Relationship between Apelin/APJ Signaling, Oxidative Stress, and Diseases

Apelin, a peptide hormone, is an endogenous ligand for G protein-coupled receptor and has been shown to be widely expressed in human and animal tissues, such as the central nervous system and adipose tissue. Recent studies indicate that the apelin/APJ system is involved in the regulation of multiple physiological and pathological processes, and it is associated with cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, neurological diseases, ischemia-reperfusion injury, aging, eclampsia, deafness, and tumors. The occurrence and development of these diseases are closely related to the local inflammatory response. Oxidative stress is that the balance between oxidation and antioxidant is broken, and reactive oxygen species are produced in large quantities, causing cell or molecular damage, which leads to vascular damage and a series of inflammatory reactions. Hence, this article reviewed recent advances in the relationship between apelin/APJ and oxidative stress, and inflammation-related diseases, and highlights them as potential therapeutic targets for oxidative stress-related inflammatory diseases

CE–RAA–CRISPR Assay: A Rapid and Sensitive Method for Detecting <i>Vibrio parahaemolyticus</i> in Seafood

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is one of the major pathogenic Vibrio species that contaminate seafood. Rapid and accurate detection is crucial for avoiding foodborne diseases caused by pathogens and is important for food safety management and mariculture. In this study, we established a system that combines chemically enhanced clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and recombinase-aided amplification (RAA) (CE–RAA–CRISPR) for detecting V. parahaemolyticus in seafood. The method combines RAA with CRISPR-associated protein 12a (Cas12a) for rapid detection in a one-pot reaction, effectively reducing the risk of aerosol contamination during DNA amplifier transfer. We optimized the primers for V. parahaemolyticus, determined the optimal crRNA/Cas12a ratio, and demonstrated that chemical additives (bovine serum albumin and L-proline) could enhance the detection capacity of Cas12a. The limit of detection (at optimal conditions) was as low as 6.7 × 101 CFU/mL in pure cultures and 7.3 × 101 CFU/g in shrimp. Moreover, this method exhibited no cross-reactivity with other microbial pathogens. The CE–RAA–CRISPR assay was compared with the quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay using actual food samples, and it showed 100% diagnostic agreement

The Role of the Apelin/APJ System in the Regulation of Liver Disease

Apelin is an endogenous peptide that is a ligand for the APJ receptor (angiotensin II receptor like-1, AT-1). The apelin/APJ system is distributed in diverse periphery organ tissues. It has been shown that the apelin/APJ system plays various roles in physiology and pathophysiology of many organs. It regulates cardiovascular development or cardiac disease, glycometabolism and fat metabolism as well as metabolic disease. The apelin/APJ system participates in various cell activities such as proliferation, migration, apoptosis or inflammation. However, apelin/APJ function in the liver is still under investigation. In the liver, the apelin-APJ system could play an inhibitory role in liver regeneration and promote Fas-induced apoptosis. It may participate in the formation of hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis, and even cancer. In this review, we summarize the role of the apelin/APJ system in liver disease

Discovery of Synergistic Drug Combinations for Colorectal Cancer Driven by Tumor Barcode Derived from Metabolomics &ldquo;Big Data&rdquo;

The accumulation of cancer metabolomics data in the past decade provides exceptional opportunities for deeper investigations into cancer metabolism. However, integrating a large amount of heterogeneous metabolomics data to draw a full picture of the metabolic reprogramming and to discover oncometabolites of certain cancers remains challenging. In this study, a tumor barcode constructed based upon existing metabolomics &ldquo;big data&rdquo; using the Bayesian vote-counting method is proposed to identify oncometabolites in colorectal cancer (CRC). Specifically, a panel of oncometabolites of CRC was generated from 39 clinical studies with 3202 blood samples (1332 CRC vs. 1870 controls) and 990 tissue samples (495 CRC vs. 495 controls). Next, an oncometabolite-protein network was constructed by combining the tumor barcode and its involved proteins/enzymes. The effect of anti-cancer drugs or drug combinations was then mapped into this network by the random walk with restart process. Utilizing this network, potential Irinotecan (CPT-11)-sensitizing agents for CRC treatment were discovered by random forest and Xgboost. Finally, a compound named MK-2206 was highlighted and its synergy with CPT-11 was validated on two CRC cell lines. To summarize, we demonstrate in the present study that the metabolomics &ldquo;big data&rdquo;-based tumor barcodes and the subsequent network analyses are potentially useful for drug combination discovery or drug repositioning

Exploration of cortical inhibition and habituation in insomnia: Based on CNV and EEG

Objective: Cognitive dysfunction with abnormal cortical inhibition and habituation has frequently been found in patients with insomnia. And the so-called contingent negative variation (CNV) and EEG power spectral density (FFT) may be the best choice to explore the underlining pathophysiology.Methods: We used polysomnography (PSG) to record such objective PSG parameters. The amplitudes, latencies, areas of different CNV components such as oCNV, iCNV and tCNV, PINV have been selected and analyzed. Behavioral data such as manual reaction time (RT) has been analyzed. Spectral analysis was performed with fast Fourier transformation (FFT) on all channels to make a spectral analyses of EEG datas.Results: The A-latency located in CZ or PZ were statistically longer in insomnia group than control group, the iCNV-latency located in insomnia group were statistically shorter than control group. The iCNV-amplitude located in insomnia group was lower than control group. The oCNV-amplitude or the tCNV-amplitude located in insomnia group was higher than control group. The oCNV-square, tCNV-square, or PINV-square located in insomnia group were significant larger than control group. 131 or 132 activity distributed in bilateral hemisphere were significantly increased in insomnia group than control group with different distributions.Discussion: Our study revealed varied attentional and information processing in insomnia patients. Above all, we made a hypothesis with ceiling theory: Frontal lobe play an important role in maintaining cognitive processing, which needs much more energy consumption and leads to decreased fast EEG activity in frontal cortex, which contributes to reduced cortical inhibition, represented as abnormal CNV

Atomic Layer Deposition of V_1–<i>x</i>Mo_<i>x</i>O₂ Thin Films, Largely Enhanced Luminous Transmittance, Solar Modulation

V_1–<i>x</i>Mo_<i>x</i>O₂ thin films were fabricated by nanolamination of VO₂/MoO₃ alternating layers using atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, in which tetrakis-dimethyl-amino vanadium­(IV) [V­(NMe₂)₄] and molybdenum hexacarbonyl­(VI) [Mo­(CO)₆] were used as vanadium and molybdenum precursors, respectively. The dopant content of V_1–<i>x</i>Mo_<i>x</i>O₂ films was controlled by adjusting MoO₃ cycle percentage (<i>P</i>_Mo) in ALD pulse sequence, which varied from 2 to 10%. Effects of <i>P</i>_Mo on V_1–<i>x</i>Mo_<i>x</i>O₂ crystal structure, morphology, semiconductor-to-metal transition properties, and optical transmittance were studied. A linear reduction of phase transition temperature (<i>T</i>_c) by approximately −11 °C/cycle % Mo was observed for V_1–<i>x</i>Mo_<i>x</i>O₂ films within <i>P</i>_Mo ≤ 5%. Notably, dramatic enhanced luminous transmittance (<i>T</i>_lum = 63.8%) and solar modulation (Δ<i>T</i>_sol = 23.5%) were observed for V_1–<i>x</i>Mo_<i>x</i>O₂ film with <i>P</i>_Mo = 7%

The prevalence and awareness of cardiometabolic risk factors in Southern Chinese population with coronary artery disease

Background. Cardiometabolic risk factors significantly accelerate the progression of coronary artery disease (CAD); however, whether CAD patients in South China are aware of the prevalence of these risk factors is not clear yet. Methods. The study consisted of 2312 in-admission CAD patients from 2008 to 2011 in South China. Disease history including hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes was relied on patients&apos; self-reported records. Physical and clinical examinations were tested to assess the real prevalence of the cardiometabolic risk factors. Results. 57.9% of CAD patients had more than 3 cardiometabolic risk factors in terms of the metabolic syndrome. The self-known and real prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia were 56.6%, 28.3%, and 25.1% and 91.3%, 40.9%, and 92.0%, respectively. The awareness rates were 64.4%, 66.3%, and 28.5% for hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. The prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors was significantly different among gender and among disease status. Conclusions. Most CAD patients in South China had more than three cardiometabolic risk factors. However, the awareness rate of cardiometabolic diseases was low, especially for dyslipidemia. Strategies of routine physical examination programs are needed for the early detection and treatment of cardiometabolic risk factors in order to prevent CAD progression and prognosis