Correlation Between Serum ESPL1 and Hepatitis B Virus-related Hepatocellular Carcinoma Histological Grade: A Chinese Single-center Case-control Study.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Serum markers to determine the histological grade of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are still limited. This study aimed to investigate if serum extra spindle pole bodies-like 1 (ESPL1) protein could reflect the histological grade of HBV-related HCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 154 patients with HBV-related HCC were enrolled in the experimental group and 41 non-HBV-related patients in the control. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect serum ESPL1 levels. The differences in serological ESPL1, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), and des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) were compared between the two groups. HCC tumor diameter was measured, and pathological examination was performed to compare the relationship between ESPL1, AFP, and DCP and tumor size and histological grade. RESULTS: Serum AFP and DCP levels showed no significant difference between experimental group and control group, and increased when the tumor diameter increased but were not related to HCC histological grade. Serological ESPL1 levels were higher in the experimental group than those in the control group, and positively correlated with the histological grade. In the experimental group, tumor size and histological grade were almost independent (Kappa=0.000); patients with medium size tumors had the highest serum ESPL1 levels and the highest proportion of poorly differentiated carcinomas, whereas 75.6% of patients with small size tumors had moderately differentiated carcinomas and only 20% well differentiated carcinomas. CONCLUSION: Serum ESPL1 can reflect the malignant degree of HBV-related HCC and is helpful in identifying small size HCC tumors.

Tongue and pulse features of 668 asymptomatic patients infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 omicron variant in Shanghai.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the tongue and pulse manifestations in asymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Shanghai. METHODS: We conducted a clinical study of 668 patients with asymptomatic infections in which we analyzed the tongue and pulse features in the Shanghai New International Expo Center mobile cabin hospital. The medical records of the patients, including tongue color, tongue coating, and pulse manifestations, were reviewed by healthcare workers. RESULTS: In total, 668 COVID-19 cases were included in the study. Patient age ranged from 5 to 96 years, with a median of 44.0 (IQR 33.0-53.0) years. Among the patients, 6.14% had comorbidities. The most common comorbid condition was diabetes (1.65%), followed by hypertension (0.89%), coronary heart disease (0.89%), thrombotic diseases (0.89%), congestive heart failure (0.60%), and stroke (0.45%). Pink-red (75.4%) was the most common tongue color, followed by red (23.4%) and pale red (1.2%). Tongue coating color and thickness were classified as white fur (9.28%), thin and yellow fur (48.65%), white greasy fur (8.98%), yellow greasy fur (24.70%), and less coating (8.39%). In addition, a large number of patients ( 300, 44.91%) presented superficial and rapid pulses, and 250 patients (37.4%) exhibited a slippery pulse. CONCLUSION: Our preliminary results showed that wind, heat, and dampness were the main etiologies of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant infection in traditional Chinese medicine. Furthermore, the main symptoms of the disease may be wind-heat invading the lung syndrome or damp-heat with the exuberance of virulence syndrome, which is of most significance in COVID-19 treatment.

Effect of HeLa cells infected with Coxsackie virus B3 on mTOR and p70S6K mRNA expression under different nutritional conditions / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To explore the effect of HeLa cells infected with Coxsackie virus B3 (CVB3) on the changes of mTOR signal pathway under different nutritional conditions.Methods The HeLa cells were cultured under conventional culture and serum starvation culture.(1) For the conventional method,the medium with 10 g/L fetal bovine serum was added for 24 h after the Hela cells were fused into 40％ to 50％,and the medium was changed on the next day,then the virus group was infected with CVB3 of 50％ tissue culture infective dose (TCID50).However,the control group was cultured by 2 g/L fetal bovine serum.(2) For the serum starvation method,HeLa cells were cultured with the medium without fetal bovine serum for 24 h.Then the virus group was infected with CVB3 of TCID50.The cells in control group were cultured by 2 g/L fetal bovine serum.Cell morphology changes were observed by inverted microscope,and the expressions of the mTOR,p70S6K mRNA were detected with Real-time PCR at 3 h,6 h,9 h,12 h,24 h respectively in both conventional culture and serum starvation groups.Results The expressions of mTOR and p70S6K mRNA were lower in the virus group than those in control group at 12 h and the 24 h (all P ＜0.05) in the conventional culture group.And the expressions of mTOR and p70S6K mRNA in the virus group were lower than those in the control group at every time points (all P ＜ 0.05) in serum starvation group.The expressions of mTOR and p70S6K mRNA in group with serum starvation virus and the control groups were higher than those in conventional culture group in all time points,but only the expressions of mTOR mRNA were significantly different between the 2 groups (all P ＜0.05),however,the expressions of p70S6K mRNA had no significant difference between the 2 groups (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion CVB3 may be able to down-regulate the expressions of mTOR and p70S6K mRNA.

Time resolved fluoroimmunoassay for Glypican 3 and its preliminary application / 中华核医学杂志

Objective To establish a time resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TRFIA) method for detecting Glypican 3 (GPC3) and to explore the diagnostic value of serum GPC3 for hepatic carcinoma (HCC). Methods Microplate coated with anti-GPC3 monoclonal antibody 7C8 and GP9 labeled with Eu3+ were used to establish TRFIA kit. The serum concentrations of GPC3 in 41 HCC patients and 44 chronic hepatitis (CH) patients were quantitatively analyzed. AFP was detected by with lowest limit of 2.06 μg/L. The CV of inter and intra assay were 12.25% and 12.91%, respectively. The average serum concentration of GPC3 in HCC patients was (86.68±110.39) μg/L (median: 56.98 μg/L). But in CH patients it was only (14.77±29.48) μg/L, which was significantly lower than that in HCC (Wilcoxon W=1335.00, Z=-4.99, P<0.001). With diagnostic cut-off value set at 42.94 μg/L, the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of TRFIA GPC3 for HCC were 58.5% (24/41) and 95.5%(42/44) respectively. The diagnostic sensitivity of AFP was 46.3% (19/41) in 41 HCC patients, and was raised to 78.0% (32/41) when combined with GPC3. Conclusions Serum GPC3 assay by TRFIA is established and it could increase the diagnostic sensitivity for HCC when combined with AFP.