Functional Antagonism of WRI1 and TCP20 Modulates \u3ci\u3eGH3.3\u3c/i\u3e Expression to Maintain Auxin Homeostasis in Roots

Auxin is a well-studied phytohormone, vital for diverse plant developmental processes. The GH3 genes are one of the major auxin responsive genes, whose expression changes lead to modulation of plant development and auxin homeostasis. However, the transcriptional regulation of these GH3 genes remains largely unknown. WRI1 is an essential transcriptional regulator governing plant fatty acid biosynthesis. Recently, we identified that the expression of GH3.3 is increased in the roots of wri1-1 mutant. Nevertheless, in this study we found that AtWRI1 did not activate or repress the promoter of GH3.3 (proGH3.3) despite of its binding to proGH3.3. Cross-family transcription factor interactions play pivotal roles in plant gene regulatory networks. To explore the molecular mechanism by which WRI1 controls GH3.3 expression, we screened an Arabidopsis transcription factor library and identified TCP20 as a novel AtWRI1-interacting regulator. The interaction between AtWRI1 and TCP20 was further verified by several approaches. Importantly, we found that TCP20 directly regulates GH3.3 expression via binding to TCP binding element. Furthermore, AtWRI1 repressed the TCP20-mediated transactivation of proGH3.3. EMSAs demonstrated that AtWRI1 antagonized TCP20 from binding to proGH3.3. Collectively, we provide new insights that WRI1 attenuates GH3.3 expression through interaction with TCP20, highlighting a new mechanism that contributes to fine-tuning auxin homeostasis

Fucoxanthin-Rich Brown Algae Extract Decreases Inflammation and Attenuates Colitis-associated Colon Cancer in Mice

Abstract Fucoxanthin is a natural carotenoid that is isolated from seaweed. We evaluated the effects of fucoxanthin-rich brown algae extract (FX-BAE) on the development of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis, and colitis-associated colon cancer (CACC) in BALB/c mice. Colitis mice were given drinking water containing 3% DSS for 14 days, and fed with or without FX-BAE (1, 2.5, or 5 g/kg bodyweight/day) from day 8 to day 14. Another way, CACC mice were treated with azoxymethane (AOM) and 2% DSS, and fed with or without FX-BAE at 0.5, 1, or 2.5 g/kg every 2 days. Results revealed the disease activity index (DAI), nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were all significantly less in FX-BAE treated mice. Additionally, FX-BAE not only decreased the incidence of colonic neoplasm, but also increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) production, lymphocyte proliferation and survival rate in CACC mice

Proteomics profiling asthma induced-lysine acetylation

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that has been extensively studied for many years. However, finding a complete cure remains a significant challenge. Protein acetylation, especially histone acetylation, plays a significant role in the anti-asthma process. Histone deacetylation inhibitors (HDACi) have been shown to have a curative effect on asthma in clinical practice. An asthmatic mouse model was created by ovalbumin induction. Proteome and acetylproteome analysis were performed on lung tissues. HDACi were tested in the asthmatic mice. A total of 5346 proteins and 581 acetylation sites were identified, among which 154 proteins and 68 acetylation peptides were significantly altered by asthma. Many activated and deactivated processes, pathways, and protein groups were identified through bioinformatics analysis. Sequence motif preference analysis gave rise to a novel Kac-related core histone region, -KAXXK-, which was postulated as a key regulatory unit of histone acetylation. Asthma involves a variety of proteome dynamics and is controlled by protein lysine acetylation through the core motif -KAXXK-. These findings provide novel avenues to target and treat asthma

Cloud point extraction coupled with Isooctane back extraction for determination of eight pesticide residues in tea beverages by gas chromatography mass spectrometry

Objective: Rapid determination of organochlorine and pyrethroid pesticide residues in tea beverages. Methods: Selecting the non-ionic surfactant PEG-4000 as cloud point extraction, pesticides were extracted with isooctane by ultrasonic back extraction. The upper layer of isoctane solution was analyzed by Gas Chromatography/Mass. The isooctane solution was separated by HP-5 ms UI capillary column and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by GC/MS. Results: The eight pesticides showed a good linear relationship between 0.01～2.0 and 0.02～4.0 mg/L, respectively, with the correlation coefficients (R) of over 0.995. The detection limit and quantification limit of this method were 0.003~0.008 mg/L and 0.01~0.02 mg/L, respectively. The average recovery was 78.3%~98.4%, RSD was 2.7%~8.5% (n=6). Conclusion: The method is simple in operation, high in enrichment rate, practical, safe and economical, which is suitable for rapid determination of pesticide residues in tea drinks

Chinese Herbal Medicine for the Treatment of Children and Adolescents With Refractory Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Pneumonia: A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis

Objectives: Chinese herb medicine (CHM) is one of the most popular complementary and alternative therapies, which has been widely used to treat Refractory Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Pneumonia (RMPP). However, the effect and safety of CHM remain controversial. Hence, we conducted this meta-analysis to evaluate whether CHM combination therapy could bring benefits to children and adolescents with RMPP.Methods: Seven databases were used for data searching through November 11, 2020 following the PRISMA checklist generally. Review Manager 5.3, Trial sequential analysis 0.9.5.10 Beta software and Stata16.0 were applied to perform data analyses. Mean difference or risk ratio was adopted to express the results, where a 95% confidence interval (CI) was applied.Results: In general, this research enrolled 17 trials with 1,451 participants. The overall pooled results indicated that CHM was beneficial for children and adolescents with RMPP by improving the clinical efficacy rate [RR = 1.20, 95% CI (1.15, 1.25), p < 0.00001], shortening antipyretic time [MD = −2.60, 95% CI (−3.06, −2.13), p < 0.00001], cough disappearance time [MD = −2.77, 95% CI (−3.12, −2.42), p < 0.00001], lung rale disappearance time [MD = −2.65, 95% CI (−3.15, −2.15), p < 0.00001], lung X-ray infiltrates disappearance time [MD = −2.75, 95% CI (−3.33, −2.17), p < 0.00001], reducing TNF-α level [MD = −5.49, 95% CI (−7.21, −3.77), p < 0.00001]. Moreover, subgroup results suggested that removing heat-phlegm and toxicity therapy had more advantages in shortening antipyretic time, cough disappearance time, lung X-ray infiltrates disappearance time and reducing TNF-α level. Meanwhile promoting blood circulation therapy seemed to be better at relieving lung rale. However, regarding adverse events, the two groups displayed no statistical difference [RR = 0.97, 95% CI (0.60, 1.57), p = 0.91].Conclusion: Despite of the apparently positive results in relieving clinical symptoms, physical signs and reducing inflammation, it is premature to confirm the efficacy of CHM in treating RMPP because of the limitation of quality and the number of the included studies. More large-scale, double-blind, well-designed, randomized controlled trials are needed in future research

Massage Therapy for Neck and Shoulder Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective. To evaluate the effectiveness of massage therapy (MT) for neck and shoulder pain. Methods. Seven English and Chinese databases were searched until December 2011 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of MT for neck and shoulder pain. The methodological quality of RCTs was assessed based on PEDro scale. The meta-analyses of MT for neck and shoulder pain were performed. Results. Twelve high-quality studies were included. In immediate effects, the meta-analyses showed significant effects of MT for neck pain (standardised mean difference, SMD, 1.79; 95% confidence intervals, CI, 1.01 to 2.57; P<0.00001) and shoulder pain (SMD, 1.50; 95% CI, 0.55 to 2.45; P=0.002) versus inactive therapies. And MT showed short-term effects for shoulder pain (SMD, 1.51; 95% CI, 0.53 to 2.49; P=0.003). But MT did not show better effects for neck pain (SMD, 0.13; 95% CI, −0.38 to 0.63; P=0.63) or shoulder pain (SMD, 0.88; 95% CI, −0.74 to 2.51; P=0.29) than active therapies. In addition, functional status of the shoulder was not significantly affected by MT. Conclusion. MT may provide immediate effects for neck and shoulder pain. However, MT does not show better effects on pain than other active therapies. No evidence suggests that MT is effective in functional status

The diversity and biogeography of microeukaryotes in the euphotic zone of the northwestern Pacific Ocean

Abstract(#br)Microeukaryotes are the key ecosystem drivers mediating marine productivity, the food web and biogeochemical cycles. The northwestern Pacific Ocean (NWPO), as one of the world’s largest oligotrophic regions, remains largely unexplored regarding diversity and biogeography of microeukaryotes. Here, we investigated the community composition and geographical distribution of microeukaryotes collected from the euphotic zone of three different regions in the NWPO using high-throughput sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene and quantified the contributions of environmental factors on the distributions of microeukaryotes. The relative abundance of different group taxa, except for Ciliophora, presented distinct patterns in each region, and Metazoa and Dinoflagellata dominated the community, contributing approximately half of reads abundance. Spatial and environmental factors explained 66.01% of community variation in the NWPO. Temperature was the most important environmental factor significantly correlated with community structure. Bacterial biomass was also significantly correlated with microeukaryotic distribution, especially for Dinoflagellata and Diatomea. Network analysis showed strong correlations between microeukaryotic groups and free-living bacteria and different bacterial taxa were correlated with specific microeukaryotic groups, indicating that their interactions enabled microeukaryotic groups to adapt to diverse environments. This study provides a first glance at the diversity and geographical distribution of microeukaryotes in the NWPO and sheds light on the biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the microeukaryotic community in the ocean

The diversity and biogeography of microeukaryotes in the euphotic zone of the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

Microeukaryotes are the key ecosystem drivers mediating marine productivity, the food web and biogeochemical cycles. The northwestern Pacific Ocean (NWPO), as one of the world’s largest oligotrophic regions, remains largely unexplored regarding diversity and biogeography of microeukaryotes. Here, we investigated the community composition and geographical distribution of microeukaryotes collected from the euphotic zone of three different regions in the NWPO using high-throughput sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene and quantified the contributions of environmental factors on the distributions of microeukaryotes. The relative abundance of different group taxa, except for Ciliophora, presented distinct patterns in each region, and Metazoa and Dinoflagellata dominated the community, contributing approximately half of reads abundance. Spatial and environmental factors explained 66.01% of community variation in the NWPO. Temperature was the most important environmental factor significantly correlated with community structure. Bacterial biomass was also significantly correlated with microeukaryotic distribution, especially for Dinoflagellata and Diatomea. Network analysis showed strong correlations between microeukaryotic groups and free-living bacteria and different bacterial taxa were correlated with specific microeukaryotic groups, indicating that their interactions enabled microeukaryotic groups to adapt to diverse environments. This study provides a first glance at the diversity and geographical distribution of microeukaryotes in the NWPO and sheds light on the biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the microeukaryotic community in the ocean

Efficacy mechanisms research progress of the active components in the characteristic woody edible oils

Woody edible oils are a type of vegetable oil. Woody edible oils like olive oil have greater quantities of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs), particularly essential FAs, as well as vitamin E, phytosterols, and other nutrients that are becoming more vital in human health. As a result, finding high-quality woody oil resource plants is critical to ensuring enough edible oil supply. As six novel woody crops, Paeonia suffruticosa, Plukenetia volubilis, Acer truncatum, Olea europaea, Camellia sinensis, and Camellia oleifera are characterized by high oil production, widespread cultivation, adaptability, and various active ingredients. The six woody crop oils contain UFAs (e.g., α-linolenic acid, oleic acid, and linoleic acid), vitamin E, polyphenols, phytosterols, and so forth. The presence of these active ingredients confers anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, cholesterol and lipid metabolism regulating, blood lipid lowering, immune boosting, memory improving, intestinal flora regulating, and other properties to the oils, which are beneficial to body health. This article examined in depth the seed resources, FA composition, active component kinds, active ingredient efficacy mechanism, and physiological impacts of these six novel woody crop oils. These developments lay a solid platform for further study and development of these woody oil crops.This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province (No. 2021C02002), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Sciences Foundation of China under Grant (No. LZ22C200006), Top young talents of the ten thousand talents program of Zhejiang Province (ZJWR0308016), Key R&D projects in Zhejiang Province (2023C04010), and Zhejiang Basic Public Welfare Research Project (LGN21C200006). Agusti Romero acknowledges financial support from the CERCA Program from the Generalitat of Catalonia. We would like to thank all contributors of the current study for their concepts, ideas, contribution, and provision.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enhanced antitumor immunity by targeting dendritic cells with tumor cell lysate-loaded chitosan nanoparticles vaccine

Whole tumor cell lysates (TCL) have been implemented as tumor antigens for cancer vaccine development, although clinical outcomes of TCL-based antitumor immunotherapy remain unsatisfactory. In order to improve the efficacy of TCL-based vaccines, biomaterials have been employed to enhance antigen delivery and presentation. Here, we have developed chitosan nanoparticles (CTS NPs) with surface mannose (Man) moieties for specific dendritic cells (DCs) targeting (Man-CTS NPs). The Man-CTS NPs were then loaded with TCL generated from B16 melanoma cells (Man-CTS-TCL NPs) for in vitro and in vivo assessment. Potency of the Man-CTS-TCL NPs as cancer vaccine was also assessed in vivo by immunization of mice with Man-CTS-TCL NPs followed by re-challenge with B16 melanoma cell inoculation. We have shown here that Man-CTS-TCL NPs promote bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) maturation and antigen presentation in vitro. In vivo evaluation further demonstrated that the Man-CTS-TCL NPs were readily taken up by endogenous DCs within the draining lymph node (DLN) following subcutaneous administration accompanied by increasing in serum IFN-γ and IL-4 levels. Tumor growth was also significantly delayed in mice primed with Man-CTS-TCL NPs vaccine, attributable at least in part to cytotoxic T lymphocytes response. Moreover, Man-CTS-TCL NPs vaccine also exhibited therapeutic effects in mice with melanoma. Thus, we report here the Man-CTS-TCL NPs as effective anti-tumor vaccine for cancer immunotherapy