The study on circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has great significance for cancer prognosis, treatment monitoring, and metastasis diagnosis, in which isolation and enrichment of CTCs are key steps due to their extremely low concentration in peripheral blood. Herein, magnetic nanospheres (MNs) were fabricated by a convenient and highly controllable layer-by-layer assembly method. The MNs were nanosized with fast magnetic response, and nearly all of the MNs could be captured by 1 min attraction with a commercial magnetic scaffold. In addition, the MNs were very stable without aggregation or precipitation in whole blood and could be re-collected nearly at 100% in a monodisperse state. Modified with anti-epithelial-cell-adhesion-molecule (EpCAM) antibody, the obtained immunomagnetic nanospheres (IMNs) successfully captured extremely rare tumor cells in whole blood with an efficiency of more than 94% via only a 5 min incubation. Moreover, the isolated cells remained viable at 90.5 ± 1.2%, and they could be directly used for culture, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and immunocytochemistry (ICC) identification. ICC identification and enumeration of the tumor cells in the same blood samples showed high sensitivity and good reproducibility. Furthermore, the IMNs were successfully applied to the isolation and detection of CTCs in cancer patient peripheral blood samples, and even one CTC in the whole blood sample was able to be detected, which suggested they would be a promising tool for CTC enrichment and detection.

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is the most common cause of anatomic failure in retinal detachment surgery. To understand the molecular mechanisms, vitreous proteomes of patients with PVR were investigated by two-dimensional-nano-liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Vitreous samples of moderate PVR (grade B), and severe PVR (grade C or D) were aspirated during pars plana vitrectomy before infusion. In the current study, 129, 97 and 137 proteins were identified in vitreous of normal control, moderate and severe PVR, respectively. In PVR vitreous samples, complement components, serine proteinase inhibitors, and extracellular proteins were up-regulated or appeared, while normal cytoskeleton and metabolism proteins were down-regulated or disappeared. It was noteworthy that the proteins involved in transcription and translation regulation increased in vitreous with PVR. Among 102 PVR-specific proteins, kininogen 1 was specifically detected in both vitreous and the corresponding serum. Therefore, it can be concluded that PVR is a complicated pathology process with great amount of proteins involved in metabolism dysfunction, immune reactions, and cytoskeleton remolding. Kininogen 1 may be a candidate biomarker of PVR. Further investigations of these special proteins will provide additional targets for treatment or prevention of ocular proliferative diseases.

We report a structure-property relationship in gold nanoparticles (NPs), grain-size effects, which not only allow material properties observed on different characteristic length scales to be engineered in a single NP but further enhance those properties due to the coupling among different-size grains. The grain size effects were achieved by creating polycrystalline gold NPs (pAuNPs) with two distinct grain-size populations (5 and 1 nm) comparable to electron mean free path and electron Fermi wavelength (EFW) respectively. Successful integration of molecular and plasmonic properties into a single nanostructure without additional fluorophores enables these highly polycrystalline AuNPs to serve as multimodal probes in a variety of optical microscopic imaging techniques.

Backgroud The association between underlying comorbidities and cardiac injury and the prognosis in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) patients was assessed in this study. Hypothesis The underlying comorbidities and cardiac injury may be associated with the prognosis in COVID‐19 patients. Methods A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, Web of science, and The Cochrane library from December 2019 to July 2020. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were used to estimate the probability of comorbidities and cardiac injury in COVID‐19 patients with or without severe type, or in survivors vs nonsurvivors of COVID‐19 patients. Results A total of 124 studies were included in this analysis. A higher risk for severity was observed in COVID‐19 patients with comorbidities. The pooled result in patients with hypertension (OR 2.57, 95% CI: 2.12‐3.11), diabetes (OR 2.54, 95% CI: 1.89‐3.41), cardiovascular diseases (OR 3.86, 95% CI: 2.70‐5.52), chronic obstractive pulmonary disease (OR 2.71, 95% CI: 1.98‐3.70), chronic kidney disease (OR 2.20, 95% CI: 1.27‐3.80), and cancer (OR 2.42, 95% CI: 1.81‐3.22) respectively. All the comorbidities presented a higher risk of mortality. Moreover, the prevalence of acute cardiac injury is higher in severe group than in nonsevere group, and acute cardiac injury is associated with an increased risk for in‐hospital mortality. Conclusion Comorbidities and acute cardiac injury are closely associated with poor prognosis in COVID‐19 patients. It is necessary to continuously monitor related clinical indicators of organs injury and concern comorbidities in COVID‐19 patients.

Accurate monitoring of host immunity is hampered by the flaws of conventional tests. The relationship between lymphocyte number and function is unknown. The function of lymphocytes was analyzed based on IFN-γ secretion assay. Lymphocyte number and function was investigated in individuals under various states. The number of CD4 + and CD8 + T cells was gradually decreased, whereas the function of them was gradually increased with increasing age. A significantly negative correlation existed between the number and function of both CD4 + and CD8 + T cells. Differently, both the number and function of NK cells are maintained at a high level after birth. Staying up all night was found to impair the function of CD4 + , CD8 + T cells, or NK cells. Lymphocyte number and function were both decreased in patients with immunosuppressive conditions or opportunistic infections, while the opposite phenomenon was observed in patients with some autoimmune diseases (except for NK cells). In kidney transplant recipients, the number and function of CD4 + and CD8 + T cells were increased or decreased when rejection or infection occurred. We demonstrated that evaluation of host immunity based on combination of lymphocyte number and function plays an important role in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of diseases.

Background The purpose of this study was to investigate whether acupuncture is effective at treating dry eye disease among postmenopausal women and to identify the possible mechanisms. Methods Twenty-eight postmenopausal women with dry eye disease were randomly divided into two groups: an acupuncture plus artificial tears (AC + AT) group and an artificial tears (AT) only group. After baseline examination of clinical parameters and tear sample collection, each patient received the designated modality of topical therapy for 2 months. Post-treatment documentation of clinical parameters was recorded, and tear samples were collected. Tear samples from the AC + AT group were subjected to two-dimensional nano-liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (2D nano-LC-MS/MS). Western blot analysis was also performed on tear samples from both groups. Results After treatment, the Ocular Surface Disease Index scores, symptom assessment scores, scores of sign assessment, and tear break-up time were significantly improved in both groups ( P =0.000). Symptom assessment scores were significantly improved in the AC + AT group ( P =0.000) compared with the AT group. 2D nano-LC-MS/MS identified 2,411 proteins, among which 142 were downregulated and 169 were upregulated. After combined AC + AT treatment, the abundance of secreted proteins was increased, whereas that of cytoplasmic proteins decreased (Pearson’s χ 2 test, P =0.000, P =0.000, respectively). Proteins involved in immunity and regulation were also more abundant (Pearson’s χ 2 test, P =0.040, P =0.016, respectively), while components and proliferation-related proteins were downregulated (Pearson’s χ 2 test, P =0.003, P =0.011, respectively). Conclusion AC + AT treatment increased protein synthesis and secretion, and improved clinical symptoms. These results indicate that acupuncture may be a complimentary therapy for treating postmenopausal dry eye disease.

Backgroud: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness of the elder people. This research was intended to demonstrate the different expression of microRNAs (miRNA) in AMD patients and whether they can be used as biomarkers for AMD. Methods: MiRNAs expression was measured by microarray of 6 AMD cases and 6 gender matched controls. In a larger-sample case-control study with 126 AMD cases and 140 controls, whole blood samples were detected for the differences of miRNA expression. Results: A total of 216 differentially expressed miRNAs (111 increased and 105 decreased miRNAs) were detected from circulating miRNA microarray. Expanded case-control study results showed that the expression of miR-27a-3p, miR-29b-3p and miR-195-5p was increased significantly. Moreover, the level of miR-27a is higher in patients with wet AMD compared to patients with dry AMD. All 3 miRNAs showed a potential diagnostic value for AMD. Conclusion: Circulating miRNA levels were significantly varied in AMD patients. Three miRNAs, miR-27a-3p, miR-29b-3p and the miR-195-5p, might be potential diagnostic biomarkers for AMD.

1D-SDS-PAGE coupled with RP-LC-MS/MS is a valuable resource to aid in the characterization of the proteome of RRD patients with PVR. Inflammation is the important pathologic process of PVR, while complement and coagulation cascade was the crucial pathway. p53 and E2F1 may be the new targets for successful treatment of RRD with PVR.