Development and validation of a prognostic model based on metabolic risk score to predict overall survival of endometrial cancer in Chinese patients

Xingchen Li,Xiao Yang,Yuan Cheng,Yangyang Dong,Jingyuan Wang,Jianliu Wang 대한부인종양학회 2023 Journal of Gynecologic Oncology Vol.34 No.6

Objective: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is closely related to the increased risk and poor prognosis of endometrial cancer (EC). The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between metabolic risk score (MRS) and EC, and establish a predictive model to predict the prognosis of EC. Methods: A retrospective study was designed of 834 patients admitted between January 2004 to December 2019. Univariate and multivariate Cox analysis were performed to screen independent prognostic factors for overall survival (OS). A predictive nomogram is built based on independent risk factors for OS. Consistency index (C-index), calibration plots and receiver operating characteristic curve were used to evaluate the predictive accuracy of the nomogram. Results: The patients were randomly divided into training cohort (n=556) and validation cohort (n=278). The MRS of EC patients, ranging from −8 to 15, was calculated. Univariate and multivariate Cox analysis indicated that age, MRS, FIGO stage, and tumor grade were independent risk factors for OS (p<0.05). The Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated that EC patients with low score showed a better prognosis in OS. Then, a nomogram was established and validated based on the above four variables. The C-index of nomogram were 0.819 and 0.829 in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. Patients with high-risk score had a worse OS according to the nomogram. Conclusion: We constructed and validated a prognostic model based on MRS and clinical prognostic factors to predict the OS of EC patients accurately, which may help clinicians personalize prognostic assessments and effective clinical decisions.

Intraoperative inspection alone is a reliable guide to the choice of surgical procedure for enteroenteric fistulas in Crohn’s disease

( Zhen Guo ),( Xingchen Cai ),( Ruiqing Liu ),( Jianfeng Gong ),( Yi Li ),( Lei Cao ),( Weiming Zhu ) 대한장연구학회 2018 Intestinal Research Vol.16 No.2

Background/Aims: Resection of the diseased segment and suture of the victim segment is recommended for enteroenteric fistula in Crohn’s disease (CD). The main difficulty in this procedure remains reliable diagnosis of the victim segment, especially for fistulas found intraoperatively and inaccessible on endoscopic examination. We aimed to explore whether intraoperative inspection alone is reliable. Methods: Patients undergoing conservative surgery between 2011 and 2016 for enteroenteric fistulas complicating CD were identified from a prospectively maintained database. Patients were divided according to whether the victim segment was evaluated by preoperative endoscopy + intraoperative inspection (PI group) or by intraoperative inspection alone (I group). Outcomes were compared. Results: Of 65 patients eligible for the study, 37 were in in the PI group and 28 were in the I group. The baseline characteristics were similar between the groups, except for the rate of emergency surgery (0/37 in PI group vs. 5/28 in I group, P=0.012). Fistulas involved more small intestines (4/37 in PI group vs. 15/28 in I group, P< 0.001) and fewer sigmoid colons (17/37 in PI group vs. 4/28 in I group, P=0.008) in I group due to accessibility with endoscopy. No difference was found in postoperative complications, stoma rates, postoperative recurrence, or disease at the repair site between the 2 groups (P >0.05). Conclusions: For fistulas found intraoperatively and inaccessible on endoscopic examination, intraoperative inspection was a reliable guide when choosing between en bloc resection and a conservative procedure. (Intest Res 2018;16:282-287)

Identification of an immune-related risk signature and nomogram predicting the overall survival in patients with endometrial cancer

Yuan Cheng,Xingchen Li,Yibo Dai,Yangyang Dong,Xiao Yang,Jianliu Wang 대한부인종양학회 2021 Journal of Gynecologic Oncology Vol.32 No.3

Objective: Aimed to construct an immune-related risk signature and nomogram predictingendometrial cancer (EC) prognosis. Methods: An immune-related risk signature in EC was constructed using the least absoluteshrinkage and selection operator regression analysis based on The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. A nomogram integrating theimmune-related genes and the clinicopathological characteristics was established andvalidated using the Kaplan-Meier survival curve and receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curve to predict the overall survival (OS) of EC patients. The Estimation of STromal andImmune cells in MAlignant Tumor tissues using Expression data (ESTIMATE) R tool wasused to explore the immune and stromal scores. Results: CCL17, CTLA4, GPI, HDGF, HFE2, ICOS, IFNG, IL21R, KAL1, NR3C1, S100A2, andS100A9 were used in developing an immune-related risk signature evaluation model. TheKaplan-Meier curve indicated that patients in the low-risk group had better OS (p<0.001). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of this model were 0.737, 0.764, and 0.782 for the3-, 5-, and 7-year OS, respectively. A nomogram integrating the immune-related risk modeland clinical features could accurately predict the OS (AUC=0.772, 0.786, and 0.817 at 3-, 5-,and 7-year OS, respectively). The 4 immune cell scores were lower in the high-risk group. Forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) and basic leucine zipper ATF-like transcription factor (BATF)showed a potential significant role in the immune-related risk signature. Conclusion: Twelve immune-related genes signature and nomogram for assessing the OS ofpatients with EC had a good practical value.

Sediment Bacterial Community Structure under the Influence of Different Domestic Sewage Types

Lei Zhang,Mengli Xu,Xingchen Li,Wenxuan Lu,Jing Li 한국미생물·생명공학회 2020 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.30 No.9

Sediment bacterial communities are critical to the biogeochemical cycle in river ecosystems, but our understanding of the relationship between sediment bacterial communities and their specific input streams in rivers remains insufficient. In this study, we analyzed the sediment bacterial community structure in a local river receiving discharge of urban domestic sewage by applying Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that the bacterial communities of sediments samples of different pollution types had similar dominant phyla, mainly Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi and Firmicutes, but their relative abundances were different. Moreover, there were great differences at the genus level. For example, the genus Bacillus showed statistically significant differences in the hotel site. The clustering of bacterial communities at various sites and the dominant families (i.e., Nocardioidaceae, and Sphingomonadaceae) observed in the residential quarter differed from other sites. This result suggested that environmentally induced species sorting greatly influenced the sediment bacterial community composition. The bacterial cooccurrence patterns showed that the river bacteria had a nonrandom modular structure. Microbial taxonomy from the same module had strong ecological links (such as the nitrogenium cycle and degradation of organic pollutants). Additionally, PICRUSt metabolic inference analysis showed the most important function of river bacterial communities under the influence of different types of domestic sewage was metabolism (e.g., genes related to xenobiotic degradation predominated in residential quarter samples). In general, our results emphasize that the adaptive changes and interactions in the bacterial community structure of river sediment represent responses to different exogenous pollution sources.

Crystal Structure and Tautomerism Study of the Mono-protonated Metformin Salt

Xiaodan Wei,Yuhua Fan,Caifeng Bi,Xingchen Yan,Xia Zhang,Xin Li 대한화학회 2014 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.35 No.12

A novel crystal, the mono-protonated metformin acetate (1), was obtained and characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. It was found that one of the imino group in the metformin cation was protonated along with the proton transfer from the secondary amino group to the other imino group. Its crystal structure was then compared with the previously reported diprotonated metformin oxalate (2). The difference between them is that the mono-protonated metformin cations can be linked by hydrogen bonding to form dimers while the diprotonated metformin cations cannot. Both of them are stabilized by intermolecular hydrogen bonds to assemble a 3-D supermolecular structure. The four potential tautomer of the monoprotonated metformin cation (tautomers 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d) were optimized and their single point energies were calculated by Density Functional Theory (DFT) B3LYP method based on the Polarized Continuum Model (PCM) in water, which shows that the most likely existed tautomer in human cells is the same in the crystal structure. Based on the optimized structure, their Wiberg bond orders, Natural Population Analysis (NPA) atomic charges, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) maps were calculated to analyze their electronic structures, which were then compared with the corresponding values of the diprotonated metformin cation (cation 2) and the neutral metformin (compound 3). Finally, the possible tautomeric mechanism of the monoprotonated metformin cation was discussed based on the observed phenomena.

Crystal Structure and Tautomerism Study of the Mono-protonated Metformin Salt

Wei, Xiaodan,Fan, Yuhua,Bi, Caifeng,Yan, Xingchen,Zhang, Xia,Li, Xin Korean Chemical Society 2014 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.35 No.12

A novel crystal, the mono-protonated metformin acetate (1), was obtained and characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. It was found that one of the imino group in the metformin cation was protonated along with the proton transfer from the secondary amino group to the other imino group. Its crystal structure was then compared with the previously reported diprotonated metformin oxalate (2). The difference between them is that the mono-protonated metformin cations can be linked by hydrogen bonding to form dimers while the diprotonated metformin cations cannot. Both of them are stabilized by intermolecular hydrogen bonds to assemble a 3-D supermolecular structure. The four potential tautomer of the mono-protonated metformin cation (tautomers 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d) were optimized and their single point energies were calculated by Density Functional Theory (DFT) B3LYP method based on the Polarized Continuum Model (PCM) in water, which shows that the most likely existed tautomer in human cells is the same in the crystal structure. Based on the optimized structure, their Wiberg bond orders, Natural Population Analysis (NPA) atomic charges, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) maps were calculated to analyze their electronic structures, which were then compared with the corresponding values of the diprotonated metformin cation (cation 2) and the neutral metformin (compound 3). Finally, the possible tautomeric mechanism of the mono-protonated metformin cation was discussed based on the observed phenomena.

Bioprocess Production of Sea Cucumber Rice Wine and Characterization of Functional Components and Antioxidant Activities

Shuai He,Lin Wang,Hao Dong,Pei Liu,Peiyu Shi,Xuemin Li,Xingchen Ren,Ning Lv,Yanan Liu,Changhu Xue,Hong Lin,Xiangzhao Mao 한국식품과학회 2014 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.23 No.3

A new production bioprocess for sea cucumberrice wine (SCRW) was established. The traditional productiontechnology of Chinese rice wine was combined with additionof sea cucumber hydrosylates. The optimal enzymaticconditions of sea cucumber and the fermentation process ofSCRW were determined. The weight of sea cucumberenzymatic hydrolysates was 2.5% of millet while cookingthe millet. SCRW contained abundant free amino acids (30total at 1,681.216 mg/L), oligosaccharides (4 total at10,999.380 mg/L), total phenols (658.850 mg/L), andmineral elements (9 total at 1,911.353 mg/kg), and anantioxidant activity, all of which were higher than forcontrol rice wine (CRW). Galactosamine and glucuronicacid, both sea cucumber polysaccharides, were present inSCRW, but not in CRW.

Practical Design Methods for Fire Resistance of Restrained Cellular Steel Beams

Xing Chen,Xiangrong Chen,Gang Li 한국강구조학회 2019 International Journal of Steel Structures Vol.19 No.6

Thermal responses of steel beams under fi re can be intricate, considering the coupling eff ects between material thermalexpansion, mechanical property degradation, and constraints by surrounding structural members. While research eff orts have focused on catenary action of structural members without initial imperfections, few accurate and effi cient methods are found to reveal the fi re resistance of restrained cellular steel beams (RCSBs). In this paper, parametric and regression analysis are applied to investigate the thermal behavior of RCSBs with initial imperfections. Eight groups of RCSBs are set up to demonstrate how various design parameters may aff ect structural responses at elevated temperatures. The results indicate that axial restraint stiff ness ratio, load ratio, and opening diameter-to-height ratio signifi cantly aff ect the structural responses of RCSBs in fi re, followed by the rotational restraint stiff ness ratio and span-to-depth ratio as secondary eff ects. Through the orthogonal and regression analysis, simplifi ed formulas for four characteristic temperatures and four characteristic internal forces are defi ned, which agree with fi nite element results to a certain extent. Meanwhile, reasonable range of each design parameter is put forward for a more effi cient and applicable calculation of thermo-mechanical responses of RCSBs. The proposed formulas are practical, convenient and accurate enough to be applied for engineering design.

Ce3+ triggers fenton-like processes in neutral solutions for effective catechol degradation

Xing Chen,Xu Liu,Hai-Bo Wang,Kang-Ping Cui,Rohan Weerasooriya,Shi-Long He,Guang-Hong Li,Jun Pan,Kai Zhou 대한환경공학회 2022 Environmental Engineering Research Vol.27 No.1

Classical Fenton and Fenton-like processes destruct organic pollutants in water non-selectively to complete mineralization. However, the usage of classical Fenton or Fenton-like processes is often limited due to the narrow operational pH window, sludge accumulation, inefficient H₂O₂ and efficiency decline. To overcome these constraints, in this study, we used a homogeneous Fe<SUP>3+</SUP>-Ce<SUP>3+</SUP>-H₂O₂ Fenton-like process to degrade catechol at different experimental conditions. At pH 7, almost 97% of 10 mM catechol can be destructed within 60 min while the degradation by Classical Fenton or Fe<SUP>3+</SUP>-H₂O₂ Fenton-like process only 36.2% and 23.7%. The resultant solution after the degradation contains only traces of cerium ions. The sludge created by the process was extensively characterized by FTIR and XPS spectroscopy to elucidate the fate of cerium ions. Electron spin resonance (ESR) data confirmed •OH as the major free radical in Fe<SUP>3+</SUP>-Ce<SUP>3+</SUP>-H₂O₂ process. Our Fenton-like process widens the optimal pH values to neutral condition.