Atypical stromal herpes simplex keratitis: clinical features and diagnosis.

PURPOSE: To report atypical clinical features and diagnosis of stromal herpes simplex keratitis (HSK) and to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of tear HSV-sIgA in atypical HSK. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective observational study. METHODS: Records of keratitis' patients with tear herpes simplex virus (HSV)-sIgA test results acquired between May 2019 and November 2021 were evaluated retrospectively. Positive tear HSV-sIgA test was used to identify herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection. Patients with typical presentations and histories of HSV keratitis (HSK) were excluded. RESULTS: Eleven eyes of 11 patients initially diagnosed as keratitis caused by other etiology were confirmed as having HSV infection by positive results of tear HSV-sIgA. Clinical features of atypical stromal HSK were variable. Antiviral treatment was effective in all patients. CONCLUSION: The appearance of an atypical stromal HSK represents a diagnostic challenge. Tear HSV-sIgA test could help provide a quick diagnosis.

Clinical and Genetic Analysis of Retinitis Pigmentosa with Primary Angle Closure Glaucoma in the Chinese Population.

PURPOSE: Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) constitutes a class of common inherited retinal dystrophies. Patients with RP and comorbid primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) have been described, but the relationship between the diseases remains unclear. This study investigated the clinical and genetic characteristics of Chinese patients with RP and comorbid PACG. METHODS: Of 1356 patients with RP, we analyzed the genetic features of 39 RP patients with PACG using next-generation sequencing and reviewed their clinical characteristics. RESULTS: In total, 18 patients with acute PACG and 21 patients with chronic PACG were included in this study; their age at examination was 50.54 ± 12.99 years (range, 25.0-71.0 years), and their age at PACG onset was 46.04 ± 14.50 years (range, 24.9-68.0 years). Additionally, the mean lens thickness (LT) was 4.49 ± 0.44 µm, and the mean axial length (AL) was 22.63 ± 1.17 mm. Notably, the prevalence of PACG in patients with RP was 2.88%; this was higher than the prevalence in the general population. This could be explained by nanophthalmos, thickened lentis, ectopia lentis, or zonular insufficiency. Furthermore, patients with a shorter AL, a greater LT, iridociliary cysts, or nanophthalmos exhibited earlier development of PACG. Overall, 30 disease-causing variants spanning 17 genes were identified in 56.41% of the patients, and PRPH2 was the most common mutation gene. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings revealed that there is a strong association between RP and PACG. Furthermore, intraocular pressure (IOP) should be measured in patients with RP to protect them from the aggravated damage of an elevated IOP.

Serum Lipid Metabolic Derangement is Associated with Disease Progression During Chronic HBV Infection.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the relationship between serum lipid levels and disease progression during chronic hepatitis B virus infection. METHODS: We selected 73 healthy controls and 163 patients with chronic HBV infection as the study subjects. The chronic HBV infection patients were divided into the HBV carrier group (74 patients), chronic hepatitis B group (71 patients), and liver cirrhosis group (21 patients). The age, gender, body mass index, blood lipid index, liver function index, and HBV DNA levels of all participants were tested and recorded. A t-test or the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the data between two groups; data from multiple groups were compared using one-way ANOVA or the Kruskal-Wallis Test. RESULTS: We observed that the serum HDL cholesterol (1.00 ± 0.30 mmol/L in the HBV-infected group, 1.29 ± 0.23 mmol/L in the control group) and APOA (1.29 ± 0.35 mmol/L, 1.36 ± 0.21 mmol/L, respectively) concentrations were significantly lower in the HBV-infected group than in the control group (p < 0.05). As the disease progressed, the blood lipid and lipoprotein values were significantly lower in the cirrhosis group TC (3.26 ± 1.00 mmol/L), HDL cholesterol (0.77 ± 0.33 mmol/L), LDL cholesterol (2.09 ± 0.62 mmol/L), and APOB (0.57 ± 0.18 mmol/L) compared with the control group, the carrier group, and the chronic hepatitis B group (p < 0.05). The serum HBV DNA level was significantly, positively correlated with the blood HDL concentration (carrier group R = 0.340, p = 0.02; chronic hepatitis B group R = 0.329, p = 0.014). There was no correlation between the HBV DNA and lipid levels in patients with cirrhosis. CONCLUSIONS: Serum lipid metabolic derangement was associated with disease progression during chronic HBV infection. Liver function and blood lipid levels were significantly lower in patients with hepatitis B-related cirrhosis.

Serum interleukin-34 level can be an indicator of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

AIM: To investigate whether serum interleukin (IL)-34 levels are correlated with hepatic inflammation and fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. METHODS: In this study, serum IL-34 levels were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 19 healthy controls and 175 patients with chronic HBV infection undergoing biopsy. The frequently used serological markers of liver fibrosis were based on laboratory indexes measured at the Clinical Laboratory of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. Liver stiffness was detected by transient elastography with FibroTouch. The relationships of non-invasive makers of liver fibrosis and IL-34 levels with inflammation and fibrosis were analyzed. The diagnostic value of IL-34 and other liver fibrosis makers were evaluated using areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves, sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: Serum IL-34 levels were associated with inflammatory activity in the liver, and IL-34 levels differed among phases of chronic HBV infection (P = 0.001). By comparing serum IL-34 levels among patients with various stages of liver fibrosis determined by liver biopsy, we found that IL-34 levels ≥ 15.83 pg/mL had a high sensitivity of 86.6% and a specificity of 78.7% for identifying severe fibrosis (S3-S4). Furthermore, we showed that IL-34 is superior to the fibrosis-4 score, one of the serum makers of liver fibrosis, in identifying severe liver fibrosis and early cirrhosis in patients with HBV-related liver fibrosis in China. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that IL-34, a cytokine involved in the induction of activation of profibrogenic macrophages, can be an indicator of liver inflammation and fibrosis in patients with chronic HBV infection.

Anticancer effects of morin-7-sulphate sodium, a flavonoid derivative, in mouse melanoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence supports the anticancer effects of morin in vitro and in vivo. However, the role of morin-7-sulphate sodium (NaMoS), a water-soluble flavonoid derivative synthesized from morin remains unclear. The present study investigated the tumor suppression by NaMoS in mouse melanoma cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We synthesized the flavonoid derivative morin-7-sulphate sodium according to the method described for quercetin-sulphate derivative, and further isolated, purified and identified the compound. Cell proliferation in vitro was assessed using a CCK-8 assay. The wound healing assay was performed to evaluate cell motility, and flow cytometry was used to detect cellular apoptosis. Protein levels of vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), phosphorylation of Akt1/2/3 (p-Akt1/2/3), extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (p-ERK1/2) and Caspase3 in B16F10 cells were detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. RESULTS: The results suggest that cell proliferation was markedly decreased in NaMoS-treated groups (1, 10, 25, 50, 100, 500, 1000µM) in a dose-dependent manner compared with the Control group and the IC50 was 221.67µM at 48h. NaMoS at 200µM concentration significantly inhibited the invasion and promoted apoptosis of B16F10 cells. Moreover, protein level of Caspase3 increased significantly in B16F10 cells treated by NaMoS. Immunohistochemistry and Western blot further confirmed that NaMoS decreased the expression of vimentin, MMP9, p-Akt1/2/3 and p-ERK1/2 in B16F10 cells. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides robust evidence that NaMoS, a water-soluble flavonoid, manifests anticancer properties and may act as a signal transduction inhibitor in melanoma cells.

Food protein-based phytosterol nanoparticles: fabrication and characterization.

The development of food-grade (nano)particles as a delivery system for poorly water soluble bioactives has recently attracted increasing attention. This work is an attempt to fabricate food protein-based nanoparticles as delivery systems for improving the water dispersion and bioaccessibility of phytosterols (PS) by an emulsification-evaporation method. The fabricated PS nanoparticles were characterized in terms of particle size, encapsulation efficiency (EE%) and loading amount (LA), and ξ-potential. Among all the test proteins, including soy protein isolate (SPI), whey protein concentrate (WPC) and sodium caseinate (SC), SC was confirmed to be the most suitable protein for the PS nano-formulation. Besides the type of protein, the particle size, EE% and LA of PS in the nanoparticles varied with the applied protein concentration in the aqueous phase and organic volume fraction. The freeze-dried PS nanoparticles with SC exhibited good water re-dispersion behavior and low crystallinity of PS. The LA of PS in the nanoparticles decreased upon storage, especially at high temperatures (e.g., >25 °C). The PS in the fabricated nanoparticles exhibited much better bioaccessibility than free PS. The findings would be of relevance for the fabrication of food-grade colloidal phytosterols, with great potential to be applied in functional food formulations.

The value of circulating CYFRA21-1 expression in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a study of 529 subjects.

BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) needs more reliable biomarkers. The aim of this study was to investigate serum cytokeratin 19 fragment 21.1 (CYFRA21-1) as an NPC biomarker based on data from a large sample. METHODS: From October 2010 to February 2014, 529 subjects were enrolled and divided into three groups-NPC group (n = 274), healthy control group (n = 175) and nasal inflammatory disease group (n = 80). Serum CYFRA21-1 levels were measured prior to radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy, and their associations with T, N, and clinical classification were determined. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to discriminate the NPC group from the healthy control and nasal inflammatory disease groups. Three Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antibodies and their correlations with serum CYFRA21-1 levels were analyzed. RESULTS: Pretreatment serum CYFRA21-1 levels were significantly elevated in the NPC group compared with the other groups (p < 0.01), Furthermore, serum CYFRA21-1 levels decreased significantly after radiotherapy (p < 0.01). Serum CYFRA21-1 levels were closely related to T, N, and clinical classifications. The area under the curve, sensitivity and specificity of the serum CYFRA21-1 levels in the NPC patients were 0.89, 0.87 and 0.83, respectively. Strong correlations were observed between serum CYFRA21-1 levels and EBV antibodies. CONCLUSION: Serum CYFRA21-1 may be a reliable and effective biomarker for NPC.

Evaluation of the Goldmann-Witmer coefficient in the immunological diagnosis of ocular toxocariasis.

Ocular toxocariasis (OT) is a zoonotic parasitic infection mainly caused by the intraocular tissue invasion of second-stage Toxocara canis or Toxocara cati larva. Measuring specific anti-T. canis antibodies in the intraocular fluid (IF) can increase OT diagnosis accuracy using Goldmann-Witmer coefficient (GWC). However, there is no systemic evaluation of GWC application in the immunological diagnosis of OT. To assess GWC for the immunodiagnosis of ocular toxocariasis, paired IF and serum samples from 72 patients diagnosed with OT were retrospectively analyzed for specific anti-T. canis IgG by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). GWC values were calculated to determine intraocular specific IgG production. Clinical features and other laboratory data were recorded, and their correlations with GWC evaluated. Of the 72 OT patients, 60 (83.33%) showed intraocular specific IgG production confirmed by GWC, while intraocular nonspecific IgE production was found in 64/69 (92.75%) cases. No significant correlation was found among clinical features and IF specific IgG production. Values for peripheral blood samples were lower than those of intraocular fluid regarding OT screening, and vitreous humor samples showed increased local specific IgG and nonspecific IgE production compared with aqueous humor samples. Overall, our results indicate that GWC and intraocular IgE production have referential values in diagnosing ocular toxocariasis.

In vitro and in vivo antitumor activity of a novel porphyrin-based photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy.

PURPOSE: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising treatment in cancer therapy, based on the use of a photosensitizer activated by visible light in the presence of oxygen. Nowadays significant research efforts have been focused on finding a new photosensitizer. In the present paper, the antitumor effects of a novel porphyrin-based photosensitizer, {Carboxymethyl-[2-(carboxymethyl-{[4-(10,15,20-triphenylporphyrin-5-yl)-phenylcarbamoyl]-methyl}-amino)-ethyl]-amino}-acetic acid (ATPP-EDTA) on two types of human malignant tumor cells in vitro and a gastric cancer model in nude mice, were evaluated. METHODS: The PDT efficacy with ATPP-EDTA in vitro was assessed by MTT assay. The intracellular accumulation was detected with fluorescence spectrometer, and the intracellular distribution was determined by laser scanning confocal microscopy. The mode of cell death was investigated by Hoechst 33342 staining and flow cytometer. BGC823-derived xenograft tumor model was established to explore the in vivo antitumor effects of ATPP-EDTA. RESULTS: ATPP-EDTA exhibited intense phototoxicity on both cell lines in vitro in concentration- and light dose-dependent manners meanwhile imposing minimal dark cytotoxicity. The accumulation of ATPP-EDTA in two malignant cell lines was time-dependent and prior compared to normal cells. It was mainly localized at lysosomes, but induced cell death by apoptotic pathway. ATPP-EDTA significantly inhibited the growth of BGC823 tumors in nude mice (160 mW/cm(2), 100 J/cm(2)). CONCLUSIONS: Present studies suggest that ATPP-EDTA is an effective photosensitizer for PDT to tumors. It distributed in lysosomes and caused cell apoptosis. ATPP-EDTA, as a novel photosensitizer, has a great potential for human gastric cancer treatment in PDT and deserves further investigations.

Pulse dynamics of dissipative soliton resonance with large duration-tuning range in a fiber ring laser.

The pulse dynamics operating in dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) region is experimentally investigated in a fiber ring laser. With the increase of pump power, the pulse profile transit from sech-like to rectangular shape was observed. The generated pulse in DSR region exhibits the conventional soliton spectrum with sideband generation. The duration-tuning range of the rectangular pulse is up to the cavity roundtrip time. Particularly, during the process of pulse duration broadening it was found that the rectangular pulse would trap a weak pulse generated from cw background. The obtained results may be useful for better understanding the DSR phenomenon.

Factor analysis of a health-promoting lifestyle profile (HPLP): application to older adults in Mainland China.

UNLABELLED: This research reports preliminary psychometric properties, especially the factor structure, of a Chinese version of a health-promoting lifestyles profile designed for older adults; and examines the distribution of the health-promoting behavioral patterns - both for the purpose of developing culturally sensitive health advancement strategies for Chinese seniors. Responses to this questionnaire were used to measure health-promoting behaviors in a random sample of 1012 elderly Chinese from thirty communities in Xi'an Shaanixi-Province. DESIGN: Factor analysis relied on polychoric correlations with ordinal categorical data were used to evaluate reliability and validity of a revised Chinese version of the health-promoting lifestyles profile (HPLP-C). Because this revised version was used to assess elderly adults, we termed it the HPLP-CE. This factor analysis supported a six-factor model of the original HPLP-C scale. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit, with factors explaining 88.1% of the common variance of the HPLP-CE scores. Cronbach's α coefficients were 0.91 for the revised instrument, and ranged from 0.67 to 0.88 for six dimensions. The split-half reliability was 0.92, while the test-retest reliability was 0.68. Relationships between HPLP-CE, perceived health status, SF-36 scale scores, and associations with selected demographic variables were significantly positive. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that this revised scale, based on the 40-item HPLP-C, was considered suitable for measuring health-promoting lifestyles of older adults in China. Mental and inner self-reflection planes were the most salient factors for assessing health-promoting behaviors of seniors. Such factors need to be considered if preventive programs are to be designed to promote seniors' health.

Effects of sterigmatocystin, deoxynivalenol and aflatoxin G1 on apoptosis of human peripheral blood lymphocytes in vitro.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of Sterigmatocystin (ST), Deoxynivalenol (DON) and Aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) on apoptosis of human peripheral blood lymphocytes (HPBLs) in vitro and thus to further elucidate the putative roles of these three mycotoxins on human immunosystem. METHODS: The effects of ST, DON and AFG1 on apoptosis of HPBLs were studied with cell culture, flow cytometric (FCM) DNA analysis and DNA agarose gel electrophoresis. RESULTS: DNA agarose gel electrophoresis results showed the characteristic "ladder" pattern of apoptosis in HPBLs treated with ST, DON and AFG1. Flow cytometric DNA analysis revealed that typical subdiploid peaks of apoptosis in DNA histogram could be seen in all groups treated with the three mycotoxins. Significant time-effect and dose-effect relationships were found between the apoptosis rates and treatment time as well as concentrations of the three mycotoxins. CONCLUSION: ST, DON and AFG1 can induce apoptosis of HPBLs in vitro and may have some negative effects on human immunosystem.