In black tea,theaflavins (TFs) are one important class of substances that determine sensory quality and have significant medicinal activities. In addition to the four kinds of common TFs,there may be many other theaflavin analogues (TFAs) with similar chemical structures in tea,but the study on them is very limited. Based on the characteristic sub-structure,mass spectrometry (MS) and MS/MS information,a method for screening and annotation of TFAs from the complex ultra high performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (UPLC-HRMS) data was proposed in this work. By analyzing the oxidation and polymerization process of a few TFs,the theoretical reaction model of TFs were summarized,which was used to calculate the precursor ion values of potential TFAs. Meanwhile,the diagnostic fragmentation ions and neutral loss of TFAs according to the fragmentation pathways obtained from chemical standards or documented in literatures were summarized. As a result,36 kinds of compounds were successfully annotated based on the calculated precursor ion values and the MS fragmentation patterns,among which 6 kinds of compounds were reported for the first time in tea. In vitro synthesis experiments were carried out to verified the annotation results. Based on the results of quantitation of 36 kinds of TFAs,a partial least squares-discriminant analysis model was used to investigate the changes of these components during black tea manufacturing. The results indicated that these novel TFAs could be used to effectively distinguish the black tea samples before and after fermentation.

Background Ultrasound-guided continuous thoracic paravertebral block can provide pain-relieving and opioid-sparing effects in patients receiving open hepatectomy. We hypothesize that these effects may improve the quality of recovery (QoR) after open hepatectomy. Methods Seventy-six patients undergoing open hepatectomy were randomized to receive a continuous thoracic paravertebral block with ropivacaine (CTPVB group) or normal saline (control group). All patients received patient-controlled intravenous analgesia with morphine postoperatively for 48 hours. The primary outcome was the global Chinese 15-item Quality of Recovery score on postoperative day 7, which was statistically analyzed using Student's t-test. Results Thirty-six patients in the CTPVB group and 37 in the control group completed the study. Compared to the control group, the CTPVB group had significantly increased global Chinese 15-item Quality of Recovery scores (133.14 ± 12.97 vs. 122.62 ± 14.89, P = 0.002) on postoperative day 7. Postoperative pain scores and cumulative morphine consumption were significantly lower for up to 8 and 48 hours (P < 0.05; P = 0.002), respectively, in the CTPVB group. Conclusion Perioperative CTPVB markably promotes patient's QoR after open hepatectomy with a profound analgesic effect in the early postoperative period.
Anesthetics, Local/therapeutic use* ; Double-Blind Method ; Hepatectomy/adverse effects* ; Humans ; Morphine/therapeutic use* ; Pain Measurement ; Pain, Postoperative/etiology* ; Ultrasonography, Interventional

OBJECTIVE: To study the molecular mechanism of PI3K-Ⅲ like functional domain inducing programmed cell death of leukemia cell line K562. METHODS: The purified PI3K-Ⅲ like functional domain protein was obtained by Pichia pastoris expression system. MTT assay and colony-forming assay were used to detect the effects of PI3K-Ⅲ like functional domain protein on K562 cell proliferation. The effects of PI3K-Ⅲ like functional domain protein on apoptosis and cell cycle of on K562 cells were detected by flow cytometry. The ultrastructural changes were detected by transmission electron microscopy. The expression of caspase-3 was detected by ELISA. The protein expressions of ATG4B, Beclin-1, Bcl-2 and LC3-II were evaluated by Western blot. RESULTS: PI3K-Ⅲ like functional domain protein could inhibit the proliferation and clony formation of K562 cells, which was significantly higher than the control group (P<0.05). In the experimental group, apoptosis and autophagosome were shown in K562 cells. The proportion of cells in G₀/G₁ phase increased significantly, while in S phase decreased significantly. Cell growth mostly stagnated in G₀/G₁ phase, which was significantly different from the control group (P<0.05). With the increase of concentration, the expression of caspase-3 protein increased significantly compared with the control group (r=0.966, P<0.05). The expression of ATG4B and beclin-1 appeared from increase to decrease, LC3-II increased while Bcl-2 decreased at different time points. CONCLUSION PI3K-Ⅲ like functional polypeptide could induce programmed cell death of leukemia cell K562. Beclin-1/Bcl-2 and caspase pathway may be involved in this way, which suggesting meant autophagy and apoptosis may work together at the same time.
Apoptosis ; Beclin-1/pharmacology* ; Caspase 3/metabolism* ; Cell Proliferation ; Humans ; K562 Cells ; Leukemia ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases/metabolism* ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2/metabolism*

Objective: To evaluate the short-and mid-term efficacy of pediatric kidney transplantation and the risk factors for kidney graft and recipient. Methods: The baseline data and postoperative complications of pediatric donors and recipients of 284 kidney transplants were retrospectively analyzed in the Department of Kidney Transplantation in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from August 2010 to May 2021 and all subjects were followed up until December 31, 2021. According to the survival status of donors and recipients, they were divided into the graft-loss group and the graft-survival group, and the recipient death group and survival group, respectively. Univariate comparison between groups was performed by Log-rank test, and Cox proportional risk model was used to explore the independent risk factors for the graft and recipient survival. Results: Among the 284 children recipients, 184 cases (64.8%) were male and 100 cases(35.2%) were female, and 19 cases (6.7%) were living relative donor renal transplantation, 19 cases (6.7%) were preemptive transplantation, and 8 cases were secondary transplantation. The age of 284 recipients at the time of transplantation was 13.0 (9.0, 15.0) years, among whom 29 cases aged 0-6 years, 96 cases aged 7-11 years old, and 159 cases aged 12-18 years. The 1, 3, and 5 year survival rates were 92.3%, 88.9% and 84.8% for the kidney grafts, and were 97.1%, 95.6% and 94.4% for the recipients, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed postoperative acute rejection (HR=3.14, 95%CI 1.38-7.15, P=0.006) and perioperative vascular complications (HR=4.73, 95%CI 2.03-11.06, P<0.001) were independent risk factors for the survival of kidney graft. Postoperative infection (HR=14.23, 95%CI 3.45-58.72, P<0.001) was an independent risk factor for the postoperative mortality of recipients. Conclusions: Pediatric kidney transplantation shows a good short-and mid-term prognosis. Postoperative acute rejection and perioperative vascular complications are the risk factors for the survival of kidney graft, and postoperative infection is the risk factor affecting the survival of recipient.
Child ; Female ; Graft Rejection ; Graft Survival ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation/adverse effects* ; Living Donors ; Male ; Postoperative Complications ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is an important obesity surgery. The risk of remnant gastric cancer after RYGB for obesity is gaining growing attention from bariatric surgeons and patients with obesity. This systematic review included articles from major databases internationally and domestically that specifically described the remnant gastric cancer after RYGB intervention, a total of 21 cases was subsequently analyzed. The average median time from post-operative RYGB to diagnosis of gastric cancer was 11 years (1-28 years), the duration of gastric cancer symptoms lasted 7 days to 6 years, abdominal pain is the most common (71.4%), especially in the upper abdomen (33.3%), followed by nausea and vomiting (33.3%), over-weight loss (33.3%), and abdominal bloating (28.6%), etc. Neoplasm location was reported to occur in the antrum or the pre-pyloric region (71.4%), with adenocarcinoma being the most common tumor histology observed (71.4%), tumor stage III-IV as the most diagnosed, 38.1% of tumor were deemed to be unresectable, 52.4% of the patients performed subtotal gastrectomy and lymphadenectomy. In addition, a global article investigating the occurrence of esophageal gastric cancer after RYGB in 64 cases revealed the common preoperative medical history include smoking habits (37.5%), alcohol issues (14.0%), GERD (86.0%), presence with Barret esophagus (10.9%), patients that has other malignant tumor medical history (6.3%), first-degree relatives (6.3%), or other family members with gastric esophagus cancer family history. Although the incidence of gastric cancer after RYGB is rare, the increasing prevalence of gastric cancer development is one of great concern. A rise in clinical cases of patients treated with RYGB presents a target for future studies. Risk of gastric cancer after RYGB should be evaluated and considered in high-risk cases.
Esophageal Neoplasms/surgery* ; Gastric Bypass/adverse effects* ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Obesity/surgery* ; Obesity, Morbid/surgery* ; Stomach Neoplasms/surgery*

OBJECTIVE: To identify the differentially expressed gene (DEG) core genes in early T-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ETP ALL) and to analyze their interactions with upstream miRNAs, lncRNAs and involved pathways; to clarify the regulatory mechanism of ETP ALL development; and to explore the molecular targets for clinical diagnosis and treatment. METHODS: The DEG of ETP ALL were screened based on the intersection of GEO database and TCGA database. The functional enrichment analysis and interaction analysis were carried out for DEG. Next, MCODE algorithm was used to screen core genes of DEG, and the mirDIP online tool and starBase online tool were utilized to predict upstream miRNA and lncRNA of the core genes. RESULTS: A total of 424 DEG with a high credibility were identified, which were mainly enriched in the biological activity, such as transcriptional regulation, signaling pathway and protein function activation according to GO function, and the KEGG pathway was enriched in hematopoiesis, anoxic stress response, transcriptional misregulation, immunity and other functions, which interrelated each other 7 core genes were identified. Subsequently, 7 miRNAs and 19 lncRNAs were predicted to meet screening criteria. Finally, a lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA-pathway regulatory network was constructed. CONCLUSION The DEG in ETP ALL has been identified based on data mining methods; the core genes have been gained by co-expression analysis, and their upstream miRNA and lncRNA can be predicted for the early diagnosis of ETP ALL, thus providing a theoretical basis for the early diagnosis and reasonable treatment of ETP ALL, and helping to look for new tumor biomarkers of ETP ALL different from classical T-ALL.
Humans ; MicroRNAs ; Precursor Cells, T-Lymphoid ; Precursor T-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; RNA, Long Noncoding ; RNA, Messenger

BACKGROUND: Role of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis has been proved by numerous animal experiments and human specimen trials. Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and matrix metalloproteinase 13 (MMP-13) play important roles in pathological process of osteoarthritis, and they may be related with each other. OBJECTIVE: To detect the expression levels of β-catenin and MMP-13 in the synovial tissue of osteoarthritis, and to investigate the relationship between β-catenin and MMP-1 in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. METHODS: Synovial tissues were obtained from the 54 patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty or knee arthroscopic diagnosis and treatment surgery and 12 healthy patients suffering from amputation caused by trauma. The samples were divided into non-, mild-, medium-and severe-osteoarthritis groups based on advanced Mankin scores. The expression levels of β-catenin and MMP-13 in the synovial tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry, and correlation analysis was conducted. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Immunohistochemistry results showed that MMP-13 was negative in the non-osteoarthritis group, positive in 5 (50%) samples in the mild-osteoarthritis group, positive in 11 (65%) samples in the medium-osteoarthritis group and positive in 23 (85%) samples in the severe-osteoarthritis group. β-Catenin was positive in 1 (8%) sample in the non-osteoarthritis group, positive in 7 (70%) samples in the mild-osteoarthritis group, positive in 14 (82%) samples in the medium-osteoarthritis group and positive in 25 (93%) samples in the severe-osteoarthritis group. The expression levels of β-catenin and MMP-13 in the synovial tissues presented a positive correlation (r=0.806, P ＜ 0.001), and the levels increased with joint degeneration becoming severe. These results imply that there is a significant increase in the expression levels of β-catenin and MMP-13 in the synovial tissues of osteoarthritis compared with the non-osteoarthritis group, and β-catenin and MMP-13 exert effects in development of osteoarthritis. Beta-catenin and MMP-13 are closely associated with pathological changes such as cartilage degeneration and synovial inflammation, thus providing new theoretical direction and experimental basis for targeted gene therapy of osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the association of maternal body composition and dietary intake with the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

METHODSA total 154 GDM subjects and 981 controls were enrolled in a prospective cohort study in 11 hospitals from May 20, 2012 to December 31, 2013. Bioelectrical impedance analysis and dietary surveys were used to determine body composition and to evaluate the intake of nutrients in subjects at 21-24 weeks' gestation (WG). Logistic regression analysis was applied to explore the relationships of maternal body composition and dietary intake with the risk of GDM morbidity.

RESULTSAge, pre-pregnant body weight (BW), and body mass index (BMI) were associated with increased risk of GDM. Fat mass (FM), fat mass percentage (FMP), extracellular water (ECW), BMI, BW, energy, protein, fat, and carbohydrates at 21-24 WG were associated with an increased risk of GDM. In contrast, fat free mass (FFM), muscular mass (MM), and intracellular water (ICW) were associated with a decreased risk of GDM.

CONCLUSIONMaternal body composition and dietary intake during the second trimester of pregnancy were associated with the risk of GDM morbidity.

Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Body Composition ; Body Mass Index ; Cohort Studies ; Diabetes, Gestational ; epidemiology ; Diet ; Diet Surveys ; Feeding Behavior ; Female ; Humans ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second ; Risk Factors

Abstract: Our previous work revealed berberine can significantly enhance the susceptibility of fluconazole against fluconazole-resistant Candida albicans, which suggested that berberine has synergistic antifungal activity with fluconazole. Preliminary SAR of berberine needs to be studied for the possibility of investigating its target and SAR, improving its drug-likeness, and exploring new scaffold. In this work, 13-substitutited benzyl berberine derivatives and N-benzyl isoquinoline analogues were synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR and MS. Their synergetic activity with fluconazole against fluconazole-resistant Candida albicans was evaluated in vitro. The 13-substitutited benzyl berberine derivatives 1a-1e exhibited comparable activity to berberine, which suggested that the introduction of functional groups to C-13 can maintain its activity. The N-benzyl isoquinolines, which were designed as analogues of berberine with its D ring opened, exhibited lower activity than berberine. However, compound 2b, 2c, and 4b showed moderate activity, which indicated that berberine may be deconstructed to new scaffold with synergistic antifungal activity with fluconazole. The results of our research may be helpful to the SAR studies on its other biological activities.
Antifungal Agents ; pharmacology ; Berberine ; pharmacology ; Candida albicans ; drug effects ; Drug Resistance, Fungal ; Drug Synergism ; Fluconazole ; pharmacology ; Isoquinolines ; pharmacology ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests

BACKGROUNDRecently there has been a great deal of interest in the role of serum uric acid (SUA) in atrial fibrillation (AF). The objective of this study was to establish whether there is a relationship between levels of SUA and recurrence of paroxysmal AF after catheter ablation.

METHODSThree hundred and thirty patients diagnosed with paroxysmal AF were analyzed. Patients were categorized into quartiles on the basis of their pre-operative SUA measurement and follow-up, and Kaplan-Meier estimation with a Log-rank test was used for the analysis of the influence of SUA on the recurrence of AF. Pre-procedural clinical variables were correlated with the clinical outcome after ablation using multivariate Logistic analysis. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the relationship between SUA and the recurrence of AF.

RESULTSAfter a mean follow-up of (9.341 ± 3.667) (range 3.0 - 16.3) months, recurrence rates from the lowest SUA quartile to the highest SUA quartile were 16.0%, 26.4%, 28.3%, and 29.3% respectively (P = 0.014). After adjustment for gender, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, serum levels of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), triglyceride (TG), left atrial diameter (LA), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and SUA, there was an increased risk of recurrence in subjects in the highest SUA quartile compared with those in the lowest quartile (hazard ratio 2.804, 95% confidence interval 1.466 - 5.362, P = 0.002). Following multivariate Logistical analysis, SUA was found to be an independent predictor of recurrence (hazard ratio 1.613, 95% confidence interval 1.601 - 1.625, P = 0.014).

CONCLUSIONIn a retrospective study of patients with paroxysmal AF undergoing catheter ablation, elevated preoperative SUA levels were associated with a higher rate of recurrence of AF.

Aged ; Atrial Fibrillation ; blood ; surgery ; Catheter Ablation ; Electrophysiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Uric Acid ; blood