T-cell exhaustion: A potential target biomarker of the tumour microenvironment affecting oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is one of the most common malignant tumours, and the number of patients is increasing year by year. T-cell exhaustion (TEX) is an important risk factor for tumour immunosuppression and invasion, but its underlying mechanism in the pathogenesis of EAC is not clear. METHODS: Unsupervised clustering was performed to screen relevant genes based on Gene Set Variation Analysis scores of the three pathways of the HALLMARK gene set IL2/IFNG/TNFA. Multiple enrichment analyses and data combinations were used to depict the relationship between TEX-related risk models and CIBERSORTx immune infiltrating cells. In addition, to explore the impact of TEX on EAC therapeutic resistance, we assessed the impact of TEX risk models on the therapeutic sensitivity of various novel drugs using single-cell sequencing and searched for their potential therapeutic targets and cellular communication. RESULTS: Four risk clusters of EAC patients were identified by unsupervised clustering and searched for potential TEX-related genes. Based on this, LASSO regression and decision trees were used to construct risk prognostic models containing a total of three TEX-associated genes in EAC. The results showed that TEX risk scores were significantly associated with the survival prognosis of EAC patients in both the Cancer Genome Atlas dataset and the independent validation set of Gene Expression Omnibus. Immune infiltration and cell communication analyses identified mast cell resting as a protective factor in TEX, and pathway enrichment analyses showed that the TEX risk model was highly associated with multiple chemokines as well as inflammation-associated pathways. In addition, higher TEX risk scores were associated with a weak responsiveness to immunotherapy. CONCLUSION: We describe the immune infiltration, prognostic significance and potential possible mechanisms of TEX in the EAC patient population. This is a novel attempt to promote the development of novel therapeutic modalities and immunological target construction for oesophageal adenocarcinoma. It is expected to make a potential contribution to advancing the exploration of immunological mechanisms and the opening of target drugs in EAC.

HLA-DQ genotype distribution and risk evaluation of celiac disease in Northwest China.

BACKGROUND: Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune small bowel disease. Genetic susceptibility for CD is mainly determined by the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQ haplotypes. The risk of CD conferred by HLA genotypes varies geographically and across populations, however, this has not yet been documented in Chinese patients with CD. AIMS: To investigate the distribution of HLA-DQ and the related risks of CD development in Northwest China. METHODS: A total of 75 CD patients and 300 healthy individuals were genotyped for HLA-DQ using the Illumina NextSeq, and the relative risks of the different genotypes were evaluated. RESULTS: In total, 68.00% of CD patients and 21.00% of controls carried HLA-DQ2.5 heterodimers (p < 0.001). We identified four CD risk gradients. Individuals carrying a double dose of DQB1*02 had the highest risk of developing CD (1:16); however, with heterozygosis (DQB1*02:02/DQB1*02:01) having the highest risk (1:9). HLA-DQ2.5 individuals with a single copy of HLA-DQB1*02, in either the cis or trans configuration, were at a medium risk (1:38). Non-DQ2.5 carriers of DQ8 or DQ2.2 were at low risk, while only carriers of DQ7.5 or DQX.5 were at very low risk. Patients with the HLA-DQ2.5 genotype had more severe mucosal damage compared with the HLA-DQ2.5 genotype negative CD patients (70.59% vs. 41.67%, p = 0.016). CONCLUSION: Genetic susceptibility to CD is highly prevalent in the Northwest Chinese population and the highest risk of developing CD was associated with the DQ2.5/DQ2.2 genotype. The DQ2.5 allele is involved in the severity of mucosal injury.

Facile Preparation of CuS Nanoparticles from the Interfaces of Hydrophobic Ionic Liquids and Water.

In this work, a two-phase system composed of hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL) and water phases was introduced to prepare copper sulfide (CuS) nanoparticles. It was found that CuS particles generated from the interfaces of carboxyl-functionalized IL and sodium sulfide (Na2S) aqueous solution were prone to aggregate into nanoplates and those produced from the interfaces of carboxyl-functionalized IL and thioacetamide (TAA) aqueous solution tended to aggregate into nanospheres. Both the CuS nanoplates and nanospheres exhibited a good absorption ability for ultraviolet and visible light. Furthermore, the CuS nanoplates and nanospheres showed highly efficient photocatalytic activity in degrading rhodamine B (RhB). Compared with the reported CuS nanostructures, the CuS nanoparticles prepared in this work could degrade RhB under natural sunlight irradiation. Finally, the production of CuS from the interfaces of hydrophobic IL and water phases had the advantages of mild reaction conditions and ease of operation.

Risk factor of postoperative adverse events among children with duplex kidney undergoing upper pole heminephrectomy: a single-center experience.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors for postoperative adverse events in children with duplex kidney undergoing upper pole heminephrectomy. Methods: We collected clinical data from pediatric patients with duplex kidney who underwent upper pole heminephrectomy. Based on the presence or absence of postoperative adverse events, the patients were divided into two groups: an adverse events group (n = 16) and a non- adverse events group (n = 37), using multivariate logistic regression analysis to screen for independent risk factors for postoperative adverse events. Results: Through univariate and multivariate analysis, we found that the presence of upper renal ureterocele (P = 0.042, OR = 7.116, 95% CI 1.073-47.172), as well as the presence of accessory renal artery type (P = 0.016, OR = 10.639, 95% CI 1.551-72.978) and other types (P = 0.039, OR = 3.644, 95% CI 0.351-37.836) as the upper kidney's blood supply artery increase the risk of postoperative adverse events, with these differences being statistically significant. Conclusions: In pediatric patients with duplex kidney undergoing upper pole heminephrectomy, the presence of upper renal ureterocele and the presence of accessory renal artery type and other types as the upper kidney's blood supply artery are independent risk factors for postoperative adverse events.

A comparison study of aliphatic and aromatic structure directing agents influencing the crystal and electronic structures, and properties of iodoplumbate hybrids: water induced structure conversion and visible light photocatalytic properties.

The introduction of the aliphatic amines en (ethylenediamine), aep (N-(2-aminoethyl)piperazine) and tepa (tetraethylenepentamine), and the aromatic species 2,2'-bipy (2,2'-bipyridine) and dpe (1,2-di(4-pyridyl)ethylene) as structure directing agents (SDAs) into inorganic iodoplumbates affords six hybrids, namely [(Hen)4(H2.5O)2I](PbI6) (1), Cs2n[Pb3I8(en)2]n (2), (H3tepa)n(PbI5)n (3), (H2aep)n(PbI4)n (4), (Et22,2'-bipy)n(Pb2I6)n (5) and (Et2dpe)n(Pb2I6)n (6). 1 contains a discrete octahedral (PbI6)(4-) anion generated under the direction of a novel co-template, [(Hen)4(H2.5O)2I](4+). 2 contains inorganic Cs(+) ions and a novel hybrid anionic layer [Pb3I8(en)2]n(2n-) that has never been encountered in iodoplumbate hybrids. 3 features a zigzag (PbI5)(3-) chain with the charge being compensated by a triprotonated tepa cation. 4 is composed of perovskite sheets of lead(ii) octahedra and aep cations that are generated from tepa via an unprecedented in situ ligand reaction. Both 5 and 6 have (Pb2I6)n(2n-) chains and represent the first example of introducing a 2,2'-bipy or dpe derivative cation in iodoplumbate hybrids, respectively. The comparative study reveals that aliphatic amines and aromatic species contribute differently to the crystal and electronic structures, and the properties of the hybrids. Importantly, 1-4 exhibit interesting water induced structure conversions, while 5 and 6 can be used as heterogeneous photocatalysts for dye wastewater treatment under visible light irradiation.