Identification of TNFA influencing MDD risk and clinical features in Han Chinese.

OBJECTIVE: Our recent genetic-neuroimaging study observed that the rs1799724 polymorphism within the TNFA gene encoding TNF-α selectively affects the anatomy of visual cortex in patients with MDD. In this study, we hypothesized that TNFA is risk factor to MDD, and TNFA rs1799724 polymorphism may be a susceptibility locus for this disorder and its clinical features. METHODS: We enrolled 807 MDD samples and 822 healthy volunteers in Eastern China. There were 104 drug-naïve first episode MDD patients recruited. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression -17 (HRSD-17) and Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) were performed to evaluate the severity of depressive symptoms and cognitive function, respectively. RESULTS: Patients with MDD have higher levels of TNFA than healthy controls (F = 20.78, P < 0.01). There were no significant differences in genotype or allele distributions of the rs1799724 polymorphism between the MDD and control groups. MDD patients with T/T or T/C genotypes of rs1799724 polymorphism have higher somatic factor and total scores of HAMD than those with C/C genotype. The patients with T/T or T/C genotypes have significantly higher TNFA mRNA levels than those with C/C genotype (F = 4.91, P = 0.029). CONCLUSION: Our findings supported that TNFA may have an important role in the pathophysiology of MDD. Although SNP rs1799724 is not an etiological factor for MDD in Han Chinese, this SNP may be associated with somatic symptom in patients with MDD.

Three cases of antibody-LGI1 limbic encephalitis and review of literature.

PURPOSE: Antibody-LGI1 limbic encephalitis (LGI1-Ab LE) is an anti-neuronal surface antigen-related autoimmune encephalitis. we report three cases of LGI1-Ab LE, describe the characteristics of clinical manifestation, course of evolution, imaging manifestation and treatment outcomes. METHODS: Data from patients diagnosed with LGI1-Ab LE in the Second Hospital, Hebei Medical University, from June 2016 to July 2017, were retrospectively collected and analyzed. We followed up the patients for 90 days. RESULTS: Two of the three patients were females, the average age of onset is 53 years old. Epilepsy is the most common clinical manifestations, and one of patients developed faciobrachial dystonic seizures (FBDS), which was recently described as a characteristic feature of LGI1-Ab LE. All patients had cognitive impairment in different degrees and abnormal signal of hippocampus in cranial MRI. All serum LGI1 antibodies were positive, whereas one LGI1 antibodies of CSF were negative. All patients accepted first-line immune therapy and had a good outcome. CONCLUSION: LGI1-Ab LE, which is an autoimmune disease, is rare clinically and mostly nonparaneoplastic. We suggest that LGI1-Ab LE be considered in any patient with acute or subacute onset, cognitive dysfunction , various types of seizures, accompanied by mental disorders and hyponatremia, MR showed the involvement of the limbic system. It is necessary to have LE-related antibodies tested. Early immunotherapy can significantly improve the patient's overall prognosis. At the same time, we should also pay attention to the possibility of potential tumors.

Association of Increased Remnant Cholesterol and the Risk of Coronary Artery Disease: A Retrospective Study.

Background and Aims: Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is the primary target of lipid-lowering therapy in coronary artery disease (CAD). But some patients with the normal levels of LDL-C still suffer from CAD progression and malignant outcomes (e.g., major adverse cardiovascular events [MACEs]), and the mechanism is unclear. The previous prospective studies demonstrated that the remnant cholesterol (RC) and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) were capable to predict the risk of CAD. This study evaluated the association between RC and non-HDL-C with the risk of CAD. Methods: In our study, 12,563 patients were enrolled. We categorized patients into four concordance/discordance groups according to the median of RC, LDL-C, and non-HDL-C. Then, we performed a propensity score matching (PSM) strategy. The unadjusted and adjusted multivariate logistic regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between the lipid concentrations. Results: In this study, 8,658 (68.9%) patients were male with a median age of 61 (54 and 67) years. The multivariate logistic regression showed the odds ratio (OR) of RC was 1.952 (CI = 1.276-2.988, p = 0.002). The OR of the low RC/high LDL-C group was 0.626 (CI = 0.504-0.778, p < 0.001) and the OR of the low RC/high non-HDL-C group was 0.574 (CI = 0.462-0.714, p < 0.001). The p-values for interaction between the RC and hypertension, diabetes were both < 0.001. Conclusion: Our study showed a significant association between the RC and CAD. The level of RC was more capable to reflect the risk of CAD than LDL-C and non-HDL-C. There was an interaction relationship between RC and age, gender, hypertension, diabetes, in CAD. But we did not find whether there was a relationship between the non-HDL-C and CAD.

Epidemiological analysis of single center of acute poisoning cases based on poisoning treatment platform.

ABSTRACT: To studied epidemiological characteristics of 493 cases of acute poisoning in Nantong city, Jiangsu province.Based on the analysis platform of poisoning treatment, adopted single center and prospective investigation method, analyzed data of acute poisoning patients from May 2015 to December 2018 in the second affiliated hospital of Nantong University.Among 493 patients with acute poisoning, men 227 (46.04%), women 266 (53.96%). Age ranged from 12 to 89 years old, average age 41.6 years. In the occupational distribution, farmers were 30.02%; 351 cases (71.20%) visited the hospital within 6 hours after exposure. Oral exposure poisoning 415 cases (84.18%). Pesticide poisoning accounted for 45.45% of deaths.Using the poisoning treatment platform to analyze the clinical characteristic had accurately and reliably in Nantong. The fatality rate of pesticide poisoning in cases of acute poisoning is high. Management of highly toxic pesticides should be continued and effective health education on pesticide use should be carried out.

A comprehensive analysis of GSK3B variation for schizophrenia in Han Chinese individuals.

Glycogen synthase kinase-3B (GSK-3B) is thought to be involved in numerous neuronal functions and is implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Interestingly, a functional polymorphism, rs3755557, in the GSK3B promoter region has been consistently reported to be a risk factor for schizophrenia in southwestern and northwestern Han Chinese individuals. In this study, we carried out a comprehensive analysis of the association of the rs3755557 polymorphism within GSK3B and schizophrenia in Han Chinese individuals. We recruited 782 patients with schizophrenia and 807 healthy controls from eastern China. In total, 143 drug-naïve patients with first-episode schizophrenia were enrolled for the evaluation of clinical features. We did not observe significant differences in genotype or allele distribution of the rs3755557 polymorphism between the schizophrenia and control groups in eastern Chinese individuals. After pooling these data of 2188 subjects with schizophrenia and 2885 healthy controls, we observed a significant difference in the A allele distribution of the rs3755557 polymorphism between schizophrenia patients and controls (Z = 4.13 P < 0.01). We further examined the relationship between the rs3755557 polymorphism and the clinical features of schizophrenia by comparing scores of the The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) with the genotypes of the rs3755557 polymorphism. There were significant differences in the scores of RBANS attention, delayed memory and total scores between the patients with the A allele and those without the A allele (P = 0.03, 0.01 and 0.01 after Bonferroni correction, respectively). Our eQTL analysis showed a significant association between the rs3755557 polymorphism and GSK3B expression in the hippocampus (P = 0.027). Our findings indicated that the rs3755557 polymorphism may confer susceptibility to schizophrenia and cognitive dysfunction in Han Chinese individuals.

[Synthesis and luminous characteristics of Y (P, V)O4: Eu3+ phosphors for PDP].

Y(P, V)O4 :Eu3+ phosphors with good morphology for plasma display panels have been prepared via coprecipitation reaction. The phosphor was characterized by SEM and photoluminescence under UV (325 nm)and VUV (147 nm) excitation. The emission spectra depending on temperature under 325 nm excitation by laser indicated that there exist energy transfer between VO4(3-) group and Eu3+ ion. Under 147 nm excitation, the most intense emission peaks of commercial (Y,Gd)BO3 :Eu3+ phosphor range around 593 nm, and those of Y(P, V)O4 :Eu3+ phosphors prepared by coprecipitation reaction ranged around 619 nm. The red emission color purity of Y(P, V)O4 :Eu3+ phosphor is much better than that of (Y,Gd)BO3: Eu3+, and its relative emission intensity is almost close to that of the commercial phosphor.

Reduced miR-31 and let-7 maintain the balance between differentiation and quiescence in lung cancer stem-like side population cells.

Recent studies have indicated that side population (SP) cells, which are an enriched source of cancer stem cells (CSCs), drive and maintain many types of human malignancies. SP cells have distinguishing biological characteristics and are thought to contribute to metastasis, therapy resistance, and tumor recurrence. In the present study, the miRNA expression profiles of SP cells and non-SP cells were compared using miRNA array analysis. Both let-7 and miR-31 were significantly down-regulated in SP cells compared to non-SP cells. The results were confirmed by real-time PCR. Engineered repression of miR-31 caused marked repression of both lung cancer SP cell and non-SP cell growth in vitro. In contrast, engineered repression of let-7 caused marked promotion of both lung cancer SP and non-SP cells growth in vitro. Cell cycle studies further revealed that reduced miR-31 could inhibit SP cell proliferation by a cell cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase, whereas reduced let-7 induced SP cell proliferation by accelerating G1/S phase transition. Notably, reduced miR-31 prevented SP cell differentiation, whereas reduced let-7 promoted SP cell differentiation under differentiation conditions. These findings indicate that reduced miR-31 and let-7 are involved in maintaining the balance between differentiation and quiescence in SP cells.