Abnormalities of intrinsic brain activity in essential tremor: A meta‐analysis of resting‐state functional imaging

Neuroimaging studies using a variety of techniques have demonstrated abnormal patterns of spontaneous brain activity in patients with essential tremor (ET). However, the findings are variable and inconsistent, hindering understanding of underlying neuropathology. We conducted a meta‐analysis of whole‐brain resting‐state functional neuroimaging studies in ET compared to healthy controls (HC), using anisotropic effect‐size seed‐based d mapping, to identify the most consistent brain activity alterations and their relation to clinical features. After systematic literature search, we included 13 studies reporting 14 comparisons, describing 286 ET patients and 254 HC. Subgroup analyses were conducted considering medication status, head tremor status, and methodological factors. Brain activity in ET is altered not only in the cerebellum and cerebral motor cortex, but also in nonmotor cortical regions including prefrontal cortex and insula. Most of the results remained unchanged in subgroup analyses of patients with head tremor, medication‐naive patients, studies with statistical threshold correction, and the large subgroup of studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging. These findings not only show consistent and robust abnormalities in specific brain regions but also provide new information on the biology of patient heterogeneity, and thus help to elucidate the pathophysiology of ET.     

CD117 expression in operable oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas predicts worse clinical outcome

Aims

To investigate the aberrant expression of CD117 in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and its prognostic significance.

Methods and results

Immunohistochemical staining for CD117 was performed on tissue microarray and routine tissue sections from 157 oesophageal SCC patients and 10 normal oesophageal epithelia adjacent to tumour. The positive rate of CD117 expression was 29.9% in oesophageal SCC tissues, whereas no CD117 expression was detected in the 10 normal oesophageal epithelia. CD117 expression was significantly associated with T stage (P < 0.001), distant metastasis (P = 0.015), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.019), and clinical stage (P = 0.021). Progression‐free survival in the patients with CD117‐positive tumours was shorter than that in the patients with CD117‐negative tumours (P = 0.010). In univariate analyses, CD117 expression was the most significant factor for overall survival of oesophageal SCC patients (P < 0.001), followed by lymph node metastasis (P = 0.001), T stage (P = 0.002), clinical stage (P = 0.006), distant metastasis (P = 0.020), and histological grade (P = 0.027). Multivariate analyses verified that CD117 expression was an independent prognostic marker for oesophageal SCC patients (P = 0.002). In addition, CD117 expression predicted poorer survival in patients without distant metastases.

Conclusions

CD117 expression in operable oesophageal SCC may be a valuable prognostic marker, and detection of its expression in clinical samples may be useful in defining a subclass of oesophageal SCCs with extremely poor clinical outcome, which may require a specially targeted treatment modality.     

Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of alpha-fetoprotein positive gastric cancer in Chinese patients

Purpose: This study aimed to review the clinicopathological, histochemical, and prognostic features of Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) positive gastric cancer. Patients and methods: Six hundred and fifty one patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy between January 2009 and December 2012 at The First Hospital of Jilin University were enrolled in the study. Among them, 45 patients were identified as AFP positive gastric cancer. The clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of the AFP positive gastric cancer patients were analyzed. Results: Among the 45 AFP positive patients, serum levels of AFP were < 100 µg/L in nine patients. The histological classification of 45 patients was as follows: hepatoid type, 25 (55.6%) cases; fetal gastrointestinal type, 12 (26.7%) cases; yolk sac tumor type, 2 (4.4%) cases; and mixed type, 6 (13.3%) cases. Twenty nine (64.4%) cases were AFP positive by immunohistochemical analysis; we found no significant difference in AFP positivity and histologic type. However, the differences in the number of metastasis lymph nodes, the maximum tumor diameter, pathological stage, vascular invasion and liver metastasis between the AFP positive group and the negative group were significant. At the same T stage, the liver metastasis status of the AFP positive group was higher than that of the negative group. The AFP positive group had a much poorer prognosis than the negative group. Conclusion: AFP positive gastric cancer is associated with aggressive behavior and poorer prognosis compared to that of AFP negative gastric cancer.     

固定义齿联合活动义齿修复牙本质发育不全患者1例

牙本质发育不全（DI）是一种遗传性疾病,患者牙本质发生病变,尤其多发于恒牙。患牙临床表现为棕黄色、釉质缺失、过度磨耗等,修复治疗这类牙具有极高的挑战性。本文报道1例用固定义齿联合活动义齿修复牙本质发育不全的患者。     

Differentiation renders susceptibility to excitotoxicity in HT22 neurons

HT22 is an immortalized mouse hippocampal neuronal cell line that does not express cholinergic and glutamate receptors like mature hippocampal neurons in vivo.This in part prevents its use as a model for mature hippocampal neurons in memory-related studies.We now report that HT22 cells were appropriately induced to differentiate and possess properties similar to those of mature hippocampal neurons in vivo,such as becoming more glutamate-receptive and excitatory.Results showed that sensitivity of HT22 cells to glutamate-induced toxicity changed dramatically when comparing undifferentiated with differentiated cells,with the half-effective concentration for differentiated cells reducing approximately two orders of magnitude.Moreover,glutamate-induced toxicity in differentiated cells,but not undifferentiated cells,was inhibited by the N-methyl-Daspartate receptor antagonists MK-801 and memantine.Evidently,differentiated HT22 cells expressed N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors,while undifferentiated cells did not.Our experimental findings indicated that differentiation is important for immortalized cell lines to render post-mitotic neuronal properties,and that differentiated HT22 neurons represent a better model of hippocampal neurons than undifferentiated cells.     

无创产前检测技术筛查胎儿性染色体非整倍体的临床价值

目的探讨无创产前检测(NIPT)在胎儿性染色体非整倍体(SCA)筛查中的临床价值。方法选择2018年4月至2019年9月,在徐州市妇幼保健院进行NIPT筛查的7144例单胎妊娠孕妇为研究对象。采集孕妇外周血5 mL进行全基因组大规模平行测序,预测发生胎儿SCA的风险值。再对NIPT提示胎儿SCA孕妇,进一步进行羊水穿刺术产前诊断。本研究遵循的程序符合徐州市妇幼保健院伦理委员会所制定的伦理学标准,并得到批准[审批文号:〔2019〕伦审第(05号)]。本研究与受试对象均签署知情同意书。结果①7144例孕妇中,NIPT提示胎儿SCA为27例(0.4%,27/7144)。胎儿SCA的27例胎儿中,13例(48.1%,13/27)胎儿染色体核型为45,X;6例(22.2%,6/27)为47,XXX;5例(18.5%,5/27)为47,XYY;3例(11.1%,3/27)为47,XXY。②对NIPT提示胎儿SCA的27例孕妇中,21例进一步进行羊水穿刺术胎儿染色体核型分析发现,12例无异常,其余9例的结果与NIPT结果相符,SCA阳性预测值为42.8%(9/21)。胎儿染色体核型异常的9例胎儿中,3例胎儿染色体核型为47,XXX;3例为47,XYY;2例为47,XXY;1例为45,X。③由于NIPT结果异常进一步进行羊水穿刺术结果亦异常的9例胎儿45,X,47,XXX,47,XXY和47,XYY阳性预测值分别为10.0%(1/10),75.0%(3/4),67.0%(2/3)和75.0%(3/4),假阳性率分别为90.0%(9/10),25.0%(1/4),33.0%(1/3)和25.0%(1/4)。④NIPT结果显示胎儿染色体核型为47,XNN者进一步行羊水穿刺术后提示真阳性者父母中位年龄均为37岁,高于假阳性者父母(30岁)。结论NIPT在筛查胎儿SCA方面具有较好的应用价值,但是假阳性率较高,仍需进一步进行产前诊断以确诊。     

A new strategy for choosing “Q-markers” via network pharmacology,application to the quality control of a Chinese medical preparation

Due to its chemical complexity, proper quality control for a Chinese medical preparation (CMP) has been a great challenge. Choosing the appropriate quality markers (Q-markers) for quality control of CMP is an important work. Best of all, the chosen Q-markers are the main chemical compounds from the herbals as well as the active constituents of this CMP. Only in this way the established quality control system can really achieve the purpose of controlling the quality of CMP and ensuring the safely and effectively use of CMP. To achieve the purpose, network pharmacology combined with the contents of chemical compounds in the CMP has been used in this research. We took an anti-arrhythmic CMP, Shenxian-Shengmai oral liquid (SSOL), as an example. Firstly, UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS method was used to analyze the main components of SSOL. A total of 64 compounds were unambiguously or tentatively identified and 32 of them were further validated by reference compounds. Secondly, the network was constructed based on the identified compounds to predict the effective compounds related to cardiac arrhythmias. Based on the existing database and the operation method of topology, a method of double network analysis (DNAA) was proposed, from which 10 important targets in the pathway of arrhythmia were screened out, and 26 compounds had good antiarrhythmic activity. Based on the prediction results of network pharmacology along with the contents of the compounds in this CMP, ten representative compounds were chosen as the Q-markers for the quality control of SSOL. We find that five of these ten compounds, including danshensu, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid A, epimedin A and icariin, have antiarrhythmic activity. Then, the UPLC-DAD method was established as the control method for SSOL.     

Triterpenoids with antioxidant activities from Myricaria squamosa

A new triterpenoid, namely myricarin C (compound 1), together with three known compounds myricarin A (compound 2) and myricarin B (compound 3), 3α-hydroxy-D-friedoolean-14-en-28-oic acid (compound 4), was isolated from the overground part of Myricaria squamosa. Compound 2 and compound 3 existed in the solution by the form of cis-trans isomers. Their structures were elucidated by means of extensive spectroscopic methods, including 1D-NMR, 2D-NMR, and HR-ESI-MS. The antioxidant properties of all compounds were calculated based on the DPPH radical scavenging activities. Results showed that myricarin A and myricarin C had general antioxidant activities with EC₅₀ values of 40.90 μg/ml, 42.22 μg/ml, respectively, compared to the control, rutin (5.17 μg/ml). The EC₅₀ values of myricarin B was 195.81 μg/ml. Compound 4 had no antioxidant activities.     

阿尔茨海默病与糖原合酶激酶3

目的:阿尔茨海默病具有神经原纤维缠结和tau蛋白的异常过度磷酸化两大病理特征,可导致神经细胞骨架异常并与神经元死亡有关。近来的一些理论提出了糖原合酶激酶3参与上述两大病理特征的形成,从而在阿尔茨海默病发病中具有重要作用的相关假设。资料来源:应用网络Medline检索1986/2002关于阿尔茨海默病的相关文献,检索词:阿尔茨海默病(Alzheimerdisease),糖原合酶激酶3(glycogensynthasekinase-3),tau蛋白。资料选择:选择关于糖原合酶激酶3与阿尔茨海默病发病关系的相关文献,以非随机研究原著和没有对照组的研究为纳入标准,未排除非盲法研究,排除重复性文献和综述性文献。资料提炼:在66篇文献中,内容呈不同程度重复的有13篇,给予删除;对53篇文献进行分类整理分析,其中33篇选用为参考文献。资料综合:糖原合酶激酶3β能在大多数阿尔茨海默病相关位点磷酸化tau蛋白,本身的活性又同时受到蛋白激酶与蛋白磷酸酯酶的双重调节;糖原合酶激酶3β在引起tau蛋白异常过度磷酸化的同时,在细胞水平还引起神经元的凋亡;整体实验也显示糖原合酶激酶3β可能导致轴突转运障碍。结论:糖原合酶激酶3β不但直接导致tau蛋白的异常过度磷酸化,使组织内出现类似于阿尔茨海默病患者脑内神经原纤维缠结样细胞,同时又在细胞凋亡中发挥