Water-Soluble Flexible Organic Frameworks That Include and Deliver Proteins.

Four water-soluble hydrazone-based three-dimensional (3D) flexible organic frameworks FOF-1-4 have been synthesized from a semirigid tetracationic tetraaldehyde and four flexible dihydrazides. 1H NMR spectroscopy indicated the quantitative formation of FOF-1-4 in D2O, while dynamic light scattering experiments revealed that, depending on the concentration, these porous frameworks display hydrodynamic diameters ranging from 50 to 120 nm. The porosity of the frameworks is confirmed by ethanol vapor adsorption experiments of the solid samples as well as the high loading capacity for a 2.3 nm porphyrin guest in water. The new water-soluble frameworks exhibit low cytotoxicity and form inherent pores with diameters of 5.3 or 6.7 nm, allowing rapid inclusion of proteins such as bovine serum albumin and green and orange fluorescent proteins, and efficient delivery of the proteins into normal and cancer cells. Flow cytometric analysis reveals percentages of the delivered cells up to 99.8%

Micropathogen community analysis in Hyalomma rufipes via high-throughput sequencing of small RNAs

Ticks are important vectors in the transmission of a broad range of micropathogens to vertebrates, including humans. Because of the role of ticks in disease transmission, identifying and characterizing the micropathogen profiles of tick populations have become increasingly important. The objective of this study was to survey the micropathogens of Hyalomma rufipes ticks. Illumina HiSeq2000 technology was utilized to perform deep sequencing of small RNAs (sRNAs) extracted from field-collected H. rufipes ticks in Gansu Province, China. The resultant sRNA library data revealed that the surveyed tick populations produced reads that were homologous to St. Croix River Virus (SCRV) sequences. We also observed many reads that were homologous to microbial and/or pathogenic isolates, including bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. As part of this analysis, a phylogenetic tree was constructed to display the relationships among the homologous sequences that were identified. The study offered a unique opportunity to gain insight into the micropathogens of H. rufipes ticks. The effective control of arthropod vectors in the future will require knowledge of the micropathogen composition of vectors harboring infectious agents. Understanding the ecological factors that regulate vector propagation in association with the prevalence and persistence of micropathogen lineages is also imperative. These interactions may affect the evolution of micropathogen lineages, especially if the micropathogens rely on the vector or host for dispersal. The sRNA deep-sequencing approach used in this analysis provides an intuitive method to survey micropathogen prevalence in ticks and other vector species

Demographic and net primary productivity dynamics of primary and secondary tropical forests in Southwest China under a changing climate

Tropical forests are major carbon sinks on the Earth's land surface. However, our understanding of how the demographic rate and carbon sink capacities of tropical forests respond to climate change remains limited. In this study, we investigated the impacts of environmental drivers on forest growth, mortality, recruitment, and stem net primary productivity (NPPstem) over 16 years at five tropical forest plots in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. These plots are along a successional gradient spanning three tropical secondary forests (tropical secondary forest‐1 [TSF‐1], tropical secondary forest‐2 [TSF‐2], and tropical secondary forest‐3 [TSF‐3]) and two primary forests (tropical rainforest [TRF] and tropical karst forest [TKF]). Our results showed that early successional secondary forests (TSF‐2 and TSF‐3) had higher diameter growth rates and relative mortality rates. An extreme drought event during 2009–2010 reduced the growth rate, relative recruitment rate, and NPPstem for most plots while increasing mortality in early successional forest plots. We observed significant negative effects of maximum temperature (Tmax) on NPPstem and diameter growth rate across all plots. Additionally, we found that precipitation had significant positive effects on diameter growth rate across all plots. Furthermore, tree mortality increased with rising Tmax, whereas precipitation significantly enhanced tree recruitment. Our findings highlight the vulnerability of tree growth, mortality, recruitment, and productivity in tropical forests to extreme drought events in Southwest China. Continued climate warming and more frequent droughts will induce higher mortality rates and impede growth, thus reducing the carbon sink capacity of tropical forests, especially in early successional stage tropical secondary forests

Plasma Levels of Amino Acids Related to Urea Cycle and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Chinese Adults

Objective: This study aimed to test associations between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and metabolites in urea cycle including arginine, citrulline and ornithine.Methods:This study used a hospital-based cross-sectional study design. We retrieved medical notes of 401 in-patients with onset of T2DM within 2 years and 1,522 healthy subjects who attended annual physical examination. All cases were admitted to a tertiary care center in Jinzhou, China from May 2015 to August 2016. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to obtain odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).Results:Patients with T2DM had higher arginine, and lower ornithine than control subjects. Levels of citrulline were similar in two groups. Arginine was positively associated with T2DM (ORs: 1.20, 1.17–1.23) while ornithine was negatively associated with T2DM (OR: 0.89, 0.88–0.91). After adjustment for other amino acids and traditional risk factors, these associations were still significant and persistent for arginine and ornithine. The association between citrulline and T2DM was not significant. Their ratios of pairs of two amino acids were associated with increased risk of T2DM. After adjustment for other ratios of amino acids, effect size for T2DM remained significant. Further adjustment for traditional risk factors did not lead to large changes (ORs: 1.78, 1.20–2.65 for the ratio of arginine to ornithine; ORs: 1.59, 1.37–1.86 for the ratio of citrulline to ornithine, respectively) except the ratio of arginine to citrulline.Conclusions: Plasma levels of amino acids related to urea cycle and their ratios of these amino-acids were associated with T2DM in Chinese adults

Potential interaction between the oral microbiota and COVID-19: a meta-analysis and bioinformatics prediction

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to evaluate available evidence on the association between the human oral microbiota and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and summarize relevant data obtained during the pandemic.MethodsWe searched EMBASE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library for human studies published up to October 2022. The main outcomes of the study were the differences in the diversity (α and β) and composition of the oral microbiota at the phylum and genus levels between patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (CPs) and healthy controls (HCs). We used the Human Protein Atlas (HPA), Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) database, Protein−protein interaction (PPI) network (STRING) and Gene enrichment analysis (Metascape) to evaluate the expression of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) (which is the cell receptor of SARS CoV-2) in oral tissues and evaluate its correlation with viral genes or changes in the oral microbiota.ResultsOut of 706 studies, a meta-analysis of 9 studies revealed a significantly lower alpha diversity (Shannon index) in CPs than in HCs (standardized mean difference (SMD): -0.53, 95% confidence intervals (95% CI): -0.97 to -0.09). Subgroup meta-analysis revealed a significantly lower alpha diversity (Shannon index) in older than younger individuals (SMD: -0.54, 95% CI: -0.86 to -0.23/SMD: -0.52, 95% CI: -1.18 to 0.14). At the genus level, the most significant changes were in Streptococcus and Neisseria, which had abundances that were significantly higher and lower in CPs than in HCs based on data obtained from six out of eleven and five out of eleven studies, respectively. DPP4 mRNA expression in the oral salivary gland was significantly lower in elderly individuals than in young individuals. Spearman correlation analysis showed that DPP4 expression was negatively correlated with the expression of viral genes. Gene enrichment analysis showed that DPP4-associated proteins were mainly enriched in biological processes, such as regulation of receptor-mediated endocytosis of viruses by host cells and bacterial invasion of epithelial cells.ConclusionThe oral microbial composition in COVID-19 patients was significantly different from that in healthy individuals, especially among elderly individuals. DPP4 may be related to viral infection and dysbiosis of the oral microbiome in elderly individuals

Effectiveness of non-invasive chromosomal screening for normal karyotype and chromosomal rearrangements

Purpose: To study the accuracy of non-invasive chromosomal screening (NICS) results, in normal chromosomes and chromosomal rearrangement groups and to investigate whether using trophoblast cell biopsy along with NICS, to choose embryos for transfer can improve the clinical outcomes of assisted pregnancy.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 101 couples who underwent preimplantation genetic testing at our center from January 2019 to June 2021 and collected 492 blastocysts for trophocyte (TE) biopsy. D3-5 blastocyst culture fluid and blastocyst cavity fluid were collected for the NICS. Amongst them, 278 blastocysts (58 couples) and 214 blastocysts (43 couples) were included in the normal chromosomes and chromosomal rearrangement groups, respectively. Couples undergoing embryo transfer were divided into group A, in which both the NICS and TE biopsy results were euploid (52 embryos), and group B, in which the TE biopsy results were euploid and the NICS results were aneuploid (33 embryos).Results: In the normal karyotype group, concordance for embryo ploidy was 78.1%, sensitivity was 94.9%, specificity was 51.4%, the positive predictive value (PPV) was 75.7%, and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 86.4%. In the chromosomal rearrangement group, concordance for embryo ploidy was 73.1%, sensitivity was 93.3%, specificity was 53.3%, the PPV was 66.3%, and the NPV was 89%. In euploid TE/euploid NICS group, 52 embryos were transferred; the clinical pregnancy rate was 71.2%, miscarriage rate was 5.4%, and ongoing pregnancy rate was 67.3%. In euploid TE/aneuploid NICS group, 33 embryos were transferred; the clinic pregnancy rate was 54.5%, miscarriage rate was 5.6%, and ongoingpregnancy rate was 51.5%. The clinical pregnancy and ongoing pregnancy rates were higher in the TE and NICS euploid group.Conclusion: NICS was similarly effective in assessing both normal and abnormal populations. Identification of euploidy and aneuploidy alone may lead to the wastage of embryos due to high false positives. More suitable reporting methods for NICS and countermeasures for a high number of false positives in NICS are needed. In summary, our results suggest that combining biopsy and NICS results could improve the outcomes of assisted pregnancy

Genomic and oncogenic preference of HBV integration in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can integrate into the human genome, contributing to genomic instability and hepatocarcinogenesis. Here by conducting high-throughput viral integration detection and RNA sequencing, we identify 4,225 HBV integration events in tumour and adjacent non-tumour samples from 426 patients with HCC. We show that HBV is prone to integrate into rare fragile sites and functional genomic regions including CpG islands. We observe a distinct pattern in the preferential sites of HBV integration between tumour and non-tumour tissues. HBV insertional sites are significantly enriched in the proximity of telomeres in tumours. Recurrent HBV target genes are identified with few that overlap. The overall HBV integration frequency is much higher in tumour genomes of males than in females, with a significant enrichment of integration into chromosome 17. Furthermore, a cirrhosis-dependent HBV integration pattern is observed, affecting distinct targeted genes. Our data suggest that HBV integration has a high potential to drive oncogenic transformation

A simulation study on the measurement of D0-D0bar mixing parameter y at BES-III

We established a method on measuring the \dzdzb mixing parameter $y$ for BESIII experiment at the BEPCII $e^+e^-$ collider. In this method, the doubly tagged $\psi(3770) \to D^0 \overline{D^0}$ events, with one $D$ decays to CP-eigenstates and the other $D$ decays semileptonically, are used to reconstruct the signals. Since this analysis requires good $e/\pi$ separation, a likelihood approach, which combines the $dE/dx$, time of flight and the electromagnetic shower detectors information, is used for particle identification. We estimate the sensitivity of the measurement of $y$ to be 0.007 based on a $20fb^{-1}$ fully simulated MC sample.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

N-linoleyltyrosine resisted the growth of non-small cell lung cancer cells via the regulation of CB1 and CB2 involvement of PI3K and ERK pathways

Background: N-linoleyltyrosine (NITyr), one of the anandamide analogs, exerts activity via the endocannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2), which showed anti-tumor effects in various tumors. Therefore, we speculated that NITyr might show anti-non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) effects via the CB1 or CB2 receptor. The purpose of the investigation was to reveal the anti-tumor ability of NITyr on A549 cells and its mechanisms.Methods: The viability of A549 cells was measured by MTT assay, and the cell cycle and apoptosis were both examined by flow cytometry; in addition, cell migration was tested by wound healing assay. Apoptosis-related markers were measured by immunofluorescence. The downstream signaling pathways (PI3K, ERK, and JNK) of CB1 or CB2 were examined through Western blotting. The expressions of CB1 and CB2 were detected by immunofluorescence. Finally, the AutoDock software was used to validate the binding affinity between the targets, such as CB1 and CB2, with NITyr.Results: We found that NITyr inhibited cell viability, hindered the cell cycle, resulted in apoptosis, and inhibited migration. The CB1 inhibitor, AM251, and the CB2 inhibitor, AM630, weakened the aforementioned phenomenon. The immunofluorescence assay suggested that NITyr upregulated the expression of CB1 and CB2. Western blot analysis indicated that NITyr upregulated the expression of p-ERK, downregulated the expression of p-PI3K, and did not affect p-JNK expression. In conclusion, NITyr showed a role in inhibiting NSCLC through the activation of CB1 and CB2 receptors involved in PI3K and ERK pathways