Clinical characteristics and therapeutic procedure for a critical case of novel coronavirus pneumonia treated with glucocorticoids and non-invasive ventilator treatment

The novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) outbreak occurred in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019. Here, we report the clinical characteristics and therapeutic procedure for a case of severe NCP. The patient was started on glucocorticoids and non-invasive ventilator treatment. After treatment, the patient’s symptoms improved, and the status was confirmed as NCP negative. Our results may provide clues for the treatment of NCP

Association of perceived stress and sleep quality among medical students: the mediating role of anxiety and depression symptoms during COVID-19

COVID-19 has intensified the influence on medical students by changing the lifestyle, online study and clinical practice which bring out series of stress, sleep disturbance and mental health problems. This cross-sectional study aim to explore the association between perceived stress and sleep quality among medical students and investigated whether anxiety and depression mediated this association during pandemic. A total of 1,021 medical students in two universities who were from Guangdong Province, China participated this study and from January to September 2020 through the online question are, with 28.80% reporting sleep disturbances. The medical students were finished various self-reported questionnaires, including the Perceived Stress Scale-10, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9, the study found positive correlations among sleep quality, perceived stress, anxiety, and depression. The data was analyzed with The Amos 26.0 system. Result demonstrated that perceived stress was associated with poor sleep quality. Anxiety and depression partially mediated the association between perceived stress and poor sleep quality, explaining 73.08% of the association. This study’s structural equation model offers a useful framework for assessing mechanisms mediating associations between perceived stress and sleep quality. The findings emphases the importance of addressing psychological factors in high-pressure situations, which can exacerbate sleep disturbances among medical students. It is important to screen the level of stress, mental health problems and investigate the risk factors of sleep quality among medical students during emergency public health events

Layer III pyramidal cells in the prefrontal cortex reveal morphological changes in subjects with depression, schizophrenia, and suicide

Brodmann Area 46 (BA46) has long been regarded as a hotspot of disease pathology in individuals with schizophrenia (SCH) and major depressive disorder (MDD). Pyramidal neurons in layer III of the Brodmann Area 46 (BA46) project to other cortical regions and play a fundamental role in corticocortical and thalamocortical circuits. The AutoCUTS-LM pipeline was used to study the 3-dimensional structural morphology and spatial organization of pyramidal cells. Using quantitative light microscopy, we used stereology to calculate the entire volume of layer III in BA46 and the total number and density of pyramidal cells. Volume tensors estimated by the planar rotator quantified the volume, shape, and nucleus displacement of pyramidal cells. All of these assessments were carried out in four groups of subjects: controls (C, n = 10), SCH (n = 10), MDD (n = 8), and suicide subjects with a history of depression (SU, n = 11). SCH subjects had a significantly lower somal volume, total number, and density of pyramidal neurons when compared to C and tended to show a volume reduction in layer III of BA46. When comparing MDD subjects with C, the measured parameters were inclined to follow SCH, although there was only a significant reduction in pyramidal total cell number. While no morphometric differences were observed between SU and MDD, SU had a significantly higher total number of pyramidal cells and nucleus displacement than SCH. Finally, no differences in the spatial organization of pyramidal cells were found among groups. These results suggest that despite significant morphological alterations in layer III of BA46, which may impair prefrontal connections in people with SCH and MDD, the spatial organization of pyramidal cells remains the same across the four groups and suggests no defects in neuronal migration. The increased understanding of pyramidal cell biology may provide the cellular basis for symptoms and neuroimaging observations in SCH and MDD patients

Buchnera breaks the specialization of the cotton-specialized aphid (Aphis gossypii) by providing nutrition through zucchini

The cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover, is a species of polyphagous aphid with many biotypes, and its host transfer has always been the focus of research on the control of cotton aphid. An important factor affecting aphid specialization is the nutritional association with microbial symbionts that provide the host with nutrients lacking in the diet. We analyzed the microbial composition and biodiversity of reared on zucchini for 10 generations (T1–T10) and cotton as a control (CK), by high-throughput Illumina sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA genes. The findings showed that the change in plant hosts decreased the richness and variety of microbial species. Regardless of whether the plant host is altered or not, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes are the predominate phyla in cotton-specialized aphid. Additionally, cotton-specialized aphids that live in zucchini had considerably lower relative abundances of non-dominant phyla (Bacteroidetes) than cotton hosts. At the genus level the dominant communities were Buchnera, Acinetobacter, and Arsenophonus. The relative abundance of Buchnera was significantly higher in aphids reared on zucchini than those on cotton, whereas the opposite was observed for Acinetobacter, as well as for some non-dominant communities (Stenotrophomonas, Pseudomons, Flavobacterium, Novosphingobium). Collectively, this study clarifies the dynamic changes of symbiotic bacteria in cotton-specialized aphids reared on zucchini for multiple generations. Among them, Buchnera is crucial for the cotton-specialized aphid to get nutrients during the transfer of the host and has a favorable impact on the colonization of cotton-specialized aphid populations on zucchini hosts. It not only enriches our understanding of the relationship between the bacterial microbiota of aphids and their adaptability to new hosts, zucchini, but also expands the current body of research on the mechanisms underlying the host shifting ability of cotton-specialized aphids

Cellular 3D-reconstruction and analysis in the human cerebral cortex using automatic serial sections

Techniques involving three-dimensional (3D) tissue structure reconstruction and analysis provide a better understanding of changes in molecules and function. We have developed AutoCUTS-LM, an automated system that allows the latest advances in 3D tissue reconstruction and cellular analysis developments using light microscopy on various tissues, including archived tissue. The workflow in this paper involved advanced tissue sampling methods of the human cerebral cortex, an automated serial section collection system, digital tissue library, cell detection using convolution neural network, 3D cell reconstruction, and advanced analysis. Our results demonstrated the detailed structure of pyramidal cells (number, volume, diameter, sphericity and orientation) and their 3D spatial organization are arranged in a columnar structure. The pipeline of these combined techniques provides a detailed analysis of tissues and cells in biology and pathology

Identification of novel immune-related molecular subtypes and a prognosis model to predict thyroid cancer prognosis and drug resistance

Background: Thyroid cancer is a common malignant tumor of the endocrine system that has shown increased incidence in recent decades. We explored the relationship between tumor-infiltrating immune cell classification and the prognosis of thyroid carcinoma.Methods: RNA-seq, SNV, copy number variance (CNV), and methylation data for thyroid cancer were downloaded from the TCGA dataset. ssGSEA was used to calculate pathway scores. Clustering was conducted using ConsensusClusterPlus. Immune infiltration was assessed using ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT. CNV and methylation were determined using GISTIC2 and the KNN algorithm. Immunotherapy was predicted based on TIDE analysis. Results: Three molecular subtypes (Immune-enrich(E), Stromal-enrich(E), and Immune-deprived(D)) were identified based on 15 pathways and the corresponding genes. Samples in Immune-E showed higher immune infiltration, while those in Immune-D showed increased tumor mutation burden (TMB) and mutations in tumor driver genes. Finally, Immune-E showed higher CDH1 methylation, higher progression-free survival (PFS), higher suitability for immunotherapy, and higher sensitivity to small-molecule chemotherapeutic drugs. Additionally, an immune score (IMScore) based on four genes was constructed, in which the low group showed better survival outcome, which was validated in 30 cancers. Compared to the TIDE score, the IMScore showed better predictive ability.Conclusion: This study constructed a prognostic evaluation model and molecular subtype system of immune-related genes to predict the thyroid cancer prognosis of patients. Moreover, the interaction network between immune genes may play a role by affecting the biological function of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment

Causal linkage between type 2 diabetes mellitus and inflammatory bowel disease: an integrated Mendelian randomization study and bioinformatics analysis

BackgroundObservational studies have indicated associations between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and both colorectal cancer (CRC) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the underlying causality and biological mechanisms between these associations remains unclear.MethodsWe conducted a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis employing summary statistics from genome-wide association studies involving European individuals. The inverse variance weighting (IVW) method was the primary method used to assess causality. Additionally, we applied MR Egger, Weighted median, Simple mode, and Weighted mode to evaluate the robustness of the results. Outliers were identified and eliminated using the MR-PRESSO, while the MR-Egger intercept was used to assess the horizontal pleiotropic effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The heterogeneity was evaluated using the Cochrane Q test, and sensitivity analysis was performed using leave-one-out method. The F statistic was calculated to evaluate weak instrumental variable bias. Finally, a pilot bioinformatics analysis was conducted to explore the underlying biological mechanisms between T2DM and IBD/UC.ResultsThe IVW results demonstrated that T2DM significantly reduced risks of IBD (OR=0.885, 95% CI: 0.818–0.958, P=0.002) and ulcerative colitis (UC) (OR=0.887, 95% CI: 0.812–0.968, P=0.007). Although the 95% CIs of MR Egger, Weighted median, Simple mode, and Weighted mode were broad, the majority of their estimates were consistent with the direction of IVW. Despite significant heterogeneity among SNPs, no horizontal pleiotropy was observed. The leave-one-out analysis showed that the causality remained consistent after each SNP was removed, underscoring the reliability of the results. Reverse MR analysis indicated that genetic susceptibility to both CRC and IBD had no significant effect on the relative risk of T2DM. Ten hub genes were identified, which mainly enriched in pathways including maturity onset diabetes of the young, thyroid cancer, gastric acid secretion, longevity regulating pathway, melanogenesis, and pancreatic secretion.ConclusionThe presence of T2DM does not increase the risk of CRC or IBD. Moreover, T2DM might reduce risk of IBD, including UC. Conversely, the occurrence of CRC or IBD does not influence the risk of T2DM. The association between T2DM and IBD/UC may be related to the changes in multiple metabolic pathways and CTLA-4-mediated immune response