The age-related decline of signal joint T-cell receptor rearrangement excision circles (sjTRECs) in human peripheral blood has been demonstrated in our previous study and other reports. Until now, ...only a few studies on sjTREC detection in bloodstain samples were reported, which were based on a small sample of subjects of a limited age range, although bloodstains are much more frequently encountered in forensic practice. In this present study, we adopted the sensitive Taqman real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) method to perform sjTREC quantification in bloodstains from individuals ranging from 0-86 years old (n = 264). The results revealed that sjTREC contents in human bloodstains were declined in an age-dependent manner (r = -0.8712). The formula of age estimation was Age = -7.1815Y-42.458 ± 9.42 (Y dCt(TBP-sjTREC); 9.42 standard error). Furthermore, we tested for the influence of short- or long- storage time by analyzing fresh and stored bloodstains from the same individuals. Remarkably, no statistically significant difference in sjTREC contents was found between the fresh and old DNA samples over a 4-week of storage time. However, significant loss (0.16-1.93 dCt) in sjTREC contents was detected after 1.5 years of storage in 31 samples. Moreover, preliminary sjTREC quantification from up to 20-year-old bloodstains showed that though the sjTREC contents were detectable in all samples and highly correlated with donor age, a time-dependent decrease in the correlation coefficient r was found, suggesting the predicting accuracy of this described assay would be deteriorated in aged samples. Our findings show that sjTREC quantification might be also suitable for age prediction in bloodstains, and future researches into the time-dependent or other potential impacts on sjTREC quantification might allow further improvement of the predicting accuracy.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
One-dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg ferromagnetic spin chain can be described by the fifth-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which is investigated in this paper. Through the Darboux ...transformation, we obtain the Akhmediev breathers (ABs), Kuznetsov–Ma (KM) solitons and rogue-wave solutions. Effects of the coefficients of the fourth-order dispersion,
γ
, and of the fifth-order dispersion,
δ
, on the properties of ABs, KM solitons and rogue waves are discussed: (1) With
γ
increasing, the AB exhibits stronger localization in time; (2) The propagation directions of an AB and a KM soliton change with the presence of
δ
; and (3) Enhancement of
γ
makes the existence time of the rogue waves shorter, while enhancement of
δ
increases the existence time of the rogue waves.
Abstract
The bacteria drug resistance is not only associated with the gain of drug resistance gene but also relied on the adaptation of bacterial cells to antibiotics by transcriptional regulation. ...However, only a few transcription factors that regulate drug resistance have been characterized in mycobacteria. In this study, a TetR family transcriptional factor (OxiR), encoded by Rv0067c in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, was found to be an isoniazid (INH) resistance regulator. Comparing with the wild-type strain, the oxiR overexpressing strain is four times resistant to INH, whereas the oxiR knockout strain is eight times sensitive to INH. However, the rifamycin and ethambutol resistance were not influenced by oxiR. OxiR can bind to self-promoter at a 66 bp imperfect palindromic motifs. Interestingly, OxiR directly binds to INH, and thereby alleviate the self-repression. Furthermore, OxiR negatively regulated an oxidoreductase encoded by Rv0068. And the susceptibility of the Rv0068-overexpressing and oxiR knockout strains to all the three above-mentioned anti-tuberculosis drugs was equivalent, suggesting that the effect of oxiR to INH susceptibility is attributed to the derepression of Rv0068. In conclusion, we showed that OxiR can specifically modulate INH susceptibility by regulating an oxidoreductase encoding gene, both of which have not been associated with drug-resistance previously.
OxiR (Rv0067c) is a TetR family transcriptional repressor that can specifically interact with isoniazid (INH). It can regulate INH susceptibility in mycobacteria by means of Rv0068, a novel SDR family NAD(P)-dependent oxidoreductase.
► An efficient Parkinson’s disease diagnostic system using fuzzy k-nearest neighbor method is proposed. ► The original features are dimensionally reduced using principle component analysis. ► The ...effectiveness of the proposed system has been rigorously estimated on a PD dataset in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and AUC. ► We have achieved superior performance against support vector machines based approaches and the existed methods in literature.
In this paper, we present an effective and efficient diagnosis system using fuzzy k-nearest neighbor (FKNN) for Parkinson’s disease (PD) diagnosis. The proposed FKNN-based system is compared with the support vector machines (SVM) based approaches. In order to further improve the diagnosis accuracy for detection of PD, the principle component analysis was employed to construct the most discriminative new feature sets on which the optimal FKNN model was constructed. The effectiveness of the proposed system has been rigorously estimated on a PD data set in terms of classification accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). Experimental results have demonstrated that the FKNN-based system greatly outperforms SVM-based approaches and other methods in the literature. The best classification accuracy (96.07%) obtained by the FKNN-based system using a 10-fold cross validation method can ensure a reliable diagnostic model for detection of PD. Promisingly, the proposed system might serve as a new candidate of powerful tools for diagnosing PD with excellent performance.
Tumor penetration and the accumulation of nanomedicines are crucial challenges in solid tumor therapy. By taking advantage of the MSC tumor-tropic property, we developed a mesenchymal stem cell ...(MSC)-based drug delivery system in which paclitaxel (PTX)-encapsulating hyaluronic acid-poly (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) polymeric micelles (PTX/HA-PLGA micelles) were loaded for glioma therapy. The results indicated that CD44 overexpressed on the surface of both MSCs and tumor cells not only improved PTX/HA-PLGA micelle loading in MSCs, but also promoted the drug transfer between MSCs and adjacent cancer cells. It was hypothesized that CD44-mediated transcytosis played a crucial role and allowed deep glioma penetration depending on sequential intra-intercellular delivery via endocytosis-exocytosis. MSC-micelles were able to infiltrate from normal brain parenchyma towards contralateral tumors and led to the eradication of glioma. The survival of orthotopic glioma-bearing rats was significantly extended. In conclusion, the MSC-based delivery of HA-PLGA micelles is a potential strategy for tumor-targeting drug delivery.
•High conductive MXene (Ti3C2Tx) was used.•Fabricated a flexible dry electrode for biopotential recording.•Investigated the relationship between contact impedances of the dry electrode and the ...quality of recording signals.•The flexible dry electrode can record ECG, EEG, and EOG accurately as the standard electrode (Ag/AgCl electrode).
The dry electrode for biopotential recording is urgently need in wearable health monitoring systems, brain-computer interface (BCI), and human–computer interaction (HCI). However, high contact impedances of the electrode and the skin and inadequate shape adaptability of the electrode are challenges for the dry electrode to record signals accurately. Here, we present a flexible dry electrode based on transferring MXene (Ti3C2Tx) ink on a flexible polyimide (PI) substrate for biopotential recording. The electrode exhibits low contact impedances and excellent flexibility to conform the skin well. In vivo biopotential recording demonstrated the flexible dry electrode can record electrocardiograms (ECG), electroencephalograms (EEG), and electrooculogram (EOG) as accurately as the standard electrode (Ag/AgCl electrode). Moreover, our electrode can record ECG accurately, even the subject is in motion. The flexible dry electrode is suitable for wearable biopotential recording and promising to be used in wearable health monitoring systems, BCI, and HCI.
•Exogenous Ang-(1-7) directly inhibits EMT induced by TGF-β1 in A549.•TGF-β1 downregulates the ACE2 expression in A549 in a SIRT1-dependent manner.•SIRT1 activator, SRT1720, restores the ACE2 ...expression in A549.
Accumulating evidence indicates that angiotensin (1-7) Ang-(1-7) protects against idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in animal experiments. However, whether Ang-(1-7) effectively inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) induced by transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) remains unclear. The aim of this study is to examine the eff ;ects of Ang-(1-7) on TGF-β1-induced EMT in human alveolar epithelial cells. We found that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) /Ang-(1-7)/MasR were decreased in the lungs of mice with IPF induced by bleomycin, and were negatively correlated with Tgfb1 mRNA expression. In vitro, our data showed that exogenous Ang-(1-7) restored the expression of E-cadherin and decreased the expressions of α-SMA and Vimentin induced by TGF-β1 in A549 cells. Ang-(1-7) also reduced TGF-β1-induced migration and synthesis of the extracellular matrix, such as collagen Ⅰ and collagen Ⅲ. Mechanistically, we observed that Ang-(1-7) directly inhibited TGF-β1-induced phosphorylation of Smad2 and Smad3, and suppressed the expression of the downstream target gene of TGF-β1-Smad signaling, including ZEB1, ZEB2, TWIST, and SNAIL1. Additionally, phosphorylation of mTOR induced by TGF-β1 also been suppressed by Ang-(1-7) treatment in A549 cells. Interestingly, we found that TGF-β1 strongly suppressed the expression of ACE2 in A549 cells through inhibiting SIRT1. In conclusion, our findings indicate that Ang-(1-7) directly inhibits TGF-β1-induced EMT in alveolar epithelial cells via disruption of TGF-β1-Smad signaling pathway, contributing to the protective effect against IPF.
Kawasaki disease (KD) is a vasculitic illness of childhood associated with coronary artery dilatation, coronary artery aneurysm, arrhythmia, sudden death, and other serious cardiovascular diseases. ...Up to date, the etiology of KD remains unclear; however, epidemiological characteristics indicate that it may be related to as-yet-undefined pathogen infection.
A 19-month-old boy had a fever of unknown origin at 38°C for 9 days without rash, runny nose and cough.
The boy was diagnosed with incomplete KD (IKD) coincident with influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 virus.
He was received treatments including human immunoglobulin (2 g/kg), aspirin (30∼50 mg/kg.d), and dipyridamole (3∼5 mg/kg.d).
After 24 hours of human immunoglobulin infusion, his body temperature returned normal. After hospitalization for 6 days, his symptoms disappeared and discharged from the hospital.
More attention should be paid to the correlation between KD and pathogen infection, especially the new influenza virus H1N1. The potential mechanism underlying viral infection-mediated KD is worthy of further investigation, which may provide scientific evidence for the pathogenesis of KD.
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