Purpose
To evaluate two advanced diffusion models, diffusion kurtosis imaging and the newly proposed mean apparent propagation factor-magnetic resonance imaging, in the grading of gliomas and the ...assessing of their proliferative activity.
Methods
Fifty-nine patients with clinically diagnosed and pathologically proven gliomas were enrolled in this retrospective study. All patients underwent DKI and MAP-MRI scans. Manually outline the ROI of the tumour parenchyma. After delineation, the imaging parameters were extracted using only the data from within the ROI including mean diffusion kurtosis (MK), return-to-origin probability (RTOP), Q-space inverse variance (QIV) and non-Gaussian index (NG), and the differences in each parameter in the classification of glioma were compared. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of these parameters.
Results
MK, NG, RTOP and QIV were significantly different amongst the different grades of glioma. MK, NG and RTOP had excellent diagnostic value in differentiating high-grade from low-grade glioma, with largest areas under the curve (AUCs; 0.929, 0.933 and 0.819, respectively;
P
< 0.01). MK and NG had the largest AUCs (0.912 and 0.904) when differentiating grade II tumours from III tumours (
P
< 0.01) and large AUCs (0.791 and 0.786) when differentiating grade III from grade IV tumours. Correlation analysis of tumour proliferation activity showed that MK, NG and QIV were strongly correlated with the Ki-67 LI (
P
< 0.001).
Conclusion
MK, RTOP and NG can effectively represent the microstructure of these altered tumours. Multimodal diffusion-weighted imaging is valuable for the preoperative evaluation of glioma grade and tumour proliferative activity.
In this study, to improve the electrical properties and impact strength of phenolic formaldehyde (PF) resin, PF-based composites were prepared by mixing graphene and the ionic liquid ...3-decyl-bis(1-vinyl-1H-imidazole-3-ium-bromide) (C10VImBr2) via hot blending and compression–curing processes. The graphene surface was modified using a silane coupling agent. The synergistic effect of graphene and C10VImBr2 on the electrical properties, electromagnetic shielding efficiency, thermal stability, impact strength, and morphology of PF/graphene and PF/graphene/C10VImBr2 composites was then investigated. It was found that the electrical conductivity of the composites significantly increased from 2.3 × 10–10 to 4.14 × 10–3 S/m with an increase in the graphene content from 0 to 15 wt %, increasing further to 0.145 S/m with the addition of 5 wt % C10VImBr2. The electromagnetic shielding efficiency of the composite increased from 4.70 to 28.64 dB with the addition of 15 wt % graphene, while the impact strength of the composites rose significantly from 0.59 to 1.13 kJ/m2 with an increase in the graphene content from 0 to 15 wt %, reaching 1.53 kJ/m2 with the addition of 5 wt % C10VImBr2. Scanning electron microscopy images of the PF/GNP/C10VImBr2 composites revealed a rough morphology with numerous microcracks.
DNA barcoding has greatly facilitated studies of taxonomy, biodiversity, biological conservation, and ecology. Here, we establish a reliable DNA barcoding library for Chinese snakes, unveiling hidden ...diversity with implications for taxonomy, and provide a standardized tool for conservation management. Our comprehensive study includes 1638 cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences from Chinese snakes that correspond to 17 families, 65 genera, 228 named species (80.6% of named species) and 36 candidate species. A barcode gap analysis reveals gaps, where all nearest neighbour distances exceed maximum intraspecific distances, in 217 named species and all candidate species. Three species‐delimitation methods (ABGD, sGMYC, and sPTP) recover 320 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), of which 192 OTUs correspond to named and candidate species. Twenty‐eight other named species share OTUs, such as Azemiops feae and A. kharini, Gloydius halys, G. shedaoensis, and G. intermedius, and Bungarus multicinctus and B. candidus, representing inconsistencies most probably caused by imperfect taxonomy, recent and rapid speciation, weak taxonomic signal, introgressive hybridization, and/or inadequate phylogenetic signal. In contrast, 43 species and candidate species assign to two or more OTUs due to having large intraspecific distances. If most OTUs detected in this study reflect valid species, including the 36 candidate species, then 30% more species would exist than are currently recognized. Several OTU divergences associate with known biogeographic barriers, such as the Taiwan Strait. In addition to facilitating future studies, this reliable and relatively comprehensive reference database will play an important role in the future monitoring, conservation, and management of Chinese snakes.
Successful hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) therapy in vivo remains a significant challenge due to the down-regulated expression of the receptors on the surface of tumor cells for compromised active ...targeting efficiency and cellular uptake of nanoparticles (NPs)-based drug delivery systems (DDSs) and “accelerated blood clearance” and premature unpackaging of NPs in vivo induced by the poly(ethylene glycol)ylation (PEGylation). Inspired by the repeatedly highlighted prolonged blood circulation property of RBCm-camouflaged NPs, we hypothesis that the prolonged blood circulation property resulting from RBCm coating outperforms the active targeting mechanisms of various targeting ligands for enhanced HCC therapy in vivo. Clarification of this hypothesis is therefore of great significance and urgency to break the afore mentioned bottlenecks that hamper the efficient HCC treatment in vivo. For this purpose, we reported in this study the first identification of a determining factor of nanocarriers for enhanced HCC therapy in vivo by the use of the previously fabricated pectin-doxorubicin nanoparticles (PDC-NPs) as a typical example, i.e., the natural RBCm was used as a stealth coating of PDC-NPs for the fabrication of biomimetic DDSs, PDC@RBC-NPs via hypotonic dialysis and mechanical co-extrusion methods. Comprehensive in vitro and in vivo evaluation and comparison of the properties and performance of PDC@RBC-NPs and PDC-NPs were performed in terms of colloidal stability, biosafety, drug release profiles, macrophage escape, anti-HCC effect. The resulting PDC@RBC-NPs outperformed PDC-NPs for HCC therapy in vitro and in vivo. Notably, PDC@RBC-NPs-treated BALB/c nude mice showed a significantly smaller final average tumor volume of 613 mm3 after 16 days than the PDC-NPs-treated group with an average value of 957 mm3. Therefore, the PDC@RBC-NPs developed herein showed great potential for clinical transformations due to the facile preparation and superior therapeutic efficiency against HCC. Most importantly, prolonged blood circulation was identified as a determining factor of nanocarriers instead of active targeting for enhanced HCC therapy in vivo, which could be used to direct the future design and development of advanced DDSs with greater therapeutic efficiency for HCC.
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•Biomimetic PDC@RBC-NPs were fabricated by using RBCm as a stealth coating of PDC-NPs.•PDC@RBC-NPs outperformed PDC-NPs for enhanced HCC therapy in vitro and in vivo.•Prolonged blood circulation outperforms active targeting for enhanced HCC in vivo.•The obtained conclusion could promote the generation of DDSs for enhanced HCC therapy.
A large amount of energy consumption has been caused by friction and inefficient heat transfer in the industry. Current research suggests a promising future for graphene nanofluids. In this paper, ...graphene oxide-deionized water (GO-DI) nanofluids with both friction reduction and high efficiency heat transfer properties was prepared by a two-step method in this paper. The graphene oxide was characterized using FTIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, XPS and SEM. The dispersion stability of nanofluids was analyzed by dynamic light scattering. An experimental system for measuring the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids was established. The convection heat transfer and friction properties of GO-DI nanofluid were tested. The experimental results show that the addition of GO nanoparticles to the base fluid increases the convective heat transfer coefficient. The proportion of Nunf/Nuf of nanofluids increases from 1.02 to 1.18 as volume fraction rises. For GO-DI nanofluids, the friction coefficient decreased 71% compared to deionized water, when 0.1 vol% of GO and 3 N normal load were applied. The abrasion loss in 0.05 vol% GO-DI nanofluids was 18.5% less than that in deionized water. The association equation for calculating the convective heat transfer coefficient was proposed and the friction reduction mechanism of GO-DI nanofluids was elucidated.
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•Stable dispersant-free graphene oxide deionized water nanofluids were prepared.•Experimental and calculated values of convective heat transfer were well fitted.•The antifriction performances of nanofluids with GNP and GO addition were compared.•Heat transfer and antifriction performances of nanofluids comprehensively improved.
Ephed
ra sinica
is one of the most famous Chinese medicinal plants. The insufficient supply of wild resources has led to the increased use of cultivated products. However, the related medicinal ...quality differs significantly. Although the influence of external environment on the quality of
E. sinica
has been studied, the impact of endophytic microbes on it remains vague. This study characterized differential metabolites and microbial community compositions in wild and cultivated
E. sinica
by combining metabolomics with microbiomics, and explored the effect of endophytes on the formation of differential metabolites further. The results showed that the difference in quality between wild and cultivated
E. sinica
was mainly in the productions of alkaloids, flavonoids, and terpenoids. The associated endophytes had special compositional characteristics. For instance, the distribution and abundance of dominant endophytes varied between wild and cultivated
E. sinica
. Several endophytes had significant or highly significant correlations with the formations of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine,
d
-cathinone, methcathinone, coumarin, kaempferol, rhamnetin, or phenylacetic acid. This study will deepen our understanding of the plant-endophyte interactions and provide a strategy for the quality control of
E. sinica
products.
A new lignan, named pouzolignan P (1), together with 14 known ones (2 − 15) were isolated from the roots of Pouzolzia zeylanica (L.) Benn. Their structures were deduced based on the detailed ...spectroscopic analysis. All the isolates were evaluated for their inhibitory activities toward the ATP citrate lyase (ACLY). Among them, four lignans, isopouzolignan K (3), gnemontanins E (5), gnetuhainin I (6), and styraxlignolide D (15) showed excellent ACLY inhibitory effect with IC
50
values of 9.06, 0.59, 2.63, and 7.62 μM, respectively. These compounds were further evaluated for their cholesterol-lowing effects on ox-LDL-induced high-cholesterol HepG2 cells. Compound 15 emerges as the most potent ACLY inhibitor, which significantly decreased the TC level in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, molecular docking simulations elucidated that 15 formed a strong hydrogen-bond interaction with Glu599 of ACLY, which was an important site responsible for the enzyme catalytic activity.
Bladder cancer (BC) caused by Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection remains a complex public health problem in developing countries. Although the HPV vaccine effectively prevents HPV infection, it ...does not benefit patients with BC who already have HPV.
Firstly, the differential genes of HPV-related BC patients were screened by transcriptomics, and then the prognostic and clinical characteristics of the differential genes were analyzed to screen out the valuable protein signatures. Furthermore, the compound components and targets of Astragali Radix (AR) were analyzed by network pharmacology, and the intersection targets of drug components and HPV_BC were screened out for pathway analysis. In addition, the binding ability of the compound to the Astragali-HPV_BC target was verified by molecular docking and virtual simulation. Finally, to identify potential targets in BC patients through urine proteomics and in vitro experiments.
Eleven HPV_BC-related protein signatures were screened out, among which high expression of EGFR, CTNNB1, MYC, GSTM1, MMP9, CXCR4, NOTCH1, JUN, CXCL12, and KRT14 had a poor prognosis, while low expression of CASP3 had a poor prognosis. In the analysis of clinical characteristics, it was found that high-risk scores, EGFR, MMP9, CXCR4, JUN, and CXCL12 tended to have higher T stage, pathological stage, and grade. Pharmacological and molecular docking analysis identified a natural component of AR (Quercetin) and it corresponding core targets (EGFR). The OB of the natural component was 46.43, and the DL was 0.28, respectively. In addition, EGFR-Quercetin has high affinity. Urine proteomics and RT-PCR showed that EGFR was expressed explicitly in BC patients. Mechanism analysis revealed that AR component targets might affect HPV_BC patients through Proteoglycans in the cancer pathway.
AR can target EGFR through its active component (Quercetin), and has a therapeutic effect on HPV_BC patients.
•Translated proteins were successfully extracted and analyzed from urine specimens.•Five paired samples (bladder cancer versus normal healthy) were analyzed for urinomics using LC-MS.•Identify potential sites of action of the natural compound Astragali Radix in bladder cancer.•Preliminary validation of potential targets in urine proteomics and in vitro experiments.
Haplotype‐resolved 3D chromatin architecture related to allelic differences in avian skeletal muscle development has not been addressed so far, although chicken husbandry for meat consumption has ...been prevalent feature of cultures on every continent for more than thousands of years. Here, high‐resolution Hi‐C diploid maps (1.2‐kb maximum resolution) are generated for skeletal muscle tissues in chicken across three developmental stages (embryonic day 15 to day 30 post‐hatching). The sequence features governing spatial arrangement of chromosomes and characterize homolog pairing in the nucleus, are identified. Multi‐scale characterization of chromatin reorganization between stages from myogenesis in the fetus to myofiber hypertrophy after hatching show concordant changes in transcriptional regulation by relevant signaling pathways. Further interrogation of parent‐of‐origin‐specific chromatin conformation supported that genomic imprinting is absent in birds. This study also reveals promoter‐enhancer interaction (PEI) differences between broiler and layer haplotypes in skeletal muscle development‐related genes are related to genetic variation between breeds, however, only a minority of breed‐specific variations likely contribute to phenotypic divergence in skeletal muscle potentially via allelic PEI rewiring. Beyond defining the haplotype‐specific 3D chromatin architecture in chicken, this study provides a rich resource for investigating allelic regulatory divergence among chicken breeds.
Creating diploid 3D genome maps in animals poses a significant challenge. Here, high‐resolution Hi‐C diploid maps (1.2‐kb maximum resolution) are successfully produced by examining skeletal muscle tissues in hybrid chickens across pre‐ and post‐hatching stages. This research unraveles the dynamic haplotype‐specific chromatin conformation at multiple scales. These findings offer a data‐rich resource that can be leveraged for a more in‐depth exploration of allelical transcriptional regulation.
Hemodynamic prediction of carotid artery stenosis (CAS) is of great clinical significance in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment prognosis of ischemic strokes. While computational fluid dynamics ...(CFD) is recognized as a useful tool, it shows a crucial issue that the high computational costs are usually required for real-time simulations of complex blood flows. Given the powerful feature-extraction capabilities, the deep learning (DL) methodology has a high potential to implement the mapping of anatomic geometries and CFD-driven flow fields, which enables accomplishing fast and accurate hemodynamic prediction for clinical applications. Based on a brain/neck CT angiography database of 280 subjects, image based three-dimensional CFD models of CAS were constructed through blood vessel extraction, computational domain meshing and setting of the pulsatile flow boundary conditions; a series of CFD simulations were undertaken. A DL strategy was proposed and accomplished in terms of point cloud datasets and a DL network with dual sampling-analysis channels. This enables multimode mapping to construct the image-based geometries of CAS while predicting CFD-based hemodynamics based on training and testing datasets. The CFD simulation was validated with the mass flow rates at two outlets reasonably agreed with the published results. Comprehensive analysis and error evaluation revealed that the DL strategy enables uncovering the association between transient blood flow characteristics and artery cavity geometric information before and after surgical treatments of CAS. Compared with other methods, our DL-based model trained with more clinical data can reduce the computational cost by 7,200 times, while still demonstrating good accuracy (error<12.5%) and flow visualization in predicting the two hemodynamic parameters. In addition, the DL-based predictions were in good agreement with CFD simulations in terms of mean velocity in the stenotic region for both the preoperative and postoperative datasets. This study points to the capability and significance of the DL-based fast and accurate hemodynamic prediction of preoperative and postoperative CAS. For accomplishing real-time monitoring of surgical treatments, further improvements in the prediction accuracy and flexibility may be conducted by utilizing larger datasets with specific real surgical events such as stent intervention, adopting personalized boundary conditions, and optimizing the DL network.
