Small nuclear ribonucleoprotein U1 subunit 70 (SNRNP70) as one of the components of the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) is rarely reported in cancers. This study aims to estimate the ...application potential of SNRNP70 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) clinical practice.
Based on the TCGA database and cohort of HCC patients, we investigated the expression patterns and prognostic value of SNRNP70 in HCC. Then, the combination of SNRNP70 and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in 278 HCC cases was analyzed. Next, western blotting and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expression of SNRNP70 in nucleus and cytoplasm. Finally, Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and scratch wound healing assays were used to detect the effect of SNRNP70 on the proliferation and migration of HCC cells.
SNRNP70 was highly expressed in HCC. Its expression was increasingly high during the progression of HCC and was positively related to immune infiltration cells. Higher SNRNP70 expression indicated a poor outcome of HCC patients. In addition, nuclear SNRNP70/AFP combination could be a prognostic biomarker for overall survival and recurrence. Cell experiments confirmed that knockdown of SNRNP70 inhibited the proliferation and migration of HCC cells.
SNRNP70 may be a new biomarker for HCC progression and HCC diagnosis as well as prognosis. SNRNP70 combined with serum AFP may indicate the prognosis and recurrence status of HCC patients after operation.
Canopy height (CH) is an important trait for crop breeding and production. The rapid development of 3D sensing technologies shed new light on high-throughput height measurement. However, a systematic ...comparison of the accuracy and heritability of different 3D sensing technologies is seriously lacking. Moreover, it is questionable whether the field-measured height is as reliable as believed. This study uncovered these issues by comparing traditional height measurement with four advanced 3D sensing technologies, including terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), backpack laser scanning (BLS), gantry laser scanning (GLS), and digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP). A total of 1920 plots covering 120 varieties were selected for comparison. Cross-comparisons of different data sources were performed to evaluate their performances in CH estimation concerning different CH, leaf area index (LAI), and growth stage (GS) groups. Results showed that 1) All 3D sensing data sources had high correlations with field measurement (r > 0.82), while the correlations between different 3D sensing data sources were even better (r > 0.87). 2) The prediction accuracy between different data sources decreased in subgroups of CH, LAI, and GS. 3) Canopy height showed high heritability from all datasets, and 3D sensing datasets had even higher heritability (H
= 0.79-0.89) than FM (field measurement) (H
= 0.77). Finally, outliers of different datasets are analyzed. The results provide novel insights into different methods for canopy height measurement that may ensure the high-quality application of this important trait.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Ammonia concentration together with pH values are important and closely linked indexes for aqueous systems. Rapid on-site determination of ammonia or pH is of great significance to environmental ...monitoring. In this work, a pH-switchable nanoprobe based on biomass carbon dots (CDs) is developed using a smartphone as a simple and handy instrument. The CDs demonstrate sensitive pH response in wide linear ranges of 6.1–13.6, and 2.0–13.6 with colorimetric and fluorescent channels, respectively. It is the pH-induced aggregation that governs the color and fluorescence switch. With the pH evolution caused by the dissolution of ammonia, the smartphone-integrated nanoprobe is applied to ammonia detection with a broad range of 0.5–300 mM. Moreover, the headspace single drop microextraction strategy can concentrate ammonia from matrix, offering a remarkably high selectivity for ammonia determination. Finally, the practical applications of this method for ammonia analysis obtained satisfactory results.
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•A smartphone-coalesced bi-mode CDs nanoprobe for pH monitoring is developed.•The colorimetric mode fulfills pH quantization via the smartphone conveniently.•The fluorescent mode shows high sensitivity to pH in the range of 2.0–13.6.•The pH-induced aggregation governs the color and fluorescence switch of CDs.•Selective ammonia sensing is fulfilled via extracting NH3 from matrix.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Aloperine (1), a Chinese natural product with a unique endocyclic scaffold, was first identified to be a potent hepatitis C virus (HCV) inhibitor in our laboratory. Thirty-four new aloperine ...derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their anti-HCV activities taking 1 as the lead. Among them, compound 7f exhibited the potential potency with EC50 values in a micromolar range against both wild-type and direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs)-resistant variants, and synergistically inhibited HCV replication with approved DAAs. Furthermore, it also owned a good oral pharmacokinetic and safety profile, suggesting a highly druglike nature. The primary mechanism showed that 7f might target host components, distinctly different from the DAAs currently used in clinic. Therefore, we consider aloperine derivatives to be a novel class of anti-HCV agents, and compound 7f has been selected as a promising antiviral candidate for further investigation.
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•New aloperine derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for the anti-HCV activity.•Compound 7f synergistically inhibited HCV replication with approved DAAs.•Compound 7f owned a good oral pharmacokinetic and safety profile.•7f might target host components, distinctly different from the DAAs used in clinic.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Objectives. Observational studies indicate that insomnia may increase risk of peptic ulcer disease (PUD). Our purpose is to clarify the possible causal relationship between insomnia and PUD by ...Mendelian randomization analyses. Methods. We carried out analyses using summary statistics data for genetic variants reported from a GWAS of insomnia (N = up to 1,331,010 individuals) and from a GWAS of PUD (N = up to 456,327 individuals). Three Mendelian randomization approaches were used to explore whether insomnia might play a causal role in PUD, and pathway and functional enrichment analyses were conducted to anticipate the underlying mechanisms. Results. Conventional Mendelian randomization analysis showed clear causality between insomnia and PUD; 1 SD increased insomnia incident was related to a 19% higher risk of PUD (P=6.69×10−16; OR, 1.19 (95% CI, 1.14-1.24)). The associations between insomnia and PUD were consistent in the other two analyses performed using the weighted median method (P=7.75×10−7; OR, 1.16 (95% CI, 1.09-1.23)) and MR-Egger regression (P=5.00×10−3; OR, 1.27 (95% CI, 1.07-1.50)). Moreover, no evidence indicated a reverse causality between PUD events and insomnia symptoms. Pathway and functional enrichment analyses indicated that the mechanisms of insomnia effect on PUD may be through various ways, such as the immune system and oxidative stress. Conclusions. This Mendelian randomization study suggests insomnia as a causal risk factor for PUD. The potential mechanisms included may be immune and oxidative stress. These findings indicate that improving sleep quality could have substantial health benefits.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Epilepsy is a neuronal dysfunction syndrome characterized by transient and diffusely abnormal discharges of neurons in the brain. Previous studies have shown that mutations in the
(
) gene cause a ...familial, fever-associated epilepsy syndrome. It is unclear as to whether the
gene also correlates with other stimulations such as flashing and/or mediates the effects of antiepileptic drugs. In this study, we found that the expression of
was present mainly in the brain and was negatively correlated with seizures in a pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizure zebrafish model. The transcription of
was inhibited by PTZ but rescued by valproate, a broad-spectrum epilepsy treatment drug. In the PTZ-seizure zebrafish model,
knockdown aggravated larvae hyperexcitatory swimming and prompted abnormal trajectory movements, particularly under lighting stimulation; at the same time, the expression levels of the neuronal activity marker gene
increased significantly in the brain. In contrast,
overexpression attenuated seizures and decreased
expression levels following PTZ-induced seizures in larvae. Thus, we speculated that a deficiency of
gene expression may be related with the onset occurrence of clinical seizures, particularly photosensitive seizures. In addition, we found that berberine (BBR) reduced larvae hyperexcitatory locomotion and abnormal movement trajectory in a concentration-dependent manner, slowed down excessive photosensitive seizure-like swimming, and assisted in the recovery of the expression levels of STX1B. Under the downregulation of STX1B, BBR's roles were limited: specifically, it only slightly regulated the levels of the two genes
and
and the hyperexcitatory motion of zebrafish in dark conditions and had no effect on the overexcited swimming behavior seen in conjunction with lighting stimulation. These findings further demonstrate that STX1B protein levels are negatively correlated with a seizure and can decrease the sensitivity of the photosensitive response in a PTZ-induced seizure zebrafish larvae; furthermore, STX1B may partially mediate the anticonvulsant effect of BBR. Additional investigation regarding the relationship between STX1B, BBR, and seizures could provide new cues for the development of novel anticonvulsant drugs.
The current study explored whether intra-articular (IA) injection of autologous adipose mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) combined with hyaluronic acid (HA) achieved better therapeutic efficacy than ...autologous stromal vascular fraction (SVF) combined with HA to prevent osteoarthritis (OA) progression and determined how long autologous ASCs combined with HA must remain in the joint to observe efficacy. OA models were established by performing anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) and medial meniscectomy (MM). Autologous SVF (1×107 mononuclear cells), autologous low-dose ASCs (1×107), and autologous high-dose ASCs (5×107) combined with HA, and HA alone, or saline alone were injected into the OA model animals at 12 and 15 weeks after surgery, respectively. Compared with SVF+HA treatment, low-dose ASC+HA treatment yielded better magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scores and macroscopic results, while the cartilage thickness of the tibial plateau did not differ between low, high ASC+HA and SVF+HA treatments detected by micro-computed tomography (µCT). Immunohistochemistry revealed that high-dose ASC+HA treatment rescued hypertrophic chondrocytes expressing collagen X in the deep area of articular cartilage. Western blotting analysis indicated the high- and low-dose ASC+HA groups expressed more collagen X than did the SVF+HA group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay showed treatment with both ASC+HA and SVF+HA resulted in differing anti-inflammatory and trophic effects. Moreover, superparamagnetic iron oxide particle (SPIO)-labeled autologous ASC signals were detected by MRI at 2 and 18 weeks post-injection and were found in the lateral meniscus at 2 weeks and in the marrow cavity of the femoral condyle at 18 weeks post-injection. Thus, IA injection of autologous ASC+HA may demonstrate better efficacy than autologous SVF+HA in blocking OA progression and promoting cartilage regeneration, and autologous ASCs (5×107 cells) combined with HA potentially survive for at least 18 weeks after IA injection.
Magna Carta was introduced into China around the mid-19th century under the context that learning from the West was then a trend for Chinese politicians and the academia to modernize China. The ...English constitutionalism originating from Magna Carta was considered as one of the models for China to reference. Even though the constitutional reform in the late Qing Dynasty failed to establish the constitutionalism in China, the strive for rule of law and democracy in China was never disrupted from then on. In the first century of Magna Carta＇s introduction into China, the academia used the ideas of constitutional rights, the rule of law embedded in Magna Carta to influence constitutionality in China, especially to push forward the protection of human rights and democracy. Even though the constitutionalism was not finally established in the Republic of China, the research on Magna Carta inspired the idea of constitutionalism in China. In addition, the Chinese academia realized that what China should learn was the spirit of Magna Carta, and that the construction of Chinese constitutionalism shall be based on the context of Chinese history and culture.
As humidity is one of the most widely demanded environmental parameters, the precision of its detection is significant. An advanced humidity sensor will improve the validity of the humidity ...monitoring system. In this study, a facile chemical layer-by-layer self-assembly (CLS) method was developed for fabricating graphene oxide (GO)/polyethyleneimine (PEI) multilayer films. Owing to the chemical bonding between the PEI and GO, and the intrinsic stickiness of the PEI, layered films with different numbers of layers were successfully prepared using the CLS method and confirmed through ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy and the mass loading of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). Morphological measurements revealed that the roughness and thickness of the films increased exponentially with the number of bilayers. The GO/PEI films were deposited on QCM electrodes using the CLS method to produce the humidity sensors. The humidity measurement results showed a high sensitivity (37.84 Hz/%RH) and rapid response/recovery (< 5 s/8 s) of the optimal sensor, which was superior to that of recently developed QCM sensors.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Growth hormone (GH) is the most important endocrine factor to regulate somatic growth. Spotted scat (Scatophagus argus) is a famous marine aquaculture species in China with a typical sexual growth ...dimorphism in which females grow faster and larger than males. In this study, gh messenger RNA (gh mRNA) and GH protein expression were examined in the pituitary glands of female and male spotted scat. Based on qPCR analysis, gh mRNA was mainly expressed in the pituitary gland, and weakly in the gonads and hypothalamus. Furthermore, gh mRNA expression in the pituitary gland was significantly higher in females at stages II-IV than in males at stages III-V. In addition, gh mRNA was highly expressed in the ovary and testis during mature development stages. In this study, spotted scat GH polyclonal antibody was produced. Western blot analysis showed that the molecular weight of spotted scat GH was about 21 KDa. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) in pituitary glands showed that GH was mainly expressed in the proximal pars distal (PPD) and a few cells were distributed in the rostral pairs distal (RPD). After injecting 17β-Estradiol (E2) in vivo, gh mRNA expression was significantly up-regulated in the pituitary gland, whereas igf1 and ghr1 mRNA levels were down-regulated in the liver, which might regulate gh mRNA expression in the pituitary gland. These results provide valuable insight into the molecular mechanisms of E2 regulating gh expression in spotted scat.
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•In spotted scat, gh mRNA was mainly expressed in the pituitary glands, and weakly in the gonads and hypothalamus.•The gh mRNA levels in the pituitary gland of females were significantly higher than those in males.•A spotted scat specific GH polyclonal antibody was produced, and the molecular weight of spotted scat GH was about 21 KDa.•GH was mainly expressed in the pituicyte of proximal pars distal (PPD) region.•17β-Estradiol (E2) reduced hepatic sensitivity to GH as well as reduced the igf1 expression.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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