Spatiotemporal expression of Pax genes in amphioxus: Insights into Pax-related organogenesis and evolution

The expression of four AmphiPax genes in 16 developmental stages and different organs in amphioxus (Branchiostoma belcheri) was investigated, finding those genes expressed throughout amphioxus life with temporal-specific (especially during embryogenesis and metamorphosis) and spatial-specific patterns. This study suggests that duplicated Pax genes in vertebrates might maintain most of their ancestral functions and also expand their expression patterns after the divergence of protochordates and vertebrates.National Natural Science Foundation of China [30830023]; National High Technology Research and Development Program of China [2008AA092602]; Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education [20070384041

Plasma concentrations of osteopontin, but not thrombin-cleaved osteopontin, are associated with the presence and severity of nephropathy and coronary artery disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to assess possible associations between osteopontin (OPN), and thrombin-cleaved (N-half) OPN, and nephropathy and coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Plasma levels of OPN, N-half OPN, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were determined in 301 diabetic patients with (n = 226) or without (n = 75) angiographically documented CAD (luminal diameter narrowing >50%), as well as in 75 non-diabetic controls with normal angiography. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated in all patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Plasma levels of OPN and hsCRP were significantly higher in patients with T2DM compared with controls. In addition, there was a higher occurrence of moderate renal insufficiency and lower eGFR in patients with T2DM (all <it>P </it>< 0.01). T2DM patients in whom OPN levels were greater than the median value had higher serum creatinine levels, a greater prevalence of mild or moderate renal insufficiency, a higher incidence of CAD, and lower eGFR (all <it>P </it>< 0.05) than T2DM patients in whom OPN levels were the same as or lower than the median value. However, there were no differences in these parameters when patients were stratified according to plasma N-half OPN levels. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between OPN, but not N-half OPN, and the severity of nephropathy and CAD in diabetes. After adjustment for potential confounders and treatments, multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated an independent association between OPN, but not N-half OPN, and eGFR. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that higher OPN levels conferred a fourfold greater risk of renal insufficiency and CAD in patients with T2DM.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results of the present study demonstrate that there is an independent association between plasma levels of OPN, but not N-half OPN, and the presence and severity of nephropathy and CAD in diabetes.</p

Asymmetric Outcomes of Type 1 Retinopathy of Prematurity after Bilateral Intravitreal Ranibizumab Treatment

Purpose. To present cases with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), who were treated with intravitreal injection of ranibizumab (IVR) and had unpredictable asymmetric outcomes. Methods. A retrospective review was performed in infants with type 1 ROP and had bilateral IVR (0.25 mg/0.025 mL) as initial treatment. Patients were classified into the asymmetric outcome group and the symmetric outcome group. Results. Eighty-four patients (168 eyes) were included. There were 18 eyes of 9 patients (10.7%) in the asymmetric outcome group and 150 eyes of 75 patients (89.3%) in the symmetric outcome group. In the symmetric outcome group, 86 eyes (57.3%) had ROP regression, 60 eyes (40%) had reactivation requiring laser treatment, and 4 eyes (2.7%) progressed to retinal detachment requiring vitrectomy. In the asymmetric outcome group, one of the eyes of the 9 patients had ROP regression with/without reactivation after IVR, while the contralateral eyes had negative response, including remarkable posterior fibrosis, partial or total retinal detachment, and vitreous hemorrhage. There was statistically significant difference between the birth weight of the two groups. Conclusion. Contralateral eyes with ROP can take a different clinical course after ranibizumab treatment. High rate of reactivation after IVR is another concern that ophthalmologists should pay attention to

Emerging trends and focus of research on the relationship between traumatic brain injury and gut microbiota: a visualized study

BackgroundTraumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most serious types of trauma and imposes a heavy social and economic burden on healthcare systems worldwide. The development of emerging biotechnologies is uncovering the relationship between TBI and gut flora, and gut flora as a potential intervention target is of increasing interest to researchers. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research employing bibliometric methodologies to scrutinize the interrelation between these two. Therefore, this study visualized the relationship between TBI and gut flora based on bibliometric methods to reveal research trends and hotspots in the field. The ultimate objective is to catalyze progress in the preclinical and clinical evolution of strategies for treating and managing TBI.MethodsTerms related to TBI and gut microbiota were combined to search the Scopus database for relevant documents from inception to February 2023. Visual analysis was performed using CiteSpace and VOSviewer.ResultsFrom September 1972 to February 2023, 2,957 documents published from 98 countries or regions were analyzed. The number of published studies on the relationship between TBI and gut flora has risen exponentially, with the United States, China, and the United Kingdom being representative of countries publishing in related fields. Research has formed strong collaborations around highly productive authors, but there is a relative lack of international cooperation. Research in this area is mainly published in high-impact journals in the field of neurology. The “intestinal microbiota and its metabolites,” “interventions,” “mechanism of action” and “other diseases associated with traumatic brain injury” are the most promising and valuable research sites. Targeting the gut flora to elucidate the mechanisms for the development of the course of TBI and to develop precisely targeted interventions and clinical management of TBI comorbidities are of great significant research direction and of interest to researchers.ConclusionThe findings suggest that close attention should be paid to the relationship between gut microbiota and TBI, especially the interaction, potential mechanisms, development of emerging interventions, and treatment of TBI comorbidities. Further investigation is needed to understand the causal relationship between gut flora and TBI and its specific mechanisms, especially the “brain-gut microbial axis.

Decoding of human identity by computer vision and neuronal vision

Extracting meaning from a dynamic and variable flow of incoming information is a major goal of both natural and artificial intelligence. Computer vision (CV) guided by deep learning (DL) has made significant strides in recognizing a specific identity despite highly variable attributes. This is the same challenge faced by the nervous system and partially addressed by the concept cells—neurons exhibiting selective firing in response to specific persons/places, described in the human medial temporal lobe (MTL) ⁠. Yet, access to neurons representing a particular concept is limited due to these neurons’ sparse coding. It is conceivable, however, that the information required for such decoding is present in relatively small neuronal populations. To evaluate how well neuronal populations encode identity information in natural settings, we recorded neuronal activity from multiple brain regions of nine neurosurgical epilepsy patients implanted with depth electrodes, while the subjects watched an episode of the TV series “24”. First, we devised a minimally supervised CV algorithm (with comparable performance against manually-labeled data) to detect the most prevalent characters (above 1% overall appearance) in each frame. Next, we implemented DL models that used the time-varying population neural data as inputs and decoded the visual presence of the four main characters throughout the episode. This methodology allowed us to compare “computer vision” with “neuronal vision”—footprints associated with each character present in the activity of a subset of neurons—and identify the brain regions that contributed to this decoding process. We then tested the DL models during a recognition memory task following movie viewing where subjects were asked to recognize clip segments from the presented episode. DL model activations were not only modulated by the presence of the corresponding characters but also by participants’ subjective memory of whether they had seen the clip segment, and by the associative strengths of the characters in the narrative plot. The described approach can offer novel ways to probe the representation of concepts in time-evolving dynamic behavioral tasks. Further, the results suggest that the information required to robustly decode concepts is present in the population activity of only tens of neurons even in brain regions beyond MTL

WldS Reduces Paraquat-Induced Cytotoxicity via SIRT1 in Non-Neuronal Cells by Attenuating the Depletion of NAD

WldS is a fusion protein with NAD synthesis activity, and has been reported to protect axonal and synaptic compartments of neurons from various mechanical, genetic and chemical insults. However, whether WldS can protect non-neuronal cells against toxic chemicals is largely unknown. Here we found that WldS significantly reduced the cytotoxicity of bipyridylium herbicides paraquat and diquat in mouse embryonic fibroblasts, but had no effect on the cytotoxicity induced by chromium (VI), hydrogen peroxide, etoposide, tunicamycin or brefeldin A. WldS also slowed down the death of mice induced by intraperitoneal injection of paraquat. Further studies demonstrated that WldS markedly attenuated mitochondrial injury including disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential, structural damage and decline of ATP induced by paraquat. Disruption of the NAD synthesis activity of WldS by an H112A or F116S point mutation resulted in loss of its protective function against paraquat-induced cell death. Furthermore, WldS delayed the decrease of intracellular NAD levels induced by paraquat. Similarly, treatment with NAD or its precursor nicotinamide mononucleotide attenuated paraquat-induced cytotoxicity and decline of ATP and NAD levels. In addition, we showed that SIRT1 was required for both exogenous NAD and WldS-mediated cellular protection against paraquat. These findings suggest that NAD and SIRT1 mediate the protective function of WldS against the cytotoxicity induced by paraquat, which provides new clues for the mechanisms underlying the protective function of WldS in both neuronal and non-neuronal cells, and implies that attenuation of NAD depletion may be effective to alleviate paraquat poisoning

Analysis of Factors Affecting Liquidity Risk of Listed Commercial Banks in China-- Based on the Panel Data Model

In this paper, 16 commercial banks listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares are selected as research samples and data from 2010 to 2019 are adopted. According to their mechanism of operation, scale of asset and etc, the research samples are divided into three groups. They are 16 listed commercial banks as a whole, 5 large state-owned listed commercial banks and 11 other medium and large listed commercial banks. The study makes an empirical analysis on the factors affecting the liquidity risk of listed commercial banks. Firstly, the factors affecting liquidity risk of listed commercial banks are divided into external and internal levels, and then descriptive analysis carried out on the factors at two levels. Then the stability of data is tested. After the data is tested, the panel data models applicable to 16 listed commercial banks as a whole, 5 large state-owned listed commercial banks and 11 other medium and large listed commercial banks are established through Hausman test and F test. The regression analysis of groups are conducted. Finally, according to regression analysis results, some reasonable recommendations are put forward

Temperature and Recognition Dual Responsive Poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide) and Poly(N,N-Dimethylacrylamide) with Adamantyl Side Group

A series of copolymers with an adamantyl side group (poly(NIPAM-co-AdMA) and poly(DMAM-co-AdMA)) were prepared by radical copolymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) and N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAM) with a 2-methyl-2-adamantylmethacrylate (AdMA) monomer. The structure and composition of the as-synthesized copolymers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and elemental analysis. Temperature and recognition dual responsivity of the copolymers was investigated by cloud point (Tcp) and dynamic light scattering (DLS), respectively. The results show that the as-synthesized copolymers are a kind of temperature-responsive polymer with a lower critical solution temperature (LCST). Tcp was approximately consistent with the critical temperature of intermolecular copolymer association (Tass) from DLS. For these copolymers, Tcp decreases with increasing content of AdMA unit in the copolymers. After the addition of β-cyclodextrins (β-CD), Tcp increases, and the increment of Tcp values gradually became large with increasing content of AdMA in the copolymers. It is host-guest molecular recognition of β-CD and adamantyl groups that endows the as-synthesized copolymers with recognition-tunable thermosensitivity