Humans ; Colon, Descending ; Dendritic Cell Sarcoma, Follicular

OBJECTIVE：To investi gate the potential mechanism of couplet medicine of Cuscutae Semen-Lycii Fructus in the treatment of premature ovarian failure. METHODS ：Main active components and related targets of couplet medicine of Cuscutae Semen-Lycii Fructus in the treatment of premature ovarian failure were obtained from TCMSP ，GeneCards and OMIM database. The intersection genes between them were screened using Venn online tool. Cytoscape 3.7.0 software was adopted to establish the active ingredients-target network and the PPI network. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis on intersection genes were carried out by DAVID database. Finally ，an active component-target-key pathway network was constructed. RESULTS ：Totally 42 active components ，231 and 1 913 targets for active components and disease were obtained from couplet medicine of Cuscutae Semen-Lycii Fructus. The components with high node degree included quercetin ，kaempferol，β-sitosterol，isorhamnetin，glycitein， stigmasterol and sesamin ，etc. There were 149 intersection genes between the active component targets and premature ovarian failure targets. PPI network contained 149 nodes and 2 970 edges，with an average node degree of 39.9 and an average medium of 0.005 4. The results of GO analysis showed that molecule function of the above-mentioned genes mainly involved protein binding ， enzyme binding ，etc. Biological process mainly included that positive regulatio n of transcription from RNA polymerase Ⅱ promoter，positive regulation of transcription DNA-templated ， Cell components mainly included nucleus ，cytoplasm，etc. Signaling pathway mainly involved cancer signaling pathway ， hepatitis B signling pathway ，PI3K/AKT signaling pathway ， MAPK signaling pathway ， etc. The results of active 617693370@qq.com component-target-key pathway network showed that active components of Cuscutae Semen and Lycii Fructus were flavonoids and alcohols ；key target included AKT 1，TP53， VEGFA，IL6，TNF，etc. Signaling pathway mainly involved cancer signaling pathway ，hepatitis B signaling pathway ，PI3K/AKT signaling pathway ，MAPK signaling pathway ，etc. CONCLUSIONS ：Through PI 3K/AKT signaling pathway and MAPK signaling pathway，the active components of couplet medicine of Cuscutae Semen-Lycii Fructus may act on AKT 1，TP53 and other targets ， and then play a therapeutic role on premature ovarian failure. The Potential active components stigmasterol ，sesamin and potential targets IL 6，TNF were found.

Arsenic trioxide (AsO) is recently found to have therapeutic potential in systemic sclerosis (SSc), a life-threatening multi-system fibrosing autoimmune disease with type I interferon (IFN-I) signature. Chronically activated plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are responsible for IFN-I secretion and are closely related with fibrosis establishment in SSc. In this study, we showed that high concentrations of AsO induced apoptosis of pDCs mitochondrial pathway with increased BAX/BCL-2 ratio, while independent of reactive oxygen species generation. Notably, at clinical relevant concentrations, AsO preferentially inhibited IFN- secretion as compared to other cytokines such as TNF-, probably due to potent down-regulation of the total protein and mRNA expression, as well as phosphorylation of the interferon regulatory factor 7 (IRF7). In addition, AsO induced a suppressive phenotype, and in combination with cytokine inhibition, it down-regulated pDCs' capacity to induce CD4 T cell proliferation, Th1/Th22 polarization, and B cell differentiation towards plasmablasts. Moreover, chronically activated pDCs from SSc patients were not resistant to the selective IFN- inhibition, and regulatory phenotype induced by AsO. Collectively, our data suggest that AsO could target pDCs and exert its treatment efficacy in SSc, and more autoimmune disorders with IFN-I signature.

Gibberellin is an essential plant hormone that plays an important regulatory role throughout the life cycle of higher plants. A total of 23 genes involved in gibberellin action were identified from Phyllostachys edulis genome, including 8 GA20ox and 1 GA3ox genes involved in the gibberellin biosynthesis, 8 GA2ox genes involved in the metabolism of gibberellin, 2 GID1 genes involved in gibberellin perception, 2 GID2 genes and 2 DELLA genes involved in gibberellin signal transduction. Phylogenetic analysis of these genes from Arabidopsis, Oryza sativa and Phyllostachys edulis revealed that gibberellin biosynthesis, metabolism, and signaling pathways are conserved in these species. Treatment of seeds and seedlings of bamboo with exogenous gibberellin revealed that gibberellin significantly increased seed germination rate and stem elongation of seedlings, and had the best concentration of action. The expression levels of GA20ox and GA3ox genes in the bamboo seedlings were down-regulated and the expression of the active gibberellin-degrading gene GA2ox was up-regulated after GA3 treatment, and the transcriptional level of the gibberellin receptor GID1 and the positive regulatory gene GID2 was significantly increased while the expression of the negative regulatory gene DELLA was decreased. These genes have significant differences in the expression of different spatial locations of bamboo shoot stems, GA20ox, GA3ox, GA2ox, GID1 and GID2 are all expressed in the upper part of bamboo shoots, while the repressor gene DELLA accumulates at the bottom of the shoots and is hardly expressed at the top.
Arabidopsis ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Gibberellins ; biosynthesis ; Phylogeny ; Plant Growth Regulators ; Plant Proteins ; Poaceae

Objective: To understand the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in 5 populations in China during 2016-2017 and provide evidence for the estimation of prevalence trend of hepatitis C and evaluation on the prevention and control effect. Methods: A total of 87 national sentinel surveillance sites for hepatitis C were set up in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) of China to obtain the information about HCV infection prevalence in 5 populations, including volunteer blood donors, people receiving physical examination, patients receiving invasive diagnosis and treatment, patients receiving hemodialysis, and clients visiting family planning outpatient clinics. From April to June, 2016 and 2017, cross-sectional surveys were repeatedly conducted in the 5 populations and blood samples were collected from them for HCV antibody detection. Results: In 2016, 86 sentinel sites completed the surveillance (one sentinel site was not investigated), and 115 841 persons were surveyed. The overall HCV positive rate was 0.38% (442/115 841, 95%CI: 0.23%-0.53%). In 2017, all the 87 sentinel sites completed the surveillance, and 120 486 persons were surveyed. The overall HCV positive rate was 0.37% (449/120 486, 95%CI: 0.23%-0.52%). In 2016 and 2017, the anti-HCV positive rates were 4.46% (223/5 005, 95%CI: 2.18%-6.73%) and 4.39% (216/4 919, 95%CI: 2.29%-6.50%) respectively in hemodialysis patients, 0.85% (44/5 200, 95%CI: 0.27%-1.42%) and 0.70% (36/5 150, 95%CI: 0.15%-1.24%) respectively in patients receiving invasive diagnosis and treatment and remained to be ≤0.25% in volunteer blood donors, people receiving physical examination and clients visiting family planning outpatient clinics. Results for the comparison of the anti-HCV positive rates in the 5 populations indicated that the differences were significant (F=23.091, P<0.001 in 2016 and F=20.181, P<0.001 in 2017). Conclusions: Data from the sentinel surveillance of HCV infection on prevalence in China showed that the anti-HCV positive rates varied in the 5 populations during 2016-2017. The anti-HCV positive rate appeared the highest in the hemodialysis patients, followed by that in the patients receiving invasive diagnosis and treatment, and the prevalence of HCV infection in other 3 populations were at low levels.
China/epidemiology* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Hepacivirus ; Hepatitis C/epidemiology* ; Hepatitis C Antibodies ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Sentinel Surveillance

Objective: To verify the safety and efficacy of IONTRIS particle therapy system (IONTRIS) in clinical implementation. Methods: Between 6.2014 and 8.2014, a total of 35 patients were enrolled into this trial: 31 males and 4 females with a median age of 69 yrs (range 39-80). Ten patients had locally recurrent head and neck tumors after surgery, 4 cases with thoracic malignancies, 1 case with hepatocellular carcinoma, 1 case with retroperitoneal sarcoma, and 19 cases with non-metastatic prostate carcinomas. Phantom dose verification was mandatory for each field before the start of radiation. Results: Twenty-two patients received carbon ion and 13 had proton irradiation. With a median follow-up time of 1 year, all patients were alive. Among the 16 patients with head and neck, thoracic, and abdominal/pelvic tumors, 2, 1, 12, and 1 cases developed complete response, partial response, stable disease, or disease progression, respectively. Progression-free survival rate was 93.8% (15/16). Among the 19 patients with prostate cancer, biological-recurrence free survival was 100%. Particle therapy was well tolerated in all 35 patients. Twenty-five patients (71.4%) experienced 33 grade 1 acute adverse effects, which subsided at 1 year follow-up. Six (17.1%) patients developed grade 1 late adverse effects. No significant change in ECOG or body weight was observed. Conclusions IONTRIS is safe and effective for clinical use. However, long term follow-up is needed to observe the late toxicity and long term result.

Objective: To investigate the associations of obesity and physical activity with cognition in the elderly. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from October 2009 to June 2010 among people aged ≥50 years selected through multistage random cluster sampling in Shanghai. The subjects' body weight, body height, waist circumference and hip circumference were measured to calculate body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR), and the data on self-reported physical activity level were collected through questionnaire survey. A comprehensive battery of cognitive tests was conducted to assess subjects' cognitive functions, including verbal recall, forward digit span (FDS), backward digit span (BDS), and verbal fluency (VF). General linear model was used to examine the associations of BMI, WHR and physical activity with cognition. Results: A total of 7 913 participants were included, with a median age of 60 years. Age, sex, education level, income level, BMI, WHR and physical activity level were significantly associated with cognitive scores in univariate analysis. After adjusted for age, sex, education level and income level, BMI was no longer significantly associated with cognitive scores in all cognitive functions (all P>0.01). WHR was significantly associated with VF score (P<0.01). Abdominally obese participants had lower VF score than non-abdominally obese participants (P<0.01). Physical activity level was significantly associated with all cognitive functions (P<0.01). Compared with participants with moderate physical activity level, participants with low physical activity level had lower scores in all cognitive functions (P<0.01). Conclusion: Abdominal obesity and low physical activity level were negatively associated with cognition level in the elderly, suggesting that waist circumference control and physical activity might help maintain cognition in the elderly.
Aged ; Body Height ; Body Mass Index ; Body Weight ; China ; Cognition/physiology* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Exercise ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Obesity ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Waist Circumference ; Waist-Hip Ratio

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the risk factors of delirium in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, and to investigate the predictive value of C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), lactic acid (Lac) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in the diagnosis of ICU delirium. METHODS: The patients admitted to central ICU and respiratory medicine ICU of Changzhou First People's Hospital from August 2016 to November 2017 were enrolled. The patients were divided into two groups according to whether delirium occurred within 7 days or not, which was evaluated by using the confusion assessment method for ICU (CAM-ICU). The gender, age and blood CRP, PCT, Lac, NSE levels were compared between the two groups. Multivariate Logistic regression model was used to analyze the risk factors of ICU delirium. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was drawn to assess the predictive value of CRP, PCT, Lac and NSE in the occurrence of ICU delirium. RESULTS: 133 patients were enrolled. Delirium occurred in 67 patients, and did not occurred in 66 patients, with a prevalence rate of 50.4%. (1) There was no significant difference in gender or age between the two groups. Compared with non-delirium group, blood CRP, PCT and Lac levels in delirium group were significantly increased [CRP (mg/L): 110.75±77.31 vs. 51.32±36.51, PCT (μg/L): 3.95 (1.01, 23.90) vs. 0.09 (0.06, 0.36), Lac (mmol/L): 2.40 (1.70, 4.30) vs. 1.20 (0.90, 2.00), all P < 0.01], but no significant difference was found in NSE [μg/L: 12.59 (9.61, 17.69) vs. 13.39 (10.14, 19.05), P > 0.05]. (2) It was shown by multivariate Logistic regression analysis that blood PCT and Lac were risk factors of ICU delirium [PCT: odds ratio (OR) = 1.185, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 1.006-1.396, P = 0.042; Lac: OR = 1.398, 95%CI = 1.011-1.934, P = 0.043]. (3) ROC curve analysis showed that blood CRP, PCT and Lac had certain predictive value for ICU delirium, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of PCT was the highest (0.840 vs. 0.694 and 0.751). When the cut-off value of PCT ≥ 0.55 μg/L, the sensitivity was 72.7%, the specificity was 86.2%, positive predictive value was 84.48%, and negative predictive value was 75.68%. Blood NSE had no predictive value for ICU delirium (AUC = 0.446, P = 0.290). CONCLUSIONS Blood PCT and Lac are the risk factors of ICU delirium. PCT has predictive value for ICU delirium.
C-Reactive Protein ; Calcitonin ; Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide ; Delirium ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Sepsis

There is distinctive advantage of using male sterile lines to breed new cultivar and produce hybrids, when compared with general breeding method on yield and quality. In our previous work, near-isogenic lines (NILs) of male sterile and fertile Salvia miltiorrhiza have been obtained through continuous hybridization in many years. In this investigation, 378 primer combination were screened by using AFLP and BSA technique, in which 26 markers amplified from seven primers were found to tightly link to male sterile gene. Based on these markers, two linkage genetic maps were constructed. A 2 027,2 028 bp fragment was amplifed from NILs of fertile and sterile S. miltiorrhiza, respectively, using genome walking technique and previous E11/M4-208 marker as template. Four base mutations were found in intron when comparing both fragments. Among all different markers between NILs of male sterile and fertile S. miltiorrhiza, four was found to have 100% identities to chromosome 1, 3 and 5 of Arabidopsis, namely, E01/M09-418, E05/M13-308, E05/M04-750 and E01/M01-204. The E01/M09-418 marker was very close to male sterile gene of S. miltiorrhiza with distance of 2.1 cM, which also had 100% identities to male sterile gene MS2 in Arabidopsis. Both were distributed in chromosome 3 of Arabidopsis. The 2 028 bp fragment also had 100% identities to MS2 gene. Another E05/M04-750 marker that had 100% identities to chromosome 5 of Arabidopsis was found to have high identities to POP085-M05 gene of poplars and low affinity calcium antiporter CAX2 of Arabidopsis with very low E-value. The constructed genetic map and differential fragments with potential functions found in this study provide a solid foundation to lock male sterile genes in S. miltiorrhiza genome and to discover their functions.

Cryptosporidium spp., ubiquitous enteric parasitic protozoa of vertebrates, recently emerged as an important cause of economic loss and zoonosis. The present study aimed to determine the distribution and species of Cryptosporidium in post-weaned and adult pigs in Shaanxi province, northwestern China. A total of 1,337 fresh fecal samples of post-weaned and adult pigs were collected by sterile disposable gloves from 8 areas of Shaanxi province. The samples were examined by Sheather's sugar flotation technique and microscopy atx400 magnification for Cryptosporidium infection, and the species in positive samples was further identified by PCR amplification of the small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene. A total of 44 fecal samples were successfully amplified by the nested PCR of the partial SSU rRNA, with overall prevalence of 3.3%. The average prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection in each pig farms ranged from 0 to 14.4%. Species identification by sequencing of SSU rRNA gene revealed that 42 (3.1%) samples were Cryptosporidium suis and 2 (0.15%) were Cryptosporidium scrofarum. C. suis had the highest prevalence (7.5%) in growers and the lowest in breeding pigs (0.97%). C. suis was the predominant species in pre-weaned and adult pigs, while C. scrofarum infected pigs older than 3 months only. A season-related difference of C. suis was observed in this study, with the highest prevalence in autumn (5.5%) and the lowest (1.7%) in winter. The present study provided basic information for control of Cryptosporidium infection in pigs and assessment of zoonotic transmission of pigs in Shaanxi province, China.
Animals ; China/epidemiology ; Cluster Analysis ; Cryptosporidiosis/*epidemiology/*parasitology ; Cryptosporidium/classification/genetics/*isolation & purification ; DNA, Protozoan/chemistry/genetics ; DNA, Ribosomal/chemistry/genetics ; Feces/parasitology ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; RNA, Ribosomal, 18S/genetics ; Seasons ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Swine ; Swine Diseases/*epidemiology/*parasitology