Objective To investigate the anti-fibrotic effects of curcumin in trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid (TNBS) induced intestinal fibrosis in rats and its mechanism. Methods Forty SD rats were randomly divided into model group, treatment group, control group and normal group with 10each. Except the normal group, the other three groups were given 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 mg of TNBS enema on the 1st, 8 th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days,respectively. The rats in treatment group were intraperitonealy injected with 30 mg/kg of curcumin daily. Control group was injected with 0. 9%NaCl solution and normal group received an equal volume of 50% ethanol enema without any treatment. The damage and fibrosis of colon were detected with HE staining and Masson collagen staining, respectively. The contents of interleukin (IL) -2, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) -α, IL-4 and IL-17 in colon were measured by enzyme-link immunosorbent analysis (ELISA). The expressions of intestinal fibrosis related cytokines such as transforming growth factor (TGF) -β1, connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), Smad3, collagen Ⅰ and collagen Ⅲ mRNA were determined by FQ-PCR.Results The macroscopic and micrpscopic colonic damage scores and collagen area were significantly higher in model group (6.14 ± 1.07, 8. 42 ± 1.40 and 36. 59% ± 4.07%, respectively) and control group (6.17 ± 1.47, 8. 17 ±1.47 and 37.18 %±4.05 %, respectively) than those in normal group (2.13±0.64, 2.25±1.28 and 25.43%±5.39% ,respectively)(P＜0.05). Contents of IL2, TNF-α, IL-17, as well as expressions of intestinal fibrosis related cytokines including TGF-β1, CTGF,Smad3, collagen Ⅰ and Ⅲ mRNA were also higher in model group [(378. 25±29. 90) ng/L,(87.11±23.85) ng/L, (47.80±5.62) ng/L, 4.71%±2.71%,10.33%±6.99%,9.35%±7.32%,1.52% ± 1.11% and 3.04% ±1.33%, respectively] and control group [(410. 06 ± 64.74) ng/L,(100.41±12.59) ng/L, (41.45±2. 12) ng/L, 4. 12%±3.01%,11.46%±4.72%,10. 11%±3.80%,1. 57% ± 1. 35% and 3. 03% ± 3. 53%, respectively] in comparision with normal group [(179.74±20. 73) ng/L, (35. 47±7. 13) ng/L, (14. 48±7. 52) ng/L and 0. 90%± 1. 13%,0.53%±0.47%, 0. 62%±0. 44%, 0. 16%±0. 09% and 0. 18%±0. 10%, respectively] (P＜0.05). While in treatment group, the macroscopic (4.00 ± 1.07 ) and micrpscopic (5. 13 ± 1.46)colonic damage scores, collagen area (30.01%±7.56%), contents of IL-2 [(223.91±28.04) ng/L],TNF-α [(44.19±4. 77) ng/L] and IL-17 [(14.89±4. 31) ng/L], expressions of TGF-β1 (0.85%±0.76%), CTGF (1.56%±1.13%), Smad3 (3.62%±3.03%), collagen Ⅰ (0.40%±0.31%) and Ⅲ (0.60 % ± 1.02 % ) mRNA were much lower than those in model group and control group (P＜0.05 ), but similar to those in normal group (P＞ 0.05 ). Conclusions Curcumin can inhibit intestinal fibrosis caused by excessive "wound-healing" reaction via reducing the overexpression of cytokines in colonic mucosa and attenuating the inflammation of colon.

Objective To investigate the expression changes of nuclear factor(NF)-κB and activator protein (AP)-1 in oxazolone induced colitis in mice and their mechanisms. Methods Twenty-four mice were randomly divided into normal group and model group with 12 each. Experimental colitis was induced with skin sensitization of 3% oxazolone for 5 days, then rectal administration of 0.15 ml of 0. 5% oxazolone solution in mice. All mice were sacrificed on day 3. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), spleen mononuclear cells (SMC) and lamina propria mononuclear cells (LPMC) were isolated from the colon tissues. Expression of NF-κB and AP-1 in SMC, LPMC and PBMC were determined by fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The colitis was evaluated histologically. Results The expressions of NF-κB and AP-1 in SMC, LPMC,PBMC of model groupwere significantly higher than those in normal group(NF-κB : 5.62±0.78 vs. 3.16±0.59,5.46±0.38 vs. 3.18±0.58, 5.65±0.56 vs. 3.36±0.59, P＜0.01; AP-1; 5.61±0.54 vs. 3.22±0.50, 5.50±0.69 vs. 3.19± 0.40,5.67±0.44 vs. 3. 27±0.41, P＜0.01). Conclusion The activation of NF-κB and AP-1 are involved in the mechanisms of ulcerative colitis.

Objective To investigate the application of hepatitis C virus RNA and antibody detection method in population screening.Methods The colloidal gold rapid test method and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)were adopted to detect hepatitis C virus (HCV)antibodies,and the real-time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR)was adopted to detect HCV-RNA viral load.Results (1)Among 539 samples,266 cases were antibody negative and 263 cases were antibody positive.(2)Among 67 cases in the HCV-RNA viral load <103 IU/mL group,60 cases were HCV antibody positive by ELISA and 30 cases were HCV antibody positive by colloidal gold rapid test.Among 208 cases in the HCV-RNA viral load ≥ 103 IU/mL,199 cases were antibody positive by ELISA,but only 181cases were antibody positive by the colloidal gold rapid method.Other 6 cases of were 2 kinds of antibody negative had the HCV-RNA viral load ≥ 103 IU/mL.(3)208 cases of HCV-RNA viral load ≥ 103 IU/mL sample were divided in-to four groups.GGT,ALT and AST were statistically significantly different P <0.05),while ALB and S/CO values hadno statisti-cal difference (P >0.05).Conclusion In order to reduce the missed diagnosis rate and diagnose hepatitis C as early as possible,the above laboratory detection methods should be jointly applied and the comprehensive analysis should be conducted in population screening.

Objective To investigate the effects of interleukin-10 on mice intestinal fibrosis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT),and the relation between these effects and endoplasmic reticulum stress(ERS).Methods Forty-two IL-10 knockout(IL-10-/-)mice were divided into fibrosis model group(n=18),IL-10 treatment group(n=12)and solvent control group(n =12),another 18 wild-type mice were taken as negative control group.IL-10 and 0.9％ NaCl were intraperitonealy injected in IL-10 treatment group and solvent control group respectively since 12th week,and mice were sacrificed at week 14th and 16th,and no treatment to fibrosis model group and negative control group.The injury and fibrosis in mice colon tissue were detected with HE staining and Masson collagen staining.The expressions of collagen Ⅰ,glucose-regulated protein78(GRP78),C/EBP homologous protein(CHOP)and a-smooth muscle actin(α-SMA)and E-cadherin(E-cad)at mRNA level were determined by realtime PCR.The expression of α-SMA and E-cad in mice colon tissue was examined by immunohistochemical staining.Results At 16th week,the colonic tissue injury scores(7.00±0.90,7.17±1.17)and collagen area ratio(17.78％±4.15％,18.56％±3.81％)of fibrosis model group and solvent control group significantly increased compared with negative control group(1.50±1.38 and 9.11％±2.99％)and IL-10 treatment qroup(4.33±0.82 and 12.56％±1.39％)(F=36.150,F=11.280； P=0.000).At week 12th,14th and 16th,the expressions of GRP78,α-SMA,collagen Ⅰ in fibrosis model group and solvent control group significantly increased compared with negative control group(all P＜0.05),however the expression of E-cad significantly decreased(P＜0.05).The expression of CHOP mRNA in fibrosis model group(0.95％ ±0.12％)significantly increased compared with negative control group(0.21％ ± 0.12％)at week 12th(t=5.188,P=0.000),however there was no statistical significant difference in groups at week 14th and 16th(P＞0.05).At week 14th and 16th,the expressions of GRP78,α-SMA and collagen Ⅰ(at week 14th:0.73％±0.31％,1.18％±0.11％ and 1.10％±0.49％； at week 16th:0.57％±0.16％,0.81％ ±0.50 ％ and 0.76 ％ ± 0.25 ％)in IL-10 treatment group were significantly lower than that of fibrosis model group(P＜0.05).The expression of E-cad(at week 14th:0.73％ ±0.29％ ； at week 16th:0.97％ ±0.25％)significantly increased compared with fibrosis model group(at week 14th:0.37％±0.17％； at week 16th:0.35％±0.20％)(F=6.524,P=0.003； F=17.493,P=0.000).However at week 16th,the expression of α-SMA in IL-10 treatment group was lower than that of solvent control group(1.82±0.22)％(F=9.842,P=0.000),and the expression of E-cad significantly increased than in solvent control group(0.47 ± 0.25)％(F=17.493,P =0.000).Conclusion IL-10 may have a role in inhibiting EMT and reducing intestinal fibrosis in mice,which may be related to the regulation of ERS by IL-10.

Predicting protein-coding genes still remains a significant challenge. Although a variety of computational programs that use commonly machine learning methods have emerged, the accuracy of predictions remains a low level when implementing in large genomic sequences. Moreover, computational gene finding in newly sequenced genomes is especially a difficult task due to the absence of a training set of abundant validated genes. Here we present a new gene-finding program, SCGPred, to improve the accuracy of prediction by combining multiple sources of evidence. SCGPred can perform both supervised method in previously well-studied genomes and unsupervised one in novel genomes. By testing with datasets composed of large DNA sequences from human and a novel genome of Ustilago maydi, SCG-Pred gains a significant improvement in comparison to the popular ab initio gene predictors. We also demonstrate that SCGPred can significantly improve prediction in novel genomes by combining several foreign gene finders with similarity alignments, which is superior to other unsupervised methods. Therefore, SCG-Pred can serve as an alternative gene-finding tool for newly sequenced eukaryotic genomes. The program is freely available at http://bio.scu.edu.cn/SCGPred/.
Algorithms ; Chromosome Mapping ; methods ; Computational Biology ; methods ; Exons ; genetics ; Genes, Fungal ; genetics ; Genome, Fungal ; Genome, Human ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results ; Software ; Ustilago ; genetics

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease. Neuroimaging based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most intuitive and reliable methods to perform AD screening and diagnosis. Clinical head MRI detection generates multimodal image data, and to solve the problem of multimodal MRI processing and information fusion, this paper proposes a structural and functional MRI feature extraction and fusion method based on generalized convolutional neural networks (gCNN). The method includes a three-dimensional residual U-shaped network based on hybrid attention mechanism (3D HA-ResUNet) for feature representation and classification for structural MRI, and a U-shaped graph convolutional neural network (U-GCN) for node feature representation and classification of brain functional networks for functional MRI. Based on the fusion of the two types of image features, the optimal feature subset is selected based on discrete binary particle swarm optimization, and the prediction results are output by a machine learning classifier. The validation results of multimodal dataset from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) open-source database show that the proposed models have superior performance in their respective data domains. The gCNN framework combines the advantages of these two models and further improves the performance of the methods using single-modal MRI, improving the classification accuracy and sensitivity by 5.56% and 11.11%, respectively. In conclusion, the gCNN-based multimodal MRI classification method proposed in this paper can provide a technical basis for the auxiliary diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.
Humans ; Alzheimer Disease/diagnostic imaging* ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods* ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Neuroimaging/methods* ; Cognitive Dysfunction/diagnosis*

Objective To investigate the distribution and changing resistance proifle ofSalmonella isolates in hospitals across China during the period from January 2005 to December 2014.Methods Seventeen general hospitals and two children’s hospitals were involved in this program. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was carried out by means of a unified protocol using Kirby-Bauer method or MIC determination. The results were analyzed according to CLSI 2014 breakpoints.Results The proportion ofSalmonella isolates increased with time from 0.2% in 2005 to 0.7% in 2014. A total of 3 478Salmonella strains were collected from 19 hospitals. The proportion ofSalmonella typhimurium andSalmonella enteritidis was 27.4% and 24.4%, respectively. During the 10-year period, theSalmonella strains showed highest resistance rate to ampicillin (33.3%-64.8%), but low resistance to cefoperazone-sulbactam (0-5.3%) and ciprofloxacin (2.4%-14.3%).S. typhimurium showed higher resistance rate thanS. typhi,S. paratyphi andS. enteritidis. About 76.8% and 50.5% ofS. typhimurium were resistant to ampicillin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. The average prevalence of multi-drug resistantSalmonellawas 3.9% in the ten-year period, the highest (7.5%) was in 2005, the lowest (1.5%) in 2013.Conclusions During the period from 2004 to 2015, majority of theSalmonella isolates in hospitals across China wasS. typhimurium andS. enteritidis. Ampicillin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole are no longer appropriate for empirical treatment ofS. typhimurium infection due to high resistance rate.Salmonella isolates are relatively more susceptible to third-generation cephalosporins and quinolones. Ongoing monitoring is necessary to identify multi-drug resistant strains ofSalmonella.