The Oral Microbial Ecosystem in Age-Related Xerostomia: A Critical Review.

Xerostomia is a widespread condition among the elderly, impacting as many as 50% of individuals within this demographic. This review aims to analyze the association between age-related xerostomia and the oral microbial ecosystem. Xerostomia not only induces discomfort but also heightens the susceptibility to oral diseases, including dental caries and infections.

Liquid Biopsy in the Clinical Management of Cancers.

Liquid biopsy, a noninvasive diagnosis that examines circulating tumor components in body fluids, is increasingly used in cancer management. An overview of relevant literature emphasizes the current state of liquid biopsy applications in cancer care. Biomarkers in liquid biopsy, particularly circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating tumor RNAs (ctRNA), circulating tumor cells (CTCs), extracellular vesicles (EVs), and other components, offer promising opportunities for early cancer diagnosis, treatment selection, monitoring, and disease assessment.

Comprehensive Review of COVID-19: Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Advancement in Diagnostic and Detection Techniques, and Post-Pandemic Treatment Strategies.

At present, COVID-19 remains a public health concern due to the ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and its prevalence in particular countries. This paper provides an updated overview of the epidemiology and pathogenesis of COVID-19, with a focus on the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and the phenomenon known as 'long COVID'. Meanwhile, diagnostic and detection advances will be mentioned.

Enhancing Clinical Utility: Utilization of International Standards and Guidelines for Metagenomic Sequencing in Infectious Disease Diagnosis.

Metagenomic sequencing has emerged as a transformative tool in infectious disease diagnosis, offering a comprehensive and unbiased approach to pathogen detection. Leveraging international standards and guidelines is essential for ensuring the quality and reliability of metagenomic sequencing in clinical practice. This review explores the implications of international standards and guidelines for the application of metagenomic sequencing in infectious disease diagnosis.

Proteomic characterization of extracellular vesicles in programmed cell death.

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a fundamental biological process that plays a critical role in cell development, differentiation, and homeostasis. The secretion and uptake of extracellular vesicles (EVs) is one of the important regulatory mechanisms for PCD. EVs are natural membrane structures secreted by cells that contain a variety of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and other bioactive molecules.

Plasma Circulating mRNA Profile for the Non-Invasive Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer Using NanoString Technologies.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent cancers and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in developed countries. Early CRC may have no symptoms and symptoms usually appear with more advanced diseases. Regular screening can identify people who are at increased risk of CRC in order to offer earlier treatment.

Consensus Statements on Precision Oncology in the China Greater Bay Area.

Background: Next-generation sequencing comprehensive genomic panels (NGS CGPs) have enabled the delivery of tailor-made therapeutic approaches to improve survival outcomes in patients with cancer. Within the China Greater Bay Area (GBA), territorial differences in clinical practices and health care systems and strengthening collaboration warrant a regional consensus to consolidate the development and integration of precision oncology (PO). Therefore, the Precision Oncology Working Group (POWG) formulated standardized principles for the clinical application of molecular profiling, interpretation of genomic alterations, and alignment of actionable mutations with sequence-directed therapy to deliver clinical services of excellence and evidence-based care to patients with cancer in the China GBA.

The discovery and development of mRNA vaccines for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most serious public health events of this century. There have been more than 670 million confirmed cases and more than 6 million deaths worldwide. From the emergence of the Alpha variant to the later rampant Omicron variant, the high transmissibility and pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 accelerate the research and development of effective vaccines.

Cell-free circulating tumor RNAs in plasma as the potential prognostic biomarkers in colorectal cancer.

Background: Cell free RNA (cfRNA) contains transcript fragments from multiple cell types, making it useful for cancer detection in clinical settings. However, the pathophysiological origins of cfRNAs in plasma from colorectal cancer (CRC) patients remain unclear.

Methods: To identify the tissue-specific contributions of cfRNAs transcriptomic profile, we used a published single-cell transcriptomics profile to deconvolute cell type abundance among paired plasma samples from CRC patients who underwent tumor-ablative surgery.

The clinical characteristics of pediatric patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant and whole viral genome sequencing analysis.

Pediatric population was generally less affected clinically by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Few pediatric cases of COVID-19 have been reported compared to those reported in infected adults. However, a rapid increase in the hospitalization rate of SARS-CoV-2 infected pediatric patients was observed during Omicron variant dominated COVID-19 outbreak.

Targeted Sequencing Approach and Its Clinical Applications for the Molecular Diagnosis of Human Diseases.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has positively impacted the NGS market recently. Targeted sequencing (TS) has become an important routine technique in both clinical and research settings, with advantages including high confidence and accuracy, a reasonable turnaround time, relatively low cost, and fewer data burdens with the level of bioinformatics or computational demand. Since there are no clear consensus guidelines on the wide range of next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms and techniques, there is a vital need for researchers and clinicians to develop efficient approaches, especially for the molecular diagnosis of diseases in the emergency of the disease and the global pandemic outbreak of COVID-19.

The diagnostic significance of CDH17-positive circulating tumor cells in patients with colorectal cancer.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Hong Kong. We tested the hypothesis that circulating tumor cell (CTC) analysis by ARB101 antibody could be used as a tool for CRC detection, progression, and therapy response.

Research Methods: ARB101 antibody was used for investigation of CDH17 expression in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) of CRC patients.

The non-invasive diagnosis of colorectal cancer via a SOX9-based gene panel.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) threatens human health seriously. Early diagnosis of CRC is critical to improving patient survival. Meanwhile, non-invasive detection through tumor-circulating markers can be an important auxiliary diagnosis.

Primary Tumor Radiomic Model for Identifying Extrahepatic Metastasis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Based on Contrast Enhanced Computed Tomography.

This study aimed to identify radiomic features of primary tumor and develop a model for indicating extrahepatic metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Contrast-enhanced computed tomographic (CT) images of 177 HCC cases, including 26 metastatic (MET) and 151 non-metastatic (non-MET), were retrospectively collected and analyzed. For each case, 851 radiomic features, which quantify shape, intensity, texture, and heterogeneity within the segmented volume of the largest HCC tumor in arterial phase, were extracted using Pyradiomics.

Current Developments of Artificial Intelligence in Digital Pathology and Its Future Clinical Applications in Gastrointestinal Cancers.

The implementation of DP will revolutionize current practice by providing pathologists with additional tools and algorithms to improve workflow. Furthermore, DP will open up opportunities for development of AI-based tools for more precise and reproducible diagnosis through computational pathology. One of the key features of AI is its capability to generate perceptions and recognize patterns beyond the human senses.

The clinical application of metagenomic next-generation sequencing for detecting pathogens in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid: case reports and literature review.

Introduction: Clinical metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) allows a comprehensive genetic analysis of microbial materials. Different from other traditional target-driven molecular diagnostic tests, such as PCR, mNGS is a hypothesis-free diagnostic approach that allows a comprehensive genetic analysis of the clinical specimens that cover nearly any common, rare, and new pathogens ranging broadly from viruses, bacteria, fungi to parasites.

Areas Covered: In this article, we discussed the clinical application of the mNGS using two clinical cases as examples and described the use of mNGS to assist the diagnosis of parasitic pulmonary infection.

Augmented Features Synergize Radiomics in Post-Operative Survival Prediction and Adjuvant Therapy Recommendation for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Background: Owing to the cytotoxic effect, it is challenging for clinicians to decide whether post-operative adjuvant therapy is appropriate for a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patient. Radiomics has proven its promising ability in predicting survival but research on its actionable model, particularly for supporting the decision of adjuvant therapy, is limited.

Methods: Pre-operative contrast-enhanced CT images of 123 NSCLC cases were collected, including 76, 13, 16, and 18 cases from R01 and AMC cohorts of The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA), Jiangxi Cancer Hospital and Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital respectively.

Whole genome amplicon sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from lineage B.1.36.27 isolated in Hong Kong.

Background: The import of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) lineage B.1.36.

The current and future applications of hybridization technologies in anatomical pathology.

Introduction: hybridization (ISH) plays an important role in the field of molecular diagnostics, especially in an anatomical pathology laboratory. ISH is a technique that can detect the targeted DNA or RNA sequences in tissue sections from frozen or fixed materials with labeled DNA or RNA probes. Radioactive and non-radioactive probes are the two major probes that can be used to label the targeted nucleic acids.

Performance comparison of the Cobas® Liat® and Cepheid® GeneXpert® systems on SARS-CoV-2 detection in nasopharyngeal swab and posterior oropharyngeal saliva.

: Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) based methods such as real-time reverse transcription polymerase-chain reaction (real-time RT-PCR) are the gold standard for diagnosis of current infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The cobas® Liat® and cepheid® GeneXpert® systems are two rapid real-time RT-PCR platforms offering rapid, specimen-to-answer detection of SARS-CoV-2.: In this study, we compared the performance of these two systems on SARS-CoV-2 detection in 9 nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) and 70 posterior oropharyngeal saliva specimens collected from 79 patients suspected of SARS-CoV-2 infection between August 2020 and March 2021.

Proteomic profiling in extracellular vesicles for cancer detection and monitoring.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanometer-size lipid vesicles released by cells, which play essential biological functions in intercellular communication. Increasing evidence indicates that EVs participate in cancer development, including invasion, migration, metastasis, and cancer immune modulation. One of the key mechanisms is that EVs affect different cells in the tumor microenvironment through surface-anchor proteins and protein cargos.

From proteomic landscape to single-cell oncoproteomics.

: Proteomic profiling plays an important role in the exploration of cancer from molecular mechanisms to clinical diagnosis and treatment. In recent years, the advent of new technologies has promoted oncoproteomics from the initial global style to a refined single-cell level.: Among them, the development of microfluidic devices, the improvement of liquid mass spectrometry in accuracy and trace sample handling processes, and the emergence of protein sequencing have contributed to the oncoproteomic analysis at the single-cell level.