HPV integration generates a cellular super-enhancer which functions as ecDNA to regulate genome-wide transcription.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) integration is a critical step in cervical cancer development; however, the oncogenic mechanism at the genome-wide transcriptional level is still poorly understood. In this study, we employed integrative analysis on multi-omics data of six HPV-positive and three HPV-negative cell lines. Through HPV integration detection, super-enhancer (SE) identification, SE-associated gene expression and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) investigation, we aimed to explore the genome-wide transcriptional influence of HPV integration. We identified seven high-ranking cellular SEs generated by HPV integration in total (the HPV breakpoint-induced cellular SEs, BP-cSEs), leading to intra-chromosomal and inter-chromosomal regulation of chromosomal genes. The pathway analysis revealed that the dysregulated chromosomal genes were correlated to cancer-related pathways. Importantly, we demonstrated that BP-cSEs existed in the HPV-human hybrid ecDNAs, explaining the above transcriptional alterations. Our results suggest that HPV integration generates cellular SEs that function as ecDNA to regulate unconstrained transcription, expanding the tumorigenic mechanism of HPV integration and providing insights for developing new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Methylation of GPRC5A promotes liver metastasis and docetaxel resistance through activating mTOR signaling pathway in triple negative breast cancer.

AIMS: This study aims to explore the function and mechanism of G Protein-coupled receptor class C group 5 member A (GPRC5A) in docetaxel-resistance and liver metastasis of breast cancer. METHODS: Single-cell RNA transcriptomic analysis and bioinformatic analysis are used to screen relevant genes in breast cancer metastatic hepatic specimens. MeRIP, dual-luciferase analysis and bioinformation were used to detect m6A modulation. Mass spectrometry (MS), co-inmunoprecipitation (co-IP) and immunofluorescence colocalization were executed to explore the mechanism of GPRC5A in breast cancer cells. RESULT: GPRC5A was upregulated in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and was associated with a poor prognosis. In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that knockdown of GPRC5A alleviated metastasis and resistance to docetaxel in TNBC. Overexpression of GPRC5A had the opposite effects. The m6A methylation of GPRC5A mRNA was modulated by METTL3 and YTHDF1, which facilitates its translation. GPRC5A inhibited the ubiquitination-dependent degradation of LAMTOR1, resulting in the recruitment of mTORC1 to lysosomes and activating the mTORC1/p70s6k signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: METTL3/YTHDF1 axis up-regulates GPRC5A expression by m6A methylation. GPRC5A activates mTORC1/p70s6k signaling pathway by recruiting mTORC1 to lysosomes, consequently promotes docetaxel-resistance and liver metastasis.

Artificial intelligence: illuminating the depths of the tumor microenvironment.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can acquire characteristics that are not yet known to humans through extensive learning, enabling to handle large amounts of pathology image data. Divided into machine learning and deep learning, AI has the advantage of handling large amounts of data and processing image analysis, consequently it also has a great potential in accurately assessing tumour microenvironment (TME) models. With the complex composition of the TME, in-depth study of TME contributes to new ideas for treatment, assessment of patient response to postoperative therapy and prognostic prediction. This leads to a review of the development of AI's application in TME assessment in this study, provides an overview of AI techniques applied to medicine, delves into the application of AI in analysing the quantitative and spatial location characteristics of various cells (tumour cells, immune and non-immune cells) in the TME, reveals the predictive prognostic value of TME and provides new ideas for tumour therapy, highlights the great potential for clinical applications. In addition, a discussion of its limitations and encouraging future directions for its practical clinical application is presented.

The proportion of tumour stroma predicts response to treatment of immune checkpoint inhibitor in combination with chemotherapy in patients with stage IIIB-IV non-small cell lung cancer.

AIMS: Immunotherapy has brought a new era to cancer treatment, yet we lack dependable predictors for its effectiveness. This study explores the predictive significance of intratumour stroma proportion (iTSP) for treatment success and prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients undergoing treatment with immune check-point inhibitors (ICIs) together with chemotherapy. METHODS AND RESULTS: We retrospectively collected data from patients with unresectable stage IIIB-IV NSCLC who were treated with first-line ICIs and chemotherapy. Each patient received a confirmed pathological diagnosis, and the pathologist evaluated the iTSP on haematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained sections of diagnostic tissue slides. Among the 102 H&E-stained biopsy samples, 61 (59.8%) were categorised as stroma-L (less than 50% iTSP), while 41 (40.2%) were classified as stroma-H (more than 50% iTSP). We observed that the stroma-L group exhibited a significantly better objective response rate (ORR) (72.1 versus 51.2%, P = 0.031) and deeper response depth (DpR) (-50.49 ± 28.79% versus -35.83 ± 29.91%, P = 0.015) compared to the stroma-H group. Furthermore, the stroma-L group showed longer median progression-free survival (PFS) (9.6 versus 6.0 months, P = 0.011) and overall survival (OS) (24.0 versus 12.2 months, P = 0.001) compared to the stroma-H group. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis indicated that iTSP was a highly significant prognostic factor for both PFS [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.713; P = 0.030] and OS (HR = 2.225; P = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that a lower iTSP corresponds to improved clinical outcomes and greater DpR in individuals with stage IIIB-IV NSCLC treated with first-line ICIs and chemotherapy. The iTSP could potentially serve as a predictive biomarker for ICIs therapy response.

A risk prediction model for delayed bleeding after ESD for gastric precancerous lesions.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk factors for delayed postoperative bleeding after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) in patients with gastric precancerous lesions and to construct a risk prediction model. METHODS: This retrospective analysis included clinical data from patients with gastric precancerous lesions who underwent ESD at Wuhan University People's Hospital between November 2016 and June 2022. An XGBoost model was built to predict delayed bleeding after ESD using risk factors identified by univariable and multivariate logistic regression analysis. The model was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC), and SHapely Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis was used to interpret the model. RESULTS: Seven factors were statistically associated with delayed postoperative bleeding in gastric precancerous lesions after ESD: age, low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, hypertension, lesion size ≥ 40 mm, operative time ≥ 120 min, female, and nonuse of hemoclips. A risk prediction model was established. In the training cohort, the model achieved an AUC of 0.97 (0.96-0.98), a sensitivity of 0.90, a specificity of 0.94, and an F1 score of 0.91. In the validation cohort, the AUC was 0.94(0.90-0.98), with a sensitivity of 0.85, a specificity of 0.89, and an F1 score of 0.85. In the test cohort, the AUC was 0.94 (0.89-0.99), the sensitivity was 0.80, the specificity was 0.92, and the F1 score was 0.84, indicating strong predictive capability. CONCLUSION: In this study, an XGBoost prediction model for assessing the risk of delayed postoperative bleeding after ESD in patients with gastric precancerous lesions was developed and validated. This model can be applied in clinical practice to effectively predict the risk of post-ESD bleeding for individual patients.

Single-Cell RNA-Sequencing: Opening New Horizons for Breast Cancer Research.

Breast cancer is the most prevalent malignant tumor among women with high heterogeneity. Traditional techniques frequently struggle to comprehensively capture the intricacy and variety of cellular states and interactions within breast cancer. As global precision medicine rapidly advances, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has become a highly effective technique, revolutionizing breast cancer research by offering unprecedented insights into the cellular heterogeneity and complexity of breast cancer. This cutting-edge technology facilitates the analysis of gene expression profiles at the single-cell level, uncovering diverse cell types and states within the tumor microenvironment. By dissecting the cellular composition and transcriptional signatures of breast cancer cells, scRNA-seq provides new perspectives for understanding the mechanisms behind tumor therapy, drug resistance and metastasis in breast cancer. In this review, we summarized the working principle and workflow of scRNA-seq and emphasized the major applications and discoveries of scRNA-seq in breast cancer research, highlighting its impact on our comprehension of breast cancer biology and its potential for guiding personalized treatment strategies.

Exploring the glycolytic cross-talk genes between inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer.

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a higher risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC). Glycolysis is involved in the development of both IBD and CRC. However, the mechanisms and outcomes of glycolysis shared between IBD and CRC remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the glycolytic cross-talk genes between IBD and CRC integrating bioinformatics and machine learning. With WGCNA, LASSO, COX, and SVM-RFE algorithms, P4HA1 and PMM2 were identified as glycolytic cross-talk genes. The independent risk signature of P4HA1 and PMM2 was constructed to predict the overall survival rate of patients with CRC. The risk signature correlated with clinical characteristics, prognosis, tumor microenvironment, immune checkpoint, mutants, cancer stemness, and chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity. CRC patients with high risk have increased microsatellite instability, tumor mutation burden. The nomogram integrating risk score, tumor stage, and age showed high accuracy for predicting overall survival rate. In addition, the diagnostic model for IBD based on P4HA1 and PMM2 showed excellent accuracy. Finally, immunohistochemistry results showed that P4HA1 and PMM2 were significantly upregulated in IBD and CRC. Our study reveals the presence of glycolytic cross-talk genes P4HA1 and PMM2 between IBD and CRC. This may prove to be beneficial in advancing research on the mechanism of development of IBD-associated CRC.

Function of BrSOC1b gene in flowering regulation of Chinese cabbage and its protein interaction.

MAIN CONCLUSION: BrSOC1b may promote early flowering of Chinese cabbage by acting on BrAGL9 a, BrAGL9 b, BrAGL2 and BrAGL8 proteins. SOC1 is a flowering signal integrator that acts as a key regulator in controlling plant flowering time. This study focuses on the cloning of the open reading frame of SOC1b (BrSOC1b, Gene ID: Bra000393) gene, and analyzes its structure and phylogenetic relationships. Additionally, various techniques such as vector construction, transgenic technology, virus-induced gene silencing technology, and protein interaction technology were employed to investigate the function of the BrSOC1b gene and its interactions with other proteins. The results indicate that BrSOC1b consists of 642 bp and encodes 213 amino acids. It contains conserved domains such as the MADS domain, K (keratin-like) domain, and SOC1 box. The phylogenetic analysis reveals that BrSOC1b shares the closest homology with BjSOC1 from Brassica juncea. Tissue localization analysis demonstrates that BrSOC1b exhibits the highest expression in the stem during the seedling stage and the highest expression in flowers during the early stage of pod formation. Sub-cellular localization analysis reveals that BrSOC1b is localized in the nucleus and plasma membrane. Furthermore, through genetic transformation of the BrSOC1b gene, it was observed that Arabidopsis thaliana plants expressing BrSOC1b flowered earlier and bolted earlier than wild-type plants. Conversely, Chinese cabbage plants with silenced BrSOC1b exhibited delayed bolting and flowering compared to the control plants. These findings indicate that BrSOC1b promotes early flowering in Chinese cabbage. Yeast two-hybrid and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses suggest that BrSOC1b may participate in the regulation of flowering by interacting with BrAGL9a, BrAGL9b, BrAGL2, and BrAGL8 proteins. Overall, this research holds significant implications for the analysis of key genes involved in regulating bolting and flowering in Chinese cabbage, as well as for enhancing germplasm innovation in Chinese cabbage breeding.

Tunable Luminescence of Silver Nanoclusters Confined in SOD/FAU Zeolites and Selective Sensing for Organic Amine.

A series of Ag-zeolite luminescent composites are prepared based on SOD and FAUY zeolites, and the effect of zeolite host particle size on their dynamic luminescent emission properties was discussed for the first time. The relationship between zeolite particle size and the nucleation of silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) is revealed. With the increase of zeolite particle size from nanometers to microns, the luminescent color of both Ag-SOD and Ag-Y composites shows significant blue shift. The observed tunable luminescence can be accounted for the slower nucleation rate of AgNCs in micron-scale zeolites with longer channels, resulting in smaller nuclearity of AgNCs within large-size zeolites, through the characterization of extended X-ray absorption fine structure, implying the important roles played by the zeolite themselves in determining the luminescence properties. Moreover, the composites prepared by us feature simple signal transduction, fast response (30 s), and excellent selectivity and sensitivity for discriminative luminescence detection of triethylamine and ethylamine, and they have good reversible luminescence response after sensing HAc gas, which might imply the potential applications in the volatile organic amine detection and information encryption field.

Targeted labeling with tissue marking dyes guided by magnifying endoscopy of endoscopic submucosal dissection specimen improves the accuracy of endoscopic and histopathological diagnosis of early gastric cancer: a before-after study.

BACKGROUND: Although histopathological evaluation after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is critical to assess the accuracy of endoscopic diagnosis, it is still challenging to perform precise endoscopic to pathological evaluation. We evaluated the importance of tissue marking dye (TMD)-targeted marking for post-ESD specimen guided by magnificent endoscope on histopathological accuracy and endoscopic-to-histopathological reconstruction. STUDY DESIGN: A total of 81 specimens resected by ESD [43 without TMD marking (N-TMD group), and 38 specimens with TMD-targeted cancerous areas marking guided by post-procedural magnifying endoscopy on resected specimens (TMD group)] between January 31, 2019, and January 31, 2022 at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University were included in the study. The baseline characteristics of patients, discrepancies between endoscopic and histopathological diagnosis, and the impact of TMD on histopathological diagnosis and reconstruction were analyzed. RESULTS: Discrepancies between endoscopic (pre-ESD) and histopathological (post-ESD) diagnosis increased significantly in TMD group (68.4% (26/38) for tumor areas, 26.3% (10/38) for tumor margins, and 26.3% (10/38) for tumor differentiations) when compared with N-TMD group (p < 0.0001). Deeper sections were achieved in all TMD-marked resected lesions and 27.9% (12/43) lesions in the N-TMD group (p < 0.001). More pathological evaluations in TMD group were changed from curative resection to non-curative resection [6/38(15.8%) vs 1/43(2.3%)] compared with N-TMD group (p < 0.0001). TMD-targeted marking also improved the efficiency of histopathological reconstruction on pre-procedural endoscopic images and benefit endoscopists training. CONCLUSION: TMD-targeted labeling on resected specimens could improve precise endoscopic-to-pathological diagnosis, reconstruction by point-to-point marking and benefit endoscopists training.

Neural Network Based Classification of Breast Cancer Histopathological Image from Intraoperative Rapid Frozen Sections.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women worldwide. Despite the rapid developments in diagnostic techniques and medical sciences, pathologic diagnosis is still recognized as the gold standard for disease diagnose. Pathologic diagnosis is a time-consuming task performed for pathologists, needing profound professional knowledge and long-term accumulated diagnostic experience. Therefore, the development of automatic and precise histopathological image classification is essential for medical diagnosis. In this study, an improved VGG network was used to classify the breast cancer histopathological image from intraoperative rapid frozen sections. We adopt a transformed loss function by adding a penalty to cross-entropy in our training stage, which improved the accuracy on test data by 4.39%. Laplacian-4 was used for the enhancement of images, which contributes to the improvement of the accuracy. The accuracy of the proposed model on training data and test data reached 88.70% and 82.27%, respectively, which outperforms the original model by 9.39% of accuracy in test data. The process time was less than 0.25 s per image on average. Meanwhile, the heat maps of predictions were given to show the evidential regions in histopathological images, which could drive improvements in the accuracy, speed, and clinical value of pathological diagnoses. In addition to helping with the actual diagnosis, this technology may be a benefit to pathologists, surgeons, and patients. It might prove to be a helpful tool for pathologists in the future.

Machine Learning Quantified Tumor-Stroma Ratio Is an Independent Prognosticator in Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer.

Although the tumor-stroma ratio (TSR) has prognostic value in many cancers, the traditional semi-quantitative visual assessment method has inter-observer variability, making it impossible for clinical practice. We aimed to develop a machine learning (ML) algorithm for accurately quantifying TSR in hematoxylin-and-eosin (H&E)-stained whole slide images (WSI) and further investigate its prognostic effect in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). We used an optimal cell classifier previously built based on QuPath open-source software and ML algorithm for quantitative calculation of TSR. We retrospectively analyzed data from two independent cohorts to verify the prognostic significance of ML-based TSR in MIBC patients. WSIs from 133 MIBC patients were used as the discovery set to identify the optimal association of TSR with patient survival outcomes. Furthermore, we performed validation in an independent external cohort consisting of 261 MIBC patients. We demonstrated a significant prognostic association of ML-based TSR with survival outcomes in MIBC patients (p < 0.001 for all comparisons), with higher TSR associated with better prognosis. Uni- and multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that TSR was independently associated with overall survival (p < 0.001 for all analyses) after adjusting for clinicopathological factors including age, gender, and pathologic stage. TSR was found to be a strong prognostic factor that was not redundant with the existing staging system in different subgroup analyses (p < 0.05 for all analyses). Finally, the expression of six genes (DACH1, DEEND2A, NOTCH4, DTWD1, TAF6L, and MARCHF5) were significantly associated with TSR, revealing possible potential biological relevance. In conclusion, we developed an ML algorithm based on WSIs of MIBC patients to accurately quantify TSR and demonstrated its prognostic validity for MIBC patients in two independent cohorts. This objective quantitative method allows application in clinical practice while reducing the workload of pathologists. Thus, it might be of significant aid in promoting precise pathology services in MIBC.

Tumour stroma ratio is a potential predictor for 5-year disease-free survival in breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: The tumour-stroma ratio (TSR) is identified as a promising prognostic parameter for breast cancer, but the cutoff TSR value is mostly assessed by visual assessment, which lacks objective measurement. The aims of this study were to optimize the cutoff TSR value, and evaluate its prognosis value in patients with breast cancer both as continuous and categorical variables. METHODS: Major clinicopathological and follow-up data were collected for a series of patients with breast cancer. Tissue microarray images stained with cytokeratin immunohistochemistry were evaluated by automated quantitative image analysis algorithms to assess TSR. The potential cutoff point for TSR was optimized using maximally selected rank statistics. The association between TSR and 5-year disease-free survival (5-DFS) was assessed by Cox regression analysis. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test were used to assess the significance in survival analysis. RESULTS: The optimal cut-off TSR value was 33.5%. Using this cut-off point, categorical variable analysis found that low TSR (i.e., high stroma, TSR ≤ 33.5%) predicts poor outcomes for 5-DFS (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.81-4.40, P = 0.000). When TSR was considered as a continuous parameter, results showed that increased stroma content was associated with worse 5-DFS (HR = 1.71, 95% CI = 1.34-2.18, P = 0.000). Similar results were also obtained in three molecular subtypes in continuous and categorical variable analyses. Moreover, in the Kaplan-Meier analysis, log-rank test showed that low TSR displayed a worse 5-DFS than high TSR (P = 0.000). Similar results were also obtained in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer, and luminal-HER2-negative breast cancer. CONCLUSION: TSR is an independent predictor for 5-DFS in breast cancer with worse survival outcomes in low TSR. The prognostic value of TSR was also observed in other three molecular subtypes.

Curcumin Attenuates the PERK-eIF2α Signaling to Relieve Acrylamide-Induced Neurotoxicity in SH­SY5Y Neuroblastoma Cells.

Curcumin is a natural polyphenolic compound with neuroprotective and antioxidant properties. Acrylamide (ACR) is a by-product of food processing that produces neurotoxicity in humans and animals. The pancreatic endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK)-eukaryotic initiation factor-2α (eIF2α) signaling is involved in the occurrence of neurotoxicities. This study is aimed to investigate the protective effect of curcumin on ACR-induced cytotoxicity and explore the role of PERK-eIF2α signaling in this process. ACR exposure at 2.5 mM for 24 h caused oxidative stress as revealed by the distinct increase in cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) level, and a significant decrease in glutathione (GSH) content. ACR induced phosphorylated tau aggregation, phosphorylated cAMP response elements binding protein (CREB) reduction, and Bax/Bcl-2 ratio up-regulation in SH-SY5Y cells. ACR also activated the PERK-eIF2α signaling in SH-SY5Y cells and triggered the activation of glycogen synthase kinase-3ß (GSK-3ß), up-regulated activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) and C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP). Curcumin pretreatment significantly attenuated ACR-induced neuronal toxicity as revealed by the ameliorated cell viability, mitigated intracellular ROS and MDA level, and elevated GSH content. Moreover, curcumin pretreatment inhibited PERK-dependent eIF2α phosphorylation, further suppressed GSK-3ß and ATF4 function, and abolished abnormal tau phosphorylation, P-CREB reduction, and CHOP-induced apoptosis in SH-SY5Y cells. These results provided empirical evidence between curcumin and PERK-eIF2α signaling in ACR-induced neurotoxicity.

Real-time use of artificial intelligence for diagnosing early gastric cancer by magnifying image-enhanced endoscopy: a multicenter diagnostic study (with videos).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Endoscopy is a pivotal method for detecting early gastric cancer (EGC). However, skill among endoscopists varies greatly. Here, we proposed a deep learning-based system named ENDOANGEL-ME to diagnose EGC in magnifying image-enhanced endoscopy (M-IEE). METHODS: M-IEE images were retrospectively obtained from 6 hospitals in China, including 4667 images for training and validation, 1324 images for internal tests, and 4702 images for external tests. One hundred eighty-seven stored videos from 2 hospitals were used to evaluate the performance of ENDOANGEL-ME and endoscopists and to assess the effect of ENDOANGEL-ME on improving the performance of endoscopists. Prospective consecutive patients undergoing M-IEE were enrolled from August 17, 2020 to August 2, 2021 in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University to assess the applicability of ENDOANGEL-ME in clinical practice. RESULTS: A total of 3099 patients undergoing M-IEE were enrolled in this study. The diagnostic accuracy of ENDOANGEL-ME for diagnosing EGC was 88.44% and 90.49% in internal and external images, respectively. In 93 internal videos, ENDOANGEL-ME achieved an accuracy of 90.32% for diagnosing EGC, significantly superior to that of senior endoscopists (70.16% ± 8.78%). In 94 external videos, with the assistance of ENDOANGEL-ME, endoscopists showed improved accuracy and sensitivity (85.64% vs 80.32% and 82.03% vs 67.19%, respectively). In 194 prospective consecutive patients with 251 lesions, ENDOANGEL-ME achieved a sensitivity of 92.59% (25/27) and an accuracy of 83.67% (210/251) in real clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: This multicenter diagnostic study showed that ENDOANGEL-ME can be well applied in the clinical setting. (Clinical trial registration number: ChiCTR2000035116.).

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the relationship between endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), poly-brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), phthalates (PAEs), and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). METHODS: Relevant studies from their inception to November 2021 were identified by searching EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Science. The cohort and case-control studies that reported effect size with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of EDC exposure and GDM were selected. The heterogeneity among the included studies was quantified by I2 statistic. Publication bias was evaluated through the Begg and Egger tests. RESULTS: Twenty-five articles with a total of 23,796 participants were found. Results indicated that exposure to PCBs has a significant influence on the incidence of GDM (OR = 1.14; 95% CI = 1.00--1.31; n = 8). The risk of GDM was found to be associated with PBDE exposure (OR = 1.32; 95% CI = 1.15-1.53; n = 4). PAEs and PFASs exposure were also positively associated with the risk of GDM, with summary ORs of 1.10 (95% CI = 1.03-1.16; n = 7 for PAEs) and 1.09 (95% CI = 1.02-1.16; n = 11 for PFASs), respectively. When only cohort studies were considered, the summary OR between PCBs exposure and the risk of GDM was 0.99 (95% CI = 0.91-1.09; n = 5). Meanwhile, the summary ORs from cohort studies for PBDEs, PAEs, and PFASs exposure were 1.12 (95% CI = 1.00-1.26; n = 2), 1.08 (95% CI = 1.02-1.15; n = 5), and 1.06 (95% CI = 1.00-1.12; n = 8), respectively. The Beggs and Egger tests did not show publication bias, and the sensitivity analyses did not change the results in this meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: These results support that exposure to certain EDCs, including PCBs, PBDEs, PAEs, and PFAS, increase the risk of GDM. Further large-sample epidemiologic researches and mechanistic studies are needed to verify the potential relationship and biological mechanisms. These results are of public health significance because the daily EDC exposure is expected to increase the risk of GDM development.

Clinical and prognosis value of the number of metastatic lymph nodes in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: It has been reported that papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients with lymph node metastasis (LNM) are largely associated with adverse outcomes. The present study aimed to assess the correlation between the number of metastatic lymph nodes (NMLNs) and clinical prognosis in patients with PTC. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with PTC who underwent initial thyroid cancer surgery in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University between 2017 and 2019. A total of 694 patients with PTC and cervical lymph node dissection as well as a total checked number of lymph nodes ≥ 5 were involved in this study. The clinicopathological characteristics of patients were compared according to NMLNs, the number of central cervical lymph nodes (CLNs) and the number of lateral lymph nodes (LLNs). RESULTS: NMLNs > 5, CLNs > 5 and LLNs > 5 were 222 (32.0%), 159 (24.3%) and 70 (10.1%) seen in the analyzed samples, respectively. Young patients, patients with larger tumor diameter, bilaterality, multifocality and gross extrathyroidal extension (ETE) were more inclined to NMLNs > 5, CLNs > 5 and LLNs > 5 (P < 0.05). It was found that the recurrence-free survival among pN1 patients was significantly discrepant between different groups (NMLNs ≤ 5/5: P = 0.001; LLNs ≤ 5/5: P < 0.001). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, patients aged < 55 years (OR = 1.917), primary tumor size > 10 mm (OR = 2.131), bilaterality (OR = 1.889) and tumor gross ETE (OR = 2.759) were independent predictors for high prevalence of total NMLNs > 5 (P < 0.05). Specially, patients aged < 55 years (OR = 2.864), primary tumor size > 10 mm (OR = 2.006), and tumor gross ETE (OR = 2.520) were independent predictors for high prevalence of CLNs > 5 (P < 0.01); Bilaterality (OR = 2.119), CLNs > 5 (OR = 6.733) and tumor gross ETE (OR = 4.737) were independent predictors for high prevalence of LLNs > 5 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, it is evident that NMLNs is related to the invasive clinicopathological features and adverse outcome of patients with PTC which should be correctly evaluated to provide an appropriate guidance for reasonable treatment and careful follow-up.

Enhanced photosynthetic activity in pak choi hybrids is associated with increased grana thylakoids in chloroplasts.

Increased photosynthetic activity is closely linked to heterosis in plants, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Pak choi (Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis) is a widely grown vegetable in Asia, and the most commercial cultivars are F1 hybrids. Here, the inbred pak choi lines WTC and 2Q, and their reciprocal F1 hybrids WQ and QW, were used to characterize the increased photosynthetic activity in these hybrids at the physiological, cellular and molecular levels. We found that the hybrids had larger leaves, with more grana thylakoids. Additionally, these hybrids had significantly increased net photosynthetic rates (Pn ) under both saturating and low irradiance conditions. These data indicate that the increased photosynthetic activity in pak choi hybrids was associated with an improved photosynthetic mechanism and larger leaves. Next, we obtained genome-wide data using transcriptome and bisulfite sequencing. Gene ontology (GO) analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes among the parents and hybrids were mostly enriched in the 'photosynthesis', 'thylakoid', and 'chloroplast' categories, indicating that the increased number of grana thylakoids contributes to the enhanced photosynthetic capacity in hybrids. Furthermore, we found that the increased number of grana thylakoids was associated with the upregulation of light-harvesting complex of photosystem II 1 (BrLhcb1). Yeast one-hybrid and transient assay showed that the BrLhcb1 promoter was directly bound by CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED 1 (BrCCA1), resulting in increased BrLhcb1 expression and enhanced carbon fixation in hybrids. Finally, our findings provide new insight into molecular mechanisms underlying enhanced photosynthesis in pak choi hybrids.

Identification of genes related to tipburn resistance in Chinese cabbage and preliminary exploration of its molecular mechanism.

BACKGROUND: Tipburn, also known as leaf tip necrosis, is a severe issue in Chinese cabbage production. One known cause is that plants are unable to provide adequate Ca2+ to rapidly expanding leaves. Bacterial infection is also a contributing factor. Different cultivars have varying degrees of tolerance to tipburn. Two inbred lines of Chinese cabbage were employed as resources in this research. RESULTS: We determined that the inbred line 'J39290' was the tipburn resistant material and the inbred line 'J95822' was the tipburn sensitive material based on the severity of tipburn, and the integrity of cell membrane structure. Ca2+ concentration measurements revealed no significant difference in Ca2+ concentration between the two materials inner leaves. Transcriptome sequencing technology was also used to find the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of 'J95822' and 'J39290', and there was no significant difference in the previously reported Ca2+ uptake and transport related genes in the two materials. However, it is evident through DEG screening and classification that 23 genes are highly linked to plant-pathogen interactions, and they encode three different types of proteins: CaM/CML, Rboh, and CDPK. These 23 genes mainly function through Ca2+-CaM/CML-CDPK signal pathway based on KEGG pathway analysis, protein interaction prediction, and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) of key genes. CONCLUSIONS: By analyzing the Ca2+ concentration in the above two materials, the transcription of previously reported genes related to Ca2+ uptake and transport, the functional annotation and KEGG pathway of DEGs, it was found that Ca2+ deficiency was not the main cause of tipburn in 'J95822', but was probably caused by bacterial infection. This study lays a theoretical foundation for exploring the molecular mechanism of resistance to tipburn in Chinese cabbage, and has important guiding significance for genetics and breeding.

Artificial intelligence in the diagnosis of gastric precancerous conditions by image-enhanced endoscopy: a multicenter, diagnostic study (with video).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Gastric precancerous conditions, including gastric atrophy (GA) and intestinal metaplasia (IM), play an important role in the development of gastric cancer. Image-enhanced endoscopy (IEE) shows great potential in diagnosing gastric precancerous conditions and adenocarcinoma. In this study, a deep convolutional neural network system, named ENDOANGEL, was constructed to detect gastric precancerous conditions by IEE. METHODS: Endoscopic images were retrospectively obtained from 5 hospitals in China for the development, validation, and internal and external test of the system. Prospective consecutive patients receiving IEE were enrolled from January 13, 2020 to October 29, 2020 in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University to assess in real time the applicability of the proposed computer-aided detection (CADe) system in clinical practice, and the performance of CADe was compared with that of endoscopists. RESULTS: Six thousand two hundred fifty endoscopic images from 760 patients and 98 video clips from 77 individuals undergoing IEE were enrolled in this study. The diagnostic accuracy of GA was .901 (95% confidence interval [CI], .883-.917) in the internal test set, .864 (95% CI, .842-.884) in the multicenter external test set, and .878 (95% CI, .796-.935) in the prospective video test set. The diagnostic accuracy of IM was .908 (95% CI, .889-.924) in the internal test set, .859 (95% CI, .837-.880) in the multicenter external test set, and .898 (95% CI, .820-.950) in the prospective video test set. CADe achieved similar diagnostic accuracy to that of the experts for detecting GA (.869 [95% CI, .790-.927] vs .846 [95% CI, .808-.879], P = .396) and IM (.888 [95% CI, .812-.941] vs .820 [95% CI, .780-.855], P = .117) and was superior to that of nonexperts for GA (.750 [95% CI, .711-.786], P = .008) and IM (.736 [95% CI, .697-.773], P = .028). CONCLUSIONS: CADe achieved high diagnostic accuracy in gastric precancerous conditions, which was similar to that of experts and superior to that of nonexperts. Thus, CADe provides possibilities for a wide application in assisting in the diagnosis of gastric precancerous conditions.