A combined biomarker panel shows improved sensitivity and specificity for detection of ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND: Combined biomarkers can improve the sensitivity and specificity of ovarian cancer (OC) diagnosis and effectively predict patient prognosis. This study explored the diagnostic and prognostic values of serum CCL18 and CXCL1 antigens combined with C1D, FXR1, ZNF573, and TM4SF1 autoantibodies in OC. METHODS: CCL18 and CXCL1 monoclonal antibodies and C1D, FXR1, ZNF573, and TM4SF1 antigens were coated with microspheres. Logistic regression was used to construct a serum antigen-antibody combined detection model; receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the model; and the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression models were used for survival analysis to evaluate the prognosis of OC. Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) projects and online survival analysis tools were used to evaluate prognostic genes for OC. The CIBERSORT immune score was used to explore the factors influencing prognosis and their relationship with tumor-infiltrating immune cells. RESULTS: The levels of each index in the blood samples of patients with OC were higher than those of the other groups. The combined detection model has higher specificity and sensitivity in the diagnosis of OC, and its diagnostic efficiency is better than that of CA125 alone and diagnosing other malignant tumors. CCL18 and TM4SF1 may be factors affecting the prognosis of OC, and CCL18 may be related to immune-infiltrating cells. CONCLUSIONS: The serum antigen-antibody combined detection model established in this study has high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of OC.

Analysis on application law of dampness-removing traditional Chinese medicines in treatment of coronavirus disease 2019.

OBJECTIVE: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been diagnosed as an epidemic disease characterized by cold and dampness pathogens in TCM clinic. Due to many Chinese medicines with different functions were used in the treatment of COVID-19, it is very important to find the law of application of damp-removing traditional Chinese medicine with high frequency application, with view to providing a reference for the use and research of Chinese medicine to further control the pandemic. METHODS: The publicly released diagnosis and treatment programs issued by the National Health Commission and Health Commission of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and Chinese herbs prescription information in these were collected, a database was established, and Excel and Graphpad 8.0 software were used to analyze the frequency of use of various Chinese medicines, the frequency and property characters including five flavors (bitter, pungent, sweet, sour, and salty) and four natures (warm, hot, cool, and cold) and channel tropisms of Chinese medicine for removing dampness. RESULTS: A total of 137 prescriptions of Chinese medicine for treating COVID-19 were collected, including 178 TCMs showing functions of resolving phlegm, relieving cough and asthma, resolving dampness, clearing damp and inducing dieresis, clearing heat, tonifying deficiency, and relieving exterior syndrome, in which the TCMs with the first four functions that we called the dampness-removing TCMs, accounted for 35.78%. Also a number of TCMs in the rest functions showed removing-dampness. The first four functions were divided into subfunctions including aromatic resolving dampness, clearing heat and drying dampness, drying dampness and tonifying spleen qi, drying dampness and removing phlegm, inducing diuresis and relieving swelling, inducing diuresis and relieving exterior syndrome. Among them, the most frequently used TCMs was Ephedrae Herba, followed by Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium, Pogostemonis Herba, Pinelliae Rhizoma, Poria, Scutellariae Radix, and Atractylodis Rhizoma. The property character analysis in the dampness-removing TCMs showed that bitter and pungent were largely present and sour and astringent were absent, warm and hot were dominant; And the lung, spleen, stomach, large intestine, bladder were main channel tropisms. CONCLUSION: Dampness-removing TCMs are the first important type of traditional Chinese medicine to be considered in the treatment of COVID-19 in Chinese medicine. The application of dampness-removing TCMs in the treatment of COVID-19 needs to be combined with its application law. This study may provide meaningful and useful information on further research to investigate the effective compounds from the dampness-removing Chinese medicine with high frequency application, and also provide a reference for the clinical treatment of COVID-19 accurately against dampness evil with dampness-removing traditional Chinese medicines.

[Effects of NMDA receptor expression in rat's hippocampus after exposure to 1800 MHz radiofrequency field].

OBJECTIVE: To identify the effects of NMDA receptor subunits NR2A and NR2B expression in rat's hippocampus after exposure to 1800 MHz radiofrequency radiation. METHODS: Four-week old female Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups, with 12 animals for each. The subjects in two experimental groups had been continuously exposed to 1800 MHz microwave radiation (CW) with respective power density of 0.5 mW/cm(2) and 1.0 mW/cm(2) 12 hours each day for 21 days. Meanwhile, sham-controls were carried out. The brain tissue sections were performed by immunohistochemistry to demonstrate both expressions of NR2A, NR2B immune-activity in the hippocampal CA1, CA3 and DG by using computer-assisted image analysis system. RESULTS: In NR2A: the expression of 0.5 mW/cm(2) power density group was significantly lower than 0 mW/cm(2) power density group in CA3 [(8.5 +/- 1.5) vs (11.1 +/- 1.8), P < 0.01] and had not been significantly changed in CA1 and DG. The expression of 1.0 mW/cm(2) power density group was significantly lower than 0 mW/cm(2) power density group in CA1 and CA3 [(7.9 +/- 1.6) vs (9.7 +/- 1.5); (8.4 +/- 1.7) vs (11.1 +/- 1.8), respective P < 0.05, P < 0.01] and had not been significantly changed in DG. In NR2B: the expression of 0.5 mW/cm(2) power density group was significantly lower than 0 mW/cm(2) power density group in CA1 and CA3 [(16.4 +/- 1.0) vs (17.8 +/- 1.6); (9.6 +/- 1.9) vs (11.2 +/- 2.1), respective P < 0.05]. The expression of 1.0 mW/cm(2) power density group was significantly lower than 0 mW/cm(2) power density group in CA1, CA3 and DG [(13.1 +/- 2.4) vs (17.8 +/- 1.6); (9.3 +/- 1.4) vs (11.2 +/- 2.1); (7.3 +/- 0.1) vs (8.5 +/- 1.0), respective P < 0.01, P < 0.05, P < 0.05]. CONCLUSION: There were findings of the effects on NMDA receptor subunits in different hippocampus sections after exposure to 1800 MHz radiofrequency radiation.