Precision Cardio-oncology: Update on Omics-Based Diagnostic Methods.

OPINION STATEMENT: Cardio-oncology is an emerging interdisciplinary field dedicated to the early detection and treatment of adverse cardiovascular events associated with anticancer treatment, and current clinical management of anticancer-treatment-related cardiovascular toxicity (CTR-CVT) remains limited by a lack of detailed phenotypic data. However, the promise of diagnosing CTR-CVT using deep phenotyping has emerged with the development of precision medicine, particularly the use of omics-based methodologies to discover sensitive biomarkers of the disease. In the future, combining information produced by a variety of omics methodologies could expand the clinical practice of cardio-oncology. In this review, we demonstrate how omics approaches can improve our comprehension of CTR-CVT deep phenotyping, discuss the positive and negative aspects of available omics approaches for CTR-CVT diagnosis, and outline how to integrate multiple sets of omics data into individualized monitoring and treatment. This will offer a reliable technical route for lowering cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in cancer patients and survivors.

2D Information Security System Based on Polyurethane Inverse Photonic Glass Structure.

Information security has become a major global problem in recent years. Thus, people continue to exert much effort in developing new information security technologies based on encryption and storage. In this study, a 2D information security technology based on polyurethane optical devices with inverse photonic glass structure (PU-IPG) is introduced. Based on 1) the swelling and plasticizing effects of various solvents on PU-IPG and 2) the capillary force that can produce geometric deformation on micro/nanostructures when solvents evaporate, a 2D information security system with two modules of decryption (structural color information display) and anticounterfeiting (structural color transformation) is successfully constructed. The spraying method adopted can be simple and fast and can provide a large area to build photonic glass templates, which greatly improves the capacity and category of information in the encryption system. The prepared PU-IPG optical devices can produce large-area multicolor output capability of information. These devices also have excellent mechanical properties, strong cycle stability, environmental friendliness, and low price. Therefore, the preparation strategy has great reference value and application prospects in the field of information security.

An Integrated Single-Beam Three-Axis High-Sensitivity Magnetometer.

Three-axis atomic magnetometers have great advantages for interpreting information conveyed by magnetic fields. Here, we demonstrate a compact construction of a three-axis vector atomic magnetometer. The magnetometer is operated with a single laser beam and with a specially designed triangular 87Rb vapor cell (side length is 5 mm). The ability of three-axis measurement is realized by reflecting the light beam in the cell chamber under high pressure, so that the atoms before and after reflection are polarized along two different directions. It achieves a sensitivity of 40 fT/Hz in x-axis, 20 fT/Hz in y-axis, and 30 fT/Hz in z-axis under spin-exchange relaxation-free regime. The crosstalk effect between different axes is proven to be little in this configuration. The sensor configuration here is expected to form further values, especially for vector biomagnetism measurement, clinical diagnosis, and field source reconstruction.

Incidence, Management, and Outcome of Pulled-in-Two Syndrome Associated With Strabismus Surgery.

PURPOSE: To report the incidence and outcomes of pulled-in-two syndrome during strabismus surgery and investigate the clinical features and management of the disease. METHODS: The medical records of patients who underwent strabismus surgery and developed pulled-in-two syndrome between July 2013 and October 2020 were reviewed retrospectively. The demographic characteristics, intraoperative details (including surgery type and management), and subsequent and final outcomes were extracted from the records. RESULTS: Of the 11,824 strabismus surgeries during the study period, 4 cases of pulled-in-two syndrome were documented, accounting for an overall incidence of 0.034%. The average age of the patients with pulled-in-two syndrome was 61.75 ± 8.99 years. All 4 patients were women; 2 had abducens nerve palsy and the other 2 had myopic strabismus fixus. The inferior rectus muscle was involved in 1 patient and the medial rectus muscle was involved in 3 patients. All of the involved extraocular muscle was lost. One patient achieved orthotropia, and the others were undercorrected after the surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Pulled-in-two syndrome is one of the rarest and most severe complications of strabismus surgery. Cranial nerve palsy, advanced age, prior surgery, thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy, and degenerative conditions of the extraocular muscle are risk factors for pulled-in-two syndrome. Therefore, the prevention of pulled-in-two syndrome in patients with these risk factors should be investigated further. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2023;60(4):263-267.].

Clinicopathological features of patients with wide local excision of eyelid malignant neoplasms: a more than five years retrospective study from China.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the correlation between the clinical and pathological characteristics and outcomes in patients with eyelid malignant tumors underwent wide local excision. METHODS: This retrospective study included 141 cases of eyelid malignant neoplasms from January 2010 to December 2015 in Shanxi eye hospital. Demographic and clinical information were collected. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate survival curves, and the log-rank test method was used to compare survival between groups. Cox proportional regression models were used to calculate the hazard ratios (HR) of total recurrence rate and metastasis rate. RESULTS: Overall, there were 141 eyelid malignant neoplasms cases aged 65.34 ± 9.69 (range, 41-88) years old. The duration time range was from 1 to 828 (61.09 ± 122.21) months. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common of all eyelid malignancies, accounting for 84 (59.5%), followed by Sebaceous gland carcinoma (SGC, 41, 29%), Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC, 11, 7.8%), Malignant Melanoma (MM, 3, 2.1%)。On cox-regression analysis, pathological classification (HR 1.959; 95% CI 1.012-3.790; p = 0.046) and eyelid tumor surgery history (HR 17.168; 95% CI 1.889-156.011; p = 0.012) were independently associated with recurrence in patients with eyelid malignant neoplasm. Pathological classification (HR 2.177; 95% CI 1.423 -3.331; p < 0.001) was independently associated with metastasis in patients with eyelid malignant neoplasm. Recurrence and metastasis were most likely to occur in 3 years after surgery. CONCLUSION: Wide local excision is an effective and economical treatment for eyelid malignant neoplasms. The prognosis is mainly related to pathological types, eyelid tumor surgical history and TNM stages.

81-GHz W-band 60-Gbps 64-QAM wireless transmission based on a dual-GRU equalizer.

We propose a dual gated recurrent unit neural network based on nonlinear equalizer (dual-GRU NLE) for radio-over-fiber (ROF) communication systems. The dual equalization scheme is mainly based upon GRU algorithm, which can be trained via two steps including I-GRU and Q-GRU. By using the dual-GRU equalizer, 60-Gbps 64-QAM signal generation and transmission over 10-km SMF and 1.2-m wireless link at 81-GHz can be achieved. For the digital signal processing (DSP) at receiver, comparison between CMMA equalizer, Volterra equalizer, and dual-GRU equalizer are demonstrated. The results indicate that the proposed dual-GRU NLE significantly mitigates the nonlinear distortions. The dual-GRU equalizer has a better BER performance in receiver sensitivity than the traditional CMMA and Volterra equalizer. At the expense of large complexity, an improvement of receiver sensitivity can be achieved as much as 1 dB compared with Volterra equalizer at the BER of 2×10-2. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to propose a novel dual-GRU equalizer, which is promising for the development in millimeter-wave photonics for B5G applications and beyond.

Soil Ventilation Benefited Strawberry Growth via Microbial Communities and Nutrient Cycling Under High-Density Planting.

In order to increase O2 concentration in the rhizosphere and reduce the continuous cropping obstacles under high-density cultivation, ventilation is often used to increase soil aeration. Yet, the effect of ventilation on soil microbial communities and nutrient cycling and, further, the extent to which they influence strawberry growth under greenhouse conditions are still poorly understood. Thus, four treatments-no ventilation + low planting density (LD), ventilation + LD, no ventilation + high planting density (HD), and ventilation + HD-of strawberry "Red cheeks" (Fragaria × ananassa Duch. cv. "Benihopp") were studied in a greenhouse for 3 years. The ventilation pipe (diameter = 10 cm) was buried in the soil at a depth of 15 cm from the surface and fresh air was sent to the root zone through the pipe by a blower. Ten pipes (one pipeline in a row) were attached to a blower. Soil samples were collected using a stainless-steel corer (five-point intra-row sampling) for the nutrient and microbial analyses. The composition and structure of the soil bacterial and fungal communities were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of the 16S and 18S rRNA genes, and functional profiles were predicted using PICRUSt and FUNGuild, respectively. The results showed that soil ventilation increased the net photosynthetic rate (Pn), transpiration rate (Tr), and water use efficiency (WUE) of strawberry plants across two growth stages [vegetative growth stage (VGS) and fruit development stage (FDS)]. Soil ventilation increased its available nutrient contents, but the available nutrient contents were reduced under the high planting density compared with low planting density. Both the O2 concentration and O2:CO2 ratio were increased by ventilation; these were positively correlated with the relative abundance of Bacilli, Gamma-proteobacteria, Blastocatella, as well as Chytridiomycota and Pezizomycetes. Conversely, ventilation decreased soil CO2 concentration and the abundance of Beta-proteobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes. The greater planting density increased the relative abundance of Acidobacteria (oligotrophic group). Ventilation altered soil temperature and pH along with carbon and nitrogen functional profiles in the VGS (more nitrogen components) and FDS (more carbon components), which benefited strawberry plant growth under high planting density. The practice of soil ventilation provides a strategy to alleviate hypoxia stress and continuous cropping obstacles for improving crop production in greenhouse settings.

Morphological and molecular evidence of a new species of Melanochlamys (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) from the Bohai Sea, China.

Increasing discoveries of new species of the genus Melanochlamys Cheeseman, 1881 in the recent years indicate that the biodiversity of this group remains underestimated. Recently, several aglajid sea slugs were collected from Laizhou Bay, Shandong Province, China. Morphological observation of their external and internal anatomy revealed that they represent an undescribed species of Melanochlamys. This new species, Melanochlamys aquilina sp. nov., is closely related to Melanochlamys fukudai Cooke, Hanson, Hirano, Ornelas-Gatdula, Gosliner, Chernyshev Valdés, 2014 in body size and dark external coloration, but can be differentiated from the latter by features of both shell and male reproductive organ. Phylogenetic analyses of two mitochondrial (COI, 16S rRNA) and a nuclear (H3) genes using Bayesian inference, maximum likelihood, and species delimitation analysis also support the separation of Melanochlamys aquilina sp. nov. from its related congeners.

miR-512-3p Overcomes Resistance to Cisplatin in Retinoblastoma by Promoting Apoptosis Induced by Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress.

BACKGROUND Retinoblastoma (RB) seriously endangers the vision and even the life of patients. This study aimed to explore the endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) and drug resistance of RB and verify the effect of miR-512-3p as a regulator of XBP-1 shearing mechanism on ERS, proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy levels of RB cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS Y79, weri-RB1, and HXO-RB44 cells were treated with cisplatin (DDP) gradient concentration to construct DDP-resistant cells. The drug inhibition rate and cell proliferation were assessed by CCK-8 assay. The cell transfection and cell apoptosis were detected by RT-qPCR analysis and TUNEL assay, respectively. The protein expression was detected by Western blot analysis. Dual-luciferase reporter assay confirmed the combination of miR-512-30p and XBP-1 transcript 1/2. RESULTS DDP inhibition rates for DDP-resistant RB cells were lower than that for RB cells. The XBP-1 expression was increased in DDP-resistant RB cells, and Y79 cells were chosen for the subsequent experiments. After transfection, miR-512-3p overexpression obviously inhibited the proliferation of DDP-resistant Y79 cells (Y79/DDP cells). miR-512-3p overexpression increased the DDP inhibition rate for Y79/DDP cells and apoptosis of Y79/DDP cells. miR-512-3p overexpression downregulated the expression of LC3 II/I in Y79/DDP cells. The effect of miR-512-3p inhibition on Y79/DDP cells was not as obvious as the effect of miR-512-3p overexpression on Y79/DDP cells. Furthermore, miR-512-3p was confirmed to be combined with XBP-1 transcript variant 1. CONCLUSIONS miR-512-3p improved the DDP resistance of RB cells by promoting ERS-induced apoptosis and inhibiting the proliferation and autophagy of RB cells.

Animal wastes as fertilizers enhance growth of young walnut trees under soil drought conditions.

BACKGROUND: Using nutrient-rich animal wastes as organic fertilizers in agricultural practices is a sustainable method for soil amendment and avoiding environmental pollution. In order to evaluate their practical effect, we applied different proportions of animal waste as fertilizers to wet or dry soils that were either planted or not planted with young walnut trees. RESULTS: The results showed that animal waste could increase soil C accumulation and carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio and reduce soil organic nitrogen and total nitrogen contents as well as the nitrogen to phosphorus (N/P) ratio in the planted group soil. This framework of soil C and N composition (a high C/N ratio) resulted in high N and Mg contents as well as high Cu and Zn contents in the leaves of the young trees as well as a high dry matter weight/leaf N ratio, causing increased leaf photosynthesis, reduced transpiration and relatively high water use efficiency under soil drought conditions. Also, animal wastes as fertilizers caused the branching of walnut to switch from elongation growth to thickening growth under soil drought conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Principal component analysis and redundancy analysis demonstrated the mechanism by which the soil C/N ratio mediates the flux of available nutrients from the soil to the plant and thereby regulates plant dry matter accumulation and branching architecture under soil drought conditions. The results of this study provide new insights into the improvement of hilly soils using animal waste. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.

Complete sequence of mitochondrial DNA of a deep-sea holothurian species of the genus Synallactes (Synallactida: Synallactidae).

One complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) was determined for a deep-sea holothurian species of the genus Synallactes (Synallactida: Synallactidae). The mitochondrial genome size of the sea cucumber was 15,920 bp. The sequence contains 2 ribosomal RNA genes (12S and 16S), 22 transfer RNA genes, and 13 protein-coding genes, as found in most previously determined holothurian mitogenomes. The A + T content of the complete mitochondrial genome sequence was 64.45%. The base composition showed a tendency of AT. The resulted maximum likelihood (ML) tree of Holothuroidea supported that Synallactes sp. is a species of Synallactida.

The complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of Heterochaerus australis (Acoela, Convolutidae).

One complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) was determined for Heterochaerus australis (Acoela, Convolutidae). Its mitochondrial genome size was 13,885 bp. The sequence contains 2 ribosomal RNA genes (rrnL and rrnS), 20 tRNA genes, and 12 protein-coding genes (PCGs). The A + T content of the complete mitochondrial genome sequence was 70.8%. The base composition showed a tendency of high AT. The resulted maximum likelihood (ML) tree supported that Acoela had a distant relationship with other orders of Turbellaria and the Xenacoelomorpha.

A new application of modified Nishida muscle transposition procedure for medial rectus muscle transection following endoscopic sinus surgery without tenotomy or splitting muscles.

The modified Nishida muscle transposition procedure, in which the one-third of the vertical rectus muscle bellies are sutured onto the sclera in the infero- and superotemporal quadrants without either tenotomy of the vertical rectus muscles or splitting of the vertical rectus muscle is an effective treatment for abducens nerve palsy. We report 2 cases of large-angle exotropia caused by medial rectus transection following the endoscopic sinus surgery treated using the modified Nishida procedure to transpose both vertical rectus muscles nasally, combined with lateral rectus muscle recession.

100 Gbit/s VSB-PAM-n IM/DD transmission system based on 10 GHz DML with optical filtering and joint nonlinear equalization.

We experimentally demonstrate the transmission of 100 Gbit/s and beyond vestigial sideband (VSB) n-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-n) signals, with a commercial 10 GHz-class directly modulated laser (DML) in the C-band, using optical filtering. To mitigate transmission impairments at the transmitter side, Nyquist pulse shaping and Kaiser Window filtering techniques are used to overcome the limited bandwidth of optoelectronic devices. At the receiver side, the joint nonlinear equalization based on cascaded multi-modulus algorithm (CMMA) and Volterra Filter (VF) is used to reduce the strong nonlinear impairments from chirp and chromatic dispersion (CD). 100 Gb/s PAM-4, 107.5 Gb/s PAM-4, and 101.25 Gb/s PAM-8 signals can be successfully transmitted over 45 km, 10 km and 10 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) under the bit-error-ratio (BER) of 3.8 × 10-3, respectively.

A facile doxorubicin-dichloroacetate conjugate nanomedicine with high drug loading for safe drug delivery.

BACKGROUND: Doxorubicin (DOX) is an effective chemotherapeutic agent but severe side effects limit its clinical application. Nanoformulations can reduce the toxicity while still have various limitations, such as complexity, low drug loading capability and excipient related concerns. METHODS: An amphiphilic conjugate, doxorubicin-dichloroacetate, was synthesized and the corresponding nanoparticles were prepared. The in vitro cytotoxicity and intracellular uptake, in vivo imaging, antitumor effects and systemic toxicities of nanoparticles were carried out to evaluate the therapeutic efficiency of tumor. RESULTS: Doxorubicin-dichloroacetate conjugate can self-assemble into nanoparticles with small amount of DSPE-PEG2000, leading to high drug loading (71.8%, w/w) and diminished excipient associated concerns. The nanoparticles exhibited invisible systemic toxicity and high maximum tolerated dose of 75 mg DOX equiv./kg, which was 15-fold higher than that of free DOX. It also showed good tumor targeting capability and enhanced antitumor efficacy in murine melanoma model. CONCLUSION: This work provides a promising strategy to simplify the drug preparation process, increase drug loading content, reduce systemic toxicity as well as enhance antitumor efficiency.

Biomimetic Nanovesicles for Enhanced Antitumor Activity of Combinational Photothermal and Chemotherapy.

The combination of multiple modalities has shown great potential in cancer treatment with improved therapeutic effects and minimized side effects. Here, we fabricated a type of doxorubicin-encapsulated biomimetic nanovesicle (NV) by a facile method with near-infrared dye insertion in the membrane for combinatorial photothermal and chemotherapy. With innate biomimetic properties, NVs enhanced the uptake by tumor cells while reducing the phagocytosis of macrophages. Upon laser irradiation, NVs can convert the absorbed fluorescent energy into heat for effective tumor killing. Hyperthermia can further induce membrane ablation of NVs to accelerate the release of chemotherapeutic drug for potent cytotoxicity to tumor cells. The NVs improved drug accumulation and showed a more efficient in vivo photothermal effect with a rapid temperature increase in tumors. Moreover, the NV-based combinational photothermal and chemotherapy exhibited significant tumor growth suppression with a high inhibitory rate of 91.6% and negligible systemic toxicity. The results indicate that NVs could be an appealing vehicle for combinational cancer treatment.

Mixotrophic Chlorella sp. UJ-3 cultivation in the typical anaerobic fermentation effluents.

The growth of mixotrophic Chlorella sp. UJ-3 cultivated in the three typical anaerobic fermentation effluents was investigated in this paper. The results showed that the microalgae grew best under intermediate light intensity for all the types of fermentation effluents. The butyrate type fermentation effluents induced the fastest growth rate for Chlorella sp. UJ-3, with a maximal cell concentration of 3.8×107 cells/mL. Under intermediate light intensity, the volatile fatty acids (VFAs) were almost depleted on the fifth day of the cultivation for all the three types of fermentation systems. The ratios of chlorophyll a/b were all increased for the three systems, indicating enhanced energy-capturing capability of the microalgae for photosynthesis after the VFAs were depleted. The highest lipid content was 25.4%dwt achieved in the butyrate type fermentation, and the fatty acid compositions were found to be considerably different for these three types of fermentation systems.

Biodegradable Hollow Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Regulating Tumor Microenvironment and Enhancing Antitumor Efficiency.

There is accumulating evidence that regulating tumor microenvironment plays a vital role in improving antitumor efficiency. Herein, to remodel tumor immune microenvironment and elicit synergistic antitumor effects, lipid-coated biodegradable hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticle (dHMLB) was constructed with co-encapsulation of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), doxorubicin (DOX) and interleukin-2 (IL-2) for chemo-immunotherapy. The nanoparticle-mediated combinational therapy provided a benign regulation on tumor microenvironment through activation of tumor infiltrating T lymphocytes and natural killer cells, promotion of cytokines secretion of IFN-γ and IL-12, and down-regulation of immunosuppressive myeloid-derived suppressor cells, cytokine IL-10 and TGF-ß. ATRA/DOX/IL-2 co-loaded dHMLB demonstrated significant tumor growth and metastasis inhibition, and also exhibited favorable biodegradability and safety. This nanoplatform has great potential in developing a feasible strategy to remodel tumor immune microenvironment and achieve enhanced antitumor effect.

Tumor Microenvironment Responsive Nanogel for the Combinatorial Antitumor Effect of Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy.

A biomimetic nanogel with tumor microenvironment responsive property is developed for the combinatorial antitumor effects of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Nanogels are formulated with hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin acrylate and two opposite charged chitosan derivatives for entrapping anticancer drug paclitaxel and precisely controlling the pH responsive capability, respectively. The nanogel supported erythrocyte membrane can achieve "nanosponge" property for delivering immunotherapeutic agent interleukin-2 without reducing the bioactivity. By responsively releasing drugs in tumor microenvironment, the nanogels significantly enhanced antitumor activity with improved drug penetration, induction of calreticulin exposure, and increased antitumor immunity. The tumor microenvironment is remodeled by the combination of these drugs in low dosage, as evidenced by the promoted infiltration of immune effector cells and reduction of immunosuppressive factors.

Erythrocyte Membrane-Enveloped Polymeric Nanoparticles as Nanovaccine for Induction of Antitumor Immunity against Melanoma.

Cancer immunotherapy is mainly focused on manipulating patient's own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Vaccine formulations based on nanotechnology have been developed to target delivery antigens to antigen presenting cells (APCs), especially dendritic cells (DCs) for efficiently induction of antigen-specific T cells response. To enhance DC targeting and antigen presenting efficiency, we developed erythrocyte membrane-enveloped poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanoparticles for antigenic peptide (hgp10025-33) and toll-like receptor 4 agonist, monophosphoryl lipid (MPLA). A Mannose-inserted membrane structure was constructed to actively target APCs in the lymphatic organ, and redox-sensitive peptide-conjugated PLGA nanoparticles were fabricated which prone to cleave in the intracellular milieu. The nanovaccine demonstrated the retained protein content in erythrocyte and enhanced in vitro cell uptake. An antigen-depot effect was observed in the administration site with promoted retention in draining lymph nodes. Compared with other formulations after intradermal injection, the nanovaccine prolonged tumor-occurring time, inhibited tumor growth, and suppressed tumor metastasis in prophylactic, therapeutic, and metastatic melanoma models, respectively. Additionally, we revealed that nanovaccine effectively enhanced IFN-γ secretion and CD8(+) T cell response. Taken together, these results demonstrated the great potential in applying an erythrocyte membrane-enveloped polymeric nanoplatform for an antigen delivery system in cancer immunotherapy.