Computed cardiopulmonography: Effects of physical characteristics on lung parameter estimates.

Computed cardiopulmonography (CCP) is a technique that measures lung volumes (functional residual capacity and deadspace) together with novel parameters reflecting lung inhomogeneities (non-uniformities in lung inflation and deadspace path length). First, highly precise measurements of gas exchange are made during a nitrogen washout with a purpose-built molecular flow sensor. Second, an individual's lung physiology is then described by personalising the parameters of a bespoke cardio-respiratory model obtained by fitting the model to the data.

Exploration of the optimal retention method in vivo for stem cell therapy: Low-intensity ultrasound preconditioning.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are pluripotent and self-renewing, exerting a crucial role in the domain of regenerative medicine. Nevertheless, BMSCs encounter challenges such as low cell viability and inadequate homing during transplantation, thereby restricting their therapeutic efficacy. Hence, current research is concentrated on identifying optimal retention approaches following BMSCs transplantation to enhance its effectiveness.

Effects of biologic therapy on novel indices of lung inhomogeneity in patients with severe type-2 high asthma.

Introduction/aim: Lung inhomogeneity measures obtained using computed cardiopulmonography (CCP) are sensitive to small-airways disease. Here, we assessed changes in lung inhomogeneity in patients with type-2 high asthma treated with biological therapy and explored the relationship between inhomogeneity measures and conventional asthma disease markers.

Methods: This was an observational study of 91 severe type-2 high asthma patients recruited from a tertiary asthma clinic, of whom 67 subsequently started anti-IL5 or anti-IL5R biologics.

A phenotype-based AI pipeline outperforms human experts in differentially diagnosing rare diseases using EHRs.

Rare diseases, affecting ~350 million people worldwide, pose significant challenges in clinical diagnosis due to the lack of experienced physicians and the complexity of differentiating between numerous rare diseases. To address these challenges, we introduce PhenoBrain, a fully automated artificial intelligence pipeline. PhenoBrain utilizes a BERT-based natural language processing model to extract phenotypes from clinical texts in EHRs and employs five new diagnostic models for differential diagnoses of rare diseases.

Anti-inflammatory Effect of Low-Intensity Ultrasound in Septic Rats.

Objective: Sepsis is a severe systemic inflammatory response caused by infection. Here, the spleen region of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats with sepsis was irradiated with low-intensity ultrasound (LIUS) to explore the regulation of inflammation and its mechanism by LIUS.

Methods: In this study, 30 rats used for survival analysis were randomly divided into the sham-operated group (Sham, n = 10), the group in which sepsis was induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP, n = 10) and the group treated with LIUS immediately after CLP (LIUS, n = 10).

Altered lung physiology in two cohorts after COVID-19 infection as assessed by computed cardiopulmonography.

The longer-term effects of COVID-19 on lung physiology remain poorly understood. Here, a new technique, computed cardiopulmonography (CCP), was used to study two COVID-19 cohorts (MCOVID and C-MORE-LP) at both ∼6 and ∼12 mo after infection. CCP is comprised of two components.

Identifying putative ventilation-perfusion distributions in COVID-19 pneumonia.

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Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound alleviating myelosuppression of Sprague-Dawley rats after combined treating by paclitaxel and carboplatin.

Background: Our team has previously reported that low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) can alleviate myelosuppression in rats induced by single chemotherapy drugs. But in clinics, chemotherapy is often performed with multiple drugs simultaneously. To be closer to the clinical status quo, this experiment was designed to show whether it was the same effect of LIPUS on myelosuppression caused by combination therapy of chemotherapy drugs.

Potential Application of Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound in Delaying Aging for Mice.

Introduction: The low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) is one of the popular treatment modalities allowing to boost the proliferation, differentiation, and migratory activity of cells, which might be a powerful strategy for anti-aging. Seeking a novel setup for LIPUS would benefit the development of ultrasound therapeutics.

Methods: Here, we proposed a novel underwater exposure setup of LIPUS.

Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound Promotes Repair of 4-Vinylcyclohexene Diepoxide-Induced Premature Ovarian Insufficiency in SD Rats.

Women with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) may be more vulnerable to a variety of health risks. To seek a new method to treat the disease, the effects of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) on promoting repair of ovarian injury in female SD rats induced by 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) were explored in this research. A total of 24 female SD rats were subjected to intraperitoneal injection of VCD to induce POI.

Effects of low intensity pulsed ultrasound on expression of B-cell lymphoma-2 and BCL2-Associated X in premature ovarian failure mice induced by 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide.

Background: Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a common disease in the field of Gynecology. Low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) can promote tissue repair and improve function. This study was performed to determine the effects of LIPUS on granulosa cells (GCs) apoptosis and protein expression of B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) and BCL2-Associated X (Bax) in 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD)-induced POF mice and investigate the mechanisms of LIPUS on ovarian function and reserve capacity.

Gut microbiota dysbiosis in stable coronary artery disease combined with type 2 diabetes mellitus influences cardiovascular prognosis.

Background And Aims: Host-microbiota interactions involving metabolic pathways have been linked to the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic disease and type 2 diabetes. As stable coronary artery disease (SCAD) patients combined with type 2 diabetes have significantly increased risk for cardiac event, we focused on elucidating the role of microbiota affecting cardiometabolic disease development.

Methods And Results: We used multi-omics analyses (metagenomics and metabolomics) of fecal and serum samples from a prospective cohort including stable coronary artery disease combined with diabetes mellitus (SCAD + T2DM, n = 38), SCAD (n = 71), and healthy control (HC, n = 55).

Time-Restricted Feeding Reduces the Detrimental Effects of a High-Fat Diet, Possibly by Modulating the Circadian Rhythm of Hepatic Lipid Metabolism and Gut Microbiota.

Time-restricted feeding, also known as intermittent fasting, can confer various beneficial effects, especially protecting against obesity, and related metabolic disorders, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the effects of time-restricted feeding on the circadian rhythm of gut microbiota and hepatic metabolism. Eight-week-old male Kunming mice received either a normal diet , a diet , or a high-fat diet restricted to an 8-h temporal window per day for an experimental period of 8 weeks.

Effects of Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound on Myelosuppression of Rats Induced by Chemotherapy Drugs With Cell Cycle Specificity.

Objectives: To explore the ameliorating effects of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) on Sprague Dawley rat myelosuppression induced by cell cycle specificity drugs (docetaxel, mitotic phase sensitive; and etoposide, gap 2 phase sensitive).

Methods: Rats were respectively administered docetaxel (100 mg/kg) or etoposide (110 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal injection for 4 consecutive days. Then the rats were divided randomly into a LIPUS group and a non-LIPUS group.

Clinical characteristics and survival analysis in critical and non-critical patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a single-center retrospective case control study.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in China at the end of 2019, the world has experienced a large-scale epidemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2. The epidemiological and clinical course of COVID-19 patients has been reported, but there have been few analyses about the characteristics, predictive risk factors, and outcomes of critical patients. In this single-center retrospective case-control study, 90 adult inpatients hospitalized at Tongji Hospital (Wuhan, China) were included.

Ethical dilemma of identity disclosure faced by medical students in clinical clerkships: A nationwide multicenter study in China.

Objective: Medical students in China are currently facing a dilemma of whether to clarify their identity as students to patients. Further investigation is needed to support policy-making. The aim was to identify factors influencing medical students' decision on whether or not to clarify their identity to patients and to examine the effects of their decision.

Methylation of WTH3, a possible drug resistant gene, inhibits p53 regulated expression.

Background: Previous results showed that over-expression of the WTH3 gene in MDR cells reduced MDR1 gene expression and converted their resistance to sensitivity to various anticancer drugs. In addition, the WTH3 gene promoter was hypermethylated in the MCF7/AdrR cell line and primary drug resistant breast cancer epithelial cells. WTH3 was also found to be directly targeted and up regulated by the p53 gene.

Differential methylation of TSP50 and mTSP50 genes in different types of human tissues and mouse spermatic cells.

Earlier studies identified human TSP50 as a testis-specific gene that encoded a threonine protease. Most importantly, TSP50 could be a cancer/testis antigen since there was a high frequency of reactivation in breast cancer biopsies. It was also found to be negatively regulated by the p53 gene.

TSP50 encodes a testis-specific protease and is negatively regulated by p53.

Earlier studies suggested that TSP50 is a testis-specific gene that encodes a protein, which is homologous to serine proteases but differs in that threonine replaces serine in its catalytic triad. Most importantly, it was abnormally reactivated in many breast cancer biopsies tested. While further investigating its biochemical and cell biological natures, we found that TSP50 exhibited enzyme activity and was located in the endoplasmic reticulum and cytosol membrane.

Screening of single-chain variable fragments against TSP50 from a phage display antibody library and their expression as soluble proteins.

A novel gene, testes-specific protease 50 (TSP50), is abnormally activated and differentially expressed in most patients with breast cancer, suggesting it as a novel biomarker for this disease. The possibility that TSP50 may be an oncogene is presently under investigation. In this study, the single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) against TSP50 were panned from a phage display antibody library using TSP50-specific peptide, pep-50, as a target antigen.

Epigenetic regulation of WTH3 in primary and cultured drug-resistant breast cancer cells.

Previous studies showed that the WTH3 gene functioned as a negative regulator during multidrug resistance (MDR) development in vitro. To understand whether this gene is also involved in clinical drug resistance, hypermethylation at its promoter region observed in cultured MDR MCF7/AdrR cells was examined in primary drug-resistant breast cancer epithelial cells isolated from effusions of breast cancer patients. The results showed that this event also occurred in drug-resistant breast cancer epithelial cells and a newly induced drug-resistant cell line, MCF7/inR.

WTH3, which encodes a small G protein, is differentially regulated in multidrug-resistant and sensitive MCF7 cells.

The WTH3 gene's biological characteristics and relationship to multidrug resistance (MDR) were investigated further. Results showed that WTH3 was mainly located in the cytosol and capable of binding to GTP. In addition, WTH3's promoter function was significantly attenuated in MDR (MFC7/AdrR) relative to non-MDR (MCF7/WT) cells.

Localization and expression of TSP50 protein in human and rodent testes.

Objectives: To present our recent observations obtained from the continuing characterization of the TSP50 gene pertaining to its evolutionary importance and behavior in human testicular germ cell tumors. Previous studies have reported that expression of the human TSP50 gene is testes specific. Its product is similar to many serine proteases but possesses its own unique features.