A cross-sectional study of enterovirus nucleic acid test with throat swabs for term late neonates during coronavirus disease 2019 / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To investigate the positive rate of enterovirus (EV) nucleic acid in throat swabs of term late neonates hospitalized during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic and the clinical characteristics of the neonates.@*METHODS@#A single-center cross-sectional study was performed on 611 term late infants who were hospitalized in the neonatal center from October 2020 to September 2021. Throat swabs were collected on admission for coxsackie A16 virus/EV71/EV universal nucleic acid testing. According to the results of EV nucleic acid test, the infants were divided into a positive EV nucleic acid group (8 infants) and a negative EV nucleic acid group (603 infants). Clinical features were compared between the two groups.@*RESULTS@#Among the 611 neonates, 8 tested positive for EV nucleic acid, with a positive rate of 13.1‰, among whom 7 were admitted from May to October. There was a significant difference in the proportion of infants contacting family members with respiratory infection symptoms before disease onset between the positive and negative EV nucleic acid groups (75.0% vs 10.9%, P<0.001). There were no significant differences between the two groups in demographic data, clinical symptoms, and laboratory test results (P>0.05).@*CONCLUSIONS@#There is a certain proportion of term late infants testing positive for EV nucleic acid in throat swabs during the COVID-19 epidemic, but the proportion is low. The clinical manifestations and laboratory test results of these infants are non-specific. Transmission among family members might be an important cause of neonatal EV infection.

Bioinformatics-based analysis of the microarray data on intervertebral disc degeneration / 医学研究生学报

Objective MicroRNAs (miRNA) play an important role in the development and progression of intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study was to search for differentially expressed miRNAs and predict their target genes in the degenerative intervertebral disc tissue. Methods Data on the miRNA expression profile in the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral disc were downloaded from the GEO database, involving nucleus pulposus samples from 3 cases of IDD and normal nucleus pulposus samples from another 3 patients with new traumatic lumbar fracture. Differentially expressed microRNAs were identified in the nucleus pulposus tissues of the IDD and normal control groups with the R Software, and the target genes significantly differentially expressed in the miRNAs were predicted using the miRWalk Software. The above target genes were enriched in the clusterProfiler package by GO biological function analysis and KEGG pathway analysis. Meanwhile, a protein-protein interaction network of the target genes was constructed with the STRING database and Cytoscape software, and the hub genes were identified. Based on the Pfirrmann grading of IDD, the subjects involved in the GSE23130 data were divided into a control group (≤grade 3, n = 15) and an IDD group (>grade 3, n = 8) followed by analysis of the expression levels of the hub genes. Results A total of 374 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified, 189 up-regulated and 185 down-regulated, with hsa-let-7b-5p most significantly down-regulated. Prediction of the 5 most significantly up- or down-regulated miRNAs showed the highest number of target genes in hsa-let-7b-5p, 85 in all, including GPAT4, E2F2, and PAK1. GO enrichment analysis manifested that these target genes were mainly involved in the biological processes of cell cycle G1/S phase transition and positive regulation of membrane-targeted proteins. The signaling pathways enriched in the target genes mainly included prolactin, insulin, p53 signaling pathways. Ten hub genes were identified by analysis of the PPI network, including CCND2, NRAS, E2F2, E2F6, STX3, CDCA8, RRM2, PPP2R2A, TXLNG and AKT2. The expression levels of CCND2, NRAS, E2F2, E2F6, STX3, CDCA8, RRM2, PPP2R2A and AKT2 in the degenerative intervertebral disc tissue were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion Significantly reduced expression of hsa-let-7b-5p in the nucleus pulposus tissue of IDD patients may play an important role in IDD by regulating its target genes CCND2, NRAS, etc.

Iguratimod inhibits the expression of inflammatory factors in degenerative intervertebral disc cells / 医学研究生学报

Objective Overexpressed inflammatory factors play an important role in the process of intervertebral disc degeneration. This study aimed to investigate the effect of iguratimod on the expression of inflammatory factors in degenerative intervertebral disc cells. Methods Sixty 8-12 weeks old SD rats were equally randomized into a compression (the tail compressed by external fixation) and a non-compression control group. The nucleus pulposus cells (NPC) of the degenerated intervertebral disc were isolated and treated with iguratimod at the concentrations of 0, 0.3, 3, 10, 20, and 30 μg/mL, followed by measurement of the contents of inflammatory factors and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) secreted from the NPCs and determination of the effects of different concentrations of iguratimod on the expressions of inflammation-related genes in the NPCs by RT-PCR. Results After treatment with iguratimod at 3, 10, 20, and 30 μg/mL, the expression levels of IL-6 in the NPCs were (204.18 ± 6.96), (122.73 ± 9.38), (97.87 ± 7.81), and (86.31 ± 8.57) pg/mL, respectively, and those of TNF-α were (202.46 ± 7.84), (132.52 ± 11.4), (101.26 ± 10.38), and (96.89 ± 9.60) pg/mL, respectively, all decreased significantly in a concentration-dependent manner (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the contents of MMP-2, MMP-3 and MMP-9 in the iguratimod-treated NPCs also showed remarkable concentration-dependent decreases (P < 0.05). Conclusion Iguratimod can effectively inhibit the expression of inflammatory factors in nucleus pulposus cells and block the progression of inflammatory response, which has provided a new idea for the treatment of degenerative intervertebral disc disease.

Surgical treatment for thoracolumbar fractures of the spine / 医学研究生学报

With the development of transportation and industry，car accidents，falling accidents and firearm injuries have be⁃come the main causes of spinal fractures and spinal cord injuries. The thoracolumbar spine is the joint of thoracic kyphosis and lumbarlordosis after human bipedalism. From the perspective of biomechanics，it belongs to the weakest area of the spine and is prone to trau⁃matic fractures. A review from the literatures suggests that thoracolumbar fractures account for 40% of all spinal fractures. In recent years，with the development of biomechanics，biomaterials and digital medicine of the spine，new ideas，techniques and materials have been used for surgical treatment of spinal fractures.“Reconstruction stabilization and early rehabilitation”has become the princi⁃ple of treatment for spine surgeons to treat spinal thoracolumbar fractures. Regardless of patients with severe spinal cord injury or ad⁃vanced osteoporosis，perioperative evaluation，preoperative planning，and intraoperative injury control operation should be made，and surgical treatment should be the first choice for early rehabilitation and social return. New technologies and viewpoints such as digitalspine surgery，biomaterials，biomechanics and spinal surgery robots are gradually applied in the clinic. While applying these technolo⁃ gies，there are also many hot issues that deserve our attention. Not only the surgeries for thoracolumbar fractures，but also the surgical indications and expected effects have been rapidly developed and improved.

Bisphosphonates promoting repair of injured vertebrae after thoracolumbar fracture internal fixation: A randomized controlled study / 第二军医大学学报

Objective To explore the anti-osteoporosis effect of bisphosphonates on repairing injured vertebrae after thoracolumbar fracture internal fixation through a randomized controlled study. Methods Eighty-four patients with thoracolumbar fracture treated by orthopaedic internal fixation in Department of Orthopaedics, Nanjing General Hospital from Jun. 2014 to Jun. 2015 were included, and the patients were divided into the bisphosphonate treatment group (n=42) and control group (n=42) by random number method. The patients in both groups were given the routine anti-osteoporosis drugs such as calcitriol and calcium carbonate D3 after surgery; in addition, the patients in the bisphosphonate treatment group were also given alendronate sodium D3 tablets (each containing alendronate sodium 70 mg, 1 tablet per week), while the control group received a placebo. The bone mineral density (BMD) in thoracolumbar vertebral injury area of patients in the two groups was measured and compared at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after surgery. Results The BMD values of patients in two groups were significantly decreased immediately after reset compared with preoperation, and then they were increased continuously in follow-up. There was no significant difference in BMD between the two groups at 1 month or 3 months after sursery (P>0.05), while the BMD in the bisphosphonate treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group at 6 months and 1 year after surgery (P<0.05). Conclusion Bisphosphaonate drugs can accelerate the repair of vertebral osteoporosis after thoracolumbar fracture internal fixation, showing a good clinical application value.

Penile erectile function after lumbar discectomy for intervertebral disc herniation in different age groups of male patients / 中华男科学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the treatment effect on penile erectile function after lumbar discectomy in different age groups of men.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We included in this study 90 male patients with intervertebral disc herniation treated by lumbar discectomy, who were divided into three age groups of equal number: groups A (< 45 yr), B (45 - 55 yr) and C ( > 55 yr). We obtained the IIEF-5 scores of the patients preoperatively and at 12 months after surgery.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The IIEF-5 scores at 12 months after surgery were 21.3 +/- 3.3, 16.8 +/- 1.3 and 14.1 +/- 1.0 in groups A, B and C, respectively, significantly higher than 10.4 +/- 2.6, 10.7 +/- 2.8 and 11.2 +/- 1.9 preoperatively (P < 0.05). Group A showed better improved erectile function than B and C ([51.17 +/- 6.25 ]% vs [36.31 +/- 4.28]% and [22.71 +/- 5.68]%, P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Penile erectile function of the male patient is one of the major factors in evaluating lumbar discectomy for intervertebral disc herniation. Early decompression surgery according to different etiological factors is very important for erectile function recovery in the young and middle-aged male patients.</p>

Relationships between fat mass and obesity associated gene and genetic onset mechanism of obesity in Chinese children / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To study the association of fat mass and obesity associated gene(FTO gene) and genetic onset mechanism of obesity in Chinese children.Methods Two hundred and one Chinese children with obesity in Beijing Children's Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University from Jan.to Sep.2010,were selected as research subjects,183 healthy adult blood donors were selected as normal controls.Mass Spectrometry techniques were used to study the distributions of the alleles and gene type of FTO in patients and controls.And the relationship between FTO gene polymorphism and obesity in Chinese children were studied.Results The distributions of 5 FTO gene polymorphisms (rs9939609A,rs8050136A,rs3751812T,rs1421085C,rs7193144C) in obesity patients and healthy controls had significant differences.And the Haplotype analysis showed that all of the single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) were in linkage disequilibrium,and three out of six (CTGGTCTGG,TCTGCAAAA,CTGGCCTGG) had significant differences between obesity patients and healthy controls (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The gene polymorphisms of rs9939609,rs8050136,rs3751812,rs1421085,rs7193144 of FTO gene confer significant susceptibility to obesity in Chinese children.The haplotypes of CTGGTCTGG,TCTGCAAAA,CTGGCCTGG have significant differences between obesity patients and healthy controls.

Implication of leucyl-tRNA synthetase 1 (LARS1) over-expression in growth and migration of lung cancer cells detected by siRNA targeted knock-down analysis

Molecular mechanism of lung carcinogenesis and its aggressive nature is still largely elusive. To uncover the biomarkers related with tumorigenesis and behavior of lung cancer, we screened novel differentially expressed genes (DEG) in A549 lung cancer cell line by comparison with CCD-25Lu, normal pulmonary epithelial cell line, using annealing control primer(ACP)- based GeneFishing system. Of the DEGs, over-expression of leucyl-tRNA synthetase 1 (LARS1) was prominent and this up-regulation was confirmed by immunoblotting and real-time quantitative RT-PCR analysis. In addition to A549 cell line, primary lung cancer tissues also expressed higher level of LARS1 mRNA than their normal counter tissues. To explore the oncogenic potential of LARS1 over-expression in lung cancer, we knocked-down LARS1 by treating siRNA and observed the tumor behavior. LARS1 knock-down cells showed reduced ability to migrate through transwell membrane and to form colonies in both soft agar and culture plate. Taken together, these findings suggest that LARS1 may play roles in migration and growth of lung cancer cells, which suggest its potential implication in lung tumorigenesis.

Comparison of Normalization Methods for Defining Copy Number Variation Using Whole-genome SNP Genotyping Data

Precise and reliable identification of CNV is still important to fully understand the effect of CNV on genetic diversity and background of complex diseases. SNP marker has been used frequently to detect CNVs, but the analysis of SNP chip data for identifying CNV has not been well established. We compared various normalization methods for CNV analysis and suggest optimal normalization procedure for reliable CNV call. Four normal Koreans and NA10851 HapMap male samples were genotyped using Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP array 5.0. We evaluated the effect of median and quantile normalization to find the optimal normalization for CNV detection based on SNP array data. We also explored the effect of Robust Multichip Average (RMA) background correction for each normalization process. In total, the following 4 combinations of normalization were tried: 1) Median normalization without RMA background correction, 2) Quantile normalization without RMA background correction, 3) Median normalization with RMA background correction, and 4) Quantile ormalization with RMA background correction. CNV was called using SW-ARRAY algorithm. We applied 4 different combinations of normalization and compared the effect using intensity ratio profile, box plot, and MA plot. When we applied median and quantile normalizations without RMA background correction, both methods showed similar normalization effect and the final CNV calls were also similar in terms of number and size. In both median and quantile normalizations, RMA background correction resulted in widening the range of intensity ratio distribution, which may suggest that RMA background correction may help to detect more CNVs compared to no correction.

Non-invasive temperature estimation using backscattered ultrasound / 中国医疗器械杂志

This article describes non-invasive temperature estimation using backscattered ultrasound based on the random medium model of biotissue. Its model, algorithm and key technology are introduced here and its development trend is discussed too.