Ananas comosus

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect and action mechanisms of pineapple leaf phenols (PLPs) on liver fat metabolism in high-fat diet-fed mice. Results show that PLP significantly reduced abdominal fat and liver lipid accumulation in high-fat diet-fed mice. The effects of PLP were comparable with those of FB. Furthermore, at the protein level, PLP upregulated the expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT-1), whereas FB had no effects on CPT-1 compared with the HFD controls. Regarding mRNA expression, PLP mainly promoted the expression of CPT-1, PGC1a, UCP-1, and AMPK in the mitochondria, whereas FB mostly enhanced the expression of Ech1, Acox1, Acaa1, and Ehhadh in peroxisomes. PLP seemed to enhance fat metabolism in the mitochondria, whereas FB mainly exerted the effect in peroxisomes. In addition, p-coumaric acid (CA), one of the main components from PLP, significantly inhibited fat accumulation in oleic acid-induced HepG2 cells. CA also significantly upregulated CPT-1 mRNA and protein expressions in HepG2 cells. We, firstly, found that PLP enhanced liver fat metabolism by upregulating CPT-1 expression in the mitochondria and might be promising in treatment of fatty liver diseases as alternative natural products. CA may be one of the active components of PLP

Identification of a Potential miRNA–mRNA Regulatory Network Associated With the Prognosis of HBV-ACLF

BackgroundHepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) is a life-threatening disease with a high mortality rate; the systemic inflammatory response plays a vital role in disease progression. We aimed to determine if a miRNA–mRNA co-regulatory network exists in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of HBV-ACLF patients, which might be important for prognosis.MethodsTranscriptome-wide microRNA (miRNA) and mRNA microarrays were used to define the miRNA and mRNA expression profiles of the PBMCs of HBV-ACLF patients in a discovery cohort. The targets of the miRNAs were predicted. We built a miRNA-mRNA regulatory network through bioinformatics analysis, and used quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to assess the importance of candidate miRNAs and mRNAs. We also assessed the direct and transcriptional regulatory effects of miRNAs on target mRNAs using a dual-luciferase reporter assay.ResultsThe miRNA/mRNA PBMC expression profiles of the discovery cohort, of whom eight survived and eight died, revealed a prognostic interactive network involving 38 miRNAs and 313 mRNAs; this was constructed by identifying the target genes of the miRNAs. We validated the expression data in another cohort, of whom 43 survived and 35 died; miR-6840-3p, miR-6861-3p, JADE2, and NR3C2 were of particular interest. The levels of miR-6840-3p and miR-6861-3p were significantly increased in the PBMCs of the patients who died, and thus predicted prognosis (areas under the curve values = 0.665 and 0.700, respectively). The dual-luciferase reporter assay indicated that miR-6840-3p directly targeted JADE2.ConclusionWe identified a prognostic miRNA-mRNA co-regulatory network in the PBMCs of HBV-ACLF patients. miR-6840-3p-JADE2 is a potential miRNA–mRNA pair contributing to a poor prognosis

Bragg Reflection in Optical Waveguides

In this dissertation I explore the phenomenon of Bragg reflection in optical waveguides. Two specific waveguide structures are studied in detail: the Bragg fiber and a generic planar waveguide with a Bragg grating etched in it. Bragg fibers can be classified into two groups: the air-core Bragg fiber and the coaxial Bragg fiber. Whereas the former has a plain air core at the center, the latter contains an additional high-index column in the core. Using a perturbative approach I study and compare the dispersion properties of the two types of fibers, with special attention to their potential for truly single-mode transmission. As the result a large single-mode frequency window, which also includes a zero-dispersion point, is found for the TM mode in the coaxial fiber. The air-core Bragg fiber is also studied as a potential candidate for dispersion compensation. It is found that Bragg reflections in the fiber are capable of producing negative dispersion values at least as large as -20,000 ps/(nm•km), which is a twenty-fold improvement over previous results. The fiber parameters used for this study are somewhat unrealistic however, and further improvement is necessary before a Bragg fiber can be deployed as a Dispersion Compensating Fiber (DCF). Optical filters based on Bragg grating structures also involve Bragg reflections. While continuous Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG's) have long been studied and deployed as practical reflection filters, the possibility of etching a discrete grating in a (planar) waveguide has to my knowledge, never been investigated. In this dissertation I propose a novel scheme for designing such a grating, which is implemented by discretizing its continuous counterpart into a series of air holes. The relationship between the two gratings (discrete and continuous) is established in terms of the grating strength and the local grating period.</p

Predictive analysis of metabolic syndrome based on 5-years continuous physical examination data

Abstract Metabolic syndrome (MetS) represents a complex group of metabolic disorders. As MetS poses a significant challenge to global public health, predicting the occurrence of MetS and the development of related risk factors is important. In this study, we conducted a predictive analysis of MetS based on machine learning algorithms using datasets of 15,661 individuals. Five consecutive years of medical examination records were provided by Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, China. The specific risk factors used included WC, WHR, TG, HDL-C, BMI, FGLU, etc. We proposed a feature construction method using the examination records over the past four consecutive years, combining the differences between the annual value and the normal limits of each risk factor and the year-to-year variation. The results showed that the feature set, which contained the original features of the inspection record and new features proposed in this study yielded the highest AUC of 0.944, implying that the new features could help identify risk factors for MetS and provide more targeted diagnostic advice for physicians

Transporting carriers for intracellular targeting delivery via non-endocytic uptake pathways

To develop novel therapies for clinical treatments, it increasingly depends on sophisticated delivery systems that facilitate the drugs entry into targeting cells. Profound understanding of cellular uptake routes for transporting carriers promotes the optimization of performance in drug delivery systems. Although endocytic pathway is the most important part of cellular uptake routes for many delivery systems, it suffers the trouble of enzymatic degradation of transporting carriers trapped in endosomes/lysosomes. Therefore, it is desirable to develop alternative transporting methods for delivery systems via non-endocytic pathways to achieve more effective intracellular delivery. In this review, we summarize the literature exploring transporting carriers that mediate intracellular delivery via non-endocytic pathways to present the current research status in this field. Cell-penetrating peptides, pH (low) insertion peptides, and nanoparticles are categorized to exhibit their ability to directly transport various cargos into cytoplasm via non-endocytic uptake in different cell lines. It is hoped that this review can spur the interesting on development of drug delivery systems via non-endocytic uptake pathway

Microphotographs (×200) of a representative TNBC case.

<p>A: Hematoxylin-eosin staining. B–D: Immunohistochemical detection for ER, PR and HER-2, respectively. This case is negative for ER, PR and HER-2 (triple negative).</p

Chemoresistance-related miRNAs of the 11 selected miRNAs.

<p>Chemoresistance-related miRNAs of the 11 selected miRNAs.</p