Acupuncture Ameliorates Depression-Like Behaviors Through Modulating the Neuroinflammation Mediated by TLR4 Signaling Pathway in Rats Exposed to Chronic Restraint Stress

Recently, emerging evidence has identified that stress-induced activation of neuroinflammation is considered to be one of the most prevalently precipitating factors in the pathogenesis of depression. Data from clinical trials and experimental findings has verified the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in the prevention and treatment of depression. However, the mechanism of the preventive effect of acupuncture for depression has not been fully elucidated. The current study aimed to investigate the preventive effect and mechanism of acupuncture through modulating the neuroinflammation mediated by toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling pathway in rats exposed to chronic restraint stress (CRS). All rats were subjected to CRS for 21 days, with the exception of rats in control group. One hour before CRS, rats in acupuncture group were exposed to acupuncture at Baihui (GV20) and Yintang (GV29). The depression-like behaviors were evaluated by body weight assessment and sucrose preference test at 0, 7, 14, and 21 days. The expression of activated microglia in hippocampus was detected by immunofluorescence. The expression of key proteins on TLR4 signaling pathway of TLR4, MyD88, TRAF6, NF-κB p65, TNF-α, and mRNA of TLR4 in the hippocampus was detected by western blot and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction to investigate the effect of acupuncture on stress-induced activation of neuroinflammation. The present study provided evidence that acupuncture exerted potential preventive effect that might be mediated in part by suppressing the neuroinflammation induced by TLR4 signaling pathway, which may be a promising treatment target to improve current treatments for depression.

Molecular basis of A. thaliana KEOPS complex in biosynthesizing tRNA t6A

In archaea and eukaryotes, the evolutionarily conserved KEOPS is composed of four core subunits-Kae1, Bud32, Cgi121 and Pcc1, and a fifth Gon7/Pcc2 that is found in fungi and metazoa. KEOPS cooperates with Sua5/YRDC to catalyze the biosynthesis of tRNA N6-threonylcarbamoyladenosine (t6A), an essential modification needed for fitness of cellular organisms. Biochemical and structural characterizations of KEOPSs from archaea, yeast and humans have determined a t6A-catalytic role for Kae1 and auxiliary roles for other subunits. However, the precise molecular workings of KEOPSs still remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the biochemical functions of A. thaliana KEOPS and determined a cryo-EM structure of A. thaliana KEOPS dimer. We show that A. thaliana KEOPS is composed of KAE1, BUD32, CGI121 and PCC1, which adopts a conserved overall arrangement. PCC1 dimerization leads to a KEOPS dimer that is needed for an active t6A-catalytic KEOPS-tRNA assembly. BUD32 participates in direct binding of tRNA to KEOPS and modulates the t6A-catalytic activity of KEOPS via its C-terminal tail and ATP to ADP hydrolysis. CGI121 promotes the binding of tRNA to KEOPS and potentiates the t6A-catalytic activity of KEOPS. These data and findings provide insights into mechanistic understanding of KEOPS machineries.

Primary cilium participates in radiation-induced bystander effects through TGF-β1 signaling

Many studies have indicated that tumor growth factor-beta (TGF-β) signaling mediates radiation-induced bystander effects (RIBEs). The primary cilium (PC) coordinates several signaling pathways including TGF-β signaling to regulate diverse cellular processes. But whether the PC participates in TGF-β induced RIBEs remains unclear. The cellular levels of TGF-β1 were detected by western blot analysis and the secretion of TGF-β1 was measured by ELISA kit. The ciliogenesis was altered by CytoD treatment, STIL siRNA transfection, IFT88 siRNA transfection, or KIF3a siRNA transfection, separately, and was detected by western blot analysis and immunofluorescence staining. G0 /G1 phase cells were arrested by serum starvation and S phase cells were induced by double thymidine block. The TGF-β1 signaling was interfered by LY2109761, a TGF-β receptor 1 (TβR1) inhibitor, or TGF-β1 neutral antibody. The DNA damages were induced by TGF-β1 or radiated conditional medium (RCM) from irradiated cells and were reflected by p21 expression, 53BP1 foci, and γH2AX foci. Compared with unirradiated control, both A549 and Beas-2B cells expressed and secreted more TGF-β1 after carbon ion beam or X-ray irradiation. RCM collected from irradiated cells or TGF-β1 treatment caused an increase of DNA damage in cocultured unirradiated Beas-2B cells while blockage of TGF-β signaling by TβR1 inhibitor or TGF-β1 neutral antibody alleviates this phenomenon. IFT88 siRNA or KIF3a siRNA impaired PC formation resulted in an aggravated DNA damage in bystander cells, while elevated PC formation by CytoD or STIL siRNA resulted in a decrease of DNA damage. Furthermore, TGF-β1 induced more DNA damages in S phases cells which showed lower PC formation rate and less DNA damages in G0 /G1 phase cells which showed higher PC formation rate. This study demonstrates the particular role of primary cilia during RCM induced DNA damages through TGF-β1 signaling restriction and thereby provides a functional link between primary cilia and RIBEs.

Comparison of the clinical outcomes of patients with stage IA-IIA2 cervical adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma after radical hysterectomy: A propensity score-matched real-world analysis

OBJECTIVE

To compare the pathological findings and survival outcomes of patients with 2009 FIGO stage IA-IIA2 cervical cancer between groups with adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) using the Chinese Cervical Cancer Clinical (FOUR-C) study database.

METHODS

Patients from 2004 to 2018 with cervical ADC and SCC who underwent radical hysterectomy were identified through the FOUR-C database. Propensity score matching (PSM) was conducted to balance baseline clinicopathological characteristics. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis were used to evaluate the prognostic effect of ADC on the 5-year overall survival (OS).

RESULTS

We identified 1611 (9.8%) patients with ADC and 14 894 (90.2%) patients with SCC. Compared with SCC, ADC was significantly associated with an increased risk of death (odds ratio [OR] 1.40, 95% CI 1.12-1.74) and disease progression (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.14-1.57). ADC had a greater propensity for lymph node metastasis, uterine corpus invasion, perineural invasion, and ovarian metastases than SCC (P < 0.05). After 1:2 PSM, significant differences were still observed between these two histology subtypes (OS: OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.10-1.86; DFS: OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.19-1.76). The subgroup analysis further showed a worse prognosis for patients with ADC than for patients with SCC among patients with any of the high- or intermediate- risk factors (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.21-2.12), but no significant differences were observed for the patients with no risk factors (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.32-1.58).

CONCLUSION

ADC is an independent prognostic factor for shorter survival in surgically treated patients with cervical cancer presenting intermediate- or high-risk factors but does not affect survival outcomes in patients without any risk factors.

Heterogenization-Activated Zinc Telluride via Rectifying Interfacial Contact to Afford Synergistic Confinement-Adsorption-Catalysis for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

The notorious shuttle effect and sluggish conversion kinetics of intermediate polysulfides (Li2 S4 , Li2 S6 , Li2 S8 ) are severely hindered the large-scale development of Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Rectifying interface effect has been a solution to regulate the electron distribution of catalysts via interfacial charge exchange. Herein, a ZnTe-ZnO heterojunction encapsulated in nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon (ZnTe-O@NC) derived from metal-organic framework is fabricated. Theoretical calculations and experiments prove that the built-in electric field constructed at ZnTe-ZnO heterojunction via the rectifying interface contact, thus promoting the charge transfer as well as enhancing adsorption and conversion kinetics toward polysulfides, thereby stimulating the catalytic activity of the ZnTe. Meanwhile, the nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon acts as confinement substrate also enables fast electrons/ions transport, combining with ZnTe-ZnO heterojunction realize a synergistic confinement-adsorption-catalysis toward polysulfides. As a result, the Li-S batteries with S/ZnTe-O@NC electrodes exhibit an impressive rate capability (639.7 mAh g-1 at 3 C) and cycling performance (70% capacity retention at 1 C over 500 cycles). Even with a high sulfur loading, it still delivers a superior electrochemical performance. This work provides a novel perspective on designing highly catalytic materials to achieve synergistic confinement-adsorption-catalysis for high-performance Li-S batteries.

Precise Modulation of Intramolecular Aggregation-induced Electrochemiluminescence by Tetraphenylethylene-based Supramolecular Architectures

The precisely modulated synthesis of programmable light-emitting materials remains a challenge. To address this challenge, we construct four tetraphenylethylene-based supramolecular architectures (SA, SB, SC, and SD), revealing that they exhibit higher electrochemiluminescence (ECL) intensities and efficiencies than the tetraphenylethylene monomer and can be classified as highly efficient and precisely modulated intramolecular aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence (PI-AIECL) systems. The best-performing system (SD) shows a high ECL cathodic efficiency exceeding that of the benchmark tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) chloride in aqueous solution by nearly six-fold. The electrochemical characterization of these architectures in an organic solvent provides deeper mechanistic insights, revealing that SD features the lowest electrochemical band gap. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the band gap of the guest ligand in the SD structure is the smallest and most closely matched to that of the host scaffold. Finally, the SD system is used to realize ECL-based cysteine detection (detection limit=14.4 nM) in real samples. Thus, this study not only provides a precisely modulated supramolecular strategy allowing chromophores to be controllably regulated on a molecular scale, but also inspires the programmable synthesis of high-performance aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence emitters.

Synergistic analysis of atmospheric pollutants NO2 and PM2.5 based on land use regression models: a case study of the Yangtze River Delta, China

Air pollution is considered one of the greatest threats to human health. This study combines a land use regression (LUR) model with satellite measurements and a distributed-lagged non-linear model (DLNM). It aims to predict high-resolution ground-level concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and reveal the mechanisms of influence between NO2 and PM2.5 and precursors and meteorological factors. Results showed that the annual average NO2 and PM2.5 in the YRD urban agglomeration 2019 were 39.5 µg/m3 and 37.5 µg/m3, respectively. The seasonal variation of NO2 and PM2.5 showed winter > spring > autumn > summer. There is a compelling and complex relationship between NO2 and PM2.5. Predictors indicate that latitude (Y), surface pressure (P), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), aerosol optical depth (AOD), residential, and rangeland have positive impacts on NO2 and PM2.5. In contrast, temperature (T), precipitation (PRE), and industrial trees hurt NO2 and PM2.5. DLNM model results show that NO2 and PM2.5 had significant associations with the included precursors and meteorological elements, with lagged and non-linear effects observed. Satellite data could help significantly increase the accuracy of LUR models; the R2 of tenfold cross-validation was enhanced by 0.18-0.22. In 2019, PM2.5 will be the dominant pollutant in the YRD, and NO2 showed a high value in the central and eastern parts of the YRD. High concentrations of NO2 and PM2.5 are present in 86% of the YRD, meaning that residents will have difficulty avoiding exposure to these two high pollution levels.

Extracellular vesicles, hyperadhesive von willebrand factor, and outcomes of gastric cancer: a clinical observational study

Von Willebrand factor (VWF) is an adhesive ligand critical for maintaining hemostasis. However, it has also been increasingly recognized for its role in cancer development because it has been shown to mediate the adhesion of cancer cells to endothelial cells, promote the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and enhance angiogenesis. We have previously shown that gastric cancer cells synthesize VWF, which mediates the interaction between the cancer and endothelial cells to promote cancer growth. Here, we report results from a clinical observational study that demonstrate the association of VWF in plasma and on the surface of extracellular vesicles (EVs) with the pathological characteristics of gastric cancer. We found that patients with gastric cancer had elevated and intrinsically hyperadhesive VWF in their peripheral blood samples. VWF was detected on the surface of EVs from cancer cells, platelets, and endothelial cells. Higher levels of these VWF-bound EVs were associated with cancer aggression and poor clinical outcomes for patients. These findings suggest that VWF⁺ EVs from different cell types serve collectively as a new class of biomarkers for the outcome assessment of gastric cancer patients.

Transcriptomic analysis: the protection of over-expression thioredoxin reductase 1 in Parkinson's disease

BACKGROUND

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease. The pathologic characteristic feature is the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN). However, the biochemical mechanisms are unclear. A large number of studies have shown that oxidative damage is the primary cause of PD. Hence, antioxidants could become a suitable option to treat PD. The thioredoxin (Trx) system represents a useful, potentially disease-relevant oxidation-reduction system. Thioredoxin reductase 1 (TR1) is a significant component of the Trx system.

METHODS

The overexpression lentivirus (LV) or LV-TR1 in the TR1-A53T model of PD by the stereotactic brain, and successful overexpression of LV or LV-TR1 in the MPP⁺-induced cellular model by LV or LV-TR1 transfection.

RESULTS

We confirmed that interleukin-7 mRNA levels increased in MPP⁺ compared to that in the control and MPP⁺-TR1 groups using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The γ-H₂AX level was increased in the Tg-A53T group compared to that in the TR1-A53T group by western blotting. The expression of Na⁺-K⁺-ATP was decreased in the MPP⁺ group compared to that in the control and MPP⁺-TR1 groups by high content screening. Tg-A53T(the C57BL/6 mice transferred with mutant human a-syn); TR1-A53T(A53T mice which were injected TR1-LV 2 µl in SNc on two sides with minipump).The mice were fed for 10 months. control (the N2a cells cultivated with DMEM); MPP⁺(the N2a cells dealt with MPP⁺(1 mM) 48 h), MPP⁺-LV (the N2a cells over-expressed LV for 24 h then dealt with MPP⁺(1 mM) 48 h). MPP⁺-TR1(the N2a cell over-expressed TR1-LV for 24 h then dealt with MPP⁺(1 mM) 48 h). From the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis, we confirmed that the overexpression of TR1 in SN pars compacta cells decreased oxidative stress, apoptosis, DNA damage, and inflammatory response and increased NADPH, Na⁺-K⁺-ATP, and immune response in this PD model.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study shows that overexpressed TR1 can be developed as a neuroprotective agent for PD. Therefore, our findings demonstrate a new targeted protein for the treatment of PD.

Multi-layered roles of BBX proteins in plant growth and development

Light and phytohormone are external and internal cues that regulate plant growth and development throughout their life cycle. BBXs (B-box domain proteins) are a group of zinc finger proteins that not only directly govern the transcription of target genes but also associate with other factors to create a meticulous regulatory network to precisely regulate numerous aspects of growth and developmental processes in plants. Recent studies demonstrate that BBXs play pivotal roles in light-controlled plant growth and development. Besides, BBXs have been documented to regulate phytohormone-mediated physiological procedures. In this review, we summarize and highlight the multi-faced role of BBXs, with a focus in photomorphogenesis, photoperiodic flowering, shade avoidance, abiotic stress, and phytohormone-mediated growth and development in plant.

Leukemia inhibitory factor enhances the development and subsequent blastocysts quality of yak oocytes in vitro

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a multipotent cytokine of the IL-6 family which plays a critical role in the maturation and development of oocytes. This study evaluated the influence of LIF on the maturation and development ability of yak oocytes, and the quality of subsequent blastocysts under in vitro culture settings. Different concentrations of LIF (0, 25, 50, and 100 ng/mL) were added during the in vitro culture of oocytes to detect the maturation rate of oocytes, levels of mitochondria, reactive oxygen species (ROS), actin, and apoptosis in oocytes, mRNA transcription levels of apoptosis and antioxidant-related genes in oocytes, and total cell number and apoptosis levels in subsequent blastocysts. The findings revealed that 50 ng/mL LIF could significantly increase the maturation rate (p < 0.01), levels of mitochondria (p < 0.01) and actin (p < 0.01), and mRNA transcription levels of anti-apoptotic and antioxidant-related genes in yak oocytes. Also, 50 ng/mL LIF could significantly lower the generation of ROS (p < 0.01) and apoptosis levels of oocytes (p < 0.01). In addition, blastocysts formed from 50 ng/mL LIF-treated oocytes showed significantly larger total cell numbers (p < 0.01) and lower apoptosis rates (p < 0.01) than the control group. In conclusion, the addition of LIF during the in vitro maturation of yak oocytes improved the quality and the competence of maturation and development in oocytes, as well as the quality of subsequent blastocysts. The result of this study provided some insights into the role and function of LIF in vitro yak oocytes maturation, as well as provided fundamental knowledge for assisted reproductive technologies in the yak.