Guanxinkang Decoction Exerts Its Antiatherosclerotic Effect Partly through Inhibiting the Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

Purpose. To investigate the antiatherosclerotic effect of Guanxinkang (GXK) decoction on the apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) pretreated with homocysteinemia (HCY). Materials and Methods. HUVEC were randomly divided into 5 groups: (1) blank control group (control), (2) model control group (model), (3) GXK low dose group, (4) GXK medium dose group, and (5) GXK high dose group. For the three GXK groups, HCY was given to reach the concentration of 3.0 mmol/L after HUVEC had been incubated with rabbit serum containing GXK for two hours. At 3, 6, 12, and 24 h after HCY had been incubated with the cells, the HUVEC were collected for test of the apoptosis rate, MMP, and GRP78 protein (reflecting ERS). Results. In the model control group, the apoptosis rate and GRP 78 protein expression of HUVEC significantly increased (P<0.05), while MMP significantly decreased (P<0.05) compared with the blank control group. After GXK treatment of medium and high doses, the apoptosis rate and the GRP 78 protein expression significantly (P<0.05) decreased, while MMP significantly increased (P<0.05) in a time-dependent manner compared with the model control group. Conclusion. GXK can antagonize the injury of HUVEC caused by HCY and the antagonism effect increases with the concentration and treatment duration of GXK, with the possible mechanism of GXK antagonism being through inhibiting ERS caused by HCY

Using Pan RNA-Seq Analysis to Reveal the Ubiquitous Existence of 5′ and 3′ End Small RNAs

In this study, we used pan RNA-seq analysis to reveal the ubiquitous existence of both 5′ and 3′ end small RNAs (5′ and 3′ sRNAs). 5′ and 3′ sRNAs alone can be used to annotate nuclear non-coding and mitochondrial genes at 1-bp resolution and identify new steady RNAs, which are usually transcribed from functional genes. Then, we provided a simple and cost effective way for the annotation of nuclear non-coding and mitochondrial genes and the identification of new steady RNAs, particularly long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Using 5′ and 3′ sRNAs, the annotation of human mitochondrial was corrected and a novel ncRNA named non-coding mitochondrial RNA 1 (ncMT1) was reported for the first time in this study. We also found that most of human tRNA genes have downstream lncRNA genes as lncTRS-TGA1-1 and corrected the misunderstanding of them in previous studies. Using 5′, 3′, and intronic sRNAs, we reported for the first time that enzymatic double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) cleavage and RNA interference (RNAi) might be involved in the RNA degradation and gene expression regulation of U1 snRNA in human. We provided a different perspective on the regulation of gene expression in U1 snRNA. We also provided a novel view on cancer and virus-induced diseases, leading to find diagnostics or therapy targets from the ribonuclease III (RNase III) family and its related pathways. Our findings pave the way toward a rediscovery of dsRNA cleavage and RNAi, challenging classical theories

Large-scale genetic study in East Asians identifies six new loci associated with colorectal cancer risk

Known genetic loci explain only a small proportion of the familial relative risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). We conducted the largest genome-wide association study in East Asians with 14,963 CRC cases and 31,945 controls and identified six new loci associated with CRC risk (P = 3.42 × 10−8 to 9.22 × 10−21) at 10q22.3, 10q25.2, 11q12.2, 12p13.31, 17p13.3 and 19q13.2. Two of these loci map to genes (TCF7L2 and TGFB1) with established roles in colorectal tumorigenesis. Four other loci are located in or near genes involved in transcription regulation (ZMIZ1), genome maintenance (FEN1), fatty acid metabolism (FADS1 and FADS2), cancer cell motility and metastasis (CD9) and cell growth and differentiation (NXN). We also found suggestive evidence for three additional loci associated with CRC risk near genome-wide significance at 8q24.11, 10q21.1 and 10q24.2. Furthermore, we replicated 22 previously reported CRC loci. Our study provides insights into the genetic basis of CRC and suggests new biological pathways

Overview to the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) Satellite

As China's first X-ray astronomical satellite, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), which was dubbed as Insight-HXMT after the launch on June 15, 2017, is a wide-band (1-250 keV) slat-collimator-based X-ray astronomy satellite with the capability of all-sky monitoring in 0.2-3 MeV. It was designed to perform pointing, scanning and gamma-ray burst (GRB) observations and, based on the Direct Demodulation Method (DDM), the image of the scanned sky region can be reconstructed. Here we give an overview of the mission and its progresses, including payload, core sciences, ground calibration/facility, ground segment, data archive, software, in-orbit performance, calibration, background model, observations and some preliminary results.Comment: 29 pages, 40 figures, 6 tables, to appear in Sci. China-Phys. Mech. Astron. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1910.0443