Giant cell tumor of soft tissue involving thyroid gland: a case report and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Giant cell tumor of soft tissue is a low malignant uncommon neoplasm, with histologic features and immunophenotype similar to its bone counterpart. Primary giant cell tumor of soft tissue in the thyroid gland is considered an exceedingly rare entity. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe a case of primary thyroid giant cell tumor of soft tissue in a 69-year-old Chinese female patient. Neck ultrasonography showed a 19 mm × 12 mm × 5 mm nodule with heterogeneous echo and clear boundary located within the left thyroid. Histopathological examination revealed that the neoplasm was composed of two morphological components, mononuclear cells admixed with multinucleated osteoclast-like giant cells. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for CD68 and vimentin, but were negative for epithelial membrane antigen, cytokeratin, and additional muscle markers. She underwent left unilateral thyroidectomy, and total thyroidectomy was performed for local recurrence 3 months later. The patient remained well without recurrence or metastasis following up for 12 months. CONCLUSION: The significance of this case lies in its rarity, the challenge of preoperative clinical diagnosis, and the differential diagnosis with other malignancies.

EEG cortical network reveals the temporo-spatial mechanism of visual search.

This study aims to explore a method based on brain networks for implicit attention by using wavelet coherence as feature to identify individual targets in the visual field, find the optimal classification rhythm and time window, and investigate the relationship between the optimal rhythm and N2pc event-related potential. The study uses a weighted minimum norm estimate to locate the sources of the scalp EEG and reconstructs the source time series. The functional connectivity between brain areas during the visual search process is evaluated using wavelet coherence analysis, and a lateral difference network is constructed based on the difference in coherence values between the left and right visual fields. A support vector machine classifier is trained based on the wavelet coherence network features to identify the target in the left or right visual field. We also extract N2pc from the source activity data of the parieto-occipital brain region and record the time period in which N2pc occurred. The study finds that the best classification performance is achieved in the theta rhythm from 200 to 400 ms and achieved an average classification accuracy of 87% (chance level: 51.07%) in a serial search task. And this time window corresponds to the time period when N2pc appeared. The results show that the use of wavelet coherence analysis to evaluate the functional connectivity between brain areas during the visual search process provides a new approach for analyzing brain activity. The study's findings regarding the relationship between the N2pc and theta rhythm and the effectiveness of using wavelet coherence network features based on the theta rhythm for visual search classification contribute to the understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying visual search.

Pulmonary artery aneurysm caused by infective endarteritis attributed to patent ductus arteriosus in children: a case report and literature review.

We report a case of a 10-year-old male patient with pulmonary artery aneurysm (PAA) caused by infective endarteritis of the pulmonary artery attributed to patent ductus arteriosus. He was found to have patent ductus arteriosus at the age of 2, but he was not treated because of the absence of symptoms and normal physical development. He sought medical attention for fever and cough in August 2022. Echocardiography showed pulmonary artery aneurysm, intrapulmonary artery bulge, patent ductus arteriosus, and pericardial effusion. Contrast-enhanced CT showed pulmonary artery aneurysm, patent ductus arteriosus, and a slight compression of the left main bronchus. Surgery was performed to reconstruct the main pulmonary trunk and repair the ductus arteriosus in November 2022. The surgical outcomes were satisfactory.

METTL3 promotes oxaliplatin resistance of gastric cancer CD133+ stem cells by promoting PARP1 mRNA stability.

Oxaliplatin is the first-line regime for advanced gastric cancer treatment, while its resistance is a major problem that leads to the failure of clinical treatments. Tumor cell heterogeneity has been considered as one of the main causes for drug resistance in cancer. In this study, the mechanism of oxaliplatin resistance was investigated through in vitro human gastric cancer organoids and gastric cancer oxaliplatin-resistant cell lines and in vivo subcutaneous tumorigenicity experiments. The in vitro and in vivo results indicated that CD133+ stem cell-like cells are the main subpopulation and PARP1 is the central gene mediating oxaliplatin resistance in gastric cancer. It was found that PARP1 can effectively repair DNA damage caused by oxaliplatin by means of mediating the opening of base excision repair pathway, leading to the occurrence of drug resistance. The CD133+ stem cells also exhibited upregulated expression of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) mRNA and its writer METTL3 as showed by immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing and transcriptome analysis. METTTL3 enhances the stability of PARP1 by recruiting YTHDF1 to target the 3'-untranslated Region (3'-UTR) of PARP1 mRNA. The CD133+ tumor stem cells can regulate the stability and expression of m6A to PARP1 through METTL3, and thus exerting the PARP1-mediated DNA damage repair ability. Therefore, our study demonstrated that m6A Methyltransferase METTL3 facilitates oxaliplatin resistance in CD133+ gastric cancer stem cells by Promoting PARP1 mRNA stability which increases base excision repair pathway activity.

Expression and mechanism of microRNA 195 in diabetic retinopathy.

We aimed to explore the role of microRNA 195 (miR-195) in diabetic retinopathy (DR). From January 2019 to July 2020, 50 patients with DR undergoing vitrectomy and 40 patients with idiopathic macular holes undergoing vitrectomy were selected as the observation group (OG) and control group (CG), respectively. The mRNA and protein expression levels of miR-195, SIRT1, BAX, and BCL-2 were detected in the retinal tissues obtained from the two groups during surgery. In addition, human retinal endothelial cells and human dermal microvascular endothelial cells were cultured in a high-glucose environment to detect the targeted relationship between miR-195 and SIRT1; determine the mRNA and protein expression levels of SIRT1, BAX, and BCL-2 after miR-195 knockdown; and assess the levels of cell proliferation and apoptosis. In OG, the mRNA and protein expression levels of miR-195 and BAX were high, whereas those of BCL-2 and SIRT1 were low. Moreover, we detected a targeted relationship between miR-195 and SIRT1. Conversely, miR-195 knockdown led to the downregulation of the mRNA and protein expression levels of BAX and the upregulation of the mRNA and protein expression levels of SIRT1 and BCL-2 as well as improvement in cell growth and a decrease in the apoptosis rate. miR-195 is overexpressed in DR, and its targeted relationship with SIRT1 inhibits the growth of cells in the retina and accelerates apoptosis.

The physical nature of the interaction in DMSO extraction separation of C8H10 isomer/n-decane systems.

In this study, the liquid-liquid equilibrium of DMSO-C8H10 aromatic isomer-n-decane systems was measured at 30 °C under atmospheric pressure at first, followed by Othmer-Tobias equation data reliability verification and NRTL/UNIQUAC activity coefficient model correlation. Moreover, intermolecular interaction energies and molecular polarity indexes (MPI) were calculated to interpret the extraction results. Finally, a set of wave function analyses was accomplished to elaborate the physical nature of the interaction in the DMSO extraction process. These investigations show that: (1) intermolecular interaction energy and the MPI results corroborate the aromatic and alkane extraction distribution coefficients well. (2) The interactions between aromatics and DMSO are weak hydrogen bonding and van der Waals (vdW) interactions. The attractive part mainly involves dispersion (49.57-53.30%) and electrostatic (35.49-37.83%) effects. (3) The interactions between aromatics and n-decane are vdW interactions, dominated by attractive dispersion (70.41-70.93%) and repulsive exchange effects.

How Much Are People Willing to Pay for Clean Air? Analyzing Housing Prices in Response to the Smog Free Tower in Xi'an.

The Smog Free Tower (SFT) in the city of Xi'an, China, is the world's first outdoor architecture that uses solar energy and filtration technology to purify polluted air. It provides a unique opportunity to explore residents' willingness to pay for air quality and their related behaviors. Drawing on data collected after the establishment of the SFT, this paper reveals the characteristics of changes in people's willingness to pay for clean air. We found that, prior to the release of an assessment report on the SFT, housing prices had an inverted U-shaped relationship with the distance to the SFT, which indicated people tended to purchase houses a certain distance away from the SFT. The threshold value of distance was inversely related to the greening ratio of the residential area. However, after the publication of the experimental report on the SFT, housing prices decreased as the distance to the SFT increased, indicating the closer the house was to the SFT, the more likely people were to buy it. These changes confirmed that people are willing to pay for clean air. The convenience of transportation had a significant moderating effect on the willingness to pay for clean air, however. In other words, people may buy houses with lower air quality if they have better transportation accessibility. The findings of this paper may have practical implications for environmental governance, urban planning, residential satisfaction, and real estate market regulation.

Ethaselen synergizes with oxaliplatin in tumor growth inhibition by inducing ROS production and inhibiting TrxR1 activity in gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: Oxaliplatin is one of the most commonly used chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of various cancers, including gastric cancer. It has, however, a narrow therapeutic index due to its toxicity and the occurrence of drug resistance. Hence, it is of great significance to develop novel therapies to potentiate the anti-tumor effect and reduce the toxicity of oxaliplatin. In our previous study, we demonstrated that ethaselen (BBSKE), an inhibitor of thioredoxin reductase, effectively inhibited the growth of gastric cancer cells and promoted apoptosis in vitro. In the present study, we investigated whether BBSKE can potentiate the anti-tumor effect of oxaliplatin in gastric cancer in vivo and vitro. METHODS: Cellular apoptosis and ROS levels were analyzed by flow cytometry. Thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1) activity in gastric cancer cells, organoid and tumor tissues was determined by using the endpoint insulin reduction assay. Western blot was used to analyze the expressions of the indicated proteins. Nude mice xenograft models were used to test the effects of BBSKE and oxaliplatin combinations on gastric cancer cell growth in vivo. In addition, we also used the combined treatment of BBSKE and oxaliplatin in three cases of gastric cancer Patient-Derived organoid (GC-PDO) to detect the anti-tumor effect. RESULTS: We found that BBSKE significantly enhanced oxaliplatin-induced growth inhibition in gastric cancer cells by inhibiting TrxR1 activity. Because of the inhibition of TrxR1 activity, BBSKE synergized with oxaliplatin to enhance the production of ROS and activate p38 and JNK signaling pathways which eventually induced apoptosis of gastric cancer cells. In vivo, we also found that BBSKE synergized with oxaliplatin to suppress the gastric cancer tumor growth in xenograft nude mice model, accompanied by the reduced TrxR1 activity. Remarkably, we found that BBSKE attenuated body weight loss evoked by oxaliplatin treatment. We also used three cases of GC-PDO and found that the combined treatment of BBSKE and oxaliplatin dramatically inhibited the growth and viability of GC-PDO with increased ROS level, decreased TrxR1 activity and enhanced apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: This study elucidates the underlying mechanisms of synergistic effect of BBSKE and oxaliplatin, and suggests that the combined treatment has potential value in gastric cancer therapy.

Ailanthus Altissima-derived Ailanthone enhances Gastric Cancer Cell Apoptosis by Inducing the Repression of Base Excision Repair by Downregulating p23 Expression.

Chemotherapy plays an irreplaceable role in the treatment of GC, but currently available chemotherapeutic drugs are not ideal. The application of medicinal plants is an important direction for new drug discovery. Through drug screening of GC organoids, we determined that ailanthone has an anticancer effect on GC cells in vitro and in vivo. We also found that AIL can induce DNA damage and apoptosis in GC cells. Further transcriptome sequencing of PDX tissue indicated that AIL inhibited the expression of XRCC1, which plays an important role in DNA damage repair, and the results were also confirmed by western blotting. In addition, we found that AIL inhibited the expression of P23 and that inhibition of P23 decreased the expression of XRCC1, indicating that AIL can regulate XRCC1 via P23. The results of coimmunoprecipitation showed that AIL can inhibit the binding of P23 and XRCC1 to HSP90. These findings indicate that AIL can induce DNA damage and apoptosis in GC cells. Meanwhile, AIL can decrease XRCC1 activity by downregulating P23 expression to inhibit DNA damage repair. The present study sheds light on the potential application of new drugs isolated from natural medicinal plants for GC therapy.

The complete chloroplast genome of Pluchea pteropoda Hemsl, a mangrove associate plant.

Pluchea pteropoda Hemsl is a mangrove associate plant of Asteraceae with medicinal properties such as anti-inflammation and fever-relieving. Here, our study presented the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of Pluchea pteropoda Hemsl. The cp genome of P. pteropoda was 152,300 bp in length, including a large single copy (LSC) region of 84,127 bp, a small single copy (SSC) region of 18,093 bp and a pair of inverted repeats (IR) regions of 25,040 bp. A total of 111 unique genes were found, comprising 79 protein-coding genes, 28 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. The GC content of the cp genome was 37.5%. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that P. pteropoda nested in Pluchea clade, which was closely related to Ageratina adenophora and Senecio scandens. The work provides beneficial data for following researches on the genetic variation, species delimitation, phylogeny and classification of Pluchea genus.

Effects of Light on the Ochratoxigenic Fungi Aspergillus ochraceus and A. carbonarius.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) usually contaminates agricultural products such as grapes, oatmeal, coffee and spices. Light was reported as an effective strategy to control spoilage fungi and mycotoxins. This research investigated the effects of light with different wavelengths on the growth and the production of OTA in Aspergillus ochraceus and Aspergillus carbonarius. The results showed that the growth of both fungi were extremely inhibited by UV-B. Short-wavelength (blue, violet) significantly inhibited the production of OTA in both fungi, while the inhibitory effect of white was only demonstrated on A. ochraceus. These results were supported by the expression profiles of OTA biosynthetic genes of A. ochraceus and A. carbonarius. To clarify, the decrease in OTA production is induced by inhibition or degradation; therefore, the degradation of OTA under different wavelengths of light was tested. Under UV-B, the degradation rate of 10 µg/mL OTA standard pure-solution samples could reach 96.50% in 15 days, and the degradation effect of blue light was relatively weak. Furthermore, infection experiments of pears showed that the pathogenicity of both fungi was significantly decreased under UV-B radiation. Thus, these results suggested that light could be used as a potential target for strategies in the prevention and control of ochratoxigenic fungi.

Carbon Catabolite Repression Gene AoCreA Regulates Morphological Development and Ochratoxin A Biosynthesis Responding to Carbon Sources in Aspergillus ochraceus.

Carbon is one of the most important nutrients for the development and secondary metabolism in fungi. CreA is the major transcriptional factor mediating carbon catabolite repression, which is employed in the utilization of carbon sources. Aspergillus ochraceus contaminates various food and feed containing different carbon sources by producing ochratoxin A (OTA). However, little is known about the function of AoCreA in regulating the morphology and OTA production of A. ochraceus. To give an insight into the mechanism of the carbon sources regulating development of A. ochraceus and OTA production, we have identified AoCreA in A. ochraceus. The homologous recombination strategy was used to generate the AoCreA deletion mutant (ΔAoCreA). We have investigated the morphology and OTA production of the wild type (WT) and ΔAoCreA of A. ochraceus with media containing different carbon sources (glucose, fructose, maltose, D-xylose, D-mannose, acetate, D-galactose, D-mannitol and lactose). ΔAoCreA showed a significant growth and conidiation defect on all media as compared with WT. Glucose and maltose were the most inducing media for OTA production by A. ochraceus, followed by sucrose and the nutrient-rich Yeast Extract Sucrose (YES) and Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). The deletion of AoCreA led to a drastic reduction of OTA production on all kinds of media except PDA, which was supported by the expression profile of OTA biosynthetic genes. Furthermore, infection studies of ΔAoCreA on oats and pears showed the involvement of AoCreA in the pathogenicity of A. ochraceus. Thus, these results suggest that AoCreA regulates morphological development and OTA biosynthesis in response to carbon sources in A. ochraceus.

A thioredoxin reductase inhibitor ethaselen induces growth inhibition and apoptosis in gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Conventional chemotherapy has been proven useful to only a portion of the patients. Previous developed targeted drugs are more effective and tolerable than conventional drugs. Thus the development of novel drugs targeting markers is an urgent task and the main direction for future research. Ethaselen, an inhibitor of thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), has been considered an important anticancer target drug. Previous studies show that it is effective on treating many kinds of cancers. In this paper, we examined that ethaselen effectively inhibited the growth of gastric cancer cells and promoted apoptosis. Organoids were cultured from patient-derived cells in a three-dimension form which are widely used in cancer research to help us understand cancer cells behavior at the sub-organ level and develop novel drugs. We established a drug testing and screening system using GC-derived organoids by recapitulating tumor microenvironment. We confirmed that the TrxR-targeting ethaselen could be a novel and effective drug for gastric cancer treatment.

Requirement of LaeA, VeA, and VelB on Asexual Development, Ochratoxin A Biosynthesis, and Fungal Virulence in Aspergillus ochraceus.

Aspergillus ochraceus is reported to be the major contributor of ochratoxin A (OTA), classified as one of the possible human carcinogen (group 2B) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The heterotrimeric velvet complex proteins, LaeA/VeA/VelB, have been most studied in fungi to clarify the relation between light-dependent morphology and secondary metabolism. To explore possible genetic targets to control OTA contamination, we have identified laeA, veA, and velB in A. ochraceus. The loss of laeA, veA, and velB yielded mutants with differences in vegetative growth and conidial production. Especially, ΔlaeA almost lost the ability to generate conidiaphore under dark condition. The deletion of laeA, veA, and velB drastically reduced the production of OTA. The wild-type A. ochraceus produced about 1 and 7 µg/cm2 OTA under light and dark conditions on media, whereas the three gene deletion mutants produced less than 20 ng/cm2 OTA, which was correlated with a down regulation of OTA biosynthetic genes. Pathogenicity studies of ΔlaeA, ΔveA, and ΔvelB showed their reduction in disease severity in pears. Furthermore, 66.1% of the backbone genes in secondary metabolite gene cluster were significantly regulated, among which 81.6% were downregulated. Taking together, these results revealed that velvet complex proteins played crucial roles in asexual development, secondary metabolism, and fungal virulence in A. ochraceus.

Junduqing extractive promotes the apoptosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells through down-regulating Mcl-1 and Bcl-xL and up-regulating Caspase-3, Caspase-8 and Caspase-9.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of Junduqing extractive on proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells and the involved mechanism. Junduqing extractive was prepared. CCK-8 assay found that IC50 of Junduqing extractive in HNE-1 cells was 2.99 mg/ml, so its concentration of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 mg/ml was selected to perform the following experiments. HNE-1, HNE-2 and HONE1 cells were then divided into four groups: (1) Control (no treatment); (2) 1.0 mg/ml (1.0 mg/ml Junduqing); (3) 2.0 mg/ml (2.0 mg/ml Junduqing) and (4) 3.0 mg/ml (3.0 mg/ml Junduqing). Cell viability, apoptosis, migration and invasion were examined by CCK-8 assay, annexin V-FITC/PI staining, scratch wound assay and transwell assay, respectively. Compared with the control group, the viability, migration rates and invasive capacity of HNE-1, HNE-2 and HONE1 cells with Junduqing treatments decreased significantly. Higher concentration of Junduqing extractive caused lower viability, smaller migration rates and weaker invasive capacity. Compared with the control group, the apoptosis of HNE-1, HNE-2 and HONE1 cells after treatment with 2.0 and 3.0 mg/ml of Junduqing extractive increased remarkably. Levels of Bcl-xL, Mcl-1, Caspase-3, Caspase-8 and Caspase-9 were examined by western blotting. Compared with the control group, the expression of Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 and the expression of Caspase-3, Caspase-8 and Caspase-9 in HNE-1, HNE-2 and HONE1 cells were significantly down-regulated and up-regulated, respectively, after treatment with Junduqing extractive. In conclusion, Junduqing extractive could inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion, and promote the apoptosis of human NPC cells through down-regulating Mcl-1 and Bcl-xL and up-regulating Caspase-3, Caspase-8 and Caspase-9.

The Scalp Time-Varying Networks of N170: Reference, Latency, and Information Flow.

Using the scalp time-varying network method, the present study is the first to investigate the temporal influence of the reference on N170, a negative event-related potential component (ERP) appeared about 170 ms that is elicited by facial recognition, in the network levels. Two kinds of scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) references, namely, AR (average of all recording channels) and reference electrode standardization technique (REST), were comparatively investigated via the time-varying processing of N170. Results showed that the latency and amplitude of N170 were significantly different between REST and AR, with the former being earlier and smaller. In particular, the information flow from right temporal-parietal P8 to left P7 in the time-varying network was earlier in REST than that in AR, and this phenomenon was reproduced by simulation, in which the performance of REST was closer to the true case at source level. These findings indicate that reference plays a crucial role in ERP data interpretation, and importantly, the newly developed approximate zero-reference REST would be a superior choice for precise evaluation of the scalp spatio-temporal changes relating to various cognitive events.

Spectral Entropy Can Predict Changes of Working Memory Performance Reduced by Short-Time Training in the Delayed-Match-to-Sample Task.

Spectral entropy, which was generated by applying the Shannon entropy concept to the power distribution of the Fourier-transformed electroencephalograph (EEG), was utilized to measure the uniformity of power spectral density underlying EEG when subjects performed the working memory tasks twice, i.e., before and after training. According to Signed Residual Time (SRT) scores based on response speed and accuracy trade-off, 20 subjects were divided into two groups, namely high-performance and low-performance groups, to undertake working memory (WM) tasks. We found that spectral entropy derived from the retention period of WM on channel FC4 exhibited a high correlation with SRT scores. To this end, spectral entropy was used in support vector machine classifier with linear kernel to differentiate these two groups. Receiver operating characteristics analysis and leave-one out cross-validation (LOOCV) demonstrated that the averaged classification accuracy (CA) was 90.0 and 92.5% for intra-session and inter-session, respectively, indicating that spectral entropy could be used to distinguish these two different WM performance groups successfully. Furthermore, the support vector regression prediction model with radial basis function kernel and the root-mean-square error of prediction revealed that spectral entropy could be utilized to predict SRT scores on individual WM performance. After testing the changes in SRT scores and spectral entropy for each subject by short-time training, we found that 16 in 20 subjects' SRT scores were clearly promoted after training and 15 in 20 subjects' SRT scores showed consistent changes with spectral entropy before and after training. The findings revealed that spectral entropy could be a promising indicator to predict individual's WM changes by training and further provide a novel application about WM for brain-computer interfaces.

Predictors for drug effects with brain disease: Shed new light from EEG parameters to brain connectomics.

Though researchers spent a lot of effort to develop treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders, the poor translation of drug efficacy data from animals to human hampered the success of these therapeutic approaches in human. Pharmaceutical industry is challenged by low clinical success rates for new drug registration. To maximize the success in drug development, biomarkers are required to act as surrogate end points and predictors of drug effects. The pathology of brain disease could be in part due to synaptic dysfunction. Electroencephalogram (EEG), generating from the result of the postsynaptic potential discharge between cells, could be a potential measure to bridge the gaps between animal and human data. Here we discuss recent progress on using relevant EEG characteristics and brain connectomics as biomarkers to monitor drug effects and measure cognitive changes on animal models and human in real-time. It is expected that the novel approach, i.e. EEG connectomics, will offer a deeper understanding on the drug efficacy at a microcirculatory level, which will be useful to support the development of new treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders.

5.2-W high-repetition-rate eye-safe laser at 1525 nm generated by Nd:YVO4₋YVO4stimulated Raman conversion.

We report herein an efficient eye-safe Raman laser, which is based upon Nd:YVO4₋YVO4 and in-band pumped by a wavelength-locked laser diode array at 878.6 nm. By virtue of mitigated thermal load and improved pump absorption, a maximum average output power of 5.2 W at 1525 nm is obtained under the incident pump power of 30.6 W with the pulse repetition frequency of 140 kHz, corresponding to an optical efficiency of 17.0%.