Integrative analysis of γδT cells and dietary factors reveals predictive values for autism spectrum disorder in children.

BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) includes a range of multifactorial neurodevelopmental disabilities characterized by a variable set of neuropsychiatric symptoms. Immunological abnormalities have been considered to play important roles in the pathogenesis of ASD, but it is still unknown which abnormalities are more prominent. METHODS: A total of 105 children with ASD and 105 age and gender-matched typically developing (TD) children were recruited. An eating and mealtime behavior questionnaire, dietary habits, and the Bristol Stool Scale were investigated. The immune cell profiles in peripheral blood were analyzed by flow cytometry, and cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-8, IL-10, IL-17A, and TNF-α) in plasma were examined by Luminex assay. The obtained results were further validated using an external validation cohort including 82 children with ASD and 51 TD children. RESULTS: Compared to TD children, children with ASD had significant eating and mealtime behavioral changes and gastrointestinal symptoms characterized by increased food fussiness and emotional eating, decreased fruit and vegetable consumption, and increased stool astriction. The proportion of γδT cells was significantly higher in children with ASD than TD children (ß: 0.156; 95% CI: 0.888 âˆ¼ 2.135, p < 0.001) even after adjusting for gender, eating and mealtime behaviors, and dietary habits. In addition, the increased γδT cells were evident in all age groups (age < 48 months: ß: 0.288; 95% CI: 0.420 âˆ¼ 4.899, p = 0.020; age ≥ 48 months: ß: 0.458; 95% CI: 0.694 âˆ¼ 9.352, p = 0.024), as well as in boys (ß: 0.174; 95% CI: 0.834 âˆ¼ 2.625, p < 0.001) but not in girls. These findings were also confirmed by an external validation cohort. Furthermore, IL-17, but not IFN-γ, secretion by the circulating γδT cells was increased in ASD children. Machine learning revealed that the area under the curve in nomogram plots for increased γδT cells combined with eating behavior/dietary factors was 0.905, which held true in both boys and girls and in all the age groups of ASD children. The decision curves showed that children can receive significantly higher diagnostic benefit within the threshold probability range from 0 to 1.0 in the nomogram model. CONCLUSIONS: Children with ASD present with divergent eating and mealtime behaviors and dietary habits as well as gastrointestinal symptoms. In peripheral blood, γδT cells but not αßT cells are associated with ASD. The increased γδT cells combined with eating and mealtime behavior/dietary factors have a high value for assisting in the diagnosis of ASD.

Role of Epithelial Cell Transforming Sequence 2 (ECT2) in Predicting Prognosis of Osteosarcoma.

BACKGROUND Osteosarcoma is a major bone malignancy in children and young adults, and it is highly heterogeneous. The clinical outcome of osteosarcoma is individual-dependent due to different genetic and pathological profiles. Although chemotherapy in combination with surgery has significantly improved the survival of localized disease, the prognostic improvement for metastatic patients is less marked. ECT2 (epithelial cell transforming sequence 2) is a transforming protein that can interact with Rho-like proteins of the Ras family and has been proven as an ontogenetic protein in cancer cell lines. We studied the clinical significance of ECT2 in osteosarcoma and explored its underlying oncogenic mechanisms. MATERIAL AND METHODS The protein expression pattern of ECT2 in osteosarcoma was investigated by immunohistochemical staining, and its association with clinicopathological characteristics was initially explored. The significance of ECT2 in predicting patient prognosis was verified by univariate and multivariate analyzes. Cellular experiments were conducted to explore underlying mechanisms of ECT2 in regulating osteosarcoma progression. RESULTS High ECT2 expression was correlated with tumor metastasis and poor overall survival of osteosarcoma patients. ECT2 promotes cell invasion by modulating EMT process. CONCLUSIONS ECT2 is an independent prognostic factor for osteosarcoma and it can upregulate the metastatic capacity of osteosarcoma cells.

Halogenated BODIPY photosensitizers: Photophysical processes for generation of excited triplet state, excited singlet state and singlet oxygen.

We have systematically examined the formation of singlet oxygen O2(1Δg), the excited triplet state (T1), and excited singlet state (S1) for halogenated BODIPY photosensitizers (halogen = Cl, Br, and I) in eight solvents to understand how halogen atoms and solvent affect these properties. The phosphorescence spectra and lifetimes of singlet oxygen generated by these halogenated BODIPYs have been measured by steady state/time resolved NIR emission, while the formation quantum yield of singlet oxygen (ΦΔ) has been determined by chemical method using diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF) as the trapping agent. The formation quantum yield ΦΔ of singlet oxygen can be as high as 0.96 for iodinated BODIPY and 0.71 for brominated BODIPY. The triplet state T1 absorption spectra of brominated and iodinated BODIPYs have been recorded by laser flash photolysis method, in which T1 shows high formation efficiency and long lifetime. The formation and decay of excited singlet state S1 of four BODIPYs have been measured by ground state (S0) absorption and steady state/time resolved fluorescence. The results show that larger halogen atoms on BODIPY core lead to smaller fluorescence quantum yield, shorter fluorescence lifetime and higher singlet oxygen formation quantum yield due to heavy atom effect that promotes the formation of triplet state. On the other hand, higher solvent polarity causes lower singlet oxygen formation quantum yield, smaller fluorescence quantum yield, and shorter fluorescence lifetime. This solvent effect is explained by the presence of photoinduced charge transfer (ICT) process from halogen atoms to BODIPY. The ICT efficiency has been estimated and the results are agreed with ICT theory. ICT process in halogenated BODIPYs has never been revealed in literature. HOMO/LUMO obtained from DFT calculation also supports the presence of ICT. The involvement of ICT in the photosensitizing process of halogenated BODIPYs provides new insights for designing BODIPY photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy of tumor.

Convolutional Neural Network-Based Human Movement Recognition Algorithm in Sports Analysis.

In order to analyse the sports psychology of athletes and to identify the psychology of athletes in their movements, a human action recognition (HAR) algorithm has been designed in this study. First, a HAR model is established based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify the current action state by analysing the action information of a task in the collected videos. Secondly, the psychology of basketball players displaying fake actions during the offensive and defensive process is investigated by combining with related sports psychological theories. Then, the psychology of athletes is also analysed through the collected videos, so as to predict the next response action of the athletes. Experimental results show that the combination of grayscale and red-green-blue (RGB) images can reduce the image loss and effectively improve the recognition accuracy of the model. The optimised convolutional three-dimensional network (C3D) HAR model designed in this study has a recognition accuracy of 80% with an image loss of 5.6. Besides, the time complexity is reduced by 33%. Therefore, the proposed optimised C3D can recognise effectively human actions, and the results of this study can provide a reference for the investigation of the image recognition of human action in sports.

Demethylative Alkylation of Methionine Residue by Employing the Sulfonium as the Key Intermediate.

Methionine (Met) offers a valuable handle to achieve peptide chemical modification owing to its unique thioether functional group. In contrast with cysteine, the site-selective functionalization of the hydrophobic and redox-sensitive thioether motif on peptides is still challenging, and strategies for diversification on the Met residue are rarely disclosed. Herein we report a transition-metal-free and redox-neutral approach for Met diversification with substrate diversity, which could be applied to synthesize cyclic peptides.

Upregulation of miR-98 Inhibits Apoptosis in Cartilage Cells in Osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the effects of microRNA-98 (miR-98) on apoptosis in cartilage cells of osteoarthritis (OA) patients. METHODS: Knee cartilage tissue samples were collected from 31 OA patients, 21 autopsies, and 26 amputation patients due to trauma. The clinicopathological data were recorded. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to compare the miR-98 expression levels from cartilage cells obtained from the OA and non-OA patients. Clinicopathological characteristics of the patients were also analyzed. Primary chondrocytes were separated from cartilage tissues and transfected with plasmids or siRNA to overexpress or inhibit miR-98. Annexin V-PI double staining and TUNEL assays were used to examine apoptosis in the primary chondrocytes after transfection. Finally, a rat OA model was used to confirm the effects of miR-98 on apoptosis in cartilage cells in vivo. RESULTS: Compared with the normal cartilage tissues, miR-98 expression was reduced in the OA cartilage tissues (p < 0.01). The miR-98 expression levels were also significantly correlated with the OA stage (p < 0.05). In vitro, transfection with the miR-98 inhibitor increased apoptosis in the cartilage cells (p < 0.05), and transfection with a miR-98 mimic inhibited apoptosis in cartilage cells (p < 0.05). In the OA rat model, exogenous injection of the miR-98 mimic inhibited apoptosis in the rat cartilage cells thus alleviating OA. CONCLUSION: MiR-98 expression is reduced in the cartilage cells of OA patients and the overexpression of miR-98 inhibits cartilage cell apoptosis, while inhibition of microRNA-98 leads to cartilage cell apoptosis. These findings provide a theoretical basis for the development of novel targeted therapies for OA.