Objective To elucidate the molecular mechanism of sirtuin-3 (SIRT3) in regulating mitochondrial biogenesis in human renal tubular epithelial cells. Methods Cells were stimulated with different concentrations of H₂O₂ and divided into four groups: control (NC), 50 μmol/L H₂O₂, 110 μmol/L H₂O₂ and 150 μmol/L H₂O₂. SIRT3 protein expression was then measured. SIRT3 was knocked down with siRNA, and cells were further assigned to five groups: control (NC), negative-control siRNA (NCsi), SIRT3-siRNA (siSIRT3), NCsi+H₂O₂, and siSIRT3+H₂O₂. After 24 h, cellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and mitochondrial superoxide anion (O₂•⁻) levels were determined, together with mitochondrial expression of SIRT3, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α), nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF1), mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM), superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2), acetylated-SOD2 and adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase α1 (AMPKα1). Results The 110 and 150 μmol/L H₂O₂ decreased SIRT3 protein (both P<0.05). ATP and mitochondrial O₂•⁻ did not differ between NC and NCsi groups (both P>0.05). Compared to the NCsi group, the siSIRT3 group exhibited elevated O₂•⁻ level, decreased SIRT3 protein and increased expression levels of SOD2 and acetylated SOD2 protein (all P<0.05). Compared to the NCsi group, the NCsi+H₂O₂ group exhibited decreased cellular ATP levels, elevated mitochondrial O₂•⁻ levels, and reduced protein expression levels of SIRT3, SOD2, TFAM, AMPKα1, PGC-1α and NRF1 (all P<0.05). Compared with the siSIRT3 group, the siSIRT3+H₂O₂ group showed a decrease in cellular ATP levels, an increase in mitochondrial O₂•⁻ levels, a decrease in SIRT3, SOD2, TFAM, AMPKα1, PGC-1α and NRF1 protein expression levels and a decrease in acetylated SOD2 protein expression levels (all P<0.05). Compared with the NCsi+H₂O₂ group, the siSIRT3+H₂O₂ group showed a decrease in cellular ATP levels, an increase in mitochondrial O₂•⁻ levels, a decrease in SIRT3, AMPKα1, PGC-1α and NRF1, TFAM protein expression levels, and an increase in SOD2 and acetylated SOD2 protein expression levels (all P<0.05). Conclusions SIRT3 promotes mitochondrial biogenesis in tubular epithelial cells via the AMPK/PGC-1α/NRF1/TFAM axis, representing a key mechanism through which SIRT3 ameliorates oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial dysfunction.

The polymerase 1 and transcript release factor (PTRF)-cytoplasmic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) phospholipid remodeling pathway facilitates tumor proliferation in glioma. Nevertheless, blockade of this pathway leads to the excessive activation of oncogenic receptors on the plasma membrane and subsequent drug resistance. Here, CD26/dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) was identified through screening of CRISPR/Cas9 libraries. Suppressing PTRF-cPLA2 signaling resulted in the activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway through phosphatidylcholine and lysophosphatidylcholine remodeling, which ultimately increased DPP4 transcription. In turn, DPP4 interacted with EGFR and prevented its ubiquitination. Linagliptin, a DPP4 inhibitor, facilitated the degradation of EGFR by blocking its interaction with DPP4. When combined with the cPLA2 inhibitor AACOCF3, it exhibited synergistic effects and led to a decrease in energy metabolism in glioblastoma cells. Subsequent in vivo investigations provided further evidence of a synergistic impact of linagliptin by augmenting the sensitivity of AACOCF3 and strengthening the efficacy of temozolomide. DPP4 serves as a novel target and establishes a constructive feedback loop with EGFR. Linagliptin is a potent inhibitor that promotes EGFR degradation by blocking the DPP4-EGFR interaction. This study presents innovative approaches for treating glioma by combining linagliptin with AACOCF3 and temozolomide.

Objective:To evaluate the effect of sevoflurane on Ca 2+ transporter expression in cardiomyocytes during right ventricular remodeling in rats with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Methods:Twenty-four clean-grade healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats, aged 8-10 weeks, weighing 200-250 g, were divided into 4 groups ( n=6 each) by the random number table method: control group (CM group), sevoflurane group (CS group), monocrotaline group (M group) and sevoflurane + monocrotaline group (S group). Monocrotaline 60 mg/kg was intraperitoneally injected in group M and group S, and monocrotaline lysate was intraperitoneally injected in group CM. The rats in S and CS groups inhaled 2.5% sevoflurane for 1 h, twice a week, at an interval of 3 days starting from the first day after injection of monocrotaline. Pulmonary artery acceleration time and pulmonary artery ejection time were measured by transthoracic echocardiography at 6 weeks after monocrotaline injection. The chest was exposed under 3% sevoflurane anesthesia, the heart was perfused, and the pulmonary artery branch and right ventricular myocardial tissues were retained. The wall thickness of pulmonary arterioles and cross-section area of right ventricular cardiomyocytes were observed by HE staining. The expression of Ca 2+ transporter in right ventricular cardiomyocytes was detected by Western blot. Results:Compared with CM group, the ratio of pulmonary artery acceleration time to pulmonary artery ejection time was significantly decreased, the cross-section area of right ventricular cardiomyocytes was increased, the wall thickness of pulmonary arteriole was increased, the expression of type 1 sodium-calcium exchange and inositol triphosphate receptor was up-regulated, and the expression of voltage-dependent L-type calcium channel α1C subunit, type 2 ryanodine receptor, sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pump 2α and proteinphilin-2 was down-regulated in M group ( P<0.01). Compared with group M, the ratio of pulmonary artery acceleration time to pulmonary artery ejection time was significantly increased, the cross-section area of right ventricular cardiomyocytes was decreased, the wall thickness of pulmonary arteriole was decreased, the expression of type 1 sodium-calcium exchange and inositol triphosphate receptor was down-regulated, and the expression of voltage-dependent L-type calcium channel α1C subunit, type 2 ryanodine receptor, sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pump 2α and proteinphilin-2 was up-regulated in group S ( P<0.01). Conclusions:The mechanism by which sevoflurane improves right ventricular remodeling is related to regulating the expression of Ca 2+ transporter in cardiomyocytes of rats with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

[Objective]To analyze the value of grey-scale reversed T1-weighted(rT1)MRI in the detection of structur-al lesions of the sacroiliac joint(SIJ)in patients with axial spondyloarthritis(ax-SpA).[Methods]Fifty-two ax-SpA pa-tients who underwent both MRI and CT in our hospital within a week from February 2020 to December 2022 were retrospec-tively included.Both sacral and iliac side of each SIJ on oblique coronal images were divided into anterior,middle and pos-terior portion.Two radiologists reviewed independently three groups of MRI including T1-weighted imaging(T1WI),rT1 and T1WI+rT1 images to evaluate the structural lesions like erosions,sclerosis and joint space changes in each of the 6 re-gions of the SIJ.One of the radiologist did the evaluation again one month later.CT images were scored for lesions by a third radiologist and served as the reference standard.Intra-class correlation coefficients(ICC)were calculated to test the inter-and intra-reader agreement for the assessment of SIJ lesions.A Friedman test was performed to compare the lesion results of MRI and CT image findings.We examined the diagnostic performance[accuracy,sensitivity(SE)and specifici-ty]of different groups of MRI in the detection of lesions by using diagnostic test.A McNemar test was used to compare the differences of three groups of MRI findings.[Results]CT showed erosions in 71 joints,sclerosis in 65 and joint space changes in 53.Good inter-and intra-reader agreements were found in three groups of MRI images for the assessment of le-sions,with the best agreement in T1WI+rT1.There were no difference between T1WI+rT1 and CT for the assessment of all lesions,nor between rT1 and CT for the assessment of erosions and joint space changes(P>0.05).T1WI+rT1 yielded better accuracy and SE than T1WI in detection of all lesions(Accuracy erosions:90.3%vs 76.9%;SE erosions:91.6%vs 76.1%;Accu-racy sclerosis:89.4%vs 80.8%;SE sclerosis:84.6%vs 73.9%;Accuracy joint space changes:86.5%vs 73.1%;SE joint space changes:84.9%vs 60.4%;P<0.05).rT1 yielded better accuracy and SE than T1WI in detection of erosions and joint space changes(Accuracy erosions:87.5%vs 76.9%;SE erosions:88.7%vs 76.1%;Accuracy joint space changes:85.6%vs 73.1%;SE joint space changes:83.0%vs 60.4%;P<0.05).[Conclusions]In the detection of SIJ structural lesions in ax-SpA,rT1 improves the diagnostic perfor-mance and T1WI+rT1 is more superior to others.

"State-target-cause-result"is a new clinical theory combining macroscopic and microscopic syndrome differentiation based on the holistic view of traditional Chinese medicine combined with Western medical research.The"inflammation-cancer transformation"of chronic pancreatitis is a complex pathological process that is associated with the interaction between the pancreas and various pathological factors and multiple objects,involving the imbalance of multiple homeostasis.The microscopic process of"inflammation-cancer transformation"in chronic pancreatitis is the"target,"whereas various factors that could induce its occurrence under chronic inflammatory conditions are the"state."The"inflammation-cancer transformation"of chronic pancreatitis is summarized as yin and yang imbalance,qi movement disorder,endogenous dampness,heat,blood stasis,and turbid phlegm stagnation,unresolved congestion resulting in deficiency caused by stagnation,intermingled deficiency and excess,and internal cancer toxin generation.This paper elucidates the pathogenesis and intervention strategies of the"inflammation-cancer transformation"of chronic pancreatitis from a macro perspective of"state,"focusing on reducing the impact of"state"imbalance on the"target"to establish a balanced pancreas-immune-microbiota state.The aim is to broaden the theory for exploring the mechanism and drug development related to chronic pancreatitis"inflammation-cancer transformation"in both traditional Chinese and Western medicine.

An improved U-Net model(channel attention module U-Net,CAMU-Net)is proposed to achieve precise segmentation of retinal vessels.CAMU-Net model enhances its understanding of regional features by employing residual enhancement convolution to extract important information from the regions,improves the global feature acquisition capability by introducing feature refinement module to promote feature extraction,realizes precise segmentation by adding channel attention module to capture image features accurately,and enhances its capability to perceive target boundaries and details through a multi-scale feature fusion structure.The ablation study on the DRIVE dataset validates the role of each module in retinal vessel segmentation.The comparison with other mainstream network models on DRIVE and STARE datasets verify that CAMU-Net model is superior to other models.

Objective:To explore the effect of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) C10orf25 on the proliferation and invasion ability of prostate cancer cells and the possible role of miRNA-671-5p (miR-671-5p).Methods:Data from the Gene expression omnibus (GEO) database (data updated in January 2023) were used to analyze the differences in the expression levels of C10orf25 in 137 cases of prostate cancer tissues and paracancerous tissues. Prostate cancer C4-2B, DU-145, 22Rv1, PC-3, LNCaP cell lines and immortalized prostate epithelial RWPE-1 cell lines were selected, and then real-time quantitative fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the relative expression levels of C10orf25 in cell lines. The 22Rv1 cells with the lowest relative expression level of C10orf25 were selected and divided into the control group (transfected with negative plasmid) and the C10orf25 group (transfected with C10orf25 plasmid); the CCK-8 method was used to detect the proliferation activity of 22Rv1 cells in both groups at day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (expressed as absorbance value); the Transwell method was used to detect the invasion ability of 22Rv1 cells. Linc2GO software was used to predict miR-671-5p with binding sites for C10orf25. Dual luciferase reporter gene assay was used to verify the targeting relationship between C10orf25 and miR-671-5p. qRT-PCR was used to detect the relative expression levels of C10orf25 and miR-671-5p. Western blot was used to detect the expression of proteins related to the NF-κB signaling pathway of 22Rv1 cells in the both groups.Results:In the GEO database, the relative expression level of C10orf25 in prostate cancer tissues was lower than that in paracancerous tissues ( P < 0.01). The relative expression levels of C10orf25 in immortalized prostate epithelial cell line RWPE-1 and prostate cancer cell lines C4-2B, DU-145, 22Rv1, PC-3, and LNCaP were 1.00±0.05, 0.63±0.04, 0.42±0.03, 0.18±0.04, 0.81±0.02, 0.50±0.07, and the difference was statistically significant ( F = 43.29, P < 0.05). The proliferation ability of 22Rv1 cells in C10orf25 group was lower than that in the control group from the second day, and the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). The number of invasive cells in the control group and C10orf25 group were (97±11) and (36±9), respectively, and the difference was statistically significant ( t = 4.15, P < 0.01). Linc2GO software prediction results showed that C10orf25 had a binding site for miR-671-5p. The dual luciferase reporter gene assay showed that the relative luciferase activity of miR-671-5p and C10orf25 wild plasmid co-transfecting 22Rv1 cells was lower than that of miR-NC and C10orf25 wild plasmid co-transfecting 22Rv1 cells, and the difference was statistically significant ( P < 0.01); when miR-671-5p or miR-NC was co-transfected with C10orf25 mutant plasmid, the difference in the luciferase activity of 22Rv1 cells was not statistically significant ( P > 0.05). The relative expression levels of miR-671-5p in 22Rv1 cells were 7.33±0.99 and 0.98±0.16, respectively in the control group and C10orf25 group, and the difference was statistically significant ( t = 6.32, P < 0.01). The results of Western blot showed that the expression levels of NF-κB signaling pathway protein p50, matrix metalloproteinase 9, c-myc, and vascular endothelial growth factor protein in 22Rv1 cells in C10orf25 group were lower than those in the control group. Conclusions:The overexpression of C10orf25 may inhibit the proliferation and invasion of prostate cancer cells through the miR-671-5p-NF-κB axis.

Nearly a quarter of the world's population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and remains long-term asymptomatic infection. Rv2626c is a latent infection-related protein regulated by DosR of M. tuberculosis. In this study, the Rv2626c protein was prokaryotically expressed and purified, and its immunobiological characteristics were analyzed using RAW264.7 cells and mice as infection models. SDS-PAGE and Western blotting analysis showed that the Rv2626c-His fusion protein was mainly expressed in soluble form and specifically reacted with the rabbit anti-H37RV polyclonal serum. In addition, we found that the Rv2626c protein bound to the surface of RAW264.7 macrophages and up-regulated the production of NO. Moreover, the Rv2626c protein significantly induced the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-6 and MCP-1, and induced strong Th1-tendency immune response. These results may help to reveal the pathogenic mechanism of M. tuberculosis and facilitate the development of new tuberculosis vaccine.
Animals ; Mice ; Rabbits ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis/genetics* ; Tuberculosis ; Antigens, Bacterial ; Cytokines ; Immunity, Cellular

Objective: To observe the effects of acupoint sticking therapy of different dosages and durations on the subjective and objective sleep indicators in insomnia patients.Methods: Ninety-six patients with insomnia due to liver-Qi stagnation and spleen deficiency were divided into a high-dosage 7 d group (25 cases), a high-dosage 14 d group (22 cases), a low-dosage 7 d group (21 cases), and a low-dosage 14 d group (28 cases) using the random numbers generated in a stratified and stage-by-stage manner in combination with the visiting sequence. The four groups all received the same acupuncture treatment, but acupoint sticking therapy varied in dosage and duration. Before and after treatment, the actigraphic readings (total time in bed, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, number of wake bouts, length of wakes after asleep, and sleep latency), Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) score, and symptoms score of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) were observed. A correlation analysis was conducted among the subjective and objective indicators. Results: The PSQI score was positively correlated with the total time in bed and total sleep time (P<0.05). After treatment, the sleep latency, PSQI scores, and TCM symptoms scores changed significantly in the four groups (P<0.05). The total sleep time and sleep efficiency gained improvements after treatment in the high-dosage 14 d and low-dosage 14 d groups (P<0.05). The high-dosage acupoint sticking groups had longer total sleep time compared with the low-dosage groups of the same treatment duration (P<0.05). After treatment, the length of wakes after asleep, PSQI scores, and TCM symptoms scores were better in the 14 d groups than in the 7 d groups of the same acupoint sticking dosage (P<0.05). Conclusion: Given the same acupuncture treatment, acupoint sticking therapy of different treatment durations produces different effects on the length of wakes after asleep, PSQI score, and TCM symptoms score in insomnia patients, and the 14-day acupoint sticking treatment is superior to the 7-day treatment.

Objective:To evaluate the effects of sevoflurane on right ventricular myocardial fibrosis caused by pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in rats.Methods:Eighteen SPF healthy adult male Wistar rats, weighing 260-300 g, were divided into 3 groups ( n=6 each) by a random number table method: control group (group C), group PAH and PAH plus sevoflurane group (group PS). The PAH model was established by single intraperitoneal injection of monocrotaline 60 mg/kg in group PAH and group PS, while the equal volume of normal saline was intraperitoneally injected in group C. Sevoflurane 1.5 MAC was inhaled for 1 h starting from the end of injection, twice a week for 6 weeks in total, in group PS.Echocardiography was performed at the end of 6th week to measure right ventricular end-diastolic diameter (RVEDD), right ventricular anterior wall end-diastolic thickness (RVWTd), interventricular septal end-diastolic thickness (IVSTd), pulmonary artery inner diameter (PAID) and pulmonary valve orifice maximum peak velocity (PV). At the end of 6th week, the hearts were taken to measure the weight of right ventricle, interventricular septum and left ventricle, and Fulton′s index was calculated, and the tissue of the lower lobe of the right lung was taken, the outer diameter and inner diameter of the vascular wall were measured to calculate the vascular wall thickness index (WT), and total vascular area and lumen area were measured to calculate the vascular wall area index (WA) after HE staining.The myocardial tissue of the right ventricle was obtained to observe the degree of myocardial fibrosis (with a light microscope after Masson staining) and to detect the expression of TGF-β1 (after immunofluorescence staining) and expression of TGF-β1, phosphorylated Smad3 (p-SMad3) and Smad7 (by Western blot). Results:Compared with group C, Fulton′s index, RVEDD, RVWTd, IVSTd, PAID, WT and WA were significantly increased, PV was decreased, the expression of TGF-β1 and pSmad3 in right ventricular myocardial tissues was up-regulated, the expression of Smad7 was down-regulated( P<0.01), and myocardial fibrosis occurred in group PAH.Compared with group PAH, Fulton′s index, RVEDD, RVWTd, IVSTd, PAID, WT and WA were significantly decreased, PV was increased, the expression of TGF-β1 and pSmad3 in right ventricular myocardial tissues was down-regulated, the expression of Smad7 was up-regulated ( P<0.05 or 0.01), and myocardial fibrosis was significantly improved in group PS. Conclusion:Sevoflurane can improve the myocardial fibrosis in right ventricle induced by PAH in rats, and the mechanism may be related to inhibiting activation of TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway.