FcRn inhibitors:a novel option for the treatment of myasthenia gravis

Myasthenia gravis is an acquired,humoral immunity-mediated autoimmune disease characterized by the production of autoantibodies that impair synaptic transmission at the neuromuscular junction.The intervention-mediated clearance of immunoglobulin G(IgG)was shown to be effective in controlling the progression of the disease.The neonatal Fc receptor(FcRn)plays a key role in prolonging the serum half-life of IgG.Antagonizing FcRn to prevent its binding to IgG can accelerate the catabolism of the latter,resulting in decreased levels of IgG,including pathogenic autoantibodies,thereby achieving a therapeutic effect.In this review,we detail the substantial research progress,both basic and clinical,relating to the use of FcRn inhibitors in the treatment of myasthenia gravis.

The Function of SeMNPV IAP3 in Mammalian Cells

The baculoviral inhibitors of apoptosis play a significant role in infectivity and viral host-range, which make them potential candidates for the engineering and improvement of baculovirus insecticidal. The iap3 gene of Spodoptera exigua nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV), amplified by PCR, was 939 bp encoding IAP3. The PCR product was cloned into EcoR I /Bam H I of the plasmid pEGFP-C1. GFP was fused to the N-terminaus of IAP3 to study distribution in HEK293. It was observed that the plasmid expressing IAP3 significantly inhibited apoptosis induced by cisplatin in HEK293 cells. We conclude that the IAP3 of SeMNPV is functional in mammalian cells.

Numerical investigation on threading dislocation bending with InAs/GaAs quantum dots

The threading dislocations(TDs)in GaAs/Si epitaxial layers due to the lattice mismatch seriously degrade the performance of the lasers grown on silicon.The insertion of InAs quantum dots(QDs)acting as dislocation filters is a pretty good alternative to solving this problem.In this paper,a finite element method(FEM)is proposed to calculate the critical condition for InAs/GaAs QDs bending TDs into interfacial misfit dislocations(MDs).Making a comparison of elastic strain energy between the two isolated systems,a reasonable result is obtained.The effect of the cap layer thickness and the base width of QDs on TD bending are studied,and the results show that the bending area ratio of single QD(the bending area divided by the area of the QD base)is evidently affected by the two factors.Moreover,we present a method to evaluate the bending capability of single-layer QDs and multi-layer QDs.For the QD with 24-nm base width and 5-nm cap layer thickness,taking the QD density of 10^(11) cm^(-2) into account,the bending area ratio of single-layer QDs(the area of bending TD divided by the area of QD layer)is about 38.71%.With inserting five-layer InAs QDs,the TD density decreases by 91.35%.The results offer the guidelines for designing the QD dislocation filters and provide an important step towards realizing the photonic integration circuits on silicon.

Malignant giant cell tumor in the left upper arm soft tissue of an adolescent:A case report

BACKGROUND Giant cell tumor of soft tissue(GCT-ST)is an extremely rare low-grade soft tissue tumor that is originates in superficial tissue and rarely spreads deeper.GCT-ST has unpredictable behavior.It is mainly benign,but may sometimes become aggressive and potentially increase in size within a short period of time.CASE SUMMARY A 17-year-old man was suspected of having a fracture,based on radiography following left shoulder trauma.One month later,the swelling of the left shoulder continued to increase and the pain was obvious.Computed tomography(CT)revealed a soft tissue mass with strip-like calcifications in the left shoulder.The mass invaded the adjacent humerus and showed an insect-like area of destruction at the edge of the cortical bone of the upper humerus.The marrow cavity of the upper humerus was enlarged,and a soft tissue density was seen in the medullary cavity.Thoracic CT revealed multiple small nodules beneath the pleura of both lungs.A bone scan demonstrated increased activity in the left shoulder joint and proximal humerus.The mass showed mixed moderate hypointensity and hyperintensity on T1-weighted images,and mixed hyperintensity on T2-weighted fat-saturated images.The final diagnosis of GCT-ST was confirmed by pathology.CONCLUSION GCT-STs should be considered in the differential diagnosis of soft tissue tumors and monitored for large increases in size.

One-step modification method of a superhydrophobic surface for excellent antibacterial capability

In this study,micro/nanostructures are fabricated on the surface of 3Cr13 stainless steel via laser etching,and a superhydrophobic coating with silver nanoparticles(AgNPs)is prepared by utilizing the reduction–adsorption properties of polydopamine(PDA).We investigate the effect of soaking time from the“one-step method”on the reduction of nano-Ag,surface wettability,and antibacterial properties.Scanning electron microscopy is performed to analyze the distribution of nano-Ag on the surface,whereas X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are used to analyze the crystal structures and chemical compositions of different surfaces.Samples deposited with PDA on their surface are soaked in a 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane water–alcohol solution containing AgNO3 for 3 h.Subsequently,a“one-step method”is used to prepare low-adhesion superhydrophobic surfaces containing AgNPs.As immersion progresses,more AgNPs are deposited onto the surface.Compared with the polished surface,the samples prepared via the“one-step method”show significant antibacterial properties against both gram-negative Escherichia coli and gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus.The antibacterial properties of the surface improve as immersion progresses.

Effect of vacuum heat treatment on microstructure and corrosion behavior of HVOF sprayed AICoCrFeNiCu high entropy alloy

To improve the corrosion resistance of coalbed methane drilling equipment,an AICoCrFeNiCu high entropy alloy coating was prepared on the AISI 4135(35CrMo)steel substrate by high velocity oxygen fuel(HVOF)technology,and the coating was subjected to vacuum heat treatment(VHT)at different temperatures(500,700,900 and 1100℃).The corrosion test of the substrate and the coatings after VHT in coalbed methane drilling fluid was carried out.The results show that the HVOF sprayed AICoCrFeNiCu high entropy alloy(HEA)coating has a good bonding with the substrate,and the porosity of the coating is about 2.4%.There is partial segregation in the coating,and the coating mainly consists of body-centered cubic phase.The coating has good thermal stability,and the phase structure and microstructure of the coatings have changed after VHT at different temperatures.Compared with the substrate,the as-sprayed coating has better uniform corrosion resistance,and the corrosion resistance of the coating after VHT is further improved.After VHT at 500℃,the HVOF-sprayed AICoCrFeNiCu HEA coating has the best corrosion resistance.

Automatic extraction of imaging observation and assessment categories from breast magnetic resonance imaging reports with natural language processing

Background:Structured reports are not widely used and thus most reports exist in the form of free text.The process of data extraction by experts is time-consuming and error-prone,whereas data extraction by natural language processing (NLP) is a potential solution that could improve diagnosis efficiency and accuracy.The purpose of this study was to evaluate an NLP program that determines American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) descriptors and final assessment categories from breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reports.Methods:This cross-sectional study involved 2330 breast MRI reports in the electronic medical record from 2009 to 2017.We used 1635 reports for the creation of a revised BI-RADS MRI lexicon and synonyms lists as well as the iterative development of an NLP system.The remaining 695 reports that were not used for developing the system were used as an independent test set for the final evaluation of the NLP system.The recall and precision of an NLP algorithm to detect the revised BI-RADS MRI descriptors and BI-RADS categories from the free-text reports were evaluated against a standard reference of manual human review.Results:There was a high level of agreement between two manual reviewers,with a κ value of 0.95.For all breast imaging reports,the NLP algorithm demonstrated a recall of 78.5% and a precision of 86.1% for correct identification of the revised BI-RADS MRI descriptors and the BI-RADS categories.NLP generated the total results in <1 s,whereas the manual reviewers averaged 3.38 and 3.23 min per report,respectively.Conclusions:The NLP algorithm demonstrates high recall and precision for information extraction from free-text reports.This approach will help to narrow the gap between unstructured report text and structured data,which is needed in decision support and other applications.

XLN306 induces apoptosis in human breast carcinoma MX-1 cells

XLN306 is a novel synthetic quinazoline derivative with potentially useful anticancer activity.In previous research,we showed that XLN306 is highly cytotoxic to many tumor cell lines.This paper reports an investigation of this cytotoxicity in a number of human carcinoma cell lines.The results show that human breast carcinoma MX-1 cells are extremely sensitive to XLN306 and that the cytotoxicity is due to dose-and time-dependent apoptosis as confirmed by DAPI stain and DNA fragmentation analysis.Both extrinsic and intrinsic pathways are involved in the apoptosis process.The findings indicate that XLN306 has apoptotic induction activity and may be useful for the management of various cancers,especially breast carcinoma.