Objective To investigate the potential roles of nucleotide -binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor in the pathogenesis of asthma.Methods Through rat asthma model,24 rats were randomly divided into three groups on average,named asthma group,control group and dexamethasone group.Expression levels of NOD1 and NOD2 mRNA were detected by Real -time PCR in lung tissues.Results The expression levels of NOD1 mRNA in the asthma group,control group and dexamethasone group were (0.62 ±0.34)RQ value,(1 .00 ± 0.00)RQ value,(0.65 ±0.33 )RQ value respectively.The levels of NOD1 mRNA in the asthma group was significantly lower than that in the control group(F =4.75,P <0.05 ),while there was no statistically significant difference of NOD1 mRNA level between the dexamethasone group and asthma group(P >0.05).Moreover,expression levels of NOD2 mRNA in the asthma group,control group and dexamethasone group were (0.92 ±0.32)RQ value, (1 .00 ±0.00)RQ value,(1 .50 ±0.56)RQ value,respectively.There was no statistically significant difference of NOD2 mRNA level between the asthma group and control group (P >0.05 ),but level of NOD2 mRNA in the dexamethasone group was significantly higher than that in the asthma group(F =5.64,P <0.01 ).And there was no significant correlation between level of NOD1 and NOD2 mRNA(r =0.1 5,P >0.05).Conclusion Expression of NOD -like receptor subtype was not at the same level,and their reaction to dexamethasone were different either.

Background Coal workers' pneumoconiosis is a serious occupational disease in China. Exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can serve as the "breath fingerprint" of internal pathological processes, which provides a theoretical basis for exhaled VOCs to be used as potential non-invasive biomarkers for early diagnosis of coal workers' pneumoconiosis. Objective To screen out the characteristic VOCs and important characteristic VOCs of exhaled air in patients with coal workers' pneumoconiosis, and to explore the potential of these VOCs as biomarkers for early non-invasive diagnosis of the disease. Methods In this study, 27 VOCs in the exhaled breath of 22 patients with stage I coal workers' pneumoconiosis, 77 workers exposed to dust, and 92 healthy controls were quantitatively detected by thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). Substances with P<0.05 in univariate analysis and variable importance projection (VIP) >1 in supervised orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) model were selected as the characteristic VOCs for early diagnosis of coal workers' pneumoconiosis. Age was included in the LASSO regression model as a covariate to screen out important characteristic VOCs, and the diagnostic performance was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Spearman correlation was further used to explore the correlation between important characteristic VOCs and clinical lung function indicators. Results Through univariate analysis and OPLS-DA modeling, 8 VOCs were selected, including 2-methylpentane, 3-methylpentane, n-hexane, methylcyclopentane, n-heptane, methylcyclohexane, 4-methyl-2-pentanone, and 2-hexanone, in exhaled breath of patients with coal workers' pneumoconiosis. The concentrations of 4 VOCs, including 3-methylpentane, n-hexane, 4-methyl-2-pentanone, and 2-hexanone, showed a decreasing trend with the increase of dust exposure years. By LASSO regression, the important characteristic VOCs of the coal workers' pneumoconiosis group and the dust exposure group were n-hexane, methylcyclohexane and 4-methyl-2-pentanone, and the important characteristic VOCs of the coal workers' pneumoconiosis group and the healthy group were 2-methyl-pentane and 4-methyl-2-pentanone. The ROC analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of n-hexane, methylcyclohexane, and 4-methyl-2-pentanone were 0.969, 0.909, and 0.956, respectively, and the AUC of combined diagnosis was 0.988 and its Youden index was 0.961, suggesting that these results can serve as a valuable reference for further research on early diagnosis. The Correlation analysis found that there was a positive correlation between n-hexane and lung function indicators in the important characteristic VOCs, indicating that it could indirectly reflect the obstruction of lung function ventilation, further proving that important characteristic VOCs have the potential to monitor lung function decline. Conclusion Three important characteristic VOCs selected in this study have the potential to be used as non-invasive biomarkers for early diagnosis and disease monitoring of coal workers' pneumoconiosis, and are worthy of further study and verification.