Publications by authors named "X-L Cao"

Rationale And Objectives: To develop and externally validate interpretable CT radiomics-based machine learning (ML) models for preoperative Ki-67 expression prediction in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).

Methods: 506 patients were retrospectively enrolled from three independent institutes and divided into the training (n=357) and external test (n=149) sets. Ki67 expression was determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and categorized into low (<15%) and high (≥15%) expression groups.

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  • Early neurological deterioration (END) is linked to poor outcomes in acute ischemic stroke (AIS), and the study investigates how the drug evolocumab can help prevent this condition by lowering LDL cholesterol levels.
  • The research was a clinical trial with AIS patients divided into two groups: one receiving evolocumab combined with atorvastatin and the other receiving atorvastatin alone, assessing outcomes like END rates and inflammatory markers over 7 days.
  • Results showed that the combination therapy group had significantly lower rates of END (13.2% vs. 24.3%) and a much higher LDL cholesterol target achievement rate (74.3% vs. 14.7%), indicating the effectiveness of evolocumab in this context.
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B-cell lymphoma extra large (BCL-X) is an important anti-apoptotic protein of BCL-2 family. It is frequently overexpressed in various hematologic and solid tumors, often positively correlated with chemotherapy resistance in tumors. However, the clinical development of the small molecule BCL-X inhibitor ABT-263 has been challenged on account of its on-target and dose-limiting toxicity.

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  • Overbiopsy is a significant concern in prostate cancer diagnostics, prompting the development of a new urine tumor DNA algorithm called utLIFE to help avoid unnecessary procedures.
  • In clinical tests with a training group and a validation cohort, the utLIFE-PC model demonstrated high accuracy with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.967 and 0.929, respectively, along with strong sensitivity and specificity.
  • The model outperforms traditional prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests and other single-dimensional biomarkers, highlighting its potential to enhance prostate cancer diagnostics and reduce unnecessary biopsies.
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  • - Intracranial neural electrodes offer valuable insights for research and treatment of neurological diseases but require invasive surgery, which can harm brain tissue and disrupt functions.
  • - New endovascular neural devices present a less invasive alternative but currently lack the capability to capture single-unit activity in larger animals and humans, limiting their clinical use.
  • - The ultraflexible implantable neural electrode (uFINE-I) demonstrates successful implantation in sheep, recording high-resolution neural activity with minimal tissue damage, paving the way for future applications in brain-machine interfaces and neurological treatments.
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Introduction: Liver stiffness measurement is principal for staging liver fibrosis but not included in routine examinations. We investigated whether comparable diagnostic performance can be achieved by mining ultrasound images and developing a novel serum index (NSI).

Methods: Texture features were extracted from ultrasound images.

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Purpose To explore the role of cardiac MRI feature tracking (FT) and T1 mapping in predicting sustained ventricular arrhythmias (VA) in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) and to investigate their possible incremental value beyond ARVC risk score. Materials and Methods The retrospective study analyzed 91 patients with ARVC (median age, 36 years [IQR, 27-50 years]; 60 male, 31 female) who underwent cardiac MRI examinations between November 2010 and March 2022. The primary end point was the first occurrence of sustained VA after cardiac MRI to first VA, with censoring of patients who were alive without VA at last follow-up.

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  • A multicenter randomized controlled trial in China investigated the impact of adding coronary CT-derived fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR) to routine coronary CT angiography (CCTA) on the need for invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD).
  • The study involved 5,297 participants, showing that the CCTA plus CT-FFR group had a lower ICA rate (10.0%) compared to the CCTA alone group (12.4%) over a 90-day follow-up.
  • While MACE rates were similar between groups, the CCTA plus CT-FFR approach resulted in fewer cardiac events after one year (0.5%
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Animal models of peripheral nerve injury (PNI) serve as the fundamental basis for the investigations of nerve injury, regeneration, and neuropathic pain. The injury properties of such models, including the intensity and duration, significantly influence the subsequent pathological changes, pain development, and therapeutic efficacy. However, precise control over the intensity and duration of nerve injury remains challenging within existing animal models, thereby impeding accurate and comparative assessments of relevant cases.

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  • The study aimed to assess whether the risk of maternal pregnancy complications, specifically preeclampsia, varies based on male fertility factors in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF).
  • Research was conducted as an analysis of data from a larger clinical trial, involving 1,131 subfertile women and their male partners' semen quality.
  • Results indicated that women with male partners exhibiting oligoasthenospermia had a significantly higher risk of developing preeclampsia compared to those with normospermic partners, highlighting the importance of evaluating male sperm quality before IVF procedures.
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  • The evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants highlights the need for multivalent vaccines, leading to the development of SCTV01E, a tetravalent COVID-19 vaccine targeting variants Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron BA.1.
  • A double-blind placebo-controlled trial showed SCTV01E had a vaccine efficacy of 69.4% against COVID-19 seven days post-vaccination, with higher efficacy rates in preventing symptomatic and all infections at 14 days.
  • The vaccine demonstrated a significant neutralizing antibody response against Omicron BA.5 and had mild reactogenicity, indicating its potential effectiveness against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.
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Diatoms often outnumber other eukaryotic algae in the oceans, especially in coastal environments characterized by frequent fluctuations in light intensity. The identities and operational mechanisms of regulatory factors governing diatom acclimation to high light stress remain largely elusive. Here, we identified the AUREO1c protein from the coastal diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum as a crucial regulator of non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), a photoprotective mechanism that dissipates excess energy as heat.

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MCL-1, an antiapoptotic member of the BCL-2 family, is dysregulated and overexpressed in various tumors. In tumors with MCL-1 overexpression, selective inhibitors of MCL-1 are expected to overcome the drug resistance caused by BCL-2 inhibitors currently used in clinical treatment. Here, we employed docking-based virtual screening to identify an active hit, LC126, with binding affinity around 10 μM for MCL-1 and BCL-2.

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Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is a prevalent cause of myocardial injury, involving a series of interconnected pathophysiological processes. However, there is currently no clinical therapy for effectively mitigating myocardial I/R injury. Here, we show that p85α protein levels increase in response to I/R injury through a comprehensive analysis of cardiac proteomics, and confirm this in the I/R-injured murine heart and failing human myocardium.

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Background: Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disease characterized by autoantibody-mediated platelet destruction. Treatment with CM313, a novel anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, can result in targeted clearance of CD38-positive cells, including plasma cells.

Methods: We conducted a phase 1-2, open-label study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of CM313 in adult patients with ITP.

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  • * A clinical trial in China found that 33% of patients treated with tenecteplase had low disability scores after 90 days, compared to 24% of those receiving standard treatment, indicating tenecteplase may be more effective.
  • * Safety results showed similar mortality rates (around 13%) for both treatments, but the tenecteplase group had a slightly higher rate of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (3%) compared to standard treatment (0.8%).
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Background: An accurate and noninvasive method to determine the preoperative clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) pathological grade is of great significance for surgical program selection and prognosis assessment. Previous studies have shown that diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has moderate value in grading ccRCC. But DWI cannot reflect the diffusion of tissue accurately because it is calculated using a monoexponential model.

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Background: ABCB4 gene-related cholestatic liver diseases have a wide spectrum of clinical and genetic variations. The correlation between genotype and clinical phenotype still unclear. This study retrospectively analyzed the clinical and pathological characteristics of 23 patients with ABCB4 gene-related cholestatic liver diseases.

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Urine-based testing is promising for noninvasive diagnosis of urothelial carcinoma (UC) but has suboptimal sensitivity for early-stage tumors. Herein, we developed a multitarget urine tumor DNA test, UI-Seek, for UC detection and evaluated its clinical feasibility. The prediction model was developed in a retrospective cohort (n = 382), integrating assays for FGFR3 and TERT mutations and aberrant ONECUT2 and VIM methylation to generate a UC-score.

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Background: Vascular calcification, which is characterized by calcium deposition in arterial walls and the osteochondrogenic differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells, is an actively regulated process that involves complex mechanisms. Vascular calcification is associated with increased cardiovascular adverse events. The role of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), which is the most abundant stable product of lipid peroxidation, in vascular calcification has been poorly investigated.

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The continuous emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants with increased transmissibility and profound immune-escape capacity makes it an urgent need to develop broad-spectrum therapeutics. Nanobodies have recently attracted extensive attentions due to their excellent biochemical and binding properties. Here, we report two high-affinity nanobodies (Nb-015 and Nb-021) that target non-overlapping epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 S-RBD.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most deadly solid malignancy, is typically detected late and at an inoperable stage. Early or incidental detection is associated with prolonged survival, but screening asymptomatic individuals for PDAC using a single test remains unfeasible due to the low prevalence and potential harms of false positives. Non-contrast computed tomography (CT), routinely performed for clinical indications, offers the potential for large-scale screening, however, identification of PDAC using non-contrast CT has long been considered impossible.

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Background: Daily exposure to ambient air pollution is associated with stroke morbidity and mortality; however, the association between hourly exposure to air pollutants and risk of emergency hospital admissions for stroke and its subtypes remains relatively unexplored.

Methods: We obtained hourly concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM), respirable particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO), ozone (O), and carbon monoxide (CO) from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center. We conducted a time-stratified case-crossover study among 86 635 emergency hospital admissions for stroke across 10 hospitals in 3 cities (Jinhua, Hangzhou, and Zhoushan) in Zhejiang province, China, between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2021.

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Background: The development of new therapies for malignant gliomas has been stagnant for decades. Through the promising outcomes in clinical trials of oncolytic virotherapy, there is now a glimmer of hope in addressing this situation. To further enhance the antitumor immune response of oncolytic viruses, we have equipped a modified oncolytic adenovirus (oAds) with a recombinant interferon-like gene (YSCH-01) and conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the safety and efficacy of this modification compared to existing treatments.

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