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Epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder affecting millions globally, is often exacerbated by neuroinflammation and oxidative stress. Existing antiepileptic drugs primarily manage symptoms, leaving the disease's progression largely unaddressed. Flavonoids, ubiquitous plant metabolites with potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, show promise in epilepsy treatment. Unlike conventional therapies, they target multiple pathophysiological processes simultaneously, offering a comprehensive approach to this complex neurological disorder. This review explores the dual role of flavonoids in mitigating neuroinflammation and reducing oxidative stress through various molecular pathways. By inhibiting key inflammatory mediators and pathways such as NF-κB, MAPK, JNK, and JAK, flavonoids offer neuronal protection. They enhance the body's natural antioxidant defenses by modulating enzyme activities, including superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase. Moreover, flavonoids influence crucial antioxidant response pathways like PI3K/AKT, Nrf2, JNK, and PKA. Despite their therapeutic promise, the low bioavailability of flavonoids poses a considerable challenge. However, cutting-edge strategies, including nanotechnology and chemical modifications, are underway to improve their bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy. These advancements support the potential of flavonoids as a valuable addition to epilepsy treatment strategies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhang, Hu and Zou.)

The Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R) is a measurement tool for assessing an individual's willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations. Despite its widespread use in various contexts, no studies have validated the use of this instrument in China. Therefore, the current study aimed to assess the reliability and validity of an existing Chinese translation of the SOI-R. A total of 2,209 participants were recruited and randomly divided into two groups: exploratory factor analysis was conducted on one group and confirmatory factor analysis on the other, with 161 participants from the total sample recruited to assess the test-retest reliability. Criterion validity was measured by testing the correlations between sociosexuality and sexual desire, mate value, sexual attitudes, and personality traits. The results confirmed a three-factor structure (sociosexual behaviors, attitudes, and desire) for the SOI-R. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated good reliability (internal consistency and test-retest stability) and validity (criterion validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity) of the SOI-R, supporting its suitability as an assessment tool for sociosexual orientation in China., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: To develop and validate a whole-liver radiomic model using multiparametric MRI for predicting early-stage liver fibrosis (LF) in rabbits., Methods: A total of 134 rabbits (early-stage LF, n = 91; advanced-stage LF, n = 43) who underwent liver magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), hepatobiliary phase, dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE), intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM), diffusion kurtosis imaging, and T2* scanning were enrolled and randomly allocated to either the training or validation cohort. Whole-liver radiomic features were extracted and selected to develop a radiomic model and generate quantitative Rad-scores. Then, multivariable logistic regression was utilized to determine the Rad-scores associated with early-stage LF, and effective features were integrated to establish a combined model. The predictive performance was assessed by the area under the curve (AUC)., Results: The MRE model achieved superior AUCs of 0.95 in the training cohort and 0.86 in the validation cohort, followed by the DCE-MRI model (0.93 and 0.82), while the IVIM model had lower AUC values of 0.91 and 0.82, respectively. The Rad-scores of MRE, DCE-MRI and IVIM were identified as independent predictors associated with early-stage LF. The combined model demonstrated AUC values of 0.96 and 0.88 for predicting early-stage LF in the training and validation cohorts, respectively., Conclusions: Our study highlights the remarkable performance of a multiparametric MRI-based radiomic model for the individualized diagnosis of early-stage LF., Advances in Knowledge: This is the first study to develop a combined model by integrating multiparametric radiomic features to improve the accuracy of LF staging., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Institute of Radiology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Rationale and Objectives: This study aimed to explore the effect of iron deposition on native T1 mapping and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) imaging in detecting liver fibrosis (LF) in a rabbit model., Materials and Methods: An LF group (n = 100) was established by subcutaneously injecting 50% carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ) oil solution, and 20 normal rabbits composed a control group. Native T1 mapping and BOLD were performed, and the T1 native and R 2 * quantitative parameters were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and multiple logistic regression analyses, with histopathological results and liver iron content (LIC) serving as reference standards., Results: In total, 18, 17, 16, 18, and 15 rabbits were histopathologically diagnosed with LF stages F0, F1, F2, F3, and F4, respectively. T1 native (r = 0.47), R 2 * (r = 0.75) and LIC (r = 0.61) increased with LF stage progression (p < 0.001). Compared to T1 native values, R 2 * performed better in diagnosing the LF stage, especially for distinguishing F1-F2 from F3-F4 (AUC = 0.66 vs. 0.91, p = 0.01). Combined with the LIC, both T1 native and R 2 * showed improved diagnostic value in comparison to the individual imaging techniques, particularly for diagnosing F0 vs. F1-F2 and F0 vs. F1-F4, with AUC values of 0.90 vs. 0.70 (p = 0.01) and 0.93 vs. 0.77 (p = 0.01) for T1 native  + LIC vs. LIC, respectively., Conclusion: BOLD imaging performed better than native T1 mapping in predicting and diagnosing LF stage progression. The decrease in diagnostic accuracy caused by the deposition of liver iron is a potential pitfall in the assessment of LF with BOLD imaging and native T1 mapping., (Copyright © 2022 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Odor memory is an important field of clinical research for its distinctive characteristics, which differ from those of other sensory systems. To date, several tests have been implemented for the assessment of odor memory. Despite a range of studies demonstrating the importance of verbal mediation in odor memory, few have distinguished odor memory performance in different odor verbalization levels., New Method: We aimed to develop a standardized odor memory test toolbox with one group of odors that are easily verbally identified and the other group of odors that are difficult to identify. The test contained two odor categories (high- and low-verbalizability odors), each consisting of three subtests (short- and long-term memory and working memory)., Results: Satisfactory test-retest reliability and solid validity of the odor recognition and working memory test were shown in both odor categories. Moreover, people scored significantly better with high- than low-verbalizability odors. A negative age effect on odor memory performance was also found., Comparison With Existing Methods: No previous odor memory test distinguished odor memory performance in different odor verbalization levels, while the Olfactory Memory Test Battery (OMTB) contains high- and low-verbalizability odors and each category has three subtests., Conclusions: The present study indicated the OMTB is a comprehensive assessment of odor memory with good reliability and validity. All subtests can be used separately or in combination with each other according to the clinical and research needs., 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 © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Lymphoma-associated hemophagocytic syndrome (LAHS) is a rare and life-threatening clinical syndrome with rapidly deteriorating health and high mortality. We retrospectively analyzed clinical features and prognostic factors from 117 patients diagnosed with LAHS. The cumulative incidence rate of LAHS was 4.0% (117/2906). Patients were classified into B-cell LAHS (B-LAHS, n = 22) and T/natural killer (NK)-cell LAHS (T/NK-LAHS, n = 95) groups. Patients with T/NK-LAHS were younger and had lower neutrophil counts and fibrinogen values, higher LDH and transaminase levels, and were more likely to develop hemophagocytic syndrome (HPS) during the clinical course than those with B-LAHS. The median survival time for the entire cohort was 57 days, and for the T/NK-LAHS and B-LAHS groups, it was 52 and 154 days, respectively, after the diagnosis of LAHS. Patients with B-LAHS had superior 1-year OS ( p  = 0.003, 36.4% versus 14.5%) compared with those with T/NK-LAHS. Prognostic factor analysis revealed that elevated LDH levels (LDH > 1000 IU/L) ( p  = 0.004), T/NK-cell lineage ( p  < 0.001) and HPS onset at relapse ( p  = 0.001) were strongly associated with early death. For patients diagnosed with T/NK-LAHS, in addition to LDH levels and HPS onset status, high EBV-DNA copies (≥4,450 copies/mL) ( p  = 0.016) were also related to poor prognosis of T/NK-LAHS.

Olfactory sensations contribute to sexual desire and sexual behavior. However, the degree to which individual importance of olfactory function and body odors relate to sexual desire is not known. This study was conducted to preliminarily examine these relationships among Chinese college students (N = 1903) via the Importance of Olfaction Questionnaire, the Body Odor Sniffing Questionnaire, and the Sexual Desire Inventory, which were used to measure subjective significance of olfaction, frequency of sniffing self or others, and sexual desire, respectively. Individuals who assigned higher importance to olfaction or engaged more in body odor sniffing showed stronger sexual desire. We further explored these associations in different cultures to determine whether cultural consistency existed. We conducted a second study to make cross-cultural comparisons between Indian (N = 313) and US (N = 249) populations. For both countries, a higher importance placed on olfaction and a higher prevalence of body odor sniffing were consistently associated with stronger sexual desire. In conclusion, our study confirmed that people who placed more value on olfactory function or engaged more in body odor sniffing showed stronger sexual desire. These correlations were consistent for both sexes and across different cultures, further indicating the importance of olfaction in sexuality., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: Body odor can convey much information about an individual and thus we frequently engage in sniffing one's own and other people's body odor. However, there is scarce evidence on the within- and cross-cultural variation in body odor sniffing behaviors and no psychometric scale for specifically measuring such behaviors. Hence, our study aimed to develop the Body Odor Sniffing Questionnaire (BOSQ) and used it to make a cross-cultural comparison., Methods: In Study 1, 2,026 participants were recruited from our university, with one half used for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine the factor structure of the BOSQ (sample 1) and the other half used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to verify the factor structure (sample 2). In Study 2, 352 Chinese and 254 US participants were recruited to complete the BOSQ through Wenjuanxing and Amazon Mechanical Turk, enabling comparison of body odor sniffing behaviors across two cultures., Results: The Study 1 results showed that the BOSQ comprises 17 items in three factors: self-private body odor, others' body odor, and self-common body odor. The CFA results further supported that this three-factor model was a good fit. The Study 2 results showed that US participants scored higher overall and on the self-private body odor and others' body odor dimensions, whereas Chinese participants scored higher on the self-common body odor dimension., Conclusions: The BOSQ demonstrated good reliability and validity, which is a useful tool for evaluating individuals' body odor sniffing behaviors. Cross-cultural difference existed as the US population reported a higher prevalence of body odor sniffing behavior, compared to the Chinese population., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aims: Progression of disease within 24 months (POD24) is associated with poor survival in some subtypes of lymphoma.The aim is to identify high-risk patients with localized extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) and to define clinical factors associated with the risk of early recurrence after antitumor treatment. Methods: The authors retrospectively analyzed 330 cases with localized ENKTL, of which 89 experienced POD24. Results: The 5-year overall survival of the POD24 group was extremely inferior to that of the non-POD24 group. Risk factors for POD24 were Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≥2, response evaluation (non-complete remission) after first-line treatment and elevated lactate dehydrogenase concentrations. Also, higher Epstein-Barr virus DNA titer was related to POD24. Based on these data with or without the availability of Epstein-Barr virus DNA, the authors conducted two nomograms to predict POD24, which showed good accuracy with high C statistics. Conclusion: The results showed that POD24 could serve as a marker to identify patients whose medical needs were unmet in ENKTL.

Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) is an aggressive disorder with heterogeneous clinical characteristics and poor prognosis. The combined value of baseline serum albumin level and absolute peripheral lymphocyte count showed prognostic information in a variety of malignancies, but its evidence is limited in ENKTL. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of prognostic nutritional index (PNI) in ENKTL, and to provide some nutritionally and immunologically relevant information for better risk stratification. We conducted a retrospective study in 533 patients newly diagnosed with ENKTL. The PNI was calculated as albumin (g/L) + 5 × lymphocyte count (10 9 /L). The optimal cutoff values for serum albumin and lymphocyte count were 40.6 g/L and 1.18 × 10 9 /L, respectively, and 47.3 for PNI. After a median follow-up of 70 months, the 5-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were 56.2% and 49.5%, respectively. Patients in low PNI group had more unfavorable clinical features, and tended to have worse 5-year OS and PFS compared with those in high PNI group. According PNI-associated prognostic score, patients were classified into different risk groups. Significant difference has been found in 5-year OS and PFS in different risk groups. When PNI and PNI-associated prognostic score were superimposed on the International Prognostic Index (IPI), prognostic index of natural killer lymphoma (PINK), or nomogram-revised risk index (NRI) categories, the PNI and PNI-associated prognostic score provided additional prognostic information. Therefore, PNI and PNI-associated prognostic score could be independent prognostic factors for ENKTL and may be useful for risk stratification and clinical decision-making., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Early-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (EOCD) is a comparatively severe subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Olfactory dysfunction is a common symptom of OCD, but all previous studies have focused on late-onset OCD (LOCD)., Methods: The current study compared olfactory identification ability in EOCD patients and age-matched and sex-matched LOCD patients and healthy controls. Thirty patients with EOCD, 30 patients with LOCD and 30 healthy controls were included in the study. Olfactory function was measured using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test. The Logical Memory and Visual Reproduction components of the Revised Wechsler Memory Scale were used to evaluate verbal and visual memory., Results: There were significant differences in olfactory identification ability between the three groups. EOCD patients were comparable to LOCD patients, while both patients' group showing worse olfactory identification ability than controls. Olfactory identification ability was not significantly correlated with verbal and visual memory or clinical symptoms in the EOCD group or the LOCD group., Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that olfactory identification ability may be a relatively stable indicator of OCD, independent of age, duration of illness, verbal and visual memory, and severity of clinical symptoms., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Background: Adult sporadic Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is a rare but highly aggressive subtype of lymphoma which lacks its own unique prognostic model. Systemic inflammatory biomarkers have been confirmed as prognostic markers in several types of malignancy. Our objective was to explore the predictive value of pretreatment inflammatory biomarkers and establish a novel, clinically applicable prognostic index for adult patients with sporadic BL., Methods: We surveyed retrospectively 336 adult patients with newly diagnosed sporadic BL at 8 Chinese medical centers and divided into training cohort (n = 229) and validation cohort (n = 107). The pretreatment inflammatory biomarkers were calculated for optimal cut-off value. The association between serum biomarkers and overall survival (OS) was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional models. The risk stratification was defined based on normal LDH level, Ann Arbor stage of I and completely resected abdominal lesion or single extra-abdominal mass < 10 cm., Results and Conclusions: Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that platelets< 254 × 10 9 /L, albumin< 40 g/L, lactate dehydrogenase≥334 U/L independently predicted unfavorable OS. We used these data as the basis for the prognostic index, in which patients were stratified into Group 1 (no or one risk factor), Group 2 (two risk factors), or Group 3 (three risk factors), which were associated with 5-year OS rates of 88.1, 72.4, and 45%, respectively. In the subgroup analysis for high-risk patients, our prognostic model results showed that high-risk patients with no more than one adverse factor presented a 5-year survival rate of 85.9%, but patients with three adverse factors had a 5-year survival rate of 43.0%. Harrell's concordance index (C-index) of the risk group score was 0.768. Therefore, the new prognostic model could be used to develop risk-adapted treatment approaches for adult sporadic BL., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Objective: Olfactory deficits have been reported in bipolar disorder, but this finding is controversial. This study investigated whether olfactory deficit can serve as a specific marker for bipolar disorder by comparing olfactory function in different mood episodes of bipolar disorder. We also compared olfactory function in bipolar disorder and other mental disorders - namely, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia., Methods: The study consisted of two experiments. Experiment 1 enrolled 175 bipolar disorder patients (70 depressed subgroup, 70 manic subgroup and 35 euthymic subgroup) and 47 controls. Experiment 2 enrolled the participants from Experiment 1, along with 85 major depressive disorder and 90 schizophrenia patients. The Sniffin' Sticks test was used to evaluate odour identification ability and odour threshold (as a measure of odour sensitivity). The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Young Mania Rating Scale were used to assess depressive symptoms in all subjects and manic symptoms in bipolar disorder patients, respectively. We also used the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale to assess clinical symptoms in schizophrenia patients., Results: All three bipolar disorder patient subgroups (depressed, manic and euthymic subgroup) showed reduced odour identification ability compared to controls; however, only patients in the acute phase of a mood episode (depressed, and manic subgroup) showed impaired odour sensitivity. Clinical symptoms were negatively correlated with odour sensitivity but not odour identification ability. Bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder patients showed less odour identification and sensitivity impairment than schizophrenia patients., Conclusion: Odour sensitivity is a potential dopaminergic marker for distinguishing between bipolar disorder patients in acute phase vs remission, while odour identification is a trait but a nonspecific marker of bipolar disorder.

Background: The liver as a primary site of lymphoma is rarely seen, they are usually misdiagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma, etc . In 2017, a review of primary hepatic lymphoma (PHL) was done in immunocompetent diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients. Yet questions that include treatment choosing or susceptibility of immunoincompetent patients remain disputable., Aim: To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with PHL., Methods: We collected PHL cases on PubMed, and extracted demographic and clinicopathological data to perform a systematic analysis. Survival analysis regarding age, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), liver function abnormality (LFA), and treatment modalities were conducted. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression were used to identify risk factors., Results: Of 116 PHL patients with DLBCL (62.1%) as the most common subtype. Biopsy methods before surgery produced a 97% positive rate. Progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly shortened in patients with elevated LDH [Hazard ratio (HR): 3.076, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.207-7.840, P = 0.018] or LFA (HR: 2.909, 95%CI: 1.135-7.452, P = 0.026). Univariate Cox regression analysis suggesting that LDH, liver function, B symptom, hepatosplenomegaly, and lesion were significantly associated with PHL patients survival ( P < 0.05). Heavy disease burden was observed in deceased patients. A few PHL patients (3.4%) have slightly higher tumor markers., Conclusion: PHL patients with elevated LDH and LFA tend to have shorter PFS. Biopsy before treatment in undecided patients with no tumor markers exceeds upper limits has the most essential clinical significance, especially in immunoincompetent patients., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no financial relationships to disclose., (©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Nasal-type, extranodal nature killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma-associated hemophagocytic syndrome (NK/T-LAHS) is a rare and life-threatening disease, requiring investigation of risk stratification. We conducted a retrospective study and proposed nomograms to predict NK/T-LAHS. The discriminative ability and calibration of the nomograms for prediction were tested using C statistics and calibration plots. We analyzed 533 patients with extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL), out of which 71 were diagnosed with hemophagocytic syndrome (HPS), with a cumulative incidence of 13.3%. Significant difference for 2-year survival was found between patients with and without HPS (14.7% vs. 77.5%). Analyses showed that Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) ≥2, B symptoms, and bone marrow (BM) invasion were significantly associated with NK/T-LAHS. We used these data as the basis to establish a nomogram of risk index for ENKTL (RINK). In 335 patients with available data for Epstein-Barr virus DNA (EBV-DNA), we found high viral copies (≥4,450 copies/ml) were correlated with NK/T-LAHS. When these data were added to RINK, we developed another nomogram that included EBV-DNA data (RINK-E). The nomograms displayed good accuracy in predicting NK/T-LAHS with a C-statistics of 0.919 for RINK and a C-statistics of 0.946 for RINK-E, respectively. The calibration chart also showed an excellent consistency between the predicted and observed probabilities. The proposed nomograms provided individualized risk estimate of HPS in patients with ENKTL., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Li, Jiang, Wu, Wei and Zou.)

Background: This cross-sectional, multi-centric study aimed to investigate the differences in quality of life among patients with olfactory dysfunction (OD) of different origin, and to identify factors associated with olfactory-related quality of life (QOL)., Methods: Seven hundred sixty-three adults were recruited from 8 Smell & Taste clinics in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Olfactory-related QOL was assessed by the Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders (QOD). Olfactory function was assessed with the "Sniffin' Sticks" test; self-assessment was performed with visual analog scales., Results: Patients with post-infectious and post-traumatic OD showed poorer olfactory-related QOL than patients with sinonasal and idiopathic OD. The olfactory-related QOL was positively associated with the "Sniffin' Sticks" test score, self-assessed olfactory function, disease duration, and age, with younger olfactory dysfunction patients showing lower QOL. Female patients presented with poorer olfactory-related QOL. In addition, the results showed that self-assessment of olfactory function explained more of the variance in olfactory-related QOL than olfactory function evaluated by the Sniffin’ Sticks test., Conclusions: In addition to the psychophysical testing results, several factors such as disease cause, disease duration, sex, or self- assessed olfactory dysfunction should be taken into account when assessing the individual severity of the smell loss.

Background: Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI), and T1ρ are three techniques for staging of liver fibrosis (LF)., Purpose: To assess the value of MRE, SWI, and T1ρ imaging in staging LF., Material and Methods: Sixty rabbits were injected with 50% CCl 4 oil solution, whereas 20 rabbits were given normal saline. All rabbits underwent pathological examination to determine LF stages. The liver stiffness (LS), liver-to-muscle signal intensity ratio (SIR), and T1ρ values were measured from MRE, SWI, and T1ρ imaging, respectively., Results: The number of rabbits was 14, 11, 10, 9, and 11 for F0, F1, F2, F3, and F4, respectively. LS ( r  = 0.91) and T1ρ ( r  = 0.51) positively correlated with LF stages, while negative correlation was present for SIR ( r  = -0.81). Among the three parameters, the LS values revealed the best diagnostic efficacy in staging LF, with an AUC value of 0.95 for ≥F1, 0.95 for ≥F2, 0.99 for ≥F3, and 0.98 for ≥F4. The combination of LS and SIR could best predict LF stages ≥F1, ≥F2, ≥F3 and ≥F4, with AUC values of 0.97, 0.98, 0.99, and 0.99, respectively, which were greater than those of the other two-paired parameters. A multiparametric analysis showed that the combination of all three parameters had AUC values of 0.97, 0.98, 1.00, and 1.00 for staging ≥F1, ≥F2, ≥F3, and ≥F4, respectively., Conclusion: Multiparametric MR imaging was superior to individual imaging for LF staging.

Background: A number of questions concerning the histological mechanism of elongated T1rho in liver fibrosis remain unanswered. Using a rat model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) induced with methionine and choline-deficient (MCD) diet, the primary aim of this study is to clarify whether collagen deposition per se causes liver T1rho elongation., Methods: There were 45 rats in the NAFLD model group and 8 rats in the control group. NAFLD model rats were fed MCD diet for 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 weeks, respectively. At the endpoint, the rats had in vivo MRI at 3.0 T and followed by histology. For T1rho data acquisition, a rotary echo spin-lock pulse was implemented in a three-dimensional fast field echo sequence with frequency selective fat suppression. The spin-lock frequency was set to 500 Hz, and the spin-lock times of 5, 10, 40, and 50 ms were used. Liver specimens were processed with hematoxylin-eosin staining for steatosis and inflammation evaluation, and Masson's trichrome staining for collagen visualization. The semiquantitative histopathological evaluation was based on NASH Clinical Research Network criteria. Histomorphometric analysis calculated percentages of fat and collagen accumulations in the livers., Results: A strong (r=0.82) and significant (P<0.0001) positive correlation between liver collagen content and liver T1rho was observed. Rats with no or minimal inflammation could have very long T1rho value. Among experimental rats without a positive fibrosis grading, five rats did not have an inflammation score (i.e., had minimal inflammation or no inflammation) while four had a positive inflammation score; the difference in liver T1rho between these two types of rats was minimal. Eight control rat livers and 15 stage-1 fibrosis rat livers were separated by liver T1rho completely. When four subgroups of experiment rats were selected where the liver collagen had a very narrow range within these subgroups, all these four subgroups showed a trend of negative correlation between liver fat and liver T1rho., Conclusions: Collagen deposition in the live strongly contributes to liver T1rho elongation, while fat deposition contributes to T1rho shortening. In a well-controlled experimental setting, T1rho measure alone allows separation of healthy livers and stage-1 liver fibrosis in the MCD rat liver model., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the 549 ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi. 550 org/10.21037/qims-20-651). YXJW serves as an unpaid Editor-in-Chief of Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2020 Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Olfactory dysfunction is a common problem. However, too little attention has been paid to questionnaires used to evaluate quantitative olfactory dysfunction. Therefore, the current study aimed to develop a simple self-reported Mini Olfactory Questionnaire (Self-MOQ) for the screening of quantitative olfactory dysfunction in clinical practice., Methods: Two hundred and eighty-five patients who had subjective complaints of olfactory disorder participated. The Sniffin' Sticks test score was used to define functional anosmia, hyposmia, or normosmia. We assessed the factor structure as well as internal consistency, convergent validity, and discrimination performance., Results: The results showed that the final version of the Self-MOQ included only one factor with five items. The Self-MOQ has a good internal reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.84) and validity (r = -0.60, P < 0.001). The receiver operating characteristic analyses indicated that the Self-MOQ as compared to a visual analogue scale (VAS) is an effective measure for discriminating normosmic from hyposmic/anosmic patients, anosmic patients, and hyposmic patients., Conclusion: The Self-MOQ is a simple, reliable and valid questionnaire to screen olfactory dysfunction in clinical practice that appears to be superior to the use of VASs but does not replace olfactory testing., Level of Evidence: 4 Laryngoscope, 2019., (© 2019 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.)

Background: The diagnostic efficacy of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CEMRI) in diagnosing residual or recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is currently not completely clear., Purpose: To investigate the diagnostic efficacy of CEMRI in detecting residual or recurrent HCCs after TACE by meta-analysis., Study Type: Systematic review and meta-analysis., Population: A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Ovid, and the Cochrane Library database up to June 2019 to find original studies on diagnosing patients suspected of residual or recurrent HCCs after TACE with CEMRI. Thirteen studies comprising 721 nodules were finally included., Field Strength/sequence: 1.5T or 3.0T, CEMRI., Assessment: Quality assessment of the included studies was performed by applying the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool., Statistical Tests: Sensitivity and specificity were pooled with a bivariate random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed by the chi-square test. The potential sources of heterogeneity were explored by subgroup and publication bias analyses., Results: The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of CEMRI in diagnosing residual or recurrent HCCs after TACE were 91% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 87%-96%), 93% (95% CI: 85%-97%), 12.22 (95% CI: 5.62-26.57), 0.09 (95% CI: 0.05-0.18), 126.99 (95% CI: 34.76-436.99) and 0.97 (95% CI: 0.95-0.98), respectively. Subgroup analysis revealed that CEMRI performed significantly better in prospective studies than in retrospective studies: 0.99 (95% CI: 0.96-1.00) vs. 0.95 (95% CI: 0.92-0.96) with P < 0.05., Data Conclusion: Our meta-analysis suggested that CEMRI had high diagnostic efficacy in detecting residual or recurrent HCCs after TACE and may serve as an alternative method for further evaluation after TACE., Level of Evidence: 5 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2020;52:1019-1028., (© 2019 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.)

Purpose: To explore quantitative parameters obtained by dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE MRI) with Gd-EOB-DTPA in discriminating early-stage liver fibrosis (LF) in a rabbit model., Materials and Methods: LF was established in 60 rabbits by the injection of 50% CCl 4 oil solution, whereas 30 rabbits served as the control group. All rabbits underwent pathological examination to determine the LF stage using the METAVIR classification system. DCE MRI was performed, and quantitative parameters, including K trans , K ep , V e , V p and Re were measured and evaluated among the different LF stages using spearman correlation coefficients and receiver operating characteristic curve., Results: In all, 24, 25, and 22 rabbits had stage F0, stage F1, and stage F2 LF, respectively. K trans (r = 0.803) increased, and K ep (r = -0.495) and Re (r = -0.701) decreased with LF stage progression (P < 0.001), while no significant correlation was found for V e or V p . K trans and Re were significantly different between all LF stage pairs compared (F0 vs. F1, F0 vs. F2, F1 vs. F2, F0 vs. F1-F2, P < 0.05). With the exception of F0 vs. F1, K ep differed significantly between stages (P < 0.05). The AUC of K trans was higher than that of other quantitative parameters, with an AUC of 0.92, 0.99, 0.94 and 0.92 for staging F0 vs. F1, F0 vs. F2, F1 vs. F2, and F0 vs. F1-F2, respectively., Conclusion: Among quantitative parameters of Gd-EOB-DTPA DCE MRI, K trans was the best predictor for quantitatively differentiating early-stage LF., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: "Early-onset schizophrenia" (EOS) is defined as disease with onset before the age of 18 years. This subset of schizophrenia exhibits worse cognitive function and carries a worse prognosis than adult-onset schizophrenia (AOS). Olfactory impairment has been found in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. However, most research has focused on olfactory impairment in patients with AOS: olfactory function in EOS is not known. The aim of this study was to investigate the olfactory identification ability in EOS, and its relationship with negative symptoms., Methods: We compared olfactory function between two independent samples: 40 patients with EOS and 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs); as well as 40 patients with AOS and 40 age- and sex-matched HCs. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test was administered., Results: The EOS group and AOS group exhibited worse olfactory identification ability than HCs; impairment correlated significantly with negative symptoms. Olfactory identification was worse in patients suffering EOS compared with those suffering AOS., Conclusion: Olfactory identification impairment may be a trait marker of schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2020 Li, Li, Wen, Zhang, Hummel and Zou.)

Anhedonia, the loss or decline of the ability to enjoy pleasure, is an important clinical characteristic of schizophrenia. Schizotypal traits refer to the appearance of subclinical symptoms of schizophrenia across normal people. Still, few studies have investigated chemosensory anhedonia in schizophrenia patients and schizotypy individuals. Seventy-one schizophrenia patients (SCZ), 162 schizotypy individuals (SCT) as selected by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), and 182 healthy controls (HC) participated in our study. We used the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) to measure the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia patients. All participants completed the Chemosensory Pleasure Scale (CPS), which was used to assess participants' smell and taste hedonic capacities. We found that the three groups differed in chemosensory anhedonia. The SCZ group presented more severe chemosensory anhedonia than the SCT group, and the SCT group presented more severe chemosensory anhedonia than the HC group. We also found that chemosensory hedonic capacity was negatively correlated with negative schizotypal traits in the SCT group. Our results suggested that chemosensory anhedonia is an important characteristic of schizophrenia spectrum disorders., (Copyright © 2020 Li, Huang, Li, Li, Wang, Zhao, Wen, Hummel and Zou.)

Specific anosmia is defined as the inability to detect a particular odorant, despite a normal olfactory function. Previous studies reported sex-related difference in detection threshold to steroid odorants, like androstenone or androstadienone during adolescence, and boys showed an increased detection threshold with age. However, such investigations have not been performed for non-steroid odorants. Hence, the current study investigated sex- and age-related effects on the prevalence of specific anosmia in children/adolescents aged 5-14 years (n = 800) to non-steroid odorants. The detection thresholds of three non-steroid odorants (bacdanol, methylsalicylate, and 3-hydrox-2-methyl-4-pyrone) with different molecular weights were measured. Results indicate that the rate of specific anosmia for all three odorants decreases from childhood to adolescence. This decrease is independent of sex and is most pronounced for odorants with higher molecular weight compared to the odorant with lower molecular weight. Thus, the development of basic olfactory functions for these three odorants continues until adolescence. The effect of molecular weight suggests that the locus of effect is at the periphery of the olfactory system, due to changes in either olfactory receptor expression patterns or perireceptor events., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure, is a key clinical feature of many mental disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Although various valid measurements of anhedonia and pleasure experience exist, no scales exist that quantify smell and taste pleasure experiences. The Chemosensory Pleasure Scale (CPS) was therefore designed to assess the hedonic capacity for smell and taste pleasure. We examined the reliability and validity of the CPS in our study. First, we conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to identify and examine the structure of the CPS. Second, the CPS's validity and test-retest stability were investigated. The CPS was correlated with other measurements of anhedonia and pleasure experience. Furthermore, the empirical validity of CPS was also examined in our study. The results indicated that the CPS is a reliable and valid measure for assessing an individual's hedonic capacity for smell and taste pleasure in nonclinical samples. Further application of the CPS for various populations is also discussed herein, especially for patients with mental disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, and autism., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Introduction : The poor prognosis for patients with esophageal cancer (EC) requires evolving current treatment regimens. Immune checkpoint inhibitors show clinical efficacy and a great safety profile in multiple tumors. And the monoclonal antibodies that target programmed death receptor-1/programmed death receptor ligand-1 or the cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 pathway has shown potential curable effect of EC. Areas covered : This review article covers the prognostic significance of immune checkpoint expression, the accumulating current clinical studies of checkpoint inhibitors in esophageal cancer patients, and future directions. Expert opinion : Many clinical studies have reported favorable survival results with manageable toxicity of anti-programmed death receptor-1/programmed death receptor ligand-1 and anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 treatment. More results are expected from future clinical studies. It is believed that combining chemoradiotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors can induce safe and efficient anti-tumor immune responses and can be a promising therapeutic strategy.

Background: The relationship between survivin and extranodal, nasal-type natural killer/T cell lymphoma (ENKTCL) was unclearly established yet. We here studied the potential prognostic roles of survivin and its implication as a target in ENKTCL therapy., Methods: ENKTCL patients' peripheral blood were collected and tested by ELISA. ENKTCL cell lines were cultured with or without survivin inhibitor and tested by MTT and Flow cytometry. According to the gene expression profiles from the ArrayExpress Archive under E-TABM-702, survivin co-regulated cluster was established by Coupled Two-way Clustering Algorithm., Results: Seventeen point six percent of total 17 ENKTCL patients were serum survivin-positive. These patients had poorer outcome than that of negative cases (P<0.01). Analysis of survivin co-regulation genes in ENKTCL revealed that survivin was significantly involved in pluripotency, drug resistance, cell cycle and proliferation, indicating that it should be one of key regulators in ENKTCL and might be a latent therapeutic target. Our results just showed that YM155, a survivin inhibitor, had strong anti-tumor effect on ENKTCL cell lines in a dose dependent manner. It increased sub-G1 phase population and reduced G1- and G2-M phase populations (P<0.05). In addition, combining YM155 with DDP induced a larger decrease in cell viability than either agent alone and had a higher inhibition rate than Bliss index, suggesting their synergistic inhibition., Conclusions: We concluded that survivin was a potential prognostic marker and a critical regulatory molecule in the pathological process of ENKTCL. It would be a promising target in drugs discovery for ENKTCL therapy., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Objective: To investigate the anti-tumor effect of bortezomib on extranodal natural killer/T cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTL)., Methods: SNK-6 cells were treated with different mass concentrations of bortezomib (0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 ng/mL) for 24, 48, 72 h, and different concentrations of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway inhibitor BAY11-7082 (0, 1, 2, 2.5, 5, 10, 20 μmol/L) for 24 h respectively, then the cell viability was measured by CCK8 kit and the half inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) was calculated. SNK-6 cells were treated with 30μmol/L Z-VAD-FMK (Pan-caspase inhibitor)+3ng/mL bortezomib, and 5, 10 μmol/L BAY11-7082+3 ng/mL bortezomib for 24 h respectively, then the cell viability was measured by CCK8 kit. After treatment of SNK-6 cells with different mass concentrations of bortezomib for 24 h, apoptosis was detected by AnnexinⅤ/PI flow cytometry; the expression of apoptosis-related protein Caspase-3, poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) and Bcl-2 and NF-κB signaling pathway key proteins P65 and P100/P52 were detected by Western blot., Results: Bortezomib inhibited the proliferation of SNK-6 cells in a dose-dependent manner ( P <0.05), and IC 50 ( (2.87±0.06) ng/mL) at 24 h was lower than that at 48 h and 72 h ( P <0.05). BAY11-7082 also inhibited the proliferation of SNK-6 cells with an IC 50 = (9.73±0.36) μmol/L at 24 h. The combination treatment indicated that Z-VAD-FMK could attenuate the inhibitory effect of bortezomib on the proliferation of SNK-6 cells ( P <0.05), while BAY11-7082 could enhance the inhibitory effect of bortezomib on the proliferation of SNK-6 cells ( P <0.05). After treatment of SNK-6 cells with bortezomib for 24 h, apoptosis-related protein Caspase-3 cleavage, PARP activation, and Bcl-2 cleavage; NF-κB signaling pathway-related protein P65 phosphorylation level decreased, and P52 decreased., Conclusion: Bortezomib inhibits ENKTL cells proliferation by inhibiting NF-κB signaling pathway and induces apoptosis of ENKTL cells via mitochondria-mediated caspase pathway., (Copyright© by Editorial Board of Journal of Sichuan University (Medical Science Edition).)

The anhedonia paradox is consistently observed in individuals with schizophrenia. However, the underlying mechanism of the dissociation between trait and state hedonic capacity remains unclear. In the present study, we aimed to re-examine anhedonia in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) and individuals with high schizotypy (HS) using the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task to assess different dimensions of anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. We recruited 44 SCZ patients, 46 matched healthy controls (HC), 30 individuals with HS and 35 with low schizotypy (LS). The modified MID task was used to measure anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in terms of valence and arousal ratings. To measure the predictive value of anticipatory pleasure, participants were asked to predict their hedonic experience before the MID task. For SCZ patients, there was no significant Group main effect or Group × Prize interaction on consummatory pleasantness to reward received or loss avoidance. As expected, SCZ patients (particularly male patients) reported less pleasantness and arousal to future rewards in both the prediction and feeling dimensions compared with HC. Additionally, male patients reported less anticipatory and consummatory negativity than HC. Individuals with HS predicted more arousing experience to high-rewards than LS individuals. They also reported and predicted more negativity to in-the-moment and future monetary losses. Further, the negative dimension of schizotypy predicted low levels of pleasantness and arousal towards future rewards, but the positive dimension predicted increased arousing experience towards future rewards. In conclusion, the anhedonia paradox in schizophrenia could be partially accounted for by the dissociation between anticipatory and consummatory pleasure., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Clinical and neuroimaging data support the idea that schizo-obsessive comorbidity (SOC), similar to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia (SCZ), may be a distinct brain disorder. In this study, we examined the strength of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between 19 subregions of the default mode network (DMN) and whole brain voxels in 22 patients with SOC features, 20 patients with SCZ alone, 22 patients with OCD, and 22 healthy controls (HC). The main results demonstrated that patients with SOC exhibited the highest rsFC strength within subregions of the DMN and the lowest rsFC strength between the DMN and subregions of the salience network (SN) compared with the other 3 groups. In addition, compared with HCs, all 3 patient groups exhibited increased rsFC between subregions of the DMN and the executive control network (ECN). The SOC and SCZ group both exhibited increased rsFC between subregions of the DMN and the middle temporal gyrus, but the OCD group exhibited decreased rsFC between them. These findings highlight a specific alteration in functional connectivity in the DMN in patients with SOC, and provide new insights into the dysfunctional brain organization of different mental disorders.

Recent findings suggest that schizo-obsessive comorbidity (SOC) may be a unique diagnostic entity. We examined grey matter (GM) volume and cortical thickness in 22 patients with SOC, and compared them with 21 schizophrenia (SCZ) patients, 22 obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients and 22 healthy controls (HCs). We found that patients with SOC exhibited reduced GM volume in the left thalamus, the left inferior semi-lunar lobule of the cerebellum, the bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex (medial oFC), the medial superior frontal gyrus (medial sFG), the rectus gyrus and the anterior cingulate cortex (aCC) compared with HCs. Patients with SOC also exhibited reduced cortical thickness in the right superior temporal gyrus (sTG), the right angular gyrus, the right supplementary motor area (SMA), the right middle cingulate cortex (mCC) and the right middle occipital gyrus (mOG) compared with HCs. Together with the differences in GM volume and cortical thickness between patients with SOC and patients with only SCZ or only OCD, these findings highlight the GM changes specific to patients with SOC., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The present work evaluated the feasibility of different pluronics (F127, F87 and P85) utilized as modifiers to improve the stability and bioaccessibility of curcumin liposomes (cur-Lps). Pluronics modified curcumin liposomes (cur-pluronic-Lps) were prepared by thin film evaporation combined with dynamic high pressure microfluidization. The particle size and polydispersity index of cur-pluronic-Lps was significantly lower than cur-Lps. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis revealed that curcumin was loaded in liposomes successfully and X-ray diffraction suggested that curcumin in the liposomes was in an amorphous state. In vitro release studies demonstrated that 73.4%, 63.9%, 66.7% and 58.9% curcumin released from cur-Lps, cur-F127-Lps, cur-F87-Lps and cur-P85-Lps, respectively. Compared with cur-Lps, cur-pluronic-Lps showed a slower release rate and lower cumulative release percentage for curcumin. Non-Fickian transport was the main release mechanism for cur-Lps, cur-F127-Lps and cur-F87-Lps, and typically the first-order model fitted cur-P85-Lps release. Stability studies (exposure to solutions of different pH and heat treatment) indicated that pluronics modification could enhance their pH stability and thermal stability. In vitro simulated gastrointestinal tract studies suggested that pluronics modification could significantly improve the absorption of cur-Lps. Bioaccessibility of curcumin liposomes increased in the following order: cur-Lps < cur-F87-Lps < cur-P85-Lps < cur-F127-Lps. These results may guide the potential application of pluronics modified liposomes as carriers of curcumin in nutraceutical and functional foods., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Olfactory identification impairments have been consistently found in schizophrenia patients. However, few previous studies have investigated this in first-episode patients. There are also inconsistent findings regarding olfactory identification ability in psychometrically-defined schizotypy individuals. In this study, we directly compared the olfactory identification ability of first-episode schizophrenia patients with schizotypy individuals. The relationship between olfactory identification impairments and hedonic traits was also examined., Methods: Thirty-five first-episode schizophrenia patients, 40 schizotypy individuals as defined by the Chapman's Anhedonia Scales and 40 demographically matched controls were recruited. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test was administered. Hedonic capacity was assessed using the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS)., Results: The results showed that both the schizophrenia and schizotypy groups showed poorer olfactory identification ability than controls, and the impairment was significantly correlated with reduced pleasure experiences., Conclusion: Our findings support olfactory identification impairment as a trait marker for schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Pleasure experience is an important part of normal healthy life and is essential for general and mental well-being. Many neuroimaging studies have investigated the underlying neural processing of verbal and visual modalities of reward. However, how the brain processes rewards in the olfactory modality is not fully understood. This study aimed to examine the neural basis of olfactory rewards in 25 healthy participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We developed an Olfactory Incentive Delay (OLID) imaging task distinguishing between the anticipation and receipt of olfactory rewards and punishments. We found that the pallidum was activated during the anticipation of both olfactory rewards and punishments. The bilateral insula was activated independently from the odours' hedonic valence during the receipt phase. In addition, right caudate activation during the anticipation of unpleasant odours was correlated with self-reported anticipatory hedonic traits, whereas bilateral insular activation during the receipt of pleasant odours was correlated with self-reported consummatory hedonic traits. These findings suggest that activity in the insula and the caudate may be biomarkers of anhedonia. These findings also highlight a useful and valid paradigm to study the neural circuitry underlying reward processing in people with anhedonia., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Nasal-type, extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma (ENKTCL) is a special type of lymphomas with geographic and racial specificity. Up to now, the standard first-line treatment is still not unified. In our previous report, the "sandwich" protocol produced good results. Continuing to use the "sandwich" mode, a new chemotherapy composed of L-asparaginase, cisplatin, etoposide and dexamethasone (LVDP) plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) was conducted in more patients with newly diagnosed, I/II stage ENKTCL. The results showed that 66 patients were enrolled. Overall response rate was 86.4% including 83.3% complete response and 3.0% partial remission. With the median follow-up of 23.5 months, 3-year overall survival and 3-year progression-free survival were 70.1% and 67.4%, respectively. The survival rate in stage II and extra-cavity stage I was significantly less than that in limited stage I (p < 0.05). Therefore, we thought that the "sandwich" mode was worthy of being generalized and LVDP combined with CCRT was an effective protocol for I/II stage ENKTCL. But this regimen was not suitable for all stage I/II patients and warrants larger sample and layering investigation. This study was a registered clinical trial with number ChiCTR-TNC-12002353.

Nasal-type, extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma is a heterogeneous disorder with poor prognosis, requiring risk stratification in this population. The combined value of baseline absolute lymphocyte count and absolute monocyte count provided prognostic information in some malignancies. However, the evidence requires validation in extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma. Aiming to investigate the prognostic significance of absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count ratio and absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count prognostic score for extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, a retrospective research was carried out. A total of 264 patients with newly diagnosed extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma were analyzed in this study. The patients' absolute lymphocyte count and absolute monocyte count tested at initial diagnosis were collected. Receiver operating curve analysis showed that the optimal cut-off values for absolute lymphocyte count and absolute monocyte count were 1.0 × 10 9 and 0.5 × 10 9 L -1 , respectively, and for absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count ratio was 2.85. After a median follow-up of 27 months (range 1-87 months), the 3-year overall survival and progression-free survival was 75.4% and 67.6%, respectively. Patients with absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count ratio ≥ 2.85 had better 3-year overall survival and progression-free survival than those with absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count ratio <2.85 (p < 0.001). According to absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count prognostic score, significant difference has been noticed in 3-year overall survival and progression-free survival (p < 0.001) and high absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count prognostic score was associated with poorer survival. The International Prognostic Index and Korean Prognostic Index were used for prognosis and showed no significant difference. When adding absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count ratio and absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count prognostic score to the International Prognostic Index and Korean Prognostic Index model, additional prognostic information was found. These results suggest that absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count ratio and absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count prognostic score might be useful prognostic factors in extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma.

Nasal type, extranodal nature killer (NK)/T cell lymphoma-associated hemophagocytic syndrome (NK/T-LAHS) is a rare and fatal disorder with extremely poor prognosis. To investigate its clinical characteristics and risk factors, we retrospectively analyzed 295 patients with nasal type, extranodal nature killer/T cell lymphoma, of which 21 were diagnosed with hemophagocytic syndrome, with a cumulative incidence of 7.1%. The most frequently clinical characteristics were fever, lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, pancytopenia, hyperferritinemia, liver dysfunction, hypertriglyceridemia, hypofibrinogenemia and evaluated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level. After a median follow-up of 27 months, the 2-year survival for the 295 patients was 74.6%. Significant difference for 2-year survival was found between patients with and without hemophagocytic syndrome (4.8% vs. 80.0%, P<0.001). After developing hemophagocytic syndrome, all patients survived no more than 3 months, with a median survival of 35 days. Risk factors for NK/T-LAHS were bone marrow (BM) involvement (P = 0.019; relative risk, 13.649; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.538-121.103), hepatosplenomegaly (P = 0.003; relative risk, 9.616; 95%CI: 2.154-42.918), and elevated LDH level (>314U/L) (P = 0.038; relative risk, 6.293; 95%CI: 1.108-35.735). We conducted a risk model for all 295 patients based on the 3 adverse factors as follows: low risk (233 cases, 79.0%), no factor; intermediate risk (43 cases, 14.6%), one factor; high risk (19 cases, 6.4%), 2 or 3 factors. The probabilities for developing LAHS were 0.9% for low-, 14.0% for intermediate-, and 68.4% for high-risk group. Significant differences in the 3 risk groups were observed (P<0.001).

B-cell activating factor (BAFF) plays important roles in a variety of lymphoid malignancies. Compared with healthy adults, patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma had higher level of serum BAFF, and it corresponded with disease severity, response for therapy and clinical outcome. Latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) encoded by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) which is a known agent of nasal, extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma (ENKTCL) can switch the BAFF activating promoter leading to higher expression of BAFF in EBV-related tumor cells. However, the relationship between BAFF and ENKTCL has not been reported. Here we proposed a hypothesis that BAFF might play a regulatory role in ENKTCL development and maintenance. Our results showed that serum BAFF in ENKTCL patients was significantly higher than that in control group and negatively correlated with patients' survival. It may be a valuable prognostic factor and deserved further study., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Anhedonia is a core feature of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and is less responsive to antipsychotic medication. Little is known whether anhedonia could be alleviated by cognitive training. The present study aimed to examine whether hedonic deficits observed in individuals with high social anhedonia could be reduced by working memory (WM) training. Thirty-four individuals with high social anhedonia were randomly assigned to either a WM training group or a control group. The WM training group received 20 sessions of dual n-back task training for four weeks. The affective incentive delay task was administered in all participants before the training and one month later. The results showed that individuals who received the WM training showed significant improvement in WM performance (F(19, 304)=55.80, p<0.001) and they also showed significant improvement in approach sensitivity to rewards (p=0.004). These preliminary findings suggest that hedonic processing could be improved through WM training in individuals with high social anhedonia. These results may have important implications for the development of non-pharmacological interventions to alleviate anhedonia in patients with schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Epidemiological evidence has shown that body mass index (BMI) can predict survival in several types of cancer. However, the role of BMI in extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTL) is still unclear. This retrospective single-center study included 251 newly diagnosed patients to determine the prognostic value of BMI in ENKTL. Of these, 203 patients received chemoradiotherapy, 37 received chemotherapy alone, 8 received radiotherapy alone, and 3 received only best supportive care. With a median follow-up of 28 months, the estimated 3-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 64.4% and 60.9%, respectively. The receiver-operating characteristic curve showed that 20.8 kg/m2 was the optimal cut-off of BMI to predict survival. BMI < 20.8 kg/m2 was associated with lower 3-year OS (52.8% vs. 72.9%, P = 0.001) and PFS (48.8% vs. 69.8%, P < 0.001) rates. Multivariate analysis indicated that BMI, performance status, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy were independent prognostic factors for OS. Furthermore, BMI, number of extranodal sites, performance status, LDH, and radiotherapy were predictive of PFS. These results suggest that BMI at the cut-off of 20.8 kg/m2 might be a prognostic factor in patients with ENKTL.

Objective: Pleasure is essential to normal healthy life. Olfaction, as 1 of the neurobehavioral probes of hedonic capacity, has a unique advantage compared to other sensory modalities. However, it is unclear how olfactory hedonic information is processed in the brain. This study aimed to investigate olfactory hedonic processing in the human brain., Method: We conducted an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on 16 functional imaging studies that examined brain activation in olfactory hedonic processing-related tasks in healthy adults., Results: The results show that there is a core olfactory hedonic processing network, which consists of the bilateral parahippocampal gyrus/amygdala (BA34), the left middle frontal gyrus (BA6), the right middle frontal gyrus/lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC; BA10), the bilateral cingulate gyrus (BA32), the right lentiform nucleus/lateral globus pallidus, the right medial frontal gyrus/medial OFC (BA11), the left superior frontal gyrus (BA10), and the right insula (BA13). Moreover, our findings highlight that the right hemisphere is predominant in explicit odor hedonic judgment. Finally, the results indicate that there are significant differences in brain activation for hedonic judgment and passive smelling., Conclusion: These results support the hypothesis that the OFC plays a key role in explicit hedonic judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

Taxol, a kind of terpenoid secondary metabolite produced by Taxus brevifolia, is an effective anticancer drug that manufacture relies mainly on the extraction form plants. In order to solve the resource shortage, a lot of work has been done to develop the alternative method. Recently, using synthetic biology to realize heterologous biosynthesis of the precursors of taxol has become a hotspot. Now, the basic framework of taxol biosynthetic pathways has been confirmed, and most enzyme genes involved in taxol biosynthesis have been cloned and identified. The two taxol precursors, taxa-4(5),11(12)-diene and taxa-4(20),11(12)-dien-5α-ol, have been synthesized in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here this paper reviewed the recent advances in the biosynthetic pathway of taxol and the latest developments of synthetic biology, which aims to provide a guidance for the heterologous biosynthesis of taxol., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

Natural products with complex and diverse structures are the major sources of new drugs. The biosynthesis of natural products is considered to be one of the best ways to solve the problems of complex and scarce natural products. DNA assembly technology and genome editing technology are two key technologies in the emerging interdisciplinary field of synthetic biology. A number of novel DNA assembly methods developed in the last few years have paved the way for the engineering of high molecular weight DNA molecules, including whole genomes, hence, it can realize the reconstruction of the metabolic pathways and speed up optimization process. A wide variety of new tools for microbial genome editing will be applied widely to modify the chassis genome to increase its adaptation with the exogenetic pathways. This article summarized the latest advance with respect to DNA assembly and genome editing, which aims to provide help for reconstruction and optimization of the synthetic biological systems of natural products., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

Catharanthus roseus can produce a variety of terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIA), most of which exhibit strong pharmacological activities. Hence, biosynthesis and regulation of TIA have received recent attention. 3α (S)-strictosidine is an important node in TIA biosynthesis, which is a condensation product of secologanin and tryptamine. The former is produced in iridoid pathway, and the latter is produced in indole pathway. Vindoline and catharanthine, which are produced respectively by 3α (S)-strictosidine via multi-step enzymatic reaction, can form α-3, 4-anhydrovinblastine by the condensation reaction. Then, vinblastine and vincristine are generated from α-3, 4-anhydrovinblastine. Many transcription factors are involved in the regulation of TIA synthesis, such as AP2/ERF and WRKY. Illumination of biosynthetic pathway has laid a foundation for the study of synthetic biology. Today, 3α (S)-strictosidine and vindoline have been synthesized in heterologous hosts Saccharomyces cerevisiae.Research about synthetic biology and the regulation mechanisms will provide a guidance for the production and development of TIA drugs in C. roseus., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

Flavonoids are the valuable components in medicinal plants, which possess a variety of pharmacological activities, including anti-tumor, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. There is an unambiguous understanding about flavonoids biosynthetic pathway, that is,2S-flavanones including naringenin and pinocembrin are the skeleton of other flavonoids and they can transform to other flavonoids through branched metabolic pathway. Elucidation of the flavonoids biosynthetic pathway lays a solid foundation for their synthetic biology. A few flavonoids have been produced in Escherichia coli or yeast with synthetic biological technologies, such as naringenin, pinocembrin and fisetin. Synthetic biology will provide a new way to get valuable flavonoids and promote the research and development of flavonoid drugs and health products, making flavonoids play more important roles in human diet and health., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

There are many valuable medicinal plants in Ginseng genus belonging to Araliaceae. Among them, Panax ginseng, P. quinquefolium and P. notoginseng are the most famous species. With the development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, sequencing and analysis of transcriptomes have become powerful tools for discovery of novel genes, screening molecular markers and elucidation of specific biosynthetic pathway of secondary metabolites. Their transcriptomes provided abundant genes for further study on functional genomics. Here this paper summarized the recent advances in the transcriptomic studies of these three medicinal plants, including discovery of novel genes and elucidation of metabolic regulation, which will contribute to functional genomics in ginseng species., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

Elucidation of the biosynthetic pathways of natural products is not only the major goal of herb genomics, but also the solid foundation of synthetic biology of natural products. Here, this paper reviewed recent advance in this field and put forward strategies to elucidate the biosynthetic pathway of natural products. Firstly, a proposed biosynthetic pathway should be set up based on well-known knowledge about chemical reactions and information on the identified compounds, as well as studies with isotope tracer. Secondly, candidate genes possibly involved in the biosynthetic pathway were screened out by co-expression analysis and/or gene cluster mining. Lastly, all the candidate genes were heterologously expressed in the host and then the enzyme involved in the biosynthetic pathway was characterized by activity assay. Sometimes, the function of the enzyme in the original plant could be further studied by RNAi or VIGS technology. Understanding the biosynthetic pathways of natural products will contribute to supply of new leading compounds by synthetic biology and provide "functional marker" for herbal molecular breeding, thus but boosting the development of traditional Chinese medicine agriculture., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

We report the complete chloroplast genome sequence of Gynostemma pentaphyllum , a well-known traditional Chinese medicine, which produces triterpenoid saponins similar to Panax ginseng. The assembled chloroplast genome (cpDNA) was 157,654 bp in length and structurally divided into four distinct regions, namely, large single copy region (86,794 bp), small single copy region (18,654 bp) and a pair of inverted repeat regions (26,103 bp). A total of 143 genes were annotated, including 87 protein-coding genes, 10 tRNA genes and 46 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the chloroplast genome sequence of G. pentaphyllum is most closely related to Cucumis melo., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article., (© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)