Functional and psychosocial impact of COVID-19 pandemic on rheumatic patients’ quality of life in Saudi Arabia

Quality of Life Research - The COVID-19 pandemic might add to the stressors experienced by people living with rheumatic diseases. This study aimed to examine rheumatic patients’ functional...     

CD19 + CD21lo/neg cells are increased in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) represents a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The purpose of this study was to examine recirculating lymphocytes from SSc patients for potential biomarkers of interstitial lung disease (ILD). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from patients with SSc and healthy controls enrolled in the Vanderbilt University Myositis and Scleroderma Treatment Initiative Center cohort between 9/2017–6/2019. Clinical phenotyping was performed by chart abstraction. Immunophenotyping was performed using both mass cytometry and fluorescence cytometry combined with t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding analysis and traditional biaxial gating. This study included 34 patients with SSc-ILD, 14 patients without SSc-ILD, and 25 healthy controls. CD21^lo/neg cells are significantly increased in SSc-ILD but not in SSc without ILD (15.4 ± 13.3% vs. 5.8 ± 0.9%, p = 0.002) or healthy controls (5.0 ± 0.5%, p < 0.0001). While CD21^lo/neg B cells can be identified from a single biaxial gate, tSNE analysis reveals that the biaxial gate is comprised of multiple distinct subsets, all of which are increased in SSc-ILD. CD21^lo/neg cells in both healthy controls and SSc-ILD are predominantly tBET positive and do not have intracellular CD21. Immunohistochemistry staining demonstrated that CD21^lo/neg B cells diffusely infiltrate the lung parenchyma of an SSc-ILD patient. Additional work is needed to validate this biomarker in larger cohorts and longitudinal studies and to understand the role of these cells in SSc-ILD.

     

Multiscale quantification of morphological heterogeneity with creation of a predictor of longer survival in glioblastoma

Intratumor heterogeneity is a main cause of the dismal prognosis of glioblastoma (GBM). Yet, there remains a lack of a uniform assessment of the degree of heterogeneity. With a multiscale approach, we addressed the hypothesis that intratumor heterogeneity exists on different levels comprising traditional regional analyses, but also innovative methods including computer-assisted analysis of tumor morphology combined with epigenomic data. With this aim, 157 biopsies of 37 patients with therapy-naive IDH-wildtype GBM were analyzed regarding the intratumor variance of protein expression of glial marker GFAP, microglia marker Iba1 and proliferation marker Mib1. Hematoxylin and eosin stained slides were evaluated for tumor vascularization. For the estimation of pixel intensity and nuclear profiling, automated analysis was used. Additionally, DNA methylation profiling was conducted separately for the single biopsies. Scoring systems were established to integrate several parameters into one score for the four examined modalities of heterogeneity (regional, cellular, pixel-level and epigenomic). As a result, we could show that heterogeneity was detected in all four modalities. Furthermore, for the regional, cellular and epigenomic level, we confirmed the results of earlier studies stating that a higher degree of heterogeneity is associated with poorer overall survival. To integrate all modalities into one score, we designed a predictor of longer survival, which showed a highly significant separation regarding the OS. In conclusion, multiscale intratumor heterogeneity exists in glioblastoma and its degree has an impact on overall survival. In future studies, the implementation of a broadly feasible heterogeneity index should be considered.     

桦木酸对大鼠肺纤维化模型肺组织的影响＊

目的 探讨桦木酸对大鼠肺纤维化模型肺组织中NF-κB、β-arrestin2表达的影响。方法 15只SPF级雄性SD大鼠分为对照组、模型组、桦木酸组，每组5只。对照组予以单次气管内注射1 mL·kg^-1 0.9%生理盐水，模型组和桦木酸组予单次气管内快速注射5 mg·kg^-1博来霉素建立大鼠肺纤维化模型。造模1天后，对照组及模型组给予10 mL·kg^-1 1%可溶性淀粉溶液，桦木酸组给予50 mg·kg^-1的桦木酸悬浮液，持续21天。HE、Masson染色方法观察肺组织病理改变。酶联免疫吸附法（ELISA）检测肺组织匀浆IL-6的水平。免疫组化法检测肺组织中NF-κB、β-arrestin2、IκBα的表达。结果 与对照组相比，模型组肺组织匀浆中IL-6水平升高，NF-κB、β-arrestin2、IκBα蛋白表达均上调（P<0.05）。与模型组相比，桦木酸组肺组织匀浆中IL-6水平降低，肺组织中NF-κB、β-arrestin2、IκBα蛋白表达均下调（P<0.05）。结论 桦木酸可减轻肺部炎症、减慢肺纤维化的发生发展，可能与下调肺组织中NF-κB、β-arrestin2有关。