Endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy in acute dacryocystitis: a multicenter study in China.

AIM: To report the clinical profile, endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (En-DCR) management, and acute dacryocystitis (AD) outcomes in China. METHODS: Clinical data of 554 adult AD patients (554 eyes) who presented in 7 tertiary eye care centers for 10y from Jan 2010 to Mar 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical profile, En-DCR management, and outcomes of all cases were recorded. The anatomical and functional success were evaluated for 12mo post-operation. RESULTS: The analysis included 149 males and 368 females with a median age of 55.2y (range: 18-84y). There were 459 eyes with a history of epiphora or purulent secretion. The time between a symptom of lacrimal duct obstruction and acute onset was 1 to 540 (66.1±58.2)mo. Fifty-nine eyes had a history of the previous acute attack. Seventy-four eyes developed a cutaneous fistula, while 11 eyes had post septal cellulitis pre-operation. En-DCR with an anatomical success of 91.7% and functional success of 90.1%. The success rate of the patients with a history of acute episodes and the preoperative fistula was lower than the overall success rates. CONCLUSION: En-DCR can be performed during an acute episode in AD with a success rate of over 90%.

Proportion, Correlates and the Associations of Meeting 24-h Movement Guidelines With Mental Well-Being and Psychological Distress: A Cross-Sectional Study of 10 589 Chinese Students.

BACKGROUND: The increased trends in psychological distress and mental illness have been of great significance in public health concerns. The study aimed to investigate the proportion and correlates of meeting 24-h movement guidelines (including moderate to vigorous physical activity, screen time and sleep duration) and the associations between 24-h movement guidelines met and mental well-being and psychological distress in a large sample of Chinese students. METHODS: All participants received a physical examination and filled out questionnaires in this study. Chi-square tests were used to analyse the proportion of reaching 24-h guidelines by gender and logistic regression was used to analyse correlates of meeting 24-h guidelines. Two binary logistic regression models were used to analyse the association between meeting 24-h guidelines and mental well-being and psychological distress. The back-propagation artificial neural network was used to describe the importance of the independent variables. RESULTS: The findings revealed a generally low rate of meeting the 24-h movement guidelines, particularly concerning moderate to vigorous physical activity (16.5%). Meeting all three guidelines was related to better mental health in both boys and girls. Particularly, meeting screen time guideline and meeting sleep duration guideline appeared to be more important on mental outcomes, compared to meeting moderate to vigorous physical activity guideline. Compared with boys, girls were more susceptible to the influences of 24-h movement guidelines on mental health. CONCLUSIONS: Meeting all three components of the 24-h movement guidelines was associated with the most favourable mental health outcomes for both boys and girls. Thus, maintaining a daily balance of sufficient physical activity, limited screen time, and adequate sleep is crucial for enhancing the mental health status of students.

Retinal perfusion related to visual field within the same asymmetric thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy.

PURPOSE: To quantify interocular differences in the retinal microvasculature between disparate eyes and explore associations between the retinal microvasculature and visual field abnormalities within the same asymmetric thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) patients. METHODS: Within the same asymmetric TAO eye, the eye with a severer visual field abnormality (based on the mean deviation [MD]) was considered a severe eye, and the fellow eye was considered mild. The densities of radial peripapillary capillary (RPC) and superficial retinal capillary plexuses (SRCP) were determined using optical coherence tomography angiography. Interocular differences in RPC and SRCP densities were analyzed. A generalized estimating equation (GEE) was used to form a predictive model for visual field abnormalities. Pearson's correlation was used to show the correlation between MD and the densities of RPC and SRCP. RESULTS: In 57 asymmetric TAO patients, the global RPC density in severe eyes was lower than that in mild eyes (P < 0.001), but there was no significant difference in SRCP density between the two groups (P = 0.114). In a multivariate GEE model with MD as the outcome, MD was associated only with global RPC density (coefficient ß=0.327, P < 0.001). The global RPC density was correlated with MD (r = 0.360, P = 0.003) in severe eyes, but not in mild eyes (r = 0.179, P = 0.092). No significant correlation was observed between global SRCP density and MD in either group (Both P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: RPC density decreased significantly and correlated with visual field abnormalities in severe eyes of TAO patients. Alterations in RPC density may contribute to visual field abnormalities in TAO eyes.

Discovery of novel ULK1 inhibitors through machine learning-guided virtual screening and biological evaluation.

Aim: Build a virtual screening model for ULK1 inhibitors based on artificial intelligence. Materials & methods: Build machine learning and deep learning classification models and combine molecular docking and biological evaluation to screen ULK1 inhibitors from 13 million compounds. And molecular dynamics was used to explore the binding mechanism of active compounds. Results & conclusion: Possibly due to less available training data, machine learning models significantly outperform deep learning models. Among them, the Naive Bayes model has the best performance. Through virtual screening, we obtained three inhibitors with IC50 of µM level and they all bind well to ULK1. This study provides an efficient virtual screening model and three promising compounds for the study of ULK1 inhibitors.

[Box: see text].

Computed Tomography Signs of Sinonasal Inflammation in Patients with Acute Dacryocystitis.

BACKGROUND: Nasal and paranasal sinus abnormalities may be related to nasolacrimal duct obstructive disease but are strongly debated. Data of acute disease stage are lacking. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine if there are correlations between radiologic signs of sinus inflammation and acute dacryocystitis (AD). METHODS: This cross-sectional controlled study was conducted at Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China from February 2021 to November 2023. Forty-four consecutive patients with AD and 50 consecutive patients with orbital tumors (the control group), who completed preoperative computed tomography scans, were enrolled to evaluate the extent of their inflammatory sinonasal disease by the modified Lund-Mackay score system. RESULTS: The inflammation signs of the paranasal sinuses (total mean sinus scores, 95% CI [0.00, 2.00]; P < 0.001), namely the anterior ethmoid sinus(95% CI [0.00, 1.00]; P < 0.001), the posterior ethmoid sinus(95% CI [0.00, 0.00]; P = 0.003), the frontal sinus (95% CI [0.00, 0.00]; P = 0.02), and the ostiomeatal complex (P < 0.001) were more extensive in patients with AD when compared with the controls. The disease course was negatively correlated with the anterior ethmoid (P = 0.03) and frontal scores (P = 0.01). The symptom of eyelid swelling was positively correlated with the anterior ethmoid (P = 0.03), ostiomeatal complex (P = 0.004), and total sinus scores (P = 0.005). CONCLUSION: Inflammatory sinus disease was found to be more frequent in patients with AD, which was gradually alleviated with the prolongation of the disease course. The mutual spread of inflammation particularly in the acute course may play an important role in lacrimal duct obstructive disease.

Plasma exosomes from patients with active thyroid-associated orbitopathy induce inflammation and fibrosis in orbital fibroblasts.

BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of thyroid-associated orbitopathy (TAO) remains incompletely understand. The interaction between immunocytes and orbital fibroblasts (OFs) play a critical role in orbital inflammatory and fibrosis. Accumulating reports indicate that a significant portion of plasma exosomes (Pla-Exos) are derived from immune cells; however, their impact upon OFs function is unclear. METHODS: OFs were primary cultured from inactive TAO patients. Exosomes isolated from plasma samples of patients with active TAO and healthy controls (HCs) were utilized for functional and RNA cargo analysis. Functional analysis in thymocyte differentiation antigen-1+ (Thy-1+) OFs measured expression of inflammatory and fibrotic markers (mRNAs and proteins) and cell activity in response to Pla-Exos. RNA cargo analysis was performed by RNA sequencing and RT-qPCR. Thy-1+ OFs were transfected with miR-144-3p mimics/inhibitors to evaluate its regulation of inflammation, fibrosis, and proliferation. RESULTS: Pla-Exos derived from active TAO patients (Pla-ExosTAO-A) induced stronger production of inflammatory cytokines and hyaluronic acid (HA) in Thy-1+ OFs while inhibiting their proliferation. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis and single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) suggested that the difference in mRNA expression levels between Pla-ExosTAO-A and Pla-ExosHC was closely related to immune cells. Differential expression analysis revealed that 62 upregulated and 45 downregulated miRNAs in Pla-ExosTAO-A, with the elevation of miR-144-3p in both Pla-Exos and PBMCs in active TAO group. KEGG analysis revealed that the target genes of differentially expressed miRNA and miR-144-3p enriched in immune-related signaling pathways. Overexpression of the miR-144-3p mimic significantly upregulated the secretion of inflammatory cytokines and HA in Thy-1+ OFs while inhibiting their proliferation. CONCLUSION: Pla-Exos derived from patients with active TAO were immune-active, which may be a long-term stimulus casual for inflammatory and fibrotic progression of TAO. Our finding suggests that Pla-Exos could be used as biomarkers or treatment targets in TAO patients.

Circulating Small Extracellular Vesicles Involved in Systemic Regulation Respond to RGC Degeneration in Glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and is characterized by progressive retinal ganglion cell (RGC) degeneration and vision loss. Since irreversible neurodegeneration occurs before diagnosable, early diagnosis and effective neuroprotection are critical for glaucoma management. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) are demonstrated to be potential novel biomarkers and therapeutics for a variety of diseases. In this study, it is found that intravitreal injection of circulating plasma-derived sEVs (PDEV) from glaucoma patients ameliorated retinal degeneration in chronic ocular hypertension (COH) mice. Moreover, it is found that PDEV-miR-29s are significantly upregulated in glaucoma patients and are associated with visual field defects in progressed glaucoma. Subsequently, in vivo and in vitro experiments are conducted to investigate the possible function of miR-29s in RGC pathophysiology. It is showed that the overexpression of miR-29b-3p effectively prevents RGC degeneration in COH mice and promotes the neuronal differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Interestingly, engineered sEVs with sufficient miR-29b-3p delivery exhibit more effective RGC protection and neuronal differentiation efficiency. Thus, elevated PDEV-miR-29s may imply systemic regulation to prevent RGC degeneration in glaucoma patients. This study provides new insights into PDEV-based glaucoma diagnosis and therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative diseases.

Secular trends of dental caries and association with nutritional status: a retrospective analysis of 16,199 Chinese students from three successive national surveys from 2010 to 2019.

Introduction: The prevalence of dental caries (DC) among students in developing countries has increased at an alarming rate, and nutritional status has been shown to be associated with DC in children and adolescents with inconsistent conclusions. We aimed to understand the trends of DC prevalence in students aged 7, 9, 12, and 14 years and to explore the relationship between DC prevalence and nutritional status. Methods: We recruited 16,199 students aged 7, 9, 12, and 14 years in China by multi-stage, stratified, random sampling methods from 2010 to 2019. Permanent caries were measured using the Decay, Loss, and Filling (DMF) index and prevalence rate. Deciduous caries were measured using the decay, loss, and filling (dmf) index and prevalence rate. Nutritional status was assessed using body mass index (BMI) and hemoglobin levels. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between nutritional status and the DC prevalence in children and adolescents, incorporating information concerning family-related factors. Results: The results indicated that DC prevalence increased from 39.75% in 2010 to 53.21% in 2019 in Henan province, with deciduous teeth and permanent teeth being 45.96 and 27.18%, respectively, in 2019. The total caries rate decreased with age (p < 0.05), and the caries rate of girls was higher than that of boys in 2019 (55.75% vs. 50.67%) (p < 0.001). The prevalence of dental caries among primary and secondary school students in areas with medium economic aggregate was the highest, followed by cities with the best economic development level, and cities with low economic levels have a lower prevalence of dental caries. The dental caries prevalence was negatively correlated with body mass index. In the fully adjusted model, underweight children had a higher caries prevalence (OR = 1.10, 95%CI: 0.86-1.41). Children with anemia had a higher prevalence of dental caries (OR = 1.18, 95%CI: 0.98-1.42). Conclusion: The DC prevalence of students in Henan Province was high, with a tendency to increase. Females, young individuals, and those with a higher economic level showed a positive correlation with the prevalence of caries. In the process of economic development, particular attention should be paid to early childhood caries prevention. Nutritional status should be taken seriously among children and adolescents, and the oral health system should be improved to keep pace with economic development.

Whole Exome Sequencing as an Effective Molecular Diagnosis Tool for Craniofacial Fibrous Dysplasia with Ocular Complications.

PURPOSE: To summarize the clinical manifestations of craniofacial fibrous dysplasia (CFD) patients with ocular complications, and find effective methods to diagnose early. METHODS: Nine CFD patients with ocular complications, and their parents were recruited in this study. All patients underwent ocular and systemic examinations. Bone lesions from all patients and peripheral blood from patients and their parents were collected for whole exome sequencing (WES). According to the screening for low-frequency deleterious variants, and bioinformatics variants prediction software, possible disease-causing variants were found in multiple CFD patients. The variants were validated by Sanger sequencing. Trio analysis was performed to verify the genetic patterns of CFD. RESULTS: All patients were diagnosed with CFD, according to the clinical manifestations, classic radiographic appearance, and pathological biopsy. The main symptoms of the 9 CFD patients, included visual decline (9/9), craniofacial deformity (3/9) and strabismus (2/9), with few extraocular manifestations. The family backgrounds of all the CFD patients indicated that only the patient was affected, and their immediate family members were normal. GNAS variants were identified in all bone lesions from CFD patients, including two variant types: c.601C > T:p.R201C(6/9) and c.602G > A:p.R201H (3/9) in exon 8. The detection rate reached 100% by WES, but only 77.8% by Sanger sequencing. Interestingly, we found GNAS variants could not be detected in peripheral blood samples from CFD patients or their parents, and other potentially disease-causing gene variants related to CFD were not found. CONCLUSIONS: For CFD patients with bone lesions involving the optic canal or sphenoid sinus regions, ocular symptoms should also be considered. Furthermore, we confirmed that CFD is not inherited, somatic variants in the GNAS gene are the main pathogenic gene causing CFD. Compared to the traditional methods in molecular genetic diagnosis of CFD, WES is more feasible and effective but limited in the type of samples.

Systemic whole transcriptome analysis identified underlying molecular characteristics and regulatory networks implicated in the retina following optic nerve injury.

Optic nerve injuries are severely disrupt the structural and functional integrity of the retina, often leading to visual impairment or blindness. Despite the profound impact of these injuries, the molecular mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. In this study, we performed a comprehensive whole-transcriptome analysis of mouse retina samples after optic nerve crush (ONC) to elucidate changes in gene expression and regulatory networks. Transcriptome analysis revealed a variety of molecular alterations, including 256 mRNAs, 530 lncRNAs, and 37 miRNAs, associated with metabolic, inflammatory, signaling, and biosynthetic pathways in the injured retina. The integrated analysis of co-expression and protein-protein interactions identified an active interconnected module comprising 5 co-expressed proteins (Fga, Serpina1a, Hpd, Slc38a4, and Ahsg) associated with the complement and coagulation cascades. Finally, 5 mRNAs (Fga, Serpinala, Hpd, Slc38a4, and Ahsg), 2 miRNAs (miR-671-5p and miR-3057-5p), and 6 lncRNAs (MSTRG. 1830.1, Gm10814, A530013C23Rik, Gm40634, MSTRG.9514.1, A330023F24Rik) were identified by qPCR in the injured retina, and some of them were validated as critical components of a ceRNA network active in 661W and HEK293T cells through dual-luciferase reporter assays. In conclusion, our study provides comprehensive insight into the complex and dynamic biological mechanisms involved in retinal injury responses and highlights promising potential targets to enhance neuroprotection and restore vision.

Gross-total resection in optic nerve sheath meningiomas: minimally invasive and cosmetic pleasing.

PURPOSE: The optic nerve sheath meningioma (ONSM) is one of the most challenging tumors in orbital surgery. From the perspective of mental health and patient needs, we analyzed the necessity and importance of the endoscopic transnasal approach (ETA) combined with optic nerve transection (ONT) in gross-total resection (GTR) in ONSM patients with residual vision and aim to broaden the use of ONT for specific people. METHODS: The authors included patients with ONSMs who were treated between 2014 and 2022. We divided those cases into two groups named ETA group and lateral orbitotomy approach (LOA) group. We present the application of ETA and analyze the preoperative indication of the ONT and compared the advantages and disadvantages between ETA and LOA. The degree of tumor resection was based on imaging and surgical evaluation. RESULTS: A total of 23 patients with ONSM were included. Sixteen patients underwent ETA, and seven underwent LOA. Among ETA cases, GTR was achieved in 14 patients with ONT and most patients maintained normal eye movement function (75%) and morphology (93.75%). In the ETA group, 14 patients experienced vision loss, while two other patients saw improvements in vision. And proptosis was alleviated (5.20 ± 2.34 vs 0.27 ± 0.46, p < 0.0001). Six patients with blindness and proptosis of the LOA group resulted in GTR with ONT and ophthalmectomy. Although intracranial extension and recurrence included no cases in the two groups, a significant psychological gap was presented due to cosmetic problems. CONCLUSIONS: Under the premise of reducing damage and improving aesthetics, the selection of ETA combined with ONT to gross-total resect ONSMs successfully provides a minimally invasive access with acceptable complications. As an important adjunct to GTR in the surgical treatment of ONSM, the scope of ONT application should be expanded to relieve the patient's psychological burden.

AIBI Modified Mesoporous Copper Sulfide Nanocomposites for Efficient Non-Oxygen Dependent Free Radicals-Assisted Photothermal Therapy in Uveal Melanoma.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is an ocular cancer predominantly affecting adults, characterized by challenging diagnostic outcomes. This research endeavors to develop an innovative multifunctional nanocomposite system sensitive to near-infrared (NIR) radiation, serving as both a non-oxygen free-radical generator and a photothermal agent. The designed system combines azobis isobutyl imidazoline hydrochloride (AIBI) with mesoporous copper sulfide (MCuS) nanoparticles. MCuS harnesses NIR laser energy to induce photothermal therapy, converting light energy into heat to destroy cancer cells. Simultaneously, AIBI is activated by the NIR laser to produce alkyl radicals, which induce DNA damage in remaining cancer cells. This distinctive feature equips the designed system to selectively eliminate cancers in the hypoxic tumor microenvironment. MCuS is also beneficial to scavenge the overexpressed glutathione (GSH) in the tumor microenvironment. GSH generally consumes free radicals and hiders the PDT effect. To enhance control over AIBI release in cancer cells, 1-tetradecyl alcohol (TD), a phase-changing material, is introduced onto the surface of MCuS nanoparticles to create the final AMPT nanoparticle system. In vitro and in vivo experiments confirm the remarkable anti-tumor efficacy of AMPT. Notably, the study introduces an orthotopic tumor model for UM, demonstrating the feasibility of precise and effective targeted treatment within the ocular system.

Semi-supervised segmentation of orbit in CT images with paired copy-paste strategy.

The segmentation of the orbit in computed tomography (CT) images plays a crucial role in facilitating the quantitative analysis of orbital decompression surgery for patients with Thyroid-associated Ophthalmopathy (TAO). However, the task of orbit segmentation, particularly in postoperative images, remains challenging due to the significant shape variation and limited amount of labeled data. In this paper, we present a two-stage semi-supervised framework for the automatic segmentation of the orbit in both preoperative and postoperative images, which consists of a pseudo-label generation stage and a semi-supervised segmentation stage. A Paired Copy-Paste strategy is concurrently introduced to proficiently amalgamate features extracted from both preoperative and postoperative images, thereby augmenting the network discriminative capability in discerning changes within orbital boundaries. More specifically, we employ a random cropping technique to transfer regions from labeled preoperative images (foreground) onto unlabeled postoperative images (background), as well as unlabeled preoperative images (foreground) onto labeled postoperative images (background). It is imperative to acknowledge that every set of preoperative and postoperative images belongs to the identical patient. The semi-supervised segmentation network (stage 2) utilizes a combination of mixed supervisory signals from pseudo labels (stage 1) and ground truth to process the two mixed images. The training and testing of the proposed method have been conducted on the CT dataset obtained from the Eye Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a mean Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of 91.92% with only 5% labeled data, surpassing the performance of the current state-of-the-art method by 2.4%.

Comparison of the surgical outcomes of endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy in chronic dacryocystitis with or without previous bicanalicular silicone tube intubation.

AIMS: To compare the outcomes of endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (En-DCR) in chronic dacryocystitis (CD) with or without previous bicanalicular silicone tube intubation (BSTI), and investigate whether previous BSTI influenced postoperative outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of medical records of CD patients (group A) who had previously undergone BSTI for nasolacrimal duct stenosis and an age- and sex-matched control group of CD patients (group B) without previous intubation receiving En-DCR from November 2017 to January 2022. Sixty-one patients (61 eyes) were included in group A and age- and sex-matched 122 patients (122 eyes) in group B. Dacryocystic parameters were measured by computed tomography-dacryocystography and surgical findings were recorded during surgeries. The surgical success rates of the two groups were compared at 12 months post-operation. RESULTS: The mean horizontal, sagittal, and vertical lengths were 6.06 ± 1.24, 6.03 ± 1.44, and 8.05 ± 2.00 mm, respectively, in group A and 6.33 ± 1.25, 6.26 ± 1.19, and 10.40 ± 2.45 mm, respectively, in group B. There were no differences in the horizontal or sagittal parameters between the two groups. The vertical parameter in group A was significantly lower than that in group B. Scar formation in the sac was observed in 54 patients in group A but was absent in group B. At 12 months postoperatively, the anatomical and functional success rates were 88.52 % and 85.25 %, respectively, in group A and 92.62 % and 89.34 %, respectively, in group B, with no difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Previous BSTI reduced dacryocyst vertical parameter and caused dacryocyst scar formation but did not affect postoperative En-DCR efficacy.

Composition and diversity analysis of the TCR CDR3 repertoire in patients with idiopathic orbital inflammation using high-throughput sequencing.

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic orbital inflammation (IOI) is a nonspecific orbital inflammatory disease with the third highest prevalence among orbital diseases, and its pathogenesis is associated with T-cell-mediated immune responses. This study aimed to investigate the differences in T-cell receptor (TCR) expression between IOI patients and healthy subjects by high-throughput sequencing and to characterize TCR expression in patients with IOI and with respect to glucocorticoid response. METHODS: A total of 19 subjects were enrolled in this study and were divided into the idiopathic orbital inflammation group (IOI group, n = 13) and the healthy control group (HC group, n = 6), and within the IOI group were further divided into the glucocorticoid therapy sensitive group (IOI(EF) group, n = 6) and the glucocorticoid therapy ineffective group (IOI(IN) group, n = 7) based on the degree of effectiveness to glucocorticoid therapy. High-throughput TCR sequencing was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells of IOI patients and healthy control individuals using 5' RACE technology combined with Unique Identifier (UID) digital tag correction technology. The TCR CDR3 region diversity, sharing patterns, and differential sequences between the IOI and HC groups, and between the IOI(EF) and IOI(IN) groups were analyzed. RESULTS: It was found that the diversity of TCR CDR3 in the IOI group was significantly lower than that in the HC group, and the frequency of V gene use was significantly different between groups. The diversity of TCR CDR3 in patients in the IOI(EF) group was significantly lower than that in patients in the IOI(IN) group, and the frequency of V and J gene use was significantly different between the IOI(EF) group and the IOI(IN) group. Additionally, we found 133 nucleotide sequences shared in all IOI samples and screened two sequences with higher expression from them. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggested that abnormal clonal expansion of specific T-cells exists in IOI patients and that TCR diversity may had an impact on the prognosis of glucocorticoid-treated IOI. This study may contribute to a better understanding of the immune status of IOI and provide new insights for T-cell -associated IOI pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment prediction.

Comparison of retinal degeneration treatment with four types of different mesenchymal stem cells, human induced pluripotent stem cells and RPE cells in a rat retinal degeneration model.

BACKGROUND: Retinal degeneration (RD) is a group of disorders on irreversible vision loss. Multiple types of stem cells were used in clinical trials for RD treatment. However, it remains unknown what kinds of stem cells are most effective for the treatment. Therefore, we investigated the subretinal transplantation of several types of stem cells, human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs), amniotic fluid stem cells (hAFSCs), bone marrow stem cells (hBMSCs), dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs), induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC), and hiPSC-derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells for protection effects, paracrine effects and treatment efficiency in an RD disease model rats. METHODS: The generation and characterization of these stem cells and hiPSC-derived RPE cells were performed before transplantation. The stem cells or hiPSC-derived RPE cell suspension labelled with CellTracker Green to detect transplanted cells were delivered into the subretinal space of 3-week-old RCS rats. The control group received subretinal PBS injection or non-injection. A series of detections including fundus photography, optomotor response (OMR) evaluations, light-dark box testing, electroretinography (ERG), and hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining of retinal sections were conducted after subretinal injection of the cells. RESULTS: Each stem cell, hiPSC-derived RPE cell or PBS (blank experiment) was successfully transplanted into at least six RCS rats subretinally. Compared with the control rats, RCS rats subjected to subretinal transplantation of any stem cells except hiPSCs showed higher ERG waves (p < 0.05) and quantitative OMR (qOMR) index values (hADSCs: 1.166, hAFSCs: 1.249, hBMSCs: 1.098, hDPSCs: 1.238, hiPSCs: 1.208, hiPSC-RPE cells: 1.294, non-injection: 1.03, PBS: 1.06), which indicated better visual function, at 4 weeks post-injection. However, only rats that received hiPSC-derived RPE cells maintained their visual function at 8 weeks post-injection (p < 0.05). The outer nuclear layer thickness observed in histological sections after HE staining showed the same pattern as the ERG and qOMR results. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to hiPSC-derived RPE cells, adult and fetal stem cells yielded improvements in visual function for up to 4 weeks post-injection; this outcome was mainly based on the paracrine effects of several types of growth factors secreted by the stem cells. Patients with RD will benefit from the stem cell therapy.

Single-cell characterization of macrophages in uveal melanoma uncovers transcriptionally heterogeneous subsets conferring poor prognosis and aggressive behavior.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most frequent primary intraocular malignancy with high metastatic potential and poor prognosis. Macrophages represent one of the most abundant infiltrating immune cells with diverse functions in cancers. However, the cellular heterogeneity and functional diversity of macrophages in UM remain largely unexplored. In this study, we analyzed 63,264 single-cell transcriptomes from 11 UM patients and identified four transcriptionally distinct macrophage subsets (termed MΦ-C1 to MΦ-C4). Among them, we found that MΦ-C4 exhibited relatively low expression of both M1 and M2 signature genes, loss of inflammatory pathways and antigen presentation, instead demonstrating enhanced signaling for proliferation, mitochondrial functions and metabolism. We quantified the infiltration abundance of MΦ-C4 from single-cell and bulk transcriptomes across five cohorts and found that increased MΦ-C4 infiltration was relevant to aggressive behaviors and may serve as an independent prognostic indicator for poor outcomes. We propose a novel subtyping scheme based on macrophages by integrating the transcriptional signatures of MΦ-C4 and machine learning to stratify patients into MΦ-C4-enriched or MΦ-C4-depleted subtypes. These two subtypes showed significantly different clinical outcomes and were validated through bulk RNA sequencing and immunofluorescence assays in both public multicenter cohorts and our in-house cohort. Following further translational investigation, our findings highlight a potential therapeutic strategy of targeting macrophage subsets to control metastatic disease and consistently improve the outcome of patients with UM.

Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease via resting-state EEG: integration of spectrum, complexity, and synchronization signal features.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurogenerative disorder, making up 70% of total dementia cases with a prevalence of more than 55 million people. Electroencephalogram (EEG) has become a suitable, accurate, and highly sensitive biomarker for the identification and diagnosis of AD. Methods: In this study, a public database of EEG resting state-closed eye recordings containing 36 AD subjects and 29 normal subjects was used. And then, three types of signal features of resting-state EEG, i.e., spectrum, complexity, and synchronization, were performed by applying various signal processing and statistical methods, to obtain a total of 18 features for each signal epoch. Next, the supervised machine learning classification algorithms of decision trees, random forests, and support vector machine (SVM) were compared in categorizing processed EEG signal features of AD and normal cases with leave-one-person-out cross-validation. Results: The results showed that compared to normal cases, the major change in EEG characteristics in AD cases was an EEG slowing, a reduced complexity, and a decrease in synchrony. The proposed methodology achieved a relatively high classification accuracy of 95.65, 95.86, and 88.54% between AD and normal cases for decision trees, random forests, and SVM, respectively, showing that the integration of spectrum, complexity, and synchronization features for EEG signals can enhance the performance of identifying AD and normal subjects. Conclusion: This study recommended the integration of EEG features of spectrum, complexity, and synchronization for aiding the diagnosis of AD.

Orbital inflammatory pseudotumor: new advances in diagnosis, pathogenesis, and treatment.

Orbital inflammatory pseudotumor (OIP) is a benign, non-specific inflammatory disorder that commonly occurs in middle-aged adults and is usually unilateral but can occur bilaterally. Its clinical manifestations have tremendous clinical heterogeneity and vary according to the site of infiltration and the degree of lesions, including orbital pain, swelling, diplopia, proptosis, restricted eye movement, and decreased visual acuity. Clinical features, Image characteristics and pathological examinations often need to be evaluated to confirm the diagnosis. Currently, there is no systematic research on the pathogenesis of OIP, which may be related to immunity or infection. The first-line treatment is glucocorticoids. Radiotherapy, immunosuppressants, and biologics can be considered for treatment-resistant, hormone-dependent, or intolerant patients. In this review, we aim to summarize and focus on new insights into OIP, including new diagnostic criteria, pathogenesis, and discoveries in new drugs and treatment strategies. In particular, we highlight the literature and find that T cell-mediated immune responses are closely related to the pathogenesis of OIP. Further exploration of the mechanism and signaling pathway of T cells in the immune process will help to identify their therapeutic targets and carry out targeted therapy to treat refractory OIP and reduce the side effects of traditional treatments.