Search

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets of coronary artery disease due to their high stability, covalently closed structure. And implied roles in gene regulation. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize circRNAs from human coronary arteries. Epicardial coronary arteries were removed during the autopsy of an 81-year-old man who died from heart attack. The natural history and histological classification of atherosclerotic lesions in coronary artery segments were analyzed by hematoxylin and eosin staining, and their circRNA expression profiles were characterized by RNA sequencing. RNA sequencing identified 1259 annotated and 381 novel circRNAs. Combined with the results of histologic examination, intersection analysis identified 54 upregulated and 12 downregulated circRNAs, representing 4.0% of the total number. Coronary artery segments with or without severe atherosclerosis showed distinctly different circRNA profiles on the basis of hierarchical clustering. Our results suggest that these 66 circRNAs contribute to the pathology underlying coronary artery atherosclerosis and may serve as diagnostic or therapeutic targets in coronary artery disease.

The current study aimed to investigate the effects of tetramethylprazine (TMP) on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (MI/R) injury and its underlying mechanisms. MI/R rat model and hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) cardiomyocytes model were established. CK level and LDH activity were detected to evaluate MI/R and H/R injury. Cell viability was determined by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. Cell apoptosis were identified by flow cytometry and autophagy were detected by western blot. Treatment with TMP significantly reduced CK level and LDH activity and decreased myocardial infarct size in MI/R rats. TMP reduced autophagy dysfunction induced by MI/R. Moreover, TMP treatment decreased H/R-induced injury and attenuated autophagy dysfunction in cardiomyocytes. Inhibiting autophagic flux with chloroquine (CQ) decreased the cardioprotection exerted by TMP in vivo and in vitro. Additionally, the effects of TMP on the modulation of autophagy were inhibited by LY294002 (a PI3K inhibitor) in H/R cardiomyocytes. Our findings suggested TMP exerted cardioprotection against MI/R injury by decreasing Beclin-1 associated autophagy dysfunction through PI3K pathway.

Background and aim: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) may be potential biomarkers or therapeutic targets of coronary artery disease due to their high stability, covalently closed structure. and implicated roles in gene regulation. The aim of this study was to determine and characterize the circRNAs from human coronary artery. Method: A 81 years male subject died from heart attack, at autopsy, epicardial coronary arteries were removed from the hearts. The natural history and histological classification of atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary artery samples which were analyzed by Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining, and the circRNAs expression profile was characterize by RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq). Results: When evaluated, by the RNA-Seq profiling in coronary artery samples, 1259 annotated circRNA and 381 novel circRNAs were identified. Combination with the results of Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining in coronary artery samples, the intersection analysis suggesting that the 54 up- and 12 downregulated circRNAs, representing 4.0% of the total amount, were distinctly found. Moreover, two groups of coronary artery segments, with or without severe atherosclerosis, were distinctly differentiated by these circRNAs on the basis of hierarchical clustering. Conclusions: The sixty six circRNAs are suggested to play a pathological role underlying the coronary arteries atherosclerosis and may serve as a valuable resource as diagnostic or therapeutic targets against coronary artery disease. Funding: The National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants30400173, 30971257, and 81170180) A project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions. Declaration of Interest: There was not any conflict of interest existing in this manuscript. Ethical Approval: The methods were performed in accordance with the approved guidelines, and all experimental protocols were approved by the ethics committee of the Nanjing Medical University and the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University.

To understand the influence of myocardial bridging (MB) on left ventricular (LV) function, myocardial function was studied in patients with MB of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) using three-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE).Left anterior descending coronary artery MB was diagnosed by coronary angiography in 82 subjects. Patients were divided into three groups according to the percentage of systolic narrowing of the compressed segment: 30% to 49% was defined as group I (24 patients), 50% to 74% as group II (28 patients), and ≥75% as group III (30 patients). Thirty gender- and age-matched normal subjects were included as controls. Left ventricular myocardial deformation was estimated by three-dimensional STE.Left ventricular ejection fractions were normal in all patients, but diastolic function was impaired in groups II and III (E/E' ratio, 9 ± 3 and 10 ± 3, respectively). The amplitudes of longitudinal strain (LS) and area strain (AS) of the LAD territory was significantly reduced in groups II and III compared with controls and group I (LS, -15 ± 2% and -12 ± 1% vs -19 ± 2% and -18 ± 2%; AS, -22 ± 2% and -13 ± 2% vs -33 ± 4% and -33 ± 3%; P .0001), but the amplitudes of circumferential and radial strain showed no intergroup differences. Longitudinal strain and AS were significantly lower in patients with fractional flow reserve0.75 than in those with fractional flow reserve ≥ 0.75 (P .0001), with relative preservation of circumferential and radial strain. The severity of LAD compression was significantly associated with AS and LS of the LAD territory (r = -0.92 and r = -0.84, respectively, P .0001), but the correlations with circumferential and radial strain were modest (r = -0.36 and r = -0.32, respectively, P .05).With the increasing severity of systolic compression of the mural coronary artery, LV diastolic function and regional systolic deformation (AS and LS) of the MB perfusion territory were reduced. Three-dimensional STE can detect subtle myocardial dysfunction in patients with MB.

The low-temperature plasma technology has the comprehensive action of high-energy electron, ultraviolet light, ozone etc. The technology that integrates light, electronic and chemical oxidation into one process has a good development prospect in wastewater treatment. In this paper, the research status and development trend of high-voltage pulsed discharge, dielectric barrier discharge, glow discharge for organic wastewater treatment at home and abroad are summarized. The current main existing problems include single treatment object oriented. In the future, the study about this technique should be focused on the optimization process, the reduction of the processing cost and energy consumption, so that this technology can be applied to practical wastewater treatment as soon as possible.Key words: Low temperature plasma technology; High-voltage pulsed discharge; Glow discharge; Dielectric barrier discharge; Wastewater

UNLABELLED Following peripheral nerve injury (PNI) microglia proliferates and adopts inflammation that contributes to development and maintenance of neuropathic pain. miRNAs and autophagy are two important factors in the regulation of inflammation. However, little is known about whether miRNAs regulate neuroinflammation and neuropathic pain by controlling autophagy. In the study, we demonstrated that miR-195 levels were markedly increased in rats subjected to L5 spinal nerve ligation (SNL). Upregulated miR-195 was also found in spinal microglia of rats with SNL. The overexpression of miR-195 contributed to lipopolysaccharide-induced expression of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, TNF-α, and iNOS in cultured microglia. Upregulated miR-195 also resulted in increased mechanical and cold hypersensitivity after PNI, whereas miR-195 inhibition reduced mechanical and cold sensitivity. We further demonstrated that PNI significantly inhibited microglial autophagy activation, whereas miR-195 inhibitor treatment increased autophagy activation and suppressed neuroinflammation in vivo and in vitro. More important, autophagy inhibition impaired miR-195 inhibitor-induced downregulation of neuroinflammation and neuropathic pain. Additionally, ATG14 was identified as the functional target of miR-195. CONCLUSIONS These data demonstrated that miR-195/autophagy signaling represents a novel pathway regulating neuroinflammation and neuropathic pain, thus offering a new target for therapy of neuropathic pain.

In this paper, cobalt oxide was deposited on the surface of Activated Carbon Fiber (ACF) by adsorption and was then sintered. The effects of cobalt oxide on the properties of ACF were studied by XPS, FTIR, and XRD methods. Mercury removal performance was also investigated. 5% cobalt was well dispersed on the surface of ACF, and a variety of oxygen-containing groups had been enhanced. The chemical functional groups on the surface of ACF were changed to strengthen the adsorption and catalytic oxidation of ACF to the element mercury (Hg0). The measurement results showed that ACF coated with cobalt oxide had higher adsorption properties.

Seven groups, total of 31 single-bolted steel-glulam-steel joints, were tested for their mechanical performance. The mechanical properties of single-bolted steel-glulam-steel connection subjected to a load parallel to the grain have been studied. The failure mode and failure mechanism of bolted connections were discussed in detail. It is shown that the failure mode, bearing capacity, stiffness and ductility of the joint are mainly relative to the thickness of the glulam and the diameter of the bolt. Due to the wide application of bolted steel-glulam-steel connections in engineering, the present work can be taken as a reference in manufacture, and design of modern timber structures.

Nickel was loaded on the activated carbon fiber(ACF) surface, by adsorption and sintering. In order to change the chemical functional groups on the carbon fiber surface, and increase catalytic oxidation capacity and removal efficiency of activated carbon fiber to element mercury. The samples of ACF were characterized before and after loading, using XPS and XRD. The results show that the nickel content in the ACF surface was 3.36at.%. The presence of nickel form was NiO and Ni. The adsorption ability of elemental mercury before and after modification was also studied. The breakthrough time was greatly extended after loading. At 95 , the ACF loaded nickel showed the best adsorption performance.

BDNF has a widespread distribution in the central and peripheral nervous systems, suggesting that BDNF may play a role in the regulation of motor control. However, the direct actions of BDNF on the motoneurons and their underlying mechanisms are still largely unknown to date. Therefore, by using whole-cell patch clamp recordings, quantitative RT-PCR and immunocytochemistry, the present study was designed to investigate the effects of BDNF on electrical activity and glycinergic transmission on the motoneurons and the underlying receptor mechanism. The results reveal: (i) BDNF did not produce a direct excitatory or inhibitory effect on the motoneurons; (ii) BDNF dose-dependently increased the glycinergic transmission on the motoneurons; (iii) glycinergic transmission on motoneurons was a direct postsynaptic effect; (iv) BDNF-induced enhancement of the glycinergic transmission was mediated by the activation of TrkB receptors; and (v) BDNF and its receptors TrkB had an extensive expression in the motoneurons. These results suggest that BDNF is directly involved in the regulation of glycinergic transmission on the motoneurons through postsynaptic TrkB receptors. Considering that the glycinergic synaptic transmission of motoneurons mainly comes from Renshaw cells, the important inhibitory interneurons of spinal cord, we speculate that BDNF may play an important role in the information integration in the spinal cord and participate in the sensitivity of motoneurons.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may cause subclinical myocardial injury. We aimed to assess myocardial dysfunction using layer-specific strain in OSA patitents. Seventy-four patients with OSA and no comorbidities were studied. They were divided into the following three groups according to the apnea

To explore whether there are gene mutations of Tolloid-like 1 (TLL-1) gene in Chinese patients with sporadic congenital heart disease (CHD).One hundred and fifteen patients with sporadic CHD were selected as CHD group. One hundred and two age and gender-matched healthy people were recruited as control group. After amplifying the exon 10 of the TLL-1 gene by polymerase chain reaction, the polymerase chain reaction products were purified, sequenced and analyzed in order to investigate the TLL-1 gene mutation.An insertion mutation of base A in the exon 10 of TLL-1 gene was identified in 7 out of 115 CHD patients, including 3 patients with atrial septal defect, 2 patients with ventricular septal defect, 1 patients with patent ductus arteriosus and 1 patients with complex CHD, the total mutation rate was 6.1% in CHD group and 0 in control group (P0.01).TLL-1 gene mutation with an insertion mutation of base A in exon 10 is often in Chinese patients with various CHD. The underlying pathogenesis between TLL-1 gene mutation and occurrence of congenital heart disease in Chinese people remains unclear and warrants further investigations.

To explore the association between the gene mutation of transcription factor Nkx2.5 and Chinese patients with congenital heart disease (CHD).Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing were used to check 99 CHD patients and 90 normal control subjects from the Zhong Da Hospital of Southeast University. After amplifying the exons 1 of the Nkx2.5 gene by PCR, we purified the PCR products and conducted the sequencing reaction, analyzed the mutation screening of the exon 1 of the Nkx2.5, investigated whether or not the Nkx2.5 is related with the CHD in Chinese population.A mutation (A239G) in the exon 1 of the Nkx2.5 was identified in 3 of 90 normal control subjects and 12 of 99 CHD patients, including 3 of 24 with VSD, 7 of 35 with ASD, 1 of 13 with PS and 1 of 21 with PDA.There are some associations between the Nkx2.5 gene mutation and occurrence of congenital heart disease in Chinese people.

Bacteriorhodopsin is a membrane protein of halobacteria and functions as a light-driven protein pump. After we isolated bR from cultured halobacteria, bR was mixed with amphiphilic DPPC under different pH. The liposomes were formed after sonication. The remaining biological activity of bR as a proton pump was then verified and pulsed-light-induced proton movement was detected, while liposomes were observed via TEM and light scattering. Although there was no noticeable difference in morphologies of both vesicles formed at pH=2.5 and pH=7.0, the orientations of bR in both liposomes were found to be opposite under these two conditions. This experiment confirmed that the protein bR, when self-assembling into liposomes under acid medium, kept the similar orientation as in the natural plasmid membrane. Such a normal-orientation was, however, different from most of reports in the literature about liposomes prepared under normal neutral conditions.