Prognostic role of ring finger and WD repeat domain 3 and immune cell infiltration in hepatocellular carcinoma

We have found that the expression of ring finger and WD repeat domain 3(RFWD3)is significantly higher in unpaired and paired hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)tissues than in normal tissues.Moreover,this expression has a significant correlation with the infiltration level of 14 immune cell types and when the detected RFWD3 expression levels were grouped as high and low,a prominent difference was revealed for overall survival,disease-specific survival,and progression-free interval.Through statistical analysis(univariate Cox),we were also able to identify RFWD3 as an independent prognostic element for HCC,with RFWD3 having an ability to accurately predict HCC prognosis(area under the curve of 0.863).Finally,we have generated prognostic nomograms for probabilities of 1-,3-and 5-year overall survival in HCC via integrating the factors of age,pathologic stage,alpha-fetoprotein level,and RFWD3 expression.

Successful opening in-stent chronic total occlusion lesion of coronary artery by excimer laser coronary angioplasty

In percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), chronic total occlusion (CTO) coronary artery disease still remains difficult to treat. One of the reasons for the failure is the hard of the CTO lesions that balloon is difficult to pass through or expand. Previous methods to deal with CTO lesions that cannot be passed by balloon, include selecting reinforced catheter (such as 5 in 6 guiding catheter, Guidzilla catheter, or Tornus microcatheter), guidewire extrusion or rotary grinding technology. In recent years, excimer laser coronary angioplasty (ELCA) has been gradually applied to CTO lesions. Using inert halide as the laser medium, ELCA emits a 308 nm high-intensity unidirectional light wave with absorption depth of only 50 μmL, resulting in less thermal effect and less damage to non-target lesions. In this paper, we will describe a successful PCI case of an in-stent CTO lesion using ELCA with long term coronary angiography follow-up.

Impact of main vessel calcification on procedural and clinical outcomes of bifurcation lesion undergoing provisional single-stenting intervention: a multicenter, prospective, observational study

Background Few data on the combined effects of bifurcation and calcification on coronary artery disease(CAD)patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI)are available.This study evaluated the impact of main vessel(MV)calcification on the procedural and long-term outcomes in patients with CAD who underwent provisional single stent PCI.Methods This is a multicenter,prospective,observational study.Patients with bifurcation lesions were enrolled at 10 PCI centers in China from January 2015 to December 2017.Intravascular ultrasound or optical coherence tomography was performed in all patients to evaluate the MV calcification.Patients were treated with provisional single stent strategy using drug eluting stents and followed-up at 1 month,6 months and 12 months after discharge by telephone contact or outpatient visit.Repeated coronary imaging was performed within one year.We compared the procedural success rates in MV and in side branch(SB),and target lesion failure(TLF),defined as a composite of cardiac death,non-fatal myocardial infarction,definite or possible stent thrombosis and target lesion revascularization between patients with and without MV calcification.Results A total of 185 subjects were enrolled according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this study.MV calcification was detected in 119(64.3%,calcification group)and not found in 66(35.7%,non-calcification group)patients.The angiographic success rate of MV was 95.8%in the calcification group and 97.0%in the non-calcification group(P=0.91);the angiographic success rate of SB was 32.8%in the calcification group and 53.0%in the non-calcification group(P<0.05).During the one-year follow-up period,TLF occurred in 14(11.8%)patients in the calcification group and in 13(19.7%)in the non-calcification group{P=0.31).Multivariate regression analysis showed the same result(HR=1.23,95%CI:0.76-1.52,P=0.47).Calcification on group had higher recurrent angina than non-calcification group(13.51%vs.17.65%,P<0.05).Conclusions In patients with coronary bifurcation lesion treated with provisional one stent approach,calcification of MV is associated with lower SB procedural success rate,it could increase recurrence of angina;however,it was not associated with an increased risk of TLF.

Prognostic role of expression of angiogenesis markers in hepatocellular carcinoma:A bioinformatics analysis

The expression of angiopoietin(ANGPT)1,ANGPT2,vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)A,VEGFB,VEGFC,VEGFD,and placental growth factor(PGF)is significantly higher in tumor tissues than in normal tissues in both unpaired and paired hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)samples.ANGPT2,VEGFB,VEGFC,and PGF are primarily involved in regulating the activation of the epithelialmesenchymal transition pathway;ANGPT1 is primarily involved in regulating the activation of the RAS/mitogen-activated protein kinase and receptor tyrosine kinase(RTK)pathways;VEGFA is engaged in regulating the RTK activation pathway;and VEGFD is mainly involved in regulating the activation of the tuberous sclerosis protein/mammalian target of rapamycin pathway.There is a significant difference in overall survival between HCC patients with high and low expression of ANGPT2,PGF,VEGFA,and VEGFD.Disease free survival(DFS)is significantly shorter in HCC patients with high ANGPT2,PGF,and VEGFA expression than in those with low ANGPT2,PGF,and VEGFA expression.

Radial velocity measurements from LAMOST medium-resolution spectroscopic observations: a pointing towards the Kepler field

Radial velocity is one of the key measurements in understanding the fundamental properties of stars, stellar clusters and the Galaxy. A plate of stars in the Kepler field was observed in May of 2018 with the medium-resolution spectrographs of LAMOST, aiming to test the performance of this new system which is the upgraded equipment of LAMOST after the first five-year regular survey. We present our analysis on the radial velocity measurements(RVs) derived from these data. The results show that slight and significant systematic errors exist among the RVs obtained from the spectra collected by different spectrographs and exposures, respectively. After correcting the systematic errors with different techniques, the precision of RVs reaches ～1.3,～1.0,～0.5 and ～0.3 km s^(-1) at S/Nr = 10, 20, 50 and 100, respectively. Comparing with the RVs of standard stars from the APOGEE survey, our RVs are calibrated with a zero-point shift of～7 km s^(-1). The results indicate that the LAMOST medium-resolution spectroscopic system may provide RVs with a reasonable accuracy and precision for the selected targets.

Prognostic implications of ferroptosis-associated gene signature in colon adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND Colon adenocarcinoma(COAD)is one of the most common and fatal malignant tumors,which increases the difficulty of prognostic predictions.Thus,new biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of COAD should be explored.Ferroptosis is a recently identified programmed cell death process that has the characteristics of iron-dependent lipid peroxide accumulation.However,the predictive value of ferroptosis-related genes(FRGs)for COAD still needs to be further clarified.AIM To identify some critical FRGs and construct a COAD patient prognostic signature for clinical utilization.METHODS The Cancer Genome Atlas database(TCGA)and Gene Expression Omnibus databases were the data sources for mRNA expression and corresponding COAD patient clinical information.Differentially expressed FRGs were recognized using R and Perl software.We constructed a multi-FRG signature of the TCGA-COAD cohort by performing a univariate Cox regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression analysis.COAD patients from the Gene Expression Omnibus cohort were utilized for verification.RESULTS Our research showed that most of the FRGs(85%)were differentially expressed between the corresponding adjacent normal tissues and cancer tissues in the TCGA-COAD cohort.Seven FRGs were related to overall survival(OS)in the univariate Cox analysis(all P<0.05).A model with five FRGs(AKR1C1,AKR1C3,ALOX12,CRYAB,and FDFT1)was constructed to divide patients into high-and low-risk groups.The OS of patients in the high-risk group was significantly lower than that of the low-risk group(all P<0.01 in the TCGA and Gene Expression Omnibus cohorts).The risk score was an independent prognosticator of OS in the multivariate Cox analysis(hazard ratio>1,P<0.01).The predictive capacity of the model was verified by a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.In addition,a nomogram based on the expression of five hub FRGs and risk score can precisely predict the OS of individual COAD cancer patients.Immune correlation analysis and functional enrichment analysis results revealed that immunology-related pathways were abundant,and the immune states of the high-risk group and the low-risk group were different.CONCLUSION In conclusion,a novel five FRG model can be utilized for predicting prognosis in COAD.Targeting ferroptosis may be a treatment option for COAD.

Microarray analysis to explore the effect of CXCL12 isoforms in a pancreatic pre-tumor cell model

CXCL12 expression was significantly lower in tumor samples than in corresponding normal samples.CXCL12 expression was significantly positively related to the infiltration levels of T cells,dendritic cells(DCs),immature DCs,cytotoxic cells,Tfh cells,mast cells,B cells,Th1 cells,natural killer(NK)cells,pDCs,neutrophils,and T helper cells(Spearman correlation coefficient>0.5,P<0.001)and negatively correlated with the infiltration level of NK CD56bright cells.In addition,pancreatic hTERT-HPNE cells treated with three diverse CXCL12 isoforms exhibited changes mainly in the regulation of the epithelialmesenchymal transition activation pathway.

Comment on“Diagnostic approach to faecal incontinence:What test and when to perform?”

We recently read with interest the article"Diagnostic approach to faecal incontinence:What test and when to perform?".This is a comprehensive and practical review,which has particular significance for guiding clinicians to improve the examination strategy.Although we appreciate their work very much,based on the in-depth analysis of this research,we found some detailed problems in the article and will give our comments in this letter.If the author can further improve the relevant research,it will be valuable.

Prevention of late complications of endoscopic resection of colorectal lesions with a coverage agent:Current status of gastrointestinal endoscopy

Endoscopic ectomy of large nonpedunculated colorectal lesions(≥20 mm)might cause significant adverse incidents,such as delayed perforation and delayed bleeding,despite the closure of mucosal lesions with clips.The conventional utilization of prophylactic clipping has not decreased the risk of postprocedural delayed adverse events,and additional outcomes and cost-effectiveness research is needed for patients with proximal lesions≥20 mm,in whom prophylactic clipping might be useful.Coverage of the wound after endoscopic excision offers shield protection against delayed concomitant diseases.

A triplet of the only pulsation mode detected in the DAV star G132–12

Hydrogen atmosphere pulsating white dwarfs,also known as DAV stars,are the most abundant type of pulsating white dwarfs.High-temperature DAV stars in general exhibit a small number of pulsation modes and stable frequencies.G132-12 is one of the pulsating hydrogen atmosphere white dwarf stars which lies close to the blue edge of the instability strip.Previous researches reported that G132-12 might have only one pulsation mode with the period of 212.69 s.To study the pulsation properties of G132-12 in detail,we carried out a bi-site observation campaign in October 2019.Time series photometric data were collected during around 154 h in total.A Fourier analysis reveals three frequencies which are identified as the triplet of an l=1 g-mode pulsation with the period of 212.499 s.The rotational period is derived as Prot=35.0±6.7 h and the inclination of the rotational axis to the line of sight is 70°.G132-12 could be an ideal target for measuring the cooling scale of this white dwarf star with only one excited pulsation mode detected.