Objective To investigate the impact and mechanisms of periostin (POSTN), Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6), pulmonary surfactant protein A (SP-A), and pulmonary surfactant protein D (SP-D) on the diagnosis and disease assessment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and conduct a comparative analysis. Methods From October 2022 to October 2023, a total of 55 patients diagnosed with IPF and treated at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University were enrolled as an IPF group. Additionally, 30 patients with bacterial pneumonia and 30 healthy individuals undergoing concurrent health examinations during the same period were selected as a pneumonia control group and a healthy control group, respectively. All participants underwent enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure serum levels of POSTN, KL-6, SP-A, and SP-D, along with pulmonary function tests. The IPF patients also underwent high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and echocardiography to quantify HRCT scores and pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to analyze the significance of serum POSTN, KL-6, SP-A, and SP-D levels in IPF diagnosis. Pearson and Spearman correlation tests were used to analyze the relationships between these biomarkers and pulmonary function, PASP, and HRCT scores. Results Serum concentrations of POSTN, KL-6, SP-A, and SP-D were significantly elevated in the IPF group compared with the pneumonia group and the healthy controls (P<0.05), while serum levels of SP-A and SP-D were notably higher in the pneumonia group compared with the healthy control group (P<0.05). Within the IPF group, serum POSTN levels were negatively correlated with forced expiratory volume in the first second as a percentage of predicted value (FEV1%pred) and diffusion capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide as a percentage of predicted value (DLCO%pred) (P<0.05); KL-6 and SP-D levels were also negatively correlated with FEV1%pred, forced vital capacity as a percentage of predicted value (FVC%pred), and DLCO%pred (P<0.05); and the concentration of SP-A was negatively correlated with DLCO%pred and positively correlated with PASP (P<0.05). Additionally, serum levels of POSTN, KL-6, and SP-A in the IPF group showed significant positive associations with HRCT scores (P<0.01). Conclusions POSTN is a valuable serum biomarker for IPF, exhibiting the highest sensitivity and specificity among the four serum markers, with diagnostic performance superior to KL-6, SP-A, and SP-D. POSTN, KL-6, SP-A, and SP-D can all be used for the diagnosis and assessment of IPF.
Objective To explore key genes and mechanisms of depression aggravating Crohn disease. Methods In March 2023, the Public Health Genomics and Precision Health Knowledge Base and Gene Expression Omnibus database were used to identify the overlapping differentially expressed genes between Crohn disease and depression and the key genes were screened by Metascape, STRING, Cytoscape, and protein interaction network analysis. The Gene Expression Omnibus database was used to analyze the correlations between key genes and clinical pathologies such as Crohn Disease Endoscopic Index of Severity and intestinal microvilli length. Results There were 137 overlapping differentially expressed genes between Crohn disease and depression, and 25 key genes were further screened out. Among them, CREB1, FKBP5, MAPT, NTSR1, OXTR, PROK2, POMC, HTR2B, and PPARGC1A genes were significantly correlated with multiple clinical parameters. The functions of PROK2 and PROK2-related genes were mainly enriched in neutrophil and granulocyte migration, neutrophil and granulocyte chemotaxis, etc. Conclusions There are 25 key genes, especially CREB1, FKBP5, MAPT, NTSR1, OXTR, PROK2, POMC, HTR2B, and PPARGC1A, that possibly contribute to the establishment and deterioration of Crohn disease caused by depressive disorder. Among these genes, PROK2 showes the possibility of regulating immune cell (neutrophils and CD8+ T cells) infiltration.
ObjectiveTo analyze the effects of alcohol consumption on oral flora of middle-aged and elderly men from the core area of southwestern China, and explore the relationship between excessive-alcohol-consumption-related flora and alcohol-related cancer.MethodsFrom March to June 2018, saliva samples of target subjects were collected for 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing, and a questionnaire survey which took drinking history of each participant as the target variable was conducted. According to the amount of alcohol consumed, the subjects were divided into non-drinking group, moderate-drinking group, and excessive-drinking group. The microbial analysis of α diversity, analysis of group difference of oral flora abundance, bacterial function prediction, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve model prediction were carried out.ResultsA total of 59 subjects were included. There were 23 cases (39.0%) in the non-drinking group, 23 cases (39.0%) in the moderate-drinking group, and 13 cases (22.0%) in the excessive-drinking group. The average age was (61.90±8.85) years. Excessive drinking increased the abundance of oral flora (P<0.05), and could change the abundance of specific genus such as Peptostreptococcus and TM7［G-6］ (P<0.05) and regulate cancer-related pathways (P<0.05). ROC analysis found that a panel of three genus oral bacteria such as TM7［G-6］ might effectively distinguish the non-drinking group from the excessive-drinking group (area under curve=0.915).ConclusionsGenus of Peptostreptococcus and TM7_［G-6］ are the potential oral flora biomarkers for the excessive-drinking of target subjects. Some excessive drinking-related flora are closely related to oral cancer.
Breast cancer is a malignant tumor with the highest morbidity and mortality in female in recent years, and it is a complex disease that affects human health. Studies have shown that dynamic network biomarkers (DNB) can effectively identify critical states at which complex diseases such as breast cancer change from a normal state to a disease state. However, the traditional DNB method requires data from multiple samples in the same disease state, which is usually unachievable in clinical diagnosis. This paper quantitatively analyzes the time series data of MCF-7 breast cancer cells and finds the DNB module of a single sample in the time series based on landscape DNB (L-DNB) method. Then, a comprehensive index is constructed to detect its early warning signals to determine the critical state of breast cancer cell differentiation. The results of this study may be of great significance for the prevention and early diagnosis of breast cancer. It is expected that this paper can provide references for the related research of breast cancer.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the monitoring value of brain injury biomarkers in the patients during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMbase, the Cochrane Library, CNKI, and CBM from inception of each database to May 2015 to identify randomized controlled trials, or case-control trials, or cohort trials of brain injury biomarkers predict brain injury during ECMO. Data were extracted independently by two reviewers. Meta-analysis was conducted using STATA 12.0 software. ResultsFour retrospective trials were included. The results showed that compared with patients without brain injury, the patients with brain injury had a higher level of S100B protein (P < 0.05). The incidence of major neurological events was higher for high neuron-specific enolase level patients than mild-to-moderate neuron-specific enolase level patients (85% vs. 29%, P=0.01). The incidence of brain injury was higher for normal glial fibrillary acidic protein level than patients with glial fibrillary acidic protein > 0.436 ng/ml (OR=11.5, 95%CI 1.3-98.3). ConclusionsBrain injury biomarkers may be used as an indicator for earlier diagnosis of brain injury in patients during ECMO.
Non-invasive biomarkers, due to their non-invasive and safe characteristics, hold significant potential for the diagnosis and prognosis of epilepsy. This review summarizes the research progress and future directions of non-invasive biomarkers for epilepsy, encompassing electrophysiological, imaging, biochemical, and genetic markers, and discusses biomarkers for specific types of epilepsy, such as structural lesion-related epilepsy, infection and inflammation-related epilepsy, autoimmune epilepsy, endocrine hormone-related epilepsy, and metabolic epilepsy, to facilitate their clinical application.
[Abstract]Bone metastasis is one of the common complications of lung cancer, which seriously affects the quality of life and survival of patients. At present, the clinical diagnosis of bone metastasis of lung cancer mainly depends on imaging methods, but due to its lack of sensitivity and potential radiation risk, about half of patients have already had bone-related events when they are diagnosed clearly. The treatment of bone metastasis of lung cancer mainly depends on surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunosuppressants, etc. Although the treatment of bone metastasis of lung cancer has made some progress in recent years, there are still some problems such as high risk of other distant metastasis. This article mainly reviews the pathogenesis, diagnostic biomarkers and treatment progress of bone metastasis of lung cancer, in order to provide reference for the diagnosis and treatment of bone metastasis of lung cancer.
Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) is an analog of norepinephrine that accumulates in sympathetic nerve endings soon after intravenous administration. The degree of accumulation reflects the uptake, storage and release of transmitters by noradrenergic neurons. Myocardial imaging with 123I labeled MIBG (123I-MIBG) can be used to estimate the extent of local myocardial sympathetic nerve damage, which has been widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of various heart diseases. In recent years, numerous studies have been carried out on the application of 123I-MIBG in the diagnosis of degenerative diseases of the nervous system (such as Parkinson's disease and dementia of Lewy body), and have made some achievements. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current clinical application of 123I-MIBG myocardial imaging in the diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies, the problems in imaging technology and the possible research directions in the future, so as to provide valuable reference information for clinicians to reasonably and accurately apply this technology in the early diagnosis and discrimination of dementia.
The human gut microbiota regulates many host pathophysiological processes including metabolic, inflammatory, immune and cellular responses. In recent years, the incidence and mortality of lung cancer have increased rapidly, which is one of the biggest challenges in the field of cancer treatment today, especially in non-small cell lung cancer. Animal models and clinical studies have found that the gut microbiota of non-small cell lung cancer patients is significantly changed compared with the healthy people. The gut microbiota and metabolites can not only play a pro-cancer or tumor suppressor role by regulating immune, inflammatory responses and so on, but also be related with radiotherapy and chemotherapy of non-small cell lung cancer and the resistance of immunotherapy. Therefore, gut microbiota and related metabolites can be both potential markers for early diagnosis and prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and novel therapeutic targets for targeted drugs. This study will review the latest research progress of effect of gut microbiota on non-small cell lung cancer, and provide a new diagnosis and treatment ideas for non-small cell lung cancer.
The high incidence and mortality of acute kidney injury (AKI) have brought great challenges to global health. In recent years, China has made some achievements in the epidemiology, risk factors and treatment of AKI. However, further prevention and treatment are still facing difficulties. Based on current new ideas and research progress, this paper summarized and analyzed the management throughout the whole course of AKI, including AKI risk assessment, early prevention, early identification, treatment and follow-up. The aim is to make Chinese nephrologists realize the focus of AKI prevention and treatment, standardize the management of AKI, and explore the prevention and treatment strategy suitable for AKI in China.