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Alveolar soft-part sarcoma is a rare type of soft tissue malignant tumor. Although the tumor can occur in many parts of the body, primary alveolar soft-part sarcoma of the lung is extremely rare. According to previous literature, only 3 cases of primary alveolar soft-part sarcoma of the lung were reported, and no comprehensive analysis was conducted on these cases. Here, we describe another case of alveolar soft-part sarcoma in the lung, where the negative results of immunohistochemical staining cause extreme difficulty in distinguishing this lesion from other tumors. A 30-year-old Chinese male presented with chest pain and dyspnea. Computed tomography revealed a pulmonary mass, and biopsy results showed vacuolar tumor cells with abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm. A number of immunohistochemical markers were negative, but the tumor cells were positive for TFE3 and ASPSCR1::TFE3 fusion gene. No other tumor masses were found in the patient after whole-body scanning. The final diagnosis was primary alveolar soft-part sarcoma of the lung. Pathologists should consider the possibility of alveolar soft-part sarcoma in lung tumors with typical "organ like" or "acinar like" cell nests, where the tumor cells are large, vacuolated, and the nucleolus is obvious. After excluding metastasis from other sites, TFE3 immunohistochemical staining and ASPSCR1::TFE3 fusion gene detection are recommended for the diagnosis of primary alveolar soft-part sarcoma.

Objective Endogenous hormones regulate numerous physiological processes in humans. Some of them are routinely measured in blood, saliva and/or urine for the diagnosis of disorders. The analysis of fluids may, however, require multiple samples collected at different time points to avoid the high variability in the concentration of some hormones. In contrast, hair analysis has been proposed as an interesting alternative to reveal average hormone levels over a longer period. In this work, we developed and validated an analytical method for analyzing 36 endogenous steroid and thyroid hormones and one pineal hormone in human hair using ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Methods Sample preparation involved hair decontamination, pulverization, methanol extraction, and purification with C18-solid phase extraction. Extracts were then divided into two portions, respectively injected into an UPLC-MS/MS system, and analyzed using two different instrumental methods. The method was applied to a healthy female population aged 25–45 years. Results The method was validated on supplemented hair samples for the 37 targeted hormones, and its application to the population under study allowed to detect 32 compounds in 2–100% of the samples. Complete reference intervals (2.5–97.5th percentiles) were established for estrone, 17β-estradiol, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, progesterone, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, cortisone, cortisol and 3,3’,5-triiodo-L-thyronine. Hair cortisone, cortisol, tetrahydrocortisone and tetrahydrocortisol concentrations were highly correlated with each other, with Kendall’s τ correlation coefficients ranging from 0.52 to 0.68. Conclusion Allowing the detection of 32 hormones from different chemical classes, the present method will allow to broaden hormonal profiling for better identifying endocrine disorders.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), as important liquid biopsy target, can provide valuable information for cancer progress monitoring and individualized treatment. However, current isolation platforms incapable of balancing capture efficiency, specificity, cell viability, and gentle release have restricted the clinical applications of CTCs. Herein, inspired by the structure and functional merits of natural membrane interfaces, we established an antibody-engineered red blood cell (RBC-Ab) affinity interface on microfluidic chip for high-performance isolation and release of CTCs. The lateral fluidity, pliability, and anti-adhesion property of the RBC microfluidic interface enabled efficient CTCs capture (96.5%), high CTCs viability (96.1%), and high CTCs purity (average 4.2-log depletion of leukocytes). More importantly, selective lysis of RBCs by simply changing the salt concentration was utilized to destroy the affinity interface for efficient and gentle release of CTCs without nucleic acid contamination. Using this chip, CTCs were successfully detected in colon cancer samples with 90% sensitivity and 100% specificity (20 patients and 10 healthy individuals). After the release process, KRAS gene mutations of CTCs were identified from all the 5 cancer samples, which was consistent with the results of tissue biopsy. We expect this RBC interface strategy will inspire further biomimetic interface construction for rare cell analysis.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has become a universal and chronic global public health concern and causes multiple complex complications. In order to meet the rapidly growing demand for T2DM treatment, increased research has been focused on hypoglycemic drugs. Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) Iljinsk is the only living species of the genus Cyclocarya Iljinskaja, whose leaves have been extensively used as a functional tea to treat obesity and diabetes in China. An enormous amount of very recent pharmacological research on the leaves of C. paliurus has demonstrated that they carry out numerous biological activities, such as hypoglycemic, anti-inflammatory, and intestinal microbiota regulation. Multiple in vitro and in vivo studies have also shown that the extracts of C. paliurus leaves are innocuous and safe. This study aims to provide an up-to-date review of the botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacological effects against diabetes, toxicology, and clinical studies of C. paliurus leaves, in hopes of promoting a better understanding of their role in the prevention and treatment of T2DM.

Toxoplasma gondiiis the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, a zoonotic disease that poses a threat to human health and a considerable loss to livestock farming. At present, clinical therapeutic drugs mainly targetT. gondiitachyzoites and fail to eradicate bradyzoites. Developing a safe and effective vaccine against toxoplasmosis is urgent and important.T. gondiipossesses dense granule organelles that secrete immunogenic dense granule proteins (GRAs). GRA5 localizes to the parasitophorous vacuole membrane (PVM) in the tachyzoite stage and to the cyst wall in the bradyzoite stage. Here we report thatgra5knockoutT. gondiistrain is avirulent and fails to form cysts, but stimulates sero-conversion in mice. We next investigated the protective efficacy of ME49Δgra5vaccination againstT. gondiiinfection. All the immunized mice survived the challenge infection with either wild-type RH, ME49, VEG tachyzoites or ME49 cysts. Remarkably, ME49Δgra5tachyzoites inoculationin situattenuated the growth of murine breast tumor (4T1) in mice and prevented 4T1’s lung metastasis. ME49Δgra5inoculation might upregulate the levels of Th1 cytokines and tumor-infiltrating T cells in tumor microenvironment (TME) and trigger anti-tumor responses by increasing the number of NK, B, T cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells (DCs) in spleen. Collectively, the results support the potential of ME49Δgra5as attenuated live vaccine againstT. gondiiinfection and breast cancer.Author summaryThe zoonotic toxoplasmosis poses a great disease burden to humans and big loss to livestock farming. At present, clinical therapeutic drugs mainly targetT. gondiitachyzoites but have no effect on bradyzoites. A safe and effective vaccine against toxoplasmosis is urgent and important. Dense granule proteins (GRAs) are a group of immunoactive proteins secreted byT. gondiidense granule organelles. GRA5 is located on the parasitophorous vacuole membrane (PVM) at the tachyzoite stage and on the cyst wall at the bradyzoite stage. We discovered that thegra5knockoutT. gondiistrain became avirulent and failed to form cysts in mice. ME49Δgra5immunized mice survived the challenge infection of wild-type RH, ME49, and VEG tachyzoites, and ME49 cysts. Meanwhile, ME49Δgra5tachyzoites inoculationin situremarkably attenuated the growth of murine breast tumor (4T1) in mice including the injected and distant tumors, as well as prevented 4T1’s lung metastasis. This results support the potential of ME49Δgra5as attenuated live vaccine againstT. gondiiinfection and breast cancer.

Bang Li,1,2,&ast; Yan Liu,1,2,&ast; Jiao Peng,3 Chao Sun,2 Weiqing Rang1 1Hunan Key Laboratory of Typical Environmental Pollution and Health Hazards, School of Public Health, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Public Health, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pathogen Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Weiqing RangHunan Key Laboratory of Typical Environmental Pollotion and Health Hazards, School of Public Health, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, The 28th of Changsheng Road, Hengyang, Hunan, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail rwqktz2018@126.comPurpose: To explore the esophageal cancer (EC) incidence and mortality trends and risk factors in China during 2005– 2015.Materials and Methods: The data were stratified by area (urban, rural), gender (male, female), and age groups (0 ∼, 5 ∼, …, 85 ∼). The age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) and mortality rate (ASMR), age-specific incidence and mortality were calculated to describe the trends, which were analyzed by Joinpoint software, negative binomial regression model, and age-period-cohort model.Results: Trends in EC ASIR decreased markedly during 2010– 2015 (APC=− 6.14%, P< 0.05), and the average annual percent change (AAPC) value was − 8.07% (95% confidence interval (CI): − 9.98∼− 6.12) for rural areas during 2005– 2015. The ASMR was on a fast-downward trend after 2011 (APC=− 6.67%, P< 0.05), with AAPC values of − 1.34% (95% CI: − 2.56∼− 0.19) for males, − 3.39% (95% CI: − 5.65, − 1.07) for females, and − 9.67% (95% CI: − 10.56∼− 8.77) for rural areas during 2005– 2015. The age-specific incidence and mortality increased with age. The risk of EC for males was 3.1675 times higher than females (P< 0.001), and for urban areas, it was 0.58 times larger than rural (P< 0.001). The age and period effects presented an increasing trend, with a decreasing trend for the cohort effects in incidence and mortality risk. Later birth cohorts presented lower risks than previous birth cohorts.Conclusion: ASIR and ASMR in China are higher in males than females, and higher in rural than urban areas, which have decreased during 2005– 2015, especially in rural areas. The incidence increased with age up to the peak age group of 75. Area, gender, and age were independent risk factors for EC incidence.Keywords: esophageal cancer, junction regression, negative binomial regression model, age-period-cohort analyses

To research the environmental behavior of chiral pesticides in waters and sediments in the Wuhan section of the Yangtze River basin and evaluate their ecological risk, a quantitative method for the detection of 12 chiral pesticides was established based on ultra performance liquid chromatography-electrospray (UPLC) ionization (ESI) tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. The analysis results suggest that the overall a low detection rates and concentrations of the 12 chiral pesticides in surface waters and surface sediments, but the concentrations of paclobutrazol, tebuconazole and hexaconazole were relatively high among them. All the chiral pesticides detected in this study area have stereoselectivity, with S-Paclobutrazol and (-)-Hexaconazole being preferentially degraded in most of the study area, while the stereoselective degradation pattern of tebuconazole was more complicated. ECOSAR simulation method allows deriving that hexaconazole poseded a low (or lower) ecological risk to aquatic algae and paclobutrazol had a low (or even higher) ecological risk to whole aquatic organisms. The levels of most other chiral pesticide residues were acceptable.

In the past few years, bioinspired eco-friendly superhydrophobic materials (EFSMs) have made great breakthroughs, especially in the fields of environment, energy and biology, which have made remarkable contributions to the sustainable development of the natural environment. However, some potential challenges still exist, which urgently need to be systematically summarized to guide the future development of this field. Herein, in this review, initially, we discuss the five typical superhydrophobic models, namely, the Wenzel, Cassie, Wenzel-Cassie, "lotus", and "gecko" models. Then, the existence of superhydrophobic creatures in nature and artificial EFSMs are summarized. Then, we focus on the applications of EFSMs in the fields of environment (self-cleaning, wastewater purification, and membrane distillation), energy (solar evaporation, heat accumulation, and batteries), and biology (biosensors, biomedicine, antibacterial, and food packaging). Finally, the challenges and developments of eco-friendly superhydrophobic materials are highlighted.