Identification of patients with internet gaming disorder via a radiomics-based machine learning model of subcortical structures in high-resolution T1-weighted MRI.

It is of vital importance to establish an objective and reliable model to facilitate the early diagnosis and intervention of internet gaming disorder (IGD). A total of 133 patients with IGD and 110 healthy controls (HCs) were included. We extracted radiomic features of subcortical structures in high-resolution T1-weighted MRI. Different combinations of four feature selection methods (analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis, recursive feature elimination and relief) and ten classification algorithms were used to identify the most robust combined models for distinguishing IGD patients from HCs. Furthermore, a nomogram incorporating radiomic signatures and independent clinical factors was developed. Calibration curve and decision curve analyses were used to evaluate the nomogram. The combination of analysis of variance selector and logistic regression classifier identified that the radiomic model constructed with 20 features from the right caudate nucleus and amygdala showed better IGD screening performance. The radiomic model produced good areas under the curves (AUCs) in the training, validation and test cohorts (AUCs of 0.961, 0.903 and 0.895, respectively). In addition, sex, internet addiction test scores and radiomic scores were included in the nomogram as independent risk factors for IGD. Analysis of the correction curve and decision curve showed that the clinical-radiomic model has good reliability (C-index: 0.987). The nomogram incorporating radiomic features of subcortical structures and clinical characteristics achieved satisfactory classification performance and could serve as an effective tool for distinguishing IGD patients from HCs.

Potential-Rate Correlations of Supported Palladium-Based Catalysts for Aqueous Formic Acid Dehydrogenation.

Aqueous formic acid dehydrogenation (FAD) is a crucial process for hydrogen production, as hydrogen is a clean energy carrier. During this process, formic acid converts into hydrogen and carbon dioxide over a catalyst. Pd-based catalysts have exhibited significant potential in FAD due to their high activity and selectivity. In this study, we investigated aqueous thermal FAD in a mixture of formic acid and sodium formate using electrochemical open-circuit potential (OCP) measurement by loading the catalysts onto a conductive substrate as a working electrode. By varying the reaction conditions such as the concentration of reactants and modifying Pd with Ag, different FAD rates were obtained. Consequently, we revealed the correlation between the catalyst OCP and FAD rate; superior FAD rates reflected a more negative catalyst OCP. Furthermore, deactivation was observed across all catalysts during FAD, with a concurrent increase in catalyst OCP. Interestingly, we found that the logarithm of the FAD rate showed a linear correlation with the OCP of the catalyst during the decay phase, which we quantitatively explained based on the reaction mechanism. This study presents a new discovery that bridges thermal and electrocatalysis.

Environmental occurrence, bioaccumulation and human risks of emerging fluoroalkylether substances: Insight into security of alternatives.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are widely used due to their unique structure and excellent performance, while also posing threats on ecosystem, especially long-chain perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). As the control of conventional PFASs, fluoroalkylether substances (ether-PFASs) as alternatives are constantly emerging. Subsequently, the three representative ether-PFASs, chlorinated polyfluoroalkyl ether sulfonic acid (F-53B), hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid (HFPO-DA), and 4,8-Dioxa-3H-perfluorononanoicacid (ADONA) are discovered and have received more attention in the environment and ecosystem. But their security is now also being challenged. This review systematically assesses their security from six dimensions including environmental occurrence in water, soil and atmosphere, as well as bioaccumulation and risk in plants, animals and humans. High substitution level is observed for F-53B, whether in environment or living things. Like PFOS or even more extreme, F-53B exhibits high biomagnification ability, transmission efficiency from maternal to infant, and various biological toxicity effects. HFPO-DA still has a relatively low substitution level for PFOA, but its use has emerged in Europe. Although it is less detected in human bodies and has a higher metabolic rate than PFOA, the strong migration ability of HFPO-DA in plants may pose dietary safety concerns for humans. Research on ADONA is limited, and currently, it is detected in Germany frequently while remaining at trace levels globally. Evidently, F-53B has shown increasing risk both in occurrence and toxicity compared to PFOS, and HFPO-DA is relatively safe based on available data. There are still knowledge gaps on security of alternatives that need to be addressed.

IMD-Net: Interpretable multi-scale detection network for infrared dim and small objects.

This study proposed an interpretable multi-scale infrared small object detection network (IMD-Net) design method to improve the precision of infrared small object detection and contour segmentation in complex backgrounds. To this end, a multi-scale object enhancement module was constructed, which converted artificially designed features into network structures. The network structure was used to enhance actual objects and extract shallow detail and deep semantic features of images. Next, a global object response, channel attention, and multilayer feature fusion modules were introduced, combining context and channel information and aggregated information, selected data, and decoded objects. Finally, the multiple loss constraint module was constructed, which effectively constrained the network output using multiple losses and solved the problems of high false alarms and high missed detections. Experimental results showed that the proposed network model outperformed local energy factor (LEF), self-regularized weighted sparse model (SRWS), asymmetric contextual modulation (ACM), and other state of the art methods in the intersection-over-union (IoU) and Fmeasure values by 10.8% and 11.3%, respectively. The proposed method performed best on the currently available datasets, achieving accurate detection and effective segmentation of dim and small objects in various infrared complex background images.

[Re-evaluation of systematic reviews of acupuncture and moxibustion for children with cerebral palsy].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the methodological quality, report quality and evidence quality of the Meta-analysis and systematic reviews of acupuncture and moxibustion for children with cerebral palsy, aiming to provide decision-making basis for clinical treatment. METHODS: The systematic reviews and Meta-analysis of acupuncture and moxibustion for children with cerebral palsy were searched in CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, Cochrane Library, PubMed and EMbase. The retrieval time was from the database establishment to June 30th, 2022. AMSTAR 2 (a measurement tool to assess systematic reviews) was used to evaluate the methodological quality， and PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and Meta-analyses) was used to evaluate the report quality, and GRADE was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. RESULTS: A total of 14 systematic reviews were included, including 37 primary outcome indexes. According to AMSTAR 2 evaluation results, there were 4 low quality studies, 10 very low quality studies, and low scores on items 2, 4, 7, 10 and 16. PRISMA scores ranged from 15 to 25, and the main reporting problems reflected in structured abstracts, program and registration, retrieval, and funding sources, etc. According to the GRADE classification results, there were 3 high quality evidences, 7 medium quality evidences, 10 low quality evidences and 17 very low quality evidences. The main downgrading factors were limitations, imprecision and publication bias. CONCLUSION: Acupuncture and moxibustion has a certain effect for cerebral palsy in children, but the quality of methodology, reporting and evidence in the included literature is poor, and the comparison of curative effect between different acupuncture and moxibustion methods is unclear.

Preoperative prediction of cervical cancer survival using a high-resolution MRI-based radiomics nomogram.

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer patients receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy require accurate survival prediction methods. The objective of this study was to develop a prognostic analysis model based on a radiomics score to predict overall survival (OS) in cervical cancer patients. METHODS: Predictive models were developed using data from 62 cervical cancer patients who underwent radical hysterectomy between June 2020 and June 2021. Radiological features were extracted from T2-weighted (T2W), T1-weighted (T1W), and diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance images prior to treatment. We obtained the radiomics score (rad-score) using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression and Cox's proportional hazard model. We divided the patients into low- and high-risk groups according to the critical rad-score value, and generated a nomogram incorporating radiological features. We evaluated the model's prediction performance using area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and classified the participants into high- and low-risk groups based on radiological characteristics. RESULTS: The 62 patients were divided into high-risk (n = 43) and low-risk (n = 19) groups based on the rad-score. Four feature parameters were selected via dimensionality reduction, and the scores were calculated after modeling. The AUC values of ROC curves for prediction of 3- and 5-year OS using the model were 0.84 and 0.93, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our nomogram incorporating a combination of radiological features demonstrated good performance in predicting cervical cancer OS. This study highlights the potential of radiomics analysis in improving survival prediction for cervical cancer patients. However, further studies on a larger scale and external validation cohorts are necessary to validate its potential clinical utility.

Aggressive intraoperative warming and postoperative pulmonary complications in elderly patients recovering from esophageal cancer surgery: sub-analysis of a randomized trial.

Background: Elderly patients having esophagectomies often become hypothermic which may promote complications. We tested the hypothesis that aggressive warming to a core temperature of 37°C reduces postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) in elderly patients having esophageal cancer resections. Methods: This study was a pre-defined sub-study of a multi-center, parallel group, superiority trial (PROTECT). Patients aged >65 years and having elective radical resection of esophageal cancer in a single center were randomly allocated into either aggressive warming group (target intraoperative core temperatures of 37°C) or routine thermal management group (target intraoperative core temperatures of 35.5°C). The primary endpoint was the incidence of PPCs. Secondary endpoints included duration of chest tube drainage and other postoperative complications. Results: A total of 300 patients were included in the primary analysis. PPCs occurred in 27 (18%) of 150 patients in the aggressive warming group and 31 (21%) of 150 patients in the routine thermal management group. The relative risk (RR) of aggressive versus routine thermal management was 0.9 (95% CI: 0.5, 1.4; p = 0.56). The duration of chest drainage in patients assigned to aggressive warming was shorter than that assigned to routine thermal management: 4 (3, 5) days vs. 5 (4, 7) days; hazard ratio (HR) 1.4 [95% CI: 1.1, 1.7]; p = 0.001. Fewer aggressively warmed patients needed chest drainage for more than 5 days: 30/150 (20%) vs. 51/150 (34%); RR:0.6 (95% CI: 0.4, 0.9; p = 0.03). The incidence of other postoperative complications were similar between the two groups. Conclusion: Aggressive warming does not reduce the incidence of PPCs in elderly patients receiving esophagectomy. The duration of chest drainage was reduced by aggressive warming. But as a secondary analysis of a planned sub-group study, these results should be considered exploratory. Clinical trial registration: https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=37099, ChiCTR1900022257.

Scientific and regulatory challenges of environmentally persistent free radicals: From formation theory to risk prevention strategies.

EPFRs (Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals) are a class of pollutants that have been identified as potential environmental contaminants due to their persistence and ability to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can cause oxidative stress in living organisms. However, no study has comprehensively summarized the production conditions, influencing factors and toxic mechanisms of EPFRs, impeding exposure toxicity assessments and risk prevention strategies. To bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical application, a thorough literature review to summarize the formation, environmental effects, and biotoxicity of EPFRs are conducted. A total of 470 relevant papers were screened in Web of Science Core collection databases. The transfer of electrons between interfaces and the cleavage of covalent bonds of persistent organic pollutants is crucial to the generation of EPFRs, which is induced by external sources of energy, including thermal energy, light energy, transition metal ions, and others. In the thermal system, the stable covalent bond of organic matter can be destroyed by heat energy at low temperature to form EPFRs, while the formed EPFRs can be destroyed at high temperature. Light can also accelerate the production of free radicals and promote the degradation of organic matter. The persistence and stability of EPFRs are synergistically influenced by individual environmental factors such as environmental humidity, oxygen content, organic matter content, and environmental pH. Studying the formation mechanism of EPFRs and their biotoxicity is essential for fully understanding the hazards posed by these emerging environmental contaminants.

Blue, Yellow, and Red Carbon Dots from Aromatic Precursors for Light-Emitting Diodes.

In this work, multicolor fluorescent carbon dots with red (R-CDs), yellow (Y-CDs), and blue (B-CDs) emissions were prepared by choosing proper aromatic precursors with different amounts of benzene rings through a simple solvothermal method. The characterization showed that the prepared carbon dots were spherical with a size under 10 nm, rich surface functional groups, and good stability. The emission wavelengths were located at 440, 530, and 580 nm under the excitation of 370 nm. The relative fluorescence quantum yield (QY) of R-CDs, Y-CDs, and B-CDs was 11%, 59%, and 33%, respectively. The related characterization demonstrated that the redshift in the photoluminescence was caused by the synergistic effect of the increasing graphitic nitrogen content, quantum size effect and surface oxidation state. By mixing the three prepared CDs into a PVA matrix, the transparent and flexible films produced relucent blue, yellow, and red emissions under 365 nm UV light, and solid-state quenching was effectively avoided. LEDs were fabricated by using B-CDs, Y-CDs, and R-CDs/PVA with a semiconductor chip. These CDs-based LEDs produced bright blue, yellow, and red light with CIE color coordinates of (0.16, 0.02), (0.38, 0.58), and (0.50, 0.49) were successfully manufactured utilizing the prepared blue, yellow and red multicolor carbon dots as the solid luminescent materials. The results showed that the synthesized CDs can be potentially applied in multi-color monitors as a promising candidate for light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This work blazes a novel trail for the controllable preparation of multicolor fluorescent carbon dots.

Fabrication of b-Oriented MFI Zeolite Membranes by a Printing-Transfer Seed Layer Procedure.

Highly b-oriented MFI zeolite (abbreviated as BOMZ) membranes are attractive due to less grain boundary defects and straight channels normal to the substrate, enhancing selectivity and flux in membrane separation. Herein, we demonstrate a novel, effective and easily-amplified printing-transfer oriented-seed-layer technique to manufacture uniform BOMZ seed monolayer on porous supports. Furthermore, a facile and effective approach for the synthesis of highly BOMZ membranes by introducing poly(hexamethylene biguanide) hydrochloride as a twin crystal inhibitor during seeded growth is demonstrated. Well-intergrown BOMZ membranes (∼650 nm thick) obtained on porous Al2 O3 supports show a flux of 2.8 kg m-2 h-1 with a separation factor as high as 71 for pervaporation in the 60 °C feed of EtOH/H2 O (5 wt%), which is much higher than those of random membranes. The developed seed assembly technique on porous supports underlines great potential for facile preparation of oriented seed layers on porous supports.

Comprehensive analysis of the WRKY gene family in Cucumis metuliferus and their expression profile in response to an early stage of root knot nematode infection.

Root-knot nematode (RKN) is a major factor that limits the growth and productivity of important Cucumis crops, such as cucumber and melon, which lack RKN-resistance genes in their genome. Cucumis metuliferus is a wild Cucumis species that displays a high degree of RKN-resistance. WRKY transcription factors were involved in plant response to biotic stresses. However, little is known on the function of WRKY genes in response to RKN infection in Cucumis crops. In this study, Cucumis metuliferus 60 WRKY genes (CmWRKY) were identified in the C. metuliferus genome, and their conserved domains were classified into three main groups based on multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis. Synteny analysis indicated that the WRKY genes were highly conserved in Cucumis crops. Transcriptome data from of C. metuliferus roots inoculated with RKN revealed that 16 CmWRKY genes showed differential expression, of which 13 genes were upregulated and three genes were downregulated, indicating that these CmWRKY genes are important to C. metuliferus response to RKN infection. Two differentially expression CmWRKY genes (CmWRKY10 and CmWRKY28) were selected for further functional analysis. Both CmWRKY genes were localized in nucleus, indicating they may play roles in transcriptional regulation. This study provides a foundation for further research on the function of CmWRKY genes in RKN stress resistance and elucidation of the regulatory mechanism.

Depth-driven responses of microbial residual carbon to nitrogen addition approaches in a tropical forest: Canopy addition versus understory addition.

Canopies play an important role in nitrogen (N) redistribution in forest ecosystems, and ignoring the canopy's role might bias estimates of the ecological consequences of anthropogenic atmospheric N deposition. We investigated the effects of the approach of N addition (Canopy addition vs. Understory addition) and level of N addition (25 kg N ha-1yr-1 vs. 50 kg N ha-1yr-1) on microbial residual carbon (MRC) accumulation in topsoil and subsoil. We found that the response of MRC to both approach and level of N addition varied greatly with soil depth in a tropical forest over eight years of continuous N addition. Specifically, N addition enhanced the accumulation of fungal and total MRC and their contribution to soil organic C (SOC) pools in the topsoil, whereas it decreased the contribution of fungal and total MRC to SOC in the subsoil. The contrasting effects of N addition on MRC contribution at varying soil depths were associated with the distinct response of microbial residues production. Understory N addition showed overall greater effects on MRC accumulation than canopy N addition did. Our results suggest that the canopy plays an important role in buffering the impacts of anthropogenic atmospheric N deposition on soil C cycling in tropical forests. The depth-dependent response of microbial residues to N addition also highlights the urgent need for further studies of different response mechanisms at different soil depths.

Practitioners' perspectives on acupuncture treatment for postpartum depression: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture may become a treatment for postpartum depression (PPD). Currently, little is known about the use of acupuncture in the treatment of PPD from the point of view of practitioners. The aim of this study was to explore practitioners' perspectives on the treatment of PPD with acupuncture and provide suggestions for future improvement. METHODS: This study employed a qualitative descriptive method. Semistructured, open-ended interviews were conducted with 14 acupuncture practitioners from 7 hospitals via face-to-face or telephone interviews. The data were collected using interview outline from March to May 2022 and analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: In general, the use of acupuncture for treating PPD was positively regarded by practitioners. They claimed that acupuncture is both safe and helpful for breastfeeding women who are experiencing emotional discomfort and that it can alleviate a variety of somatic symptoms. The following three themes were extracted: (a) patient acceptance and compliance; (b) acupuncture as a treatment for PPD; and (c) the advantages and drawbacks of acupuncture treatment. CONCLUSION: Practitioners' optimistic outlooks demonstrated that acupuncture is a promising treatment option for PPD. However, the time cost was the most significant barrier to compliance. Future development will focus mostly on improving acupuncture equipment and the style of service.

Emergency decompression for patients with ureteral stones and SIRS: a prospective randomized clinical study.

OBJECTIVE: Patients with ureteral calculi and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) often require emergency drainage, and percutaneous nephrostomy (PCN) and retrograde ureteral stent insertion (RUSI) are the most commonly used methods. Our study aimed to identify the best choice (PCN or RUSI) for these patients and to examine the risk factors for progression to urosepsis after decompression. METHODS: A prospective, randomized clinical study was performed at our hospital from March 2017 to March 2022. Patients with ureteral stones and SIRS were enrolled and randomized to the PCN or RUSI group. Demographic information, clinical features and examination results were collected. RESULTS: Patients (n = 150) with ureteral stones and SIRS were enrolled into our study, with 78 (52%) patients in the PCN group and 72 (48%) patients in the RUSI group. Demographic information was not significantly different between the groups. The final treatment of calculi was significantly different between the two groups (p < .001). After emergency decompression, urosepsis developed in 28 patients. Patients with urosepsis had a higher procalcitonin (p = .012) and blood culture positivity rate (p < .001) and more pyogenic fluids during primary drainage (p < .001) than patients without urosepsis. CONCLUSION: PCN and RUSI were effective methods of emergency decompression in patients with ureteral stone and SIRS. Patients with pyonephrosis and a higher PCT should be carefully treated to prevent the progression to urosepsis after decompression.Key messageIn this study, we evaluate the best choice (PCN or RUSI) for patients who have ureteral stones and SIRS and to examine the risk factors for progression to urosepsis after decompression. This study found that PCN and RUSI were effective methods of emergency decompression. Pyonephrosis and higher PCT were risk factors for patients to develop to urosepsis after decompression.

The difficulty of oral speech act production tasks in second language pragmatics testing.

This study examined the relative difficulty of oral speech act production tasks involving eight different types of speech acts for Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and the effects of three contextual variables, namely, power, social distance, and imposition, on such difficulty. Eight Oral Discourse Completion Task items, each representing a unique combination of the three contextual variables, were designed for each speech act. Eighty Chinese EFL learners responded to these items and their responses were rated for appropriateness by two native-speaking college English instructors. A Many-facet Rasch Measurement analysis suggested that the eight speech acts can be ordered by ascending difficulty as follows: Thank, Request, Suggestion, Disagreement, Invitation, Refusal, Offer, and Apology. Significant effects on performance scores were found for the interaction between each of the three contextual variables and speech act, and the specific effects observed varied by speech act. The implications of our findings for L2 pragmatics testing are discussed.

Confinement Effects in Well-Defined Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for Selective CO2 Hydrogenation: A Review.

Decarbonization has become an urgent affair to restrain global warming. CO2 hydrogenation coupled with H2 derived from water electrolysis is considered a promising route to mitigate the negative impact of carbon emission and also promote the application of hydrogen. It is of great significance to develop catalysts with excellent performance and large-scale implementation. In the past decades, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been widely involved in the rational design of catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation due to their high surface areas, tunable porosities, well-ordered pore structures, and diversities in metals and functional groups. Confinement effects in MOFs or MOF-derived materials have been reported to promote the stability of CO2 hydrogenation catalysts, such as molecular complexes of immobilization effect, active sites in size effect, stabilization in the encapsulation effect, and electron transfer and interfacial catalysis in the synergistic effect. This review attempts to summarize the progress of MOF-based CO2 hydrogenation catalysts up to now, and demonstrate the synthetic strategies, unique features, and enhancement mechanisms compared with traditionally supported catalysts. Great emphasis will be placed on various confinement effects in CO2 hydrogenation. The challenges and opportunities in precise design, synthesis, and applications of MOF-confined catalysis for CO2 hydrogenation are also summarized.

The Genome of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli Provides Insight into the Evolution of Genomes and Effectors of Fusarium oxysporum Species.

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli, the causal agent of cowpea fusarium wilt, is a serious threat to cowpea production in China. In this study, a sample of cowpea fusarium wilt was identified as Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli using the methods of morphological characters and molecular detection. We further reported the first genome assembly for Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli, with 53.7 Mb genome sequence comprising 14,694 genes. Comparative genomic analysis among five Fusarium oxysporum genomes showed that four accessory chromosomes in the five Fusarium oxysporum display similar characteristics, with low sequence similarity (55.35%, vs. overall average of 81.76%), low gene density (2.18 genes/10 kb vs. 3.02 genes/Mb) and highly transposable element density (TEs) (15.01/100 kb vs. 4.89/100 kb), indicating that variable accessory chromosomes are the main source of Fusarium oxysporum evolution. We identified a total of 100 Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli-specific effectors in the genome and found 13 specific effector genes located in large insertion or deletion regions, suggesting that insertion or deletion events can cause the emergence of species-specific effectors in Fusarium oxysporum. Our genome assembly of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli provides a valuable resource for the study of cowpea fusarium wilt, and the comparative genomic study of Fusarium oxysporum could contribute to the knowledge of genome and effector-associated pathogenicity evolution in Fusarium oxysporum study.

Effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for postpartum depression: an umbrella review protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Non-pharmacological treatments for postpartum depression have been investigated in various systematic reviews, and their efficacy has been evaluated. However, the quality of the evidence as a whole has not been quantified. The quality of this evidence may influence the choice of interventions and even cause misleading clinical decisions. This study aims to provide an objective presentation of the methodological bias and identify treatments supported by solid evidence. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: For the purpose of conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses, a comprehensive search of the relevant published literature will be conducted in English databases such as PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO and Scopus, as well as in four Chinese databases: the Chinese Biomedical Databases (CBM), Wan fang database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and VIP Database (VIP). The time of publication will be limited from their inception to 31 May 2022. We will extract the following data from the included literature: title, first author, journal type of included literature, number and sample size, intervention/control measures, outcome indicators and main study outcomes. The Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews-2 will be used to measure the quality of the methods. In addition, we will use the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement to evaluate the quality of the reporting, as well as the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation to evaluate the quality of the evidence. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42021285470.

The therapeutic effect of an autologous and allogenic mixed glioma cell lysate vaccine in a rat model.

PURPOSE: Tumor immunotherapy has the advantages of high specificity, minimal damage to the patient's body, and a long-lasting anti-tumor effect. However, due to the existence of immune escape phenomenon, the effect of anti-tumor immunotherapy is still poor. Therefore, a cancer vaccine that reverses tumor-associated immunosuppression is a very promising approach for research and treatment. METHODS: Vaccines were prepared using autologous and allogeneic tumor cells and their lysates to syngeneic tumor cell lysates as immunogens. The glioma cell proliferation, apoptosis and the secretion level of MCP-2, IFN-γ were detected to evaluate the efficacy of this treatment against glioma in vitro. In addition, a rat glioma model was established to investigate the anti-tumor effect in vivo, and evaluated its efficacy by observing the changes of CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells, NK cells, and the level of IL-2 and IL-10 in peripheral blood before and after treatment. RESULTS: The C6 + 9L glioma cell lysate vaccine (C6 + 9L-CL) not only inhibited the proliferation of glioma cells and promoted their apoptosis in vitro, but also significantly inhibited the tumor growth in vivo and improved the survival time of rats. In addition, the C6 + 9L-CL vaccine enhanced the anti-tumor immune response by promoting the secretion of T cell chemokines MCP-2, IFN-γ and IL-2, and by stimulating the proliferation of T cells and NK cells in peripheral blood and glioma tissues. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate the inhibitory effect of molecular mimic vaccines on glioma and provided a theoretical basis for molecular mimic hybrid vaccines as a potential therapeutic approach.

Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. conglutinans Race 1 in Northern China Samples.

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. conglutinans (FOC), the causal agent of cabbage fusarium wilt, is a serious threat to cabbage production in northern China, and most Chinese FOC isolates were identified as FOC race 1 (FOC1). To better understand the genetic diversity of FOC1 in northern China, we collected FOC isolates from five provinces in northern China and identified them as FOC1 through pathogenicity and race test. To evaluate the genome-level diversity of FOC1, we performed a genome assembly for a FOC1 isolate (FoYQ-1) collected from Yanqing, Beijing, where cabbage fusarium wilt was first reported in China. Using resequencing data of FOC1 isolates, we conducted a genome-wide SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) analysis to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of FOC1 isolates in northern China. Our study indicated that Chinese FOC1 can be grouped into four populations and revealed that the genetic diversity of FOC1 were closely associated with geographical locations. Our study further suggests that genetic differentiation occurred when FOC1 spread to the northwest provinces from Beijing Province in China. The FOC1 genetic diversity based on whole-genome SNPs could deepen our understanding of FOC1 variation and provide clues for the control of cabbage fusarium wilt in China.