Happy people are always similar: The evidence from brain morphological and functional inter-subject correlations.

A fundamental question in the study of happiness is whether there is neural evidence to support a well-known hypothesis that happy people are always similar while unfortunate people have their own misfortunes. To investigate this, we employed several happiness-related questionnaires to identify potential components of happiness, and further investigated and confirmed their associations with personality, mood, aggressive behaviors, and amygdala reactivity to fearful faces within a substantial sample size of college students (n = 570). Additionally, we examined the functional and morphological similarities and differences among happy individuals using the inter-subject representational similarity analysis (IS-RSA). IS-RSA emphasizes the geometric properties in a high-dimensional space constructed by brain or behavioral patterns and focuses on individual subjects. Our behavioral findings unveiled two factors of happiness: individual and social, both of which mediated the effect of personality traits on individual aggression. Subsequently, mood mediated the impact of happiness on aggressive behaviors across two subgroup splits. Functional imaging data revealed that individuals with higher levels of happiness exhibited reduced amygdala reactivity to fearful faces, as evidenced by a conventional face-matching task (n = 104). Moreover, IS-RSA demonstrated that these participants manifested similar neural activation patterns when processing fearful faces within the visual pathway, but not within the emotional network (e.g., amygdala). Morphological observations (n = 425) indicated that individuals with similar high happiness levels exhibited comparable gray matter volume patterns within several networks, including the default mode network, fronto-parietal network, visual network, and attention network. Collectively, these findings offer early neural evidence supporting the proposition that happy individuals may share common neural characteristics.

Crosstalk suppression of extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric sensor array based on five-step phase shift demodulation scheme using multiwavelength averaging.

A five-step phase shift demodulation scheme based on a multiwavelength averaging method is proposed to suppress crosstalk within an extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric (EFPI) sensor array. The paper focuses on a two-element sensing system based on the EFPI sensors to investigate the crosstalk in the EFPI sensor array. A detailed theoretical analysis of crosstalk suppression using the proposed demodulation method is presented. Numerical simulations and experiments are put forward to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed demodulation scheme in suppressing crosstalk under varying parameters. The results of the multiwavelength demodulation scheme indicate superior crosstalk suppression capability in contrast to the conventional five-step phase shift demodulation scheme based on a single-wavelength demodulation method. Furthermore, the paper reveals the enhanced crosstalk suppression capability of the proposed demodulation scheme when the cavity length difference between elements is not equal to zero. It alleviates the requirement for consistent cavity length among different elements in the sensing array. The proposed demodulation scheme exhibits excellent crosstalk suppression capabilities in optical multiplexing arrays by decreasing the dependency on extinction ratio and could be potentially used in the large-scale optical hydrophone array system.

Mediating effect of body fat percentage in the association between ambient particulate matter exposure and hypertension: a subset analysis of China hypertension survey.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension caused by air pollution exposure is a growing concern in China. The association between air pollutant exposure and hypertension has been found to be potentiated by obesity, however, little is known about the processes mediating this association. This study investigated the association between fine particulate matter (aerodynamic equivalent diameter ≤ 2.5 microns, PM2.5) exposure and the prevalence of hypertension in a representative population in southern China and tested whether obesity mediated this association. METHODS: A total of 14,308 adults from 48 communities/villages in southern China were selected from January 2015 to December 2015 using a stratified multistage random sampling method. Hourly PM2.5 measurements were collected from the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre. Restricted cubic splines were used to analyze the nonlinear dose-response relationship between PM2.5 exposure and hypertension risk. The mediating effect mechanism of obesity on PM2.5-associated hypertension was tested in a causal inference framework following the approach proposed by Imai and Keele. RESULTS: A total of 20.7% (2966/14,308) of participants in the present study were diagnosed with hypertension. Nonlinear exposure-response analysis revealed that exposure to an annual mean PM2.5 concentration above 41.8 µg/m3 was associated with increased hypertension risk at an incremental gradient. 9.1% of the hypertension burden could be attributed to exposure to elevated annual average concentrations of PM2.5. It is noteworthy that an increased body fat percentage positively mediated 59.3% of the association between PM2.5 exposure and hypertension risk, whereas body mass index mediated 34.3% of this association. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that a significant portion of the estimated effect of exposure to PM2.5 on the risk of hypertension appears to be attributed to its effect on alterations in body composition and the development of obesity. These findings could inform intersectoral actions in future studies to protect populations with excessive fine particle exposure from developing hypertension.

Decreased cuticular penetration minimizes the impact of the pyrethroid insecticide λ-cyhalothrin on the insect predator Eocanthecona furcellata.

The use of broad-spectrum pesticides may reduce the biological control efficacy of predatory arthropods. Hence, the risks of pesticides to predators need to be evaluated. Here, we assessed the effects of a broad spectrum pyrethroid λ-cyhalothrin on a polyphagous predatory insect Eocanthecona furcellata via contact exposure route. The recommended application rate of λ-cyhalothrin was lower than the LR50 and HQ (in-field) was equal to 0.57, indicating the risk of λ-cyhalothrin to E. furcellata was low. Dried λ-cyhalothrin residue had no effect on the mortality, body weight, protein content of cuticle, or activities of major detoxification enzymes in E. furcellata. Residual of λ-cyhalothrin was only detected in the cuticle and legs of E. furcellata with a decreasing trend as time went by and no λ-cyhalothrin was detected inside the body. Additionally, a comparative transcriptome analysis was conducted to study global changes in gene expression in E. furcellata at different time points following exposure to λ-cyhalothrin-contaminated environment. A total of 57,839 unigenes with an average length of 1044 bp and an N50 of 1820 bp were obtained. In total, 118 and 109 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at 12 h, and 60 h were identified between two groups. The DEGs were largely enriched in functional categories related to the structural constituent of cuticle. Accordingly, multiple cuticle protein-coding genes were up-regulated at 12 h after pesticide exposure. The present study stressed the importance of evaluating the compatibility between a specific pesticide (λ-cyhalothrin) and E. furcellata via simulating the releasing predators after insecticide application. The data could help optimize the pesticide use, optimizing the ecological services of E. furcellata as a BCA, and expanding its use into more areas of agriculture.

Predatory stink bug, Eocanthecona furcellata (Wolff) responses to oral exposure route of λ-cyhalothrin via sex-specific modulation manner.

The toxic effects of insecticides on predatory arthropods have closely related to their exposure routes. However, little is known about the effects of insecticide on reproductive parameters when the route of exposure occurs at a trophic level via prey intake. We therefore conducted current studies assessing whether Eocanthecona furcellata adults would be affected by feeding with λ-cyhalothrin-contaminated prey. Reproductive parameters, i.e. prolonged premating and preoviposition durations, reduced number of egg batches and egg amount, disturbed ovarian development, and suppressed expression of reproductive related genes were observed in E. furcellata females by feeding with treated prey. Moreover, reduced survival rate and altered carbohydrate metabolism parameters were detected in male bugs. Biochemical parameters, including MDA content, the activities of three antioxidant enzymes and three detoxification enzymes exhibited sex-specific responses after oral-exposure to λ-cyhalothrin in E. furcellata. The results indicate that the insecticide affects the fitness and leads to impairing reproductive potential via sex-specific modulation manner in predator insects. Taken together, our results provide a comprehensive assessment about detrimental impacts of λ-cyhalothrin-exposure on predators via prey intake, as well as a solid basis for further research to protect the predators from hazardous impacts of insecticides.

Diagnostic performance of magnetic resonance enterography and ultrasound in children with inflammatory bowel diseases: a diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) and ultrasound (US) can be used to diagnose inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in children. This meta-analysis aimed to determine the diagnostic performance of MRE and US in pediatric patients with IBD. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for eligible studies published up to June 1, 2020. The outcomes were the performances of MRE and US at the segment and patient levels. Pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios (PLR and NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and the area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curves value (SROC) were analyzed. RESULTS: Eight studies (340 children) were included. Compared with the reference standard, MRE showed pooled sensitivity of 93.0% (95% confidence interval (CI): 90.0-95.4%), specificity of 94.6% (95% CI: 92.1-96.5%), PLR of 11.146 (95% CI: 5.027-24.713), NLR of 0.094 (95% CI: 0.057-0.155), and DOR of 134.21 (95% CI: 40.72-442.29), with a SROC of 0.9721. Similar results were observed at the patient and segment levels. Compared with the reference standard, US had pooled sensitivity of 84.1% (95% CI: 69.9-93.4%), specificity of 82.9% (95% CI: 66.4-93.4%), PLR of 4.924 (95% CI: 2.351-10.310), NLR of 0.207 (95% CI: 0.103-0.413), and DOR of 25.919 (95% CI: 7.63-88.07), but only two studies were included. US (reader 1) had a similar diagnostic value to US (reader 2). CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis shows that MRE has good performance in detecting IBD in pediatric patients. Only two studies used US, and additional studies are necessary to confirm the diagnostic performance of US for IBD in children. KEY POINTS: • MRE has good performance in the detection of IBD in pediatric patients. • Similar results were observed at the patient and segment levels for MRE. • Only two studies were included for US, without differentiating patient/segment.

Conformational Expansion of Tau in Condensates Promotes Irreversible Aggregation.

Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of proteins into biomolecular condensates has emerged as a fundamental principle underpinning cellular function and malfunction. Indeed, many human pathologies, including protein misfolding diseases, are linked to aberrant liquid-to-solid phase transitions, and disease-associated protein aggregates often nucleate through phase separation. The molecular level determinants that promote pathological phase transitions remain, however, poorly understood. Here we study LLPS of the microtubule-associated protein Tau, whose aberrant aggregation is associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. Using single molecule spectroscopy, we probe directly the conformational changes that the protein undergoes as a result of LLPS. We perform single-molecule FRET and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy experiments to monitor the intra- and intermolecular changes and demonstrate that the N- and C-terminal regions of Tau become extended, thus exposing the microtubule-binding region. These changes facilitate intermolecular interactions and allow for the formation of nanoscale clusters of Tau. Our results suggest that these clusters can promote the fibrillization of Tau, which can be dramatically accelerated by disease-related mutations P301L and P301S. Our findings thus provide important molecular insights into the mechanism of protein phase separation and the conversion of protein condensates from functional liquid assemblies to pathological aggregates.

A Novel Finger Vein Recognition Method Based on Aggregation of Radon-Like Features.

Finger vein (FV) biometrics is one of the most promising individual recognition traits, which has the capabilities of uniqueness, anti-forgery, and bio-assay, etc. However, due to the restricts of imaging environments, the acquired FV images are easily degraded to low-contrast, blur, as well as serious noise disturbance. Therefore, how to extract more efficient and robust features from these low-quality FV images, remains to be addressed. In this paper, a novel feature extraction method of FV images is presented, which combines curvature and radon-like features (RLF). First, an enhanced vein pattern image is obtained by calculating the mean curvature of each pixel in the original FV image. Then, a specific implementation of RLF is developed and performed on the previously obtained vein pattern image, which can effectively aggregate the dispersed spatial information around the vein structures, thus highlight vein patterns and suppress spurious non-boundary responses and noises. Finally, a smoother vein structure image is obtained for subsequent matching and verification. Compared with the existing curvature-based recognition methods, the proposed method can not only preserve the inherent vein patterns, but also eliminate most of the pseudo vein information, so as to restore more smoothing and genuine vein structure information. In order to assess the performance of our proposed RLF-based method, we conducted comprehensive experiments on three public FV databases and a self-built FV database (which contains 37,080 samples that derived from 1030 individuals). The experimental results denoted that RLF-based feature extraction method can obtain more complete and continuous vein patterns, as well as better recognition accuracy.

Altered temperature affect body condition and endochondral ossification in Bufo gargarizans tadpoles.

Bufo gargarizans is one kind of economic animals with higher medicinal value in China. In this study, B. gargarizans (Bufo gargarizans) tadpoles were reared at three different water temperature (15, 22 and 29 °C) from Gosner stages 28-46. We investigated the effects of temperature on growth, development, survival, metamorphic duration, size and skeletal ossification at Gosner stage 40, 42, and 46, as well as thyroid tissue reached metamorphic climax (Gs42). Besides, we examined the transcription levels of endochondral ossification-related genes in hind limb at metamorphic climax (Gs42). Our results showed that the growth and development of tadpoles conform to the temperature-size rule (TSR). While warm temperature resulted in the decrease in body size and hind limb length, and shorten larval period, cold temperature led to increase in body size and hind limb length but prolonged larval period. Histological examinations revealed that warm and cold temperatures caused damage to thyroid tissue. Also, warm and cold temperatures inhibited the degree of ossification with the double staining methodology. Additionally, the real-time PCR results suggested that warm and cold temperatures significantly up-regulated Runx2, VEGF and VEGFR mRNA levels, and down-regulated TRß, MMP9, MMP13 and Runx3 mRNA levels. The up-regulation of Dio2 level and down-regulation of Dio3 level were observed in warm temperature. TRα mRNA level was significantly increased in warm temperature, but decreased in cold temperature. Collectively, these observations demonstrated that warm and cold temperatures affected endochondral ossification in B. gargarizans tadpoles, which might influence their capacity to terrestrial locomotion.

Rapid Identification of Dendrobium officinale from Other Species Using 3D Front-Face Fluorescence Technique.

Dendrobium officinale is a rare and endangered perennial herb in China, which have been used in preparing Chinese tonic medicine for hundreds of years. The severe shortage of this herb and high price have caused that many similar plants were processed as an adulterant and it became difficult to distinguish genuine D. officinale by traditional authentication methods. A sensitive, convenient, and specific method for rapid identification of D. officinale is urgently needed. In the present study, 3D front-face fluorescence technique merged with Independent Component Analysis was used to get the "pure" independent fluorescence signals. The overall 3D-FFF spectra were decomposed into seven independent components (IC). To distinguish D. officinale from other species, IC1 and IC4 were chosen as fluorescence markers and the fluorescence intensity (FI) value at 340 nm/ 442 nm (excitation /emission wavelength) of IC1and 315 nm/ 468 nm of IC4 were used to build a linear model for identifying D. officinale successfully. Compared with other Dendrobium species, D. officinale showed much higher FI1 and FI4 value which is a direct criterion for identification. Meanwhile, even though the FI values of D. officinale may fluctuate due to the difference of growing conditions, the relation between FI1 and FI4 amazingly always fit the linear model constructed (FI4 = 9.9046 + 0.6119FI1, R2 = 0.9811). The linear model is an important finding and specific for D. officinale. Based on the FI value and the goodness of fit in the linear model, D. officinale can be identified quickly.

Distinct microscopic mechanisms for the accelerated aggregation of pathogenic Tau mutants revealed by kinetic analysis.

The self-assembly of Tau protein into amyloid structures is associated with Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies. Dominant familial mutations in the Tau gene, such as P301L and P301S, increase the propensity of the Tau protein to aggregate abnormally into filaments. A quantitative description of the fibrillization process of Tau will facilitate the understanding of the cytotoxicity of Tau aggregates and their intercellular spreading. Here, we investigated the aggregation kinetics of Tau and disease-associated P301L and P301S mutants by combined thioflavin T assay and kinetic modeling, which revealed the rate constants of individual microscopic steps in the process of amyloid formation. Compared to WT Tau, P301L shows a larger primary nucleation rate while P301S has higher elongation and fragmentation rates and a more apparent fibril annealing process. Cross-seeding assays and FRET experiments indicate that the structures of the fibrillar nuclei of the three variants are distinct. These results provide detailed insights into how the amyloid aggregation mechanism of Tau protein is affected by the familial mutations P301L and P301S, and relates the physical properties of Tau mutants to their pathogenic mechanism.

Robust Finger-vein ROI Localization Based on the 3σ Criterion Dynamic Threshold Strategy.

Region of interest (ROI) localization is one of the key preprocessing technologies for a finger-vein identification system, so an effective ROI definition can improve the matching accuracy. However, due to the impact of uneven illumination, equipment noise, as well as the distortion of finger position, etc., these make accurate ROI localization a very difficult task. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose a robust finger-vein ROI localization method, which is based on the 3 σ criterion dynamic threshold strategy. The proposed method includes three main steps: First, the Kirsch edge detector is introduced to detect the horizontal-like edges in the acquired finger-vein image. Then, the obtained edge gradient image is divided into four parts: upper-left, upper-right, lower-left, and lower-right. For each part of the image, the three-level dynamic threshold, which is based on the 3 σ criterion of the normal distribution, is imposed to obtain more distinct and complete edge information. Finally, through labeling the longest connected component at the same horizontal line, two reliable finger boundaries, which represent the upper and lower boundaries, respectively, are defined, and the ROI is localized in the region between these two boundaries. Extensive experiments are carried out on four different finger-vein image datasets, including three publicly available datasets and one of our newly developed finger-vein datasets with 37,080 finger-vein samples and 1030 individuals. The experimental results indicate that our proposed method has very competitive ROI localization performance, as well as satisfactory matching results on different datasets.

A Novel Subfamily Esterase with a Homoserine Transacetylase-like Fold but No Transferase Activity.

Microbial esterases play important roles in deep-sea organic carbon degradation and cycling. Although they have similar catalytic triads and oxyanion holes, esterases are hydrolases and homoserine transacetylases (HTAs) are transferases. Because two HTA homologs were identified as acetyl esterases, the HTA family was recently divided into the bona fide acetyltransferase subfamily and the acetyl esterase subfamily. Here, we identified and characterized a novel HTA-like esterase, Est22, from a deep-sea sedimentary metagenomic library. Est22 could efficiently hydrolyze esters with acyl lengths of up to six carbon atoms but had no transacetylase activity, which is different from HTAs and HTA-like acetyl esterases. Phylogenetic analysis also showed that Est22 and its homologs form a separate branch of the HTA family. We solved the structures of Est22 and its L374D mutant and modeled the structure of the L374D mutant with p-nitrophenyl butyrate. Based on structural, mutational, and biochemical analyses, Phe71 and Met176 in the oxyanion hole and Arg294 were revealed to be the key substrate-binding residues. A detailed structural comparison indicated that differences in their catalytic tunnels lead to the different substrate specificities of Est22 and the other two HTA subfamilies. Biochemical and sequence analyses suggested that Est22 homologs may have the same substrate recognition and catalysis mechanisms as Est22. Due to the significant differences in sequences, structures, and substrate specificities between Est22 (and its homologs) and the other two HTA subfamilies, we suggest that Est22 and its homologs represent a new subfamily in the HTA family.IMPORTANCE Microbial esterases play important roles in the turnover of organic carbon in the deep sea. Esterases and HTAs represent two groups of α/ß hydrolases. Esterases catalyze the hydrolysis of simple esters and are widely used in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries, while HTAs catalyze the transfer of an acetyl group from acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) to homoserine and are essential for microbial growth. Here, we report on a novel HTA-like esterase, Est22, from a deep-sea sediment. Because of the significant differences in sequences, structures, and substrate specificities of HTAs and HTA-like acetyl esterases, Est22 and its homologs represent a new subfamily in the HTA family. This study offers new knowledge regarding marine esterases.

Differential Effect of the Ratio of Right Ventricular Volume to Left Ventricular Volume in Children with Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot.

We aimed to compare the diagnostic value of indexed right ventricular end-diastolic volume (RVEDVi) and the ratio of right ventricle volume to left ventricle volume (RV/LV ratio) in prediction of the severity of pulmonary regurgitation (PR) expressed as the PR fraction (PRF) after surgery of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). Forty-one patients with repaired TOF were included in the study. RVEDVi, LVEDVi, RV/LV ratio, PRF and ejection fraction were measured with magnetic resonance imaging. A PRF of more than 20% was considered significant. The predictive capability of two markers (RVEDVi and RV/LV ratio) for significant PR was compared using multivariate linear regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Both the RV/LV ratio and RVEDVi showed a correlation with PRF (r = 0.526/0.321, p = 0.001/0.041) in the correlation analysis, but in multivariate regression analysis the only independent predictor of PRF was the RV/LV ratio (F = 14.890, p = 0.001). ROC analysis revealed that a better discrimination of significant PR (>20%) from slight types (=20%) PR can be reached with the RV/LV ratio than RVEDVi (AUC = 0.805/0.709, p = 0.01). The RV/LV ratio was better than RVEDVi at differentiating mild from moderate PR (p = 0.006 vs. p = 0.153), and proved superior over RVEDVi in predicting PR based on the PRF criterion.

Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery in children: diagnostic use of multidetector computed tomography.

BACKGROUND: Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery is a rare congenital anomaly. It is important to demonstrate the anomalous origin of the left coronary artery and its course before surgery. OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical diagnostic use of multidetector CT coronary angiography in detecting anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery in children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nine children (2 boys, 7 girls) ages 2 months to 9 years with surgically confirmed anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery were studied. Clinical data, transthoracic echocardiography and CT coronary angiography images were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Transthoracic echocardiography correctly diagnosed anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery in 7 of 9 patients (95% CI: 40-97%). CT coronary angiography revealed the anomalous origin of the left coronary artery in all children (95% CI: 66-100%). In a 4-year-old girl and a 9-year-old girl, CT coronary angiography showed dilation of the right coronary artery and collateral circulation between the right and the left coronary arteries. CONCLUSION: CT coronary angiography is a useful method to show the anomalous origin of the coronary artery in children with anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery, especially for patients in whom origin of the left coronary artery cannot be detected by transthoracic echocardiography.

Multilayered molecular profiling supported the monoclonal origin of metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Primary renal cell carcinomas (pRCCs) have a high degree of intratumoral heterogeneity and are composed of multiple distinct subclones. However, it remains largely unknown that whether metastatic renal cell carcinomas (mRCCs) also have startling intratumoral heterogeneity or whether development of mRCCs is due to early dissemination or late diagnosis. To decipher the evolution of mRCC, we analyzed the multilayered molecular profiles of pRCC, local invasion of the vena cava (IVC), and distant metastasis to the brain (MB) from the same patient using whole-genome sequencing, whole-exome sequencing, DNA methylome profiling, and transcriptome sequencing. We found that mRCC had a lower degree of heterogeneity than pRCC and was likely to result from recent clonal expansion of a rare, advantageous subclone. Consequently, some key pathways that are targeted by clinically available drugs showed distinct expression patterns between pRCC and mRCC. From the genetic distances between different tumor subclones, we estimated that the progeny subclone giving rise to distant metastasis took over half a decade to acquire the full potential of metastasis since the birth of the subclone that evolved into IVC. Our evidence supported that mRCC was monoclonal and distant metastasis occurred late during renal cancer progression. Thus, there was a broad window for early detection of circulating tumor cells and future targeted treatments for patients with mRCCs should rely on the molecular profiles of metastases.

Sublethal effect of chlorpyrifos on predatory behavior and physiology of Eocanthecona furcellata (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae).

Insecticides have been known to reduce the predation efficacy of natural enemies. However, the mechanism of the sublethal effect of insecticides on the functional response of predators remains unclear. This study investigated the sublethal effects of the broad-spectrum insecticide chlorpyrifos on the predatory bug Eocanthecona furcellata (Wolff), which is a potential biological control agent against pests in integrated pest management (IPM) programs. After exposure to a sublethal concentration of chlorpyrifos, the predation capacity and the maximum predatory number of E. furcellata increased by 11.27 and 15.26%, respectively, with prey handling time decreased by 15.07%, and the searching efficiency increased by 5.88-12.61%. Additionally, the intraspecific interference effect was enhanced. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity was significantly decreased after 12- to 60-h treatment. At 12 h after treatment, the expression levels of GST gene (GST3), acetylcholinesterase gene (AChE), and cytochrome P450 monooxygenasegene (cyp6B1) were significantly up-regulated by 1.47-, 1.48-, and 2.05-fold, respectively, while GST gene (GST1) was significantly down-regulated by 16.67-fold. These results indicated that a sublethal chlorpyrifos concentration inhibited the GST activity and stimulated the predatory behavior of E. furcellata. The results will advance our understanding of the toxicological mechanism of predatory stink bug responses to insecticides and predict chlorpyrifos' effects on predators in an IPM program.

Pomalidomide improves the effectiveness of CAR-T treatment in the relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma or B-cell leukemia/lymphoma with extramedullary disease.

Relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) and B-cell leukemia/lymphoma with extramedullary disease (EMD) have poor prognosis and high mortality, lack of effective therapeutic approaches. We reported for the first time that 6 patients with malignant hematological diseases with EMD received chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T treatment combined with pomalidomide, and CAR-T cells were treated with pomalidomide in vitro to determine its killing activity and cytokine secretion. Three patients with RRMM were given B cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-CAR-T therapy. All 3 patients with B-cell leukemia/lymphoma received CD19/22-CAR-T sequential infusion. There were no treatment-related deaths. The maximum overall response rate (ORR) was 100%. Median follow-up was 211.5 days (75-407 days). Three patients (50%) experienced cytokine release syndrome, all of which were grade 1, and no neurotoxicity was observed. In vitro experiments showed that the killing activity did not differ significantly between BCMA-CAR-T cells with and without pomalidomide (10, 25, or 50 µg/mL) in 8226/U266 cell cocultures (P > .05). Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (IFN)-γ secretion was significantly higher from 8226 and Raji cells cocultured with BCMA-CAR-T and cluster of differentiation (CD)19-CAR-T cells (P < .05). Based on the cocultures, adding pomalidomide significantly promoted IFN-γ and TNF-α secretion (P < .05). Based on the above clinical and in vitro studies demonstrating the co-administration of pomalidomide with CAR-T cell treatment demonstrated favorable tolerability and therapeutic effectiveness in RRMM or B-cell leukemia/lymphoma.

[The Preventive Effect of Levofloxacin Combined with G-CSF or Only G-CSF Supportive Therapy on Infection in Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of levofloxacin combined with recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) or only G-CSF supportive therapy in preventing infection in autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(ASCT), and to analyze the length of hospital stay, hospitalization cost and post-transplant survival of the patients. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed in the patients with hematological malignancies who accepted ASCT at our hospital from January 2012 to July 2022, the febrile neutropenia, the incidence of bacterial infection and the use rate of intravenous antibiotics in the levofloxacin+G-CSF group and only G-CSF support group during ASCT were observed. The length of hospital stay, total cost during hospitalization and survival after 90 days of transplantation between the two groups were compared. RESULTS: A total of 102 cases were included in this study, including 57 cases of multiple myeloma, 36 cases of acute leukaemia, 7 cases of lymphoma, 3 cases of myelodysplastic syndrome, 1 case of light chain amyloidosis, and 1 case of POEMS syndrome. 47 patients received levofloxacin+ G-CSF antibacterial prophylaxis, and 55 patients received G-CSF supportive therapy. In the levofloxacin+ G-CSF group, 40 cases (85.11%) developed febrile neutropenia, and 13 cases (27.66%) were confirmed as bacterial infection. In the G-CSF group, 44 cases (80.00%) developed febrile neutropenia, and 16 cases (29.09%) were bacterial infection. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of febrile neutropenia and bacterial infection between the two groups (χ2=0.46，P =0.50; χ2=0.03，P =0.87). The use rate of intravenous antibiotics in the levofloxacin+ G-CSF group was 85.11% (40/47), which was not statistically different from 85.45% (47/55) in the G-CSF group (χ2=0.04，P =0.84). The detection rates of levofloxacin-resistant bacteria in the levofloxacin+ G-CSF group and G-CSF group were 8.57% (3/35) and 21.43% (6/28), respectively, with no statistical difference (χ2=0.65, P >0.05). The median length and median cost of hospitalization in the levofloxacin+ G-CSF group and G-CSF group were 25 d vs 22 d and 78 216.24 yuan vs 80 724.38 yuan, with no statistically significant differences ( t =3.00，P =0.09; t =0.94，P =0.09). Within 90 days after transplantation, two cases (4.26%) died in the levofloxacin+ G-CSF group and one case (1.82%) died in the G-CSF group, with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (χ2=0.53，P =0.47). CONCLUSION: Application of levofloxacin+ G-CSF showed no significant benefit compared to G-CSF support for the prevention of bacterial infections during ASCT.