Protective Effects of Pidotimod Against Salmonella Infections

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - Pidotimod has been shown to exhibit immunomodulatory activities and exert protective effects against bacterial infections. This study...     

LBX2-AS1 promotes ovarian cancer progression by facilitating E2F2 gene expression via miR-455-5p and miR-491-5p sponging

LBX2-AS1 is a long non-coding RNA that facilitates the development of gastrointestinal cancers and lung cancer, but its participation in ovarian cancer development remained uninvestigated. Clinical data retrieved from TCGA ovarian cancer database and the clinography of 60 ovarian cancer patients who received anti-cancer treatment in our facility were analysed. The overall cell growth, colony formation, migration, invasion, apoptosis and tumour formation on nude mice of ovarian cancer cells were evaluated before and after lentiviral-based LBX2-AS1 knockdown. ENCORI platform was used to explore LBX2-AS1-interacting microRNAs and target genes of the candidate microRNAs. Luciferase reporter gene assay and RNA pulldown assay were used to verify the putative miRNA-RNA interactions. Ovarian cancer tissue specimens showed significant higher LBX2-AS1 expression levels that non-cancerous counterparts. High expression level of LBX2-AS1 was significantly associated with reduced overall survival of patients. LBX2-AS1 knockdown significantly down-regulated the cell growth, colony formation, migration, invasion and tumour formation capacity of ovarian cancer cells and increased their apoptosis in vitro. LBX2-AS1 interacts with and thus inhibits the function of miR-455-5p and miR-491-5p, both of which restrained the expression of E2F2 gene in ovarian cancer cells via mRNA targeting. Transfection of miRNA inhibitors of these two miRNAs or forced expression of E2F2 counteracted the effect of LBX2-AS1 knockdown on ovarian cancer cells. LBX2-AS1 was a novel cancer-promoting lncRNA in ovarian cancer. This lncRNA increased the cell growth, survival, migration, invasion and tumour formation of ovarian cancer cells by inhibiting miR-455-5p and miR-491-5p, thus liberating the expression of E2F2 cancer-promoting gene.     

Baicalein alleviates osteoarthritis by protecting subchondral bone,inhibiting angiogenesis and synovial proliferation

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most frequent chronic joint diseases with the increasing life expectancy. The main characteristics of the disease are loss of articular cartilage, subchondral bone sclerosis and synovium inflammation. Physical measures, drug therapy and surgery are the mainstay of treatments for OA, whereas drug therapies are mainly limited to analgesics, glucocorticoids, hyaluronic acids and some alternative therapies because of single therapeutic target of OA joints. Baicalein, a traditional Chinese medicine extracted from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, has been widely used in anti-inflammatory therapies. Previous studies revealed that baicalein could alleviate cartilage degeneration effectively by acting on articular chondrocytes. However, the mechanisms involved in baicalein-mediated protection of the OA are not completely understood in consideration of integrality of arthrosis. In this study, we found that intra-articular injection of baicalein ameliorated subchondral bone remodelling. Further studies showed that baicalein could decrease the number of differentiated osteoblasts by inhibiting pre-osteoblasts proliferation and promoting pre-osteoblasts apoptosis. In addition, baicalein impaired angiogenesis of endothelial cells and inhibited proliferation of synovial cells. Taken together, these results implicated that baicalein might be an effective medicine for treating OA by regulating multiple targets.     

Construction of a robust prognostic model for adult adrenocortical carcinoma: Results from bioinformatics and real-world data

This study aims to construct a robust prognostic model for adult adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) by large-scale multiomics analysis and real-world data. The RPPA data, gene expression profiles and clinical information of adult ACC patients were obtained from The Cancer Proteome Atlas (TCPA), Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Integrated prognosis-related proteins (IPRPs) model was constructed. Immunohistochemistry was used to validate the prognostic value of the IPRPs model in Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC) cohort. 76 ACC cases from TCGA and 22 ACC cases from GSE10927 in NCBI’s GEO database with full data for clinical information and gene expression were utilized to validate the effectiveness of the IPRPs model. Higher FASN (P = .039), FIBRONECTIN (P < .001), TFRC (P < .001), TSC1 (P < .001) expression indicated significantly worse overall survival for adult ACC patients. Risk assessment suggested significantly a strong predictive capacity of IPRPs model for poor overall survival (P < .05). IPRPs model showed a little stronger ability for predicting prognosis than Ki-67 protein in FUSCC cohort (P = .003, HR = 3.947; P = .005, HR = 3.787). In external validation of IPRPs model using gene expression data, IPRPs model showed strong ability for predicting prognosis in TCGA cohort (P = .005, HR = 3.061) and it exhibited best ability for predicting prognosis in GSE10927 cohort (P = .0898, HR = 2.318). This research constructed IPRPs model for predicting adult ACC patients’ prognosis using proteomic data, gene expression data and real-world data and this prognostic model showed stronger predictive value than other biomarkers (Ki-67, Beta-catenin, etc) in multi-cohorts.     

Protective Effect of Nigella sativa and Nigella damascena Fixed Oils Against Aflatoxin Induced Mutagenicity in the Classical and Modified Ames Test

The antioxidant and mutagenic/antimutagenic activities of the fixed oils from Nigella sativa (NSO) and Nigella damascena (NDO) seeds, obtained by cold press-extraction from the cultivar samples, were comparatively investigated for the first time. The antimutagenicity test was carried out using classical and modified Ames tests. The fatty acid composition of the fixed oils was characterized by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) while the quantification of thymoquinone in the fixed oils was determined by UPC². The main components of the NSO and NDO were found to be linoleic acid, oleic acid, and palmitic acid. The results of the Ames test confirmed the safety of NSO and NDO from the viewpoint of mutagenicity. The results of the three antioxidant test methods were correlated with each other, indicating NDO as having a superior antioxidant activity, when compared to the NSO. Both NSO and NDO exhibited a significant protective effect against the mutagenicity induced by aflatoxin B1 in Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 strains. When microsomal metabolism was terminated after metabolic activation of the mycotoxin, a significant increase in antimutagenic activity was observed, suggesting that the degradation of aflatoxin B1 epoxides by these oils may be a possible antimutagenic mechanism. It is worthy to note that this is the first study to assess the mutagenicity of NSO and NDO according to the OECD 471 guideline and to investigate antimutagenicity of NDO in comparison to NSO against aflatoxin.     

Eremophilane Sesquiterpenes and Benzene Derivatives from the Endophyte Microdiplodia sp. WGHS5

Three new eremophilane sesquiterpenes phomadecalins G−I ( 1 – 3 ) and two new benzene derivatives microdiplzenes A and B ( 12 and 13 ), together with nine known eremophilane sesquiterpenes ( 4 – 11 and 14 ) were isolated from an endophytic fungus, Microdiplodia sp. WGHS5. Their structures were elucidated by the interpretation of HR-ESI-MS and NMR data; meanwhile, the absolute configurations of new compounds were determined on the base of ECD calculations. All compounds were evaluated for the antimicrobial activities and antiproliferative effect on human gastric cancer cell lines (BGC-823).     

Superior japonica rice variety YJ144 with improved rice blast resistance,yield, and quality achieved using molecular design and multiple breeding strategies

Molecular Breeding - The stem color of young mung bean is a very useful tool in germplasm identification. Flowering time and plant height (PH) are known to be strongly correlated with crop adaption...     

Winter low temperature disturbance in the southern subtropics of China promotes the competitiveness of an invasive plant

Winter low temperature disturbance in the southern subtropics has important effects on the weed community structure, but the role of uniquely low temperatures in biological invasions is unclear. Here, we examined the competitive effects of an invasive plant, Bidens pilosa L., and its native congener, Bidens biternata (Lour.) Merr. et Sherff, during high and low temperature seasons to determine whether low temperatures promote the competitiveness of B. pilosa in the southern subtropics of China. The growth and physiological responses of the two Bidens species to low (10/5 °C) and optimum (30/25 °C) temperatures were examined to determine how the invasive B. pilosa responds to low temperature stress. Our results showed that the competitive balance index values of B. pilosa in low temperature seasons were significantly higher than those in high temperature seasons, which implied that low temperatures may be more beneficial to the competitiveness of B. pilosa than high temperatures in the southern subtropics. The smaller decline in the relative growth rate and the photosynthetic ability of B. pilosa compared with B. biternata under low temperature stress indicated that the former was less negatively affected by low temperature than the latter. A higher DPPH^· (1.1-diphenyl-2-picrylhy-drazyl) scavenging rate and greater heat-stable protein content in B. pilosa under low temperatures might help the invasive plant to maintain more effective physiological functions and thus a higher growth rate. Overall, the uniquely low temperature in the southern subtropics of China is expected to promote the invasiveness of the exotic B. pilosa.

     

鼎湖山南亚热带常绿阔叶林植物功能性状变异与不同垂直层次个体生长的关联

建立植物功能性状与群落动态之间的关联是功能生态学的核心问题之一。本文基于鼎湖山1.44 ha塔吊样地的两次调查数据, 通过采集样地内所有4,142株个体的6种植物功能性状, 对比分析了个体水平植物功能性状和物种水平功能性状均值对不同垂直层次(灌木层、亚冠层和林冠层)个体生长的影响差异。首先, 分析了不同垂直层次下各植物功能性状的变化趋势; 其次, 计算了不同垂直层次下各植物功能性状的种内和种间变异水平; 最后, 运用结构方程模型探讨了植物功能性状、光竞争以及地下竞争对不同垂直层次树木生长的影响。结果表明: (1)不同垂直层次下的植物功能性状表现出明显的分异, 由灌木层至林冠层, 叶面积、比叶面积和能量供求关系指数显著降低, 而叶片厚度和叶片干物质含量显著升高; (2)不同垂直层次下植物功能性状的种间变异均大于种内变异, 且林冠层的种内功能性状变异均大于灌木层和亚冠层; (3)基于个体水平植物功能性状的结构方程模型较物种水平功能性状均值对生长具有更高的解释程度, 且个体水平植物功能性状的引入更有利于提高对灌木层个体生长的预测能力; (4)光竞争和地下竞争主要通过影响功能性状间接影响植物生长。由灌木层至林冠层, 同种间的相互作用逐渐减弱, 异种间的相互作用逐渐增强。综上, 将个体水平植物功能性状纳入分析有助于更好地理解群落的结构和动态。