McBride Penn (metalnumber51)

Sex-determining region Y-box 2 (SOX2) is a transcriptional factor that drives embryonic stem cells to neuroendocrine cells in lung development and is highly expressed in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). However, the prognostic role of SOX2 and its relationship with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) has not been determined in SCLC. Herein, we assessed the expression of SOX2 and CD8+ TILs to obtain insights into the prognostic role of SOX2 and CD8+ TILs in limited-stage (LS)-SCLC. A total of 75 patients with LS-SCLC was enrolled. The SOX2 expression and CD8+ TILs were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. High SOX2 and CD8+ TIL levels were identified in 52 (69.3%) and 40 (53.3%) patients, respectively. Atamparib clinical trial High SOX2 expression was correlated with increased density of CD8+ TILs (p = 0.041). Unlike SOX2, high CD8+ TIL numbers were associated with significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS; 13.9 vs. 8.0 months, p = 0.014). Patients with both high SOX2 expression and CD8+ TIL numbers (n = 29, 38.7%) had significantly longer PFS and overall survival (OS) compared to those from the other groups (median PFS 19.3 vs. 8.4 months; p = 0.002 and median OS 35.7 vs. 17.4 months; p = 0.004, respectively). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the combination of high SOX2 expression and CD8+ TIL levels was an independent good prognostic factor for OS (HR = 0.471, 95% CI, 0.250-0.887, p = 0.02) and PFS (HR = 0.447, 95% CI, 0.250-0.801, p = 0.007) in SCLC. Evaluation of the combination of SOX2 and CD8+ TIL levels may be of a prognostic value in LS-SCLC. Evaluation of the combination of SOX2 and CD8+ TIL levels may be of a prognostic value in LS-SCLC. Major advances have been made in stroke treatment and prevention in the past decades. However, the burden of stroke remains high. Identification of novel targets and establishment of effective interventions to improve stroke outcomes are, therefore, needed. Recent research highlights the contribution of the gut microbiota to stroke pathogenesis. Compositional and functional alterations of the gut microbiota, termed dysbiosis, are linked to stroke risk factors, such as obesity, metabolic diseases, and atherosclerosis. In acute cerebral ischemia, the gut microbiota plays a key role in bidirectional interactions between the gut and brain, referred to as the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Gut dysbiosis prior to ischemic stroke affects outcomes. Additionally, the brain affects the gut microbiota during acute ischemic brain injury, which in turn impacts outcomes. Interactions between the gut microbiota and stroke pathogenesis are mediated by several factors including bacterial components (e.g., lipopolysaccharide),t microbiota may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment and prevention of stroke.High cone-angle artifacts (HCAAs) appear frequently in circular cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images and can heavily affect diagnosis and treatment planning. To reduce HCAAs in CBCT scans, we propose a novel deep learning approach that reduces the three-dimensional (3D) nature of HCAAs to two-dimensional (2D) problems in an efficient way. Specifically, we exploit the relationship between HCAAs and the rotational scanning geometry by training a convolutional neural network (CNN) using image slices that were radially sampled from CBCT scans. We evaluated this novel approach using a dataset of input CBCT scans affected by HCAAs and high-quality artifact-free target CBCT scans. Two different CNN architectures were employed, namely U-Net and a mixed-scale dense CNN (MS-D Net). The artifact reduction performance of the proposed approach was compared to that of a Cartesian slice-based artifact reduction deep learning approach in which a CNN was trained to remove the HCAAs from Cartesian slices. In addition, all processed CBCT scans were segmented to investigate the impact of HCAAs reduction on the quali