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We aim to investigate the proportion and function of regulatory T (Treg) cells, as well as mTORC activity in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) patients. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 15 CIDP and healthy controls (HC) were collected. Treg and responsive T (Tresp) cells were isolated. The inhibition rate of Treg cells was analyzed with and without rapamycin. The percentage of CD4 + CD25highFoxP3+ Tregs was higher in CIDP than in HCs (median 3.06 % vs 1.98 %, P = 0.014). The suppressive function of CIDP Tregs was normal compared with that of HCs. The activity of mTORC1 and mTORC2 revealed by pAKT and p4EBP1 in Treg cells was not significantly different between CIDP and HC. The percentage of Treg cells showed no difference in the presence or absence of rapamycin, while the suppressive function of CIDP and HC Tregs was dramatically diminished in the presence of rapamycin. The percentage of P-akt in Tregs was also reduced in the presence of rapamycin. In conclusion, the percentage and suppressive function of Tregs were not impaired in CIDP patients. The presence of rapamycin had no effect on the percentage of Treg cells but could reduce the suppressive function of CIDP and HC Tregs, possibly by reducing P-Akt., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Jingwen Niu reports financial support was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Fund. Mingsheng Liu reports financial support was provided by the National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding. If there are other authors, they 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 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To explore the ultrasonographic characteristics of SLE-related peripheral neuropathy (PN) using nerve ultrasound., Methods: Patients with SLE were recruited consecutively between December 2022 and June 2023. Detailed clinical assessment and nerve ultrasound were conducted on each SLE patient and healthy control (HC) at predetermined sites of peripheral nerves. The upper limit of the CSA for each nerve location was defined as 95th percentile in healthy controls for the identification of nerve enlargement. Nerve conduction studies (NCS) and relevant ancillary examinations were conducted on all SLE patients for comparisons., Results: A total of 32 SLE female patients and age- and gender-marched 52 HC were finally recruited. At M6 (P = 0.041) point of median nerve, U1 (P < 0.001) and U6-10 (P < 0.001, =0.008, <0.001, <0.001, <0.001, respectively) points of ulnar nerve, the CSA in SLE patients were remarkably higher than that in HC. Mild and moderate nerve enlargement were detected in 12 and 20 SLE patients, respectively. Only 12 tested nerves showed both axonal damage in electrophysiological studies and nerve enlargement under ultrasound., Conclusion: Nerve enlargement was extremely common in SLE patients, mainly in the forms of mild to moderate and focal thickening in upper limbs. There was significant inconsistency between NCS and ultrasound in detecting peripheral nerve involvement and a combined examination using NCS and nerve ultrasound might be more effective in detecting SLE-related PN., 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 B.V.)

Objective: We aim to describe the long-term outcome of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) after immune treatment in a Chinese cohort., Methods: Between March 2015 and March 2023, 89 patients fulfilling the criteria for CIDP were followed up for a median of 22 months after treatment. Nine had positive antibodies against nodal-paranodal cell-adhesion molecules. Patients were treated according to clinical requirements with prednisone, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) and/or immunosuppressant., Results: A total of 78/89 patients had decreased inflammatory neuropathy cause and treatment (INCAT) scores at the last follow-up. For CIDP patients treated with steroids, 35 were stable without relapse after cessation or with a small maintenance dose; 2 relapsed at a high dose (20 mg/day); 15 relapsed at a low dosage (<20 mg/day) and 11 did not respond. The INCAT before treatment was significantly lower in those without relapse (median INCAT 2 vs 3, p=0.030). IVIg was effective in 37/52 CIDP patients. 28 CIDP patients and 4 autoimmune nodopathy patients were treated with immunosuppressants. The average INCAT was 3.3±1.9 before and 1.9±1.3 after immunosuppressant treatment (p=0.001) in CIDP., Conclusion: The long-term prognosis of CIDP patients was generally favourable. Nearly half of our patients treated with steroid were stable without relapse after cessation or with a small maintenance dose. The risk of relapse was higher in those with high INCAT. We recommend slowly tapering prednisone based on clinical judgement., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Spatial proteomics has recently garnered significant interest, as it offers to provide unprecedented insight into biological processes in both health and disease, by connecting protein expression patterns from the subcellular level to the tissue or even organism level. These high-content approaches generally rely on a high degree of multiplexing, whereby multiple proteins can be detected simultaneously. The most versatile multiplexing approaches utilize antibodies to confer specificity for various intracellular proteins of interest. Therefore, these methods must be able to differentiate many antibodies at once. In this chapter, we describe a simple and rapid approach to labeling antibodies with distinct epitope tags in a site-specific manner. This allows multiple antibodies, even from the same host species, to be uniquely identified and detected and offers a simple approach for spatial proteomic applications., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants which are widely present in environment and harmful to human health. In this study, an efficient and convenient magnetic solid phase extraction method with C 60 modified magnetic polyamido-amine (PAMAM) dendrimers as sorbents was established for enriching trace amounts of PCBs in beverage samples. Gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) was utilized for analysis of PCBs. Parameters affecting extraction efficiency were optimized. Under optimal parameters, good linearity can be achieved in concentration range of 0.001-20 μg L -1 and 0.002-20 μg L -1 for nine selected PCBs. The limits of detection for PCBs were in the range of 0.1-0.2 ng L -1 . The spiked recoveries were in the range of 87.0 %-115.1 % (n = 3). The results proved that this established method was reliable for monitoring trace PCBs in beverage samples., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can cause adverse reactions in the nervous system, with the incidence rate ranging from 0.1% to 12%, and 80% occurring within the first 4 months of ICI application. It can cause lesions in various parts of the nervous system, including aseptic meningitis, meningoencephalitis, necrotizing encephalitis, brainstem encephalitis, transverse myelitis and other central nervous system diseases. It can also cause cranial peripheral neuropathy, multifocal radicular neuropathy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, spinal radicular neuropathy and myasthenia gravis, myopathy, etc. For these complications of the nervous system, diagnosis could be made by sufficient collection of disease manifestations combined with imaging, cerebrospinal fluid examinations, electro-encephalogram or electro myography to exclude infection or tumor progression. In the treatment of severe cases, ICIs should be discontinued and treated with high doses of glucocorticoid or gamma globulin with systemic support. After neurological adverse reactions, the prognosis of severe cases is poor.

Objective: To explore the clinical features of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) spectrum disease (NMOSD) with connective tissue disease (CTD)., Methods: The clinical features of 184 NMO/NMOSD patients (NMO/NMOSD: 119/184, 64.7%; NMO/NMOSD-CTD: 65/184, 35.3%) from May 2013 to May 2014 were analyzed retrospectively. And the effectiveness of long-term treatment of immunosuppressive drugs in NMOSD was evaluated., Results: NMO/NMOSD-CTD patients had significantly higher female percentage (93.8% vs 83.2%, P < 0.05) and significantly higher percentage of patients with cerebral spinal fluid (CSF)-restricted oligoclonal band (OB)(41.5% vs 21.9%, P < 0.05). As compared with NMO/NMOSD-CTD counterparts, NMO/NMOSD patients had significantly higher percentage of non-specific lesions on brain MRI (62.5% vs 35.9%, P < 0.01). After >6 months consecutive long-term treatment of immunosuppressive drugs, the relapse rate post-treatment (0.36 ± 0.85) was significantly lower than that pre-treatment (2.91 ± 4.10, P < 0.01). And no significant difference existed in expanded disability status scale (EDSS) score between pre-and post-treatment. When using azathioprine (AZA), the percentage of relapse was significantly higher in NMO/NMOSD-CTD patients (50.0%) versus NMO/NMOSD ones (18.5%, P = 0.064); When using cyclophosphamide (CTX), there was no such significant difference., Conclusion: Female patients are more susceptible to have NMO/NMOSD with CTD. NMO/NMOSD-CTD patients tend to have higher percentage of CSF-restricted OB and fewer non-specific lesions on brain MRI. AZA and CTX may effectively reduce relapses in both NMO/NMOSD and NMO/NMOSD-CTD patients. However CTX is superior to AZA for reducing relapses in NMO/NMOSD-CTD patients.

The long-standing doctrine regarding the functional organization of the direct dorsal column (DDC) pathway is the "somatotopic map" model, which suggests that somatosensory afferents are primarily organized by receptive field instead of modality. Using modality-specific genetic tracing, here we show that ascending mechanosensory and proprioceptive axons, two main types of the DDC afferents, are largely segregated into a medial-lateral pattern in the mouse dorsal column and medulla. In addition, we found that this modality-based organization is likely to be conserved in other mammalian species, including human. Furthermore, we identified key morphological differences between these two types of afferents, which explains how modality segregation is formed and why a rough "somatotopic map" was previously detected. Collectively, our results establish a new functional organization model for the mammalian direct dorsal column pathway and provide insight into how somatotopic and modality-based organization coexist in the central somatosensory pathway.