This paper discusses the mechanism of acupuncture for diabetes mellitus from the perspective of molecular biology, aiming to reveal the potential rules of restoring the balance in the body and fighting against diabetes mellitus (DM). By searching the basic research literature of acupuncture treatment for DM, it is found that the molecular biological mechanism of acupuncture treatment for DM is closely related to the regulation of insulin signaling pathway, the modulation of inflammatory response, the protection and regeneration of islet β-cells, fat metabolism and energy balance. It points out that there are few studies of acupuncture on the type 1 diabetes mellitus and the large-scale randomized controlled trials, as well as the studies on the upstream regulation mechanism, the specific cellular molecules and the interaction mechanism of various molecules. It needs to deepen the multi-level, multi-target and multi-dimensional exploration on the molecular biological mechanism of acupuncture for diabetes mellitus.
Humans ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Diabetes Mellitus/genetics* ; Animals ; Insulin/metabolism* ; Signal Transduction

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of comprehensive treatment for synchronous primary advanced gastric and esophageal cancer by propensity score matching(PSM).Methods A total of 2 551 patients with advanced gastric cancer admitted to Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine from January 2013 to December 2022 were retrospectively analyzed.Among them,45 patients with synchronous primary esophageal cancer were distributed to the observation group,and 2 506 patients without esophageal cancer were distributed to the control group.Through the PSM method,the control group was matched with the observation group and the equilibrium samples of covariates between two groups were obtained.The overall survival(OS)between the two groups were compared.Results Both observation and control group contained 45 patients in this study.According to the treatment regimen,the patients in the observation group was divided into radical resection treatment subgroup(n=22)and chemoradiotherapy(CRT)subgroup(n=23).In the radical resection subgroup,4 patients underwent the simultaneous surgical resection of gastric and esophageal tumors through proximal gastrectomy with the Ivor Lewis operation.Eighteen patients underwent endoscopic submucosal dissection(ESD)of their esophageal tumors and gastric cancer radical resection.Radical resection of gastric cancer combined with preoperative chemoradiotherapy of esophageal cancer was performed in the CRT subgroup.Survival analysis showed that OS in the observation group was significantly shorter than that in the control group(P=0.042)and there was no significant difference in OS between the radical resection subgroup and the control group(P=0.799).The 1-,3-,and 5-year survival rates of the patients in the CRT subgroup were significantly lower than those of the control group(P=0.003).While the 1-,3-,and 5-year survival rates of the patients in the radical resection subgroup were not statistically significant,compared to those of the CRT subgroup(P=0.071).Conclusions Multidisciplinary and comprehensive treatment can significantly improve the prognosis of patients with synchronous primary advanced gastric and esophageal cancer.Radical resection of gastric cancer combined with ESD of esophageal cancer is an optional treatment for patients with gastric cancer complicated with early esophageal cancer.Radical resection of gastric cancer combined with CRT of esophageal cancer can improve the prognosis of patients with advanced gastric cancer complicated with unresectable esophageal cancer.

p-coumaric acid is one of the aromatic compounds that are widely used in food, cosmetics and medicine due to its properties of antibacterium, antioxidation and cardiovascular disease prevention. Tyrosine ammonia-lyase (TAL) catalyzes the deamination of tyrosine to p-coumaric acid. However, the lack of highly active and specific tyrosine ammonia lyase limits cost-effective microbial production of p-coumaric acid. In order to improve biosynthesis efficiency of p-coumaric acid, two tyrosine ammonia-lyases, namely Fc-TAL2 derived from Flavobacterium columnare and Fs-TAL derived from Flavobacterium suncheonense, were selected and characterized. The optimum temperature (55 ℃) and pH (9.5) for Fs-TAL and Fc-TAL2 are the same. Under optimal conditions, the specific enzyme activity of Fs-TAL and Fc-TAL2 were 82.47 U/mg and 13.27 U/mg, respectively. Structural simulation and alignment analysis showed that the orientation of the phenolic hydroxyl group of the conserved Y50 residue on the inner lid loop and its distance to the substrate were the main reasons accounting for the higher activity of Fs-TAL than that of Fc-TAL2. The higher activity and specificity of Fs-TAL were further confirmed via whole-cell catalysis using recombinant Escherichia coli, which could convert 10 g/L tyrosine into 6.2 g/L p-coumaric acid with a yield of 67.9%. This study provides alternative tyrosine ammonia-lyases and may facilitate the microbial production of p-coumaric acid and its derivatives.
Ammonia-Lyases/chemistry* ; Coumaric Acids ; Escherichia coli/genetics* ; Tyrosine

Over the past 30 years, Yarrowia lipolytica, Kluyveromyces, Pichia, Candida, Hansenula and other non-conventional yeasts have attracted wide attention because of their desirable phenotypes, such as rapid growth, capability of utilizing multiple substrates, and stress tolerance. A variety of synthetic biology tools are being developed for exploitation of their unique phenotypes, making them potential cell factories for the production of recombinant proteins and renewable bio-based chemicals. This review summarizes the gene editing tools and the metabolic engineering strategies recently developed for non-conventional yeasts. Moreover, the challenges and future perspectives for developing non-conventional yeasts into efficient cell factories for the production of useful products through metabolic engineering are discussed.
Gene Editing ; Metabolic Engineering ; Pichia/genetics* ; Synthetic Biology ; Yarrowia/genetics* ; Yeasts

Cases of 2019-nCoV nucleic acid and antibody (IgM and IgG total antibody) after discharge from a hospital in Chongqing were continuously monitored. It was found that 5 cases of "re-positive" phenomenon, 5 cases of antibody were positive, and there was a trend of increasing with time. "Re-Positive" may be related to the following three factors. Children with asymptomatic infection had a long time of fecal detoxification.There were two consecutive nucleic acid tests "false negative" caused by various reasons.The virus clearance in patients was not complete, and the discharge standard was not conservative enough. The analysis of the causes of "Re-Positive" patients and the discussion of its infection will help us reveal more characteristics of this virus, and to provide a new basis for the discharge standard in the constantly updated diagnosis and treatment programme.

Recently, fast-growing Vibrio natriegens, as the great potential chassis, has shown a wide application in synthetic biology. Genome editing is an indispensable tool for genetic modification in synthetic biology. However, genome editing tools with high efficiency and fidelity are still to be developed for V. natriegens synthetic biology. To deal with this problem, the physiological characteristics of 6 V. natriegens strains were evaluated, and CICC 10908 strain with fast and stable growth was selected as the host strain for genome editing study. Then, the natural transformation system of V. natriegens was established and optimized. The efficiencies of optimized natural transformation that integrates antibiotic resistance marker cat-sacB or Kan(R) onto the chromosome of V. natriegens could reach 4×10⁻⁵ and 4×10⁻⁴, respectively. Based on the optimized natural transformation, a double-selection cassette was used to achieve seamless genome editing with high efficiency and fidelity. The positive rates of four different types of genetic manipulation, including gene deletion, complementation, insertion and substitution, were 93.8%, 100%, 95.7% and 100%, respectively. Finally, transformation and elimination of the recombinant plasmid could be easily achieved in V. natriegens. This work provides a seamless genome editing system with high efficiency and fidelity for V. natriegens synthetic biology.
Gene Editing ; Plasmids/genetics* ; Synthetic Biology ; Vibrio/genetics*

Objective To compare the therapeutic effects between three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in patients with stage Ⅱ/Ⅲ esophageal cancer and investigate the prognostic factors.Methods Medical record of 2 132 patients with stage Ⅱ/Ⅲ esophageal cancer who underwent definitive radiotherapy with/without chemotherapy in 10 hospitals from January 2002 to December 2016 from were retrospectively analyzed.Among these patients,37.9％ of them were aged ≥ 70 years,33.9％ with neck and upper esophageal tumors and 66.1％ with middle and lower esophageal and borderline tumors.The median gross tumor volume (GTV) and lymph node gross tumor volume (GTVnd) was 41.6 cm3.Among them,32％ were stage Ⅱ] and 68％ were stage Ⅲ.A total of 723 patients received 3DCRT and 1 409 cases received IMRT.Patients received an equivalent dose in 2 Gy (EQD2) ≥ 60 Gy accounted for 86.1％,and 41.1％ of them received concurrent chemoradiotherapy.Results The median follow-up time was 60.8 months.The 1-,3-and 5-year overall survival (OS) of all patients was 73.9％,41.7％ and 32.6％,and the 1-,3-and 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 62.2％,37.3％ and 32％,respectively.Multivariate analysis demonstrated that age,primary tumor location,clinical stage,tumor target volume,EQD2 and concurrent chemoradiotherapy were the independent prognostic factors for OS.Age,primary tumor location,clinical stage,tumor target volume and EQD2 were the independent prognostic factors for PFS.The OS and PFS did not significantly differ among the low-risk,low-/moderate-risk,moderate-/high-risk and high-risk groups according to age≥70 years,tumor diameter＞5 cm,tumor volume ≥41.6 cm3 and stage Ⅲ (P＜0.001).After the propensity score matching (PSM) method,neither 3DCRT nor IMRT yielded significant advantages in OS or PFS (P=0.971;P=0.658).However,IMRT tended to yield survival benefits in low-risk patients (P=0.125).Conclusions Both 3DCRT and IMRT yield relatively high OS rate in patients with stage Ⅱ/Ⅲ esophageal cancer.The prognosis model established in this investigation can properly predict the survival of patients.Low-risk patients tend to obtain survival benefits from IMRT.

Objective To formulate a prevention and control guideline for deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in lower extremities in bedridden elderly patients and to explore its effects. Methods The problems existing in prevention and control of DVT in bedridden elderly patients were analyzed by search for literature, interviewing medical and nursing staff in the ward and reviewing DVT cases in bedridden elderly patients. The prevention and control guideline was formulated based on the evidence-based practice guideline. Relevant health videos were made and quality control measures were formulated by building DVT prevention and control teams and processes for bedridden elderly patients and adopting Caprini's and Padua's risk assessment tools. The prevention and control guideline was put into clinical use since February 2017. The incidence of DVT and blood stasis in bedridden elderly patients before (from May 2016 to January 2017, n=112) and after (between February and November 2017, n=99) the implementation of the guideline. Results After the prevention and control guideline was implemented, the positive rate of blood stasis in the bedridden elderly patients rose from 6.3% (7/112) to 15.2%(15/99), while the incidence rate of DVT dropped from 8.9% (10/112)to 2.0%(2/99) (χ2=4.458, 4.676;P＜ 0.05). Conclusions The prevention and control guideline based on the DVT prevention and management guideline can reduce the risks of DVT in bedridden elderly inpatients.

Rhamnolipid biosurfactant is mainly produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa that is the opportunistic pathogenic strain and not suitable for future industrial development. In order to develop a relatively safe microbial strain for the production of rhamnolipid biosurfactant, we constructed engineered Escherichia coli strains for rhamnolipid production by expressing different copy numbers of rhamnosyltransferase (rhlAB) gene with the constitutive synthetic promoters of different strengths in E. coli ATCC 8739. We further studied the combinatorial regulation of rhlAB gene and rhaBDAC gene cluster for dTDP-1-rhamnose biosynthesis with different synthetic promoters, and obtained the best engineered strain-E. coli TIB-RAB226. Through the optimization of culture temperature, the titer of rhamnolipd reached 124.3 mg/L, 1.17 fold higher than that under the original condition. Fed-batch fermentation further improved the production of rhamnolipid and the titer reached the highest 209.2 mg/L within 12 h. High performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis showed that there are total 5 mono-rhamnolipid congeners with different nuclear mass ratio and relative abundance. This study laid foundation for heterologous biosynthesis of rhanomilipd.
Bacterial Proteins ; genetics ; Batch Cell Culture Techniques ; Decanoates ; Escherichia coli ; metabolism ; Fermentation ; Glycolipids ; biosynthesis ; Hexosyltransferases ; genetics ; Industrial Microbiology ; methods ; Multigene Family ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; Rhamnose ; analogs & derivatives ; biosynthesis ; Surface-Active Agents ; metabolism

Objective To investigate the predictors of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods The patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to hospital from January 2010 to April 2014 were enroled. The demographics, vascular risk factors, baseline clinical data, and laboratory tests in both groups were colected. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the peripheral blood T helper cel (Th) subgroup. Double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the levels of peripheral blood interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4). Results A total of 143 patients with acute ischemic stroke were enroled, including 56 in a SIRS group and 87 in a non-SIRS group. Univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences in the history of hypertension, history of stroke, baseline systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score, percentage of Th1 cels, and IFN-γ concentration in patients of both groups (al P < 0. 05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the NIHSS score ≥6 (odds ratio [ OR] 2. 40, 95% confidence interval [ CI] 1. 24 - 5. 15, P = 0. 008), decreased percentage of Th1 cels (OR 2. 81, 95% CI 1. 51 - 6. 83, P = 0. 013), and decreased IFN-γ concentration (OR 4. 63, 95% CI 1. 01 - 9. 72, P = 0. 004) were the independent predictive factors for occurring SIRS in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Conclusions Severe neurological deficit, decreased percentage of Th1 cels or decreased IFN-γ level may increase the risk of acute ischemic stroke patients with SIRS.