Gender differences in the impact of anatomical factors on non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries: a magnetic resonance study.

PURPOSE: To identify MRI-detected anatomical risk factors for non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries across genders. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 141 ACL-reconstructed patients (35 females, 106 males) and 142 controls (37 females, 105 males) from January 2020 to April 2022. Inclusion criteria were primary non-contact ACL injuries. The tibial plateau slope, lateral femoral condyle index, Insall-Salvati index, and patellar tendon angle were measured, using binary logistic regression for gender-specific risk evaluation. RESULTS: Increased lateral tibial plateau slope, reduced intercondylar notch width index, lateral femoral condyle index, and patellar tendon angle correlated with ACL injuries in both genders. The Insall-Salvati index was a significant risk factor in females but not in males. CONCLUSION: This study identifies the lateral tibial plateau slope, notch width index, lateral femoral condyle index, and patellar tendon angle at near-extension as risk factors for ACL injuries in both genders, with the Insall-Salvati index also implicated in females.

Identification of Anti-SNRPA as a Novel Serological Biomarker for Systemic Sclerosis Diagnosis.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a systemic autoimmune disorder that leads to vasculopathy and tissue fibrosis. A lack of reliable biomarkers has been a challenge for clinical diagnosis of the disease. We employed a protein array-based approach to identify and validate SSc-specific autoantibodies. Phase I involved profiled autoimmunity using human proteome microarray (HuProt arrays) with 90 serum samples: 40 patients with SSc, 30 patients diagnosed with autoimmune diseases, and 20 healthy subjects. In Phase II, we constructed a focused array with candidates identified antigens and used this to profile a much larger cohort comprised of serum samples. Finally, we used a western blot analysis to validate the serum of validated proteins with high signal values. Bioinformatics analysis allowed us to identify 113 candidate autoantigens that were significantly associated with SSc. This two-phase strategy allowed us to identify and validate anti-small nuclear ribonucleoprotein polypeptide A (SNRPA) as a novel SSc-specific serological biomarker. The observed positive rate of anti-SNRPA antibody in patients with SSc was 11.25%, which was significantly higher than that of any disease control group (3.33%) or healthy controls (1%). In conclusion, anti-SNRPA autoantibody serves as a novel biomarker for SSc diagnosis and may be promising for clinical applications.

Identification of Novel Serological Autoantibodies in Takayasu Arteritis Patients Using HuProt Arrays.

To identify novel autoantibodies of Takayasu arteritis (TAK) using HuProt array-based approach, a two-phase approach was adopted. In Phase I, serum samples collected from 40 TAK patients, 15 autoimmune disease patients, and 20 healthy subjects were screened to identify TAK-specific autoantibodies using human protein (HuProt) arrays. In phase II, the identified candidate autoantibodies were validated with TAK-focused arrays using an additional cohort comprised of 109 TAK patients, 110 autoimmune disease patients, and 96 healthy subjects. Subsequently, the TAK-specific autoantibodies validated in phase II were further confirmed using western blot analysis. We identified and validated eight autoantibodies as potential TAK-specific diagnostic biomarkers, including anti-SPATA7, -QDPR, -SLC25A2, -PRH2, -DIXDC1, -IL17RB, -ZFAND4, and -NOLC1 antibodies, with AUC of 0.803, 0.801, 0.780, 0.696, 0.695, 0.678, 0.635, and 0.613, respectively. SPATA7 could distinguish TAK from healthy and disease controls with 73.4% sensitivity at 85.4% specificity, while QDPR showed 71.6% sensitivity at 86.4% specificity. SLC25A22 showed the highest sensitivity of 80.7%, but at lower specificity of 67.0%. In addition, PRH2, IL17RB, and NOLC1 showed good specificities of 88.3%, 85.9%, and 86.9%, respectively, but at lower sensitivities (<50%). Finally, DIXDC1 and ZFAND4 showed moderate performance as compared with the other autoantibodies. Using a decision tree model, we could reach a specificity of 94.2% with AUC of 0.843, a significantly improved performance as compared with that by each individual biomarker. The performances of three autoantibodies, namely anti-SPATA7, -QDPR, and -PRH2, were successfully confirmed with western blot analysis. Using this two-phase strategy, we identified and validated eight novel autoantibodies as TAK-specific biomarker candidates, three of which could be readily adopted in a clinical setting.

Profile analysis of circRNAs in human THP-1 derived macrophages infected with intracellular Staphylococcus aureus.

BACKGROUND: Intracellular Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infection is generally persistent, recurrent and difficult to treat due to the poor availability of antibiotics within macrophages cells and the lack of ideal diagnostic markers. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), with covalently closed circular structures, exists in the serum stably and is not easily degraded by nucleases. Besides, circRNAs play a pivotal in the eukaryotic regulation of genes expression and served as biomarkers in variety disease including microbial infections. However, the function of host circRNAs in intracellular S. aureus infection remains largely unclear. METHODS: In this study, the circRNAs expression profile was investigated by RNA sequencing technology in both S. aureus-infected THP-1 derived macrophages and mock control cells. The differentially expressed circRNAs (DE circRNAs) with a fold-change >1.5 (p < 0.05) are analyzed using functional pathway clustering prediction. Then, RT-qPCR was performed to verify the top 2 up-regulated circRNAs in the THP-1 cell and human serum samples so as to evaluate the value of circRNAs for S. aureus diagnosis. RESULTS: An intracellular survival THP-1 derived macrophages model of S. aureus infection was established. A total of 5,299 circRNAs were identified in human THP-1 derived macrophages infected with intracellular S. aureus. There were 61 DE circRNAs with a fold-change >1.5 (p < 0.05) after S. aureus infection. Among them, 22 circRNAs were up-regulated while 39 circRNAs down-regulated. GO and KEGG pathway analysis demonstrated that DE circRNAs were enriched in the processes such as Neurotrophin, Pyruvate metabolism and Notch signaling pathway. Moreover, hsa_circ_0000311 and chr13:43500472-43544806-(novel) were verified to be significantly upregulated in THP-1 derived macrophages and human serum samples between two groups. Finally, the networks of circRNA-miRNA-mRNA based on these two circRNAs were constructed respectively. CONCLUSION: Our study provides the first profile analysis of host circRNAs involved in intracellular S. aureus infection, which may serve as biomarkers for S. aureus diagnosis and contribute to the understanding of S. aureus evasion mechanisms.

Identification of key serum biomarkers for the diagnosis and metastatic prediction of osteosarcoma by analysis of immune cell infiltration.

BACKGROUND: The role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) in osteosarcoma (OS) development has not been fully elucidated. Further, the contribution of the immune response to OS progression is not well defined. However, it is known that circRNAs and miRNAs can serve as biomarkers for the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of many cancers. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify novel key serum biomarkers for the diagnosis and metastatic prediction of OS by analysis of immune cell infiltration and associated RNA molecules. METHODS: Human OS differentially expressed circRNAs (DEcircRNAs), differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs), and differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs) were identified by analysis of microarray data downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. Further, characteristic patterns of OS-infiltrating immune cells were analyzed. On this basis, we identified statistically significant transcription factors. Moreover we performed pathway enrichment analysis, constructed protein-protein interaction networks, and devised competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks. Biological targets of the ceRNA networks were evaluated and potential OS biomarkers confirmed by RT-qPCR analysis of the patients' serum. RESULTS: Seven differentially expressed circRNAs, 166 differentially expressed miRNAs, and 175 differentially expressed mRNAs were identified. An evaluation of cellular OS infiltration identified the highest level of infiltration by M0 macrophages, M2 macrophages, and CD8+ T cells, with M0 macrophages and CD8+ T cells as the most prominent. Significant patterns of tumor-infiltrating immune cells were identified by principal component analysis. Moreover, 185 statistically significant transcription factors were associated with OS. Further, in association with immune cell infiltration, hsa-circ-0010220, hsa-miR-326, hsa-miR-338-3p, and FAM98A were identified as potential novel biomarkers for OS diagnosis. Of these, FAM98A had the most promise as a diagnostic marker for OS and OS metastasis. Most importantly, a novel diagnostic model consisting of these four biomarkers (hsa-circ-0010220, hsa-miR-326, hsa-miR-338-3p, and FAM98A) was established with a 0.928 AUC value. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, potential serum biomarkers for OS diagnosis and metastatic prediction were identified based on an analysis of immune cell infiltration. A novel diagnostic model consisting of these four promising serum biomarkers was established. Taken together, the results of this study provide a new perspective by which to understand immunotherapy of OS.

Comprehensive analysis of immunoglobulin and clinical variables identifies functional linkages and diagnostic indicators associated with Behcet's disease patients receiving immunomodulatory treatment.

BACKGROUND: Behcet's disease (BD) is a relapsing systemic vascular autoimmune/inflammatory disease. Despite much effort to investigate BD, there are virtually no unique laboratory markers identified to help in the diagnosis of BD, and the pathogenesis is largely unknown. The aim of this work is to explore interactions between different clinical variables by correlation analysis to determine associations between the functional linkages of different paired variables and potential diagnostic biomarkers of BD. METHODS: We measured the immunoglobulin proteome (IgG, IgG1-4, IgA, IgA1-2) and 29 clinical variables in 66 healthy controls and 63 patients with BD. We performed a comprehensive clinical variable linkage analysis and defined the physiological, pathological and pharmacological linkages based on the correlations of all variables in healthy controls and BD patients without and with immunomodulatory therapy. We further calculated relative changes between variables derived from comprehensive linkage analysis for better indications in the clinic. The potential indicators were validated in a validation set with 76 patients with BD, 30 healthy controls, 18 patients with Takayasu arteritis and 18 patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis. RESULTS: In this study, the variables identified were found to act in synergy rather than alone in BD patients under physiological, pathological and pharmacological conditions. Immunity and inflammation can be suppressed by corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, and integrative analysis of granulocytes, platelets and related variables is likely to provide a more comprehensive understanding of disease activity, thrombotic potential and ultimately potential tissue damage. We determined that total protein/mean corpuscular hemoglobin and total protein/mean corpuscular hemoglobin levels, total protein/mean corpuscular volume, and plateletcrit/monocyte counts were significantly increased in BD compared with controls (P < 0.05, in both the discovery and validation sets), which helped in distinguishing BD patients from healthy and vasculitis controls. Chronic anemia in BD combined with increased total protein contributed to higher levels of these biomarkers, and the interactions between platelets and monocytes may be linked to vascular involvement. CONCLUSIONS: All these results demonstrate the utility of our approach in elucidating the pathogenesis and in identifying novel biomarkers for autoimmune diseases in the future.

Syndecan-1, an indicator of endothelial glycocalyx degradation, predicts outcome of patients admitted to an ICU with COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: We investigated the feasibility of two biomarkers of endothelial damage (Syndecan-1 and thrombomodulin) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and their association with inflammation, coagulopathy, and mortality. METHODS: The records of 49 COVID-19 patients who were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) in Wuhan, China between February and April 2020 were examined. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data, and outcomes were compared between survivors and non-survivors COVID-19 patients, and between patients with high and low serum Syndecan-1 levels. The dynamics of serum Syndecan-1 levels were also analyzed. RESULTS: The levels of Syndecan-1 were significantly higher in non-survivor group compared with survivor group (median 1031.4 versus 504.0 ng/mL, P = 0.002), and the levels of thrombomodulin were not significantly different between these two groups (median 4534.0 versus 3780.0 ng/mL, P = 0.070). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the group with high Syndecan-1 levels had worse overall survival (log-rank test: P = 0.023). Patients with high Syndecan-1 levels also had significantly higher levels of thrombomodulin, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α. Data on the dynamics of Syndecan-1 levels indicated much greater variations in non-survivors than survivors. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 patients with high levels of Syndecan-1 develop more serious endothelial damage and inflammatory reactions, and have increased mortality. Syndecan-1 has potential for use as a marker for progression or severity of COVID-19. Protecting the glycocalyx from destruction is a potential treatment for COVID-19.

Construction of an autophagy interaction network based on competitive endogenous RNA reveals the key pathways and central genes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in vivo.

As of April 1, 2021, more than 2.8 million people have died of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, the mutation of virus strains that have accompanied the pandemic has brought more severe challenges to pandemic control. Host microRNAs (miRNAs) are widely involved in a variety of biological processes of coronavirus infection, including autophagy in SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the mechanisms underlying miRNAs involved in autophagy in SARS-CoV-2 infection have not been fully elucidated. In this study, the miRNA and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression profiles of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection were investigated based on raw data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets, and potential novel biomarkers of autophagy were revealed by bioinformatics analyses. We identified 32 differentially expressed miRNAs and 332 differentially expressed mRNAs in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Cytokine receptor related pathways were the most enriched pathways for differentially expressed miRNAs identified by pathway analysis. Most importantly, an autophagy interaction network, which was associated with the pathological processes of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially with the cytokine storm, was constructed. In this network, hsa-miR-340-3p, hsa-miR-652-3p, hsa-miR-4772-5p, hsa-miR-192-5p, TP53INP2, and CCR2 may be biomarkers that predict changes in mild SARS-CoV-2 infection. Some molecules, including hsa-miR-1291 and CXCR4, were considered potential targets to predict the emergence of severe symptoms in SARS-CoV-2 infection. To our knowledge, this study provided the first profile analysis of an autophagy interaction network in SARS-CoV-2 infection and revealed several novel autophagy-related biomarkers for understanding the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in vivo.

Assessing serum IgG4 glycosylation profiles of IgG4-related disease using lectin microarray.

OBJECTIVES: IgG4 related disease (IgG4-RD) is a multiorgan fibroinflammatory disorder. Lectin microarray is a high-throughput glycosylation analysis technology. The aim of our study was to investigate glycosylation profiling of serum IgG4 from IgG4-RD patients and controls. METHODS: A large cohort of 167 IgG4-RD patients, 130 disease controls (DCs) and 86 healthy controls (HCs) were included in the current study. The glycan level of serum IgG4 of all participants was determined by lectin microarray. A verification assay of lectin microarray and lectin blot were used to clarify the relationship between the serum IgG4 and purified IgG4 glycosylation. RESULTS: The results revealed that the glycan level of mannose (binding MNA-M, VVA mannose, ConA) was significantly increased and that the glycan level of fucose (binding LTL), GlcNAc (binding DSL), GalNAc (binding HPA) was significantly decreased in IgG4-RD patients compared to DCs and HCs. We further found that the glycan level of GlcNAc was positively correlated with that of complement 3 (C3), and that the reduced level of GlcNAc was associated with damage to multiple organs. In addition, the mannose level (binding MNA-M and VVA mannose) was negatively correlated with C3 and complement 4 (C4) levels. CONCLUSIONS: Serum IgG4 of IgG4-RD patients exhibits different glycosylation levels. This study demonstrated that there is important clinical value in identifying aberrant GlcNAc levels as a potential diagnostic index for multi-organ involvement. Furthermore, the mannose level of serum IgG4 may reflect the degree of inflammation of IgG4-RD.

Genetic variant rs72613567 of HSD17B13 gene reduces alcohol-related liver disease risk in Chinese Han population.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Recently, the variant rs72613567:TA in the 17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 13 (HSD17B13) has been associated with reduced levels of ALT and AST and a reduced risk of alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) in the European population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between the polymorphisms of HSD17B13 and ALD, liver serum markers and patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 (PNPLA3) p.I148M in the Chinese Han population. METHODS: A case-control study was performed from five centres and included 769 ALD patients and 767 healthy controls. Two SNPs (rs72613567 and rs6834314) in HSD17B13 were genotyped using the Sequenom MassArray system and allele association analysis was performed using PLINK 1.90 software. RESULTS: HSD17B13 rs72613567:TA allele was associated with a reduced risk of ALD by 19% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.05-0.31, P = .01), uniformly, the G allele in the rs6834314 reduced the risk of ALD by 19% (95% CI: 0.05-0.31, P = 8.28 × 10-3). And the genotypes of two SNPs were associated with reducing the risk of ALD in three genetic model analysis. In addition, we found that TA allele was associated with lower levels of serum ALT, AST and GGT (P = .005, .007 and .02, respectively), higher level of serum ALB (P = .02), but not associated with ALP. In this cohort, the interaction between HSD17B13 rs72613567 and the steatogenic allele PNPLA3 rs738409 was not validated. CONCLUSION: The present study revealed that HSD17B13 rs72613567 was significantly associated with a reduced risk of ALD in Chinese Han population.

NAF1 rs4691896 Is Significantly Associated with Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis in a Chinese Han Population: A Case-Control Study.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have demonstrated the important role of genetic predisposition in coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) in addition to environmental factors. The pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis disease is related to telomere activity. We performed this study to assess the association between genetic variants of telomere-related genes and the risk of CWP. MATERIAL AND METHODS We enrolled 652 CWP Chinese Han patients and 648 dust-exposed controls in this case-control design study, genotyping 8 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) including TERT (rs2736100), TERC (rs10936599 and rs12696304), and NAF1 (rs7675998, rs3822304, rs12331717, rs936562 and rs4691896) using the Sequenom MassARRAY system. RESULTS We identified a significant allele association between NAF1 rs4691896 and CWP by comparing patients with controls (22.0% vs. 13.0%, odds ratio [OR]: 1.89, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.54-2.33, Pc=1.14×10⁻8). The genotype frequency of rs4691896 differed significantly between the patients and controls (Pc=1.49×10⁻8). In addition, rs4691896 was correlated with CWP in an additive genetic model (OR: 1.96, 95% CI: 1.58-2.44, Pc=8.96×10⁻9) and a dominant model (OR: 2.15, 95% CI: 1.70-2.73, Pc=2.39×10⁻9). CONCLUSIONS Our study for the first time demonstrates an association between a telomere-related gene (NAF1) and CWP in a Chinese Han population, and provides valuable insight to further understand the possible pathogenetic mechanism of fibrosis in CWP.

Ferritin in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly developed into a pandemic. Increased levels of ferritin due to cytokine storm and secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis were found in severe COVID-19 patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the role of ferritin in COVID-19. METHODS: Studies investigating ferritin in COVID-19 were collected from PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, SinoMed, and WANFANG. A meta-analysis was performed to compare the ferritin level between different patient groups: non-survivors versus survivors; more severe versus less severe; with comorbidity versus without comorbidity; ICU versus non-ICU; with mechanical ventilation versus without mechanical ventilation. RESULTS: A total of 52 records involving 10 614 COVID-19-confirmed patients between December 25, 2019, and June 1, 2020, were included in this meta-analysis, and 18 studies were included in the qualitative synthesis. The ferritin level was significantly increased in severe patients compared with the level in non-severe patients [WMD 397.77 (95% CI 306.51-489.02), P < .001]. Non-survivors had a significantly higher ferritin level compared with the one in survivors [WMD 677.17 (95% CI 391.01-963.33), P < .001]. Patients with one or more comorbidities including diabetes, thrombotic complication, and cancer had significantly higher levels of ferritin than those without (P < .01). Severe acute liver injury was significantly associated with high levels of ferritin, and its level was associated with intensive supportive care, including ICU transfer and mechanical ventilation. CONCLUSIONS: Ferritin was associated with poor prognosis and could predict the worsening of COVID-19 patients.

Analysis of myositis autoantibodies in Chinese patients with cancer-associated myositis.

BACKGROUND: Cancer-associated myositis (CAM) has poor prognosis and causes higher mortality. In general, myositis-specific autoantibodies (MSAs) and myositis-associated autoantibodies (MAAs) have been shown to be useful biomarkers for its diagnosis. METHODS: In the present study, focus was given in assessing the presence, prevalence, and diagnostic values of myositis autoantibodies in Chinese patients diagnosed with CAM. The sera collected from 49 CAM patients, 108 dermatomyositis/polymyositis (DM/PM) patients without cancer, 105 disease controls, and 60 healthy controls were detected for the presence of 16 autoantigens (Jo-1, OJ, EJ, PL-7, PL-12, MDA5, TIF1γ, Mi-2α, Mi-2ß, SAE1, NXP2, SRP, Ku, PM-Scl75, PM-Scl100, and Ro-52) using a commercial Euroline assay. RESULTS: The frequency of anti-TIF1γ was significantly higher in CAM patients than in DM/PM patients without cancer (46.9% vs 14.8%, P < .001). Importantly, the sensitivity and specificity for this MSA were 46.9% and 85.2%, respectively. These helped to differentiate CAM patients from DM/PM patients without cancer. However, there was no difference in other MSAs and MAAs between CAM and DM/PM patients without cancer. CONCLUSION: The present study indicates that anti-TIF1γ levels can serve as important biomarkers for CAM diagnosis and help in distinguishing between CAM and DM/PM patients without cancer.

High levels of antibodies to citrullinated α-enolase peptide-1 (CEP-1) identify erosions and interstitial lung disease (ILD) in a Chinese rheumatoid arthritis cohort.

We evaluated the clinical performance of anti-CEP-1 in a Chinese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) cohort. A total of 264 subjects were tested, including 101 RA patients, 38 juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients, 46 disease control (DC) and 79 healthy controls (HC). The presence of anti-CEP-1 in patients with RA, JIA, DCs and HC were 61.4%, 13.2%, 15.2% and 5.1%, respectively. Anti-CCP2 demonstrated the highest positive likelihood ratio of 10.11 in the diagnosis of RA, followed by RF (8.88) and anti-CEP-1 (5.82). Anti-CEP-1 positive RA patients displayed significantly higher DAS28 compared to anti-CEP-1 negative RA patients (p = .045). Significant associations were identified between anti-CEP-1 and joint erosions at anti-CEP-1 value of >124.78 U/ml (p = .0026) and between anti-CEP-1 and ILD at anti-CEP-1 value of >185.91 U/ml (p = .0222). Our findings indicate that anti-CEP-1 may not be able to replace anti-CCP2 for routine diagnosis for RA, but they may be helpful for subtyping of the disease.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms of IL12B are associated with Takayasu arteritis in Chinese Han population.

Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a rare autoimmune disease of unknown etiology. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have demonstrated association between genetic variants of IL12B and IL6 and TA. Since TA has been reported with ethnic heterogeneity, we sought to investigate whether the single-nucleotide-polymorphisms (SNPs) reported in these studies are associated with TA in the Chinese Han population. A multi-center study involving 412 patients with TA and 597 healthy controls was conducted. Sequenom MassArray iPLEX platform was used to determine the frequencies of SNPs in the IL12B and IL6 region. We demonstrated a allele association between the four SNPs of IL12B and TA (rs6871626: OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.26-1.83; rs4921492: OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.21-1.75; rs60689680: OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.17-1.69; rs4921493: OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.21-1.75, all P c  < 10- 3 ). A meta-analysis consist of four populations showed rs6871626 was a susceptible locus of TA. Its OR was 1.51, and 95% CI was 1.31-1.74. The four SNPs were in strong linkage disequilibrium and two haplotypes were significantly different between patients and controls. Conditional analysis shows that these SNPs were not independent factors contributing to TA. Nevertheless, neither genotype nor allele frequencies of rs2069837 in IL6 showed significant between-group differences. Thus SNP of IL12B may be considered a high-risk factor for TA in Chinese Han population and provide further clues for research into the pathogenesis of TA.

Clinical performance of antibodies to prothrombin and thrombin in Chinese patients with antiphospholipid syndrome: potential interest in discriminating patients with thrombotic events and non-thrombotic events.

A hallmark feature of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is the presence of a wide spectrum of antiphospholipid antibodies. In this study, we evaluated the clinical relevance of antibodies to prothrombin (PT) (aPT) and thrombin (aThr) in Chinese patients with APS. A total of 229 subjects were tested, including 86 patients with APS [35 patients with primary APS (PAPS), 51 patients with APS associated with other diseases (APSAOD)], 104 patients with non-APS diseases (disease controls), and 39 healthy controls. Serum IgG/IgM/IgA aPT and aThr were determined by ELISA. The levels of both IgG/IgM/IgA aPT and IgG/IgM/IgA aThr were significantly increased in patients with PAPS and APSAOD compared with patients with non-APS thrombosis and non-APS PRM, and HC. Both IgG aPT and IgG aThr exhibited promising diagnostic potentials for APS with sensitivities and specificities of 16.3 and 95.8% (IgG aPT), and 19.8 and 99.3% (IgG aThr), respectively. Importantly, both IgG aPT (OR 4.06; 95% CI 1.49-11.05) and IgG aThr (OR 4.49; 95% CI 1.62-12.45) were significantly correlated with arterial, but not venous, thrombotic events. Our findings highlighted that IgG aPT and IgG aThr could serve as promising biomarkers to identify patients at risk of arterial thrombosis in China.

Long-circulating iodinated albumin-gadolinium nanoparticles as enhanced magnetic resonance and computed tomography imaging probes for osteosarcoma visualization.

Multimodal imaging probes represent an extraordinary tool for accurate diagnosis of diseases due to the complementary advantages of multiple imaging modalities. The purpose of the work was to fabricate a simple dual-modality MR/CT probe for osteosarcoma visualization in vivo. Protein-directed synthesis methods offer a suitable alternative to MR/CT probe produced by synthetic chemistry. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) bound to gadolinium nanoparticles (GdNPs) was first prepared via a biomimetic synthesis method and was subsequently iodinated by chloramine-T method. The final iodinated BSA-GdNPs (I-BSA-GdNPs) showed excellent chemical stability and biocompatibility, intense X-ray attenuation coefficient, and good MR imaging ability. However, an iodinated protein nanoparticles synthesis for MR/CT imaging, as well as its useful application, has not been reported yet. Intravenous injection of I-BSA-GdNPs into orthotopic osteosarcoma-bearing rats led to its accumulation and retention by the tumor, allowing for a noninvasive tumor dual-modality imaging through the intact thigh. The long-circulating dual-model I-BSA-GdNPs probes possess potential application for image-guided drug delivery and image-guided surgery. Our study is therefore highlighting the properties of albumin in this field combined with its useful use in dual-model MR/CT osteosarcoma visualization, underlining its potential use as a drug carrier for a future therapy on cancer.

Contributing Risk Factors to Self-Contamination During the Process of Donning and Doffing Personal Protective Equipment.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to explore the risk factors associated with self-contamination points during personal protective equipment (PPE) donning and doffing among health care workers (HCWs). METHODS: In total, 116 HCWs were randomly sampled and trained to don and doff the whole PPE set. We smeared the whole PPE set with the fluorescent powder. After each participant finished PPE doffing, the whole body was irradiated with ultraviolet light in order to detect contamination points and record the position and quantity. Sociodemographic characteristics and previous infection prevention control (IPC) training experience, among others, were collected by using electronic questionnaires. Poisson regression was used in identifying risk factors that are associated with the number of contamination points, and the relative risk (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. RESULTS: About 78.5% of participants were contaminated. Ever training experience (RR = 0.37; 0.26, 0.52), clinical departments (RR = 0.67; 0.49, 0.93), body mass index (BMI) (RR = 1.09; 1.01, 1.18), and shoulder width (RR = 1.07; 1.01, 1.13) were associated with the number of contamination points. CONCLUSIONS: Previous IPC training experience, department types, BMI, and shoulder width were associated with self-contamination points after the PPE was removed.

GLIM criteria represent a more suitable tool to evaluate the nutritional status and predict postoperative motor functional recovery of older patients with hip fracture: A retrospective study.

Early recognition of malnutrition is essential to improve the prognosis of older patients with hip fracture. The Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002), the Short-Form Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA-SF) and the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) are widely used in malnutrition diagnosis. However, criteria for predicting postoperative hip joint motor function in older patients with hip fractures are still necessary. The objective of this study was to select the most appropriate criteria from the NRS-2002, the MNA-SF and the GLIM in predicting the postoperative hip joint motor function recovery 1 year after surgery. This retrospective observational study included 161 patients aged ≥ 65 years with hip fractures. The nutritional status of patients was determined by the NRS-2002, MNA-SF and GLIM. The Harris hip joint score (HHS), the primary outcome of this study, was used to evaluate hip joint motor function. HHS was classified as excellent (HHS > 75) or non-excellent outcomes (HHS ≤ 75). Logistic regression models for hip joint motor function recovery were constructed. Both the receiver operating characteristic curve and the decision curve analysis were used to select the most predictive criteria. The overall mean age of the 161 patients was 77.90 ±â€…8.17. As a result, NRS-2002 (OR:0.06, 95%CI [0.01, 0.17]), MNA-SF (OR:0.05, 95%CI [0.00, 0.23]) and GLIM (OR of moderate: 0.03, 95%CI [0.01, 0.11]; OR of severe: 0.02 [0.00, 0.07]) were predictive for recovery of hip joint motor function. Additionally, both the area under curve of the receiver operating characteristic curve (NRS-2002: 81.2 [73.8, 88.6], MNA-SF: 76.3 [68.5, 84.2], GLIM: 86.2 [79.6,92.8]) and the decision curve analysis showed the GLIM was better than others. Compared with NRS-2002 and MNA-SF, GLIM was a more suitable nutritional assessment criteria to predict the postoperative recovery of hip joint motor function for older patients with hip fracture 1 year after surgery.

Intracellular Staphylococcus aureus infection in human osteoblasts: circRNA expression analysis.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) has the ability to invade human cortical bones and cause intracellular infections in osteoblasts, which may lead to a long-term infection that is difficult to eliminate. It is critical to identify the underlying mechanisms of the osteoblast response to the intracellular S. aureus. More recently, multiple circular RNA (circRNA) functions have been identified, including serving as protein scaffolds or miRNA sponges and being translated into polypeptides. The role that circRNAs play in intracellular S. aureus infection of osteoblasts has not, to our knowledge, been investigated. Here, we established an intracellular infection model of S. aureus in osteoblasts and compared the circRNA expression of osteoblasts between the infected and control groups using RNA sequencing technology, by which a significant difference was found. In total, 117 upregulated and 125 down-regulated differentially expressed circRNAs (DEcircRNAs) were identified, and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was employed to validate the results of RNA sequencing. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analyses demonstrated that DEcircRNAs were enriched in processes associated with macromolecule modification, cellular component organization or biogenesis, and intracellular non-membrane-bound organelles. Finally, a potentially important network of circRNA-miRNA-mRNA based on the DEcircRNAs was constructed. Overall, this study revealed the circRNA expression profile of human osteoblasts infected by intracellular S. aureus for the first time, and identified the circRNAs that may contribute to the pathogenesis of infectious diseases caused by intracellular S. aureus infection in human osteoblasts.