Cross-Platform Comparison of Highly Sensitive Immunoassays for Inflammatory Markers in a COVID-19 Cohort.

A variety of commercial platforms are available for the simultaneous detection of multiple cytokines and associated proteins, often employing Ab pairs to capture and detect target proteins. In this study, we comprehensively evaluated the performance of three distinct platforms: the fluorescent bead-based Luminex assay, the proximity extension-based Olink assay, and a novel proximity ligation assay platform known as Alamar NULISAseq. These assessments were conducted on human serum samples from the National Institutes of Health IMPACC study, with a focus on three essential performance metrics: detectability, correlation, and differential expression. Our results reveal several key findings. First, the Alamar platform demonstrated the highest overall detectability, followed by Olink and then Luminex. Second, the correlation of protein measurements between the Alamar and Olink platforms tended to be stronger than the correlation of either of these platforms with Luminex. Third, we observed that detectability differences across the platforms often translated to differences in differential expression findings, although high detectability did not guarantee the ability to identify meaningful biological differences. Our study provides valuable insights into the comparative performance of these assays, enhancing our understanding of their strengths and limitations when assessing complex biological samples, as exemplified by the sera from this COVID-19 cohort.

Non-coding genome in small cell lung cancer between theoretical view and clinical applications.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly aggressive cancer of the neuroendocrine system, characterized by poor differentiation, rapid growth, and poor overall survival (OS) of patients. Despite the recent advances in the treatment of SCLC recently, the 2-year survival rate of patients with the cancer is only 14-15%, occasioned by the acquired resistance to drugs and serious off-target effects. In humans, the coding region is only 2% of the total genome, and 20% of that is associated with human diseases. Beyond the coding genome are RNAs, promoters, enhancers, and other intricate elements. The non-coding regulatory regions, mainly the non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), regulate numerous biological activities including cell proliferation, metastasis, and drug resistance. As such, they are potential diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers, and also potential therapeutic targets for SCLC. Therefore, understanding how non-coding elements regulate SCLC development and progression holds significant clinical implications. Herein, we summarized the recent discoveries on the relationship between the non-coding elements including long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA), microRNAs (miRNAs), circular RNA (circRNA), enhancers as well as promotors, and the pathogenesis of SCLC and their potential clinical applications.

Small cell lung cancer transformation: From pathogenesis to treatment.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a type of neuroendocrine tumor with high malignancy and poor prognosis. Besides the de novo SCLC, there is transformed SCLC, which has similar characteristics of pathological morphology, molecular characteristics, clinical manifestations and drug sensitivity. However, de novo SCLC and transformed SCLC have different pathogenesis and tumor microenvironment. SCLC transformation is one of the mechanisms of resistance to chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy in NSCLC. Two hypotheses have been used to explain the pathogenesis of SCLC transformation. Although SCLC transformation is not common in clinical practice, it has been repeatedly identified in many small patient series and case reports. It usually occurs in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutant lung adenocarcinoma after treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). SCLC transformation can also occur in anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive lung cancer after treatment with ALK inhibitors and in wild-type EGFR or ALK NSCLC treated with immunotherapy. Chemotherapy was previously used to treat transformed SCLC, yet it is associated with an unsatisfactory prognosis. We comprehensively review the advancements in transformed SCLC, including clinical and pathological characteristics, and the potential effective treatment after SCLC transformation, aiming to give a better understanding of transformed SCLC and provide support for clinical uses.

Aspirin-Loaded Cross-Linked Lipoic Acid Nanodrug Prevents Postoperative Tumor Recurrence by Residual Cancer Cell Killing and Inflammatory Microenvironment Improvement.

In addition to residual cancer cells, the surgery resection-induced hyperinflammatory microenvironment is a key factor that leads to postsurgical cancer recurrence. Herein, we developed a dual-functional nanodrug Asp@cLANVs for postsurgical recurrence inhibition by loading the classical anti-inflammatory drug aspirin (Asp) into cross-linked lipoic acid nanovesicles (cLANVs). The Asp@cLANVs can not only kill residual cancer cells at the doses comparable to common cytotoxic drugs by synergistic interaction between Asp and cLANVs, but also improve the postsurgical inflammatory microenvironment by their strongly synergistic anti-inflammation activity between Asp and cLANVs. Using mice bearing partially removed NCI-H460 tumors, we found that Asp@cLANVs gave a much lower recurrence rate (33.3%) compared with the first-line cytotoxic drug cisplatin (100%), and no mice died for at least 60 days after Asp@cLANV treatment while no mouse survived beyond day 43 in the cisplatin group. This dual-functional nanodrug constructs the first example that combines residual cancer cell killing and postoperative inflammation microenvironment improvement to suppress postsurgical cancer recurrence.

Association between ICU admission (neutrophil + monocyte)/lymphocyte ratio and 30-day mortality in patients with sepsis: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is an important public health issue, and it is urgent to develop valuable indicators to predict the prognosis of sepsis. Our study aims to assess the predictive value of ICU admission (Neutrophil + Monocyte)/lymphocyte ratio (NMLR) on the 30-day mortality of sepsis patients. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted in septic patients, and the data were collected from Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relation between ICU admission NMLR and 30-day mortality. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) was performed to determine the optimum cut-off value of ICU admission NMLR. Survival outcomes of the two groups with different ICU admission NMLR levels were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test. RESULTS: Finally, 7292 patients were recruited in the study, of which 1601 died within 30 days of discharge. The non-survival group had higher ICU admission NMLR values than patients in the survival group (12.24 [6.44-23.67] vs. 8.71 [4.81-16.26], P < 0.001). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that ICU admission NMLR was an independent prognostic predictor on 30-day mortality (Univariate: P < 0.001; multivariate: P = 0.011). The RCS model demonstrated the upturn and non-linear relationship between ICU admission NMLR and 30-day mortality (Nonlinearity: P = 0.0124). According to the KM curve analysis,30-day survival was worse in the higher ICU admission NMLR group than that in the lower ICU admission NMLR group (Log rank test, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: The elevated ICU admission NMLR level is an independent risk factor for high 30-day mortality in patients with sepsis.

Integration of histopathological images and multi-dimensional omics analyses predicts molecular features and prognosis in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE: This study used histopathological image features to predict molecular features, and combined with multi-dimensional omics data to predict overall survival (OS) in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). METHODS: Patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were distributed into training set (n = 115) and test set (n = 114). In addition, we collected tissue microarrays of 92 patients as an external validation set. Quantitative features were extracted from histopathological images using CellProfiler, and utilized to establish prediction models by machine learning methods in training set. The prediction performance was assessed in test set and validation set. RESULTS: The prediction models were able to identify BRCA1 mutation (AUC = 0.952), BRCA2 mutation (AUC = 0.912), microsatellite instability-high (AUC = 0.919), microsatellite stable (AUC = 0.924), and molecular subtypes: proliferative (AUC = 0.961), differentiated (AUC = 0.952), immunoreactive (AUC = 0.941), mesenchymal (AUC = 0.918) in test set. The prognostic model based on histopathological image features could predict OS in test set (5-year AUC = 0.825) and validation set (5-year AUC = 0.703). We next explored the integrative prognostic models of image features, genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. In test set, the models combining two omics had higher prediction accuracy, such as image features and genomics (5-year AUC = 0.834). The multi-omics model including all features showed the best prediction performance (5-year AUC = 0.911). According to risk score of multi-omics model, the high-risk and low-risk groups had significant survival differences (HR = 18.23, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated the potential ability of histopathological image features to predict above molecular features and survival risk of HGSOC patients. The integration of image features and multi-omics data may improve prognosis prediction in HGSOC patients.

Reduction in gray matter of cerebellum in schizophrenia and its influence on static and dynamic connectivity.

Pathophysiological and atrophic changes in the cerebellum have been well-documented in schizophrenia. Reduction of gray matter (GM) in the cerebellum was confirmed across cognitive and motor cerebellar modules in schizophrenia. Such abnormalities in the cerebellum could potentially have widespread effects on both sensorimotor and cognitive symptoms. In this study, we investigated how reduction change in the cerebellum affects the static and the dynamic functional connectivity (FC) between the cerebellum and cortical/subcortical networks in schizophrenia. Reduction of GM in the cerebellum was confirmed across the cognitive and motor cerebellar modules in schizophrenic subjects. Results from this study demonstrates that the extent of reduction of GM within cerebellum correlated with increased static FCs between the cerebellum and the cortical/subcortical networks, including frontoparietal network (FPN), and thalamus in patients with schizophrenia. Decreased GM in the cerebellum was also associated with a declined dynamic FC between the cerebellum and the FPN in schizophrenic subjects. The severity of patients' positive symptom was related to these structural-functional coupling score of cerebellum. These findings identified potential cerebellar driven functional changes associated with positive symptom deficits. A post hoc analysis exploring the effect of changed FC within cerebellum, confirmed that a significant positive relationship, between dynamic FCs of cerebellum-thalamus and intracerebellum existed in patients, but not in controls. The reduction of GM within the cerebellum might be associated with modulation of cerebellum-thalamus, and contributes to the dysfunctional cerebellar-cortical communication in schizophrenia. Our results provide a new insight into the role of cerebellum in understanding the pathophysiological of schizophrenia.

The efficacy and safety of anti-CD19/CD20 chimeric antigen receptor- T cells immunotherapy in relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies:a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cells immunotherapy is rapidly developed in treating cancers, especially relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies. METHODS: To assess the efficacy and safety of CAR T therapy, we analyzed clinical trials from PUBMED and EMBASE. RESULTS: Results showed that the pooled response rate, 6-months and 1-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate were 67%, 65.62% and 44.18%, respectively. We observed that received lymphodepletion (72% vs 44%, P = 0.0405) and high peak serum IL-2 level (85% vs 31%, P = 0.04) were positively associated with patients' response to CAR T cells. Similarly, costimulatory domains (CD28 vs CD137) in second generation CAR T was positively associated with PFS (52.69% vs 33.39%, P = 0.0489). The pooled risks of all grade adverse effects (AEs) and grade ≥ 3 AEs were 71% and 43%. Most common grade ≥ 3 AEs were fatigue (18%), night sweats (14%), hypotension (12%), injection site reaction (12%), leukopenia (10%), anemia (9%). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, CAR T therapy has promising outcomes with tolerable AEs in relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies. Further modifications of CAR structure and optimal therapy strategy in continued clinical trials are needed to obtain significant improvements.

Fully Automated RNAscope In Situ Hybridization Assays for Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Cells and Tissues.

Biomarkers such as DNA, RNA, and protein are powerful tools in clinical diagnostics and therapeutic development for many diseases. Identifying RNA expression at the single cell level within the morphological context by RNA in situ hybridization provides a great deal of information on gene expression changes over conventional techniques that analyze bulk tissue, yet widespread use of this technique in the clinical setting has been hampered by the dearth of automated RNA ISH assays. Here we present an automated version of the RNA ISH technology RNAscope that is adaptable to multiple automation platforms. The automated RNAscope assay yields a high signal-to-noise ratio with little to no background staining and results comparable to the manual assay. In addition, the automated duplex RNAscope assay was able to detect two biomarkers simultaneously. Lastly, assay consistency and reproducibility were confirmed by quantification of TATA-box binding protein (TBP) mRNA signals across multiple lots and multiple experiments. Taken together, the data presented in this study demonstrate that the automated RNAscope technology is a high performance RNA ISH assay with broad applicability in biomarker research and diagnostic assay development. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 2201-2208, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Opioid doses required for pain management in lung cancer patients with different cholesterol levels: negative correlation between opioid doses and cholesterol levels.

BACKGROUND: Pain management has been considered as significant contributor to broad quality-of-life improvement for cancer patients. Modulating serum cholesterol levels affects analgesia abilities of opioids, important pain killer for cancer patients, in mice system. Thus the correlation between opioids usages and cholesterol levels were investigated in human patients with lung cancer. METHODS: Medical records of 282 patients were selected with following criteria, 1) signed inform consent, 2) full medical records on total serum cholesterol levels and opioid administration, 3) opioid-naïve, 4) not received/receiving cancer-related or cholesterol lowering treatment, 5) pain level at level 5-8. The patients were divided into different groups basing on their gender and cholesterol levels. Since different opioids, morphine, oxycodone, and fentanyl, were all administrated at fixed low dose initially and increased gradually only if pain was not controlled, the percentages of patients in each group who did not respond to the initial doses of opioids and required higher doses for pain management were determined and compared. RESULTS: Patients with relative low cholesterol levels have larger percentage (11 out of 28 in female and 31 out of 71 in male) to not respond to the initial dose of opioids than those with high cholesterol levels (0 out of 258 in female and 8 out of 74 in male). Similar differences were obtained when patients with different opioids were analyzed separately. After converting the doses of different opioids to equivalent doses of oxycodone, significant correlation between opioid usages and cholesterol levels was also observed. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, more attention should be taken to those cancer patients with low cholesterol levels because they may require higher doses of opioids as pain killer.

Detection of immunoglobulin light-chain restriction in cutaneous B-cell lymphomas by ultrasensitive bright-field mRNA in situ hybridization.

BACKGROUND: Detection of immunoglobulin light-chain restriction is important in the diagnosis of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL). Flow-cytometry, commonly used to evaluate light-chain restriction, is impractical to be used in cutaneous specimens. Immunohistochemical and conventional chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) methods on formalin-fixed-paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue lack sufficient sensitivity to detect low-level light-chain expression in B-NHL without plasmacytic differentiation. Ultrasensitive bright-field mRNA-ISH (BRISH) for in situ light-chain detection in cutaneous B-NHL has been assessed. DESIGN: Kappa/lambda mRNA was detected using two-color BRISH (RNAscope 2xPlex, Advanced Cell Diagnostics) on 27 FFPE skin biopsies and excisions from patients with available B-cell PCR clonality studies: 16 clonal B-cell lesions (6 follicle center lymphoma, 5 marginal zone lymphoma, 3 large B-cell lymphoma, and 2 other) and 11 non-clonal B-cell proliferations. RESULTS: BRISH was successful in 15/16 clonal B-cell lesions and 11/11 non-clonal proliferations. Light-chain restriction was detected in 15/15 clonal lesions and in 1/11 non-clonal proliferations (96.1% overall concordance with clonality PCR). In 4/5 marginal zone lymphomas, light-chain restriction was detected as strong monotypic mRNA expression in a B-cell subset, consistent with plasmacytic differentiation. CONCLUSION: Ultrasensitive BRISH can successfully detect light-chain restriction in B-NHL from FFPE skin specimens and may be a useful adjunct ancillary tool in cases not resolved by CISH or immunohistochemical methods.

The intestinal stem cell markers Bmi1 and Lgr5 identify two functionally distinct populations.

The small intestine epithelium undergoes rapid and continuous regeneration supported by crypt intestinal stem cells (ISCs). Bmi1 and Lgr5 have been independently identified to mark long-lived multipotent ISCs by lineage tracing in mice; however, the functional distinctions between these two populations remain undefined. Here, we demonstrate that Bmi1 and Lgr5 mark two functionally distinct ISCs in vivo. Lgr5 marks mitotically active ISCs that exhibit exquisite sensitivity to canonical Wnt modulation, contribute robustly to homeostatic regeneration, and are quantitatively ablated by irradiation. In contrast, Bmi1 marks quiescent ISCs that are insensitive to Wnt perturbations, contribute weakly to homeostatic regeneration, and are resistant to high-dose radiation injury. After irradiation, however, the normally quiescent Bmi1(+) ISCs dramatically proliferate to clonally repopulate multiple contiguous crypts and villi. Clonogenic culture of isolated single Bmi1(+) ISCs yields long-lived self-renewing spheroids of intestinal epithelium that produce Lgr5-expressing cells, thereby establishing a lineage relationship between these two populations in vitro. Taken together, these data provide direct evidence that Bmi1 marks quiescent, injury-inducible reserve ISCs that exhibit striking functional distinctions from Lgr5(+) ISCs and support a model whereby distinct ISC populations facilitate homeostatic vs. injury-induced regeneration.

Homeobox B4 optimizes the therapeutic effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on endotoxin-associated acute lung injury in rats.

BACKGROUND: Alveolar capillary endothelial cell (EC) injury has a pivotal role in driving acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) progression and maintaining endothelial homeostasis. A previous ex vivo study revealed that overexpression of homeobox B4 (HOXB4) in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) enhanced protection against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced EC injury by activating the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. This in vivo study was performed to verify whether BMSCs overexpressing HOXB4 exert similar protective effects on LPS-induced acute lung injury (ALI) in an animal model. METHODS: The ALI rat model was established by intraperitoneal injection of LPS. Wildtype BMSCs or BMSCs overexpressing HOXB4 were then injected via the tail vein. The lung characteristics of rats were visualized by computed tomography. Lung histopathological characteristics and collagen deposition were assessed by hematoxylin-eosin and Masson's staining, respectively, which were combined with the lung wet/dry ratio and proinflammatory factor levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid to further evaluate therapeutic effects. Expression of ß-catenin and VE-cadherin was assessed by western blotting and immunofluorescence. RESULTS: Compared with wildtype BMSCs, overexpression of HOXB4 optimized the therapeutic effects of BMSCs, which manifested as improvements in lung exudation and histopathological features, reduced lung collagen deposition, amelioration of lung permeability, attenuation of lung inflammation, and enhanced expression of ß-catenin and VE-cadherin proteins. CONCLUSIONS: HOXB4-overexpressing BMSCs optimized the protective effect against LPS-induced ALI by partially activating Wnt/ß-catenin signaling.

A novel RT-PCR method for quantification of human papillomavirus transcripts in archived tissues and its application in oropharyngeal cancer prognosis.

Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is strongly associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, which is distinctively different from most other head and neck cancers. However, a robust quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) method for comprehensive expression profiling of HPV genes in routinely fixed tissues has not been reported. To address this issue, we have established a new real-time RT-PCR method for the expression profiling of the E6 and E7 oncogenes from 13 high-risk HPV types. This method was validated in cervical cancer and by comparison with another HPV RNA detection method (in situ hybridization) in oropharyngeal tumors. In addition, the expression profiles of selected HPV-related human genes were also analyzed. HPV E6 and E7 expression profiles were then analyzed in 150 archived oropharyngeal SCC samples and compared with other variables and with patient outcomes. Our study showed that RT-qPCR and RNA in situ hybridization were 100% concordant in determining HPV status. HPV transcriptional activity was found in most oropharyngeal SCC (81.3%), a prevalence that is higher than in previous studies. Besides HPV16, three other HPV types were also detected, including 33, 35 and 18. Furthermore, HPV and p16 had essentially identical expression signatures, and both HPV and p16 were prognostic biomarkers for the prediction of disease outcome. Thus, p16 mRNA or protein expression signature is a sensitive and specific surrogate marker for HPV transcriptional activity (all genotypes combined).

Overexpression of FoxM1 optimizes the therapeutic effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on acute respiratory distress syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Injury of alveolar epithelial cells and capillary endothelial cells is crucial in the pathogenesis of acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS). Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a promising cell source for ALI/ARDS treatment. Overexpression of Fork head box protein M1 (FoxM1) facilitates MSC differentiation into alveolar type II (AT II) cells in vitro. Moreover, FoxM1 has been shown to repair the endothelial barrier. Therefore, this study explored whether overexpression of FoxM1 promotes the therapeutic effect of bone marrow-derived MSCs (BMSCs) on ARDS by differentiation of BMSCs into AT II cells or a paracrine mechanism. METHODS: A septic ALI model was established in mice by intraperitoneal administration of lipopolysaccharide. The protective effect of BMSCs-FoxM1 on ALI was explored by detecting pathological variations in the lung, total protein concentration in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), wet/dry (W/D) lung weight ratio, oxidative stress levels, cytokine levels, and retention of BMSCs in the lung. In addition, we assessed whether FoxM1 overexpression promoted the therapeutic effect of BMSCs on ALI/ARDS by differentiating into AT II cells using SPC-/- mice. Furthermore, the protective effect of BMSCs-FoxM1 on lipopolysaccharide-induced endothelial cell (EC) injury was explored by detecting EC proliferation, apoptosis, scratch wounds, tube formation, permeability, and oxidative stress, and analyzing whether the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway contributes to the regulatory mechanism in vitro using a pathway inhibitor. RESULTS: Compared with BMSCs-Vector, treatment with BMSCs-FoxM1 significantly decreased the W/D lung weight ratio, total BALF protein level, lung injury score, oxidative stress, and cytokine levels. With the detected track of BMSCs-FoxM1, we observed a low residency rate and short duration of residency in the lung. Notably, SPC was not expressed in SPC-/- mice injected with BMSCs-FoxM1. Furthermore, BMSCs-FoxM1 enhanced EC proliferation, migration, and tube formation; inhibited EC apoptosis and inflammation; and maintained vascular integrity through activation of the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway, which was partially reversed by XAV-939. CONCLUSION: Overexpression of FoxM1 enhanced the therapeutic effect of BMSCs on ARDS, possibly through a paracrine mechanism rather than by promoting BMSC differentiation into AT II cells in vivo, and prevented LPS-induced EC barrier disruption partially through activating the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway in vitro.

Association Between ICU admission (Neutrophil + Monocyte)/Lymphocyte Ratio And 30-Day Mortality in Patients with Sepsis: A Retrospective Study from MIMIC-IV.

Background: Sepsis is an important public health issue, and it is urgent to develop valuable indicators to predict the prognosis of sepsis. Our study aims to assess the predictive value of ICU admission (Neutrophil + Monocyte)/lymphocyte ratio (NMLR) on the 30-day mortality of sepsis patients. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted in septic patients, and the data were collected from Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relation between ICU admission NMLR and 30-day mortality. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) was performed to determine the optimum cut-off value of ICU admission NMLR. Survival outcomes of the two groups with different ICU admission NMLR levels were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test. Results: Finally, 7292 patients were recruited in the study, of which 1601 died within 30 days of discharge. The non-survival group had higher ICU admission NMLR values than patients in the survival group (12.24 [6.44-23.67] vs. 8.71 [4.81-16.26], P < 0.001). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that ICU admission NMLR was an independent prognostic predictor on 30-day mortality (Univariate: P < 0.001; multivariate: P=0.011). The RCS model demonstrated the upturn and non-linear relationship between ICU admission NMLR and 30-day mortality (Nonlinearity: P=0.0124). According to the KM curve analysis,30-day survival was worse in the higher ICU admission NMLR group than that in the lower ICU admission NMLR group (Log rank test, P<0.0001). Conclusion: The elevated ICU admission NMLR level is an independent risk factor for high 30-day mortality in patients with sepsis.

An oligomeric hyaluronic acid-GX1 molecular target drug with polyvalent targeting to CD44 and VEGF receptors.

The off-target toxicity of molecular targeted drug hinders its clinical transformation. Herein, we report a new molecular targeted drug oHA-GX1 constructed by oligomeric hyaluronan (oHA) and peptide GX1 (CGNSNPKSC). The oHA-GX1 can not only suppress the tumor growth by interacting with overexpressed VEGF and CD44 receptors inside tumor tissues, but also reduce the likelihood of off-target toxicity due to the multiple VEGF and CD44 receptors binding sites. The cytotoxicity study shows that the IC50oHA-GX1 against co-SGC-7901 and co-HUVEC cells fell in the range of common cytotoxic drugs. The animal experiment results reveal that the tumor inhibition rate of oHA-GX1 (100 mg/kg) against SGC-7901 tumor-bearing mice were 78.4 %, which was comparable to that of front-line chemotherapy drugs. Also, the cytotoxicity study on normal cells, hemolysis test, hemagglutination assay and the acute toxicity test demonstrate that oHA-GX1 exhibited excellent biosafety. This molecular targeted drug that utilizes the multiple receptor-binding sites to get rid of the side effects caused by off-target paves a new direction for the discovery of anticancer drugs with high efficacy and low adverse effects.

Overexpression of FoxM1 Enhanced the Protective Effect of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury through the Activation of Wnt/ß-Catenin Signaling.

Background: Mesenchymal stem cell- (MSC-) based cell and gene therapies have made remarkable progress in alleviating acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS). However, the benefits of Forkhead box protein M1 (FoxM1) gene-modified MSCs in the treatment of ALI have not been studied. Methods: We evaluated the therapeutic effects of FoxM1-modified MSCs in ALI mice induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) by quantifying the survival rate, lung weight ratio (wet/dry), and contents of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In addition, microcomputed tomography, histopathology, Evans Blue assay, and quantification of apoptosis were performed. We also explored the underlying mechanism by assessing Wnt/ß-catenin signaling following the treatment of mice with FoxM1-modified MSCs utilizing the Wnt/ß-catenin inhibitor XAV-939. Results: Compared with unmodified MSCs, transplantation of FoxM1-modified MSCs improved survival and vascular permeability; reduced total cell counts, leukocyte counts, total protein concentrations, and inflammatory cytokines in BALF; attenuated lung pathological impairments and fibrosis; and inhibited apoptosis in LPS-induced ALI/ARDS mice. Furthermore, FoxM1-modified MSCs maintained vascular integrity during ALI/ARDS by upregulating Wnt/ß-catenin signaling, which was partly reversed via a pathway inhibitor. Conclusion: Overexpression of FoxM1 optimizes the treatment action of MSCs on ALI/ARDS by inhibiting inflammation and apoptosis and restoring vascular integrity partially through Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway stimulation.

Associating Multimodal Neuroimaging Abnormalities With the Transcriptome and Neurotransmitter Signatures in Schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Schizophrenia is a multidimensional disease. This study proposes a new research framework that combines multimodal meta-analysis and genetic/molecular architecture to solve the consistency in neuroimaging biomarkers of schizophrenia and whether these link to molecular genetics. STUDY DESIGN: We systematically searched Web of Science, PubMed, and BrainMap for the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) or fractional ALFF, regional homogeneity, regional cerebral blood flow, and voxel-based morphometry analysis studies investigating schizophrenia. The pooled-modality, single-modality, and illness duration-dependent meta-analyses were performed using the activation likelihood estimation algorithm. Subsequently, Spearman correlation and partial least squares regression analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between identified reliable convergent patterns of multimodality and neurotransmitter/transcriptome, using prior molecular imaging and brain-wide gene expression. STUDY RESULTS: In total, 203 experiments comprising 10 613 patients and 10 461 healthy controls were included. Multimodal meta-analysis showed that brain regions of significant convergence in schizophrenia were mainly distributed in the frontotemporal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, thalamus, striatum, and hippocampus. Interestingly, the analyses of illness-duration subgroups identified aberrant functional and structural evolutionary patterns: Lines from the striatum to the cortical core networks to extensive cortical and subcortical regions. Subsequently, we found that these robust multimodal neuroimaging abnormalities were associated with multiple neurobiological abnormalities, such as dopaminergic, glutamatergic, serotonergic, and GABAergic systems. CONCLUSIONS: This work links transcriptome/neurotransmitters with reliable structural and functional signatures of brain abnormalities underlying disease effects in schizophrenia, which provides novel insight into the understanding of schizophrenia pathophysiology and targeted treatments.

DNA Tetrahedra-Based Delivery of MicroRNA-22 to Reduce Depressive Symptoms in Mice.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common illness with an increasing lifetime prevalence. Thus, an increasing number of studies have investigated the association between MDD and microRNAs (miRNAs), which are a novel approach for treating depression. However, the therapeutic potential of miRNA-based strategies has several limitations. To overcome these limitations, DNA tetrahedra (TDNs) have been used as piggyback materials. In this study, we successfully used TDNs as carriers of miRNA-22-3p (miR-22-3p) and synthesized a novel DNA nanocomplex (TDN-miR-22-3p), which was used in a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced depression cell model. The results suggest that miR-22-3p may regulate inflammation by regulating phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN), an important regulatory molecule in the PI3K/AKT pathway, and downregulating the expression of NLRP3. We further validated the role of TDN-miR-22-3p in vivo using an LPS-induced animal model of depression. The results indicate that it ameliorated depression-like behavior and attenuated the expression of inflammation-related factors in mice. This study demonstrates the establishment of a straightforward and efficacious miRNA delivery system and the potential of TDNs as therapeutic vectors and tools for mechanistic studies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to use TDNs in combination with miRNAs to treat depression.