2.The Medial Prefrontal Cortex-Basolateral Amygdala Circuit Mediates Anxiety in Shank3 InsG3680 Knock-in Mice.
Jiabin FENG ; Xiaojun WANG ; Meidie PAN ; Chen-Xi LI ; Zhe ZHANG ; Meng SUN ; Tailin LIAO ; Ziyi WANG ; Jianhong LUO ; Lei SHI ; Yu-Jing CHEN ; Hai-Feng LI ; Junyu XU
Neuroscience Bulletin 2025;41(1):77-92
Anxiety disorder is a major symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with a comorbidity rate of ~40%. However, the neural mechanisms of the emergence of anxiety in ASD remain unclear. In our study, we found that hyperactivity of basolateral amygdala (BLA) pyramidal neurons (PNs) in Shank3 InsG3680 knock-in (InsG3680+/+) mice is involved in the development of anxiety. Electrophysiological results also showed increased excitatory input and decreased inhibitory input in BLA PNs. Chemogenetic inhibition of the excitability of PNs in the BLA rescued the anxiety phenotype of InsG3680+/+ mice. Further study found that the diminished control of the BLA by medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and optogenetic activation of the mPFC-BLA pathway also had a rescue effect, which increased the feedforward inhibition of the BLA. Taken together, our results suggest that hyperactivity of the BLA and alteration of the mPFC-BLA circuitry are involved in anxiety in InsG3680+/+ mice.
Animals
;
Prefrontal Cortex/metabolism*
;
Basolateral Nuclear Complex/metabolism*
;
Mice
;
Anxiety/metabolism*
;
Nerve Tissue Proteins/genetics*
;
Male
;
Gene Knock-In Techniques
;
Pyramidal Cells/physiology*
;
Mice, Transgenic
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Neural Pathways/physiopathology*
;
Mice, Inbred C57BL
;
Microfilament Proteins
3.High-throughput single-microbe RNA sequencing reveals adaptive state heterogeneity and host-phage activity associations in human gut microbiome.
Yifei SHEN ; Qinghong QIAN ; Liguo DING ; Wenxin QU ; Tianyu ZHANG ; Mengdi SONG ; Yingjuan HUANG ; Mengting WANG ; Ziye XU ; Jiaye CHEN ; Ling DONG ; Hongyu CHEN ; Enhui SHEN ; Shufa ZHENG ; Yu CHEN ; Jiong LIU ; Longjiang FAN ; Yongcheng WANG
Protein & Cell 2025;16(3):211-226
Microbial communities such as those residing in the human gut are highly diverse and complex, and many with important implications for health and diseases. The effects and functions of these microbial communities are determined not only by their species compositions and diversities but also by the dynamic intra- and inter-cellular states at the transcriptional level. Powerful and scalable technologies capable of acquiring single-microbe-resolution RNA sequencing information in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of complex microbial communities together with their hosts are therefore utterly needed. Here we report the development and utilization of a droplet-based smRNA-seq (single-microbe RNA sequencing) method capable of identifying large species varieties in human samples, which we name smRandom-seq2. Together with a triple-module computational pipeline designed for the bacteria and bacteriophage sequencing data by smRandom-seq2 in four human gut samples, we established a single-cell level bacterial transcriptional landscape of human gut microbiome, which included 29,742 single microbes and 329 unique species. Distinct adaptive response states among species in Prevotella and Roseburia genera and intrinsic adaptive strategy heterogeneity in Phascolarctobacterium succinatutens were uncovered. Additionally, we identified hundreds of novel host-phage transcriptional activity associations in the human gut microbiome. Our results indicated that smRandom-seq2 is a high-throughput and high-resolution smRNA-seq technique that is highly adaptable to complex microbial communities in real-world situations and promises new perspectives in the understanding of human microbiomes.
Humans
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Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics*
;
Bacteriophages/physiology*
;
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
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Sequence Analysis, RNA/methods*
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Bacteria/virology*
4.RADICAL: a rationally designed ion channel activated by ligand for chemogenetics.
Heng ZHANG ; Zhiwei ZHENG ; Xiaoying CHEN ; Lizhen XU ; Chen GUO ; Jiawei WANG ; Yihui CUI ; Fan YANG
Protein & Cell 2025;16(2):136-142
5.Gene print-based cell subtypes annotation of human disease across heterogeneous datasets with gPRINT.
Ruojin YAN ; Chunmei FAN ; Shen GU ; Tingzhang WANG ; Zi YIN ; Xiao CHEN
Protein & Cell 2025;16(8):685-704
Identification of disease-specific cell subtypes (DSCSs) has profound implications for understanding disease mechanisms, preoperative diagnosis, and precision therapy. However, achieving unified annotation of DSCSs in heterogeneous single-cell datasets remains a challenge. In this study, we developed the gPRINT algorithm (generalized approach for cell subtype identification with single cell's voicePRINT). Inspired by the principles of speech recognition in noisy environments, gPRINT transforms gene position and gene expression information into voiceprints based on ordered and clustered gene expression phenomena, obtaining unique "gene print" patterns for each cell. Then, we integrated neural networks to mitigate the impact of background noise on cell identity label mapping. We demonstrated the reproducibility of gPRINT across different donors, single-cell sequencing platforms, and disease subtypes, and its utility for automatic cell subtype annotation across datasets. Moreover, gPRINT achieved higher annotation accuracy of 98.37% when externally validated based on the same tissue, surpassing other algorithms. Furthermore, this approach has been applied to fibrosis-associated diseases in multiple tissues throughout the body, as well as to the annotation of fibroblast subtypes in a single tissue, tendon, where fibrosis is prevalent. We successfully achieved automatic prediction of tendinopathy-specific cell subtypes, key targets, and related drugs. In summary, gPRINT provides an automated and unified approach for identifying DSCSs across datasets, facilitating the elucidation of specific cell subtypes under different disease states and providing a powerful tool for exploring therapeutic targets in diseases.
Humans
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Algorithms
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Single-Cell Analysis
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Databases, Genetic
;
Molecular Sequence Annotation
6.Research Progress in Closed-loop Insulin Delivery Systems
Xiangqian WEI ; Xiuwen ZHANG ; Yanfang WANG ; Xinwei WEI ; Juan ZHANG ; Kangfan JI ; Shiming ZHANG ; Zhen GU ; Jinqiang WANG
Chinese Journal of Modern Applied Pharmacy 2024;41(10):1303-1312
Individuals with type 1 diabetes or advanced type 2 diabetes suffer insufficient insulin secretion, leading to symptoms of hyperglycemia. To maintain the normal blood glucose levels, those people with diabetes must administer insulin multiple times a day. However, insulin requirements are influenced by several factors such as diet, exercise, and illness, combined with the narrow therapeutic index, making accurate insulin dosage challenging. Excessive insulin administration can even pose life-threatening risks. In addition, frequent daily insulin injections place considerable physiological and psychological burdens on patients. To tackle these challenges, researchers have embarked on the development of closed-loop insulin delivery systems. These systems adjust insulin dosages in real-time changes based on the patient’s blood glucose levels, therefore enhancing both the safety and effectiveness of insulin therapy. This review categorizes closed-loop insulin delivery systems into two types: electronic-based and material-based systems, based on their compositional attributes. The exploration of both types covers their components, developmental history, clinical applications, current pros and cons, and future directions. The relative strengths and limitations of these two categories of closed-loop insulin delivery systems are also compared and discussed.
8.Efficient expansion of rare human circulating hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells in steady-state blood using a polypeptide-forming 3D culture.
Yulin XU ; Xiangjun ZENG ; Mingming ZHANG ; Binsheng WANG ; Xin GUO ; Wei SHAN ; Shuyang CAI ; Qian LUO ; Honghu LI ; Xia LI ; Xue LI ; Hao ZHANG ; Limengmeng WANG ; Yu LIN ; Lizhen LIU ; Yanwei LI ; Meng ZHANG ; Xiaohong YU ; Pengxu QIAN ; He HUANG
Protein & Cell 2022;13(11):808-824
Although widely applied in treating hematopoietic malignancies, transplantation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) is impeded by HSPC shortage. Whether circulating HSPCs (cHSPCs) in steady-state blood could be used as an alternative source remains largely elusive. Here we develop a three-dimensional culture system (3DCS) including arginine, glycine, aspartate, and a series of factors. Fourteen-day culture of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) in 3DCS led to 125- and 70-fold increase of the frequency and number of CD34+ cells. Further, 3DCS-expanded cHSPCs exhibited the similar reconstitution rate compared to CD34+ HSPCs in bone marrow. Mechanistically, 3DCS fabricated an immunomodulatory niche, secreting cytokines as TNF to support cHSPC survival and proliferation. Finally, 3DCS could also promote the expansion of cHSPCs in patients who failed in HSPC mobilization. Our 3DCS successfully expands rare cHSPCs, providing an alternative source for the HSPC therapy, particularly for the patients/donors who have failed in HSPC mobilization.
Antigens, CD34/metabolism*
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Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
;
Hematopoietic Stem Cells
;
Humans
;
Leukocytes, Mononuclear/metabolism*
;
Peptides/metabolism*
9.Roles of Toll-like receptor 4 in cerebral ischemia
Liangzhu WANG ; Yingzhu CHEN ; Beilei CHEN ; Liu YANG ; Hailong YU
International Journal of Cerebrovascular Diseases 2018;26(1):63-67
In recent years,studies have shown that inflammation is an important factor in secondaryischemic injury.The exploration of the related mechanisms of the occurrence of inflammation has become ahot spot in the field of cerebral ischemia.Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling pathway is one of theclassical inflammatory pathways.Studies have shown that TLR4 is involved in the early inflammatoryresponse after cerebral ischemic injury and the late nerve repair.This article reviews the research progress ofthis signaling pathway in cerebral ischemia injury,so as to seek a therapeutic target against inflammatoryinjury caused by cerebral ischemia through the analysis of its potential research direction.
10.Preparation of enrofloxacin nanosuspension injection and its pharmacokinetics in swine
Pengling YU ; Liangzhu CHEN ; Zhikun PAN ; Qiaoyi ZHOU ; Qin WANG ; Binghu FANG
Chinese Journal of Veterinary Science 2017;37(8):1534-1539
The aim of the study was to prepare enrofloxacin nanosuspension injection and evaluate its pharmacokinetics after giving a single intramuscular injection.The high pressure homogeneous technique was used to prepare enrofloxacin nanosuspension injection and preliminary evaluation of the quality was done.The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was used to determinate content of enrofloxacin in pig plasma.And the pharmacokinetic characteristics of enrofloxacin nanosuspension injection were compared with Baytril injection.The content of enrofloxacin in this preparation is 97.9%.The average particle size of enrofloxacin nanosuspension injection was (613.21±5.78) nm,PDI was (0.22±0.02) and the potential was-2.02 mV.Maximal plasma concentrations were (0.32±0.12) and (0.67 ± 0.09) mg/L after i.m administration with enrofloxacin nanosuspension injection and Baytril injection.The peak times were (2.88 ±0.96) and (0.79±0.26) hours,respectively.Mean elimination half-lifes were (5.99± 1.37) and (4.49 ± 1.25) hours,respectively.Areas under concentration-time curve were (4.63±1.30) and (4.40±0.45) mg/L · h,respectively.Mean residence times were (9.59±2.34) and (5.41±1.10) hours,respectively.The relative bioavailability of enrofloxacin nanosuspension injection was 105.2%.The preparation method of high pressure homogeneous was simple and good reproducibility.Enrofloxacin nanosuspension injection was characterized by non-sedimentation,easy-redispersion,relatively stable.Comparing with Baytril injection,enrofloxacin nanosuspension injection had a certain slowrelease effect,showing slower elimination than enrofloxacin injeetion.


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