Double-blind comparison of ziprasidone and risperidone in the treatment of Chinese patients with acute exacerbation of schizophrenia

Background: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ziprasidone versus risperidone in Chinese subjects with acute exacerbation of schizophrenia. Methods: In patients meeting the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders criteria for schizophrenia and with a Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total score >= 60 were randomly assigned to six weeks of double-blind treatment with ziprasidone 40-80 mg twice daily or risperidone 1-3 mg bid, flexibly dosed. Noninferiority was demonstrated if the upper limit of the two-sided 95% confidence interval (CI) for the difference in PANSS total score improvement from baseline in the evaluable population was smaller than the prespecified noninferiority margin of 10 units. Results: The intent-to-treat population comprised 118 ziprasidone-treated and 121 risperidone-treated subjects. Improvement (reduction) from baseline to week 6 in PANSS total score was (-35.6 [95% CI: -38.6, -32.6]) for ziprasidone and (-37.1 [95% CI: -39.9, -34.4]) for risperidone. Noninferiority was demonstrated in the evaluable population with a difference score of 1.5 [95% CI: -2.5, 5.5]. Mean prolactin levels decreased at week 6 compared with baseline for ziprasidone (-3.5 ng/mL), but significantly increased for risperidone (61.1 ng/mL; P < 0.001). More risperidone-treated subjects (14.9%) than ziprasidone-treated subjects (4.2%) reported weight gain >= 7%. Akathisia and somnolence in the ziprasidone group and akathisia and insomnia in the risperidone group were the most common side effects. Treatment-related/treatment-emergent adverse events were reported by 79.7% and 71.1% of ziprasidone-treated and risperidone-treated subjects, respectively. Conclusion: In Chinese subjects, ziprasidone was as effective as risperidone, with less weight gain and less prolactin elevation.http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000294955100009&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701Clinical NeurologyPsychiatrySCI(E)PubMed3ARTICLE77-85

Water response of ecosystem respiration regulates future projection of net ecosystem productivity in a semiarid grassland

Recent evidences show that terrestrial biogeochemical models have large uncertainty in estimating climate change effect on grassland net ecosystem productivity (NEP), which is defined as the difference between gross ecosystem photosynthesis (GEP) and respiration (ER). It remains unclear that whether GEP or ER limits the model capability to simulate NEP responses to climate change in semiarid grasslands. Given the surrogate CENTURY-type model is widely used for Earth system modeling, we investigated two of them (i.e., DAYCENT and TECO models) and examined which processes dominate their ability to capture the responses of NEP to experimental climate changes in a temperate steppe of northern China. During the simulation from 2006 to 2008, the two models captured the observed mean annual NEP in the control plots when they were validated by the observations from an adjacent eddy-flux tower. However, they failed to capture the treatment effects of experimental warming and increased precipitation on NEP because of the poor estimations of ER responses. DAYCENT model simulated a higher precipitation effect on ER (37.83%) and TECO model overestimated the warming effect on ER by 8.18%. The simulation of treatment effects on ER and therefore NEP can be improved by an optimized parameterization of the water-related decay functions for soil organic carbon (C). The simulated cumulative loss of total ecosystem C stock during 2010-2100 were decreased when the TECO model used experiment-fitted parameters (0.72 kg C m(-2)) instead of using the initial validation with eddy-flux data (0.96 kg C m(-2)). The ecosystem shifted from C sink to source at threshold of 435 mm of annual total precipitation. Our findings indicate that future projection of C cycle in semiarid grasslands could be improved by better understanding of water response of ecosystem respiratory processes

Gene Regulation during Carapacial Ridge Development of <i>Mauremys reevesii</i>: The Development of Carapacial Ridge, Ribs and Scutes

The unique topological structure of a turtle shell, including the special ribs–scapula relationship, is an evolutionarily novelty of amniotes. The carapacial ridge is a key embryonic tissue for inducing turtle carapace morphologenesis. However, the gene expression profiles and molecular regulatory mechanisms that occur during carapacial ridge development, including the regulation mechanism of rib axis arrest, the development mechanism of the carapacial ridge, and the differentiation between soft-shell turtles and hard-shell turtles, are not fully understood. In this study, we obtained genome-wide gene expression profiles during the carapacial ridge development of Mauremys reevesii using RNA-sequencing by using carapacial ridge tissues from stage 14, 15 and 16 turtle embryos. In addition, a differentially expressed genes (DEGs) analysis and a gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of three comparison groups were performed. Furthermore, a Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis was used to analyze the pathway enrichment of the differentially expressed genes of the three comparative groups. The result displayed that the Wnt signaling pathway was substantially enriched in the CrTK14 vs. the CrTK15 comparison group, while the Hedgehog signaling pathway was significantly enriched in the CrTK15 vs. the CrTK16 group. Moreover, the regulatory network of the Wnt signaling pathway showed that Wnt signaling pathways might interact with Fgfs, Bmps, and Shh to form a regulatory network to regulate the carapacial ridge development. Next, WGCNA was used to cluster and analyze the expression genes during the carapacial ridge development of M. reevesii and P. sinensis. Further, a KEGG functional enrichment analysis of the carapacial ridge correlation gene modules was performed. Interesting, these results indicated that the Wnt signaling pathway and the MAPK signaling pathway were significantly enriched in the gene modules that were highly correlated with the stage 14 and stage 15 carapacial ridge samples of the two species. The Hedgehog signaling pathway was significantly enriched in the modules that were strongly correlated with the stage 16 carapacial ridge samples of M. reevesii, however, the PI3K-Akt signaling and the TGF-β signaling pathways were significantly enriched in the modules that were strongly correlated with the stage 16 carapacial ridge samples of P. sinensis. Furthermore, we found that those modules that were strongly correlated with the stage 14 carapacial ridge samples of M. reevesii and P. sinensis contained Wnts and Lef1. While the navajo white 3 module which was strongly correlated with the stage 16 carapacial ridge samples of M. reevesii contained Shh and Ptchs. The dark green module strongly correlated with the stage 16 carapacial ridge samples of P. sinensis which contained Col1a1, Col1a2, and Itga8. Consequently, this study systematically revealed the signaling pathways and genes that regulate the carapacial ridge development of M. reevesii and P. sinensis, which provides new insights for revealing the molecular mechanism that is underlying the turtle’s body structure

Comparative analysis of miRNA and mRNA abundance in determinate cucumber by high-throughput sequencing

<div><p>Determinate cucumber is a type of short vines, fewer nodes, and terminal flowers, it is suitable for high-density planting and available harvesting in field cultivation, whereas the indeterminate cucumber is preferred to cultivate in greenhouses. However, many biotic or abiotic stresses could lead indeterminate cucumber to be determinate in greenhouse cultivation, which may decrease yield and fruit quality. Therefore, it is urgent and essential to investigate the key factors forming determinate and terminal flowering in cucumber. In this study, two close background inbred lines were selected and conducted the miRNA and mRNA high throughput sequencing. Interestingly, ethylene-associated miRNAs and mRNAs were intensively obtained, indicating that the plant hormone ethylene is a key factor impacting determinate and terminal flowering in cucumber. The ethylene metabolites analysis showed that significant higher ethylene was observed in determinate line than that in the indeterminate line. The RT-qPCR validation of ethylene related miRNAs Cas-miR172, Cas-miR396, and Cas-miR414 and their target mRNAs showed a significant negative correlation. These data suggested that ethylene-associated miRNAs might affect determinate and terminal flower phenotypes by regulating their target genes expression. This study not only provides a potential molecular mechanism for determinate formation in cucumber but also establishes a method to demonstrate important physiological processes through the comprehensive association of miRNA and mRNA high-throughput sequencing.</p></div

Differentially expressed mRNAs in ‘H1201’ and ‘G1208’.

<p>The bar represents the scale of relative mRNA expression (Log2 Fold change). The bottom right shows the color bar. The heatmap was generated by a Heml 1.0—Heatmap illustrator.</p

Quantitative expression analyses of several differentially expressed miRNAs in ‘H1201’ and ‘G1208’ cucumbers.

<p>The expression level in the ‘H1201’ line was set as 1. U6 rRNA was used as the reference gene for miRNA expression. The error bars correspond to ± SD (n = 6). Asterisks indicate significant differences (*P < 0.05, Student’s t-test).</p

Conserved miRNAs and family numbers in cucumber.

<p>(a), The x-axis represents members in different miRNA families. The y-axis shows the conserved miRNA family identified in the two libraries, miR156 and miR171 had 21 members. (b), 37 and 25 miRNA families had only one or two members.</p