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Previous research has demonstrated that ferredoxin 1 (FDX1) contributes to the accumulation of toxic lipoylated dihydrolipoamide S-acetyltransferase (DLAT) and results in cuproptotic cell death. However, the role that FDX1 plays in human cancer prognosis and immunology is still not well understood. The original data was obtained from TCGA and GEO databases and integrated using R 4.1.0. The TIMER2.0, GEPIA, and BioGPS databases were used to explore FDX1 expression. The impact of FDX1 on prognosis was analyzed using the GEPIA and Kaplan–Meier Plotter databases. External validation will be performed using the PrognoScan database. FDX1 expression in different immune and molecular subtypes of human cancers was evaluated using the TISIDB database. The correlation between FDX1 expression and immune checkpoints (ICP), microsatellite instability (MSI), and tumor mutational burden (TMB) in human cancers was analyzed using R 4.1.0. The TIMER2.0 and GEPIA databases were used to study the relationship between FDX1 expression and tumor-infiltrating immune cells. With the c-BioPortal database, we investigated the genomic alterations of FDX1. Pathway analysis and assessment of the sensitivity potential of FDX1-related drugs were also performed. Using the UALCAN database, we analyzed the differential expression of FDX1 in KIRC (kidney renal clear cell carcinoma) with different clinical features. Coexpression networks of FDX1 were analyzed using LinkedOmics. In general, FDX1 was expressed differently in different types of cancer in humans. Expression of FDX1 was strongly correlated with patient prognosis, ICP, MSI, and TMB. FDX1 was also participated in immune regulation and the tumor microenvironment. Coexpression networks of FDX1 were primarily involved in oxidative phosphorylation regulation. Pathway analysis revealed that the expression of FDX1 was correlated to cancer-related and immune-related pathways. FDX1 has the potential to serve as a biomarker for pan-cancer prognosis and immunology, as well as a novel target for tumor therapy.

Background Post-stroke depression (PSD) can be conceptualized as a complex network where PSD symptoms (PSDS) interact with each other. The neural mechanism of PSD and interactions among PSDS remain to be elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the neuroanatomical substrates of, as well as the interactions between, individual PSDS to better understand the pathogenesis of early-onset PSD. Methods A total of 861 first-ever stroke patients admitted within 7 days poststroke were consecutively recruited from three independent hospitals in China. Sociodemographic, clinical and neuroimaging data were collected upon admission. PSDS assessment with Hamilton Depression Rating Scale was performed at 2 weeks after stroke. Thirteen PSDS were included to develop a psychopathological network in which central symptoms (i.e. symptoms most strongly correlated with other PSDS) were identified. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) was performed to uncover the lesion locations associated with overall PSDS severity and severities of individual PSDS, in order to test the hypothesis that strategic lesion locations for central symptoms could significantly contribute to higher overall PSDS severity. Results Depressed mood, Psychiatric anxiety and Loss of interest in work and activities were identified as central PSDS at the early stage of stroke in our relatively stable PSDS network. Lesions in bilateral (especially the right) basal ganglia and capsular regions were found significantly associated with higher overall PSDS severity. Most of the above regions were also correlated with higher severities of 3 central PSDS. The other 10 PSDS could not be mapped to any certain brain region. Conclusions There are stable interactions among early-onset PSDS with Depressed mood, Psychiatric anxiety and Loss of interest as central symptoms. The strategic lesion locations for central symptoms may indirectly induce other PSDS via the symptom network, resulting in higher overall PSDS severity. Trial registration URL: http://www.chictr.org.cn/enIndex.aspx; Unique identifier: ChiCTR-ROC-17013993.

Background Post-stroke depression (PSD) is one of the most common neuropsychiatric complications after stroke. The occurrence, development and prognosis of PSD have long been different between males and females. The main purpose of this study was to explore the influencing factors of PSD at 3 months in males and females, and construct random forest (RF) models to rank the influencing factors. Methods This is a prospective multicenter cohort study (Registration number: ChiCTR-ROC-17013993). Stroke patients hospitalized in the department of Neurology of three hospitals in Wuhan were enrolled from May 2018 to August 2019. Scale assessments were performed 24 hours after admission and 3 months after stroke onset. Binary logistic regression analysis was used for univariate and multivariate (stepwise backward method) analysis, when p was less than 0.05, the difference between groups was considered statistically significant. Lastly, the RF models were constructed according to the results of multivariate regression analysis. Results This study found that several baseline variables were associated with PSD at 3 months in males and females. RF model ranked them as stroke severity (OR [odds ratio] =1.17, p p = 0.002, 95%CI:1.02–1.10), physical exercise (OR = 0.62, p = 0.007, 95%CI:0.44–0.88), sleeping time p = 0.006, 95% CI:1.20–3.04) and atrial fibrillation (OR = 4.18, p = 0.012, 95%CI:1.38–12.68) in males. In females, RF model ranked them as psychological resilience (OR = 0.98, p = 0.015, 95%CI:0.96–1.00), ability of daily living (OR = 0.98, p = 0.001, 95%CI:0.97–0.99), neuroticism dimension (OR = 1.11, p = 0.002, 95%CI:1.04–1.18) and subjective support (OR = 1.11, p Conclusion The study found influencing factors of PSD at 3 months were different in males and females, and construct RF models to rank them according to their importance. This suggests that clinicians should focus their interventions on sex-specific influencing factors in order to improve the prognosis of PSD patients. Trial registration ChiCTR-ROC-17013993.

Foamy macrophages containing prominent cytoplasmic lipid droplets (LDs) are found in a variety of infectious diseases. However, their role in Streptococcus uberis-induced mastitis is unknown. Herein, we report that S. uberis infection enhances the fatty acid synthesis pathway in macrophages, resulting in a sharp increase in LD levels, accompanied by a significantly enhanced inflammatory response. This process is mediated by the involvement of fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4), a subtype of the fatty acid-binding protein family that plays critical roles in metabolism and inflammation. In addition, FABP4 siRNA inhibitor cell models showed that the deposition of LDs decreased, and the mRNA expression of Tnf, Il1b and Il6 was significantly downregulated after gene silencing. As a result, the bacterial load in macrophages increased. Taken together, these data demonstrate that macrophage LD formation is a host-driven component of the immune response to S. uberis. FABP4 contributes to promoting inflammation via LDs, which should be considered a new target for drug development to treat infections.

Poststroke depression (PSD) is a common complication of stroke. Brain network disruptions caused by stroke are potential biological determinants of PSD but their conclusive roles are unavailable. Our study aimed to identify the strategic structural disconnection (SDC) pattern for PSD at three months poststroke and assess the predictive value of SDC information. Our prospective cohort of 697 first-ever acute ischemic stroke patients were recruited from three hospitals in central China. Sociodemographic, clinical, psychological and neuroimaging data were collected at baseline and depression status was assessed at three months poststroke. Voxel-based disconnection-symptom mapping found that SDCs involving bilateral temporal white matter and posterior corpus callosum, as well as white matter next to bilateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex, were associated with PSD. This PSD-specific SDC pattern was used to derive SDC scores for all participants. SDC score was an independent predictor of PSD after adjusting for all imaging and clinical-sociodemographic-psychological covariates (odds ratio, 1.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.07, 1.48; P = 0.006). Split-half replication showed the stability and generalizability of above results. When added to the clinical-sociodemographic-psychological prediction model, SDC score significantly improved the model performance and ranked the highest in terms of predictor importance. In conclusion, a strategic SDC pattern involving multiple lobes bilaterally is identified for PSD at 3 months poststroke. The SDC score is an independent predictor of PSD and may improve the predictive performance of the clinical-sociodemographic-psychological prediction model, providing new evidence for the brain-behavior mechanism and biopsychosocial theory of PSD.

A label-free electrochemical strategy is proposed combining equivalent substitution effect with AuNPs-assisted signal amplification. According to the differences of S1 protein in various infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) strains, a target DNA sequence that can specifically recognize H120 RNA forming a DNA-RNA hybridized double-strand structure has been designed. Then, the residual single-stranded target DNA is hydrolyzed by S1 nuclease. Therefore, the content of target DNA becomes equal to the content of virus RNA. After equivalent coronavirus, the target DNA is separated from DNA-RNA hybridized double strand by heating, which can partly hybridize with probe 2 modified on the electrode surface and probe 1 on AuNPs’ surface. Thus, AuNPs are pulled to the surface of the electrode and the abundant DNA on AuNPs’ surface could adsorb a large amount of hexaammineruthenium (III) chloride (RuHex) molecules, which produce a remarkably amplified electrochemical response. The voltammetric signal of RuHex with a peak near − 0.28 V vs. Ag/AgCl is used as the signal output. The proposed method shows a detection range of 1.56e−9 to 1.56e−6 μM with the detection limit of 2.96e−10 μM for IBV H120 strain selective quantification detection, exhibiting good accuracy, stability, and simplicity, which shows a great potential for IBV detection in vaccine research and avian infectious bronchitis diagnosis. Graphical abstract Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00604-020-04582-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background The prognosis of patients with advanced schistosomiasis is poor. Pre-existing prognosis studies did not differentiate the causes of the deaths. The objectives were to evaluate the 2-year overall survival (OS) and advanced schistosomiasis-specific survival (ASS) in patients with advanced schistosomiasis after discharge through competing risk analysis and to build predictive nomograms. Methods Data was extracted from a previously constructed database from Hubei province. Patients were enrolled from September 2014 to January 2015, with follow up to January 2017. OS and ASS were primary outcome measures. Nomograms for estimating 2-year OS and ASS rates after discharge were established based on univariate and multivariate Cox regression model and Fine and Gray’s model. Their predictive performances were evaluated using C-index and validated in both internal and external validation cohorts. Results The training cohort included 1487 patients with advanced schistosomiasis. Two-year mortality rate of the training cohort was 8.27% (123/1487). Competing events accounted for 26.83% (33/123). Older age, splemomegaly clinical classification, abnormal serum DBil, AST, ALP and positive HBsAg were significantly associated with 2-year OS. Older age, splemomegaly clinical classification, abnormal serum AST, ALP and positive HBsAg were significantly associated with 2-year ASS. The established nomograms were well calibrated, and had good discriminative ability, with a C-index of 0.813 (95% CI 0.803–0.823) for 2-year OS prediction and 0.834 (95% CI 0.824–0.844) for 2-year ASS prediction. Their predictive performances were well validated in both internal and external validation cohorts. Conclusion The effective predictors of 2-year OS and ASS were discovered through competing risk analysis. The nomograms could be used as convenient predictive tools in clinical practice to guide follow-up and aid accurate prognostic assessment.

Background China has experienced rapid socioeconomic, and health transitions over the last four decades, and urban–rural disparities are becoming increasingly apparent. Research on depression among rural and urban students can provide evidence on the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and adolescent depression. Methods We examined the association between sociodemographic characteristics and adolescent depression among 3605 students from Wuhan city and Jianli county that was recruited from the local junior middle school via a cross-sectional study. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to explore the sociodemographic characteristics of adolescent depression in urban and rural areas, respectively. Nomograms were constructed to calculate individual depression risk of junior middle school students. Results 32.47% of rural students and 35.11% of urban students display depressive symptoms. The protective factors of depression in urban students are exercise habit, younger, key class, better academic achievement and males, while Left-behind children (LBC), poor academic achievement and females had higher depression risk in rural area. Two nomograms were constructed to screen the adolescent depression in urban and rural junior middle school students, respectively. The clinical tools were well calibrated. Conclusion The field-based research examined sociodemographic characteristics potentially associated with adolescent depression and offered an effective and convenient tool of individualized depression risk evaluation for junior middle school students. Future longitudinal epidemiologic research on adolescent depression may help to further validate the discovery of present study, which will support developing policies and practices to minimize the factors of adolescent depression.

Background Vaccination is the principal strategy for prevention and control of diseases, and adjuvant use is an effective strategy to enhance vaccine efficacy. Traditional mineral oil-based adjuvants have been reported with post-immunization reactions. Developing new adjuvant formulations with improved potency and safety will be of great value. Results In the study reported herein, a novel oil-in-water (O/W) Emulsion Adjuvant containing Squalane (termed EAS) was developed, characterized and investigated for swine influenza virus immunization. The data show that EAS is a homogeneous nanoemulsion with small particle size (~ 105 nm), low viscosity (2.04 ± 0.24 cP at 20 °C), excellent stability (at least 24 months at 4 °C) and low toxicity. EAS-adjuvanted H3N2 swine influenza vaccine was administrated in mice subcutaneously to assess the adjuvant potency of EAS. The results demonstrated that in mice EAS-adjuvanted vaccine induced significantly higher titers of hemagglutination inhibition (HI) and IgG antibodies than water-in-oil (W/O) vaccines or antigen alone, respectively, at day 42 post vaccination (dpv) (P

An aptamer based assay is presented for the determination of the antibiotics oxytetracycline (OTC) and kanamycin (KAN). Magnetic beads were applied for separation, and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for signal amplification. DNA aptamers against OTC and KAN were firstly designed. After specific recognition events, the aptamer sequences were released from the surface of magnetic beads and the remaining DNA probes captured horseradish peroxidase (HRP) modified AuNPs. Subsequently, 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine and o-phenylenediamine are catalytically oxidized by HRP, and the generated colorimetric responses can reflect the concentrations of OTC (at 370 nm) and KAN (at 450 nm), respectively. Experimental results demonstrate that the method is highly sensitive with the detection limit as low as 1 ag mL−1 for OTC and KAN. An extremely wide linear range (over 11 orders of magnitude) is achieved. The high selectivity is attributed to the high affinity between aptamer and the substrate. The results of real sample tests also verify that the method is promising for antibiotics analysis in the applications of food monitoring and clinical diagnosis.

Taurine (Tau) is reported to have a key role in the regulation of the innate immune response and thus reduce tissue damage induced by bacterial infection. In this study, the effects of Tau on a rat model of mastitis induced by Streptococcus uberis (S. uberis) and the changes of T regulatory cells (Tregs) were assessed. Starting on gestation day 14 and continuing until parturition, 100 mg/kg of taurine (group TS) or an equal volume of physiological saline (group CS) was administered daily, per os. Seventy-two hours after parturition, rats were infused with approximately 100 cfu of S. uberis into each of two mammary glands. The results showed that the resultant inflammation, evidenced by swelling, secretory epithelial cell degeneration, increased adipose tissue and neutrophil (PMN) infiltration were evident in mammary tissue following injection with S. uberis. Pre-treatment with Tau attenuated these morphologic changes, the expression of interleukin (IL)-2, interferon (INF)-γ mRNA, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAGase) in mammary tissue. The percentages of Foxp3+CD25+CD4+/lymphocytes (Tregs) were dramatically increased after the S. uberis challenge. Significant differences (P

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic characteristics, diagnosis and differential diagnosis, molecular genetics, treatment and prognosis of solitary fibrous tumor (SFT).