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Objective To investigate the value of serum 5-hydroxytryptamine （5-HT） and interleukin-6 （IL-6） levels in predicting depression in patients with Alzheimer’s disease （AD）. Methods Ninety-six AD patients without depression were prospectively recruited and followed-up for 2 years. During follow-up， all patients were divided into the AD complicated with depression group （depression group） and AD without depression group （non-depression group） according to whether they were complicated by depression. Baseline data and serum 5-HT， IL-6， brain-derived neurotrophic factor （BDNF） and glucocorticoid （GC） levels at baseline were compared between two groups. The correlation between serum 5-HT and IL-6 levels and HAMD score was assessed by Pearson correlation analysis. The effect of serum 5-HT and IL-6 levels on depression in AD patients was evaluated by logistic regression analysis， and the receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curve was drawn. Results A total of 87 patients were included after 9 patients were excluded. The baseline data were comparable between two groups （all P > 0.05）. In the depression group（n = 37）， serum 5-HT level was significantly lower， whereas serum IL-6 level was significantly higher compared with those in the non-depression group （n = 50）（both P < 0.01）. Serum 5-HT level was negatively correlated with HAMD score （r = -0.572， P < 0.01）， whereas serum IL-6 level was positively correlated with HAMD score （r = 0.609， P < 0.01）. Serum 5-HT level was a protective factor， whereas serum IL-6 level was a risk factor for depression in AD patients （both P < 0.05）. The area under the ROC curve （AUC） for serum 5-HT level was 0.747， the sensitivity was 64.00%， and the specificity was 86.49%， respectively. The AUC of serum IL-6 level was 0.732， the sensitivity was 78.42%， and the specificity was 67.57%， respectively. The AUC constructed by combining serum 5-HT and IL-6 levels was 0.790， the sensitivity was 76.75%， and the specificity was 87.71%， respectively. Conclusions Abnormal serum 5-HT and IL-6 levels are correlated with depression in AD patients. These two combined can be used to predict the occurrence of depression in AD patients.

Cervical cancer (CC) is the most common malignant tumor in women, and its prognosis is poor. The key genes and pathways of CC need to be further discovered. GEO2R was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEG), GO and KEGG enrichment were analyzed by DAVID. Then, the PPI network is constructed with STRINGS. The HUB gene and module of DEGS were obtained by Cytoscape. Finally, GEPIA also analyzed the differential expression and survival of key genes. 234 DEG were extracted from GSE9750. The uterus is the fourth organ highlighted in the concentrated analysis. The functional changes of DEGS are mainly related to cell cycle progression, cell cycle, helicase activity, DNA helicase activity, exosome and p53 signal pathway. In addition, five HUB genes and one key module were identified. Survival analysis showed that MCM2 and GINS2 were significantly correlated with overall survival. Expression analysis showed that MCM2 and GINS2 were highly expressed in cancer tissues, but low in normal tissues, which was consistent with the results of GEO analysis. Correlation analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between MCM2 and GINS2. This study suggests that MCM2 and GINS2 may be new biomarkers to predict the prognosis of CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common chronic liver disease, but there is currently no effective treatment method. Probiotics have been used as an adjunct therapy for NAFLD, but the mechanism is not clear. This study used Bifidobacterium longum BL19 (BL‐19) to treat the NAFLD mice induced by a high‐fat diet, and explored the treatment mechanism through gut microbiota and serum metabolomics techniques. We found that BL‐19 effectively prevented rapid weight gain in NAFLD mice and reduced their overall food and energy intake, decreased liver inflammatory factors expressions, and increased the bile acid synthetase enzyme CYP7A1 and superoxide dismutase. After BL‐19 treatment, the abundances of butyric acid bacteria (Oscillospira and Coprococcus) in the feces of mice increased significantly, and the concentration of butyric acid also increased significantly. We believe that BL‐19 promotes the production of butyrate in the intestines, which in turn regulates the activity of CYP7A1 in the liver and bile acid synthesis, ultimately treating liver inflammation and lipid accumulation in NAFLD mice. Serum metabolomics results indicated that BL‐19 affected multiple pathways related to inflammation and lipid metabolism in NAFLD mice. These findings suggest that BL‐19 shows promise as an adjunct therapy for NAFLD, as it can significantly improve oxidative stress, reduce inflammation in the liver, and decrease lipid accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic MnFe2O4 nanoparticles were successfully prepared by the rapid combustion method at 500 °C for 2 h with 30 mL absolute ethanol, and were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, VSM, and XPS techniques, their average particle size and the saturation magnetization were about 25.3 nm and 79.53 A·m2/kg, respectively. The magnetic MnFe2O4 nanoparticles were employed in a fixed bed experimental system to investigate the adsorption capacity of Hg0 from air. The MnFe2O4 nanoparticles exhibited the large adsorption performance on Hg0 with the adsorption capacity of 16.27 μg/g at the adsorption temperature of 50 °C with the space velocity of 4.8×104 h-1. The VSM and EDS results illustrated that the prepared MnFe2O4 nanoparticles were stable before and after adsorption and successfully adsorbed Hg0. The TG curves demonstrated that the mercury compound formed after adsorption was HgO, and both physical and chemical adsorption processes were observed. Magnetic MnFe2O4 nanoparticles revealed excellent adsorbance of Hg0 in air, which suggested that MnFe2O4 nanoparticles be promising for the removal of Hg0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods were successfully prepared via calcination reduction process using glucose as reductant, and they were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD and VSM techniques. The influences of additive concentration, solution volume, reaction temperature and reaction time on morphology and the properties of Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods were investigated. Firstly, α-Fe2O3 nanorods were prepared by the hydrothermal approach, and the FeCl3 concentration of 20 mM, the NH4H2PO4 concentration of 0.96 mM, the hydrothermal volume of 60 mL, the hydrothermal temperature of 180 °C, and hydrothermal time of 12 h were selected as the optimum conditions. Secondly, magnetic Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods calcined at 600 °C for 3 h with the mass ratio of 1:20 for α-Fe2O3 nanorods and glucose were constructed with largest saturation magnetization of 78.2 emu/g, their average length and average diameter were about 215.0 nm and 79.2 nm, respectively. An optimization process for the fabrication of magnetic Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods was introduced in this paper. Thereinto, α-Fe2O3 nanorods as a precursor were fabricated by hydrothermal method, and using glucose as a reduction agent to prepare the results products by high-temperature calcination. The influences of FeCl3 concentrations, NH4H2PO4 concentration, solution volume, hydrothermal temperature, hydrothermal time and the ratio of the precursors and glucose on the morphologies and magnetic properties of α-Fe2O3 and magnetic Fe3O4/α-Fe2O3 heterogeneous nanorods were investigated, and their influence rules were revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heterogeneity of aging has been investigated at cellular and organic levels in the mouse model and human, but the exploration of aging heterogeneity at whole‐organism level is lacking. C. elegans is an ideal model organism for studying this question as they are self‐fertilized and cultured in the same chamber. Despite the tremendous progress made in single‐cell proteomic analysis, there is few single‐worm proteomics studies about aging. Here, we apply single‐worm quantitative mass spectrometry to quantify the heterogenous proteomic changes during aging across individuals, a total of 3524 proteins from 157 C. eleagns individuals were quantified. A reconstructed C. elegans aging trajectory and proteomic landscape of fast‐aging individuals were used to analyze the heterogeneity of C. elegans aging. We characterized inter‐individual proteomic variation during aging and revealed contributing factors that distinguish fast‐aging individuals from their siblings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the clinical value of serum anti-Ku86 in early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)., Methods: Expression levels of Ku86 protein in HCC and adjacent normal liver tissues were detected by Western blotting. Serum anti-Ku86 level in 83 patients with early HCC and 124 patients with liver cirrhosis were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Chemiluminescence was used to measure the serum level of α-fetoprotein (AFP)., Results: Expression of Ku86 protein in HCC was increased when compared with the adjacent normal liver tissues (0.21 ± 0.05 vs. 0.08 ± 0.02, P < 0.01). Serum anti-Ku86 level was significantly elevated in HCC patients compared with that in liver cirrhosis patients (0.47 ± 0.22 vs. 0.22 ± 0.06 Abs at 450 nm, P < 0.01), but there was no significant difference between HBV infection and HCV infection in HCC patients (0.51 ± 0.19 vs. 0.47 ± 0.24, P = 0.267). Of note, serum anti-Ku86 level was significantly decreased after surgical resection of the tumors in the 30 HCC cases tested (P < 0.01). The results of ROC analysis indicated a better performance of anti-Ku86 (0.857) than AFP (0.739) for early detection of HCC. In 83 HCC patients, the positive rate of anti-Ku86 was 61.4% (51/83), significantly higher than that of the AFP positive rate (27.7%, 23/83). The anti-Ku86 level was positive in 37 of 60 HCC cases with negative AFP. Combination assay of AFP and anti-Ku86 could detect 60 of 83 HCC cases (72.3%, 60/83). There was no significant correlation of anti-Ku86 and AFP (r = 0.156, P = 0.161)., Conclusions: Serum anti-Ku86 level is significantly elevated and is not related to HBV and HCV infection in HCC patients. Serum anti-Ku86 antibody may be a potential biomarker for early detection of HCC, and can be used in combination with AFP in clinics.