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To investigate the emotional conflict processing during the processing of emotional stimuli in individuals with different levels of social adjustment through developing an event-related potential (ERP) method, the study used positive words (happy), negative words (disgusted), positive faces and negative faces as experimental materials for a face-word Stroop emotional conflict task, which was completed by 34 participants. For the N2 component, there was a significant difference between the high and low social adjustment groups for the congruent condition; the low social adjustment group evoked more negative amplitude under the congruent condition. Under the incongruent condition, there was a marginally significant difference between the high and low social adjustment groups; the low social adjustment group evoked more negative amplitude under the incongruent condition. For the SP component, there were no significant differences for both the high and low social adjustment group between the congruent and incongruent conditions of emotional conflict. However, within the low social adjustment group, the incongruent evoked more positive amplitude. Our findings indicate that the difference in the emotional conflict process between individuals with high and low social adjustment mainly lies in the early processing stages of emotional information. That is, for both congruent and incongruent emotional stimuli, individuals with high social adjustment showed better emotional conflict monitoring, used less cognitive resources, and had a higher degree of automated processing than those with low social adjustment. During the later stages of emotional conflict processing, individuals with low social adjustment showed poorer conflict processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 2 and 4 play critical roles in intestinal inflammation caused by Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) infection, but the role of TLR2/TLR4 in regulation of proinflammatory cytokines remains unknown. In this study, through microarray analysis and qRT-PCR, we showed that TLR2/TLR4 are involved in the F. nucleatum-induced inflammatory signaling pathway in Caco-2 cells, C57BL/6 mice and human clinical specimens. In TLR2-/- and TLR4-/- mice, F. nucleatum infection resulted in increased colonization of the bacteria and production of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-8, IL-1β and TNF-α. In addition, the ratio of Foxp3+ CD4+ T cells in the total CD4+ T cells in TLR2-/- and TLR4-/- mice was less than that in wild-type mice, and the ratio in hybrid mice was more than that in knockout mice, which suggested that TLR2/TLR4 mediated the number of Tregs. Furthermore, it was observed that inflammatory cytokine levels were reduced in TLR2-/- mice after Treg transfer. Thus, these data indicate that TLR2/TLR4 regulate F. nucleatum-induced inflammatory cytokines through Tregs in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthocyanins are the polyphenolic phytochemicals which have been shown to scavenge free radicals. In this study, we investigated the effects of anthocyanins extracted from red-fleshed apples (Malus sieversii) on reducing oxidative damage by Rosup in porcine granulosa cells (GCs) by measuring intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), content of glutathione (GSH), activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD1), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX1) and the gene expression of SOD1, CAT, GPX1. Apoptosis was determined with TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) and apoptosis-related proteins were quantified with Western blotting. The results indicate that Rosup increases oxidative stress by inducing reactive oxygen species production in porcine GCs and the oxidative stress could be reduced by anthocyanins. The gene expression of SOD1, CAT, GPX1 and the activities of these enzymes were increased when GCs were treated with anthocyanins and Rosup for 6 hours. Anthocyanins inhibit Rosup-induced apoptosis by increasing expression of antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 and suppressing the expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax. Collectively, anthocyanins from red-fleshed apples reduce oxidative stress and inhibit apoptosis in porcine GCs in vitro. This approach indicates that antioxidants might be developed from red-fleshed apples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some frame components, such as SYNC (frame synchronization) and RTS/CTS (Ready to Send/Clear to Send), are not taken into consideration when the traditional setting strategies conduct the optimization of SMAC (Sensor MAC) contention window size. This paper proposes mathematical models that allow the analysis of data packets forwarding delay within one SMAC virtual cluster. Simulation results in OMNeT++ show good agreements with the proposed mathematical models, validating the models’ correctness. The curve analyses of the models confirm the existence of delay-optimization-oriented contention window size that is closely related to the number of simultaneously contending nodes. Afterwards, it is shown that SYNC, RTS/CTS and EIFS (Extended InterFrame Space) have impacts on the optimal contention window size and expected delivery delay to various degrees, as well as throughput and energy efficiency. One ideal setting strategy of delay-optimization-oriented SMAC contention window size requires the combination of the network scale, SYNC, RTS/CTS and EIFS. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the proposed setting strategy makes contributions to the improvement in the existing SMAC extensions when they are integrated with each other, in terms of the end-to-end delay, throughput and energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ion channels and transporters have increasingly recognized roles in cancer progression through the regulation of cell proliferation, migration, and death. Glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs) are a source of tumor formation and recurrence in glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressive brain cancer, suggesting that ion channel expression may be perturbed in this population. However, little is known about the expression and functional relevance of ion channels that may contribute to GSC malignancy. Using RNA sequencing, we assessed the enrichment of ion channels in GSC isolates and non-tumor neural cell types. We identified a unique set of GSC-enriched ion channels using differential expression analysis that is also associated with distinct gene mutation signatures. In support of potential clinical relevance, expression of selected GSC-enriched ion channels evaluated in human glioblastoma databases of The Cancer Genome Atlas and Ivy Glioblastoma Atlas Project correlated with patient survival times. Finally, genetic knockdown as well as pharmacological inhibition of individual or classes of GSC-enriched ion channels constrained growth of GSCs compared to normal neural stem cells. This first-in-kind global examination characterizes ion channels enriched in GSCs and explores their potential clinical relevance to glioblastoma molecular subtypes, gene mutations, survival outcomes, regional tumor expression, and experimental responses to loss-of-function. Together, the data support the potential biological and therapeutic impact of ion channels on GSC malignancy and provide strong rationale for further examination of their mechanistic and therapeutic importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) plays a critical role in gastrointestinal inflammation. However, the exact mechanism by which F. nucleatum contributes to inflammation is unclear. In the present study, it was revealed that F. nucleatum could induce the production of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-8, IL-1β and TNF-α) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in Caco-2 colorectal) adenocarcinoma cells. Furthermore, ROS scavengers (NAC or Tiron) could decrease the production of proinflammatory cytokines during F. nucleatum infection. In addition, we observed that autophagy is impaired in Caco-2 cells after F. nucleatum infection. The production of proinflammatory cytokines and ROS induced by F. nucleatum was enhanced with either autophagy pharmacologic inhibitors (3-methyladenine, bafilomycin A1) or RNA interference in essential autophagy genes (ATG5 or ATG12) in Caco-2 cells. Taken together, these results indicate that F. nucleatum-induced impairment of autophagic flux enhances the expression of proinflammatory cytokines via ROS in Caco-2 Cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]