Low expression of NR1D1 and NR2E3 is associated with advanced features of retinoblastoma.

PURPOSE: To investigate the expression of nuclear receptor subfamily 1 group D member 1 (NR1D1) and nuclear receptor subfamily 2 group E Member 3 (NR2E3) in retinoblastoma (RB) and their correlation with the clinical and pathological features of RB. METHODS: Immunohistochemical (IHC) assays were performed to detect and evaluate the expression levels of NR1D1 and NR2E3 in paraffin-embedded tissue samples. The relationship between the expression levels and clinicopathological characteristics of RB patients was analyzed using the χ2 test or Fisher exact test. RESULTS: A total of 51 RB patients were involved in this research. The expression levels of NR1D1 (P = 0.004) and NR2E3 (P = 0.024) were significantly lower in RB tumor tissues than in normal retina. The expression levels of NR1D1 and NR2E3 were less positive in RB patients with advanced stages (P = 0.007, P = 0.015), choroidal infiltration (P = 0.003, P = 0.029), and optic nerve infiltration (P = 0.036, P = 0.003). In addition, a low expression level of NR2E3 was associated with high-risk pathology (P = 0.025) and necrosis (P = 0.035) of RB tissues. CONCLUSION: The expression levels of NR1D1 and NR2E3 were decreased in RB and closely associated with the clinical stage and high invasion of the disease. These findings provide new insights into the mechanism of RB progression and suggest that NR1D1 and NR2E3 could be potential targets for treatment strategies.

First Report of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Tuberculosis Patients in China.

In recent years, coinfection of tuberculosis (TB) and parasitosis in humans is an emerging problem in coendemic areas, which has been increasingly highlighted in developing countries. However, there is limited information about the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in TB patients. Therefore, through a case-control study, 924 TB patients hospitalized for diacrisis or treatment in northeastern and eastern China, and 924 control subjects from the general population of the same region matched with gender, age, and residence were examined for the presence of IgG and IgM antibodies to T. gondii and associated sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics in a population of TB patients. Seroprevalence of IgG antibodies to T. gondii in TB patients (122/924, 13.2%) was significantly higher than control subjects (90/924, 9.7%) (p = 0.019), and 26 (2.8%) TB patients and 19 (2.1%) controls were positive for anti-T. gondii IgM antibodies (p = 0.291), respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that T. gondii infection was associated with keeping cats at home, presence of stray cats, and consumption of raw/undercooked meat. The present study first revealed the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in TB patients in China. Moreover, parasitological surveys should be regularly carried out among TB patients, aiming to prevent the possibility of severe toxoplasmosis.

[Landscape regionalization of agro-pastoral transitional zone using self-organizing feature maps (SOFM) network: a case study of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China].

Taking the agro-pastoral transitional zone of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which has the most extrusive landscape differentiation in Northern China, as the object, a landscape spatial differentiation index was established based on the NDVI, integrated index of land use degree, and aridity index, and the characteristics of the landscape spatial differentiation were quantitatively identified by using SOFM network. The study area could be divided into six landscape zones, i. e., forest zone, forest-steppe transitional zone, agro-steppe mixed zone, typical steppe zone, steppe-desert transitional zone, and desert zone. As compared with the traditional schemes of physical geographical regionalization, our landscape regionalization could quickly regionalize the large scale landscape spatial differentiation in a quantitative way, and the regionalization results were basically in accordance with the original landscape characteristics and the landscape spatial differentiation pattern of the study area.