Neuroimage Analysis Methods and Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Reliable Biomarkers and Accurate Diagnosis of Schizophrenia: Achievements Made by Chinese Scholars Around the Past Decade.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Schizophrenia (SZ) is characterized by significant cognitive and behavioral disruptions. Neuroimaging techniques, particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have been widely utilized to investigate biomarkers of SZ, distinguish SZ from healthy conditions or other mental disorders, and explore biotypes within SZ or across SZ and other mental disorders, which aim to promote the accurate diagnosis of SZ. In China, research on SZ using MRI has grown considerably in recent years. STUDY DESIGN: The article reviews advanced neuroimaging and artificial intelligence (AI) methods using single-modal or multimodal MRI to reveal the mechanism of SZ and promote accurate diagnosis of SZ, with a particular emphasis on the achievements made by Chinese scholars around the past decade. STUDY RESULTS: Our article focuses on the methods for capturing subtle brain functional and structural properties from the high-dimensional MRI data, the multimodal fusion and feature selection methods for obtaining important and sparse neuroimaging features, the supervised statistical analysis and classification for distinguishing disorders, and the unsupervised clustering and semi-supervised learning methods for identifying neuroimage-based biotypes. Crucially, our article highlights the characteristics of each method and underscores the interconnections among various approaches regarding biomarker extraction and neuroimage-based diagnosis, which is beneficial not only for comprehending SZ but also for exploring other mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: We offer a valuable review of advanced neuroimage analysis and AI methods primarily focused on SZ research by Chinese scholars, aiming to promote the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of SZ, as well as other mental disorders, both within China and internationally.

Manganese and IL-12 treatment alters the ovarian tumor microenvironment.

Metal immunotherapy is a novel adjuvant immunotherapy. Mn2+ can activate STING-a type I IFN response protein-that promotes innate immunity and increases anti-tumor activity by promoting macrophage phagocytosis. IL-12, a cytokine that increases the antigen-presenting ability to promote effector T-cell activation, has potent antitumor activity, albeit with severe adverse effects. In this study, we observed that the combination of Mn2+ and IL-12 has a better antitumor effect and possibly reflects a better safety profile, providing a novel approach and theoretical basis for safe and rapid cancer treatment.

A Transdiagnostic Biotype Detection Method for Schizophrenia and Autism Spectrum Disorder Based on Graph Kernel.

Psychiatric diagnoses based on clinical manifestations are prone to be inaccurate. Schizophrenia (SZ) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were historically considered as the same disorder, and they still have many overlaps of clinical symptoms in the current standard. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore the potential biotypes for them using neuroimaging measures such as brain functional connectivity (FC). However, previous studies have not effectively leveraged FC in detecting biotypes. Considering that graph theory helps reveal the topological information in FC, in this paper, we propose a graph kernel-based clustering method to explore transdiagnostic biotypes using FC estimated from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. In our method, frequent subnetworks are identified from the whole-brain FCs of all subjects, and then the graph kernel similarity is computed to measure the relationship between subjects for clustering. Based on fMRI data of 137 SZ and 150 ASD subjects, we obtained meaningful biotypes using our method, which shows significant differences between the identified biotypes in FC. In brief, our graph kernel-based clustering method is promising for transdiagnostic biotype detection.

The incorporation of phosphorylated chitosan/amorphous calcium phosphate nanocomplex into an experimental composite resin.

This study evaluated the effect of incorporating phosphorylated chitosan/amorphous calcium phosphate nanocomplex (Pchi/ACP) into an experimental light-cure composite resin on mechanical-chemical properties and human dentin remineralization. The results showed that the mechanical strength and contact angles of the resins decreased with the increase incorporation of Pchi/ACP. Release concentrations of calcium in saline solution were measured at different time points, showing the incorporation of Pchi/ACP significantly increased calcium release within 14 days, and kept steady thereafter. Finally, the demineralized dentin slabs treated with our resins for four weeks were characterized by SEM-EDS. Various amounts of apatite were formed on the dentin slabs which were treated with the resins containing Pchi/ACP, whereas no apatite was formed without Pchi/ACP. In conclusion, the Pchi/ACP-incorporating composite resin can be a promising dental material due to its favorable mechanical and remineralization properties.

Combined Serum DKK3 and Circulating CD133 Cells as Prognostic Biomarkers for Ovarian Cancer Patients.

INTRODUCTION: Ovarian cancer (OV) can seriously endanger women's physical and mental health. Serum DKK3 has been used for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer. However, the specificity of antibodies may lead to errors in the detection of plasma protein. METHODS: Circulating CD133+ cells from blood samples were separated by magnetic microbeads. Serum DKK3 levels were determined by ELISA. The roles of DKK3 in OV cells were analyzed in vitro. RESULTS: In this study, we found that the CD133+ subpopulation in circulating tumor cells can indicate the overall survival rate of OV patients. Serum DKK3 levels were negatively correlated with the number of circulating CD133+ cells in OV patients. In addition, we confirmed the inhibitory effect of recombinant human DKK3 (rhDKK3) on OV cells via reversal of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. CONCLUSION: Both serum DKK3 levels and circulating CD133+ tumor cells can be used as prognostic markers for patients with ovarian cancer.

Research progress on the antibacterial properties of dental resin materials / 口腔疾病防治

@#Dental resin materials have been widely used in the treatment of dental defects. However, the polymerization shrinkage of the resin materials tends to cause microleakage and accumulation of bacterial plaque, which leads to secondary dental caries. Endowing dental resin with antibacterial properties is an important way to solve this problem. Adding antibacterial agents to dental resin is the main method to give it antibacterial properties. Antimicrobial agents are mainly divided into three types: release type, non-release type and mixed type. In terms of antibacterial effects, the selection and addition of antibacterial agents will affect the antibacterial and mechanical properties of dental resin materials; and the long-term antibacterial effect of antimicrobial agents in the oral cavity remains to be verified; as antimicrobial agents or other environmental factors can lead to drug resistance and even dormant persistent bacteria. In recent years, researchers have been committed to improving the antibacterial effect by modifying antibacterial agents. The sustained release of antimicrobial agents via carriers is also the main research direction. This paper reviews the research progress on the antibacterial properties of dental resin materials.

[Recent progress of robots in stomatology].

With the development of industrial robot technology, robotics has entered the medical field, and the research and development of new robots for many medical applications have become a significant research direction in global robotics. Robots are widely used in various aspects of dentistry, such as prosthodontics, orthodontics, implants, endodontics, and oral surgery. This article mainly introduces the application of robots in stomatology from the above five aspects.

Association of C8orf4 expression with its methylation status, aberrant ß-catenin expression, and the development of cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

Chromosome 8 open reading frame 4 (C8orf4) is an activator of Wnt signaling pathway, and participates in the tumorigenesis and progression of many tumors. The expression levels of C8orf4 and ß-catenin were assessed via immunohistochemical staining in 100 cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) tissues, 50 high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs), 50 low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSILs), and 50 normal cervical tissues. Bisulfite sequencing polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to examine the methylation status of the C8orf4 locus in CSCC and normal cervical tissues. The expression rates of C8orf4 and ß-catenin were significantly higher in CSCCs or HSILs than in LSILs or normal cervical tissues (P < .05). C8orf4 expression was positively correlated with the poor differentiation of CSCCs (P = .009), and with aberrant expression of ß-catenin in CSCCs (P = .002) and squamous intraepithelial lesions (P < .001). The methylation rate of C8orf4 in CSCCs was significantly lower than that in normal cervical tissues (P = .001). The Cancer Genome Atlas genomics data also confirmed that the mRNA expression of C8orf4 was positively associated with the copy number alteration of C8orf4 (correlation coefficient = 0.213, P < .001), and negatively correlated with the methylation level of C8orf4 (correlation coefficient = -0.408, P < .001). In conclusion, the expressions of C8orf4 and ß-catenin were synergistically increased in CSCCs and HSILs and higher than those in LSILs and normal cervical tissues. The methylation level of C8orf4 is decreased in CSCCs and is responsible for the increased expression of C8orf4.

The changes and its significance of Th17 and Treg cells and related cytokines in patients with tuberculosis pleurisy.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculous pleurisy is a kind of tuberculosis, it is well known that Th1 lymphocytes play a key role in the treatment of tuberculosis infection. However, latest studies show that Th17 lymphocyte may also play an important role tuberculosis infection. There is close relationship between Treg and Thl7 cells, and changes in the number or the function of the two kinds of cells may lead to diseases. The current researches on Thl7 and Treg cells maily focus on autoimmune diseases, however, reports about their role in tuberculosis are limited. In this study, we investigate the function of th17 and Treg cells and the above cytokines in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis pleurisy; by determining the expression of Th17 and Treg cells in peripheral CD4 T cells and the related cytokines in patients with tuberculous compared with healthy people. RESULTS: Th17 cells in patients were higher than that in the Healthy control group, expression of Treg cells in patients were lower than that in the healthy group; IL-17, IL-23 levels in peripheral blood and hydrothorax from the patients were higher than that in the healthy group; IL-17, IL-23 and IL-6 levels in hydrothorax were higher than that in peripheral blood. There was no difference in IL-6 level in peripheral blood between the patients and healthy control; TGF- ß level in peripheral blood from the healthy group was higher than that in peripheral blood and hydrothorax from the patients. And there were no differences in TGF- ß level between peripheral blood and hydrothorax. Th17 cells were negatively correlated with Treg cells ,but were positive correlation with IL-17, IL-23, IL-6 levels in peripheral blood; TGF- ß level was positive correlation with Treg cells in the peripheral blood, but no correlation with Th17 cells. CONCLUSION: Th17 and Treg cells may be involved in the immune pathological mechanism of tuberculous pleurisy and changes of related cytokines may be involved in the differentiation of Th17 and Treg cells and inflammatory response. Thus, Th17 and Treg cells and related cytokines may be important immunopathogenesis for tuberculous pleurisy.

[Association of two exonic genetic polymorphisms in the DNA repair gene XPC with risk of lung cancer in Chinese population].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between two exonic polymorphisms of DNA repair gene XPC and the susceptibility to lung cancer. METHODS: Genotypes were determined by the primer introduced restriction analysis-PCR(PIRA-PCR) and the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP) approaches, respectively, in 320 histologically-confirmed lung cancer cases and 322 age and sex frequency-matched cancer-free controls. RESULTS: Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that individuals carrying at least one 499Val variant allele (Ala/Val + Val/Val genotypes) had a significantly increased risk for lung cancer (adjusted OR=1.54; 95%CI: 1.11-2.14), compared with the wild-type genotype (499Ala/Ala). Furthermore, individuals with both putative risk genotypes had a significantly higher risk (adjusted OR=2.55; 95%CI: 1.45-4.52), compared with those with both wild-genotypes. In addition, a potential super multiplicative gene-environment interaction between Ala499Val genotypes and smoking on lung cancer risk was unveiled. The odds ratios of lung cancer for individuals with both putative risk genotypes were 2.63 (95%CI=1.23-5.62) in nonsmokers and 7.36 (95%CI=3.19-17.0) in smokers, respectively. CONCLUSION: These findings support the hypothesis that these two XPC variants may contribute to the risk of developing lung cancer.

[Association of two genetic polymorphisms in the 5'untranslated region of exon 2 of the p73 gene and risk of lung cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between two potential functional polymorphisms in exon 2 of the p73 gene and the susceptibility of lung cancer. METHODS: Genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction-single stand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) method in 425 histologically-confirmed lung cancer cases and 588 cancer-free controls, frequency-matched by age and sex. RESULTS: The two polymorphisms were in complete linkage disequilibrium and the frequencies of variant p73 AT haplotype (A4T14) were less commonly seen in the cases (0.225) than in the controls (0.287) (P = 0.0018). Compared with the p73 GC/GC homozygotes, both the AT/AT variant homozygotes and GC/AT heterozygotes were associated with a significantly decreased risk [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 0.45, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.26 - 0.80 and OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.53-0.92, respectively]. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that this p73 dinucleotide polymorphism might have had a role to play in the susceptibility of lung cancer.

E-cadherin gene C-160A promoter polymorphism and risk of non-cardia gastric cancer in a Chinese population.

AIM: To test the hypothesis that E-cadherin gene (CDH1) C-160A promoter variant genotype is associated with an increased risk for developing gastric cancer. METHODS: In this population-based case-control study of gastric cancer in Jiangsu Province, China, we performed polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) to genotype the C-160A polymorphism of CDH1 promoter in 206 non-cardia gastric cancer patients and 261 age- and sex-matched but unrelated cancer-free controls. RESULTS: The frequencies of genotypes CC, CA and AA were 57.8%, 36.4% and 5.8% in gastric cancer cases, respectively, and 58.2%, 34.9% and 6.9% in controls respectively. The distributions of CDH1 genotypes were not significantly different between gastric cancer cases and controls (P = 0.87 for genotype frequency and P = 0.92 for allele frequency). Compared with the CC genotype, the CA and AA genotypes were not associated with an increased risk for non-cardia gastric cancer (adjusted odds ratios (OR) = 1.15, and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.78-1.72 for CA genotype, and OR = 0.90 and 95% CI = 0.42-2.01 for AA genotype). CONCLUSION: E-cadherin gene C-160A promoter polymorphism may not play a major role in the etiology of non-cardia gastric cancer in Chinese population.

[Mechanistic study of radiosensitization by gemcitabine on human squamous carcinoma cell line of the cervix].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether gemcitabine (dFdC) at the non-cytotoxic concentration enhances the effect of irradiation on human squamous carcinoma cells of the uterine cervix (HeLa) in vitro, and to evaluate the mechanism by which dFdC at the non-cytotoxic concentration [24 h 10% inhibiting concentration (IC(10))] is able to enhance radiation-induced cytotoxicity to HeLa in vitro. METHODS: The non-cytotoxic concentration (24 h IC(10)) of dFdC was determined by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT). After exposure to the non-cytotoxic concentration (0.01 micro mol/L) for 4, 8, 12 and 24 hours followed by immediate irradiation (4, 6 and 8 Gy), the surviving fraction was counted and the radiation enhancement ratio (RER) was evaluated. Cell cycle distribution and apoptosis were analyzed by flow cytometry. The expressions of p53, bcl-2 and bax were studied by western blot. RESULTS: After exposure to non-cytotoxic concentration (0.01 micro mol/L) for 4, 8, 12 and 24 hours followed by immediate irradiation, the RER was 1.19, 1.35, 1.72 and 1.93, respectively. After exposed to dFdC, HeLa cells showed an S phase block. The proportion of S phase cells was elevated with the increase of exposure duration (P < 0.01). The S-phase proportion increased to 51.8% at 24 hours of exposure. Meanwhile, compared with the single-agent treatments, combination of dFdC and radiation did not additionally increase the number of apoptotic cells and expression of proteins related to apoptosis such as p53, bcl-2 and bax (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: HeLa cells were radiosensitive at IC(10) concentration of dFdC. The radiosensitization effect depends on the exposure duration to dFdC. There appears a strong association between the radiosensitization and the progression of cells into S-phase after dFdC treatment. Combination of dFdC and radiation did not increase apoptosis of HeLa cells.