Serum level of soluble fibrinogen-like protein 2 in renal allograft recipients with acute rejection: a preliminary study

BACKGROUND

Soluble fibrinogen-like protein 2 (sfgl2), which is mainly secreted by T cells, is a novel effector of regulatory T cells with immunosuppressive functions. The aim of this study was to investigate serum levels of sfgl2 among renal allograft recipients.

METHODS

From November 2010 to August 2011 we retrospectively divided 47 renal allograft recipients into an acute rejection (n = 19) versus a stable group (n = 28) according to allograft biopsy results, using the Banff 2007 classification. The acute rejection group was subdivided into grade I (n = 8) versus grade II T-cell-mediated (n = 6) or antibody-mediated rejection episodes (n = 5). Peripheral blood samples were collected at the time of biopsy. Fourteen healthy volunteers were included as normal group controls. Serum levels of sfgl2 were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS

Serum levels of sfgl2 were increased among renal allograft recipients suffering from biopsy-proven acute rejection episodes (61.91 ± 45.68 ng/mL), versus those with stable allografts (38.59 ± 19.92 ng/mL, P < .05) or healthy volunteers (29.10 ± 18.08 ng/mL, P < .05). The sfgl2 level was significantly higher among patients with antibody-mediated (118.48 ± 55.54 ng/mL) than T-cell-mediated acute rejection episodes (41.71 ± 16.44 ng/mL, P < .01). Serum sfgl2 levels were remarkably elevated in patients with grade II (51.87 ± 19.13 ng/mL) versus grade I T-cell-mediated rejection (34.10 ± 9.26 ng/mL, P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Serum sfgl2 levels were increased among renal allograft recipients with acute rejection episodes to an extent dependent upon the pathological type and severity of the response.

Interplay between collective behavior and spreading dynamics on complex networks

There are certain correlations between collective behavior and spreading dynamics on some real complex networks. Based on the dynamical characteristics and traditional physical models, we construct several new bidirectional network models of spreading phenomena. By theoretical and numerical analysis of these models, we find that the collective behavior can inhibit spreading behavior, but, conversely, this spreading behavior can accelerate collective behavior. The spread threshold of spreading network is obtained by using the Lyapunov function method. The results show that an effective spreading control method is to enhance the individual awareness to collective behavior. Many real-world complex networks can be thought of in terms of both collective behavior and spreading dynamics and therefore to better understand and control such complex networks systems, our work may provide a basic framework.

A comparison of the clinical characteristics of women with recurrent major depression with and without suicidal symptomatology

BACKGROUND

The relationship between recurrent major depression (MD) in women and suicidality is complex. We investigated the extent to which patients who suffered with various forms of suicidal symptomatology can be distinguished from those subjects without such symptoms.

METHOD

We examined the clinical features of the worst episode in 1970 Han Chinese women with recurrent DSM-IV MD between the ages of 30 and 60 years from across China. Student's t tests, and logistic and multiple logistic regression models were used to determine the association between suicidality and other clinical features of MD.

RESULTS

Suicidal symptomatology is significantly associated with a more severe form of MD, as indexed by both the number of episodes and number of MD symptoms. Patients reporting suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts experienced a significantly greater number of stressful life events. The depressive symptom most strongly associated with lifetime suicide attempt was feelings of worthlessness (odds ratio 4.25, 95% confidence interval 2.9-6.3). Excessive guilt, diminished concentration and impaired decision-making were also significantly associated with a suicide attempt.

CONCLUSIONS

This study contributes to the existing literature on risk factors for suicidal symptomatology in depressed women. Identifying specific depressive symptoms and co-morbid psychiatric disorders may help improve the clinical assessment of suicide risk in depressed patients. These findings could be helpful in identifying those who need more intense treatment strategies in order to prevent suicide.

Neutron single particle structure in 131Sn and direct neutron capture cross sections

Recent calculations suggest that the rate of neutron capture by (130)Sn has a significant impact on late-time nucleosynthesis in the r process. Direct capture into low-lying bound states is expected to be significant in neutron capture near the N=82 closed shell, so r-process reaction rates may be strongly impacted by the properties of neutron single particle states in this region. In order to investigate these properties, the (d,p) reaction has been studied in inverse kinematics using a 630 MeV beam of (130)Sn (4.8 MeV/u) and a (CD(2))(n) target. An array of Si strip detectors, including the Silicon Detector Array and an early implementation of the Oak Ridge Rutgers University Barrel Array, was used to detect reaction products. Results for the (130)Sn(d, p)(131)Sn reaction are found to be very similar to those from the previously reported (132)Sn(d, p)(133)Sn reaction. Direct-semidirect (n,γ) cross section calculations, based for the first time on experimental data, are presented. The uncertainties in these cross sections are thus reduced by orders of magnitude from previous estimates.

First Report of Pilidium concavum Causing Tan-Brown Leaf Spot on Strawberry in China

In April 2011, a survey of diseases was conducted on strawberry plants grown in greenhouses in the town of Xingshou, Changping District, Beijing, China. A tan-brown leaf spot with the presence of pink spore masses was observed on older leaves of strawberry plants. In general, the leaf spots began as small, round, water-soaked lesions in the middle or on the margin of leaves, which enlarged gradually up to 1 to 3 cm in diameter and were circular or irregular and brown to dark brown. Occasionally, the center of some spots cracked in the middle lesion under dry conditions. Eventually, black sporodochia were produced on the upper surface of spots and exuded pink conidial masses under humid conditions. Fungal structures were taken directly from the diseased leaves and examined microscopically for morphological characteristics. Sporodochia, 172 to 451 × 138 to 343 μm, were dark and suborbicular. Conidiophores, 8.4 to 48.3 × 0.8 to 2.1 μm, were hyaline, unicellular, and cylindrical. Conidia, 3.1 to 10.2 × 1.5 to 3.0 μm, were hyaline, aseptate, and canoe-shaped to allantoid, forming singly. For further study, the fungus was isolated in pure culture on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium from symptomatic leaf tissue. In culture, the mycelium was white at first and then changed to brownish. The sporodochia were light colored at first and turned brownish or almost black in older cultures. To identify the fungus, the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA region of the isolate was amplified by PCR with primers ITS1 (5'-TCCGTAGGTGAACCTGCGG-3') and ITS4 (5'-TCCTCCGCTTATTGATATGC-3') and sequenced. The 462-nt sequence (GenBank Accession No. JQ995228) was identical to that of Pilidium concavum (1). To validate Koch's postulates, pathogenicity was tested by inoculating 20 leaves on 10 healthy strawberry plants with a mycelial plug from a 15-day-old colony (0.5 cm in diameter). Controls were treated with plugs of PDA medium. The inoculated and control plants were then maintained in growth chambers at 25°C (12 h of light per day, 80% humidity). After 12 days, 100% of the inoculated leaves showed symptoms identical to those observed on leaves in the field while the control leaves remained healthy. The original fungus was reisolated from inoculated leaves showing the symptoms. Thus, it was concluded that the fungus was the causal organism of the leaf spot. On the basis of morphological characteristics, molecular features, and pathogenicity tests, the pathogen of tan-brown leaf spot on strawberry was identified as P. concavum. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. concavum causing tan-brown leaf spot on strawberry in China. This fungus was reported to cause leaf spot on Paeonia suffruticosa in China (2). It also caused tan-brown rot on strawberry fruit in our pathogenicity test. References: (1) L. Cardin et al. Plant Dis. 93:548, 2009. (2) Y. B. Duan et al. Plant Dis. 94:271, 2010.

Interfacial Reactions between In/Pd and GaAs

Interfacial microstructure of In/Pd ohmic contacts to n-GaAs was studied by various X-ray diffraction techniques and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). Analysis of this interface after various annealing showed that In1-xGaxAs compounds are formed at the interface and the composition of these compounds depends upon the annealing temperature. As the temperature increases, the stoichiometry of the Inrich compounds tends toward higher concentrations of Ga. The low contact resistance is achieved by dividing the Schottky barrier between metal and GaAs into two barriers due to metal/Inl-xGaxAs and In1-xGaxAs/GaAs. The barrier due to In1-xGaxAs/GaAs is believed to be the main limiting factor in lowering of contact resistance. The observed ohmic behavior for sample annealed at 500°C for 20 s is attributed to the further reduction of this barrier.

The efficacy of NMDA receptor antagonists for preventing remifentanil-induced increase in postoperative pain and analgesic requirement: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the preventive effects of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists on remifentanil-induced increase in postoperative pain and analgesic requirement in patients.

METHODS

Pubmed, EMBase, Springer and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register were searched to identify all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published to November 2010 which investigated the preventive effects of NMDA receptor antagonists on remifentanil-induced postoperative hyperalgesia and/or tolerance. The studies listed at the end of these articles as reference were also searched. Two authors independently assessed the quality of each study met the inclusion criteria and extracted data. Then Meta-analysis was perfomed using RevMan 5.0 software. The outcomes analyzed were the postoperative analgesic consumption, pain intensity scores, time to first analgesic request, and the incidence of adverse effects.

RESULTS

A total of 623 patients (223 in the ketamine group, 87 in the magnesium group and 313 in the control group) from 14 prospective RCTs were included in the Meta-analysis. Administration of NMDA receptor antagonists reduced the pain scores at 4 hr after operation (P<0.05), and the standardized mean differences (SMD) was -0.21 (95% confidence interval was -0.41 to -0.01). There were no significant differences in postoperative analgesic consumption, pain scores at other time points, time to first analgesic request and the incidence of adverse effects (P>0.05). Further subgroup analyses based on the type of intervention showed that the results were almost the same.

CONCLUSION

These data do not support the use of NMDA receptor antagonists, ketamine and magnesium sulfate to prevent the development of remifentanil-induced postoperative hyperalgesia and tolerance.

Physalins with anti-inflammatory activity are present in Physalis alkekengi var. franchetii and can function as Michael reaction acceptors

Michael reaction acceptors (MRAs) are a class of active molecules that are directly or indirectly involved in various cellular processes, including the regulation of many signaling pathways. In this study, the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) assay was used to demonstrate that the dichloromethane extract of Physalis alkekengi var. franchetii (DCEP) possesses anti-inflammatory activity that might be attributed to the modification of key cysteine residues in IKKβ by the MRAs in DCEP. To isolate these MRAs, glutathione (GSH) was employed, and a simple ultra-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) screening method was developed to investigate the GSH conjugates with potential MRAs. Five physalins, including one new compound isophysalin A (2), together with four known steroidal compounds, physalin A (1), physalin O (3), physalin L (4) and physalin G (5), were isolated to evaluate the GSH conjugating abilities, and it was indicated that compounds 1, 2 and 3, which had a common α,β-unsaturated ketone moiety, exhibited conjugating abilities with GSH and also showed significant nitric oxide (NO) production inhibiting activities. The anti-inflammatory activities of compounds 1, 2 and 3 might be attributed to their targeting multiple cysteine residues on IKKβ; therefore, the alkylation of IKKβ by compound 1 was further studied by micrOTOF-MS. The result showed that six cysteine residues (C(59), C(179), C(299), C(370), C(412), and C(618)) were alkylated, which indicated that IKKβ is a potential target for the anti-inflammatory activity of physalin A.

Bioequivalence evaluation of 2 tablet formulations of entecavir in healthy chinese volunteers: a single-dose, randomized-sequence, open-label crossover study

A randomized, 2-way crossover study was conducted in healthy Chinese male volunteers to evaluate the bioequivalence of a new generic formulation of entecavir (CAS 142217-69-4) tablets (test) and the available branded formulation (reference) to meet the requirements for marketing the test product in China. Test and reference tablets were administered as a single dose on 2 treatment days separated by a 2-week washout period. Blood samples were collected for a period of 24 h following drug administration. Plasma concentration of entecavir was determined by a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) method. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using a noncompartmental model. Bioequivalence was determined by calculating 90% CIs for the ratios of Cmax, AUC0-t and AUC0-∞ values for the test and reference products. Tolerability was assessed by monitoring vital signs, laboratory tests and interviews with the volunteers before administration and every 2 h during the study. The 90% CIs of entecavir for Cmax, AUC0-t and AUC0-∞ were 95.2-106.9%, 98.4-104.6% and 97.3-104.4%, respectively, which fell within the interval of 80-125%. No clinically important adverse effects were reported. These results suggested that the test formulation of entecavir tablets met the regulatory criterion for bioequivalence to the reference formulation.

Water's potential role: Insights from studies of the p53 core domain

Soluble proteins with amyloidogenic propensity such as the tumor suppressor protein p53 have high proportion of incompletely desolvated backbone H bonds (HB). Such bonds are vulnerable to water attack, thus potentially leading to the misfolding of these proteins. However, it is still not clear how the surrounding solvent influences the protein native states. To address this, systematic surveys by molecular dynamics simulations and entropy analysis were performed on the p53 core domain in this work. We examined seven wild/mutant X-ray structures and observed two types of water-network hydration in three "hot hydration centers" (DNA- or small molecule- binding surfaces of the p53 core domain). The "tight" water, resulting from the local collective hydrogen-bond interactions, is probably fundamental to the protein structural stability. The second type of water is highly "dynamical" and exchanges very fast within the bulk solution, which is unambiguously assisted by the local protein motions. An entropy mapping of the solvent around the protein and a temperature perturbation analysis further present the main features of the p53 hydration network. The particular environment created by different water molecules around the p53 core domain also partly explains the structural vulnerabilities of this protein.

Improving the NQO1-inducing activities of phenolic acids from radix Salvia miltiorrhiza: a methylation strategy

NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase1 (NQO1) is an important detoxification enzyme that can protect mammalian cells against toxic quinones and reduce the risk of tumorigenesis. In this study, it was found that salvianolic acid B (SaB), lithospermic acid (LA), and rosmarinic acid (RA), three main hydrophilic constituents in Danshen, conjugated with glutathione (GSH) easily in vitro but exhibited no NQO1-inducing activities in Hepa 1c1c7 cells, which might attribute to their poor absorptions. After a simple methylation strategy that aimed at improving the liposolubility, both the NQO1-inducing activities and the absorptions in cells of the phenolic acids improved obviously, without losing the GSH-conjugating abilities. The concentration to double the specific activity of NQ01 values of methylated products of lithospermic acid and rosmarinic acid were 17.86 ± 2.34 μg/mL and 11.97 ± 0.60 μg/mL, respectively. The findings indicated that methylation is an effective strategy to improve the NQO1-inducing activities of phenolic acids in Danshen.

Adaptive mechanism between dynamical synchronization and epidemic behavior on complex networks

Many realistic epidemic networks display statistically synchronous behavior which we will refer to as epidemic synchronization. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no theoretical study of epidemic synchronization. In fact, in many cases, synchronization and epidemic behavior can arise simultaneously and interplay adaptively. In this paper, we first construct mathematical models of epidemic synchronization, based on traditional dynamical models on complex networks, by applying the adaptive mechanisms observed in real networks. Then, we study the relationship between the epidemic rate and synchronization stability of these models and, in particular, obtain the conditions of local and global stability for epidemic synchronization. Finally, we perform numerical analysis to verify our theoretical results. This work is the first to draw a theoretical bridge between epidemic transmission and synchronization dynamics and will be beneficial to the study of control and the analysis of the epidemics on complex networks.

Terpenoids from Tripterygium wilfordii

An abietane diterpenoid, triptobenzene Y and six sesquiterpene polyol esters, wilforsinines C-H, together with 14 known compounds, have been isolated from the roots of Tripterygium wilfordii. The structures of the compounds were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analyses. The quinone reductase (QR) induction assay indicated that two compounds showed moderate QR-inducing activities at concentrations of 25 μM and 50 μM, respectively.