Normal Values of Myocardial Deformation Assessed by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking in a Healthy Chinese Population: A Multicenter Study

Reference values on atrial and ventricular strain from cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) are essential in identifying patients with impaired atrial and ventricular function. However, reference values have not been established for Chinese subjects. One hundred and fifty healthy volunteers (75 Males/75 Females; 18–82 years) were recruited. All underwent CMR scans with images acceptable for further strain analysis. Subjects were stratified by age: Group 1, 18–44 years; Group 2, 45–59 years; Group 3, ≥60 years. Feature tracking of CMR cine imaging was used to obtain left atrial global longitudinal (LA Ell) and circumferential strains (LA Ecc) and respective systolic strain rates, left ventricular longitudinal (LV Ell), circumferential (LV Ecc) and radial strains (LV Err) and their respective strain rates, and right ventricular longitudinal strain (RV Ell) and strain rate. LA Ell and LA Ecc were 32.8 ± 9.2% and 40.3 ± 13.4%, respectively, and RV Ell was −29.3 ± 6.0%. LV Ell, LV Ecc and LV Err were −22.4 ± 2.9%, −24.3 ± 3.1%, and 79.0 ± 19.4%, respectively. LV Ell and LV Ecc were higher in females than males (P < 0.05). LA Ell, LA Ecc, and LV Ecc decreased, while LV Err increased with age (P < 0.05). LV Ell and RV Ell were not shown to be associated with age. Normal ranges for atrial and ventricular strain and strain rates are provided using CMR feature tracking in Chinese subjects

PigBiobank: a valuable resource for understanding genetic and biological mechanisms of diverse complex traits in pigs

To fully unlock the potential of pigs as both agricultural species for animal-based protein food and biomedical models for human biology and disease, a comprehensive understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying various complex phenotypes in pigs and how the findings can be translated to other species, especially humans, are urgently needed. Here, within the Farm animal Genotype-Tissue Expression (FarmGTEx) project, we build the PigBiobank (http://pigbiobank.farmgtex.org) to systematically investigate the relationships among genomic variants, regulatory elements, genes, molecular networks, tissues and complex traits in pigs. This first version of the PigBiobank curates 71 885 pigs with both genotypes and phenotypes from over 100 pig breeds worldwide, covering 264 distinct complex traits. The PigBiobank has the following functions: (i) imputed sequence-based genotype-phenotype associations via a standardized and uniform pipeline, (ii) molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying trait-associations via integrating multi-omics data, (iii) cross-species gene mapping of complex traits via transcriptome-wide association studies, and (iv) high-quality results display and visualization. The PigBiobank will be updated timely with the development of the FarmGTEx-PigGTEx project, serving as an open-access and easy-to-use resource for genetically and biologically dissecting complex traits in pigs and translating the findings to other species.National Natural Science Foundation of China [32022078]; National Key R&D Program of China [2022YFF1000900]; Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Province [2019BT02N630]; China Agriculture Research System [CARS-35]. Funding for open access charge: National Natural Science Foundation of China [32022078].info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PigBiobank: a valuable resource for understanding genetic and biological mechanisms of diverse complex traits in pigs

© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] fully unlock the potential of pigs as both agricultural species for animal-based protein food and biomedical models for human biology and disease, a comprehensive understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying various complex phenotypes in pigs and how the findings can be translated to other species, especially humans, are urgently needed. Here, within the Farm animal Genotype-Tissue Expression (FarmGTEx) project, we build the PigBiobank (http://pigbiobank.farmgtex.org) to systematically investigate the relationships among genomic variants, regulatory elements, genes, molecular networks, tissues and complex traits in pigs. This first version of the PigBiobank curates 71 885 pigs with both genotypes and phenotypes from over 100 pig breeds worldwide, covering 264 distinct complex traits. The PigBiobank has the following functions: (i) imputed sequence-based genotype-phenotype associations via a standardized and uniform pipeline, (ii) molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying trait-associations via integrating multi-omics data, (iii) cross-species gene mapping of complex traits via transcriptome-wide association studies, and (iv) high-quality results display and visualization. The PigBiobank will be updated timely with the development of the FarmGTEx-PigGTEx project, serving as an open-access and easy-to-use resource for genetically and biologically dissecting complex traits in pigs and translating the findings to other species.National Natural Science Foundation of China [32022078]; National Key R&D Program of China [2022YFF1000900]; Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Province [2019BT02N630]; China Agriculture Research System [CARS-35]. Funding for open access charge: National Natural Science Foundation of China [32022078].Peer reviewe

Integrated single-cell and bulk RNA-Seq analysis enhances prognostic accuracy of PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy response in lung adenocarcinoma through necroptotic anoikis gene signatures

Abstract In addition to presenting significant diagnostic and treatment challenges, lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common form of lung cancer. Using scRNA-Seq and bulk RNA-Seq data, we identify three genes referred to as HMR, FAM83A, and KRT6A these genes are related to necroptotic anoikis-related gene expression. Initial validation, conducted on the GSE50081 dataset, demonstrated the model's ability to categorize LUAD patients into high-risk and low-risk groups with significant survival differences. This model was further applied to predict responses to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade therapies, utilizing the IMvigor210 and GSE78220 cohorts, and showed strong correlation with patient outcomes, highlighting its potential in personalized immunotherapy. Further, LUAD cell lines were analyzed using quantitative PCR (qPCR) and Western blot analysis to confirm their expression levels, further corroborating the model's relevance in LUAD pathophysiology. The mutation landscape of these genes was also explored, revealing their broad implication in various cancer types through a pan-cancer analysis. The study also delved into molecular subclustering, revealing distinct expression profiles and associations with different survival outcomes, emphasizing the model’s utility in precision oncology. Moreover, the diversity of immune cell infiltration, analyzed in relation to the necroptotic anoikis signature, suggested significant implications for immune evasion mechanisms in LUAD. While the findings present a promising stride towards personalized LUAD treatment, especially in immunotherapy, limitations such as the retrospective nature of the datasets and the need for larger sample sizes are acknowledged. Prospective clinical trials and further experimental research are essential to validate these findings and enhance the clinical applicability of our prognostic model

A Hybrid Integration Method Based on SMC-PHD-TBD for Multiple High-Speed and Highly Maneuverable Targets in Ubiquitous Radar

Based on the characteristic of ubiquitous radar emitting low-gain wide beam, a method of long-time coherent integration (LTCI) is required to enhance target detection capability. However, high-speed and highly maneuverable targets can cause Doppler frequency migration (DFM), range migration (RM), and velocity ambiguity (VA), severely degrading the performance of LTCI. Additionally, the number of targets is unknown and variable, and the presence of clutter further complicates the target tracking problem. To address these challenges, we propose a hybrid integration method to achieve joint detection and estimation of multiple high-speed, and highly maneuverable targets. Firstly, we compensate for first-order RM using the keystone transform (KT) and generate corresponding sub-range-Doppler (SRD) planes with different folding factors to achieve VA compensation. These SRD planes are then stitched together to form an extended range-Doppler (ERD) plane, which covers a broader velocity range. Secondly, during the track-before-detect (TBD) process, tracking is performed directly on the ERD plane. We use the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) approximation of the probability hypothesis density (PHD) to propagate multi-target states. Additionally, we propose an amplitude-based adaptive prior distribution method and a line spread model (LSM) observation model to compensate for DFM. Since the acceleration of the target is included in the particle state, using particles to search for DFM does not increase the computational load. To address the issue of misclassifying mirror targets as real targets in the SRD plane, we propose a particle space projection method. By stacking the SRD planes to create a folding range-Doppler (FRD) space, particles are projected along the folding factor dimension, and then, the particles are clustered to eliminate the influence of the mirror targets. Finally, through simulation experiments, the superiority of the LSM for targets with acceleration was demonstrated. In comparative experiments, the proposed method showed superior performance and robustness compared to traditional methods, achieving a balance between performance and computational efficiency. Furthermore, the proposed method’s capability to detect and track multiple high-speed and highly maneuverable targets was validated using actual data from a ubiquitous radar system

Theranostics

The controllable self-assembly of amphiphilic mixed polymers grafted gold nanoparitcles (AuNPs) leads to strong interparticle plasmonic coupling, which can be tuned to the near-infrared (NIR) region for enhanced photothermal therapy (PTT). In this study, an improved thiolation method was adopted for ATRP and ROP polymer to obtain amphiphilic brushes of PMEO(2)MA-SH and PCL-SH. By anchoring PCL-SH and PMEO(2)MA-SH onto the 14 nm AuNPs, a smart hybrid building block for self-assembly was obtained. Increasing the PCL/PMEO(2)MA chain ratio from 0.8:1, 2:1 and 3:1 to 7:1, the structure of gold assemblies (GAs) was observed to transfer from vesicle to large compound micelle (LCM). Contributed to the special dense packed structure of gold nanoparticles in LCM, the absorption spectrometry of gold nanoparticles drastically red-shifted from 520 nm to 830 nm, which endowed the GAs remarkable NIR photothermal conversion ability. In addition, gold has high X-ray absorption coefficient which qualifies gold nanomaterial a potential CT contrast agent Herein, we obtain a novel gold assembly structure which can be utilized as potential photothermal therapeutic and CT contrast agents. In vitro and In vivo studies testified the excellent treatment efficacy of optimum GAs as a PTT and CT contrast agent. In vitro degradation test, MTT assay and histology study indicated that GAs was a safe, low toxic reagent with good biodegradability. Therefore, the optimum GAs with strong NIR absorption and high X-ray absorption coefficient could be used as a theranostic agent and the formation of novel gold large compound micelle might offers a new theory foundation for engineering design and synthesis of polymer grafted AuNPs for biomedical applications.The controllable self-assembly of amphiphilic mixed polymers grafted gold nanoparitcles (AuNPs) leads to strong interparticle plasmonic coupling, which can be tuned to the near-infrared (NIR) region for enhanced photothermal therapy (PTT). In this study, an improved thiolation method was adopted for ATRP and ROP polymer to obtain amphiphilic brushes of PMEO(2)MA-SH and PCL-SH. By anchoring PCL-SH and PMEO(2)MA-SH onto the 14 nm AuNPs, a smart hybrid building block for self-assembly was obtained. Increasing the PCL/PMEO(2)MA chain ratio from 0.8:1, 2:1 and 3:1 to 7:1, the structure of gold assemblies (GAs) was observed to transfer from vesicle to large compound micelle (LCM). Contributed to the special dense packed structure of gold nanoparticles in LCM, the absorption spectrometry of gold nanoparticles drastically red-shifted from 520 nm to 830 nm, which endowed the GAs remarkable NIR photothermal conversion ability. In addition, gold has high X-ray absorption coefficient which qualifies gold nanomaterial a potential CT contrast agent Herein, we obtain a novel gold assembly structure which can be utilized as potential photothermal therapeutic and CT contrast agents. In vitro and In vivo studies testified the excellent treatment efficacy of optimum GAs as a PTT and CT contrast agent. In vitro degradation test, MTT assay and histology study indicated that GAs was a safe, low toxic reagent with good biodegradability. Therefore, the optimum GAs with strong NIR absorption and high X-ray absorption coefficient could be used as a theranostic agent and the formation of novel gold large compound micelle might offers a new theory foundation for engineering design and synthesis of polymer grafted AuNPs for biomedical applications

Integration of non-additive genome-wide association study with a multi-tissue transcriptome analysis of growth and carcass traits in Duroc pigs

Growth and carcass traits are of economic importance in the pig production, which affect pork quality and profitability of finishing pig production. This study used whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing technologies to identify potential candidate genes affecting growth and carcass traits in Duroc pigs. The medium (50–60 k) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays of 4 154 Duroc pigs from three populations were imputed to whole-genome sequence data, yielding 10 463 227 markers on 18 autosomes. The dominance heritabilities estimated for growth and carcass traits ranged from 0.000 ± 0.041 to 0.161 ± 0.054. Using non-additive genome-wide association study (GWAS), we identified 80 dominance quantitative trait loci for growth and carcass traits at genome-wide significance (false discovery rate < 5%), 15 of which were also detected in our additive GWAS. After fine mapping, 31 candidate genes for dominance GWAS were annotated, and 8 of them were highlighted that have been previously reported to be associated with growth and development (e.g. SNX14, RELN and ENPP2), autosomal recessive diseases (e.g. AMPH, SNX14, RELN and CACNB4) and immune response (e.g. UNC93B1 and PPM1D). By integrating the lead SNPs with RNA-seq data of 34 pig tissues from the Pig Genotype-Tissue Expression project (https://piggtex.farmgtex.org/), we found that the rs691128548, rs333063869, and rs1110730611 have significantly dominant effects for the expression of SNX14, AMPH and UNC93B1 genes in tissues related to growth and development for pig, respectively. Finally, the identified candidate genes were significantly enriched for biological processes involved in the cell and organ development, lipids catabolic process and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signalling (P < 0.05). These results provide new molecular markers for meat production and quality selection of pig as well as basis for deciphering the genetic mechanisms of growth and carcass traits

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies uncovers shared candidate genes across breeds for pig fatness trait

Abstract Background Average backfat thickness (BFT) is a critical complex trait in pig and an important indicator for fat deposition and lean rate. Usually, genome-wide association study (GWAS) was used to discover quantitative trait loci (QTLs) of BFT in a single population. However, the power of GWAS is limited by sample size in a single population. Alternatively, meta-analysis of GWAS (metaGWAS) is an attractive method to increase the statistical power by integrating data from multiple breeds and populations. The aim of this study is to identify shared genetic characterization of BFT across breeds in pigs via metaGWAS.  Results In this study, we performed metaGWAS on BFT using 15,353 pigs (5,143 Duroc, 7,275 Yorkshire, and 2,935 Landrace) from 19 populations. We detected 40 genome-wide significant SNPs (Bonferroni corrected P < 0.05) and defined five breed-shared QTLs in across-breed metaGWAS. Markers within the five QTL regions explained 7 ~ 9% additive genetic variance and showed strong heritability enrichment. Furthermore, by integrating information from multiple bioinformatics databases, we annotated 46 candidate genes located in the five QTLs. Among them, three important (MC4R, PPARD, and SLC27A1) and seven suggestive candidate genes (PHLPP1, NUDT3, ILRUN, RELCH, KCNQ5, ITPR3, and U3) were identified. Conclusion QTLs and candidate genes underlying BFT across breeds were identified via metaGWAS from multiple populations. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the genetic architecture of BFT and the regulating mechanism underlying fat deposition in pigs

Speciation, transportation, and pathways of cadmium in soil-rice systems : a review on the environmental implications and remediation approaches for food safety

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in paddy fields is a serious health concern because of its high toxicity and widespread pollution. Recently, much progress has been made in elucidating the mechanisms involved in Cd uptake, transport, and transformation from paddy soils to rice grains, aiming to mitigate the associated health risk; however, these topics have not been critically reviewed to date. Here, we summarized and reviewed the (1) geochemical distribution and speciation of Cd in soil-rice systems, (2) mobilization, uptake, and transport of Cd from soil to rice grains and the associated health risks, (3) pathways and transformation mechanisms of Cd from soil to rice grains, (4) transporters involved in reducing Cd uptake, transport, and accumulation in rice plants, (5) factors governing Cd bioavailability in paddy, and (6) comparison of remediation approaches for mitigating the environmental and health risks of Cd contamination in paddy fields. Briefly, this review presents the state of the art about the fate of Cd in paddy fields and its transport from soil to grains, contributing to a better understanding of the environmental hazards of Cd in rice ecosystems. Challenges and perspectives for controlling Cd risks in rice are thus raised. The summarized findings in this review may help to develop innovative and applicable methods for controlling Cd accumulation in rice grains and sustainably manage Cd-contaminated paddy fields

Normal Values of Myocardial Deformation Assessed by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking in a Healthy Chinese Population: A Multicenter Study

10.3389/fphys.2018.01181Frontiers in Physiology9SEP118