Prognostic significance of serum Chemerin and neutrophils levels in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Objectives: Chemerin, as a novel multifunctional adipokine, is proposed to be involved in high cancer risk and mortality. The present study was aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of serum Chemerin and neutrophils in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Materials and methods: 120 patients with OSCC were included in this prospective cohort study. The levels of serum Chemerin were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We also explored the possible effects of Chemerin on neutrophils' chemokines in OSCC using a real-time PCR, western blotting. Results: Levels of serum Chemerin, neutrophils and NLR were significantly higher among non-survivors compared to survivors of OSCC (both P < 0.05). Higher serum Chemerin levels were associated with advanced TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, differentiation and tumor recurrence (both P < 0.05). Serum Chemerin levels correlated with neutrophils and NLR levels (r = 0.708, r = 0.578, both P < 0.05). Based on ROC analysis, Chemerin + NLR predicted OSCC patient mortality with 81.54 % sensitivity and 87.27 % specificity, with an AUC of 0.8898. In a Kaplan-Meier analysis, high serum Chemerin levels, high neutrophil levels and high NLR levels were associated with shorter overall and disease-free survival (both P < 0.05). A univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that serum Chemerin and neutrophils were independent risk factors for OSCC. (both P < 0.05). QRT-PCR and western blotting results showed that Chemerin upregulated the expression of chemokines IL-17 and CXCL-5 in neutrophils (both P < 0.05). Conclusions: Our study suggests that measurement of serum Chemerin and neutrophils might be a useful diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for OSCC patients. Chemerin may promote neutrophils infiltration in OSCC through upregulation of chemokines IL17 and CXCL-5.

A Generalized Model for Linear-Periodically-Time-Variant Circulators.

Magnetic-free non-reciprocity based on linear-periodically-time-variant (LPTV) circuits has received significant research and commercial attention since it could revolutionize wireless communications. LPTV circuits are formed by two main components: linear-time-invariant (LTI) networks and periodically-modulated switches. The modulated switches are the core elements to break the reciprocity of LTI networks. To understand and design LPTV circulators, a universal and intuitive analytical model is required. However, such model does not exist as it is extremely challenging to accurately model and fully understand the LPTV behaviour of energy storage networks. To address this limitation, this work introduces a novel analysis method, which is broadly applicable to any LPTV networks, and validates it experimentally. The novelty of this methodology comes from two main contributions: (1) modelling of the switch as a resistor in parallel with a current-controlled current source; (2) the decomposition of the LPTV network into the linear superposition of two LTI networks. We apply this technique to model the exact behaviour of an LPTV circulator in the frequency domain.