AIM: To investigate the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and tumor necrsis factor-alpha (TNF-?) in synovium of rats with adjuvant arthritis (AA) and the relationship between the pathological score and the expression of VEGF and TNF-? protein. METHODS: AA was produced in Wistar rats by inoculating complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). The arthral pathological score was calculated, production of VEGF and TNF-? protein were assayed by histoimmunochemical staining at different stage after CFA inoculation. RESULTS: In AA group, the pathological score and expression of VEGF protein in synovium increased significantly (P

Objective To construct a lentiviral vector containing mir-7-3 gene and green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene,and to detect the expression of mir-7-3 gene in U251 cells.Methods The fragments containing all the mir-7-3 gene were amplified by RT-PCR and were cloned into the lentivirus vectors labeled with GFP,which was transfected together with the packaging plasmids into 293T cells by CaC12.The supernatant was collected,concentrated,identified,and was transfected to U251 cells of gliomas.Fluorescent microscopy was used to observe the fluorescence in the 293T cell,and real time RT-PCR was used to examine the relative contents of mir-7-3 in U251 cells.Results Electrophores was shown that the sequence of the RT-PCR product was consistent with the data of mir-7-3 by DNA sequence analysis,indicating that the mir-7-3 gene was successfully cloned,and strong green fluorescence was observed by fluorescent microscopy.The supernatant of lentivirus-transfected 293T cells effectively infected U251 cells and the relative content of mir-7-3 was observed in the transfected U251 cells.Conclusion It is concluded that the lentiviral vector containing mir-7-3 gene was constructed successfully,which provides a basis for further study of mir-7-3 function.

Objective To construct a lentiviral vector containing mir-7-3 gene and study the function of mir-7-3 gene and its role in glioma gene therapy.Methods The plasmid Lenti-GFP-mir-7-3 and packaging plasmids pRsv-REV,pMDlg-pRRE and pMD2G were co-transfected into the human embryonic kidney epithelial cell line 293T cells,and then,recombinant lentiviral FIV-CMV-GFP-mir-7-3 carried mir-7-3 gene and GFP gene was obtained; fluorescence expression of 293T cells was observed under fluorescence microscope.The supematant was collected,concentrated and identified,and then,it was used to transfect into the U251 glioma cells (positive transfection group); and blank control group (cells transfected with empty vector) and negative control group (parental cells) were also employed.Real time-PCR was used to examine the relative contents of mir-7-3 in U251 cells; Westem blotting was employed to detect the epidermal growth factor (EGFR) and serine/threonine kinase (AKT2) protein expressions; cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry and cell proliferative activities were measured by MTT method.Results Recombinant lentiviral FIV-CMV-GFP-mir-7-3 carried mir-7-3 gene and GFP gene was successfully constructed in 293T cells; electrophores showed that the sequence of RT-PCR product was consistent with the data ofmir-7-3 by DNA sequence analysis,indicating that the mir-7-3 gene was successfully cloned; strong green fluorwscence was observed by fluorwscent microscopy.The supernatant of lentivirus-transfected 293T cells was effectively infected into U251 cells and the relative content of mir-7-3 could be observed in the transfected U251 cells.As compared with those in the parental cells and the cells transfected with empty vector,the protein expressions of EGFR and AKT2 in the transfected group decreased significantly,reaching 38％ and 42％,respectively (P＜0.05).As compared with those in the parental cells and the cells transfected with empty vector,the cells at G0/G1 phase increased,the S phase fiaction was lower and the survival rates dramatically dropped in the mir-7-3 transfected cells 3,4,5 and 6 d after implanation.Conclusions The lentiviral vector containing mir-7-3 gene was constructed successfully.Mir-7-3 could specifically suppress EGFR and AKT2 expressions,induce gene silencing,inhibit cell growth,indicating that this way should be a new strategy in glioma gene therapy.

Objective:To investigate the correlation between immune function and age-related pulmonary fibrosis, as well as the potential impact of bacterial lysates on this condition.Methods:Twenty-four healthy male C57BL/6 mice, aged 24, were randomly divided into three groups: a control group(Group N), a pulmonary fibrosis group(Group M), and a pulmonary fibrosis+ bacterial lysis product intervention group(Group P). Mice in Groups M and P were intratracheally injected with bleomycin(5 mg/kg)to induce a mouse pulmonary fibrosis model, while mice in Group N were injected with saline.After modeling, mice in Group P were orally administered 0.4 ml of a bacterial lysis product once a day.After 28 days, lung tissue and blood samples were collected for analysis.Pathological changes in lung tissue were assessed using hematoxylin and tosin staining(HE)and Masson staining and the Ashcroft score.The expression of CD4+ and CD8+ in lung tissue was evaluated using immunohistochemistry.The levels of serum interferon-γ(INF-γ), interleukin-3(IL-13), and immunoglobulin A(IgA)protein were measured using Enzyme-linked Immuno Sorbent Assay(ELISA). The levels of INF-γ and IL-13 mRNA in lung tissue were determined using Real-Time Quantitative Transcription PCR(RT-qPCR). Additionally, the protein expression levels of matrix metalloprotein-9(MMP-9)and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteincise 1(TIMP-1)in lung tissue were assessed using blot analysis.Results:The degree of lung fibrosis was significantly reduced in mice in group P compared with group M when treated with bacterial lysis products.Group M showed a significant decrease in the expression of CD4+ T cells and an increase in the expression of CD8+ T cells( P<0.05)compared to group N. Additionally, the content of IgA was decreased( P<0.05)in group M. On the other hand, group P showed a significant increase in the expression of CD4+ T cells and a decrease in the expression of CD8+ T cells( P<0.05)compared to group M. Furthermore, the content of IgA was elevated( P<0.05)in group P. After bacterial lysis product intervention, mRNA and protein expression levels of IFN-γ were elevated( P<0.05), while mRNA and protein expression levels of IL-13 were reduced( P<0.05). Moreover, protein expression of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 was significantly up-regulated in group M compared with group N( P<0.05), and decreased after bacterial lysis product intervention( P<0.05). Conclusions:It is well-known that immune mechanisms play a crucial role in the development of pulmonary fibrosis.The use of bacterial lysates has been found to effectively regulate immune balance and mitigate the severity of pulmonary fibrosis in elderly mice.

ObjectiveTo investigate the Character of Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) in detoxification addicts in reeducation center.Methods100 detoxification addicts in reeducation center were evaluated.ResultsThe results showed that the mean scores of all factors in detoxification addicts were higher than those of normal population, and there was difference between different drug dependence addicts.ConclusionThe detoxification addicts shows serious psychological disorders.

Purpose: Diagnostic biomarkers of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) have been used for early detection to reduce its dismal survival rate. However, clinically feasible biomarkers are still rare. Therefore, in this study, we developed an automated multi-marker enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit using 3 biomarkers (leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein [LRG1], transthyretin [TTR], and CA 19-9) that were previously discovered and proposed a diagnostic model for PDAC based on this kit for clinical usage. Methods: Individual LRG1, TTR, and CA 19-9 panels were combined into a single automated ELISA panel and tested on 728 plasma samples, including PDAC (n = 381) and normal samples (n = 347). The consistency between individual panels of 3 biomarkers and the automated multi-panel ELISA kit were accessed by correlation. The diagnostic model was developed using logistic regression according to the automated ELISA kit to predict the risk of pancreatic cancer (high-, intermediate-, and low-risk groups). Results: The Pearson correlation coefficient of predicted values between the triple-marker automated ELISA panel and the former individual ELISA was 0.865. The proposed model provided reliable prediction results with a positive predictive value of 92.05%, negative predictive value of 90.69%, specificity of 90.69%, and sensitivity of 92.05%, which all simultaneously exceed 90% cutoff value. Conclusion This diagnostic model based on the triple ELISA kit showed better diagnostic performance than previous markers for PDAC. In the future, it needs external validation to be used in the clinic.

The accurate annotation of transcription start sites(TSSs)and their usage are critical for the mechanistic understanding of gene regulation in different biological contexts.To fulfill this,specific high-throughput experimental technologies have been developed to capture TSSs in a genome-wide manner,and various computational tools have also been developed for in silico pre-diction of TSSs solely based on genomic sequences.Most of these computational tools cast the problem as a binary classification task on a balanced dataset,thus resulting in drastic false positive predictions when applied on the genome scale.Here,we present DeeReCT-TSS,a deep learning-based method that is capable of identifying TSSs across the whole genome based on both DNA sequence and conventional RNA sequencing data.We show that by effectively incorporating these two sources of information,DeeReCT-TSS significantly outperforms other solely sequence-based methods on the precise annotation of TSSs used in different cell types.Furthermore,we develop a meta-learning-based extension for simultaneous TSS annotations on 10 cell types,which enables the identification of cell type-specific TSSs.Finally,we demonstrate the high precision of DeeReCT-TSS on two independent datasets by correlating our predicted TSSs with experimentally defined TSS chromatin states.The source code for DeeReCT-TSS is available at https://github.-com/JoshuaChou2018/DeeReCT-TSS_release and https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/biocode/tools/BT007316.

Xiaojin pills, the first choice for clinical treatment of breast hyperplasia, were selected to explore the suitability of a bioactivity assay with chemical fingerprinting for the development of an overall quality evaluation assay. The liposoluble and water-soluble fraction fingerprints of Xiaojin pills were established. The ability to inhibit platelet aggregation and the rate of inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) for 16 batches of Xiaojin pills from several manufacturers was analyzed; the chemical fingerprints of these samples were correlated with the bioactivity and chemical analysis. The animal protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Approval, ID: 2018BL-002. Results showed that the antiplatelet aggregation activity of 16 batches was 0.712-1.278 U∙mg^-1, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 15.4%. COX-2 inhibition was 52.07%-68.95% and the RSD was 8.91%. The results showed that there was little difference in the biological effects of these samples. However, the chemical fingerprint consistency of these 16 batches of Xiaojin pills was poor, and the similarity of nearly half of the samples was less than 0.9. The total peak area of Xiaojin pills was 32.74%-165.37% across samples, showing very poor chemical consistency. In order to explore the reasons for the poor chemical consistency despite good consistency in the biological assays, the fingerprint chromatogram was analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis. The main chromatographic peaks were identified. The results showed that the similarity of Xiaojin pills was mainly determined by the prominent chromatographic peaks 17, 18, 20, 23 and 27 in the liposoluble fingerprints, which were identified from Liquidambaris resina and Angelica sinensis Radix. However, Liquidambaris resina and Angelicae sinensis Radix had almost no anti-platelet aggregation activity or COX-2 inhibitory effect at the normal prescription ratio. As a result, the ability to utilize chemical fingerprints to evaluate the quality consistency of Xiaojin pills is limited. The selection of biological evaluation methods that reflect clinical efficacy could make up for the shortcomings of chemical evaluation methods for quality assessment, and provide new ideas and methods for the overall quality evaluation of complex Chinese patent medicines.