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Ferroptosis, a novel form of regulated cell death, is characterized by imbalance of intracellular iron and redox systems, resulting from overgeneration of toxic lipid peroxidation products. In recent years, the verified crucial role of ferroptosis has been widely concerned in rudimentary pathogenesis and development of various acute and chronic kidney disease (CKD), comprehending the potential patterns of cell death can afford more reliable bases and principles for treatment and prevention of renal disease. In this review, the regulatory mechanisms of ferroptosis were introduced and the important roles of ferroptosis in diverse renal diseases such as acute kidney injury, CKD, and renal fibrosis were outlined to illuminate the potential of restraining ferroptosis in treatment and prevention of kidney disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scarring is caused by excessive medical treatment in the tissue remodeling stage; hence, the need for medication is not constant throughout the stage of burn recovery. In this study, we construct a nano self-adaption release system (Cur-ZIF8-HA) using hyaluronic acid (HA)-modified zeolite-imidazole-frame-8 (ZIF-8) as the nano-vehicle and curcumin (Cur) as the bioactive compound for the treatment of burns. The release of Cur within 48 h in the media of pH 8.5, pH 6.0, and pH 7.4 was 13.94, 54.05, and 20.17%, which could realize antibacterial functions in the inflammation stage, wound healing in the tissue proliferation/formation stage, and prevention of excessive fibroblast development and aberrant extracellular matrix deposition in the remodeling stage. Based on this property, Cur-ZIF8-HA has superior efficacy in healing bacterially infected burn wounds in vivo. This work provides a self-adaption release system with antibacterial wound-healing properties and prevents scarring functional based on the ZIF8-HA nano-vehicle, which opens a new way for the clinical application of curcumin for burn healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work was to prepare clarified anthocyanin-enriched juices from purple sweet potatoes (PSP) and to evaluate their sensorial properties, with promising prospect for antioxidant molecules. Four PSP juice samples were prepared and annotated as (1) crude PSP extract, (2) PSP extract followed by microfiltration, (3) by ultrafiltration and (4) by nanofiltration (4). Although anthocyanins retention was observed during the filtration process, PSP microfiltrated juices generated better permeate with compromising between appearance transparency and anthocyanin content. Juice sensory properties (color, flavor, mouthfeel and clarity) were optimized by an L9(34) orthogonal design using PSP extract concentrations, white sugar concentrations and citric acid concentrations as factors. An optimal sensory evaluation score was achieved when these three factors were 90, 24 and 0.05%, respectively. Results of this work will contribute to large-scale production of high quality PSP juice. Practical Applications Over the last years, a growing interest has been shown in the production of anthocyanin-enriched juices with high quality. Therefore, the potential of several techniques to produce this kind of juices is being explored. For instance, membrane technologies have been proposed and investigated for juice clarification and high sensory quality drink production. Thus, this technique could be an interesting tool to clarify sweet potato juices, rich in anthocyanins, and to obtain products with high sensory quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasound pre-treatment (UAE) was applied to assist the extraction of valuable compounds (polyphenols (especially anthocyanins), and proteins) from purple sweet potato (PSP). Under optimum conditions (ultrasound time (40 min); supplementary hot extraction (80 °C) up to 120 min; pH: 2.5; ethanol concentration: 58%), the highest concentrations of polyphenols (3.877 mg/g), anthocyanins (0.293 mg/g), and proteins (0.753 mg/g) were found, with minimal specific energy consumption (8406 J/mg). Moreover, anthocyanin and non-anthocyanin polyphenols in PSP extract from optimized extraction temperature were identified using HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS 2 . The major identified anthocyanins were peonidin-3-caffeoyl- p -hydroxybenzoyl sophoroside-5-glucoside, peonidin-3-(6″-caffeoyl-6‴-feruloyl sophoroside)-5-glucoside, cyanidin-3-caffeoyl- p -hydroxybenzoyl sophoroside-5-glucoside, whereas the major identified non-anthocyanin molecules were quinic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and chlorogenic acid-3-glucose. The amount of the predominant anthocyanin and non-anthocyanin compounds from PSP extract obtained after UAE was higher than that extracted after conventional solvent extraction. The results obtained in this work demonstrated the efficiency of UAE for the recovery of anthocyanins from PSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a novel type of RNA that plays an important role in the occurrence and development of many malignant tumors. However, the potential regulatory role and molecular mechanisms of circRNAs in cervical cancer (CC) are still not clear. Here, we explored circRNAs associated with CC from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets GSE113696 and GSE102686. We initially identified circ_0039787, which is derived from exons 2 to 3 of the C16orf70 gene. We observed that circ_0039787 is mainly located in the cytoplasm and is more stable than its linear counterpart, C16orf70. circ_0039787 is significantly upregulated in CC tissues and cells. In addition, functional gain and loss experiments demonstrated that circ_0039787 promotes the proliferation, migration, and invasion of CC cells in vitro and the growth of CC tumors in vivo . Mechanistically, circ_0039787 promotes CC tumor progression by competitively absorbing miR-877-5p to alleviate the inhibitory effect of miR-877-5p on Kirsten Rat Sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) expression. Overall, our results suggest that circ_0039787 could serve as a promising diagnostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target for CC patients.

Objective: To explore the value of human papillomavirus (HPV) E6/E7 mRNA detection in the diagnosis of cervical cancer and its precancerous lesions after kidney transplantation., Methods: One hundred and sixty-six women who underwent cervical cancer screening after kidney transplantation were selected and received thinprep cytology test (TCT), HPV DNA and HPV E6/E7 mRNA tests. A biopsy under colposcopy was performed for those with suspicious test results. The positive rates of TCT, HPV DNA and HPV E6/E7 mRNA expressions in patients with different biopsy pathological grades, the positive rates of HPV E6/E7 mRNA in TCT and HPV DNA positive patients were compared. Besides, the relationship between the results of the three detections and the pathological results of cervical biopsy as well as the diagnostic efficacy of cervical cancer and its precancerous lesions were compared., Results: Among the 166 women undergoing cervical cancer screening, 87 cases received histopathological biopsy, of which, the positive expression rates of HPV E6/E7 mRNA in the negative, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) I, CIN II, CIN III and invasive carcinoma (ICC) patients were 51.43%, 54.55%, 66.67%, 81.82% and 100.00%, respectively. The positive expression rates of HPV E6/E7 mRNA in TCT and HPV DNA-positive patients were 47.50% and 51.96%, respectively; those rates for diagnosis of ≥CIN II were significantly greater than that of ≤CIN I (both P<0.01). Receiver operating characteristic curve revealed that the areas under the concentration-time curve of TCT, HPV DNA and HPV E6/E7 mRNA detection for cervical cancer and precancerous lesions were 0.723, 0.833, 0.929, respectively. Their sensibilities were 76.89%, 83.30% and 92.38%, and their specificities were 77.04%, 88.47% and 94.47%, respectively., Conclusion: HPV E6/E7 mRNA detection effectively improves the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of cervical cancer and precancerous lesions, thereby avoiding over-examination and over-treatment., Competing Interests: None., (AJTR Copyright © 2021.)

Background: The symptoms of Chiari I Malformation (CIM) and fibromyalgia (FM) overlap. Some FM patients have been surgically treated for presumed CIM-type pathology., Objective: To determine whether CIM is more common among FM patients than pain- and fatigue-free controls., Methods: One hundred seventy-six participants with FM and 67 pain- and fatigue-free control subjects underwent magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and upper cervical spine. Posterior fossa cerebrospinal fluid flow was assessed with cardiac gated cine phase-contrast imaging at the craniocervical region. CIM was defined as inferior extension of cerebellar tonsils ≥ 5 mm below the basion-opisthion line of the foramen magnum or tonsillar position 3 to 5 mm below the basion-opisthion line plus abnormalities of CSF flow, posterior fossa volume, or hindbrain or cervical spinal cord movement. Visual analog scales, questionnaires, and interviews were used to collect data on sleep quality, fatigue, pain, and headache. We used regression techniques to examine the association of outcome measures with disease status and the Fisher exact test to compare the CIM prevalence in the 2 groups., Results: The FM group was older (mean age, 50 vs 40 years) and more likely to be white (89% vs 73%) and female (93% vs 54%; P < .01). Mean tonsillar position and the prevalence of CIM (2.8% vs 4.5%; P = .69) were similar in the FM and control groups. FM patients experienced more headaches, pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbances than control subjects (P < .01)., Conclusion: Most patients with FM do not have CIM pathology. Future studies should focus on dynamic neuroimaging of craniocervical neuroanatomy in patients with FM.