[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2022.10.016.].

Sepsis-induced liver injury (SILI) is an important cause of septicemia deaths. BaWeiBaiDuSan (BWBDS) was extracted from a formula of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer, Lilium brownie F. E. Brown ex Miellez var. viridulum Baker, Polygonatum sibiricum Delar. ex Redoute, Lonicera japonica Thunb., Hippophae rhamnoides Linn., Amygdalus Communis Vas, Platycodon grandiflorus (Jacq.) A. DC., and Cortex Phelloderdri. Herein, we investigated whether the BWBDS treatment could reverse SILI by the mechanism of modulating gut microbiota. BWBDS protected mice against SILI, which was associated with promoting macrophage anti-inflammatory activity and enhancing intestinal integrity. BWBDS selectively promoted the growth of Lactobacillus johnsonii (L. johnsonii) in cecal ligation and puncture treated mice. Fecal microbiota transplantation treatment indicated that gut bacteria correlated with sepsis and was required for BWBDS anti-sepsis effects. Notably, L. johnsonii significantly reduced SILI by promoting macrophage anti-inflammatory activity, increasing interleukin-10⁺ M2 macrophage production and enhancing intestinal integrity. Furthermore, heat inactivation L. johnsonii (HI-L. johnsonii) treatment promoted macrophage anti-inflammatory activity and alleviated SILI. Our findings revealed BWBDS and gut microbiota L. johnsonii as novel prebiotic and probiotic that may be used to treat SILI. The potential underlying mechanism was at least in part, via L. johnsonii-dependent immune regulation and interleukin-10⁺ M2 macrophage production.

Suppression of cellular O-linked β-N-acetylglucosaminylation (O-GlcNAcylation) can repress prolifera-tion and migration of various cancer cells,which opens a new avenue for cancer therapy.Based on the regulation of insulin gene transcription,we designed a cell-based fluorescent reporter capable of sensing cellular O-GlcNAcylation in HEK293T cells.The fluorescent reporter mainly consists of a reporter (green fluorescent protein (GFP)),an internal reference (red fluorescent protein),and an operator (neuronal differentiation 1),which serves as a "sweet switch" to control GFP expression in response to cellular O-GlcNAcylation changes.The fluorescent reporter can efficiently sense reduced levels of cellular O-GlcNAcylation in several cell lines.Using the fluorescent reporter,we screened 120 natural products and obtained one compound,sesamin,which could markedly inhibit protein O-GlcNAcylation in HeLa and human colorectal carcinoma-116 cells and repress their migration in vitro.Altogether,the present study demonstrated the development of a novel strategy for anti-tumor drug screening,as well as for con-ducting gene transcription studies.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical features and outcome of neonatal acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in southwest Hubei, China. METHODS: According to the Montreux definition of neonatal ARDS, a retrospective clinical epidemiological investigation was performed on the medical data of neonates with ARDS who were admitted to Department of Neonatology/Pediatrics in 17 level 2 or level 3 hospitals in southwest Hubei from January to December, 2017. RESULTS: A total of 7 150 neonates were admitted to the 17 hospitals in southwest Hubei during 2017 and 66 (0.92%) were diagnosed with ARDS. Among the 66 neonates with ARDS, 23 (35%) had mild ARDS, 28 (42%) had moderate ARDS, and 15 (23%) had severe ARDS. The main primary diseases for neonatal ARDS were perinatal asphyxia in 23 neonates (35%), pneumonia in 18 neonates (27%), sepsis in 12 neonates (18%), and meconium aspiration syndrome in 10 neonates (15%). Among the 66 neonates with ARDS, 10 neonates (15%) were born to the mothers with an age of ≥35 years, 30 neonates (45%) suffered from intrauterine distress, 32 neonates (49%) had a 1-minute Apgar score of 0 to 7 points, 24 neonates (36%) had abnormal fetal heart monitoring results, and 21 neonates (32%) experienced meconium staining of amniotic fluid. Intraventricular hemorrhage was the most common comorbidity (12 neonates), followed by neonatal shock (9 neonates) and patent ductus arteriosus (8 neonates). All 66 neonates with ARDS were treated with mechanical ventilation in addition to the treatment for primary diseases. Among the 66 neonates with ARDS, 10 died, with a mortality rate of 15% (10/66), and 56 neonates were improved or cured, with a survival rate of 85% (56/66). CONCLUSIONS Neonatal ARDS in southwest Hubei is mostly mild or moderate. Perinatal asphyxia and infection may be the main causes of neonatal ARDS in this area. Intraventricular hemorrhage is the most common comorbidity. Neonates with ARDS tend to have a high survival rate after multimodality treatment.
China ; Female ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Meconium Aspiration Syndrome ; Pregnancy ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Newborn ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of neonatal asphyxia and possible contributing factors for the development of severe asphyxia in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, China. METHODS: A total of 16 hospitals in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture were selected as research centers. A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 22 294 live births in these 16 hospitals from January to December, 2016 to investigate the incidence rate of neonatal asphyxia and possible contributing factors for the development of severe asphyxia. RESULTS: Of the 22 294 neonates born alive, 733 (3.29%) were diagnosed with neonatal asphyxia, among whom 627 had mild asphyxia and 106 had severe asphyxia. The neonates with low maternal education level, maternal anemia during pregnancy, chorioamnionitis, abnormal amniotic fluid, abnormal umbilical cord, placenta previa, placental abruption, Tujia Minority, preterm birth, and low birth weight had a higher incidence of severe asphyxia (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS The incidence rate of neonatal asphyxia in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is higher. Low maternal education level, maternal anemia during pregnancy, chorioamnionitis, abnormal amniotic fluid, abnormal umbilical cord, placenta previa, placental abruption, Tujia Minority, preterm birth, and low birth weight may be related to the development of severe neonatal asphyxia.
Asphyxia Neonatorum ; epidemiology ; China ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant, Newborn ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVETo observe the effect of Schistosoma japonicum cysteine protease inhibitor (rSjCystatin) for treatment of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis in mice.

METHODSAfter a week of adaptive feeding, 54 BALB/c mice were randomly divided into normal control group (group A), sepsis group (group B), and rSjCystatin intervention group (group C). The mice in group A received an intraperitoneal injection of PBS (100 µL), and those in groups B and C were injected with PBS (100 µL) containing LPS (10 mg/kg); the mice in group C were also intraperitoneally injected with 25 µg sjCystatin in 100 µL PBS 30 min after LPS injection. From each group, 10 mice were randomly selected 24 h after PBS or LPS injection for detecting serum levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10 using ELISA and the levels of ALT, AST, BUN, and Cr using automatic biochemical analyzer; the pathological changes in the liver, lung and kidney were observed with HE staining. The remaining 8 mice in each group were used for observing the changes in the general condition and the 72-h survival.

RESULTSThe 72-h survival rates of the mice was 100% in group A, 0 in group B, and 36% in group C, showing a significant difference among the 3 groups (P<0.05). Compared with those in group A, the mice in group B exhibited obvious liver, lung, and renal pathologies with increased levels of ALT, AST, BUN, Cr, IL-6, and TNF-α (P<0.05). Treatment with sjCystatin significantly lessened LPS-induced organ pathologies, lowered the levels of liver and renal functional indexes and the pro-inflammatory cytokines, and increased the serum level of IL-10 in the mice (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONSjCystatin can produce a significant therapeutic effect on sepsis induced by LPS in mice.

Lycopene plays a crucial role in the biosynthesis pathway of 2-methyl-derythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) and mevalonic acid (MVA). It is a representative product of isoprenoid family, and a typical product of multi-enzyme catalytic reaction in organism. In this paper, we first introduced the general regulation methods in multi-enzyme synthesis reaction, including the construction of multi gene co-expression plasmid, gene order regulation, promoter and ribosome binding site regulation, gene knockout and replacement, aiming at the optimization strategies of multi-enzyme catalytic reaction in lycopene synthesis pathway. Meanwhile, we introduced several new regulation methods in multi-enzyme reaction, including multi-fragment assembly technology, artificial scaffold self-assembly methods and so on. At last, we summarized the application of these multi-enzyme regulation methods in lycopene synthesis. These methods provide a great inspiration and research foundation for the construction of lycopene-producing strains with high yield.

BACKGROUNDThe conventional approaches to diabetes screening are potentially limited by poor compliance and laboratory demand. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and postprandial urine glucose (PUG) in screening for diabetes in Chinese high-risk population.

METHODSNine hundred and nine subjects with high-risk factors of diabetes underwent oral glucose tolerance test after an overnight fast. FPG, hemoglobin A1c, 2-h plasma glucose (2 h-PG), and 2 h-PUG were evaluated. Diabetes and prediabetes were defined by the American Diabetes Association criteria. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of 2 h-PUG, and the optimal cut-off determined to provide the largest Youden index. Spearman correlation was used for relationship analysis.

RESULTSAmong 909 subjects, 33.4% (304/909) of subjects had prediabetes, and 17.2% (156/909) had diabetes. The 2 h-PUG was positively related to FPG and 2 h-PG (r = 0.428 and 0.551, respectively, both P < 0.001). For estimation of 2 h-PG ≥ 7.8 mmol/L and 2 h-PG ≥ 11.1 mmol/L using 2 h-PUG, the area under the ROC curve were 0.772 (95% confidence interval [CI ]: 0.738-0.806) and 0.885 (95% CI: 0.850-0.921), respectively. The corresponding optimal cut-offs for 2 h-PUG were 5.6 mmol/L and 7.5 mmol/L, respectively. Compared with FPG alone, FPG combined with 2 h-PUG had a higher sensitivity for detecting glucose abnormalities (84.1% vs. 73.7%, P < 0.001) and diabetes (82.7% vs. 48.1%, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONFPG combined with 2 h-PUG substantially improves the sensitivity in detecting prediabetes and diabetes relative to FPG alone, and may represent an efficient layperson-oriented diabetes screening method.

Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Blood Glucose ; metabolism ; Diabetes Mellitus ; blood ; diagnosis ; urine ; Fasting ; blood ; Female ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening ; methods ; Middle Aged ; Postprandial Period ; physiology

Objective To observe the influence of lysyl oxidase(LOX)downregulation via RNAi on hypoxic metastasis of human lung cancer cell 95D and stduy its molecular mechanism.Methods LOX siRNA was used to transfect 95D cell line in normoxia (19％ O2 ).After 24-hour incubation,the cells were cultured in hypoxic incubator (0.5％ O2 ) for 24h.Real-time PCR assay was applied to detect LOX mRNA and Snail mRNA expression.Levels of Src,phosphorylation of Src (P-Src Y418 ) and Snail protein were determined by Western blot assay.Transwell chamber was used to evaluate the cellular invasion potential.Results Compared with 95D cells under normoxic conditions,hypoixa treatment increased LOX mRNA expression by 14 times and invasion ability by 2.12 times respectively.Compared with siRNA control group,LOX siRNA transfection decreased LOX mRNA expression,the invasion ability of hypoxic cells,and the protein expression of P-Src Y418 and Snail by 70％ - 75％,about 30％,and about 40％ respectively (P ＜ 0.05).However,it didn't affect the expression level of Src protein or Snail mRNA ( P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Impaired metastatic potential of hypoxic human lung cancer cell induced by LOX downregulation is associated with reduced expression level of Src activation and Snail protein.The present data provids experimental evidence for LOX as a potential target for prevention and treatment of lung cancer metastasis under hypoxia.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the differential diagnosis of solid focal lesions of pancreas (s-FLPs).

METHODSWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 56 s-FLPs examined with contrast agent combined with low mechanical indicators contrast-enhanced ultrasound.

RESULTSThe surrounding pancreas parenchyma enhancement time, lesion enhancement time, and peak enhancement time between different groups of s-FLPs had no significant differences (P > 0.05), while the beginning to peak enhancement time showed significant difference (P < 0.05). When using the enhancement speed as a diagnostic indicator to differentiate pancreatic carcinoma from tumor-like pancreatitis, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 90.5%, 71.4%, and 85.7% for pancreatic carcinoma and 75.0%, 91.7%, and 89.3% for tumor-like pancreatitis. When using the enhancement pattern as a diagnosis indicator to differentiate pancreatic carcinoma from tumor-like pancreatitis, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 85.7%, 78.6%, and 83.9% for pancreatic carcinoma and 75.0%, 100%, and 94.6% for tumor-like pancreatitis. When different indicators were combined, enhancement pattern and enhancement speed showed the best diagnostic results; however, the Youden index was not improved.

CONCLUSIONSDifferent s-FLPs show different enhancement findings on contrast-enhanced ultrasound. The enhancement pattern and enhancement speed are the most useful diagnostic indicators.

Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Pancreas ; diagnostic imaging ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; Pancreatitis ; diagnostic imaging ; Retrospective Studies ; Ultrasonography