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Purpose Deficiency of adenosine deaminase 2 (DADA2), an autosomal recessive autoinflammatory disorder caused by biallelic loss-of-function variants in adenosine deaminase 2 (ADA2), has not been systemically investigated in Chinese population yet. We aim to further characterize DADA2 cases in China. Methods A retrospective analysis of patients with DADA2 identified through whole exome sequencing (WES) at seventeen rheumatology centers across China was conducted. Clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, genotype, and treatment response were analyzed. Results Thirty patients with DADA2 were enrolled between January 2015 and December 2021. Adenosine deaminase 2 enzymatic activity was low in all tested cases to confirm pathogenicity. Median age of disease presentation was 4.3 years and the median age at diagnosis was 7.8 years. All but one patient presented during childhood and two subjects died from complications of their disease. The patients most commonly presented with systemic inflammation (92.9%), vasculitis (86.7%), and hypogammaglobinemia (73.3%) while one patient presented with bone marrow failure (BMF) with variable cytopenia. Twenty-three (76.7%) patients were treated with TNF inhibitors (TNFi), while two (6.7%) underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). They all achieved clinical remission. A total of thirty-nine ADA2 causative variants were identified, six of which were novel. Conclusion To establish early diagnosis and improve clinical outcomes, genetic screening and/or testing of ADA2 enzymatic activity should be performed in patients with suspected clinical features. TNFi is considered as first line treatment for those with vascular phenotypes. HSCT may be beneficial for those with hematological disease or in those who are refractory to TNFi.

Purpose: Deficiency of adenosine deaminase 2 (DADA2) is an autosomal recessive autoinflammatory disorder caused by biallelic loss-of-function mutations in ADA2, characterized by systemic inflammation, vasculitis, immunodeficiency, and/or hematologic abnormalities. Methods: A retrospective analysis of patients with DADA2 diagnosed by whole exome sequencing at 17 rheumatology centers across China was conducted. Clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, genotype and treatment responses were analyzed.Results Thirty patients with DADA2 were enrolled in this cohort between January 2015 and December 2021. Median age at onset was 4.3 years and the median age at diagnosis was 7.8 years. All but one patient presented during childhood and two subjects in the cohort died from DADA2-related complications. The patients presented with systemic inflammation (92.9%), vasculitis (86.7%), and hypogammaglobinemia (73.3%) while one patient with pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) and bone marrow failure (BMF) with variable cytopenia was observed in our cohort. Twenty-three (76.7%) patients received TNF inhibitors and all achieved clinical remission. Homozygous variants and compound heterozygous variants were identified in 5 and 25 patients, respective. Two patients received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), and both got remission. Among 39 unique variants in our cohort, six is novel.Conclusion: In order to establish the diagnosis early and prevent devastating clinical outcomes, genetic screening and/ or testing of adenosine deaminase enzymatic activity should be performed in patients with suspected clinical features. TNF inhibitors can be first line drug for patients with vasculitic DADA2. HSCT is an alternative choice for patients with refractory to TNF inhibitors or hematological disorders.

Most complex renal stones are managed primarily with percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). However, PCNL is still a great challenge for surgeons because of poor comprehension on complex adjacent structures. Novel techniques are required to assist in planning and navigation.To apply and evaluate the Hisense computer-assisted surgery (CAS) system in PCNL.A total of 60 patients with complex renal stones were included. Thirty patients in the CAS group had three-dimensional (3D) virtual models constructed with the CAS system. The model assisted in planning and navigating in the CAS system. Thirty patients in the control group planned and navigated as standard PCNL, without the application of the CAS system. Success rate of one attempt, operation time, initial stone-free rate, decrease in hemoglobin, and complications were collected and analyzed.There were no statistically significant differences in the baseline characteristics or planning characteristics. The success rate of one puncturing attempt (90%Compared with standard PCNL, CAS-assisted PCNL had advantages in terms of the puncturing success rate and stone-free rate. The Hisense CAS System was recommended to assist in preoperative planning and intraoperative navigation for an intuitive, precise and convenient PCNL.

In this study, long-term continuous monitoring of atmospheric new particle formation was conducted from 2015 to 2017 in the Shanghai suburbs using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS). Combined with meteorological parameters, gaseous pollutants, and PM

Aims Melanoma is lethal. Constitutively active signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) has been proposed as a pathogenic factor and a therapeutic target of melanoma. Brevilin A, a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from Centipeda minima (L.) A. Br. et Aschers., has been shown to exert antineoplastic effects and inhibit the STAT3 pathway in nasopharyngeal, lung, prostate and breast cancer cells. This study aimed to determine whether brevilin A has anti-melanoma effects, and whether STAT3 signaling is involved in the effects. Main methods A mouse A375 xenograft model, as well as A375 and A2058 cell models were employed to assess the in vivo and in vitro anti-melanoma effects of brevilin A. A375 cells stably expressing STAT3C, a constitutively active STAT3 mutant, were used to determine the role of STAT3 signaling in brevilin A's anti-melanoma effects. Key findings Intraperitoneal injection of brevilin A dose-dependently inhibited melanoma growth in mice and suppressed STAT3 phosphorylation in the tumors. In cultured cells, brevilin A reduced cell viability, induced apoptosis, suppressed migration and invasion, decreased protein levels of phospho-JAK2 (Y1007/1008) and phospho-STAT3 (Tyr705), and restrained STAT3 nuclear localization. STAT3 over-activation diminished brevilin A's effects on cell viability and migration. Collectively, brevilin A exerts anti-melanoma effects and these effects are at least in part attributed to the inhibition of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway. Significance Our findings provide a pharmacological basis for developing brevilin A as a new phytotherapeutic agent against melanoma.

Background Salvia splendens Ker-Gawler, scarlet or tropical sage, is a tender herbaceous perennial widely introduced and seen in public gardens all over the world. With few molecular resources, breeding is still restricted to traditional phenotypic selection, and the genetic mechanisms underlying phenotypic variation remain unknown. Hence, a high-quality reference genome will be very valuable for marker-assisted breeding, genome editing, and molecular genetics. Findings We generated 66 Gb and 37 Gb of raw DNA sequences, respectively, from whole-genome sequencing of a largely homozygous scarlet sage inbred line using Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) single-molecule real-time and Illumina HiSeq sequencing platforms. The PacBio de novo assembly yielded a final genome with a scaffold N50 size of 3.12 Mb and a total length of 808 Mb. The repetitive sequences identified accounted for 57.52% of the genome sequence, and 54,008 protein-coding genes were predicted collectively with ab initio and homology-based gene prediction from the masked genome. The divergence time between S. splendens and Salvia miltiorrhiza was estimated at 28.21 million years ago (Mya). Moreover, 3,797 species-specific genes and 1,187 expanded gene families were identified for the scarlet sage genome. Conclusions We provide the first genome sequence and gene annotation for the scarlet sage. The availability of these resources will be of great importance for further breeding strategies, genome editing, and comparative genomics among related species.

Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis, named Chong Lou, is considered an antitumor substance. In this study, we investigated the effect of PP-22, a monomer purified from P. polyphylla var. yunnanensis, on the nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2 in vitro. The results showed that PP-22 could inhibit the proliferation of CNE-2 cells via the induction of apoptosis, with evidence of the characteristic morphological changes in the apoptosis in the nucleus and an increase in Annexin V-positive cells. In addition, we found that PP-22 could activate the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and that this activation was reversed by SB203580, a specific inhibitor of the p38 MAPK pathway. In contrast, PP-22 promoted apoptosis via an intrinsic pathway, including the endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway, in a caspase-dependent manner. A further study showed that PP-22 also induced apoptosis by downregulating the signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) pathway, and the inhibitory effect was also confirmed by STAT3 small interfering RNA. In addition, PP-22 could promote autophagy by inhibiting the extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) pathway. And autophagy plays a protective role against apoptosis. Together, these data show that PP-22 promotes autophagy and apoptosis in the nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 cell line.

This paper aims to improve and control hydrodynamic performance of three-dimensional airfoils and investigate hydrodynamic performance of three-dimensional airfoil with tubercles on leading-edge by imitating the sinusoidal leading-edge systematically. Based on the DES method, a series of parameters, such as amplitudes and numbers of tubercles, had been studied via the FLUENT software with model constructed by ICEM software and divided by structural grid. According to the results, the amplitudes significantly affect the hydrodynamic performance of three-dimensional airfoil. With maintaining other conditions,tubercle airfoils can make stall angle delay, raise the lift and the drag ratio coefficient. Especially, if there is a bigger attack angle, it is better to reduce resistance and save energy, which will be a cornerstone for further study. It is of vital importance to find out appropriate amplitudes and numbers of tubercles to achieve further progress in hydrodynamic performance of three-dimensional airfoil.

Mucopolysaccharidosis I (MPS I) is a lysosomal storage disease that results from the deficiency of α-l-iduronidase and is transmitted in an autosomally recessive manner. This report describes the first systematic screening for mutations in Chinese MPS I patients from mainland China, wherein we have summarized the phenotype/genotype correlation of the individuals in Chinese MPS I patients. Mutational analyses were performed in 57 unrelated Chinese MPS I patients. Overall, 105 mutant alleles were identified from a set of 41 different mutations. Notably, of these 41 mutations, 27 were novel mutations that consisted of 8 splicing mutations (c.1-2C>G, c.296+4G>A, c.300-1G>C, c.792+1G>C, c.973-4G>A, c.1189+5G>T, c.1402+1G>T and c.1402+2T>G), 1 nonsense mutation (p.W41X), 1 insertion (c.668-670ins GCG), 5 duplications (c.531dupT, c.657dupG, c.883dupC, c.1147dupG and c.1225dupG), 3 deletions (c.349delT, c.1593delG and c.1244-1271del27),1 nucleotide substitution c.2T>C and 8 missense mutations (p.H33P,p.F52L, p.G168V,p.T179R,p. E182D, p.L237R, p.L238R and p.L421P). The missense mutations p.A79V and p.L346R, which accounted for 16.7% (19/114) and 12.3% (14/114) respectively, were the common mutations in Chinese patients but were rare in the mutational profiles reported for other populations. These results indicate that Chinese MPS I patients may have a different mutational spectrum compared to those of other populations. Moreover, for the first time in China, molecular genetic methods were used for prenatal diagnosis of six cases in five families.

In this paper, we present a variation of fuzzy local information c-means (FLICM) algorithm for image segmentation by introducing a novel tradeoff factor and an effective kernel metric. The proposed tradeoff factor utilizes both local spatial and gray level information in a new way, and the Euclidean distance in FLICM algorithm is substituted by Gaussian Radial Basis function. By the novel factor and kernel metric, the new algorithm has edge identification ability and is insensitive to noise. Experiments result on both synthetic and real world images show that the proposed algorithm is effective and efficient, providing higher segmenting accuracy than other competitive algorithms.

TAR DNA binding protein-43(TDP-43) and fused in sarcoma/translocated in liposarcoma protein (FUS/TLS) have been found to be associated with two neurodegenerative diseases - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Mutations in TDP-43 and FUS/TLS lead to abnormal protein expressions, which result in altered RNA processing. The pathological changes of TDP-43 and FUS/TLS-associated ALS and FTD are similar. Although the interactions between ALS and FTD remain unknown, it is speculated that TDP-43 and FUS/TLS-associated neurodegenerative diseases may share similar pathogenesis.

Hirayama disease is a rare disease characterized by juvenile-onset of asymmetric amyotrophy, of which etiology has not been clarified. The aim of our study was to investigate the clinical and neurophysiologic characteristics of Hirayama disease.Neurophysiological tests, including nerve conduction studies (NCS), F-wave and routine electromyography (EMG), were performed in seventy-three patients with Hirayama disease. EMG was selectively performed on upper and lower extremities, sternocleidomast and thoracic paravertebral muscles according to the clinical features of the patients.Abnormal NCS parameters, including decreased compound muscle action potentials or delayed distal motor latency, were found in 34.2% (25/73) and 12.3% (9/73) of the patients, respectively. A total of 24.6% (18/73) of the patients showed decreased F-wave frequency. EMG demonstrated the presence of neurogenic lesions in all patients with spontaneous potentials, prolonged duration or augmentation of amplitude in motor unit potentials (MUPs), or a single pattern of MUP recruitment. About 17.8% (13/73) of the patients showed neurogenic lesions, mostly in the C7-8 level of the cervical cord, only in the upper extremity of affected side, whereas 35.6% (26/73) of the patients possessed lesions in the upper extremities bilaterally. A total of 46.6% (34/73) of patients exhibited abnormalities in the lower extremities, sterno- cleidomast or thoracic paravertebral muscle. Changes in motor NCS were significantly correlated with muscle strength.EMG detects diffused subclinical neurogenic lesion in a high proportion of patients with Hirayama disease. Results of our study challenge the hypothesis that Hirayama disease is a type of cervical myelopathy.

Mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I; MIM# 252800) is an autosomal recessive disease that results from the deficiency in the lysosomal enzyme α-L-iduronidase(IDUA). IDUA is one of the enzymes involved in degradation of glycosaminoglycans heparan sulphate and dermatan sulphate. The deficiency of IDUA leads to widespread accumulation of partially degraded mucopolysaccharides inside lysosomes, resulting in progressive cellular and multiorgan dysfunction. Up to now there is no definitely effective treatment for this disorder, therefore it is important to provide an accurate genetic diagnosis and prenatal diagnosis for the MPSI families. This study was conducted to detect IDUA gene mutation in patients with MPSIand make a definite diagnosis of homozygote or heterozygote and make first trimester prenatal diagnosis.The 2 male probands included in this study were diagnosed as MPSI patients in Peking Union Medical College Hospital, case 1 was 2 years old and case 2 was 5 years old. Genomic DNA was extracted from leucocytes in the 2 patients and 2 mothers' cultured amniocytes. IDUA gene DNA sequence was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the PCR products were sequenced directly. Novel mutations were analyzed in 100 normal chromosomes.The genotype of case 1 was p.L238R/c.883InsC, while of case 2 was c.531InsT/p.L346R. The fetal case 1 did not inherit the same pathogenic mutations as proband 1, the activity of the IDUA in amniocytes was 9.0 nmol/(h·mg pr). The fetal case 2 inherited the same pathogenic mutations with the proband, the genotype of fetal 2 was c.531InsT/p.L346R, the activity of the IDUA in amniocytes was 0.5 nmol/(h·mg pr).Of the 4 mutations found in 2 MPS I patients, p. L238R, c.883InsC, c.531InsT were novel. The fetal case 1 was diagnosed as normal fetus while the fetus 2 was diagnosed as affected. The results of the two kinds of prenatal diagnostic methods were correspondent with each other.

Mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I) is an autosomal recessive disease resulting from the deficiency in the lysosomal enzyme alpha-L-iduronidase (IDUA). The present study was conducted to identify IDUA gene mutations in attenuated (MPS I H/S and MPS I S) patients with MPS I in northern China.Fourteen exons with adjacent intronic sequences of the IDUA gene in 11 MPS I patients were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the PCR products were sequenced directly and origin analysis was conducted.Seven mutations were detected in the 11 MPS I patients, i.e., c.236 C to T (p. A79V), c.266 G to A (p.R89Q), c.265 C to T (p.R89W), c.532G to A (p.E178K), c.589G to A (p.G197S), c.1037T to G (p.L346R), and c.1877 G to A (p.W626X). All of them were known mutations. Six patients were homozygotes and 1 was heterozygote with nonsense mutation. In addition, 9 reported single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) were detected, i.e., p.A8, p.A20, p.H33Q, p.R105Q, p.A314, p. A361T, p.T388, p.T410 and p.V454I.The mutation spectrum of the IDUA gene in attenuated MPS I Chinese patients may be different from that in patients from other countries.