ANK Deficiency-Mediated Cytosolic Citrate Accumulation Promotes Aortic Aneurysm.

Background: Disturbed metabolism and transport of citrate play significant roles in various pathologies. However, vascular citrate regulation and its potential role in aortic aneurysm (AA) development remain poorly understood.

Methods: Untargeted metabolomics by mass spectrometry was applied to identify upregulated metabolites of the tricarboxylic acid cycle in AA tissues of mice.

Integrated omics profiling reveals systemic dysregulation and potential biomarkers in the blood of patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders.

Background: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) are autoimmune conditions that affect the central nervous system. The contribution of peripheral abnormalities to the disease's pathogenesis is not well understood.

Methods: To investigate this, we employed a multi-omics approach analyzing blood samples from 52 NMOSD patients and 46 healthy controls (HC).

Diagnostic Utility of a 90-Gene Expression Assay (Canhelp-Origin) for Patients with Metastatic Cancer with an Unclear or Unknown Diagnosis.

Background: Metastatic cancers with unclear or unknown origins pose significant challenges in diagnosis and management, frequently leading to suboptimal outcomes. Studies have demonstrated that a 90-gene expression assay is effective in predicting the primary origin and guiding the site-specific therapy to improve prognosis. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a 90-gene expression assay in patients with unclear or unknown diagnoses.

FCSU-Net: A novel full-scale Cross-dimension Self-attention U-Net with collaborative fusion of multi-scale feature for medical image segmentation.

Recently, ViT and CNNs based on encoder-decoder architecture have become the dominant model in the field of medical image segmentation. However, there are some deficiencies for each of them: (1) It is difficult for CNNs to capture the interaction between two locations with consideration of the longer distance. (2) ViT cannot acquire the interaction of local context information and carries high computational complexity.

Efficacy of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision to Prevent HIV Infection Among Men Who Have Sex With Men : A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Observational studies suggest that voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) may lower HIV risk among men who have sex with men (MSM). A randomized controlled trial (RCT) is needed to confirm this.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of VMMC in preventing incident HIV infection among MSM.

Medical image segmentation network based on multi-scale frequency domain filter.

With the development of deep learning, medical image segmentation in computer-aided diagnosis has become a research hotspot. Recently, UNet and its variants have become the most powerful medical image segmentation methods. However, these methods suffer from (1) insufficient sensing field and insufficient depth; (2) computational nonlinearity and redundancy of channel features; and (3) ignoring the interrelationships among feature channels.

LXRα Promotes Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Formation Through UHRF1 Epigenetic Modification of miR-26b-3p.

Background: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a severe aortic disease without effective pharmacological approaches. The nuclear hormone receptor LXRα (liver X receptor α), encoded by the gene, serves as a critical transcriptional mediator linked to several vascular pathologies, but its role in AAA remains elusive.

Methods: Through integrated analyses of human and murine AAA gene expression microarray data sets, we identified as a candidate gene regulating AAA formation.

Integrated multi-omics analysis reveals gut microbiota dysbiosis and systemic disturbance in major depressive disorder.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) involves systemic changes in peripheral blood and gut microbiota, but the current understanding is incomplete. Herein, we conducted a multi-omics analysis of fecal and blood samples obtained from an observational cohort including MDD patients (n = 99) and healthy control (HC, n = 50). 16S rRNA sequencing of gut microbiota showed structural alterations in MDD, as characterized by increased Enterococcus.

FAFS-UNet: Redesigning skip connections in UNet with feature aggregation and feature selection.

In recent years, the encoder-decoder U-shaped network architecture has become a mainstream structure for medical image segmentation. Its biggest advantage lies in the incorporation of shallow features into deeper layers of the network through skip connections. However, according to our research, there are still some limitations in the skip connection part of the network: (1) The information from the encoder stage is not completely and effectively supplemented to the decoder stage; (2) The decoder receives the supplemented feature information from the encoder indiscriminately, which sometimes leads to the poor performance of the model.

A gB nanoparticle vaccine elicits a protective neutralizing antibody response against EBV.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a global public health concern, as it is known to cause multiple diseases while also being etiologically associated with a wide range of epithelial and lymphoid malignancies. Currently, there is no available prophylactic vaccine against EBV. gB is the EBV fusion protein that mediates viral membrane fusion and participates in host recognition, making it critical for EBV infection in both B cells and epithelial cells.

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Palliative Care (FACIT-Pal) in Patients With Advanced Cancer.

Context: The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Palliative Care (FACIT-Pal) has been widely used in assessing the quality of life (QOL) of patients with life-limiting illness. However, the Chinese version of the FACIT-Pal has not been psychometrically validated yet.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to psychometrically validate the FACIT-Pal in Chinese patients with advanced cancer.

Hypertension-Driven Regulatory T-Cell Perturbations Accelerate Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

Background: Patients with a history of hypertension have elevated inflammation and a worse prognosis after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are reported to lose their immunosuppressive capacity under pathological conditions. However, whether hypertension leads to Treg dysfunction, thus accelerating myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, is still unknown.

Artificial Intelligence Predictive Model for Hormone Therapy Use in Prostate Cancer.

Background: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) with radiotherapy can benefit patients with localized prostate cancer. However, ADT can negatively impact quality of life and there remain no validated predictive models to guide its use.

Methods: Digital pathology image and clinical data from pre-treatment prostate tissue from 5,727 patients enrolled on five phase III randomized trials treated with radiotherapy +/- ADT were used to develop and validate an artificial intelligence (AI)-derived predictive model to assess ADT benefit with the primary endpoint of distant metastasis.

Activin Receptor-Like Kinase 3 Directly Couples Gαq (Guanine Nucleotide-Binding Protein Subunit αq)/ Gαq (Guanine Nucleotide-Binding Protein Subunit α11) to Regulate Vascular Contractility.

Background: Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) contractility is critical for blood pressure regulation and vascular homeostasis. Identifying the key molecule that maintains VSMC contractility may provide a novel therapeutic target for vascular remodeling. ALK3 (activin receptor-like kinase 3) is a serine/threonine kinase receptor, and deletion of ALK3 causes embryonic lethality.

Ibrutinib and rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone in patients with previously untreated non-germinal centre B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: A Chinese subgroup analysis of the phase III PHOENIX trial.

In this post hoc subgroup analysis of 200 patients enrolled in China from the phase III PHOENIX trial (= 838, NCT01855750), addition of ibrutinib to rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone (R-CHOP) did not improve event-free survival (EFS) versus placebo+R-CHOP in the intent-to-treat (ITT;  = 200, hazard ratio [HR] = 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0·509-1.349; = 0.

Nidogen-2 is a Novel Endogenous Ligand of LGR4 to Inhibit Vascular Calcification.

Background: Vascular calcification is closely related to the all-cause mortality of cardiovascular events. Basement membrane protein nidogen-2 is a key component of the vascular extracellular matrix microenvironment and we recently found it is pivotal for the maintenance of contractile phenotype in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). However, whether nidogen-2 is involved in VSMCs osteochondrogenic transition and vascular calcification remains unclear.

Use of Hormone Replacement Therapy and Risk of Dementia: A Nationwide Cohort Study.

Background And Objectives: Estrogen has the potential to influence brain physiology implicated in dementia pathogenesis. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) might be expected to influence the risk of dementia. Observational data indicated that HRT was associated with reductions in dementia risk, but experimental evidence demonstrates that HRT increases the incidence of dementia.

PHB2 Maintains the Contractile Phenotype of VSMCs by Counteracting PKM2 Splicing.

Background: Phenotypic transition of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) accounts for the pathogenesis of a variety of vascular diseases during the early stage. Recent studies indicate the metabolic reprogramming may be involved in VSMC phenotypic transition. However, the definite molecules that link energy metabolism to distinct VSMC phenotype remain elusive.

Species diversity, systematic revision and molecular phylogeny of (, ) with an emphasis on Chinese collections.

is one of the main families of macrofungi since species in the family are both ecologically and economically important. The double-walled basidiospores with ornamented endospore walls are the characteristic features of . It is a large and complex family; although many studies have focused on , the global diversity, geographic distribution, taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of still remained incompletely understood.

Mouse pulmonary interstitial macrophages mediate the pro-tumorigenic effects of IL-9.

Although IL-9 has potent anti-tumor activity in adoptive cell transfer therapy, some models suggest that it can promote tumor growth. Here, we show that IL-9 signaling is associated with poor outcomes in patients with various forms of lung cancer, and is required for lung tumor growth in multiple mouse models. CD4 T cell-derived IL-9 promotes the expansion of both CD11c and CD11c interstitial macrophage populations in lung tumor models.