Ordered assembly of the cytosolic RNA-sensing MDA5-MAVS signaling complex via binding to unanchored K63-linked poly-ubiquitin chains.

The RNA sensor MDA5 recruits the signaling adaptor MAVS to initiate type I interferon signaling and downstream antiviral responses, a process that requires K63-linked polyubiquitin chains. Here, we examined the mechanisms whereby K63-polyUb chain regulate MDA5 activation. Only long unanchored K63-polyUbn (n ≥ 8) could mediate tetramerization of the caspase activation and recruitment domains of MDA5 (MDA5CARDs). Cryoelectron microscopy structures of a polyUb13-bound MDA5CARDs tetramer and a polyUb11-bound MDA5CARDs-MAVSCARD assembly revealed a tower-like formation, wherein eight Ubs tethered along the outer rim of the helical shell, bridging MDA5CARDs and MAVSCARD tetramers into proximity. ATP binding and hydrolysis promoted the stabilization of RNA-bound MDA5 prior to MAVS activation via allosteric effects on CARDs-polyUb complex. Abundant ATP prevented basal activation of apo MDA5. Our findings reveal the ordered assembly of a MDA5 signaling complex competent to recruit and activate MAVS and highlight differences with RIG-I in terms of CARD orientation and Ub sensing that suggest different abilities to induce antiviral responses.

Hormone- and antibody-mediated activation of the thyrotropin receptor.

Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), through activation of its G-protein-coupled thyrotropin receptor (TSHR), controls the synthesis of thyroid hormone-an essential metabolic hormone1-3. Aberrant signalling of TSHR by autoantibodies causes Graves' disease (hyperthyroidism) and hypothyroidism, both of which affect millions of patients worldwide4. Here we report the active structures of TSHR with TSH and the activating autoantibody M225, both bound to the allosteric agonist ML-1096, as well as an inactivated TSHR structure with the inhibitory antibody K1-707. Both TSH and M22 push the extracellular domain (ECD) of TSHR into an upright active conformation. By contrast, K1-70 blocks TSH binding and cannot push the ECD into the upright conformation. Comparisons of the active and inactivated structures of TSHR with those of the luteinizing hormone/choriogonadotropin receptor (LHCGR) reveal a universal activation mechanism of glycoprotein hormone receptors, in which a conserved ten-residue fragment (P10) from the hinge C-terminal loop mediates ECD interactions with the TSHR transmembrane domain8. One notable feature is that there are more than 15 cholesterols surrounding TSHR, supporting its preferential location in lipid rafts9. These structures also highlight a similar ECD-push mechanism for TSH and autoantibody M22 to activate TSHR, therefore providing the molecular basis for Graves' disease.

Tr1 Cells Emerge and Suppress Effector Th17 Cells in Glomerulonephritis.

T regulatory type 1 (Tr1) cells, which are defined by their regulatory function, lack of Foxp3, and high expression of IL-10, CD49b, and LAG-3, are known to be able to suppress Th1 and Th17 in the intestine. Th1 and Th17 cells are also the main drivers of crescentic glomerulonephritis (GN), the most severe form of renal autoimmune disease. However, whether Tr1 cells emerge in renal inflammation and, moreover, whether they exhibit regulatory function during GN have not been thoroughly investigated yet. To address these questions, we used a mouse model of experimental crescentic GN and double Foxp3mRFP IL-10eGFP reporter mice. We found that Foxp3neg IL-10-producing CD4+ T cells infiltrate the kidneys during GN progression. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, we could show that these cells express the core transcriptional factors characteristic of Tr1 cells. In line with this, Tr1 cells showed a strong suppressive activity ex vivo and were protective in experimental crescentic GN in vivo. Finally, we could also identify Tr1 cells in the kidneys of patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated GN and define their transcriptional profile. Tr1 cells are currently used in several immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, such as T-cell therapy. Thus, our study provides proof of concept for Tr1 cell-based therapies in experimental GN.

Expected Eight-Week Prenatal Versus Twelve-Week Perinatal Tenofovir Alafenamide Prophylaxis to Prevent Mother-To-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus: A Multicenter, Prospective, Open-label, Randomized Controlled Trial.

INTRODUCTION: The course of maternal antiviral prophylaxis to prevent mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV-MTCT) varies greatly, and it has not been demonstrated in a randomized controlled study. METHODS: In this multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial, eligible pregnant women with HBV DNA of 5.3-9.0 log10 IU/mL who received tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF) from the first day of 33 gestational weeks to delivery (expected eight-week) or to four-week postpartum (expected twelve-week) were randomly enrolled at a 1:1 ratio and followed until six-month postpartum. All infants received standard immunoprophylaxis (hepatitis B immunoglobulin and vaccine). The primary endpoint was the safety of mothers and infants. The secondary endpoint was infants' HBV-MTCT rate at seven months of age. RESULTS: Among 119 and 120 intention-to-treat pregnant women, 115 and 116 women were followed until delivery, and 110 and 112 per-protocol mother-infant dyads in two groups completed the study. Overall, TAF was well tolerated, no one discontinued therapy due to adverse events (0/239, 0%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0%-1.6%), and no infant had congenital defects or malformations at delivery (0/231, 0%, 95% CI 0%-1.6%). The infants' physical development at birth (n=231) and at seven months (n=222) were normal. Furthermore, 97.0% (224/231, 95% CI 93.9%-98.5%) of women achieved HBV DNA <5.3 log10 IU/mL at delivery. The intention-to-treat and per-protocol infants' HBV-MTCT rates were 7.1% (17/239, 95% CI 4.5%-11.1%) and 0% (0/222, 95% CI 0%-1.7%) at seven months of age. Comparatively, 15.1% (18/119, 95% CI 9.8%-22.7%) versus 18.3% (22/120, 95% CI 12.4%-26.2%) of women in the two groups had mildly elevated alanine aminotransferase levels at three-month and six-month postpartum, respectively (P=0.507); notably, no one experienced alanine aminotransferase flare (0% [0/119, 95% CI 0%-3.1%] versus 0% [0/120, 0%-3.1%]). DISCUSSION: Maternal TAF prophylaxis to prevent HBV-MTCT is generally safe and effective, and expected eight-week prenatal duration is feasible. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04850950.

Allosteric Regulation and Inhibition of Coronavirus 3CLpro Revealed by HDX-MS.

Coronavirus (CoV) infections have caused contagious and fatal respiratory diseases in humans worldwide. CoV 3-chymotrypsin-like proteases (3CLpro or Mpro) play an important role in viral maturation, and maintenance of their dimeric conformation is crucial for viral activity. Therefore, allosterically regulated dimerization of 3CLpro can be employed as a drug development target. Here, we investigated the allosteric regulatory mechanism of 3CLpro dimerization by using hydrogen/deuterium exchange coupled with mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) technology. We found that the FLAG tag directly coupled to the N-finger of 3CLpro significantly increased HDX kinetics at the dimer interface, and 3CLpro transformed from a dimer to a monomer. The 3CLpro mutants of SARS-CoV-2, which are monomeric, also exhibited increased deuterium exchange. Binding of the allosteric inhibitor Gastrodenol to most betacoronavirus 3CLpros led to increased allosteric deuterium exchange, resulting in the monomeric conformation of the CoV 3CLpro upon binding. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation analysis further indicated the molecular mechanism of action of Gastrodenol on CoV 3CLpro: binding of Gastrodenol to SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro destroyed the hydrogen bond in the dimer interface. These results suggest that Gastrodenol may be a potential broad-spectrum anti-betacoronavirus drug.

Spinal histamine H4 receptor mediates chronic pruritus via p-ERK in acetone-ether-water (AEW)-induced dry skin mice.

Dry skin is common to many pruritic diseases and is difficult to improve with oral traditional antihistamines. Recently, increasing evidence indicated that histamine H4 receptor (H4R) plays an important role in the occurrence and development of pruritus. Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation activation in the spinal cord mediates histamine-induced acute and choric itch. However, whether the histamine H4 receptor regulates ERK activation in the dry skin itch remains unclear. In the study, we explore the role of the histamine H4 receptor and p-ERK in the spinal cord in a dry skin mouse model induced by acetone-ether-water (AEW). q-PCR, Western blot, pharmacology and immunofluorescence  were applied in the study. We established a dry skin itch model by repeated application of AEW on the nape of neck in mice. The AEW mice showed typically dry skin histological change and persistent spontaneous scratching behaviour. Histamine H4 receptor, instead of histamine H1 receptor, mediated spontaneous scratching behaviour in AEW mice. Moreover, c-Fos and p-ERK expression in the spinal cord neurons were increased and co-labelled with GRPR-positive neurons in AEW mice. Furthermore, H4R agonist 4-methyhistamine dihydrochloride (4-MH)induced itch. Both 4-MH-induced itch and the spontaneous itch in AEW mice were blocked by p-ERK inhibitor U0126. Finally, intrathecal H4R receptor antagonist JNJ7777120 inhibited spinal p-ERK expression in AEW mice. Our results indicated that spinal H4R mediates itch via ERK activation in the AEW-induced dry skin mice.

Yeast Prion Protein Sup35 Initiates α-Synuclein Pathology in Parkinson's Disease.

Sinus infection of Saccharomyces cerevisiae accelerates the aggregation of α-synuclein (α-syn) in A53T mice, which was caused by prion protein Sup35. Sup35 promotes α-syn aggregation in vitro and in vivo and leads to Parkinson's disease (PD)-like motor impairment in wildtype mice, suggesting that the yeast Sup35 triggers α-syn pathology in PD.

Targeting Monocyte Derived CCL17 Attenuates Murine Crescentic Glomerulonephritis by Affecting Renal CCR4+ Regulatory T-Cell Recruitment.

INTRODUCTION: The chemokine receptor CCR4 is expressed by diverse CD4+ T cell subsets including regulatory T cells (Tregs) but its functional importance for leukocyte recruitment and the relevance of its two corresponding chemokines CCL17 and CCL22 have not been studied in immune-mediated crescentic glomerulonephritis (cGN). METHODS: Utilizing the single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) data in analyzing leukocytes isolated from both human and murine nephritic kidneys, we identified CCL17 as a potential therapeutic target in immune-mediated renal disease. Using a mouse model of murine cGN, we then delineated the effects of targeting CCL17 by neutralizing antibodies and in Ccl17 gene-deficient mice. RESULTS: Unsupervised scRNAseq analyses identified the CCL17-CCR4 axis as a mechanism potentially involved in renal T-cell migration. Analyses of functional kidney impairment and histopathological kidney damage revealed an attenuation of crescentic GN in anti-CCL17 antibody-treated mice which was corroborated using in Ccl17 gene-deficient mice. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that these changes were accompanied by an affected renal Treg recruitment in both experimental approaches. CONCLUSION: The chemokine receptor CCR4 and its corresponding chemokine CCL17 are expressed in human and murine cGN and targeting the CCR4-CCL17 axis by neutralizing antibodies as well as Ccl17 gene deficiency led to increased renal Treg recruitment and reduced histological and functional kidney damage in murine cGN.

In Situ Creation of Surface Defects on Pd@NiPd with Core-shell Hierarchical Structure Toward Boosting Electrocatalytic Activity.

A deep insight into surface structural evolution of the catalyst is a challenging issue to reveal the structure-activity relationship. In this contribution, based on a surface alloying strategy, the dual-functional Pd@NiPd catalyst with a unique core-shell hierarchical structure is developed through selective crystal growth, surface cocrystallization, directional self-assembly, and reduction process. The surface defects are created in situ on the outer NiPd alloy layer in the electrochemical redox processes, which endow the Pd@NiPd catalyst with excellent electrocatalytic activity of hydrogen generation reaction (HER) and oxygen generation reaction (OER) in alkaline media. The optimal Pd@NiPd-2 catalyst requires an overpotential of only 18 mV that is far lower than Pt/C benchmark (43 mV) at the current density of 10 mA cm-2 for the HER, and 210 mV that is far lower than RuO2 benchmark (430 mV) at 50 mA cm-2 for the OER. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the outstanding electrocatalytic activity is originated from the creation of surface defect structure that induces a significant reduction in the adsorption and dissociation energy barriers of H2O molecules in the HER and a decrease in the conversion energy from O* to OOH* that resulted from the synergy of two adjacent Pd sites by forming O-bridge. This work affords a typical paradigm for exploiting efficient catalysts and investigating the dependence of electrocatalytic activity on the surface structural evolution.

Gut microbiota-induced CXCL1 elevation triggers early neuroinflammation in the substantia nigra of Parkinsonian mice.

Gut microbiota disturbance and systemic inflammation have been implicated in the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's disease (PD). How the alteration of gut microbiota results in neuropathological events in PD remains elusive. In this study, we explored whether and how environmental insults caused early neuropathological events in the substantia nigra (SN) of a PD mouse model. Aged (12-month-old) mice were orally administered rotenone (6.25 mg·kg-1·d-1) 5 days per week for 2 months. We demonstrated that oral administration of rotenone to ageing mice was sufficient to establish a PD mouse model and that microglial activation and iron deposition selectively appeared in the SN of the mice prior to loss of motor coordination and dopaminergic neurons, and these events could be fully blocked by microglial elimination with a PLX5622-formulated diet. 16 S rDNA sequencing analysis showed that the gut microbiota in rotenone-treated mice was altered, and mice receiving faecal microbial transplantation (FMT) from ageing mice treated with rotenone for 2 months exhibited the same pathology in the SN. We demonstrated that C-X-C motif chemokine ligand-1 (CXCL1) was an essential molecule, as intravenous injection of CXCL1 mimicked almost all the pathology in serum and SN induced by oral rotenone and FMT. Using metabolomics and transcriptomics analyses, we identified the PPAR pathway as a key pathway involved in rotenone-induced neuronal damage. Inhibition of the PPARγ pathway was consistent in the above models, whereas its activation by linoleic acid (60 mg·kg-1·d-1, i.g. for 1 week) could block these pathological events in mice intravenously injected with CXCL1. Altogether, these results reveal that the altered gut microbiota resulted in neuroinflammation and iron deposition occurring early in the SN of ageing mice with oral administration of rotenone, much earlier than motor symptoms and dopaminergic neuron loss. We found that CXCL1 plays a crucial role in this process, possibly via PPARγ signalling inhibition. This study may pave the way for understanding the "brain-gut-microbiota" molecular regulatory networks in PD pathogenesis. The aged C57BL/6 male mice with rotenone intragastric administration showed altered gut microbiota, which caused systemic inflammation, PPARγ signalling inhibition and neuroinflammation, brain iron deposition and ferroptosis, and eventually dopaminergic neurodegeneration in PD.

IKK1 aggravates ischemia-reperfusion kidney injury by promoting the differentiation of effector T cells.

Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is one of the major causes of acute kidney injury (AKI), and experimental work has revealed detailed insight into the inflammatory response in the kidney. T cells and NFκB pathway play an important role in IRI. Therefore, we examined the regulatory role and mechanisms of IkappaB kinase 1 (IKK1) in CD4+T lymphocytes in an experimental model of IRI. IRI was induced in CD4cre and CD4IKK1Δ mice. Compared to control mice, conditional deficiency of IKK1 in CD4+T lymphocyte significantly decreased serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level, and renal tubular injury score. Mechanistically, lack in IKK1 in CD4+T lymphocytes reduced the ability of CD4 lymphocytes to differentiate into Th1/Th17 cells. Similar to IKK1 gene ablation, pharmacological inhibition of IKK also protected mice from IRI. Together, lymphocyte IKK1 plays a pivotal role in IRI by promoting T cells differentiation into Th1/Th17 and targeting lymphocyte IKK1 may be a novel therapeutic strategy for IRI.

Percutaneous nephrolithotomy guided by 5G-powered robot-assisted teleultrasound diagnosis system: first clinical experience with a novel tele-assistance approach (IDEAL stage 1).

BACKGROUND: To demonstrate the technical feasibility of percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) guided by 5G-powered robot-assisted teleultrasound diagnosis system (RTDS) in a complex kidney-stone (CKS) cohort and present our preliminary outcomes. PCNL is highly skill-required, which hinders it popularization in primary medical units of remote regions. We designed an innovative tele-assistance approach to make PCNL easy to be operated by inexperienced surgeons. METHODS: This was a prospective proof-of-concept study (IDEAL phase 1) on intraoperative tele-assistance provided by online urological experts via a 5G-powered RTDS. Total 15 CKS patients accepted this technology. Online experts manipulated a simulated probe to assist unskilled local operators by driving a patient-side robot-probe to guide and monitor the steps of access establishment and finding residual stones. RESULTS: Median total delay was 177ms despite one-way network-connecting distance > 5,800 km. No perceptible delay of audio-visual communication, driving robot-arm or dynamic ultrasound images was fed back. Successful tele-assistance was obtained in all cases. The first-puncture access-success rate was 78.6% with a one-session SF rate of 71.3% and without complications of grade III-V. CONCLUSIONS: The current technology based on 5G-powered RTDS can provide high-quality intraoperative tele-assistance, which has preliminarily shown satisfactory outcomes and reliable safety. It will break down a personal competence-based barrier to endow PCNL with more popular utilization. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was approved by ethics committee of the Xinjiang Kezhou People's Hospital and ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and was registered on http://www.chictr.org.cn (ChiCTR2200065849, 16/11/2022).

Systematic evaluation of vertebral bone quality score as an opportunistic screening method for BMD in spine surgery patients.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the predictive value of vertebral bone quality (VBQ) score for low BMD and osteoporosis. Furthermore, we sought to enhance diagnostic effectiveness by integrating VBQ with easily accessible patient-specific factors. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data from 180 patients. VBQ was obtained by preoperative MRI. Low BMD was classified as meeting the standards for either osteopenia or osteoporosis. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and multivariate logistic regression were used to detect the ability of variables to assess BMD. The z-test was used to compare the area under the curves of different variables. RESULTS: VBQ was more effective in identifying low BMD than osteoporosis (AUC, 0.768 vs. 0.613, p = 0.02). Elevated VBQ (OR 6.912, 95% CI 2.72-17.6) and low BMI (0.858, 0.76-0.97) were risk factors for low BMD, while the risk factor for osteoporosis was age (1.067, 1.02-1.12), not VBQ. ROC analysis showed that AUCs were 0.613 for VBQ and 0.665 for age when screening for osteoporosis. The combined variable of VBQ, sex, age, and BMI obtained by logistic regression significantly improved the efficacy of BMD screening, with an AUC of 0.824 for low BMD and 0.733 for osteoporosis. CONCLUSION: VBQ is better at detecting low BMD than identifying osteoporosis. The ability of VBQ to predict osteoporosis is limited, and a similar diagnostic efficacy can be achieved with age. Incorporating VBQ alongside demographic data enhances the efficiency of BMD assessment. With the development of artificial intelligence in medicine, this simple method is promising.

Analysis of Clinical Outcome and Prognosis of C-reactive Protein Combined with Albumin in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction.

Objective: This study aims to assess the combined predictive value of C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin (ALB) for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods: We analyzed data from continuously enrolled AMI patients who underwent emergency PCI at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University over six years, employing logistic regression to derive a predictive equation for in-hospital mortality and out-of-hospital MACE events. Primary endpoints: In-hospital death and out-of-hospital major adverse cardiovascular events. The patients were followed up for 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after discharge. The average follow-up time was 41 months. Results: Among the 601 patients studied, we observed 16 in-hospital deaths and 131 out-of-hospital MACE events. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the independent predictors of out-of-hospital MACE events were age (OR=1.067, 95% CI 1.013-1.124, P = .028), C-reactive protein (OR=1.012, 95% CI 1.000-1.025, P = .045) and albumin (OR=0.874, 95% CI 0.785-0.973, P = .014). Our multivariate logistic regression analysis identified age, CRP, and albumin as independent predictors, with the combined equation yielding an ROC curve area of 0.85, effectively stratifying patients into high-risk and low-risk groups. Subsequent follow-up results validated this risk stratification approach. Conclusion: The study underscores the efficacy of combining CRP and albumin levels as a predictive measure for in-hospital death and out-of-hospital MACE events in AMI patients post-PCI.

Long-Term Field Application of a Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacterial Consortium Suppressed Root-Knot Disease by Shaping the Rhizosphere Microbiota.

Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) are one of the most economically important plant parasitic nematodes, infecting almost all cultivated plants and resulting in severe yield losses every year. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been extensively used to prevent and control root-knot diseases and increase yield. In this study, the effect of a consortium of three PGPR strains (Bacillus cereus AR156, B. subtilis SM21, and Serratia sp. XY21; hereafter "BBS") on root-knot disease of cucumber was evaluated. The application of BBS significantly reduced the severity of root-knot disease by 56 to 72%, increased yield by 36 to 55%, and improved fruit quality by 14 to 90% and soil properties by 1 to 90% relative to the control in the cucumber fields of the Nanjing suburb, Jiangsu Province, from 2015 to 2018. BBS altered the rhizosphere bacterial community. Compared with the control group, it significantly (false discovery rate, P < 0.05) increased the abundance of 14 bacterial genera that were negatively correlated with disease severity. Additionally, the redundancy analysis suggested that BBS-treated rhizosphere soil samples were dominated by disease-suppressive bacteria, including the genera Iamia, Kutzneria, Salinibacterium, Mycobacterium, Kribbella, Pseudonocardia, Sporichthya, Sphaerisporangium, Actinomadura, Flavisolibacter, Phenylobacterium, Bosea, Hyphomicrobium, Agrobacterium, Sphingomonas, and Nannocystis, which were positively related to total organic carbon, total nitrogen, total organic matter, dissolved organic carbon, [Formula: see text]-N, and available phosphorus contents. This suggests that BBS suppresses root-knot nematodes and improves the soil chemical properties of cucumber by altering the rhizosphere microbial community.

A Novel Nasal Endoscopy-Assisted Method for Sealing Cerebrospinal Fluid Rhinorrhea.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhea is one of the most common complications after trans-sphenoidal surgery. At present, transcranial or endoscopic surgery for CSF leakage requires general anesthesia to remove autologous fat or fascia to repair the leak, which is traumatic and costly. The authors present a case of a 25-year-old male patient with pituitary adenoma who experienced CSF rhinorrhea 10 days after undergoing endoscopic resection of the tumor. The authors innovatively sequential filled the leak with a gelatin sponge soaked in povidone-iodine solution and iodinated gauze under outpatient nasal endoscopy. The follow-up of 6 months showed no recurrence of CSF leakage. CSF leakage is the most common complication of trans-sphenoidal surgery. The authors suggest that for small cerebrospinal fluid leaks in the early stage after trans-sphenoidal surgery, the leakage should be first filled with gelatin sponge and iodoform gauze sequentially under outpatient nasal endoscopy, which may achieve a complete cure.

Small-molecule probes from bench to bedside: advancing molecular analysis of drug-target interactions toward precision medicine.

Over the past decade, remarkable advances have been witnessed in the development of small-molecule probes. These molecular tools have been widely applied for interrogating proteins, pathways and drug-target interactions in preclinical research. While novel structures and designs are commonly explored in probe development, the clinical translation of small-molecule probes remains limited, primarily due to safety and regulatory considerations. Recent synergistic developments - interfacing novel chemical probes with complementary analytical technologies - have introduced and expedited diverse biomedical opportunities to molecularly characterize targeted drug interactions directly in the human body or through accessible clinical specimens (e.g., blood and ascites fluid). These integrated developments thus offer unprecedented opportunities for drug development, disease diagnostics and treatment monitoring. In this review, we discuss recent advances in the structure and design of small-molecule probes with novel functionalities and the integrated development with imaging, proteomics and other emerging technologies. We further highlight recent applications of integrated small-molecule technologies for the molecular analysis of drug-target interactions, including translational applications and emerging opportunities for whole-body imaging, tissue-based measurement and blood-based analysis.

Comparing microstructural and micromechanical deformation of the TMJ disc in two anterior disc displacement models.

OBJECTIVE: Anterior disc displacement (ADD) has been used to establish temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) models. Based on whether preserve of the retrodiscal attachment, the modelling methodologies include ADD with dissecting the retrodiscal attachment (ADDwd) and ADD without dissecting the retrodiscal attachment (ADDwod). This article aims to determine which model better matches the micromechanical and microstructural progression of TMD. METHODS: Through meticulous microscopic observations, the microstructure and micromechanical deformation of the TMJ discs in ADDwd and ADDwod rabbit models were compared at 2 and 20 weeks. RESULT: Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy showed that collagen fibres became slenderized and straightened, collagen fibrils lost diameter and arrangement in the ADDwd group at 2 weeks. Meanwhile, nanoindentation and atomic electron microscopy showed that the micro- and nano- mechanical properties decreased dramatically. However, the ADDwod group exhibited no significant microstructure and micromechanical deformations at 2 weeks. Dissection of the retrodiscal attachment contribute in the acceleration of disease progression at the early stage, the devastating discal phenotype remained fundamentally the same within the two models at 20 weeks. CONCLUSION: ADDwod models, induced stable and persistent disc deformation, therefore, can better match the progression of TMD. While ADDwd models can be considered for experiments which aim to obtain advanced phenotype in a short time.

[Application of convolutional neural networks for the classification of metaphase chromosomes].

OBJECTIVE: To train a deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) using a labeled data set to classify the metaphase chromosomes and test its accuracy for chromosomal identification. METHODS: Three thousand and three hundred individuals undergoing surveillance for chromosomal disorders at the Laboratory for Comprehensive Prevention and Treatment of Birth Defects, Ningbo Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital from January 2013 to July 2019 were enrolled. A total of 3 300×46 chromosome images were included, of which 70% were used as the training set and 30% were used as the test set for the deep CNN. The accuracy of chromosome counting and "cutting + recognition + arrangement + automatic analysis" of the model were respectively evaluated. Another 80 images were collected to record the time and accuracy of chromosome classification by geneticists and the model, respectively, so as to assess the practical value of the model. RESULTS: The CNN model was used to count the chromosomes with an accuracy of 61.81%, and the "cutting + recognition + arrangement + automatic analysis" accuracy of the model was 96.16%. Compared with manual operation, the classification time of the CNN model has been greatly reduced, and its karyotyping accuracy was only 3.58% lower than that of geneticists. CONCLUSION: The CNN model has a high performance for chromosome classification and can significantly reduce the work load involved with the segmentation and classification and improve the efficiency of chromosomal karyotyping, thereby has a broad application prospect.

Non-pharmacological interventions for reducing dental anxiety in pediatric dentistry: a network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Child dental anxiety is a prevalent issue in the field of pediatric dentistry. At present, several non-pharmacological interventions are employed to mitigate anxiety during dental treatments for children. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of diverse non-pharmacological interventions in reducing dental anxiety, as well as enhancing heart rate during pediatric dental treatments. To achieve this, we conducted a systematic review and a network meta-analysis (NMA) to compare the efficacy of various outcome indicators. METHODS: A thorough search was conducted in the databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus, APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, and AMED to identify all eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from the beginning of the databases up to August 1, 2024. The quality assessment was carried out using the Cochrane Collaboration's bias risk tool. The two outcome measures under consideration were dental anxiety and heart rate. Network graphs, league tables and SUCRA were constructed using R 4.2.3 software and Stata 16 software. This study is registered in PROSPERO under the registration number CRD42023467610. RESULTS: The study examined 12 different non-pharmacological approaches, drawing from a pool of 61 research studies involving 6,113 participants aged 4 to 16 years. The results of the network meta-analysis revealed that music (SUCRAs: 93.60%) proved to be the most effective measure in mitigating dental anxiety, followed by aromatherapy (SUCRAs: 78.58%) and game (SUCRAs: 70.99%). Moreover, hypnosis (SUCRAs: 98.80%), music (SUCRAs: 79.58%), and relaxation (SUCRAs: 72.41%) were identified as the top three interventions for decreasing heart rate. CONCLUSION: In this NMA, when contemplating dental anxiety outcomes, music is recommended as a priority. For heart rate outcomes, hypnosis may be a preferred measure. However, owing to the limited number of articles, the conclusion of this study still requires additional confirmation or correction through more high-quality primary studies in the future.