Objective To investigate a suspected outbreak of hospital-acquired infections caused by Mycobacterium chelonae related to flexible bronchoscope (hereinafter referred to as “bronchofibroscope”) and apply targeted high-throughput sequencing (tNGS) technology for etiological analysis, providing references for controlling hospital infection outbreaks. Methods A retrospective survey of patients who were detected with Mycobacterium chelonae through tNGS testing of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) after bronchofibroscopy at the Zhengdong District, People’s Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou between May 1, 2018 and March 18, 2024. The causes were investigated through comprehensive measures including on-site epidemiological surveys and environmental health assessments, and intervention measures were developed and evaluated for effectiveness. Results A total of 52 patients were included. Mycobacterium chelonae was detected in 30 patients, nosocomial infection was excluded in all cases. The suspicious contaminated bronchofibroscope lavage fluid and its cleaning and disinfection equipment, environment and other samples were collected. The traditional microbial culture results were negative. The tNGS results showed that Mycobacterium chelonae was detected in bronchofibroscope lavage fluid (sequence number 156), and all the patients with Mycobacterium chelonae detected in BALF used the bronchofibroscope. It was judged that this event was a pseudo-outbreak of nosocomial infection caused by the contamination of bronchofibroscope with the patient’s BALF. After three months of continuous follow-up after the comprehensive control measures were taken, Mycobacterium chelonae was not detected by tNGS in bronchofibroscope lavage fluid or patients’ BALF. All patients in the hospital improved and discharged without any new cases. The pseudo-outbreak of nosocomial infection was effectively controlled. Conclusions There are many links in the reprocessing of bronchofibroscope, which is easy to cause pollution, and the management needs to be strengthened. tNGS detection has the characteristics of high efficiency, few background bacteria and clear pathogen spectrum, which can be used as a supplementary means for the investigation of nosocomial infection outbreaks, and is of great significance for identifying the source of infection and determining the transmission route.
ObjectiveThis study is aimed to determine the expression of ubiquitin-specific peptidase 39 (USP39) protein in the colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues, and the effect of silencing USP39 gene on the cell growth and cell cycle distribution of CRC cells.Methods① The expressions of USP39 protein in CRC tissues and its paracancerous tissues were determined by immunohistochemical staining method. ② By lentiviral infection, Lv-shUSP39 (KD-1 and KD-2 group) and Lv-shCon (shCon group) were transferred into SW1116 and HCT116 cells, and cells of blank control group did not received any treatment (Con group). To determine the role of USP39 gene in cell growth, MTT assay was performed to draw growth curve, and cell cycle distribution of CRC cells in the 4 groups were determined by flow cytometer.Results① The expression of USP39 protein was higher in CRC tissues compared to adjacent tissues (P=0.007). ② For SW1116 and HCT116 cells, the cell proliferation ability of KD-1 and KD-2 groups were remarkably decreased than those in corresponding shCon and Con groups on 3, 4, and 5-day (P<0.05). ③ Flow cytometry assay showed that, the percentage of G0/G1 phase cells were decreased obviously (P<0.05), while increased significantly in percentage of G2/M phase and number of sub-G1 phase cells in KD-1 group compared with that in the Con group and shCon group of SW1116 and HCT116 cells (P<0.05).ConclusionsThe expression of USP39 protein is highly expressed in CRC tissues. Knockdowning of USP39 gene can inhibit cell proliferation and promote cell apoptosis.
ObjectiveTo explore the adjuvant treatment options for elderly patients or those with low cardiopulmonary function who cannot tolerate lobectomy for peripheral solid pathological stage ⅠA (pⅠA) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of patients with peripheral solid pⅠA stage NSCLC treated with lobectomy and compromised sublobar resection (CSR) in our center from 2018 to 2019. The incidence of postoperative complications and independent predictors of postoperative recurrence were analyzed. Patients in the CSR group were divided into a targeted therapy group, a chemotherapy group, and an observation group based on postoperative treatment measures. The 3-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate and 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of the three subgroups before and after propensity score matching (PSM) were compared. ResultsA total of 586 patients were included, including 288 males (49.15%) and 298 females (50.85%), with a median age of 64.00 years. There were 335 patients of lobectomy and 251 patients of compromised sublobar resection. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of postoperative complications between the lobectomy group and CSR group [RR=0.987, 95%CI (0.898, 1.085), P=0.789). Multivariate analysis showed that gender, tumor location, and size were independent risk factors for recurrence after CSR. After PSM, 17 patients were enrolled in each of the three subgroups of CSR. Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the 3-year RFS rate (P=0.115) and 5-year OS rate (P=0.101) between the targeted therapy group and the chemotherapy group after PSM, but both were significantly better than those in the observation group (P=0.041, P=0.009). Compared with lobectomy, there was no statistically significant difference in the 3-year RFS rate (P=0.069) and 5-year OS rate (P=0.540) in the targeted therapy group, while the chemotherapy group and observation group were significantly inferior to the lobectomy group (P<0.05). ConclusionCSR for treating elderly patients or those with low cardiopulmonary function with peripheral solid pⅠA stage NSCLC does not increase the incidence of postoperative complications. Gender, tumor location, and size are independent risk factors for postoperative recurrence. In terms of 3-year RFS rate and 5-year OS rate, adjuvant targeted therapy after CSR is not only superior to chemotherapy or observation but is also not inferior to lobectomy.
Objective To explore the application value of time of flight magnetic resonance angiography (TOF-MRA) in target bypass surgery for moyamoya disease. Methods The data of patients with moyamoya disease in Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital, Medical College, Nanjing University between May 1 and August 30, 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into navigation group and control group according to whether navigation technology was used during operation. All patients completed TOF-MRA evaluation before operation, and all patients completed surgical treatment. One week after operation, TOF-MRA was reviewed to evaluate the patency of anastomotic stoma. The intraoperative and postoperative conditions of the two groups were compared. Results Finally, 48 patients with moyamoya disease were included. 22 patients who used intraoperative navigation were included in the navigation group, and 26 patients with moyamoya disease who did not use intraoperative navigation in the same period were included in the control group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in gender, age, Suzuki stage before operation, proportion of posterior circulation involvement, proportion of bleeding type, proportion of hypertension and proportion of diabetes (P>0.05). The operation duration [(3.3±0.4) vs. (3.6±0.6) h] and postoperative hospital stay [(7.3±1.9) vs. (8.8±2.7) d] in the navigation group were shorter than those in the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the proportion of patients who completed bypass surgery, the proportion of middle meningeal artery retained, the postoperative patency rate, the proportion of temporary dysfunction, and the proportion of serious complications (P>0.05). Conclusion TOF-MRA sequence combined with navigation technology can effectively guide the surgical scheme design and postoperative evaluation of moyamoya disease.
Epithelial membrane protein (EMP) 2 is one of the seven proteins in the EMP gene family and is a tissue-specific transmembrane protein. Recent studies have shown that it exhibits different expression patterns in different tumor tissues and exhibits differentiated manifestations in the invasion and metastasis of different tumors, such as promoting or inhibiting them. Based on these characteristics, progress has been made in the field of anti EMP2 therapy, such as the development of monoclonal antibodies, which may bring new avenues for cancer treatment. Based on this, this article reviews the research progress of EMP2 in tumor invasion and metastasis, in order to provide ideas for determining new tumor targets.
The drug-target protein interaction prediction can be used for the discovery of new drug effects. Recent studies often focus on the prediction of an independent matrix filling algorithm, which apply a single algorithm to predict the drug-target protein interaction. The single-model matrix-filling algorithms have low accuracy, so it is difficult to obtain satisfactory results in the prediction of drug-target protein interaction. AdaBoost algorithm is a strong multiple classifier combination framework, which is proved by the past researches in classification applications. The drug-target interaction prediction is a matrix filling problem. Therefore, we need to adjust the matrix filling problem to a classification problem before predicting the interaction among drug-target protein. We make full use of the AdaBoost algorithm framework to integrate several weak classifiers to improve performance and make accurate prediction of drug-target protein interaction. Experimental results based on the metric datasets show that our algorithm outperforms the other state-of-the-art approaches and classical methods in accuracy. Our algorithm can overcome the limitations of the single algorithm based on machine learning method, exploit the hidden factors better and improve the accuracy of prediction effectively.
Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a common clinical emergency of the abdomen with increasing incidence and lack of effective treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine, as a treasure of the Chinese people, has been used in the treatment of AP for decades with favorable therapeutic effects. Currently, clinical trials and experimental studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicine has the effects of inhibiting pancreatic enzyme activity, anti-inflammation, promoting gastrointestinal dynamics, as well as delaying the progress of AP, improving clinical symptoms, reducing related complications, and reducing the mortality rate. Therefore, traditional Chinese medicine has considerable clinic value in treating AP. Based on the related research progress and clinical practice of our team, the authors summarized the targets and mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine in treating AP.
ObjectiveTo summarize the research progress of KRAS mutation in pancreatic tumorigenesis and therapy.MethodThe research progress of KRAS mutation in pancreatic tumorigenesis and therapy were summarized by reading the domestic and international literatures published in recent years.ResultsPancreatic cancer had the title of " king of cancer”. More than 90% of pancreatic cancer patients had KRAS mutation. KRAS had a complex relationship with pancreatic cancer through downstream signaling pathways, including Raf (rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma)-mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK)-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), phosphatidylinositol-4, 5-bisphosphate 3-kinase (PI3K)-protein kinase B (AKT), and RalGDS-Ral. Although basic research on pancreatic cancer was deepening, there was still a lack of effective molecular targeted drugs.ConclusionsKRASgene plays an important role in the occurrence of pancreatic cancer. The treatment associated with KRAS mutation provides a more effective prognostic possibility for pancreatic cancer patients.
Liposome is an ideal drug carrier with many advantages such as excellent biocompatibility, non-immunogenicity, and easy functionalization, and has been used for the clinical treatment of many diseases including tumors. For the treatment of tumors, liposome has some passive targeting capability, but the passive targeting effect alone is very limited in improving the drug enrichment in tumor tissues, and active targeting is an effective strategy to improve the drug enrichment. Therefore, active targeting liposome drug-carriers have been extensively studied for decades. In this paper, we review the research progresses on active targeting liposome drug-carriers based on the specific binding of the carriers to the surface of tumor cells, and summarize the opportunities, challenges and future prospects in this field.
The nondestructive reconstruction of three-dimensional (3D) temperature field in biological tissue is always an important problem to be resolved in biomedical engineering field. This paper presents a novel method of nondestructive reconstruction of 3D temperature field in biological tissue based on multi-island genetic algorithm (MIGA). By this method, the resolving of inverse problem of bio-heat transfer is transformed to be a solving process of direct problem. An experiment and its corresponding simulation were carried out to verify the feasibility and reliability. In the experiment a high purity polypropylene material, whose thermophysical parameters were similar to the fat tissue being tested, were adopted so that it could avoid the negative results created by the other factors. We set the position P(x, y, z) as the point heat source in the biological tissue and its temperature t as optimization variable, got the experimental temperature values of the points in a module surface, subtracted them from the corresponding simulating temperature values in the same module surface, and then took the sum of absolute value. We took it as the objective function of successive iteration. It was found that the less the target value was, the more optimal the current variables, i.e. the heat source position and the temperature values, were. To improve the optimization efficiency, a novel establishment method of objective function was also provided. The simulating position and experimental position of heat source were very approximate to each other. When the optimum values are determined, the corresponding 3D temperature field is also confirmed, and the temperature distribution of arbitrary section can be acquired. The MIGA can be well applied in the reconstruction of 3D temperature field in biological tissue. Because of the differences between the MIGA and the traditional numerical methods, we do not have to acquire all the data of surface. It is convenient and fast, and shows a prosperous application future.