Eriodictyol attenuates spinal cord injury by activating Nrf2/HO-1 pathway and inhibiting NF-κB pathway

Purpose: To investigate the effect of eriodictyol on spinal cord injury (SCI) and its underlying mechanism of action.Methods: Thirty Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to sham, SCI, and eriodictyol-treated groups (SCI + Eri; 10, 20, and 50 mg/kg). Moderate spinal cord contusion injury was induced to model SCI. Locomotor recovery was assessed based on Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) score. Pain wasevaluated by paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) and latency (PWL), and spinal cord water content was measured. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) expression were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Immunoassay was used to determine malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) levels while Western blotting was employed to evaluate nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), and phosphorylated NF-κB (p-NF-κB) levels.Results: Eriodictyol elevated BBB score, PWT, and PWL in SCI rats but reduced spinal cord water content (p < 0.05). Eriodictyol treatment down-regulated TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and MDA, whereas SOD, GSH, and GSH-PX levels were elevated (p < 0.05). Eriodictyol administration increased Nrf2 and HO-1 levels but reduced p-NF-κB/NF-κB.Conclusion: This study provides a potential therapy to promote long-term functional recovery following SCI. Keywords: Spinal cord injury, Eriodictyol, Nrf2/HO-1 pathway, NF-κB signaling pathway, Polymerase chain reaction, Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan scor

An 852 nm Faraday laser with 8 kHz linewidth based on corner-cube retroreflector

A single-mode Cs atom 852 nm Faraday laser based on the corner-cube reflector feedback is first demonstrated to our best knowledge. Using the corner-cube reflector as external cavity feedback in Faraday laser, the robustness can be greatly improved. This Faraday laser can always achieve laser oscillation unless the angle between incident light and the optical axis of corner-cube retroreflector is beyond the plus or minus 3{\deg} range. Furthermore, the Faraday laser achieves single-mode operation within the current range of 100 mA , and its output wavelength is automatically limited to the vicinity of the Cs atomic transition lines. The wavelength fluctuation range is limited to plus or minus 1.2 pm within 9 hours under +3{\deg} rotation angle. Moreover, the most probable linewidth is 7.97 kHz measured by heterodyne beating. The Faraday laser with high robustness as well as narrow linewidth can be widely used in quantum precision measurement fields including quantum optics, atomic clocks, atomic magnetometers, cold atoms, and atomic gravimeters, etc

TaqMan probe array for quantitative detection of DNA targets

To date real-time quantitative PCR and gene expression microarrays are the methods of choice for quantification of nucleic acids. Herein, we described a unique fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based microarray platform for real-time quantification of nucleic acid targets that combines advantages of both and reduces their limitations. A set of 3′ amino-modified TaqMan probes were designed and immobilized on a glass slide composing a regular microarray pattern, and used as probes in the consecutive PCR carried out on the surface. During the extension step of the PCR, 5′ nuclease activity of DNA polymerase will cleave quencher dyes of the immobilized probe in the presence of nucleic acids targets. The increase of fluorescence intensities generated by the change in physical distance between reporter fluorophore and quencher moiety of the probes were collected by a confocal scanner. Using this new approach we successfully monitored five different pathogenic genomic DNAs and analyzed the dynamic characteristics of fluorescence intensity changes on the TaqMan probe array. The results indicate that the TaqMan probe array on a planar glass slide monitors DNA targets with excellent specificity as well as high sensitivity. This set-up offers the great advantage of real-time quantitative detection of DNA targets in a parallel array format

Delivery of a community-based peer mentorship program for people with spinal cord injury at a rehabilitation center

IntroductionCommunity-based spinal cord injury (SCI) organizations deliver peer mentorship programs in rehabilitation settings. Little is known on how these programs are delivered through the collaboration between community-based SCI organizations and rehabilitation institutions. This study aimed to identify barriers, facilitators, and collaboration processes within a SCI peer mentorship program provided by a community-based organization at a rehabilitation center.MethodsA qualitative case study design was applied. Seven participants were recruited, including two mentees, two mentors, one program director of the community-based SCI organization, and two healthcare professionals of the rehabilitation center. Each participant completed a one-on-one interview. Data were analyzed inductively and deductively based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).ResultsTen factors were identified to influence the delivery of the peer mentorship program, including nine CFIR constructs. Successful delivery of the program required strong, collaborative inter-professional relationships between health professionals and community organizational staff (e.g., peer mentors) as facilitators; whereas potential cost, minimal patient needs, and limited mentor resources were found to be barriers. Engaging health professionals by initiating communications, reflecting and evaluating the program collectively with health professionals were important collaboration processes for the community-based organization to maintain effective partnership with the rehabilitation center.DiscussionThe collaboration processes and strategies to addressing/leveraging the barriers and facilitators may inform evidence-based practice to establish and optimize the delivery of SCI peer mentorship programs in various rehabilitation settings

High-Throughput Sequencing of MicroRNAs in Adenovirus Type 3 Infected Human Laryngeal Epithelial Cells

Adenovirus infection can cause various illnesses depending on the infecting serotype, such as gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, cystitis, and rash illness, but the infection mechanism is still unknown. MicroRNAs (miRNA) have been reported to play essential roles in cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and pathogenesis of human diseases including viral infections. We analyzed the miRNA expression profiles from adenovirus type 3 (AD3) infected Human laryngeal epithelial (Hep2) cells using a SOLiD deep sequencing. 492 precursor miRNAs were identified in the AD3 infected Hep2 cells, and 540 precursor miRNAs were identified in the control. A total of 44 miRNAs demonstrated high expression and 36 miRNAs showed lower expression in the AD3 infected cells than control. The biogenesis of miRNAs has been analyzed, and some of the SOLiD results were confirmed by Quantitative PCR analysis. The present studies may provide a useful clue for the biological function research into AD3 infection

Identification of microRNAs Involved in the Host Response to Enterovirus 71 Infection by a Deep Sequencing Approach

Role of microRNA (miRNA) has been highlighted in pathogen-host interactions recently. To identify cellular miRNAs involved in the host response to enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection, we performed a comprehensive miRNA profiling in EV71-infected Hep2 cells through deep sequencing. 64 miRNAs were found whose expression levels changed for more than 2-fold in response to EV71 infection. Gene ontology analysis revealed that many of these mRNAs play roles in neurological process, immune response, and cell death pathways, which are known to be associated with the extreme virulence of EV71. To our knowledge, this is the first study on host miRNAs expression alteration response to EV71 infection. Our findings supported the hypothesis that certain miRNAs might be essential in the host-pathogen interactions

Carousel Personalization in Music Streaming Apps with Contextual Bandits

Media services providers, such as music streaming platforms, frequently leverage swipeable carousels to recommend personalized content to their users. However, selecting the most relevant items (albums, artists, playlists...) to display in these carousels is a challenging task, as items are numerous and as users have different preferences. In this paper, we model carousel personalization as a contextual multi-armed bandit problem with multiple plays, cascade-based updates and delayed batch feedback. We empirically show the effectiveness of our framework at capturing characteristics of real-world carousels by addressing a large-scale playlist recommendation task on a global music streaming mobile app. Along with this paper, we publicly release industrial data from our experiments, as well as an open-source environment to simulate comparable carousel personalization learning problems.Comment: 14th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys 2020, Best Short Paper Candidate