Body mass index, smoking behavior, and depression mediated the effects of schizophrenia on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: trans-ethnic Mendelian-randomization analysis

BackgroundPrevious studies have highlighted the association between schizophrenia (SCZ) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), yet the causal relationship remains unestablished.MethodsUnder the genome-wide significance threshold (P<5×10–8), data from individuals of European (EUR) and East Asian (EAS) ancestries with SCZ were selected for analysis. Univariable Mendelian randomization (MR) explored the causal relationship between SCZ and COPD. Linkage disequilibrium score (LDSC) regression was used to calculate genetic correlation, while multivariable and mediation MR further investigated the roles of six confounding factors and their mediating effects. The primary method utilized was inverse-variance weighted (IVW), complemented by a series of sensitivity analyses and false discovery rate (FDR) correction.ResultsLDSC analysis revealed a significant genetic correlation between SCZ and COPD within EUR ancestry (rg = 0.141, P = 6.16×10–7), with no such correlation found in EAS ancestry. IVW indicated a significant causal relationship between SCZ and COPD in EUR ancestry (OR = 1.042, 95% CI 1.013–1.071, P = 0.003, PFDR= 0.015). Additionally, replication datasets provide evidence of consistent causal associations(P < 0.05 & PFDR < 0.05). Multivariable and mediation MR analyses identified body mass index (BMI)(Mediation effect: 50.57%, P = 0.02), age of smoking initiation (Mediation effect: 27.42%, P = 0.02), and major depressive disorder (MDD) (Mediation effect: 60.45%, P = 6.98×10–5) as partial mediators of this causal relationship. No causal associations were observed in EAS (OR = 0.971, 95% CI 0.875–1.073, P = 0.571, PFDR= 0.761) ancestry. No causal associations were found in the reverse analysis across the four ancestries (P > 0.05 & PFDR > 0.05).ConclusionsThis study confirmed a causal relationship between SCZ and the risk of COPD in EUR ancestry, with BMI, smoking, and MDD serving as key mediators. Future research on a larger scale is necessary to validate the generalizability of these findings across other ancestries

Novel NIR-II organic fluorophores for bioimaging beyond 1550 nm

This work was partially supported by grants from NSFC (81773674, 81573383, and 21473041), NSFHP (2017CFA024, 2017CFB711, and 2016ACA126), the Applied Basic Research Program of WMBST (2019020701011429), Tibet Autonomous Region Science and Technology Plan Project Key Project (XZ201901-GB-11), Project First-Class Disciplines Development Supported by Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CZYJC1903), and Health Commission of Hubei Province Scientific Research Project (WJ2019M177 and WJ2019M178).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sirtuin 1 and Autophagy Attenuate Cisplatin-Induced Hair Cell Death in the Mouse Cochlea and Zebrafish Lateral Line

Cisplatin-induced ototoxicity is one of the major adverse effects in cisplatin chemotherapy, and hearing protective approaches are unavailable in clinical practice. Recent work unveiled a critical role of autophagy in cell survival in various types of hearing loss. Since the excessive activation of autophagy can contribute to apoptotic cell death, whether the activation of autophagy increases or decreases the rate of cell death in CDDP ototoxicity is still being debated. In this study, we showed that CDDP induced activation of autophagy in the auditory cell HEI-OC1 at the early stage. We then used rapamycin, an autophagy activator, to increase the autophagy activity, and found that the cell death significantly decreased after CDDP injury. In contrast, treatment with the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA) significantly increased cell death. In accordance with in vitro results, rapamycin alleviated CDDP-induced death of hair cells in zebrafish lateral line and cochlear hair cells in mice. Notably, we found that CDDP-induced increase of Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) in the HEI-OC1 cells modulated the autophagy function. The specific SIRT1 activator SRT1720 could successfully protect against CDDP-induced cell loss in HEI-OC1 cells, zebrafish lateral line, and mice cochlea. These findings suggest that SIRT1 and autophagy activation can be suggested as potential therapeutic strategies for the treatment of CDDP-induced ototoxicity

The Simulation Study of Fluid Physical Properties on Drop Formation of Drop-on-demand Inkjet Printing

Inkjet printing is a method for directly patterning and fabricating patterns without the need for masks. However, the physical phenomenon in inkjet printing process is very complicated with the coupling of piezoelectricity, elasticity, and free surface fluid dynamics. The authors use the volume of fluid (VOF) method as implemented in the commercial code FLUENT to model the details of the drop formation process. The influence of viscosity and surface tension of the liquid on the droplet formation process is investigated. Consequently, we find that the speed of liquid plays an important role for the jet stability. The viscosity of liquid greatly influences the final speed of droplet. However, the surface tension of liquid does not much affect the speed of droplet. It changes the shape of the liquid thread and final droplet

The Simulation Study of Fluid Physical Properties on Drop Formation of Drop-on-demand Inkjet Printing

Inkjet printing is a method for directly patterning and fabricating patterns without the need for masks. However, the physical phenomenon in inkjet printing process is very complicated with the coupling of piezoelectricity, elasticity, and free surface fluid dynamics. The authors use the volume of fluid (VOF) method as implemented in the commercial code FLUENT to model the details of the drop formation process. The influence of viscosity and surface tension of the liquid on the droplet formation process is investigated. Consequently, we find that the speed of liquid plays an important role for the jet stability. The viscosity of liquid greatly influences the final speed of droplet. However, the surface tension of liquid does not much affect the speed of droplet. It changes the shape of the liquid thread and final droplet