The clinical value of artificial intelligence in assisting junior radiologists in thyroid ultrasound: a multicenter prospective study from real clinical practice.

Background: This study is to propose a clinically applicable 2-echelon (2e) diagnostic criteria for the analysis of thyroid nodules such that low-risk nodules are screened off while only suspicious or indeterminate ones are further examined by histopathology, and to explore whether artificial intelligence (AI) can provide precise assistance for clinical decision-making in the real-world prospective scenario.

Methods: In this prospective study, we enrolled 1036 patients with a total of 2296 thyroid nodules from three medical centers. The diagnostic performance of the AI system, radiologists with different levels of experience, and AI-assisted radiologists with different levels of experience in diagnosing thyroid nodules were evaluated against our proposed 2e diagnostic criteria, with the first being an arbitration committee consisting of 3 senior specialists and the second being cyto- or histopathology.

Combined conventional ultrasonography with clinicopathological features to predict axillary status after neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer: A case-control study.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the value of a model combining conventional ultrasonography and clinicopathologic features for predicting axillary status after neoadjuvant therapy in breast cancer.

Methods: This retrospective study included 329 patients with lymph node-positive who underwent neoadjuvant systemic treatment (NST) from June 2019 to March 2022. Ultrasound and clinicopathological characteristics of breast lesions and axillary lymph nodes were analyzed before and after NST.

Ultrasound and clinicopathological characteristics-based model for prediction of pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer: a case-control study.

Background: The objective of this study was to develop a model combining ultrasound (US) and clinicopathological characteristics to predict the pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer.

Materials And Methods: This is a retrospective study that included 248 patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who underwent NACT from March 2018 to March 2022. US and clinicopathological characteristics were collected from all patients in this study, and characteristics obtained using univariate analysis at p < 0.

The auxiliary diagnosis of thyroid echogenic foci based on a deep learning segmentation model: A two-center study.

Objective: The aim of this study is to develop AI-assisted software incorporating a deep learning (DL) model based on static ultrasound images. The software aims to aid physicians in distinguishing between malignant and benign thyroid nodules with echogenic foci and to investigate how the AI-assisted DL model can enhance radiologists' diagnostic performance.

Methods: For this retrospective study, a total of 2724 ultrasound (US) scans were collected from two independent institutions, encompassing 1038 echogenic foci nodules.

Salvage of Supervision in Weakly Supervised Object Detection and Segmentation.

Weakly supervised vision tasks, including detection and segmentation, have attracted much attention in the vision community recently. However, the lack of detailed and precise annotations in the weakly supervised case leads to a large accuracy gap between weakly- and fully-supervised methods. In this article, we propose a new framework, Salvage of Supervision (SoS), with the key idea being to effectively harness every potentially useful supervisory signal in weakly supervised vision tasks.

Optimizing treatment for diabetic macular edema during cataract surgery.

Diabetic macular edema (DME) causes visual impairment in diabetic retinopathy (DR). Diabetes mellitus is a global epidemic and diabetic individuals are at risk of developing DR. Approximately 1 in 10 diabetic patients suffers from DME, which is the commonest cause of vision-threatening DR at primary-care screening.

Discussion on machine learning technology to predict tacrolimus blood concentration in patients with nephrotic syndrome and membranous nephropathy in real-world settings.

Background: Given its narrow treatment window, high toxicity, adverse effects, and individual differences in its use, we collected and sorted data on tacrolimus use by real patients with kidney diseases. We then used machine learning technology to predict tacrolimus blood concentration in order to provide a basis for tacrolimus dose adjustment and ensure patient safety.

Methods: This study involved 913 hospitalized patients with nephrotic syndrome and membranous nephropathy treated with tacrolimus.

Characteristics and potential diagnostic ability of vaginal microflora in patients with aerobic vaginitis using 16S Ribosomal RNA sequencing.

Purpose: We aimed to explore the possible function of guiding dominant microflora for aerobic vaginitis (AV) women patients in China to know its diagnostic ability for the further clinical application.

Method: The characteristics and community compositions of AV vaginal microbiota was evaluated by high-throughput 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) sequencing after the vaginal microecology evaluations.

Results: The increased colonization of Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus anginosus and the absence of Lactobacillus are typical manifestations of AV patients.

Knockdown of inhibits the progression of ovarian cancer and is related to the signaling pathway.

Background: Tripartite motif-containing protein 44 () was recently identified as a novel oncogene that is overexpressed in several types of human cancers. However, the biological functions of in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remain unclear. Here, we aimed to investigate the role of in EOC and its clinical implications.

Eradicating mesothelin-positive human gastric and pancreatic tumors in xenograft models with optimized anti-mesothelin antibody-drug conjugates from synthetic antibody libraries.

Mesothelin (MSLN) is an attractive candidate of targeted therapy for several cancers, and hence there are increasing needs to develop MSLN-targeting strategies for cancer therapeutics. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) targeting MSLN have been demonstrated to be a viable strategy in treating MSLN-positive cancers. However, developing antibodies as targeting modules in ADCs for toxic payload delivery to the tumor site but not to normal tissues is not a straightforward task with many potential hurdles.

A composite of graphene oxide and iron oxide nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery of temozolomide.

A magnetic targeting nanoparticle based on graphene oxide-ferroferric oxide (GO-Fe₃O₄) was investigated as a potential drug delivery vehicle. The formation of GO/Fe₃O₄ hybrid material was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The GO/Fe₃O₄ hybrid still shows a higher saturation magnetization of 58.

Folate-modified Graphene Oxide as the Drug Delivery System to Load Temozolomide.

Objective: The folate-modified graphene oxide (GO-FA), which had good stability and biocompatibility on rat glioma cells was successfully prepared.

Methods: The formation and composition of GO-FA were confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrum (FT-IR), Raman spectra and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS spectra). The cell experiment suggested good biocompatibility of GO-FA on rat glioma cells.

Effects of Antiretroviral Therapy and HIV Exposure in Utero on Adverse Pregnancy and Infant Outcomes: A Prospective Cohort Study in Guangzhou, China.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of in-utero exposure to HIV and ART on pregnancy outcome and early growth of children.

Methods: This cohort study enrolled 802 HIV-infected pregnant women between October 2009 and May 2018 in Guangzhou, China. The women were assigned to receive combination ART (cART) or mono/dual ART or no treatment.

Endoplasmic reticulum-targeting sequence enhanced the cellular immunity of a tumor-associated antigen L6-based DNA vaccine.

Cancer vaccine design to effectively eliminate tumors requires triggering strong immune reactions to elicit long-lasting humoral and cellular immunity and DNA vaccines have been demonstrated to be an attractive immunotherapeutic approach. The tumor-associated antigen L6 (TAL6) is overexpressed on the surface of different cancer cells and promotes cancer progression; therefore, it could be a potential target for cancer treatment. We have revealed that a synthetic peptide containing HLA-A2-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) and B cell epitope can induce cellular and humoral immunity against TAL6-expressing cancer.

Short- and Long-term Risks of Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment with Incident Opportunistic Infections among People Living with HIV/AIDS.

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) causes a rapid increase of CD4 + T cells counts during the first 3-6 months of treatment and may enhance the development of opportunistic infections (OIs). However, the short- and long-term effects of HAART exposure on the development of incident OIs has not been extensively studied. This nationwide longitudinal study followed up a total of 26,258 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to ascertain the short- and long-term effects of HAART on incident OIs.

[Distant Metastasis and Survival Outcomes after Computed Tomography-guided Needle Biopsy in Stage I-II Non-small Cell Lung Cancer].

Background: Computed tomography-guided needle biopsy (CTNB) is a well-established and commonly used technique for diagnosing pulmonary nodules with high accuracy and safety. Needle-tract implantation after CTNB has been reported in various reports. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether preoperative CTNB affected the distant metastasis and overall survival in pathological stage I-II lung cancer patients.

Glucocorticoids may compromise the effect of gefitinib in non-small cell lung cancer.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeting tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have shown remarkable benefits in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with drug-sensitive mutations in the EGFR gene. Responsive patients are usually continuously prescribed with TKIs until disease progression. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are potent homeostasis maintaining drugs and are frequently used in cancer patients to alleviate discomforts caused by anti-cancer therapies.

[Reproductive toxicity of triptolide and its mechanism in male rats].

The arrenotokous toxicity of triptolide was evaluated, and the rate of sperm abnormality, the changes of the lipid peroxide, the enzyme activity and the hormone in male rats were observed. With the negative and positive control group, the healthy rats were respectively given by gavage triptolide suspension at the dose of 0.025, 0.

Chimeric peptide containing both B and T cells epitope of tumor-associated antigen L6 enhances anti-tumor effects in HLA-A2 transgenic mice.

Synthetic peptides are attractive for cancer immunotherapy because of their safety and flexibility. In this report, we identified a new B cell epitope of tumor-associated antigen L6 (TAL6) that could induce antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) in vivo. We incorporated the B cell epitope with a cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) and a helper T (Th) epitope to form a chimeric long peptide.

A HLA-A2-restricted CTL epitope induces anti-tumor effects against human lung cancer in mouse xenograft model.

Cancer immunotherapy is attractive for antigen-specific T cell-mediated anti-tumor therapy, especially in induction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes. In this report, we evaluated human CTL epitope-induced anti-tumor effects in human lung cancer xenograft models. The tumor associated antigen L6 (TAL6) is highly expressed in human lung cancer cell lines and tumor specimens as compared to normal lung tissues.

Regeneration of Thyroid Function by Transplantation of Differentiated Pluripotent Stem Cells.

Differentiation of functional thyroid epithelia from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) holds the potential for application in regenerative medicine. However, progress toward this goal is hampered by incomplete understanding of the signaling pathways needed for directed differentiation without forced overexpression of exogenous transgenes. Here we use mouse PSCs to identify key conserved roles for BMP and FGF signaling in regulating thyroid lineage specification from foregut endoderm in mouse and Xenopus.

Lysophosphatidylcholine Acyltransferase 1 (LPCAT1) Specifically Interacts with Phospholipid Transfer Protein StarD10 to Facilitate Surfactant Phospholipid Trafficking in Alveolar Type II Cells.

Pulmonary surfactant, a mixture of proteins and phospholipids, plays an important role in facilitating gas exchange by maintaining alveolar stability. Saturated phosphatidylcholine (SatPC), the major component of surfactant, is synthesized both de novo and by the remodeling of unsaturated phosphatidylcholine (PC) by lyso-PC acyltransferase 1 (LPCAT1). After synthesis in the endoplasmic reticulum, SatPC is routed to lamellar bodies (LBs) for storage prior to secretion.