Diagnostic value of LungPoint navigation combined with EBUS-GS & ROSE in peripheral pulmonary nodules.

Background & objectives: Recently, there has been a surge to develop new devices and techniques for the diagnosis of peripheral pulmonary lesions such as the combination of LungPoint navigation and endobronchial ultrasound with a guide sheath (EBUS-GS). The present study aimed to explore the diagnostic value of LungPoint navigation in combination with EBUS-GS and rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) particularly for peripheral pulmonary nodules. Methods: Patients (n=108) with pulmonary nodules (10 mm ≤ nodal diameter ≤30 mm) presenting to Henan Provincial People's Hospital were detected using chest computed tomographic (CT) scanning and bronchoscopy. All patients were evaluated using LungPoint navigation, EBUS-GS and ROSE techniques to evaluate the positive rate of combined diagnosis using the three methods. Results: A total of 108 patients participated in this study and successfully underwent all the three procedures. Of these, 82 patients were accurately diagnosed, making the overall diagnostic rate of 75.9 per cent for combined LungPoint navigation, EBUS-GS, and ROSE analyses. Further subgroup analysis of the diagnostic rate of the three combined techniques were conducted based on the size of the nodules which showed a diagnostic rate of 65.3 per cent for 10 mm ≤ nodule diameter ≤20 mm and 85.7 per cent for 20 mm ≤ nodal diameter ≤30 mm. Of the 108 patients, 85 had solid nodules and 23 had ground-glass nodules; the positive rate of diagnosis of solid nodules was the highest. The patients ultimately were diagnosed with lung cancer with a positive rate of 83.5 per cent. The sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predicted values for ROSE were 90.3, 78.3, 84.8 and 83.6 per cent, respectively. Interpretation & conclusions: The combined use of the three techniques can effectively shorten the duration of the total diagnosis period and improve the safety of diagnosis without affecting the detection rate.

Mononitration of a Calix[4]arene Methylene Bridge: Synthesis and Preliminary Catalysis Performances of Bridging Chiral p-tert-Butylcalix[4]arenes with a Monoamino Bridge Substituent in a 1,3-Alternate Conformation.

In order to prepare bridging chiral p-tert-butylcalix[4]crown-5 with a mononitro bridge substituent in a 1,3-alternate conformation, a mononitration method of calix[4]arene bridging methylene has been first developed with tert-butyl nitrite as a nitration reagent. The effects of solvent, reaction temperature, reaction time, and nitration reagent dosage on bridge mononitration have been deeply explored to obtain an optimal nitration condition. The facile nitration presents a new key for calix[4]arene bridge derivatization. After further modification and diastereoisomeric resolution, a pair of bridging chiral p-tert-butylcalix[4]arenes with a monoamino bridge substituent were produced from the bridge-mono-nitrated calix[4]arene. Their preliminary catalysis results in the Henry reaction show good catalytic activities (up to 95% yield) and still low but obviously enhanced enantioselectivities (up to 22.3% ee from 7a, 6% ee from 1), which confirms that the structural transformation indeed improves asymmetric catalysis performances of bridging chiral calix[4]crown-5 amines in a 1,3-alternate conformation.

Protein expression shift and potential diagnostic markers through proteomics profiling of tuberculous pleurisy biopsy tissues.

OBJECTIVES: Tuberculous pleurisy is a common type of tuberculosis (TB), but its diagnosis is challenging. This study aimed to profile the protein expression of this disease and identify new diagnostic makers. METHODS: Biopsy tissues from patients with tuberculous pleurisy and controls were taken through thoracoscopy, and proteins were extracted for Tandem Mass Tag Mass Spectrometry. Differential protein expression was performed between patients and controls, and the identified proteins were analyzed for pathway enrichment. Selected proteins were further validated in another set of samples using a more quantitative method. RESULTS: A total of 5101 proteins were detected and quantified in a discovery set of patients and controls. Overall protein expression was quite different between patients and controls. Most proteins were down-expressed, while a minority were overly expressed in the patient samples. At p value < 0.05 and absolute fold change >2, 295 proteins were found to be up-expressed and 608 down-expressed. The top enriched pathways included ECM-receptor interaction, complement and coagulation cascades and focal adhesion. All 19 selected candidates were validated in an independent set of patient and control samples. CONCLUSION: This unbiased proteomics approach not only provided unique insights into protein expression and pathways, but also discovered potential diagnostic markers for tuberculous pleurisy.

Compositional shift in lipid fractions during lipid accumulation and turnover in Schizochytrium sp.

Single cell oils (SCOs), a complex lipid system, contains neutral lipids (NLs), polar lipids (PLs) and unsaponifiable matters (UMs). To investigate the dynamic changes and the metabolic competition mechanism of different components of SCOs, changes in lipid composition of Schizochytrium sp. were monitored in lipid accumulation and turnover stages. Lipid content could reach 69.98% in biomass during the lipid accumulation stage, while, after the exhaustion of glucose, the content decreased to 45.51% and 20.6g/L non-oil biomass was synthesis. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were easier to bind with PLs. NLs were preferentially converted to PLs during lipid turnover stage, accompanied by the degradation of saturated fatty acids and the increase of UMs. Meanwhile, a positive correlation between the synthesis of PUFAs and unsaponifiable matters exited in Schizochytrium sp., and increasing the content of UMs from 45 to 100mg/L could increase the PUFA percentage from 64% to 74% effectively.

Biomass composition, lipid characterization, and metabolic profile analysis of the fed-batch fermentation process of two different docosahexanoic acid producing Schizochytrium sp. strains.

Growth and fermentation characteristics, biomass composition, lipid characterization and metabolic profiling analysis of two different Schizochytrium sp. strains, the original strain and the industrial adaptive strain, were investigated in the fed-batch fermentation process. The final cell biomass, total lipids content, docosahexanoic acid (DHA) content and DHA productivity of the adaptive strain were much higher than those of the original strain. The metabolic distinctions which extensively existed between these two strains were revealed by the score plot of principal component analysis. In addition, potential biomarkers responsible for discriminating different strains were identified as myo-inositol, histidine, alanine, asparagine, cysteine, and oxalic acid. These findings provided new insights into the industrial strain screening and further improvement of DHA production by Schizochytrium sp.

Batch, fed-batch and repeated fed-batch fermentation processes of the marine thraustochytrid Schizochytrium sp. for producing docosahexaenoic acid.

Different fermentation processes, including batch, fed-batch and repeated fed-batch processes by Schizochytrium sp., were studied and compared for the effective DHA-rich microbial lipids production. The comparison between different fermentation processes showed that fed-batch process was a more efficient cultivation strategy than the batch process. Among the four different feeding strategies, the glucose concentration feed-back feeding strategy had achieved the highest fermentation results of final cell dry weight, total lipids content, DHA content and DHA productivity of 72.37, 48.86, 18.38 g l(-1) and 138.8 mg l(-1) h(-1), respectively. The repeated fed-batch process had the advantages of reducing the time and cost for seed culture and inoculation between each fermentation cycles. The results of fermentation characteristics and lipid characterization of the repeated fed-batch process indicated that this repeated fed-batch process had promising industrialization prospect for the production of DHA-rich microbial lipids.

Comparative metabolomics analysis of docosahexaenoic acid fermentation processes by Schizochytrium sp. under different oxygen availability conditions.

The intracellular metabolic profile characterization of Schizochytrium sp. throughout docosahexaenoic acid fermentation was investigated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Metabolite profiles originating from Schizochytrium sp. under normal and limited oxygen supply conditions were distinctive and distinguished by principal components analysis (PCA). A total of more than 60 intracellular metabolites were detected and quantified with the levels of some metabolites involved in central carbon metabolism varying throughout both processes. Both fermentation processes were differentiated into three main phases by principal components analysis. Potential biomarkers responsible for distinguishing the different fermentation phases were identified as glutamic acid, proline, glycine, alanine, and glucose. In addition, alanine, glutamic acid, glucose, inositol, ornithine, and galactose were found to make great contribution for dry cell weight and fatty acid composition during normal and limited oxygen supply fermentations. Furthermore, significantly higher levels of succinate and several amino acids in cells of limited oxygen supply fermentation revealed that they might play important roles in resisting oxygen deficiency and increasing DHA synthesis during the lipid accumulation. These findings provide novel insights into the metabolomic characteristics during docosahexaenoic acid fermentation processes by Schizochytrium sp.