The SGLT2 Inhibitor Canagliflozin Reduces Atherosclerosis by Enhancing Macrophage Autophagy

It has been shown that SGLT2 suppresses atherosclerosis (AS). Recent studies indicate that autophagy widely participates in atherogenesis. This study aimed to assess the effect of canagliflozin (CAN) on atherogenesis via autophagy. Macrophages and ApoE - / - mice were used in this study. In macrophages, the results showed that CAN promoted LC3II expression and autophagosome formation. Furthermore, the cholesterol efflux assay demonstrated that CAN enhanced cholesterol efflux from macrophages via autophagy, resulting in lower lipid droplet concentrations in macrophages. The western blot revealed that CAN regulated autophagy via the AMPK/ULK1/Beclin1 signaling pathway. CAN resulted in increased macrophage autophagy in atherosclerotic plaques of ApoE - / - mice, confirming that CAN could inhibit the progression of AS via promoting macrophage autophagy. The current study found that CAN reduced the production of atherosclerotic lesions, which adds to our understanding of how SGLT2 inhibitors function to delay the progression of AS.

A multiscale residual U-net architecture for super-resolution ultrasonic phased array imaging from full matrix capture data

Ultrasonic phased array imaging using full-matrix capture (FMC) has raised great interest among various communities, including the nondestructive testing community, as it makes full use of the echo space to provide preferable visualization performance of inhomogeneities. The conventional way of FMC data postprocessing for imaging is through beamforming approaches, such as delay-and-sum, which suffers from limited imaging resolution and contrast-to-noise ratio. To tackle these difficulties, we propose a deep learning (DL)-based image forming approach, termed FMC-Net, to reconstruct high-quality ultrasonic images directly from FMC data. Benefitting from the remarkable capability of DL to approximate nonlinear mapping, the developed FMC-Net automatically models the underlying nonlinear wave-matter interactions; thus, it is trained end-to-end to link the FMC data to the spatial distribution of the acoustic scattering coefficient of the inspected object. Specifically, the FMC-Net is an encoder-decoder architecture composed of multiscale residual modules that make local perception at different scales for the transmitter-receiver pair combinations in the FMC data. We numerically and experimentally compared the DL imaging results to the total focusing method and wavenumber algorithm and demonstrated that the proposed FMC-Net remarkably outperforms conventional methods in terms of exceeding resolution limit and visualizing subwavelength defects. It is expected that the proposed DL approach can benefit a variety of ultrasonic array imaging applications.

FGF9 Recruits β-Catenin to Increase Hepatic ECM Synthesis and Promote NASH-Driven HCC

Most nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients develop severe fibrosis through extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation, which can lead to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) is involved in serial types of cancer; however, the specific role of FGF9 in NASH-driven HCC is not fully understood. This study finds that FGF9 is increased in patients with NASH-associated HCC. Furthermore, NASH-driven HCC mice models by feeding wildtype mice with high-fat/high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet and low dose carbon tetrachloride (CCl4 ) treatment is established; and identified that hepatic FGF9 is increased; with severe fibrosis. Additionally, AAV-mediated knockdown of FGF9 reduced the hepatic tumor burden of NASH-driven HCC mice models. Hepatocyte-specific FGF9 transgenic mice (FGF9Alb ) fed with a HFHC diet without CCl4 treatment exhibited an increased hepatic ECM and tumor burden. However, XAV-939 treatment blocked ECM accumulation and NASH-driven HCC in FGF9Alb mice fed with HFHC diet. Molecular mechanism studies show that FGF9 stimulated the expression of ECM related genes in a β-catenin dependent manner; and FGF9 exerts its effect on β-catenin stability via the ERK1/2-GSK-3β signaling pathway. In summary, the data provides evidence for the critical role of FGF9 in NASH-driven HCC pathogenesis; wherein it promotes the tumors formation through the ECM pathway.

Site Mutation Improves the Expression and Antimicrobial Properties of Fungal Defense

Although antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have highly desirable intrinsic characteristics in their commercial product development as new antimicrobials, the limitations of AMPs from experimental to scale development include the low oral bioavailability, and high production costs due to inadequate in vitro/in vivo gene expression- and low scale. Plectasin has good bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus and Streptococcus, and the selective bactericidal activity greatly reduces the damage to the micro-ecosystem when applied in vivo. However, its expression level was relatively low (748.63 mg/L). In view of these situations, this study will optimize and modify the structure of Plectasin, hoping to obtain candidates with high expression, no/low toxicity, and maintain desirable antibacterial activity. Through sequence alignment, Plectasin was used as a template to introduce the degenerate bases, and the screening library was constructed. After three different levels of screening, the candidate sequence PN7 was obtained, and its total protein yield in the supernatant was 5.53 g/L, with the highest value so far for the variants or constructs from the same ancestor source. PN7 had strong activity against several species of Gram-positive bacteria (MIC value range 1~16 μg/mL). It was relatively stable in various conditions in vitro; in addition, the peptide showed no toxicity to mice for 1 week after intraperitoneal injection. Meanwhile, PN7 kills Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 43300 with a mode of a quicker (>99% S. aureus was killed within 2 h, whereas vancomycin at 2× MIC was 8 h.) and longer PAE period. The findings indicate that PN7 may be a novel promising antimicrobial agent, and this study also provides a model or an example for the design, modification, or reconstruction of novel AMPs and their derivatives.

LHAR: Lightweight Human Activity Recognition on Knowledge Distillation

Sensor-based Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is widely used in daily life and is the basic-level bridge to virtual healthcare in the metaverse. The current challenge is the low recognition accuracy for personalized users on smart wearable devices. The limited resource cannot support large deep learning models updated locally. Besides, integrating and transmitting sensor data to the cloud would reduce the efficiency. Considering the tradeoff between performance and complexity, we propose a Lightweight Human Activity Recognition (LHAR) framework. In LHAR, we combine the cross-people HAR task with the lightweight model task. LHAR framework is designed on the teacher-student architecture and the student network consists of multiple depthwise separable convolution layers to achieve fewer parameters. The dark knowledge distilled from the complex teacher model enhances the generalization ability of LHAR. To achieve effective knowledge distillation, we propose two optimization methods. Firstly, we train the teacher model by ensemble learning to promote teacher performance. Secondly, a multi-channel data augmentation method is proposed for the diversity of the dataset, which is a plug-in operation for the ensemble teacher model. In the experiments, we compare LHAR with state-of-art models in comparison evaluation, ablation study and the hyperparameter analysis, which proves the better performance of LHAR in efficiency and effectiveness.

Loss of AMPKα2 promotes melanoma tumor growth and brain metastasis

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a critical cellular energy sensor at the interface of metabolism and cancer. However, the role of AMPK in carcinogenesis remains unclear. Here, through analysis of the TCGA melanoma dataset, we found that PRKAA2 gene that encodes the α2 subunit of AMPK is mutated in ∼9% of cutaneous melanomas, and these mutations tend to co-occur with NF1 mutations. Knockout of AMPKα2 promoted anchorage-independent growth of NF1-mutant melanoma cells, whereas ectopic expression of AMPKα2 inhibited their growth in soft agar assays. Moreover, loss of AMPKα2 accelerated tumor growth of NF1-mutant melanoma and enhanced their brain metastasis in immune-deficient mice. Our findings support that AMPKα2 serves as a tumor suppressor in NF1-mutant melanoma and suggest that AMPK could be a therapeutic target for treating melanoma brain metastasis.

Molecular Modification of Kex2 P1' Site Enhances Expression and Druggability of Fungal Defensin

Pichia pastoris is the widely used expression system for producing recombinant secretory proteins. It is known that Kex2 protease plays a vital role in the process of protein secretion, in which the P1' site affects its cleavage efficiency. To enhance the expression level of fungal defensin-derived peptide NZ2114, this work attempts to optimize the P1' site of Kex2 by replacing it with 20 amino acids in turn. The results showed that when the amino acid of the P1' site was changed to Phe (F), the yield of target peptide significantly increased from 2.39 g/L to 4.81 g/L. Additionally, the novel peptide F-NZ2114 (short for FNZ) showed strong antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive (G⁺) bacteria, especially for Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae (MIC: 4-8 μg/mL). The FNZ was very stable and retained high activity in various conditions; in addition, a low cytotoxicity and no hemolysis were observed even at a high concentration of 128 μg/mL, and a longer postantibiotic effect was reached. The above results indicate that this engineering strategy provided a feasible optimization scheme for enhancing the expression level and druggability of this antimicrobial peptide from fungal defensin and other similar targets by this updated recombinant yeast.

Impact of Borna Disease Virus Infection on the Transcriptome of Differentiated Neuronal Cells and Its Modulation by Antiviral Treatment

Borna disease virus (BoDV-1) is a highly neurotropic RNA virus that causes neurobehavioral disturbances such as abnormal social activities and memory impairment. Although impairments in the neural circuits caused by BoDV-1 infection induce these disturbances, the molecular basis remains unclear. Furthermore, it is unknown whether anti-BoDV-1 treatments can attenuate BoDV-1-mediated transcriptomic changes in neuronal cells. In this study, we investigated the effects of BoDV-1 infection on neuronal differentiation and the transcriptome of differentiated neuronal cells using persistently BoDV-1-infected cells. Although BoDV-1 infection did not have a detectable effect on intracellular neuronal differentiation processes, differentiated neuronal cells exhibited transcriptomic changes in differentiation-related genes. Some of these transcriptomic changes, such as the decrease in the expression of apoptosis-related genes, were recovered by anti-BoDV-1 treatment, while alterations in the expression of other genes remained after treatment. We further demonstrated that a decrease in cell viability induced by differentiation processes in BoDV-1-infected cells can be relieved with anti-BoDV-1 treatment. This study provides fundamental information regarding transcriptomic changes after BoDV-1 infection and the treatment in neuronal cells.

Thinking on the Construction of Antimicrobial Peptide Databases: Powerful Tools for the Molecular Design and Screening

With the accelerating growth of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), there is an urgent need for new antimicrobial agents with low or no AMR. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been extensively studied as alternatives to antibiotics (ATAs). Coupled with the new generation of high-throughput technology for AMP mining, the number of derivatives has increased dramatically, but manual running is time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, it is necessary to establish databases that combine computer algorithms to summarize, analyze, and design new AMPs. A number of AMP databases have already been established, such as the Antimicrobial Peptides Database (APD), the Collection of Antimicrobial Peptides (CAMP), the Database of Antimicrobial Activity and Structure of Peptides (DBAASP), and the Database of Antimicrobial Peptides (dbAMPs). These four AMP databases are comprehensive and are widely used. This review aims to cover the construction, evolution, characteristic function, prediction, and design of these four AMP databases. It also offers ideas for the improvement and application of these databases based on merging the various advantages of these four peptide libraries. This review promotes research and development into new AMPs and lays their foundation in the fields of druggability and clinical precision treatment.

An optimized total focusing method based on delay-multiply-and-sum for nondestructive testing

Total focusing method (TFM) attracts much interest because of high image resolution and large inspection coverage. However, the synthetic focusing approach based on delay-and-sum beamforming employs only the defect information contained in the dataset while ignoring the spatial information of the array signals, leading to limited imaging performance mixed with artifacts and noise. In addition, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) suffers due to single-element emission of full matrix capture. This work combines a modified delay-multiply-and-sum (DMAS) beamforming approach with conventional synthetic focusing in the TFM algorithm, to achieve optimization of TFM imaging performance. DMAS-based TFM is able to take full advantage of the defect and spatial information in the array dataset, and to generate new frequency components for better image reconstruction. As demonstrated on a series of comparative simulation and experimental results, the imaging results of the optimized TFM provide a considerable improvement in SNR. Better lateral spatial resolution is also achieved due to the increased number of equivalent transducer elements and second harmonic component. Therefore, this work provides a quite promising alternative solution for the post-processing of ultrasonic phased array with improved imaging performance.

A new dataset for mongolian online handwritten recognition

This paper introduces a new traditional Mongolian word-level online handwriting dataset, MOLHW. The dataset consists of handwritten Mongolian words, including 164,631 samples written by 200 writers and covering 40,605 Mongolian common words. These words were selected from a large Mongolian corpus. The coordinate points of words were collected by volunteers, who wrote the corresponding words on the dedicated application for their mobile phones. Latin transliteration of Mongolian was used to annotate the coordinates of each word. At the same time, the writer's identification number and mobile phone screen information were recorded in the dataset. Using this dataset, we propose an encoder-decoder Mongolian online handwriting recognition model with a deep bidirectional gated recurrent unit and attention mechanism as the baseline evaluation model. Under this model, the optimal performance of the word error rate (WER) on the test set was 24.281%. Furthermore, we present the experimental results of different Mongolian online handwriting recognition models. The experimental results show that compared with other models, the model based on Transformer could learn the corresponding character sequences from the coordinate data of the dataset more effectively, with a 16.969% WER on the test set. The dataset is now freely available to researchers worldwide. The dataset can be applied to handwritten text recognition as well as handwritten text generation, handwriting identification, and signature recognition.

Identification of Key Genes from the Visceral Adipose Tissues of Overweight/Obese Adults with Hypertension through Transcriptome Sequencing

Overweight and obese (OW/OB) adults are at increased risk of hypertension due to visceral adipose tissue (VAT) inflammation. In this study, we explored gene level differences in the VAT of hypertensive and normotensive OW/OB patients. VAT samples obtained from six OW/OB adults (three hypertensive, three normotensive) were subjected to transcriptome sequencing analysis. Gene set enrichment analysis was conducted for all gene expression data to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with |log2 (fold change)| ≥ 1 and q < 0.05. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes functional enrichment analyses were performed on the DEGs, and hub genes were identified by constructing a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. The proposed hub genes were validated using quantitative real-time PCR in ten other samples from five hypertensive and five normotensive patients. In addition, we performed ROC analysis and Spearman correlation analysis. A total of 84 DEGs were identified between VAT samples from OW/OB patients with and without hypertension, among which 21 were significantly upregulated and 63 were significantly downregulated. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that spleen function was related to hypertension in OW/OB adults. Meanwhile, PPI network analysis identified the following top 10 hub genes: CD79A, CR2, SELL, CD22, IL7R, CCR7, TNFRSF13C, CXCR4, POU2AF1, and JAK3. Through qPCR verification, we found that CXCR4, CD22, and IL7R were statistically significant. qPCR verification suggested that RELA was statistically significant. However, qPCR verification indicated that NFKB1 and KLF2 were not statistically significant. These hub genes were mainly regulated by the transcription factor RELA. The AUC of ROC analysis for CXCR4, IL7R, and CD22 was 0.92. What is more, VAT CXCR4 and CD22 were positively related to RELA relative expression levels. Taken together, our research demonstrates that CXCR4, IL7R, and CD22 related to VAT in hypertensive OW/OB adults could serve as future therapeutic targets.

Myeloid-derived itaconate suppresses cytotoxic CD8+ T cells and promotes tumour growth

The tumour microenvironment possesses mechanisms that suppress anti-tumour immunity. Itaconate is a metabolite produced from the Krebs cycle intermediate cis-aconitate by the activity of immune-responsive gene 1 (IRG1). While it is known to be immune modulatory, the role of itaconate in anti-tumour immunity is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) secrete itaconate that can be taken up by CD8+ T cells and suppress their proliferation, cytokine production and cytolytic activity. Metabolite profiling, stable-isotope tracing and metabolite supplementation studies indicated that itaconate suppressed the biosynthesis of aspartate and serine/glycine in CD8+ T cells to attenuate their proliferation and function. Host deletion of Irg1 in female mice bearing allografted tumours resulted in decreased tumour growth, inhibited the immune-suppressive activities of MDSCs, promoted anti-tumour immunity of CD8+ T cells and enhanced the anti-tumour activity of anti-PD-1 antibody treatment. Furthermore, we found a significant negative correlation between IRG1 expression and response to PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade in patients with melanoma. Our findings not only reveal a previously unknown role of itaconate as an immune checkpoint metabolite secreted from MDSCs to suppress CD8+ T cells, but also establish IRG1 as a myeloid-selective target in immunometabolism whose inhibition promotes anti-tumour immunity and enhances the efficacy of immune checkpoint protein blockade.

Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy companied with multiple-related diseases

Objective

To elucidate the clinical, radiologic characteristics of Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) associated with the other diseases.

Materials and methods

Clinical data were retrospectively collected from hospitalized patients with LHON associated with the other diseases at the Neuro-Ophthalmology Department at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (PLAGH) from December 2014 to October 2018.

Results

A total of 13 patients, 24 eyes (10 men and 3 women; mean age, 30.69 ± 12.76 years) with LHON mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, were included in the cohort. 14502(5)11778(4)11778 &11696(1)12811(1)11696(1)3460(1). One patient was positive for aquaporin-4 antibody (AQP4-Ab), and two were positive for myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody (MOG-Ab). Three patients were associated with idiopathic optic neuritis (ON). Two patients were with compression optic neuropathy. Three patients were with the central nervous system (CNS) diseases. One patient was with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and one with idiopathic orbital inflammatory syndrome (IOIS). At the onset, visual acuity (VA) in eighteen eyes was below 0.1, one eye was 0.5, five eyes were above 0.5, while VA in sixteen eyes was below a 0.1 outcome, three eyes experienced moderate vision loss. MRI images showed T2 lesions and enhancement in nine patients who received corticosteroids treatment; additional immune modulators treatment was performed on two patients. None of the patients had relapse during the follow-up time.

Conclusion

Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy can be accompanied with multiple-related diseases, especially different subtypes of ON, which were also exhibited with IOIS and compression optic neuropathy for the first time in this cohort. This condition may be a distinct entity with an unusual clinical and therapeutic profile.

Two-stage isolated AC/DC converter and its compound control strategy

With the continued development of the new energy vehicle industry, two-stage isolated AC/DC converters are widely used because of their simple topology and easy control characteristics. In this study, we investigate the front-stage Buck power factor correction (PFC) converter and rear-stage full-bridge converter. The main circuit design and component selection were completed through a detailed analysis of the circuit characteristics. In terms of the control strategy, the front-stage adopting PI control and parameter adaptive terminal sliding mode control strategy were proposed for the rear-stage full-bridge converter. This new compound control strategy ensures an optimal regulation of the system under different operating conditions. Simulation analysis verified the correctness of the system topology and control strategy. Based on an analysis of the main parameters of the system, a low-power experimental prototype was trial-produced. The experimental results show that under the same load switching conditions, the parameter-adaptive terminal sliding mode control enhanced faster dynamic regulation and stronger robustness than the conventional PI control. The study is also a good reference in terms of engineering work.

Effect of NZ2114 against Streptococcus dysgalactiae biofilms and its application in murine mastitis model

Bovine mastitis caused by Streptococcus dysgalactiae (S. dysgalactiae) is usually treated with antibiotics, which may potentially increase drug resistance as the abuse. NZ2114, a variant of fungal defensin plectasin, displayed a potent antibacterial activity against S. dysgalactiae. The inhibition/eradication effect of the antimicrobial peptide NZ2114 on the early/mature biofilm of S. dysgalactiae CVCC 3938 was evaluated, as well as the elimination of bacteria in mature biofilms. In this study, NZ2114 displayed potent antibacterial activity against S. dysgalactiae CVCC 3938 and three clinical isolated S. dysgalactiae strains (0.11-0.45 μM). The early biofilm inhibition of S. dysgalactiae CVCC 3938 was 55.5–85.9% after treatment with NZ2114 at concentrations of 1–16 × MIC, which was better than that of vancomycin at the same concentration. The mature biofilm eradication rate was up to 92.7–97.6% with the increasing concentration (2–16 × MIC) of NZ2114, and the eradication rate did not change significantly with further increase of NZ2114 concentration, while the biofilm eradication rate of vancomycin-treated group at the same concentration remained at 92.5%. NZ2114 reduced the number of persister bacteria in biofilm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) further demonstrated that NZ2114 could effectively reduce the biofilm thickness and bacterial number of S. dysgalactiae CVCC 3938. In vivo therapeutic effect of NZ2114 on murine mastitis model showed that NZ2114 was better than vancomycin in alleviating mammary gland inflammation by regulating cytokines production, inhibiting bacterial proliferation, and reducing the number of mammary gland bacteria. These data suggested that NZ2114 is a potential peptide candidate for the treatment of mastitis.

Development and validation of a novel cellular senescence-related prognostic signature for predicting the survival and immune landscape in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Cellular senescence is a typical irreversible form of life stagnation, and recent studies have suggested that long non-coding ribonucleic acids (lncRNA) regulate the occurrence and development of various tumors. In the present study, we attempted to construct a novel signature for predicting the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the associated immune landscape based on senescence-related (sr) lncRNAs.

Method: Expression profiles of srlncRNAs in 424 patients with HCC were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Lasso and Cox regression analyses were performed to identify differentially expressed lncRNAs related to senescence. The prediction efficiency of the signature was checked using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, Kaplan–Meier analysis, Cox regression analyses, nomogram, and calibration. The risk groups of the gene set enrichment analysis, immune analysis, and prediction of the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) were also analyzed. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to confirm the levels of AC026412.3, AL451069.3, and AL031985.3 in normal hepatic and HCC cell lines.

Results: We identified 3 srlncRNAs (AC026412.3, AL451069.3, and AL031985.3) and constructed a new risk model. The results of the ROC curve and Kaplan–Meier analysis suggested that it was concordant with the prediction. Furthermore, a nomogram model was constructed to accurately predict patient prognosis. The risk score also correlated with immune cell infiltration status, immune checkpoint expression, and chemosensitivity. The results of qPCR revealed that AC026412.3 and AL451069.3 were significantly upregulated in hepatoma cell lines.

Conclusion: The novel srlncRNA (AC026412.3, AL451069.3, and AL031985.3) signatures may provide insights into new therapies and prognosis predictions for patients with HCC.

Increased sulfur-containing amino acid content and altered conformational characteristics of soybean proteins by rebalancing 11S and 7S compositions

Soybean proteins are limited by their low contents of methionine and cysteine. Herein, 7S globulin accumulation was reduced using RNA interference to silence CG-β-1 expression, and the content of the A2B1a subunit was largely increased under the soybean seed-specific oleosin8 promoter. The results showed that the sulfur-containing amino acid content in soybean seeds drastically improved, reaching 79.194 nmol/mg, and the 11S/7S ratio had a 1.89-fold increase compared to the wild-type acceptor. The secondary structures of 11S globulin were also altered, and the β-sheet content increased with decreasing β-turn content, which was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and circular dichroism analysis. Our findings suggested that raising the accumulation of 11S glycinin at the expense of reducing the content of 7S globulin is an attractive and precise engineering strategy to increase the amount of sulfur-containing amino acids, and soybean proteins with A2B1a subunits of 11S isolates improved, and β-subunits of 7S fractions reduced simultaneously might be an effective new material for food production.

Integrated analysis of intestinal microbiota and host gene expression in colorectal cancer patients

Introduction. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers and poses heavy burden on global health. The relationship between mucosal microbiome composition and colorectal gene expression are rarely studied. In this study, we integrated transcriptome data with microbiome data to investigate the relationship between them in colorectal cancer patients.Gap statement. Previous studies have identified the contribution of gut microbiota and DEGs to the pathogenesis of CRC, but the relationship between mucosal microbiome composition and colorectal gene expression are rarely studied.Aim. In this study, we integrated transcriptome data with microbiome data to investigate the relationship between mucosal microbiome composition and colorectal gene expression.Methodology. First, three independent CRC gene expression profiles (GSE184093, GSE156355 and GSE146587) from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Second, another dataset (GSE163366) was used to analyse gut mucosal microbiome differential abundance. GO (Gene Ontology) function and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway enrichment analyses of the DEGs were performed. Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) of the DEGs were constructed. The Spearman correlation analysis was computed between host DEGs and gut microbiome abundance data.Results. A total of 1036 upregulated DEGs and 1194 downregulated DEGs between noncancerous tissues and cancerous tissues were identified based on the analysis. One significant module with a score 37.65 was selected out via MCODE including 41 upregulated DEGs, which are were mostly enriched in two pathways, including microtubule binding and tubulin binding. In particular, significant negative correlations are prevalent between Fusobacterium and the 41 DEGs with the correlation ranging between -0.54 and -0.35, and there commonly exist significant positive correlations between Blautia and the 41 DEGs with the correlation ranging between 0.42 and 0.54, indicating that Fusobacterium and Blautia are two of the most important microbes interacting with the gene regulation.Conclusion. Our results demonstrate significant correlation between some gut microbes and DEGs, providing a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis of them for future investigation into the molecular mechanisms and biomarkers.

Resveratrol reduces p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation by activating Sirtuin 1 to alleviate cognitive dysfunction after traumatic brain injury in mice

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is characterized by neuronal loss and subsequent brain damage and can be accompanied by transient or permanent neurological dysfunction. The recovery of cognitive function after TBI is a challenge. This study aimed at investigating whether treatment with resveratrol (RSV) could prevent cognitive dysfunction after TBI in mice. TBI mouse model using weight drop-impact method. Male mice aged from 7 to 9 weeks were randomly divided into four groups: TBI group, TBI + vehicle group, TBI + RSV group, and sham-operated control group. The animals from the TBI + vehicle group and TBI + RSV group were intraperitoneally injected at 3 and 24 h post-TBI with placebo and RSV (3%, 5 ml/kg), respectively. Two days after TBI, the hippocampus of mice was extracted, and western blot analysis was performed for Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), synaptophysin (SYP), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and P-p38 MAPK. Moreover, behavioral functions of TBI mice were evaluated by Y maze to determine RSV efficacy in preventing cognitive impairment in TBI. RSV increased the expression of SIRT1 protein, which in turn activated the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK. Taken together, our findings suggest that RSV exerts a strong beneficial effect on improving neurological function induced by TBI.

Correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient and tumor-stroma ratio in hybrid 18F-FDG PET/MRI: preliminary results of a rectal cancer cohort study

Background

To explore possible correlations between the tumor-stroma ratio (TSR) and different imaging features of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (¹⁸F-FDG PET/MRI) in untreated rectal cancer patients.

Methods

A patients with rectal cancer were included in this study. All participants were examined preoperatively with whole-body ¹⁸F-FDG PET/MRI. Two pathologists evaluated the TSR of tumors together. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and PET-related parameters of the primary lesions were measured and compared between the stroma-high and stroma-low groups. Pearson's correlation or Spearman's rank correlation were used to evaluate the correlation between the ADC values, PET-related parameters, and pathological indices.

Results

Our results showed that in the untreated rectal cancer patients, the ADC mean values correlated with the TSR (r=0.327; P=0.007), and stroma-high (low TSR) rectal cancer corresponded to relatively lower ADC mean values (813.54±88.68 vs. 879.92±133.18; P=0.018). The ADC mean and ADC minimum (ADCmin) values were found to be negatively correlated with the pathological T stages (r=-0.384, P=0.001; r=-0.416, P=0.001, respectively) as well as the largest tumor diameters (r=-0.340, P=0.005; r=-0.314, P=0.010, respectively) of rectal cancer. In addition, the pathological T stages correlated with all PET-related metabolic parameters, including mean standard uptake value (SUV), maximum SUV (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) (r=0.338, P=0.006; r=0.350, P=0.004; r=0.326, P=0.007; and r=0.472, P<0.001, respectively). Our results also identified associations between the ADCmin values and SUVmean, SUVmax, and TLG (r=-0.335, P=0.006; r=-0.343, P=0.005; and r=-0.343, P=0.005, respectively). However, there were no statistical correlations between the PET/MRI parameters and the immunohistochemical (IHC) results.

Conclusions

This study indicated that the intratumoral heterogeneity measured by PET/MRI may reflect characteristics of the tumor microenvironment. Hence, PET/MRI parameters might be helpful in predicting tumor aggressiveness and prognosis.

Performance Analysis of an Absorption Heat Pump System for Waste Heat and Moisture Cascade Recovery from Flue Gas

The typical flue gas exhaust temperature of coal-fired boilers is up to 150 °C. There is a considerable amount of waste heat that cannot be efficiently recovered. This study describes a zero-energy consumption absorption heat pump system that can improve the thermal efficiency and recover moisture. In the proposed system, lithium bromide solution serves as the recyclable heat-transfer medium, which absorbs sensible heat at the outlet of the air preheater by a generator. The latent heat of the flue gas is absorbed by an evaporator, and the condensate water appears. Theoretical investigation and mathematical models are built. Meanwhile, the operating parameters of the system are displayed. The results showed that the acid dew point of flue gas is related to the water content. The sorption heat pump efficiency (coefficient of performance) increased to 1.64. Compared with the two-stage heat exchanger system, 24.4 t/h condensate water and 47.21 MW waste heat were recovered. The flue gas temperature at the chimney entrance was reduced by 4.18 °C.

Study on the cohesive shear characteristics and intrinsic modelling of the root-tailing soil interface of Amorpha fruticosa

To study the soil consolidation effect of shrub plant roots on tailings soil and to explore the frictional characteristics of plant roots on tailings soil, three experimental conditions of the root-soil interface were established by using a modified indoor direct shear instrument with binders such as liquid sodium silicate and cyanoacrylate to conduct direct shear frictional tests at the root-soil interface using the roots of the typical slope protection plant Amorpha fruticosa. The Gompertz improved curve model was established by using the relationship between shear stress and shear displacement and the trend of the root-soil interface parameter index. The results were compared between the improved Gompertz curve model and the Clough-Duncan hyperbolic model, and a two-factor coupled improved Gompertz interfacial intrinsic structure model with normal stress and cohesive strength factor was established. The results showed that the interface shear stress and shear displacement showed strain hardening characteristics at different normal pressures for cohesive strength ratios of 1.5 and 1.7 at the root-tailing soil interface. At a cohesive strength ratio of 1.6, strain-softening was observed from 100 to 300 kPa and strain hardening was observed at 400 kPa. The improved Gompertz curve model predicts the shear stress and shear displacement curves at the root-soil interface with different cohesive strengths more reasonably than the Clough-Duncan hyperbolic model, and the maximum accuracy can be improved by nearly 40%. The two-factor coupled improved Gompertz curve model can fit the shear stress versus shear displacement relationship at the A. fruticosa root-tailing soil interface.