Sarcoidosis misdiagnosed as malignant tumors: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Sarcoidosis is a rare condition that is often misdiagnosed as malignant tumors due to the similar clinical manifestations and imaging findings. CASE PRESENTATION: We encountered a 56-year-old Chinese woman who had a chief complaint of a persistent cough. The chest computer tomography (CT) revealed mediastinal and bilateral hilar lymph node enlargement, and positron emission tomography-computer tomography (PET-CT) revealed abnormal fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in the lymph nodes of the chest and abdomen. To further clarify the diagnosis, a lymph node sampling was performed by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and the histopathologic diagnosis of sarcoidosis was confirmed. CONCLUSIONS: VATS could be an effective and minimally invasive diagnostic method to discriminate pulmonary sarcoidosis with other malignant tumors.

Hepatitis virus in long-fingered bats, Myanmar.

During an analysis of the virome of bats from Myanmar, a large number of reads were annotated to orthohepadnaviruses. We present the full genome sequence and a morphological analysis of an orthohepadnavirus circulating in bats. This virus is substantially different from currently known members of the genus Orthohepadnavirus and represents a new species.

Prevalence and genetic characterization of Toxoplasma gondii in bats in Myanmar.

We detected Toxoplasma gondii in 29.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 25.5% to 33.1%) of 550 insectivorous bats collected in Myanmar. The genotyping of these positive samples revealed they were closely related to or belong to clonal type I, which is highly virulent in mice, showing that these bats are potential reservoirs for T. gondii transmission.

Stabilizing Low-Coordinated O Ions To Operate Cationic and Anionic Redox Chemistry of Li-Ion Battery Materials.

Conventional electrochemical processes are mainly operated by cationic redox chemistry. Developing cumulative cationic and anionic redox chemistry offers a transformative approach to increase the energy storage capacity of Li-ion batteries and active sites of catalysts. However, realizing the reversible anionic redox reaction to increase the specific capacity in Li-ion battery materials is a large challenge because uncontrollable anion-anion combination and gas evolutions cause poor cyclic performance. Here, we use open-framework metal-fluorides (FeF3·0.33H2O) to demonstrate cumulative cationic and anionic redox reactions to be realized through O substitution. Experimental studies verified that O substitution could form reductive O ions, and stabilizing this reductive low-coordinated O by p-d orbital hybridization and hydrogen-transfer-mediated O-H bond formation plays an important role in operating anionic electrochemistry. O substitution also exhibits an improved cyclic performance beyond the insertion-reaction capacity (150 mA h/g) of FeF3·0.33H2O (225 and 300 mA h/g). Theoretical calculations show that FeF2.67O0.33·0.33H2O exhibits a 50% higher insertion-reaction capacity (225 mA h/g) than FeF3·0.33H2O (150 mA h/g) before structural collapse, which is attributed to cumulative cationic (Fe3+ ↔ Fe2+) and anionic (O- ↔ O2-) redox reactions based on our electronic structure analysis. The present study opens a new avenue to develop cationic and anionic electrochemistry to improve the storage capacity and cyclic performance through stabilizing low-coordinated O ions.

Effect of Huisheng oral solution on coagulation function in perioperative period in patients with primary lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is about 4-10% in lung cancer patients. Huisheng oral solution (HSOS) has been previously demonstrated to inhibit carageenan induced acute thrombosis in rats, reduce the incidence of thrombosis in the lungs and mesentery of tumor-bearing mice and inhibit tumor cell metastasis. The purpose of this study was to assess the anticoagulant effect of HSOS in lung cancer patients in the perioperative period. METHODS: This study was a multicenter, randomized, single-blind, blank-controlled clinical trial. A total of patients at five hospitals in Hebei Province, China were included. The patients were randomly divided into study group or control group according to random number table. The primary outcome was the blood test indices in both groups. The study group was given oral HSOS (20 mL, bid) from admission until 24 h before surgery. If no active bleeding was observed, the patients were given oral HSOS (20 mL, tid) from 24 h to 24 d postoperatively. The patients in the study group did not receive any other anticoagulation therapy during the study period and the control group only underwent surgery. The study protocol was approved by the local ethics committee of principal investigator hospital. Blood samples were taken at admission (before therapy), 24 h, 72 h, 10 d (before discharge) and 24 d (first visit after discharge) after surgery. Routine blood tests [red blood cell (RBC) count, white blood cell (WBC) count, hemoglobin (HGB), and platelet (PLT) count] and coagulation function test [prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT), fibrinogen (FIB), and plasma D-dimer] were performed. The changes in outcome measures over time were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance to compare the differences between groups and between different time points and assess the impact of tumor stage and mode of surgery on them. All tests were two-tailed, and P values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The results differed between different tumor stage groups. In stage III-IV group, there was no significant difference in various indices between the study group and control group. In stage I-II group, there was significant difference in hemoglobin (P=0.004), platelet count (P=0.007), fibrinogen (P=0.046), and plasma D-dimer (24 d: P=0.032) between two groups. Fibrinogen reach the peak 72 h after surgery, and other indices reach the peak 7-10 d postoperatively and declined one month after surgery, and the decline tendency was different between two groups. In addition, no adverse drug reaction was observed in both the study group and control group. CONCLUSIONS: HSOS (20 mL, tid) is of good safety profile and does not increase the risk of bleeding. With its unique characteristic of convenience for being taken, HSOS (20 mL, tid) could be a proper treatment for lung cancer patients in the perioperative period.

[Clinical analysis of surgically treated patients with adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung].

BACKGROUND: Adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung is a rare pathologic type of lung cancer. The aim of this study is to explore the clinical features of adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung. METHODS: A total of 115 patients with adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung were retrospectively analysed, who were diagnosed by operation and pathology. RESULTS: Among the 36 female patients, 7 were under 49 years (19.44%). There were 14 patients (12.17%) without any symptom and 16 patients had residual carcinoma at the resection margin (14.04%). The degree of lymph node metastasis was 37.51%. The proportion of stage III patients was 54.78%. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung in young women (under 49 years, especially under 39 years) is rather high. The residual carcinoma at the resection margin often occurs after routine operation. The degree of lymph node metastasis is rather high.

PD-L1 expression is associated with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-associated mortalities worldwide. Novel immunotherapies have been developed to improve the clinical outcomes of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Antibodies against programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death protein 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) have been tested in clinical trials, and anti-PD-1 antibody has been approved for the treatment of NSCLC. The aim of the present study was to assess expression of PD-1, PD-L1 and programmed cell death protein 1 ligand 2 (PD-L2) in 48 patients with NSCLC, using immunohistochemical staining. The results found that 35.4% (17/48) of patients were positive for PD-1 expression, 64.6% (31/48) were positive for PD-L1 expression and 45.8% (22/48) were positive for PD-L2 expression. Neither PD-1 nor PD-L2 expression was associated with gender, histology, differentiation status, tumor stage or lymph node metastasis. PD-L1 expression was not associated with gender, histology, differentiation status or lymph node metastasis; however, PD-L1 expression was significantly increased in stage III NSCLC (85.7% PD-L1+) compared with stage I/II NSCLC (55.9% PD-L1+) (P=0.049).

Multiple doping structures of the rare-earth atoms in ß-SiAlON:Ce phosphors and their effects on luminescence properties.

The critical doping structures of rare-earth atoms in the promising ß-SiAlON phosphors have long been argued owing to the lack of direct evidence. Here, the exact locations and coordination of the Ce rare-earth atoms in the ß-SiAlON structure have been examined using an atom-resolved Cs-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope. Three different occupation sites for the Ce atoms have been directly observed: two of them are in the structural channel coordinated with six and nine N(O) atoms, respectively; the other one is the unexpected substitution site for Si(Al). The chemical valences and stabilities of the doping Ce ions at the different occupation sites have been evaluated using density functional calculations. Correlation of the different doping structures with the luminescence properties has been investigated by the aid of cathodoluminescence (CL) microanalysis, which verifies the different contribution of the interstitial trivalent Ce ions to the light emission while no luminescence is observed for the substitutional doping of quadrivalent Ce.

[Clinical characteristics and outcomes of lung cancer patients 
with EGFR mutations in exons 19 and 21].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Studies on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathways and the therapeutic effects of EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) have recently proven that targeted therapy has a major role in the treatment of lung cancer. However, the therapeutic effects of EGFR-TKIs on lung cancers with different EGFR mutation subtypes remain unclear. And if there is a significant difference in the effects of EGFR-TKIs, the mechanisms for the difference remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical importance of EGFR mutations in exons 19 and 21 of lung cancer patients and to compare the outcomes of these patients. METHODS: The study recruited 113 patients who had non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR mutations. EGFR mutations were detected for 47 patients using Real-time PCR or DNA sequencinag. The mutations of the remaining patients were determined using xTag-EGFR liquid chip technology. All stages I-III patients underwent radical resection followed by 4 cycles of postoperative chemotherapy. Patients with pleural metastases underwent pleural biopsy, pleurodesis, and chemotherapy only. Patients with distant metastases underwent biopsy and chemotherapy only. Collected clinical data were analyzed using SPSS 19.0 software. RESULTS: EGFR exon mutations 19 and 21 were found in 56 and 57 patients, respectively. The mean age of patients with exon 19 mutations was lower than the age of the patients with exon 21 mutations (57.02±11.31 years vs 62.25±7.76 years, respectively; P<0.05). The primary tumors of patients with exon 19 mutations were more likely occur in the right lung. There were no significant differences in gender, smoking status, histopathology, level of differentiation, and stage of disease (P>0.05) between the patients with exon 19 and 21 mutations; and survival analysis of 91 (80.5%) patients with complete clinical data found no differences in overall survival. Stratification analysis found out that patients with exon 19 mutations had longer overall survival associated with age>61 years, male gender, ever smoking, and stage IV disease; although the differences were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the lung cancer patients with EGFR exon 21 mutations, the patients with EGFR exon 19 mutations were younger, and their primary tumors were more likely to occur in the right lung. There were no significant differences between the lung cancer patients with exon 19 and 21 mutations for overall survival, gender, smoking status, histopathology, level of differentiation, and disease stage.

The dynamics simulation and quantum calculation investigation about luminescence mechanism of coelenteramide.

The dynamics simulation and quantum chemical calculation are employed to investigate spectrum properties of deprotonation process of coelenteramide and two final states neutral state and phenolate anion. According to the calculation results, theoretical evidence supporting the luminescence mechanism hypothesis is proposed in a significant bioluminescence process. In vivo of marine bioluminescent organisms, if the protein motion provides the conditions for the deprotonation of coelenteramide in some protein molecules, the phenolate anion is completely deprotonated coelenteramide as an emitter in these protein molecules and emits fluorescence assigned to the lower energy peak. And in another emitter in which the condition of deprotonation is not met, the fluorescence is produced by the neutral state of coelenteramide and assigned to the higher energy peak. The energy difference decreases gradually when the proton of coelenteramide gradually approaches to His22. For phenolate anion and neutral state, electronic cloud distributions between their each frontier molecular orbitals HOMO and LUMO have high overlapping volume. The molecular electrostatic potential indicates that for phenolate anion, the oxygen atom after deprotonation has greater electron density, which is good for formation hydrogen bonds with amino acids in the environment.

The effect of micro-environment on luminescence of aequorin: the role of amino acids and explicit water molecules on spectroscopic properties of coelenteramide.

Despite the fact that the luminescence reaction mechanism of aequorin has been intensively investigated, details in luminescence such as the effect of important amino acids residues and explicit water molecules on spectroscopic properties of coelenteramide remain unclear. In this work, the effect of amino acids residues His16, Tyr82, Trp86, Phe113, Trp129, Tyr132, explicit water molecules Wat505 and Wat405 on the spectral properties of CLM(-) has been studied by CAM-B3LYP, TD M06L and TD CAM-B3LYP methods in hydrophobic environment and aqueous solution. In hydrophobic environment, the amino acids or water molecules have no significant effect on the absorption. Tyr82 and Trp86 move close to CLM(-) changes the hydrogen bond network, and thus, the spectral properties is significantly affected by the hydrogen bonds between His16H(+)+Tyr82+Trp86 and CLM(-). Tyr82, Trp86 hydrogen bonding to CLM(-) upshifts the excited energy and helps emission spectra shift to blue region. Therefore, it is concluded that His16H(+)+Tyr82+Trp86 modify the emission spectra. The molecular electrostatic potential indicated that the greater electron density is located at the oxygen atom of 6-p-hydroxyphenyl group of CLM(-), and it facilitates the formation of hydrogen bond with His16H(+)+Tyr82+Trp86. It is a critical condition for the modification of emission spectra. It is expected to help to understand the interactions between emitter and amino acids in the micro environment.

Virome profiling of bats from Myanmar by metagenomic analysis of tissue samples reveals more novel Mammalian viruses.

Bats are reservoir animals harboring many important pathogenic viruses and with the capability of transmitting these to humans and other animals. To establish an effective surveillance to monitor transboundary spread of bat viruses between Myanmar and China, complete organs from the thorax and abdomen from 853 bats of six species from two Myanmar counties close to Yunnan province, China, were collected and tested for their virome through metagenomics by Solexa sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. In total, 3,742,314 reads of 114 bases were generated, and over 86% were assembled into 1,649,512 contigs with an average length of 114 bp, of which 26,698 (2%) contigs were recognizable viral sequences belonging to 24 viral families. Of the viral contigs 45% (12,086/26,698) were related to vertebrate viruses, 28% (7,443/26,698) to insect viruses, 27% (7,074/26,698) to phages and 95 contigs to plant viruses. The metagenomic results were confirmed by PCR of selected viruses in all bat samples followed by phylogenetic analysis, which has led to the discovery of some novel bat viruses of the genera Mamastrovirus, Bocavirus, Circovirus, Iflavirus and Orthohepadnavirus and to their prevalence rates in two bat species. In conclusion, the present study aims to present the bat virome in Myanmar, and the results obtained further expand the spectrum of viruses harbored by bats.

[Cloning of full-length coding sequence of tree shrew CD4 and prediction of its molecular characteristics].

The tree shrews, as an ideal animal model receiving extensive attentions to human disease research, demands essential research tools, in particular cellular markers and monoclonal antibodies for immunological studies. In this paper, a 1 365 bp of the full-length CD4 cDNA encoding sequence was cloned from total RNA in peripheral blood of tree shrews, the sequence completes two unknown fragment gaps of tree shrews predicted CD4 cDNA in the GenBank database, and its molecular characteristics were analyzed compared with other mammals by using biology software such as Clustal W2.0 and so forth. The results showed that the extracellular and intracellular domains of tree shrews CD4 amino acid sequence are conserved. The tree shrews CD4 amino acid sequence showed a close genetic relationship with Homo sapiens and Macaca mulatta. Most regions of the tree shrews CD4 molecule surface showed positive charges as humans. However, compared with CD4 extracellular domain D1 of human, CD4 D1 surface of tree shrews showed more negative charges, and more two N-glycosylation sites, which may affect antibody binding. This study provides a theoretical basis for the preparation and functional studies of CD4 monoclonal antibody.

[Cloning of full-length coding sequence of tree shrew CD3E and prediction of its molecular characteristics].

The use of tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri) in human disease studies demands essential research tools, in particular cellular markers and their monoclonal antibodies for immunological studies. Here we cloned the full-length cDNAs encoding CD3E from total RNA of the spleen, liver and peripheral blood of tree shrews and analyzed their structural characteristics in comparison with other mammals by Discovery Studio software. The results showed that the open reading frame sequence of tree shrew CD3E was 582 bp, encoding 194 amino acids. The overall structure of tree shrew CD3E protein was similar to its counterparts of other mammals, intracellular and transmembrane domain highly conserved. However, detailed analysis revealed two potential glycosylation sites and different surface charges in the extracellular domain. Availability of the entire open-reading-frame and related sequence information would therefore facilitate the preparation of monoclonal antibodies against tree shrew CD3 and further studies for its function.

Theoretical Investigation of the Reaction of Imidogen with Fulminic Acid.

The mechanism of the reaction of imidogen (NH) with fulminic acid (HCNO) has been investigated theoretically using the multiconfigurational self-consistent-field theory (MCSCF), multireference Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation theory (RSPT2), and coupled cluster theory (CC) along with the complete basis set extrapolations (CBS). The calculations show that the NH + HCNO reaction takes place via an N → C addition mechanism predominantly by surmounting a small barrier (ca. ∼3 kcal/mol). The adduct is HC(NH)NO in the triplet state with an exothermicity of more than 60 kcal/mol. The subsequent C-N cleavage, which is nearly barrierless, leads to HCNH and NO as the final products. This represents the most energetically favorable product channel of the title reaction. The channels leading to HCN, HNC, HNO, or HON via O- or H-migration mechanisms involve higher barriers and thus are negligible. The singlet-triplet crossing has been investigated as well for the HCNH + NO product channel by locating the conical interactions. Using transition state theory, the rate constants were predicted as a function of temperatures. It is suggested that the NH + HCNO reaction might be an alternative source for the NO regeneration under the combustion conditions. This calculation is useful to simulate experimental investigations of the NH + HCNO reaction.

[Salmonella choleraesuis C500 delivering DNA immunization against classical swine fever virus].

Classical Swine Fever Virus (CSFV) E2 protein eukaryotic expression plasmid pVAXE2 was constructed. The plasmid pVAXE2 was transformed into Salmonella choleraesuis C500 (S. C500) attenuated vaccine strain by electroporation to generate Salmonella choleraesuis engineering strain S. C500/pVAXE2. The characterization of S. C500/pVAXE2 in morphology, growth, biochemistry and serology indicated that it retained the same properties as its original strain S. C500 with exception of kanamycin resistance originated from the plasmid pVAXE2. The plasmid stable in the bacteria after 15 passages. Kunming mice and rabbits were vaccinated three times at two weeks interval with S. C500/pVAXE2 in oral and intramuscular routes at the dosage of 1 x 10(8) CFU for mice and 2 x 10(9) CFU for rabbits each time. The specific antibody response against CSFV and Salmonella choleraesuis was detected by ELISA. Two weeks after the third boost the immunized rabbits were challenged with 20 ID50 of hog cholera lapinized virus (HCLV), followed by a virulent strain of Salmonella choleraesuis two week later than HCLV challenge. The results showed that all immunized mice and rabbits produced significant antibodies against CSFV and Salmonella choleraesuis, and the immunized rabbits demonstrated the effective protection against the challenge of HCLV and virulent Salmonella choleraesuis. These results indicated the potential of developing multiplex swine DNA vaccine by using this bacteria as the vector.