Metabolomic Identification of Serum Exosome-Derived Biomarkers for Bipolar Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Exosomes are extracellular vesicles that play important roles in various physiological and pathological functions. Previous studies have demonstrated that exosome-derived contents are promising biomarkers to inform the pathogenesis and diagnosis of major depressive disorder and schizophrenia. METHODS: We used ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to analyze the differentially expressed metabolites in serum exosomes of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and evaluated the potential of exosomal metabolites as biomarkers for BD. RESULTS: Our results showed 26 differentially expressed serum exosomal metabolites in patients with BD (n = 32) when compared with healthy control (HC) subjects (n = 40), and these differentially expressed metabolites were enriched in pathways related to sugar metabolism. We then utilized random forest classifier and identified 15 exosomal metabolites that can be used to classify samples from patients with BD and HC subjects with 0.838 accuracy (95% CI, 0.604-1.00) in the training set of participants. These 15 metabolites showed excellent performance in differentiating between patients with BD and HC subjects in the testing set of participants, with 0.971 accuracy (95% CI, 0.865-1.00). Importantly, the 15 exosomal metabolites also showed good to excellent performance in differentiating between BD patients and other major psychiatric diseases (major depressive disorder and schizophrenia). CONCLUSION: Collectively, our findings for the first time revealed a potential role of exosomal metabolite dysregulations in the onset and/or development of BD and suggested that blood exosomal metabolites are strong candidates to inform the diagnosis of BD.

Imaging Findings in Neonates With Congenital Pyriform Sinus Fistula: A Retrospective Study of 45 Cases.

Background: Congenital pyriform sinus fistula (CPSF) is a rare branchial cleft deformity. The characteristics and management of CPSF in neonates are different from those in children or adults, and a comprehensive understanding of the imaging features of neonatal CPSF can facilitate its preoperative diagnosis. Thus, the aim of this study was to summarize the ultrasonography (US) and CT imaging findings of CPSF in neonates. Methods: Forty-five full-term neonates with CPSF, confirmed by pathology after surgical resection from January 2012 to October 2020, were included in this retrospective study. All patients underwent preoperative cervical US and contrast-enhanced CT examinations, and the imaging findings were analyzed. Results: Forty-six cervical cystic masses were found in 45 neonates, including one case with bilateral lesions, three cases with lesions on the right side, and 41 cases on the left side. Both US and CT detected neck abnormality among all cases, while the diagnostic accuracy of US (15/46, 32.6%) was lower than that of CT (42/46, 91.3%). Moreover, CT showed significantly higher detection rates of intralesional air bubbles, involvement of the ipsilateral thyroid, deviation of the airway, and expansion into the mediastinal and retropharyngeal space compared with the US. As the age increased, it was more likely to present some features including the absence of air-containing, thick cyst wall, and poorly defined border (ρ <0.05). Conclusion: CPSF in the neonates showed distinctive imaging findings on contrast-enhanced CT scan, which provides important supplementary information for the diagnosis of CPSF after the initial US examination.

[Multiscale influences of urbanized landscape metrics on the diversity of indigenous plant species: A case study in Shunyi District of Beijing, China.] / åŸŽå¸‚åŒ–æ™¯è§‚æ ¼å±€å¯¹æœ¬åœŸæ¤ç‰©å¤šæ ·æ€§çš„å¤šå°ºåº¦å½±å“­­ä»¥åŒ—京市顺义区为例.

The effects of landscape pattern on plant diversity have been widely reported in literature, with that of urban landscape remaining largely unknown. To explore the impacts of urbanization landscape pattern on plant diversity and its scale effect, 105 plots were investigated in Shunyi District, Beijing. The α and ß diversity of each plot were calculated, and 43 urban landscape indices of 10 scales in the range of 100-1000 m were analyzed with 100 m as the step. The results showed that the urban landscape area metric, core metrics and edge metrics were negatively related with diversity of indigenous plant species at all the examined scales. Shape complexity metrics contributed to plant diversity at small scale, while the area-weighted complexity metrics contributed at large scale. Other metrics, such as connection, proximity, cohesion, fragmentation and interspersion juxtaposition of urban patches showed a slight and unsteady relationship with the diversity of indigenous plant species. The urbanization intensity was negatively related with scales and with plant diversity at all scales. Urban landscape could better conserve indigenous plant diversity by reasonably dividing an urbanized area into many small patches with simple edge. Our results presented suitable urban landscape indicators for preserving plant diversity and suggestions for the construction of ecological cities.