Photo-induced structural dynamics of o-nitrophenol by ultrafast electron diffraction

The photo-induced dynamics of o-nitrophenol, particularly its photolysis, has garnered significant scientific interest as a potential source of nitrous acid in the atmosphere. Although the photolysis products and preceding photo-induced electronic structure dynamics have been investigated extensively, the nuclear dynamics accompanying the non-radiative relaxation of o-nitrophenol on the ultrafast timescale, which include an intramolecular proton transfer step, have not been experimentally resolved. Herein, we present a direct observation of the ultrafast nuclear motions mediating photo-relaxation using ultrafast electron diffraction. This work spatiotemporally resolves the loss of planarity which enables access to a conical intersection between the first excited state and the ground state after the proton transfer step, on the femtosecond timescale and with sub-Angstrom resolution. Our observations, supported by ab initio multiple spawning simulations, provide new insights into the proton transfer mediated relaxation mechanism in o-nitrophenol.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of glutathione and related impurities in pharmaceuticals by qNMR

In this study, an alternative method to compendial analytical procedures with enhanced detection and separation capabilities was validated for the quality assessment of glutathione (GSH) drug substance. The related impurities A, B, C, and D present in GSH drug substance were characterized using a one-dimension proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1D 1H NMR) method on a 600 MHz spectrometer equipped with a liquid nitrogen cryoprobe. Two sample preparations at different pH were optimized to ensure the unambiguous identification of different impurities in the GSH samples. Specifically, impurities A and C in a GSH sample can be tested at pH 3.0, while pH 7.4 is more suitable for testing impurities B and D. The quantitative NMR (qNMR) method was validated following International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. The limit of detection (LOD) was less than 0.1% wt for an individual impurity, and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) ranged from 0.14 to 0.24% wt, using about 14 min experimental time per spectrum. Following validation, the qNMR method was applied to assess different commercial GSH bulk substance samples, an in-house compounded GSH drug product, and a GSH dietary supplement product. The method was also applied to monitor GSH degradation (hydrolysis and oxidation) over time to provide quantitative information on GSH degradation and stability. The results suggest that the qNMR method can serve as a highly specific and efficient orthogonal tool for assessing the quality of GSH pharmaceuticals, providing both qualitative and quantitative information on GSH and its related impurities A-D.

Transcriptomic and metabolomic dissection of skeletal muscle of crossbred Chongming white goats with different meat production performance

BACKGROUND

The transcriptome and metabolome dissection of the skeletal muscle of high- and low- growing individuals from a crossbred population of the indigenous Chongming white goat and the Boer goat were performed to discover the potential functional differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differential expression metabolites (DEMs).

RESULTS

A total of 2812 DEGs were detected in 6 groups at three time stages (3,6,12 Month) in skeletal muscle using the RNA-seq method. A DEGs set containing seven muscle function related genes (TNNT1, TNNC1, TNNI1, MYBPC2, MYL2, MHY7, and CSRP3) was discovered, and their expression tended to increase as goat muscle development progressed. Seven DEGs (TNNT1, FABP3, TPM3, DES, PPP1R27, RCAN1, LMOD2) in the skeletal muscle of goats in the fast-growing and slow-growing groups was verified their expression difference by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Further, through the Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) approach, a total of 183 DEMs in various groups of the muscle samples and these DEMs such as Queuine and Keto-PGF1α, which demonstrated different abundance between the goat fast-growing group and slow-growing group. Through weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA), the study correlated the DEGs with the DEMs and identified 4 DEGs modules associated with 18 metabolites.

CONCLUSION

This study benefits to dissection candidate genes and regulatory networks related to goat meat production performance, and the joint analysis of transcriptomic and metabolomic data provided insights into the study of goat muscle development.

Antidepressant Exposure and DNA Methylation: Insights from a Methylome-Wide Association Study

Importance

Understanding antidepressant mechanisms could help design more effective and tolerated treatments.

Objective

Identify DNA methylation (DNAm) changes associated with antidepressant exposure.

Design

Case-control methylome-wide association studies (MWAS) of antidepressant exposure were performed from blood samples collected between 2006-2011 in Generation Scotland (GS). The summary statistics were tested for enrichment in specific tissues, gene ontologies and an independent MWAS in the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). A methylation profile score (MPS) was derived and tested for its association with antidepressant exposure in eight independent cohorts, alongside prospective data from GS.

Setting

Cohorts; GS, NESDA, FTC, SHIP-Trend, FOR2107, LBC1936, MARS-UniDep, ALSPAC, E-Risk, and NTR.

Participants

Participants with DNAm data and self-report/prescription derived antidepressant exposure.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Whole-blood DNAm levels were assayed by the EPIC/450K Illumina array (9 studies, N exposed = 661, N unexposed = 9,575) alongside MBD-Seq in NESDA (N exposed = 398, N unexposed = 414). Antidepressant exposure was measured by self- report and/or antidepressant prescriptions.

Results

The self-report MWAS (N = 16,536, N exposed = 1,508, mean age = 48, 59% female) and the prescription-derived MWAS (N = 7,951, N exposed = 861, mean age = 47, 59% female), found hypermethylation at seven and four DNAm sites (p < 9.42x10 -8 ), respectively. The top locus was cg26277237 ( KANK1, p self-report = 9.3x10 -13 , p prescription = 6.1x10 -3 ). The self-report MWAS found a differentially methylated region, mapping to DGUOK-AS1 ( p adj = 5.0x10 -3 ) alongside significant enrichment for genes expressed in the amygdala, the "synaptic vesicle membrane" gene ontology and the top 1% of CpGs from the NESDA MWAS (OR = 1.39, p < 0.042). The MPS was associated with antidepressant exposure in meta-analysed data from external cohorts (N studies = 9, N = 10,236, N exposed = 661, f3 = 0.196, p < 1x10 -4 ).

Conclusions and Relevance

Antidepressant exposure is associated with changes in DNAm across different cohorts. Further investigation into these changes could inform on new targets for antidepressant treatments.

3 Key Points

Question: Is antidepressant exposure associated with differential whole blood DNA methylation?Findings: In this methylome-wide association study of 16,536 adults across Scotland, antidepressant exposure was significantly associated with hypermethylation at CpGs mapping to KANK1 and DGUOK-AS1. A methylation profile score trained on this sample was significantly associated with antidepressant exposure (pooled f3 [95%CI]=0.196 [0.105, 0.288], p < 1x10 -4 ) in a meta-analysis of external datasets. Meaning: Antidepressant exposure is associated with hypermethylation at KANK1 and DGUOK-AS1 , which have roles in mitochondrial metabolism and neurite outgrowth. If replicated in future studies, targeting these genes could inform the design of more effective and better tolerated treatments for depression.

An interactive web application to identify early Parkinsonian non-tremor-dominant subtypes

BACKGROUND

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with tremor-dominant (TD) and non-tremor-dominant (NTD) subtypes exhibit heterogeneity. Rapid identification of different motor subtypes may help to develop personalized treatment plans.

METHODS

The data were acquired from the Parkinson's Disease Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI). Following the identification of predictors utilizing recursive feature elimination (RFE), seven classical machine learning (ML) models, including logistic regression, support vector machine, decision tree, random forest, extreme gradient boosting, etc., were trained to predict patients' motor subtypes, evaluating the performance of models through the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and validating by the follow-up data.

RESULTS

The feature subset engendered by RFE encompassed 20 features, comprising some clinical assessments and cerebrospinal fluid α-synuclein (CSF α-syn). ML models fitted in the RFE subset performed better in the test and validation sets. The best performing model was support vector machines with the polynomial kernel (P-SVM), achieving an AUC of 0.898. Five-fold repeated cross-validation showed the P-SVM model with CSF α-syn performed better than the model without CSF α-syn (P = 0.034). The Shapley additive explanation plot (SHAP) illustrated that how the levels of each feature affect the predicted probability as NTD subtypes.

CONCLUSION

An interactive web application was developed based on the P-SVM model constructed from feature subset by RFE. It can identify the current motor subtypes of PD patients, making it easier to understand the status of patients and develop personalized treatment plans.

Contrastive Masked Autoencoders are Stronger Vision Learners

Masked image modeling (MIM) has achieved promising results on various vision tasks. However, the limited discriminability of learned representation manifests there is still plenty to go for making a stronger vision learner. Towards this goal, we propose Contrastive Masked Autoencoders (CMAE), a new self-supervised pre-training method for learning more comprehensive and capable vision representations. By elaboratively unifying contrastive learning (CL) and masked image model (MIM) through novel designs, CMAE leverages their respective advantages and learns representations with both strong instance discriminability and local perceptibility. Specifically, CMAE consists of two branches where the online branch is an asymmetric encoder-decoder and the momentum branch is a momentum updated encoder. During training, the online encoder reconstructs original images from latent representations of masked images to learn holistic features. The momentum encoder, fed with the full images, enhances the feature discriminability via contrastive learning with its online counterpart. To make CL compatible with MIM, CMAE introduces two new components, i.e., pixel shifting for generating plausible positive views and feature decoder for complementing features of contrastive pairs. Thanks to these novel designs, CMAE effectively improves the representation quality and transfer performance over its MIM counterpart. CMAE achieves the state-of-the-art performance on highly competitive benchmarks of image classification, semantic segmentation and object detection. Notably, CMAE-Base achieves 85.3% top-1 accuracy on ImageNet and 52.5% mIoU on ADE20k, surpassing previous best results by 0.7% and 1.8% respectively.

Characterization and Comparative Analysis of Whole-Transcriptome Sequencing in High- and Low-Fecundity Chongming White Goat Ovaries during the Estrus Phase

Reproductive performance is one of the most important economic traits in the goat industry. Increasing the number of goats is an effective measure to improve production efficiency and reduce production costs. Ovaries are important reproductive organs in female mammals that directly affect the estrous cycle and reproductive abilities. Understanding the complex transcription network of non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs, circRNAs, and miRNAs) and messenger RNA (mRNA) could lead to significant insights into the ovarian regulation of the reproductive processes of animals. However, the whole-transcriptome analysis of the non-coding RNAs and mRNA of the ovaries in Chongming white goats between high-fecundity (HP) and low-fecundity (LP) groups is limited. In this study, a whole-transcriptome sequencing approach was used to identify lncRNA, circRNA, miRNA, and mRNA expression in the ovaries of Chongming white goats during the estrus phase using RNA-Seq technology. More than 20,000 messenger RNAs (mRNAs), 10,000 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), 3500 circular RNAs (circRNAs), and 1000 micro RNAs (miRNAs) were identified. A total of 1024 differential transcripts (724 mRNAs, 112 lncRNAs, 178 circRNAs, and 10 miRNAs) existing between the HP and the LP groups were revealed through a bioinformatics analysis. They were enriched in the prolactin signaling pathway, the Jak-STAT signaling pathway, and the GnRH signaling pathway, as well as various metabolic pathways. Differentially expressed mRNAs (such as LYPD6, VEGFA, NOS3, TNXB, and EPHA2) and miRNAs (such as miR-10a-5p) play key roles in the regulation of goat ovaries during the estrus phase. The enrichment of pathways related to reproduction, such as the Hippo, Hedgehog, PI3K-AKT, and MAPK signaling pathways, suggests that they might be involved in the prolificacy of goat ovaries. Overall, we identified several gene modules associated with goat fecundity and provided a basis for a molecular mechanism in the ovaries of Chongming white goats.

Enhancing cryopreservation survival in Petunia × Calibrachoa 'Light Yellow' callus: Insights into material characteristics and genetic integrity

Petunia × Calibrachoa 'Light Yellow' (× Petchoa 'Light Yellow') is a kind of perennial herbaceous flower obtained through intergeneric hybridization of Petunia and Calibrachoa with high ornamental value and wide application, facing challenges in seed acquisition. Expanding propagation through tissue culture is an economically efficient means. Hence, establishing an effective procedure for the storage of callus is essential for × Petchoa 'Light Yellow'. Cryopreservation is an effective method for the in vitro propagation and long-term preservation of × Petchoa 'Light Yellow' germplasms. For formulating the optimization of the vitrification procedure, first, an orthogonal experimental design was employed to pinpoint critical steps in the vitrification protocol (pre-culture, osmoprotection, dehydration, and dilution) for Petunia × Calibrachoa callus tissues and then five additional factors (pre-culture, osmoprotection I and II, dehydration, and dilution) were optimized to further reduce the sample water content and enhance cell viability levels. The vitrification procedure was described as follows: callus tissues were precultured in MS solid medium with 0.3 M sucrose for 5 d, incubated with osmoprotection solution I and II for 15 min at 25 °C, respectively, cryoprotected with PVS2 for 30 min at 0 °C, and rapidly immersed in liquid nitrogen. Cryopreserved callus tissues were then diluted in MS liquid medium with 1.2 M sucrose for 20 min at 25 °C and recovered on MS solid medium with 0.5 mg/L 6-BA and 0.1 mg/L NAA, and sucrose. The cell viability measured by TTC staining was approximately 16 %-18 % after 72 h-recovery. Following 45 days, the relative survival of callus reached up to 49.48 %. Furthermore, EST-SSR analysis showed no significant difference in the genetic stability of cryopreserved callus compared to the control. Based on the cryopreservation of × Petchoa 'Light Yellow' callus, we further evaluated the response of callus water contents to the osmotic stress in the optimized and original protocols (CK) for a higher cryopreservation survival. A comparative analysis of water content demonstrated that the procedure of gradual and gentle dehydration significantly improved water content and cell survival. Ultrastructural changes between cryopreserved and non-cryopreserved callus were examined and high vacuolation emerged as a key determinant, indicating its substantial impact on the low survival of cryopreserved cells, which should help us to understand the effectiveness of osmotic protectants in dehydration.

High energy electron diffraction instrument with tunable camera length

Ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) stands as a powerful technique for real-time observation of structural dynamics at the atomic level. In recent years, the use of MeV electrons from radio frequency guns has been widely adopted to take advantage of the relativistic suppression of the space charge effects that otherwise limit the temporal resolution of the technique. Nevertheless, there is not a clear choice for the optimal energy for a UED instrument. Scaling to beam energies higher than a few MeV does pose significant technical challenges, mainly related to the inherent increase in diffraction camera length associated with the smaller Bragg angles. In this study, we report a solution by using a compact post-sample magnetic optical system to magnify the diffraction pattern from a crystal Au sample illuminated by an 8.2 MeV electron beam. Our method employs, as one of the lenses of the optical system, a triplet of compact, high field gradients (>500 T/m), small-gap (3.5 mm) Halbach permanent magnet quadrupoles. Shifting the relative position of the quadrupoles, we demonstrate tuning the magnification by more than a factor of two, a 6× improvement in camera length, and reciprocal space resolution better than 0.1 Å-1 in agreement with beam transport simulations.

[Mutation characteristics of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma: an analysis of 75 cases]

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of gene mutations in angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL). Methods: Seventy-five AITL cases diagnosed at the Department of Pathology, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China from June 2021 to June 2023 were included. Their formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded or fresh tissues were subject to targeted next generation sequencing (NGS). The sequencing data was collected, and the distribution and type of gene mutations were analyzed. Results: 492 potential driver mutations were identified in 74 out of the 84 genes. Targeted sequencing data for the 75 AITL patients showed that the genes with mutation frequencies of ≥10% were TET2 (89.3%), RHOA (57.3%), IDH2 (37.3%), DNMT3A (36.0%), KMT2C (21.3%), PLCG1 (12.0%), and KDM6B (10.7%). There were significant co-occurrence relationships between TET2 and RHOA, TET2 and IDH2, and RHOA and IDH2 gene mutations (P<0.05), respectively, while TET2 and KDM6B gene mutations were mutually exclusive (P<0.05). Conclusions: The study reveals the mutational characteristics of AITL patients using NGS technology, which would provide insights for molecular diagnosis and targeted therapy of AITL.

Suppression of NSUN2 enhances the sensitivity to chemosensitivity and inhibits proliferation by mediating cell apoptosis in gastric cancer

NSUN2 is a critical methyltransferase for adding m5C to RNA. Its upregulation promotes the growth and metastasis of several tumors including gastric cancer (GC). However, it is unclear if NSUN2 can improve the chemosensitivity of GC to treatment with therapeutic agents such as cisplatin (CDDP) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Flow cytometry was used to measure the effects of knocked-down NSUN2 expression on GC cell apoptosis and cell cycle progression. Western blot analysis examined specific signaling pathways through which NSUN2 mediates control of responses underlying the GC tumorous phenotype. NSUN2 expression was upregulated in GC tissues and its levels of rises were related to the extent of lymph node metastasis and increases in Ki67 proliferative marker expression. NSUN2 shRNA transfection suppressed rises in ERK1/2 phosphorylation status and downregulated anti-apoptosis protein Bcl-2 and upregulated pro-apoptosis protein Bax. Overall, the results reveal that NSUN2 downregulation promotes the GC chemosensitivity to inverse modulation by chemotherapeutic agents of Bcl-2 and Bax expression levels and declines in ERK1/2-induced proliferation. Our results indicate that inhibition of NSUN2 activation may be an effective procedure to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents used to clinically treat GC.

Targeted single-cell RNA sequencing analysis reveals metabolic reprogramming and the ferroptosis-resistant state in hematologic malignancies

Hematologic malignancies are the most common hematopoietic diseases and a major public health concern. However, the mechanisms underlying myeloid tumors remain unknown owing to the intricate interplay between mutations and diverse clonal evolution patterns, as evidenced by the analysis of bulk cell-derived omics data. Several single-cell omics techniques have been used to characterize the hierarchies and altered immune microenvironments of hematologic malignancies. The comprehensive single-cell atlas of hematologic malignancies provides novel opportunities for personalized combinatorial targeted treatments, avoiding unwanted chemo-toxicity. In the present study, we performed transcriptome sequencing by combining single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) with a targeted oncogenic gene panel for acute myeloid leukemia, overcoming the limitations of scRNA-seq in detecting oncogenic mutations. The distribution of oncogenic IDH1, IDH2, and KRAS mutations in each cell type was identified in the bone marrow (BM) samples of each patient. Our findings suggest that ferroptosis and metabolic reprogramming are involved in the tumorigenesis and chemotherapy resistance of oncogenic mutation-carrying cells. Biological progression via IDH1, IDH2, and KRAS mutations arrests hematopoietic maturation. Our study findings provide a rationale for using primary BM cells for personalized treatment in clinical settings.

Effects of gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone on testicular development and reproduction-related gene expression in roosters

Gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH) plays a crucial role in regulating reproduction in the hypothalamus of poultry and has been intensely investigated since its discovery. This study aimed to assess the effects of GnIH on testicular development, as well as on reproduction-related hormone release and gene expression levels in roosters. The administration of exogenous GnIH resulted in a significant reduction in testis weight, testis volume and semen quality (p < 0.05). Additionally, exogenous GnIH significantly up-regulates the expression of GnIH, and down-regulates the expression of PRL (p < 0.05). GnIH application also decreased the GnRH, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and luteinizing hormone β subunit(LHβ)gene expression levels. Meanwhile, by neutralizing the effects of endogenous GnIH through immunization, testicular development on day 150 in roosters was significantly promoted. Compared to the control condition, GnIH immunization significantly down-regulated the expression of the VIP and PRL genes (p < 0.05). In conclusion, we found that exogenous GnIH treatment inhibited testicular development, reduces PRL gene expression, and suppressed reproductive performance in roosters. Conversely, GnIH immunization down-regulated VIP and PRL genes, activates the reproductive system, and promotes the reproductive activity and testicular development of roosters.

Correlating the Solvating Power of Solvents with the Strength of Ion-Dipole Interaction in Electrolytes of Lithium-ion Batteries

The solvation structure of Li+ plays a significant role in determining the physicochemical properties of electrolytes. However, to date, there is still no clear definition of the solvating power of different electrolyte solvents, and even the solvents that preferentially participate in the solvation structure remain controversial. In this study, we comprehensively discuss the solvating power and solvation process of Li+ ions using both experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations. Our findings reveal that the solvating power is dependent on the strength of the Li+ -solvent (ion-dipole) interaction. Additionally, we uncover that the anions tend to enter the solvation sheath in most electrolyte systems through Li+ -anion (ion-ion) interaction, which is weakened by the shielding effect of solvents. The competition between the Li+ -solvent and Li+ -anion interactions ultimately determines the final solvation structures. This insight into the fundamental understanding of the solvation structure of Li+ provides inspiration for the design of multifunctional mixed-solvent electrolytes for advanced batteries.

[Spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of pulmonary tuberculosis cases in Shanghai from 2013 to 2020]

Objective: To use the spatiotemporal distribution model and INLA algorithm to study the spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors of tuberculosis in Shanghai and to provide a theoretical basis for formulating regional tuberculosis epidemic prevention and control measures. Methods: Based on the data of registered pulmonary tuberculosis cases in Shanghai during 2013-2020 derived from the tuberculosis management information system of China Disease Control and Prevention Information System, the hierarchical Bayesian model was adopted to fit the tuberculosis case data, identify the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of tuberculosis, and explore the potential socioeconomic characteristics and other factors related to health services and spatiotemporal characteristics. Results: From 2013 to 2020, 29 281 registered tuberculosis cases were reported in Shanghai, with an average annual incidence of 25.224/100 000. From 2013 to 2020, the incidence trend increased first and then decreased, the highest incidence was reported in 2014 (27.991/100 000). The incidence of tuberculosis in Shanghai is characterized by spatial clustering. Through the spatial characteristics and risk analysis of the reported incidence of tuberculosis, it is found that the high-risk area of tuberculosis in Shanghai is the suburban communities, whereas downtown communities are the low-risk areas. The incidence risk of pulmonary tuberculosis is associated with the gross domestic product per capita (RR=0.48), the number of beds per 10 000 persons (RR=0.56), the normalized vegetation index (RR=0.50), and the night light index (RR=0.80). Conclusions: With the steady progress of tuberculosis prevention and control in the central urban area of Shanghai, special attention should be paid to the prevention and control in the suburbs further to improve the social and economic level in the suburbs and increase the coverage rate of urban green space, to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis and reduce the disease burden of tuberculosis in Shanghai.

Prevalence, drivers and surveillance of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic use in rural China: Interdisciplinary study

This study aimed to characterise antibiotic prescribing and dispensing patterns in rural health facilities in China and determine the community prevalence of antibiotic resistance. We investigated patterns and drivers of antibiotic use for common respiratory and urinary tract infections (RTI/UTI) in community settings, examined relationships between presenting symptoms, clinical diagnosis and microbiological results in rural outpatient clinics, and assessed potential for using patient records to monitor antibiotic use. This interdisciplinary mixed methods study included: (i) Observations and exit interviews in eight village clinics and township health centres and 15 retail pharmacies; (ii) Urine, throat swab and sputum samples from patients to identify potential pathogens and test susceptibility; (iii) 103 semi-structured interviews with doctors, patients, pharmacy workers and antibiotic-purchasing customers; (iv) Assessment of completeness and accuracy of electronic patient records through comparison with observational data. 87.9% of 1123 recruited clinic patients were prescribed antibiotics (of which 35.5% contained antibiotic combinations and >40% were for intravenous administration), most of whom had RTIs. Antibiotic prescribing for RTIs was not associated with presence of bacterial pathogens but was correlated with longer duration of infection (OR = 3.33) and presence of sore throat (OR = 1.64). Fever strongly predicted prescription of intravenous antibiotics (OR = 2.87). Resistance rates in bacterial pathogens isolated were low compared with national data. 25.8% of patients reported antibiotics use prior to their clinic visit, but only 56.2% of clinic patients and 53% of pharmacy customers could confirm their prescription or purchase included antibiotics. Diagnostic uncertainty, financial incentives, understanding of antibiotics as anti-inflammatory and limited doctor-patient communication were identified as key drivers of antibiotic use. Completion and accuracy of electronic patient records were highly variable. Prevalence of antibiotic resistance in this rural population is relatively low despite high levels of antibiotic prescribing and self-medication. More systematic use of e-records and in-service training could improve antibiotic surveillance and stewardship in rural facilities. Combining qualitative and observational anthropological methods and concepts with microbiological and epidemiological investigation of antibiotic resistance at both research design and analytic synthesis stages substantially increases the validity of research findings and their utility in informing future intervention development.

Analysis of the factors influencing male infertility of reproductive age in Jinan

OBJECTIVE

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines infertility as a person failing to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Infertility includes female infertility and male infertility. The aim of this paper is to study the etiology of infertility and related influencing factors in men of reproductive age in Jinan.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

In this study, 172 male infertile patients who attended the Department of Assisted Reproduction of Shandong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Shandong, China and the Infertility Clinic of Jinan Central Hospital in Shandong, China from August 2021 to April 2022 are selected as the study population (infertility group). A convenience sampling method is used to select 257 men from couples attending the Obstetrics Department of Qilu Hospital in Shandong, China, the Obstetrics Department of the Second Hospital of Shandong University in Shandong, China, and the Obstetrics Department of Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Shandong, China from October 2021 to February 2022 as the study subjects (control group). A self-designed questionnaire is used to conduct the survey, which includes basic personal information, lifestyle information, marital and family-related information, and one-way and multi-way logistic regression analyses are performed.

RESULTS

The average age of the case group and the control group are 34.03±5.13 years old and 33.61±8.18 years old; the average height is 175.80±5.91 cm and 176.78±5.25 cm; the average weight is 80.28±14.70 kg and 83.09±45.36 kg. The differences in age, height, and weight between the case group and the control group are not statistically significant by t-test. Moderate oligospermia is the predominant cause of infertility in men of reproductive age in Jinan. A multifactorial logistic regression analysis yields that academic qualifications (OR=2.518, 95% CI: 1.023 to 6.196), coffee consumption (OR=7.692, 95% CI: 1.623 to 36.460), living in a room that had been renovated within a period of time (OR=2.769, 95% CI: 1.104 to 6.949), stress level (OR=47.280, 95% CI: 23.656-94.494), quality of sexual life (OR=3.352, 95% CI: 1.331-8.442), and duration of couple separation (OR=3.851, 95% CI: 1.094-13.557) are the main risk factors for infertility in men of reproductive age in Jinan.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, a total of 6 risk factors are screened for male infertility in Jinan in the reproductive age, including high academic qualifications, coffee consumption, living in a room that has finished renovation within 3 months, high stress, poor quality of sexual life, and long spousal separation. Three factors can be controlled, avoided, or reduced through personal actions; the factors are coffee consumption, living in a room that has finished renovation within 3 months, and high stress, all of which may reduce the level of male reproductive health.

Energetic Electron Precipitation Driven by Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron Waves from ELFIN's Low Altitude Perspective

We review comprehensive observations of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave-driven energetic electron precipitation using data collected by the energetic electron detector on the Electron Losses and Fields InvestigatioN (ELFIN) mission, two polar-orbiting low-altitude spinning CubeSats, measuring 50-5000 keV electrons with good pitch-angle and energy resolution. EMIC wave-driven precipitation exhibits a distinct signature in energy-spectrograms of the precipitating-to-trapped flux ratio: peaks at >0.5 MeV which are abrupt (bursty) (lasting ∼17 s, or Δ L ∼ 0.56 ) with significant substructure (occasionally down to sub-second timescale). We attribute the bursty nature of the precipitation to the spatial extent and structuredness of the wave field at the equator. Multiple ELFIN passes over the same MLT sector allow us to study the spatial and temporal evolution of the EMIC wave - electron interaction region. Case studies employing conjugate ground-based or equatorial observations of the EMIC waves reveal that the energy of moderate and strong precipitation at ELFIN approximately agrees with theoretical expectations for cyclotron resonant interactions in a cold plasma. Using multiple years of ELFIN data uniformly distributed in local time, we assemble a statistical database of ∼50 events of strong EMIC wave-driven precipitation. Most reside at L ∼ 5 - 7 at dusk, while a smaller subset exists at L ∼ 8 - 12 at post-midnight. The energies of the peak-precipitation ratio and of the half-peak precipitation ratio (our proxy for the minimum resonance energy) exhibit an L -shell dependence in good agreement with theoretical estimates based on prior statistical observations of EMIC wave power spectra. The precipitation ratio's spectral shape for the most intense events has an exponential falloff away from the peak (i.e., on either side of ∼ 1.45 MeV). It too agrees well with quasi-linear diffusion theory based on prior statistics of wave spectra. It should be noted though that this diffusive treatment likely includes effects from nonlinear resonant interactions (especially at high energies) and nonresonant effects from sharp wave packet edges (at low energies). Sub-MeV electron precipitation observed concurrently with strong EMIC wave-driven >1 MeV precipitation has a spectral shape that is consistent with efficient pitch-angle scattering down to ∼ 200-300 keV by much less intense higher frequency EMIC waves at dusk (where such waves are most frequent). At ∼100 keV, whistler-mode chorus may be implicated in concurrent precipitation. These results confirm the critical role of EMIC waves in driving relativistic electron losses. Nonlinear effects may abound and require further investigation.

Development of an indirect ELISA method based on the VP1 protein for detection of IgG antibodies against porcine sapelovirus

Porcine sapelovirus (PSV) is a newly emerging enterovirus that is widely prevalent in China. Since there is no clinical serological testing for PSV, the objective of this study was to develop an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (i-ELISA) for detection of PSV immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody in pigs. A PSV strain, named SHPD202148, was first isolated from the fecal samples of piglets. Its structural protein, VP1, was prokaryotic-expressed in the pET expression system, followed by purification. Using the recombinant protein with reactogenicity as coating antigen, an i-ELISA, characterized by high sensitivity and specificity, had a detection limit at 1:12 800 dilution with a determined cutoff value of 0.352. Finally, field sera collected from different pig herds were tested in parallel by the serum neutralization (SN) test. The result showed that 126 samples were positive and 36 were negative, with an agreement of 97.0% in both cases. This i-ELISA can be used as an alternative serological test for detecting antibodies against PSV in blood serum.

Rehybridization dynamics into the pericyclic minimum of an electrocyclic reaction imaged in real-time

Electrocyclic reactions are characterized by the concerted formation and cleavage of both σ and π bonds through a cyclic structure. This structure is known as a pericyclic transition state for thermal reactions and a pericyclic minimum in the excited state for photochemical reactions. However, the structure of the pericyclic geometry has yet to be observed experimentally. We use a combination of ultrafast electron diffraction and excited state wavepacket simulations to image structural dynamics through the pericyclic minimum of a photochemical electrocyclic ring-opening reaction in the molecule α-terpinene. The structural motion into the pericyclic minimum is dominated by rehybridization of two carbon atoms, which is required for the transformation from two to three conjugated π bonds. The σ bond dissociation largely happens after internal conversion from the pericyclic minimum to the electronic ground state. These findings may be transferrable to electrocyclic reactions in general.

The identification and characterization of genome-wide long terminal repeat retrotransposon provide an insight into elucidating the trait evolution of five Rhododendron species

Rhododendron is well-known for its beauty and colorful corolla. Although some high-quality whole-genome sequencing of Rhododendron has been completed, there is lack of studies on long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons in Rhododendron, which limits our ability to elucidate the causes of genetic variations in Rhododendron species. The properties of the intact Rhododendron LTR retrotransposon were investigated at the genome-wide level. Based on the available data, the high-quality genomes from five species, i.e., R. griersonianum, R. simsii, R. henanense subsp. lingbaoense, R. mucronatum var. ripense and R. ovatum were selected as the identification targets with good assembly continuity. A total of 17,936 intact LTR retrotransposons were identified; they belong to the superfamilies Copia and Gypsy with 17 clades. The insertion time of these transposons was later than 120 million years ago, and the outbreak period was concentrated more recently than 30 million years ago. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that many LTR retrotransposons might originate from intraspecific duplication. The current evidences also suggests that most of the LTR retrotransposons were inserted in the interstitial part of the genes in R. griersonianum, R. simsii, R. henanense, and R. ovatum, and the functions of the inserted genes are mainly involved in starch metabolism and proteolysis etc. The effect of LTR retrotransposon on gene expression depends on its insertion site and activation. Highly expressed LTR retrotransposons tended to be younger. The activity of LTR retrotransposons may affect some stage-specific expression genes of flower development, such as leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase. The available results herein improve our knowledge of LTR retrotransposons in Rhododendron genomes and facilitate the further study of genetic variation and trait evolution in Rhododendron.

Modifiable predictors of type 2 diabetes mellitus and roles of insulin resistance and β-cell function over a 6-year study and 30-year follow-up

PURPOSE

This study aimed to examine the modifiable predictors of T2DM and the roles of insulin resistance (IR) and β-cell function over a 6-year study and 30-year follow-up.

METHODS

A total of 462 non-diabetic participants, 282 with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and 180 with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) were enrolled in this analysis. The Matsuda IR index and area under the curve of insulin-to-glucose ratio (AUCI/G-R) were used as IR and β-cell function indices in the analysis.

RESULTS

In all participants, multivariable analysis showed that BMI, glucose status, Matsuda IR index and systolic blood pressure (SBP) at baseline were independently associated with an increased risk of T2DM over 30 years, whereas lifestyle intervention and AUCI/G-R were inversely associated with this risk. The predictive effect of the Matsuda IR index and AUCI/G-R in participants with IGT was consistent with the results of all participants, whereas in those with NGT, only the Matsuda IR index, not the AUCI/G-R, predicted the development of T2DM (HR = 1.42, 95% CI 1.07-1.89 vs HR = 1.09, 95% CI 0.76-1.56). The predictive effect of the Matsuda IR index on T2DM existed even in participants with BMI < 25 (p = 0.049).

CONCLUSION

The modifiable predictors of T2DM in Chinese adults were high BMI, hypertension, mild hyperglycaemia, IR, and β-cell dysfunction. Both IR and β-cell function contributed to the development of T2DM in the long term; however, IR remains the initial and long-standing key risk factor for T2DM.

Octahedral Distortion and Displacement-Type Ferroelectricity with Switchable Photovoltaic Effect in a 3d^{3}-Electron Perovskite System

Because of the half-filled t_{2g}-electron configuration, the BO_{6} octahedral distortion in a 3d^{3} perovskite system is usually very limited. In this Letter, a perovskitelike oxide Hg_{0.75}Pb_{0.25}MnO_{3} (HPMO) with a 3d^{3} Mn^{4+} state was synthesized by using high pressure and high temperature methods. This compound exhibits an unusually large octahedral distortion enhanced by approximately 2 orders of magnitude compared with that observed in other 3d^{3} perovskite systems like RCr^{3+}O_{3} (R=rare earth). Essentially different from centrosymmetric HgMnO_{3} and PbMnO_{3}, the A-site doped HPMO presents a polar crystal structure with the space group Ama2 and a substantial spontaneous electric polarization (26.5  μC/cm^{2} in theory) arising from the off-center displacements of A- and B-site ions. More interestingly, a prominent net photocurrent and switchable photovoltaic effect with a sustainable photoresponse were observed in the current polycrystalline HPMO. This Letter provides an exceptional d^{3} material system which shows unusually large octahedral distortion and displacement-type ferroelectricity violating the "d^{0}-ness" rule.

IRAPs in Combination with Highly Informative ISSRs Confer Effective Potentials for Genetic Diversity and Fidelity Assessment in Rhododendron

The species belonging to the Rhododendron genus are well-known for their colorful corolla. Molecular marker systems have the potential to elucidate genetic diversity as well as to assess genetic fidelity in rhododendrons. In the present study, the reverse transcription domains of long terminal repeat retrotransposons were cloned from rhododendrons and used to develop an inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) marker system. Subsequently, 198 polymorphic loci were generated from the IRAP and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers, of which 119 were derived from the IRAP markers. It was shown that in rhododendrons, IRAP markers were superior to the ISSRs in some polymorphic parameters, such as the average number of polymorphic loci (14.88 versus 13.17). The combination of the IRAP and ISSR systems was more discriminative for detecting 46 rhododendron accessions than each of the systems on their own. Furthermore, IRAP markers demonstrated more efficiency in genetic fidelity detection of in-vitro-grown R. bailiense Y.P.Ma, C.Q.Zhang and D.F.Chamb, an endangered species recently recorded in Guizhzhou Province, China. The available evidence revealed the distinct properties of IRAP and ISSR markers in the rhododendron-associated applications, and highlighted the availability of highly informative ISSR and IRAP markers in the evaluation of genetic diversity and genetic fidelity of rhododendrons, which may facilitate preservation and genetic breeding of rhododendron plants.

[Corrigendum] Upregulation of LINC00659 expression predicts a poor prognosis and promotes migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3892/ol.2021.12818.].

White matter, cognition and psychotic-like experiences in UK Biobank

BACKGROUND

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are risk factors for the development of psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia, particularly if associated with distress. As PLEs have been related to alterations in both white matter and cognition, we investigated whether cognition (g-factor and processing speed) mediates the relationship between white matter and PLEs.

METHODS

We investigated two independent samples (6170 and 19 891) from the UK Biobank, through path analysis. For both samples, measures of whole-brain fractional anisotropy (gFA) and mean diffusivity (gMD), as indications of white matter microstructure, were derived from probabilistic tractography. For the smaller sample, variables whole-brain white matter network efficiency and microstructure were also derived from structural connectome data.

RESULTS

The mediation of cognition on the relationships between white matter properties and PLEs was non-significant. However, lower gFA was associated with having PLEs in combination with distress in the full available sample (standardized β = -0.053, p = 0.011). Additionally, lower gFA/higher gMD was associated with lower g-factor (standardized β = 0.049, p < 0.001; standardized β = -0.027, p = 0.003), and partially mediated by processing speed with a proportion mediated of 7% (p = < 0.001) for gFA and 11% (p < 0.001) for gMD.

CONCLUSIONS

We show that lower global white matter microstructure is associated with having PLEs in combination with distress, which suggests a direction of future research that could help clarify how and why individuals progress from subclinical to clinical psychotic symptoms. Furthermore, we replicated that processing speed mediates the relationship between white matter microstructure and g-factor.

Genome Sequence Resource of Fusarium proliferatum f. sp. malus domestica MR5, the Causative Agent of Apple Replant Disease

Apple replant disease (ARD) caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium proliferatum f. sp. malus domestica (Fpmd) MR5 brings annual losses to apple production within China. However, the genomic information of the pathogen is not yet available. Here, we obtained the whole-genome sequence of the highly virulent Fpmd MR5 using the Illumina PE150 platform. The genome size was 42.76 Mb and consisted of 9,047 genes. The GC content was 48.80%, and several genes potentially associated with pathogenicity were identified, such as carbohydrate-active enzymes, secreted proteins, and secondary metabolite gene clusters. There were 260 specific virulence factor genes, mainly related to fungal vegetative growth and the production of cell wall-degrading enzymes. These data will aid future studies investigating host-pathogen interactions and help us develop suitable disease management strategies.

Iron accumulation and axonal damage of cerebellum in idiopathic cervical dystonia

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Postmortem brain study indicated that cerebellar Purkinje cell (PC) loss might be a pathological finding in patients with inherited and idiopathic cervical dystonia (ICD). The analysis of conventional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans failed to yield support for this finding. Previous studies have identified that iron overload can be the consequence of neuron death. The objectives of this study were to investigate iron distribution and demonstrate changes in axons in the cerebellum, providing evidence for PC loss in patients with ICD.

METHODS

Twenty-eight patients with ICD (20 females) and 28 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited. A spatially unbiased infratentorial template was applied to perform cerebellum optimized quantitative susceptibility mapping and diffusion tensor analysis based on magnetic resonance imaging. Voxel-wise analysis was performed to assess cerebellar tissue magnetic susceptibility and fractional anisotropy (FA) alterations, and the clinical relevance of these findings was investigated in the patients with ICD.

RESULTS

Increased susceptibility values revealed by quantitative susceptibility mapping in the right lobule CrusI, CrusII, VIIb, VIIIa, VIIIb and IX were found in the patients with ICD. A reduced FA value was found across almost all the cerebellum; an FA value of the significant clusters within the right lobule VIIIa significantly correlated with the motor severity of patients with ICD (r = -0.575, p = 0.002).

CONCLUSIONS

Our study provided evidence for cerebellar iron overload and axonal damage in patients with ICD, which may indicate PC loss and related axonal changes. These results provide evidence for the neuropathological findings in patients with ICD and further highlight the cerebellar involvement in the pathophysiology of dystonia.

Comparative transcriptomic analysis reveals candidate genes for seasonal breeding in the male Lion-Head goose

1. Due to seasonal breeding, geese breeds from Southern China have low egg yield. The genetic makeup underlying performance of local breeds is largely unknown, and few studies have investigated this problem. This study integrated 21 newly generated and 50 publicly existing RNA-seq libraries, representing the hypothalamus, pituitary and testis, to identify candidate genes and importantly related pathways associated with seasonal breeding in male Lion-Head geese.2. In total, 19, 119 and 302 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in the hypothalamus, pituitary and testis, respectively, of male Lion-Head geese between non-breeding and breeding periods. These genes were significantly involved in the neuropeptide signalling pathway, gland development, neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, JAK-STAT signalling pathway, cAMP signalling pathway, PI3K-Akt signalling pathway and Foxo signalling pathway.3. By integrating another 50 RNA-seq samples 4, 18 and 40 promising DEGs were confirmed in hypothalamus, pituitary and testis, respectively.4. HOX genes were identified as having important roles in the development of testis between non-breeding and breeding periods of male Lion-Head geese.

Outcomes of Surgical Treatment for Graves' Disease: A Single-Center Experience of 216 Cases

BACKGROUND

The role of surgery in the treatment of Graves' disease (GD) needs to be revisited. The aims of the present retrospective study were to evaluate the outcomes of the current surgical strategy as a definitive treatment of GD at our center and to explore the clinical association between GD and thyroid cancer.

METHODS

A patient cohort of 216 cases from 2013 to 2020 was involved in this retrospective study. The data of the clinical characteristics and follow-up results were collected and analyzed.

RESULTS

There were 182 female and 34 male patients. The mean age was 43.9 ± 15.0 years old. The mean duration of GD reached 72.2 ± 92.7 months. Of the 216 cases, 211 had been treated with antithyroid drugs (ATDs) and hyperthyroidism had been completely controlled in 198 cases. A total (75%) or near-total (23.6%) thyroidectomy was performed. Intraoperative neural monitoring (IONM) was applied to 37 patients. The failure of ATD therapy (52.3%) was the most common surgical indication, followed by suspicion of a malignant nodule (45.8%). A total of 24 (11.1%) patients had hoarseness after the operation and 15 (6.9%) patients had transient vocal cord paralysis; 3 (1.4%) had this problem permanently. No bilateral RLN paralysis occurred. A total of 45 patients had hypoparathyroidism and 42 of them recovered within 6 months. Sex showed a correlation with hypoparathyroidism through a univariate analysis. A total of 2 (0.9%) patients underwent a reoperation because of hematomas. A total of 104 (48.1%) cases were diagnosed as thyroid cancer. In most cases (72.1%), the malignant nodules were microcarcinomas. A total of 38 patients had a central compartment node metastasis. A lateral lymph node metastasis occurred in 10 patients. Thyroid carcinomas were incidentally discovered in the specimens of 7 cases. The patients with concomitant thyroid cancer had a significant difference in body mass index, duration of GD, gland size, thyrotropin receptor antibodies and nodule(s) detected.

CONCLUSION

Surgical treatments for GD were effective, with a relatively low incidence of complications at this high-volume center. Concomitant thyroid cancer is one of the most important surgical indications for GD patients. Careful ultrasonic screening is necessary to exclude the presence of malignancies and to determine the therapeutic plan.

CircSUCO promotes proliferation and differentiation of chicken skeletal muscle satellite cells via sponging miR-15

1. In a previous high-throughput sequencing study, a novel circular RNA (circRNA) generated from a SUN domain containing ossification factor (SUCO) gene transcript (circSUCO) was differentially expressed during the embryonic muscle development. This study aimed to further explore the effect of circSUCO on chicken skeletal muscle development.2. The experiment analysed the expression patterns of circSUCO in Tianfu broilers and clarified its function in the chicken skeletal muscle satellite cells (SMSC) after circSUCO knockdown. The qPCR results showed circSUCO was highly expressed in skeletal muscle and has different expression levels during various development periods.3. Mechanistically, a series of in vitro experiments showed that circSUCO interference suppressed proliferation and differentiation of SMSC. In addition, it was observed that circSUCO competitively binds with microRNAs such as miR-15a, miR-15b-5p, and miR-15c-5p according to the dual-luciferase assay and qPCR.4. Correlation was positive between the circSUCO expression level and the ratio of the breast muscle. The results revealed that circSUCO could play a positive role in proliferation and differentiation of SMSC via sponging miR-15a, miR-15b-5p, and miR-15c-5p, hence, may contribute to skeletal muscle development in chicken.

Integrated analysis of long non-coding RNAs and mRNA expression profiles identified potential interactions regulating melanogenesis in chicken skin

1. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in various physiological functions. However, the mechanisms underlying the regulation of lncRNAs in melanogenesis remain unclear. To determine the molecular mechanisms involved in skin melanogenesis, the present study depicted the expression profiles of lncRNAs and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in black- (B group) and white- (W group) skinned chickens using RNA sequencing.2. In total, 373 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs; 203 up-regulated and 170 down-regulated) and 253 differentially expressed genes (DEGs; 152 up-regulated and 101 down-regulated) were identified between the B and W groups. A total of eight known melanogenesis-related genes were identified (KIT, TYRP1, DCT (TYRP2), SLC45A2, OCA2, EDNRB2, TRPM1 and RAB38).3. Functional annotation of the co-expressed DEGs and DELs was performed using Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses. The co-expressed DEGs were mainly involved in melanogenesis and the co-expressed genes of 117 and 108 DELs were significantly enriched in the melanogenesis and tyrosine metabolism pathways, respectively.4. The DEL-DEG interaction network revealed that three lncRNAs (XR_003072387.1, XR_003075112.1, and XR_003077033.1) and DCT genes may have key roles in regulating melanogenesis in chicken skin. This data provides the groundwork for studying the lncRNA regulatory mechanisms of skin melanogenesis and suggested a new perspective on the modulation of melanogenesis in chicken skin based on a lncRNA-mRNA causal regulatory network.

Cytokine concentration in peripheral blood of patients with colorectal cancer

Introduction

The role of tumour secretory cytokines and peripheral circulatory cytokines in tumour progression has received increasing attention; however, the role of tumour-related inflammatory cytokines in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unclear. In this study, the concentrations of various cytokines in the peripheral blood of healthy controls and patients with CRC at different stages were compared.

Methods

Peripheral blood samples from 4 healthy participants and 22 colorectal cancer patients were examined. Luminex beads were used to evaluate concentration levels of 40 inflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood samples.

Results

In peripheral blood, compared with healthy controls and early stage (I + II) CRC patients, advanced CRC (III + IV) patients had increased concentrations of mononuclear/macrophage chemotactic-related proteins (CCL7, CCL8, CCL15, CCL2, and MIF), M2 polarization-related factors (IL-1β, IL-4), neutrophil chemotactic and N2 polarization-related cytokines (CXCL2, CXCL5, CXCL6, IL-8), dendritic cells (DCs) chemotactic-related proteins (CCL19, CCL20, and CCL21), Natural killer (NK) cell related cytokines (CXCL9, CXCL10), Th2 cell-related cytokines (CCL1, CCL11, CCL26), CXCL12, IL-2, CCL25, and CCL27, and decreased IFN-γ and CX3CL1 concentrations. The differential upregulation of cytokines in peripheral blood was mainly concentrated in CRC patients with distant metastasis and was related to the size of the primary tumour; however, there was no significant correlation between cytokine levels in peripheral blood and the propensity and mechanism of lymph node metastasis.

Discussion

Different types of immune cells may share the same chemokine receptors and can co-localise in response to the same chemokines and exert synergistic pro-tumour or anti-tumour functions in the tumour microenvironment. Chemokines and cytokines affect tumour metastasis and prognosis and may be potential targets for treatment.

Creep Behavior of A356 Aluminum Alloy Reinforced with Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by Stir Casting

Lightweight aluminum alloy components are often used to manufacture a variety of engineering components in many industries. In recent years, researchers have studied the effect of improving the mechanical properties of metal alloys by incorporating nano-carbon into its structure. In this study, the effect of the addition of 0.2, 0.5, and 1 wt% of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the stress-strain behavior and creep phenomenon of an A356 aluminum alloy were studied. The effect of nickel coating on 0.2 wt% MWCNTs was also investigated. Samples were prepared using the stir-casting method. The results revealed that the grain size became finer when MWCNT nano-particulates were introduced. Although the MWCNTs were distributed homogeneously in the A356 matrix, as confirmed by FESEM analysis, there were some agglomerations observed in a specific area with dimensions smaller than 100 nm. Nevertheless, the addition of MWCNTs was found to be beneficial in enhancing the hardness of alloys containing 0.2 wt%, 0.2 wt% nickel-coated, 0.5 wt%, and 1 wt% MWCNTs by 9%, 24%, 32%, and 15%, respectively, as compared with the unreinforced A345 matrix. It was also found that the 0.5 wt% MWCNT-A356 matrix exhibited an improvement in the creep lifetime by more than two orders of magnitude.

Functional network properties derived from wide-field calcium imaging differ with wakefulness and across cell type

To improve 'bench-to-bedside' translation, it is integral that knowledge flows bidirectionally-from animal models to humans, and vice versa. This requires common analytical frameworks, as well as open software and data sharing practices. We share a new pipeline (and test dataset) for the preprocessing of wide-field optical fluorescence imaging data-an emerging mode applicable in animal models-as well as results from a functional connectivity and graph theory analysis inspired by recent work in the human neuroimaging field. The approach is demonstrated using a dataset comprised of two test-cases: (1) data from animals imaged during awake and anesthetized conditions with excitatory neurons labeled, and (2) data from awake animals with different genetically encoded fluorescent labels that target either excitatory neurons or inhibitory interneuron subtypes. Both seed-based connectivity and graph theory measures (global efficiency, transitivity, modularity, and characteristic path-length) are shown to be useful in quantifying differences between wakefulness states and cell populations. Wakefulness state and cell type show widespread effects on canonical network connectivity with variable frequency band dependence. Differences between excitatory neurons and inhibitory interneurons are observed, with somatostatin expressing inhibitory interneurons emerging as notably dissimilar from parvalbumin and vasoactive polypeptide expressing cells. In sum, we demonstrate that our pipeline can be used to examine brain state and cell-type differences in mesoscale imaging data, aiding translational neuroscience efforts. In line with open science practices, we freely release the pipeline and data to encourage other efforts in the community.

[Impact and mechanism of CHL1 in insulin resistant adipocytes and insulin resistant mouse model induced by high glucose and high fat]

Objective: To investigate the role and mechanism of cell adhesion molecule L1 like (CHL1) in insulin resistant adipocytes and insulin resistant mouse model induced by high glucose and high fat. Methods: The 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were randomly divided into control group (transfected with empty vector) and CHL1 overexpression group (transfected with CHL1 vector), cells were then induced to mature adipocytes by insulin, and insulin resistance was then induced by high sugar and high fat. The glucose content was measured to determine the glucose consumption of cells from the two groups. Protein expression levels of CHL1 and glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4), serine/threonine protein kinase (AKT) phosphorylation levels were detected by Western blot (WB), the mRNA expression levels of TNF-α and IL-6 were detected by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). 24 C57BL/6 adult male mouse were randomly divided into conventional diet group (regular group), high-fat diet group (high-fat group), empty vector overexpression+high-fat group and CHL1 overexpression+high-fat group (n=6 each group). CHL1 overexpression was induced by tail vein injection of lentivirus. Four months later, mice were sacrificed, body weight was determined, and the epididymal white adipose tissue was collect. Hematoxylin-eosin staining (HE) was used to observe the pathology of mouse epididymal white adipose tissue, the expression of CHL1 was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining(IHC), RT-qPCR was used to detect the mRNA expression levels of CHL1, TNF-α and IL-6 in mouse epididymal white adipose tissue. Results: In vitro, glucose consumption was significantly higher in the CHL1 overexpression group than in the control group (P<0.05), and the protein expressions of CHL1 and GLUT4 were higher in the CHL1 overexpression group than those in the control group (P<0.01), and the mRNA expressions levels of TNF-α and IL-6 were lower in the CHL1 overexpression group than those in the control group (P<0.01). In vivo, the body weight and epididymal white adipose tissue of mouse were higher in the high-fat group and the empty vector overexpression+high-fat group than those in the conventional group (P<0.01), which were lower in the CHL1 overexpression+high fat group than in the empty vector overexpression+high fat group (P<0.01). HE results showed that the volume of epididymal white adipocytes was larger in the high-fat group and the overexpression control+high-fat group than that in the conventional group, which was smaller in the CHL1 overexpression+high fat group than in the empty vector overexpression+high fat group (P<0.01). The mRNA expression levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in epididymal white adipose tissue of mice were higher in the high-fat group and the empty vector overexpression+high-fat group than those in the conventional group (P<0.01), which were lower in the CHL1 overexpression+high fat group than in the empty vector overexpression+high fat group (P<0.05). IHC results showed that protein expression of CHL1 in epididymal white adipose tissue was lower in the high-fat group and the empty vector overexpression+high-fat group than in regular group, which was upregulated in the CHL1 overexpression+high fat group than in the empty vector overexpression+high-fat group (P<0.01). RT-qPCR results showed that mRNA expression of CHL1 in epididymal white adipose tissue was lower in the high-fat group and the empty vector overexpression+high-fat group than in regular group (P<0.01), which was higher in the CHL1 overexpression+high fat group than in the empty vector overexpression+high fat group (P<0.01). Conclusion: Overexpression of CHL1 can improve insulin resistance in adipocytes and mouse insulin resistance model induced by high glucose and high fat, and the beneficial effects might be mediated by the inhibition of AKT activation and the reduction of related inflammatory responses.

Long-term use of Lacticaseibacillus paracasei N1115 from early life alleviates high-fat-diet-induced obesity and dysmetabolism in mice

Obesity has become one of the most serious public health problems worldwide, and an increasing number of studies indicate that the gut microbiota can affect host metabolism. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate whether long-term use of probiotics can alleviate host obesity and metabolism by altering gut microbiota. The high-fat diet (HFD) starting from weaned period led to higher levels of visceral fat and a significantly heavier liver in male mice. Moreover, HFD resulted in disorders of glucose and lipid metabolism, changes in insulin-resistance indices (IR), and an increase in serum insulin and leptin in mice. Of note, 15 weeks use of Lacticaseibacillus paracasei N1115 decreased visceral fat, liver weight, serum levels of insulin and leptin, and IR and alleviated lipid dysmetabolism. HFD resulted in a significant increase in the relative abundance of Bilophila, Lachnoclostridium, and Blautia and may decrease the faecal short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) levels in mice; in turn, treatment with the potential probiotic strain L. paracasei N1115 protected mice from these negative effects. HFD significant impaired the physiology of the host especially in male mice and dramatically changed the composition of host gut microbiota. However, the use of potential probiotic strain, such as L. paracasei N1115, may prevent these impairments due to HFD via effecting the host gut microbiota and SCFA.

High-Voltage and Intrinsically Safe Sodium Metal Batteries Enabled by Nonflammable Fluorinated Phosphate Electrolytes

Sodium metal is a promising anode for high-energy-density sodium rechargeable batteries (RSBs). However, the low Coulombic efficiency (CE) of the Na plating/stripping process and the problem of safety hinder their practical application. Herein, we report a facile strategy for employing the fluorinated phosphate solvents to realize highly reversible Na plating/stripping and improve the safety performance. The fluorinated phosphate molecules reduce the polarity of the solvent and lower the coordination number to Na⁺, which makes it possible to form the anion-induced ion-solvent-coordinated (AI-ISC) structures with high reduction tolerance. Moreover, the fluorination treatment enhances the oxidation resistance of the phosphate solvent, enabling compatibility with the high-voltage Na₃V₂(PO₄)₂F₃ (NVPF) cathode. As expected, the Na@Al//NVPF full cell with the as-prepared 0.9 M NaFSI/tris(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl) phosphate (TFEP) demonstrates a capacity retention of 83.4% after 200 cycles with an average CE of 99.6%. This work opens a new avenue for designing high-energy-density RSBs with improved safety performance.

Genome Functional Analysis of the Psychrotrophic Lignin-Degrading Bacterium Arthrobacter sp. C2 and the Role of DyP in Catalyzing Lignin Degradation

In the cold regions of China, lignin-rich corn straw accumulates at high levels due to low temperatures. The application of psychrotrophic lignin-degrading bacteria should be an effective means of overcoming the low-temperature limit for lignin degradation and promoting the utilization of corn straw. However, this application is limited by the lack of suitable strains for decomposition of lignin; furthermore, the metabolic mechanism of psychrotrophic lignin-degrading bacteria is unclear. Here, the whole genome of the psychrotrophic lignin-degrading bacterium Arthrobacter sp. C2, isolated in our previous work, was sequenced. Comparative genomics revealed that C2 contained unique genes related to lignin degradation and low-temperature adaptability. DyP may participate in lignin degradation and may be a cold-adapted enzyme. Moreover, DyP was proven to catalyze lignin Cα-Cβ bond cleavage. Deletion and complementation of the DyP gene verified its ability to catalyze the first-step reaction of lignin degradation. Comparative transcriptomic analysis revealed that the transcriptional expression of the DyP gene was upregulated, and the genetic compensation mechanism allowed C2ΔDyP to degrade lignin, which provided novel insights into the survival strategy of the psychrotrophic mutant strain C2ΔdyP. This study improved our understanding of the metabolic mechanism of psychrotrophic lignin-degrading bacteria and provided potential application options for energy-saving production using cold-adapted lignin-degrading enzymes.

ProANP31-67 ameliorates adverse cardiac remodeling and improves systolic and diastolic functions in a preclinical model of cardiorenal syndrome

Funding Acknowledgements

Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (HSØ-RHF, Project No. 25674)

Background

The cardiac hormone proANP31-67, a linear fragment of the N-terminal Atrial Natriuretic Peptide, has known enhancing renal effects. More recently, we described the cardio protective effects of this hormone in a model of chronic hypertension. More specifically, independently of the blood pressure level, proANP31-67 improved diastolic function, attenuated cardiac fibrosis, and reduced hypertrophy.

Purpose

The current study was designed to assess the cardiorenal effects of proANP31-67 in a rodent model of hampered renal function, followed by cardiac injury produced by ischemia/reperfusion (I/R).

Methods

Right uninephrectomy (UNX) was performed in Wistar rats (n=28). Sixteen weeks after UNX, rats underwent cardiac I/R injury and randomly assigned to proANP31-67 (50 ng/kg/day s.c., n=15) or Vehicle (n=13) for four weeks post I/R. Echocardiographic examinations were performed at baseline (before UNX), 16 weeks after UNX, and four weeks after I/R. At the end of the study, cardiomyocytes were isolated and tissue samples were collected.

Results

Chronic UNX resulted in diastolic impairment (E/A: 1.47±0.08 at baseline vs 0.98±0.14 at 16 wks post UNX, p=0.0010). I/R further accentuated the development of the cardiorenal syndrome, and induced a mild systolic dysfunction in the placebo treated animals. However, four weeks of treatment with proANP31-67 preserved systolic function (EF: 62±3% placebo vs 74±2% proANP31-67, p&lt;0.0001), and reverted the diastolic dysfunction (E/A: 0.72±0.15 placebo vs 1.24±0.11 proANP31-67, p=0.0134). ProANP31-67 ameliorated the adverse cardiac remodeling (i.e., reduction in the cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area and interstitial fibrosis), enhanced Ca2+ handling, and improved cardiomyocyte t-tubules´ structural changes compared to vehicle. At the cellular level, in vitro experiments demonstrated the direct effect of proANP31-67 on cardiomyocyte hypertrophy (assessed by [3H]-leucine incorporation) induced by endothelin 1 and angiotensin II.

Conclusion

ProANP31-67 has a direct cardiomyocyte protective effect, leading to an improvement in Ca2+ homeostasis and t-tubules´ structures and, prevents the development of systolic and diastolic dysfunction in a pre-clinical model of cardiorenal syndrome.

AB0012 IDENTIFICATION OF NEW BIOMARKERS FOR SINOMENINE TREATMENT IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS BASED ON BIOINFORMATICS ANALYSIS

Background

Sinomenine (SIN) were extracted from Caulis Sinomenii and achieved an remarkable therapeutic effect for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). However, the mechanism of SIN acting on RA is not clear yet.

Objectives

To excavate potential targets and mechanisms of SIN for RA through bioinformatics.

Methods

The microarray data were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. GEO2R was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the unique value was retained. The potential targets of active compounds from various databases were screened. Based on the overlapping genes, Cytoscape 3.7.2 software was used to construct a protein-protein interactions (PPI) network and to visualize the mechanisms of the treatment by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis by DAVID database. Finally, we used AutoDockTools 1.5.6 for molecular docking.

Results

A total of 5053 DEGs and 1070 intersections were obtained, including 486 up-regulated and 584 down-regulated targets. 298 SIN targets were collected from various databases, 84 potential targets were obtained by intersecting with DEGs. There are 80 nodes and 305 edges were obtained in PPI network. Based on the degree, the top 10 target genes were AKT1, RGFR, MTOR, JAK2, NOS3, IL2, IL6, MMP9, MAPK8, HSP9OAA1. The core targets was most relevant to protein phosphorylation, signal transduction though GO analysis. The results of the KEGG enrichment analysis included PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and Neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction. Following analysis found that AKT1, EGFR, MTOR and JAK2 existed in the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Molecular docking was used to confirm that the binding energy of AKT1 was -7.68 kJ mol -1, EGFR was -5.33kJ mol-1, and MTOR was -4.77 kJ mol-1,JAK2 was -3.25 KJ mol-1. AKT1 and EGFR was further identified as the core targets.

Conclusion

Present study show that AKT1 and EGFR may be the key targets of SIN acting on the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, thereby inhibiting the progression of disease and improving RA.

Keywords: Sinomenine; Rheumatoid Arthritis; bioinformatics;

Disclosure of Interests

None declared

Funding

This project was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81703783 and 81503415);

Identification of new biomarkers for Sinomenine treatment in Rheumatoid Arthritis based on bioinformatics analysis

XL Shen1, 2L,YQ L1, 2Y,X Guo1, 2,LF Wang1, 2,JK Zhang1, 2,ZT Feng1, 2*

1. Third-Grade Pharmacological Laboratory on Chinese Medicine Approved by State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Medical College of China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei 443002, China

2. Medical College of China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei 443002, China

†These authors contributed equally to this work.

*Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed:

Correspondence: Zhitao Feng

E-mail: zhitao.feng@ctgu.edu.cn (Zhitao Feng)

Disclosure of Interests

None declared

AB0082 ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECTS OF TOTAL SAPONINS OF PANAX JAPONICUS ON RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Background

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune disease with inflammation[1]. Total saponins of Panax japonicus (TSPJs) are effective components extracted from Panax japonicus[2]. They are known to exhibit anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressoive properties, but their effect of anti-inflammation in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) remains unclear.

Objectives

To investigate the anti-inflammatory targets of TSPJ predicted by bioinformatics and the verification in CIA mice.

Methods

The targets of RA are obtained in the GeneCards database. we used Cytoscape 3.7.2 software to construct a protein-protein interactions (PPI) network and obtain the hub genes. There are four effective components of TSPJ: Araloside A, chikusetsusaponin IVa, ginsenoside Rg2, and ginsenoside Ro. Through molecular docking between the screened hub genes and the four effective components of TSPJ, the possibility of TSPJ treating CIA mice can be predicted. The collagen II (CII) and complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) were used to induce the CIA model. After establishing the model, 32 DBA1/J mice were divided into C group (n=8), M group (n=8), L group(n=8), and H group(n=8). The L and H groups were gavaged with TSPJ at 30 mg/kg or 150 mg/kg, and the C and M groups were gavaged with normal saline. The thickness of the hind paw, number of swollen joints, and arthritis index were evaluated. After 11 days of treatment, all the mice were sacrificed after anesthesia. Sera were collected to centrifuge tubes and the levels of inflammatory factor were determined by the ELISA kit following the instruction.

Results

A gene list that enriches 263 genes was obtained by searching RA from the GeneCards database. The hub genes of the top 3 obtained from Cytoscape 3.7.2 software were tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and interleukin-6 (IL-6). In addition, interleukin-17A (IL-17A), a classical inflammatory index in the top 10, was selected and included in the predicted target. The results of molecular docking between the predicted target and the components of TSPJ showed that the combined pose has good stability. The numerical value of hind paw thickness, swollen joint counts, and arthritis index in the intervention groups were lower than those in the M group, suggesting TSPJ played a critical role in improving pathological changes. Compared to those of the C group, the serum levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-17A were increased in the M group. Compared to those of the M group, the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-17A in the L and H groups were decreased. Compared to those of the L group, the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-17A in the H group were decreased. The results suggested that TSPJ may decrease the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-17A in CIA mice. These results suggest that TSPJ may inhibit the inflammatory effects of CIA mice.

Conclusion

Current study demonstrated a novel inhibitory effect of TSPJ on inflammation in CIA mice, and TSPJ can act on the targets predicted by bioinformatics of CIA mice, suggesting the potential of TSPJ as a therapeutic agent for RA and providing new ideas for the clinical treatment of RA.

References

[1]Scherer HU, Haupl T, Burmester GR. The etiology of rheumatoid arthritis. J Autoimmun[J]. 2020;110:102400

[2]Guo X, Ji J, Jose Kumar Sreena GS, et al. Computational Prediction of Antiangiogenesis Synergistic Mechanisms of Total Saponins of Panax japonicus Against Rheumatoid Arthritis. Front Pharmacol[J]. 2020;11:566129

Acknowledgements

Jingkai Zhang: Preparation, data presentation, and specifically writing the initial draft. Xiang Guo: Application of statistical, Verification. Qinpeng Bu and Xiaolan Shen: Conducting a research and investigation process, Provision of study materials. Zhitao Feng: Ideas, Design of methodology, and including mentorship external to the core team.

Disclosure of Interests

None declared

[Evaluation of the level of carotid bifurcation and the morphology of extracranial internal carotid artery in patients with carotid stenosis by color doppler ultrasound and digital subtraction angiography]

Objective: To evaluate the value of color Doppler ultrasound and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in evaluating the level of carotid bifurcation and the morphology of extracranial internal carotid artery in patients with atherosclerotic carotid stenosis. Methods: The carotid artery examination data of 186 patients with atherosclerotic carotid stenosis who underwent carotid DSA and color Doppler ultrasound in Shanghai Changzheng Hospital from July 2017 to June 2019 were retrospectively analyzed, including 154 males and 32 females, with ages ranging from 36 to 84 (66±8) years old. The correlation between the position of carotid bifurcation and the level of cervical spine, the distance from the position of carotid bifurcation to mandibular angle, the correlation of the level of bifurcation with the length of neck, and the incidence of carotid distortion were analyzed. Results: DSA showed that the most common position of carotid bifurcation was at C3 level on the left [37.3% (56/150)], and at C3-C4 level on the right [33.6% (42/125)], and the highest position was at C2 level on the left, and at C2-C3 levels on the right, while the lowest level on both sides was at C5 level. The incidence of high bifurcation of left carotid artery (C3 and above) was 46% (69/150), which was higher than that of right carotid artery [21.6% (27/125), P<0.001]. The incidence of high carotid bifurcation in men and women was 33.2% (76/229) and 43.5% (20/46), respectively, with no significant difference (P = 0.182). Carotid ultrasound showed that the distance between the left carotid bifurcation and the mandibular angle was (3.0±1.3) cm, which was shorter than that on the right [(3.4±1.2) cm] (P<0.001). The distance between carotid bifurcation and mandibular angle in men and women was (3.2±1.2) cm and (3.3±1.0) cm, respectively, with no significant difference (P = 0.093). There was no significant correlation between carotid bifurcation level and carotid length (right: r = 0.02, P = 0.091; left: r = 0.01, P = 0.927). The incidence of carotid artery distortion was 28.1% (9/32) in women and 15.6% (24/154) in men, with no significant difference (P = 0.091). The incidence of right carotid artery distortion in high bifurcation group was 59.3% (16/27), which was higher than that in non-high bifurcation group [3.1% (3/98)] (P<0.001). Likewise, the incidence of left carotid artery distortion in high bifurcation group was 30.4% (21/69), which was higher than that in non-high bifurcation group [2.5% (2/81)] (P<0.001). Conclusions: The bifurcation position of left carotid artery in patients with atherosclerotic carotid stenosis is higher than that of the right. Patients with high bifurcation of carotid artery are more likely to be complicated with carotid distortion. Preoperative color doppler ultrasound combined with DSA can evaluate the distortion of extracranial carotid artery, thereby providing reference for the selection of surgical methods.