NADPH oxidase 4 facilitates progression of chondrosarcoma via generation of reactive oxygen species.

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase 4 (NOX4) is an enzyme that regulates reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and its function in the development of chondrosarcoma remains unclear. In the present study, we studied NOX4 expression in chondrosarcoma by immunochemical examination, and analyzed the role of NOX4 in viability and apoptosis of human chondrosarcoma cell line SW1353 using NOX4 siRNA or NOX4 inhibitor GKT137831. NOX4 level significantly increased in tumor compared to that in para-carcinoma sample. The levels of NOX4 were positively correlated with histological grade and Musculoskeletal Tumor Society stage of the patients. NOX4 level was significantly increased in SW1353 compared with that in chondrocytes CHON-001. Knockdown of NOX4 or inhibition of NOX4 by GKT137831 both decreased generation of ROS, and induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in SW1353, accompanied with the activation of caspases (caspase-3, caspase-8 and caspses-9), upregulation of Bax, cytochrome C(cyt-c), cleaved-PARP and down-regulation of Bcl-2. Moreover, NOX4 siRNA and GKT137831 decreased the expression of p-Akt, p-ERK and p-p65 in SW1353 cells. In an in vivo study, NOX4 shRNA transfected SW1353 have shown impaired growth ability compared to the SW1353 when they were injected into the nude mice. Meanwhile, GKT137831 induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in SW1353 xenograft animals, together with increased expression of Bax, cyt-c, cleaved-PARP, and decreased expression of Bcl-2, p-Akt, p-ERK and p-p65. NOX4 plays a positive role in the development of chondrosarcoma and could serve as a promising target against chondrosarcoma clinically.

Risk factors for neonatal asphyxia and establishment of a nomogram model for predicting neonatal asphyxia in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture: a multicenter study / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To investigate the risk factors for neonatal asphyxia in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and establish a nomogram model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia.@*METHODS@#A retrospective study was conducted with 613 cases of neonatal asphyxia treated in 20 cooperative hospitals in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture from January to December 2019 as the asphyxia group, and 988 randomly selected non-asphyxia neonates born and admitted to the neonatology department of these hospitals during the same period as the control group. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify risk factors for neonatal asphyxia. R software (4.2.2) was used to establish a nomogram model. Receiver operator characteristic curve, calibration curve, and decision curve analysis were used to assess the discrimination, calibration, and clinical usefulness of the model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia, respectively.@*RESULTS@#Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that minority (Tujia), male sex, premature birth, congenital malformations, abnormal fetal position, intrauterine distress, maternal occupation as a farmer, education level below high school, fewer than 9 prenatal check-ups, threatened abortion, abnormal umbilical cord, abnormal amniotic fluid, placenta previa, abruptio placentae, emergency caesarean section, and assisted delivery were independent risk factors for neonatal asphyxia (P<0.05). The area under the curve of the model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia based on these risk factors was 0.748 (95%CI: 0.723-0.772). The calibration curve indicated high accuracy of the model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia. The decision curve analysis showed that the model could provide a higher net benefit for neonates at risk of asphyxia.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The risk factors for neonatal asphyxia in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture are multifactorial, and the nomogram model based on these factors has good value in predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia, which can help clinicians identify neonates at high risk of asphyxia early, and reduce the incidence of neonatal asphyxia.

A predictive model of aging-related secretion phenotype for osteoarthritis constructed using integrated bioinformatics and machine learning / 中国医科大学学报

Objective To explore the predictive markers of senescence-associated secretory phenotype(SASP)in osteoarthritis(OA).Methods OA datasets were screened by the Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO)database,while SASP-related genes were collected by PubMed.Three machine learning algorithms,including least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO),support vector machines recursive feature elimination(SVM-RFE),and random forest(RF),were used to screen the candidate predictive markers of SASP genes in OA,and the OA prediction model was constructed using the overlapping genes identified by the machine learning algo-rithms.CIBERSORT was used to explore the degree of peripheral blood immune cell infiltration in OA versus normal samples.The miRNA-transcription factor-mRNA regulatory network of the model genes was predicted using Cytoscape.The most valuable genes of the predic-tion model were experimentally verified by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR)in OA rats and normal control rats(n= 6 per group).Results One OA dataset was screened by the GEO database,and 125 OA-related SASP genes were isolated.A total of seven intersection genes were obtained by the three machine learning algorithms.The area under the curve of the prediction model was 0.891.The CIBERSORT immune infiltration results showed a significant difference in plasma cell infiltration level between OA and normal samples(P= 0.001 3).The RT-qPCR results showed that the expression level of TNFRSF1Awas significantly higher in the OA versus normal group(P<0.0001).Conclusion TNFRSF1Ais highly expressed in OA and may be a potential predictive marker for it.

Room-temperature two-dimensional plasmonic crystal semiconductor lasers.

Room-temperature plasmonic-crystal lasers have been demonstrated with a square-lattice gold nano-pillar arrays on top of InGaAs/GaAs quamtum wells on a GaAs substrate. The lasing wavelength is tunable in the range of 865-1001 nm by varying the lattice period. The lasers exhibit an extremely narrow linewidth and small divergence angle so could have great potential for various applications. An unexpected mirror cavity effect has been observed and investigated. The mirror-cavity lasers have a very low threshold and could be developed to realize electrically-driven plasmonic lasers.