Search

Background: Phosphodiesterase 7 (PDE7) plays a role in neurological function. Increased expression and activity of PDE7 has been detected in several central nervous system diseases. However, the role of PDE7 in regulating stress levels remains unclear. Thus, this study aimed to determine whether and how PDE7 involved in the stress-induced behavioral and neuron morphological changes., Methods: The single prolonged stress (SPS) was used to build a stress exposure model in C57BL/6 J mice and detected PDE7 activity in hippocampus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex and striatum. Next, three doses (0.2, 1, and 5 mg/kg) of the PDE7 inhibitor BRL-50481 were intraperitoneally administered for 10 days, then behavioral, biochemical, and morphological tests were conducted., Results: PDE7 activity in hippocampus of mice significantly increased at all times after SPS. BRL-50481 significantly attenuated SPS induced anxiety-like behavior and fear response in both context and cue. In addition, BRL-50481 increased the levels of key molecules in the cAMP signaling pathway which were impaired by SPS. Immunofluorescent staining and Sholl analysis demonstrated that BRL-50481 also restored the nucleus/cytoplasm ratio of hippocampal neurons and improved neuronal plasticity. These effects of BRL-50481 were partially blocked by the TrkB inhibitor ANA-12., Conclusion: PDE7 inhibitors attenuate stress-induced behavioral changes by protecting the neuron cytoarchitecture and the neuronal plasticity in hippocampus, which is mediated at least partly through the activation of BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway. These results proved that PDE7 is a potential target for treating stress-induced behavioral and physiological abnormalities., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Dong, Wei, Zong, Wang, Ma, Zhao, Lin, Zhang, Lan, Zhang and Zhang.)

Objective: To explore the effect of dietary modification-assisted multimodal therapy in the prevention and treatment of chronic prostatitis., Methods: A total of 132 cases of chronic prostatitis treated in the Outpatient Department of our hospital were randomly divided into an observation group (n = 68) and a control group (n = 64), the former following the Mediterranean dietary pattern, the latter adhering to their own dietary habits, and meanwhile both receiving lifestyle guidance, psychological counseling, symptomatic medication and physiotherapy according to their specific symptoms. The patients were followed up for 4 weeks, therapeutic effects were observed and comparisons were made between the two groups in the NIH-CPSI scores before and after treatment., Results: Compared with the baseline, the quality of life (QOL) scores, pain and urination discomfort scores and total NIH-CPSI scores were significantly decreased in both the observation and the control groups after treatment (P < 0.05), even more decreased in the former than in the latter, but with no statistically significant difference between the two (P > 0.05). The rate of therapeutic effectiveness was higher in the observation group than in the control (87.1% vs 79.7%, but showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P > 0.05)., Conclusion: Multimodal therapy is suitable for the management of different clinical manifestations of individual patients, while dietary habits vary from person to person as well as from region to region. Therefore, scientific dietary modification for the prevention and treatment of CP/CPPS needs further exploration.

Grammatical complexity has received extensive attention in second language acquisition. Although computational tools have been developed to analyze grammatical complexity, most relevant studies investigated this construct in the context of English as a second language. In response to an increasing number of L2 Chinese learners, it is important to extend the investigation of grammatical complexity in L2 Chinese. To promote relevant research, we evaluated the new computational tool, Stanza , on its accuracy of part-of-speech tagging for L2 Chinese writing. We particularly focused on eight grammatical features closely related to L2 Chinese development. Then, we reported the precisions, recalls, and F-scores for the individual grammatical features and offered a qualitative analysis of systematic tagging errors. In terms of the precision, three features have high rates, over 90% (i.e., ba and bei markers, classifiers, - de as noun modifier marker). For recall, four features have high rates, over 90% (i.e., aspect markers, ba and bei markers, classifiers, - de as noun modifier marker). Overall, based on the F-scores, Stanza has a good tagging performance on ba and bei markers, classifiers, and - de as a noun modifier marker. This evaluation provides research implications for scholars who plan to use this computational tool to study L2 Chinese development in second language acquisition or applied linguistics in general., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Lan, Pan, Sun and Lu.)

A fluorescent porous organic polymer (FPOP) with strong fluorescence and tunable emission colors, was synthesized through a simple cost-effective method via Scholl coupling reaction. Experiments proved the stability and excellent detection and adsorption ability, and microporous nature of the material. Luminescence of FPOP was quenched when addition of nitroaromatic compounds. The properties along with large-scale and low-cost preparation make these FPOP potential candidates for fluorescence detection of nitroaromatic compounds. Additionally, FPOP shows higher adsorption capacity and rate than other reported adsorbents, and has the possibility of being an effective adsorbent for industrial usage. Moreover, a fluorescent test paper was further developed and is found to be sensitive to 10 -8  M level, complete with a rapid response time and visual detection. This newly developed strategy may open up an avenue for exploring porous polymers, particularly those with a strong fluorescence, for the large-scale fabrication of FPOP for various advanced applications., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Since the 1990s, grammatical complexity has received substantial research attention in applied linguistics (Bulté and Housen, 2014). The representation of grammatical complexity has expanded in L2 writing with the application of diverse measures in empirical studies in the recent three decades (1991-2020). In response to this situation, we found it important to revisit grammatical complexity, and an exploratory factor analysis was applied to explore latent dimensions (i.e., factors) of grammatical complexity in L2 writing. We analyzed Lu's (2011) 14 grammatical complexity measures in the L2 corpus of the British Academic Written English Corpus. We then proposed a four-factor model with "clausal subordination," "phrasal construction", "global length unit" and "others." The four factors generally align with the types of grammatical complexity proposed in Lu (2011), but differences on six measures are also found. Noteworthy points were discussed to interpret the reasons behind the differences. Research implications are provided to show further research directions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Lan, Li and Zhang.)

Objective: This study aimed to explore the influence of gratitude on the meaning of life of college students and the mediating effect of family function and peer relationships. Methods: A total of 1,049 college students (mean age: 18.59 ± 0.96 years) were investigated by gratitude scale, family function scale, peer relationship questionnaire, and meaning of life scale. Results: (1) Gratitude was positively correlated with meaning existence ( r = 0.39, P < 0.05), meaning seeking ( r = 0.23, P < 0.05), and peer relationship ( r = 0.32, P < 0.05); meanwhile, it is also positively correlated with family function ( r = 0.34, P < 0.05); (2) family function partially mediates the relationship between gratitude and meaning of life. Similarly, peer relationship partially mediates the relationship between gratitude and meaning of life. Conclusion: The mediating model showed that grateful individuals can better sense the meaning of life by perceiving good family function and good peer relationships., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Zhang, Ye, Fu and Zhang.)

The proteolytic activity of Furin responsible for processing full length Notch-1 (p300) plays a critical role in Notch signaling. The amplitude and duration of Notch activity can be regulated at various points in the pathway, but there has been no report regarding regulation of the Notch-1-Furin interaction, despite its importance. In the present study, we found that the Notch-1-Furin interaction is regulated by the non-receptor tyrosine kinase, c-Src. c-Src and Notch-1 are physically associated, and this association is responsible for Notch-1 processing and activation. We also found that growth factor TGF-α, an EGFR ligand, and PDGF-BB, a PDGFR ligand, induce the Notch-1-Furin interaction mediated by c-Src. Our results support three new and provocative conclusions: (1) The association between Notch-1 and Furin is a well-regulated process; (2) Extracellular growth factor signals regulate this interaction, which is mediated by c-Src; (3) There is cross-talk between the plasma growth factor receptor-c-Src and Notch pathways. Co-localization of Notch-1 and c-Src was confirmed in xenograft tumor tissues and in the tissues of pancreatic cancer patients. Our findings have implications for the mechanism by which the Notch and growth factor receptor-c-Src signaling pathways regulate carcinogenesis and cancer cell growth.