Integrated microRNA-mRNA analysis provides new insights into gonad coloration in the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius

Comparative microRNA (miRNA) and mRNA transcriptome analyses were performed on Strongylocentrotus intermedius of the same sex with significant gonadal color differences. The results indicated that 1) the color of female gonads was generally superior to that of males. 2) Comparative and integrated miRNA and mRNA transcriptome analyses identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) in female and male individuals with significant gonadal color differences. Common and sex-specific DEGs and “DEM-DEG” pairs involved in carotenoid absorption, accumulation, and transformation were identified as candidates correlated with gonad coloration in S. intermedius. Collectively, the results from this study have enriched our knowledge of the process of sea urchin gonad coloration and should provide additional clues for increasing the gonad quality of commercial sea urchins from molecular and metabolic aspects

Proteomic identification of galectin-11 and 14 ligands from Haemonchus contortus

Haemonchus contortus is the most pathogenic nematode of small ruminants. Infection in sheep and goats results in anaemia that decreases animal productivity and can ultimately cause death. The involvement of ruminant-specific galectin-11 (LGALS-11) and galectin-14 (LGALS-14) has been postulated to play important roles in protective immune responses against parasitic infection; however, their ligands are unknown. In the current study, LGALS-11 and LGALS-14 ligands in H. contortus were identified from larval (L4) and adult parasitic stages extracts using immobilised LGALS-11 and LGALS-14 affinity column chromatography and mass spectrometry. Both LGALS-11 and LGALS-14 bound more putative protein targets in the adult stage of H. contortus (43 proteins) when compared to the larval stage (two proteins). Of the 43 proteins identified in the adult stage, 34 and 35 proteins were bound by LGALS-11 and LGALS-14, respectively, with 26 proteins binding to both galectins. Interestingly, hematophagous stage-specific sperm-coating protein and zinc metalloprotease (M13), which are known vaccine candidates, were identified as putative ligands of both LGALS-11 and LGALS- 14. The identification of glycoproteins of H. contortus by LGALS-11 and LGALS-14 provide new insights into host-parasite interactions and the potential for developing new interventions

Transitional Zone Index and Intravesical Prostatic Protrusion in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Patients: Correlations according to Treatment Received and Other Clinical Data

Purpose: The aim of this research was to assess the value of the transitional zone index (TZI) and intravesical prostatic protrusion (IPP) from transrectal ultrasonography in evaluating the severity and progression of disease by analyzing the relationship between the 2 parameters and symptoms, clinical history, and urodynamics in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients undergoing different treatment. Materials and Methods: A total of 203 patients receiving medication and 162 patients who underwent transurethral resection of the prostate because of BPH were enrolled in this retrospective analysis. The clinical history and subjective and objective examination results of all patients were recorded and compared after being classified by TZI and IPP level. Linear regression was used to find correlations between IPP, TZI, and urodynamics. Results: The 2 parameters were found to differ significantly between patients receiving medication and patients undergoing surgical therapy (p<0.05). PSA, maximum flow rate (Qmax), detrusor pressure at Qmax (PdetQmax), and the bladder outlet obstruction index (BOOI) differed according to various TZI levels (p<0.05). In addition, the voiding symptom score, Qmax, and BOOI of subgroups with various IPP levels were also significantly different (p<0.05). Both TZI and IPP had significant effects on Qmax, BOOI, and PdetQmax (p<0.05) and the incidence of acute urinary retention (p=0.000). Conclusions: The results demonstrated that both TZI and IPP had favorable value for assessing severity and progression in patients with BPH. Further studies are needed to confirm whether the two parameters have predictive value in the efficacy of BPH treatment and could be considered as factors in the selection of therapy

Discovery of new chemicals with anthelmintic activity against the barber’s pole worm and other parasitic nematodes

© 2018 Dr Yaqing JiaoParasitic nematodes cause a substantial disease burden on humans and animals worldwide. A review of the literature (Chapter 1) showed that, on one hand, neglected tropical diseases caused by parasitic nematodes have a devastating, long-term impact on human health; on the other hand, gastrointestinal nematodes are a major constraint to the livestock industries, causing subclinical infections and diseases in animals and leading to a substantial reduction in meat, milk and fibre production. Currently, anthelmintic treatment remains the mainstay of controlling parasitic nematode infections. However, the massive and widespread resistance to the limited number of commercial anthelmintics, particularly in the veterinary and agricultural contexts, demonstrates an urgency to discover new and effective anthelmintics to sustain the economic and health benefits from the application of anthelmintics. Thus, the key focus of this thesis was to discover new chemical entities and/or known drugs with anthelmintic activities against Haemonchus contortus and/or other socioeconomically important parasitic nematodes for subsequent development. Whole worm-based phenotypic screening assays were employed, compound collections were obtained via product-development-partnerships and/or collaborators, and active compounds were assessed for their potential as anthelmintic candidates. In this thesis, one new chemical entity (designated SN00797439), two human kinase inhibitors (SNS-032 and AG-1295), 14 AG-1295 (tetrahydroquinoxaline) analogues, one insecticide (tolfenpyrad) and two tolfenpyrad (pyrazole-5-carboxamide) derivatives (a-15 and a-17) with anthelmintic activity in vitro were discovered following the screening of a total of 15,333 chemicals from five distinct compound collections against H. contortus. In Chapter 2, a new chemical entity, SN00797439, was identified with activity against a range of parasitic nematodes, including H. contortus, Ancylostoma ceylanicum, Brugia malayi, Dirofilaria immitis and/or Trichuris muris in vitro, offering a novel, lead-like scaffold for the development of a relatively broad-spectrum anthelmintic. In Chapter 3, two human kinase inhibitors under pharmaceutical development, SNS-032 (piperidinecarboxamide) and AG-1295 (quinoxaline), were identified to have inhibitory activity on the motility and development of parasitic larvae of H. contortus in vitro. AG-1295 had limited cytotoxicity against a normal mammalian epithelial cell line (designated MCF10A). In Chapters 4 and 5, three pyrazole-5-carboxamides (tolfenpyrad, a-15 and a-17) were shown to possess significant inhibitory effects on H. contortus without detectable toxicity on a human neonatal foreskin fibroblast (NFF) cell line in vitro. All three of these chemicals were shown to inhibit the oxygen consumption in H. contortus larvae, a finding that was consistent with the known, specific inhibition of complex I of the respiratory electron transport chain by selected pyrazole-5-carboxamides in arthropods. The evaluation of these hit compounds using various technologies employed in parasitology, drug discovery, chemistry, histology, toxicology, molecular biology and bioinformatics should offer data to support their potential as leads for future drug development and to facilitate the exploration of their mode(s) of action in this and related nematodes. Encouraged by the findings in Chapter 3 and the detection of a non-wildtype phenotype in treated worms in vitro, Chapter 6 investigated the activities of 14 additional tetrahydroquinoxaline (AG-1295) analogues on H. contortus. Qualitative and quantitative assessments of larval motility, development and morphological alterations showed that these 14 chemicals all affected the viability of parasitic larvae and, interestingly, induced an eviscerated larval phenotype and led to cuticular damage and/or stunted growth in in vitro H. contortus. Taken together, Chapters 2 to 6 identified a series of 20 hit compounds, some of which have selectivity against H. contortus compared with selected human cell lines tested. In Chapter 7, the research achievements are summarised, and the next steps to be pursued in future research are outlined, including (i) the chemical optimisation of representative chemicals via structure-activity relationship (SAR) evaluations; (ii) assessment of the breadth of spectrum of anthelmintic activity on other parasitic nematodes, such as other strongyloids, ascaridoids, enoplids and filarioids; (iii) detailed investigations of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) of optimised chemicals with broad nematocidal or nematostatic activity; (iv) establishment of the modes of action of lead candidates. The findings from the thesis are then put into a broad context and discussed. In conclusion, the present thesis contributes to the fields of parasitology and anthelmintic discovery by identifying compounds with in vitro anthelmintic activity that represent sound starting points for ‘lead’ discovery

An appraisal of studies using mouse models to assist the biomarker discovery for sepsis prognosis

Introduction: Clinicians need reliable outcome predictors to improve the prognosis of septic patients. Mouse models are widely used in sepsis research. We aimed to review how mouse models were used to search for novel prognostic biomarkers of sepsis in order to optimize their use for future biomarker discovery. Methods: We searched PubMed from 2012 to July 2022 using “((sepsis) AND (mice)) AND ((prognosis) OR (prognostic biomarker))”. Results: A total of 412 publications were retrieved. We selected those studies in which mouse sepsis was used to demonstrate prognostic potential of biomarker candidates and/or assist the subsequent evaluation in human sepsis for further appraisal. The most frequent models were lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection and caecal ligation and puncture (CLP) using young male mice. Discovery technologies applied on mice include setting survival and nonsurvivable groups, detecting changes of biomarker levels and measuring physiological parameters during sepsis. None of the biomarkers achieved sufficient clinical performance for clinical use. Conclusions: The number of studies and strategies using mouse models to discover prognostic biomarkers of sepsis are limited. Current mouse models need to be further optimized to better conform to human sepsis. Current biomarker platforms do not achieve predictive performance for clinical use

Research on Multi-side Joint Industrial Parts Inspection Based on Model Fusion

Rapid identification of many industrial material parts is the key to effectively improving the efficiency of the industrial production process and intelligent warehousing. Accurate identification of both similar and special parts is an important problem. In this paper, a multi-side joint industrial part recognition method based on model fusion learning is proposed. A multi-channel visual acquisition system is designed to construct a fast industrial part data set with time and space consistency. Two joint identification methods for multi-side acquisition are proposed, and the classification results are fused to improve the model’s accuracy and solve the classification problem for similar parts. The experimental results show that compared with the traditional model, the prediction accuracy of the multi-channel multi-input model proposed in this paper is improved by approximately 6%, and the accuracy of the single-channel multi-input model is improved by approximately 10%. The accuracy of part recognition is far better than that of the traditional model, and it therefore provides a new strategy for the rapid training and recognition of industri-al parts in intelligent storage

Fertility Intention and Influencing Factors for Having a Second Child among Floating Women of Childbearing Age

In recent years, an increasing number of women participate in population mobility and most of them are of childbearing age. With the continuous expansion of the population size of this group, their fertility intention will have a great impact on the development of China’s population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the fertility intention and influencing factors on having a second child in floating women. This study employed the data from the 2018 National Migrants Dynamic Monitoring Survey data. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect information, such as socio-demographics and fertility intention. Descriptive statistical analysis was carried out to obtain the basic characteristics of the main variables. Chi-square and ANOVA tests were used to analyze the differences in the basic characteristics between three groups of women (with intention, without intention and unsure about having a second child). Multinomial logistic regression was employed to analyze influencing factors associated with fertility intention among the floating women. The results of this study indicated that only 13.07% of the floating women had the intention to have a second child, while 67.73% had no intention of having another child. In the multivariate analysis, age, gender and age of the first child, reproductive health education, employment status and medical insurance were found to be significant influencing factors of fertility intention (p < 0.05), while education level and household registration type were not associated with the desire to have a second child (p > 0.05). Overall, after the implementation of the universal two-child policy, floating women of childbearing age have reduced intention to have a second child. Reproductive health education and medical insurance play an important role in ensuring the fertility of floating women. This reminds government departments to consider the above factors comprehensively when formulating the next work plan

Health promoting lifestyles and influencing factors among empty nesters and non-empty nesters in Taiyuan, China: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background In China, the problems of population aging and empty nesting have become important issues which will affect the social stability and economic development. The aim of this study was to explore the health promoting lifestyles and influencing factors among empty nesters and compare with non-empty nesters to find out their differences, so as to provide a scientific evidence for people to formulate health management strategies for elderly. Methods A cross-sectional survey which used a stratified random cluster sampling method, was conducted among 500 elders in six districts of Taiyuan, China, there were 288 empty nesters and 212 non-empty nesters. The general information and health- promoting lifestyles were investigated by using the self-made General Information Questionnaire and Health Promoting Lifestyle Scale(HPLP). Two-sample t-test and Chi-square test were used to compare the sociodemographic factors, HPLP scores of empty nesters to non-empty nesters; Multiple stepwise linear regression was performed to estimate influencing factors related to the HPLP of empty nesters and non-empty nesters. Results The current findings showed that there were differences between the empty nesters and non-empty nesters in gender, resident, marital status, education and income, self-care ability, source of income, relationship with spouse and social activities (P < 0.05). Empty nesters were mostly male, married, had a higher education level, self-care ability and income and lived in urban compared with non-empty nesters. The health promoting lifestyles of the elderly in this survey were in the medium level, the highest score for all dimensions in both groups was in nutrition, whereas health responsibility was executed worst. The HPLP and six subscales scores of the empty nesters were higher than non-empty nesters, there were significant differences in total score of HPLP, self-realization and health responsibility (P < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that the main predictive factors for the empty nesters were education, self-care ability and resident, whereas the main predictive factors for the non-empty nesters were parents-child relationship, source of income and age; social activity was the common factor for two group. Conclusion The health promoting lifestyles of the empty nesters was better than that of the non-empty nesters. Health responsibility, interpersonal relations and stress management were key dimensions to be improved. Except social activity, education, self-care ability and resident were the unique influencing factors of health-promoting lifestyles for empty nesters, while the parents-child relationship, income and age were unique factors for non-empty nesters. The main target of Intervention strategy for elderly health promoting lifestyles should be the enhance of health responsibility, interpersonal relations and stress management by improving social activities, parent-child relationship, education and income of elderly