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Complete blood count (CBC)-derived inflammatory markers are predictive biomarkers for the prognosis of many diseases. However, there was no study on patients with peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis (PDAP). We aimed to investigate the value of these markers in predicting treatment failure of acute peritonitis in chronic PD patients. The records of 138 peritonitis episodes were reviewed and divided into treatment success or failure groups in a single center for 10 years. CBC-derived markers and other routine data were recorded before peritonitis treatment was initiated. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve about the predictors of treatment outcomes were performed. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), and derived NLR were significantly higher in the failure group. Univariate logistic regression results showed that NLR and PLR were risk factors of treatment outcomes. The backward stepwise multivariate logistic regression results demonstrated that NLR [adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 1.376; 95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.105–1.713; p =.004], PLR (aOR, 1.010; 95%CI, 1.004–1.017; p =.002) were risk factors, but hemoglobin-to-lymphocyte ratio (HLR) (aOR, 0.977; 95%CI, 0.963–0.991; p =.001), and SII (aOR, 0.999; 95%CI, 0.998–1.000; p =.040) were protective factors. A combination of age, PD vintage, Gram-positive peritonitis, staphylococcus aureus, culture-negative, NLR, PLR, HLR, and SII would improve prognostic performance. The area under this ROC curve was 0.85, higher than other factors. NLR, PLR, HLR, and SII were associated with PDAP outcomes. Age, PD vintage, NLR, and PLR were significant risk factors in PDAP patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National holidays are associated with high mortality in some diseases, but little is known about patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD). The research aimed to investigate the impact of national holidays on the health outcomes of PD patients. Over ten years, all episodes of unplanned hospitalization, death, and peritonitis in PD patients were collected in our center. Seven national holidays in China were chosen, and non-holiday days were selected as the control period. The effect of national holidays was observed by comparing the hospitalization, death, and peritonitis rates between holiday and non-holiday groups. There were 297 events in all holiday periods and 1247 in non-holiday periods. There is no significant difference in hospitalization rate between holiday and non-holiday groups (32.4% ± 6.4% vs. 29.2% ± 3.4%, p = 0.175). So is the death rate [6.3% (4.8–12.3%) vs.5.0% (4.2–8.9%), p = 0.324] and peritonitis rate [0.19 (0.13–0.53) vs. 0.22 (0.18–0.27), p = 0.445] between the two groups. Significant differences were observed in the distribution of peritonitis causes between the two groups (p = 0.017). The rate of secondary to other infections in the holiday group was significantly higher than in the non-holiday group (25.0 vs. 10.3%, p = 0.015). Our study suggested no national holiday effect on health outcomes of PD patients based on ten-year data in our center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to electric field, meteorological conditions and insulator structure, the natural contamination of insulators is complex and so it is difficult to discuss the relationship between various factors and contamination. In this study, contamination characteristics of insulator in a circulating wind tunnel were studied. The results show that speed of the wind and its direction has an obvious influence on the pollution distribution on the insulator and under crosswind, contamination degree of top surface is greater than that of bottom surface and leeward side greater than the windward side. What is more, the contamination characteristics of insulator are affected by wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity (RH) and other factors. Wind speed increment will make its non‐soluble deposit density (NSDD) raise and the higher wind speed is, the more obvious non‐uniform pollution distribution of windward and leeward side becomes. When RH is up to 90%, the growth of NSDD becomes more rapid. The decrease of particle size and the rise of its concentration, NSDD will increase; the NSDD under uniform wind will increase. The results have certain reference significance for insulator design and selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affected by long‐term crosswind, insulator surface will get coated with fan‐shaped non‐uniform pollution, which lowers insulator flashover voltage as previous study revealed. In this study, a further research in specific to HVDC line insulation is presented. Taking typical dc insulator as the sample, its dc flashover performance under fan‐shaped non‐uniform pollution was tested. Then the influence of that kind non‐uniformity was investigated through analysing the pollution layer residual resistance, the flashover process and critical flashover voltage. Finally the relevant HVDC insulation selection was made. Research results indicate that: under fan‐shaped non‐uniform pollution, insulator flashover voltage (U50) gets impaired, and is more obviously impaired by ratio J of windward to leeward side salt deposit density (SDD) than leeward side area proportion T; under various T and J, there is still an exponential relationship between U50 and SDD; under fan‐shaped non‐uniform pollution the pollution layer residual resistance decreases, which theoretically promotes the arc propagation and flashover process, and thus finally lowers flashover voltage; for the transmission line in area with fan‐shaped non‐uniform pollution, adding insulator units to strengthen the withstand property are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We previously identified an ATP-dependent human Ino80 (INO80) chromatin remodeling complex which shares a set of core subunits with yeast Ino80 complex. Although research evidence has suggested that INO80 complex functions in gene transcription and genome stability, the precise mechanism remains unclear. Herein, based on gene expression profiles from the INO80 complex-knockdown in HeLa cells, we first demonstrate that INO80 complex negatively regulates the p21Waf1/Cip1 (p21) expression in a p53-mediated mechanism. In chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and a sequential ChIP (Re-ChIP) assays, we determined that the INO80 complex and p53 can bind to the same promoter region of p21 gene (-2.2kb and -1.0kb upstream of the p21 promoter region), and p53 is required for the recruitment of the INO80 complex to the p21 promoter. RNAi knockdown strategies of INO80 not only led to prolonged progression of cell cycle phase G2/M to G1, but it also resulted in abnormal chromosome stability. Interestingly, high expression of p21 was observed in most morphologically-changed cells, suggesting that negative regulation of p21 by INO80 complex might be implicated in maintaining the cell cycle process and chromosome stability. Together, our findings will provide a theoretical basis to further elucidate the cellular mechanisms of the INO80 complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In areas with heavy dust or continuous wind in a single direction, fan-shaped nonuniform contamination at the windward and leeward side of the insulator string may affect flashover performance. In this paper, dc pollution flashover tests of insulators under fan-shaped nonuniform pollution were presented, and a comparison of flashover performance among 7-unit suspension insulator strings with four different disk profiles was made. Then, the influence of fan-shaped nonuniform pollution on flashover voltage, arc propagation, and critical leakage distance were investigated. Research results indicate that the insulators with different types were influenced variously on their flashover stress, utilization rate of creepage distance, and critical leakage distance by fan-shaped nonuniform pollution. A reduction in the ratio W/L of windward to leeward side salt deposit density (SDD) from 1/1 to 1/15 gave a median 35% \pm 4% decrease in flashover strength. The extrapolation of results for the seven-unit strings suggests that some increment in shed space or structure height of the insulator can be preferable in dc transmission lines where there is fan-shaped nonuniform pollution accumulating at the windward and leeward side of the insulator string. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aptamers are a class of short artificial single-stranded oligo(deoxy) nucleotides that can bind to different targets, which generated by Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX). Due to excellent selectivity and high affinity to targets, aptamers hold considerable potential as molecular probe in diverse applications ranging from ensuring food safety, monitoring environment, disease diagnosis to therapy. This review highlights recent development and challenges about aptamers screened by Cell-SELEX, and its application about cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. Advances about some operation methods such as seperation method and culture method in aptamers selection procedure were summarized in this paper. Some common challenges and technological difficulties such as nonspecific binding and biostability were discussed. Up to now, the recent endeavors about cancer diagnostic and therapeutic applications of aptamers are summarized and expatiated. Most of aptamers screened by Cell-SELEX took tumor cells as target cells, and such aptamers have been assembled to various aptasensor for cancer diagnosis. Aptamers conjugated various drugs or nanomaterials are functioned for cancer target therapy to improve drugs delivery efficiency and reduce side effects. Furthermore, the duplexed aptamer is discussed to be applied for cancer cells detection and some conflicts of theories about duplexed aptamer designs are analyzed. • Summarized methods, key point and challenges about Cell-SELEX. • Listed recent development about cancer diagnostics and therapeutics using aptamers. • Analyzed and proposed theoretical conflicts in the field of duplexed aptasensor research, and classified four theories applied on it currently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of radio-frequency (RF)-assisted blanching and conventional hot water blanching (HWB) on the polyphenol oxidase (PPO), microstructure, physical characteristics, and starch granules in potato were investigated. The residual activity of PPO decreased from 60.47% to 1.35% with increased RF heating temperature (50–90 °C). Moreover, RF achieved a similar level of enzyme inactivation as HWB at lower temperature (70 °C), thereby maintaining the good physical characteristics. With increased temperature from 50 °C to 90 °C, weight loss (1.15%–6.23%) and relative electrolyte leakage (REL) (6.57%–96.96%) increased. Transmission electron micrographs revealed that the increase in REL was due to the gradual degradation of cell membranes and walls. Confocal laser scanning micrographs suggested that RF and HWB treatments changed the cell morphology and gelatinized the starch granules, leading to texture softening. Furthermore, differential scanning calorimetry thermograms showed that Δ H decreased from 2.80 J/g to 0 J/g with increased temperature. All these findings indicated that the change in physical characteristics of potato depended on its microstructure during RF blanching. • Radio-frequency heating effectively inactivated potato polyphenol oxidase. • Radio-frequency heating changed the texture of the potatoes. • Cell membranes and walls were damaged after radio-frequency treatment. • The thermal properties of potatoes were modified by radio-frequency treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Preeclampsia (PE) is a significant cause of maternal and offspring mortality and morbidity. The purpose of this study is to identify the potential diagnostic signatures of autophagy-related genes (ATGs) in pregnancies with preeclampsia., Methods: The expression profile of mRNA was obtained from GSE75010 (placenta samples) and GSE48424 dataset (blood samples). The potential differentially expressed ATGs of PE were screened by R software. The gene-ontology (GO) enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis, correlation analysis, and protein-protein interactions (PPI) were applied for the differentially expressed ATGs. The diagnostic markers of PE were then screened based on least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) logistic regression and support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to investigate the predictive value of these diagnostic markers. Target miRNAs were predicted based on the miRDB, DIANA-micro T, Targetscan, and miRWalk databases, and were further validated in GSE84260., Results: A total of 20 differentially expressed ATGs were identified between PE and healthy pregnancies. Functional analysis of differentially expressed ATGs indicated several enriched terms related to autophagy, apoptosis, angiogenesis, inflammation, immune response, hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1), forkhead box O (FoxO) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway. A total of 12 ATGs were recognized based on LASSO and SVM-RFE, which made an excellent distinction in both the placenta tissues (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.903) and the blood samples (AUC = 0.972). Furthermore, four feature ATGs (leptin [ LEP ], ERO1-like [ ERO1L ], phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit beta [ PIK3CB ], and mitogen-activated protein kinase 8 [ MAPK8 ]) were screened and also shown an excellent diagnostic efficacy (AUC = 0.869 in placenta samples, and AUC = 0.914 in blood samples). Additionally, 81 target miRNAs were predicted according to the 4 feature ATGs. After evaluating the miRNA expression pattern of GSE84260, 11 miRNAs were selected. Finally, a miRNA-mRNA regulatory network was constructed, which may participate in the development of PE., Conclusions: We established an autophagy-related-gene based signature that may predict pregnancies with PE. And we also constructed a miRNA-mRNA regulatory network, which may deepen our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the development of PE., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2023 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.)

Cancer is a major cause of disease-related deaths worldwide, and early diagnosis involving detecting biomarkers of tumors can improve the cure rate and prognosis of patients. Biomarkers are signature proteins that can distinguish diseased cells from healthy cells, facilitating the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, especially cancer. Aptamers are single-stranded oligonucleotides that can recognize target proteins with high affinity and specificity. The development of biomarkers identified by aptamers has experienced extensive progress in current applications. The combinatorial strategy of cell-SELEX technology and proteomics analysis makes targeted protein identification more cost-effective and efficient and improves the success rate of discovery of multiple biomarkers simultaneously. In this methodology, biomarkers are identified via a series of operations such as screening of aptamers, separation, extraction, and analysis of target proteins, which has brought about the discovery of a number of new biomarkers of cancer. This review summarizes the current strategies, challenges, and potential applications for biomarker discovery using aptamers engendered by cell-SELEX.

Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles. Through a large-scale in vivo RNA interference (RNAi) screen that covered around a quarter of the Drosophila melanogaster genes (4000 genes), we identified 578 genes whose knockdown led to aberrant shapes or distributions of mitochondria. The complex analysis revealed that knockdown of the subunits of proteasomes, spliceosomes, and the electron transport chain complexes could severely affect mitochondrial morphology. The loss of Dhpr , a gene encoding an enzyme catalyzing tetrahydrobiopterin regeneration, leads to a reduction in the numbers of tyrosine hydroxylase neurons, shorter lifespan, and gradual loss of muscle integrity and climbing ability. The affected mitochondria in Dhpr mutants are swollen and have fewer cristae, probably due to lower levels of Drp1 S-nitrosylation. Overexpression of Drp1, but not of S-nitrosylation-defective Drp1, rescued Dhpr RNAi-induced mitochondrial defects. We propose that Dhpr regulates mitochondrial morphology and tissue homeostasis by modulating S-nitrosylation of Drp1.

We previously identified an ATP-dependent human Ino80 (INO80) chromatin remodeling complex which shares a set of core subunits with yeast Ino80 complex. Although research evidence has suggested that INO80 complex functions in gene transcription and genome stability, the precise mechanism remains unclear. Herein, based on gene expression profiles from the INO80 complex-knockdown in HeLa cells, we first demonstrate that INO80 complex negatively regulates the p21Waf1/Cip1 (p21) expression in a p53-mediated mechanism. In chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and a sequential ChIP (Re-ChIP) assays, we determined that the INO80 complex and p53 can bind to the same promoter region of p21 gene (-2.2 kb and -1.0 kb upstream of the p21 promoter region), and p53 is required for the recruitment of the INO80 complex to the p21 promoter. RNAi knockdown strategies of INO80 not only led to prolonged progression of cell cycle phase G2/M to G1, but it also resulted in abnormal chromosome stability. Interestingly, high expression of p21 was observed in most morphologically-changed cells, suggesting that negative regulation of p21 by INO80 complex might be implicated in maintaining the cell cycle process and chromosome stability. Together, our findings will provide a theoretical basis to further elucidate the cellular mechanisms of the INO80 complex.

Diabetes mellitus is known to cause kidney impairment; however, the mechanism remains elusive. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), an important protein in endoplasmic reticulum stress‑mediated mesangial cell apoptosis in hyperglycemia. Mesangial cells were cultured in normal (control group) and high glucose medium (high glucose group). TUNEL staining was performed to assess apoptotic cells in the groups. The expression of CHOP and caspase‑3 was also assayed by immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis. Following 24 h culture in high glucose medium, TUNEL‑positive cells were observed to be significantly increased (P<0.01). The expression of CHOP and caspase‑3 in mesangial cells was also found to be significantly enhanced under high glucose conditions compared with the normal group (P<0.01). The results indicate that CHOP mediates apoptosis in mesangial cells under hyperglycemia and may play a role in the development of diabetic nephropathy.

Elderly patients face the problems of morbidity and mortality due to age-mediated disabilities. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the expression of thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) in aging mice, and its probable mechanism in the pathological changes of aging myocardium. The aging model group (AM) comprised 30-month-old mice, while the control group comprised 2-month-old mice. The pathological changes were explored by H&E staining, and the contents of superoxide dismulase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in the hearts were determined by xanthine oxidation or TBA colorimetry. TSP-1 and TGF-β expression in the left ventricular myocardium was also measured by immunohistochemistry. The results showed that the activities of SOD decreased and the MDA content increased markedly in the hearts of the AM group compared to the control group. H&E staining showed that the control group myocardial cells lined up in order with clear structure and stained equably, while the AM group myocardial cells lined up in disorder with an augmented cell body and the appearance of many granules and interstitial fibrosis. Compared to the control group, in the hearts of the AM group, TSP-1 and TGF-β protein expression in myocardial cells showed a significant increase (P<0.01). TSP-1 and TGF-β expression increased in the myocardium, which may be related to pathological changes of age-related heart diseases, such as hypertrophy, fibrosis of myocardial cells and microvessel dissepiment thickening.