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BACKGROUNDWeakly virulent environmental mycobacteria (EM) can cause severe disease in HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 adults harboring neutralizing anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies (nAIGAs). The overall prevalence of nAIGAs in the general population is unknown, as are the penetrance of nAIGAs in HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 individuals and the proportion of patients with unexplained, adult-onset EM infections carrying nAIGAs.METHODSThis study analyzed the detection and neutralization of anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies (auto-Abs) from 8,430 healthy individuals of the general population, 257 HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 carriers, 1,063 patients with autoimmune disease, and 497 patients with unexplained severe disease due to EM.RESULTSWe found that anti-IFN-γ auto-Abs detected in 4,148 of 8,430 healthy individuals (49.2%) from the general population of an unknown HLA-DRB1 genotype were not neutralizing. Moreover, we did not find nAIGAs in 257 individuals carrying HLA-DRB1* 15:02 or 16:02. Additionally, nAIGAs were absent in 1,063 patients with an autoimmune disease. Finally, 7 of 497 patients (1.4%) with unexplained severe disease due to EM harbored nAIGAs.CONCLUSIONThese findings suggest that nAIGAs are isolated and that their penetrance in HLA-DRB1*15:02 or 16:02 individuals is low, implying that they may be triggered by rare germline or somatic variants. In contrast, the risk of mycobacterial disease in patients with nAIGAs is high, confirming that these nAIGAs are the cause of EM disease.FUNDINGThe Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Rockefeller University, the St. Giles Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (R01AI095983 and U19AIN1625568), the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program (UL1 TR001866), the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the Investments for the Future program (ANR-10-IAHU-01), the Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Excellence (ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID), ANR-GENMSMD (ANR-16-CE17-0005-01), ANR-MAFMACRO (ANR-22-CE92-0008), ANRSECTZ170784, the French Foundation for Medical Research (FRM) (EQU201903007798), the ANRS-COV05, ANR GENVIR (ANR-20-CE93-003), and ANR AI2D (ANR-22-CE15-0046) projects, the ANR-RHU program (ANR-21-RHUS-08-COVIFERON), the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 824110 (EASI-genomics), the Square Foundation, Grandir - Fonds de solidarité pour lenfance, the Fondation du Souffle, the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science, the Battersea & Bowery Advisory Group, William E. Ford, General Atlantics Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gabriel Caillaux, General Atlantics Co-President, Managing Director, and Head of business in EMEA, and the General Atlantic Foundation, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) and of Paris Cité University. JR was supported by the INSERM PhD program for doctors of pharmacy (poste daccueil INSERM). JR and TLV were supported by the Bettencourt-Schueller Foundation and the MD-PhD program of the Imagine Institute. MO was supported by the David Rockefeller Graduate Program, the Funai Foundation for Information Technology (FFIT), the Honjo International Scholarship Foundation (HISF), and the New York Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Society (HNMS).

BACKGROUND: Postoperative delirium (POD) is a common complication following cardiac surgery and increases postoperative morbidity and mortality. Intraoperative electroencephalogram (EEG) burst suppression suggests excessively deep anesthesia and predicts POD. Use of remimazolam provides a stable hemodynamic status and an appropriate depth of anesthesia. We aim to assess remimazolam administered for anesthesia and sedation in elderly patients having cardiac surgery. METHODS: This is a randomized controlled clinical trial with noninferiority design. A total of 260 elderly patients aged equal to or greater than 60 years undergoing cardiac surgery will be randomly allocated to receive remimazolam or propofol (1:1) for general anesthesia and postoperative sedation until extubation. The primary outcome is the cumulative time with EEG burst suppression which is obtained from the SedLine system. The noninferiority margin is 2.0 min. The secondary outcomes include the POD occurrence within the first 5 days postoperatively and the duration of perioperative hypotension. DISCUSSION: This noninferiority trial is the first to evaluate the effect of perioperative remimazolam administration on EEG burst suppression, POD occurrence, and duration of hypotension in elderly patients who undergo cardiac surgery. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2200056353).

With the development of track and field, people pay more and more attention to the quality of classroom teaching of track and field technology, and the evaluation of teaching quality plays a key role in it. In today's educational reform, teaching evaluation plays an important role as an important method to test teachers' teaching and students' learning. With the rapid development of machine learning, especially deep learning, image-based individual abnormal behavior detection technology is becoming more and more mature, but there are still many difficulties to be solved in video-based group abnormal behavior detection technology. Therefore, it is necessary to study the detection algorithm. Based on machine vision theory, image processing theory and video analysis technology, this paper studies three key technologies involved in human abnormal behavior detection in video: moving target detection, moving target tracking and abnormal behavior detection.

Polysaccharides from the dried tuber of Typhonium giganteum Engl. (TGEPs) were obtained by utilizing ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) as the extraction method. The determination of optimal process parameters for the UAE of TGEPs (TGEP-U) was accomplished through the application of response surface methodology (RSM). The structural characteristics, antioxidant and hypoglycemic effects of TGEP-U and TGEPs obtained by hot water extraction (TGEP-H) were then compared. Consequently, the optimum extraction conditions predicted by RSM for TGEP-U were obtained as adding water at a ratio of 31 mL/g and extracted for 32 min under an ultrasound power of 440 W. In the verification experiment, the actual yield of TGEP-U was 7.32 ± 0.18 %. It was found that UAE could increase the yield and the total sugar content of TGEPs. Meanwhile, chemical composition analysis showed that both TGEP-U and TGEP-H were mainly composed of mannose, rhamnose, glucuronic acid, galacturonic acid, glucose, galactose, arabinose, and fucose, but the monosaccharide molar ratios were changed by UAE. Analysis of molecular weight (Mw) revealed the presence of three primary constituents within TGEP-U, and four main components in TGEP-H, and UAE reduced the average Mw of TGEPs. No obvious difference was found in the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis of TGEP-U and TGEP-H. The Congo red and Circular dichroism tests demonstrated that TGEP-U and TGEP-H had non-three helical structure. Scanning electron microscope observation further revealed that the aggregation of functional groups within TGEPs may be influenced by ultrasound, thereby affecting their powder morphology. TGEP-U has slightly poorer thermal stability than TGEP-H, which may be affected by ultrasonic cavitation effects. The results also indicated that TGEP-U had better antioxidant and hypoglycemic activity than TGEP-H. In summary, UAE is an effective method to extract and enhance the activity of TGEPs with enormous research value and potentials.

The incidence of depression is increasing in adolescents, who are at a stage of education and therefore more concerned about their cognitive changes. We tried to preserve the rapid relief of depressive symptoms in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) while causing less cognitive impairment, thus designing the hybrid-ECT (HECT), a modified ECT therapy. Here, we report a case study of a 14-year-old male student with major depressive disorder (MDD) suffering from severe suicidality and significant impairment in social functioning who achieved effective antidepressant effects with HECT and improved cognitive function. HECT showed safety and effectiveness in adolescent MDD patient.

Four new norditerpenoid heterodimers with different dimerization patterns—namely, trigofragiloids A–C (denoted as compounds 1–3) and (+)- and (−)-trigofragiloid D (compound 4)—and three new phenanthrenone norditerpenoids—namely, trigofragiloids E–G (compounds 5–7)—were isolated from Trigonostemon fragilis. Compounds 1 and 2 feature a novel heterodimeric carbon skeleton formed by the conjugation of a tetra-norditerpenoid and an ennea-norditerpenoid; they have been identified as class 2 atropisomers by means of quantum chemical calculations. Compound 3 is an unprecedented phenylpropanoid–norditerpenoid adduct with a new dimerization pattern. Compounds (+)- and (−)-4 are the first example of S-shaped 1,4-dioxane-fused norditerpenoid dimers. Inspired by the structure elucidation of compound 4, two co-occurring analogues, actephilol A and epiactephilol A, were structurally revised as a pair of geometrical isomers and were identified as two pairs of enantiomers, (+)- and (−)-8 and (+)- and (−)-9, respectively. Their structures were characterized using a combined method. Notably, compound 7 exhibits remarkable adenosine triphosphate-citrate lyase (ACLY) inhibition with a half-maximal inhibition concentration (IC50) value of (0.46 ± 0.11) μmol∙L−1, as active as the positive control BMS-303141, and a molecular docking study offers deep insight into the interaction between compound 7 and ACLY.

Abstract Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a promising solution for treating antibiotic‐resistant pathogens. However, efficient generation of diverse AMPs without prior knowledge of peptide structures or sequence alignments remains a challenge. Here, ProT‐Diff is introduced, a modularized deep generative approach that combines a pretrained protein language model with a diffusion model for the de novo generation of AMPs sequences. ProT‐Diff generates thousands of AMPs with diverse lengths and structures within a few hours. After silico physicochemical screening, 45 peptides are selected for experimental validation. Forty‐four peptides showed antimicrobial activity against both gram‐positive or gram‐negative bacteria. Among broad‐spectrum peptides, AMP_2 exhibited potent antimicrobial activity, low hemolysis, and minimal cytotoxicity. An in vivo assessment demonstrated its effectiveness against a drug‐resistant E. coli strain in acute peritonitis. This study not only introduces a viable and user‐friendly strategy for de novo generation of antimicrobial peptides, but also provides potential antimicrobial drug candidates with excellent activity. It is believed that this study will facilitate the development of other peptide‐based drug candidates in the future, as well as proteins with tailored characteristics.

Astrocytes play significant roles in regulating the central stress response. Chronic stress impairs the structure and function of astrocytes in many brain regions such as media prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in multiple neuropsychiatric conditions, but the astrocytic dynamics on the timescale of behavior remains unclear. Here, we recorded mPFC astrocytic activity in freely behaving mice and found that astrocytes are activated immediately by different aversive stimuli. Astrocyte specific GCaMP6s calcium indicator were virally expressed in mPFC astrocytes and fiber photometry experiments revealed that astrocytes are activated by tail-restraint (TRT), foot shock (FS), open arm exploration, stressor of height, predator odor and social defeat (SD) stress. ΔF/F analyses demonstrated that an unpredictable stimulus such as elevated platform stress (EPS) at the initial encounter induced the most intense and rapid changes in astrocytic calcium activity, while a predictable 2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT) stimulus resulted in the weakest response with a longer peak latency. In TRT, FS or SD test, a somatic stimulus led to higher average calcium activity level and faster average peak latency in repeated trails. Similar to TMT stimulus, astrocytic calcium activity in elevated plus maze (EPM) test exhibited a smaller average change in amplitude and the longest peak latency during open arm exploration. Moreover, astrocytic calcium activity exhibited different changes across behavioral states in SD tests. Our findings show that mPFC astrocytes exhibit distinct patterns of calcium activity in response to various negative stimuli, indicating that the dynamic activity of astrocytes may reflect the stress-related behavioral state under different stimulus conditions.

The challenge of understanding the interaction between trace elements and microbial life is critical for assessing environmental and ecological impacts. Nevertheless, cysteine (Cys), a low molecular weight thiol substance prevalent in the ecosystem, is able to influence the fate of certain trace elements, which increases the complexity of the interaction between trace elements and microorganisms. Therefore, we chose Cys, selenite and the model methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcina acetivorans C2A as research targets, and comprehensively explored the intricate role of Cys in modulating the biological effects of selenite on M. acetivorans C2A in terms of population growth, methane production and oxidative stress. Our results demonstrate that Cys significantly exacerbates the inhibitory effects of selenite on growth and methane production in M. acetivorans C2A. This increased toxicity is linked to heightened membrane permeability and oxidative stress, with a marked upregulation in reactive oxygen species and changes in NADPH levels. Transcriptomic analysis reveals alterations in genes associated with transmembrane transport and methanogenesis. Intriguingly, we also observed a potential interaction between selenite and phosphate transmembrane transporters, suggesting a novel pathway for selenite entry into cells. These findings highlight the complex interplay between trace elements and microbial processes, with significant implications for understanding environmental risks and developing remediation strategies.

AbstractContext Punicalagin has myocardial protection; the mechanism of punicalagin on ventricular remodeling (VR) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains unclear.Objective These studies explore the role and mechanism of punicalagin in preventing and treating VR after AMI.Materials and methods Molecular docking was used to predict the targets of punicalagin. After 2 weeks of AMI model, the SD rats were randomly divided into model, and punicalagin (200, 400 mg/kg, gavage) groups for 4 weeks. Thoracotomy with perforation but no ligature was performed on rats in control group. The protein expression of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3), apoptosis speck-like protein (ASC), caspase-1, gasdermin D (GSDMD), and GSDMD-N, the mRNA expression of NLRP3, caspase-1, GSDMD, interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18 were evaluated.Results Punicalagin had binding activities with NLRP3 (Vina score, −5.8), caspase-1 (Vina score, −6.7), and GSDMD (Vina score, −6.7). Punicalagin could improve cardiac function, alleviate cardiac pathological changes, minimize the excessive accumulation of collagen in the left ventricular myocardium (p