GNPS-based mass spectrum-molecular networks is an effective strategy for rapidly identifying known natural products and discovering novel structures. The chemical diversity of azaphilones from the fermentation extracts of Talaromyces sp. HK1-18 was studied by molecular network technique. Three linear tricyclic azaphilones, sequoiamonacins A-C (2a, 2b, 1), were isolated by silica gel column chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography from the extracts of the fungal strain of HK1-18, and their structures were identified by nuclear magnetic resonance and high-resolution mass spectrometry. Guided by the mass spectra of sequoiamonacins A-C (2a, 2b, 1), the cluster of sequoiamonacinoid analogues was discovered from the full molecular networking of HK1-18. By analyzing the MS/MS fragments of each parent ion in this cluster, 7 azaphilones (3-9) included 6 new ones (4-9) were predicted successfully. Then the MS/MS cracking regularity of this type of azaphilones was revealed. Compound 1 showed anti-inflammatory activity, which can inhibit the production of interleukin-1α (IL-1α) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse macrophage RAW264.7, with an inhibitory rate of 29% at the concentration of 12.5 μg·mL^-1.

Objective: To identify the main metals involved in cognitive impairment in the Chinese oldest old, and explore the association between these metal exposures and cognitive impairment. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1 568 participants aged 80 years and older from Healthy Aging and Biomarkers Cohort Study (2017 to 2018). Fasting venous blood was collected to measure the levels of nine metals (selenium, lead, cadmium, arsenic, antimony, chromium, manganese, mercury, and nickel). The cognitive function of these participants was evaluated by using the Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (CMMSE). The random forest (RF) was applied to independently identify the main metals that affected cognitive impairment. The multivariate logistic regression model and restricted cubic splines (RCS) model were used to further verify the association of the main metals with cognitive impairment. Results: The age of 1 568 study subjects was (91.8±7.6) years old, including 912 females (58.2%) and 465 individuals (29.7%) with cognitive function impairment. Based on the RF model (the out-of-bag error rate was 22.9%), the importance ranking of variables was conducted and the feature screening of five times ten-fold cross-validation was carried out. It was found that selenium was the metal that affected cognitive function impairment, and the other eight metals were not included in the model. After adjusting for covariates, the multivariate logistic regression model showed that with every increase of 10 μg/L of blood selenium levels, the risk of cognitive impairment decreased (OR=0.921, 95%CI: 0.889-0.954). Compared with the lowest quartile(Q₁) of blood selenium, the ORs (95%CI) of Q₃ and Q₄ blood selenium were 0.452 (0.304-0.669) and 0.419 (0.281-0.622) respectively. The RCS showed a linear dose-response relationship between blood selenium and cognitive impairment (P_nonlinear>0.05). Conclusion: Blood selenium is negatively associated with cognitive impairment in the Chinese oldest old.
Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Humans ; Selenium ; Cohort Studies ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Metals/analysis* ; Cognitive Dysfunction/epidemiology* ; China/epidemiology*

Objective : To investigate the mechanism of miRNAs in glycyrrhizic acid treatment of alcohol⁃induced liver injury in rats . Methods : 45 male SD rats were randomly divided into glycyrrhizin group , model group and control group . The rats in glycyrrhizin group were given 56% liquor and glycyrrhizin , the rats in model group were given 56% liquor , and the rats in control group were given distilled water for 8 weeks . The blood was collected and the serum was separated by centrifugation to detect the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) . RNA were extracted from liver tissues , miRNAs were detected by rat miRNA microarray , and their expression levels were analyzed . The miRNA target genes of differential miRNA were predicted . Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG Pathway enrichment analysis were used to understand the function of differential miRNA , and the differential miRNA⁃mRNA⁃Pathway regulatory network was constructed using Cytoscape to further screen the regulatory key miRNA and key pathways . qRT⁃PCR was used to verify the expression of selected miRNA . Results : Compared with the model group , the glycyrrhizin group could significantly improve the liver tissue lesions , and reduce the liver serum AST and ALT levels (P < 0. 05) . Compared the microarray data of glycyrrhizin group and model group , a total of 13 differentially expressed miRNA were screened ( P < 0. 05 , fold change ≥ 1 . 5) , of which 10 were up⁃regulated and 3 were down⁃regulated . The GO classification annotation of differential miRNA target genes showed that differential miRNA were related to cell adhesion , antioxidant activity , metabolic process , biological process regulation , cell killing , immune system and other functions . The KEGG Pathway analyling pathway , Hippo signaling pathway , PI3K⁃Akt signaling pathway , wnt signaling pathway , apoptosis and other signaling pathways might play an important regulatory role in the improvement of alcoholic liver injury by glycyrrhic acid . Conclusion This study established the miRNA expression profile of glycyrrhizin in the treatment of alcoholic liver injury in rats , suggested that miR⁃615 , miR⁃107 ⁃3p and miR⁃292⁃5p might play an important role in the treatment of alcoholic liver injury by glycyrrhizin .

At present, cancer is still one of the most serious threats to human health. Despite the wide application of multiple cancer therapies in clinical practice, the therapeutic effects of most cancers are still far from satisfactory. In recent years, the discovery of regulated cell death may be a good first step on the road to treat cancer. Ferroptosis is triggered by lipid peroxidation of unsaturated fatty acids in cell membrane catalyzed by iron ion. It has been widely concerned as an emerging target for cancer therapy. With the booming of biomedical nanotechnology, ferroptosis as an emerging therapeutic target has attracted extensive attention. Here, we review the advance on the intersection of ferroptosis and biomedical nanotechnology. First, the research background of ferroptosis and nano-preparation as well as the feasibility of ferroptosis-based nano-drug delivery systems (nano-DDS) for cancer treatment are presented and analyzed. Then, the strategies for inducing ferroptosis based on nano-DDS are summarized, mainly including: the promotion of Fenton reaction, the inhibition of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX-4) and the restriction of the cysteine-glutamate exchange transporter (system Xc^-). Furthermore, the combination therapy strategies based on biomedical nanotechnology induced ferroptosis are also discussed. Finally, we shine the spotlight on the prospects and challenges of ferroptosis-based nanotherapeutics in clinical application.

Objective:To investigate the application value of Hisense computer-assisted surgery system (CAS) three-dimensional reconstruction in the precision treatment of pediatric liver tumors.Methods:The retrospective and descriptive study was conducted. The clinicopathological data of 82 children with liver tumors who were admitted to Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from January 2013 to September 2021 were collected. There were 39 males and 43 females, aged 13(19)months. Children underwent upper abdominal dynamic enhanced computed tomography (CT) examination, and three-dimensional reconstruction was performed on CT images of arterial, equili-brium and venous phases with Hisense CAS. Surgical feasibility and scheme were evaluated and conducted based on the results of upper abdominal dynamic enhanced CT examination, and then revised according to three-dimensional reconstruction results of Hisense CAS. Observation indicators: (1) comparison of surgical scheme between two-dimensional enhanced CT images and three-dimensional reconstruction results of Hisense CAS; (2) intraoperative and postoperative situations; (3) follow-up. Follow-up was conducted by outpatient examination to detect postoperative compli-cations and residual liver compensation up to November 2021. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean± SD. Measurement data with skewed distribution were represented as M(IQR) or M(range). Count data were described as absolute numbers or percentages. Results:(1) Comparison of surgical scheme between two-dimensional CT images and three-dimensional reconstruction results of Hisense CAS. ① Based on the two-dimensional CT images, 42 cases of 82 children could undergo one-stage resection and 40 children could not. However, based on the three-dimensional reconstruction results of Hisense CAS, 48 cases of 82 children could undergo one-stage resection and 34 children could not. There were 6 children with one-stage resection feasibility based on the three-dimensional reconstruction results of Hisense CAS rather than the two-dimensional CT images. For the 34 children undergoing chemotherapy firstly, 31 cases had surgical feasibility after chemotherapy based on the two-dimensional CT images and 3 cases could not undergo surgery because of unapparent tumor regression or tumor surrounding impor-tant vessels. However, the 34 children had surgical feasibility after chemotherapy based on the three-dimensional reconstruction results of Hisense CAS. The revision rate of surgical feasibility was 11.0%(9/82) for the 82 children. ② Based on the two-dimensional CT images, 15 cases of 82 children underwent liver left lobectomy, 21 cases underwent liver right lobectomy, 7 cases underwent mesohepatectomy, 13 cases underwent extended left hemihepatectomy, 23 cases underwent extended right hemihepatectomy, 3 cases underwent segmental hepatectomy. However, based on the three-dimensional reconstruction results of Hisense CAS, 20 cases of 82 children underwent liver left lobectomy, 29 cases underwent liver right lobectomy, 7 cases underwent mesohepatectomy, 7 cases underwent extended left hemihepatectomy, 14 cases underwent extended right hemihepatectomy, 5 cases underwent segmental hepatectomy. The revision rate of surgical scheme was 36.6%(30/82) for the 82 children. (2) Intraoperative and postoperative situations. The operation time, volume of intraoperative blood loss, duration of postoperative hospital stay of the 82 children were (182±18)minutes, 20(10)mL, (10.2±1.9)days, respectively. (3) Follow-up. All the 82 children were followed up for 10 (range, 2?18)months. There was no obvious complication occurred to the 82 children after surgery, and the residual liver can satisfy the liver compensation of body. All the children survived well.Conclusion:Three-dimensional reconstruction of Hisense CAS is conducive to judging the surgical feasibility and formulation of accurate surgical plan of children with liver tumors.

BACKGROUND: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is reported associated with the alteration of gut microbial composition termed as dysbiosis. However, the pathogenic mechanism of IBS remains unclear, while the studies of Chinese individuals are scarce. This study aimed to understand the concept of dysbiosis among patients with Chinese diarrhea-predominant IBS (IBS-D), as a degree of variance between the gut microbiomes of IBS-D population and that of a healthy population. METHODS: The patients with IBS-D were recruited (assessed according to the Rome III criteria, by IBS symptom severity score) from the Outpatient Department of Gastroenterology of Peking University Third Hospital, and volunteers as healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled, during 2013. The 16S rRNA sequences were extracted from fecal samples. Ribosomal database project resources, basic local alignment search tool, and SparCC software were used to obtain the phylotype composition of samples and the internal interactions of the microbial community. Herein, the non-parametric test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test was carried out to find the statistical significance between HC and IBS-D groups. All the P values were adjusted to q values to decrease the error rate. RESULTS: The study characterized the gut microbiomes of Chinese patients with IBS-D, and demonstrated that the dysbiosis could be characterized as directed alteration of the microbiome composition leading to greater disparity between relative abundance of two phyla, Bacteroidetes (Z = 4.77, q = 1.59 × 10) and Firmicutes (Z = -3.87, q = 5.83 × 10). Moreover, it indicated that the IBS symptom features were associated with the dysbiosis of whole gut microbiome, instead of one or several certain genera even they were dominating. Two genera, Bacteroides and Lachnospiracea incertae sedis, were identified as the core genera, meanwhile, the non-core genera contribute to a larger pan-microbiome of the gut microbiome. Furthermore, the dysbiosis in patients with IBS-D was associated with a reduction of network complexity of the interacted microbial community (HC vs. IBS-D: 639 vs. 154). The disordered metabolic functions of patients with IBS-D were identified as the potential influence of gut microbiome on the host (significant difference with q < 0.01 between HC and IBS-D). CONCLUSIONS This study supported the view of the potential influence of gut microbiome on the symptom of Chinese patients with IBS-D, and further characterized dysbiosis in Chinese patients with IBS-D, thus provided more pathological evidences for IBS-D with the further understanding of dysbiosis.
Diarrhea ; microbiology ; Dysbiosis ; microbiology ; Feces ; microbiology ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; genetics ; Humans ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome ; microbiology ; Models, Theoretical ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S ; genetics

Adult ; Connexin 43 ; genetics ; Erythrokeratodermia Variabilis ; genetics ; Female ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Male ; Mutation ; genetics ; Mutation, Missense ; genetics ; Pedigree

BACKGROUND: Late-onset multiple acyl-coA dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD) is an autosomal recessive inherited metabolic disorder. It is still unclear about the muscle magnetic resonance image (MRI) pattern of the distal lower limb pre- and post-treatment in patients with late-onset MADD. This study described the clinical and genetic findings in a cohort of patients with late-onset MADD, and aimed to characterize the MRI pattern of the lower limbs. METHODS: Clinical data were retrospectively collected from clinic centers of Peking University People's Hospital between February 2014 and February 2018. Muscle biopsy, blood acylcarnitines, and urine organic acids profiles, and genetic analysis were conducted to establish the diagnosis of MADD in 25 patients. Muscle MRI of the thigh and leg were performed in all patients before treatment. Eight patients received MRI re-examinations after treatment. RESULTS: All patients presented with muscle weakness or exercise intolerance associated with variants in the electron transfer flavoprotein dehydrogenase gene. Muscle MRI showed a sign of both edema-like change and fat infiltration selectively involving in the soleus (SO) but sparing of the gastrocnemius (GA) in the leg. Similar sign of selective involvement of the biceps femoris longus (BFL) but sparing of the semitendinosus (ST) was observed in the thigh. The sensitivity and specificity of the combination of either "SO+/GA-" sign or "BFL+/ST-" sign for the diagnosis of late-onset MADD were 80.0% and 83.5%, respectively. Logistic regression model supported the findings. The edema-like change in the SO and BFL muscles were quickly recovered at 1 month after treatment, and the clinical symptom was also relieved. CONCLUSIONS This study expands the clinical and genetic spectrums of late-onset MADD. Muscle MRI shows a distinct pattern in the lower limb of patients with late-onset MADD. The dynamic change of edema-like change in the affected muscles might be a potential biomarker of treatment response.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Biopsy ; methods ; Carnitine ; analogs & derivatives ; blood ; Electron-Transferring Flavoproteins ; genetics ; Female ; Hamstring Muscles ; diagnostic imaging ; metabolism ; pathology ; Humans ; Iron-Sulfur Proteins ; genetics ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; methods ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multiple Acyl Coenzyme A Dehydrogenase Deficiency ; diagnostic imaging ; genetics ; pathology ; Muscle, Skeletal ; diagnostic imaging ; metabolism ; pathology ; Oxidoreductases Acting on CH-NH Group Donors ; genetics ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

Objective:To establish HPLC-UV fingerprints of Ilex pubescens pieces,and simultaneously determine two components in 46 batches of I. pubescens in pieces of I. pubescens saponin A₁ and B₁,in order to provide a reference for the quality standard of I. pubescens slices. Method:Methanol was used to extract the I. pubescens saponin samples,and the extracts were measured by HPLC-UV with the absorption wavelength at 210 nm. Kromasil C₁₈ column (4.6 mm×250 mm,5 μm) was used for determining the extracts at a flow rate of 1.0 mL·min^-1. The mobile phase condition was acetonitrile-0.1% phosphoric acid aqueous solution with gradient mode. The chromatographic fingerprint similarity evaluation system of traditional Chinese medicine (2012 edition) was used to analyze I. pubescens fingerprints. SPSS 20.0 software was used to cluster the peak area of common peaks. Principal component analysis was performed to reduce the dimension of common peaks. Result:There were great differences between the root and stem parts in I. pubescens fingerprints. The fingerprints of roots and stems of I. pubescens were established respectively,cluster results assorted the roots of I. pubescens into three categories andthe branches of I. pubescens into two categories. The integrity and difference of I. pubescens decoction pieces from different parts and places of origin were compared,and the principal component analysis was performed to screen out the common components that played a decisive role in fingerprint of I. pubescens pieces. And the common peaks were determined. The content of saponin A₁ and saponin B₁ in Radix I. pubescens were determined. Conclusion:The established I. pubescens fingerprints and content determination methods are simple and suitable. Cluster analysis and principal component analysis are used to screen out the key components of quality control of I. pubescens. The results can provide references for quality control of I. pubescens.

Copy number aberrations (CNAs) in chromosome arm 8q have been associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes of several cancers and progressive tumor characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).This study was to identify correlation of CNAs in 8q with clinical outcomes of HCC patients,and further screen for differentially expressed genes in outcome-related CNAs.Array comparative genomic hybridization and expression arrays were performed to detect CNAs and expression levels,respectively.The correlations between CNAs in 8q and outcomes were analyzed in 66 patients,with a median follow-up time of 45.0 months (range,2.6-108.6 months).One hundred and nine cases were further evaluated to identify differentially expressed genes in the potential outcome-related CNAs.Copy number gain in 8q was observed in 22 (33.3 ％) of the 66 HCC cases.The most recurrent gains (with frequencies ＞20％) were 8q13.3-21.3,8q21.3-23.3,8q23.3-24.13,8q24.13-24.3,and 8q24.3.Survival analysis showed that 8q24.13-24.3 gain was significantly associated with reduced overall survival (P=0.010).Multivariate Cox analysis identified 8q24.13-24.3 gain as an independent prognostic factor for poor overall survival (HR=2.47;95％CI=1.16-5.26;P=0.019).A panel of 17 genes within the 8q24.13-24.3 region,including ATAD2,SQLE,PVT1,ASAP1,and NDRG1 were significantly upregulated in HCCs with 8q24.13-24.3 gain compared to those without.These results suggest that copy number gain at 8q24.13-24.3 is an unfavorable prognostic marker for HCC patients,and the potential oncogenes ATAD2,SQLE,PVT1,ASAP1,and NDRG1 within the regional gain,may contribute coordinately to the 8q24.13-24.3 gain-related poor prognosis.