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Methionine and choline both are essential nutrients which are needed for methyl group metabolism. A methionine-choline-deficient (MCD) diet leads to pathological changes in the kidney. The mechanism of the MCD diet is complex, and fundamental research is still required to provide a better understanding of the driving forces behind it. We evaluated the regional effects of the MCD diet on the metabolites of mouse kidney tissue using desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry imaging technology. A total of 20, 17, and 13 metabolites were significantly changed in the cortex, outer medulla, and inner medulla, respectively, of the mouse kidney tissue after the administration of the MCD diet. Among the discriminating metabolites, only three metabolites (guanidoacetic acid, serine, and nicotinamide riboside) were significantly increased, and all the other metabolites showed a significant decrease. The results showed that there were significant region-specific changes in the serine metabolism, carnitine metabolism, choline metabolism, and arginine metabolism. This study presents unique regional metabolic data, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the molecular characteristics of the MCD diet in the kidney. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aims to decrease the scan time and enhance image quality in pediatric total-body PET imaging by utilizing multimodal artificial intelligence techniques. Methods: A total of 270 pediatric patients who underwent total-body PET/CT scans with a uEXPLORER at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center were retrospectively enrolled. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) was administered at a dose of 3.7 MBq/kg with an acquisition time of 600 s. Short-term scan PET images (acquired within 6, 15, 30, 60 and 150 s) were obtained by truncating the list-mode data. A three-dimensional (3D) neural network was developed with a residual network as the basic structure, fusing low-dose CT images as prior information, which were fed to the network at different scales. The short-term PET images and low-dose CT images were processed by the multimodal 3D network to generate full-length, high-dose PET images. The nonlocal means method and the same 3D network without the fused CT information were used as reference methods. The performance of the network model was evaluated by quantitative and qualitative analyses. Results: Multimodal artificial intelligence techniques can significantly improve PET image quality. When fused with prior CT information, the anatomical information of the images was enhanced, and 60 s of scan data produced images of quality comparable to that of the full-time data. Conclusion: Multimodal artificial intelligence techniques can effectively improve the quality of pediatric total-body PET/CT images acquired using ultrashort scan times. This has the potential to decrease the use of sedation, enhance guardian confidence, and reduce the probability of motion artifacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To compare the diagnostic and staging efficacy of PET/diagnostic-level CT (PET/DxCT) and PET/low-dose CT (PET/LDCT) in pretreatment pediatric lymphoma patients and to estimate the reduction of the CT effective dose in the PET/CT scan. Methods: One hundred and five pediatric patients who underwent total-body PET/CT examination were enrolled and divided into the DxCT group (n = 47) and LDCT group (n = 58) according to their dose levels. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of PET/DxCT and PET/LDCT for detecting the involvement of lymph node, spleen, bone marrow, and other extranodal organs in pretreatment lymphoma were compared. ROC analysis was performed to evaluate the integral efficiency. The staging accuracies based on PET/DxCT and PET/LDCT were also evaluated. Dosimetry was calculated for DxCT and LDCT, and the reduction in the effective dose was estimated. Results: In the diagnosis of nodal, splenic, bone marrow, and other extranodal involvement, the differences in sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV between PET/LDCT and PET/DxCT were not significant (all p values ∈ [0.332, 1.000]). Both modalities had accuracies above 90% and the ROC analysis indicated good or high efficiency in diagnosing all patterns of lymphoma involvement. PET/LDCT and PET/DxCT each had a staging accuracy of 89.7% and 89.4%, respectively. LDCT had a comparable image quality score with DxCT, with a significant increase in noise (p < 0.001) and a 66.1% reduction in effective dose. Conclusions: PET/LDCT allowed for a 66.1% CT effective dose reduction compared to PET/DxCT in pediatric lymphoma patients without compromising the diagnostic and staging efficacy. Key Points: • Pediatric lymphoma patients can benefit from a reduced effective dose of PET/CT. • This retrospective study showed that the diagnostic and staging efficacies of PET/low-dose CT are comparable to those of PET/diagnostic-level CT, both with satisfactory efficiency in diagnosing all patterns of lymphoma involvement. • PET/low-dose CT allowed for a 66.1% CT effective dose reduction compared to PET/diagnostic-level CT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a life-threatening complication in patients with cirrhosis. We aimed to develop an explainable machine learning model to achieve the early prediction and outcome interpretation of SBP. We used CatBoost algorithm to construct MODEL-1 with 46 variables. After dimensionality reduction, we constructed MODEL-2. We calculated and compared the sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) of MODEL-1 and MODEL-2. Finally, we used the SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) method to provide insights into the model's outcome or prediction. MODEL-2 (AUROC: 0.822; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.783–0.856), liked MODEL-1 (AUROC: 0.822; 95% CI 0.784–0.856), could well predict the risk of SBP in cirrhotic ascites patients. The 6 most influential predictive variables were total protein, C-reactive protein, prothrombin activity, cholinesterase, lymphocyte ratio and apolipoprotein A1. For binary classifier, the sensitivity and NPV of MODEL-1 were 0.894 and 0.885, respectively, while for MODEL-2 they were 0.927 and 0.904, respectively. We applied CatBoost algorithm to establish a practical and explainable prediction model for risk of SBP in cirrhotic patients with ascites. We also identified 6 important variables closely related to the occurrence of SBP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of low or high conditional quantiles is called for in many applications, but commonly encountered data sparsity at the tails of distributions makes this a challenging task. We develop a Bayesian joint-quantile regression method to borrow information across tail quantiles through a linear approximation of quantile coefficients. Motivated by a working likelihood linked to the asymmetric Laplace distributions, we propose a new Bayesian estimator for high quantiles by using a delayed rejection and adaptive Metropolis and Gibbs algorithm. We demonstrate through numerical studies that the proposed estimator is generally more stable and efficient than conventional methods for estimating tail quantiles, especially at small and modest sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dots (CDs) with different doping elements were successfully synthesized via a simple hydrothermal strategy. 3-amino-4-chlorophenylboronic acid, 3-aminobenzeneboronic acid, aniline, and benzene were used as precursors, respectively. The B/N co-doping CDs (BNCDs) derived from 3-aminobenzeneboronic acid show brightest fluorescence among the CDs products with quantum yield at 0.15. The fluorescence of BNCDs exhibits good photostability and excitation-independent emission behavior. The bright blue emission of BNCDs can be quenched by serine, which is a kind of neutral aliphatic amino acid containing hyroxyl groups with polarity. It is possibly due to the molecular collision between excited state of BNCDs and the ground state of serine. BNCDs can be served as fluorophore probe for the assay of serine based on the efficient quenching effect. The approach for the determination of serine shows a high sensitivity with a detection limit at 0.14 nM, which is lower than those of previous works. Furthermore, the present BNCDs system can be employed to monitor serine in real food and biological samples. The strategy may be a potential way for the application in food safety and biomedicine fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disease that is predominantly mediated by T-lymphocytes and keratinocytes. Tacrolimus is T cell-targeted immunosuppression drug that has been widely used in topical therapy of psoriasis; however, the pharmacologic effect of tacrolimus on human keratinocytes has not been fully clarified. This study aimed to investigate the potential regulatory effect of tacrolimus on TNF-α/ IL-17A-costimulated human keratinocytes in the mimic psoriatic microenvironment. The cultured normal human keratinocytes (NHKs) were divided into the following groups: control, TNF-α/IL-17A, tacrolimus, and TNF-α/IL-17A + tacrolimus. Cultured cells and supernatant were collected after 24 h, and then real-time quantitative PCR, western blot, and ELISA analysis were performed. Foreskin tissues were treated by using TNF-α, IL-17A, and tacrolimus 0.03% ointment and then cultured for 24 h, and immunohistochemistry was performed. NHKs expressed significant IL-36γ, CCL-20, IL-1β, S100-A9, and CXCL-1 mRNA after TNF-α/IL-17A treatment. Tacrolimus significantly inhibited TNF-α/IL-17A-induced IL-36γ, CCL-20, IL-1β, and S100-A9 expression at gene level and IL-36γ and CCL-20 expression at protein level. We further discovered TNF-α/IL-17A induced significant IκBζ mRNA and protein expression in NHKs, which could be inhibited by tacrolimus. Tacrolimus can inhibit pro-inflammatory synergistic action of TNF-α/IL-17A on human keratinocytes by regulating IκBζ expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term datasets of water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, phosphate and nitrate from 1973 to 2013 were used to study interannual variations of these parameters along a transect (section PN) across the Kuroshio and shelf area in the East China Sea. Water temperature and salinity at depths of 0-200 m showed a low-high-low-high pattern over the 40-year period. Water temperature and salinity at 500 m were relatively high from 1985 to 1990 and decreased continuously thereafter. Salinity at 800 m was lowest around 1993 and increased thereafter. Nutrients were highest between 1980 and 1985. After 1985, nutrients at 500 m were increasing. The range of variation in nutrients was large before 1985 and the magnitude increased with greater depths. Apparent oxygen utilization at 500 m depth was decreasing before 1990 and started to increase after 1992. Significant changes after 1990 at 500 m depth may be due to the upward trend of the upper boundary of Kuroshio intermediate water. Interannual variation of water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, phosphate and nitrate along section PN has a significant correlation with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the log-behavior of a new sequence $\{S_{n}\} _{n=0}^{\infty}$ , which was defined by Z-W Sun. We find that the sequence is log-convex by using the interlacing method. Additionally, we consider ratio log-behavior of $\{S_{n}\}_{n=0}^{\infty}$ and find the sequences $\{S_{n+1}/S_{n}\}_{n=0}^{\infty}$ and $\{\sqrt[n]{S_{n}}\} _{n=1}^{\infty}$ are log-concave. Our results give an affirmative answer to a conjecture of Z-W Sun on the ratio monotonicity of this new sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The drug development process consumes 9–12 years and approximately one billion US dollars in costs. Due to the high finances and time costs required by the traditional drug discovery paradigm, repurposing old drugs to treat cancer and rare diseases is becoming popular. Computational approaches are mainly data-driven and involve a systematic analysis of different data types leading to the formulation of repurposing hypotheses. This study presents a novel scoring algorithm based on chemical and genomic data to repurpose drugs for 669 diseases from 22 groups, including various cancers, musculoskeletal, infections, cardiovascular, and skin diseases. The data types used to design the scoring algorithm are chemical structures, drug-target interactions (DTI), pathways, and disease-gene associations. The repurposed scoring algorithm is strengthened by integrating the most comprehensive manually curated datasets for each data type. At DrugRepo score ≥ 0.4, we repurposed 516 approved drugs across 545 diseases. Moreover, hundreds of novel predicted compounds can be matched with ongoing studies at clinical trials. Our analysis is supported by a web tool available at: http://drugrepo.org/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing evidence showing that adiponectin (APN) can improve Alzheimer’s disease(AD)-like pathological changes by improving insulin resistance. However, the role of AdipoRon (an Adiponectin receptor agonist) on synaptic plasticity and cognitive dysfunction in the early stages of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the neuroprotective effect and the molecular mechanism underlying the effect of AdipoRon in T2DM mice. We found that AdipoRon significantly restored the cognitive deficits in T2DM mice, including shorter escape latency, more crossing times, increased distances, and percentage of time in the target quadrant. In addition, AdipoRon treatment up-regulated synaptic proteins (PSD95, SYN, GAP43, and SYP), increased the number of hippocampal synapses and attenuated synaptic damage, including the length, the number and the density of dendritic spines in CA1 and DG regions. Furthermore, AdipoRon attenuated Tau phosphorylation at multiple AD-related sites (p-tau 205, p-tau 396, p-tau 404) by promoting AdipoR expression and activating the AMPK/mTOR pathway. Our data suggests that AdipoRon exerts neuroprotective effects on the T2DM mice, which may be mediated by the activation of the AdipoR/AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fluorometric method is described for "turn-on" sensing of pH values via black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQD). Water-stable BPQD were synthesized by a liquid exfoliation method and characterized by TEM, FT-IR, XPS, and absorption and fluorescence spectra. The nanoparticles of BPQD have a uniform distribution with an average size of 5.2 nm. They exhibit bright green fluorescence, with excitation/emission maxima at 420/515 nm. The fluorescence of the BPQD is likely to arise from the quasi-molecular fluorophores of polycyclic aromatic compounds carrying P-P, P-O-P, and PxOy functions on its surface. The protonation and deprotonation of hydroxyl groups of BPQD causes a different degree of quenching of the BPQD. At pH values below 4.0, protons bind to BPQD to form non-fluorescent ground state complexes. At pH values above 4.0, the hydroxyl groups become deprotonated, and this induces the recovery of fluorescence. The sensor has a linear response in the pH range of 1.0–9.0. It was successfully applied to the determination of the pH values in human urine and serum samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the predictive value of metabolic features in response to induction immuno-chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced non-small cell cancer (LA-NSCLC), using ultra-high sensitivity dynamic total body [18F]FDG PET/CT. Methods: The study analyzed LA-NSCLC patients who received two cycles of induction immuno-chemotherapy and underwent a 60-min dynamic total body [18F]FDG PET/CT scan before treatment. The primary tumors (PTs) were manually delineated, and their metabolic features, including the Patlak-Ki, Patlak-Intercept, maximum SUV (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were evaluated. The overall response rate (ORR) to induction immuno-chemotherapy was evaluated according to RECIST 1.1 criteria. The Patlak-Ki of PTs was calculated from the 20–60 min frames using the Patlak graphical analysis. The best feature was selected using Laplacian feature importance scores, and an unsupervised K-Means method was applied to cluster patients. ROC curve was used to examine the effect of selected metabolic feature in predicting tumor response to treatment. The targeted next generation sequencing on 1021 genes was conducted. The expressions of CD68, CD86, CD163, CD206, CD33, CD34, Ki67 and VEGFA were assayed through immunohistochemistry. The independent samples t test and the Mann–Whitney U test were applied in the intergroup comparison. Statistical significance was considered at P < 0.05. Results: Thirty-seven LA-NSCLC patients were analyzed between September 2020 and November 2021. All patients received two cycles of induction chemotherapy combined with Nivolumab/ Camrelizumab. The Laplacian scores showed that the Patlak-Ki of PTs had the highest importance for patient clustering, and the unsupervised K-Means derived decision boundary of Patlak-Ki was 2.779 ml/min/100 g. Patients were categorized into two groups based on their Patlak-Ki values: high FDG Patlak-Ki (H-FDG-Ki, Patlak-Ki > 2.779 ml/min/100 g) group (n = 23) and low FDG Patlak-Ki (L-FDG-Ki, Patlak-Ki ≤ 2.779 ml/min/100 g) group (n = 14). The ORR to induction immuno-chemotherapy was 67.6% (25/37) in the whole cohort, with 87% (20/23) in H-FDG-Ki group and 35.7% (5/14) in L-FDG-Ki group (P = 0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of Patlak-Ki in predicting the treatment response were 80% and 75%, respectively [AUC = 0.775 (95%CI 0.605–0.945)]. The expression of CD3+/CD8+ T cells and CD86+/CD163+/CD206+ macrophages were higher in the H-FDG-Ki group, while Ki67, CD33+ myeloid cells, CD34+ micro-vessel density (MVD) and tumor mutation burden (TMB) were comparable between the two groups. Conclusions: The total body [18F]FDG PET/CT scanner performed a dynamic acquisition of the entire body and clustered LA-NSCLC patients into H-FDG-Ki and L-FDG-Ki groups based on the Patlak-Ki. Patients with H-FDG-Ki demonstrated better response to induction immuno-chemotherapy and higher levels of immune cell infiltration in the PTs compared to those with L-FDG-Ki. Further studies with a larger patient cohort are required to validate these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salvianolic acid B is an antioxidative ingredient derived from Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae that has been widely used to treat liver diseases. However, the therapeutic mechanism underlying Salvianolic acid B has remained largely unknown. Our studies verified that Salvianolic acid B efficiently blocked mitochondrial deformation and dysfunction induced by H2O2 in the human hepatocyte cell line HL7702. Mortalin, a mitochondrial molecular chaperone, maintains mitochondrial morphology stabilization and function integrity. Previous results showed that mortalin overexpression has been observed in hematoma carcinoma cells and that mortalin maintains mitochondrial homeostasis and antagonizes oxidative stress damage. We found that Salvianolic acid B significantly up-regulated mortalin protein expression levels. In addition, Salvianolic acid B lost the function of preventing mitochondrial deformation and dysfunction induced by oxidative stress under mortalin knockdown conditions. We further found that mortalin overexpression increases the mRNA expression of mitofusin-related factor Mfn1 and mitofission-related factor hFis1. In conclusion, Salvianolic acid B maintains the mitochondrial structure stabilization and functional integrity by up-regulating mortalin, which may be associated with increased mitofusin factor Mfn1 and reduced mitofission factor hFis1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aneuploid refers to the gene dosage imbalance due to copy number alterations. Aneuploidy is generally harmful to the growth, development and reproduction of organisms according to the numerous research. However, it has rarely been reported on whether aneuploid have a relevant pattern of genome expression between the parental and its offspring generations. In this study, mRNA sequencing analysis was performed on rice (Oryza sativa L.) primary trisomes 11 and 12, same primary trisomes and normal individuals in their filial generation. We systematically summarized the changes in gene expression patterns that occur on cis genes and on trans genes between parental and filial generations. In T11 and T12, the ratio of cis-gene expression showed intermediate type in parents and dosage compensation in filial generations, which maybe due to more genes being downregulated. The trans genes were also affected by aneuploidy and manifested as cis-related. The strains with normal chromosomes in filial generations, there are still aneuploid-sensitive genes differentially expressed in their genomes, indicating that the effect of aneuploidy is far-reaching and could not be easily eliminated. Meanwhile, among these differentially expressed genes, genes with low-expression level were more likely to be upregulated, while genes with medium- and high-expression level were easy to be downregulated. For the different types of rice aneuploid, upregulated genes were mainly associated with genomic imbalance while downregulated genes were mainly influenced by the specific added chromosome. In conclusion, our results provide new insights into the genetic characterization and evolution of biological aneuploidy genomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To explore the impact of a true half dose of [18F]-FDG on image quality in pediatric oncological patients undergoing total-body PET/CT and investigate short acquisition times with half-dose injected activity. Methods: One hundred pediatric oncological patients who underwent total-body PET/CT using the uEXPLORER scanner after receiving a true half dose of [18F]-FDG (1.85 MBq/kg) were retrospectively enrolled. The PET images were first reconstructed using complete 600-s data and then split into 300-s, 180-s, 60-s, 40-s, and 20-s duration groups (G600 to G20). The subjective analysis was performed using 5-point Likert scales. Objective quantitative metrics included the maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax), SUVmean, standard deviation (SD), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and SNRnorm of the background. The variabilities in lesion SUVmean, SUVmax, and tumor-to-background ratio (TBR) were also calculated. Results: The overall image quality scores in the G600, G300, G180, and G60 groups were 4.9 ± 0.2, 4.9 ± 0.3, 4.4 ± 0.5, and 3.5 ± 0.5 points, respectively. All the lesions identified in the half-dose images were localized in the G60 images, while 56% of the lesions could be clearly identified in the G20 images. With reduced acquisition time, the SUVmax and SD of the backgrounds were gradually increased, while the TBR values showed no statistically significant differences among the groups (all p > 0.1). Using the half-dose images as a reference, the variability in the lesion SUVmax gradually increased from the G180 to G20 images, while the lesion SUVmean remained stable across all age groups. SNRnorm was highly negatively correlated with age. Conclusion: Total-body PET/CT with a half dose of [18F]-FDG (1.85 MBq/kg, estimated whole-body effective dose: 1.76–2.57 mSv) achieved good performance in pediatric patients, with sufficient image quality and good lesion conspicuity. Sufficient image quality and lesion conspicuity could be maintained at a fast scanning time of 60 s with half-dose activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was the first time to report the aggregation induced emission (AIE) of acetaldehyde (AA) on the surface of carbonized polymer dots (CPDs) with the auxiliary of Tb3+. Based on the AIE of AA, a turn-off–on fluorescence method was established for AA detection using the porous CPDs-Tb3+ system. The one-pot hydrothermal method was used to obtain CPDs, using milk and polyethyleneimine (PEI) as precursors. In the presence of Tb3+, CPDs aggregated immediately and even forming precipitate, and the fluorescence intensity decreased obviously. AA can effectively embed on the surface of CPDs-Tb3+ due to the porous structure. AA displayed obviously blue fluorescence with excitation wavelength at 370 nm (emission peak at 460 nm), while there was no fluorescence peak when excited at 460 nm. In the CPDs-Tb3+ solution, AA exhibits obvious fluorescence enhancement effect (λex 460 nm, λem 545 nm). And then, AA can be determined by the turn-off–on system based on the linear relationship between fluorescence enhancement and the concentration of AA ranging from 0.04 mM to 42.48 mM. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.02 mM. The turn-off–on system was successfully applied to determine AA in wine samples. The strategy may be exploited to monitor AA in more drinking or foodstuff samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this report, a new series of C2-symmetric bis(sulfonyl) tetraaza ligands were synthesized from (1S,2S)-1,2-diarylethylenediamine analogues and tested in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH) of aromatic ketones by complexing with [Ru( η- p-cymene)Cl] employing sodium formate as hydrogen source in neat water. A moderate to excellent conversion (~99.8 %) and overall satisfying enantioselectivity (~92.8 %) were obtained with varied electronic and steric effects of the substituents on ligands and substrates. Graphical Abstract: A new series of C2-symmetric bis(sulfonyl) tetraaza ligands was synthesized from (1S,2S)-1,2-diarylethylenediamine analogues and tested in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones by complexing with [Ru(η- p-cymene)Cl] employing formate sodium as hydrogen source in neat water. A moderate to excellent conversion (~99.8 %) and overall satisfying enantioselectivity (~92.8 %) were obtained with varied electronic and steric effects of the substituents on ligands and substrates.[Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Image of the month A 5-year-old boy with left parapharyngeal space mass was scheduled to a PET/CT examination for disease diagnosis. Overall, this case proposed a method using LAFOV PET/CT to salvage an examination which would otherwise have been lost due to involuntary movement of a child without sedation and avoided extra dose to the patient. [Extracted from the article]

I Stephania sinica i Diels, a slightly fleshy deciduous vine in the I Stephania i species, belongs to the family Menispermaceae [[1]] and is widely distributed in the southwest of China, such as Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guangxi Province. The cytotoxic and apoptosis activity of compound B 1 b was also tested, which showed moderate activity against MGC-803, NCI-H460, SKOV3, and T24 (hydroxycamptothecin was the positive control) (Table 2). All isolated compounds ( B 1-6 b ) were screened for their antibacterial activity and antibiotic resistance activity towards a panel of bacteria. [Extracted from the article]

The zwitterionic copolymers are widely used for fluid loss additive in water-based drilling fluid due to their good performance in reducing the filtration loss and inhibiting the swelling of shales. However, there are still shortcomings to the conventional zwitterionic copolymer such as the poor properties of salt tolerance and thermal stability. This study synthesized a new kind of copolymer consisting of acrylamide (AM), 2-acryloylamino-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS), diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (DMDAAC), and the synthesized betaine-type monomer (vinylphenyl sulfonate (VPS)) (copolymer (PVAAD)) through introducing AMPS, DMDAAC, and VPS onto the backbone of AM via the method of free radical polymerization in aqueous solution. The biggest difference of PVAAD with the conventional zwitterionic copolymer is that there are zwitterions in the same chain and the different chain in the molecular structure of PVAAD. Results of performance evaluation show that the synthesized PVAAD used as fluid loss additive has good performances. It could be used as a fluid loss additive for water-based drilling fluid in salty and high-temperature environment. After adding 1.25 wt% of PVAAD, the structure of the filter cake of the copolymer drilling fluid system becomes relatively uniform and dense, and the particle size distribution of the freshwater drilling fluid tends to become more rational. Compared with the other commercial fluid loss additives, the synthesized PVAAD has a better property of high-temperature resistance and performance in controlling the American Petroleum Institute (API) filtration loss of drilling fluid systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autosomal dominant hypophosphatemic rickets (ADHR; MIM 193100) is a hereditary disorder characterized by isolated renal phosphate wasting, hypophosphatemia, and inappropriately normal 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D levels. Recent studies have shown that the fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) gene is responsible for this disease. FGF23 protein is a phosphaturic factor that is elevated in several diseases associated with hypophosphatemia and rickets but varies with disease status in ADHR. In the present study we observed a Chinese family of Han ethnic origin diagnosed with ADHR. The proband is a 30-year-old woman with no history of rickets but with multiple tooth abscesses as a young adult. She presented with progressive painful swelling of the left ankle after a blunt trauma at 26 years of age. She developed back pain, generalized weakness, and fatigue, and she could barely walk at age 27. She was found to have severe hypophosphatemia, low ratio of phosphorus tubule maximum (TmP) to glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (TmP/GFR), and elevated alkaline phosphatase at age 28. Her brother, 26 years old, presented with fatigue at 24 years of age and is normophosphatemic. The parents of this family had no history of rickets or hypophosphatemia. Direct sequence analysis of genomic DNA demonstrated a single heterozygous c.527G>A (p.R176Q) mutation in the FGF23 gene in three family members, including the proband, her brother, and their mother. Intact FGF23 assay of seven time points during the oral phosphate loading test showed no significant relationship between intact FGF23 and serum phosphorus levels of the subject with ADHR and a control. It is probably the first report of a Chinese family with ADHR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichosanthin (TCS), an active component extracted from the root tubers of traditional Chinese medical herb Tian-Hua-Fen of the Cucurbitaceae family, has long been used for medical purpose in China; there is increasing interest in developing TCS as cancer therapeutic agents. The present study was to investigate the growth arrest of K562 cells and its molecular mechanisms, which the drugs induced by TCS and the possible functional interaction of TCS with imatinib (STI571) to K562 cells. Trypan blue exclusive staining was used to access the cell growth inhibition; western blot was used to evaluate the p210Bcr-Abl, phosphorylated tyrosine kinase (PTK), and some signaling molecules involving in cell proliferation and apoptosis in K562 cells. TCS and imatinib inhibited K562 cells at a time- and dose-dependent manners, respectively; TCS down-regulated p210Bcr-Abl at a time- and dose-dependent manners; TCS synergistically enhanced imatinib-induced K562 cell growth arrest and down-regulation of p210Bcr-Abl, PTK activities, procaspase-3, Hsp90,NF-κB and PKC. The results suggest that TCS not only by itself involves but also synergizes activities of imatinib to induce K562 cell growth arrest, down-regulation of p210Bcr-Abl and its downstream signals and to stimulate the effect of the tyrosine kinase inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation on the effect of various microbes on degradation was carried out as part of the study on bioremediation of oil-polluted wetland at LiaoDong Bay in northeast China. The method used involved direct inoculation of selected bacteria, which were capable of degrading oil, to the soil samples. The combination of various bacteria showed better results in terms of oil degradation than any single ones due to their synergetic effects. The operation conditions [pH 8.0, 25°C, C/N/P (40:5.6:1)] for these bacteria to degrade the oil content in the soil samples were also studied and optimized. Addition of appropriate surfactants was helpful for bacteria growth, thus favoring the oil degradation. For instance, after adding Tween 80 (300 mg/kg) for 8 days, the number of bacteria was amplified 6.22 times and the rate of oil degradation increased by 20%. Adequate amount of H2O2 was also beneficial for microbes to decompose oil. However, overdosage may cause the death of the bacteria. The addition of 400 mg/l H2O2 each time was suitable. Seven thousand milligrams of H2O2 was added entirely in 11 days, and the rate of oil degradation increased significantly from 27% (without H2O2) up to 67%. The study clearly demonstrated that the direct soil inoculation was an effective method for environmental bioremediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report gene targeting via homologous recombination in zebrafish. We co-injected fertilized eggs with transcription activator-like effector nuclease mRNAs and a donor vector with long homologous arms targeting the tyrosine hydroxylase (th) locus, and we observed effective gene modification that was transmitted through the germ line. We also successfully targeted two additional genes. Homologous recombination in zebrafish with a dsDNA donor expands the utility of this model organism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease, is the major cause of life-threatening complications such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Endothelial apoptosis plays a vital role in the initiation and progression of atherosclerotic lesions. Although a subset of microRNAs (miRs) have been identified as critical regulators of atherosclerosis, studies on their participation in endothelial apoptosis in atherosclerosis have been limited. In our study, we found that miR-26a expression was substantially reduced in the aortic intima of ApoE−/− mice fed with a high-fat diet (HFD). Treatment of human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) with oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) suppressed miR-26a expression. Forced expression of miR-26a inhibited endothelial apoptosis as evidenced by MTT assay and TUNEL staining results. Further analysis identified TRPC6 as a target of miR-26a, and TRPC6 overexpression abolished the anti-apoptotic effect of miR-26a. Moreover, the cytosolic calcium and the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway were found to mediate the beneficial effects of miR-26a on endothelial apoptosis. Taken together, our study reveals a novel role of miR-26a in endothelial apoptosis and indicates a therapeutic potential of miR-26a for atherosclerosis associated with apoptotic cell death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]