Permeation measurement of gestodene for some biodegradable materials using Franz diffusion cells.

Biodegradable poly(d,l-lactide) (PDLLA), Poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC), polycaprolactone (PCL), poly(caprolactone-co-d,l-lactide) (PCDLLA) and poly(trimethylene carbonate-co-caprolactone) (PTCL) are recently used for clinical drug delivery system such as subcutaneous contraceptive implant capsule due to their biodegradable properties that they could possess long-term stable performance in vivo without removal, however their permeation rate is unknown. In the work, biodegradable material membranes were prepared by solvent evaporation using chloroform, and commercial silicone rubber membrane served as a control. Gestodene was used as a model drug. Gestodene has high biologic progestational activity which allows for high contraceptive reliability at very low-dose levels. The permeation rate of gestodene for several biodegradable materials was evaluated. In vitro diffusion studies were done using Franz diffusion cells with a diffusion area of 1.33 cm(2). Phosphate buffer solution (PBS, pH 7.4), 10% methanol solution and distilled water were taken in donor and receiver chambers at temperature of 37 °C respectively. The in vitro experiments were conducted over a period of 24 h during which samples were collected at regular intervals. The withdrawn samples were appropriately diluted and measured on UV-vis spectrophotometer at 247 nm. Conclusion data from our study showed that permeation rate of PCDLLA with CL ratio more than 70% could be more excellent than commercial silicone rubber membrane. They may be suitable as a candidate carrier for gestodene subcutaneous contraceptive implants in contraceptive fields.

The [3 + 2] Cycloaddition Reaction of N-Substituted Pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes with Arylalkenes under Copper Catalysis: Access to Dihydropyrrolizine Skeletons.

Herein, we found that treating N-substituted pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes with arylalkenes in DMF in N2 at 120 °C could afford pyrrolidine scaffolds with an up to 85% yield. This approach has several remarkable features, such as atom and step economy, readily accessible raw materials, and easy-to-operate manner, providing a simple and efficient method for constructing complicated bicyclic pyrroles. Additionally, we have successfully synthesized 28 target compounds, which further demonstrates its practicality and wide applicability.

LWMA-Net: Light-weighted morphology attention learning for human embryo grading.

Visual inspection of embryo morphology is routinely used in embryo assessment and selection. However, due to the complexity of morphologies and large inter- and intra-observer variances among embryologists, manual evaluations remain to be subjective and time-consuming. Thus, we proposed a light-weighted morphology attention learning network (LWMA-Net) for automatic assistance on embryo grading. The LWMA-Net integrated a morphology attention module (MAM) to seek the informative features and their locations and a multiscale fusion module (MFM) to increase the features flowing in the model. The LWMA-Net was trained with a primary set of 3599 embryos from 2318 couples that were clinically enrolled between Sep. 2016 and Dec. 2018, and generated area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of 96.88% and 97.58% on 4- and 3-category gradings, respectively. An independent test set comprises 691 embryos from 321 couples between Jan. 2019 and Jan. 2021 were used to test the assisted fertility values on the embryo grading. Five experienced embryologists were invited to regrade the embryos in the independent set with and without the aid of the LWMA-Net three months apart. Embryologists aided by our LWMA-Net significantly improved their grading capabilities with average AUCs improved by 4.98%-5.32% on 4- and 3-category grading tasks, respectively, which suggests good potential of our LWMA-Net on assisted human reproduction.

Advances of research of Fc-fusion protein that activate NK cells for tumor immunotherapy.

The rapid development of bioengineering technology has introduced Fc-fusion proteins, representing a novel kind of recombinant protein, as promising biopharmaceutical products in tumor therapy. Numerous related anti-tumor Fc-fusion proteins have been investigated and are in different stages of development. Fc-fusion proteins are constructed by fusing the Fc-region of the antibody with functional proteins or peptides. They retain the bioactivity of the latter and partial properties of the former. This structural and functional advantage makes Fc-fusion proteins an effective tool in tumor immunotherapy, especially for the recruitment and activation of natural killer (NK) cells, which play a critical role in tumor immunotherapy. Even though tumor cells have developed mechanisms to circumvent the cytotoxic effect of NK cells or induce defective NK cells, Fc-fusion proteins have been proven to effectively activate NK cells to kill tumor cells in different ways, such as antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC), activate NK cells in different ways in order to promote killing of tumor cells. In this review, we focus on NK cell-based immunity for cancers and current research progress of the Fc-fusion proteins for anti-tumor therapy by activating NK cells.

2-{[3-Methyl-4-(2,2,2-trifluoro-eth-oxy)pyridin-2-yl]methyl-sulfan-yl}-1H-benzimidazole monohydrate.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C(16)H(14)F(3)N(3)OS·H(2)O, contains two independent mol-ecules (A and B) and two water mol-ecules, one of which is disordered over two positions in a 0.790 (8):0.210 (8) ratio. The mol-ecular conformations are close, the benzimidazole mean plane and pyridine ring forming dihedral angles of 1.8 (3) and 0.1 (2)° in mol-ecules A and B, respectively. The water mol-ecules are involved in formation of two independent hydrogen-bonded chains via N-H⋯O and O-H⋯N hydrogen bonds. Chains propagating along the a axis are formed by mol-ecule A and one independent water mol-ecule, while chains propagating along the b axis are formed by mol-ecule B and the other independent water mol-ecule. The crystal packing exhibits π-π inter-actions, as indicated by short distances of 3.607 (3) and 3.701 (3) Šbetween the centroids of the imidazole and pyridine rings of neighbouring mol-ecules.

Recent progress on MHC-I epitope prediction in tumor immunotherapy.

Tumor immunotherapy has now become one of the most potential therapy for those intractable cancer diseases. The antigens on the cancer cell surfaces are the keys for the immune system to recognize and eliminate them. As reported, the immunogenicity of the tumor antigens could be determined by the binding between the key epitope peptides and MHC molecules. In recent years, the approaches to anticipate the peptides from the candidate epitopes have gradually changed into more efficient methods. Including the improved conventional methods, more diverse methods were coming into view. Here we review the anticipated methods of the tumor associated epitopes that specifically bind with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules, and the recent advances and applications of those epitope prediction methods.

Discovery of Dosimertinib, a Highly Potent, Selective, and Orally Efficacious Deuterated EGFR Targeting Clinical Candidate for the Treatment of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Osimertinib is a highly potent and selective third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor, which provides excellent clinical benefits and is now a standard-of-care therapy for advanced EGFR mutation-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, AZ5104, a primary toxic metabolite of osimertinib, has caused unwanted toxicities. To address this unmet medical need, we initiated an iterative program focusing on structural optimizations of osimertinib and preclinical characterization, leading to the discovery of a highly potent, selective, and orally efficacious deuterated EGFR-targeting clinical candidate, dosimertinib. Preclinical studies revealed that dosimertinib demonstrated robust in vivo antitumor efficacy and favorable PK profiles, but with lower toxicity than osimertinib. These preclinical data support further clinical development of dosimertinib for the treatment of NSCLC. Dosimertinib has received official approval in China to initiate the phase I clinical trial (registration numbers: CXHL2000060 and CXHL2000061).

Extremely severe scoliosis, heterotopic ossification, and osteoarthritis in a three-generation family with Crouzon syndrome carrying a mutant c.799T>C FGFR2.

BACKGROUND: Crouzon syndrome is a rare and complex autosomal dominant craniosynostosis syndrome with a prevalence of approximately 1 in 60,000 births. The typical features are craniosynostosis, proptosis, midfacial hypoplasia, and noncranial manifestations, including deformities in the cervical spine, elbow, and fingers. Crouzon syndrome is usually caused by pathogenic variants in the fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) gene. METHODS: We reported a three-generation family with Crouzon syndrome; the proband showed extremely severe limb abnormalities. The clinical features were obtained by physical examination and radiographic examination. Sanger sequencing of all 18 exons of FGFR2 was conducted to identify the disease-causing mutation. RESULTS: The proband was a 44-year-old man who showed characteristics of Crouzon syndrome, including craniofacial dysostosis, shallow orbits, proptosis, midface hypoplasia, beaked nose, strabismus, short superior lip, short stature, and neck injection. In addition to these typical characteristics, radiographic examination showed severe scoliosis, heterotopic ossification of the elbows, knee osteoarthritis, metacarpophalangeal joint valgus, collapse of the articular surface of the thumb metacarpal, knuckle ossification and fusion. Sanger sequencing identified a heterozygous pathogenic variant c.799T>C, p.(Ser267Pro) in exon 7 of FGFR2 in affected individuals. CONCLUSION: Crouzon syndrome in this three-generation family was caused by c.799T>C FGFR2, and the patient showed a different phenotypic appearance from other Crouzon patients with c.799T>C FGFR2.

Identification of the keratin 9 (KRT9) N161S mutation in a Chinese kindred with epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma.

We present a family from Northeast China affected by epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma (EPPK) in which we confirmed the presence of the N161S mutation as the result of a 548A>G transition in exon1 of the keratin 9 gene. Genomic DNA from peripheral blood of all available members in this family was used for amplification of exon 1 of KRT9 by polymerase chain reaction. The mutation was detected by direct sequence analysis and identified by restriction endonuclease DdeI digestion. The finding of the same mutation in all available patients, together with the previous reports of the disease, strongly suggested that position 161 of the KRT9 gene also represents a mutation "hotspot" for EPPK. Our result is an important contribution to the investigation of the genotype/phenotype correlation and affords molecular genetic knowledge for future clinical diagnosis and gene therapy of EPPK.

Sperm DNA fragmentation index, as measured by sperm chromatin dispersion, might not predict assisted reproductive outcome.

OBJECTIVE: Routine semen parameters have limited clinical diagnostic value for predicting male infertility. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) and semen quality, and between DFI and clinical pregnancy rate of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of 390 couples undergoing sperm fragmentation prior to receiving conventional IVF (n = 238) or ICSI (n = 152) were evaluated. RESULTS: We found that there were no significant differences in fertilization rate, good embryo rate, or pregnancy rate between high (≥30%) and low (<30%) DFI groups after IVF or ICSI. However, statistically different decreasing motility trends under higher DFI values in the IVF and ICSI groups were detected. Comparison of ROC curve of motility and DFI scores for achieved pregnancy revealed that the best DFI cut-off value was 20%. Also, no significant change was found when 20% DFI level was taken in IVF and ICSI outcomes. CONCLUSION: DFI scores did not provide independent information regarding fertilization, embryo quality, or pregnancy for infertile patients who received IVF or ICSI, but were consistent with semen analysis for infertile couples, regardless of IVF or ICSI outcome.

Molecular prenatal diagnosis for hereditary distal arthrogryposis type 2B.

Autosomal dominant distal arthrogryposes (DAs) are a group of muscle diseases characterized by congenital contractures of the limbs. Currently, prenatal diagnosis of DAs depends upon ultrasound examination during late gestation. Recently, five genes encoding fast switch proteins located at 9p13.2, 11p15.5 and 17q13.1 were identified. These included TPM2, TNNI2/TNNT3, and MYH3/MYH8. Last year, we discovered a novel heterozygous mutation c.523_525delAAG (p.K175del) in the TNNI2 gene, which encodes the isoform of troponinI, in a seven-generation Chinese family affected with distal arthrogryposis type 2B (DA2B). Here, we report the molecular prenatal diagnosis of 3 high-risk fetuses of two women in the family by two-point linkage inferential analysis and deletion detection of the TNNI2 gene with chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or amniocentesis. To our knowledge, this is the first description of molecular prenatal diagnosis for DAs.

A novel deletion in TNNI2 causes distal arthrogryposis in a large Chinese family with marked variability of expression.

Distal arthrogryposis (DA) is composed of a group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorders, characterized by multiple congenital contractures of the limbs. Point mutations in three genes encoding contractile fast-twitch myofibers, TPM2, TNNI2 and TNNT3, were recently identified in DA type 1 (DA1; MIM 108120) and DA type 2B (DA2B; MIM 601680). We have described a large Chinese DA family in which different individuals had phenotypes similar to DA1 or DA2B. To map the disease locus in this family, two-point linkage analysis was first performed using microsatellite markers selected from the genomic regions close to the TPM2, TNNI2/TNNT3 and TNNC2 genes. A positive LOD score of 3.61 at theta = 0 was obtained with the marker close to the TNNI2/TNNT3 genes, corresponding to the genetic mapping site of DA2B. Direct sequencing of the PCR-amplified DNA fragment spanning exon 8 of the TNNI2 gene showed a heterozygous deletion, c.523_525delAAG (p.K175del), in the proband. This novel mutation was confirmed to cosegregate with the DA phenotype in affected individuals but not detected in all unaffected individuals of the family and not in 50 healthy controls. In summary, we have found a novel TNNI2 mutation in a Chinese family with DA2B. Our work represents the first report on the link between TNNI2 and the DA phenotype in Chinese.