Virtual reality training improves accommodative facility and accommodative range.

AIM: To evaluate the effects of virtual reality (VR) training on different parameters of vision. METHODS: Sixty individuals ranged 18-60 years old with asthenopia were randomly divided into short-term (n=40) and long-term (n=20) treatment groups. They were given a specially designed VR training device only once for 15min or 3-4 times a day for 15min each time for 1mo. The visual acuity, spherical equivalent, accommodative range, accommodative facility, pupil size, and visual fatigue were evaluated before (control) and after VR training. RESULTS: The visual acuity, accommodative range, and accommodative facility increased in subjects of the short-term treatment group, whereas their pupil size contracted significantly. No significant changes in spherical equivalent and visual fatigue were observed. The changes in distant vision and corrected visual acuity were positively correlated with those in pupil size, but not with spherical equivalent. The accommodative range and accommodative facility improved significantly in subjects of the long-term treatment group. No significant changes in visual acuity, spherical equivalent, pupil size, and visual fatigue were noted. CONCLUSION: VR training can improve the accommodative range and accommodative facility of human eyes. Although short-term VR training can transiently improve vision, which probably due to bright light adaptation, there is no evidence that it can improve myopia.

Outcomes of 4 surgical adjuvants used for internal limiting membrane peeling in macular hole surgery: a systematic review and network Meta-analysis.

AIM: To compare the outcomes of four adjuvants used for internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling in macular hole surgery, including indocyanine green (ICG), brilliant blue G (BBG), triamcinolone (TA) and trypan blue (TB), through systematic review and random-effects Bayesian network Meta-analysis. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane library databases and Web of Science were searched until August 2018 for clinical trials comparing the above four adjuvants. ORs for postoperative best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) improvement and primary macular hole closure rates were compared between the different adjuvants. RESULTS: Twenty-seven eligible articles were included. For postoperative BCVA improvement, results of BBG-assisted peeling were significantly more favorable than those of ICG (WMD 0.08, 95% credible interval 0.01-0.16) and TA ranked highest. No significant differences were found between any other two groups in postoperative BCVA improvement. For postoperative primary macular hole closure rates, BBG ranked highest. However, no significant differences were shown between any two groups. CONCLUSION: TA and BBG are the optimum adjuvants for achieving postoperative BCVA improvement macular hole surgery with adjuvant-assisted ILM peeling. Among all adjuvants, the use of BBG is associated with the highest postoperative macular hole closure rate.

A Meta-analysis of the association between different genotypes (G11778A, T14484C and G3460A) of Leber hereditary optic neuropathy and visual prognosis.

AIM: To analyze the influences of different genotypes (G11778A, T14484C and G3460A) of Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) on visual prognosis. METHODS: After a systematic literature search, all relevant studies evaluating the association between the three primary mutations of LHON and visual prognosis were included. All statistical tests were calculated with Revman 5.2 and STATA 12.0. RESULTS: Ten independent studies were included finally. A significant association between the three primary mutations and prognostic vision over 0.3 were found in G11778A versus T14484C [odds ratio (OR)=0.10, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.05-0.17, P<0.001], G11778A versus G3460A (OR=0.18, 95%CI=0.09-0.37, P<0.001) and T14484C versus G3460A (OR=2.45, 95%CI=1.10-5.48, P<0.05). In addition, obtained by pairwise comparison, the vision during onset, age of onset and sex ratio of these three kinds of patients, have no statistical significance (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: From pairwise comparison, we conclude that these three different genotypes of LHON are related to patients' visual prognosis. The T14484C patients might have a best prognostic vision, G3460A second, and G11778A worst. And there is little relation between the three different genotypes and patients' vision, age of onset and sex ratio.

Production of functional native human interleukin-2 in tobacco chloroplasts.

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is an important T lymphocyte-derived cytokine in the mammalian immune system. Non-native, recombinant IL-2 derived from Escherichia coli is used widely in both medical research and treatment of diseases. Recombinant human IL-2 gene has been expressed in plant nuclear genomes, therefore it can be spread to the environment through pollen. Furthermore, all the plant-produced IL-2 reported thus far had been attached with artificial tags or fusion proteins, which may trigger unintended immunological responses and therefore compromise its full utility as a medicine. To expand the potential of using plant chloroplasts to produce functional native human therapeutic proteins, we inserted an engineered human interleukin-2 (hIL-2)-coding gene, without any tags, into the chloroplast genome of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.). Partially purified hIL-2 protein from the leaves of the transplastomic plants induced in vitro proliferation of IL-2-dependent murine T lymphocytes. Our study demonstrates that plant chloroplasts can serve as a bio-factory for production of an active native human interleukin in a self-contained and therefore environmentally safe manner.

[Clinical significance of mast cells and IL-9 in B-NHL].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of mast cells and interleukin-9 (IL-9) in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) development and its clinical significance. METHODS: The expression level of CD117 in tumor tissues of 32 B-NHL patients was determined by Western blot. The infiltration of CD117⁺ mast cells (MCs) in human B-NHL tumor tissues was observed by immunohistochemistry staining. To evaluate the correlations between the data from CD117⁺ MCs and biological markers of human B-NHL, a Spearman correlation coefficient (rs) was calculated. IL-9 levels in sera of B-NHL patients were measured by ELISA. Effects of IL-9 on expressions of functional genes of mouse bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) were detected by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. RESULTS: The expression of CD117 was upregulated significantly in human B-cell NHL involved tissues when compared with that of controls (0.0551±0.0064 vs 0.0192±0.0072, P<0.01). Infiltration of more CD117⁺ MCs was found in tissues from B-cell NHL subjects compared with that of controls. IL-9 level in serum samples from patients with B-cell NHL was higher than that from healthy controls. Addition of rIL-9 to the culture gave rise to increase in the purity of mouse BMMCs in the first three weeks. In vitro culture experiments showed that the addition of IL-9 could induce the differentiation of mouse BMMC and the expressions of MC-related genes, including CD117, Fcer1α, Mcpt1 and Mcpt5. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that IL-9 promoted immune response mediated by MCs, and probably played important roles in B-NHL growth. Pharmacological or targeted inhibition of mast cells or IL-9 activity may provide new strategy for B-cell NHL therapy.