Пульмональный Лангергансоклеточный гистиоцитоз легких: клиническое наблюдение в стадии раннего поражения

Histocytosis X is a rare disease of unknown etiology involving the reticuloendothelial system. We present a case of a 32 year-old man diagnosed with Pulmonary Histocytisis X. The CT image of the lungs showed disseminated disease with the formation of cyst-like cavities, which were histologically verified using lung biopsy. Лангергансоклеточный гистиоцитоз (гистиоцитоз Х) – заболевание ретикулогистиоцитарной системы неизвестной этиологии. Представлен клинический случай данной патологии у мужчины 32 лет с характерной компьютерно-томографической картиной легких в виде диссеминированного процесса с формированием кистозных полостей, который верифицирован морфологически с помощью биопсии легких.

Non-Invasive Diagnosis of Malignancies Based on the Analysis of Markers in Exhaled Air

Novel non-invasive methods for the diagnosis of malignancies should be effective for early diagnosis, reproducible, inexpensive, and independent from the human factor. Our aim was to establish the applicability of the non-invasive method, based on the analysis of air exhaled by patients who are at different stages of oropharyngeal, larynx and lung cancer. The diagnostic device includes semiconductor sensors capable of measuring the concentrations of gas components in exhaled air, with the high sensitivity of 1 ppm. The neural network uses signals from these sensors to perform classification and identify cancer patients. Prior to the diagnostic procedure of the non-invasive method, we clarified the extent and stage of the tumor according to current international standards and recommendations for the diagnosis of malignancies. The statistical dataset for neural network training and method validation included samples from 121 patients with the most common tumor localizations (lungs, oropharyngeal region and larynx). The largest number of cases (21 patients) were lung cancer, while the number of patients with oropharyngeal or laryngeal cancer varied from 1 to 9, depending on tumor localization (oropharyngeal, tongue, oral cavity, larynx and mucosa of the lower jaw). In the case of lung cancer, the parameters of the diagnostic device are determined as follows: sensitivity—95.24%, specificity—76.19%. For oropharyngeal cancer and laryngeal cancer, these parameters were 67.74% and 87.1%, respectively. This non-invasive method could lead to relevant medicinal findings and provide an opportunity for clinical utility and patient benefit upon early diagnosis of malignancies

Human Papillomavirus in Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma: Assessing Virus Presence in Tumor and Normal Tissues and Its Clinical Relevance

The significance of the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the development of lung cancer remains an open question. The data from the literature do not provide conclusive evidence of HPV being involved in the pathogenesis of lung cancer. The aim of this work was to detect the presence of HPV infections with a high carcinogenic risk in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and methods: the study involved 274 patients with stage IIA–IIIB non-small cell lung cancer. We analyzed normal and tumor tissues as well as blood from each patient. DNA was extracted from patients’ specimens, and HPV detection and genotyping was carried out using commercially available kits by PCR. Results: HPV was detected in 12.7% of the patients (35/274 of all cases). We detected nine different types of human papillomavirus in the patients, namely, types 16, 18, 31, 35, 45, 51, 52, 56, and 59. The HPV-positive samples had a clinically insignificant viral load and were predominantly integrated. The relationship between the presence of HPV and its virological parameters and the clinical and pathological parameters of the patients was established. A metastatic-free survival analysis showed that all patients with HPV in the tumor tissue had a higher 5-year survival rate (94%) compared with the HPV-negative patients (78%). The result was not statistically significant (p = 0.08). Conclusions: data showing a 12.7% human papillomavirus representation among patients with non-small cell lung cancer were obtained. The presence/absence of a viral component in patients with lung cancer was a clinically significant parameter. HPV types 16, 18, and 56, which are the most oncogenic, were most often detected

Epitaxial Silver Films Morphology and Optical Properties Evolution over Two Years

Silver and gold are the most commonly used materials in optics and plasmonics. Silver has the lowest optical losses in the visible and near-infrared wavelength range, but it faces a serious problem—degradation over time. It has been repeatedly reported that the optical properties of silver thin films rapidly degrade when exposed to the atmosphere. This phenomenon was described by various mechanisms: rapid silver oxidation, sorption of sulfur or oxygen, formation of silver compounds with chlorine, sulfur, and oxygen. In this work, we systematically studied single-crystalline silver films from 25 to 70 nm thicknesses for almost two years. The surface morphology, crystalline structure and optical characteristics of the silver films were measured using spectroscopic ellipsometry, ultra-high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, and stylus profilometry under standard laboratory conditions. After 19 months, bulk structures appeared on the surface of thin films. These structures are associated with relaxation of internal stresses combined with dewetting. Single-crystalline silver films deposited using the single-crystalline continuous ultra-smooth, low-loss, low-cost (SCULL) technology with a thickness of 35–50 nm demonstrated the best stability in terms of degradation. We have shown that the number of defects (grain boundaries and joints of terraces) is one of the key factors that influence the degradation intensity of silver films

Long interspersed nuclear element-1 methylation status in the circulating DNA from blood of patients with malignant and chronic inflammatory lung diseases

Along with other malignant diseases, lung cancer arises from the precancerous lung tissue state. Aberrant DNA methylation (hypermethylation of certain genes and hypomethylation of retrotransposons) is known as one of the driving forces of malignant cell transformation. Epigenetic changes were shown to be detectable in DNA, circulating in the blood (cirDNA) of cancer patients, indicating the possibility to use them as cancer markers. The current study is the first to compare the Long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) methylation level in the blood from lung cancer patients before treatment versus different control groups as healthy subjects, patients with bronchitis and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The concentration of LINE-1 methylated fragments, region 1 (LINE-1 methylated, LINE-1-met) was estimated by quantitative methyl-specific PCR. The total concentration of the circulating LINE-1 copies was measured by qPCR specific for LINE-1 region 2, which was selected due to its CpG methylation-independent sequence (LINE-1-Ind). Both LINE-1 methylation level and LINE-1 methylation index (LINE-1-met/LINE-1-Ind ratio) was decreased in lung cancer patients compared with the joint control group (healthy subjects + patients with bronchitis + COPD patients) (Mann-Whitney U-test, P = 0.016). We also found that the tendency of LINE-1 methylation index decreases in the cirDNA from lung cancer patients versus COPD patients (Mann-Whitney U-test, P = 0.07). Our data indicate that the quantitative analysis of the LINE-1 methylation level in the cirDNA is valuable for discrimination of lung cancer patients from patients with chronic inflammatory lung diseases. © 2021 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved

Pulmonary histocytosis X: clinical observation of early-stage disease

Histocytosis X is a rare disease of unknown etiology involving the reticuloendothelial system. We present a case of a 32 year-old man diagnosed with Pulmonary Histocytisis X. The CT image of the lungs showed disseminated disease with the formation of cyst-like cavities, which were histologically verified using lung biopsy

High fidelity two-qubit gates on fluxoniums using a tunable coupler

Superconducting fluxonium qubits provide a promising alternative to transmons on the path toward large-scale superconductor-based quantum computing due to their better coherence and larger anharmonicity. A major challenge for multi-qubit fluxonium devices is the experimental demonstration of a scalable crosstalk-free multi-qubit architecture with high-fidelity single-qubit and two-qubit gates, single-shot readout, and state initialization. Here, we present a two-qubit fluxonium-based quantum processor with a tunable coupler element. We experimentally demonstrate fSim-type and controlled-Z-gates with 99.55 and 99.23% fidelities, respectively. The residual ZZ interaction is suppressed down to the few kHz levels. Using a galvanically coupled flux control line, we implement high-fidelity single-qubit gates and ground state initialization with a single arbitrary waveform generator channel per qubit.ISSN:2056-638

Coupler Microwave-Activated Controlled-Phase Gate on Fluxonium Qubits

Tunable couplers have recently become one of the most powerful tools for implementing two-qubit gates between superconducting qubits. A tunable coupler typically includes a nonlinear element, such as a superconducting quantum interference device, which is used to tune the resonance frequency of an LC circuit connecting two qubits. Here we propose a complimentary approach where instead of tuning the resonance frequency of the tunable coupler by applying a quasistatic control signal, we excite by microwave the degree of freedom associated with the coupler itself. Because of strong effective longitudinal coupling between the coupler and the qubits, the frequency of this transition strongly depends on the computational state, leading to different phase accumulations in different states. Using this method, we experimentally demonstrate a controlled-Z gate of 44-ns duration on a fluxonium-based quantum processor, obtaining a fidelity of 97.6%±0.4% characterized by cross-entropy benchmarking