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From the perspectives of ecology, population, economy and society, this paper established an intensive land use system. From the aspects of land input, output and sustainable development, it built a new urbanization system. Besides, using the entropy weighting method, it measured the level of intensive land use and new urbanization of 31 provinces(cities or regions). Based on the coupling degree and coordinated development model, and in combination with GIS, it discussed the spatial differentiation pattern. It reached the following research results, (i) The new urbanization in the eastern region is ahead of the intensive land use, and they are relatively balanced in the western region;the new urbanization in the central and northeast regions lags behind the intensive land use; the intensive land use and the development of new urbanization in the eastern region are both stronger than that in central region, while the northeastern and western regions are weaker.(ii) The effect of sustainable land use in mainland China is remarkable, and the potential advantage of land output benefit in the eastern region is huge, the land input and sustainable development in the central region rank second, and the land output in the western region is the weakest.(iii)The development of new urbanization in mainland China is concentrated on economic and social urbanization; the eastern region has high economic urbanization benefits, while the western region is weak in both the ecological and population urbanization.(iv) There is significant unbalance of the spatial differentiation pattern in the intensive land use and new urbanization, showing a trend of high in east and low in west.(v) Most provinces(cities or regions) stay at a high level of antagonistic coupling, but there are " virtual high-level coupling" in regions such as Ningxia and Gansu; at present, the eastern, central and northeastern are moderately disordered, the western is highly disordered, and most provinces(cities or regions) are moderately disordered. Regions with high coordination level are concentrated in the eastern part of Guangdong and Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanghai, Henan, and Hebei; the coordination level of western regions such as Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Tibet, Guizhou and Yunnan badly needs to be upgraded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offers information on a study which analyzed the homology of centromeric region between rye Bs and As chromosomes by flourescene in situ hybridization. Materials and methods; Results analysis; Conclusion.

This article provides an overview of the role of DNA methylation in cancer, focusing on its functions, therapy implications, and potential future developments. Abnormal DNA methylation is commonly observed in cancer and is considered an important indicator of malignant progression. The article discusses the role of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) in both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. It also highlights the potential for targeted therapy by inhibiting DNA methylation. The article emphasizes the importance of identifying key methylation changes in different types of cancer through pan-cancer analyses to identify relevant molecular targets. Additionally, it explores the potential of combining DNA methylation targeting with immune therapy for future tumor treatment development. However, the article acknowledges limitations in current research, such as the focus on DNA methylation in promoter regions and the need for comprehensive multi-omics analyses. Overall, the article underscores the significance of DNA methylation in cancer and the potential for personalized clinical treatments. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents a case study of a 3-year-old boy with paediatric generalised pustular psoriasis (GPP) and an interleukin-36 receptor antagonist (IL36RN) mutation, successfully treated with adalimumab after failing traditional therapies. Topics discussed include the clinical manifestations of paediatric GPP, the efficacy of adalimumab in treating severe cases, and the importance of genetic analysis in guiding treatment decisions for psoriasis.

Cancer immunotherapy has greatly advanced in recent years, and PD-1/PD-L1 blocking therapy has become a major pillar of immunotherapy. Successful clinical trials of PD-1/PD-L1 blocking therapies in cancer treatments have benefited many patients, which promoted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of PD-1/PD-L1 blocking drugs. In this review, we provide a detailed introduction of five PD-1/PD-L1 blocking drugs, with indications and studies, as a valuable reference for doctors and medical investigators. Moreover, the characteristics of PD-1/PD-L1 blocking therapies, including their universality and sustainability, are discussed in this review. Furthermore, we also discuss and predict the possibility of PD-L1 as an indication marker of PD-1/PD-L1 blocking therapy for pan-cancer treatment, and the current status of combination therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nanobodies are single-domain antibodies that contain the unique structural and functional properties of naturally-occurring heavy chain in camelidae. As a novel class of antibody, they show many advantages compared with traditional antibodies such as smaller size, higher stability, improved specificity, more easily expressed in microorganisms. These unusual hallmarks make them as promising tools in basic research and clinical practice. Although thousands of nanobodies are known to be published, no single database provides searchable, unified annotation and integrative analysis tools for these various nanobodies. Results: Here, we present the database of Institute Collection and Analysis of Nanobodies (iCAN). It is built for the aim that addressing the above gap to expand and accelerate the nanobody research. iCAN, as the first database of nanobody, contains the most comprehensive information to date on nanobodies and related antigens. So far, iCAN incorporates 2391 entries which include 2131 from patents and 260 from publications and provides a simple user interface for researchers to retrieve and view the detailed information of nanobodies. In addition to the data collection, iCAN also provides online bioinformatic tools for sequence analysis and characteristic feature extraction. Conclusions: In summary, iCAN enables researchers to analyze nanobody features and explore the applications of nanobodies more efficiently. iCAN is freely available at http://ican.ils.seu.edu.cn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an adaptive total variation (TV) model by introducing the steerable filter into the TV-based diffusion process for image filtering. The local energy measured by the steerable filter can effectively characterize the object edges and ramp regions and guide the TV-based diffusion process so that the new model behaves like the TV model at edges and leads to linear diffusion in flat and ramp regions. This way, the proposed model can provide a better image processing tool which enables noise removal, edge-preserving, and staircase suppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A double blind clinical trial was carried out to clarify the effects of oil with medium- and long-chain triglyceride (MLCT) on body fat and blood lipid profiles in hypertriglyceridemic subjects. One-hundred-and-twelve subjects were enrolled and divided into two groups; those that consumed MLCT oil and those that consumed long-chain triglyceride (LCT) oil for 8 weeks. All subjects were requested to consume 25-30 g of the oils daily and maintain a fixed level of energy intake and exercise. Anthropometric and blood biochemical parameters were measured when the study was initiated and completed. The LCT group consisted of 50 subjects (34 men and 16 women), while the MLCT group consisted of 51 subjects (33 men and 18 women) who completed the study. Larger decreases in body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, body fat, total fat area and subcutaneous fat area in the abdomen and serum triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein B, C2, C3 and E were observed in male subjects in the MLCT group than those in the LCT group. However, no significant differences in these parameters between the female subjects in the two groups were observed. Data from this study indicate that consumption of medium-and long-chain triglycerides can reduce body weight and body fat and improve blood lipid profiles in male hypertriglyceridemic subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute peritonitis is an acute inflammatory response of the peritoneal cavity to physical injury and chemical stimulation. Timely resolution of this response is critical to prevent further damage to the body, which can eventually lead to more severe chronic inflammation. Arctigenin (ATG) is the main active ingredient of the Chinese medicine Arctium lappa. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of studies on the anti-inflammatory effect of ATG, but there have been few studies on the effect of ATG on acute inflammation, especially in acute peritonitis, which has not been reported. In this study, a mouse model of experimental acute peritonitis induced by thioglycolate (TG) solution was used to study the protective anti-inflammatory effect of ATG against acute peritonitis and the relevant mechanism. Our results showed that, after 12 hours of TG treatment, ATG significantly reduced inflammatory cell infiltration in mouse tissues and inhibited the secretion and expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in mice. ATG significantly reduced the percentage of CD11b+Ly6G+ neutrophils and F4/80+ macrophages in the spleen and peritoneal exudate. In addition, ATG significantly inhibited the expression of the chemokines CCL3 and CCL4 and the adhesion molecule CD62L on the surface of CD11b-positive monocytes. ATG was observed to inhibit the phosphorylation of p65 and p38 in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. In conclusion, ATG can improve the symptoms of TG-induced acute peritonitis through immune regulation. ATG can reduce the inflammatory response in TG-induced acute peritonitis in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nine steroidal components, including a new pregnane glycoside (1), were obtained from the roots and rhizomes of Smilacina henryi. Their structures were determined via extensive spectroscopic data including, IR, HRESIMS and 1D, 2D NMR data analysis. Furthermore, their cytotoxic activities against human HepG2 and SW620 tumor cells were evaluated by the MTT method and compounds 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9 showed moderate activity with IC50 values raging from 18.4 to 86.3 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new cholestanol glycosides (1 and 2) were obtained from the roots and rhizomes of Smilacina henryi. Their structures were determined as 5a-cholest-9(11)-ene-3ß, 26-dihydroxy-16, 22-dione 3-O-ß-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)-ß-D-galactopyranoside (1), 5a-cholest-9(11)-ene-3ß, 26-dihydroxy-16, 22-dione 3-O-ß-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)-[ß-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-3)]-ß-D-galactopyranoside (2), by physicochemical properties and spectroscopic methods. In addition, the isolated glycosides were tested for their cytotoxic activity against human HepG2 tumor cells and compound 2 showed moderate activity with IC50 value of 59.32 µM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: A recent study has demonstrated that the long non-coding RNA VPS9D1-AS1 is highly expressed in colorectal cancer and predicts poor prognosis. However, roles of VPS9D1-AS1 in gastric cancer remained poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to decipher the expression of VPS9D1-AS1 in gastric cancer (GC) patients, so as to assess whether or not it could be used as a novel biomarker for prognosis in gastric cancer patients. METHODS: The expression of VPS9D1-AS1 was examined in cancer tissues and paired adjacent non-tumorous tissues from 126 gastric cancer patients using qRT-PCR. Correlations between the expression of VPS9D1-AS1 and clinicopathological parameters and patients' survival were analyzed. RESULTS: VPS9D1-AS1 expression was downregulated in gastric cancer tissues than that in adjacent non-tumorous tissues (P < 0.001). VPS9D1-AS1 expression level was markedly correlated with tumor size and TNM stage in gastric cancer. Kaplan- Meier analysis showed low expression of VPS9D1-AS1 were correlated with poor overall and disease free survival. On multivariate analysis, the hazard ratio of VPS9D1-AS expression was 0.30 (95% CI = 0.13-0.66, P = 0.003) for overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our data suggest that downregulated VPS9D1-AS1 may be used as a novel prognosis predictor of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammatory factors secreted by microglia play an important role in focal ischemic stroke. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is a known regulator of immune responses, but the role that mTORC1 signaling plays in poststroke neuroinflammation is not clear. To explore the relationship between microglial action in the mTORC1 pathway and the impact on stroke, we administered the mTORC1 inhibitors sirolimus and everolimus to mice. Presumably, disrupting the mTORC1 pathway after focal ischemic stroke should clarify the subsequent activity of microglia. For that purpose, we generated mice deficient in the regulatory associated protein of mTOR (Raptor) in microglia, whose mTORC1 signaling was blocked, by crossing Raptor loxed (Raptorflox/flox) mice with CX3CR1CreER mice, which express Cre recombinase under the control of the CX3C chemokine receptor 1 promoter. mTORC1 blockade reduced lesion size, improved motor function, dramatically decreased production of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and reduced the number of M1 type microglia. Thus, mTORC1 blockade apparently attenuated behavioral deficits and poststroke inflammation after middle cerebral artery occlusion by preventing microglia polarization toward the M1 type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Orthotopic liver transplantation is the only effective treatment for liver failure but limited with shortage of available donor organs. Recent studies show promising results of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-based therapies.Methods: We systematically investigate the therapeutic effects of MSCs or MSC-conditioned medium (MSC-CM) in ameliorating fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) and chronic liver fibrosis in mice. In addition, extensive flow cytometry analysis of spleens from vehicle and MSC- and MSC-CM-treated mice was applied to reveal the alteration of inflammatory state.Results: In FHF model, MSCs treatment reduced remarkably the death incidents; the analysis of gross histopathology showed that control livers were soft and shrunken with extensive extravasated blood, which was gradually reduced at later time points, while MSC-treated livers showed gross pathological changes, even 24 h after MSC infusion, and hematoxylin and eosin staining revealed dramatical hepatocellular death with cytoplasmic vacuolization suppressed by MSCs treatment; flow cytometry analysis of total lymphocytes showed that macrophages (F4/80) infiltrated into control livers more than MSC-treated livers; by contrast, MSC-CM partially ameliorates FHF. In chronic liver injury model, MSC and MSC-CM both suppressed fibrogenesis and necroinflammatory, and the later was better; activation of hepatic stellate cells (α-SMA) was inhibited; glycogen synthesis and storage (indicated by periodic acid-Schiff -staining) was improved; liver regeneration (Ki67) was promoted while liver apoptosis (TUNEL) was reduced. In the in vitro, MSCs promote macrophage line RAW264.7 apoptosis and MSC-CM promotes apoptosis and inhibits proliferation of HSC line LX-2. We also found that MSCs and MSC-CM could improve spleen; MSC-CM increased levels of Th2 and Treg cells, and reduced levels of Th17 cells, whereas levels of Th1 cells were unchanged; comparatively, MSC treatment did not affect Th17 and Treg cells and only slightly alters inflammatory state; MSC and MSC-CM treatment both substantially down-regulated macrophages in the spleens.Conclusion: Both MSCs and MSC-CM exert therapeutic effects by acting on various key cells during the pathogenesis of FHF and chronic fibrosis, stimulating hepatocyte proliferation and suppressing apoptosis, down-regulating infiltrating macrophages, converting CD4(+) T lymphocyte system into an anti-inflammatory state, and facilitating hepatic stellate cell death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammation and oxidative stress play an important part in the pathogenesis of focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, resulting in neuronal death. The signaling pathways involved and the underlying mechanisms of these events are not fully understood. Chrysin, which is a naturally occurring flavonoid, exhibits various biological activities. In this study, we investigated the neuroprotective properties of chrysin in a mouse model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). To this end, male C57/BL6 mice were pretreated with chrysin once a day for seven days and were then subjected to 1 h of middle cerebral artery occlusion followed by reperfusion for 24 h. Our data show that chrysin successfully decreased neurological deficit scores and infarct volumes, compared with the vehicle group. The increases in glial cell numbers and proinflammatory cytokine secretion usually caused by ischemia/reperfusion were significantly ameliorated by chrysin pretreatment. Moreover, chrysin also inhibited the MCAO-induced up-regulation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), compared with the vehicle. These results suggest that chrysin could be a potential prophylactic agent for cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury mediated by its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plumbagin (PL, 5-hydroxy-2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone) is a herbal compound derived from medicinal plants of the Droseraceae, Plumbaginaceae, Dioncophyllaceae, and Ancistrocladaceae families. Reports have shown that PL exerts immunomodulatory activity and may be a novel drug candidate for immune-related disease therapy. However, its effects on dendritic cells (DCs), the most potent antigen-presenting cells (APCs), remain unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that PL inhibits the differentiation, maturation, and function of human monocyte-derived DCs. PL can also restrict the expression of Th1- and Th17-polarizing cytokines in mDC. In addition, PL suppresses DCs both in vitro and in vivo, as demonstrated by its effects on the mouse DC line DC2.4 and mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), respectively. Notably, PL ameliorated the clinical symptoms of EAE, including central nervous system (CNS) inflammation and demyelination. Our results demonstrate the immune suppressive and anti-inflammatory properties of PL via its effects on DCs and suggest that PL could be a potential treatment for DC-related autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors focus on the effect of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) on the excretion of cholic acid and fecal cholesterol in C57BL/6J mice fed with a cholesterol-rich diet. They inform that low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and blood total cholesterol levels have been reduced as compared to diet with stearic acid, when the mice was given diet rich in caprylic acid for 12 weeks. They mention that excretion of fecal bile acids has been increased by MCFAs.

The article presents a study that investigates the influence of medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) on the increasing activity and expression of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) in white adipose tissue (WAT) in C57BL/6J mice. It notes that the possible mechanism has been assessed by analyzing the changes in blood lipid profile, enzymatic level and protein kinase. It further highlights the importance of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) on the hydrolysis of stored glycerides.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was carried out to investigate the effects of micronutrients supplementation on immunity and the incidence of common infections in type 2 diabetic outpatients. A total of 196 type 2 diabetic outpatients were randomized to receive tablets of micronutrients (n=97) or placebo (n=99) for 6 months. Individualized dietary energy intake and daily physical activity were recommended. Anthropometric measurements, blood biochemical variables and the incidence of common infections were measured at baseline and at 6 months. Data on diet, exercise and infection (upper respiratory tract infection, skin infection, urinary and genital tract infections, other infections) were recorded 1 month before the study and ever), month during the study. Blood concentrations of total protein, iron (Fe), folic acid and hemoglobin increased and unsaturated iron-binding capacity(UIBC) levels were decreased in the micronutrients supplementation group compared to the placebo group at 6 months. Moreover, at 6 months, compared to the placebo group, the blood concentrations of IgE. CD4+, CD4+/CD8+, WBC, lymphocyte counts, basophilic leukocyte increased and CD8+ count decreased in the supplementation group, and the levels of IgA, lgM, IgG and complements C3 and C4 did not differ. The incidence of upper respiratory infection, whitlow, dermapostasis, vaginitis, urinary tract infection, gingivitis and dental ulcer were lower and body temperature and duration of fever greatly improved in the supplementation than the placebo group. These data indicated that supplementation of micronutrients might increase immune function and reduce the incidence of common infections in type 2 diabetic outpatients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that aims to determine the effectiveness of medium and long-chain triacylglycerols (MLCT) oil in lowering the level of triglyceride (TG) in the blood of hypertriglyderidemic Chinese with age of less and more than 60 years. The study involves Chinese patients with hypertriglyceridemia from 1.7 to 4.5 mmol/l and with more than 22kg/m2 body mass index (BMI). Results show that the levels of TG in patients less than 60 years old were lower in MLCT group.

The article presents a case study of Langerhans cell histiocytosis involving lymph nodes which had the clinical features of erythroderma. The patient underwent slight weight loss as well as fatigue for the past seven days. The patient was initially treated using oral methylprednisolone once the condition was diagnosed.