Overexpression of TMEM150A in glioblastoma multiforme patients correlated with dismal prognoses and compromised immune statuses.

Transmembrane proteins have exhibited a significant correlation with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The current study elucidates the roles of transmembrane protein 150A (TMEM150A) in GBM. Data on patients with GBM were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Xena databases. The objective was to identify the expression levels of TMEM150A in patients with GBM, and evaluate its diagnostic and prognostic values, accomplished using the receiver operating characteristic and survival analyses. On a cellular level, Cell Counting Kit-8, Wound healing, and Transwell experiments were performed to gauge the impact of TMEM150A on cell growth and migration. The study further investigated the correlation between TMEM150A expression and immune status, along with ribonucleic acid (RNA) modifications in GBM. The findings demonstrated TMEM150A overexpression in the cancerous tissues of patients with GBM, with an area under the curve value of 0.95. TMEM150A overexpression was significantly correlated with poor prognostic indicators. TMEM150A overexpression and isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation status were predictive of poor survival time among patients with GBM. In vitro experiments indicated that suppressing TMEM150A expression could inhibit GBM cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Moreover, TMEM150A overexpression was associated with stromal, immune, and estimate scores, immune cells (such as the T helper (Th) 17 cells, Th2 cells, and regulatory T cells), cell markers, and RNA modifications. Therefore, TMEM150A overexpression might serve as a promising biomarker for predicting poor prognosis in patients with GBM. Inhibiting TMEM150A expression holds the potential for improving the survival time of patients with GBM.

Career choice and influential factors among medical students majoring in psychiatry in China.

BACKGROUND: The undergraduate program of psychiatry has been widely established in recent years to improve the education and recruitment of psychiatrists in China. We aim to investigate the career choice of medical students majoring in psychiatry in China and the influential factors. METHOD: This multicenter study was conducted in 26 medical schools in China from May to October of 2019. Participants included 4610 medical students majoring in psychiatry and 3857 medical students majoring in clinical medicine. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate the influential factors of students' choices of psychiatry at matriculation and as a career. RESULTS: 44.08% of psychiatry majored students gave psychiatry as a first choice at matriculation, and 56.67% of them would choose psychiatry as a career, which was in sharp contrast to the proportion of clinical medicine majored students who would choose psychiatry as a career (0.69%). Personal interest (59.61%), suggestions from family members (27.96%), and experiencing mental problems (23.19%) were main reasons for choosing psychiatry major at matriculation. Personal interest (odds ratio [OR] = 2.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.87-2.40), experiencing a psychiatry clerkship (OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.28-3.08), being female (OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.30-1.68), experiencing mental problems (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.28-1.56), and suggestions from family members (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.08-1.46) correlated positively with students' choice of psychiatry as career. Students who lacked psychiatry knowledge (OR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.29-0.85) or chose psychiatry because of lower admission scores (OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.63-0.97) were less likely to choose psychiatry as a career. CONCLUSION: More than half of psychiatry majored medical school students planned to choose psychiatry as their career, whereas very few students in the clinic medicine major would make this choice. Increasing students' interest in psychiatry, strengthening psychiatry clerkships, and popularizing psychiatric knowledge are modifiable factors to increase the psychiatry career intention. The extent to which medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry can be changed through medical school education and greater exposure to psychiatry will need further investigation.

[Study on Tie2 mRNA level in peripheral blood associated with the severity of sepsis].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possibility that the level of Tie2 mRNA in peripheral blood could reflect the severity of sepsis. METHODS: Trauma patients in intensive care unit (ICU) were recruited, and they were divided into sepsis group (n=13) and non-sepsis group (n=19). The severity of disease was evaluated with acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHEII) score on the day of ICU admission. Blood of patients was sampled on day 1, 3, 7 after ICU admission to determination of the white blood cell (WBC) count, contents of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr), mRNA levels of Tie2 in blood measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the contents of plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF) with enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: No significant difference in contents of ALT, AST and plasma vWF was found between sepsis group and non-sepsis group [ALT (U/L): 53.30 (199.58) vs. 80.65 (202.62), AST (U/L): 316.53 (49.90) vs. 66.10 (285.03), vWF: (272.47+/-114.61)% vs. (246.66+/-128.77)%, all P>0.05]. The number of WBC [x10(9)/L, 18.26 (21.82) vs. 10.11 (4.72)], the contents of BUN [mmol/L, 20.70 (11.20) vs. 7.70 (5.45)] and Cr [micromol/L: 252.00 (364.55) vs. 68.00(23.20)], and the circulating mRNA levels of Tie2 (1.86+/-0.67 vs. 0.91+/-0.42) in sepsis group were higher than those in the non-sepsis group (all P<0.01). The Tie2 mRNA level in peripheral blood of each patient was positively correlated with APACHEII score (r=0.532, P<0.01). The linear regression equation was Y=12.66+4.922 X (R2=0.283). Besides, there was a significant correlation between the amount of Tie2 mRNA and plasma levels of vWF (r=0.334, P<0.05). The linear regression equation was Y=180.932+57.93 X (R2=0.112). CONCLUSION: The level of Tie2 mRNA in peripheral blood could reflect the damage of endothelial cell and severity of sepsis.

Protective effect of erythropoietin against 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium-induced neurodegenaration in PC12 cells.

OBJECTIVE: The neuroprotective effect of erythropoietin (EPO) against 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP(+))-induced oxidative stress in cultured PC12 cells, as well as the underlying mechanism, were investigated. METHODS: PC12 cells impaired by MPP(+) were used as the cell model of Parkinson's disease. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) was used to assay the viability of the PC12 cells exposed to gradient concentrations of EPO, and the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay was used to analyze the apoptosis ratio of PC12 cells. The expression of Bcl-2 and Bax in PC12 cells were examined by Western blot, and the reactive oxygen species (ROS), the mitochondrial transmembrane potential and the activity of caspase-3 in each group were detected by spectrofluorometer. RESULTS: Treatment of PC12 cells with MPP(+) caused the loss of cell viability, which may be associated with the elevation in apoptotic rate, the formation of ROS and the disruption of mitochondrial transmembrane potential. It was also shown that MPP(+) significantly induced the upregulation of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and the activation of caspase-3. In contrast, EPO significantly reversed these responses and had the maximum protective effect at 1 U/mL. CONCLUSION: The inhibitive effect of EPO on the MPP(+)-induced cytotoxicity may be ascribed to its anti-oxidative property and anti-apoptotic activity, and EPO may provide a useful therapeutic strategy for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.