Combined proteomics and single cell RNA-sequencing analysis to identify biomarkers of disease diagnosis and disease exacerbation for systemic lupus erythematosus.

Introduction: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease for which there is no cure. Effective diagnosis and precise assessment of disease exacerbation remains a major challenge.

Methods: We performed peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proteomics of a discovery cohort, including patients with active SLE and inactive SLE, patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and healthy controls (HC).

Consistency Analysis of 3 Detection Systems for Measuring Serum C-Reactive Protein.

BACKGROUND C-reactive protein (CRP) is an important clinical indicator. There are many methods and instruments for CRP measurement, and therefore the consistency of CRP values measured between instruments needs to be evaluated. This study aimed to compare the consistency of 3 serum CRP detection systems using turbidimetry.

DeepRetina: Layer Segmentation of Retina in OCT Images Using Deep Learning.

Purpose: To automate the segmentation of retinal layers, we propose DeepRetina, a method based on deep neural networks.

Methods: DeepRetina uses the improved Xception65 to extract and learn the characteristics of retinal layers. The Xception65-extracted feature maps are inputted to an atrous spatial pyramid pooling module to obtain multiscale feature information.

FecalNet: Automated detection of visible components in human feces using deep learning.

Purpose: To automate the detection and identification of visible components in feces for early diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases, we propose FecalNet, a method using multiple deep neural networks.

Methods: FecalNet uses the ResNet152 residual network to extract and learn the characteristics of visible components in fecal microscopic images, acquire feature maps in combination with the feature pyramid network, apply the full convolutional network to classify and locate the fecal components, and implement the improved focal loss function to reoptimize the classification results. This allowed the complete automation of the detection and identification of the visible components in feces.

[Artificial intelligence empowers laboratory medicine in Industry 4.0].

Since 2017, China, the United States, and the European Union have successively issued national-level artificial intelligence (AI) strategic development plans, and the human history is about to witness the 4th industrial revolution with the theme of "intelligence". In the field of medical testing, the explosive growth of AI theories and technologies also provide a new direction for the development of medical testing theory, methods and applications. We review the evolution of AI and the recent progress in three major elements of AI, namely algorithms, data and computing power, and elaborate on the combined innovation of "AI + testing" in light of the key application dimensions of medical testing.

Inspection of visible components in urine based on deep learning.

Purpose: Urinary particles are particularly important parameters in clinical urinalysis, especially for the diagnosis of nephropathy. Therefore, it is highly important to precisely detect urinary particles in the clinical setting. However, artificial microscopy is subjective and time consuming, and various previous detection algorithms lack the adequate accuracy.

Novel Biochemical Insights in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Patients with Neurosyphilis Based on a Metabonomics Study.

Neurosyphilis is a chronic central nervous system infectious disease caused by Treponema pallidum. Our aim was to study the metabolic profiling in the cerebrospinal fluid of neurosyphilis patients and identify specific potential biomarkers. Fifteen cerebrospinal fluid samples from neurosyphilis patients and 14 non-neurosyphilis samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer (LC-MS).

Potential biomarkers for antidiastole of tuberculous and malignant pleural effusion by proteome analysis.

Aim: To investigate novel potential biomarkers for antidiastole of tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE) from malignant pleural effusion (MPE).

Materials & Methods: iTRAQTM-coupled LC-MS/MS were applied to analyze the proteome of TPE and MPE samples. The candidate proteins were verified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Serum SAA1 and APOE are novel indicators for human cytomegalovirus infection.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is a global concern and highly infectious. HCMV-infected individuals are often carriers with damaged immunity. However few diagnostic indicators block HMCV control and prevention.

Metabonomics screening of serum identifies pyroglutamate as a diagnostic biomarker for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Objective: A key step in managing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is to differentiate nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) from simple steatosis (SS).

Method: Serum samples were collected from three groups: NASH patients (N=21), SS patients (N=38) and healthy controls (N=31). High performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) was used to analyse the metabolic profile of the serum samples.

Flexible and Highly Photosensitive Electrolyte-Gated Organic Transistors with Ionogel/Silver Nanowire Membranes.

Flexible and low-voltage photosensors with high near-infrared (NIR) sensitivity are critical for realization of interacting humans with robots and environments by thermal imaging or night vision techniques. In this work, we for the first time develop an easy and cost-effective process to fabricate flexible and ultrathin electrolyte-gated organic phototransistors (EGOPTs) with high transparent nanocomposite membranes of high-conductivity silver nanowire (AgNW) networks and large-capacitance iontronic films. A high responsivity of 1.

Liver tissue metabolic profiling and pathways of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in rats.

Aim: The mechanisms of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in hepatocytes are unknown. Our aim is to study the tissue metabolic profiling and pathways of NASH.

Methods: We built rat models for simple steatosis and NASH and analyzed the liver extract using a liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer.

Method Comparison and Bias Estimation of Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN), Creatinine (Cr), and Uric Acid (UA) Measurements between Two Analytical Methods.

Background: A comparison of any two methods is of great importance in a clinical laboratory. In this study, our aim is to compare the assay results of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr), and uric acid (UA) obtained through two distinct methods and then assess the analytical agreement of the two methods.

Methods: A test method (Vitros5600 system) measuring BUN, Cr, and UA analytes was compared with a reference method (Hitachi7600 system).

glycosides inhibit inflammatory mediators in the rat synovial RSC-364 cell line stimulated with interleukin-1β.

glycosides (TG) are extracted from a traditional Chinese medicinal herb. Using the compound, progress has been made in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the underlying mechanism of its action is poorly understood. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of TG in preventing inflammatory arthritis.

Quantitative Proteomic Analysis of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells in Ankylosing Spondylitis by iTRAQ.

This study was designed to identify and quantify the different proteins expression levels in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and to explore the pathogenesis of AS. We performed isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) coupled with multiple chromatographic fractionation and tandem mass spectrometry to detect the proteins profiling in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from AS patients and healthy controls. Mascot software and the International Protein Index and the Gene Ontology (GO) database were used to conduct the bioinformatics analysis.

Quantitative proteomic analysis of Down syndrome in the umbilical cord blood using iTRAQ.

Down sydrome (DS) is a relatively frequent chromosomal disorder, which has no safe and effective method of prenatal diagnosis to date. The present study was designed to identify DS biomarkers. We quantified the changes in the umbilical cord blood protein levels between DS-affected and healthy (control) pregnant females using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis.

Determining the concentration of procalcitonin using a magnetic particles-based chemiluminescence assay for the clinical diagnosis of sepsis.

Our objective is to develop an assay based on magnetic particles (MPs) to determine the concentration of procalcitonin (PCT) using a chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA). Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and N-(aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol) (ABEI) were used to label two different anti-procalcitonin (PCT) monoclonal antibodies. The labeled antibodies, the PCT antigen, and the anti-FITC antibody-coated MPs formed a double-sandwiched immunocomplex.

Continuous detection of muscle aspect ratio using keypoint tracking in ultrasonography.

Muscle aspect ratio of cross-sectional area is one of the most widely used parameters for quantifying muscle function in both diagnosis and rehabilitation assessment. Ultrasound imaging has been frequently used to noninvasively study the characteristics of human muscles as a reliable method. However, the aspect ratio measurement is traditionally conducted by the manual digitization of reference points; thus, it is subjective, time-consuming, and prone to errors.

Development of a rapid and high-performance chemiluminescence immunoassay based on magnetic particles for protein S100B in human serum.

Protein S100B is a clinically useful non-invasive biomarker for brain cell damage. A rapid chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) for S100B in human serum has been developed. Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and N-(aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol) (ABEI) are used to label two different monoclonal antibodies of anti-S100B.

A pilot metabolic profiling study in serum of patients with chronic kidney disease based on (1) H-NMR-spectroscopy.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is the end point of a number of renal and systemic diseases. The metabolomics with a highly multiplexed and efficient manner is a challenging goal in nephrology.

Methods: A (1) H-NMR based metabolomics approach was applied to establish a human CKD serum metabolic profile.

Comparison of the metabolic profiling of hepatitis B virus-infected cirrhosis and alcoholic cirrhosis patients by using (1) H NMR-based metabonomics.

Aim:   The aims of the present study were to depict the serum metabolic characteristics of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected cirrhosis and alcoholic cirrhosis patients, and to find the specific serum biomarkers associated with the diseases.

Methods:   A pilot metabolic profiling study was conducted using three groups: HBV-infected cirrhosis patients (n = 21), alcoholic cirrhosis patients (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 20). (1) H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomics was used to obtain the serum metabolic profiles of the samples.

CpG array analysis of histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation by chromatin immunoprecipitation linked to microarrays analysis in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of IgA nephropathy patients.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the aberrance of histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) in patients with IgA Nephropathy (IgAN).

Materials And Methods: In this study, H3K4me3 variations in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 15 IgAN patients and 15 healthy subjects were analyzed using chromatin immunoprecipitation linked to microarrays analysis (ChIP-chip). ChIP real-time PCR was used to validate the microarray results.

¹H NMR-based serum metabolic profiling in compensated and decompensated cirrhosis.

Aim: To study the metabolic profiling of serum samples from compensated and decompensated cirrhosis patients.

Methods: A pilot metabolic profiling study was conducted using three groups: compensated cirrhosis patients (n = 30), decompensated cirrhosis patients (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 30). A ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomics approach was used to obtain the serum metabolic profiles of the samples.

[CpG array analysis of histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation in patients with IgA nephropathy].

Objective: To investigate the aberrance of histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) in patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN).

Methods: In 15 patients with IgAN and 15 healthy volunteers, H3K4me3 variations in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were analyzed using chromatin immunoprecipitation and microarray analysis (ChIP-chip). ChIP real-time PCR was used to validate the microarray results.

[Application of iTRAQ multiple labeling and tandem mass spectrometry in proteomic research of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells].

This paper is aimed to establish and optimize proteomic research platform using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) so as to facilitate further proteomic research of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hPBMC). We collected hPBMC, after protein extraction and trypsin digestion, we labeled the samples with iTRAQ reagents and then subjected to mass spectrometry. In triplicates, thirty precursors were randomly selected and detected; as a result, 26, 28 and 29 peptides were respectively tagged with ITRAQ reporter ions.