Explore the vast range of titles available.

As a momentous post-transcriptional regulator, microRNAs (miRNAs) are attracting more and more attention. The classical miRNAs regulated mechanism shows it binds to the targets’ 3′UTR thus play the role in post-transcription. Meanwhile, single miRNA can target multiple genes, so those should compete to bind that miRNA. Vice versa, single gene can sponge mass of miRNAs as well. Thus the competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) hypothesis was put forward in 2011. The ceRNA hypothesis has made huge achievements, in particular in non-coding genes, which including long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), circle RNAs (circRNAs) and pseudogenes, even viral transcripts. It also contributed greatly to epigenetics development. However, an increasing number of controversies have occurred with applause. Based on this situation, this review introduces something in detail about the ceRNAs hypothesis achieved in lncRNAs, circRNAs, pseudogenes and viral transcripts, respectively. Meanwhile, it also covers controversy of the ceRNAs hypothesis.

[...]in the case of early gastric cancer, larger tumors are often associated with an increased likelihood of lymph node metastasis, and whether to perform endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is partially dependent on the size of the lesion. [...]accurate measurement of lesion size may significantly impact the diagnosis and treatment plan for the patient. [...]its large margin of error renders it unsuitable for meeting the stringent requirements of size measurement in clinical practice. [...]the introduction of computer-aided measurement tools has become increasingly important. Based on this principle of a monocular camera system, during the endoscopy procedure, if the distance between the tip of the endoscope and lesion can be obtained in real time, it would subsequently allow for size measurement [Supplementary Figure 2, http://links.lww.com/CM9/B856]. The width of the grid scale was constantly adjusted according to the distance between the tip of the endoscope and lesion, which was calculated using the amount of laser light reflected from the lesion through an optical probe inserted into the instrument channel [Supplementary Figure 3, http://links.lww.com/CM9/B856].

Background and objectives Patients with rheumatic immune diseases (RD) are considered a high-risk population for developing active tuberculosis (ATB). Timely and accurate diagnosis of ATB in RD patients is critical for optimizing treatment outcomes and improving prognosis. Both interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA) and the tuberculin skin test (TST) are immunological methods employed in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. However, the diagnostic accuracy of these tests in RD patients, who often experience immune dysfunction, remains underexplored. This study aims to compare the diagnostic accuracy of TST and T-SPOT.TB in RD patients with suspected tuberculosis symptoms. Methods This prospective study included RD patients presenting with any of the following symptoms—fever, cough, night sweats, or unexplained weight loss (all symptoms recommended by the World Health Organization for tuberculosis screening)—from September 2014 to September 2015. Both T-SPOT.TB and TST were performed, and patients were categorized into ATB and non-ATB groups based on clinical diagnosis (including microbiologically confirmed and clinically diagnosed cases). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of T-SPOT.TB and TST for ATB and to determine the optimal cutoff values. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and likelihood ratios were calculated, along with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The concordance between T-SPOT.TB and TST in diagnosing ATB was also evaluated. Results A total of 300 RD patients were enrolled in the study. Of these, 35 (11.7%) were diagnosed with ATB, 258 (86.0%) were excluded from ATB, and 7 (2.3%) had an unclear diagnosis. Among the RD patients, the ATB group exhibited significantly higher frequencies of night sweats (34.3% vs. 14.0%, p =0.002) and unexplained weight loss (17.1% vs. 3.1%, p <0.001) compared to the non-ATB group, while no significant differences were observed between the groups for fever and cough. The area under the ROC curve (AUROC) for T-SPOT.TB was 0.89 (95% CI 0.82-0.95), while the AUROC for TST was 0.74 (95% CI 0.63-0.84), with T-SPOT.TB demonstrating significantly superior diagnostic accuracy (AUROC difference 0.15, 95% CI 0.06-0.24, p =0.001) (Figure). The optimal cutoff for T-SPOT.TB in diagnosing ATB was 24 spot-forming cells (SFCs) per 10^6 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), with sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 88.6%, 84.9%, 5.86, 0.13, 44.3%, and 98.2%, respectively. The optimal cutoff for TST was a 5mm induration diameter, yielding diagnostic metrics of 57.1%, 88.8%, 5.08, 0.48, 40.8%, and 93.9%, respectively. The sensitivity of T-SPOT.TB was significantly higher than that of TST ( p =0.003), while no significant difference in specificity was observed ( p =0.193). As the T-SPOT.TB spot count and TST induration diameter increased, the likelihood ratios for diagnosing ATB also increased. The agreement between T-SPOT.TB and TST in diagnosing ATB in RD patients was moderate (kappa=0.466, p <0.001), and parallel testing with TST did not improve the sensitivity of T-SPOT.TB. Conclusion In RD patients with suspected ATB symptoms, both T-SPOT.TB and TST offer valuable diagnostic assistance. T-SPOT.TB demonstrates superior diagnostic accuracy, particularly in terms of sensitivity. Higher spot counts on T-SPOT.TB or larger induration diameters on TST should raise clinical suspicion for the presence of concurrent ATB.

With the development of social media and online platforms, the speed of dissemination and influence of emergencies in cyberspace have increased significantly. The rapid change of public opinion, especially the reversal of public opinion, may have a significant impact on social stability and government credibility. The hypernetwork structure has complex multilevel and multidimensional characteristics, and it is of great significance to analyze the multiple participating subjects of public opinion evolution and their complex relationships based on the hypernetwork theory, and to further identify the public opinion reversal for the public opinion response and guidance of emergencies. According to the complex interaction between the participants of emergencies and internal and external factors, this paper constructs a hypernetwork model including four subnets of users, time series, opinions, and emotions, and analyzes the network structure in detail. On this basis, the method steps of emergency public opinion inversion recognition are proposed. Taking the public opinion event caused by Hongxing Erke donation during the rainstorm in Henan Province of China as an example, the empirical analysis is carried out. The research shows that the proposed emergency hypernetwork model provides effective support for the identification of public opinion inversion, and the identification method of public opinion inversion based on the hypernetwork is helpful to find the trend of public opinion evolution, so as to infer the tendency of public opinion inversion, which provides new ideas for the related research of public opinion monitoring and emergency response.

Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serve and harmful syndrome in the intensive care unit. Comparing to the patients with AKI stage 1/2, the patients with AKI stage 3 have higher in-hospital mortality and risk of progression to chronic kidney disease. The purpose of this study is to develop a prediction model that predict whether patients with AKI stage 1/2 will progress to AKI stage 3. Methods Patients with AKI stage 1/2, when they were first diagnosed with AKI in the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care, were included. We used the Logistic regression and machine learning extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) to build two models which can predict patients who will progress to AKI stage 3. Established models were evaluated by cross-validation, receiver operating characteristic curve, and precision–recall curves. Results We included 25,711 patients, of whom 2130 (8.3%) progressed to AKI stage 3. Creatinine, multiple organ failure syndromes were the most important in AKI progression prediction. The XGBoost model has a better performance than the Logistic regression model on predicting AKI stage 3 progression. Thus, we build a software based on our data which can predict AKI progression in real time. Conclusions The XGboost model can better identify patients with AKI progression than Logistic regression model. Machine learning techniques may improve predictive modeling in medical research.

Several immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have improved outcomes in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), but immune-related adverse events (irAEs) remain a concern. Beyond irAEs, ICIs may induce various immune changes requiring further investigation. A 74-year-old man with ES-SCLC received atezolizumab plus chemotherapy and developed aspiration pneumonia due to dysphagia. Concurrently, elevated anti-glomerular basement membrane, antinuclear, double-stranded DNA, myeloperoxidase-antineutrophil cytoplasmic, proteinase 3 antibodies were detected without any clinical involvement. Moderate glucocorticoids were administered, and during a 3-month follow-up, he remained entirely asymptomatic, with persistently high antibody titers. The case report presents specific autoantibodies following PD-L1 blockage and questions their pathogenic potential.

Differential diagnosis of active tuberculosis (ATB) and latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) has been a challenge for clinicians in high TB burden countries. The purpose of this study was to improve the accuracy of differential diagnosis of ATB and LTBI by using fluorescent immunospot (FluoroSpot) assay to detect specific Th1 cell immune responses. The novel mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) latency-associated antigens Rv1733c and synthetic long peptides derived from Rv1733c (Rv1733c SLP) were used based on virulence factors early secreting antigen target-6 (ESAT-6) and culture filtrate protein-10 (CFP-10). Fifty-seven ATB cases, including 20 pathogen-confirmed ATB and 37 clinically diagnosed ATB, and 36 LTBI cases, were enrolled between January and December 2017. FluoroSpot assay was used to detect the interferon γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin 2 (IL-2) secreted by the specific T cells after being stimulated with MTB virulence factors ESAT-6 and CFP-10, MTB latency-associated antigens Rv1733c and Rv1733c SLP. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to define the best cutoff value of latency-associated antigens in the use of differentiating ATB and LTBI. The sensitivity, specificity, predictive value, and likelihood ratio of ESAT-6 and CFP-10-FluoroSpot combined with latency-associated antigen in the differential diagnosis of ATB and LTBI were also calculated. Following the stimulation with Rv1733c and Rv1733c SLP, the frequency of single IL-2-secreting T cells stimulated by Rv1733c SLP had the largest area under the ROC curve, which was 0.766. With a cutoff value of 1 (spot-forming cells [SFCs]/2.5 × 105 peripheral blood mononuclear cells) for frequency, the sensitivity and specificity of distinguishing ATB from LTBI were 72.2% and 73.7%, respectively. ESAT-6 and CFP-10-FluoroSpot detected the frequency and proportion of single IFN-γ-secreting T cells; the sensitivity and specificity of distinguishing ATB from LTBI were 82.5% and 66.7%, respectively. Combined with the frequency of single IL-2-secreting T cells stimulated by Rv1733c SLP on the basis of ESAT-6 and CFP-10-FluoroSpot, the sensitivity and specificity increased to 84.2% and 83.3%, respectively. Rv1733c SLP, combined with ESAT-6 and CFP-10, might be used as a candidate antigen for T cell-based tuberculosis diagnostic tests to differentiate ATB from LTBI.

Frequent spontaneous combustion activities restrict ecological restoration of coal waste dumps after reclamation. Effective monitoring of vegetation restoration is important for ensuring land reclamation success and preserving the ecological environment in mining areas. Development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology has enabled fine-scale vegetation monitoring. In this study, we focused on Medicago sativa L. (alfalfa), a representative herbaceous vegetation type, in a coal waste dump after reclamation in Shanxi province, China. The alfalfa aboveground biomass (AGB) was used as an indicator for assessing vegetation restoration. The objective of this study was to evaluate the capacity of UAV-based fusion of RGB, multispectral, and thermal infrared information for estimating alfalfa AGB using various regression models, including random forest regression (RFR), gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector regression (SVR), and stacking models. The main results are as follows: (i) UAV multi-source data fusion improved alfalfa AGB estimation accuracy, although the enhancement diminished with the increasing number of sensor types. (ii) The stacking model consistently outperformed RFR, GBDT, KNN, and SVR regression models across all feature fusion combinations. It achieved high accuracy with R2 of 0.86–0.88, RMSE of 80.06–86.87 g/m2, and MAE of 60.24–62.69 g/m2. Notably, the stacking model based on only RGB imagery features mitigated the accuracy loss from limited types of features, potentially reducing equipment costs. This study demonstrated the potential of UAV in improving vegetation restoration management of coal waste dumps after reclamation.

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is a complex disease which causes amenorrhea, hypergonadotropism and infertility in patients no more than 40 years old. Recently, several studies have reported that exosomes have the potential to protect ovarian function using a POI-like mouse model induced by chemotherapy drugs. In this study, the therapeutic potential of exosomes derived from human pluripotent stem cell–mesenchymal stem cells (hiMSC exosomes) was evaluated through a cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced POI-like mouse model. POI-like pathological changes in mice were determined by serum sex-hormones levels and the available number of ovarian follicles. The expression levels of cellular proliferation proteins and apoptosis-related proteins in mouse ovarian granulosa cells were measured using immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Notably, a positive effect on the preservation of ovarian function was evidenced, since the loss of follicles in the POI-like mouse ovaries was slowed. Additionally, hiMSC exosomes not only restored the levels of serum sex hormones, but also significantly promoted the proliferation of granulosa cells and inhibited cell apoptosis. The current study suggests that the administration of hiMSC exosomes in the ovaries can preserve female-mouse fertility.

Long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) have been proved to be involved in regulating female reproduction. However, to what extent lincRNAs are involved in ovarian functions and fertility is incompletely understood. Here we show that a lincRNA, NORFA is involved in granulosa cell apoptosis, follicular atresia and sow fertility. We found that NORFA was down-regulated during follicular atresia, and inhibited granulosa cell apoptosis. NORFA directly interacted with miR-126 and thereby preventing it from binding to TGFBR2 3′-UTR. miR-126 enhanced granulosa cell apoptosis by attenuating NORFA -induced TGF-β signaling pathway. Importantly, a breed-specific 19-bp duplication was detected in NORFA promoter, which proved association with sow fertility through enhancing transcription activity of NORFA by recruiting transcription factor NFIX. In summary, our findings identified a candidate lincRNA for sow prolificacy, and provided insights into the mechanism of follicular atresia and female fertility. Xing Du et al. show that long intergenic non-coding RNA (lincRNA) NORFA maintains sow fertility by inhibiting apoptotic death of granulosa cells through the TGF-β signaling pathway. A breed-specific 19-bp duplication suggests that transcription factor NFIX may enhance the transcription of NORFA , providing insights into the role of lincRNAs for female fertility.