Exenatide reduces atrial fibrillation susceptibility by inhibiting hKv1.5 and hNav1.5 channels.

Exenatide, a promising cardioprotective agent, protects against cardiac structural remodeling and diastolic dysfunction. Combined blockade of sodium and potassium channels is valuable for managing atrial fibrillation (AF). Here, we explored whether exenatide displayed anti-AF effects by inhibiting human Kv1.5 and Nav1.5 channels. We used the whole-cell patch-clamp technique to investigate the effects of exenatide on hKv1.5 and hNav1.5 channels expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells and studied the effects of exenatide on action potential (AP) and other cardiac ionic currents in rat atrial myocytes. Additionally, an electrical mapping system was used to explore the effects of exenatide on electrical properties and AF activity in isolated rat hearts. Finally, a rat AF model, established using acetylcholine and calcium chloride, was employed to evaluate the anti-AF potential of exenatide in rats. Exenatide reversibly suppressed IKv1.5 with IC50 of 3.08 µM, preferentially blocked the hKv1.5 channel in its closed state, and positively shifted the voltage-dependent activation curve. Exenatide also reversibly inhibited INav1.5 with IC50 of 3.30 µM, negatively shifted the voltage-dependent inactivation curve, and slowed its recovery from inactivation with significant use-dependency at 5 and 10 Hz. Furthermore, exenatide prolonged AP duration and suppressed the sustained K+ current (Iss) and transient outward K+ current (Ito), but without inhibition of L-type Ca2+ current (ICa,L) in rat atrial myocytes. Exenatide prevented AF incidence and duration in rat hearts and rats. These findings demonstrate that exenatide inhibits IKv1.5 and INav1.5in vitro and reduces AF susceptibility in isolated rat hearts and rats.

System-wide identification of novel de-ubiquitination targets for USP10 in gastric cancer metastasis through multi-omics screening.

OBJECTIVE: Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 10 (USP10), a typical de-ubiquitinase, has been found to play a double-edged role in human cancers. Previously, we reported that the expression of USP10 was negatively correlated with the depth of gastric wall invasion, lymph node metastasis, and prognosis in gastric cancer (GC) patients. However, it remains unclear whether USP10 can regulate the metastasis of GC cells through its de-ubiquitination function. METHODS: In this study, proteome, ubiquitinome, and transcriptome analyses were conducted to comprehensively identify novel de-ubiquitination targets for USP10 in GC cells. Subsequently, a series of validation experiments, including in vitro cell culture studies, in vivo metastatic tumor models, and clinical sample analyses, were performed to elucidate the regulatory mechanism of USP10 and its de-ubiquitination targets in GC metastasis. RESULTS: After overexpression of USP10 in GC cells, 146 proteins, 489 ubiquitin sites, and 61 mRNAs exhibited differential expression. By integrating the results of multi-omics, we ultimately screened 9 potential substrates of USP10, including TNFRSF10B, SLC2A3, CD44, CSTF2, RPS27, TPD52, GPS1, RNF185, and MED16. Among them, TNFRSF10B was further verified as a direct de-ubiquitination target for USP10 by Co-IP and protein stabilization assays. The dysregulation of USP10 or TNFRSF10B affected the migration and invasion of GC cells in vitro and in vivo models. Molecular mechanism studies showed that USP10 inhibited the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process by increasing the stability of TNFRSF10B protein, thereby regulating the migration and invasion of GC cells. Finally, the retrospective clinical sample studies demonstrated that the downregulation of TNFRSF10B expression was associated with poor survival among 4 of 7 GC cohorts, and the expression of TNFRSF10B protein was significantly negatively correlated with the incidence of distant metastasis, diffuse type, and poorly cohesive carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: Our study established a high-throughput strategy for screening de-ubiquitination targets for USP10 and further confirmed that inhibiting the ubiquitination of TNFRSF10B might be a promising therapeutic strategy for GC metastasis.

Uncovering Language Disparity of ChatGPT on Retinal Vascular Disease Classification: Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Benefiting from rich knowledge and the exceptional ability to understand text, large language models like ChatGPT have shown great potential in English clinical environments. However, the performance of ChatGPT in non-English clinical settings, as well as its reasoning, have not been explored in depth. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate ChatGPT's diagnostic performance and inference abilities for retinal vascular diseases in a non-English clinical environment. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we collected 1226 fundus fluorescein angiography reports and corresponding diagnoses written in Chinese and tested ChatGPT with 4 prompting strategies (direct diagnosis or diagnosis with a step-by-step reasoning process and in Chinese or English). RESULTS: Compared with ChatGPT using Chinese prompts for direct diagnosis that achieved an F1-score of 70.47%, ChatGPT using English prompts for direct diagnosis achieved the best diagnostic performance (80.05%), which was inferior to ophthalmologists (89.35%) but close to ophthalmologist interns (82.69%). As for its inference abilities, although ChatGPT can derive a reasoning process with a low error rate (0.4 per report) for both Chinese and English prompts, ophthalmologists identified that the latter brought more reasoning steps with less incompleteness (44.31%), misinformation (1.96%), and hallucinations (0.59%) (all P<.001). Also, analysis of the robustness of ChatGPT with different language prompts indicated significant differences in the recall (P=.03) and F1-score (P=.04) between Chinese and English prompts. In short, when prompted in English, ChatGPT exhibited enhanced diagnostic and inference capabilities for retinal vascular disease classification based on Chinese fundus fluorescein angiography reports. CONCLUSIONS: ChatGPT can serve as a helpful medical assistant to provide diagnosis in non-English clinical environments, but there are still performance gaps, language disparities, and errors compared to professionals, which demonstrate the potential limitations and the need to continually explore more robust large language models in ophthalmology practice.

Investigation on the Potential Functions of ZmEPF/EPFL Family Members in Response to Abiotic Stress in Maize.

Maize is an important crop used for food, feed, and fuel. Abiotic stress is an important factor affecting maize yield. The EPF/EPFL gene family encodes class-specific secretory proteins that play an important role in the response to abiotic stress in plants. In order to explore and utilize the EPF/EPFL family in maize, the family members were systematically identified, and their chromosomal localization, physicochemical properties, cis-acting element prediction in promoters, phylogenetic tree construction, and expression pattern analysis were carried out using bioinformatics techniques. A total of 18 ZmEPF/EPFL proteins were identified in maize, which are mostly alkaline and a small portion acidic. Subcellular localization results showed that ZmEPF6, ZmEPF12, and ZmEPFL2 are localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Analysis of cis-acting elements revealed that members of the ZmEPF/EPFL family contain regulatory elements such as light response, anoxic, low temperature, and hormone response regulatory elements. RT-qPCR results showed that these family members are indeed responding to cold stress and hormone treatments. These results of this study provide a theoretical basis for improving the abiotic stress resistance of maize in future research.

Deep learning-based semantic segmentation of non-melanocytic skin tumors in whole-slide histopathological images.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) are the two most common skin cancer and impose a huge medical burden on society. Histopathological examination based on whole-slide images (WSIs) remains to be the confirmatory diagnostic method for skin tumors. Accurate segmentation of tumor tissue in WSIs by deep-learning (DL) models can reduce the workload of pathologists and help surgeons ensure the complete removal of tumors. To accurately segment the tumor areas in WSIs of BCC, SCC and squamous cell papilloma (SCP, homologous to SCC) with robust models. We established a data set (ZJU-NMSC) containing 151 WSIs of BCC, SCC and SCP in total. Seven models were utilized to segment WSIs, including the state-of-the-art model, models proposed by us and other models. Dice score, intersection over union, accuracy, sensitivity and specificity were used to evaluate and compare the performance of different models. Heatmaps and tumor tissue masks were generated to reflect the results of the segmentation. The processing times of models are also recorded and compared. While the dice score of most models is higher than 0.85, deeplab v3+ has the best performance and the corresponding tumor tissue mask is more consistent with the ground truth tumor areas even with complex and small lobular lesions. This study broadens the use of DL-based segmentation models in WSIs of skin tumors in terms of tumor types and computational approaches. Segmenting tumor areas can simplify the process of histopathological inspection and benefit the diagnosis and following management of the diseases in practice.

Economic evaluations of electronic health interventions for people with age-related cognitive impairment and their caregivers: A systematic review.

OBJECTS: Dementia has physical, social and economic impacts, causing considerable distress for people with age-related cognitive impairment (PWACI) and their caregivers. Electronic health (e-health) interventions can provide convenient education to improve the coping competence of caregivers and have become an important approach to supporting them. Understanding the economic evidence of e-health interventions will facilitate the decision making and implementation of integrating e-health into routine health services. The present review aimed to appraise economic evidence related to e-health interventions for PWACI and their caregivers. METHODS: We systematically searched multiple cross-disciplinary databases from inception to February 28, 2023. Two reviewers independently selected the trials, assessed the quality, and checked the data. A descriptive-analytical narrative method was used to analyze the review findings. RESULTS: Thirteen studies were analyzed, including 12 randomized controlled trials and one quasi-experimental study. All included studies were conducted in developed countries. The included studies reported limited economic information. There were six cost-effectiveness analysis, five cost-consequence analysis and one partial economic evaluation. The included studies were heterogeneous, and varied in quality. The results demonstrated that e-health multicomponent interventions can reduce the cost of health service utilization in short term (10-104 weeks). CONCLUSIONS: Few studies calculated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of e-health interventions. Preliminary evidence indicates that e-health interventions can reduce the cost of health service utilization in the short term, but the cost-effectiveness of e-health interventions hasn't been identified. More robust evidence is needed to clarify the value of e-health interventions for PWACI and their caregivers.

Establishment of a bi-layered tissue engineered conjunctiva using a 3D-printed melt electrowritten poly-(ε-caprolactone) scaffold.

PURPOSE: To utilize melt electrowriting (MEW) technology using poly-(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) coupled with a 2-step co-culturing strategy for the development of a conjunctival bi-layer synthetic construct. METHODS: Melt electrowritten scaffolds using PCL were fabricated using an in-house-built MEW printer. Human conjunctival stromal cells (CjSCs) and epithelial cells (CjECs) were isolated from donor tissue. A 2-step co-culture method was done by first seeding the CjSCs and culturing for 4 weeks to establish a stromal layer, followed by CjECs and co-culturing for 2 more weeks. Cultured cells were each characterized by morphology and marker expression on immunofluorescence and qPCR. The produced construct was assessed for cellular proliferation using viability assays. The bi-layer morphology was assessed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), confocal microscopy, and immunofluorescence imaging. The expression of extracellular matrix components and TGF-b was evaluated using qPCR. RESULTS: CjSCs were spindle-shaped and vimentin + while CjECs were polygonal and CK13 + . CjSCs showed consistent proliferation and optimal adherence with the scaffold at the 4-week culture mark. A 2-layered construct consisting of a CjSC-composed stromal layer and a CjEC-composed epithelial layer was appreciated on confocal microscopy, SEM, and immunofluorescence. CjSCs secreted collagens (types I, V, VI) but at differing amounts from natural tissue while TGF-b production was comparable. CONCLUSION: The 3D-printed melt electrowritten PCL scaffold paired with the 2-step co-culturing conditions of the scaffold allowed for the first approximation of a bi-layered stromal and epithelial reconstruction of the conjunctiva that can potentially improve the therapeutic arsenal in ocular surface reconstruction.

Eye-Preserving Therapies for Advanced Retinoblastoma: A Multicenter Cohort of 1678 Patients in China.

PURPOSE: This study attempted to estimate the impact of eye-preserving therapies for the long-term prognosis of patients with advanced retinoblastoma with regard to overall survival and ocular salvage. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study covering all 31 provinces (38 retinoblastoma treating centers) of mainland China. PARTICIPANTS: One thousand six hundred seventy-eight patients diagnosed with group D or E retinoblastoma from January 2006 through May 2016. METHODS: Chart review was performed. The patients were divided into primary enucleation and eye-preserving groups, and they were followed up for survival status. The impact of initial treatment on survival was evaluated by Cox analyses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Overall survival and final eye preservation. RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 43.9 months, 196 patients (12%) died, and the 5-year overall survival was 86%. In total, the eyeball preservation rate was 48%. In this cohort, 1172 patients (70%) had unilateral retinoblastoma, whereas 506 patients (30%) had bilateral disease. For patients with unilateral disease, 570 eyes (49%) underwent primary enucleation, and 602 patients (51%) received eye-preserving therapies initially. During the follow-up (median, 45.6 months), 59 patients (10%) from the primary enucleation group and 56 patients (9.3%) from the eye-preserving group died. Multivariate Cox analyses indicated no significant difference in overall survival between the 2 groups (hazard ratio [HR], 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.85-1.84; P = 0.250). For patients with bilateral disease, 95 eyes (19%) underwent primary enucleation, and 411 patients (81%) received eye-preserving therapies initially. During the follow-up (median, 40.1 months), 12 patients (13%) from the primary enucleation group and 69 patients (17%) from the eye-preserving group died. For bilateral retinoblastoma with the worse eye classified as group E, patients undergoing primary enucleation exhibited better overall survival (HR, 2.35; 95% CI, 1.10-5.01; P = 0.027); however, this survival advantage was not evident until passing 22.6 months after initial diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Eye-preserving therapies have been used widely for advanced retinoblastoma in China. Patients with bilateral disease whose worse eye was classified as group E and who initially underwent eye-preserving therapies exhibited a worse overall survival. The choice of primary treatment for advanced retinoblastoma should be weighed carefully.

A novel lncRNA lnc-PPRL promotes pterygium development by activating PI3K/PDK1 signaling pathway.

A sight threatening, pterygium is a common proliferative and degenerative disease of the ocular surface. LncRNAs have been widely studied in the occurrence and development of various diseases, however, the study of lncRNAs in pterygium has just relatively lacking. In the present study, we performed the high-throughput RNA sequencing (HTS) technology to identify differentially expressed lncRNAs in pterygium. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were carried out to forecast the regulatory and functional role of lncRNAs in pterygium. Notably, we identified a novel lncRNA, LOC102724238, which we named pterygium positively-related lncRNA (lnc-PPRL), was up-regulated in pterygium. Lnc-PPRL showed to be preferentially accumulated in cytoplasm, and it can promote cell proliferation, migration and invasion of human pterygium epithelium cells (hPECs). Further study of underlying mechanisms demonstrated that lnc-PPRL may exert its biological effect by activating canonical PI3K/PDK1 pathway, and subsequently promoting the activation of Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and its downstream effectors. Interestingly, lnc-PPRL was also proved to influence YAP nuclear localization. Taken together, our study firstly suggested that the "big molecule" lnc-PPRL have potential as a novel therapeutic target for the prevention and treatment of pterygium.

Cooperation of ATF4 and CTCF promotes adipogenesis through transcriptional regulation.

Adipogenesis is a multi-step process orchestrated by activation of numerous TFs, whose cooperation and regulatory network remain elusive. Activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) is critical for adipogenesis, yet its regulatory network is unclarified. Here, we mapped genome-wide ATF4 binding landscape and its regulatory network by Chip-seq and RNA-seq and found ATF4 directly modulated transcription of genes enriching in fat cell differentiation. Motifs of TFs especially CTCF were found from ATF4 binding sites, suggesting a direct role of ATF4 in regulating adipogenesis associated with CTCF and other TFs. Deletion of CTCF attenuated adipogenesis while overexpression enhanced adipocyte differentiation, indicating CTCF is indispensable for adipogenesis. Intriguingly, combined analysis of Chip-seq data of these two TFs showed that ATF4 co-localized with CTCF in the promoters of key adipogenic genes including Cebpd and PPARg and co-regulated their transactivation. Moreover, ATF4 directly regulated CTCF expression and interacted with CTCF in differentiated 3T3-L1 cells. In vivo, downregulation of ATF4 suppressed the expression of CTCF, Cebpd, and PPARg, leading to reduced adipose tissue expansion in refeeding mice. Consistently, mRNA expression of ATF4 and CTCF was positively correlated with each other in human subcutaneous adipose tissue and inversely associated with BMI, indicating a possible involvement of these two TFs in adipose development. Taken together, our data propose for the first time that ATF4 and CTCF work cooperatively to control adipogenesis and adipose development via orchestrating transcription of adipogenic genes. Our findings reveal novel therapeutic targets in obesity treatment.

A multi-feature deep learning system to enhance glaucoma severity diagnosis with high accuracy and fast speed.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness, and the early detection and timely treatment are essential for glaucoma management. However, due to the interindividual variability in the characteristics of glaucoma onset, a single feature is not yet sufficient for monitoring glaucoma progression in isolation. There is an urgent need to develop more comprehensive diagnostic methods with higher accuracy. In this study, we proposed a multi- feature deep learning (MFDL) system based on intraocular pressure (IOP), color fundus photograph (CFP) and visual field (VF) to classify the glaucoma into four severity levels. We designed a three-phase framework for glaucoma severity diagnosis from coarse to fine, which contains screening, detection and classification. We trained it on 6,131 samples from 3,324 patients and tested it on independent 240 samples from 185 patients. Our results show that MFDL achieved a higher accuracy of 0.842 (95 % CI, 0.795-0.888) than the direct four classification deep learning (DFC-DL, accuracy of 0.513 [0.449-0.576]), CFP-based single-feature deep learning (CFP-DL, accuracy of 0.483 [0.420-0.547]) and VF-based single-feature deep learning (VF-DL, accuracy of 0.725 [0.668-0.782]). Its performance was statistically significantly superior to that of 8 juniors. It also outperformed 3 seniors and 1 expert, and was comparable with 2 glaucoma experts (0.842 vs 0.854, p = 0.663; 0.842 vs 0.858, p = 0.580). With the assistance of MFDL, junior ophthalmologists achieved statistically significantly higher accuracy performance, with the increased accuracy ranged from 7.50 % to 17.9 %, and that of seniors and experts were 6.30 % to 7.50 % and 5.40 % to 7.50 %. The mean diagnosis time per patient of MFDL was 5.96 s. The proposed model can potentially assist ophthalmologists in efficient and accurate glaucoma diagnosis that could aid the clinical management of glaucoma.

End-to-end diabetic retinopathy grading based on fundus fluorescein angiography images using deep learning.

PURPOSE: To develop and validate a deep learning system for diabetic retinopathy (DR) grading based on fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) images. METHODS: A total of 11,214 FFA images from 705 patients were collected to form the internal dataset. Three convolutional neural networks, namely VGG16, RestNet50, and DenseNet, were trained using a nine-square grid input, and heat maps were generated. Subsequently, a comparison between human graders and the algorithm was performed. Lastly, the best model was tested on two external datasets (Xian dataset and Ningbo dataset). RESULTS: VGG16 performed the best, with a maximum accuracy of 94.17%, and had an AUC of 0.972, 0.922, and 0.994 for levels 1, 2, and 3, respectively. For Xian dataset, our model reached the accuracy of 82.47% and AUC of 0.910, 0.888, and 0.976 for levels 1, 2, and 3. As for Ningbo dataset, the network performed with the accuracy of 88.89% and AUC of 0.972, 0.756, and 0.945 for levels 1, 2, and 3. CONCLUSIONS: A deep learning system for DR staging was trained based on FFA images and evaluated through human-machine comparisons as well as external dataset testing. The proposed system will help clinical practitioners to diagnose and treat DR patients, and lay a foundation for future applications of other ophthalmic or general diseases.

A new approach for reducing pollutants level: a longitudinal cohort study of physical exercises in young people.

BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to evaluate the elimination of three common pollutants (dimethoate, benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) and bisphenol A (BPA) by different physical exercises and to assess the possible factors which could affect the pollutants elimination. METHODS: A total of 200 individuals who chose different kinds of exercises in accordance to their own wish were recruited. The levels of urinary pollutants were measured using ß-glucuronidase hydrolysis followed by a high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry-based method. RESULTS: Totally, the levels of dimethoate, BaP and BPA were reduced after physical exercises. However, the elimination of BaP in male was higher than that in female but the elimination of BPA in female was higher than that in male. Multivariate logistic regression showed that the degree of heart rate (HR) change was a protective factor affecting the improvement effect of dimethoate, BaP and BPA while BMI (body mass index) was a risk factor. Nevertheless, sex was a risk factor affecting the improvement of dimethoate and BaP but had a lower efficacy on BPA improvement. CONCLUSION: The present findings indicate that physical exercises can be considered as a novel approach to eliminate pollutants level in human body and can also give suggestions for choosing specific physical exercises to male and female individuals. Moreover, those who are with higher BMI need to lose weight before eliminating pollutant level through physical exercises.

Automatic detection of leakage point in central serous chorioretinopathy of fundus fluorescein angiography based on time sequence deep learning.

PURPOSE: To detect the leakage points of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) automatically from dynamic images of fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) using a deep learning algorithm (DLA). METHODS: The study included 2104 FFA images from 291 FFA sequences of 291 eyes (137 right eyes and 154 left eyes) from 262 patients. The leakage points were segmented with an attention gated network (AGN). The optic disk (OD) and macula region were segmented simultaneously using a U-net. To reduce the number of false positives based on time sequence, the leakage points were matched according to their positions in relation to the OD and macula. RESULTS: With the AGN alone, the number of cases whose detection results perfectly matched the ground truth was only 37 out of 61 cases (60.7%) in the test set. The dice on the lesion level were 0.811. Using an elimination procedure to remove false positives, the number of accurate detection cases increased to 57 (93.4%). The dice on the lesion level also improved to 0.949. CONCLUSIONS: Using DLA, the CSC leakage points in FFA can be identified reproducibly and accurately with a good match to the ground truth. This novel finding may pave the way for potential application of artificial intelligence to guide laser therapy.

Global patterns in vision loss burden due to vitamin A deficiency from 1990 to 2017.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the vision loss burden due to vitamin A deficiency (VAD) at the global, regional and national levels by year, age, sex and socio-economic status using prevalence and years lived with disability (YLD). DESIGN: International, retrospective, comparative burden-of-disease study. SETTING: Prevalence and YLD data were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2017. The association of age-standardised YLD rates and human development index (HDI) was tested by Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses. The Gini coefficient and concentration index (CI) were calculated to demonstrate the trends in between-country inequality in vision loss burden due to VAD. PARTICIPANTS: All participants met the GBD inclusion criteria. RESULTS: The age-standardised prevalence rate increased by 9·2 %, while the age-standardised YLD rates rose by 10·8 % from 1990 to 2017. Notably, the vision loss burden caused by VAD showed a declining trend since 2014. The vision loss burden was more concentrated in the post-neonatal age group and decreased with increasing age. The age-standardised YLD rates were inversely correlated with HDI (r = -0·2417, P = 0·0084). The CI and Gini coefficients indicated that socio-economic-related and between-country inequality declined from 2000 to 2017. VAD was the eighth leading cause of the age-standardised prevalence rate and ninth leading cause of age-standardised YLD rate among fifteen causes of vision loss in 2017. CONCLUSION: VAD has become one of the significant leading causes of vision loss globally. Efforts to control vision impairment related to VAD are needed, especially for children in countries with lower socio-economic status.

Urinary levels of dimethoate, bisphenol A and benzo[a]pyrene in first-year students of Hohai University from different geographical regions.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to detect the urinary levels of dimethoate, benzo(a) pyrene (BaP), and bisphenol A (BPA) in first-year Hohai University students with different geographic origins. METHODS: First-morning urine samples were collected from 540 healthy freshmen aged 17 to 19 years. Chemical levels were measured using ß-glucuronidase hydrolysis followed by a high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry-based method. Geometric means (GMs) of these three chemicals are presented by body mass index (BMI) and location in a volume-based and creatinine-standardized way. RESULTS: GM concentrations of omethoate, BPA and 3-OHBaP were 9.47 µg/L (10.80 µg/g creatinine), 3.54 µg/L (4.04 µg/g creatinine) and 0.34 ng/L (0.39 ng/g creatinine), respectively. The GM concentration of omethoate in males was significantly higher than that in females. The individuals with a BMI higher than 23.9 had higher GM concentrations of omethoate, BPA, and 3-OHBaP. The inhabitants of Southwest China had significantly lower GM concentrations of omethoate, BPA, and 3-OHBaP than those who lived in other locations in China. CONCLUSION: The average level of environmental chemical accumulation in freshmen is lower in Southwest China and differs in youth who live in different regions. In addition, obesity is correlated with higher toxin levels in youth.

Eye diseases burden in China in the past 30 years.

To investigate the national burden of eye diseases in China from 1990 to 2019. The national burden of eye diseases in China, including case numbers, prevalence rate, age-standardized prevalence rate (ASR), disability-adjusted life year (DALY), DALY rate and age-standardized DALY rate (ASD) were calculated and stratified by sex and age. The trends of eye diseases burden from 1990 to 2019 and the correlation between eye diseases burden and human development index (HDI) were analyzed. In 2019, the total case number of eye diseases in China was 0.21 billion, the ASR was 9511/10, the total number of DALY was 4.72 million, and the ASD was 247.4/10. Near vision loss caused the greatest burden, followed by refraction disorders and cataract, with ASD being 73.8/10, 70.3/10 and 59.2/10, respectively. Men had lower risks of eye diseases than women. People aged old and old had the greatest burden of eye diseases. Compared with the year 1990, the total case number increased by 134.6% and DALY by 113.0% in 2019. The ASD of all decreased by 7.5%, and was negatively correlated with national HDI. Near vision loss, refraction disorders and cataract are of heavy disease burden in China. Although the ASD of eye diseases is decreased with the development of the national socioeconomic status, the eye diseases burden in China still increased with population growth and aging.

[Protective effect and mechanism of Wangshi Baochi Pills against acute alcoholic liver/stomach injury in mice].

As a common disease worldwide, alcoholic liver injury is caused by long-term or excessive intake of alcohol and triggers cell death due to alcohol metabolism and reactive oxygen species(ROS)-mediated cytotoxicity. Wangshi Baochi(WSBC) Pills have been widely adopted in clinical practice for evacuating stasis, resolving turbidity, clearing heat, tranquilizing mind, invigorating sto-mach, promoting digestion, purging fire and removing toxin. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of WSBC Pills in dispelling the effect of alcohol and protecting against acute alcoholic liver/stomach injury in mice, and preliminarily investigate its possible mole-cular mechanism. The results found that the preventive treatment with WSBC Pills contributed to elevating the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase(ADH) and its expression in liver and shortening the time required for sobering up of mice with acute alcoholic liver injury. The staining of liver pathological sections as well as the detection of serum aspartate aminotransferase(AST) and alanine aminotransferase(ALT) and liver ROS levels revealed that WSBC Pills protected the liver by reducing serum AST and ALT. It suppressed oxidative stress-induced liver injury by lowering liver ROS and elevating superoxide dismutase(SOD), and the liver-protecting effect was superior to that of silibinin. Western blot assay confirmed that WSBC Pills inhibited the oxidative stress by up-regulating SOD1 and NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1(NQO-1). In addition, WSBC Pills lowered the ROS level to protect against the acute alcoholic stomach injury in mice. The findings have suggested that WSBC Pills alleviated the acute alcoholic liver/stomach injury in mice by increasing ADH and resisting oxidative stress.

KRT8 phosphorylation regulates the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in retinal pigment epithelial cells through autophagy modulation.

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is a severe ocular disease which results in complex retinal detachment and irreversible vision loss. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells is considered to be critical in the pathogenesis of PVR. In this study, we focused on the potential impact of keratin 8 (KRT8) phosphorylation and autophagy on TGF-ß2-induced EMT of RPE cells and explored the relationship between them. Using immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis, the co-localization of KRT8 and autophagy marker, as well as the abundance of phosphorylated KRT8 (p-KRT8) expression, was observed within subretinal and epiretinal membranes from PVR patients. Moreover, during TGF-ß2-induced EMT process, we found that p-KRT8 was enhanced in RPE cells, which accompanied by an increase in autophagic flux. Inhibition of autophagy with pharmacological inhibitors or specific siRNAs was associated with a reduction in cell migration and the synthesis of several EMT markers. In the meantime, we demonstrated that p-KRT8 was correlated with the autophagy progression during the EMT of RPE cells. Knockdown the expression or mutagenesis of the critical phosphorylated site of KRT8 would induce autophagy impairment, through affecting the fusion of autophagosomes and lysosomes. Therefore, this study may provide a new insight into the pathogenesis of PVR and suggests the potential therapeutic value of p-KRT8 in the prevention and treatment of PVR.

A novel deletion variant in TRAPPC2 causes spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda in a five-generation Chinese family.

BACKGROUND: Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda (SEDT) is a rare X-linked recessive inherited osteochondrodysplasia caused by mutations in the TRAPPC2 gene. It is clinically characterized by disproportionate short stature and early onset of degenerative osteoarthritis. Clinical diagnosis can be challenging due to the late-onset of the disease and lack of systemic metabolic abnomalites. Genetic diagnosis is critical in both early diagnosis and management of the disease. Here we reported a five-generation Chinese SEDT family and described the novel molecular findings. METHODS: Detailed family history and clinical data were collected. Genomic DNA was extracted from venous blood samples of family members. The exons of genes known to be associated with skeletal disorders were captured and deep sequenced. Variants were annotated by ANNOVAR and associated with multiple databases. Putative variants were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. The identified variant was classified according to the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) criteria. RESULTS: The proband was a 27-year-old Chinese male who presented with short-trunk short stature and joint pain. His radiographs showed platyspondyly with posterior humping, narrow hip-joint surfaces, and pelvic osteosclerosis. A pedigree analysis of 5 generations with 6 affected males revealed an X-linked recessive mode of inheritance. Affected males were diagnosed as SEDT according to the clinical and radiological features. Next-generation sequencing identified a novel variant of c.216_217del in the exon 4 of TRAPPC2 gene in the proband and other affected males. This variant resulted in the shift of reading frame and early termination of protein translation (p.S73Gfs*15). The mother and maternal female relatives of the proband were heterozygous carriers of the same variant, while no variations were detected in this gene of his father and other unaffected males. Based on the ACMG criteria, the novel c.216_217del variant of the TRAPPC2 gene was the pathogenic variant of this SEDT family. CONCLUSION: In this study we identified the novel pathogenic variant of of c.216_217del in the gene of TRAPPC2 in this five-generation Chinese SEDT family. Our findings expand the clinical and molecular spectrum of SEDT and helps the genetic diagnosis of SEDT patients.