Acute lung injury (ALI) is a severe disease caused by viral infection that triggers an uncontrolled inflammatory response. This study investigated the capacity of jasurolignoside (JO), a natural compound, to bind to Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and treat ALI. The anti-inflammatory properties of JO were evaluated in vitro through Western blotting, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), immunofluorescence staining, and co-immunoprecipitation. The investigation utilized a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI animal model to examine the therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of JO in vivo. JO attenuated inflammatory symptoms in infected cells and tissues by modulating the NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB)/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Molecular docking simulations revealed JO binding to TLR4 active sites, confirmed by cellular thermal shift assay. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) demonstrated direct interaction between JO and TLR4 with a Kd value of 35.1 μmol·L^-1. Moreover, JO inhibited tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and IL-6 secretion and reduced leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, and macrophage infiltration in ALI-affected mice. JO also enhanced lung function and reduced ALI-related mortality. Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated JO's ability to suppress TLR4 expression in ALI-affected mouse lung tissue. This study establishes that JO can bind to TLR4 and effectively treat ALI, indicating its potential as a therapeutic agent for clinical applications.
Toll-Like Receptor 4/chemistry* ; Animals ; Acute Lung Injury/chemically induced* ; Mice ; Humans ; Ilex/chemistry* ; Molecular Docking Simulation ; Male ; NF-kappa B/immunology* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; NLR Family, Pyrin Domain-Containing 3 Protein/immunology* ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/genetics* ; Interleukin-1beta/genetics* ; RAW 264.7 Cells ; Disease Models, Animal

Objective To investigate the alterations of cerebral blood flow(CBF)in type 2 diabetic mellitus(T2DM) patients without cognitive impairment by using arterial spin labeling(ASL)technique.Methods A total of 23 T2DM patients without cognitive impairment and 23 healthy controls(HC)matched by age,sex,and education attainment were recruited.Their clinical data were collected,and neuropsychological tests and cerebral magnetic resonance imaging were performed.Then,the outcomes of clinical features,neuropsychological tests,and global and regional CBF were compared between the two groups.The significant regional zCBF(z-transformed relative CBF)values were extracted and correlated with clinical data and neuropsychological scores in T2DM patients,controlling age,sex,and education.Results No significant difference was found in whole brain CBF between the two groups(P=0.155),while significantly higher CBF was identified in the left superior temporal gyrus and left insula in the T2DM group(Gaussian random field correction,initial threshold P < 0.001,cluster level P < 0.05).No correlation was observed between the significant regional zCBF values and the clinical data or the neuropsychological scores in T2DM patients(all P>0.05).Conclusion Alterations in cerebral hemodynamics may precede cognitive function changes in T2DM,suggesting that the ASL technique is promising for early monitoring of cerebral hemodynamic changes associated with cognitive impairment in patients with T2DM.
Humans ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/physiopathology* ; Cerebrovascular Circulation ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Female ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Case-Control Studies ; Cognitive Dysfunction ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Aged

Objective : To characterize MMP12 as a pan-cancer marker and assess its screening value as a tumor serum marker. Methods : Bioinformatics tools such as GEPIA2,GSCA,cBioPortal,and GeneMANIA were used to analyze the pan-cancer features of MMP12 in TCGA datasets,including encompassing differential gene expression analysis,prognostic analysis,DNA methylation analysis,gene structural variation analysis and immune microenvironment analysis.Furthermore,serum samples we collected from patients with lung adenocarcinoma,breast invasive carcinoma,esophageal squamous cell carcinoma,stomach adenocarcinoma,liver hepatocellular carcinoma,and healthy individuals.ELISA was used to detect MMP12 expression in serum,and the screening performance was evaluated using the area under the ROC curve.Additionally,we followed up 28 ESCC patients and compared serum MMP12 levels between 19 patients with disease progression and 9 patients with stable disease. Results: The pancancer feature analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between MMP12 mRNA expression and its promoter DNA methylation(P<0.05),as well as a positive correlation with gene copy number variations(P<0.05).MMP12 mRNA expression was up-regulated in 14 cancer tissues compared to normal tissues next to cancer(P<0.05) and was associated with poor prognosis of cancer patients(P<0.05).Immunocorrelation analysis showed that MMP12 was significantly associated with immunity,infiltration of stromal cells,tumor mutational burden(TMB) and microsatellite instability(MSI)(P<0.05).ROC curve analysis indicated that MMP12 could serve as a potential biomarker for screening lung adenocarcinoma,breast invasive carcinoma,esophageal squamous cell carcinoma,stomach adenocarcinoma,and liver hepatocellular carcinoma.In a 30-month follow-up study of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients,the expression of MMP12 was higher in the disease progression group than that in the stable group. Conclusion MMP12 serves as a potential prognostic and screening marker of pan-cancer.

Objective:To investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of T-lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL).Methods:A retrospective case series study was conducted. Clinical data of patients diagnosed with T-LBL at the Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University from January 2013 to March 2023 were retrospectively analyzed, and their clinical characteristics and prognosis were statistically analyzed.Results:A total of 22 T-LBL patients were included. Among them, there were 19 males (86.4%) and 3 females (13.6%), and the median age at onset was 19.5 (15, 28) years old. Based on Ann Arbor staging, 3 cases (13.6%) were classified as stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ, while 19 cases (86.4%) were stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ; 10 cases (45.5%) presented with B symptoms, 12 cases (54.5%) without B symptoms; 16 cases (72.7%) showed elevated lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) level. At onset, 7 patients (31.8%) had mediastinal masses, 3 patients (13.6%) had central nervous system involvement, and 17 patients (77.3%) had bone marrow involvement. The overall response rate (ORR) and complete remission rate among the 22 patients were 81.82% (18/22) and 31.82% (7/22), respectively. The ORR was 84.21% (16/19) in 19 patients treated with ALL-like regimens. Among 3 patients treated with NHL-like regimens, 1 case achieved complete remission and 1 case achieved partial remission. Seven patients received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, with a median overall survival (OS) time of 22 months; the median OS time of patients without allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was 14 months. The 3-year OS rates in the allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation group and group without allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation were 64.30% and 16.00%, and the difference in OS between the two groups was statistically significant ( P = 0.043). Two patients with disease progression prior to transplantation died of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections after transplantation. Conclusions:T-LBL is rare, and it is a highly aggressive tumor that predominantly occurs in adolescent males. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can prolong OS, reduce relapse and improve the prognosis of patients.

Objective The present study aims to explore the mediating role of rumination and coping styles in social support and post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD)in young and middle-aged spinal cord injury(SCI)patients.The study will provide a basis for developing targeted interventions.Methods Two hundred and forty young and middle-aged SCI patients hospitalized for treatment were selected by convenience sampling and questionnaires were administered using the General Information Questionnaire,the Perceived Social Support Scale(PSSS),the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire(SCSQ),the Event Related Rumination Inventory(ERRI),and the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Self-assessment Scale(PCL-C),Mediation analysis using Model-6 with Process4.1 plugin in SPSS 25.0.Results The mean scores for PTSD,social support,rumination,positive coping,and negative coping in young and middle-aged SCI patients were 29.00(26.00,35.75),67.00(62.00,70.00),and 37.00(34.00,4 1.00),and 36.00(33.00,42.00),respectively.PTSD demonstrated a negative correlation(r=-0.553,r=-0.484,P＜0.001)and a negative correlation with positive coping and rumination(r=0.499,r=0.472,P＜0.001).The mediation modelling test demonstrated that rumination and positive and negative coping mediated significantly between social support and PTSD,with effect values of-0.078 1,-0.097 0 and-0.049 6,accounting for 17.81％,22.12％and 11.31％of the total effect,respectively.Furthermore,the chain mediation effects of rumination and positive coping and negative coping were also significant,with effect values of-0.026 3 and-0.026 2,accounting for 5.99％and 5.97％of the total effect,respectively.Conclusions The present study hypothesises that rumination,thinking and coping styles play a simple and chain-mediating role between social sup-port and PTSD in young and middle-aged SCI patients.Medical professionals should focus on the mediating role of rumination and coping styles when developing interventions related to improving and preventing PTSD in patients,which can be done by increasing the level of social support for patients,decreasing the level of rumination,and guiding patients to positively cope with their illness.

Objective To analyze the diagnostic value of fat content measurement based on magnetic resonance multi-echo Dixon(ME-Dixon)technique combined with serological indicators for early liver fibrosis.Methods A total of 78 patients with early liver fibrosis who underwent liver biopsy at the First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University from August 2019 to October 2021 were included.According to the pathological results,the patients with early liver fibrosis were divided into the S0 group(n=21),the S1 group(n=32),and the S2 group(n=25).Meanwhile,the complete imaging examination results(including ME-Dixon sequence)and laboratory examination results[including hyaluronic acid(HA),procollagen Ⅲ(PCⅢ),collagen Ⅳ(CⅣ),laminin(LN),aspartate transaminase(AST),alanine amino-transferase(ALT),gamma-glutamyl transferase(GGT),alkaline phosphatase(ALP)]were collected.And the hepatic fat fraction(HFF)was measured by ME-Dixon technique.One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the differences in HFF and serological indicators among the three groups,and then factors with statistical differences in the univariate analysis were selected to draw receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve,and the area under the curve(AUC)was calculated to evaluate their value in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis and the degree of early liver fibrosis.Results There was no statistically significant difference in the PCⅢ,LN,AST,or ALT among the S0,S1,and S2 groups(P>0.05),while there were statistically significant differences in the HFF,HA,CⅣ,GGT,and ALP(P<0.05),and the levels of HA,CⅣ,GGT,and ALP in the S2 group were significantly higher than those in the S0 and S1 groups(P<0.05).ROC curve analysis showed that the above indicators for diagnosing liver fibrosis and the degree of early liver fibrosis based on AUC values were in the following order:HFF+GGT(0.72)>HFF(0.68)>GGT(0.61)>CⅣ(0.54)>ALP(0.53)>HA(0.48)and HA+CⅣ(0.71)>CⅣ(0.68)>HA(0.66)>GGT(0.61)>ALP(0.59)>HFF(0.46).Conclusion The fat content measurement based on magnetic resonance ME-Dixon tech-nique combined with serological indicators has significant reference value for the diagnosis of early liver fibrosis,and it plays a certain guid-ing role in clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Gene regulation relies on the precise binding of transcription factors (TFs) at regulatory elements, but simultaneously detecting hundreds of TFs on chromatin is challenging. We developed cFOOT-seq, a cytosine deaminase-based TF footprinting assay, for high-resolution, quantitative genome-wide assessment of TF binding in both open and closed chromatin regions, even with small cell numbers. By utilizing the dsDNA deaminase SsdAtox, cFOOT-seq converts accessible cytosines to uracil while preserving genomic integrity, making it compatible with techniques like ATAC-seq for sensitive and cost-effective detection of TF occupancy at the single-molecule and single-cell level. Our approach enables the delineation of TF footprints, quantification of occupancy, and examination of chromatin influences on TF binding. Notably, cFOOT-seq, combined with FootTrack analysis, enables de novo prediction of TF binding sites and tracking of TF occupancy dynamics. We demonstrate its application in capturing cell type-specific TFs, analyzing TF dynamics during reprogramming, and revealing TF dependencies on chromatin remodelers. Overall, cFOOT-seq represents a robust approach for investigating the genome-wide dynamics of TF occupancy and elucidating the cis-regulatory architecture underlying gene regulation.
Transcription Factors/genetics* ; Humans ; Chromatin/genetics* ; Animals ; Binding Sites ; Mice ; DNA Footprinting/methods*

Objective To explore the pathogenic mechanisms of Legionella pneumophila(L.pneumophila)infection inhibiting the fusion of endosome-lysosome fusion in mouse macrophages.Methods Twelve C57 mice were randomly divided into control group and L.pneumophila infection group(n=6 each).After anesthesia,an equal volume of physiological saline or L.pneumophila solution was administered nasally.Body weight changes were monitored for 3 consecutive days,and the lungs were extracted to assess injury.Hematoxylin and eosin(HE)staining and immunohistochemical staining were performed to observe the pathological characteristics of lung tissue in both groups.Transcriptome sequencing was utilized to analyze differentially expressed genes(DEGs)and associated signaling pathways in lung tissues.Mouse bone marrow macrophages(BMDMs)were isolated and co-cultured with L.pneumophila,with infection status confirmed by immunofluorescence staining.Transcriptome sequencing was employed to analyze DEGs and enriched related signaling pathways before and after infection.Core genes involved in the post-infection signaling pathway were identified,and the consistency of their mRNA expression levels in vivo and in vitro was verified using RT-qPCR.The expression of relevant proteins was detected by Western Blotting,and bacterial proliferation assays were conducted to evaluate the intracellular replication of L.pneumophila.Results Compared with control group,the body weight of mice in L.pneumophila infection group significantly decreased(P<0.001)on the second and third day post-infection.Edema and red hepatoid degeneration were observed in both left and right lung tissues,with lesion areas spreading from the hilum to the lung periphery.HE staining revealed increased inflammatory cell infiltration in the alveolar spaces,thickening of alveolar septa and increased fibrin exudation in L.pneumophila infection group.Immunohistochemistry results showed a significant increase in myeloperoxidase(MPO)activity in the lung tissue infected mice(P<0.001).Transcriptome sequencing identified 2550 DEGs,with 1444 up-regulated genes and 1106 down-regulated genes.KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that these DEGs were mainly involved in pathways related to tumor necrosis factor,rheumatoid arthritis,Rap1,PI3K-Ak,and phagosome pathways.Immunofluorescence results showed in vitro proliferation of L.pneumophila within mouse BMDMs.Transcriptome sequencing identified 2550 DEGs,including 1677 up-regulated genes and 873 down-regulated genes.KEGG enrichment analysis showed that enrichment in pathway related to transcription dysregulation in cancer,PI3K-Akt and phagosome pathways.Thirteen core genes,including tubulin β1(Tubb1),were identified from the overlap between mouse lung tissue and BMDMs.RT-qPCR results demonstrated a significant decrease in Tubb1 expression in both lung tissue and BMDMs infected with L.pneumophila(P<0.001).Western Blotting results revealed significant decreases in Rab7,Tubb1,and LAMP2 protein expression(P<0.05),and increases in iNOS and MPO expression(P<0.05).Intracellular proliferation experiments indicated that L.pneumophila gradually increased within BMDMs over time.Conclusion The potential mechanism of L.pneumophila infection in mouse macrophages involves the down-regulation of Rab7/Tubb1/LAMP2 which inhibits the endosome-lysosome fusion.

Objective To investigate the mechanism by which Senegenin(SEN)alleviates microglial inflammatory response through the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2(Nrf2)/NOD-like receptor protein 3(NLRP3)pathway.Methods BV2 mouse microglia cells were randomly divided into control group,model group,SEN group and MCC950 group.Cells in control group were not treated,and cells in model group were added with 1 μg/ml lipopolysaccharide(LPS);Cells in SEN group were added with 1 μg/ml LPS+4 μmol/L SEN,and cells in MCC950 group were added with 1 μg/ml LPS+10 μmol/L MCC950 for 24 hours.CCK-8 method was used to detect the effect of different concentrations of SEN on the viability of BV2 cells.Griess method was used to determine the release amount of nitric oxide(NO)in the supernatant.Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR was used to determine the mRNA expression levels of NLRP3,lymphocyte apoptosis-associated spect-like protein containing a CARD(ASC),caspase-1,interleukin(IL)-1β and IL-18 mRNA.Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the expression levels of ASC,IL-1β,Nrf2 and heme oxygenase-1(HO-1).Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of NLRP3,caspase-1,ASC,IL-1β,IL-18,Nrf2,HO-1,nuclear factor kappa B(NF-κB)and inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS).Results The results of CCK-8 method showed that there was no significant difference in the viability of BV2 cells treated with 2～20 μmol/L SEN compared with control group(P>0.05).Compared with control group,the viability of BV2 cells in model group decreased significantly(P<0.05).Compared with model group,the viability of BV2 cells in 4 μmol/L SEN group was significantly restored(P<0.05).Compared with control group,the results of Griess method showed that the release amount of NO in cells of model group increased significantly(P<0.05);the results of real-time PCR showed that the expression levels of NLRP3,ASC,caspase-1,IL-1β and IL-18 mRNA in cells of model group increased significantly(P<0.05);the results of Western blotting showed that the protein expression levels of NLRP3,ASC,caspase-1,IL-1β and IL-18 proteins in cells of model group increased significantly(P<0.05),and the immunofluorescence staining results showed that the expression levels of iNOS and NF-κB protein in cells of model group increased,and the expression levels of Nrf2 and HO-1 decreased,with statistically significant differences(P<0.05).Compared with model group,the release amount of NO in cells of SEN group and MCC950 group decreased,and the expression levels of NLRP3,ASC,caspase-1,IL-1β and IL-18 mRNA and proteins decreased,with statistically significant differences(P<0.05);in the SEN group,the expression levels of iNOS and NF-κB decreased,and immunofluorescence staining showed that Nrf2 was translocated into the nucleus,and the expression levels of Nrf2 and HO-1 proteins increased significantly,with statistically significant differences(P<0.05).Conclusions SEN could alleviate the inflammatory response of mouse microglia cells induced by LPS and inhibit the activation and expression of NLRP3 inflammasome,with an effect comparable to that of the inflammasome inhibitor MCC950.The mechanism may be related to the regulation of the expression of upstream factors Nrf2 and HO-1.