Prediction of adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma based on CT perfusion parameters of brain metastases from lung cancer: a pilot study

ObjectivesPredicting pathological types in patients with adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma using CT perfusion imaging parameters based on brain metastasis lesions from lung cancer.MethodsWe retrospectively studied adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma patients with brain metastases who received treatment and had been pathologically tested in our hospital from 2019 to 2021. CT perfusion images of the brain were used to segment enhancing tumors and peritumoral edema and to extract CT perfusion parameters. The most relevant perfusion parameters were identified to classify the pathological types. Of the 45 patients in the study cohort (mean age 65.64 ± 10.08 years; M:F = 24:21), 16 were found to have squamous cell carcinoma. Twenty patients were with brain metastases only, and 25 patients were found to have multiple organ metastases in addition to brain metastases. After admission, all patients were subjected to the CT perfusion imaging examination. Differences in CT perfusion parameters between adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma were analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to predict the types of pathology of the patients.ResultsAmong the perfusion parameters, cerebral blood flow (CBF) and mean transit time (MTT) were significantly different between the two lung cancers (adenocarcinoma vs. squamous cell carcinoma: p < 0.001, p = 0.012.). Gender and tumor location were identified as the clinical predictive factors. For the classification of adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma, the model combined with CBF and clinical predictive factors showed better performance [area under the curve (AUC): 0.918, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.797–0.979). The multiple organ metastasis model showed better performance than the brain metastasis alone model in subgroup analyses (AUC: 0.958, 95% CI: 0.794–0.999).ConclusionCT perfusion parameter analysis of brain metastases in patients with primary lung cancer could be used to classify adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma

A genome-wide association study explores the genetic determinism of host resistance to Salmonella pullorum infection in chickens

International audienceAbstractBackgroundSalmonella infection is a serious concern in poultry farming because of its impact on both economic loss and human health. Chicks aged 20 days or less are extremely vulnerable to Salmonella pullorum (SP), which causes high mortality. Furthermore, an outbreak of SP infection can result in a considerable number of carriers that become potential transmitters, thus, threatening fellow chickens and offspring. In this study, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to detect potential genomic loci and candidate genes associated with two disease-related traits: death and carrier state.MethodsIn total, 818 birds were phenotyped for death and carrier state traits through a SP challenge experiment, and genotyped by using a 600 K high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. A GWAS using a single-marker linear mixed model was performed with the GEMMA software. RNA-sequencing on spleen samples was carried out for further identification of candidate genes.ResultsWe detected a region that was located between 33.48 and 34.03 Mb on chicken chromosome 4 and was significantly associated with death, with the most significant SNP (rs314483802) accounting for 11.73% of the phenotypic variation. Two candidate genes, FBXW7 and LRBA, were identified as the most promising genes involved in resistance to SP. The expression levels of FBXW7 and LRBA were significantly downregulated after SP infection, which suggests that they may have a role in controlling SP infections. Two other significant loci and related genes (TRAF3 and gga-mir-489) were associated with carrier state, which indicates a different polygenic determinism compared with that of death. In addition, genomic inbreeding coefficients showed no correlation with resistance to SP within each breed in our study.ConclusionsThe results of this GWAS with a carefully organized Salmonella challenge experiment represent an important milestone in understanding the genetics of infectious disease resistance, offer a theoretical basis for breeding SP-resistant chicken lines using marker-assisted selection, and provide new information for salmonellosis research in humans and other animals

Aggregation formation mediated anoikis resistance of BEL7402 hepatoma cells.

Anoikis resistance is the prerequisite of cancer cells metastasis. Elucidation of the mechanism of anoikis resistance remains a significant challenge. We reported here a model to mimic anoikis resistant process of hepatoma cells in vitro. Experimental results indicated cell to cell aggregation could mediate anoikis resistance of BEL7402 hepatoma cells. Further investigation of these aggregations indicated the biological properties changed greatly after the hepatoma cells lost their anchorage. Aggregation forming process could be separated into three distinct phases according to their biological characteristics, comprising of premature phase, mature phase and postmature phase. Mature phase aggregations have the premium state of cell viability and may mimic the metastatic cells in the circulating system. Biological properties of these three phases aggregations were studied in details including morphological alteration, cell viability and microarray expression profiles. It indicated there was a great upregulation of adhesion molecules during the process of aggregation formation and the cell to cell contact in the aggregation may be mediated independent of calcium involved adhesion pathway. This model might shed light on the anoikis resistance mechanism of hepatoma cells and help to develop new therapies that may target the anoikis resistant hepatoma cells in the metastasis process

Compound dark tea ameliorates obesity and hepatic steatosis and modulates the gut microbiota in mice

Dark tea is a fermented tea that plays a role in regulating the homeostasis of intestinal microorganisms. Previous studies have found that dark tea can improve obesity and has a lipid-lowering effect. In this study, green tea, Ilex latifolia Thunb (kuding tea) and Momordica grosvenori (Luo Han Guo) were added to a new compound dark tea (CDT), to improve the taste and health of this beverage. High-fat diet-fed C57BL/6J mice were treated with low- (6 mg/mL) or high- (12 mg/mL) concentrations of CDT for 18 weeks to assess their effect on lipid metabolism. Our results suggest that low- and high-concentrations of CDT could reduce body weight by 15 and 16% and by 44 and 38% of body fat, respectively, by attenuating body weight gain and fat accumulation, improving glucose tolerance, alleviating metabolic endotoxemia, and regulating the mRNA expression levels of lipid metabolism-related genes. In addition, low concentrations of CDT were able to reduce the abundance of Desulfovibrio, which is positively associated with obesity, and increase the abundance of Ruminococcus, which are negatively associated with obesity. This study demonstrates the effect of CDT on ameliorating lipid metabolism and provides new insights into the research and development of functional tea beverages

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Feather colour affects the aggressive behaviour of chickens with the same genotype on the dominant white (I) locus.

Aggression in chickens is a serious economic and animal welfare issue in poultry farming. Pigmentation traits have been documented to be associated with animal behaviour. Chicken pecking behaviour has been found to be related to feather colour, with premelanosome protein 17 (PMEL17) being one of the candidate genes. In the present study, we performed a genotypic and phenotypic association analysis between chicken plumage colour (red and white) and aggressive behaviour in an F1 hybrid group generated by crossing the autosomal dominant white-feathered breed White Leghorn (WL) and the red-feathered breed Rhode Island Red (RIR). In genetic theory, all the progeny should have white feathers because WL is homozygous autosomal dominant for white feathers. However, we found a few red-feathered female chickens. We compared the aggressiveness between the red and white females to determine whether the feather colour alone affected the behaviour, given that the genetic background should be the same except for feather colour. The aggressiveness was recorded 5 days after sexual maturity at 26 weeks. Generally, white plumage hens showed significantly higher aggressiveness compared to the red ones in chasing, attacking, pecking, and threatening behaviour traits. We assessed three candidate feather colour genes-PMEL17, solute carrier family 45 member 2 (SLC45A2), and SRY-box 10 (SOX10)-to determine the genetic basis for the red and white feather colour in our hybrid population; there was no association between the three loci and feather colour. The distinct behavioural findings observed herein provide clues to the mechanisms underlying the association between phenotype and behaviour in chickens. We suggest that mixing red and white chickens together might reduce the occurrence of aggressive behaviours