The CC ligand chemokine family members CCL17/CCL22 predict the survival and response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is considered an immunosuppressive malignancy. Cross-talk between cancer cells and immune cells is modulated in part by CC ligand (CCL) chemokines, having a major effect on tumor progression. However, the predictive value and function of CCL family members in HNSCC have not been elucidated. Here, the predictive value of CCL members in cancer prognosis and Immune checkpoint blockade therapy response was investigated. CCL17 and CCL22 were screened as the key CCL chemokines in HNSCC through co-expression analysis. Further, the correlation between CCL17/CCL22 expression and cancer immune infiltration were evaluated based on TIMER and were validated by a set of scRNA-seq data. Moreover, the expression level of CCL17/CCL22 we evaluated to predict the response to Immune checkpoint blockade therapy in a panel of cancer types by using the TIDE database. Results indicated that CCL17/CCL22 had a high co-expression correlation and had a marginally statistical significance with the overall survival in HNSCC patients (P value = 0.057 and 0.055, respectively). Our findings showed high expression of CCL17/CCL22 was positively correlated with CD4⁺ T cell infiltration levels in HNSCCs and activate mTORC1 signaling pathway in CD4⁺ T cells. Further analysis from TIDE showed the high expression of CCL17/CCL22 might predict favorable responses to immune checkpoint blockade therapy in HNSCC patients. These findings provide an insight into the predictive roles of CCL17/CCL22 in HNSCC.     

A deep joint sparse non-negative matrix factorization framework for identifying the common and subject-specific functional units of tongue motion during speech

Intelligible speech is produced by creating varying internal local muscle groupings—i.e., functional units—that are generated in a systematic and coordinated manner. There are two major challenges in characterizing and analyzing functional units. First, due to the complex and convoluted nature of tongue structure and function, it is of great importance to develop a method that can accurately decode complex muscle coordination patterns during speech. Second, it is challenging to keep identified functional units across subjects comparable due to their substantial variability. In this work, to address these challenges, we develop a new deep learning framework to identify common and subject-specific functional units of tongue motion during speech. Our framework hinges on joint deep graph-regularized sparse non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) using motion quantities derived from displacements by tagged Magnetic Resonance Imaging. More specifically, we transform NMF with sparse and graph regularizations into modular architectures akin to deep neural networks by means of unfolding the Iterative Shrinkage-Thresholding Algorithm to learn interpretable building blocks and associated weighting map. We then apply spectral clustering to common and subject-specific weighting maps from which we jointly determine the common and subject-specific functional units. Experiments carried out with simulated datasets show that the proposed method achieved on par or better clustering performance over the comparison methods.Experiments carried out with in vivo tongue motion data show that the proposed method can determine the common and subject-specific functional units with increased interpretability and decreased size variability.     

癌相关成纤维细胞在肿瘤葡萄糖代谢中的作用

瓦博格效应认为,即便在氧气充足时,肿瘤仍大量利用葡萄糖进行有氧糖酵解,产生乳酸和少量ATP。虽产能效率低,但中间产物有利于改造肿瘤微环境,促进肿瘤恶性进展。近年发现,成纤维细胞作为肿瘤间质的重要组成部分,在肿瘤细胞诱导下具有癌相关成纤维细胞（cancer-associated fibroblast, CAF）表型,通过自身线粒体功能障碍、自噬而持续向肿瘤细胞提供生物大分子合成原料,用以促进肿瘤增殖、侵袭、转移、耐药。相反,肿瘤细胞自身则提高线粒体代谢水平,进行氧化磷酸化,此现象被命名为反瓦博格效应。CAF与酸化的微环境驱动肿瘤细胞自发选择葡萄糖代谢方式、促进肿瘤恶性进展。     

妇产科专科特色处方前置审核系统的建设与应用

目的 建立适应妇产科专科特色的处方前置审核系统。方法 引进处方前置审核软件,经后台运行收集基于商业知识库规则的审方数据,建立妇产科用药规则维护分级依据,进行规则优化并形成妇产科合理用药知识库,疏通处方前置审核流程并加以实施。结果 通过抽样数据对比发现,药师审方上线后,系统预审问题数及比例、医师提交问题数及比例明显下降、医师主动返回修改问题数及比例相应上升,人员疏忽所致的严重用药错误可被拦截,药师干预处方/医嘱成功率达93.81%。结论 建立妇产科专科特色处方前置审核系统,能有效保证审方准确性,能减少临床医师和审方药师不必要的工作量,有利于处方前置审核工作的推进,进一步保障患者用药的安全性和合理性。     

酶敏感多肽胶束的构建及其向T细胞递送药物的可行性研究

目的 构建包载芳烃受体抑制剂CH223191的酶敏感多肽胶束并对其进行表征,初步评估此多肽胶束向T细胞递送药物的可行性。方法 采用固相合成法合成了序列为stearyl-HHHRRRRRPLGLAGK-(Mal)的多肽(SHRP)。制备了载药胶束SHRP-CH,测定了其粒径、载药量、临界胶束浓度等,评价其细胞毒性及免疫原性,并使用流式及激光共聚焦考察了CD8⁺T细胞对胶束的摄取效率。结果 SHRP-CH的粒径为(133.8±7.4)nm,酶处理后粒径减少为(92±5.8)nm,载药量和包封率分别为(7.1±1.2)%、(67.7±2.3)%,酶解前后的胶束均具备较低的细胞毒性;CD8⁺T细胞摄取实验证实了此胶束体系向T细胞递送药物的可行性。结论 SHRP多肽酶敏感胶束体系具有较好的载药能力及低细胞毒性,有希望成为T细胞药物递送的潜在载体。     

Rhinoplasty in China: A review of the most important events in its history of development

A review of the literature in commonly used retrieval systems generally yields minimal or no pertinent information on the early works of Chinese doctors. Herein, the early works in rhinoplasty by pioneers Dr. Maolian Hu (胡懋廉) and Dr. PC Nyi (倪葆春) were retrieved from the database of Chinese Medical Journal published before 1949 that overseas doctors could not gain access to online possibly due to the language barrier in collecting and processing those old professional data by main retrieval systyems. They published original articles on costal cartilage applications for correction of saddle noses in as early as 1939 and 1949, respectively, which represent the earliest attempts of treating nasal deformities with costal cartilages in China as well as in Asia. The private cosmetic surgical practices in rhinoplasty from the 1930s to the 1940s were recovered and briefly reviewed, and some of the most important clinical cases were presented. Other important events related to rhinoplasty, such as the establishment of the first national society of rhinoplasty in Chengdu, China in 2011 and the successful performance of the first national congress on rhinoplasty in Shanghai, China in 2012, were included.