Cyprinus carpio Decoction Improves Nutrition and Immunity and Reduces Proteinuria through Nephrin and CD2AP Expressions in Rats with Adriamycin-Induced Nephropathy

Cyprinus carpio decoction (CCD) is a well-known Chinese food medicine formula, accepted widely as a useful therapy in preventing edema and proteinuria caused by renal disease. However, the mechanism underlying this effect remains unclear. The current study investigated the potential mechanism of CCD in alleviating nephropathy induced by adriamycin (ADR) in rats. 70  eight-week-old Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal, model, fosinopril, YD, YG groups. All rats except for the normal group received 6.5 mg/kg·bw of ADR injection into the vena caudalis once. Different doses of CCD (11.3 and 22.5 g kg−1) were lavaged to rats in YD and YG groups, respectively. Then the serum biochemical values of the total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr), electrolyte levels, and the urinary protein (UP) content in 12 hr urine were measured. Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interferon (INF-γ) were measured by enzyme-like immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The pathomorphological analysis was observed using light and electron microscopy, and the expressions of nephrin and CD2-associated protein (CD2AP) in renal tissues were determined by immunohistochemical assay. The results indicated that CCD can relieve ADR-induced nephropathy (ADN) by improving the nutrition status, regulating the immunity, and inhibiting proteinuria by increasing nephrin and CD2AP expressions

Effect of albumin administration on post-operation mortality, duration on ventilator, and hospital stay on patients in cardiac intensive care: An observational study

Purpose: To justify the use of albumin infusion in patients in post-surgery cardiac intensive care unit. Methods: All patients who were hemodynamically stable before the operation and admitted into the surgical intensive care unit following coronary artery bypass, cardiopulmonary bypass, or aortic surgery, had no excessive postoperative bleeding and not on diuretic treatment, were included in the analysis. A total of 1998 patients were divided into two cohorts, viz, the first group was placed on albumin infusion (n = 999) while the second group received normal saline infusion (n = 999). Data were obtained from DICOM files of patients and records of pharmacy. Wilcoxon test or two-tailed paired t-test followed by Tukey post-hoc tests were performed for statistical analysis at 95 % of confidence level. Results: Albumin and normal saline administration did not decrease the duration of mechanical ventilation, incidence of mechanical ventilation, need for blood transfusion, and length of hospital stay (p > 0.05). Albumin infusion decreased the need for fresh frozen plasma transfusion from 85 to 67, reduced mortality (p = 0.0005, q = 3.959), lowered serum lactate level (p < 0.0001, q = 43.853), but increased cardiac index (p < 0.0001, q = 12.192) as well as financial burden (p < 0.0001, q = 95.158) for the patients, compared to normal saline group. Conclusion: In view of the foregoing, it is recommended that the use of restriction of albumin resuscitation in surgical intensive care unit should be restricted in this subset of patients evluated in this study

Clinical efficacy and safety of Kanglaite injection, adjuvant cemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness and safety of the combination of Kanglaite injection (KLTi) and gemcitabine and cisplatin (GP) chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wan-Fang, CBM, and CQVIP were comprehensively searched from January 2010 till November 2020. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of KLTi plus GP in the treatment of NSCLC were selected and assessed for inclusion. Review Manager 5.3 software was used for meta-analysis.Results: Twenty-five RCTs on advanced NSCLC examined the inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis showed that compared with GP chemotherapy alone, KLTi plus GP chemotherapy significantly improved objective response rate (ORR) (RR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.23-1.51, p < 0.00001), disease control rate (DCR) (RR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.11 - 1.23, p < 0.00001), and reduced adverse drug reactions(ADRs) such as hair loss (RR = 0.60, 95% CI 0.47 - 0.76, p < 0.0001), gastrointestinal reaction (RR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.62 - 0.75, p < 0.00001), impairment of liver and kidney function (RR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.53 - 0.80, p < 0.001), nervous system damage (RR = 0.42, 95% CI 0.26 - 0.69, p = 0.0005), myelosuppression (I-II phase) (RR = 0.79, 95 % CI 0.66 - 0.95, p = 0.01), myelosuppression (III-IV phase) (RR = 0.44, 95 % CI0.27 - 0.72, p = 0.001), anemia (RR = 0.74, 95 % CI 0.60 - 0.91, p = 0.006), leukopenia (RR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.69, 0.87, p < 0.0001), thrombocytopenia (RR = 0.59, 95 % CI 0.49, 0.72, p < 0.00001), hypochromia (RR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.59, 0.92, p = 0.008).Conclusion: KLTi adjuvant GP chemotherapy reduces adverse effects in patients with advanced NSCLC. Thus, KLTi might be an effective and safe intervention for NSCLC&nbsp

Proteomics study of changes in soybean lines resistant and sensitive to Phytophthora sojae

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Phytophthora sojae </it>causes soybean root and stem rot, resulting in an annual loss of 1-2 billion US dollars in soybean production worldwide. A proteomic technique was used to determine the effects on soybean hypocotyls of infection with <it>P. sojae</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the present study, 46 differentially expressed proteins were identified in soybean hypocotyls infected with <it>P. sojae</it>, using two-dimensional electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem time of flight (MALDI-TOF/TOF). The expression levels of 26 proteins were significantly affected at various time points in the tolerant soybean line, Yudou25, (12 up-regulated and 14 down-regulated). In contrast, in the sensitive soybean line, NG6255, only 20 proteins were significantly affected (11 up-regulated and 9 down-regulated). Among these proteins, 26% were related to energy regulation, 15% to protein destination and storage, 11% to defense against disease, 11% to metabolism, 9% to protein synthesis, 4% to secondary metabolism, and 24% were of unknown function.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study provides important information on the use of proteomic methods for studying protein regulation during plant-oomycete interactions.</p

Sentinel lymph node biopsy in oral cavity cancer using indocyanine green: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the value of indocyanine green (ICG) in guiding sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for patients with oral cavity cancer. An electronic database search (PubMed, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Web of Science) was performed from their inception to June 2020 to retrieve clinical studies of ICG applied to SLNB for oral cavity cancer. Data were extracted from 14 relevant articles (226 patients), and 9 studies (134 patients) were finally included in the meta-analysis according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The pooled sentinel lymph node (SLN) sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio were 88.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 74.0-96.0), 64.0% (95% CI, 61.0-66.0), 2.45 (95% CI, 1.31-4.60), 0.40 (95% CI, 0.17-0.90), and 7.30 (95% CI, 1.74-30.68), respectively. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.8805. In conclusion, ICG applied to SLNB can effectively predict the status of regional lymph nodes in oral cavity cancer

Small RNA modifications in Alzheimer's disease

BACKGROUND: While significant advances have been made in uncovering the aetiology of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias at the genetic level, molecular events at the epigenetic level remain largely undefined. Emerging evidence indicates that small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) and their associated RNA modifications are important regulators of complex physiological and pathological processes, including aging, stress responses, and epigenetic inheritance. However, whether small RNAs and their modifications are altered in dementia is not known. METHODS: We performed LC-MS/MS–based, high-throughput assays of small RNA modifications in post-mortem samples of the prefrontal lobe cortices of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and control individuals. We noted that some of the AD patients has co-occurring vascular cognitive impairment-related pathology (VaD). FINDINGS: We report altered small RNA modifications in AD samples compared with normal controls. The 15–25-nucleotide (nt) RNA fraction of these samples was enriched for microRNAs, whereas the 30–40-nt RNA fraction was enriched for tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs), rRNA-derived small RNAs (rsRNAs), and YRNA-derived small RNAs (ysRNAs). Interestingly, most of these altered RNA modifications were detected both in the AD and AD with co-occurring vascular dementia subjects. In addition, sequencing of small RNA in the 30–40-nt fraction from AD cortices revealed reductions in rsRNA-5S, tsRNA-Tyr, and tsRNA-Arg. INTERPRETATION: These data suggest that sncRNAs and their associated modifications are novel signals that may be linked to the pathogenesis and development of Alzheimer’s disease. FUNDING: NIH grants (R01HL122770, R01HL091905, 1P20GM130459, R01HD092431, P50HD098593, GM103440), AHA grant (17IRG33370128), Sigmund Gestetner Foundation Fellowship to P Kehoe

Immune and oxidative stress disorder in ovulation-dysfunction women revealed by single-cell transcriptome

IntroductionOvulation dysfunction is now a widespread cause of infertility around the world. Although the impact of immune cells in human reproduction has been widely investigated, systematic understanding of the changes of the immune atlas under female ovulation remain less understood.MethodsHere, we generated single cell transcriptomic profiles of 80,689 PBMCs in three representative statuses of ovulation dysfunction, i.e., polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) and menopause (MENO), and identified totally 7 major cell types and 25 subsets of cells.ResultsOur study revealed distinct cluster distributions of immune cells among individuals of ovulation disorders and health. In patients with ovulation dysfunction, we observed a significant reduction in populations of naïve CD8 T cells and effector memory CD4 T cells, whereas circulating NK cells and regulatory NK cells increased.DiscussionOur results highlight the significant contribution of cDC-mediated signaling pathways to the overall inflammatory response within ovulation disorders. Furthermore, our data demonstrated a significant upregulation of oxidative stress in patients with ovulation disorder. Overall, our study gave a deeper insight into the mechanism of PCOS, POI, and menopause, which may contribute to the better diagnosis and treatments of these ovulatory disorder

Whole Genome Distribution and Ethnic Differentiation of Copy Number Variation in Caucasian and Asian Populations

Although copy number variation (CNV) has recently received much attention as a form of structure variation within the human genome, knowledge is still inadequate on fundamental CNV characteristics such as occurrence rate, genomic distribution and ethnic differentiation. In the present study, we used the Affymetrix GeneChip® Mapping 500K Array to discover and characterize CNVs in the human genome and to study ethnic differences of CNVs between Caucasians and Asians. Three thousand and nineteen CNVs, including 2381 CNVs in autosomes and 638 CNVs in X chromosome, from 985 Caucasian and 692 Asian individuals were identified, with a mean length of 296 kb. Among these CNVs, 190 had frequencies greater than 1% in at least one ethnic group, and 109 showed significant ethnic differences in frequencies (p<0.01). After merging overlapping CNVs, 1135 copy number variation regions (CNVRs), covering approximately 439 Mb (14.3%) of the human genome, were obtained. Our findings of ethnic differentiation of CNVs, along with the newly constructed CNV genomic map, extend our knowledge on the structural variation in the human genome and may furnish a basis for understanding the genomic differentiation of complex traits across ethnic groups

Genome dynamics and diversity of Shigella species, the etiologic agents of bacillary dysentery

The Shigella bacteria cause bacillary dysentery, which remains a significant threat to public health. The genus status and species classification appear no longer valid, as compelling evidence indicates that Shigella, as well as enteroinvasive Escherichia coli, are derived from multiple origins of E.coli and form a single pathovar. Nevertheless, Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 causes deadly epidemics but Shigella boydii is restricted to the Indian subcontinent, while Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei are prevalent in developing and developed countries respectively. To begin to explain these distinctive epidemiological and pathological features at the genome level, we have carried out comparative genomics on four representative strains. Each of the Shigella genomes includes a virulence plasmid that encodes conserved primary virulence determinants. The Shigella chromosomes share most of their genes with that of E.coli K12 strain MG1655, but each has over 200 pseudogenes, 300∼700 copies of insertion sequence (IS) elements, and numerous deletions, insertions, translocations and inversions. There is extensive diversity of putative virulence genes, mostly acquired via bacteriophage-mediated lateral gene transfer. Hence, via convergent evolution involving gain and loss of functions, through bacteriophage-mediated gene acquisition, IS-mediated DNA rearrangements and formation of pseudogenes, the Shigella spp. became highly specific human pathogens with variable epidemiological and pathological features

Hepatitis B Virus X Protein Drives Multiple Cross-Talk Cascade Loops Involving NF-κB, 5-LOX, OPN and Capn4 to Promote Cell Migration

Hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) plays an important role in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the mechanism remains unclear. Recently, we have reported that HBx promotes hepatoma cell migration through the upregulation of calpain small subunit 1 (Capn4). In addition, several reports have revealed that osteopontin (OPN) plays important roles in tumor cell migration. In this study, we investigated the signaling pathways involving the promotion of cell migration mediated by HBx. We report that HBx stimulates several factors in a network manner to promote hepatoma cell migration. We showed that HBx was able to upregulate the expression of osteopontin (OPN) through 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) in HepG2-X/H7402-X (stable HBx-transfected cells) cells. Furthermore, we identified that HBx could increase the expression of 5-LOX through nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB). We also found that OPN could upregulate Capn4 through NF-κB. Interestingly, we showed that Capn4 was able to upregulate OPN through NF-κB in a positive feedback manner, suggesting that the OPN and Capn4 proteins involving cell migration affect each other in a network through NF-κB. Importantly, NF-κB plays a crucial role in the regulation of 5-LOX, OPN and Capn4. Thus, we conclude that HBx drives multiple cross-talk cascade loops involving NF-κB, 5-LOX, OPN and Capn4 to promote cell migration. This finding provides new insight into the mechanism involving the promotion of cell migration by HBx