Chitosan oligosaccharide improves intestinal homeostasis to achieve the protection for the epithelial barrier of female Drosophila melanogaster via regulating intestinal microflora.

Chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) is a new type of marine functional oligosaccharide with biological activities such as regulating intestinal microflora and improving intestinal immunity. In this study, female Drosophila melanogaster was used as a model organism to evaluate the effect of COS on intestinal injury by H2O2 induction, and its mechanism was explored through the analysis of intestinal homeostasis. The results showed that 0.25% of COS could effectively prolong the lifespan of stressed female D. melanogaster by increasing its antioxidant capacity and maintaining intestinal homeostasis, which included protecting the mechanical barrier, promoting the chemical barrier, and regulating the biological barrier by affecting its autophagy and the antioxidant signaling pathway. Additionally, the protective effect of COS on the intestinal barrier and homeostasis of D. melanogaster under oxidative stress status is directly related to its regulation of the intestinal microflora, which could decrease excessive autophagy and activate the antioxidant system to promote health. IMPORTANCE: The epithelial barrier plays an important role in the organism's health. Chitosan oligosaccharide (COS), a new potential prebiotic, exhibits excellent antioxidant capacity and anti-inflammatory effects. Our study elucidated the protective mechanisms of COS on the intestinal barrier of Drosophila melanogaster under oxidative stress, which could provide new insights into COS application in various industries, such as food, agriculture, and medicine.

Development and performance validation of a low-cost algorithms-based hyperspectral imaging system for radiodermatitis assessment.

Whilst radiotherapy (RT) is widely used for cancer treatment, radiodermatitis caused by RT is one most common severe side effect affecting 95% cancer patients. Accurate radiodermatitis assessment and classification is essential to adopt timely treatment, management and monitoring, which all depend on reliable and objective tools for radiodermatitis grading. We therefore, in this work, reported the development and grading performance validation of a low-cost (∼2318.2 CNY) algorithms-based hyperspectral imaging (aHSI) system for radiodermatitis assessment. The low-cost aHSI system was enabled through Monte Carlo (MC) simulations conducted on multi-spectra acquired from a custom built low-cost multispectral imaging (MSI) system, deriving algorithms-based hyper-spectra with spectral resolution of 1 nm. The MSI system was based on sequentially illuminated narrow-band light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a CMOS camera. Erythema induced artificially on healthy volunteers was measured by the aHSI system developed, with algorithms-based hyper-spectra and skin layer resolved physiological parameters (i.e., the blood volume fraction (BVF) and the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in blood, et. al.) derivation using MC simulations. The MC simulations derived BVF and the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in blood showed significant (P < 0.001, analysis of variance: ANOVA) increase with erythema. Further 1D-convolution neural network (CNN) implemented on the algorithms-based hyper-spectra leads to an overall classification accuracy of 93.1%, suggesting the great potential of low-cost aHSI system developed for radiodermatitis assessment.

Left ventricular systolic dyssynchrony: a novel imaging marker for early assessment of myocardial damage in Chinese type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with normal left ventricular ejection fraction and normal myocardial perfusion.

OBJECTIVES: Myocardial damage is the important cause of heart failure (HF) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), which is difficult to early diagnose, especially in T2DM with normal left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and normal myocardial perfusion. The goal was to evaluate myocardial damage in T2DM with normal LVEF and normal myocardial perfusion by detecting left ventricular systolic dyssynchrony (LVSD), and find out the risk factors associated with LVSD. METHODS: This study included 95 T2DM with normal LVEF, normal myocardial perfusion. 69 consecutive individuals without T2DM and CAD were enrolled as the control group with age-, sex- and BMI-matched. All participants underwent stress/rest 99mtechnetium-sestamibi (99mTc-MIBI) gated myocardial perfusion imaging (GMPI) and two-dimensional echocardiography within 1 week. Clinical data including age, gender, BMI, duration of diabetes, chronic diabetic complications, glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), fast blood glucose (FBG) and Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) were collected from medical records. Left ventricular synchrony parameters were acquired, including phase standard deviation (PSD) and phase histogram bandwidth (PBW) by rest GMPI. RESULTS: PSD and PBW in T2DM group were significantly higher than control group (P < .05). LVSD was detected in 20 (21%) T2DM patients. Compared to non-LVSD T2DM group, LVSD T2DM group had higher BMI, higher prevalence of BNP [Formula: see text] 35 pg/mL and chronic diabetic complications (P < .05). BNP [Formula: see text] 35 pg/mL had mild positive association with LVSD (r = 0.318, P = .004). In multivariate logistic regression, chronic diabetic complications and high BMI (> 23.4 kg/m2) were independent risk factors of LVSD (OR 5.64, 95% CI 1.58-20.16, P = .008; OR 6.77, 95% CI 1.59-28.89, P = .010). CONCLUSIONS: LVSD existed in T2DM patients with normal LVEF and normal myocardial perfusion. Chronic diabetic complications and high BMI (> 23.4 kg/m2) were the independent risk factors of LVSD. LVSD based on GMPI can be the novel imaging marker to early assess myocardial damage in T2DM patients.

The association between graded prognostic assessment and the prognosis of brain metastases after whole brain radiotherapy: a meta-analysis.

Introduction: This meta-analysis aims to provide evidence-based medical evidence for formulating rational treatment strategies and evaluating the prognosis of brain metastasis (BM) patients by assessing the effectiveness of the graded prognostic assessment (GPA) model in predicting the survival prognosis of patients with BM after whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted in multiple databases, including the China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), PubMed, Wanfang database, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Embase. Cohort studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected. The quality of the included literature was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, and all statistical analyses were performed with R version 4.2.2. The effect size (ES) was measured by the hazard ratio (HR) of overall survival (OS). The OS rates at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months of patients with BM were compared between those with GPAs of 1.5-2.5, 3.0, and 3.5-4.0 and those with GPAs of 0-1 after WBRT. Results: A total of 1,797 participants who underwent WBRT were included in this study. The meta-analysis revealed a significant association between GPA and OS rates after WBRT: compared with BM patients with GPA of 0-1, 3-month OS rates after WBRT were significantly higher in BM patients with GPA of 1.5-2.5 (HR = 0.48; 95% CI: 0.40-0.59), GPA of 3 (HR = 0.38; 95% CI: 0.25-0.57), and GPA of 3.5-4 (HR = 0.28; 95% CI: 0.15-0.52); 6-month OS rates after WBRT were significantly higher in BM patients with GPA of 1.5-2.5 (HR = 0.48; 95% CI: 0.41-0.56), GPA of 3 (HR = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.24-0.45), and GPA of 3.5-4 (HR = 0.24; 95% CI: 0.16-0.35); 12-month OS rates after WBRT were significantly higher in BM patients with GPA of 1.5-2.5 (HR = 0.49; 95% CI: 0.41-0.58), GPA of 3 (HR = 0.48; 95% CI: 0.32-0.73), and GPA of 3.5-4 (HR = 0.31; 95% CI: 0.12-0.79); and 24-month OS rates after WBRT were significantly higher in BM patients with GPA of 1.5-2.5 (HR = 0.49; 95% CI: 0.42-0.58), GPA of 3 (HR = 0.49; 95% CI: 0.32-0.74), and GPA of 3.5-4 (HR = 0.38; 95% CI: 0.15-0.94). Conclusion: BM patients with higher GPAs generally exhibited better prognoses and survival outcomes after WBRT compared to those with lower GPAs. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42023422914.

Differentiation of breast tissue types for surgical margin assessment using machine learning and polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography.

We report an automated differentiation model for classifying malignant tumor, fibro-adipose, and stroma in human breast tissues based on polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT). A total of 720 PS-OCT images from 72 sites of 41 patients with H&E histology-confirmed diagnoses as the gold standard were employed in this study. The differentiation model is trained by the features extracted from both one standard OCT-based metric (i.e., intensity) and four PS-OCT-based metrics (i.e., phase difference between two channels (PD), phase retardation (PR), local phase retardation (LPR), and degree of polarization uniformity (DOPU)). Further optimized by forward searching and validated by leave-one-site-out-cross-validation (LOSOCV) method, the best feature subset was acquired with the highest overall accuracy of 93.5% for the model. Furthermore, to show the superiority of our differentiation model based on PS-OCT images over standard OCT images, the best model trained by intensity-only features (usually obtained by standard OCT systems) was also obtained with an overall accuracy of 82.9%, demonstrating the significance of the polarization information in breast tissue differentiation. The high performance of our differentiation model suggests the potential of using PS-OCT for intraoperative human breast tissue differentiation during the surgical resection of breast cancer.

Incremental value of myocardial wall motion and thickening to perfusion alone by gated SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging for viability assessment in patients with ischemic heart failure.

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to assess the incremental value of myocardial wall motion and thickening compared with perfusion alone obtained from gated single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in diagnosing myocardial viability in patients with ischemic heart failure. METHODS: Eighty-three consecutive patients with ischemic heart failure who underwent both 99mTc-MIBI gated SPECT MPI and 18F-FDG positron emission tomography (PET) myocardial metabolic imaging were retrospectively enrolled. SPECT/PET myocardial viability was defined as the reference standard. Segmental myocardial perfusion, wall motion, and thickening were measured by an automated algorithm from gated SPECT MPI. Univariate and stepwise multivariate analysis were conducted to establish an optimal multivariate model for predicting hibernating myocardium and scar. RESULTS: Among the 1411 segments evaluated, 774 segments had normal perfusion and 637 segments had decreased perfusion. The latter were classified by 18F-FDG PET into 338 hibernating segments and 299 scarred segments. The multivariate regression analysis showed that the model that combined myocardial perfusion uptake with wall motion and thickening scores had the optimal predictive efficiency to distinguish hibernating myocardium from scar in the segments with decreased perfusion. The model had the largest C-statistic (0.753 vs 0.666, P < 0.0001), and the global chi-square was increased from 53.281 to 111.234 when compared with perfusion alone (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of myocardial wall motion and thickening in addition to conventional perfusion uptake in the segments with decreased perfusion enables better differentiation of hibernating myocardium from scar in patients with ischemic heart failure. Considering wide availability and high cost-effectiveness, regional myocardial function integrated with perfusion on gated SPECT MPI has great promise to become a clinical tool in the assessment of myocardial viability.

Toxicity assessment of the extractables from multi-layer coextrusion poly ethylene bags exposed to pH=5 solution containing 4% benzyl alcohol and 0.1 M sodium acetate.

A non-target analysis was developed for the analysis of extractables from multi-layer coextrusion bags exposed to 4% benzyl alcohol solution and 0.1 M sodium acetate at pH = 5 for defined periods (15 day, 45 day and 90 day) according to manufacturer instructions based on the ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOF MS). In order to confirm the extractables, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to indicate the differences among samples of different periods. Then, the extractables were identified based on searching the self-built library or online searching. The total content of extractables of 90 day samples was 589.78 µg/L, and the content was in the range of acceptable levels for pharmaceutical manufacturers. The risk assessment of the extractables were evaluated by Toxtree and T.E.S.T. software to avoid the animals bioexperiment.

Results of performing or not cardiac resynchronization therapy for live assessment of LV function and mechanical systole synchrony using gated myocardial perfusion imaging and real-time three-dimensional echocardiography. Seven months follow-up.

We studied a 50 years old male patient who underwent cardiac resynchronization therapy on and off (CRT-on and CRT-off) for assessment of left ventricular (LV) function and mechanical systole synchrony using gated myocardial perfusion imaging (gMPI) and real-time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT3DE). The patient was reexamined after seven months. The comparison of these two modalities showed consistent results on assessing both the CRT-on and CRT-off conditions. This result may indicate that an immediate synchronization parameter change during CRT-on may be valuable for predicting response to CRT surgery.

Dracorhodin Perochlorate attenuates Staphylococcus aureus USA300 virulence by decreasing α-toxin expression.

α-Toxin, a pore-forming toxin secreted by most Staphylococcus aureus, plays critical role in the pathogenesis associated with various infectious diseases. The USA300 which is a major international epidemic methicilin-resisrant S. aureus has spread rapidly to multiple countries and become an emerging public health concern. In this study, the in vitro efficacy of Dracorhodin Perochlorate (DP) against USA300 virulence was evaluated. Using susceptibility testing, immunoblots, rabbit blood haemolytic assay and real-time RT-PCR, we observed that the α-toxin production was decreased when USA300 was co-cultured with different sub-inhibitory concentration of DP. Further, the protective effect of DP against USA300-mediated injury of human alveolar epithelial cells (A549) and MH-S cells was evaluated by cytotoxicity assays, and the result revealed that DP, at final concentration of 16 µg/ml, is a potent antagonist for USA300-mediated cell damage. Importantly, those beneficial effects might partially correlate with hla and RNAIII suppression by DP, leading to the inhibition of α-toxin production in culture supernatant. Overall, these results suggest that DP could attenuate the virulence of USA300 by decreasing α-toxin production without inhibiting bacterial growth, and this compound may represent an ideal candidate for the development of anti-virulence agent combating S. aureus infection.

Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Cluster of Differentiation 34 for Assessment of Perioperative Bleeding Risk in Gastric Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels to supply nutrients to tumors. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and cluster of differentiation 34 (CD34) are important signaling proteins involved in angiogenesis. Many studies have demonstrated that VEGF and CD34 are related to tumor progression. This study focused on the relationship between VEGF, CD34, and perioperative hemorrhage in patients with gastric cancer. METHODS: To observe the relationship between VEGF and CD34, we tracked 112 patients with advanced gastric cancer for 5 years to assess factors related to hemorrhage, using immunohistochemistry. The results were subjected to statistical analysis using a 2 × 2 contingency table, logistic regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) test. RESULTS: The concentrations of VEGF and CD34 were critically correlated with perioperative hemorrhage and neural invasion in patients with gastric cancer (P < 0.05). Expression of VEGF and CD34 was related (P < 0.05, χ2 = 6.834). VEGF and CD34 co-expression strongly increased the risk of preoperative bleeding (area under the ROC curve >0.7, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Expression of VEGF and CD34 was critically correlated with perioperative hemorrhage in gastric cancer patients. Co-expression of VEGF and CD34 could be an effective indicator for evaluating the risk of perioperative bleeding in gastric cancer patients.

Comparison and evaluation of two exome capture kits and sequencing platforms for variant calling.

BACKGROUND: To promote the clinical application of next-generation sequencing, it is important to obtain accurate and consistent variants of target genomic regions at low cost. Ion Proton, the latest updated semiconductor-based sequencing instrument from Life Technologies, is designed to provide investigators with an inexpensive platform for human whole exome sequencing that achieves a rapid turnaround time. However, few studies have comprehensively compared and evaluated the accuracy of variant calling between Ion Proton and Illumina sequencing platforms such as HiSeq 2000, which is the most popular sequencing platform for the human genome. The Ion Proton sequencer combined with the Ion TargetSeq Exome Enrichment Kit together make up TargetSeq-Proton, whereas SureSelect-Hiseq is based on the Agilent SureSelect Human All Exon v4 Kit and the HiSeq 2000 sequencer. RESULTS: Here, we sequenced exonic DNA from four human blood samples using both TargetSeq-Proton and SureSelect-HiSeq. We then called variants in the exonic regions that overlapped between the two exome capture kits (33.6 Mb). The rates of shared variant loci called by two sequencing platforms were from 68.0 to 75.3% in four samples, whereas the concordance of co-detected variant loci reached 99%. Sanger sequencing validation revealed that the validated rate of concordant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (91.5%) was higher than the SNPs specific to TargetSeq-Proton (60.0%) or specific to SureSelect-HiSeq (88.3%). With regard to 1-bp small insertions and deletions (InDels), the Sanger sequencing validated rates of concordant variants (100.0%) and SureSelect-HiSeq-specific (89.6%) were higher than those of TargetSeq-Proton-specific (15.8%). CONCLUSIONS: In the sequencing of exonic regions, a combination of using of two sequencing strategies (SureSelect-HiSeq and TargetSeq-Proton) increased the variant calling specificity for concordant variant loci and the sensitivity for variant loci called by any one platform. However, for the sequencing of platform-specific variants, the accuracy of variant calling by HiSeq 2000 was higher than that of Ion Proton, specifically for the InDel detection. Moreover, the variant calling software also influences the detection of SNPs and, specifically, InDels in Ion Proton exome sequencing.

[Assessment and analysis of 108 health promotion demonstration enterprises in Jiangsu Province, China].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current status of carrying out the workplace health promotion (WHP) in the enterprises, and to provide a basis for formulation of relevant policies. METHODS: The enterprises that declared Jiangsu Provincial Health Promotion Demonstration Enterprise received on-site assessment by the expert group, including organization management and protection measures, health management, workplace, health, and cultural environment. And a questionnaire survey was performed. The data of evaluations were analyzed by SPSS 19.0. RESULTS: In the last four years, 108 enterprises which had achieved the standard of Health Promotion Demonstration Enterprise were mainly distributed in Southern Jiangsu, including 34 (31.48%) large-sized enterprises, 58 (53.70%) medium-sized enterprises, and 16 (14.81%) small-sized enterprises. And there were 49 (45.37%) wholly foreign-owned enterprises. There were significant differences in the scores between different economic types of enterprises (F = 2.820, P = 0.014). The most deducted points were due to unqualified bulletin boards and warning label of occupation hazards, about 78 times (72.22%); 54.55% of the indices whose deduction rates were higher than 20% were related to occupational disease prevention and control. CONCLUSION: Regions and economic types affect carrying out WHP in enterprises. The current priority is to standardize physical work environment in China. The professional technical level should be improved, and the government needs to redouble efforts to promote the WHP.

Development of a beveled fiber-optic confocal Raman probe for enhancing in vivo epithelial tissue Raman measurements at endoscopy.

We report on the development of a beveled fiber-optic confocal Raman probe coupled with a ball lens for enhancing in vivo epithelial tissue Raman measurements at endoscopy. Our Monte Carlo simulations show that by selecting a proper fiber-ball lens distance and beveled angle of collection fibers, the confocal Raman probe design can be optimized for maximizing shallower tissue Raman measurements in epithelial tissue; in addition, the ratio of epithelium to stromal Raman photons collected using an optimized confocal Raman probe is approximately 19-fold higher than that using a volume-type Raman probe. Further experiments confirm that the confocal Raman endoscopic probe developed is in favor of probing superficial tissue Raman signals from a two-layer tissue phantom as well as esophagus tissue in vivo during endoscopy. This work suggests the great potential of applying the beveled fiber-optic confocal Raman probe for improving in vivo diagnosis of precancer occurring in epithelial tissue at endoscopy.

Phase analysis by gated F-18 FDG PET/CT for left ventricular dyssynchrony assessment: a comparison with gated Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT.

PURPOSE: To investigate the value of gated F-18 FDG PET/CT on left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony assessment in comparison with gated Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: The data of 100 consecutive CAD patients who underwent both gated myocardial Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT and F-18 FDG PET/CT imaging were analyzed. Phase standard deviation (SD) and histogram bandwidth (BW) were derived from phase analysis using Cedars software package. The correlation and agreement of SD and BW between Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT and F-18 FDG PET/CT were examined. Myocardial viability and the site of latest activation assessed by the two imaging methods were compared as well. RESULTS: A moderate correlation for SD (r = 0.58, p < 0.0001) and BW (r = 0.60, p < 0.0001) was found between gated SPECT and gated F-18 FDG PET/CT. Bland-Altman analysis revealed an overestimation of SD and BW (6.4° ± 14.3° and 22.0° ± 46.8°) by gated F-18 FDG PET/CT. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that significant LV remodeling on SPECT imaging, LV functional parameters and F-18 FDG uptake ratio of myocardium to blood pool (SUVM/B) were associated with the overestimation. Myocardial SPECT and F-18 FDG PET/CT had a 67.1 % identity in determining the latest activation site and 5.2 % more viable myocardium was detected by F-18 FDG PET/CT than SPECT. CONCLUSION: Gated F-18 FDG PET/CT moderately correlated with gated Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT in assessing LV dyssynchrony. Gated F-18 FDG PET/CT phase analysis should be cautiously applied in CAD patients with significant LV remodeling on SPECT imaging, severe LV functional impairment or poor myocardial F-18 FDG uptake.

[The assessment of hemoperfusion for the treatment of acute methamidophos poisoning].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of hemoperfusion(HP) about the patients of methamidophos poisoning. METHODS: On the basis of comprehensive treatment,15 cases of severe acute methamidophos poisoning patients were treated with HP, Blood samples were collected at 7 time points, before and 5, 15, 30, 45, 60mins following the beginning and the end of hemoperfusion. Blood samples were used for measuring the concentration of methamidophos and perfusion devices were used for measuring the volume of methamidophos adsorbed by the device after hemoperfusion. RESULTS: 15 patients live in 12 cases, 3 cases of death. HP (former) blood Cholinesterase vigor were 662.60 + 632.05, HP (after) blood cholinesterase vigor were 2577.52 + 920.38 IU/L; The difference of blood Cholinesterase vigor between the before and after HP was statistically significant (P < 0.01). The patients' methamidophos concentration of blood when HP treated 45, 60, 120 min were respectively (851 + 672), (680 + 529), (587 + 520) microg /ml, there were significantly lower than that the patients' methamidophos concentration of blood who were before HP (1659 + 1105) microg/ml, a statistically significant difference (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: HP can be cut down obviously methamidophos poisoning patients serum concentrations of toxic, the experimental method directly prove the clinical application of carbon HP can really adsorption methamidophos.

[Assessment of facial skeletal growth and response to implanted functional appliance therapy with three-dimensional images].

PURPOSE: To evaluate the facial skeletal growth and response to implanted functional appliance therapy with three-dimensional images. METHODS: Eleven male Beagle dogs (7 months old and in late mixed dentition) were randomly divided into four groups: implanted functional appliance group, semi-implanted functional appliance group, modified Forsus(TM) group and the control group. After the appliances were inserted in the experimental groups for 4, 8, 12 weeks and 4 weeks after the appliances were removed, the facial skeleton and teeth of the Beagle dogs digital information was obtained by using spiral computed tomography, then Mimics 8.1 software and a kind of retro-engineering software called qualify V8.0 were used to establish three-dimensional facial skeletal and dental images of the Beagle dogs. Three-dimensional structure changes of the facial skeleton and teeth in each group at different stages were assessed by the Bjork method, i.e. the superimposition technique based on the "best fit" of anterior cranial base structure and mandible metallic implants. RESULTS: Mandibles in the groups with implanted functional appliance, semi-implanted functional appliance, and modified ForsusTM were obviously displaced forward, while the growth of the maxilla was inhibited in some degree. The displacement of upper teeth in the group with implanted functional appliance was not obvious, while the distal movement of upper teeth in the group with semi-implanted functional appliance and modified ForsusTM was significant compared with that in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The implanted functional appliance can significantly stimulate the growth of the mandible and avoid the unwanted movement of teeth which is frequently found in other functional appliances. Supported by Wenzhou International Cooperative Research Project (Grant No. B00260027).