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Objective·In view of the low funding rate of the Young Scientists Fund of National Natural Science Foundation of China in the medical field, this research conducted an in-depth investigation of the applicants in a medical school and quantitatively analyzed the influencing factors of project establishment, so as to provide reference for further improving the quality of project application and strengthening the training of young medical talents.Methods·A cross-sectional survey was used to select applicants from secondary schools of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and its 13 affiliated hospitals who had experience in applying for the fund from 2020 to 2022. Logistic stepwise regression model was applied to modeling and analysis by using the project application result as the dependent variable and the applicants' basic information and application status as independent variables.Results·The analysis results of 921 applicants showed that educational background (OR=1.86, 95%CI 1.14‒3.04), graduate university (OR=2.45, 95%CI 1.47‒4.08), sufficient preliminary work foundation (OR=4.22, 95%CI 2.44‒7.29), average impact factor of representative works (OR=1.10, 95%CI 1.04‒1.17), and total self-evaluation score of application documents (OR=1.06, 95%CI 1.04‒1.08) were the main influencing factors for project approval. The average impact factor and the highest impact factor of the approved representative works showed an increasing trend year by year. In addition, the influencing factors for the approval of young doctors and full-time researchers were different. The longer the graduation time of young doctors, the lower the approval rate.Conclusion·The funding rate of Young Scientists Fund is low, and the requirements for scientific research achievements are increasing year by year. Attention should be paid to early accumulation and improving the quality of application writing. Further measures should be taken to strengthen the early training of young medical talents, improve cultivation measures and consolidate research foundations.

Objective·To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and malignant tumors based on the Shanghai community elderly cohort.Methods·The study subjects were selected from the Shanghai community elderly cohort established from February to August 2019, with a total of 17 948 people. The study subjects were divided into 4 groups according to self-reported presence or absence of tumors and/or cardiovascular diseases during the baseline survey: tumor-free and non-cardiovascular disease group, single cardiovascular disease group, single tumor group and tumor cardiovascular disease co-occurrence group. The differences among the four groups of subjects were collected and compared in terms of demographic characteristics and physiological indicators, daily living habits (smoking, drinking tea, drinking coffee, drinking carbonated drink, drinking alcohol, sedentary time, physical activity level and sleep quality), past medical history, psychological status (depression and anxiety) and dietary compliance.Results·Among the study subjects, 60.1% of tumor patients were complicated with cardiovascular diseases. The differences among the four groups of subjects in age, gender, educational level, pre-retirement occupation, waist circumference, hip circumference and body mass index were statistically significant (all P

Purpose: Generating polar map (PM) from [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET images is challenging and inaccurate using existing automatic methods that rely on the myocardial anatomical integrity in PET images. This study aims to enhance the accuracy of PM generated from [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET images and explore the potential value of PM in detecting reactive fibrosis after myocardial infarction and assessing its relationship with cardiac function. Methods: We proposed a deep-learning-based method that fuses multi-modality images to compensate for the cardiac structural information lost in [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET images and accurately generated PMs. We collected 133 pairs of [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET/MR images from 87 ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction patients for training and evaluation purposes. Twenty-six patients were selected for longitudinal analysis, further examining the clinical value of PM-related imaging parameters. Results: The quantitative comparison demonstrated that our method was comparable with the manual method and surpassed the commercially available software-PMOD in terms of accuracy in generating PMs for [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET images. Clinical analysis revealed the effectiveness of [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET PM in detecting reactive myocardial fibrosis. Significant correlations were demonstrated between the difference of baseline PM FAPI% and PM LGE%, and the change in cardiac function parameters (all p < 0.001), including LVESV% (r = 0.697), LVEDV% (r = 0.621) and LVEF% (r = -0.607). Conclusion: The [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET PMs generated by our method are comparable to manually generated and sufficient for clinical use. The PMs generated by our method have potential value in detecting reactive fibrosis after myocardial infarction and were associated with cardiac function, suggesting the possibility of enhancing clinical diagnostic practices. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04723953). Registered 26 January 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a short window during which the neonatal heart has the proliferative capacity to completely repair damage, an ability that is lost in adulthood. Inducing proliferation in adult cardiomyocytes by reactivating cell cycle reentry after myocardial infarction (MI) improves cardiac function. De novo purine synthesis is a critical source of nucleotides for cell proliferation. Here, using loss- and gain-of-function genetic approaches, we explored the role of the muscle-specific de novo purine synthesis enzyme Adssl1 in cardiac regeneration. Deletion of Adssl1 in mouse neonatal hearts reduced cardiomyocyte proliferation and attenuated heart regeneration after apical resection. Conversely, cardiomyocyte-specific Adssl1 overexpression extended the postnatal regenerative window and induced robust cell cycle reentry after MI, which decreased fibrotic scar size and improved cardiac function. RNA sequencing analysis suggested that Adssl1 overexpression induced strong dedifferentiation and cell cycle entry. Moreover, LC-MS/MS analysis showed that Adssl1 overexpression was associated with increased amounts of purine metabolites, including inosine, which is in clinical use. Administration of exogenous inosine promoted cardiac repair after MI in adult mice. At a molecular level, the increase in purine metabolite production mediated by Adssl1 enhanced the activity of the proliferation-promoting mTORC1 pathway. Our study identifies a role for Adssl1 in supporting cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac regeneration. Editor's summary: In contrast to the neonatal mammalian heart, in which cardiomyocyte proliferation can enable complete repair, cardiomyocytes in the adult mammalian heart must be induced to reenter the cell cycle to achieve regeneration. Increases in purine availability are required to support enhanced DNA and RNA synthesis during proliferation, leading Li et al. to investigate how cardiac regeneration is affected by Adssl1, a critical enzyme in de novo purine synthesis. Cardiac regeneration after injury in neonatal mouse heart was limited by genetic ablation of Adssl1. In contrast, the damage and impairment in cardiac function induced by myocardial infarction in adult mice were limited by overexpression of Adssl1, which promoted cell cycle reentry and proliferation in cardiomyocytes. This effect was mimicked by treatment with inosine, a purine nucleoside whose amounts were increased by Adssl1 overexpression and that is in clinical use. Thus, increasing de novo purine synthesis could be explored as a potential strategy to promote cardiac regeneration after myocardial infarction and other insults to the heart. —Wei Wong [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic inflammation in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) precipitates the development of cardiometabolic disorders. Although changes in T cell function associated with visceral obesity are thought to affect chronic VAT inflammation, the specific features of these changes remain elusive. Here, we have determined that a high-fat diet (HFD) caused a preferential increase and accumulation of [CD44.sup.hl][CD62.sup.lo] [CD.sup.4+] T cells that constitutively express PD-1 and CD153 in a B cell-dependent manner in VAT. These cells possessed characteristics of cellular senescence and showed a strong activation of Sppl (encoding osteopontin [OPN]) in VAT. Upon T cell receptor stimulation, these T cells also produced large amounts of OPN in a PD- 1resistant manner in vitro. The features of [CD153.sup.+][PD-1.sup.+][CD44.sup.hl][CD4.sup.+]T cells were highly reminiscent of senescence-associated [CD4.sup.+] T cells that normally increase with age. Adoptive transfer of [CD153.sup.+][PD- 1.sup.+][CD44.sup.hl][CD4.sup.+] T cells from HFD-fed WT, but not 5pp7-deficient, mice into the VAT of lean mice fed a normal diet recapitulated the essential features of VAT inflammation and insulin resistance. Our results demonstrate that a distinct [CD153.sup.+][PD-1.sup.+][CD44.sup.hl][CD4.sup.+] T cell population that accumulates in the VAT of HFD-fed obese mice causes VAT inflammation by producing large amounts of OPN. This finding suggests a link between visceral adiposity and immune aging., Introduction Visceral obesity is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and a sustained whole-body proinflammatory state, which may underlie metabolic and cardiovascular diseases (1-6). VAT inflammation [...]

Purpose: To assess predictive value of 68Ga-labeled fibroblast activation protein inhibitor-04 ([68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04) PET/MR for late left ventricular (LV) remodeling in patients with ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods: Twenty-six patients with STEMI were included in the study. [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET/MR was performed at baseline and at average 12 months after STEMI. LV remodeling was defined as >10% increase in LV end-systolic volume (LVESV) from baseline to 12 months. Results: The LV remodeling group demonstrated higher [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 uptake volume (UV) at baseline than the non-LV remodeling group (p < 0.001). [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 UV at baseline was a significant predictor (OR = 1.048, p = 0.011) for LV remodeling at 12 months after STEMI. Compared to clinical information, MR imaging and cardiac function parameters at baseline, [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 UV demonstrated better predictive ability (AUC = 0.938, p < 0.001) for late LV remodeling, with sensitivity of 100.0% and specificity of 81.3%. Conclusions: [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET/MR is an effective tool to non-invasively quantify myocardial fibroblasts activation, and baseline [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 UV may have potential predictive value for late LV remodeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As medical technology continues to improve, many patients diagnosed with brain injury survive after treatments but are still in a coma. Further, multiple clinical studies have demonstrated recovery of consciousness after transcranial direct current stimulation. To identify possible neurophysiological mechanisms underlying disorders of consciousness (DOCs) improvement, we examined the changes in multiple resting-state EEG microstate parameters after high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS). Because the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is closely related to consciousness, it is often chosen as a stimulation target for tDCS treatment of DOCs. A total of 21 patients diagnosed with prolonged DOCs were included in this study, and EEG microstate analysis of resting state EEG datasets was performed on all patients before and after interventions. Each of them underwent 10 anodal tDCS sessions of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex over 5 consecutive working days. According to whether the clinical manifestations improved, DOCs patients were divided into the responsive (RE) group and the non-responsive (N-RE) group. The dynamic changes of resting state EEG microstate parameters were also analyzed. After multiple HD-tDCS interventions, the duration and coverage of class C microstates in the RE group were significantly increased. This study also found that the transition between microstates A and C increased, while the transition between microstates B and D decreased in the responsive group. However, these changes in EEG microstate parameters in the N-RE group have not been reported. Our findings suggest that EEG neural signatures have the potential to assess consciousness states and that improvement in the dynamics of brain activity was associated with the recovery of DOCs. This study extends our understanding of the neural mechanism of DOCs patients in consciousness recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]