, CLL-1 was able to complement the classic markers CD33 or CD34. After dividing the cases into CLL-1high and CLL-1low groups according to cutoff 59.0%, we discovered that event-free survival and overall survival (OS) of the CLL-1low group were significantly lower than that of the CLL-1high group, and low CLL-1 expression seems to be independently associated with shorter OS. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary observations identified CLL-1 as a biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of AML.

Identification and Validation of a Prognostic Risk-Scoring Model Based on Ferroptosis-Associated Cluster in Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Background: Emerging evidence has proven that ferroptosis plays an important role in the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), whereas the exact role of ferroptosis-associated genes in AML patients' prognosis remained unclear. Materials and Methods: Gene expression profiles and corresponding clinical information of AML cases were obtained from the TCGA (TCGA-LAML), GEO (GSE71014), and TARGET databases (TARGET-AML). Patients in the TCGA cohort were well-grouped into two clusters based on ferroptosis-related genes, and differentially expressed genes were screened between the two clusters. Univariate Cox and LASSO regression analyses were applied to select prognosis-related genes for the construction of a prognostic risk-scoring model. Survival analysis was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier and receiver operator characteristic curves. Furthermore, we explored the correlation of the prognostic risk-scoring model with immune infiltration and chemotherapy response. Risk gene expression level was detected by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: Eighteen signature genes, including ZSCAN4, ASTN1, CCL23, DLL3, EFNB3, FAM155B, FOXL1, HMX2, HRASLS, LGALS1, LHX6, MXRA5, PCDHB12, PRINS, TMEM56, TWIST1, ZFPM2, and ZNF560, were developed to construct a prognostic risk-scoring model. AML patients could be grouped into high- and low-risk groups, and low-risk patients showed better survival than high-risk patients. Area under the curve values of 1, 3, and 5 years were 0.81, 0.827, and 0.786 in the training set, respectively, indicating a good predictive efficacy. In addition, age and risk score were the independent prognostic factors after univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. A nomogram containing clinical factors and prognostic risk-scoring model was constructed to better estimate individual survival. Further analyses demonstrated that risk score was associated with the immune infiltration and response to chemotherapy. Our experiment data revealed that LGALS1 and TMEM56 showed notably decreased expression in AML samples than that of the normal samples. Conclusion: Our study shows that the prognostic risk-scoring model and key risk gene may provide potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic option for AML patients.

[Expression and Significance of BTLA and Its Ligand HVEM in Patients with Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression and significance of B and T lymphocyte weakening factor (BTLA) in patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). METHODS: Real-time PCR was used to detect the expression of BTLA and its ligand HVEM mRNA in 11 patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and 11 normal donors. Flow cytometry was used to detect expression of BTLA and its HVEM on the cell surface of peripheral blood T lymphocytes and γδ T cells. RESULTS: The median values of BTLA and its ligand HVEM mRNA expression in peripheral blood of patients with CMML were 0.009% and 559.4%, respectively, which were significantly lower than those of normal controls (0.053% and 1031%)(P<0.001). The expression level of BTLA and HVEM on cell surface of peripheral lymphocytes was not significantly different from that in normal controls (P=0.3031 and 0.2576), however, the proportion of peripheral blood T lymphocytes in patients with CMML (median: 37.73%) was significantly lower than that in controls (median 69.23%)(P=0.0005). The expression of BTLA on the surface of γδ T cells in peripheral blood of patients with CMML (median: 23.26%) was significantly lower than that of the controls (median: 52.64%) (P<0.05), and there was no significant abnormality in HVEM expression (P=0.2791). CONCLUSION: The expression of BTLA and its ligand HVEM, the proportion of T lymphocytes and the expression of BTLA on the surface of γδ T cells in patients with CMML are reduced. The effects of these abnormalities on T cell function and prognosis and efficacy of patients need to be further observed.

Contemporary blood lead levels of children aged 0-84 months in China: A national cross-sectional study.

Despite the global abundance of studies on children's lead (Pb) exposure, the magnitude of Pb exposure among children across China remains unclear, especially for rural areas. In 2000, Pb was removed from petrol, marking a change in the sources of Pb exposure in China. To better understand children's Pb exposure and inform potential approaches to exposure reduction, we conducted a national blood Pb survey of 31,373 children (0-84 months old) from May 2013 to March 2015, using a multi-stage and multi-strata sampling method. Blood lead levels (BLLs) were tested using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with a detection limit of 1 µg/L. The results show that Chinese children had a contemporary geometric mean (GM) BLL of 26.7 µg/L, with 8.6% of BLLs exceeding 50 µg/L. Boys had higher BLLs (GM 27.2 µg/L) compared to girls (GM: 25.9 µg/L) (p < 0.001). Children at the age of 0-36 months had a lower PbB (GM 25.7 µg/L) level compared with those aged 36-84 months (GM 27.9 µg/L) (p < 0.001). When taking into account sociodemographic factors, a multivariate logistic regression analysis shows that the odds ratios (OR) of having a BLL of 27 µg/dL (i.e., median BLL of this study) or higher were 1.88 (95% CI: 1.76, 2.02) and 1.35 (95% CI: 1.22, 1.49) for homes using coal and biomass fuels, respectively, compared to those using gas or electricity. Meanwhile, children in homes close to roads were more likely to have BLLs exceeding 27 µg/dL (OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.20). In China, rural children had higher BLLs compared to urban children. As a result of pediatric exposure to Pb, there were approximately 144 million and 36 million IQ points lost for rural children and urban children, respectively, revealing a disparity of Pb exposure between rural and urban areas in China. Cleaner domestic fuels and improved cooking/heating equipment will reduce contemporary Pb exposure in rural areas. In addition, the association between contemporary BLLs and distance away from roads further suggests that resuspension of legacy soil/dust Pb should not be neglected in future remediation programs and household interventions. As a large scale survey, this study provides evidence for revising the reference value of BLL, improving the guideline for clinical and public health management, and implementing interventions to prevent adverse health outcomes associated with low-level Pb exposure in children.

A retrospective study comparing azacitidine with decitabine in Chinese patients with refractory anemia with excess blast based on two clinical trials in a single center.

The aim of the present study was to conduct a retrospective analysis of efficacy and safety profiles of azacitidine (AZA) versus. decitabine (DAC) in Chinese patients with intermediate or higher-risk MDS, which was based on two clinical trials in a single center. A total of 40 included MDS patients diagnosed with refractory anemia with excess blast (RAEB) were from two independent clinic trials. Patients in each trial received either AZA (n = 19) or DAC (n = 21) respectively, and the effectiveness as well as the safety profile of the two drugs were compared. Patients treated with AZA showed a comparative efficacy to DAC group with regard to the overall response rate (73.7% versus. 76.2%, P = 0.86), overall survival (median: 19.3 versus. 20.8 months, P = 0.56), progression-free survival (median: 12.3 versus. 9.3 months, P = 0.43) and leukemia-free survival (median: 22.8 versus. 26.6 months, P = 0.62). Patients treated with DAC showed slightly higher incidence of severe hematological adverse events during the whole treatment. Comparing hematological AEs in each observation interval, a trend of higher percentage of neutropenia, leukopenia and anemia as well as treatment delays were seen during the first 6 cycles in the DAC group.

Co-occurrence of RUNX1 and ASXL1 mutations underlie poor response and outcome for MDS patients treated with HMAs.

The molecular determinants of the clinical response to Hypomethylating agents (HMAs) in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are unclear. We analyzed 84 adult patients with MDS who received hypomethylating agents (HMAs) and identified somatic mutations and their relationship to clinical response and survival. The results showed in the MDS patients with ASXL1 mutations,the most frequent co-occurring mutations were RUNX1 mutations, with a significant higher frequency of 43% compared to 17% in wild-type ASXL1 (P = 0.032). ASXL1 mutation demonstrated a significant negative overall response rate (8% vs. 29.4%, x2 = 5.228, P = 0.022), particularly when co-occurring with RUNX1 mutations (P = 0.008). And all patients with RUNX1 and ASXL1 mutations died with a shorter median overall survival of only 14 months (P = 0.002). Moreover, TP53 mutations were associated with unfavorable-risk cytogenetic changes, and responded well to HMAs, with the exception of one case with RUNX1 and ASXL1 gene mutation. In a word, RUNX1 mutations are frequently found in MDS patients with ASXL1-mutations, and Co-occurrence of RUNX1 and ASXL1 mutations are associated with poor response to HMAs and inferior survival.

Network Pollution Games.

The problem of pollution control has been mainly studied in the environmental economics literature where the methodology of game theory is applied for the pollution control. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time this problem is studied from the computational point of view. We introduce a new network model for pollution control and present two applications of this model. On a high level, our model comprises a graph whose nodes represent the agents, which can be thought of as the sources of pollution in the network. The edges between agents represent the effect of spread of pollution. The government who is the regulator, is responsible for the maximization of the social welfare and sets bounds on the levels of emitted pollution in both local areas as well as globally in the whole network. We first prove that the above optimization problem is NP-hard even on some special cases of graphs such as trees. We then turn our attention on the classes of trees and planar graphs which model realistic scenarios of the emitted pollution in water and air, respectively. We derive approximation algorithms for these two kinds of networks and provide deterministic truthful and truthful in expectation mechanisms. In some settings of the problem that we study, we achieve the best possible approximation results under standard complexity theoretic assumptions. Our approximation algorithm on planar graphs is obtained by a novel decomposition technique to deal with constraints on vertices. We note that no known planar decomposition techniques can be used here and our technique can be of independent interest. For trees we design a two level dynamic programming approach to obtain an FPTAS. This approach is crucial to deal with the global pollution quota constraint. It uses a special multiple choice, multi-dimensional knapsack problem where coefficients of all constraints except one are bounded by a polynomial of the input size. We furthermore derive truthful in expectation mechanisms on general networks with bounded degree.