Exploring the relationship between immune heterogeneity characteristic genes of rheumatoid arthritis and acute myeloid leukemia.

BACKGROUND: People with autoimmune diseases are prone to cancer, and there is a close relationship between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The bone marrow (BM) is affected throughout the course of RA, with a variety of hematologic involvement. Hopes are pinned on rheumatoid arthritis research to obtain BM biomarkers for AML. METHODS: Synovial transcriptome sequencing data for RA and osteoarthritis (OA), and single-cell sequencing data for RA and controls were obtained from the GEO database.Bone marrow sequencing data for AML patients and normal subjects were obtained from the UCSC Xena database. The final immune heterogeneity characteristics of RA were determined through ssGSEA analysis, gene differential expression analysis, fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm, and XGboost algorithm. Random Ferns classifiers (RFs) are used to identify new bone marrow markers for AML. RESULTS: SELL, PTPRC, IL7R, CCR7, and KLRB1 were able to distinguish leukemia cells from normal cells well, with AUC values higher than 0.970. CONCLUSION: Genes characterizing the immune heterogeneity of RA are associated with AML, and KLRBA may be a potential target for AML treatment.

Metal ion stimulation-related gene signatures correlate with clinical and immunologic characteristics of glioma.

Background: Environmental factors serve as one of the important pathogenic factors for gliomas. Yet people focus only on the effect of electromagnetic radiation on its pathogenicity, while metals in the environment are neglected. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between metal ion stimulation and the clinical characteristics and immune status of GM patients. Methods: Firstly, mRNA expression profiles of GM patients and normal subjects were obtained from Chinese GM Genome Atlas (CGGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) to identify differentially expressed metal ion stimulation-related genes(DEMISGs). Secondly, two molecular subtypes were identified and validated based on these DEMISGs using consensus clustering. Diagnostic and prognostic models for GM were constructed after screening these features based on machine learning. Finally, supervised classification and unsupervised clustering were combined to classify and predict the grade of GM based on SHAP values. Results: GM patients are divided into two different response states to metal ion stimulation, M1 and M2, which are related to the grade and IDH status of the GM. Six genes with diagnostic value were obtained: SLC30A3, CRHBP, SYT13, DLG2, CDK1, and WNT5A. The AUC in the external validation set was higher than 0.90. The SHAP value improves the performance of classification prediction. Conclusion: The gene features associated with metal ion stimulation are related to the clinical and immune characteristics of transgenic patients. XGboost/LightGBM Kmeans has a higher classification prediction accuracy in predicting glioma grades compared to using purely supervised classification techniques.

Polarization-Multiplexed High-Throughput AOTF-Based Spectral Imaging System.

Spectral imaging detection using acousto-optical tunable filters (AOTFs) faces a significant challenge of low throughput due to the traditional design that only receives a single polarization light. To overcome this issue, we propose a novel polarization multiplexing design and eliminate the need for crossed polarizers in the system. Our design allows for simultaneous collection of ±1 order light from the AOTF device, resulting in a more than two-fold increase in system throughput. Our analysis and experimental results validate the effectiveness of our design in improving system throughput and enhancing the imaging signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by approximately 8 dB. In addition, AOTF devices used in polarization multiplexing applications require optimized crystal geometry parameter design that does not follow the parallel tangent principle. This paper proposes an optimization strategy for arbitrary AOTF devices which can achieve similar spectral effects. The implications of this work are significant for target detection applications.

Blood pressure and noncommunicable diseases in middle-aged and older adults in China.

BACKGROUND: There are few studies examining the association between blood pressure (BP) and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in consideration of the new hypertension guidelines in China. METHODS: Data were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. 14 390 eligible participants (aged 45 years and older) were selected through four-stage, stratified, and cluster sampling. Hypertension was considered as a mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) of 130 mm Hg (old definition: 140 mm Hg) or higher, a mean diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of 80 mm Hg (old definition: 90 mm Hg) or higher or taking anti-hypertensive medication. Cochran-Armitage trend test and logistic regression analyses were conducted to test the association between BP level and NCDs. RESULTS: The prevalence of hypertension based on the latest definition was 56.35% (while by old definition: 42.75%). The awareness, treatment, and control among hypertensive participants were 38.62% (51.18%), 43.10% (56.81%), and 9.91% (13.06%), respectively. An increasing rate of NCDs (diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and memory-related disease) among participants were found with the ascending of BP level. After adjusted for demographics and behavioral risks, the following 3 NCDs had been shown to correlate with hypertension: diabetes (adjusted OR 1.15, 0.91-1.45 for elevated BP; 1.20, 0.97-1.49 for hypertension stage 1; 1.55, 1.28-1.86 hypertension stage 2), heart disease (0.94, 0.79-1.12; 1.05, 0.90-1.22; 1.28, 1.12-1.47), and stroke (1.77, 1.25-2.51; 1.32, 0.93-1.87; 1.85, 1.37-2.49). CONCLUSIONS: The association between hypertension and the risk of NCDs is of concern in China. The combined efforts on NCDs prevention and lowered blood pressure should be made by nationally integrated strategies, especially in middle-aged and older adults.

Hypertension and physical activity in middle-aged and older adults in China.

There are few studies examining the association between levels of physical activity and hypertension in middle-aged and older adults in China. Data were drawn from the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (using four-stage stratified probability-proportional-to-size sampling), involving 7113 individuals aged 45 years and older from 28 provinces of China. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥ 130 mm Hg, or diastolic BP ≥ 80 mm Hg, or self-reported use of anti-hypertensive medications. The awareness, treatment, and control among hypertensive participants were 53.12%, 43.37%, and 10.03%, respectively. The prevalence of hypertension was 56.12% among all the participants, higher in main city zones (58.68%) than villages (55.52%) and other areas (55.78%, p < 0.0001). Participants who were overweight (BMI ≥ 24: AOR 4.08, 95% CI 3.21-5.20, P < 0.0001; BMI ≥ 28: 10.03, 7.56-13.31, P < 0.0001), and drinking more than once a month (1.28, 1.12-1.46, P < 0.0001) were more likely to have hypertension. The decision tree model was established to analyze the importance of different levels of physical activity on hypertension prevention. Participants who usually participated in moderate-to-vigorous activity for more than 10 minutes (vigorous: 0.82, 0.73-0.91, P = 0.0004; moderate: 0.83, 0.75-0.92, P = 0.0006) were less likely to have hypertension. The results of the decision tree showed that the vigorous physical activity seemed to be more important than moderate and light activity to induce beneficial effects on prevention of hypertension. The strength of our study is in using the decision tree to clearly rank the importance of those key factors affecting hypertension.