Deer genera around the globe are threatened by anthropogenic interference. The translocation of alien species and their subsequent genetic introgression into indigenous deer populations is ...particularly harmful to the species of greatest conservation concern. Products derived from deer, including venison and antler velvet, are also at risk of fraudulent labeling. The current molecular markers used to genetically identify deer species were developed from genome sequences and have limited applicability for cross-species amplification. The absence of efficacious diagnostic techniques for identifying deer species has hampered conservation and wildlife crime investigation efforts. Expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers are reliable tools for individual and species identification, especially in terms of cross-species genotyping. We conducted transcriptome sequencing of sambar (Rusa unicolor) antler velvet and acquired 11,190 EST-SSRs from 65,074 newly assembled unigenes. We identified a total of 55 unambiguous amplicons in sambar (n = 45), which were selected as markers to evaluate cross-species genotyping in sika deer (Cervus nippon, n = 30) and red deer (Cervus elaphus, n = 46), resulting in cross-species amplification rates of 94.5% and 89.1%, respectively. Based on polymorphic information content (>0.25) and genotyping fidelity, we selected 16 of these EST-SSRs for species identification. This marker set revealed significant genetic differentiation based on the fixation index and genetic distance values. Principal coordinate analysis and STRUCTURE analysis revealed distinct clusters of species and clearly identified red-sika hybrids. These markers showed applicability across different genera and proved suitable for identification and phylogenetic analyses across deer species.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Glands in the skin are essential for various physiological functions involving exocrine secretion. Like other tissues and organs, they possess the ability to repair injury and self‐renew during ...homeostasis. Progenitor cells in glands are mostly unipotent but include some multipotent stem cells that function when extensive remodelling or regeneration is required. In this review, using two glandular models in skin, mouse sweat gland and mammary gland, we discuss lineage restriction that develops during glandular morphogenesis, as well as the mechanisms regulating cell fate and plasticity during wound repair and regeneration. Understanding the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that control the behaviours of glandular stem cell and maintain glandular functions will provide insight into future prospects for glandular regeneration.
Facial asymmetry and dental occlusal cant have been detected in two-dimensional cephalometry using different horizontal reference lines, but equivalent 3-dimensional (3D) reference planes have not ...been thoroughly investigated. In this study, 3D cone-beam computed tomography scans of 83 consecutive patients were evaluated using a standardized 3D frame and three horizontal reference planes, Supraorbitale (Sor), Frontozygomatic (Z), and Frankfurt horizontal (FH) for cant detection. Canting was defined as a vertical difference between left and right sides of 2 mm or more, and in at least two investigated planes. Concordance for negative canting was found in 38 patients, and for positive canting in 22 patients. Discordance in cant detection was found in 23 patients (28%). 29 patients were found to have canting in at least 2 planes. The FH plane was discordant to the other two planes in 4 patients, the Sor plane in 7 patients and the Z plane in 12 patients. Youden's index showed the highest performance for FH (0.878), followed by Sor (0.823) and Z plane (0.762). This study revealed that the FH plane was the best method for cant detection in 3D imaging. The FH plane and Sor plane can be combined if orbital asymmetry is suspected.
Abstract
Glycoprotein non-metastatic B (GPNMB) is a transmembrane protein overexpressed in numerous cancers including triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC). It has been linked to promote cancer ...aggressiveness and implicated as a novel target for GPNMB-expressing cancers. In current study, we aimed to explore the clinical significance of GPNMB in TNBC. Among 759 specimens, immunohistochemistry (IHC) exhibited GPNMB expressions were variable in different subtypes and significantly higher in TNBC. Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed GPNMB overexpression in TNBC was associated with worse prognosis especially distant metastasis (
P
= 0.020, HR = 2.515, CI 1.154–5.480). Multivariate analysis showed GPNMB expression was an independent prognostic factor in terms of recurrence and distant metastasis (
P
= 0.008, HR = 3.22, CI 1.36–7.61;
P
= 0.017, HR = 3.08, CI 1.22–7.74). In silico analysis showed high mRNA expression of GPNMB was associated with distant metastasis and GPNMB was overexpressed in TNBC. Furthermore, GPNMB positively correlated with epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) regulators, mesenchymal marker vimentin, MMP and integrins. The protein levels of Twist and MMP2 were upregulated by GPNMB overexpression in TNBC cells. GPNMB-enhanced cell invasion was attenuated by broad spectrum MMP inhibitor (GM 6001) and the selective inhibitor of MMP-2 (ARP100). In summary, GPNMB expression is prevalent in TNBC and may be implicated as a prognostic biomarker in patients with TNBC.
Obesity is a significant health concern that often leads to metabolic dysfunction and chronic diseases. This study introduces a novel approach to combat obesity using orally ingested self‐powered ...electrostimulators. These electrostimulators consist of piezoelectric BaTiO3 (BTO) particles conjugated with capsaicin (Cap) and aim to activate the vagus nerve. Upon ingestion by diet‐induced obese (DIO) mice, the BTO@Cap particles specifically target and bind to Cap‐sensitive sensory nerve endings in the gastric mucosa. In response to stomach peristalsis, these particles generate electrical signals. The signals travel via the gut–brain axis, ultimately influencing the hypothalamus. By enhancing satiety signals in the brain, this neuromodulatory intervention reduces food intake, promotes energy metabolism, and demonstrates minimal toxicity. Over a 3‐week period of daily treatments, DIO mice treated with BTO@Cap particles show a significant reduction in body weight compared to control mice, while maintaining their general locomotor activity. Furthermore, this BTO@Cap particle‐based treatment mitigates various metabolic alterations associated with obesity. Importantly, this noninvasive and easy‐to‐administer intervention holds potential for addressing other intracerebral neurological diseases.
After oral administration in mice, the piezoelectric BTO@Cap particles target and bind to the capsaicin‐sensitive mucosal nerve endings on the gastric surface. In response to gastric movement, these particles spontaneously generate mild electric pulses, stimulating the vagal afferent fibers. These fibers then transmit the stimulated signals to the brain, regulating food intake and energy expenditure, ultimately facilitating obesity management.
Background/Aims Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection is diagnosed by the presence of antibody to HCV and/or HCV RNA. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of anti-HCV titer (S/CO ratio) in ...predicting HCV viremia in patients with or without hepatitis B virus (HBV) dual infection. Methods Anti-HCV seropositive patients who were treatment-naïve consecutively enrolled. Anti-HCV antibodies were detected using a commercially chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. HCV RNA was detected by real-time PCR method. Results A total of 1321 including1196 mono-infected and 125 HBV dually infected patients were analyzed. The best cut-off value of anti-HCV titer in predicting HCV viremia was 9.95 (AUROC 0.99, P<0.0001). Of the entire cohort, the anti-HCV cut-off value of 10 provided the best accuracy, 96.8%, with the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of 96.3%, 98.9%, 99.7% and 87.3% respectively. The best cut-off value of anti-HCV titer in predicting HCV viremia was 9.95 (AUROC 0.99, P<0.0001) and 9.36 (AUROC 1.00, P<0.0001) in patients with HCV mono-infection and HBV dual-infection respectively. Among the HBV dually infected patients, the accuracy of anti-HCV titer in predicting HCV viremia reached up to 100% with the cut-off value of 9. All the patients were HCV-viremic if their anti-HCV titer was greater than 9 (PPV 100%). On the other hand, all the patients were HCV non-viremic if their anti-HCV titer was less than 9 (NPV 100%). Conclusions Anti-HCV titer strongly predicted HCV viremia. This excellent performance could be generalized to either HCV mono-infected or HBV dually infected patients.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Licoricidin (LCD) is an activity compound of the roots of Glycyrrhiza uralensis, which has therapeutic efficacy, including anti‐virus, anti‐cancer, and enhanced immunity in Traditional Chinese ...Medicine. Herein, this study aimed to clarify the effect of LCD on cervical cancer cells. In the present study, we found that LCD significantly inhibited cell viability via inducing cell apoptosis and companies with cleaved‐PARP protein expression and caspase‐3/‐9 activity. Cell viability was markedly reversed these effects by pan‐caspase inhibitor Z‐VAD‐FMK treatment. Furthermore, we showed that LCD‐induced ER (endoplasmic reticulum) stress triggers upregulating the protein level of GRP78 (Bip), CHOP, and IRE1α, and subsequently confirmed the mRNA level by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction. In addition, LCD exhibited the release of danger‐associated molecular patterns from cervical cancer cells, such as the release of high‐mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), secretion of ATP, and exposure of calreticulin (CRT) on the cell surface, which led to immunogenic cell death (ICD). These results provide a novel foundation that LCD induces ICD via triggering ER stress in human cervical cancer cells. LCD might be an ICD inducer of immunotherapy in progressive cervical cancer.
Background
This study aimed to describe and explore the longitudinal changes in swallowing function among patients with oral cancer who underwent surgery and proactive swallowing therapy from ...baseline to 1‐year postoperation.
Methods
We retrospectively studied 118 patients over a 4.5‐year duration. Swallowing functional assessment including 10‐item Eating Assessment Tool (EAT‐10), Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS), M. D. Anderson Dysphagia Inventory, and Modified Barium Swallow Impairment Profile (MBSImP™) was performed at baseline, 1‐month, 6‐month, and 1‐year postoperatively.
Results
All swallowing parameters worsened 1‐month postoperation. EAT‐10, FOIS, and MBSImP™ oral and pharyngeal impairment scores improved significantly compared with 1‐month postoperation at 6 months. Other swallowing parameters, except for weight, did not differ significantly from baseline at 6 months. The rate of tube‐feeding dependency was 11.5% and 5.6% at 1 and 6 months postoperation, respectively.
Conclusions
Periodic swallowing functional assessments help delineate the longitudinal changes in swallowing functional outcomes.
A bifunctional catalyst, composed of a hydrogenation active metal and an oxophilic promoter for CAr–O bond weakening, is effective in the deoxygenation of lignin derivatives due to a contact synergy. ...A systematic comparison of the physicochemical properties of Ni-based catalysts promoted by metal oxides (i.e., FeO x , MoO x , and WO x ) with different extents of oxophilicity was conducted, and their catalytic behaviors were evaluated in the conversion of p-cresol. Ni promoted by WO x displays the highest oxophilicity among all promoters and is intrinsically more active than NiMo and NiFe in direct deoxygenation (DDO); this characteristic is possibly related to its great hydride mobility. However, in a H2-pressured system, Ni promoted by MoO x , which has moderate oxophilicity compared with the employed promoters, generated more DDO product (toluene) than NiFe and NiW. This study discovered that this discrepancy, between the result of the chemical test under normal pressure and the result of the reaction test in an authentic pressurized system concerning the relation between toluene yield and a promoter’s oxophilicity, is related to different hydrogenation rates of toluene. Toluene derived from DDO of p-cresol can be subsequently hydrogenated and thus be turned into methylcyclohexane more rapidly by the NiW catalyst than by NiMo and NiFe catalysts. Hence, both the oxophilicity of a promoter and the inertness of hydrogenation of toluene should be considered in designing a bimetallic catalyst in the conversion of lignin derivatives.
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are common and are the underlying cause of over a million serious injuries and deaths each year. The most familiar method to detect ADRs is relying on spontaneous ...reports. Unfortunately, the low reporting rate of spontaneous reports is a serious limitation of pharmacovigilance.
The objective of this study was to identify a method to detect potential ADRs of drugs automatically using a deep neural network (DNN).
We designed a DNN model that utilizes the chemical, biological, and biomedical information of drugs to detect ADRs. This model aimed to fulfill two main purposes: identifying the potential ADRs of drugs and predicting the possible ADRs of a new drug. For improving the detection performance, we distributed representations of the target drugs in a vector space to capture the drug relationships using the word-embedding approach to process substantial biomedical literature. Moreover, we built a mapping function to address new drugs that do not appear in the dataset.
Using the drug information and the ADRs reported up to 2009, we predicted the ADRs of drugs recorded up to 2012. There were 746 drugs and 232 new drugs, which were only recorded in 2012 with 1325 ADRs. The experimental results showed that the overall performance of our model with mean average precision at top-10 achieved is 0.523 and the rea under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) score achieved is 0.844 for ADR prediction on the dataset.
Our model is effective in identifying the potential ADRs of a drug and the possible ADRs of a new drug. Most importantly, it can detect potential ADRs irrespective of whether they have been reported in the past.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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