Progress in clinical research and applications of retinal vessel quantification technology based on fundus imaging.

Retinal blood vessels are the only directly observed blood vessels in the body; changes in them can help effective assess the occurrence and development of ocular and systemic diseases. The specificity and efficiency of retinal vessel quantification technology has improved with the advancement of retinal imaging technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms; it has garnered attention in clinical research and applications for the diagnosis and treatment of common eye and related systemic diseases. A few articles have reviewed this topic; however, a summary of recent research progress in the field is still needed. This article aimed to provide a comprehensive review of the research and applications of retinal vessel quantification technology in ocular and systemic diseases, which could update clinicians and researchers on the recent progress in this field.

Research progress in artificial intelligence assisted diabetic retinopathy diagnosis.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common retinal vascular diseases and one of the main causes of blindness worldwide. Early detection and treatment can effectively delay vision decline and even blindness in patients with DR. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) models constructed by machine learning and deep learning (DL) algorithms have been widely used in ophthalmology research, especially in diagnosing and treating ophthalmic diseases, particularly DR. Regarding DR, AI has mainly been used in its diagnosis, grading, and lesion recognition and segmentation, and good research and application results have been achieved. This study summarizes the research progress in AI models based on machine learning and DL algorithms for DR diagnosis and discusses some limitations and challenges in AI research.

Meibomian gland morphological changes in ocular herpes zoster patients based on AI analysis.

Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infections result in a series of ophthalmic complications. Clinically, we also discover that the proportion of dry eye symptoms was significantly higher in patients with herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO) than in healthy individuals. Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is one of the main reasons for dry eye. Therefore, we hypothesize that HZO may associate with MGD, affecting the morphology of meibomian gland (MG) because of immune response and inflammation. The purpose of this study is to retrospectively analyze the effect of HZO with craniofacial herpes zoster on dry eye and MG morphology based on an Artificial intelligence (AI) MG morphology analytic system. In this study, 26 patients were diagnosed as HZO based on a history of craniofacial herpes zoster accompanied by abnormal ocular signs. We found that the average height of all MGs of the upper eyelid and both eyelids were significantly lower in the research group than in the normal control group (p < 0.05 for all). The average width and tortuosity of all MGs for both upper and lower eyelids were not significantly different between the two groups. The MG density of the upper eyelid and both eyelids were significantly lower in the HZO group than in the normal control group (p = 0.020 and p = 0.022). Therefore, HZO may lead to dry eye, coupled with the morphological changes of MGs, mainly including a reduction in MG density and height. Moreover, it is important to control HZO early and timely, which could prevent potential long-term severe ocular surface injury.

Classification of dry and wet macular degeneration based on the ConvNeXT model.

Purpose: To assess the value of an automated classification model for dry and wet macular degeneration based on the ConvNeXT model. Methods: A total of 672 fundus images of normal, dry, and wet macular degeneration were collected from the Affiliated Eye Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and the fundus images of dry macular degeneration were expanded. The ConvNeXT three-category model was trained on the original and expanded datasets, and compared to the results of the VGG16, ResNet18, ResNet50, EfficientNetB7, and RegNet three-category models. A total of 289 fundus images were used to test the models, and the classification results of the models on different datasets were compared. The main evaluation indicators were sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, area under the curve (AUC), accuracy, and kappa. Results: Using 289 fundus images, three-category models trained on the original and expanded datasets were assessed. The ConvNeXT model trained on the expanded dataset was the most effective, with a diagnostic accuracy of 96.89%, kappa value of 94.99%, and high diagnostic consistency. The sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, and AUC values for normal fundus images were 100.00, 99.41, 99.59, and 99.80%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, and AUC values for dry macular degeneration diagnosis were 87.50, 98.76, 90.32, and 97.10%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, and AUC values for wet macular degeneration diagnosis were 97.52, 97.02, 96.72, and 99.10%, respectively. Conclusion: The ConvNeXT-based category model for dry and wet macular degeneration automatically identified dry and wet macular degeneration, aiding rapid, and accurate clinical diagnosis.

Hsa-miR-1587 G-quadruplex formation and dimerization induced by NH4+, molecular crowding environment and jatrorrhizine derivatives.

A guanine-rich human mature microRNA, miR-1587, was discovered to form stable intramolecular G-quadruplexes in the presence of K+, Na+ and low concentration of NH4+ (25mM) by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) combined with circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Furthermore, under high concentration of NH4+ (100mM) or molecular crowding environments, miR-1587 formed a dimeric G-quadruplex through 3'-to-3' stacking of two monomeric G-quadruplex subunits with one ammonium ion sandwiched between the interfaces. Specifically, two synthesized jatrorrhizine derivatives with terminal amine groups could also induce the dimerization of miR-1587 G-quadruplex and formed 1:1 and 2:1 complexes with the dimeric G-quadruplex. In contrast, jatrorrhizine could bind with the dimeric miR-1587 G-quadruplex, but could not induce dimerization of miR-1587 G-quadruplex. These results provide a new strategy to regulate the functions of miR-1587 through induction of G-quadruplex formation and dimerization.

o,o-Difluorination of aromatic azide yields a fast-response fluorescent probe for H2S detection and for improved bioorthogonal reactions.

The development of efficient bioorthogonal reactions for sensing of endogenous biomolecules and for bioconjugation should be of paramount importance in the field of chemical biology. In this work, the o,o'-difluorinated aromatic azide was firstly employed to develop a new fast-response fluorescent probe 1 for H2S detection and for bioorthogonal reactions. Compared with non- and mono-fluorinated probes, 1 showed faster reaction toward H2S, the third gasotransmitter, in buffer (pH 7.4), implying that the reaction rate could be enhanced by the dual-fluorine groups. Furthermore, such enhanced reaction rates of 1 were also observed in the Staudinger reaction and strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition (SPAAC) based on the comparison studies of the non-fluorinated probe. Our results firstly highlight that the o,o'-difluorinated aromatic azide group should be useful for fast bioorthogonal reactions and H2S detection.

Multi-Fluorinated Azido Coumarins for Rapid and Selective Detection of Biological H2 S in Living Cells.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2 S) is an endogenously produced gaseous signaling molecule with multiple biological functions. In order to visualize the endogenous in situ production of H2 S in living cells in real time, here we developed multi-fluorinated azido coumarins as fluorescent probes for the rapid and selective detection of biological H2 S. Kinetic studies indicated that an increase in fluorine substitution leads to an increased rate of H2 S-mediated reduction reaction, which is also supported by our theoretical calculations. To our delight, tetra-fluorinated coumarin 1 could react with H2 S fast (t1/2 ≈1 min) and selectively, which could be further used for continuous enzymatic assays and for visualization of intracellular H2 S. Bioimaging results obtained with 1 revealed that d-Cys could induce a higher level of endogenous H2 S production than l-Cys in a time-dependent manner in living cell.

A highly selective and fast-response fluorescent probe for visualization of enzymatic H2S production in vitro and in living cells.

An o-fluorinated-azido-capped rhodamine probe can react with H2S efficiently and selectively to give large off-on fluorescence enhancement. The probe was used to develop an assay for cystathionine ß-synthase acitivity and for in situ visualization of endogenously produced H2S in living cells.