Nicotine pretreatment alleviates MK-801-induced behavioral and cognitive deficits in mice by regulating Pdlim5/CRTC1 in the PFC.

Increasing evidence shows that smoking-obtained nicotine is indicated to improve cognition and mitigate certain symptoms of schizophrenia. In this study, we investigated whether chronic nicotine treatment alleviated MK-801-induced schizophrenia-like symptoms and cognitive impairment in mice. Mice were injected with MK-801 (0.2 mg/kg, i.p.), and the behavioral deficits were assessed using prepulse inhibition (PPI) and T-maze tests. We showed that MK-801 caused cognitive impairment accompanied by increased expression of PDZ and LIM domain 5 (Pdlim5), an adaptor protein that is critically associated with schizophrenia, in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Pretreatment with nicotine (0.2 mg · kg-1 · d-1, s.c., for 2 weeks) significantly ameliorated MK-801-induced schizophrenia-like symptoms and cognitive impairment by reversing the increased Pdlim5 expression levels in the PFC. In addition, pretreatment with nicotine prevented the MK-801-induced decrease in CREB-regulated transcription coactivator 1 (CRTC1), a coactivator of CREB that plays an important role in cognition. Furthermore, MK-801 neither induced schizophrenia-like behaviors nor decreased CRTC1 levels in the PFC of Pdlim5-/- mice. Overexpression of Pdlim5 in the PFC through intra-PFC infusion of an adreno-associated virus AAV-Pdlim5 induced significant schizophrenia-like symptoms and cognitive impairment. In conclusion, chronic nicotine treatment alleviates schizophrenia-induced memory deficits in mice by regulating Pdlim5 and CRTC1 expression in the PFC.

Learning to predict in-hospital mortality risk in the intensive care unit with attention-based temporal convolution network.

BACKGROUND: Dynamic prediction of patient mortality risk in the ICU with time series data is limited due to high dimensionality, uncertainty in sampling intervals, and other issues. A new deep learning method, temporal convolution network (TCN), makes it possible to deal with complex clinical time series data in ICU. We aimed to develop and validate it to predict mortality risk using time series data from MIMIC III dataset. METHODS: A total of 21,139 records of ICU stays were analysed and 17 physiological variables from the MIMIC III dataset were used to predict mortality risk. Then we compared the model performance of the attention-based TCN with that of traditional artificial intelligence (AI) methods. RESULTS: The area under receiver operating characteristic (AUCROC) and area under precision-recall curve (AUC-PR) of attention-based TCN for predicting the mortality risk 48 h after ICU admission were 0.837 (0.824 -0.850) and 0.454, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of attention-based TCN were 67.1% and 82.6%, respectively, compared to the traditional AI method, which had a low sensitivity (< 50%). CONCLUSIONS: The attention-based TCN model achieved better performance in the prediction of mortality risk with time series data than traditional AI methods and conventional score-based models. The attention-based TCN mortality risk model has the potential for helping decision-making for critical patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Data used for the prediction of mortality risk were extracted from the freely accessible MIMIC III dataset. The project was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, MA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA). Requirement for individual patient consent was waived because the project did not impact clinical care and all protected health information was deidentified. The data were accessed via a data use agreement between PhysioNet, a National Institutes of Health-supported data repository (https://www.physionet.org/), and one of us (Yu-wen Chen, Certification Number: 28341490). All methods were carried out in accordance with the institutional guidelines and regulations.

[Clinical observation on treatment of type 2 cardiac and kidney syndrome by combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicines].

Clinical observation on treatment of type 2 cardiac and kidney syndrome by combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine. The patients were divided into two groups： the simple Western medicine treatment group (control group) and the traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine treatment group (treatment group). The patients in the two groups were treated with conventional western medicine.The treatment group was given based on Buxin Yishen decoction, a total of three courses of treatment to observe the two groups of patients before and after treatment of total efficacy, cardiac function indicators, changes in renal function indicators. The total efficacy of the treatment group and the control group were 91.80% and 72.41%, respectively. There were significant differences between the two groups (P<0.01). The cardiac function indexes and renal function indexes of the treatment group and the control group before and after treatment (P<0.01). Compared with the two groups, the left ventricular function, Hematuria natriuretic peptide, serum creatinine, urea nitrogen, cystatin-C were improved, and the treatment group (P<0.05~0.01). The results showed that the combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment can improve the clinical efficacy of type 2 heart and kidney syndrome, significantly improve heart and kidney function, better than conventional Western medicine treatment, and has good safety.

[Diversity of agronomic traits of Paris polyphylla var. chinensis and their correlation with rhizome yield and active compositions].

The supply deficiency of crude medicinal plant of Paris polyphylla var. chinensis has become a bottleneck for related medicinal industry. An important approach to increase herbal production is to breed high-yield cultivated variety, which characterized ideal plant morphology. In the present study, we collected 99 wild germplasm resources of P. polyphylla and then measured their 12 main agronomic traits and contents of polyphyllin Ⅶ,Ⅵ,Ⅱ,Ⅰ. Followed analyses were used to characterize those traits and explore the potential connection with herbal yield or quality. The results showed that: ①There was ample morphological diversity in wild P. polyphylla, whose variation of agronomic traits reduced according to followed order: content of polyphyllin, weight of dry rhizome, petiole length, stem length, petal length, pedicel length, sepal length, leaf width, leaf length, sepal width, leaf number, stamen number, petal number. ② Most of those traits were significantly correlated to each other and generally represented the characterization of photosynthetic organs or reproductive organ. ③The total content of polyphyllin Ⅶ,Ⅵ,Ⅱ,Ⅰvaried between 0.02% and 0.87% and averagedat 0.13%, which showed no significant correlation with any agronomic trait. ④Plant breeders should play more attention on those germplasm resources with large leaves, large sepals and high stem.

[Effect of pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome on complications in very low birth weight preterm infants].

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome (PIH) on complications in very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm infants. METHODS: The VLBW preterm infants were enrolled as research subjects, and according to the presence or absence of PIH in their mothers, they were divided into PIH group and non- PIH group. The incidence of major complications and length of hospital stay were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the two groups in gestational age, birth weight, sex, incidence rate of maternal diabetes, and use of antepartum hormone. The PIH group had a significantly higher rate of birth of small-for-gestational-age infants than the non-PIH group. The PIH group had a significantly lower incidence rate of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) than the non-PIH group, while there were no significant differences between the two groups in the incidence rates of apnea of prematurity, necrotizing enterocolitis, retinopathy of prematurity, and intraventricular hemorrhage-periventricular leukomalacia, and the length of hospital stay. There was no significant difference in the incidence rate of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome between the two groups, but the PIH group had a significantly lower proportion of infants who used pulmonary surfactant than the non-PIH group. CONCLUSIONS: PIH can alleviate respiratory complications and reduce the use of pulmonary surfactant and the incidence rate of BPD in preterm infants.

[Determination of benzyl glucosinolate in Lepidium meyenii from different regions by HPLC].

The content of benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) which as the enzymatic hydrolysis product of benzyl glucosinolate through thioglucosidase was determined by HPLC. The content of benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) which as the enzymatic hydrolysis product of benzyl glucosinolate through thioglucosidase was determined by HPLC. The chromatography condition was as follows: Kaseisorb LC ODS 2000 (4.6 mm x 150 mm, 5 min) column with the mobile phase of acetonitrile(A)-water( B) under gradient elution (0-5 min, 3%-8% A; 5-9 min, 8%-48% A; 9-23 min, 48%-62% A; 23-28 min, 62%-99% A); the flow rate was 1.0 mL x min(-1) with 10 microL injection volume; detection wavelength was 246 nm and temperature of column was 40 degrees C. The content of benzyl glucosinolate was in the range of 10.76-17.91 g x L(-1). The method is simple, accurate and good reproducibility which can be used for the determination of benzyl glucosinolate in Lepidium meyenii, effectively.

Notolutesins A-J, dolabrane-type diterpenoids from the Chinese liverwort Notoscyphus lutescens.

Ten new dolabrane-type diterpenoids, notolutesins A-J (1-10), were isolated from the Chinese liverwort Notoscyphus lutescens, along with four known compounds. The structures of the new compounds were established on the basis of extensive spectroscopic data, and that of 1 was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray crystallography. The absolute configuration of 1 was determined by comparing its experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism spectra. All of the isolates were evaluated for their cytotoxicity against a small panel of human cancer cell lines, and compound 1 exhibited an IC50 value of 6.2 µM against the PC3 human prostate cancer cell line.

[Particle settling characteristics of alcohol precipitation mixture of Paeoniae Radix rubra extract and models establishment of settling velocity].

OBJECTIVE: To understand the particle settling characteristics of alcohol precipitation mixture of Paeoniae Radix rubra extract and establish models of the sedimentation rate. METHODS: Focusing on the particle settling characteristics such as particle settling curve, particle settling velocity (PSV), particle volume index (PVI), the particle settling process of alcohol precipitation was investigated. The effect of three key process factors on the settling process was discussed and mathematical models for describing the particle settling velocity were developed. RESULTS: Controlling of higher final alcohol concentration, higher density of Paeoniae Radix rubra extract, or lower initial alcohol concentration, was conducive to settlement of alcohol precipitation particles. In the constant speed phase, an empirical calculation formula of v(0) was established, with both the variables PSV and PVI (v(0)=-0.236PSV+0.022PVI+7.521). Another developed model was applied to predict the settling velocity in decelerated phase and the simulation was very good [v=k(1-n(1)X)(4)exp(-n(2)X)/X]. CONCLUSION: The results of this work will contribute to a better control and optimization of alcohol precipitation process, and help to implementation of accuracy control in the manufacture of botanical medicines.

[Expression of MicroRNA-3162-3p in Different Clinical Stages of Children with Primary Immune Thrombocytopenia and Its Significance].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expression of microRNA-3162-3p in different clinical stages of childhood primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) and its significance. METHODS: Ninety-six children with ITP were enrolled and divided into new diagnosis group (n=40), persistent group (n=30) and chronic group (n=26) according to the course of disease. 80 healthy children were selected as the control group. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) of ITP children and healthy children were isolated and cultured, and the expression of microRNA-3162-3p in PBMNC of subjects was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. The contents of IL-17, IL-23, IL-10 and TGF-ß in PBMNC of subjects were determined by ELISA. The correlation between microRNA-3162-3p and platelet count, IL-17, IL-23, IL-10 and TGF-ß was analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the expression of microRNA-3162-3p and IL-10 in PBMNC and platelet count of ITP children were significantly decreased（P < 0.05）, while IL-17, IL-23 and TGF-ß were significantly increased (P < 0.05). With the prolongation of the disease course, the expressions of microRNA-3162-3p and IL-10 in PBMNC and platelet count were significantly decreased（P < 0.05）, while the expressions of IL-17, IL-23 and TGF-ß were significantly increased (P < 0.05). The expression of microRNA-3162-3p in PBMNC was positively correlated with platelet count and IL-10 (r =0.716, 0.667), and negatively correlated with IL-17, IL-23, and TGF-ß (r =-0.540, -0.641, -0.560). CONCLUSION: MicroRNA-3162-3p expression is significantly reduced in PBMNC of children with ITP, and is involved in the regulation of Th17/Treg imbalance, which can be used as a potential therapeutic target of ITP.

Clinical efficacy and mechanism study of mid-frequency anti-snoring device in treating moderate obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is primarily caused by airway obstruction due to narrowing and blockage in the nasal and nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal, soft palate, and tongue base areas. The mid-frequency anti-snoring device is a new technology based on sublingual nerve stimulation. Its principle is to improve the degree of oropharyngeal airway stenosis in OSAHS patients under mid-frequency wave stimulation. Nevertheless, there is a lack of clinical application and imaging evidence. AIM: To investigate the clinical efficacy and mechanisms of a mid-frequency anti-snoring device in treating moderate OSAHS. METHODS: We selected 50 patients diagnosed with moderate OSAHS in our hospital between July 2022 and August 2023. They underwent a 4-wk treatment regimen involving the mid-frequency anti-snoring device during nighttime sleep. Following the treatment, we monitored and assessed the sleep apnea quality of life index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale scores. Additionally, we performed computed tomography scans of the oropharynx in the awake state, during snoring, and while using the mid-frequency anti-snoring device. Cross-sectional area measurements in different states were taken at the narrowest airway point in the soft palate posterior and retrolingual areas. RESULTS: Compared to pretreatment measurements, patients exhibited a significant reduction in the apnea-hypopnea index, the percentage of time with oxygen saturation below 90%, snoring frequency, and the duration of the most prolonged apnea event. The lowest oxygen saturation showed a notable increase, and both sleep apnea quality of life index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale scores improved. Oropharyngeal computed tomography scans revealed that in OSAHS patients cross-sectional areas of the oropharyngeal airway in the soft palate posterior area and retrolingual area decreased during snoring compared to the awake state. Conversely, during mid-frequency anti-snoring device treatment, these areas increased compared to snoring. CONCLUSION: The mid-frequency anti-snoring device demonstrates the potential to enhance various sleep parameters in patients with moderate OSAHS, thereby improving their quality of life and reducing daytime sleepiness. These therapeutic effects are attributed to the device's ability to ameliorate the narrowing of the oropharynx in OSAHS patients.

Synthesis of a series of novel chiral Lewis base catalysts and their application in promoting asymmetric hydrosilylation of ß-enamino esters.

A series of novel chiral Lewis base catalysts were synthesized from L-serine and applied in the hydrosilylation of ß-enamino esters, in which the optimal one promoted the reactions to afford a wide variety of ß-amino esters in good yields with good enantioselectivities. It is noteworthy that several cyclic substrates were hydrosilylated under the optimal conditions to give the cyclic ß-amino esters with high yields, good diastereoselectivities as well as good ee values.

The value of serum TRAP1 in diagnosing small cell lung cancer and tumor immunity.

This study set out to investigate the clinical significance of serum tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated protein 1 (TRAP1) in diagnosing small cell lung cancer (SCLC) with different clinical stages, and to compare the diagnostic efficiency with neuron-specific enolase (NSE), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9). Besides, to analyze the role of serum TRAP1 in tumor immunity. A total of 91 patients with SCLC, 99 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 102 patients with pulmonary nodules (PN), and 75 healthy people were included. The concentrations of serum TRAP1 was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). NSE, CEA, and CA19-9 were detected by chemiluminescence. The results showed that level of TRAP1 in Group SCLC was lower than other three groups (P < 0.01), whereas NSE in SCLC was significantly higher than the others (P < 0.01), and the levels of CEA and CA19-9 were higher than healthy people and PN patients (P < 0.01). There was a significant difference in TRAP1 levels between patients with limited-stage disease SCLC (LD-SCLC) and extensive-stage disease SCLC (ED-SCLC) (P < 0.0001). The sensitivity and specificity of TRAP1 in diagnosing LD-SCLC were 0.964 and 0.560, respectively, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.819. The sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing ED-SCLC were 0.810 and 0.868, respectively, and the AUC was 0.933, which showed high diagnostic value. The AUC of these two groups can be increased to 0.946 and 0.947 in combination of four biomarkers, effectively improving the diagnosis rate of SCLC. Our findings have revealed that serum TRAP1 has high diagnostic value for SCLC and high diagnostic sensitivity for LD-SCLC. It is a potential biomarker for SCLC. Combined detection can effectively improve the diagnosis rate of SCLC. TRAP1 may be secreted into the circulation by mature immune cells and participates in tumor immunity as a carrier of tumor antigens.

A new, feasible, and convenient method based on semantic segmentation and deep learning for hemoglobin monitoring.

Objective: Non-invasive methods for hemoglobin (Hb) monitoring can provide additional and relatively precise information between invasive measurements of Hb to help doctors' decision-making. We aimed to develop a new method for Hb monitoring based on mask R-CNN and MobileNetV3 with eye images as input. Methods: Surgical patients from our center were enrolled. After image acquisition and pre-processing, the eye images, the manually selected palpebral conjunctiva, and features extracted, respectively, from the two kinds of images were used as inputs. A combination of feature engineering and regression, solely MobileNetV3, and a combination of mask R-CNN and MobileNetV3 were applied for model development. The model's performance was evaluated using metrics such as R2, explained variance score (EVS), and mean absolute error (MAE). Results: A total of 1,065 original images were analyzed. The model's performance based on the combination of mask R-CNN and MobileNetV3 using the eye images achieved an R2, EVS, and MAE of 0.503 (95% CI, 0.499-0.507), 0.518 (95% CI, 0.515-0.522) and 1.6 g/dL (95% CI, 1.6-1.6 g/dL), which was similar to that based on MobileNetV3 using the manually selected palpebral conjunctiva images (R2: 0.509, EVS:0.516, MAE:1.6 g/dL). Conclusion: We developed a new and automatic method for Hb monitoring to help medical staffs' decision-making with high efficiency, especially in cases of disaster rescue, casualty transport, and so on.

Serum Soluble Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 1 as a Potential Biomarker of Hepatopulmonary Syndrome.

Background and Aims: The results of basic research implicate the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family as a potential target of hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS). However, the negative results of anti-angiogenetic therapy in clinical studies have highlighted the need for markers for HPS. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether VEGF family members and their receptors can be potential biomarkers for HPS through clinical and experimental studies. Methods: Clinically, patients with chronic liver disease from two medical centers were enrolled and examined for HPS. Patients were divided into HPS, intrapulmonary vascular dilation [positive contrast-enhanced echocardiography (CEE) and normal oxygenation] and CEE-negative groups. Baseline information and perioperative clinical data were compared between HPS and non-HPS patients. Serum levels of VEGF family members and their receptors were measured. In parallel, HPS rats were established by common bile duct ligation. Liver, lung and serum samples were collected for the evaluation of pathophysiologic changes, as well as the expression levels of the above factors. Results: In HPS rats, all VEGF family members and their receptors underwent significant changes; however, only soluble VEGFR1 (sFlt-1) and the sFlt-1/ placental growth factor (PLGF) ratio were changed in almost the same manner as those in HPS patients. Furthermore, through feature selection and internal and external validation, sFlt-1 and the sFlt-1/PLGF ratio were identified as the most important variables to distinguish HPS from non-HPS patients. Conclusions: Our results from animal and human studies indicate that sFlt-1 and the sFlt-1/PLGF ratio in serum are potential markers for HPS.

Conformation-dependent scFv antibodies specifically recognize the oligomers assembled from various amyloids and show colocalization of amyloid fibrils with oligomers in patients with amyloidoses.

Increasing evidence indicates that amyloid aggregates, including oligomers, protofibrils or fibrils, are pivotal toxins in the pathogenesis of many amyloidoses such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, prion-related diseases, type 2 diabetes and hereditary renal amyloidosis. Various oligomers assembled from different amyloid proteins share common structures and epitopes. Here we present data indicating that two oligomer-specific single chain variable fragment (scFv) antibodies isolated from a naïve human scFv library could conformation-dependently recognize oligomers assembled from α-synuclein, amylin, insulin, Aß1-40, prion peptide 106-126 and lysozyme, and fibrils from lysozyme. Further investigation showed that both scFvs inhibited the fibrillization of α-synuclein, amylin, insulin, Aß1-40 and prion peptide 106-126, and disaggregated their preformed fibrils. However, they both promoted the aggregation of lysozyme. Nevertheless, the two scFv antibodies could attenuate the cytotoxicity of all amyloids tested. Moreover, the scFvs recognized the amyloid oligomers in all types of plaques, Lewy bodies and amylin deposits in the brain tissues of AD and PD patients and the pancreas of type 2 diabetes patients respectively, and showed that most amyloid fibril deposits were colocalized with oligomers in the tissues. Such conformation-dependent scFv antibodies may have potential application in the investigation of aggregate structures, the mechanisms of aggregation and cytotoxicity of various amyloids, and in the development of diagnostic and therapeutic reagents for many amyloidoses.

Optimization method for ultra-wide-angle and panoramic optical systems.

To an ultra-wide-angle and panoramic optical system, the aberrations of point object at any field angle are separated into two types: the aperture-ray aberrations of off-axis point object and the chief-ray aberrations. A simple form of the triangular formulae of tracing an oblique-incidence ray is derived to calculate the chief-ray parameters and their aberrations; moreover, the aperture-ray aberrations of an off-axis point object are analyzed with the plane-symmetric aberration theory. Based on the two types of aberrations, we present a merit function for ultra-wide-angle and panoramic optical systems; the optimization program with the differential-evolution algorithm is then developed. To validate the optimization method we finally optimize a fish-eye lens and a catadioptric omnidirectional imaging system.

Identification of novel low molecular weight serum peptidome biomarkers for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

AIM: To identify discriminating protein patterns in serum samples among non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, and healthy controls. To discover specific low molecular weight (LMW) serum peptidome biomarkers and establish a diagnostic pattern for NSCLCby using proteomic technology. METHODS: We used magnetic bead-based separation followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) to identify patients with NSCLC, COPD, and pneumonia. A total of 154 serum samples were analyzed in this study, among which there were 60 serum samples from NSCLC patients, 30 from patients with other lung-related diseases (16 pneumonia patients and 14 patients with COPD) as disease controls, and 64 from healthy volunteers as healthy control. The mass spectra, analyzed using ClinProTools software, distinguished between cancer patients and healthy individuals based on GA algorithm model. RESULTS: In this study, we generated numerous discriminating m/z peaks as well as disease-specific discrimination peaks. A set of five potential biomarkers (m/z: 7,763.24, 1,012.61, 4,153.16, 1,450.55, and 2,878.89) could be used as the diagnostic biomarkers to distinguish NSCLCpatients from healthy controls. In the training set, patients with NSCLC could be identified with sensitivity of 97.5% and specificity of 98.8%. Similar results were obtained in the testing set, showing 80.7% sensitivity and 91.2% specificity. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that a combined application of magnetic beads with MALDI-TOF MS technique was suitable for identification of serum biomarkers for NSCLC.

[Correlation of Plasma MiR-146a, MiR-223 Levels with the Prognosis of Childhood with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the expression of plasma microRNA (miR)-146a and miR-223 in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), so as to analyze the relationship between the two factors and the prognosis of children with ALL. METHODS: 100 children with ALL treated in the hospital from January 2015 to December 2017 were selected, according to the standard of Chinese Children's Leukemia Group (CCLG)-ALL-2008 program, the children were performed standardized treatment in our hospital according to different risk degree, the follow-up results were obtained, the follow-up time was ≥36 months, and the follow-up time was till to March 2021, the recurrence and mortality of the children were used as prognostic indicators; the baseline data of the children at admission were inquired and recorded, the plasma miR-146a and miR-223 levels were analyzed at admission, and their correlation with the prognosis of children with ALL was analyzed. RESULTS: During the follow-up period, 4 cases of children died while 18 cases recurred, which means 22(22.00%) children showed the poor prognosis; the plasma miR-146a level of the children in poor prognosis group at admission was higher than those in good prognosis group, while the plasma miR-223 level was lower than those in good prognosis group, the differences showed statistically significantly (P<0.05); the results of regression analysis showed that the over expression of plasma miR-146a and low expression of plasma miR-223 at admission might be associated with poor prognosis in ALL children, and might be a risk factor for poor prognosis in children (P<0.05); the ROC curve showed that the AUC of plasma miR-146a and miR-223 at admission alone or in combination showed the predictive value for the risk of poor prognosis in children with ALL(AUC >0.80); the results of correlation test showed that there was a negative correlation of plasma miR-146a with miR-223 levels at admission (r=-0.239, P=0.016). CONCLUSION: Plasma miR-146a is overexpressed and miR-223 is low-expressed in children with ALL, the abnormal expression of the two factors is related to the prognosis of children with ALL.

Hepatopulmonary syndrome delays postoperative recovery and increases pulmonary complications after hepatectomy.

BACKGROUND: This study attempted to investigate the impact of hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) on postoperative outcomes in hepatitis B virus-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HBV-HCC) patients. METHODS: HBV-HCC patients undergoing primary curative hepatectomy for HCC in our hospital were diagnosed with HPS by contrast-enhanced echocardiography (CEE) and arterial blood gas analysis. Patients were divided into HPS, intrapulmonary vascular dilation (IPVD) (patients with positive CEE results and normal oxygenation) and control (patients with negative CEE results) groups. Baseline information, perioperative clinical data and postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) were compared among all groups. Cytokines in patient serums from each group (n = 8) were also assessed. RESULTS: Eighty-seven patients undergoing hepatectomy from October 2019 to January 2020 were analyzed. The average time in the postanaesthesia care unit (112.10 ± 38.57 min) and oxygen absorption after extubation [34.0 (14.5-54.5) min] in the HPS group was longer than in IPVD [81.81 ± 26.18 min and 16.0 (12.3-24.0) min] and control [93.70 ± 34.06 min and 20.5 (13.8-37.0) min] groups. There were no significant differences in oxygen absorption time after extubation between HPS and control groups. The incidence of PPCs, especially bi-lateral pleural effusions in the HPS group (61.9%), was higher than in IPVD (12.5%) and control (30.0%) groups. Increased serum levels of the growth-regulated oncogene, monocyte chemoattractant protein, soluble CD40 ligand and interleukin 8 might be related to delayed recovery in HPS patients. CONCLUSIONS: HPS patients with HBV-HCC suffer delayed postoperative recovery and are at higher risk for PPCs, especially bi-lateral pleural effusions, which might be associated with changes in certain cytokines.