Correction to: The Effects of 50 nm Unmodified Nano-ZnO on Lipid Metabolism and Semen Quality in Male Mice

Biological Trace Element Research - The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The correct title should be “The Effects of 50 nm Unmodified Nano-ZnO on Lipid...     

Measuring the subgingival microbiota in periodontitis patients: Comparison of the surface layer and the underlying layers

Periodontitis is a major cause of tooth loss in adults that initially results from dental plaque. Subgingival plaque pathogenesis is affected by both community composition and plaque structures, although limited data are available concerning the latter. To bridge this knowledge gap, subgingival plaques were obtained using filter paper (the fourth layer) and curette (the first-third layers) sequentially and the phylogenetic differences between the first–third layers and the fourth layer were characterized by sequencing the V3–V4 regions of 16S rRNA. A total of 11 phyla, 148 genera, and 308 species were obtained by bioinformatic analysis, and no significant differences between the operational taxonomic unit numbers were observed for these groups. In both groups, the most abundant species were Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum. Actinomyces naeslundii, Streptococcus intermedius, and Prevotella intermedia possessed relatively high proportions in the first–third layers; while in the fourth layer, both traditional pathogens (Treponema denticola and Campylobacter rectus) and novel pathobionts (Eubacterium saphenum, Filifactor alocis, Treponema sp. HOT238) were prominent. Network analysis showed that either of them exhibited a scale-free property and was constructed by two negatively correlated components (the pathogen component and the nonpathogen component), while the synergy in the nonpathogen component was lower in the first–third layers than that in the fourth layer. After merging these two parts into a whole plaque group, the negative/positive correlation ratio increased. With potential connections, the first–third layers and the fourth layer showed characteristic key nodes in bacterial networks.     

miR-194 relieve neuropathic pain and prevent neuroinflammation via targeting FOXA1

The emerging role of microRNAs (miRNAs) have been deeply explored in multiple diseases including neuropathic pain. miR-194 was widely reported to be a tumor suppressor and was related to the inflammatory response. The critical role of neuroinflammation on neuropathic pain leads to a thinking about the relationship between miR-194 and neuropathic pain. However, the function of miR-194 in neuropathic pain remains unknown. This study was aimed to explore the relationship between miR-194 and neuropathic pain progression by chronic sciatic nerve injury (CCI). miR-194 abnormally downregulated in the CCI model rat and its overexpression significantly alleviates neuroinflammation in vivo. We predict Forkhead box protein A1 (FOXA1) as a direct target of miR-194, whose restoration can markedly reverse the effects of miR-194 on neuropathic pain. Overall, our study demonstrated a novel mechanism of neuropathic pain progression that miR-194 alleviates neuropathic pain via targeting FOXA1 and preventing neuroinflammation by downregulating inflammatory cytokines containing cyclooxygenase 2, interleukin 6 (IL-6), and IL-10 in vivo, which can be reversed by the overexpression of FOXA1.     

One-step targeted maximum likelihood estimation for time-to-event outcomes

Researchers in observational survival analysis are interested in not only estimating survival curve nonparametrically but also having statistical inference for the parameter. We consider right-censored failure time data where we observe n independent and identically distributed observations of a vector random variable consisting of baseline covariates, a binary treatment at baseline, a survival time subject to right censoring, and the censoring indicator. We assume the baseline covariates are allowed to affect the treatment and censoring so that an estimator that ignores covariate information would be inconsistent. The goal is to use these data to estimate the counterfactual average survival curve of the population if all subjects are assigned the same treatment at baseline. Existing observational survival analysis methods do not result in monotone survival curve estimators, which is undesirable and may lose efficiency by not constraining the shape of the estimator using the prior knowledge of the estimand. In this paper, we present a one-step Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimator (TMLE) for estimating the counterfactual average survival curve. We show that this new TMLE can be executed via recursion in small local updates. We demonstrate the finite sample performance of this one-step TMLE in simulations and an application to a monoclonal gammopathy data.     

High-efficiency protein delivery into transfection-recalcitrant cell types

Intracellular delivery of functional proteins is of great interest for basic biological research as well as for clinical applications. Transfection is the most commonly used method, however, it is not applicable to large-scale manipulation and inefficient in important cell types implicated in biomedical applications, such as epithelial, immune and pluripotent stem cells. In this study, we explored a bacterial type III secretion system (Bac-T3SS)-mediated proteofection method to overcome these limitations. An attenuated Pseudomonas aeruginosa vector was constructed, which has features of low toxicity, high T3SS activity, and self-limiting growth. Compared to the method of transfection, the Bac-T3SS showed significantly higher efficiencies of Cre recombinase translocation and target site recombination for hard-to-transfect human cell lines. Furthermore, through the delivery of β-lactamase in live animals, we demonstrated the feasibility and biosafety of in vivo application of the Bac-T3SS. This study provided an efficient and low-cost proteofection strategy for laboratory use as well as for application in large-scale cell manipulations.     

β2 adrenoceptor signaling regulates ion transport in 16HBE14o- human airway epithelial cells

We investigated the regulation of Cl⁻ secretion by adrenoceptors in polarized 16HBE14o- human bronchial epithelial cells. Treatment with the nonselective β adrenoceptor agonist isoprenaline stimulated an increase in short-circuit current (I_SC), which was inhibited by the β adrenoceptor blocker propranolol. Treatment with procaterol, an agonist specific for the β₂ adrenoceptor subtype, stimulated a similar increase in I_SC, which was inhibited by the β₂ adrenoceptor antagonist ICI 118551. Inhibitors of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) and calcium-activated Cl⁻ channel (CaCC), but not K⁺ channel blockers, were able to inhibit the increase in I_SC. “Trimultaneous” recording of I_SC and intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and Ca²⁺ levels in 16HBE14o- epithelia confirmed that the I_SC induced by isoprenaline or procaterol involved both cAMP and Ca²⁺ signaling. Our results demonstrate that β₂ adrenoceptors regulate Cl⁻ secretion in the human airway epithelium by activating apical CFTRs and CaCCs via cAMP-dependent and intracellular Ca²⁺-dependent mechanisms, respectively.     

Dielectric Properties of Normal and Metastatic Lymph Nodes Ex Vivo From Lung Cancer Surgeries

The dielectric properties of normal and tumor human tissues have been widely reported in recent years. However, the dielectric properties of intrathoracic lymph nodes (LNs) have not been reported. In this communication, we measured the dielectric properties (i.e., permittivity and conductivity) of ex vivo intrathoracic LNs obtained from lung cancer surgeries. Results show that the permittivity and conductivity of metastatic LNs are higher than those of normal LNs over the frequency range of 1 MHz–4 GHz. Statistically significant differences are observed at single specific frequencies (64, 128, 298, 433, and 915 MHz and 2.45 GHz). Our study provides the basic data to support future-related research and fills the research gap on the dielectric properties of LNs in the lungs. Bioelectromagnetics. 2020;41:148–155. © 2020 Bioelectromagnetics Society.     

基于环介导等温扩增技术的微流控芯片在病原菌检测方面的研究进展

环介导等温扩增(LAMP)技术是一种新兴的核酸恒温扩增技术,与微流控芯片技术相结合,可实现对病原菌的快速检测,具有特异性强、灵敏度高、操作简单等优点。本文根据不同终产物的检测方法对目前检测病原菌的相关微流控LAMP芯片进行了分类与介绍,并对技术的改进和存在的问题进行了分析,以期为后续的相关研究提供参考。