OBJECTIVES: To investigate the potential circular RNA (circRNA)-microRNA (miRNA)-messenger RNA (mRNA) immune regulatory network in childhood allergic asthma by analyzing microarray datasets. METHODS: GEO database was used to obtain the datasets of circRNA, miRNA, and mRNA from children with allergic asthma and healthy controls. The Limma package was used to identify differentially expressed circRNA (DEcircRNA), miRNA (DEmiRNA), and mRNA (DEmRNA). ENCORI and other tools were used to predict and construct the regulatory network of endogenous RNA. The DAVID database was used to perform GO and KEGG enrichment analyses, and CIBERSORT and Pearson were used to identify genes associated with immune cell infiltration. RESULTS: A total of 130 DEcircRNAs, 40 DEmiRNAs, and 802 DEmRNAs were identified between the asthma and control groups, and a regulatory network consisting of 12 circRNAs, 7 miRNAs, and 75 mRNAs was established. The GO analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes were mainly involved in the regulation of growth and development, and the KEGG analysis showed that they were mainly involved in the mTOR signaling pathway. The CIBERSORT analysis showed that compared with the control group, the asthma group had higher percentages of CD8⁺ T cells and resting NK cells and lower percentages of resting CD4⁺ memory T cells and activated mast cells. In addition, the Pearson correlation analysis identified six key mRNAs that were positively correlated with immune cell infiltration. CONCLUSIONS The ceRNA immune regulatory network constructed in this study provides a basis for research on the mechanism of childhood allergic asthma and potential therapeutic targets.
Humans ; Asthma/genetics* ; RNA, Circular/physiology* ; MicroRNAs/physiology* ; Child ; Gene Regulatory Networks ; RNA, Messenger/physiology* ; RNA/physiology* ; Male ; Female ; Child, Preschool

To explore the mechanism by which vinegar-processed Euphorbiae Pekinensis Radix regulates gut microbiota and reduces intestinal toxicity, this study aimed to identify key microbial communities related to vinegar-induced detoxification and verify their functions. Using a derivatization method, the study measured the content of short-chain fatty acids(SCFAs) in feces before and after vinegar-processing of Euphorbiae Pekinensis Radix. Combined with the results of previous gut microbiota sequencing, correlation analysis was used to identify key microbial communities related to SCFAs content. Through single-bacterium transplantation experiments, the role of key microbial communities in regulating SCFAs metabolism and alleviating the intestinal toxicity of Euphorbiae Pekinensis Radix was clarified. Fecal extracts were then added to a co-culture system of Caco-2 and RAW264.7 cells, and toxicity differences were evaluated using intestinal tight junction proteins and inflammatory factors as indicators. Additionally, the application of a SCFAs receptor blocker helped confirm the role of SCFAs in reducing intestinal toxicity during vinegar-processing of Euphorbiae Pekinensis Radix. The results of this study indicated that vinegar-processing of Euphorbiae Pekinensis Radix improved the decline in SCFAs content caused by the raw material. Correlation analysis revealed that Bifidobacterium was positively correlated with the levels of acetic acid, propionic acid, isobutyric acid, n-butyric acid, isovaleric acid, and n-valeric acid. RESULTS:: from single-bacterium transplantation experiments demonstrated that Bifidobacterium could mitigate the reduction in SCFAs content induced by raw Euphorbiae Pekinensis Radix, enhance the expression of tight junction proteins, and reduce intestinal inflammation. Similarly, cell experiment results confirmed that fecal extracts from Bifidobacterium-transplanted mice alleviated inflammation and increased the expression of tight junction proteins in intestinal epithelial cells. The use of the free fatty acid receptor-2 inhibitor GLPG0974 verified that this improvement effect was related to the SCFAs pathway. This study demonstrates that Bifidobacterium is the key microbial community responsible for reducing intestinal toxicity in vinegar-processed Euphorbiae Pekinensis Radix. Vinegar-processing increases the abundance of Bifidobacterium, elevates the intestinal SCFAs content, inhibits intestinal inflammation, and enhances the expression of tight junction proteins, thereby improving the intestinal toxicity of Euphorbiae Pekinensis Radix.
Animals ; Mice ; Humans ; Acetic Acid/chemistry* ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/drug effects* ; Fatty Acids, Volatile/metabolism* ; Bifidobacterium/genetics* ; Caco-2 Cells ; Intestines/microbiology* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/chemistry* ; Euphorbia/toxicity* ; RAW 264.7 Cells ; Male ; Feces/chemistry* ; Intestinal Mucosa/drug effects*

Objective:To explore the composition characteristics of rhizosphere soil under Rehmannia glutinosa-Zea mays intercropping model，and screen out special signal substances in rhizosphere soil of R. glutinosa under intercropping Z. mays， so as to provide the basis for the study of allelopathic substances in continuous cropping obstacle of R. glutinosa. Method:In this experiment，rhizosphere soils of R. glutinosa under Z. mays intercropping and R. glutinosa single cropping models in July，August，September and October were taken as the research objects， and the volatile organic compounds in ethyl acetate fraction were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry （GC-MS）. Principal component analysis （PCA）， hierachical cluster analysis （HCA） and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis （OPLS-DA） analysis were performed on the data by SIMCA 14.1 to screen out potential differences in volatile organic compounds between the two models. Result:The types of volatile organic compounds in intercropping and single cropping models were mainly hydrocarbons， alcohols， esters， ketones， amides， acids and other substances. Specifically， the average relative contents of hydrocarbons，esters and amides in intercropping model were 58.46%，32.15% and 5.42% respectively，while the relative contents of hydrocarbons，esters and amides in single cropping model were 37.27%，36.11% and 21.13%. The results of PCA and HCA showed that the characteristics of volatile organic compounds in the ethyl acetate fraction of rhizosphere soil under intercropping and single cropping models could be clearly divided into two categories，the screening results of potential differential components based on OPLS-DA analysis indicated that various components， such as dibutyl phthalate，（Z）-9-oleamide，β-caryophyllene，dioctyl iso-phthalate， phthalate （2-propylamyl） diester， n-hexadecane，octodecane， n-heneicosane， were screened from rhizosphere soil under the two models. Conclusion:The R. glutinosa-Z. mays intercropping model has certain effects on the volatile organic compounds in the rhizosphere soil of R. glutinosa，and the effect of the selected components on the growth and quality characteristics of R. glutinosa still need to be further studied.

OBJECTIVES: To study the transcriptomic changes of astrocytes in the brain of rats exposed to methamphetamine (METH) and its possible mechanism in neurotoxicity. METHODS: The rats were intraperitoneally injected with METH (15 mg/kg) every 12 h for 8 times in total to establish the subacute rat model of METH. After the model was successfully established, the striatum was extracted, and astrocytes were separated by the magnetic bead method. Transcriptome sequencing was performed on selected astrocytes, and the differentially expressed genes were analyzed by gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. RESULTS: A total of 876 differentially expressed genes were obtained by transcriptome sequencing, including 321 up-regulated genes and 555 down-regulated genes. GO analysis revealed that differentially expressed genes were mainly concentrated in cell structure, biological process regulation, extracellular matrix and organelle functions. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that steroids biosynthesis, fatty acid biosynthesis, peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor (PPAR), adenosine 5'-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and other signaling pathways were significantly changed. CONCLUSIONS METH can cause structural changes of astrocytes through multiple targets, among which cellular structure, steroids biosynthesis and fatty acid biosynthesis may play an important role in nerve injury, providing a new idea for forensic identification of METH related death.
Animals ; Astrocytes ; Brain ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Methamphetamine/pharmacology* ; Rats ; Signal Transduction ; Transcriptome

Coal miners are a high-risk occupational group of work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs). This disease not only causes a reduction in the quality of life of workers, loss work ability, and decline in work efficiency, but also becomes an important factor leading to increase social medical burden. At present, most of the evaluation of WMSDs of coal miners at home and abroad adopts the international general scale. Chinese scholars have developed a WMSDs questionnaire that meets the occupational characteristics of Chinese population based on the international general scale—the Chinese Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire. The questionnaire has good reliability and validity, and is a reliable and effective tool for evaluating WMSDs. The prevalence of WMSDs in coal miners is relatively high. The occupational factors that affect WMSDs in coal miners are mainly physical load, postural load, mental load, work organization, and work environment. The individual factors are mainly age, working experience, and education level. It′s recommended to prevent and control the occurrence of coal miners′ WMSDs through multi-level intervention measures such as strengthening education, changing the working posture, and improving the working conditions of coal miners, and rationally arranging labor organizations.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current status of antibiotic use for very and extremely low birth weight (VLBW/ELBW) infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of Hunan Province. METHODS: The use of antibiotics was investigated in multiple level 3 NICUs of Hunan Province for VLBW and ELBW infants born between January, 2017 and December, 2017. RESULTS: The clinical data of 1 442 VLBW/ELBW infants were collected from 24 NICUs in 2017. The median antibiotic use duration was 17 days (range: 0-86 days), accounting for 53.0% of the total length of hospital stay. The highest duration of antibiotic use was up to 91.4% of the total length of hospital stay, with the lowest at 14.6%. In 16 out of 24 NICUs, the antibiotic use duration was accounted for more than 50.0% of the hospitalization days. There were 113 cases with positive bacterial culture grown in blood or cerebrospinal fluid, making the positive rate of overall bacterial culture as 7.84%. The positive rate of bacterial culture in different NICUs was significantly different from 0% to 14.9%. The common isolated bacterial pathogens Klebsiella pneumoniae was 29 cases (25.7%); Escherichia coli 12 cases (10.6%); Staphylococcus aureus 3 cases (2.7%). The most commonly used antibiotics were third-generation of cephalosporins, accounting for 41.00% of the total antibiotics, followed by penicillins, accounting for 32.10%, and followed by carbapenems, accounting for 13.15%. The proportion of antibiotic use time was negatively correlated with birth weight Z-score and the change in weight Z-score between birth and hospital discharge (r=-0.095, -0.151 respectively, P<0.01), positively correlated with death/withdrawal of care (r=0.196, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Antibiotics used for VLBW/ELBW infants in NICUs of Hunan Province are obviously prolonged in many NICUs. The proportion of routine use of third-generation of cephalosporins and carbapenems antibiotics is high among the NICUs.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Birth Weight ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Extremely Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Cardiovascular Diseases ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Humans ; Methylamines

To address the increasing need for detecting and validating protein biomarkers in clinical specimens, mass spectrometry (MS)-based targeted proteomic techniques, including the selected reaction monitoring (SRM), parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), and massively parallel data-independent acquisition (DIA), have been developed. For optimal performance, they require the fragment ion spectra of targeted peptides as prior knowledge. In this report, we describe a MS pipe-line and spectral resource to support targeted proteomics studies for human tissue samples. To build the spectral resource, we integrated common open-source MS computational tools to assemble a freely accessible computational workflow based on Docker. We then applied the workflow to gen-erate DPHL, a comprehensive DIA pan-human library, from 1096 data-dependent acquisition (DDA) MS raw files for 16 types of cancer samples. This extensive spectral resource was then applied to a proteomic study of 17 prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Thereafter, PRM validation was applied to a larger study of 57 PCa patients and the differential expression of three proteins in prostate tumor was validated. As a second application, the DPHL spectral resource was applied to a study consisting of plasma samples from 19 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients and 18 healthy control subjects. Differentially expressed proteins between DLBCL patients and healthy control subjects were detected by DIA-MS and confirmed by PRM. These data demonstrate that the DPHL supports DIA and PRM MS pipelines for robust protein biomarker discovery. DPHL is freely accessible at https://www.iprox.org/page/project.html?id=IPX0001400000.

Objective: To discuss the phenotypic character and the HPLC fingerprints of radial striations from different germplasms Rehmanniae Radix. Method: The changes in the shape and column diameter of the radial striations of Rehmanniae Radix were observed and measured in the whole growth period. Besides,the HPLC fingerprints of the root,radial and un-radial striations were established to sign the chemical quality and analyzed by principal component analysis(PCA)and systematic cluster analysis. Result: There were significantly differences and regularities in the shape and proportion of the radial striations of different germplasms Rehmanniae Radix. The fingerprints showed the consistency between different types of chemical ingredients,and the differences in chemical quality characteristics mainly lay in the content of chemical compositions and theirs relative ratio. The results of PCA indicated that active ingredients, such as acteoside,catalpol,rehmaionoside D,rehmaionoside A and leonuride, were involved in the quality expression of different parts from various germplasms of Rehmanniae Radix,but each ingredient had a distinctive contribution rate to the differential quality expression between different parts from various germplasms of Rehmanniae Radix. However,the other components involved in the differential quality expression had different contribution rates in different germplasms.The systematic cluster analysis indicated that great differences in the chemical quality between the radial striations and un-radial striations of Beijing-1,Qinhuai,Qinhuai Zheng and 1706 germplasms,but with small differences in 85-5 and Baixuan germplasms. Conclusion: There are differences in phenotypic character of the radial striations and HPLC fingerprints between different germplasms Rehmanniae Radix.

OBJECTIVETo simulate the chemical microenvironment of injured brain tissue, and to explore the effect of this chemical microenvironment on temperature sensitive umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (tsUC).

METHODSRat models of traumatic brain injury (TBI) were made by fluid percussion injury, and then the brain tissue extracts of the injured regions were acquired. Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC) were isolated and cultured, and the tsUC were obtained through the infection of temperature-sensitive Simian 40 Large T- antigen (ts-SV40LT) retrovirus. After that, both the two kinds of cells were cultured on the polyacrylamide gels which mimicking the elastic modulus of brain. Four groups were included: UC cultured under normal temperature (UC group), UC cultured added brain tissue extract under normal temperature (UC plus extract group), tsUC cultured under mild hypothermia (tsUC group), and tsUC added brain tissue extract under mild hypothermia for 3 days, then normal temperature for 4 days (tsUC plus extract group). After 24 hours, the apoptosis level was checked. Cell growth and morphological changes in each group were given dynamic observation. Seven days later, cell immunofluorescences were implemented for examining neural differentiation level.

RESULTSCompared with UC plus extract group, the apoptosis and proliferation in UC plus extract group were significantly reduced (P < 0.01) and increased (P < 0.01) respectively. Cell immunofluorescence showed that the both GFAP and Neuron positive cells were significantly enhanced in UC plus extract group than those in tsUC plus extract group.

CONCLUSIONtsUC combining with mild hypothermia could significantly reverse injury induced cell apoptosis, improve cell proliferation and neural differentiation under chemical microenvironment after brain injury, which confirmed the adaptation and resistance of tsUC under mild hypothermia after TBI.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; Brain ; cytology ; pathology ; Brain Injuries ; pathology ; Cell Proliferation ; Humans ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; chemistry ; Neurons ; cytology ; Rats ; Temperature ; Umbilical Cord ; cytology