From heart failure and kidney dysfunction to cardiorenal syndrome: TMAO may be a bridge

The study of trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), a metabolite of gut microbiota, and heart failure and chronic kidney disease has made preliminary achievements and been summarized by many researchers, but its research in the field of cardiorenal syndrome is just beginning. TMAO is derived from the trimethylamine (TMA) that is produced by the gut microbiota after consumption of carnitine and choline and is then transformed by flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) in the liver. Numerous research results have shown that TMAO not only participates in the pathophysiological progression of heart and renal diseases but also significantly affects outcomes in chronic heart failure (CHF) and chronic kidney disease (CKD), besides influencing the general health of populations. Elevated circulating TMAO levels are associated with adverse cardiovascular events such as HF, myocardial infarction, and stroke, patients with CKD have a poor prognosis as well. However, no study has confirmed an association between TMAO and cardiorenal syndrome (CRS). As a syndrome in which heart and kidney diseases intersect, CRS is often overlooked by clinicians. Here, we summarize the research on TMAO in HF and kidney disease and review the existing biomarkers of CRS. At the same time, we introduced the relationship between exercise and gut microbiota, and appropriately explored the possible mechanisms by which exercise affects gut microbiota. Finally, we discuss whether TMAO can serve as a biomarker of CRS, with the aim of providing new strategies for the detection, prognostic, and treatment evaluation of CRS

Evidence-based genomic diagnosis characterized chromosomal and cryptic imbalances in 30 elderly patients with myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the clinical validity of genome-wide oligonucleotide array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) for detecting somatic abnormalities, we have applied this genomic analysis to 30 cases (13 MDS and 17 AML) with clonal chromosomal abnormalities detected in more than 50% of analyzed metaphase cells. RESULTS: The aCGH detected all numerical chromosomal gains and losses from the mainline clones and 113 copy number alterations (CNAs) ranging from 0.257 to 102.519 megabases (Mb). Clinically significant recurrent deletions of 5q (involving the RPS14 gene), 12p12.3 (ETV6 gene), 17p13 (TP53 gene), 17q11.2 (NF1 gene) and 20q, double minutes containing the MYC gene and segmental amplification involving the MLL gene were further characterized with defined breakpoints and gene contents. Genomic features of microdeletions at 17q11.2 were confirmed by FISH using targeted BAC clones. The aCGH also defined break points in a derivative chromosome 6, der(6)t(3;6)(q21.3;p22.2), and an isodicentric X chromosome. However, chromosomally observed sideline clonal abnormalities in five cases were not detected by aCGH. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicated that an integrated cytogenomic analysis will be a better diagnostic scheme to delineate genomic contents of chromosomal and cryptic abnormalities in patients with MDS and AML. An evidence-based approach to interpret somatic genomic findings was proposed

The impact of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 among healthcare workers in hospitals: An aerial overview

The ongoing outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, places healthcare workers at an increased risk of infection as they are in close contact with patients. In this article, we report an overview of cases of infected healthcare workers in China and Italy during the early periods of the COVID-19 epidemic. China’s coronavirus response highlights the importance of implementing effective public health strategies. The authorities worldwide therefore, need to be extremely cautious when they implement stringent protective measures that safeguard healthcare workers in hospitals and counteract the threats created by the pandemic. Key Words: COVID-19 disease, Medical staff, Protective measures, Severe acute respiratory syndrome, coronavirus 2, Person-to-person transmissio

Molecular and Clinicopathologic Characterization of Intravenous Leiomyomatosis

Intravenous leiomyomatosis (IVL) is an unusual uterine smooth muscle proliferation that can be associated with aggressive clinical behavior despite a histologically benign appearance. It has some overlapping molecular characteristics with both uterine leiomyoma and leiomyosarcoma based on limited genetic data. In this study, we assessed the clinical and morphological characteristics of 28 IVL and their correlation with molecular features and protein expression, using array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) and Cyclin D1, p16, phosphorylated-Rb, SMARCB1, SOX10, CAIX, SDHB and FH immunohistochemistry. The most common morphologies were cellular (n=15), usual (n=11) and vascular (n=5; including 3 cellular IVL showing both vascular and cellular features). Among the immunohistochemical findings, the most striking was that all IVL showed differential expression of either p16 or Cyclin D1 in comparison to surrounding non-neoplastic tissue. Cytoplasmic phosphorylated-Rb was present in all but one IVL with hyalinization. SMARCB1, FH and SDHB were retained; S0X10 and CAIX were not expressed. The most common genetic alterations involved 1p (39%), 22q (36%), 2q (29%), 1q (25%), 13q (21%) and 14q (21%). Hierarchical clustering analysis of recurrent aberrations revealed 3 molecular groups: Group 1 (29%) and 2 (18%) with associated del(22q) and group 3 (18%) with del(10q). The remaining IVL had non-specific or no alterations by aCGH. Genomic index scores were calculated for all cases and showed no significant difference between the 14 IVL associated with aggressive clinical behavior (extrauterine extension or recurrence) and those without (median scores 5.15 vs 3.5). Among the 5 IVL associated with recurrence, 4 had a vascular morphology and 3 had alterations of 8q. Recurrent chromosome alterations detected herein overlap with those observed in the spectrum of uterine smooth muscle tumors and involve genes implicated in mesenchymal tumors at different sites with distinct morphological features

Real-space observation of vibrational strong coupling between propagating phonon polaritons and organic molecules

Phonon polaritons (PPs) in van der Waals (vdW) materials can strongly enhance light-matter interactions at mid-infrared frequencies, owing to their extreme infrared field confinement and long lifetimes. PPs thus bear potential for achieving vibrational strong coupling (VSC) with molecules. Although the onset of VSC has recently been observed spectroscopically with PP nanoresonators, no experiments so far have resolved VSC in real space and with propagating modes in unstructured layers. Here, we demonstrate by real-space nanoimaging that VSC can be achieved between propagating PPs in thin vdW crystals (specifically h-BN) and molecular vibrations in adjacent thin molecular layers. To that end, we performed near-field polariton interferometry, showing that VSC leads to the formation of a propagating hybrid mode with a pronounced anti-crossing region in its dispersion, in which propagation with negative group velocity is found. Numerical calculations predict VSC for nanometer-thin molecular layers and PPs in few-layer vdW materials, which could make propagating PPs a promising platform for ultra-sensitive on-chip spectroscopy and strong coupling experiments

Terahertz nanoimaging and nanospectroscopy of chalcogenide phase-change materials

Chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs) exhibit optical phonons at terahertz (THz) frequencies, which can be used for studying basic properties of the phase transition and which lead to a strong dielectric contrast that could be exploited for THz photonics applications. Here, we demonstrate that the phonons of PCMs can be studied by frequency-tunable THz scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM). Specifically, we perform spectroscopic THz nanoimaging of a PCM sample comprising amorphous and crystalline phases. We observe phonon signatures, yielding strong s-SNOM signals and, most important, clear spectral differences between the amorphous and crystalline PCM, which allows for distinguishing the PCM phases with high confidence on the nanoscale. We also found that the spectral signature can be enhanced, regarding both signal strength and spectral contrast, by increasing the radius of the probing tip. From a general perspective, our results establish THz s-SNOM for nanoscale structural and chemical mapping based on local phonon spectroscopy.C.C. acknowledges the Postdoctoral Fund of Hubei Province (Grant No. 182/0106182067). M.X. acknowledges the National Key R&D Plan of China (Grant No. 2017YFB0701701 “Materials Genome Engineering”) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51772113). M.L. and T.T. acknowledge funding from the DFG (German Science Foundation) within the collaborative research center SFB 917 “Nanoswitches”. P. L. acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62075070). R.H. acknowledges financial support from the European Union’s H2020 FET OPEN Project PETER (GA#767227), the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (National Project RTI2018-094830-B-100 and the Project MDM-2016-0618 of the Marie de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program), and the Basque Government (Grant No. IT1164-19).Peer reviewe