Integrative analysis of single-cell and bulk transcriptome data reveal the significant role of macrophages in lupus nephritis.

OBJECTIVE: We attempted to identify abnormal immune cell components and signaling pathways in lupus nephritis (LN) and to identify potential therapeutic targets. METHODS: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between LN and normal kidney tissues were identified from bulk transcriptome data, and functional annotation was performed. The phenotypic changes in macrophages and aberrant intercellular signaling communications within immune cells were imputed from LN scRNA-seq data using trajectory analysis and verified using immunofluorescence staining. Finally, lentivirus-mediated overexpression of LGALS9, the gene encoding Galectin 9, in THP-1 cells was used to study the functional effect of this gene on monocytic cells. RESULTS: From bulk transcriptome data, a significant activation of interferon (IFN) signaling was observed, and its intensity showed a significantly positive correlation with the abundance of infiltrating macrophages in LN. Analysis of scRNA-seq data revealed 17 immune cell clusters, with macrophages showing the highest enrichment of intercellular signal communication in LN. Trajectory analysis revealed macrophages in LN undergo a phenotypic change from inflammatory patrolling macrophages to phagocytic and then to antigen-presenting macrophages, and secrete various pro-inflammatory factors and complement components. LGALS9 was found significantly upregulated in macrophages in LN, which was confirmed by the immunofluorescence assay. Gene functional study showed that LGALS9 overexpression in THP-1 cells significantly elicited pro-inflammatory activation, releasing multiple immune cell chemoattractants. CONCLUSION: Our results present an important pathophysiological role for macrophages in LN, and our preliminary results demonstrate significant pro-inflammatory effects of LGALS9 gene in LN macrophages.

Deep learning radiomics based prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer.

This study aimed to develop and validate a deep learning radiomics nomogram (DLRN) for the preoperative evaluation of axillary lymph node (ALN) metastasis status in patients with a newly diagnosed unifocal breast cancer. A total of 883 eligible patients with breast cancer who underwent preoperative breast and axillary ultrasound were retrospectively enrolled between April 1, 2016, and June 30, 2022. The training cohort comprised 621 patients from Hospital I; the external validation cohorts comprised 112, 87, and 63 patients from Hospitals II, III, and IV, respectively. A DLR signature was created based on the deep learning and handcrafted features, and the DLRN was then developed based on the signature and four independent clinical parameters. The DLRN exhibited good performance, yielding areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.914, 0.929, and 0.952 in the three external validation cohorts, respectively. Decision curve and calibration curve analyses demonstrated the favorable clinical value and calibration of the nomogram. In addition, the DLRN outperformed five experienced radiologists in all cohorts. This has the potential to guide appropriate management of the axilla in patients with breast cancer, including avoiding overtreatment.

Correlation between choroidal vascularity and retrobulbar ocular blood flow changes and thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy activity: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the alterations in retrobulbar color Doppler imaging (CDI) parameters and retinal/choroidal optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) parameters and their association with the clinical activity and severity in thyroid-associated orbitopathy (TAO) patients. METHODS: In this study, the retrobulbar flow parameters including resistance index (RI), Pulsatile Index(PI), peak systolic velocity (PSV) and end diastolic velocity (EDV) in posterior ciliary artery (PCA), central retinal artery (CRA) and ophthalmic artery (OA) were determined by CDI. Moreover, the retina and choroidal vascularity including the superficial vessel density (SVD), deep vessel density (DVD), choroidal thickness (ChT) and choroidal vascularity, including total choroidal area (TCA), luminal area (LA), stromal area (SA) and Choroidal Vascularity Index (CVI), were determined by OCTA. All patients grouped as active TAO and inactive TAO based on Clinical activity score (CAS). We picked the severe eye among the subjects and compared all parameters between two groups. We analyzed the correlations among those parameters. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in CAS score, proptosis value, ChT, LA, CVI between patients with active TAO and inactive TAO. In the active group, PSV and EDV of PCA were significantly higher than the inactive group. On logistic regression analysis, CAS was closely associated with PSV-PCA. On multiple linear regression, proptosis value was closely associated with ChT, LA, SA and CVI. CONCLUSION: Choroidal vascularization and retrobulbar blood flow were concurrently higher in active TAO patients and several variables in choroid circulation was closely related to TAO clinical features.

Ultrasound fusion imaging for improving diagnostic and therapeutic strategies of focal liver lesions: A preliminary study.

PURPOSE: To assess the effect of ultrasound (US) fusion imaging on the clinical diagnostic and therapeutic strategies of focal liver lesions, which are difficult to detect or diagnose by conventional US. METHODS: From November 2019 to June 2022, 71 patients with invisible or undiagnosed focal liver lesions who underwent fusion imaging combining US with CT or MR were included in this retrospective study. The reasons for US fusion imaging were as follows: (1) lesions that were undetectable or inconspicuous on B-mode US; (2) post-ablation lesions that could not be assessed accurately by B-mode US; (3) to evaluate whether the lesions detected by B-mode US that were consistent with those presented on MRI/CT images. RESULTS: Of the 71 cases, 43 cases were single lesions, and 28 cases were multiple lesions. Among the 46 cases which were invisible on conventional US, the display rate of lesions using US-CT/MRI fusion imaging was 30.8%, and that combined with CEUS was 76.9%. US-guided biopsy was performed in 30 patients after the detection and localization determined by fusion imaging, with a positive rate of 73.3%. Six patients with recurrence after ablation therapy were all detected and located accurately after fusion imaging, and 4 of them successfully underwent ablation therapy again. CONCLUSION: Fusion imaging contributes to the understanding of the anatomical relationship between lesion location and blood vessels. Additionally, fusion imaging can improve the diagnostic confidence, be helpful to guide interventional operations, and hence be conducive to clinical therapeutic strategies.

Bedside ocular ultrasonography for diagnosing increased intracranial pressure in patients with leptomeningeal metastases from non-small-cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound measurement of optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) and optic disc height (ODH) in detecting intracranial hypertension in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with leptomeningeal metastases (LM). METHODS: Seventy-two patients with NSCLC-LM and 65 patients with NSCLC were enrolled. The ONSD, ODH, eyeball transverse diameter (ETD), and eyeball vertical diameter (EVD) were measured by ultrasound. Subsequently, lumbar puncture was performed in NSCLC-LM patients to measure cerebrospinal fluid pressure (CSFP), and intrathecal chemotherapy was regularly implemented. Pearson's correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between CSFP and ultrasound findings. The diagnostic accuracy of ONSD, ODH, and combined ONSD and ODH was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and the corresponding area under the ROC curve (AUC). RESULTS: The ONSD, ODH, ONSD/ETD, and ONSD/EVD values were higher in the NSCLC-LM group (all p < 0.05). The ONSD, ODH, ONSD/ETD, and ONSD/EVD values were all elevated in the abnormally elevated CSFP group (all p < 0.05). ONSD, ODH, ONSD/ETD, and ONSD/EVD were positively correlated with CSFP (r = 0.531, 0.383, 0.534, and 0.535, all p < 0.0001). The AUCs for ONSD, ODH, ONSD/ETD, and ONSD/EVD to detect CSFP >280 mmH2O were 0.787 (95% CI: 0.64-0.93, sensitivity 68.75%, specificity 91.07%), 0.885 (95% CI: 0.81-0.96, sensitivity 100%, specificity 69.64%), 0.765 (95% CI: 0.64-0.89, sensitivity 81.25%, specificity 64.29%), and 0.788 (95% CI: 0.64-0.93, sensitivity 56.25%, specificity 91.07%), respectively. When ONSD was combined with ODH, the AUC was 0.913 (95% CI: 0.83-0.99, sensitivity 87.85%, specificity 85.70%). Furthermore, intrathecal chemotherapy was associated with a downtrend in CSFP and ultrasound findings. CONCLUSION: There are important advantages of using bedside ultrasonography for detecting elevated CSFP in NSCLC-LM patients. Further research should be performed to evaluate the clinical significance of an enlarged ONSD and increased ODH in NSCLC-LM.

Hepatic inflammatory pseudotumor mimicking malignancy: the value of differential diagnosis on contrast enhanced ultrasound.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether the use of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) can improve the differential diagnostic performance between hepatic inflammatory pseudotumor (HIPT) and other malignant tumors. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty-four patients with histological proven HIPTs were included in this retrospective study. The features of conventional ultrasound (US) and CEUS were evaluated. RESULTS: Three kinds of enhanced pattern can be seen in the 44 nodules including homogeneous (n=18, 41%), heterogeneous (n=16, 36%) and rim-like enhancement (n=10, 23%). All of the nodules showed hypo-enhancement during the portal and delayed phase. The dominant nodules (n=29, 66%) presented wash-out within 60 s after contrast injection. Quick wash-in and wash-out was seen in 18 nodules (41%). Eighteen nodules (41%) were correctly diagnosed as HIPT, whereas the remaining 26 cases were misdiagnosed as malignancies (n=20, 45%) or with an uncertain diagnosis (n=6, 14%). CONCLUSION: CEUS was not enough to differentiate HIPT from hepatic malignancies, especially intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and liver metastasis. However, some CEUS imaging characteristics may be helpful for HIPT diagnosis.

Enhancing the ambient stability of few-layer black phosphorus by surface modification.

Based on high-throughput density functional theory calculations, we investigated the adsorption characteristics of various elements across the Periodic Table on few-layer black phosphorus (BP). Using the criterion that the ratio of adsorption energy (E ads) to bulk cohesive energy (E coh) is greater than one (E ads/E coh > 1), we selected fifteen elements. The adsorption of these elements on few-layer BPs could significantly shift their conduction-band minimum (CBM) downward, suggesting the possibility of preventing the few-layer BPs from oxidation if the CBM can be shifted below the O2/O2 - redox potential. Our study offers an efficient approach to overcoming the technical barrier in the practical application of few-layer BPs by enhancing its ambient stability via surface modification.

A Dy4 single-molecule magnet and its Gd(iii), Tb(iii), Ho(iii), and Er(iii) analogues encapsulated by an 8-hydroxyquinoline Schiff base derivative and ß-diketonate coligand.

Five new tetranuclear complexes based on an 8-hydroxyquinoline Schiff base derivative and the ß-diketone coligand, [Ln4(acac)4L6(µ3-OH)2]·CH3CN·0.5CH2Cl2 (Ln = Gd (1), Tb (2), Dy (3), Ho (4) and Er (5); HL = 5-(benzylidene)amino-8-hydroxyquinoline; acac = acetylacetonate) have been synthesized, and structurally and magnetically characterized. Complexes 1-5 have similar tetranuclear structures. Each LnIII ion is eight coordinated and its coordination polyhedra can be described as being in a distorted square-antiprismatic geometry. The magnetic studies reveal that 1 features the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) with the magnetic entropy change of -ΔSm(T) = 25.08 J kg-1 K-1 at 2 K for ΔH = 7 T, and 3 displays the slow magnetic relaxation behavior of Single Molecule Magnets (SMMs) with the anisotropic barrier of 86.20 K and the pre-exponential factor τ0 = 2.99 × 10-8 s.

Modulation of the relaxation dynamics of linear-shaped tetranuclear rare-earth clusters through utilizing different solvents.

Nine new tetranuclear centrosymmetric linear complexes, [RE4(dbm)8L2(DMF)2]·nCH2Cl2·mC2H3N (RE = Y (1), Tb (2), Dy (3), Ho (4), Er (5), Lu (6)) and [RE4(dbm)8L2(C2H5OH)2]·nCH3CN (RE = Tb (7), Dy (8), Ho (9)) (HL = 2-[(2-(hydroxyimino)propanehydrazide)methyl]-8-hydroxyquinoline and dbm = 1,3-diphenyl-1,3-propanedione) have been synthesized. Complexes 1-9 are tetranuclear complexes. Magnetic studies reveal that both DyIII-based complexes (3 and 8) exhibit single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior under a zero dc field. Furthermore, complex 3 presents one relaxation process under a zero dc field, while application of an external dc field (1500 Oe) induces multi-relaxation signals of the ac magnetic susceptibility.

Seven phenoxido-bridged complexes encapsulated by 8-hydroxyquinoline Schiff base derivatives and ß-diketone ligands: single-molecule magnet, magnetic refrigeration and luminescence properties.

Seven dinuclear complexes based on 8-hydroxyquinoline Schiff base derivatives and ß-diketone ligands, [RE2(hfac)4L2] (RE = Y (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Dy (4), Ho (5), Er (6) and Lu (7); hfac(-) = hexafluoroacetylacetonate; HL = 2-[(4-chloro-phenylimino)-methyl]-8-hydroxyquinoline), have been synthesized, and structurally and magnetically characterized. Complexes 1-7 have similar dinuclear structures, in which each RE(III) ion is eight coordinated by two L(-) and two hfac(-) ligands in a distorted dodecahedron geometry. The luminescence spectra indicate that complex 3 exhibits characteristic Tb(III) ion luminescence, while 1 and 7 show HL ligand luminescence. The magnetic studies reveal that 2 features a magnetocaloric effect with the magnetic entropy change of -ΔSm = 16.83 J kg(-1) K(-1) at 2 K for ΔH = 8 T, and 4 displays slow magnetic relaxation behavior with the anisotropic barrier of 6.7 K and pre-exponential factor τ0 = 5.3 × 10(-6) s.

Multiple magnetic relaxation processes, magnetocaloric effect and fluorescence properties of rhombus-shaped tetranuclear rare earth complexes.

Seven new tetranuclear rare earth (RE) complexes [RE4(acac)4L6(µ3-OH)2] (HL = 5-(4-fluorobenzylidene)-8-hydroxylquinoline; acac = acetylacetonate; RE = Y (1), Eu (2), Gd (3), Tb (4), Dy (5), Tm (6) and Lu (7)) have been synthesized and completely characterized. Complex exhibits multiple zero-field slow magnetic relaxation processes typical of Single Molecule Magnets (SMMs). Two distinct slow magnetic relaxation processes, with effective energy barriers of Ueff = 48 K for the slow relaxation (SR) process and Ueff = 121 K for the fast relaxation (FR) process, are mainly attributed to the presence of two crystallographically independent Dy(III) sites. The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) was detected as -ΔSm(T) = 20.8 J kg(-1) K(-1) for complex . The fluorescence properties of complexes 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 were also investigated. Complexes 2, 4 and 5 show the characteristic peaks for their corresponding RE(III) center, while complexes 1 and 7 show similar emission peaks to the Schiff base ligand when they are excited at the appropriate wavelength.

Ligand Field Affected Single-Molecule Magnet Behavior of Lanthanide(III) Dinuclear Complexes with an 8-Hydroxyquinoline Schiff Base Derivative as Bridging Ligand.

New dinuclear lanthanide(III) complexes based on an 8-hydroxyquinoline Schiff base derivative and ß-diketonate ligands, [Ln2(hfac)4(L)2] (Ln(III) = Gd (1), Tb (2), Dy (3), Ho (4), Er (5)), [Ln2(tfac)4(L)2] (Ln(III) = Gd (6), Tb (7), Dy (8), Ho (9)), and [Dy(bfac)4(L)2·C7H16] (10) (L = 2-[[(4-fluorophenyl)imino] methyl]-8-hydroxyquinoline, hfac = hexafluoroacetylacetonate, tfac = trifluoroacetylacetonate, and bfac = benzoyltrifluoroacetone), have been synthesized. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction data show that complexes 1-10 are phenoxo-O-bridged dinuclear complexes; each eight-coordinated center Ln(III) ion is in a slightly distorted dodecahedral geometry with two bidentate ß-diketonate coligands and two µ2-O bridging 8-hydroxyquinoline Schiff base derivative ligands. The magnetic study reveals that 1 and 6 display cryogenic magnetic refrigeration properties, whereas complexes 3, 8, and 10 show different SMM behaviors with energy barriers of 6.77 K for 3, 19.83 K for 8, and 25.65 K for 10. Meanwhile, slow magnetic relaxation was observed in 7, while no out-of-phase alternating-current signals were found for 2. The different dynamic magnetic behaviors of two Tb2 complexes and the three Dy2 complexes mainly derive from the tiny crystal structure changes around the Ln(III) ions. It is also proved that the ß-diketonate coligands can play an important role in modulating magnetic dynamics of the lanthanide 8-hydroxyquinoline Schiff base derivative system.

Luminescence, magnetocaloric effect and single-molecule magnet behavior in lanthanide complexes based on a tridentate ligand derived from 8-hydroxyquinoline.

A new family of lanthanide complexes, [Ln2(hfac)4L2] (Ln = Eu (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Dy (4), Ho (5), Er (6), Lu (7); hfac = hexafluoroacetylacetonate, HL = 2-(2'-benzothiazole)-8-hydroxyquinoline), was synthesized and characterized using single-crystal X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis (EA), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and UV-vis spectra. X-ray crystallographic analyses reveal that 1­7 are isomorphous and crystallize in the monoclinic space group C2/c. In these dinuclear complexes, each LnШ ion is eight-coordinated with two bidentate hfac and two µ-phenol bridging L ligands. The TGA results show that the complexes have relatively high thermal stabilities. Complexes 1 and 3 show the characteristic transitions of the corresponding lanthanide ions with ligand-related emission peaks. Meanwhile, complexes 4 and 7 exhibit ligand-centered fluorescence at room temperature. Magnetic measurements were carried out on complexes 2­6. The magnetic study reveals that 2 displays a magnetocaloric effect, with a maximum −ΔSm value of 16.89 J K−1 kg−1 at 2 K for ΔH = 8 T. Dynamic magnetic studies reveal single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior for complex 4. Fitting the dynamic magnetic data to the Arrhenius law gives an energy barrier ΔE/kB = 50.33 K and pre-exponential factor τ0 = 1.05 × 10(-8)s.