Circulating MicroRNA Expression Profiles in Patients with Stable and Unstable Angina

OBJECTIVES: High incidence and case fatality of unstable angina (UA) is, to a large extent, a consequence of the lack of highly sensitive and specific non-invasive markers. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have been widely recommended as potential biomarkers for numerous diseases. In the present study, we characterized distinctive miRNA expression profiles in patients with stable angina (SA), UA, and normal coronary arteries (NCA), and identified promising candidates for UA diagnosis. METHODS: Serum was collected from patients with SA, UA, and NCA who visited the Department of Cardiovascular Diseases of the Meizhou People’s Hospital. Small RNA sequencing was carried out on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. miRNA expression in different groups of patients was profiled and then confirmed based on that in an independent set of patients. Functions of differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted using gene ontology classification and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis. RESULTS: Our results indicated that circulating miRNA expression profiles differed between SA, UA, and NCA patients. A total of 36 and 161 miRNAs were dysregulated in SA and UA patients, respectively. miRNA expression was validated by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that circulating miRNAs are potential biomarkers of UA

Central gas entropy excess as a direct evidence for AGN feedback in galaxy groups and clusters

By analyzing Chandra X-ray data of a sample of 21 galaxy groups and 19 galaxy clusters, we find that in 31 sample systems there exists a significant central ($R^{<}_{\sim} 10h_{71}^{-1}$ kpc) gas entropy excess ($\Delta K_{0}$), which corresponds to $\simeq 0.1-0.5$ keV per gas particle, beyond the power-law model that best fits the radial entropy profile of outer regions. We also find a distinct correlation between the central entropy excess $\Delta K_{0}$ and $K$-band luminosity $L_{K}$ of the central dominating galaxies (CDGs), which is scaled as $\Delta K_{0} \propto L_{K}^{1.6\pm0.4}$, where $L_{K}$ is tightly associated with the mass of the supermassive black hole hosted in the CDG. In fact, if an effective mass-to-energy conversion-efficiency of 0.02 is assumed for the accretion process, the cumulative AGN feedback $E^{\rm AGN}_{\rm feedback} \simeq \eta M_{\rm BH}c^{2}$ yields an extra heating of $\simeq 0.5-17.0$ keV per particle, which is sufficient to explain the central entropy excess. In most cases the AGN contribution can compensate the radiative loss of the X-ray gas within the cooling radius ($\simeq 0.002-2.2$ keV per particle), and apparently exceeds the energy required to deviate the scaling relations from the self-similar predictions ($\simeq 0.2-1.0$ keV per particle). In contrast to the AGN feedback, the extra heating provided by supernova explosions accounts for $\simeq 0.01-0.08$ keV per particle in groups and is almost negligible in clusters. Therefore, the observed correlation between $\Delta K_{0}$ and $L_{K}$ can be considered as a direct evidence for AGN feedback in galaxy groups and clusters.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, accepted by RA

Integrated Metagenomic and Transcriptomic Analyses Reveal the Dietary Dependent Recovery of Host Metabolism From Antibiotic Exposure

The balance of gut microbiome is essential for maintaining host metabolism homeostasis. Despite widespread antibiotic use, the potential long-term detrimental consequences of antibiotics for host health are getting more and more attention. However, it remains unclear whether diet affects the post-antibiotic recovery of gut microbiome and host metabolism. In this study, through metagenomic sequencing and hepatic transcriptome analysis, we investigated the divergent impacts of short-term vancomycin (Vac), or combination of ciprofloxacin and metronidazole (CM) treatment on gut microbiome and host metabolism, as well as their recovery extent from antibiotic exposure on chow diet (CD) and high-fat diet (HFD). Our results showed that short-term Vac intervention affected insulin signaling, while CM induced more functional changes in the microbiome. However, Vac-induced long-term (45 days) changes of species were more apparent when recovered on CD than HFD. The effects of antibiotic intervention on host metabolism were long-lasting, antibiotic-specific, and diet-dependent. The number of differentially expressed gene was doubled by Vac than CM, but was comparable after recovery on CD as revealed by the hepatic transcriptomic analysis. In contrast, HFD intake during recovery could worsen the extent of post-antibiotic recovery by altering infection, immunity, and cancer-related pathways in short-term Vac-exposed rats and by shifting endocrine system-associated pathways in CM-exposed rats. Together, the presented data demonstrated the long-term recovery extent after different antibiotic exposure was diet-related, highlighting the importance of dietary management during post-antibiotic recovery

MS1, a direct target of MS188, regulates the expression of key sporophytic pollen coat protein genes in Arabidopsis

© 2020 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Sporophytic pollen coat proteins (sPCPs) derived from the anther tapetum are deposited into pollen wall cavities and function in pollen-stigma interactions, pollen hydration, and environmental protection. In Arabidopsis, 13 highly abundant proteins have been identified in pollen coat, including seven major glycine-rich proteins GRP14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and GRP-oleosin; two caleosin-related family proteins (AT1G23240 and AT1G23250); three lipase proteins EXL4, EXL5 and EXL6, and ATA27/BGLU20. Here, we show that GRP14, 17, 18, 19, and EXL4 and EXL6 fused with green fluorescent protein (GFP) are translated in the tapetum and then accumulate in the anther locule following tapetum degeneration. The expression of these sPCPs is dependent on two essential tapetum transcription factors, MALE STERILE188 (MS188) and MALE STERILITY 1 (MS1). The majority of sPCP genes are up-regulated within 30 h after MS1 induction and could be restored by MS1 expression driven by the MS188 promoter in ms188, indicating that MS1 is sufficient to activate their expression; however, additional MS1 downstream factors appear to be required for high-level sPCP expression. Our ChIP, in vivo transactivation assay, and EMSA data indicate that MS188 directly activates MS1. Together, these results reveal a regulatory cascade whereby outer pollen wall formation is regulated by MS188 followed by synthesis of sPCPs controlled by MS1

Diagnostic Significance of Serum IgG Galactosylation in CA19-9-Negative Pancreatic Carcinoma Patients

Background: Although Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) is considered clinically useful and informative for pancreatic carcinoma (PC), false positive results, and false negative results have restricted its clinical use. Especially missed or delayed diagnosis of PC patients with negative CA19-9 value limited the utility. To improve prognosis of PC patients, the discovery of reliable biomarkers to assist CA19-9 is desired. Serum IgG galactosylation based on our previous report was altered in PC patients comparing to healthy controls. The objective of this study was to explore the diagnostic significance of IgG galactosylation in assisting CA19-9 for PC in a comprehensive way.Methods: Serum IgG galactosylation profiles were analyzed by MALDI-MS in cohort 1 (n = 252) and cohort 2 in which all CA19-9 levels were negative (n = 133). In each cohort, not only healthy controls and PC patients but also benign pancreatic disease (BPD) patients were enrolled. Peaks were acquired by the software of MALDI-MS sample acquisition, followed by being processed and analyzed by the software of Progenesis MALDI. IgG Gal-ratio, which was calculated from the relative intensity of peaks G0, G1, and G2 according to the formula (G0/(G1+G2×2)), was employed as an index for indicating the distribution of IgG galactosylation.Results: The Gal-ratio was elevated in PC comparing with that in non-cancer group (healthy controls and BPD). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of IgG Gal-ratio was higher than that of CA19-9 (0.912 vs. 0.814). The performance was further improved when Gal-ratio and CA19-9 were combined (AUC: 0.928). Meanwhile, Gal-ratio also had great diagnostic value with a sensitivity of 92.31% (AUC: 0.883) in detection of PC at early stage. Notably, IgG Gal-ratio has great sensitivity (90.63%) and specificity (76.81%) in CA19-9-negative PC patients.Conclusions: IgG Gal-ratio had a great performance in detection of PC and could be used to assist CA19-9 in improving diagnosis performance through early stage detection, differentiation from BPD, and PC diagnosis with CA19-9-negative level