Therapeutic effects of combined meloxicam and glucosamine sulfate treatment on patients with osteoarthritis, and its effect on serum CTX-Ⅰ, CTX-Ⅱ, COMP and MMP-3

Purpose: To study the therapeutic influence of meloxicam-glucosamine sulfate combination in patients with osteoarthritis and their effect on serum CTX-I, CTX-II, COMP and MMP-3. Methods: A total of 88 patients with osteoarthritis were assigned to control (n = 44) and treatment groups (n = 44), using the random number table method. Control group was given 7.5 mg of meloxicam, while treatment group received 0.5 g of glucosamine sulfate capsule in addition to meloxicam. Both groups were treated continuously for 8 weeks. Serum levels of C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX-I), C-terminal telopeptide of type II collagen (CTX-II), cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) and matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) were compared for the two groups after treatment. Results: Lysholm score significantly increased in the two groups after treatment. Serum CTX-I, CTX-II, COMP and MMP-3 in the two groups were significantly lower than before treatment, but the reductions were more pronounced in the treatment group (p < 0.05). During treatment, mild vomiting and pruritus of the skin appeared in both groups, but these were relieved after symptomatic treatment without any serious adverse reactions. Conclusion: Treatment with a combination of meloxicam and glucosamine sulfate produces significant beneficial effects in patients with osteoarthritis by reduction of clinical symptoms, pain relief and reduction of serum CTX-I, CTX-II, MMP-3 and COMP

Transcriptomic landscape of Dendrobium huoshanense and its genes related to polysaccharide biosynthesis

Dendrobium huoshanense has long been used to treat various diseases in oriental medicine. In order to study its gene expression profile, transcripts involved in the biosynthesis of precursors of polysaccharides, as well as mechanisms underlining morphological differences between wild and cultivated plants, three organs of both wild type and cultivated D. huoshanense were collected and sequenced by Illumina HiSeq4000 platform, yielding 919,409,540 raw reads in FASTQ format. After Trinity de novo assembly and quality control, 241,242 nonredundant contigs with the average length of 967.5 bp were generated. qRT-PCR experiment on the selected transcripts showed the transcriptomic data were reliable. BLASTx was conducted against NR, SwissProt, String, Pfam, and KEGG. Gene ontology annotation revealed more than 40,000 contigs assigned to catalytic activity and metabolic process, suggesting its dynamic physiological activities. By searching KEGG pathway, six genes potentially involved in mannose biosynthetic pathway were retrieved. Gene expression analysis for stems between wild and cultivated D. huoshanense resulted in 956 genes differentially expressed. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) analysis revealed 143 SSRs with the unit size of 4 and 3,437 SSRs the size of 3. The obtained SSRs are the potential molecular markers for discriminating distinct cultivars of D. huoshanense

BASP1 is a prognostic biomarker associated with immunotherapeutic response in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

BackgroundsImmunotherapy is effective in a subset of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, the unfavorable response rate and inadequate biomarkers for stratifying patients have primarily limited its clinical application. Considering transcriptional factors (TFs) play essential roles in regulating immune activity during HNSCC progression, we comprehensively analyzed the expression alterations of TFs and their prognostic values.MethodsGene expression datasets and clinical information of HNSCC were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) repository. Then, Brain abundant membrane attached signal protein 1 (BASP1) was screened out of differentially expressed TFs by univariate and multivariate survival analysis. Tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) was applied to analyze the response to immunotherapy of BASP1high/low patients. Meanwhile, GO, KEGG and GSEA analyses were used to enrich the pathways between the BASP1high and BASP1low groups. Single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA), CIBERSORT, EPIC and quanTiseq algorithms were applied to explore immune infiltrations. Also, immune cycle analysis was conducted by ssGSEA. Additionally, lipid peroxidation, glutathione and reactive oxygen species were performed to detect the ferroptosis alternations.ResultsBASP1 was upregulated and associated with poor survival in HNSCC patients. BASP1high patients exhibited better response rates to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy and higher expressions of immune checkpoint inhibitors. GO, KEGG and GSEA analyses indicated that the expression of BASP1 was related to several immune-related pathways and immunogenic ferroptosis signature. The infiltration of activated CD8+ T cells was authenticated to be decreased in BASP1high patients. Furthermore, BASP1 was identified to be positively correlated with T cell dysfunction and immune escape. Moreover, silencing BASP1 triggered ferroptosis in HNSCC cells, representing as increased LDH, lipid peroxidation and ROS levels, and reduced glutathione synthesisConclusionsWe demonstrated that BASP1 suppressed immunogenic ferroptosis to induce immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. BASP1 plays a critical role in immune response, and might be a promising classifier for selecting HNSCC patients who benefit from current immunotherapy

Physical activity levels associated with insomnia and depressive symptoms in middle-aged and elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia

BackgroundPrevious evidence suggested that physical activity had beneficial effects on psychopathological symptoms, insomnia, or depressive symptoms in people with schizophrenia. This study investigated the association between physical activity levels and insomnia and depressive symptoms in middle-aged and elderly hospitalized patients with chronic schizophrenia (CS).Methods179 participants were enrolled. We used the 30-item Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS–30) to assess the psychopathological symptoms. We used the Insomnia Severity Index scale (ISI) and 17-item Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD-17) to evaluate insomnia and depressive symptoms. Daily physical activity time less than 30 min, within 30–60 min, and more than 60 min were defined as physical inactivity, moderate physical activity, and vigorous physical activity, respectively. The Chi-square test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Mann–Whitney U-test were applied for categorical, continuous, and non-normal distribution variables, respectively. The Pearson or Spearman’s correlation analyses were utilized to examine the association between physical activity levels, ISI total scores, HAMD total scores, and socio-demographic and clinical variables. Finally, socio-demographic variables with a P-value < 0.05 in the comparison between insomnia/depressive group and non-insomnia/depressive group were considered for inclusion in binary logistic regression analysis to determine the relationship between physical activity levels and insomnia or depressive symptoms.ResultsThe ISI total scores (r = –0.247, P = 0.001) and HAMD total scores (r = –0.312, P < 0.001) were negatively correlated with physical activity levels. Logistic regression analysis revealed that older age, higher depressive factor scores, and lower physical activity level were influential factors of insomnia symptoms in CS patients (P < 0.05). In addition, vigorous physical activity (compared with physical inactivity) and higher negative and depressive factor scores were independently associated with depressive symptoms in CS patients (P < 0.05).ConclusionPhysical activity levels were influential factors in comorbid insomnia and depressive symptoms in CS patients. Given the benefits of physical activity, it should be strengthened as a routine adjunct to clinical treatment or psychiatric care so as to improve the physical and mental health of patients with psychiatric symptoms

Reaction mechanism of selective oxidation of propane to acrolein over MoPO/SiO2 catalyst

To elucidate possible reaction pathways for propane selective oxidation to acrolein over the MoPO/SiO2 catalyst, oxidative conversions of propane and possible intermediates or their probe molecules as well as the reaction products of the selective oxidation of propane to acrolein on the catalyst were studied. The results suggested that isopropoxy species is one of the intermediates for the selective oxidation of propane to acrolein over the MoPO/SiO2 catalyst. The isopropoxy species can be converted either to acetone by dehydrogenation or to propene by beta-hydrogen elimination, and the latter can be further converted to acrolein through an allylic process

Rapid structural analysis of minute quantities of organic solids by exhausting 1H polarization in solid-state NMR spectroscopy at fast MAS

Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful and indispensable tool for structural and dynamic studies of various challenging systems. Nevertheless, it often suffers from significant limitations due to the inherent low signal sensitivity when low- nuclei are involved. Herein, we report an efficient solid-state NMR approach for rapid and efficient structural analysis of minute amounts of organic solids. By encoding staggered chemical shift evolution in the indirect dimension and staggered acquisition in 1H dimension, a proton-detected homonuclear 1H/1H and heteronuclear 13C/1H chemical shift correlation (HETCOR) spectrum can be obtained simultaneously in a single experiment at fast magic-angle-spinning (MAS) conditions with barely increasing experimental time, compared to conventional proton-detected HETCOR experiment. We establish that abundant 1H polarization can be efficiently manipulated and fully utilized in proton-detected solid-state NMR spectroscopy for extraction of more critical structural information and thus reduction of total experimental time

2D HETCOR Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy for Multiphase Materials with Mobility Contrast

Two-dimensional heteronuclear chemical shift correlation experiments (HETCOR) under magic angle spinning (MAS) can provide the isotropic chemical shift and the proximity of different nuclei. The establishment of heteronuclear correlation is mainly achieved via cross polarization (CP) in solid samples, relying on the through-space dipolar couplings. As a result, such experiment typically suffers from severe limitations for the multiphase materials containing rigid and mobile components with significant mobility contrast, where the signals of mobile components in HETCOR spectra are often lost due to the efficient averaging of dipolar couplings by the fast molecular motions. Herein, we propose novel 1D and 2D HETCOR experiments, enabling sequential acquisition of 1D 13C and 2D HETCOR spectra of both rigid and mobile components in a single experiment, respectively. Particularly, CP and heteronuclear Overhauser effect is used for 1H13C polarization transfer in rigid and mobile components, respectively, both enabling achieving signal enhancement as well as remote heteronuclear chemical shift correlations. The proposed experiments were firstly demonstrated on the small molecular model system, glycine and adamantane mixture, and then on two typical polymer systems, including PMMA/PB blend (poly(methyl methacrylate)/polybutadiene) and PU (polyurethane). Due to the dynamic selectivity of this experiment, it can also be used for the fast chemical shift resonance assignment and dynamics based spectral editing of multiphase materials. We envisage that such an approach can be quite useful for the structural elucidation and thus revealing the interplay of structures and dynamics in multiphase materials

Mixing and combustion performance of the mixing-enhanced flame stabilizer with close-coupled gaseous fuel injection

Mixing of fuel and air is important for improving combustion performance and reducing pollution emissions. To improve the mixing performance of gaseous methane and air, the typical flame stabilizer was modified. A numerical study was conducted to compare the mixing and combustion performance of the mixing-enhanced flame stabilizer with the original one, and the mixing enhancement mechanism was clarified. The results show that the mixing performance of the mixing-enhanced flame stabilizer is improved in two ways. On the one hand, the disturbance of the gas fuel jet in the recirculation zone promotes the mixing of fuel and air. On the other hand, the velocity gradient between the recirculation zone downstream the bluff body and the mainstream decreases, which allows more fuel to enter the recirculation zone downstream the bluff body. This study is expected to promote the rapid mixing of gaseous fuel jets and the flame stability of the combustion chamber based on bluff body stabilizers