•Pt doped TiO2 was synthesized and used for NOx photocatalytic oxidation.•Pt–TiO2 exhibited a high activity both under UV and visible light irradiation.•A new photocatalytic mechanism was ...proposed.•Synergistic effect of lattice Pt4+ and surface PtO was clarified.
Various platinum doped TiO2 with different doping ratios was successfully synthesized by a facile sol–gel method. The structural and optical properties of as-synthesized samples were characterized by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The results showed that all samples were anatase crystals and showed extended absorption into visible light region. The Pt states in the samples were investigated by energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) analyses. The results revealed that Pt4+ ions were doped into TiO2 crystal lattice with a part of PtO deposited on the TiO2 surface. Pt doped TiO2 exhibited a significantly enhanced activity than pure TiO2 and P25 for the photocatalytic oxidation of NOx under irradiation of UV light, simulate sunlight and visible light. An obviously suppressed recombination rate of photo-generated carriers in the Pt doped TiO2 was demonstrated by photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy measurements. These results suggested that the synergistic effect of two Pt species coexisted in the catalysts played an important role in the improvement of photocatalytic performance. The photocatalytic reaction mechanisms of NOx oxidation on the catalyst under UV and visible light irradiation were discussed in detail.
Bile duct obstruction is a common issue for patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Percutaneous transhepatic cholangial drainage (PTCD) is often required to relieve the obstruction. ...However, PTCD may alter the intestinal microbiota, which can affect the efficacy of immunotherapy. Antibiotics (ATB) can also have significant immunomodulatory effects by perturbing the gut microbiota. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether PTCD or ATB therapy is associated with overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced CCA receiving first-line chemotherapy plus immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in clinical practice. We also explored whether the gut microbiota changes after receiving PTCD.
We conducted a single-center retrospective analysis of PTCD and ATB therapy in patients with advanced CCA. PTCD was performed before ICB initiation, and ATB was administered within 1 month before and 6 weeks after ICB initiation. Our primary outcomes were PFS and OS. Moreover, we used 16s rRNA sequencing to analyze fecal and bile samples obtained from patients who underwent PTCD.
In total, 107 patients with CCA were included. Among patients who did not undergo PTCD, ICB plus chemotherapy significantly improved OS vs. chemotherapy alone (hazard ratio HR 0.21, 95% confidence interval CI 0.09-0.45, p < 0.0001). PFS was also significantly improved in patients who received ICB plus chemotherapy compared with chemotherapy alone (HR 0.36, 95% CI 0.16-0.80, p = 0.0024). However, ICB plus chemotherapy did not improve survival compared with chemotherapy alone among patients who received PTCD. Overall changes in the fecal microbiota of patients after PTCD involved significant reductions in which Escherichia - Shigella.
The use of ATB or PTCD in patients with CCA receiving ICB was associated with worse OS compared with chemotherapy alone, and PTCD affects the gut microbiota. Escherichia - Shigella was significantly reduced in feces of patients after PTCD.
Background:
Peripheral blood lymphocytes play an important role in antitumour immunity. We examined the relationship between the minimum absolute lymphocyte counts (Min ALCs) during radiotherapy (RT) ...and clinical outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Methods:
Data from a total of 69 HCC patients who had received RT were retrospectively analysed. Peripheral blood lymphocytes were measured before RT, weekly during RT and after RT. Regression and mixed-effect models were used to assess the relationships with and potential predictors of overall survival (OS). Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to define optimal cut-off points of continuous variables for outcomes.
Results:
The median follow up was 30 months (range, 4–68 months). The median survival time (MST), 1-year OS rate and 2-year OS rate of the whole group were 25 months, 51% and 39%, respectively. The average circulating lymphocyte counts declined during RT (1493.19 versus 503.48 cells/µl, p < 0.001). A lower Min ALC was associated with worse OS (p = 0.001), with a cut-off value of 450 cells/µl (sensitivity and specificity, 50% and 70.6%, respectively). The MSTs, 1-year OS rates and 2-year OS rates were 15 months versus 47 months, 27% versus 78% and 4% versus 71% for patients with relatively lower (⩽450 cells/µl) and higher Min ALCs (>450 cells/µl), respectively (p < 0.001). After adjusting for potential confounders, multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that Min ALC independently predicted patients’ OS (HR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.15–0.69).
Conclusions:
Lower Min ALCs during RT may act as a worse prognostic factor for HCC after RT.
In this report, the diversity of Actinobacteria associated with the marine sponge Hymeniacidon perleve collected from a remote island of the South China Sea was investigated employing classical ...cultivation and characterization, 16S rDNA library construction, 16S rDNA-restriction fragment length polymorphism (rDNA-RFLP) and phylogenetic analysis. A total of 184 strains were isolated using seven different media and 24 isolates were selected according to their morphological characteristics for phylogenetic analysis on the basis of their 16S rRNA gene sequences. Results showed that the 24 isolates were assigned to six genera including Salinispora, Gordonia, Mycobacterium, Nocardia, Rhodococcus and Streptomyces. This is the first report that Salinispora is present in a marine sponge from the South China Sea. Subsequently, 26 rDNA clones were selected from 191 clones in an Actinobacteria-specific 16S rDNA library of the H. perleve sample, using the RFLP technique for sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. In total, 26 phylotypes were clustered in eight known genera of Actinobacteria including Mycobacterium, Amycolatopsis, Arthrobacter, Brevibacterium, Microlunatus, Nocardioides, Pseudonocardia and Streptomyces. This study contributes to our understanding of actinobacterial diversity in the marine sponge H. perleve from the South China Sea.
This study describes actinobacteria isolated from the marine sponge Haliclona sp. collected in shallow water of the South China Sea. A total of 54 actinobacteria were isolated using media selective ...for actinobacteria. Species diversity and natural product diversity of isolates from marine sponge Haliclona sp. were analysed. Twenty-four isolates were selected on the basis of their morphology on different media and assigned to the phylum Actinobacteria by a combination of 16S rRNA gene based restriction enzymes digestion and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The 16S rRNA genes of 24 isolates were digested by restriction enzymes TaqI and MspI and assigned to different groups according to their restriction enzyme pattern. The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that the isolates belonged to the genera Streptomyces, Nocardiopsis, Micromonospora and Verrucosispora; one other isolate was recovered that does not belong to known genera based on its unique 16S rRNA gene sequence. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a bacterium classified as Verrucosispora sp. that has been isolated from a marine sponge. The majority of the strains tested belong to the genus Streptomyces and three isolates may be new species. All of the 24 isolates were screened for genes encoding polyketide synthases (PKS) and nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS). PKS and NRPS sequences were detected in more than half of the isolates and the different “PKS-I--PKS-II--NRPS” combinations in different isolates belonging to the same species are indicators of their potential natural product diversity and divergent genetic evolution.
An actinomycete, designated strain GIMN4.003T, was isolated from seawater collected in Sanya, China. It produced white aerial mycelium and yellow substrate mycelium on Gause’s synthetic agar medium ...no. 1. The substrate mycelium colour was not sensitive to pH. Scanning electron microscopy observations revealed that GIMN4.003T produced straight to flexuous spore chains of rough to warty spores. LL-Diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall hydrolysate. Based on chemotaxonomy and morphological features, strain GIMN4.003T was identified as a member of the genus STREPTOMYCES: Melanin was not produced. No antimicrobial activity was detected against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, Penicillium citrinum or Candida albicans. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that the highest sequence similarity was to Streptomyces radiopugnans R97T (99.0 %). However, DNA relatedness between GIMN4.003T and S. radiopugnans DSM 41901T was low (41.24±1.47 %). Furthermore, the morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics of strain GIMN4.003T were different from those of S. radiopugnans DSM 41901T and the type strains of other closely related Streptomyces species. On the basis of its physiological and molecular properties, it is evident that strain GIMN4.003T ( = CCTCCM 208215T = NRRL B-24801T) represents the type strain of a novel species within the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces fenghuangensis sp. nov. is proposed.
Patients with esophageal small cell carcinoma undergoing definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) seem to have disparity in tumor response. The identification of CRT sensitivity-related tumor markers would ...be helpful for selecting patients most likely to benefit from CRT. The aim of this study was to examine the predictive value of biological markers in small cell carcinoma of the esophagus (SCEC) patients treated with definitive CRT. Pretreatment serum levels of neurone-specific enolase (NSE), cytokeratin 19 fragment antigen 21-1 (CYFRA21-1), and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were measured by immunoradiometric assays, while the tumor responses were evaluated according to the World Health Organization response criteria. The relationships between pretreatment expression of NSE, CYFRA21-1, CEA, and the tumor response to CRT were analyzed. The effective rates (complete response + partial response) in NSE high and low groups were 10.80 % (9/82) and 37.98 % (31/82), respectively (
P
= 0.003).The results from statistical analysis indicated that the effectiveness of CRT was significantly associated with the serum levels of NSE before treatment (
P
= 0.002). The overall survival (OS) of the patients with high NSE levels was worse than that of those with low NSE levels (
P
= 0.004). In multivariate analysis, low level of NSE was the most significant independent predictor of good OS (
P
= 0.003). The result showed a promising predictive value of NSE regarding to the sensitivity of tumors to CRT. NSE may be a reliable surrogate marker of CRT efficacy in patients with SCEC.
Patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) seem to have disparity in prognosis. Accurate prediction of prognosis could be useful in the future to predict individual risk and to develop ...more aggressive or alternative treatment strategies.
To evaluate the prognostic value of metabolic tumor volume (MTV) measured by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) in patients with NSCLC.
We retrospectively reviewed 120 patients with pathologically proven NSCLC (61 squamous cell carcinomas and 59 adenocarcinomas) who underwent pretreatment 18F-FDG PET. MTV and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) for the primary tumors were measured by 18F-FDG PET. Pretreatment variables (age, sex, American Joint Committee on Cancer AJCC stage, histological type, SUVmax, and MTV) were analyzed to identify their correlation with two-year survival. To further evaluate and compare the predictive value of PET parameters, MTV, and SUVmax, time-dependent receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was used.
In the univariate analysis, AJCC stage, histological type, MTV, and SUVmax of primary tumor were significant predictors of survival. On multivariate analysis, independent prognostic factors associated with decreased two-year survival were AJCC stage (hazard ratio HR 2.236, P = 0.003), histological type (HR 2.038, P = 0. 004), and MTV (HR 1.016, P = 0.001). SUVmax was not a significant factor (HR 0.96, P = 0.490). On time-dependent ROC analysis, MTV showed good predictive performance for two-year survival consistently better than SUVmax.
MTV, a volumetric parameter of 18F-FDG PET, is an important independent prognostic factor for survival and a better predictor of survival than SUVmax for the primary tumor in patients with advanced NSCLC.
The goal of high-throughput screening is to enable screening of compound libraries in an automated manner to identify quality starting points for optimization. This often involves screening a large ...diversity of compounds in an assay that preserves a connection to the disease pathology. Phenotypic screening is a powerful tool for drug identification, in that assays can be run without prior understanding of the target and with primary cells that closely mimic the therapeutic setting. Advanced automation and high-content imaging have enabled many complex assays, but these are still relatively slow and low throughput. To address this limitation, we have developed an automated workflow that is dedicated to processing complex phenotypic assays for flow cytometry. The system can achieve a throughput of 50,000 wells per day, resulting in a fully automated platform that enables robust phenotypic drug discovery. Over the past 5 years, this screening system has been used for a variety of drug discovery programs, across many disease areas, with many molecules advancing quickly into preclinical development and into the clinic. This report will highlight a diversity of approaches that automated flow cytometry has enabled for phenotypic drug discovery.
The study describes the diversity of actinobacteria isolated from the marine sponge Iotrochota sp. collected in the South China Sea. Species and natural product diversity of isolates were analyzed, ...including screening for genes encoding polyketide synthases (PKS) and nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS), and 16S rRNA gene restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). PKS and NRPS sequences were detected in more than half of the isolates and the different “PKS-I–PKS-II–NRPS” combinations in different isolates belonging to the same species indicated a potential natural product diversity and divergent genetic evolution. The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that the isolates belonged to genera Streptomyces, Cellulosimicrobium, and Nocardiopsis. The majority of the strains tested belonged to the genus Streptomyces and one of them may be a new species. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a bacterium classified as Cellulosimicrobium sp. isolated from a marine sponge.
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