Editorial Expression of Concern: Long non-coding RNA Mirt2 relieves lipopolysaccharide-induced injury in PC12 cells by suppressing miR-429

Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry - An Editorial Expression of Concern to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13105-019-00691-7     

Metabolic dynamics across prolonged diapause development in larvae of the sawfly,Cephalcia chuxiongica (Hymenoptera: Pamphiliidae)

Nutrient metabolism is crucial for the survival of insects through the diapause. However, little is known about the metabolic mechanism of prolonged diapause. The sawfly, Cephalcia chuxiongica (Hymenoptera: Pamphiliidae), is a notorious defoliator of pine trees in southwest China. One of the distinguishing biological characteristics of this pest is the prolonged diapause of about 1.5 years. In this study, the body lipid, carbohydrate (total body sugar, glycogen, trehalose, and glucose), protein, and glycerol contents were measured in diapausing larvae of C. chuxiongica. The results showed that the changes of biochemical composition in C. chuxiongica are associated with the diapause initiation, maintenance, and termination phases. During the initiation phase, trehalose, glucose, and glycerol increased significantly, but glycogen decreased sharply. In general, the lipid, carbohydrate, and glycerol levels decreased gradually across the maintenance phase. At termination phase, the contents of glycogen and lipid persistently decreased, while an increase of trehalose, glucose, and glycerol contents were detected. The protein level was significantly higher at maintenance phase than at initiation and termination phases. It was also found that elevation of trehalose, glucose, and glycerol contents occurred in winter. These implies that the metabolites with altered levels in diapausing larvae of C. chuxiongica are responsible for maintaining a prolonged development and overwintering.     

2型糖尿病患者血糖波动与心律失常和下肢血管病变的关系及其影响因素分析

目的:探讨2型糖尿病(T2DM)患者血糖波动与心律失常和下肢血管病变的关系,分析影响T2DM心律失常和下肢血管病变的因素。方法:选择2019年7月到2020年6月我院收治的82例T2DM患者,根据是否合并心律失常分为心律失常组28例和无心律失常组54例,根据是否合并下肢血管病变分为下肢血管病变组31例和无下肢血管病变组51例。所有患者均通过72 h监测血糖获得日内平均血糖波动幅度(MAGE)、日间血糖平均绝对差(MODD)、全天血糖标准差(SDBG)、全天血糖波动次数(NGE)。比较组间差异,分析影响T2DM患者心律失常和下肢血管病变的因素。结果:心律失常组MAGE、MODD、SDBG、NGE、糖化血红蛋白(HbA1c)、胰岛素抵抗指数(HOMA-IR)、T2DM病程、同型半胱氨酸(Hcy)、丙二醛(MDA)高于无心律失常组(P<0.05)。下肢血管病变组T2DM病程、Hcy、MDA、HOMA-IR、MAGE、MODD、SDBG、NGE均高于无下肢血管病变组(P<0.05)。Logistic回归分析结果显示MDA、HOMA-IR、MAGE、MODD是T2DM患者心律失常的危险因素(P<0.001),MAGE、MODD、SDBG是T2DM患者下肢血管病变的危险因素(P<0.001)。结论:T2DM患者血糖波动与心律失常和下肢血管病变均有关,血糖波动增加是T2DM心律失常和下肢血管病变的危险因素。     

A novel dominant-negative PD-1 armored anti-CD19 CAR T cell is safe and effective against refractory/relapsed B cell lymphoma

Refractory/relapsed B cell lymphoma patients who received the available anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells may still experience a short duration of remission. Here in this study, we evaluated the safety and efficacy of a novel dominant-negative programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) armored anti-CD19 CAR T cells. A total of 9 patients (including 4 diffuse large B cell lymphomas, DLBCL, 2 transformed follicular lymphomas, TFL, and 3 follicular lymphomas, FL) received the novel CAR T cells infusion at a dose of more than 1 × 10⁶/kg. Grade ≥ 3 cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity were observed in 11.1% (n = 1/9) and 11.1% (n = 1/9) of patients, respectively. The overall response rate (ORR) was 77.8% (n = 7/9) and complete response (CR) rate was 55.6% (n = 5/9). Two patients have ongoing CR (all at 20+ months). CAR T cells expanded after infusion and continued to be detectable at 12+ months in patients with ongoing CR. This novel CD19-CAR T cell was safe and effective with durable remissions in patients with refractory/relapsed B cell lymphoma.     

Epidemiological and clinical features in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 outside of Wuhan,China: Special focus in asymptomatic patients

ObjectivesIn December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan City and rapidly spread across the world. The clinical characteristics of affected patients in different regions and populations may differ. Thus, this study aimed to identify the characteristics of the disease to provide an insight about the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.MethodsData on the demographic characteristics and clinical findings of the patients admitted at the First Hospital of Changsha from January 1, 2020 to February 10, 2020 were assessed.ResultsIn this study, there were 8 (3.8%) asymptomatic, 21 (10.0%) mild upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), and 180 (86.1%) pneumonia cases. In total, 47 (22.5%) patients resided in Wuhan, and 45 (21.5%) had recently traveled to Wuhan before disease onset. Moreover, 19 (9.1%) had contact with people from Wuhan, and 69 (33.0%) were family cluster cases. The median incubation period was approximately 6.3 (range: 1.0–20.0) days. Fever and cough were the most common initial symptoms: 99 (49.3%) patients presented with fever, without cough; 59 (29.4%) with cough, without fever; and 33 (16.4%) with both fever and cough.ConclusionThe symptoms of patients with COVID-19 were relatively mild outside Wuhan, and family cluster was a remarkable epidemic characteristic. Special attention should be paid to asymptomatic patients.     

An efficient pipeline for ancient DNA mapping and recovery of endogenous ancient DNA from whole‐genome sequencing data

Ancient DNA research has developed rapidly over the past few decades due to improvements in PCR and next‐generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, but challenges still exist. One major challenge in relation to ancient DNA research is to recover genuine endogenous ancient DNA sequences from raw sequencing data. This is often difficult due to degradation of ancient DNA and high levels of contamination, especially homologous contamination that has extremely similar genetic background with that of the real ancient DNA. In this study, we collected whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) data from 6 ancient samples to compare different mapping algorithms. To further explore more effective methods to separate endogenous DNA from homologous contaminations, we attempted to recover reads based on ancient DNA specific characteristics of deamination, depurination, and DNA fragmentation with different parameters. We propose a quick and improved pipeline for separating endogenous ancient DNA while simultaneously decreasing homologous contaminations to very low proportions. Our goal in this research was to develop useful recommendations for ancient DNA mapping and for separation of endogenous DNA to facilitate future studies of ancient DNA.     

Modeling vegetation greenness and its climate sensitivity with deep‐learning technology

Climate sensitivity of vegetation has long been explored using statistical or process‐based models. However, great uncertainties still remain due to the methodologies’ deficiency in capturing the complex interactions between climate and vegetation. Here, we developed global gridded climate–vegetation models based on long short‐term memory (LSTM) network, which is a powerful deep‐learning algorithm for long‐time series modeling, to achieve accurate vegetation monitoring and investigate the complex relationship between climate and vegetation. We selected the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) that represents vegetation greenness as model outputs. The climate data (monthly temperature and precipitation) were used as inputs. We trained the networks with data from 1982 to 2003, and the data from 2004 to 2015 were used to validate the models. Error analysis and sensitivity analysis were performed to assess the model errors and investigate the sensitivity of global vegetation to climate change. Results show that models based on deep learning are very effective in simulating and predicting the vegetation greenness dynamics. For models training, the root mean square error (RMSE) is <0.01. Model validation also assure the accuracy of our models. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis of models revealed a spatial pattern of global vegetation to climate, which provides us a new way to investigate the climate sensitivity of vegetation. Our study suggests that it is a good way to integrate deep‐learning method to monitor the vegetation change under global change. In the future, we can explore more complex climatic and ecological systems with deep learning and coupling with certain physical process to better understand the nature.     

Blockade of JAK2 signaling produces immunomodulatory effect to preserve pancreatic homeostasis in severe acute pancreatitis

JAK/STAT plays an important role in cytokine signal transduction and it is potentially involved in the proinflammatory response during the early phase of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). However, whether JAK2 activity is upregulated and whether JAK2 inhibition plays a role in the maintenance of pancreatic homeostasis during SAP is incompletely understood. Here we show that JAK2/STAT3 activity is highly elevated in SAP and blockade of JAK2 by AG-490 protects against SAP-induced pancreatic inflammation and injury. Gene expression and ELISA studies showed that JAK2 inhibition altered the cytokine profiles in both the circulation and pancreases. Further analysis revealed that JAK2 inhibition restored the level of cytokines critical for macrophage polarization towards M2 macrophage. Our findings suggest that pharmacological targeting at JAK2/STAT signalling may be an effective choice of therapeutic interventions against SAP.     

九香虫保幼激素环氧水解酶基因克隆、生物信息学及表达分析

[目的]保幼激素环氧水解酶(Juvenile hormone epoxide hydrolase,JHEH)是昆虫体内保幼激素(Juvenile hormone,JH)的主要降解酶.本文旨在分析九香虫Aspongopus chinensis Dallas保幼激素环氧水解酶基因序列(AcJHEH)信息,探索其在九香虫生长发育过程中的作用.[方法]以九香虫成虫的cDNA为模板,采用RT-PCR技术克隆获得AcJHEH基因序列,并利用生物信息学软件对其编码蛋白的理化特性、结构特征和系统进化进行分析;采用qRT-PCR技术检测并分析九香虫不同龄期和不同组织中AcJHEH的相对表达量.[结果]成功获得了AcJHEH的完整开放阅读框ORF序列,全长均为1 363 bp,共编码453个氨基酸,预测分子量为51.74 ku,等电点(pI)为7.66,分子蛋白式C2414H3683N581O653S14,含有N-端跨膜基序XWG、催化三联体、保守基序HGWP和2个酪氨酸,属于环氧水解酶家族.系统进化树分析表明,AcJHEH与茶翅蝽Halyomorpha halys的JHEH聚为一支,再与同为半翅目的臭虫Cimex lectulariu和绿盲蝽Apolygus lucorum的JHEH聚为一类.荧光定量PCR结果显示,AcJHEH在九香虫不同发育阶段和各组织中均有表达,且脂肪中的表达量极显著高于其它组织(P＜0.001);滞育九香虫成虫表达量最高,其次为4-5龄若虫都极显著高于其它发育阶段(P＜0.001).[结论]九香虫JHEH属于环氧水解酶家族,确定为保幼激素环氧水解酶.依据qPCR结果推测AcJHEH通过改变九香虫体内保幼激素浓度来影响九香虫4-5龄若虫蜕皮发育、成虫生殖系统发育和滞育等.