乐胃煎逆转胃癌前病变AgNOR及细胞图像分析

目的研究乐胃煎逆转胃癌前病变不完全结肠型肠化和／或中度异型增生的疗效．方法胃镜病理证实为不完全结肠型肠化和／或中度异型增生４６例．治疗组３０例用乐胃煎，对照组１６例用德诺（Ｄｅ＿Ｎｏｌ）．治疗前后胃镜活检胃窦固定部位粘膜标本作ＡｇＮＯＲ染色及细胞图像分析．结果乐胃煎对不完全结肠型肠化及中度异型增生总有效率均高于Ｄｅ＿Ｎｏｌ，分别为７２％比２５％（Ｐ＜００５）和８９５％比４４４％（Ｐ＜００５）．乐胃煎治疗前后，ＡｇＮＯＲ计数分别为７３０±１１６和４８１±１５０（Ｐ＜００１），Ｄｅ＿Ｎｏｌ组为７７３±０９２和７０５±１０２（Ｐ＜００１）．两组治疗前后ＡｇＮＯＲ计数差值均数相比，统计学上也有显著性差异，分别为２５２±１５４和０６９±０４８（Ｐ＜００１）．乐胃煎组中２０例作细胞图像分析，治疗后各参数（长轴、短轴、核浆比、结构异型指数等）均有不同程度的降低，有显著性差异．结论乐胃煎确有较好地逆转胃癌前病变的功效．     

Intestinal mucosa permeability following oral insulin delivery using core shell corona nanolipoparticles

Chitosan nanoparticles (NC) have excellent capacity for protein entrapment, favorable epithelial permeability, and are regarded as promising nanocarriers for oral protein delivery. Herein, we designed and evaluated a class of core shell corona nanolipoparticles (CSC) to further improve the absorption through enhanced intestinal mucus penetration. CSC contains chitosan nanoparticles as a core component and pluronic F127-lipid vesicles as a shell with hydrophilic chain and polyethylene oxide PEO as a corona. These particles were developed by hydration of a dry pluronic F127-lipid film with NC suspensions followed by extrusion. Insulin nested inside CSC was well protected from enzymatic degradation. Compared with NC, CSC exhibited significantly higher efficiency of mucosal penetration and, consequently, higher cellular internalization of insulin in mucus secreting E12 cells. The cellular level of insulin after CSC treatment was 36-fold higher compared to treatment with free insulin, and 10-fold higher compared to NC. CSC significantly facilitated the permeation of insulin across the ileum epithelia, as demonstrated in an ex vivo study and an in vivo absorption study. CSC pharmacological studies in diabetic rats showed that the hypoglycemic effects of orally administrated CSC were 2.5-fold higher compared to NC. In conclusion, CSC is a promising oral protein delivery system to enhance the stability, intestinal mucosal permeability, and oral absorption of insulin.     

Electrophysiological evidence of facial inversion with rapid serial visual presentation

Using measurements of event-related potentials (ERPs) during a facial recognition task, we aimed to investigate the facial inversion effect and the role of time-based attention in processing upright and inverted faces. We presented upright and inverted faces at the T2 (target 2) position using a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. Our results indicate that the N170 component shows the usual face inversion effect (FIE), in which inverted faces elicit larger N170 amplitudes and a longer elicit N170 latency. We also found that upright faces elicit larger P1 amplitudes than inverted faces over the left hemisphere. This study indicates that the N170 and P3, but not the P1, components are modulated by time-based attention. In addition, we found that the N170 amplitude was modulated by an attentional blink (AB) based on behavioral data. These results suggest that the disruption of facial configuration processing caused by inverted faces is relatively independent of attentional resources.     

The correlation between T helper type 17 cells and clinical characters in Chinese paediatric patients with chronic hepatitis B

Interleukin (IL)‐17‐mediated immune response has been shown to play a critical role in inflammation‐associated disease. However, its role in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) in paediatric patients remains unknown. We investigated the frequency of T helper type 17 (Th17) cells and evaluated the association between the Th17 and clinical characters in paediatric patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). The frequency of Th17 cells was detected by flow cytometry analyses from 65 paediatric patients with CHB and nine healthy controls. The degree of hepatic inflammation was graded using the histological activity index (HAI). Compared with healthy controls, the frequency of Th17 cells in peripheral blood was significantly higher in paediatric patients with CHB. The proportion of Th17 cells was higher in the patients with higher HAI score (G2–G3) compared to those subjects with lower HAI score (G0–G1), but the frequency of Th17 cells had no correlation with serum HBV DNA loads or alanine aminotransferase levels. Compared with the younger age group (age 1–6 years), Th17 cell frequency was higher in the older age group (age 7–18 years). Peripheral Th17 cell frequency is associated closely with inflammation activity of liver tissues in paediatric patients with CHB.     

Targeted tPA overexpression in denervated spinal motor neurons promotes stroke recovery in mice

Our previous studies demonstrated that axonal remodeling of the corticospinal tract (CST) contributes to neurological recovery after stroke in rodents. The present study employed a novel non-invasive peripheral approach, to over-express tPA in denervated spinal motor neurons via recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) intramuscular injection in transgenic mice subjected to permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo), in which the CST axons are specifically and completely labeled with yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). One day after surgery, mice were randomly selected to receive saline, AAV5-RFP, or tPA (1 × 10¹⁰ viral particles) injected into the stroke-impaired forelimb muscles (n = 10/group). Functional deficits and recovery were monitored with foot-fault and single pellet reaching tests. At day 28 after MCAo, mice received intramuscular injection of PRV-614-mRFP (1.52 × 10⁷ pfu) as above, and were euthanized four days later. Compared with saline or AAV-RFP-treated mice, AAV-tPA significantly enhanced behavioral recovery (p < 0.01, both tests), as well as increased CST axonal density in the denervated gray matter of the cervical cord (p < 0.001), and RFP-positive pyramidal neurons in both ipsilesional and contralesional cortices (p < 0.001). Behavioral outcomes were significantly correlated to neural remodeling (p < 0.05). Our results provide a fundamental basis for the development of therapeutic approaches aimed at promoting corticospinal innervation for stroke treatment.     

Risk factors for severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients: A review

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused an unprecedented global social and economic impact, and high numbers of deaths. Many risk factors have been identified in the progression of COVID-19 into a severe and critical stage, including old age, male gender, underlying comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, chronic lung diseases, heart, liver and kidney diseases, tumors, clinically apparent immunodeficiencies, local immunodeficiencies, such as early type I interferon secretion capacity, and pregnancy. Possible complications include acute kidney injury, coagulation disorders, thoromboembolism. The development of lymphopenia and eosinopenia are laboratory indicators of COVID-19. Laboratory parameters to monitor disease progression include lactate dehydrogenase, procalcitonin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6), and ferritin. The development of a cytokine storm and extensive chest computed tomography imaging patterns are indicators of a severe disease. In addition, socioeconomic status, diet, lifestyle, geographical differences, ethnicity, exposed viral load, day of initiation of treatment, and quality of health care have been reported to influence individual outcomes. In this review, we highlight the scientific evidence on the risk factors of severity of COVID-19.     

Selective breeding in domestic dogs: How selecting for a short face impacted canine neuroanatomy

The range of cranial morphology seen in domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) is a direct result of thousands of years of selective breeding. This article is the first to investigate how selection for reduced faces in brachycephalic dogs impacted the neuroanatomy of the canine brain through the analysis of endocasts. Previous research has demonstrated global effects on the shape of the bony cranium as the result of these breeding practices; however, these studies have largely focused on the bony structures of the skull and failed to consider the influence of facial reduction on the soft tissues of the brain. We generated endocasts from an existing set of clinically-obtained CT scans representing a variety of dogs with various cranial morphologies. These dogs represented four breeds as well as a comparative sample of dogs of unknown breed. We recorded three-dimensional coordinate data for 31 landmarks representing various gyri, sulci, and other neuroanatomical landmarks that allowed us to analyze differences in shape of the endocasts. Through geometric morphometric analyses, we determined that the endocast shape variance in this sample is correlated with cephalic index, and thus the selection for facial reduction has caused a perceivable effect on canine neuroanatomy. Additionally, we found the majority of the shape variance in the sample to be associated with olfactory anatomy; however, the rest of the morphology also correlates with cephalic index. The results of this article indicate that modern breeding practices and the selection for dogs with short faces have significantly influenced canine neuroanatomy.     

Rhizovagine A,an unusual dibenzo-α-pyrone alkaloid from the endophytic fungus Rhizopycnis vagum Nitaf22

Rhizovagine A (1), a novel dibenzo-α-pyrone alkaloid with an unprecedented 5/5/6/6/6 fused pentacyclic skeleton, was isolated from the endophytic fungus Rhizopycnis vagum Nitaf22. The structure was elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic analysis, in combination with quantum chemical ¹³C NMR and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations for configurational assignment. A plausible biosynthetic pathway for 1 was proposed. Compound 1 displayed acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity.

Rhizovagine A (1), a dibenzo-α-pyrone alkaloid with a 5/5/6/6/6 fused pentacyclic skeleton and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity, was isolated from the endophytic fungus Rhizopycnis vagum Nitaf22.     

Tissue self-attention network for the segmentation of optical coherence tomography images on the esophagus

Automatic segmentation of layered tissue is the key to esophageal optical coherence tomography (OCT) image processing. With the advent of deep learning techniques, frameworks based on a fully convolutional network are proved to be effective in classifying pixels on images. However, due to speckle noise and unfavorable imaging conditions, the esophageal tissue relevant to the diagnosis is not always easy to identify. An effective approach to address this problem is extracting more powerful feature maps, which have similar expressions for pixels in the same tissue and show discriminability from those from different tissues. In this study, we proposed a novel framework, called the tissue self-attention network (TSA-Net), which introduces the self-attention mechanism for esophageal OCT image segmentation. The self-attention module in the network is able to capture long-range context dependencies from the image and analyzes the input image in a global view, which helps to cluster pixels in the same tissue and reveal differences of different layers, thus achieving more powerful feature maps for segmentation. Experiments have visually illustrated the effectiveness of the self-attention map, and its advantages over other deep networks were also discussed.