Single-cell sequencing highlights heterogeneity and malignant progression in actinic keratosis and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the second most frequent of the keratinocyte-derived malignancies with actinic keratosis (AK) as a precancerous lesion. To comprehensively delineate the underlying mechanisms for the whole progression from normal skin to AK to invasive cSCC, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to acquire the transcriptomes of 138,982 cells from 13 samples of six patients including AK, squamous cell carcinoma in situ (SCCIS), cSCC, and their matched normal tissues, covering comprehensive clinical courses of cSCC. We identified diverse cell types, including important subtypes with different gene expression profiles and functions in major keratinocytes. In SCCIS, we discovered the malignant subtypes of basal cells with differential proliferative and migration potential. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) analysis screened out multiple key driver genes including transcription factors along AK to cSCC progression. Immunohistochemistry (IHC)/immunofluorescence (IF) experiments and single-cell ATAC sequencing (scATAC-seq) data verified the expression changes of these genes. The functional experiments confirmed the important roles of these genes in regulating cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion in cSCC tumor. Furthermore, we comprehensively described the tumor microenvironment (TME) landscape and potential keratinocyte-TME crosstalk in cSCC providing theoretical basis for immunotherapy. Together, our findings provide a valuable resource for deciphering the progression from AK to cSCC and identifying potential targets for anticancer treatment of cSCC.

Timing of Fungal Insecticide Application to Avoid Solar Ultraviolet Irradiation Enhances Field Control of Rice Planthoppers.

Thechemical control of rice planthoppers (RPH)is prohibited in annual rice-shrimp rotation paddy fields. Here, the fungal insecticides Beauveria bassiana ZJU435 and Metarizhium anisoplae CQ421 were tested for control of RPH populations dominated by Nilaparvata lugens in three field trials. During four-week field trials initiated from the harsh weather of high temperatures and strong sunlight, the rice crop at the stages from tillering to flowering was effectively protected by fungal sprays applied at 14-day intervals. The sprays of either fungal insecticide after 5:00 p.m. (solar UV avoidance) suppressed the RPH population better than those before 10 a.m. The ZJU435 and CQ421 sprays for UV avoidance versus UV exposure resulted in mean control efficacies of 60% and 56% versus 41% and 45% on day 7, 77% and 78% versus 63% and 67% on day 14, 84% and 82% versus 80% and 79% on day 21, and 84% and 81% versus 79% and 75 on day 28, respectively. These results indicate that fungal insecticides can control RPH in the rice-shrimp rotation fields and offer a novel insight into the significance of solar-UV-avoiding fungal application for improved pest control during sunny summers.

Sugar easters and xanthones from the roots of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. and their cytoprotective activity.

Six new sugar esters (1-6), named tenuifolisides F-G (1-2) and tenuifolioses W-Z (3-6), together with 16 known compounds (7-22) were isolated from the roots of Polygala tenuifolia. The chemical structures of the new compounds were elucidated by 1D, 2D NMR and HRESIMS techniques together with chemical methods. All the compounds were evaluated for the cytoprotective activity against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced oxidative stress in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells. Compounds 4, 5, 13, 20 and 22 showed strong cytoprotective effect.

Inferring Postmortem Submersion Interval in Rats Found in Water Based on Vitreous Humor Metabolites.

OBJECTIVES: The metabolomics technique of LC-MS/MS combined with data analysis was used to detect changes and differences in metabolic profiles in the vitreous humor of early rat carcasses found in water, and to explore the feasibility of its use for early postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) estimation and the cause of death determination. METHODS: The experimental model was established in natural lake water with 100 SD rats were randomly divided into a drowning group (n=50) and a postmortem (CO2 suffocation) immediately submersion group (n=50). Vitreous humor was extracted from 10 rats in each group at 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 h postmortem for metabolomics analyses, of which 8 were used as the training set to build the model, and 2 were used as test set. PCA and PLS multivariate statistical analysis were performed to explore the differences in metabolic profiles among PMSI and causes of death in the training set samples. Then random forest (RF) algorithm was used to screen several biomarkers to establish a model. RESULTS: PCA and PLS analysis showed that the metabolic profiles had time regularity, but no differences were found among different causes of death. Thirteen small molecule biomarkers with good temporal correlation were selected by RF algorithm. A simple PMSI estimation model was constructed based on this indicator set, and the data of the test samples showed the mean absolute error (MAE) of the model was 0.847 h. CONCLUSIONS: The 13 metabolic markers screened in the vitreous humor of rat corpses in water had good correlations with the early PMSI. The simplified PMSI estimation model constructed by RF can be used to estimate the PMSI. Additionally, the metabolic profiles of vitreous humor cannot be used for early identification of cause of death in water carcasses.

A Rapid Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probe for Cysteine Based on Isophorone and its Application in B16 Cell Imaging.

A novel near-infrared fluorescent probe SWJT-5 based on dicyanoisophorone was synthesized. It achieved the rapid (within 40 s) and discriminative detection of Cys over Hcy and GSH with a large Stokes shift (205 nm). It showed high selectivity and sensitivity for Cys, and had an obvious enhancement of fluorescence emission. The detection limit was 0.43 µM. This probe also had low background interference and little damage to biological samples. Therefore, SWJT-5 had been applied to bioimaging in living cells successfully.

A preliminary study on early postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) estimation and cause-of-death discrimination based on nontargeted metabolomics and machine learning algorithms.

Postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) estimation and cause-of-death discrimination of corpses in water have long been challenges in forensic practice. Recently, many studies have linked postmortem metabolic changes with PMI extension, providing a potential strategy for estimating PMSI using the metabolome. Additionally, there is a lack of potential indicators with high sensitivity and specificity for drowning identification. In the present study, we profiled the untargeted metabolome of blood samples from drowning and postmortem submersion rats at different PMSIs within 24 h by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). A total of 601 metabolites were detected. Four different machine learning algorithms, including random forest (RF), partial least squares (PLS), support vector machine (SVM), and neural network (NN), were used to compare the efficiency of the machine learning methods. Nineteen metabolites with obvious temporal regularity were selected as candidate biomarkers according to "IncNodePurity." Robust models were built with these biomarkers, which yielded a mean absolute error of 1.067 h. Additionally, 36 other metabolites were identified to build the classifier model for discriminating drowning and postmortem submersion (AUC = 1, accuracy = 95%). Our results demonstrated the potential application of metabolomics combined with machine learning in PMSI estimation and cause-of-death discrimination.

Bedaquiline-containing regimens in patients with pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China: focus on the safety.

BACKGROUND: World Health Organization recommends countries introducing new drug and short treatment regimen for drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) should develop and implement a system for active pharmacovigilance that allows for detection, reporting and management of adverse events. The aim of the study is to evaluate the frequency and severity of adverse events (AEs) of bedaquiline-containing regimen in a cohort of Chinese patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR)/extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-TB based on active drug safety monitoring (aDSM) system of New Drug Introduction and Protection Program (NDIP). METHODS: AEs were prospectively collected with demographic, bacteriological, radiological and clinical data from 54 sites throughout China at patient enrollment and during treatment between February, 2018 and December, 2019. This is an interim analysis including patients who are still on treatment and those that have completed treatment. A descriptive analysis was performed on the patients evaluated in the cohort. RESULTS: By December 31, 2019, a total of 1162 patients received bedaquiline-containing anti-TB treatment. Overall, 1563 AEs were reported, 66.9% were classified as minor (Grade 1-2) and 33.1% as serious (Grade 3-5). The median duration of bedaquiline treatment was 167.0 [interquartile range (IQR): 75-169] days. 86 (7.4%) patients received 36-week prolonged treatment with bedaquiline. The incidence of AEs and serious AEs was 47.1% and 7.8%, respectively. The most frequently reported AEs were QT prolongation (24.7%) and hepatotoxicity (16.4%). There were 14 (1.2%) AEs leading to death. Out of patients with available corrected QT interval by Fridericia's formula (QTcF) data, 3.1% (32/1044) experienced a post-baseline QTcF ≥ 500 ms, and 15.7% (132/839) had at least one change of QTcF ≥ 60 ms from baseline. 49 (4.2%) patients had QT prolonged AEs leading to bedaquiline withdrawal. One hundred and ninety patients reported 361 AEs with hepatotoxicity ranking the second with high occurrence. Thirty-four patients reported 43 AEs of hepatic injury referred to bedaquiline, much lower than that referred to protionamide, pyrazinamide and para-aminosalicylic acid individually. CONCLUSIONS: Bedaquiline was generally well-tolerated with few safety concerns in this clinical patient population without any new safety signal identified. The mortality rate was generally low. These data inform significant positive effect to support the WHO recent recommendations for the wide use of bedaquiline.

Polaritonic manipulation based on the spin-selective optical Stark effect in the WS2 and Tamm plasmon hybrid structure.

Exciton-polaritons have shown great potential as a low-energy consumption and robust solid-state platform for photoelectronics integration and quantum information applications. Here, an all-optical method that uses the spin-sensitive optical Stark effect is proposed to manipulate exciton-polaritons for functional polaritonic operations. We use a Tamm plasmon and WS2 hybrid structure with a patterned transverse potential to form the channeled bright state of polaritons. An optical Stark pulse causes perturbation of the polaritonic potential, so as to control the tunneling of polaritons between isolated channels. Polaritonic operations such as switching, splitting and routing were proposed through properly setting of the optical Stark pulse (e.g., pulse width). In addition, spin-sensitive manipulation of the polaritons was proposed taking advantage of the valley-selective excitonic energy shifting induced by the polarized optical Stark pulse. These basic operations together with time-space programming of the optical Stark pulses would pave a way of routing and addressing of polaritons for future optoelectronic integration and networking.

Progress in resistance mechanisms and diagnosis of non-first line anti-TB drugs.

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the three major infectious diseases in China and all over the world. In 2014, for the first time, TB killed more people than HIV did. Non-first line anti-TB drugs are used as main drugs in the treatment of MDR-TB. However, MDR-TB can gradually develop as extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) because of poor diagnosis, the unreasonable treatment, poor medical conditions and so on. The death rate of XDR-TB is close to lung cancer. Research on the mechanism of drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has turned to non first-line anti-TB drugs: second and third line drugs and some new anti-TB drugs in development. In this review, we summarized the drug resistance mechanisms of the common non-first line anti-TB drugs. Most of drug resistant TB patients can't get timely diagnosis and correct treatment. So at the end of this article, we also summarized the common methods to diagnose drug-resistant TB.

Combined general and regional anesthesia and effects on immune function in patients with benign ovarian tumors treated by laparoscopic therapy.

OBJECTIVE: Anesthesia has been shown to suppress immune function, which can negatively affect the treatment of patients with various tumors. Here, we assessed two different anesthesia methods, general versus combined regional/general, in treatment of benign ovarian tumor by laparoscopic therapy. METHODS: Out of 160 patients with benign ovarian tumors treated by laparoscopic therapy, 80 received general anesthesia combined with thoracic epidural anesthesia during surgery, and 80 received general anesthesia only. Venous blood samples were obtained at the following time points: before induction of anesthesia (T0), 2 hours after anesthesia, during operation, 3 days (d) after operation, 5 d after operation, and 7 d after operation. Percentages of CD3(+), CD4(+), and CD4(+)/CD8(+) T lymphocytes were determined at these time points by flow cytometry to assess immune function. RESULTS: For both groups, percentages of CD3(+), CD4(+), and CD4(+)/CD8(+) T cells decreased significantly from T0 to 2 hr after anesthesia (P < 0.05). These percentages decreased again during surgery. However, T cell percentages in patients receiving combined anesthesia returned to normal levels 5 d after surgery, and those receiving only intravenous anesthesia returned to normal by 7 d after surgery. There were no significant differences in CD3(+), CD4(+), or CD4(+)/CD8(+) T cell percentages between the two anesthesia groups at T0 and 7 d. However, significant differences in these percentages were observed between the two groups at all other time points. Interestingly, the decrease observed within the combined group were less dramatic than those observed within the intravenous-only group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that, while any anesthesia may suppress immune function of patients treated by laparoscopic therapy, the effect of general anesthesia combined with thoracic epidural anesthesia on immune function was less than that produced by general anesthesia alone.

Melamine-induced urinary calculi in infants--sonographic manifestations and outcomes 1 year after exposure.

BACKGROUND: In 2008, the melamine-tainted-milk incident started with reports of increased incidence of urolithiasis in infants in China. Affected children were screened for urolithiasis. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to analyze sonographic characterization of infant melamine-induced urolithiasis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Transabdominal US examination was done in 603 infants with melamine-induced calculi. The imaging characteristics of calculi and hydronephrosis were analyzed. Follow-up US imaging was performed. RESULTS: Comet-tail sign was seen behind the calculus of <4 mm. Calculi of ≥ 4 mm were found in 299 inpatients with clear posterior border and with or without light shadowing. Solitary and multiple stones had similar incidence. Incidence of calculi in the inferior renal calyx was the highest (55.2%) in inpatients. Calculus size in inpatients age 2-3 years was smaller than that of children younger than 2 years old (P < 0.05). Inpatients age 2-3 years had the highest incidence rate (48.0%) of hydronephrosis. CONCLUSION: Calculi of <4 mm manifested as hyperechoic foci near the renal papillae, while calculi of ≥ 4 mm usually manifested as echogenic foci with visible inferior edge in the renal calyx. Hydronephrosis was a common imaging finding in inpatients ages 2-3 years.

[Modeling research on impact of pH on metals leaching behavior of air pollution control residues from MSW incinerator].

Metals leaching behavior of air pollution control residues (APC residues) from municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) is greatly dependent on the leachate pH. pH-varying leaching tests and Visual MINTEQ modeling were conducted to investigate the mechanism of pH effect on the metals leaching characteristics from MSWI APC residues. Results show that, under acidic environment (for Cd, Zn, and Ni, pH < 8; for Pb, Cu, and Cr, pH < 6; for Al, pH < 4), leaching concentrations of metals increase greatly with the decrease of pH. Release of amphoteric metals, Pb and Zn, can be induced in strong alkaline leachate, reaching to 42 and 2.4 mg x L(-1) at pH 12.5 respectively. The equilibrium modeling results are well in agreement with the analyzed leaching concentrations. Variation of leachate pH changes the metals speciation in the leaching system, thus influencing their leaching concentrations. Speciation and leaching behavior of Pb, Zn, Cu, Ca, and Al mainly depend on their dissolution/precipitation reactions under different leachate pH. Leachability of Cd, Cr, and Ni can be lowered under acidic and neutral leachate pH due to HFO adsorption, while under alkaline conditions, the effect of adsorption is not significant and dissolution/precipitation becomes the major reactions controlling the leaching toxicity of these heavy metals.