Bioinformatics identification of potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for ischemic stroke and vascular dementia.

Ischemic stroke and vascular dementia, as common cerebrovascular diseases, with the former causing irreversible neurological damage and the latter causing cognitive and memory impairment, are closely related and have long received widespread attention. Currently, the potential causative genes of these two diseases have yet to be investigated, and effective early diagnostic tools for the diseases have not yet emerged. In this study, we screened new potential biomarkers and analyzed new therapeutic targets for both diseases from the perspective of immune infiltration. Two gene expression profiles on ischemic stroke and vascular dementia were obtained from the NCBI GEO database, and key genes were identified by LASSO regression and SVM-RFE algorithms, and key genes were analyzed by GO and KEGG enrichment. The CIBERSORT algorithm was applied to the gene expression profile species of the two diseases to quantify the 24 subpopulations of immune cells. Moreover, logistic regression modeling analysis was applied to illustrate the stability of the key genes in the diagnosis. Finally, the key genes were validated using RT-PCR assay. A total of 105 intersecting DEGs genes were obtained in the 2 sets of GEO datasets, and bioinformatics functional analysis of the intersecting DEGs genes showed that GO was mainly involved in the purine ribonucleoside triphosphate metabolic process，respiratory chain complex，DNA-binding transcription factor binding and active transmembrane transporter activity. KEGG is mainly involved in the Oxidative phosphorylation, cAMP signaling pathway. The LASSO regression algorithm and SVM-RFE algorithm finally obtained three genes, GAS2L1, ARHGEF40 and PFKFB3, and the logistic regression prediction model determined that the three genes, GAS2L1 (AUC: 0.882), ARHGEF40 (AUC: 0.867) and PFKFB3 (AUC: 0.869), had good diagnostic performance. Meanwhile, the two disease core genes and immune infiltration were closely related, GAS2L1 and PFKFB3 had the highest positive correlation with macrophage M1 (p < 0.001) and the highest negative correlation with mast cell activation (p = 0.0017); ARHGEF40 had the highest positive correlation with macrophage M1 and B cells naive (p < 0.001), the highest negative correlation with B cell memory highest correlation (p = 0.0047). RT-PCR results showed that the relative mRNA expression levels of GAS2L1, ARHGEF40, and PFKFB3 were significantly elevated in the populations of both disease groups (p < 0.05). Immune infiltration-based models can be used to predict the diagnosis of patients with ischemic stroke and vascular dementia and provide a new perspective on the early diagnosis and treatment of both diseases.

Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in adolescents and young adults

BackgroundAdolescents and young adults might play a key role in the worldwide spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), because they are more involved in overseas studying, business, working, and travelling. However, the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of them are still unknown. MethodsWe collected data of 46 confirmed COVID-19 patients aged 10 to 35 years from the study hospital. The demographics, epidemiological, and clinical data were collected. Several key epidemiological parameters, the asymptomatic cases and transmission to their family members and the clinical characteristics at admission, and during treatment were summarized. RESULTSOf 46 confirmed patients, 14 patients (47.3%) were aged from 10 to 24 years, and 24 (52.7%) patients were male. The mean incubation period for symptomatic cases was 6.6 days (95% confidence interval (CI) 4.4 - 9.6). The median serial interval was 1.9 days (95% CI 0.4 - 6.2). Three of asymptomatic cases showed the transmission to their family members. Only 1 patient was identified as severe cases at admission. The common symptoms at admission were dry cough (34, 91.0%), and fever (29, 69.0%). Nearly 60% of the patients had showed ground-glass opacity by chest CT findings. Three patients developed acute kidney injury during treatment. Majority of patients (78.3%) were discharged by the end of the follow-up. ConclusionsThe adolescent and young adult patients of COVID-19 had a long incubation period, and a short serial interval. The transmission to their family contactors occurred in asymptomatic cases. Few of the study patients have developed complications during treatment.