To observe the acupuncture treatment of 38 patients with menopausal syndrome. The main acupoints were Fengchi (GB 20), Taiyang (Ex-HN 5), Hegu (LI 4), Neiguan (PC 6), Qihai (CV 6),Yanglingquan (GB 34), Taichong (LR 3) and Taixi (KI 3). The adjunct acupoints were added under differentiation. After one to three therapeutic courses clinical recovery occurred in 26 cases, effectiveness in 10 cases, and ineffectiveness in 2 cases.

BACKGROUND: Cholecystectomy is a standard surgery for patients suffering from gallbladder diseases, while the causal effects of cholecystectomy on colorectal cancer (CRC) and other complications are still unknown. METHODS: We obtained genetic variants associated with cholecystectomy at a genome-wide significant level ( P value <5 × 10 -8 ) as instrumental variables (IVs) and performed Mendelian randomization (MR) to identify the complications of cholecystectomy. Furthermore, the cholelithiasis was also treated as the exposure to compare its causal effects to those of cholecystectomy, and multivariable MR analysis was carried out to judge whether the effect of cholecystectomy was independent of cholelithiasis. The study was reported based on Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology Using Mendelian Randomization guidelines. RESULTS: The selected IVs explained 1.76% variance of cholecystectomy. Our MR analysis suggested that cholecystectomy cannot elevate the risk of CRC (odds ratio [OR] =1.543, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.607-3.924). Also, it was not significant in either colon or rectum cancer. Intriguingly, cholecystectomy might decrease the risk of Crohn's disease (OR = 0.078, 95% CI: 0.016-0.368) and coronary heart disease (OR = 0.352, 95% CI: 0.164-0.756). However, it might increase the risk of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (OR = 7.573, 95% CI: 1.096-52.318). Cholelithiasis could increase the risk of CRC in the largest population (OR = 1.041, 95% CI: 1.010-1.073). The multivariable MR analysis suggested that genetic liability to cholelithiasis could increase the risk of CRC in the largest population (OR = 1.061, 95% CI: 1.002-1.125) after adjustment of cholecystectomy. CONCLUSIONS The study indicated that cholecystectomy might not increase the risk of CRC, but such a conclusion needs further proving by clinical equivalence. Additionally, it might increase the risk of IBS, which should be paid attention to in clinical practice.
Humans ; Mendelian Randomization Analysis ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome ; Colorectal Neoplasms/genetics* ; Cholelithiasis/complications* ; Cholecystectomy/adverse effects* ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

The importance of structural variants(SVs)for human phenotypes and diseases is now recognized.Although a variety of SV detection platforms and strategies that vary in sensitivity and specificity have been developed,few benchmarking procedures are available to confidently assess their performances in biological and clinical research.To facilitate the validation and application of these SV detection approaches,we established an Asian reference material by characterizing the genome of an Epstein-Barr virus(EBV)-immortalized B lymphocyte line along with identified benchmark regions and high-confidence SV calls.We established a high-confidence SV callset with 8938 SVs by integrating four alignment-based SV callers,including 109x Pacific Biosciences(PacBio)continuous long reads(CLRs),22 x PacBio circular consensus sequencing(CCS)reads,104x Oxford Nanopore Technologies(ONT)long reads,and 114×Bionano optical mapping plat-form,and one de novo assembly-based SV caller using CCS reads.A total of 544 randomly selected SVs were validated by PCR amplification and Sanger sequencing,demonstrating the robustness of our SV calls.Combining trio-binning-based haplotype assemblies,we established an SV benchmark for identifying false negatives and false positives by constructing the continuous high-confidence regions(CHCRs),which covered 1.46 gigabase pairs(Gb)and 6882 SVs supported by at least one diploid haplotype assembly.Establishing high-confidence SV calls for a benchmark sample that has been characterized by multiple technologies provides a valuable resource for investigating SVs in human biology,disease,and clinical research.

Genome reannotation aims for complete and accurate characterization of gene models and thus is of critical significance for in-depth exploration of gene function. Although the availability of massive RNA-seq data provides great opportunities for gene model refinement, few efforts have been made to adopt these precious data in rice genome reannotation. Here we reannotate the rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica) genome based on integration of large-scale RNA-seq data and release a new annotation system IC4R-2.0. In general, IC4R-2.0 significantly improves the completeness of gene structure, identifies a number of novel genes, and integrates a variety of functional annota-tions. Furthermore, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) are system-atically characterized in the rice genome. Performance evaluation shows that compared to previous annotation systems, IC4R-2.0 achieves higher integrity and quality, primarily attributable to mas-sive RNA-seq data applied in genome annotation. Consequently, we incorporate the improvedannotations into the Information Commons for Rice (IC4R), a database integrating multiple omics data of rice, and accordingly update IC4R by providing more user-friendly web interfaces and implementing a series of practical online tools. Together, the updated IC4R, which is equipped with the improved annotations, bears great promise for comparative and functional genomic studies in rice and other monocotyledonous species. The IC4R-2.0 annotation system and related resources are freely accessible at http://ic4r.org/.

Objective: To investigate the inhibitory effect of curcumin(Cur) on IL-1β-induced cartilage damage and to study the relationship between the regulatory mechanisms of the DUSP1/p38 MAPK signalling pathway in the above process. Methods: Chondrocytes(C28/I2) and postoperative primary chondrocytes from osteoarthritis patients were divided into control and experimental groups, and the experimental group was treated with different concentrations of Cur(0, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 μmol/L) after applying the inflammatory induction treatment with IL-1β(10 μg/L). The cell proliferation inhibition rate was determined by cell viability assay(CCK-8), the apoptosis rate was detected by flow cytometry assay. Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR(qRT-PCR), Western blot, and immunofluorescence assay were used to detect type II collagen α1 chain(Collagen Ⅱ), matrix metallopeptidase 13(MMP13), interleukin-1β(IL-1β), BCL2-related X protein(Bax), B lymphocytoma-2(Bcl-2), dual-specificity phosphatase 1(DUSP1), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase(p38), and phosphorylated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase(p-p38) RNA and protein expression levels. The role of the DUSP1/p38 MAPK axis in the inhibition of chondrocyte oxidative stress, apoptosis and inflammation by Cur was further validated using DUSP1 interfering RNA and p38 MAPK pathway inhibitor(SB). Results: Cur significantly inhibited the IL-1β-induced decrease in chondrocyte viability and significantly reduced the levels of oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammation in chondrocytes; Cur inhibited the expression of MMP13, IL-1β, Bax, and p-p38 proteins, while the expression of Collagen II, Bcl-2, and DUSP1 proteins significantly increased; IL-1β and interfering RNA silencing DUSP1 activated the p38 pathway, while Cur inhibited the activation of the p38 pathway; the use of p38 MAPK pathway inhibitors reduced cellular inflammation. Conclusion Cur attenuates IL-1β-induced oxidative stress, apoptosis and inflammation in chondrocytes by promoting the expression of DUSP1 protein and inhibiting the activation of p38 MAPK pathway.

Ambystoma mexicanum/immunology* ; Amputation ; Animals ; Biomarkers/metabolism* ; Blastomeres/immunology* ; Cell Lineage/immunology* ; Connective Tissue Cells/immunology* ; Epithelial Cells/immunology* ; Forelimb ; Gene Expression ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Humans ; Immunity ; Peroxiredoxins/immunology* ; Regeneration/immunology* ; Regenerative Medicine/methods* ; Single-Cell Analysis/methods*

The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, is a destructive pest native to America and has recently become an invasive insect pest in China. Because of its rapid spread and great risks in China, understanding of FAW genetic background and pesticide resistance is urgent and essential to develop effective management strategies. Here, we assembled a chromosome-level genome of a male FAW (SFynMstLFR) and compared re-sequencing results of the populations from America, Africa, and China. Strain identification of 163 individuals collected from America, Africa and China showed that both C and R strains were found in the American populations, while only C strain was found in the Chinese and African populations. Moreover, population genomics analysis showed that populations from Africa and China have close relationship with significantly genetic differentiation from American populations. Taken together, FAWs invaded into China were most likely originated from Africa. Comparative genomics analysis displayed that the cytochrome p450 gene family is extremely expanded to 425 members in FAW, of which 283 genes are specific to FAW. Treatments of Chinese populations with twenty-three pesticides showed the variant patterns of transcriptome profiles, and several detoxification genes such as AOX, UGT and GST specially responded to the pesticides. These findings will be useful in developing effective strategies for management of FAW in China and other invaded areas.
Animals ; China ; Genomics ; Humans ; Male ; Pesticides ; Spodoptera/genetics* ; Transcriptome