Proton Conduction via Water and Ammonia Coordinated Metal Cationic Species in MOF and MHOF Platforms.

Although metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and metalo hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (MHOFs) are designed as promising solid-state proton conductors by incorporating various protonic species intrinsically or extrinsically, design and development of such materials by employing the concept of proton conduction through coordinated polar protic solvent is largely unexplored. Herein, we have constructed two proton-conducting materials having different solvent coordinated metal cationic species: In-H2O-MOF, ({[In(H2O)6][In3(Pzdc)6]·15H2O}n; H2Pzdc: pyrazine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid) with coordinated water molecules from hexaaquaindium cationic species, and MHOF-4, ([{Co(NH3)6}2(2,6-NDS)2(H2O)2]n; 2,6-H2NDS: 2,6-naphthalenedisulfonic acid) with coordinated ammonia from hexaammoniacobalt cationic species. Interestingly, higher proton conductivity was achieved for In-H2O-MOF (1.5 × 10-5 S cm-1) than MHOF-4 (6.3 × 10-6 S cm-1) under the extreme conditions (80 ºC and 95% RH), which could be attributed to enhanced acidity of coordinated water molecules having much lower pKa value than that of coordinated ammonia. Greater charge polarization on hydrogen atoms of In3+-coordinated water molecules than that of Co2+-coordinated ammonia led to the high conductivity of In-H2O-MOF, as evident by quantum chemical studies. Such a comparative study on metal-coordinated protic polar solvents in achieving proton conduction in crystalline solids is yet to be made.

Multi-omics and clustering analyses reveal the mechanisms underlying unmet needs for patients with lung adenocarcinoma and identify potential therapeutic targets.

BACKGROUND: The cancer genome contains several driver mutations. However, in some cases, no known drivers have been identified; these remaining areas of unmet needs, leading to limited progress in cancer therapy. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) can identify non-coding alterations associated with the disease. Consequently, exploration of non-coding regions using WGS and other omics data such as ChIP-sequencing (ChIP-seq) to discern novel alterations and mechanisms related to tumorigenesis have been attractive these days. METHODS: Integrated multi-omics analyses, including WGS, ChIP-seq, DNA methylation, and RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), were conducted on samples from patients with non-clinically actionable genetic alterations (non-CAGAs) in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Second-level cluster analysis was performed to reinforce the correlations associated with patient survival, as identified by RNA-seq. Subsequent differential gene expression analysis was performed to identify potential druggable targets. RESULTS: Differences in H3K27ac marks in non-CAGAs LUAD were found and confirmed by analyzing RNA-seq data, in which mastermind-like transcriptional coactivator 2 (MAML2) was suppressed. The down-regulated genes whose expression was correlated to MAML2 expression were associated with patient prognosis. WGS analysis revealed somatic mutations associated with the H3K27ac marks in the MAML2 region and high levels of DNA methylation in MAML2 were observed in tumor samples. The second-level cluster analysis enabled patient stratification and subsequent analyses identified potential therapeutic target genes and treatment options. CONCLUSIONS: We overcome the persistent challenges of identifying alterations or driver mutations in coding regions related to tumorigenesis through a novel approach combining multi-omics data with clinical information to reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying non-CAGAs LUAD, stratify patients to improve patient prognosis, and identify potential therapeutic targets. This approach may be applicable to studies of other cancers with unmet needs.

Increased CO2/N2 selectivity by stepwise fluorination in isoreticular ultramicroporous metal-organic frameworks.

Exploration of porous adsorbents with high CO2/N2 selectivity is of great significance for reducing CO2 content in the atmosphere. In this study, a series of isoreticular ultramicroporous fluorinated metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were prepared to explore the benefits of fluorinated ultramicropores in improving CO2/N2 selectivity. Gas adsorption measurements revealed that the increase in the number of fluorine atoms in a ligand molecule leads to the increased CO2 uptakes and CO2/N2 selectivity. Theoretical calculations indicate that the interaction between the fluorine atoms and adsorbed CO2 molecules enhances the CO2-philicity, offering useful insight into the improvement of CO2/N2 selectivity in isoreticular frameworks.

Mechanism of ERBB2 gene overexpression by the formation of super-enhancer with genomic structural abnormalities in lung adenocarcinoma without clinically actionable genetic alterations.

BACKGROUND: In an extensive genomic analysis of lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs), driver mutations have been recognized as potential targets for molecular therapy. However, there remain cases where target genes are not identified. Super-enhancers and structural variants are frequently identified in several hundred loci per case. Despite this, most cancer research has approached the analysis of these data sets separately, without merging and comparing the data, and there are no examples of integrated analysis in LUAD. METHODS: We performed an integrated analysis of super-enhancers and structural variants in a cohort of 174 LUAD cases that lacked clinically actionable genetic alterations. To achieve this, we conducted both WGS and H3K27Ac ChIP-seq analyses using samples with driver gene mutations and those without, allowing for a comprehensive investigation of the potential roles of super-enhancer in LUAD cases. RESULTS: We demonstrate that most genes situated in these overlapped regions were associated with known and previously unknown driver genes and aberrant expression resulting from the formation of super-enhancers accompanied by genomic structural abnormalities. Hi-C and long-read sequencing data further corroborated this insight. When we employed CRISPR-Cas9 to induce structural abnormalities that mimicked cases with outlier ERBB2 gene expression, we observed an elevation in ERBB2 expression. These abnormalities are associated with a higher risk of recurrence after surgery, irrespective of the presence or absence of driver mutations. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that aberrant gene expression linked to structural polymorphisms can significantly impact personalized cancer treatment by facilitating the identification of driver mutations and prognostic factors, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of LUAD pathogenesis.

Oncological feasibility of segmentectomy for inner-located lung cancer.

Objective: Oncological feasibility of segmentectomy for internal non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been assessed adequately. We assessed the oncological feasibility of segmentectomy for inner-located NSCLC by investigating surgical margins and patient prognosis after undergoing the procedure. Methods: Of the 3555 patients who underwent resection for lung cancer between 2013 and 2019 at our institution, 659 patients who underwent segmentectomy for clinical stage 0 to stage1A NSCLC were included in this study. Patients were separated into 2 groups according to whether the tumor was in the inner or outer third of the lung area. Clinical characteristics and prognoses were retrospectively compared between the groups. Results: Of the included 659 cases, 183 (27.8%) were inner-located, and 476 (72.2%) had outer-located NSCLC. The surgical margin was significantly shorter in the inner-located group than in the outer group (median, 16 vs 25 mm; P < .001). The 5-year recurrence-free survival and overall survival probabilities were 91.1%/91.8% (P = .530) and 94.1%/95.6% (P = .345) for inner/outer-located groups, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that clinical stage IA2 or 3 (P = .043), lymphovascular invasion (P < .001), and surgical margins <20 mm (P = .017) were independent prognostic factors for recurrence-free survival. The location of the inner or outer tumors was not related to the prognosis. Conclusions: For clinical stage 0 to stage1A NSCLC, tumor location in the inner two-thirds of the lung was not associated with prognosis after segmentectomy. Because one of the independent prognostic factors is margin distance, segmentectomy for inner-located NSCLC would be oncologically acceptable when an adequate surgical margin is secured.

Clinical and Pathologic Differences between Small-Cell Carcinoma and Large-Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Lung.

BACKGROUND: Both small-cell carcinoma (SCLC) and large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) of the lung are often clinically dealt with as being in the same category as neuroendocrine carcinoma, and their clinical differences have not been adequately assessed. METHODS: The postoperative prognosis was retrospectively analyzed using the data of 196 patients who underwent resection for SCLC or LCNEC. RESULTS: Of the patients included, 99 (50.5%) had SCLC and 97 (49.5%) had LCNEC. The median duration of follow-up was 39 months (interquartile range [IQR] 21-76) and 56 months (IQR 21-87) for SCLC and LCNEC, respectively. The estimated 5-year overall survival (OS) probabilities were 53.7% and 62.7% (p = 0.133) for patients with SCLC and LCNEC, respectively. In the SCLC group, a multivariate analysis showed that adjuvant chemotherapy (hazard ratio 0.54, 95% confidence interval 0.30-0.99, p = 0.04) was the only factor that was significantly associated with OS. In the LCNEC group, univariate analyses demonstrated that pathologic stage I (p = 0.01) was the only factor that was associated with better OS after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: We found different clinical features in SCLC and LCNEC; in patients with SCLC, because OS could be expected to significantly improve with postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, patients with resected SCLC of any pathologic stage should receive adjuvant chemotherapy. For patients with LCNEC, because pathologic stage I LCNEC is related to better prognosis than any other stages, a thorough clinical staging, including invasive staging, according to present guidelines should be performed to identify clinical stage I LCNEC with the highest certainty.

Systematic study of ionic conduction in silver iodide/mesoporous alumina composites 2: effects of silver bromide doping.

In our preceding paper (Y. Fukui et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2023, 25, 25594-25602), we reported a systematic study of the Ag+-ion conducting behaviour of silver iodide (AgI)-loaded mesoporous aluminas (MPAs) with different pore diameters and AgI-loading ratios. By optimising the control parameters, the Ag+-ion conductivity has reached 7.2 × 10-4 S cm-1 at room temperature, which is more than three orders of magnitude higher than that of bulk AgI. In the present study, the effect of silver bromide (AgBr)-doping in the AgI/MPA composites on Ag+-ion conductivity is systematically investigated for the first time, using variable-temperature powder X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. The AgBr-doped AgI/MPA composites, AgI-AgBr/MPA, formed a homogeneous ß/γ-AgI-structured solid solution (ß/γ-AgIss) for the composites with AgBr ≤ 10 mol%, above which the composites underwent a phase separation into ß/γ-AgIss and face-centred cubic AgBr solid solutions (AgBrss). The onset temperature of the exothermic peaks attributed to the transition from α-AgI-structured solid-solution phase to ß/γ-AgIss or AgBrss decreased with increasing the AgBr-doping ratio. The room-temperature ionic conductivity of the AgI-AgBr/MPA composites exhibited a volcano-type dependence on the AgBr-doping ratio with the highest value (1.6 × 10-3 S cm-1) when the AgBr content was 10 mol%. This value is more than twice as high as that of the highest conducting AgI/MPA found in our previous study.

An algorithm-based technique for counting mitochondria in cells using immunohistochemical staining of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded sections.

PURPOSE: Visualizing mitochondria in cancer cells from human pathological specimens may improve our understanding of cancer biology. However, using immunohistochemistry to evaluate mitochondria remains difficult because almost all cells contain mitochondria and the number of mitochondria per cell may have important effects on mitochondrial function. Herein, we established an objective system (Mito-score) for evaluating mitochondria using machine-based processing of hue, saturation, and value color spaces. METHODS: The Mito-score was defined as the number of COX4 (mitochondrial inner membrane) immunohistochemistry-positive pixels divided by the number of nuclei per cell. The system was validated using four lung cancer cell lines, normal tissues, and lung cancer tissues (199 cases). RESULTS: The Mito-score correlated with MitoTracker, a fluorescent dye used to selectively label and visualize mitochondria within cells under a microscope (R2 = 0.68) and with the number of mitochondria counted using electron microscopy (R2 = 0.79). Histologically, the Mito-score of small cell carcinoma (57.25) was significantly lower than that of adenocarcinoma (147.5, p < 0.0001), squamous cell carcinoma (120.6, p = 0.0004), and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (111.8, p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: The Mito-score method enables the analysis of the mitochondrial status of human formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens and may provide insights into the metabolic status of cancer.

Advances in cancer DNA methylation analysis with methPLIER: use of non-negative matrix factorization and knowledge-based constraints to enhance biological interpretability.

DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification that results in dynamic changes during ontogenesis and cell differentiation. DNA methylation patterns regulate gene expression and have been widely researched. While tools for DNA methylation analysis have been developed, most of them have focused on intergroup comparative analysis within a dataset; therefore, it is difficult to conduct cross-dataset studies, such as rare disease studies or cross-institutional studies. This study describes a novel method for DNA methylation analysis, namely, methPLIER, which enables interdataset comparative analyses. methPLIER combines Pathway Level Information Extractor (PLIER), which is a non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) method, with regularization by a knowledge matrix and transfer learning. methPLIER can be used to perform intersample and interdataset comparative analysis based on latent feature matrices, which are obtained via matrix factorization of large-scale data, and factor-loading matrices, which are obtained through matrix factorization of the data to be analyzed. We used methPLIER to analyze a lung cancer dataset and confirmed that the data decomposition reflected sample characteristics for recurrence-free survival. Moreover, methPLIER can analyze data obtained via different preprocessing methods, thereby reducing distributional bias among datasets due to preprocessing. Furthermore, methPLIER can be employed for comparative analyses of methylation data obtained from different platforms, thereby reducing bias in data distribution due to platform differences. methPLIER is expected to facilitate cross-sectional DNA methylation data analysis and enhance DNA methylation data resources.

Molecular subtypes of lung adenocarcinoma present distinct immune tumor microenvironments.

Overcoming resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors is an important issue in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Transcriptome analysis shows that adenocarcinoma can be divided into three molecular subtypes: terminal respiratory unit (TRU), proximal proliferative (PP), and proximal inflammatory (PI), and squamous cell carcinoma (LUSQ) into four. However, the immunological characteristics of these subtypes are not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the immune landscape of NSCLC tissues in molecular subtypes using a multi-omics dataset, including tumor-infiltrating leukocytes (TILs) analyzed using flow cytometry, RNA sequences, whole exome sequences, metabolomic analysis, and clinicopathologic findings. In the PI subtype, the number of TILs increased and the immune response in the tumor microenvironment (TME) was activated, as indicated by high levels of tertiary lymphoid structures, and high cytotoxic marker levels. Patient prognosis was worse in the PP subtype than in other adenocarcinoma subtypes. Glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) expression levels were upregulated and lactate accumulated in the TME of the PP subtype. This could lead to the formation of an immunosuppressive TME, including the inactivation of antigen-presenting cells. The TRU subtype had low biological malignancy and "cold" tumor-immune phenotypes. Squamous cell carcinoma (LUSQ) did not show distinct immunological characteristics in its respective subtypes. Elucidation of the immune characteristics of molecular subtypes could lead to the development of personalized immune therapy for lung cancer. Immune checkpoint inhibitors could be an effective treatment for the PI subtype. Glycolysis is a potential target for converting an immunosuppressive TME into an antitumorigenic TME in the PP subtype.

Electron Localization Induced by Disordered Anions in an Organic Conductor.

We report on a new organic conductor κ″-(ET)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br (κ″-Br), which is the first polymorph of an organic superconductor κ-(ET)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br (κ-Br), where ET denotes bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene. κ″-Br has a similar κ-type arrangement of ET molecules to κ-Br, but, in contrast to the orthorhombic κ-Br, which has ordered polyanion chains, presents a monoclinic crystal structure with disordered polymeric anion chains. To elucidate the electronic state of κ″-Br, we performed band calculations as well as transport, magnetic, and optical measurements. The calculated band dispersion, magnitude of electron correlation, and room-temperature optical conductivity spectra of κ″-Br were comparable to those of κ-Br. Despite these similarities, the κ″-Br salt exhibited a semiconducting behavior. The electron spin resonance and Raman spectroscopies indicated that there is neither magnetic nor charge order in κ″-Br, suggesting the occurrence of Anderson localization due to disordered anion layers.

Passive Smoking-Induced Mutagenesis as a Promoter of Lung Carcinogenesis.

INTRODUCTION: The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified passive smoking (PS) or secondhand smoke exposure as a group 1 carcinogen linked to lung cancer. However, in contrast to active smoking, the mutagenic properties of PS remain unclear. METHODS: A consecutive cohort of 564 lung adenocarcinoma samples from female never-smokers, who provided detailed information about their exposure to PS during adolescence and in their thirties through a questionnaire, was prepared. Of these, all 291 cases for whom frozen tumor tissues were available were subjected to whole exome sequencing to estimate tumor mutational burden, and the top 84 cases who were exposed daily, or not, to PS during adolescence, in their thirties or in both periods, were further subjected to whole genome sequencing. RESULTS: A modest yet statistically significant increase in tumor mutational burden was observed in the group exposed to PS compared with the group not exposed to PS (median values = 1.44 versus 1.29 per megabase, respectively; p = 0.020). Instead of inducing driver oncogene mutations, PS-induced substantial subclonal mutations exhibiting APOBEC-type signatures, including SMAD4 and ADGRG6 hotspot mutations. A polymorphic APOBEC3A/3B allele-specific to the Asian population that leads to up-regulated expression of APOBEC3A accentuated the mutational load in individuals exposed daily to PS during adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals that PS-induced mutagenesis can promote lung carcinogenesis. The APOBEC3A/3B polymorphism may serve as a biomarker for identifying passive nonsmoking individuals at high risk of developing lung cancer.

Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is a prognostic factor reflecting immune condition of tumor microenvironment in squamous cell lung cancer.

Inflammatory factors in the peripheral blood, such as the C-reactive protein level and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), are prognostic markers in multiple types of cancer, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the association between inflammatory factors and prognosis based on histological types has not been adequately reported. In addition, the relationship between these factors and the immune condition of the tumor microenvironment (TME) is unclear. In this single center, retrospective study, we first investigated the relationship between preoperative inflammatory markers and clinical outcomes in 176 patients with NSCLC who underwent surgery. Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) showed no significant prognostic marker, whereas for lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), a multivariate analysis showed that a high NLR was significantly associated with postoperative recurrence. In LUSC patients, the median time of postoperative recurrence-free survival in patients with a low NLR was longer than that in patients with a high NLR. We then compared the tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) profile with inflammatory markers in peripheral blood and found that the NLR was negatively correlated with the frequencies of T cells and B cells in LUSC tissues. Thus, the NLR is a useful predictive biomarker for postoperative recurrence and may reflect the immune condition of the TME in LUSC.

What Are the Complication Rates and Factors Associated With Total Femur Replacement After Tumor Resection? Findings From the Japanese Musculoskeletal Oncology Group.

BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing massive tumor resection and total femur replacement (TFR) face a substantial risk of hip dislocation and infection, often resulting in multiple implant revisions or hip disarticulation. These complications can impact their independence and prognosis. Additionally, their shorter life expectancy is influenced by challenges in achieving local radical resection and controlling metastases. Identifying suitable candidates for TFR is vital, necessitating investigations into dislocation, infection, implant failure rates, local recurrence, overall survival, and associated factors. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: (1) What is the postsurgical complication (hip dislocation and infection) rate and factors associated with postsurgical complications in patients who underwent TFR after tumor resection? (2) What is the local recurrence rate, implant failure rate, overall survival rate, and factors associated with local recurrence and implant failure? METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 42 patients (median [range] age 47 years [10 to 79 years]) who underwent TFR and tumor resection at the time of the same surgical procedure between 1990 and 2020 at 12 registered institutions that specialized in tumor treatment in Japan. A total of 55% (23) of the patients were men, and 79% (33) had bone sarcoma. The median (range) follow-up period was 36.5 months (2 to 327 months). Of the 42 patients, 12% (5) were lost to follow-up before 2 years without meeting a study endpoint (postsurgical complications, revision, or amputation), and another 19% (8) died before 2 years with implants intact, leaving 69% (29) of the original group who had either follow-up of at least 2 years or met a study endpoint before the minimum surveillance duration. Another 10% (4) had a minimum of 2 years of follow-up but had not been seen in the past 5 years. Infection was defined as deep-seated infection involving soft tissues, bones, joints, and the area around the implant. We did not consider superficial infections. Implant failure was defined when a patient underwent reimplantation or amputation. The complication and implant failure rates were assessed by the cumulative incidence function method, considering competing events. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the overall survival rate. RESULTS: The 1-month, 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year dislocation rates were 5%, 12%, 14%, and 14%, respectively. The 1-month, 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year infection rates were 5%, 7%, 10%, and 15%, respectively. Multivariable analyses for hip dislocation and infection revealed that resection of the abductor muscles and large tumor size were positively associated with hip dislocation. The 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year local recurrence rates were 5%, 15%, and 15%, respectively. The 6-month, 1-year, 2-year, and 5-year implant failure rates were 5% (95% confidence interval 1% to 15%), 7% (95% CI 2% to 18%), 16% (95% CI 6% to 29%), and 16% (95% CI 6% to 29%), respectively. Multivariable analyses of local recurrence and implant failure that led to reimplantation or amputation revealed that a positive surgical margin was positively associated with local recurrence. The 1-year, 2-year, and 5-year overall patient survival rates were 95% (95% CI 87% to 102%), 77% (95% CI 64% to 91%), and 64% (95% CI 48% to 81%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Hip dislocation, infection, and local recurrence were frequently observed in patients who received massive tumor resection and TFR in our study, eventually leading to reimplantation or amputation. Preserving the abductor muscles and resecting the tumor with a wide margin can prevent postoperative dislocation and local recurrence. Future research should focus on patient selection criteria, prevention of hip dislocation, and innovative treatments. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, therapeutic study.

Impact of 18F-FDG PET on TNM Staging and Prognosis in Thymic Epithelial Tumors.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) of thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) is well known for identifying malignant-grade TETs; however, its predictive power for determining locally advanced tumors, lymph node (LN) metastasis, and prognosis remains unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated patients with resectable TETs who were preoperatively assessed using 18F-FDG PET from January 2012 to January 2023. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the cutoff value of the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) to predict advanced-stage disease. Recurrence/progression-free survival (RFS/PFS) was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. The staging was classified according to the tumor-node-metastasis system. RESULTS: Our study included 177 patients; 145 (81.9%) had pathological early-stage TET (stage I or II), and 32 (19.1%) had advanced stage (stage III or IV). The area under the curve value for predicting the advanced stage was 0.903, and the cutoff value was 5.6 (sensitivity 81.3%, specificity 84.8%). SUVmax > 5.6 was associated with worse prognosis for RFS/PFS. LN metastasis was preoperatively detected by FDG uptake in 30.8% of patients with pathological LN positivity, whereas LN metastasis was not pathologically detected in patients with SUVmax < 5.9. In patients with advanced-stage TETs, LN recurrence was more frequent in patients who were preoperatively detected by 18F-FDG PET than those who were not (75.0% versus 7.1%). CONCLUSIONS: 18F-FDG PET is a potentially valuable tool for predicting advanced stage and poor prognosis of recurrence in patients with TETs. SUVmax can help thoracic surgeons to guide them in selecting appropriate therapeutic strategies for TETs.

Sketch-based semantic retrieval of medical images.

The volume of medical images stored in hospitals is rapidly increasing; however, the utilization of these accumulated medical images remains limited. Existing content-based medical image retrieval (CBMIR) systems typically require example images, leading to practical limitations, such as the lack of customizable, fine-grained image retrieval, the inability to search without example images, and difficulty in retrieving rare cases. In this paper, we introduce a sketch-based medical image retrieval (SBMIR) system that enables users to find images of interest without the need for example images. The key concept is feature decomposition of medical images, which allows the entire feature of a medical image to be decomposed into and reconstructed from normal and abnormal features. Building on this concept, our SBMIR system provides an easy-to-use two-step graphical user interface: users first select a template image to specify a normal feature and then draw a semantic sketch of the disease on the template image to represent an abnormal feature. The system integrates both types of input to construct a query vector and retrieves reference images. For evaluation, ten healthcare professionals participated in a user test using two datasets. Consequently, our SBMIR system enabled users to overcome previous challenges, including image retrieval based on fine-grained image characteristics, image retrieval without example images, and image retrieval for rare cases. Our SBMIR system provides on-demand, customizable medical image retrieval, thereby expanding the utility of medical image databases.

Molybdenum-Ruthenium-Carbon Solid-Solution Alloy Nanoparticles: Can They Be Pseudo-Technetium Carbide?

Technetium (Tc), atomic number 43, is an element that humans cannot freely use even in the 21st century because Tc is radioactive and has no stable isotope. In this report, we present molybdenum-ruthenium-carbon solid-solution alloy (MoxRu1-xCy) nanoparticles (NPs) that are expected to have an electronic structure similar to that of technetium carbide (TcCy). MoxRu1-xCy NPs were synthesized by annealing under a helium/hydrogen atmosphere following thermal decomposition of metal precursors. The obtained NPs had a solid-solution structure in the whole composition range. MoxRu1-xCy with a cubic structure (down to 30 atom % Mo in the metal ratio) showed a superconducting state, and the transition temperature (Tc) increased with increasing Mo composition. The continuous change in Tc across that of TcCy indicates the continuous control of the electronic structure by solid-solution alloying, leading to pseudo-TcCy. Density functional theory calculations indicated that the synthesized Mo0.53Ru0.47C0.41 has a similar electronic structure to TcC0.41.

Tumor microenvironment-mediated immune profiles and efficacy of anti-PD-L1 antibody plus chemotherapy stratified by DLL3 expression in small-cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: Delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) is a therapeutic target in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). However, how DLL3 expression status affects the tumor microenvironment (TME) and clinical outcomes in SCLC remains unclear. METHODS: This retrospective study included patients with postoperative limited-stage (LS)-SCLC and extensive-stage (ES)-SCLC treated with platinum and etoposide (PE) plus anti-programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody. We investigated the relationship of DLL3 expression with TME, mutation status, tumor neoantigens, and immunochemotherapy. RESULTS: In the LS-SCLC cohort (n = 59), whole-exome sequencing revealed that DLL3High cases had significantly more neoantigens (P = 0.004) and a significantly higher rate of the signature SBS4 associated with smoking (P = 0.02) than DLL3Low cases. Transcriptome analysis in the LS-SCLC cohort revealed that DLL3High cases had significantly suppressed immune-related pathways and dendritic cell (DC) function. SCLC with DLL3High had significantly lower proportions of T cells, macrophages, and DCs than those with DLL3Low. In the ES-SCLC cohort (n = 30), the progression-free survival associated with PE plus anti-PD-L1 antibody was significantly worse in DLL3High cases than in DLL3Low cases (4.7 vs. 7.4 months, P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Although SCLC with DLL3High had a higher neoantigen load, these tumors were resistant to immunochemotherapy due to suppressed tumor immunity by inhibiting antigen-presenting functions.