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Aims: This study aimed to compare the differences in the bacterial community structure of Lycium barbarum rhizosphere and elucidate the contribution of rhizosphere bacteria to the active ingredients of L. barbarum fruit. Methods and Results: This study investigated the soil and meteorological characteristics of L. barbarum rhizosphere during three growth stages across three production regions of China. High‐throughput sequencing showed significant differences in the bacterial community diversity of L. barbarum rhizosphere across the three production regions, and norank_o_Gaiellales, norank_f_Anaerolineaceae and norank_f_AKYG1722 were the highest in Ningxia. In addition, regression and path analysis revealed that pH, norank_o_Gaiellales and norank_f_AKYG1722 significantly promoted the accumulation of total sugar and flavonoids in L. barbarum fruit directly or indirectly. Soil organic matter (SOM), norank_f_Anaerolineaceae and humidity significantly promoted the accumulation of betaine. The average temperature during the growth stages, norank_f_AKYG1722, and norank_o_Gaiellales promoted the accumulation of polysaccharides. Conclusions: The interaction between rhizosphere bacteria and environmental factors promoted the accumulation of active ingredients in L. barbarum fruits. Significance and Impact of the Study: Our results provided insights to improve the quality of L. barbarum fruit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Enhanced by contemporary computational advances, the prediction of drug–target interactions (DTIs) has become crucial in developing de novo and effective drugs. Existing deep learning approaches to DTI prediction are frequently beleaguered by a tendency to overfit specific molecular representations, which significantly impedes their predictive reliability and utility in novel drug discovery contexts. Furthermore, existing DTI networks often disregard the molecular size variance between macro molecules (targets) and micro molecules (drugs) by treating them at an equivalent scale that undermines the accurate elucidation of their interaction. Results We propose a novel DTI network with a differential-scale scheme to model the binding site for enhancing DTI prediction, which is named as BindingSiteDTI. It explicitly extracts multiscale substructures from targets with different scales of molecular size and fixed-scale substructures from drugs, facilitating the identification of structurally similar substructural tokens, and models the concealed relationships at the substructural level to construct interaction feature. Experiments conducted on popular benchmarks, including DUD-E, human, and BindingDB, shown that BindingSiteDTI contains significant improvements compared with recent DTI prediction methods. Availability and implementation The source code of BindingSiteDTI can be accessed at https://github.com/MagicPF/BindingSiteDTI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and its G-protein-coupled receptors (Lpar1–Lpar6) mediate a plethora of activities associated with cancer growth and progression. However, there is no systematic study about whether and how LPA promotes esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Here, we show that autotaxin (ATX), a primary LPA-producing enzyme, is highly expressed in ESCC, and overexpressed ATX is associated with the poor outcome of ESCC patients. Meanwhile, the expression of Lpar1 was much higher in ESCC cells compared with Het-1a (human esophagus normal epithelial cells). Functional experiments showed that LPA remarkably increased the proliferation and migration of ESCC cells. Furthermore, Lpar1 knockdown abolished the effect of LPA on ESCC cell proliferation and migration. Mechanistic studies revealed that LPA promoted ESCC cell lines proliferation and migration through PI3K/Akt pathway. Treatment of KYSE30 cell xenografts with Lpar1 inhibitor BMS-986020 significantly repressed tumor growth. Our results shed light on the important role of LPA in ESCC, and Lpar1 might be a potential treatment target for ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For an arbitrary calibrated Frobenius manifold, we construct an infinite dimensional Lie algebra, called the Virasoro-like algebra , which is a deformation of the Virasoro algebra of the Frobenius manifold. By using the Virasoro-like algebra we give a family of quadratic PDEs that are satisfied by the genus-zero free energy of the Frobenius manifold. We also derive, under the semisimplicity assumption, the Virasoro constraints for the corresponding abstract Hodge partition function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thoracic skeletomuscular system of the swift lousefly Crataerina pallida (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) is documented with scanning electron microscopy, micro-computed tomography and three-dimensional reconstruction. The morphological results are discussed with respect to ectoparasitism and flightlessness. The evolution of thoracic characters in Hippoboscoidea is reconstructed based on a parsimony analysis of 44 thoracic characters. The results confirm the monophyly of Hippoboscoidea, Pupipara (Hippoboscidae + Streblidae + Nycteribiidae) and the bat flies (Streblidae + Nycteribiidae). The monophyletic origin of Hippoboscidae is challenged with respect to the genus Ornithoica, which displays several plesiomorphic features compared with conditions shared by the remaining Pupipara. The thorax of the species in the three families is distinctly affected by the ectoparasitic lifestyle. The dorsal segmental borders are obliterated, and the thorax is usually strongly flattened. The legs are adapted to cling to the host and to move efficiently in the fur or plumage. A heel-like claw tooth supports large claws. Different patterns of reduction of the flight apparatus occur in the group. Even though Crataerina and Stenepteryx are close relatives and similar in their general thoracic configuration, differences in the muscular patterning suggest independent losses of the capacity for flight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have revealed the contribution of ATP-G-protein-coupled P2Y2 receptor (P2RY2) in tumor progression, but the role of P2RY2 in regulating the progression of gastric cancer (GC) and related molecular mechanisms are relatively lacking. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of P2RY2 on the proliferation and migration of GC through in vivo and in vitro experiments. The results showed that P2RY2 was expressed in GC tissues and GC cell lines. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) increased the calcium influx in AGS and HGC-27 cells, and was dose-dependent with ATP concentration. ATP and UTP increased the intracellular glycogen content, enhanced the actin fiber stress response, and promoted the proliferation and migration of GC cells, while P2RY2 competitive antagonist AR-C118925XX reversed the changes induced by ATP. Knockdown of P2RY2 expression by shRNA inhibited the proliferation of GC cells. Activation of P2RY2 increased the expression of Snail, Vimentin, and β-catenin in GC cells, and down-regulated the expression of E-cadherin, while AR-C118925XX decreased the expression of these genes induced by ATP. Activation of P2RY2 activated AKT/GSK-3beta/VEGF signal to promote the proliferation of GC cells, and the P13/AKT signaling pathway LY294002 reversed the corresponding phenomenon, but no synergistic pharmacological properties of AR-C118925XX and LY294002 have been found. In vivo experiments showed that ATP-induced tumor growth, while AR-C118925XX inhibited ATP-induced tumor growth. Our conclusion is that P2RY2 activated the AKT/GSK-3beta/VEGF signal to promote the proliferation and migration of GC, suggesting that P2RY2 may be a new potential target for the treatment of GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. Published association studies of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in populations are inconsistent. The aim of this study is to determine whether the KIR polymorphisms confer susceptibility to AS in populations by conducting a meta-analysis. Methods. A computer search was carried out up to August 2013 for literature pertaining to AS and KIR polymorphisms. Publications addressing the association between the KIR polymorphisms and susceptibility to AS in populations were selected from the Pubmed, Elsevier Science Direct, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) databases. The odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was calculated. Results. A total of 13 case-control studies in 9 articles were included in this meta-analysis. Meta-analysis results identified two positive associations of 2DS4 and 3DS1 with susceptibility to AS in populations. In subgroup analysis, there was a positive association between 2DS4 and susceptibility to AS in Asians, but not in Caucasians. And there were associations between 3DL1, 3DS1 and susceptibility to AS in Caucasians, but not in Asians. Results of subgroup analysis also showed that there were associations between 2DL5, 2DS4, 2DS5, 3DL1, 3DS1 and susceptibility to AS in HLA-B*27-positive patients and HLA-B*27-positive healthy controls. Conclusions. This meta-analysis confirms that 2DS4 and 3DS1 might be potential risk factors for AS in populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to artificial sweetener acesulfame-K (AK) at early development stages may influence the adult sweet preference and the periphery gustatory system. We observed that the intraoral AK stimulation to mice from postnatal day 4 (P4) to weaning decreased the preference thresholds for AK and sucrose solutions in adulthood, with the preference pattern unchanged. The preference scores were increased in the exposure group significantly when compared with the control group at a range of concentrations for AK or sucrose solution. Meanwhile, more α-Gustducin-labeled fungiform taste buds and cells in a single taste bud were induced from week 7 by the early intraoral AK stimulation. However, the growth in the number of α-Gustducin-positive taste bud or positive cell number per taste bud occurred only in the anterior region, the rostral 1-mm part, but not in the intermediate region, the caudal 4-mm part, of the anterior two-third of the tongue containing fungiform papillae. This work extends our previous observations and provides new information about the developmental and regional expression pattern of α-Gustducin in mouse fungiform taste bud under early AK-stimulated conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using a prospective, observational cohort study during the post–"dynamic COVID-zero" wave in China, we estimated short-term relative effectiveness against Omicron BA.5 infection of inhaled aerosolized adenovirus type 5–vectored ancestral strain coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine as a second booster dose approximately 1 year after homologous boosted primary series of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine compared with no second booster. Participants reported nucleic acid or antigen test results weekly until they tested positive or completed predesignated follow-up. After excluding participants infected <14 days after study entry, relative effectiveness among the 6576 participants was 61% in 18- to 59-year-olds and 38% in ≥60-year-olds and was sustained for 12 weeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorus (P) limitation affects phytoplankton growth and population size in aquatic systems, and consequently limits aquatic primary productivity. Plants have evolved a range of metabolic responses to cope with P limitation, such as accumulation of purple acid phosphatases (PAPs) to enhance acquisition of phosphates. However, it remains unknown whether algae have evolved a similar mechanism. In this study, we examined the role of PAPs in the model microalga Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Expression of PAP1 was enhanced in P. tricornutum cells grown on organophosphorus compared to inorganic phosphate. PAP1 overexpression improved cellular growth and biochemical composition in a growth-phase dependent manner. PAP1 promoted growth and photosynthesis during growth phases and reallocated carbon flux towards lipogenesis during the stationary phase. PAP1 was found to be localized in the endoplasmic reticulum and it orchestrated the expression of genes involved in key metabolic pathways and translocation of inorganic P (Pi), thereby improving energy use, reducing equivalents and antioxidant potential. RNAi of PAP1 induced expression of its homolog PAP2 , thereby compensating for the Pi scavenging activity of PAP1. Our results demonstrate that PAP1 brings about sequential regulation of metabolism, and provide novel insights into algal phosphorus metabolism and aquatic primary productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background To investigate prospective association of coffee and tea intake with incident irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in a long-term cohort. Methods Participants free of IBS, coeliac disease, inflammatory bowel disease and any cancer at baseline from UK Biobank were included. Coffee and tea intake was measured separately via baseline touchscreen questionnaire, with four categories for each intake (0, 0.5–1, 2–3 and ≥4 cups/day). Primary outcome was incident IBS. Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate associated risk. Results Among 425 387 participants, 83 955(19.7%) and 186 887(43.9%) consumed ≥4 cups/day of coffee and tea at baseline, respectively. During median 12.4-year follow-up, incident IBS was identified in 7736 participants. Compared with no coffee intake, consumption of 0.5–1, 2–3 and ≥4 cups/day was associated with lower IBS risk [hazard ratio (HR)=0.93, 95% CI: 0.87–0.99; 0.91, 0.85–0.97; 0.81, 0.76–0.88; P trend < 0.001]. Specifically, decreased risk was evident in individuals who consumed instant (HR = 0.83, 0.78–0.88) or ground coffee (HR = 0.82, 0.76–0.88) compared with no coffee drink. Regarding tea intake, protective association was only found in individuals who consumed 0.5–1 cup/day (HR = 0.87, 0.80–0.95), whereas no significant association was detected in those who consumed 2–3 (HR = 0.94, 0.88–1.01) or ≥4 cups/day (HR = 0.95, 0.89–1.02) compared with no-tea intake (P trend = 0.848). Conclusions Higher intake of coffee, particularly instant and ground coffee, is associated with lower risk of incident IBS, with significant dose–response relationship. Moderate-tea intake (0.5–1 cup/day) is associated with lower IBS risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background China has been using inactivated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines as primary series and booster doses to protect the population from severe to fatal COVID-19. We evaluated primary and booster vaccine effectiveness (VE) against Omicron BA.2 infection outcomes. Methods This was a 13-province retrospective cohort study of quarantined close contacts of BA.2-infected individuals. Outcomes were BA.2 infection, COVID-19 pneumonia or worse, and severe/critical COVID-19. Absolute VE was estimated by comparison with an unvaccinated group. Results There were 289 427 close contacts ≥3 years old exposed to Omicron BA.2 cases; 31 831 turned nucleic acid amplification test–positive during quarantine, 97.2% with mild or asymptomatic infection, 2.6% with COVID-19 pneumonia, and 0.15% with severe/critical COVID-19. None died. Adjusted VE (aVE) against any infection was 17% for primary series and 22% when boosted. Primary series aVE in adults >18 years was 66% against COVID-19 pneumonia or worse and 91% against severe/critical COVID-19. Booster dose aVE was 74% against pneumonia or worse, and 93% against severe/critical COVID-19. Conclusions Inactivated COVID-19 vaccines provided modest protection from infection, very good protection against pneumonia, and excellent protection against severe/critical COVID-19. Booster doses are necessary to provide strongest protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer susceptibility candidate 19 (CASC19) is a novel long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that has been reported to implicate in the development and therapeutic resistance of various cancers. However, the biological functions and the underlying mechanisms of CASC19 in gastric cancer (GC) remain unclear. In this study, GC-related lncRNAs were screened by lnCAR-database analysis. Based on Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) database, GC survival analysis associated with CASC19 was carried out. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and chromogenic in situ hybridization were adopted to determine the expression level of CASC19. 5-ethynyl-2ʹ-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium inner salt (MTS) assay and cell cycle assay were used to measure the proliferation capabilities of GC cells. Wound healing assay, transwell migration and invasion assay were performed to detect the metastatic ability of GC cells. Furthermore, subcellular fractionation assay, mass spectrometry, RNA pull-down, RNA immunoprecipitation, western blot and protein stability assay were conducted to investigate the mechanism of CASC19 in GC. Here, we report that CASC19 exerts an oncogenic effect on GC. CASC19 was found to be elevated in GC and overexpression of CASC19 was associated with advanced TNM (tumor node metastasis) stage and poor prognosis. Functionally, CASC19 knockdown inhibited GC cells proliferation, migration and invasion, and induced cell cycle arrest. Mechanistically, CASC19 interacted with cAMP response element-binding protein 1 (CREB1) and enhanced its stability by preventing its ubiquitin/proteasome-dependent degradation. In conclusion, these findings suggest that CASC19 may act as a cancer accelerator in GC by regulating CREB1 stability and highlight CASC19 as a potential biomarker and a valuable therapeutic target for advanced GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Snake venoms represent a danger to human health, but also a gold mine of bioactive proteins that can be harnessed for drug discovery purposes. The evolution of snakes and their venom has been studied for decades, particularly via traditional morphological and basic genetic methods alongside venom proteomics. However, while the field of genomics has matured rapidly over the past 2 decades, owing to the development of next-generation sequencing technologies, snake genomics remains in its infancy. Here, we provide an overview of the state of the art in snake genomics and discuss its potential implications for studying venom evolution and toxinology. On the basis of current knowledge, gene duplication and positive selection are key mechanisms in the neofunctionalization of snake venom proteins. This makes snake venoms important evolutionary drivers that explain the remarkable venom diversification and adaptive variation observed in these reptiles. Gene duplication and neofunctionalization have also generated a large number of repeat sequences in snake genomes that pose a significant challenge to DNA sequencing, resulting in the need for substantial computational resources and longer sequencing read length for high-quality genome assembly. Fortunately, owing to constantly improving sequencing technologies and computational tools, we are now able to explore the molecular mechanisms of snake venom evolution in unprecedented detail. Such novel insights have the potential to affect the design and development of antivenoms and possibly other drugs, as well as provide new fundamental knowledge on snake biology and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genes duplicated by whole genome duplication (WGD) and small-scale duplication (SSD) have played important roles in adaptive evolution of all flowering plants. However, it still remains underinvestigated how the distinct models of duplication events and their contending evolutionary patterns have shaped the genome and epigenomes of extant plant species. In this study, we investigated the contribution of the WGD- and SSD-derived duplicate genes to the genome evolution of one diploid and three closely related allotetraploid Panax species based on genome, methylome, and proteome data sets. Our genome-wide comparative analyses revealed that although the ginseng species complex was recently diverged, they have evolved distinct overall patterns of nucleotide variation, cytosine methylation, and protein-level expression. In particular, genetic and epigenetic asymmetries observed in the recent WGD-derived genes are largely consistent across the ginseng species complex. In addition, our results revealed that gene duplicates generated by ancient WGD and SSD mechanisms exhibited distinct evolutionary patterns. We found the ancient WGD-derived genes (i.e. ancient collinear gene) are genetically more conserved and hypomethylated at the cytosine sites. In contrast, some of the SSD-derived genes (i.e. dispersal duplicated gene) showed hypermethylation and high variance in nucleotide variation pattern. Functional enrichment analyses of the duplicated genes indicated that adaptation-related traits (i.e. photosynthesis) created during the distant ancient WGDs are further strengthened by both the more recent WGD and SSD. Together, our findings suggest that different types of duplicated genes may have played distinct but relaying evolutionary roles in the polyploidization and speciation processes in the ginseng species complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evidence of the trend of the incidence of activities of daily living (ADL) disability among Chinese older people is limited. We aimed to investigate the time trends and potential risk factors for the incidence of ADL disability among Chinese older people (≥65 years).Methods: We established two consecutive and nonoverlapping cohorts (6,857 participants in the 2002 cohort and 5,589 participants in the 2008 cohort) from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. ADL disability was defined as the need for assistance with at least one essential activity (dressing, bathing, toileting, eating, indoor activities, and continence). Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify factors associated with the trend in the incidence of ADL disability from 2002 to 2014.Results: The incidence (per 1,000 person-years) of ADL disability decreased significantly from 64.2 in the 2002 cohort to 46.6 in the 2008 cohort (p < .001), and decreasing trends in the incidence of ADL disability were observed for all sex, age, and residence subgroups (all p < .001), even after adjusting for multiple potential confounding factors. Moreover, we found that adjustment for sociodemographic, lifestyle information, and cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke) explained less of the decline in ADL disability during the period from 2002 to 2014.Conclusion: The incidence of ADL disability among the older adults in China appears to have decreased during the study period, and this finding cannot be explained by existing sociodemographic and lifestyle information and cardiovascular risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colon cancer side population (SP) cells are a small subset of cancer cells that have cancer stemness capacity and enhanced drug resistance. ABCG2 is a multidrug resistance-related protein in SP cells and has been demonstrated to be regulated by Notch signalling pathway. Recently, microRNAs are reported to play a critical role in SP cell fate. However, their role in ABCG2-mediated drug resistance in colon cancer SP cells remains unclear. In the current study, the different expressions of miR-552, miR-611, miR-34a and miR-5000-3p were compared within SP and non-SP cells, which were separated from human colon cancer cell lines (SW480 and LoVo). We found that miR-34a was significantly down-regulated in SP cells and that overexpressing miR-34a overcame drug resistance to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The luciferase reporter assay indicated that miR-34a negatively regulated DLL1, a ligand of Notch signalling pathway, via binding with 3′-untranslated region of its messenger RNA. In addition, overexpressing miR-34a overcame ABCG2-mediated resistance to 5-FU via DLL1/Notch pathway in vitro , and suppressed tumour growth under 5-FU treatment in vivo. In conclusion, our findings suggest that miR-34a acts as a tumour suppressor via enhancing chemosensitivity to 5-FU in SP cells, which provides a novel therapeutic target in chemotherapy-resistant colon cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little is known about the role of specific leisure activities in affecting cognitive functions. We aim to examine the associations of specific leisure activities with the risk of cognitive impairment among oldest-old people in China.Methods: This community-based prospective cohort study included 10,741 cognitively normal Chinese individuals aged 80 years or older (median age 88 years) from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Cox proportional hazards models were utilized to estimate the effects of specific leisure activities on cognitive impairment outcome.Results: During a median follow-up time of 3.4 years (41,760 person-years), 2,894 participants developed cognitive impairment. Compared to those who "never" engaged in watching TV or listening to radio, reading books or newspapers, and playing cards or mah-jong, those who engaged in such activities "almost every day" reduced their risk of cognitive impairment, the fully-adjusted hazard ratios were 0.56 (0.51-0.61), 0.64 (0.53-0.78), and 0.70 (0.56-0.86), respectively. The association between the risk of cognitive impairment and watching TV and listening to the radio, playing cards or mah-jong, and reading books or newspapers were stronger among those who had two or more years of education. Moreover, the association between risk of cognitive impairment and watching TV and listening to radio was stronger in men than in women.Conclusions: In conclusion, a greater frequency of TV watching or radio listening, reading books or newspapers, and playing cards or mah-jong may decrease the risk of cognitive impairment among the oldest-old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The Aquaporin 11 (AQP11) rs2276415 variant has been implicated in kidney disease in Type 2 diabetes. Association of the AQP11 variant with chronic kidney disease (CKD) beyond diabetic nephropathy is unknown, with no studies reported in the Chinese population. We explored the risk of CKD progression associated with the AQP11 rs2276415 variant in a population-based study in China. Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study of 620 participants with CKD (Stages 2–5 and who were not receiving dialysis) at the Nephrology Center of First Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University between July 2011 and December 2014 and followed up for 3 years. Incident CKD progression, defined as an increase in creatinine levels of at least 0.4 mg/dL (35 µmol/L) above baseline or maintenance dialysis initiation or transplantation, was examined by AQP11 genotypes. Results During the follow-up period, CKD progression developed in 170 individuals. Cumulative events-free survival was significantly dependent on AQP11 genotypes with an apparent gene–dose effect (log-rank P < 0.001). Adjusting for sex, age and major CKD risk factors, the A allele of AQP11 gene (GA + AA) increased the risk of CKD progression by 1.92 (95% confidence interval 1.31– 2.84). Conclusions The AQP11 rs2276415 variant predicts CKD progression in the Chinese population, independent of traditional risk factors. Exploring the pathways mediating the association may shed light on novel therapeutic targets in the pathophysiology of CKD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Many publications have evaluated the correlation between HLA-B27 polymorphisms and ankylosing spondylitis (AS), with conflicting results. We carried out this new meta-analysis in order to collect all the relevant studies to further clarify the association of HLA-B27 polymorphisms with AS susceptibility. Methods Relevant published data were retrieved through Medline, PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI, and the Chinese BioMedical Literature Database on disc. The statistical analysis was conducted using Review Manager Version 5.0 and STATA 11.0. From these data, the odds ratio (OR) with a 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) was calculated. Results (1) A total of 38 studies, including 3,410 AS cases and 1,735 healthy controls, were collected in this meta-analysis. (2) Our results showed that B2704 was a risk factor but B2703, B2706, B2707, B2727, B2729, and B2747 may be protective factors for AS worldwide. (3) These subtypes, such as B2701, B2702, B2705, B2708-15, B2717-20, B2723-24, B2733, B2735, B2740, B2746, B2749, and B2767, showed no association with susceptibility to AS. There was a huge difference with previous reports for B2702 and B2705. (4) The B2702, B2704 and B2705 subtypes have existed high heterogeneity but no publication bias. Conclusions This meta-analysis in our study suggested that B2704 might be a potential risk factor, however, B2703, B2706, and B2707 might be potential protective factors of AS, especially in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Recent studies have explored the role of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) in chronic autoimmune diseases. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate whether KIR genes contribute to the pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in Chinese populations. Methods: Sixteen KIR genes were genotyped from 60 unrelated patients with AS and 60 HLA-B27-positive matched healthy controls by PCR-SSP. The frequencies of the KIR alleles and genotypes in the AS and control groups were assessed by the χ test. Results: Our results showed that the frequency of the activator receptor KIR3DS1 gene in the AS group was significantly increased compared to the controls ( χ = 5.263, P = 0.006, OR = 3.059, 95 % CI = 1.357-6.896). Moreover, the frequency of the KIR3DL1/3DS1 genotype was greater in the AS group than in the control group ( P = 0.039, OR = 3.059, 95 % CI = 1.357-6.896). In contrast, the frequency of the no KIR3DL1/no 3DS1 genotype was lower in patients with AS compared with the controls ( P = 0.032, OR = 0.110, 95 % CI = 0.013-0.911). Conclusion: KIR3DS1, in addition to HLA-B27, may play an important independent role in the pathogenesis of AS in the Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]