Effect of clarithromycin on airway obstruction and inflammatory markers in induced sputum in cystic fibrosis: a pilot study.

To determine whether macrolide antibiotics improve pulmonary function and decrease airway inflammation in cystic fibrosis (CF), we treated 10 patients (females; aged 19-26 years, all colonized with P. aeruginosa, none with atypical Mycobacteria) with 3 weeks of placebo, followed by 6 weeks of clarithromycin (500 mg BID) in a single-blind prospective study. We also determined the safety of sputum induction and the reproducibility of assessing inflammatory markers in induced sputum. Subjects performed spirometry and underwent sputum induction (12-min inhalation of 3% saline) at 3-week intervals. We found that sputum induction was well-tolerated. We also found that the reproducibility was high for neutrophil (PMN) number (R = 0.87, P = 0.009), interleukin (IL)-8 (R = 0.73, P < 0.05, free neutrophil elastase (NE) (R = 0.82, P < 0.05), and myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels (R = 0.86, P < 0.05), but was less so for tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha (R = -0.15, P = 0.7). We found no significant difference in pulmonary function after 6 weeks of treatment with clarithromycin (FEV(1) (% predicted) (mean +/- SEM), 2.2 +/- 0.9 (60 +/- 24%) vs. 2.3 +/- 1 (61 +/- 29%)), and no significant differences in any of the inflammatory indices measured. The median (and range) values before and after treatment for indices of airway inflammation in the induced sputum samples were: for PMNs, 8 (1-326) and 21 (0.2 -175) x 10(6) cells/mL sputum; for IL-8, 156 (24-656) and 202 (16-680) ng/mL; for free NE, 260 (31-1,264) and 237 (49-1,048) microg/mL; for TNF-alpha, 20 (7-128) and 35 (17-87) pg/mL; and for MPO, 169 (13-960) and 195 (14-816) microg/mL. We conclude that clarithromycin is not uniformly effective in improving airway obstruction or in decreasing airway inflammation in patients with CF.     

布地奈德联合沙丁胺醇雾化吸入对急性哮喘发作患儿诱导痰液炎性细胞和细胞因子的影响

目的 布地奈德（普米克令舒）联合沙丁胺醇雾化吸入治疗儿童哮喘急性发作前后气道炎性细胞、白介素6（IL-6）、IL-8、肿瘤坏死因子α（TNF-α）的变化，探讨其影响机制。方法 对急性哮喘发作患儿采用上述联合治疗1周，共对34例急性发作期、24例缓解期患儿和15例正常儿童的诱导痰液进行炎性细胞计数和分类，测定其中IL-6、IL-8、TNF-α水平。结果 急性组的总白细胞数，嗜酸粒细胞、中性粒细胞单核细胞比例及IL-6、IL-8、TNF-α水平均高于正常对照组。缓解组除嗜酸粒细胞及淋巴细胞比例明显高于正常对照组外，其余上述炎性细胞比例及细胞因子水平均降至正常。结论 普米克令舒联合沙丁胺醇雾化吸入可显著降低急性哮喘发作患儿气道分泌物内嗜酸粒细胞、中性粒细胞和单核细胞数量及IL-6、IL-8、TNF-α水平。     

43例流行性出血热B超检查结果分析

应用岛津ＳＤＣ－３２型线性电子扫描超声波诊断仪，对４３例临床确诊的流行性出血热患者进行Ｂ超检查，发现均有不同程度的病理声像表现，首次提出了门静脉主干内径增宽现象，并对其临床意义进行探讨。     

Clonal evolution of high‐grade serous ovarian carcinoma from primary to recurrent disease

High‐grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) is the most common and fatal form of ovarian cancer. While most tumours are highly sensitive to cytoreductive surgery and platinum‐ and taxane‐based chemotherapy, the majority of patients experience recurrence of treatment‐resistant tumours. The clonal origin and mutational adaptations associated with recurrent disease are poorly understood. We performed whole exome sequencing on tumour cells harvested from ascites at three time points (primary, first recurrence, and second recurrence) for three HGSC patients receiving standard treatment. Somatic point mutations and small insertions and deletions were identified by comparison to constitutional DNA. The clonal structure and evolution of tumours were inferred from patterns of mutant allele frequencies. TP53 mutations were predominant in all patients at all time points, consistent with the known founder role of this gene. Tumours from all three patients also harboured mutations associated with cell cycle checkpoint function and Golgi vesicle trafficking. There was convergence of germline and somatic variants within the DNA repair, ECM, cell cycle control, and Golgi vesicle pathways. The vast majority of somatic variants found in recurrent tumours were present in primary tumours. Our findings highlight both known and novel pathways that are commonly mutated in HGSC. Moreover, they provide the first evidence at single nucleotide resolution that recurrent HGSC arises from multiple clones present in the primary tumour with negligible accumulation of new mutations during standard treatment.     

神经元树突非典型运输途径的微结构和功能的研究进展

细胞中蛋白质的合成和运输是复杂而严格调控的过程,在结构高度特异化的神经元细胞更是如此。神经元树突中存在着不同于其他细胞的独立于胞体运输途径的非典型运输途径,其构成主要有树突mRNA、树突内质网（dER）和树突“外驻”高尔基体(Golgi outposts)。关于这
些细胞微结构的形态分布,其非典型运输的功能以及相关病理学研究近几年有重要的进展。     

Multidisciplinary consensus on sputum induction biosafety during the COVID-19 pandemic

Sputum induction (SI) is the gold standard approach to the non-invasive study of airway inflammation. The differential count of inflammatory cells for SI allows patients with asthma to be classified according to inflammatory phenotypes and predicted therapeutic responses. Since SI involves the generation of aerosols, there is a need to establish a protocol to ensure biosafety in clinical practice during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The multidisciplinary consensus on SI described in this article was developed by 22 experts in SI from different Spanish hospitals who drew on available scientific evidence in achieving consensuated opinions, compiled by means of an electronic survey. We hope that these unified criteria and recommendations will guide health professionals in implementing SI sampling and processing procedures as safely as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Sputum microbiota as a potential diagnostic marker for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis

The prevalence of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains makes disease control more complicated, which is the main cause of death in tuberculosis (TB) patients. Early detection and timely standard treatment are the key to current prevention and control of drug-resistant TB. In recent years, despite the continuous advancement in drug-resistant TB diagnostic technology, the needs for clinical rapid and accurate diagnosis are still not fully met. With the development of sequencing technology, the research of human microecology has been intensified. This study aims to use 16 rRNA sequencing technology to detect and analyze upper respiratory flora of TB patients with anti-TB drug sensitivity (DS, n = 55), monoresistance isoniazide (MR-INH, n = 33), monoresistance rifampin (MR-RFP, n = 12), multidrug resistance (MDR, n = 26) and polyresistance (PR, n = 39) in southern China. Potential microbial diagnostic markers for different types of TB drug resistance are searched by screening differential flora, which provides certain guiding significance for drug resistance diagnosis and clinical drug use of TB. The results showed that the pulmonary microenvironment of TB patients was more susceptible to infection by external pathogens, and the infection of different drug-resistant Mtb leads to changes in different flora. Importantly, seven novel microorganisms (Leptotrichia, Granulicatella, Campylobacter, Delfitia, Kingella, Chlamydophila, Bordetella) were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing as diagnostic markers for different drug resistance types of TB. Leptotrichia, Granulicatella, Campylobacter were potential diagnostic marker for TB patients with INH single-resistance. Delftia was a potential diagnostic marker for TB patients with RFP single drug-resistance. Kingella and Chlamydophila can be used as diagnostic markers for TB patients with PR. Bordetella can be used as a potential diagnostic marker for identification of TB patients with MDR.