DNA methylation-associated colonic mucosal immune and defense responses in treatment-na?ve pediatric ulcerative colitis

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are emerging globally, indicating that environmental factors may be important in their pathogenesis. Colonic mucosal epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation, can occur in response to the environment and have been implicated in IBD pathology. However, mucosal DNA methylation has not been examined in treatment-naïve patients. We studied DNA methylation in untreated, left sided colonic biopsy specimens using the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip array. We analyzed 22 control (C) patients, 15 untreated Crohn’s disease (CD) patients, and 9 untreated ulcerative colitis (UC) patients from two cohorts. Samples obtained at the time of clinical remission from two of the treatment-naïve UC patients were also included into the analysis. UC-specific gene expression was interrogated in a subset of adjacent samples (5 C and 5 UC) using the Affymetrix GeneChip PrimeView Human Gene Expression Arrays. Only treatment-naïve UC separated from control. One-hundred-and-twenty genes with significant expression change in UC (> 2-fold, P < 0.05) were associated with differentially methylated regions (DMRs). Epigenetically associated gene expression changes (including gene expression changes in the IFITM1, ITGB2, S100A9, SLPI, SAA1, and STAT3 genes) were linked to colonic mucosal immune and defense responses. These findings underscore the relationship between epigenetic changes and inflammation in pediatric treatment-naïve UC and may have potential etiologic, diagnostic, and therapeutic relevance for IBD.     

儿童颈髓区巨大动静脉畸形1例(英文)

脑动静脉畸形(AVM)是复杂的血管病变,是由于没有毛细血管床的脑动脉和静脉之间的异常连接引起的病灶[1]。脑动静脉畸形的临床表现有大出血、癫痫、神经功能障碍或头痛,但大部分患者无特异性症状,因此容易漏诊、误诊。手术切除、血管内治疗和放射治疗是动静脉畸形的选择疗法。血管内治疗可以作为其他难以治愈的脑动静脉畸形,或者作为手术切除或放射治疗前的辅助治疗,以减少脑动静脉畸形的血供或促进其收缩,进而促进手术切除或消融[2]。该病引起的颈部疼痛在儿科未见报道。我们收治1例颈髓区巨大动静脉畸形患儿,表现为持续性颈部疼痛并出现癫痫和呕吐症状,经采取分段外科胶栓塞术(第一次部分栓塞术后观察1年再行第二次栓塞),达到动静脉畸形的治愈。     

麦-稻两熟集约生产土壤养分平衡与调控研究

以兴化市钓鱼乡为例,研究了麦－稻两熟集约生产的土壤有机质、养分的动态平衡以及调控途径。结果表明,在不同的管理模式下,高产农田有机物归还量比一般产量条件下高１４．２２％￣１８．６９％,氮、磷盈余量、钾亏缺量分别为３８０．０￣４３２ｋｇ／ｈｍ＾２、１９．１５￣３２．７８ｋｇ／ｈｍ＾２、９９．１￣１７４．０ｋｇ／ｈｍ＾２,与一般产量条件下比较,氮、磷盈余量提高,而钾的亏缺量相近,提出了改善高产农田土壤肥     

外来杂草北美车前(Plantago virginica)种群分布格局的统计分析

采用连续样方法,分别调查了浙江师大校园内不同定居阶段和生境特点的北美车前(Plantago virginica)种群密度和盖度,以此为基础,计算了北美车前种群分布的偏离系数,并进行了种群的格局规模和格局纹理分析。结果表明:(1)北美车前呈明显的集群分布;(2)多数样点中的北美车前种群存在一个直径在30~50 cm的斑块(包括间隙);(3)随着北美车前种群定居时间延长,种群密度的增加,其斑块数目呈现出少→多→少的变化趋势,这一特点与其种子散布机制有关;(4)种群盖度与偏离系数呈现有统计学意义上的负相关,表明随着定居后时间的延长,外观上北美车前种群的集群分布趋势变弱。     

Delayed inflammation decrease is associated with mortality in Tocilizumab-treated critically ill SARS-CoV-2 patients: A retrospective matched-cohort analysis

Little is known about the immuno-inflammatory response to Tocilizumab and its association with outcome in critically-ill SARS-CoV2 pneumonia. In this multicenter retrospective cohort of SARS-CoV-2 patients admitted to three intensive care units between March and April 2020, we matched on gender and SAPS II 21 Tocilizumab-treated patients to 42 non-treated patients. Need for mechanical ventilation was 76% versus 79%. IL-6, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen had been collected within the first days of admission (T1), 3 d (T2) and 7 d (T3) later. Tocilizumab-treated patients had persistently higher IL-6 plasma levels and persistently lower C-Reactive protein and fibrinogen levels. Among Tocilizumab-treated patients, baseline levels of inflammatory biomarkers were not different according to outcome. Conversely, C-reactive protein and fibrinogen decrease was delayed in non-survivors. C-Reactive protein decreased at T1 in survivors (45 [30–98] vs 170 [69–204] mg/l, P < 0.001) but only at T2 in non-survivors (37 [13–74] vs 277 [235–288], P = 0.03). Fibrinogen decreased at T2 in survivors (4.11 [3.58–4.69] vs 614 [5.61–7.85] g/l, P = 0.005) but not in non-survivors (4.79 [4.12–7.58] vs 7.24 [6.22–9.24] g/l, P = 0.125). Tocilizumab treatment was thus associated with a persistent both increase in plasma IL-6, and decrease in C-reactive protein and fibrinogen. Among Tocilizumab-treated patients, the decrease in inflammatory biomarkers was delayed in non-survivors.     

Achieving True Sustainability of Zoo Populations

For the last 30 years, cooperative management of irreplaceable animal populations in zoos and aquariums has focused primarily on the goal of minimizing genetic decay within defined time frames, and large advances have been made in technologies to optimize genetic management of closed populations. However, recent analyses have shown that most zoo programs are not projected to meet their stated goals. This has been described as a lack of achieving “sustainability” of the populations, yet by definition a goal of managed decay is not a plan for sustainability. True sustainability requires management of the resource in manner that does not deplete its value for the future. Achieving such sustainability for many managed populations may require changing from managing isolated populations to managing populations that are part of a broader metapopulation, with carefully considered exchange between populations across a spectrum of ex situ to in situ. Managing zoo populations as components of comprehensive conservation strategies for the species will require research on determinants of various kinds of genetic, physiological, behavioral, and morphological variation and their roles in population viability, development of an array of management techniques and tools, training of population managers in metapopulation management and integrated conservation planning, and projections of impacts of management strategies on the viability of the captive populations and all populations that are interactively managed or affected. Such a shift in goals and methods would result in zoo population management being an ongoing part of species conservation rather than short‐term or isolated from species conservation. Zoo Biol. 32:19‐26, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Early Prediction of COVID-19 Patient Survival by Targeted Plasma Multi-Omics and Machine Learning

The recent surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) hospitalizations severely challenges healthcare systems around the globe and has increased the demand for reliable tests predictive of disease severity and mortality. Using multiplexed targeted mass spectrometry assays on a robust triple quadrupole MS setup which is available in many clinical laboratories, we determined the precise concentrations of hundreds of proteins and metabolites in plasma from hospitalized COVID-19 patients. We observed a clear distinction between COVID-19 patients and controls and, strikingly, a significant difference between survivors and nonsurvivors. With increasing length of hospitalization, the survivors’ samples showed a trend toward normal concentrations, indicating a potential sensitive readout of treatment success. Building a machine learning multi-omic model that considers the concentrations of 10 proteins and five metabolites, we could predict patient survival with 92% accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.97) on the day of hospitalization. Hence, our standardized assays represent a unique opportunity for the early stratification of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.     

Factor structure of the Brazilian version of Pediatric Daytime Sleepiness Scale

The present study aimed to analyze the construct validity of the Pediatric Daytime Sleepiness Scale (PDSS) for the evaluation of the daytime sleepiness construct in adolescents through confirmatory factorial analysis. The cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of 773 adolescents aged 14 to 19 years, enrolled in the state schools of Paranaguá, Paraná, Brazil. We investigated the sex, age, school year, study shift, occupational status, socioeconomic level and daytime sleepiness. The PDSS questions were not normal (p <0.001) and the mean total score was 14.87 (5.62). With Schwarz’s BIC adjustment indicators = 142,389 and Akaike’s AIC = 105,389, the model reached the criteria of the global adjustment indicators of the model in the confirmatory analysis, in which RMSEA = 0.020; CFI = 0.986; TLI = 0.977; SRMR = 0.021, with 17 degrees of freedom, KMO = 0.8504 and Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.737, with three correlations. We conclude that the construct validity of the PDSS remains valid and confirms its factor structure with only one factor. Thereby, it was verified that the operationalization of the construct sleepiness of adolescents through this scale is adequately conceptualized to the behavior of the age group.