Caveolin-1 identified as a key mediator of acute lung injury using bioinformatics and functional research

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a potentially life-threatening, devastating disease with an extremely high rate of mortality. The underlying mechanism of ALI is currently unclear. In this study, we aimed to confirm the hub genes associated with ALI and explore their functions and molecular mechanisms using bioinformatics methods. Five microarray datasets available in GEO were used to perform Robust Rank Aggregation (RRA) to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the key genes were identified via the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Lipopolysaccharide intraperitoneal injection was administered to establish an ALI model. Overall, 40 robust DEGs, which are mainly involved in the inflammatory response, protein catabolic process, and NF-κB signaling pathway were identified. Among these DEGs, we identified two genes associated with ALI, of which the CAV-1/NF-κB axis was significantly upregulated in ALI, and was identified as one of the most effective targets for ALI prevention. Subsequently, the expression of CAV-1 was knocked down using AAV-shCAV-1 or CAV-1-siRNA to study its effect on the pathogenesis of ALI in vivo and in vitro. The results of this study indicated that CAV-1/NF-κB axis levels were elevated in vivo and in vitro, accompanied by an increase in lung inflammation and autophagy. The knockdown of CAV-1 may improve ALI. Mechanistically, inflammation was reduced mainly by decreasing the expression levels of CD3 and F4/80, and activating autophagy by inhibiting AKT/mTOR and promoting the AMPK signaling pathway. Taken together, this study provides crucial evidence that CAV-1 knockdown inhibits the occurrence of ALI, suggesting that the CAV-1/NF-κB axis may be a promising therapeutic target for ALI treatment.Subject terms: Cell signalling, Respiratory tract diseases     

华南地区淡水水鳖科植物的生态特征和群落学观察

本文讨论了华南地区淡水水鳖科植物的生活条件、水生生态的适应特点,研究了该科植物水白菜、水菜花、水筛、黑藻、苦草、大苦草、软骨草等植物所组成群落的群落学特征。     

Hemin with Peroxidase Activity Can Inhibit the Oxidative Damage Induced by Ultraviolet A

Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS), a highly reactive substance that contains oxygen, induced by ultraviolet A (UVA) cause oxidative damage to skin. We confirmed that hemin can catalyze the reaction of tyrosine (Tyr) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). Catalysis was found to effectively reduce or eliminate oxidative damage to cells induced by H₂O₂ or UVA. The scavenging effects of hemin for other free-radical ROS were also evaluated through pyrogallol autoxidation, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH·)-scavenging assays, and phenanthroline–Fe²⁺ assays. The results show that a mixture of hemin and tyrosine exhibits strong scavenging activities for H₂O₂, superoxide anion (O₂⁻·), DPPH·, and the hydroxyl radical (·OH). Furthermore, the inhibition of oxidative damage to human skin keratinocyte (HaCaT) cells induced by H₂O₂ or UVA was evaluated. The results show that catalysis can significantly reduce the ratio of cell apoptosis and death and inhibit the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), as well as accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA). Furthermore, the resistance to apoptosis was found to be enhanced. These results show that the mixture of hemin and tyrosine has a significantly protective effect against oxidative damage to HaCaT cells caused by UVA, suggesting it as a protective agent for combating UVA damage.     

Alterations and Mechanism of Gut Microbiota in Graves’ Disease and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

To explore the role of gut microbiota in Graves’ disease (GD) and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT). Seventy fecal samples were collected, including 27 patients with GD, 27 with HT, and 16 samples from healthy volunteers. Chemiluminescence was used to detect thyroid function and autoantibodies (FT3, FT4, TSH, TRAb, TGAb, and TPOAb); thyroid ultrasound and 16S sequencing were used to analyze the bacteria in fecal samples; KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) and COG (Clusters of Orthologous Groups) were used to analyze the functional prediction and pathogenesis. The overall structure of gut microbiota in the GD and HT groups was significantly different from the healthy control group. Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria contents were the highest in the HT group. Compared to the control group, the GD and HT groups had a higher abundance of Erysipelotrichia, Cyanobacteria, and Ruminococcus_2 and lower levels of Bacillaceae and Megamonas. Further analysis of KEGG found that the “ABC transporter” metabolic pathway was highly correlated with the occurrence of GD and HT. COG analysis showed that the GD and HT groups were enriched in carbohydrate transport and metabolism compared to the healthy control group but not in amino acid transport and metabolism. Our data suggested that Bacillus, Blautia, and Ornithinimicrobium could be used as potential markers to distinguish GD and HT from the healthy population and that “ABC transporter” metabolic pathway may be involved in the pathogenesis of GD and HT.     

EST-SSR markers from Heterodera glycines Ichinohe

The soybean cyst nematode Heterodera glycines Ichinohe is a severe agricultural pest for which genetic resources are limited. In this study, 295 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified from 259 expressed sequenced tags (ESTs), which were selected from 9,443 unigenes. The successful primer pairs were designed against six regions. In total, 30 alleles were identified from 30 individuals using the six markers, with an average of five alleles per locus (range, 4–7). The observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.074–0.900 and 0.266–0.775, respectively. Significant departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was found at three of the six loci. The EST-based SSR markers developed in this study may contribute to better under-standing of the genetic structure of H. glycines populations.     

Genetic Variability of PRNP in Chinese Indigenous Goats

Polymorphism of the prion protein gene (PRNP) is usually associated with scrapie susceptibility or resistance. To determine the variability of PRNP in Chinese indigenous goat breeds, we isolated genomic DNA from goat blood and amplified and sequenced the coding region of the gene. We identified 10 polymorphic sites that gave rise to 28 haplotypes. Clear frequency differences were found between northern and southern breeds and confirmed by genetic distance analysis, except for the Tangshan dairy goat. Phylogeographic analysis supported the idea that northern and southern breeds might be considered separate clusters, except for the Tangshan dairy goat. The finding of significant differences in allele distribution in northern and southern goats, especially if involved in modulating resistance/susceptibility, needs to be carefully considered for the feasibility of selection plans for resistance to scrapie.     

稻田生态系统中3种蜘蛛对白背飞虱的捕食效应研究

应用 二次正交旋转组合设计方法,对稻田生态系统中３种捕食性天敌（三突花蛛Ｍｉｓｕｍｅｎｏｐｓ ｔｒｉｃｕｓｐｉｄａｔａ（Ｔａｂｒｉｃｉｕｓ）、草间钻头蛛Ｈｙｌｙｐｈａｎｔｅｓ ｇｒａｍｉｎｉｃｏｒａ（Ｓｕｎｄｅｖａｌｌ）、真水狼蛛Ｐｉｒａｔａ ｐｉｒａｔｉｃｕｓ（Ｃｌｅｒｋ）和１种害虫（白背飞虱Ｓｏｇａｔｅｌｌａ ｆｕｒｃｉｆｅｒａ（Ｈｏｒｖａｔｈ）的共存系统进行研究,获得了天敌对害虫控制作用的数     

氯化钠密度梯度离心法制备用于显微注射的外源DNA片段

DNA显微注射是生产转基因动物最可靠和最常使用的一种方法,外源DNA的纯度对显微注射的成功起着至关重要的作用。本文介绍用氯化钠密度梯度离心的方法制备用于显微注射的外源DNA片段。与传统的琼脂糖凝胶回收的方法相比较,用此方法制备的外源DNA片段对小鼠受精卵进行显微注射后,受卵体母鼠的胚胎存活率,以及子代小鼠的外源基因整合率均有明显的提高。这一方法可为进一步提高转基因动物的成功率,提供方法学上的参考。 Abstract:DNA microinjection is the most popular and reliable method of producing transgenic animals.The purity of foreign DNA plays an important role for the success of microinjection.In this study,we introduced the use of sodium chloride step gradients in fractionating foreign DNA fragment for microinjection.The data demonstrated that,compared with the conventional agarose gel extraction method,NaCl purification scheme of toreign DNA could improve the treated embryo survival and foreign DNA intergration rate markedly.