Deciphering the tumour microenvironment of clear cell renal cell carcinoma: Prognostic insights from programmed death genes using machine learning.

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), a prevalent kidney cancer form characterised by its invasiveness and heterogeneity, presents challenges in late-stage prognosis and treatment outcomes. Programmed cell death mechanisms, crucial in eliminating cancer cells, offer substantial insights into malignant tumour diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. This study aims to provide a model based on 15 types of Programmed Cell Death-Related Genes (PCDRGs) for evaluating immune microenvironment and prognosis in ccRCC patients. ccRCC patients from the TCGA and arrayexpress cohorts were grouped based on PCDRGs. A combination model using Lasso and SuperPC was constructed to identify prognostic gene features. The arrayexpress cohort validated the model, confirming its robustness. Immune microenvironment analysis, facilitated by PCDRGs, employed various methods, including CIBERSORT. Drug sensitivity analysis guided clinical treatment decisions. Single-cell data enabled Programmed Cell Death-Related scoring, subsequent pseudo-temporal and cell-cell communication analyses. A PCDRGs signature was established using TCGA-KIRC data. External validation in the arrayexpress cohort underscored the model's superiority over traditional clinical features. Furthermore, our single-cell analysis unveiled the roles of PCDRG-based single-cell subgroups in ccRCC, both in pseudo-temporal progression and intercellular communication. Finally, we performed CCK-8 assay and other experiments to investigate csf2. In conclusion, these findings reveal that csf2 inhibit the growth, infiltration and movement of cells associated with renal clear cell carcinoma. This study introduces a PCDRGs prognostic model benefiting ccRCC patients while shedding light on the pivotal role of programmed cell death genes in shaping the immune microenvironment of ccRCC patients.

Amide proton transfer-weighted MRI for assessing rectal adenocarcinoma T-staging and perineural invasion: a prospective study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the value of the pre-operative amide proton transfer-weighted (APTw) MRI to assess the prognostic factors in rectal adenocarcinoma (RA). METHODS: This prospective study ran from January 2022 to September 2023 and consecutively enrolled participants with RA who underwent pre-operative MRI and radical surgery. The APTw signal intensity (SI) values of RA with various tumor (T), node (N) stages, perineural invasion (PNI), and tumor grade were compared by Mann-Whitney U-test or t-test. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the APTw SI values. RESULTS: A total of 51 participants were enrolled (mean age, 58 years ± 10 [standard deviation], 26 men). There were 24 in the T1-T2 stage and 9 with positive PNI. The APTw SI max, 99th, and 95th values were significantly higher in T3-T4 stage tumor than in T1-T2; the median (interquartile range) (M (IQR)) was (4.0% (3.6-4.9%) vs 3.4% (2.9- 4.3%), p = 0.017), (3.7% (3.2-4.1%) vs 3.2% (2.8-3.8%), p = 0.013), and (3.3% (2.8-3.8%) vs 2.9% (2.3-3.5%), p = 0.033), respectively. These indicators also differed significantly between the PNI groups, with the M (IQR) (4.5% (3.6-5.7%) vs 3.7% (3.2-4.2%), p = 0.017), (4.1% (3.4-4.8%) vs 3.3% (3.0-3.9%), p = 0.022), and (3.7% (2.7-4.2%) vs 2.9% (2.6-3.5%), p = 0.045), respectively. CONCLUSION: Pre-operative APTw MRI has potential value in the assessment of T-staging and PNI determination in RA. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: Pre-operative amide proton transfer-weighted MRI provides a quantitative method for noninvasive assessment of T-staging and PNI in RA aiding in precision treatment planning. KEY POINTS: The efficacy of APTw MRI in RA needs further investigation. T3-T4 stage and PNI positive APTw signal intensities were higher than T1-T2 and non-PNI, respectively. APTw MRI provides a quantitative method for assessment of T staging and PNI in RA.

Systems Approach to Pathogenic Mechanism of Type 2 Diabetes and Drug Discovery Design Based on Deep Learning and Drug Design Specifications.

In this study, we proposed a systems biology approach to investigate the pathogenic mechanism for identifying significant biomarkers as drug targets and a systematic drug discovery strategy to design a potential multiple-molecule targeting drug for type 2 diabetes (T2D) treatment. We first integrated databases to construct the genome-wide genetic and epigenetic networks (GWGENs), which consist of protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs) and gene regulatory networks (GRNs) for T2D and non-T2D (health), respectively. Second, the relevant "real GWGENs" are identified by system identification and system order detection methods performed on the T2D and non-T2D RNA-seq data. To simplify network analysis, principal network projection (PNP) was thereby exploited to extract core GWGENs from real GWGENs. Then, with the help of KEGG pathway annotation, core signaling pathways were constructed to identify significant biomarkers. Furthermore, in order to discover potential drugs for the selected pathogenic biomarkers (i.e., drug targets) from the core signaling pathways, not only did we train a deep neural network (DNN)-based drug-target interaction (DTI) model to predict candidate drug's binding with the identified biomarkers but also considered a set of design specifications, including drug regulation ability, toxicity, sensitivity, and side effects to sieve out promising drugs suitable for T2D.

All Ion Differential Analysis Refines the Detection of Terminal and Internal Diagnostic Fragment Ions for the Characterization of Biologics Product-Related Variants and Impurities by Middle-down Mass Spectrometry.

Characterization and monitoring of post-translational modifications (PTMs) are key analytical requirements during the development of biologics. Top and middle-down (MD) approaches aim at capturing a direct snapshot of all proteoforms with their combinatorial distribution. However, classical MD data analysis is predominantly limited to the interpretation of terminal ion series and PTMs matched by mass. In this study, time-resolved deconvolution (TRD) maps were produced to detect variants and impurities in Fd, Fc/2, and LC subunits of an IgG1 consistently across multiple samples. Classical MD analysis retrieved terminal ions, suggesting a deamidation at a NN motif for a LC+1 Da species, and inconclusive information for a LC+40 Da species. Additionally, we performed differential analysis of all MS2 ions across unmodified and variant subunit spectra to focus data analysis on spectral differences and reveal diagnostic ions (present, absent, enriched, or depleted ions) before fragment assignment. This sensitive methodology was able to detect diagnostic ions in a chimeric spectrum pointing at a proline-to-histidine sequence variant (+40 Da) missed by classical MD analysis. This methodology was pivotal to unravel relevant terminal ions and internal fragments N-terminal to proline as diagnostic ions to confirm the deamidation site. Moreover, different cleavage propensities were revealed at the deamidated DN site compared to the native NN motif for terminal and internal fragments, which may be tracked as a diagnostic behavior. Differential analysis may refine the detection of novel diagnostic ions and leverage the sequence information on internal fragments for the characterization of product-related variants and impurities by MD mass spectrometry.

Concerted mass spectrometry-based glycomic approach for precision mapping of sulfo sialylated N-glycans on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and lymphocytes.

Despite well-recognized biological importance, mass spectrometry (MS)-based glycomic identification of sulfo-, sialylated terminal glyco-epitopes on the N-glycans of various immune cell types remains technically challenging and rarely reported. Previous studies with monoclonal antibody have implicated a regulated expression of 6-sulfo-α2-6-sialyl LacNAc on B cells in peripheral lymph nodes and the circulating peripheral blood lymphocytes but its occurrence on leukemia cells or lymphomas have not been critically addressed. In this study, we have extended our previously developed MS-based sulfoglycomic platform by incorporating additional complementary analytical approaches in order to achieve a high sensitivity mapping and relative quantification of the detected sulfated glycotopes down to the level of defining their sialyl linkages. We showed that discovery mode sulfoglycomics and precise location of sulfate were best achieved by multimode MS analyses of fractionated, permethylated sulfated N-glycans. On the other hand, the relative degree of sulfation on individual N-glycans could be more efficiently inferred from the respective extracted ion chromatograms of native, non-sulfated and sulfated target N-glycans in single LC-MS/MS runs. The GlcNAc-6-O-sulfated α2-6-sialyl LacNAc, which constitutes the higher affinity ligand for the human inhibitory co-receptor of B cells, CD22, was found to be commonly carried on a range of complex type N-glycans from human CD19+ and CD4+ lymphocytes. We further showed that its occurrence on the most abundant α2-6-disialylated biantennary structure from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients diagnosed as B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia varied within ±2-fold abundance from the mean value determined for isolated CD19+ lymphocytes and cultured B-CLL cells.

Simvastatin pretreatment enhances ischemia-induced neovascularization and blood flow recovery in streptozotocin-treated mice.

OBJECTIVE: In contrast to statins, ezetimibe belongs to a new class of cholesterol-lowering agent not known to mediate pleiotropic effects. Here we investigate whether ezetimibe or simvastatin can help recover blood flow and reduce tissue damage after hindlimb ischemia surgery in diabetic mice. METHODS: Diabetic mice were created by intraperitoneal streptozotocin injection in male FVB/NJ mice. All diabetic mice were subsequently divided into three groups: diabetic control, diabetic with simvastatin (0.2 mg/kg), and diabetic with ezetimibe (0.1 mg/kg). All experimental mice received hindlimb ischemia surgery after 2 weeks of drug treatment. Circulating endothelial progenitor cell number was determined by flow cytometry (Sca-1+/C-kit+/Flk-1+) in peripheral blood. RESULTS: In comparison to the mice in the diabetic control group (n = 6), wild-type mice (n = 6) and diabetic mice that received simvastatin (n = 6) had significantly increased ischemic/nonischemic limb blood perfusion ratio, higher capillary density (P < .05, respectively), and reduced ischemic limb damage (diabetic control, 80%; diabetic with simvastatin, 40%; diabetic with ezetimibe, 80%). However, these proangiogenic effects were not observed in diabetic mice that had been treated with ezetimibe. In addition, the number of ischemia-triggered endothelial progenitor cells in peripheral blood was significantly enhanced in the wild-type mice and in the diabetic mice being treated with simvastatin, but not in those being treated with ezetimibe, after ischemic surgery. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase activity as determined by acetylcholine-stimulated vasorelaxation recovered notably in diabetic mice that were treated with simvastatin but was not improved by ezetimibe (n = 6, each group). Moreover, simvastatin led to a significant upregulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase phosphorylation; vascular endothelial growth factor protein levels in ischemic tissues were also increased. By contrast, administration of ezetimibe did not produce these effects. CONCLUSIONS: Simvastatin helped recover blood flow and reduce tissue damage in ischemic hindlimbs and also promoted new vessel formation in streptozotocin-treated mice, whereas ezetimibe did not. These results may help explain why statins and ezetimibe decrease cholesterol levels, whereas their pleiotropic effects on vasoprotective functions independent of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol lowering are different.

The association of BRAF V600E gene mutation with proliferative activity and histopathological characteristics of congenital melanocytic nevi in children.

BACKGROUND: A lot of congenital melanocytic nevi (CMN) carry the somatic mutation in the oncogene BRAF V600E. But the detailed histopathologic characteristics and the proliferative activity of CMN with BRAF V600E gene mutation have not been systematically documented. OBJECTIVE: To identify the proliferative activity and histopathological features correlating them with BRAF V600E gene mutation status in CMN. METHODS: CMN were retrospectively identified from the laboratory reporting system. Mutations were determined by Sanger sequencing. The CMN were divided into a mutant group and control group according to whether there was BRAF gene mutation and were strictly matched according to gender, age, nevus size, and location. Histopathological analysis, analysis of Ki67 expression by immunohistochemistry and laser confocal fluorescence microscopy were performed. RESULTS: The differences in Ki67 index, the depth of nevus cell involvement and the number of nevus cell nests between the mutant group and the control group was statistically significant, with p-values of 0.041, 0.002 and 0.007, respectively. Compared with BRAF V600E negative nevi, BRAF V600E positive nevi often exhibited predominantly nested intraepidermal melanocytes, and larger junctional nests, but the difference in this data sets were not statistically significant. The number of nests (p = 0.001) was positively correlated with the proportion of Ki67 positive cells. STUDY LIMITATIONS: A small sample of patients were included and there was no follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: BRAF V600E gene mutations were associated with high proliferative activity and distinct histopathological features in congenital melanocytic nevi.

Upregulation of SPP1 Is a Marker for Poor Lung Cancer Prognosis and Contributes to Cancer Progression and Cisplatin Resistance.

The chemoresistance of lung cancer is a significant contributor to its high mortality and morbidity rate. There is an urgent need to identify differentially expressed genes in lung cancer patients with a poor prognosis to develop effective means to overcome drug resistance in subsequent treatment. In this study, we identified the secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1) as a potential gene associated with a poor diagnosis of lung cancer patients using the Cancer Genome Atlas analysis, which suggested that the expression of SPP1 in tumor tissues was significantly higher than normal tissues. The high expression of SPP1 was also correlated with tumor grade and poor clinical prognosis. To understand the roles of SPP1 and the DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), which regulated SPP1 expression, in affecting cell viability, migration and invasion, SPP1 and DNMT1 were overexpressed in the human lung cancer A549 and NCI-446 cells, followed by analyzing cell viability, migration and invasion. We showed that SPP1 promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of lung cancer cells, and increased the resistance of lung cancer to the chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin. Knocking down SPP1 in cells restored sensitivity to cisplatin. Further, A549 cells without SPP1 overexpression demonstrated lower tumor growth rate than SPP1 overexpression cells using the xenograft tumor mouse model. High expression of SPP1 in lung cancer tumor tissue was caused by the reduced methylation level of its promoter region mediated by DNMT1. Our data suggested that SPP1 can be used as a marker for highly malignant lung cancer and targeting SPP1 may be a potential lung cancer treatment strategy.

LncRNA MALAT1 promotes proliferation and migration of airway smooth muscle cells in asthma by downregulating microRNA-216a.

Asthma is a difficult chronic airway inflammation, if it cannot be treated and relieved in time, it will seriously affect the health and quality of life of patients. Airway remodeling is relevant to asthma, but there is currently no effective treatment for airway remodeling. Regulating the biological function of airway smooth muscle cells (AMSCs) may be an important method to inhibit airway remodeling. LncRNA MALAT1 and microRNA-216a are involved in the regulation of AMSCs respectively, but there is no research to prove that they can regulate airway remodeling of asthma through mutual combination. Hence, the aim of the present study was performed to investigate the function of lncRNA MALAT1 and microRNA-216a on AMSCs in asthma. The relationship between lncRNA MALAT1, microRNA-216a and AMSCs was studied by MTT, qPCR, Western blot, Transwell and flow cytometry. The results revealed that lncRNA MALAT1 was up-regulated and microRNA-216a was down-regulated in asthma. lncRNA MALAT1 inhibited microRNA-216a targetedly. Whether downregulating lncRNA MALAT1 or upregulating microRNA-216a, cell proliferation, migration and invasion were reduced and apoptosis increased. Therefore, it is believed that lncRNA MALAT1 promotes proliferation and migration of asthma AMSCs by downregulating microRNA-216a. Since lncRNA MALAT1 and microRNA-216a take part in asthma by jointly regulating the proliferation of airway smooth muscle cells and other biological functions, it would be interesting to study if they become biomarkers of asthma, and relationship between the two in asthma diagnosis and poor prognosis.

Circular RNA ERBB2 Contributes to Proliferation and Migration of Airway Smooth Muscle Cells via miR-98-5p/IGF1R Signaling in Asthma.

BACKGROUND: Asthma belongs to chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases characterized by airway inflammation and remodeling. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are promising therapeutic targets for various diseases, including asthma. In this work, we aim to investigate the role of circular RNA Erb-B2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (circERBB2) during progression of asthma. METHODS: Human airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) were treated with platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) to mimic cell remodeling. The expression of circERBB2, microRNA-98-5p (miR-98-5p), and insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) was measured by qRT-PCR. Cell proliferation, migration and apoptosis were determined by cell counting-8 (CCK-8), transwell, and flow cytometry. Protein levels of PCNA, MMP-9, IGF1R were evaluated using Western blotting. The levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), and IL-6 were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Luciferase reporter gene experiment was adopted to evaluate the targeting relationship between miR-98-5p with circERBB2 and IGF1R. Interaction between RNAs was determined by RNA pulldown and RIP assay. RESULTS: The depletion of circERBB2 attenuated the proliferation, migration, and levels of inflammatory factors induced by PDGF-BB and cell apoptosis. CircERBB2 was identified to directly interact with miR-98-5p, and overexpression of miR-98-5p abolished the function of circERBB2 on PDGF-BB-stimulated ASMCs. IGF1R was identified as a target of miR-98-5p, and knockdown of IGF1R relieved the PDGF-BB-induced ASMCs proliferation and migration. CONCLUSION: Our work disclosed that knockdown of circERBB2 suppressed PDGF-BB-caused proliferation, migration and inflammatory response of ASMCs, through regulating miR-98-5p/IGF1R signaling, presented circERBB2 as a promising therapeutic target for asthma.

Development of unenhanced CT-based imaging signature for BAP1 mutation status prediction in malignant pleural mesothelioma: Consideration of 2D and 3D segmentation.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to explore the feasibility of 2D and 3D radiomics signature based on the unenhanced computed tomography (CT) images to predict BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) gene mutation status for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 74 patients with MPM were retrospectively enrolled (22 mutant BAP1, 52 wild-type BAP1 demonstrated by Sanger sequencing). The radiomic features were extracted respectively from the 2D and 3D segmentation of unenhanced pre-treatment CT images, and the dataset was randomly divided into training (n = 51) and test (n = 23) sets for radiomics model development and internal validation. The synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE) was used for data balancing in the training set. 2D or 3D features were sequentially selected by ICC > 0.8, correlation analysis (cut-value 0.7), univariate analysis or univariate logistic regression (LR), which were involved into multivariate LR for LR model construction. Following the comparison of the 2D and 3D models by the ROC analysis and Delong test for AUC, the calibration and clinical utility of 2D and 3D models were evaluated. RESULTS: 3D radiomic features showed better ICCs compared with 2D in both intra- (P < 0.001) and inter-observer (P < 0.001) analysis. 3D radiomic model based on selected features developed from a balanced training dataset presented a favorable predictive performance with AUC of 0.786 and 0.768 in the training and test sets, respectively. The predictive performance of 3D model was superior to 2D model (1 feature) both in the training (AUC 0.786 vs. 0.683, P = 0.036) and the test (AUC 0.768 vs.0.652, P = 0.441) set. The calibration curve and decision curves also indicate a better BAP1 prediction performance and clinical benefit for 3D model than that of 2D model. CONCLUSION: The developed unenhanced CT-based 3D radiomics signature is potential as a noninvasive marker for predicting BAP1 mutation status.

Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection alters the macrophage N-glycome.

Macrophage glycosylation is essential to initiate the host-immune defense but may also be targeted by pathogens to promote infection. Indeed, the alteration of the cell-surface glycosylation status may affect the binding of lectins involved in cell activation and adhesion. Herein, we demonstrate that infection by M. bovis BCG induces the remodeling of the N-glycomes of both human primary blood monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) and macrophage-cell line THP1. MALDI-MS based N-glycomic analysis established that mycobacterial infection induced increased synthesis of biantennary and multifucosylated complex type N-glycans. In contrast, infection of macrophages by M. bovis BCG did not modify the glycosphingolipids composition of macrophages. Further nano-LC-MSn glycotope-centric analysis of total N-glycans demonstrated that the increased fucosylation was due to an increased expression of the Lex (Galß1-4[Fucα1-3]GlcNAc) epitope, also known as stage-specific embryonic antigen-1. Modification of the surface expression of Lex was further confirmed in both MDM and THP-1 cells by FACS analysis using an α1,3-linked fucose specific lectin. Activation with the mycobacterial lipopeptide Pam3Lp19, an agonist of toll-like receptor 2, did not modify the overall fucosylation pattern, which suggests that the infection process is required to modify surface glycosylation. These results pave the way toward the understanding of infection-triggered cell-surface remodeling of macrophages.

The association of BRAF V600E gene mutation with proliferative activity and histopathological characteristics of congenital melanocytic nevi in children

Abstract Background: A lot of congenital melanocytic nevi (CMN) carry the somatic mutation in the oncogene BRAF V600E. But the detailed histopathologic characteristics and the proliferative activity of CMN with BRAF V600E gene mutation have not been systematically documented. Objective: To identify the proliferative activity and histopathological features correlating them with BRAF V600E gene mutation status in CMN. Methods: CMN were retrospectively identified from the laboratory reporting system. Mutations were determined by Sanger sequencing. The CMN were divided into a mutant group and control group according to whether there was BRAF gene mutation and were strictly matched according to gender, age, nevus size, and location. Histopathological analysis, analysis of Ki67 expression by immunohistochemistry and laser confocal fluorescence microscopy were performed. Results: The differences in Ki67 index, the depth of nevus cell involvement and the number of nevus cell nests between the mutant group and the control group was statistically significant, with p-values of 0.041, 0.002 and 0.007, respectively. Compared with BRAFV600E negative nevi, BRAF V600E positive nevi often exhibited predominantly nested intraepidermal melanocytes, and larger junctional nests, but the difference in this datasets were not statistically significant. The number of nests (p = 0.001) was positively correlated with the proportion of Ki67 positive cells. Study limitations: A small sample of patients were included and there was no follow-up. Conclusions: BRAF V600E gene mutations were associated with high proliferative activity and distinct histopathological features in congenital melanocytic nevi.

Di-2-(2-oxindolin-3-ylidene)malononitrile Derivatives for N-Type Air-Stable Organic Field-Effect Transistors.

The nitrogenization of phenyl rings on DIM derivatives not only enhances molecular coplanarity but also stabilizes molecular LUMO levels, favoring charge transfer and improving air stability. Therefore, n-type organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) that are based on DIM-N2C8 with nitrogen atoms on both sides of the phenyl rings exhibit a moderate electron mobility of 0.059 cm2 V-1 s-1 under ambient conditions.

Contact sensitization in Chinese patients with hand eczema.

BACKGROUND: Contact sensitization is an important cause of hand eczema, a common disease that affects both daily and occupational life. OBJECTIVE: To describe contact allergens in Chinese patients with hand eczema and to analyze the association between allergens and occupational exposure. METHODS: Three hundred sixty-six patients with hand eczema underwent patch testing with a modified North American standard series between September 1989 and December 2009. RESULTS: Positive patch-test reactions were observed in 74% of patients. The most frequent allergens were p-phenylenediamine (22.7%), nickel sulfate (21.9%), fragrance mix (19.9%), ammoniated mercury (19.7%), and carba mix (17.8%). Nickel and fragrance allergy in women, and carba mix and chromate allergy in men, showed gender predilection, and 64.2% of patients developed hand eczema from occupational exposure. Positive reactions to p-phenylenediamine in hairdressers and to chromate in metalworkers and construction workers presented higher frequencies (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: p-Phenylenediamine, nickel, fragrance, mercury, and rubber chemicals are common allergens in Chinese patients with hand eczema. Gender and occupation may cause different exposures; thus, allergens may vary.