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Guan-Nan He, Na-Ren Bao, Shuang Wang, Man Xi, Tian-Hao Zhang, Feng-Shou Chen Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, Liaoning, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Feng-Shou ChenDepartment of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, Liaoning, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail shouyongpang4540@163.comBackground: Liver cancer ranks the top four malignant cancer type worldwide, which needs effective and safe treatment. Ferroptosis is a novel form of regulated cell death driven by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation and has been regarded as a promising therapeutic target for cancers. In this work, we aimed to study the effects of anesthetic ketamine on proliferation and ferroptosis of liver cancer.Methods: Cell viability and proliferation were detected by cell counting kit 8 (CCK-8), colony formation, and 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay. Ferroptosis was determined by levels of Fe2+, lipid reactive oxygen species (ROS), and malondialdehyde (MDA). RNA levels of lncPVT1, miR-214-3p, and glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) were checked by real-time PCR assay. Clinical liver tumor samples were collected to detect the levels of long noncoding RNA lncPVT1, miR-214-3p, and GPX4, and their correlation was evaluated by Pearson comparison test. Luciferase reporter gene assay and RNA pulldown were conducted to determine the binding between lncPVT1, miR-214-3p, and GPX4 3ʹUTR.Results: Ketamine significantly suppressed viability and proliferation of liver cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo, as well as stimulated ferroptosis, along with decreased expression of lncPVT1 and GPX4. LncPVT1 directly interacted with miR-214-3p to impede its role as a sponge of GPX4. Depletion of lncPVT1 accelerated the ferroptosis of live cancer cells, whereas miR-214-3p inhibition and GPX4 overexpression reversed this effect. Ketamine-induced cell growth suppression and ferroptosis were also suppressed by miR-214-3p inhibition and GPX4 overexpression.Conclusion: In this work, we determined that ketamine suppressed viability of liver cancer cells and induced ferroptosis and identified the possible regulatory mechanism of lncPVT1/miR-214-3p/GPX4 axis.Keywords: liver cancer, ketamine, lncPVT1, miR-214-3p, GPX4

Jing Ren,1 Quanlei Li,2 Tianhua Zhang,3 Xiaomei Li,4 Shaoru Zhang,1,4 Jiaojiao Wright,2 Haini Liu,4 Zhongqiu Hua4 1School of Public Health, Health Science Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shanxi, China; 2School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 3Shaanxi Provincial Institute for Tuberculosis Control and Prevention, Xi’an, Shanxi, China; 4School of Nursing, Health Science Center, Xi’ an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shanxi, China Purpose: Adherence to treatment is cited as a key challenge in fighting tuberculosis (TB). Treatment of TB requires patients to actively engage in their care. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of patients with TB regarding their engagement in health care.Patients and methods: The study was conducted in three medical wards in one hospital. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants. Semi-structured, audiotaped interviews were conducted and analyzed using thematic analysis.Results: Twenty-three patients participated in the study. Four major themes emerged: 1) devaluing engagement; 2) interacting with health care providers (HCPs); 3) facing inability; and 4) seeking external support.Conclusion: The patients’ perceptions of their engagement in health care were generally negative. Paying attention to the preferences and needs of patients and making decisions accordingly are effective strategies for promoting patient engagement. Moreover, HCPs should be aware of their crucial role in helping patients make sense of what engagement is and how to engage. In the process of engagement, providers should establish effective interactions with patients and cooperate with family and peers. Keywords: tuberculosis, patient engagement, qualitative study, treatment adherence

TianHong Zhang,1 HuiJun Li,2,3 Kristen A Woodberry,3 Larry J Seidman,3 Annabelle Chow,4 ZePing Xiao,1 JiJun Wang1 1Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Psychology, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL, USA; 3Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; 4Department of Psychological Medicine, Changi General Hospital, Singapore Abstract: Clinical high risk of psychosis is defined as the period in which the first signs of psychotic symptoms begin to appear. During this period, there is an increased probability of developing frank psychosis. It is crucial to investigate the interaction between psychotic symptoms and the individual’s personality and life experiences in order to effectively prevent, or delay the development of psychosis. This paper presents case reports of three Chinese female subjects with attenuated positive symptoms, attending their initial outpatient assessment in a mental health service, and their longitudinal clinical outcomes. Information regarding each subject’s symptoms and life stressors was collected at 2-month intervals over a 6-month period. The assessments indicated that these women were suffering from the recent onset of symptoms in different ways. However, all three hid their symptoms from others in their school or workplace, and experienced a decline in performance related to their social roles and in their daily functioning. They were often excluded from the social groups to which they had previously belonged. A decline in social activities may be a risk factor in the development of psychosis and a mediator of functional sequelae in psychosis. Effective treatment strategies may include those that teach individuals to gain insights related to their symptoms and a service that provides a context in which individuals can discuss their psychotic symptoms. Keywords: prodromal psychosis, ultra high risk, follow-up, functional sequelae, transition

Despite full immunoprophylaxis, mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of Hepatitis B Virus still occurs in approximately 2-5% of HBsAg positive mothers. Little is known about the bottleneck of HBV transmission and the evolution of viral quasispecies in the context of MTCT. Here we adopted a newly developed tag linkage deep sequencing method and analyzed the quasispecies of four MTCT pairs that broke through immunoprophylaxis. By assigning unique tags to individual viral sequences, we accurately reconstructed HBV haplotypes in a region of 836 bp, which contains the major immune epitopes and drug resistance mutations. The detection limit of minor viral haplotypes reached 0.1% for individual patient sample. Dominance of "a determinant" polymorphisms were observed in two children, which pre-existed as minor quasispecies in maternal samples. In all four pairs of MTCT samples, we consistently observed a significant overlap of viral haplotypes shared between mother and child. We also demonstrate that the data can be potentially useful to estimate the bottleneck effect during HBV MTCT, which provides information to optimize treatment for reducing the frequency of MTCT.

Abstract Background Hyperactivation of the Ras signaling pathway is a driver of many cancers, and RAS pathway activation can predict response to targeted therapies. Therefore, optimal methods for measuring Ras pathway activation are critical. The main focus of our work was to develop a gene expression signature that is predictive of RAS pathway dependence. Methods We used the coherent expression of RAS pathway-related genes across multiple datasets to derive a RAS pathway gene expression signature and generate RAS pathway activation scores in pre-clinical cancer models and human tumors. We then related this signature to KRAS mutation status and drug response data in pre-clinical and clinical datasets. Results The RAS signature score is predictive of KRAS mutation status in lung tumors and cell lines with high (> 90%) sensitivity but relatively low (50%) specificity due to samples that have apparent RAS pathway activation in the absence of a KRAS mutation. In lung and breast cancer cell line panels, the RAS pathway signature score correlates with pMEK and pERK expression, and predicts resistance to AKT inhibition and sensitivity to MEK inhibition within both KRAS mutant and KRAS wild-type groups. The RAS pathway signature is upregulated in breast cancer cell lines that have acquired resistance to AKT inhibition, and is downregulated by inhibition of MEK. In lung cancer cell lines knockdown of KRAS using siRNA demonstrates that the RAS pathway signature is a better measure of dependence on RAS compared to KRAS mutation status. In human tumors, the RAS pathway signature is elevated in ER negative breast tumors and lung adenocarcinomas, and predicts resistance to cetuximab in metastatic colorectal cancer. Conclusions These data demonstrate that the RAS pathway signature is superior to KRAS mutation status for the prediction of dependence on RAS signaling, can predict response to PI3K and RAS pathway inhibitors, and is likely to have the most clinical utility in lung and breast tumors.

Abstract Background Targeted transport of messenger RNA and local protein synthesis near the synapse are important for synaptic plasticity. In order to gain an overview of the composition of the dendritic mRNA pool, we dissected out stratum radiatum (dendritic lamina) from rat hippocampal CA1 region and compared its mRNA content with that of stratum pyramidale (cell body layer) using a set of cDNA microarrays. RNAs that have over-representation in the dendritic fraction were annotated and sorted into function groups. Results We have identified 154 dendritic mRNA candidates, which can be arranged into the categories of receptors and channels, signaling molecules, cytoskeleton and adhesion molecules, and factors that are involved in membrane trafficking, in protein synthesis, in posttranslational protein modification, and in protein degradation. Previously known dendritic mRNAs such as MAP2, calmodulin, and G protein gamma subunit were identified from our screening, as were mRNAs that encode proteins known to be important for synaptic plasticity and memory, such as spinophilin, Pumilio, eEF1A, and MHC class I molecules. Furthermore, mRNAs coding for ribosomal proteins were also found in dendrites. Conclusion Our results suggest that neurons transport a variety of mRNAs to dendrites, not only those directly involved in modulating synaptic plasticity, but also others that play more common roles in cellular metabolism.

The development of new antibiotics continues to pose challenges, particularly considering the growing threat of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Structurally diverse natural products provide a promising source of antibiotics. Herein, we outline a concise approach for the collective asymmetric total synthesis of polycyclic xanthene myrtucommulone D and five related congeners. The strategy involves rapid assembly of the challenging benzopyrano[2,3-a]xanthene core, highly diastereoselective establishment of three contiguous stereocenters through a retro-hemiketalization/double Michael cascade reaction, and a Mitsunobu-mediated chiral resolution approach with high optical purity and broad substrate scope. Quantum mechanical calculations provide insight into stereoselective construction mechanism of the three contiguous stereocenters. Additionally, this work leads to the discovery of an antibacterial agent against both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant S. aureus. This compound operates through a unique mechanism that promotes bacterial autolysis by activating the two-component sensory histidine kinase WalK. Our research holds potential for future antibacterial drug development., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In this study, the morphology and ultrastructure of the compound eye of Asi. xanthospilota were examined by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), micro-computed tomography (μCT), and 3D reconstruction. Spectral sensitivity was investigated by electroretinogram (ERG) tests and phototropism experiments. The compound eye of Asi. xanthospilota is of the apposition type, consisting of 611.00 ± 17.53 ommatidia in males and 634.8 0 ± 24.73 ommatidia in females. Each ommatidium is composed of a subplano-convex cornea, an acone consisting of four cone cells, eight retinular cells along with the rhabdom, two primary pigment cells, and about 23 secondary pigment cells. The open type of rhabdom in Asi. xanthospilota consists of six peripheral rhabdomeres contributed by the six peripheral retinular cells (R1~R6) and two distally attached rhabdomeric segments generated solely by R7, while R8 do not contribute to the rhabdom. The orientation of microvilli indicates that Asi. xanthospilota is unlikely to be a polarization-sensitive species. ERG testing showed that both males and females reacted to stimuli from red, yellow, green, blue, and ultraviolet light. Both males and females exhibited strong responses to blue and green light but weak responses to red light. The phototropism experiments showed that both males and females exhibited positive phototaxis to all five lights, with blue light significantly stronger than the others.

Background: Gestational diabetes could elevate the risk of congenital heart defects (CHD) in infants, and effective preventive and therapeutic medications are currently lacking. Atractylenolide-I (AT-I) is the active ingredient of Atractylodes Macrocephala Koidz (known as Baizhu in China), which is a traditional pregnancy-supporting Chinese herb., Purpose: In this study, we investigated the protective effect of AT-I on the development of CHD in embryos exposed to high glucose (HG)., Study Design and Methods: First, systematic review search results revealed associations between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and cardiovascular malformations. Subsequently, a second systematic review indicated that heart malformations were consistently associated with oxidative stress and cell apoptosis. We assessed the cytotoxic impacts of Atractylenolide compounds (AT-I, AT-II, and AT-III) on H9c2 cells and chick embryos, determining an optimal concentration of AT-I for further investigation. Second, immunofluorescence, western blot, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and flow cytometry were utilized to delve into the mechanisms through which AT-I mitigates oxidative stress and apoptosis in cardiac cells. Molecular docking was employed to investigate whether AT-I exerts cardioprotective effects via the STAT3 pathway. Then, we developed a streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus (PGDM) mouse model to evaluate AT-I's protective efficacy in mammals. Finally, we explored how AT-I protects hyperglycemia-induced abnormal fetal heart development through microbiota analysis and untargeted metabolomics analysis., Results: The study showed the protective effect of AT-I on embryonic development using a chick embryo model which rescued the increase in the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and decrease in cell survival induced by HG. We also provided evidence suggesting that AT-I might directly interact with STAT3, inhibiting its phosphorylation. Further, in the PGDM mouse model, we observed that AT-I not only partially alleviated PGDM-related blood glucose issues and complications but also mitigated hyperglycemia-induced abnormal fetal heart development in pregnant mice. This effect is hypothesized to be mediated through alterations in gut microbiota composition. We proposed that dysregulation in microbiota metabolism could influence the downstream STAT3 signaling pathway via EGFR, consequently impacting cardiac development and formation., Conclusions: This study marks the first documented instance of AT-I's effectiveness in reducing the risk of early cardiac developmental anomalies in fetuses affected by gestational diabetes. AT-I achieves this by inhibiting the STAT3 pathway activated by ROS during gestational diabetes, significantly reducing the risk of fetal cardiac abnormalities. Notably, AT-I also indirectly safeguards normal fetal cardiac development by influencing the maternal gut microbiota and suppressing the EGFR/STAT3 pathway., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)

Abstract: Diabetic retinopathy is a prominent cause of blindness in adults, with early retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss contributing to visual dysfunction or blindness. In the brain, defects in y-aminobutyric acid (GABA) synaptic transmission are associated with pathophysiological and neurodegenerative disorders, whereas glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) has demonstrated neuroprotective effects. However, it is not yet clear whether diabetes causes alterations in inhibitory input to RGCs and whether and how GLP-1 protects against neurodegeneration in the diabetic retina through regulating inhibitory synaptic transmission to RGCs. In the present study, we used the patch-clamp technique to record GABA subtype A receptor-mediated miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs) in RGCs from streptozotocin-induced diabetes model rats. We found that early diabetes (4 weeks of hyperglycemia) decreased the frequency of GABAergic mIPSCs in RGCs without altering their amplitude, suggesting a reduction in the spontaneous release of GABA to RGCs. Topical administration of GLP-1 eyedrops over a period of 2 weeks effectively countered the hyperglycemia-induced downregulation of GABAergic mIPSC frequency, subsequently enhancing the survival of RGCs. Concurrently, the protective effects of GLP-1 on RGCs in diabetic rats were eliminated by topical administration of exendin-9-39, a specific GLP-1 receptor antagonist, or SR95531, a specific antagonist of the GABA subtype A receptor. Furthermore, extracellular perfusion of GLP-1 was found to elevate the frequencies of GABAergic mIPSCs in both ON- and OFF-type RGCs. This elevation was shown to be mediated by activation of the phosphatidylinositol-phospholipase C/inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor/Ca2+/protein kinase C signaling pathway downstream of GLP-1 receptor activation. Moreover, multielectrode array recordings revealed that GLP-1 functionally augmented the photoresponses of ON-type RGCs. Optomotor response tests demonstrated that diabetic rats exhibited reductions in visual acuity and contrast sensitivity that were significantly ameliorated by topical administration of GLP-1. These results suggest that GLP-1 facilitates the release of GABA onto RGCs through the activation of GLP-1 receptor, leading to the de-excitation of RGC circuits and the inhibition of excitotoxic processes associated with diabetic retinopathy. Collectively, our findings indicate that the GABA system has potential as a therapeutic target for mitigating early-stage diabetic retinopathy. Furthermore, the topical administration of GLP-1 eyedrops represents a non-invasive and effective treatment approach for managing early-stage diabetic retinopathy., (Copyright © 2025 Copyright: © 2025 Neural Regeneration Research.)

Background: Indentifying predictive factors for postoperative recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has great significance for patient prognosis., Aim: To explore the value of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA) enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with clinical features in predicting early recurrence of HCC after resection., Methods: A total of 161 patients with pathologically confirmed HCC were enrolled. The patients were divided into early recurrence and non-early recurrence group based on the follow-up results. The clinical, laboratory, pathological results and Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MRI imaging features were analyzed., Results: Of 161 patients, 73 had early recurrence and 88 were had non-early recurrence. Univariate analysis showed that patient age, gender, serum alpha-fetoprotein level, the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage, China liver cancer (CNLC) stage, microvascular invasion (MVI), pathological satellite focus, tumor size, tumor number, tumor boundary, tumor capsule, intratumoral necrosis, portal vein tumor thrombus, large vessel invasion, nonperipheral washout, peritumoral enhancement, hepatobiliary phase (HBP)/tumor signal intensity (SI)/peritumoral SI, HBP peritumoral low signal and peritumoral delay enhancement were significantly associated with early recurrence of HCC after operation. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that patient age, MVI, CNLC stage, tumor boundary and large vessel invasion were independent predictive factors. External data validation indicated that the area under the curve of the combined predictors was 0.861, suggesting that multivariate logistic regression was a reasonable predictive model for early recurrence of HCC., Conclusion: Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MRI combined with clinical features would help predicting the early recurrence of HCC after operation., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest for this article., (©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

To investigate the function of ten-eleven translocation 1 (TET1) and its underlying mechanism in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Using the RNA-Seq data based on GDC TCGA, we analyzed the gene expression pattern of TET1 in PTC. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to assess the TET1 protein level. Then, its diagnostic and prognostic functions were determined by various bioinformatics approaches. Enrichment analysis was performed to explore the potential pathways in which TET1 is mainly involved. Finally, the immune cell infiltration analysis was conducted and the association of TET1 mRNA expression with the expression levels of immune checkpoints, tumor mutation burden (TMB) score, microsatellite instability (MSI) score, and cancer stem cells (CSC) score was examined. TET1 expression was lower in PTC tissues compared with that in normal tissues (P < 0.01). Besides, TET1 had a certain value in diagnosing PTC, and low-TET1 mRNA expression led to favorable disease-specific survival (DSS) (P < 0.01). The enrichment analysis revealed autoimmune thyroid disease and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction were the consistent pathways in which TET1 participated. TET1 was negatively correlated with the Stromal score and Immune score. The different proportions of immune cell subtypes were observed between high- and low-TET1 expression groups. Interestingly, TET1 mRNA expression was inversely related to the expression levels of immune checkpoints, and TMB, MSI, and CSC scores. TET1 might be a robust diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for PTC. TET1 affected the DSS of PTC patients possibly through the regulation of immune-related pathways and tumor immunity., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant mRNA modification within mammalian cells, holding pivotal significance in the regulation of mRNA stability, translation and splicing. Furthermore, it plays a critical role in the regulation of RNA degradation by primarily recruiting the YTHDF2 reader protein. However, the selective regulation of mRNA decay of the m6A-methylated mRNA through YTHDF2 binding is poorly understood. To improve our understanding, we developed m6A-BERT-Deg, a BERT model adapted for predicting YTHDF2-mediated degradation of m6A-methylated mRNAs. We meticulously assembled a high-quality training dataset by integrating multiple data sources for the HeLa cell line. To overcome the limitation of small training samples, we employed a pre-training-fine-tuning strategy by first performing a self-supervised pre-training of the model on 427 760 unlabeled m6A site sequences. The test results demonstrated the importance of this pre-training strategy in enabling m6A-BERT-Deg to outperform other benchmark models. We further conducted a comprehensive model interpretation and revealed a surprising finding that the presence of co-factors in proximity to m6A sites may disrupt YTHDF2-mediated mRNA degradation, subsequently enhancing mRNA stability. We also extended our analyses to the HEK293 cell line, shedding light on the context-dependent YTHDF2-mediated mRNA degradation., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Background: Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) report high rates of problematic alcohol use, anxiety, and depression. This may, in part, be due to stressors related to their sexual identity (i.e., minority stressors). However, few studies have examined both distal and proximal stressors, as well as the specific psychological mechanisms by which these stressors may be related to alcohol use outcomes, in a representative sample of GBM. We explored the relationship between distal and proximal stressors and alcohol use outcomes, as well as the role of anxiety and depression as potential mediators of these relationships., Methods: We analyzed the baseline data of 2,449 GBM from Engage, a cohort study of sexually active GBM recruited using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver from February 2017 to August 2019. Using structural equation modeling, we examined the associations between distal minority stressors (i.e., experiences of heterosexist harassment, rejection, and discrimination), proximal minority stressors (i.e., internalized homonegativity, concerns about acceptance, concealment, and lack of affirmation), anxiety and depression, and alcohol consumption and alcohol use problems. RDS-adjusted analyses controlled for age, income, sexual orientation, ethnicity, recruitment city, and HIV serostatus., Results: There were positive direct associations between distal stress and proximal stress, anxiety, and depression, but not alcohol use outcomes. Proximal stress had a positive direct association with anxiety, depression, and alcohol use problems, but not alcohol consumption. Anxiety was positively associated with alcohol consumption and alcohol use problems. Depression was negatively associated with alcohol consumption but not alcohol use problems. Regarding indirect effects, distal stress was associated with alcohol use outcomes via proximal stress and anxiety, but not via depression., Conclusions: We found support for a minority stress model as it relates to alcohol use outcomes among GBM. Findings suggest that proximal minority stress and anxiety differentially impact the problematic alcohol use among GBM who experience heterosexist discrimination. Clinical providers should consider incorporating the treatment of proximal minority stressors and anxiety into existing alcohol interventions for GBM., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The functional anatomy of the split compound eyes of whirligig beetles Dineutus mellyi (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae) was examined by advanced microscopy and microcomputed tomography. We report the first 3D visualization and analysis of the split compound eyes. On average, the dorsal and ventral eyes contain 1913 ± 44.5 facets and 3099 ± 86.2 facets, respectively. The larger area of ventral eyes ensures a higher field of vision underwater. The ommatidium of the split compound eyes is made up of laminated cornea lenses that offer protection against mechanical injuries, bullet-shaped crystalline cones that guide light to the photoreceptive regions, and screening pigments that ensure directional light passage. The photoreceptive elements, made up of eight retinular cells, exhibit a tri-tiered rhabdom structure, including the upper distal rhabdom, a clear zone that ensures maximum light passage, and an enlarged lower distal rhabdom that ensures optimal photon capture.

Giardia duodenalis is a ubiquitous flagellated protozoan, causing significant economic losses to animal husbandry and posing threats to public health. China ranks the world's sixth largest major producer of donkeys, rearing approximately 2.6 million donkeys in 2019, but limited investigation of G. duodenalis prevalence has been conducted in the past, and it is yet to be known whether donkeys in Shanxi Province are infected with G. duodenalis . In the present study, a total of 815 fecal samples collected from donkeys in representative regions of Shanxi Province, North China, were examined for G. duodenalis using nested PCR. Then, the assemblages and multilocus genotypes (MLGs) were examined based on three established loci: namely, β-giardin ( bg ), triosephosphate isomerase ( tpi ), and glutamate dehydrogenase ( gdh ). The overall prevalence of G. duodenalis in donkeys in Shanxi Province was 16.81% (137/815). The region was identified as the main risk factor for the observed difference in G. duodenalis prevalence in donkeys among the three study areas (χ 2 = 21.611, p < 0.001). Assemblages A, E, and B were identified, with the latter as the predominant assemblage. Three MLGs (MLG-novel-1 to 3) were formed based on sequence variation among the three loci. The present study reveals the presence of G. duodenalis in donkeys in Shanxi Province, North China, for the first time, which not only enriches the data on the distribution of G. duodenalis in donkeys in China but also provides useful baseline data for planning control strategies against G. duodenalis infection in the sampled areas., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Accurate mastery of the creep characteristics of unsaturated saline soil is extremely important for the long-term stability and safe operation of all types of buildings. In this paper, the research object focused on the saline soil of the Zhangye area, Hexi corridor. The indoor triaxial CU creep test was carried out by means of graded loading to study the creep characteristics of saline soil under different salt content and loading stress. The Merchant and Burgers models were used to predict the creep behavior of the saline soils, and the predicted results were compared with the experimental values. The results showed that the triaxial creep curve of saline soil developed in stage III. Namely, transient creep stage, deceleration creep stage and steady-state creep stage. The creep deformation increases with the increase of salt content and loading stress. The stress-strain isochronous curve has non-linear growth, and the cluster of curves develops from dense to sparse after increasing to long-term strength (100∼150 kPa). The parameters of the Merchant and Burgers model vary with salt content and loading stress, and the creep curve predicted by the Burgers model is closer to the test value., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

The first exploratory study was conducted on the compound eye morphology and spectral characteristics of Agasicleshygrophila (Selman & Vogt, 1971) to clarify its eye structure and its spectral sensitivity. Scanning electron microscopy, paraffin sectioning, and transmission electron microscopy revealed that A.hygrophila has apposition compound eyes with both eucones and open rhabdom. The micro-computed tomography (CT) results after 3D reconstruction demonstrated the precise position of the compound eyes in the insect's head and suggested that the visual range was mainly concentrated in the front and on both sides of the head. The electroretinogram (ERG) experiment showed that red, yellow, green, blue, and ultraviolet light could stimulate the compound eyes of A.hygrophila to produce electrical signals. The behavioural experiment results showed that both males and females had the strongest phototaxis to yellow light and positive phototaxis to red, green, and blue light but negative phototaxis to UV light. This study of the compound eyes of A.hygrophila will be helpful for decoding its visual mechanism in future studies., Competing Interests: No conflict of interest was declared., (Wei-Li Fan, Xiao-Kun Liu, Tian-Hao Zhang, Zu-Long Liang, Lei Jiang, Le Zong, Cong-Qiao Li, Zhong Du, Hao-Yu Liu, Yu-Xia Yang, Feng-Ming Wu, Si-Qin Ge.)

Flowers are critical for successful reproduction and have been a major axis of diversification among angiosperms. As the frequency and severity of droughts are increasing globally, maintaining water balance of flowers is crucial for food security and other ecosystem services that rely on flowering. Yet remarkably little is known about the hydraulic strategies of flowers. We characterized hydraulic strategies of leaves and flowers of ten species by combining anatomical observations using light and scanning electron microscopy with measurements of hydraulic physiology (minimum diffusive conductance ( g min ) and pressure-volume (PV) curves parameters). We predicted that flowers would exhibit higher g min and higher hydraulic capacitance than leaves, which would be associated with differences in intervessel pit traits because of their different hydraulic strategies. We found that, compared to leaves, flowers exhibited: 1) higher g min , which was associated with higher hydraulic capacitance ( C T ); 2) lower variation in intervessel pit traits and differences in pit membrane area and pit aperture shape; and 3) independent coordination between intervessel pit traits and other anatomical and physiological traits; 4) independent evolution of most traits in flowers and leaves, resulting in 5) large differences in the regions of multivariate trait space occupied by flowers and leaves. Furthermore, across organs intervessel pit trait variation was orthogonal to variation in other anatomical and physiological traits, suggesting that pit traits represent an independent axis of variation that have as yet been unquantified in flowers. These results suggest that flowers, employ a drought-avoidant strategy of maintaining high capacitance that compensates for their higher g min to prevent excessive declines in water potentials. This drought-avoidant strategy may have relaxed selection on intervessel pit traits and allowed them to vary independently from other anatomical and physiological traits. Furthermore, the independent evolution of floral and foliar anatomical and physiological traits highlights their modular development despite being borne from the same apical meristem., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 An, Roddy, Zhang and Jiang.)

Background: In health news production, sourcing and framing are two critical mechanisms that influence how newsreaders think about and perceive the severity of a health issue. Understanding how local media covers the cancer control continuum is vital. However, very limited studies have looked at the effect of sourcing and framing in cancer news coverage, and it is still unknown how sources and news frames shape cancer coverage, especially in non-Western countries., Objective: This study examines framing and sourcing patterns in news stories reporting on cancer control in Malaysian mainstream (English) and ethnicity (Chinese) online news sites, uncovering underlining associations between essential news components, source, and framing., Methods: We used a predesigned code book to conduct a quantitative content analysis on cancer news stories ( n = 841) published on two Malaysian English and Chinese online news sites from 2017 to 2019. Cancer news received adequate coverage in Malaysian English and Chinese media and was also session-centered., Results: Two logistic regression models demonstrated the internal relationships between sourcing, framing, and different elements in cancer coverage. In terms of news sources, the results revealed that medical journals were the most likely to be cited when the news focused on medical research, followed by primary cancer prevention. When the news concentrated on statistical cancer reports and environmental/occupational risk factors, government agencies were more likely to be interviewed. Of news frames, when the news articles engaged with medical institutions and mentioned medical publications, the lifestyle frame was very likely to be shown, but the environmental frame was more likely to be portrayed when interviewing medical practitioners., Conclusion: This study is the first comprehensive assessment to analyze and compare Malaysian English and Chinese online cancer news coverages and uncover underlying associations between news components, sourcing, and framing paradigms. We contributed to the scholarly understanding of cancer news coverage. This study can serve as a model for future health promotion researchers, journalists, and policymakers. Implications for cancer risk communication research, health journalist practices, and health policymaking were discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Tham, Yu, Chang and Kho.)

Deep learning has been applied in precision oncology to address a variety of gene expression-based phenotype predictions. However, gene expression data's unique characteristics challenge the computer vision-inspired design of popular Deep Learning (DL) models such as Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and ask for the need to develop interpretable DL models tailored for transcriptomics study. To address the current challenges in developing an interpretable DL model for modeling gene expression data, we propose a novel interpretable deep learning architecture called T-GEM, or Transformer for Gene Expression Modeling. We provided the detailed T-GEM model for modeling gene-gene interactions and demonstrated its utility for gene expression-based predictions of cancer-related phenotypes, including cancer type prediction and immune cell type classification. We carefully analyzed the learning mechanism of T-GEM and showed that the first layer has broader attention while higher layers focus more on phenotype-related genes. We also showed that T-GEM's self-attention could capture important biological functions associated with the predicted phenotypes. We further devised a method to extract the regulatory network that T-GEM learns by exploiting the attributions of self-attention weights for classifications and showed that the network hub genes were likely markers for the predicted phenotypes.

Perilla frutescens (L.) Britt. (Labiatae), a medicinal plant, has been widely used for the therapy of multiple diseases since about 1800 years ago. It has been demonstrated that the extracts of P. frutescens exert significant anti-inflammatory effects. In this research, two pairs of 7,7'-cyclolignan enantiomers, possessing a cyclobutane moiety, (+)/(-)-perfrancin [(+)/(-)- 1 ] and (+)/(-)-magnosalin [(+)/(-)- 2 ], were separated from P. frutescens leaves. The present study achieved the chiral separation and determined the absolute configuration of (±)- 1 and (±)- 2 . Compounds (+)- 1 and (-)- 1 have notable anti-inflammatory effects by reducing the secretion of pro-inflammatory factors (NO, TNF-α and IL-6) and the expression of pro-inflammatory mediators (iNOS and COX-2). These findings indicate that cyclolignans are effective substances of P. frutescens with anti-inflammatory activity. The present study partially elucidates the mechanisms underlying the effects of P. frutescens .

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak is no longer a pure epidemiological concern but a true digital infodemic. Numerous conflicting information and misinformation occupy online platforms and specifically social media. While we have lived in an infodemic environment for more than 2 years, we are more prone to feel overwhelmed by the information and suffer from long-term mental health problems. However, limited research has concentrated on the cause of these threats, particularly in terms of information processing and the context of infodemic., Objective: This study proposed and tested moderated mediation pathways from two types of health information behaviors (social media engagement and interpersonal communication) on information overload and mental health symptoms-long-term stress., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey between May and June of 2021 among the Malaysian public. The final sample size was 676 ( N = 676). A conceptual model was built to guide the data analysis. We conducted structural equation modeling (SEM), moderation and mediation analyses to examine each direct pathway, moderating and mediating effects., Results: According to the pathway analysis, we found that, during the infodemic period, engaging COVID-19 information on social media positively associated with information overload, but interpersonal communication was negatively related to it. As the proximal outcome, there was also a positive association between information overload and the final outcome, perceived stress. The moderation analysis only reported one significant interaction: risk perception weakened the association between social media engagement and information overload. A conditional indirect effect was demonstrated and the indirect associated between social media engagement and perceived stress mediated through information overload was further moderated by COVID-19 risk perception., Conclusion: This research offers new grounds for understanding health information behaviors and their consequences in the COVID-19 infodemic. We particularly highlighted the distinct functions of health information behaviors in causing information overload, as well as the importance of personal health belief in this process. Our proposed model contributes to the strategies of developing health messaging strategies that may be utilized by public health researchers and health educators in the future., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Tham, Waheed, Kim, Jeong, Chang and Ahmad.)

To date, more than 30 human peptides or proteins have been found to form amyloid fibrils, most of which are associated with human diseases. However, currently, no cure for amyloidosis exists. Therefore, development of therapeutic strategies to inhibit amyloid formation is urgently required. Although the role of some amyloidogenic proteins has not been identified in certain diseases, their self-assembling behavior largely affects their bioactivity. Human calcitonin (hCT) is a hormone peptide containing 32 amino acids and is secreted by the parafollicular cells of the thyroid gland in the human body. It can regulate the concentration of calcium ions in the blood and block the activity of osteoclasts. Therefore, calcitonin has also been considered a therapeutic peptide. However, the aggregation of hCT hinders this process, and hCT has been replaced by salmon calcitonin in drug formulations. Recently, iron oxide nanomaterials have been developed as potential materials for various applications owing to their high biocompatibility, low toxicity, and ease of functionalization. In this study, nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared using a simple chemical coprecipitation method. We first demonstrated that dopamine-conjugated Fe 3 O 4 inhibited hCT aggregation, similar to what we found when carbon dots were used as core materials in the previous study. Later, we continued to simplify the preparation process, that is, the mixing of dihydrocaffeic acid (DCA) and iron oxide NPs, to maintain their stability and inhibitory effect against hCT aggregation. Furthermore, DCA-decorated Fe 3 O 4 can dissociate preformed hCT amyloid fibrils. This appears to be one of the most promising ways to stabilize hCT in solution and may be helpful for amyloidosis treatment., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Background: Late-life depression (LLD), characterized by cognitive deficits, is considered heterogeneous across individuals. Previous studies have identified subtypes with diverse symptom profiles, but their cognitive patterns are unknown. This study aimed to investigate the subtypes of LLD and the cognitive profile of each group., Methods: In total, 109 depressed older adults were enrolled. We performed latent class analysis using Geriatric Depression Scale items as indicators to generate latent classes. We compared the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics with cognitive functions between groups and conducted regression analysis to investigate the association between class membership and variables with significant differences., Results: Two classes were identified: the "pessimistic" group was characterized by pessimistic thoughts and the "worried" group with a relatively high prevalence of worry symptoms. The two groups did not differ in sociodemographic characteristics. The "pessimistic" group showed a higher rate of past history of depression and lower age of onset. The "worried" group had more physical comorbidities and a higher rate of past history of anxiety. The "pessimistic" group was more impaired in general cognitive function, executive function, information processing speed, and attention. Lower general and executive functions were associated with the membership in the "pessimistic" group., Conclusions: Subjects with pessimistic symptoms and subjects with a propensity to worry may form two distinct subtypes of late-life depression with different cognitive profiles. Further, the cognitive evaluation of subjects with pessimistic symptoms is of utmost importance., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wang, Zhang, Dang, Liu, Fan, Tu, Zhang, Wang, Zhang, Ma, Zhang, Li, Wang, Zheng, Wang and Yu.)

Background: Curcumin has attracted much attention due to its wide range of therapeutic effects. In this study, we used serum collected from patients undergoing one-lung ventilation (OLV) to establish an in vitro acute lung injury (ALI) model to explore the potential protective mechanism of curcumin on ALI. Our study provides a new reference for the prevention and treatment of ALI induced by OLV., Methods: A549 cells were treated with 20% serum from patients undergoing OLV to establish an in vitro ALI model. Curcumin, at a dose of 40 μg/ml, was administered two hours prior to this model. The levels of inflammation and oxidative stress markers were observed by Western blot, qRT-PCR, ELISA and reactive oxygen species assay. Additionally, the expression of peroxiredoxin 6 (Prdx6) and proteins involved in the NF-κB signaling pathway was evaluated., Results: Twenty percent of serum collected from patients undergoing OLV downregulated the expression of Prdx6, leading to the activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway, which was associated with the subsequent overproduction of inflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen species. Pretreatment with curcumin restored Prdx6 downregulation and inhibited NF-κB pathway activation by suppressing the nuclear translocation of P65, eventually reducing inflammation and oxidative stress damage in A549 cells., Conclusions: Prdx6 mediated the protective function of curcumin by inhibiting the activation of the NF-κB pathway in ALI in vitro., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Animal contextual fear conditioning (CFC) models are the most-studied forms used to explore the neural substances of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In addition to the well-recognized hippocampal-amygdalar system, the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is getting more and more attention due to substantial involvement in CFC, but with a poor understanding of the specific roles of its two major constituents-dysgranular (RSCd) and granular (RSCg). The current study sought to identify their roles and underlying brain network mechanisms during the encoding processing of the rat CFC model. Rats with pharmacologically inactivated RSCd, RSCg, and corresponding controls underwent contextual fear conditioning. [ 18 F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ( 18 F-FDG PET/CT) scanning was performed for each animal. The 5-h and 24-h retrieval were followed to test the formation of contextual memory. Graph theoretic tools were used to identify the brain metabolic network involved in encoding phase, and changes of nodal (brain region) properties linked, respectively, to disturbed RSCd and RSCg were analyzed. Impaired retrieval occurred in disturbed RSCd animals, not in RSCg ones. The RSC, hippocampus (Hip), amygdala (Amy), piriform cortex (Pir), and visual cortex (VC) are hub nodes of the brain-wide network for contextual fear memory encoding in rats. Nodal degree and efficiency of hippocampus and its connectivity with amygdala, Pir, and VC were decreased in rats with disturbed RSCd, while not in those with suppressed RSCg. The RSC plays its role in contextual fear memory encoding mainly relying on its RSCd part, whose condition would influence the activity of the hippocampal-amygdalar system., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Pan, Liu, Li, Zhang, Zhang, Zhao, Zhou, Nie, Zhu, Xu and Liu.)

Objectives: Patients with psychiatric disorders have an increased risk of cardiovascular pathologies. A bidirectional feedback model between the brain and heart exists widely in both psychotic and nonpsychotic disorders. The aim of this study was to compare heart rate variability (HRV) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) functions between patients with psychotic and nonpsychotic disorders and to investigate whether subgroups defined by HRV and PWV features improve the transdiagnostic psychopathology of psychiatric classification., Methods: In total, 3448 consecutive patients who visited psychiatric or psychological health services with psychotic (N = 1839) and nonpsychotic disorders (N = 1609) and were drug-free for at least 2 weeks were selected. HRV and PWV indicators were measured via finger photoplethysmography during a 5-minute period of rest. Canonical variates were generated through HRV and PWV indicators by canonical correlation analysis (CCA)., Results: All HRV indicators but none of the PWV indicators were significantly reduced in the psychotic group relative to those in the nonpsychotic group. After adjusting for age, gender, and body mass index, many indices of HRV were significantly reduced in the psychotic group compared with those in the nonpsychotic group. CCA analysis revealed 2 subgroups defined by distinct and relatively homogeneous patterns along HRV and PWV dimensions and comprising 19.0% (subgroup 1, n = 655) and 80.9% (subgroup 2, n = 2781) of the sample, each with distinctive features of HRV and PWV functions., Conclusions: HRV functions are significantly impaired among psychiatric patients, especially in those with psychosis. Our results highlight important subgroups of psychiatric patients that have distinct features of HRV and PWV which transcend current diagnostic boundaries., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Introduction: As the main manifestation of gallstone disease, biliary colic (BC) is an episodic attack that brings patients severe pain in the right upper abdominal quadrant. Although acupuncture has been documented with significance to lead to pain relief, the immediate analgesia of acupuncture for BC still needs to be verified, and the underlying mechanism has yet to be covered. Therefore, this trial aims first to verify the immediate pain-alleviation characteristic of acupuncture for BC, then to explore its influence on the peripheral sensitised acupoint and central brain activity., Methods and Analysis: This is a randomised controlled, paralleled clinical trial, with patients and outcome assessors blinded. Seventy-two patients with gallbladder stone disease presenting with BC will be randomised into a verum acupuncture group and the sham acupuncture group. Both groups will receive one session of immediate acupuncture treatment. Improvements in patients' BC will be evaluated by the Numeric Rating Scale, and the pain threshold of acupoints will also be detected before and after treatment. During treatment, brain neural activity will be monitored with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and the needle sensation will be rated. Clinical and fNIRS data will be analysed, respectively, to validate the acupuncture effect, and correlation analysis will be conducted to investigate the relationship between pain relief and peripheral-cerebral functional changes., Ethics and Dissemination: This trial has been approved by the institutional review boards and ethics committees of the First Teaching Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, with the ethical approval identifier 2019 KL-029, and the institutional review boards and ethics committees of the First People's Hospital of Longquanyi District, with the ethical approval identifier AF-KY-2020071. The results of this trial will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and conference abstracts or posters., Trial Registration Number: CTR2000034432., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

HIV is difficult to eradicate due to the persistence of a long-lived reservoir of latently infected cells. Previous studies have shown that natural killer cells are important to inhibiting HIV infection, but it is unclear whether the administration of natural killer cells can reduce rebound viremia when anti-retroviral therapy is discontinued. Here we show the administration of allogeneic human peripheral blood natural killer cells delays viral rebound following interruption of anti-retroviral therapy in humanized mice infected with HIV-1. Utilizing genetically barcoded virus technology, we show these natural killer cells efficiently reduced viral clones rebounding from latency. Moreover, a kick and kill strategy comprised of the protein kinase C modulator and latency reversing agent SUW133 and allogeneic human peripheral blood natural killer cells during anti-retroviral therapy eliminated the viral reservoir in a subset of mice. Therefore, combinations utilizing latency reversal agents with targeted cellular killing agents may be an effective approach to eradicating the viral reservoir., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Virtually all of the many active matter systems studied so far are made of units (biofilaments, cells, colloidal particles, robots, animals, etc.) that move even when they are alone or isolated. Their collective properties continue to fascinate, and we now understand better how they are unique to the bulk transduction of energy into work. Here we demonstrate that systems in which isolated but potentially active particles do not move can exhibit specific and remarkable collective properties. Combining experiments, theory, and numerical simulations, we show that such subcritical active matter can be realized with Quincke rollers, that is, dielectric colloidal particles immersed in a conducting fluid subjected to a vertical DC electric field. Working below the threshold field value marking the onset of motion for a single colloid, we find fast activity waves, reminiscent of excitable systems, and stable, arbitrarily large self-standing vortices made of thousands of particles moving at the same speed. Our theoretical model accounts for these phenomena and shows how they can arise in the absence of confining boundaries and individual chirality. We argue that our findings imply that a faithful description of the collective properties of Quincke rollers need to consider the fluid surrounding particles., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.

Overexpression of C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) and intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) may promote homing of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). In this study, we treated ulcerative colitis animals with MSC preconditioned with or without H19 and compared the therapeutic effect of MSC and MSC-H19. We evaluated the regulatory relationship of H19 vs. miR-141/miR-139 and miR-141/miR-139 vs. ICAM-1/CXCR4. We established an ulcerative colitis mouse model to assess the effect of MSC and MSC-H19. H19 was found to bind to miR-141 and miR-139. The activity of H19 was strongly decreased in cells c-transfected with miR-141/miR-139 and WT H19. ICAM-1 was confirmed to be targeted by miR-141 and CXCR4 was targeted by miR-139. The H19 expression showed a negative regulatory relationship with the miR-141 and miR-139 expression but a positive regulatory relationship with the ICAM-1 and CXCR4 expression. In summary, the overexpression of H19 in MSC downregulated miR-139 and miR-141, thus increasing the activity of their targets ICAM-1 and CXCR4, respectively, to exhibit therapeutic effects in ulcerative colitis., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Ming-li Zhao et al.)

New food packaging has shown research significance in the face of increasing demand for high-quality foods and growing attention paid to food safety. In this study, ginger essential oil microcapsule composite films were prepared by combining microcapsules prepared by a complex coacervation method with gelatin films, and the mechanical properties and active functions of the composite films were analyzed. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry confirmed the successful encapsulation of ginger essential oil. The scanning electron microscopy of the composite films showed the microcapsules and gelatin film matrix were highly compatible. During the entire storage period, the antioxidant capacity of the ginger essential oil microcapsule films weakened more slowly than ginger essential oil microcapsules and could be maintained at a relatively high level for a long time. The microcapsule films had excellent inhibitory effects on Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus , and Bacillus subtilis. Therefore, the direct addition of microcapsules to a film matrix can broaden the application range of microcapsules and increase the duration of the release of active ingredients. Ginger essential oil microcapsule films are potential biodegradable food packaging films with long-lasting activity.

Objective: To quantitatively analyze the reticulin fiber intensity density (RFD) in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) by using the computer-aided grid point method, and preliminarily explore its correlation with the prognosis of MDS patients. Methods: Bone marrow (BM) slices from 32 primary MDS patients treated in Tongren Hospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from February 2017 to December 2019 were observed. Images were taken by the optical microscope imaging system after the Gomori staining. The computer grid marking software was developed according to the principle of the mesh micrometer to assess RFD, meanwhile, the artificial semi-quantitative were used to assess the fibrosis of bone marrow. The co-relation between the above two methods was evaluated, and the relationship between RFD and prognosis of MDS patients were further investigated with Cox regression analysis. Results: Of the patients, there were 17 males and 15 females with a median age of 69 years (32-91 years). The RFD quantitatively analyzed by the computer-based method was positively correlated with the myelofibrosis grade by the artificial semi-quantitative analysis ( r =0.497, P =0.004). The RFD in patients diagnosed with MDS complicated with excess blasts (MDS-EB) was significantly higher than that in the non-MDS-EB group((9.55%±0.75%) vs (1.71%±0.23%), P <0.001). Cox regression model analysis showed that the RFD of MDS patients had better prognostic value when compared with the artificial semi-quantitative analysis, which was also a poor prognostic factor ( RR =1.337, 95% CI : 1.085-1.648, P =0.006). The overall survival (OS) of patients with RFD>5.54% was significantly shorter than that with RFD≤5.54% ( P =0.001). The OS of MDS-EB patients with RFD>9.81% was significantly shorter than that in patients with RFD≤9.81% ( P =0.003). Conclusion: Abnormal proliferative fibrosis of bone marrow is a potential high-risk factor for poor prognosis of MDS patients.