Huntingtin-associated protein 1 (HAP1) was the first protein discovered to interact with huntingtin. Besides brain, HAP1 is also expressed in the spinal cord, dorsal root ganglion, endocrine, and ...digestive systems. HAP1 has diverse functions involving in vesicular transport, receptor recycling, gene transcription, and signal transduction. HAP1 is strongly linked to several neurological diseases, including Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, ischemic stroke, and depression. In addition, HAP1 has been proved to participate in cancers and diabetes mellitus. This article provides an overview of HAP1 regarding the tissue distribution, cell localization, functions, and offers fresh perspectives to investigate its role in diseases.
A systematic study of microwave-assisted degradation of lignin model compounds such as benzyl phenyl ether (BPE) and guaiacol, in imidazolium-based ionic liquids, was performed by evaluating the ...catalytic activity of 29 types of ionic liquids as both solvent and catalyst. After measuring and comparing the acidity of each ionic liquid solution for BPE and guaiacol degradation under the microwave irradiation and conventional heating conditions, it was found that the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate (BMIMHSO4) was the most effective for decomposing the lignin model compounds. The experimental results indicate that ionic liquid acidity is in favor of the catalytic activity for BPE and guaiacol degradation, microwave irradiation could accelerate the degradation rate by 650% for BPE and 1120% for guaiacol and significantly increase the reaction selectivity. It was also found in experiments that the ionic liquid BMIMHSO4 could be used for 5 times without any loss of catalytic activity. The possible mechanisms for BPE and guaiacol degradation are proposed based on the product distributions.
Rapid and accurate detection of respiratory virus aerosols is highlighted for virus surveillance and infection control. Here, we report a wireless immunoassay technology for fast (within 10 min), ...on-site (wireless and battery-free), and sensitive (limit of detection down to fg/L) detection of virus antigens in aerosols. The wireless immunoassay leverages the immuno-responsive hydrogel-modulated radio frequency resonant sensor to capture and amplify the recognition of virus antigen, and flexible readout network to transduce the immuno bindings into electrical signals. The wireless immunoassay achieves simultaneous detection of respiratory viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, influenza A H1N1 virus, and respiratory syncytial virus for community infection surveillance. Direct detection of unpretreated clinical samples further demonstrates high accuracy for diagnosis of respiratory virus infection. This work provides a sensitive and accurate immunoassay technology for on-site virus detection and disease diagnosis compatible with wearable integration.
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious neurological trauma that is challenging to treat. After SCI, many neurons in the injured area die due to necrosis or apoptosis, and astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, ...microglia and other non-neuronal cells become dysfunctional, hindering the repair of the injured spinal cord. Corrective surgery and biological, physical and pharmacological therapies are commonly used treatment modalities for SCI; however, no current therapeutic strategies can achieve complete recovery. Somatic cell reprogramming is a promising technology that has gradually become a feasible therapeutic approach for repairing the injured spinal cord. This revolutionary technology can reprogram fibroblasts, astrocytes, NG2 cells and neural progenitor cells into neurons or oligodendrocytes for spinal cord repair. In this review, we provide an overview of the transcription factors, genes, microRNAs (miRNAs), small molecules and combinations of these factors that can mediate somatic cell reprogramming to repair the injured spinal cord. Although many challenges and questions related to this technique remain, we believe that the beneficial effect of somatic cell reprogramming provides new ideas for achieving functional recovery after SCI and a direction for the development of treatments for SCI.
Primary pulmonary enteric adenocarcinoma (PEAC) is an extremely rare variant of invasive lung cancer. It is highly heterogeneous while shares some common morphologic and immunohistochemical features ...with usual pulmonary adenocarcinoma (PAC) and colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRAC), making the differential diagnosis difficult. At present there are only limited studies about distinctive features of primary PEAC and the results are often inconsistent.
We retrospectively analyzed total 129 primary PEACs and 50 CRACs that were published since 1991 or diagnosed in our centre. Among them eight typical samples of primary PEACs and usual PACs were detected by targeted exome sequencing.
The combination of CK7
/CDX2
acquires high sensitivity (71.3%) and specificity (82%) in differential diagnosis of PEACs from CRAC. The primary PEACs harbor a high incidence of KRAS mutation but almost absent of EGFR mutation. Moreover, compared with usual PACs, the primary PEACs have higher nonsynonymous tumor mutation burden and more frequent MMR mutation.
The combination of CK7
/CDX2
immunostaining and the distinctive genetic signatures, including low incidence of sensitivity genes mutations and high tumor mutation burden, is an important supplementary to the clinical differential diagnosis of primary PEACs. Our findings thus have significant implications for development of individualized treatment strategy in these patients.
Pain is common and frequent in many neurodegenerative diseases, although it has not received much attention. In Huntington's disease (HD), pain is often ignored and under-researched because attention ...is more focused on motor and cognitive decline than psychiatric symptoms. In HD progression, pain symptoms are complex and involved in multiple etiologies, particularly mental issues such as apathy, anxiety and irritability. Because of psychiatric issues, HD patients rarely complain of pain, although their bodies show severe pain symptoms, ultimately resulting in insufficient awareness and lack of research. In HD, few studies have focused on pain and pain-related features. A detailed and systemic pain history is crucial to assess and explore pain pathophysiology in HD. This review provides an overview concentrating on pain-related factors in HD, including neuropathology, frequency, features, affecting factors and mechanisms. More attention and studies are still needed in this interesting field in the future.
Chronic pain is an unpleasant experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Inflammatory pain alerts the body to inflammation and promotes healing; however, unresolved inflammation ...can lead to chronic pain. Conversely, neuropathic pain, due to somatosensory damage, can be a disease in itself. However, inflammation plays a considerable role in the progression of both types of pain. Resolvins, derived from omega-3 fatty acids, actively suppress pro-inflammatory mediators and aid in the resolution of inflammation. Resolvins alleviate various inflammatory and neuropathic pain models by reducing hypersensitivity and regulating inflammatory cytokines and glial activation in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia. Thus, resolvins are a promising alternative for pain management with the potential to reduce the side effects associated with conventional medications. Continued research is crucial to unlock the therapeutic potential of resolvins and integrate them into effective clinical pain management strategies. This review aimed to evaluate the literature surrounding the resolvins in inflammatory and neuropathic pain.
Background:
Prognostic nutritional index (PNI) that was designed to assess the nutritional and immunological status of patients and albumin–bilirubin (ALBI) grades can be used as an assessment tool ...for hepatic function. Both nutritional and immunological statuses have been reported to be independent prognostic factors of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to investigate whether PNI together with ALBI could be a better predictor in patients with early-stage HCC undergoing radiofrequency ablation (RFA).
Method:
The information of 110 patients with newly diagnosed HCC within the Milan criteria receiving RFA as the initial therapy between 2014 and 2015 was retrospectively collected. Pretreatment PNI, ALBI, and PNI-ALBI grades were calculated. Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method, and multivariate analysis was used to identify prognostic factors.
Result:
The 1-, 3-, and 5-years OS rates of patients were 80.0, 30.9, and 23.9%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that the tumor size hazard ratio (HR) = 1.966, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.091–3.545,
P
= 0.025, PNI grade (H = 2.558, 95% CI = 1.289–5.078,
P
= 0.007), and PNI-ALBI grade (HR = 3.876, 95% CI = 1.729–8.690,
P
= 0.001) were independent risk factors for OS, whereas only the elevated α-fetoprotein (HR = 1.732, 95% CI = 1.003–2.991,
P
= 0.049) and the size of the tumor (HR = 1.640, 95% CI = 1.015–2.647,
P
= 0.43) were independent predictors for better RFS.
Conclusion:
This study demonstrates that preoperative PNI-ALBI grade is a simple and useful predictor for OS in patients with early-stage HCC after RFA.
Objective To examine the effects of Coxsackie virus B3 (CVB3) on the NLR family, pyrin domain containing protein 3 (NLPR3) of mouse macrophages and its mechanisms. Methods RAW264.7 cells, primary ...mouse macrophages (bone marrow-derived macrophages or peritoneal macrophages), and short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-NLRP3 lentivirus infected RAW264.7 cells were stimulated by different dosages of CVB3. The transcript levels of NLRP3 and IL-1β were measured by quantitative real-time PCR. IL-1β in the supernatants of cell cultures was determined by ELISA. The protein level of NLRP3 was tested by Western blot analysis and the interacting proteins of NLRP3 were detected by co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP). Results The transcript levels of NLRP3 and IL-1β were significantly up-regulated in the CVB3 stimulated RAW264.7 cells and primary mouse macrophages (bone marrow-derived macrophages or peritoneal macrophages). The expression level of NLRP3 presented CVB3-dose dependence and demonstrated the highest expression level at 6 hours
Nck1 is an important molecule that participates in many cellular processes, including neurite outgrowth, synaptic plasticity, and apoptosis. However, the expression and function of Nck1 in the spinal ...cord and spinal cord injury remain unknown.
To investigate the role of Nck1 in spinal cord injury.
Animal experimentation.
Adult Sprague–Dawley rats were used to establish an acute spinal cord injury model. Double immunofluorescence staining, Western blot, and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis were used to investigate the distribution, cellular localization, and expression of Nck1 in spinal cord injury processes. Short interfering RNA was used to silence Nck1 expression in VSC4.1 cells. The Shapiro–Wilk test was used for the normality distribution analysis; the Student’s unpaired t-test, 1-way analysis of variance followed by post hoc Tukey’s test were used for data analysis. Finally, RNA sequencing technology and gene ontology analysis were used to analyze the changes in Nck1-associated genes expression after spinal cord injury.
Colabeled staining demonstrated that Nck1 was especially distributed in neurons. Western blot, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and statistical analysis revealed that Nck1 expression reduced to the lowest levels at 1 day after nerve injury, and slowly increased to a stable level in 21 days (
< .05). Nck1-specific short interfering RNA transfection significantly reduced cell viability and neurite development in neurons. Bioinformatic analysis indicated that Nck1 participates in multiple pathological processes of spinal cord injury, and many Nck1-associated genes exhibited differential expression levels.
Nck1 is a vital protein in spinal cord injury processes and, therefore, further studies should be conducted to explore its potential functions and molecular mechanisms in spinal cord injury repair.
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