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Limited benefit population of immune checkpoint inhibitors makes it urgent to screen predictive biomarkers for stratifying the patients. Herein, we have investigated peripheral CD4+ T cell signatures in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients receiving anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatments. It was found that the percentages of IFN-γ and IL-17A secreting naïve CD4+ T cells (Tn), and memory CD4+ T cells (Tm) expressing PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 were significantly higher in responder (R) than non-responder (NonR) NSCLC patients associated with a longer progression free survival (PFS). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the baseline IFN-γ-producing CD4+ Tn cells and PD-1+CD4+ Tm cells were the most significant signatures with the area under curve (AUC) value reaching 0.849. This was further validated in another anti-PD-1 monotherapy cohort. Conversely, high percentage of CTLA-4+CD4+ Tm cells was associated with a shorter PFS in patients receiving anti-PD-L1 monotherapy. Our study therefore elucidates the significance of functional CD4+ Tn and Tm subpopulations before the treatment in predicting the responses to anti-PD-1 treatment in Chinese NSCLC patients. The fact that there display distinct CD4+ T cell signatures in the prediction to anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 monotherapy from our study provides preliminary evidence on the feasibility of anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 combination therapy for advanced NSCLC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study was conducted to investigate the clinical features of hospital-associated infections (HAIs) caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Chinese children, and the molecular characteristics of the bacteria. Methods: Patients with HAIs caused by MRSA were identified retrospectively. All isolates were analyzed using molecular typing and antimicrobial susceptibility tests. Results: In total, 150 patients were identified, with a median age of 18 months. The most common infection was pneumonia (55.3%), followed by skin and soft tissue infections (46%). Invasive infections were observed in 52 patients (34.7%), and their hospital stay was longer compared with non-invasive cases (21 vs 12 days, p=0.047). A total of 16 sequence types (STs) were identified. ST239 and ST59 were common clones, accounting for 46% and 28% of cases, respectively. Compared with cases caused by ST239-SCCmecI-III, patients infected by ST59-SCCmecIV-V had a lower median age (11 vs 41 months, p=0.047) and more commonly developed invasive infection (50% vs 18.8%, p=0.006). Conclusions: Invasive infections accounted for a large proportion of HAIs caused by MRSA. ST59-SCCmecIV/V, a common clone in the community, caused HAIs in Chinese children, more often infected younger children and caused invasive infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed molecular analyses of Clonal Complex 59 (CC59) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from children in seven major cities across Mainland China were examined. A total of 110 CC59 isolates from invasive and non-invasive diseases were analyzed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), Staphylococcus cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing, staphylococcal protein A (spa) typing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Antibiotics susceptibilities, carriage of plasmids and 42 virulence genes and the expression of virulence factors were examined. ST59 (101/110, 91.8%) was the predominant sequence type (ST), while single locus variants (SLVs) belonging to ST338 (8/110, 7.3%) and ST375 (1/110, 0.9%) were obtained. Three SCCmec types were found, namely type III (2.7%), type IV (74.5%) and type V (22.7%). Seven spa types including t437, which accounted for 87.3%, were determined. Thirteen PFGE types were obtained. PFGE types A and B were the major types totally accounting for 81.8%. The dominant clone was ST59-t437-IVa (65.5%), followed by ST59-t437-V (14.5%). The positive rate of luks-PV and lukF-PV PVL encoding (pvl) gene was 55.5%. Plasmids were detected in 83.6% (92/110) of the strains. The plasmid size ranging from 23.4 kb to 50 kb was most prevalent which accounted for 83.7% (77/92). A significantly lower expression of hla was found in ST59-t437-IVa compared with ST59-t437-V. Among the 110 cases, 61.8% of the patients were less than 1 year old. A total of 90 cases (81.8%) were community-associated (CA) infections whereas 20 cases (18.2%) were hospital-associated (HA) infections. Out of the 110 patients, 36.4% (40/110) were diagnosed with invasive infectious diseases in which ST59-t437-IVa accounted for 67.5% (27/40). In brief, ST59-t437-IVa was proved as the dominant clone in CC59 MRSA strains. The carriage rate of pvl gene was high. CC59 MRSA could result in CA and HA infections. The majortiy of MRSA infection children were in young age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving a wide‐range color‐tunable and dynamically long‐afterglow emission in a single‐doped system remains a challenge. In this study, a unique host‐guest doped material, TPA‐PTPQ/TPA, exhibits dual‐delay emission at 516 and 605 nm, both with long lifetimes of up to 108 and 145 ms, which derives from thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) mechanisms, respectively. Notably, this host‐guest material demonstrates a temperature‐dependent dynamically reversible afterglow characteristic, transitioning green, orange, and red with a substantial spectra shift of ≈90 nm under different temperature conditions. This phenomenon is due to the diverse temperature effect on TADF and RTP emissions. These remarkable luminescence properties are successfully applied in security checks and anti‐counterfeiting encryption. This study provides valuable insights into the design of dynamically reversible dual‐delay‐emissive long‐afterglow luminescent materials based on a host‐guest doping system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]