Currently, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and
-terminal proBNP (NT-proBNP) are widely used as diagnostic biomarkers for heart failure (HF) and cardiac dysfunction in clinical medicine. They are also ...used as postmortem biomarkers reflecting cardiac function of the deceased before death in forensic medicine. Several previous studies have reviewed BNP and NT-proBNP in clinical medicine, however, few articles have reviewed their application in forensic medicine. The present article reviews the biological features, the research and application status, and the future research prospects of BNP and NT-proBNP in both clinical medicine and forensic medicine, thereby providing valuable assistance for clinicians and forensic pathologists.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Dementia is a comprehensive category of brain diseases that is great enough to affect a person＇s daily functioning. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer＇s disease, which makes most of cases. ...New researches indicate that gastrointestinal tract microbiota are directly linked to dementia pathogenesis through triggering metabolic diseases and low-grade inflammation progress. A novel strategy is proposed for the management of these disorders and as an adjuvant for psychiatric treatment of dementia and other related diseases through modulation of the microbiota （e.g. with the use of probiotics）.
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification on RNA plays an important role in tumorigenesis and metastasis, which could change gene expression and even function at multiple levels such as RNA splicing, ...stability, translocation, and translation. In this study, we aim to conduct a comprehensive analysis on m6A RNA methylation-related genes, including m6A RNA methylation regulators and m6A RNA methylation-modified genes, in liver hepatocellular carcinoma, and their relationship with survival and clinical features. Data, which consist of the expression of widely reported m6A RNA methylation-related genes in liver hepatocellular carcinoma from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), were analyzed by one-way ANOVA, Univariate Cox regression, a protein-protein interaction network, gene enrichment analysis, feature screening, a risk prognostic model, correlation analysis, and consensus clustering analysis. In total, 405 of the m6A RNA methylation-related genes were found based on one-way ANOVA. Among them, DNA topoisomerase 2-alpha (
), exodeoxyribonuclease 1 (
), ser-ine/threonine-protein kinase Nek2 (
), baculoviral IAP repeat-containing protein 5 (
), hyaluronan mediated motility receptor (
), structural maintenance of chromosomes protein 4 (SMC4), bloom syndrome protein (
), ca-sein kinase I isoform epsilon (
), cytoskeleton-associated protein 5 (
), and inner centromere protein (
), which were m6A RNA methylation-modified genes, were recognized as the hub genes based on the protein-protein interaction analysis. The risk prognostic model showed that gender, AJCC stage, grade, T, and N were significantly different between the subgroup with the high and low risk groups. The AUC, the evaluation parameter of the prediction model which was built by RandomForest, was 0.7. Furthermore, two subgroups were divided by consensus clustering analysis, in which stage, grade, and T differed. We identified the important genes expressed significantly among two clusters, including uridine-cytidine kinase 2 (
), filensin (
), tubulin-specific chaperone D (
), histone-lysine N-methyltransferase PRDM16 (
), phosphorylase b ki-nase regulatory subunit alpha (
), serine/threonine-protein kinase BRSK2 (
), Arf-GAP with coiled-coil (
), general transcription factor 3C polypep-tide 2 (
), and guanine nucleotide exchange factor MSS4 (
). In our study, the m6A RNA methylation-related genes in liver hepatocellular carcinoma were analyzed systematically, including the expression, interaction, function, and prognostic values, which provided an important theoretical basis for m6A RNA methylation in liver cancer. The nine important m6A-related genes could be prognostic markers in the survival time of patients.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is crucial for controlling the emission of this potent greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. Nitrite-, nitrate-, and sulfate-dependent methane oxidation is ...well-documented, but AOM coupled to the reduction of oxidized metals has so far been demonstrated only in environmental samples. Here, using a freshwater enrichment culture, we show that archaea of the order Methanosarcinales, related to “Candidatus Methanoperedens nitroreducens,” couple the reduction of environmentally relevant forms of Fe3+ and Mn4+ to the oxidation of methane. We obtained an enrichment culture of these archaea under anaerobic, nitrate-reducing conditions with a continuous supply of methane. Via batch incubations using 13Cmethane, we demonstrated that soluble ferric iron (Fe3+, as Fe-citrate) and nanoparticulate forms of Fe3+ and Mn4+ supported methane-oxidizing activity. CO₂ and ferrous iron (Fe2+) were produced in stoichiometric amounts. Our study connects the previous finding of iron-dependent AOM to microorganisms detected in numerous habitats worldwide. Consequently, it enables a better understanding of the interaction between the biogeochemical cycles of iron and methane.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Liver cirrhosis is the pathologic end stage of chronic liver disease. Increasing evidence suggests that gut flora is implicated in the pathogenesis of liver cirrhosis complications. The aim of this ...study was to characterize the fecal microbial community in patients with liver cirrhosis in comparison with healthy individuals. We recruited 36 patients with liver cirrhosis and 24 healthy controls. The fecal microbial communities was analyzed by way of 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA V3 region followed by real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Community‐wide changes of fecal microbiota in liver cirrhosis were observed compared with healthy controls. The proportion of phylum Bacteroidetes was significantly reduced (P = 0.008), whereas Proteobacteria and Fusobacteria were highly enriched in the cirrhosis group (P = 0.001 and 0.002, respectively). Enterobacteriaceae (P = 0.001), Veillonellaceae (P = 0.046), and Streptococcaceae (P = 0.001) were prevalent in patients with cirrhosis at the family level. A positive correlation was observed between Child‐Turcotte‐Pugh (CTP) score and Streptococcaceae (R = 0.386, P = 0.02). Lachnospiraceae decreased significantly in patients with cirrhosis (P = 0.004) and correlated negatively with CTP score (R = −0.49, P = 0.002). Using partial least square discriminate analysis, we identified 149 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) as key phylotypes that responded to cirrhosis, most of which were Lachnospiraceae (65 OTUs), Streptococcaceae (23 OTUs), and Veillonellaceae (21 OTUs). Conclusion: Fecal microbial communities are distinct in patients with cirrhosis compared with healthy individuals. The prevalence of potentially pathogenic bacteria, such as Enterobacteriaceae and Streptococcaceae, with the reduction of beneficial populations such as Lachnospiraceae in patients with cirrhosis may affect prognosis. (HEPATOLOGY 2011;)
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) caused by acute ischemic heart disease (IHD) is a major cause of sudden death worldwide. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are abundant in the heart and play important roles in ...cardiovascular diseases, but the role of circRNAs as biomarkers in the forensic diagnosis of SCD caused by acute IHD remains poorly characterized. To investigate the potential of two heart-enriched circRNAs, circNFIX and circSLC8A1, we explored the expression of these two circRNAs in different kinds of commonly used IHD models, and further verified their expressions in forensic autopsy cases. The results from both the IHD rat and H9c2 cell models revealed that circSlc8a1 level was upregulated, while the circNfix level was elevated in the early stage of ischemia and subsequently downregulated. The time-dependent expression patterns of the two circRNAs suggested their potential as SCD biomarkers. In autopsy cases, the results showed that the expression of these two circRNAs in the myocardium with acute IHD-related SCDs corresponded to the observations in the ischemic models. Further analysis related to myocardial ischemia indicated that circSLC8A1 showed high sensitivity and specificity for myocardial infarction and was positively correlated with creatine kinase MB in pericardial fluid. Downregulated circNFIX level could indicate the ischemic myocardial damage, and it was negatively correlated with the coronary artery stenosis grade. The combination of circSLC8A1 and circNFIX had better performance to discriminate IHD-related SCDs. The results suggested that circSLC8A1 and circNFIX may be used as auxiliary diagnostic markers for SCD caused by acute IHD in forensic medicine.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Patients with renal failure suffer from symptoms caused by uraemic toxins, possibly of gut microbial origin, as deduced from studies in animals. The aim of the study is to characterise relationships ...between the intestinal microbiome composition, uraemic toxins and renal failure symptoms in human end-stage renal disease (ESRD).
Characterisation of gut microbiome, serum and faecal metabolome and human phenotypes in a cohort of 223 patients with ESRD and 69 healthy controls. Multidimensional data integration to reveal links between these datasets and the use of chronic kidney disease (CKD) rodent models to test the effects of intestinal microbiome on toxin accumulation and disease severity.
A group of microbial species enriched in ESRD correlates tightly to patient clinical variables and encode functions involved in toxin and secondary bile acids synthesis; the relative abundance of the microbial functions correlates with the serum or faecal concentrations of these metabolites. Microbiota from patients transplanted to renal injured germ-free mice or antibiotic-treated rats induce higher production of serum uraemic toxins and aggravated renal fibrosis and oxidative stress more than microbiota from controls. Two of the species,
and
, increase uraemic toxins production and promote renal disease development in a CKD rat model. A probiotic
decreases abundance of these species, reduces levels of toxins and the severity of the disease in rats.
Aberrant gut microbiota in patients with ESRD sculpts a detrimental metabolome aggravating clinical outcomes, suggesting that the gut microbiota will be a promising target for diminishing uraemic toxicity in those patients.
This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03010696).
Recently, the potential role of gut microbiome in metabolic diseases has been revealed, especially in cardiovascular diseases. Hypertension is one of the most prevalent cardiovascular diseases ...worldwide, yet whether gut microbiota dysbiosis participates in the development of hypertension remains largely unknown. To investigate this issue, we carried out comprehensive metagenomic and metabolomic analyses in a cohort of 41 healthy controls, 56 subjects with pre-hypertension, 99 individuals with primary hypertension, and performed fecal microbiota transplantation from patients to germ-free mice.
Compared to the healthy controls, we found dramatically decreased microbial richness and diversity, Prevotella-dominated gut enterotype, distinct metagenomic composition with reduced bacteria associated with healthy status and overgrowth of bacteria such as Prevotella and Klebsiella, and disease-linked microbial function in both pre-hypertensive and hypertensive populations. Unexpectedly, the microbiome characteristic in pre-hypertension group was quite similar to that in hypertension. The metabolism changes of host with pre-hypertension or hypertension were identified to be closely linked to gut microbiome dysbiosis. And a disease classifier based on microbiota and metabolites was constructed to discriminate pre-hypertensive and hypertensive individuals from controls accurately. Furthermore, by fecal transplantation from hypertensive human donors to germ-free mice, elevated blood pressure was observed to be transferrable through microbiota, and the direct influence of gut microbiota on blood pressure of the host was demonstrated.
Overall, our results describe a novel causal role of aberrant gut microbiota in contributing to the pathogenesis of hypertension. And the significance of early intervention for pre-hypertension was emphasized.
Illumina sequencing platform is widely used in genome research. Sequence reads quality assessment and control are needed for downstream analysis. However, software that provides efficient quality ...assessment and versatile filtration methods is still lacking.
We have developed a toolkit named HTQC - abbreviation of High-Throughput Quality Control - for sequence reads quality control, which consists of six programs for reads quality assessment, reads filtration and generation of graphic reports.
The HTQC toolkit can generate reads quality assessment faster than existing tools, providing guidance for reads filtration utilities that allow users to choose different strategies to remove low quality reads.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Although cumulative N
2
O emissions are greater in the winter fallow season than in the rice-growing period, the mechanisms by which the emissions affect fallow paddy fields remain unclear. We aimed ...to identify N
2
O flux characteristics and illustrate how key
nirS
-,
nirK
- and
nosZ
-containing denitrifiers affect N
2
O emission levels in acidic fallow paddy soil. Five water-filled pore space (WFPS) levels were set at 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% and 125%, respectively. During the 48-h-long, high-flux incubation period, the N
2
O flux was the highest in soil samples with 75% WFPS, followed by those with 100% WFPS. The size of
nirS-
containing denitrifier community was more sensitive to the shifts in soil moisture and showed a stronger correlation with N
2
O flux than that of
nirK-
containing denitrifiers, whereas higher N
2
O concentrations induced an increase in the levels of
nosZ-
containing bacteria. After incubation for 48 h,
nirK
- and
nosZ
-denitrifying bacterial composition varied remarkably under 50%, 75%, and 100% WFPS treatments. However, the composition of
nirS
-containing denitrifying bacterial community gradually varied with an increase in soil moisture from 25% to 100% WFPS. Certain dominant OTUs of
nirK- nirS-
and
nosZ
-containing denitrifiers were highly abundant, especially under treatments of 50%, 75% and 100% WFPS, which were closely associated with the N
2
O flux. Thus,
nirK
,
nirS
and
nosZ-
containing denitrifiers respond to soil moisture differently, and enriched species might mainly be involved in controlling N
2
O flux in fallow paddy soils via denitrification, while the abundance of
nirS
-containing denitrifiers might affect N
2
O emission levels more significantly than that of
nirK
-containing denitrifiers.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
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