The early response of plant auxin gene family Aux/IAA (auxin/indole-3-acetic acid) and its interaction with auxin response factor (ARF) are important pattern to regulate plant growth and development. This work identified 28 StoIAA and 24 StoARF members based on the whole genome data of the medicinal plant Senna tora L., which were classified into 10 and 8 subfamilies, respectively. Phylogenetic tree and collinearity analysis showed that S. tora has close evolutionary relationship with the IAA and ARF homologous genes of Glycine max, Medicago truncatula, and the segment duplication events dominate the expansion of StoIAA and StoARF. Gene structure analysis showed that the vast majority of StoIAA and StoARF contain characteristic conserved domain. Transcriptome data showed that StoIAAs and StoARFs were expressed in leaves, roots and seeds, some members had tissue specific expression. The StoIAA and StoARF promoter region most contain functional elements related to stress response, growth and development, hormone induction and secondary metabolism. In addition, gene expression analysis showed that many StoIAAs and StoARFs can quickly respond to drought and salt stress and exhibited same expression patterns under both stress condition. The yeast two-hybrid experiment confirmed that StoARF8 and StoARF10 exhibit varying degrees of interaction with multiple StoIAA proteins, respectively. The above results provide a basis for further biological functional analysis of the Aux/IAA and ARF gene family of S. tora.

Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of interventional embolization of middle meningeal artery(MMA)for the treatment of chronic subdural hematoma(CSDH).Methods The clinical data of 14 patients with CSDH(17 lesions in total),who were treated with simple embolization of MMA at the Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College of China between July 2021 and July 2022,were retrospective analyzed.After superselective catheterization of MMA using a microcatheter was accomplished,Onyx-18 glue,a liquid embolization agent,was used to embolize the main trunk and the branches of MMA.Imaging follow-up was adopted at 30 days and 90 days after discharge from hospital to evaluate the absorption of hematoma,and the improvement of clinical symptoms was defined as the modified Rankin Scale score(mRS)being decreased≥1 point from the baseline value.Results Successful embolization of MMA was accomplished for all the 17 lesions in the 14 patients,and no procedure-related complications occurred.During the follow-up period,the clinical symptoms and signs were remarkably improved in all patients.The postoperative 90-day hematoma volume was reduced by more than 90%in 11 patients and by more than 40%in one patient,and in 2 patients the postoperative 30-day hematoma volume was reduced by more than 30%.Complete absorption of hematoma was seen in 11 patients,and partial absorption of hematoma was observed in 3 patients.Conclusion For the treatment of newly-developed or recurrent CSDH,interventional embolization of MMA is clinically safe and effective.(J Intervent Radiol,2024,32:12-16)

Objective:To investigate the correlation between the levels of CC chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) and periostin (POSTN) in serum and alveolar lavage fluid of patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) complicated with respiratory virus infection and lung function.Methods:From March 2020 to March 2023, 96 patients with acute exacerbation of COPD admitted to our hospital were collected. Among them, 34 patients with concurrent respiratory virus infection were included in the infected group, and 62 patients without respiratory virus infection were included in the uninfected group. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was applied to detect the expression levels of CCL2 and POSTN in serum and alveolar lavage fluid. Pearson method was applied to analyze the correlation between CCL2 and POSTN levels in serum and alveolar lavage fluid of infected patients and lung function indicators.Results:The levels of CCL 2 ( t=12.633, 9.253 2, 2) and POSTN ( t=12.370, 7.383) were significantly increased in the infected group compared with the uninfected group ( P<0.05). Compared with the uninfected group, the 6-minute walking test (6 MWT), peak expiratory flow rate (peak expiratory flow, PEF), forced expiratory volume at the first second (forced expiratory volume in one second, FEV 1), and the forced lung capacity (forced vital capacity, FVC), FEV 1/FVC, and maximum middle breath mean flow rate (maximal mid-expiratory flow curve, MMEF) were significantly lower ( t=14.141, 24.165, 22.421, 21.223, 5.278, 29.456, P<0.05). Correlation analysis showed that the levels of CCL2 and POSTN in the serum and alveolar lavage fluid of the infected group were negatively correlated with the levels of 6MWT, PEF, FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC, and MMEF ( P<0.05). Conclusions:CCL2 and POSTN levels were highly expressed in serum and alveolar lavage fluid of patients with respiratory virus infection during acute exacerbation of COPD, which were closely related to lung function.

Redox-sensitive cysteine(RSC)thiol plays an important role in many biological processes such as photosynthesis,cellular metabolism,and transcription.Therefore,it is necessary to identify red-ox-sensitive cysteine accurately.However,traditional redox-sensitive cysteine identification is very ex-pensive and time-consuming.At present,there is an urgent need for a mathematical calculation method to identify sequence information and redox-sensitive cysteines quickly and accurately.Here,we devel-oped an effective predictor called iRSC-PseAAC,which used the dimension reduction algorithm LDA combined with the support vector machine to predict redox-sensitive cysteine sites.In the cross-validation results,the specificity(Sp),sensitivity(Sn),accuracy(Acc)and Matthews correlation coefficient(MCC)were 0.841,0.868,0.859 and 0.692 respectively.In the independent dataset results,the Sp,Sn,Acc and MCC were 0.906,0.882,0.890 and 0.767 respectively.compared with existing prediction methods,iRSC-PseAAC had obvious improvement effect.The method proposed for this study can also be used for many problems in computational proteomics.

Background/Aims: Low educational attainment is a well-established risk factor for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in developed areas. However, the association between educational attainment and the risk of NAFLD is less clear in China. Methods: A cross-sectional study including over 200,000 Chinese adults across mainland China was conducted. Information on education level and lifestyle factors were obtained through standard questionnaires, while NAFLD and advanced fibrosis were diagnosed using validated formulas. Outcomes included the risk of NAFLD in the general population and high probability of fibrosis among patients with NAFLD. Logistic regression analysis was employed to estimate the risk of NAFLD and fibrosis across education levels. A causal mediation model was used to explore the potential mediators. Results: Comparing with those receiving primary school education, the multi-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) for NAFLD were 1.28 (1.16 to 1.41) for men and 0.94 (0.89 to 0.99) for women with college education after accounting for body mass index. When considering waist circumference, the odds ratios (95% CIs) were 0.94 (0.86 to 1.04) for men and 0.88 (0.80 to 0.97) for women, respectively. The proportions mediated by general and central obesity were 51.00% and 68.04% for men, while for women the proportions were 48.58% and 32.58%, respectively. Furthermore, NAFLD patients with lower educational attainment showed an incremental increased risk of advanced fibrosis in both genders. Conclusions In China, a low education level was associated with a higher risk of prevalent NAFLD in women, as well as high probability of fibrosis in both genders.

Glycogen synthase kinase 3/SHAGGY-like kinase (GSK3) proteins play important roles in regulating plant growth, development, and stress response. In order to reveal the characteristics of GSK family members in the medicinal plant Senna tora L., in this study, we conducted the identification and expression analyses of GSKs in S. tora based on its whole genome data, combined with bioinformatics and gene expression research methods. The results showed that a total of nine S. tora GSK genes were identified, all of which contained the GSK characteristic kinase domains. All members were distributed on six chromosomes, the encoding amino acid length ranged from 465 to 943 aa, the protein molecular weight was from 33.57 to 88.83 kDa, and the average isoelectric point was 8.2. The StoSKs were divided into four evolutionary branches, and the StoSKs in the same evolutionary branch shared the same exon/intron structure and conserved motifs. The expansion of the StoSKs gene family was mainly due to segment duplication events, and there were 17, 11, 8 and 7 pairs of collinear genes with Glycine max, Medicago truncatula, Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa, respectively. The promoter regions of StoSKs mostly contained responses elements related to stress stimulation, growth and development, and hormone induction. Transcriptome data analysis showed that StoSKs were expressed in different tissues, with the highest expression level in roots. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis indicated that StoSKs in different evolutionary branches displayed a synergistic expression pattern response to light, and most of StoSKs could rapidly respond to NaCl stress with significantly up-regulated expression. All the results provide a basis for further analysis of the biological functions of the GSKs gene family in S. tora.

Nowadays potential preclinical drugs for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) have failed to achieve expected therapeutic efficacy because the pathogenic mechanisms are underestimated. Inactive rhomboid protein 2 (IRHOM2), a promising target for treatment of inflammation-related diseases, contributes to deregulated hepatocyte metabolism-associated nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) progression. However, the molecular mechanism underlying Irhom2 regulation is still not completely understood. In this work, we identify the ubiquitin-specific protease 13 (USP13) as a critical and novel endogenous blocker of IRHOM2, and we also indicate that USP13 is an IRHOM2-interacting protein that catalyzes deubiquitination of Irhom2 in hepatocytes. Hepatocyte-specific loss of the Usp13 disrupts liver metabolic homeostasis, followed by glycometabolic disorder, lipid deposition, increased inflammation, and markedly promotes NASH development. Conversely, transgenic mice with Usp13 overexpression, lentivirus (LV)- or adeno-associated virus (AAV)-driven Usp13 gene therapeutics mitigates NASH in 3 models of rodent. Mechanistically, in response to metabolic stresses, USP13 directly interacts with IRHOM2 and removes its K63-linked ubiquitination induced by ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2N (UBC13), a ubiquitin E2 conjugating enzyme, and thus prevents its activation of downstream cascade pathway. USP13 is a potential treatment target for NASH therapy by targeting the Irhom2 signaling pathway.

To explore the effects of plasma jet (PJ) and plasma activated water (PAW) on the sterilization of Streptococcus mutans ( S. mutans) and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods, so as to provide a basis for plasma treatment of dental caries and to enrich the treatment means of dental caries, an atmospheric pressure plasma excitation system was built, and the effects of PJ and PAW on the sterilization rate of S. mutans and the changes of temperature and pH during treatment were studied under different excitation voltage ( U _e ) and different excitation time ( t _e ). The results showed that in the PJ treatment, the difference in the survival rate of S. mutans between the treatment group and the control group was statistically significant ( P = 0.007, d=2.66) when U _e = 7 kV and t _e = 60 s, and complete sterilization was achieved at U _e = 8 kV and t _e = 120 s in the PJ treatment. In contrast, in the PAW treatment, the difference in the survival rate of S. mutans between the treatment group and the control group was statistically significant ( P = 0.029, d = 1.71) when U _e = 7 kV and t _e = 30 s, and complete sterilization was achieved with PAW treatment when U _e = 9 kV and t _e = 60 s. Results of the monitoring of temperature and pH showed that the maximum temperature rise during PJ and PAW treatment did not exceed 4.3 °C, while the pH value after PAW treatment would drop to a minimum of 3.02. In summary, the optimal sterilization parameters for PJ were U _e =8 kV and 90 s < t _e ≤ 120 s, while the optimal sterilization parameters for PAW were U _e = 9 kV and 30 s< t _e ≤ 60 s. Both treatment methods achieved non-thermal sterilization of S. mutans, where PJ required only a smaller U _e to achieve complete sterilization, while at pH < 4.7, PAW only required a shorter t _e to achieve complete sterilization, but its acidic environment could cause some chemical damage to the teeth. This study can provide some reference value for plasma treatment of dental caries.
Humans ; Streptococcus mutans ; Dental Caries/therapy* ; Sterilization ; Temperature ; Water

The clinical applications of acrosin activity are limited. We analyzed 61 578 male partners in infertile couples who visited the outpatient department of the Reproductive and Genetic Hospital of CITIC-Xiangya (Changsha, China) between August 2014 and December 2019 to determine the reference ranges and thresholds for acrosin activity in infertile Chinese men; to determine whether correlations exist between acrosin activity and age, sperm concentration, sperm morphology, or sperm motility; and to evaluate whether acrosin activity could serve as an effective prognostic indicator for choosing between in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in the clinic. The cut-off value for the normal reference range of acrosin activity for male partners in infertile couples was 24.78 μIU per 106 sperm. There was no significant association between acrosin activity and age, sperm concentration, semen volume, total sperm count, progressive motility, or total motile spermatozoa. A weak positive correlation was found between acrosin activity and normal sperm morphology. There was a statistically significant difference in abnormal acrosome morphology between the group with high acrosin activity (>24.78 μIU per 106 sperm) and the group with low acrosin activity (<24.78 μIU per 106 sperm). The group with a low IVF fertilization rate had a high index of abnormal acrosomal morphology at 21.2%, while the group with a high IVF fertilization rate had a low index of 0.2%. At an acrosin activity of <24.78 µIU per 106 sperm, in one cycle of the same patient, the fertilization rate, normal fertilization rate, and good-quality embryo rate for ICSI were significantly higher than those for IVF. Therefore, the most promising application of acrosin activity could be in the selection of ICSI over IVF for infertile male patients with complete fertilization failure or a low fertilization rate.