Shikonin ameliorated LPS-induced acute lung injury in mice via modulating MCU-mediated mitochondrial Ca and macrophage polarization.

Background: Macrophages play a pivotal role in the development and recovery of acute lung injury (ALI), wherein their phenotypic differentiation and metabolic programming are orchestrated by mitochondria. Specifically, the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) regulates mitochondrial Ca (Ca) uptake and may bridge the metabolic reprogramming and functional regulation of immune cells. However, the precise mechanism on macrophages remains elusive.

Development and validation of a Systemic Sclerosis Health Literacy Scale.

Background And Aim: Health literacy levels are strongly associated with clinical outcomes and quality of life in patients with chronic diseases, and patients with limited health literacy often require more medical care and achieve poorer clinical outcomes. Among the large number of studies on health literacy, few studies have focused on the health literacy of people with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and there is no specific tool to measure health literacy in this group. Therefore, this study plans to develop a health literacy scale for patients with SSc.

Heavy metal ions exchange driven protein phosphorylation cascade functions in genomic instability in spermatocytes and male infertility.

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are functionally linked to genomic instability in spermatocytes and to male infertility. The heavy metal cadmium (Cd) is known to induce DNA damage in spermatocytes by unknown mechanisms. Here, we showed that Cd ions impaired the canonical non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) repair pathway, but not the homologous recombination (HR) repair pathway, through stimulation of Ser2056 and Thr2609 phosphorylation of DNA-PKcs at DSB sites.

Urinary Creatinine Concentrations and Its Explanatory Variables in General Chinese Population: Implications for Creatinine Limits and Creatinine Adjustment.

Objective: The study aimed to analyze the applicability of the World Health Organization's exclusionary guidelines for Urinary creatinine (Ucr) in the general Chinese population, and to identify Ucr related factors.

Methods: We conduct a cross-sectional study using baseline data from 21,167 participants in the China National Human Biomonitoring Program. Mixed linear models and restricted cubic splines (RCS) were used to analyze the associations between explanatory variables and Ucr concentration.

Bioinformatics analysis of markers based on m A related to prognosis combined with immune invasion of renal clear cell carcinoma.

The incidence rate of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is about 3% of all adult cancers. Of these, the Kidney clear cell renal cell carcinoma (KIRC) is the most common type, accounting for about 70%-75% of RCC. KIRC is difficult to be detected in time clinically.

CFD Numerical Simulation in Building Drainage Stacks as an Infection Pathway of COVID-19.

Being aware of global pandemics, this research focused on the potential infection routes in building drainage systems. Case studies have found that dysfunctional building drainage systems not only failed to block contaminants but also potentially became a route for the spreading of viruses. Several fluid simulations in pipelines were conducted in this research using COMSOL Multiphysics.

Community Structure and Diversity of Hymenopteran Parasitoids of Chromatomyia horticola (Diptera: Agromyzidae) in Different Habitats in Changchun, China.

The community structure and diversity of hymenopteran parasitoids of the agromyzid leafminer Chromatomyia horticola (Diptera: Agromyzidae) were studied in agricultural, urban, and natural habitats in Changchun, Northeast China. In agricultural habitats, a total of 3,380 individuals and 19 species were collected, and the dominant species were Diglyphus isaea (Walker) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) (71.15%) and Chrysocharis pentheus (Walker) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) (12.

Dura cells in the etiopathogenesis of Crouzon syndrome: the effects of FGFR2 mutations in the dura cells on the proliferation of osteoblasts through the hippo/YAP mediated transcriptional regulation pathway.

Background: FGFR2 (fibroblast growth factor receptor 2) mutations are implicated in the etiopathogenesis of syndromic craniosynostosis, and C278F- or C342Y-FGFR2 mutations can lead to Crouzon syndrome. The dura mater exerts crucial effects in the regulation of cranial suture development. However, the underlying mechanisms of these biological processes are rarely studied.

Iron chelation suppresses secondary bleeding after intracerebral hemorrhage in angiotensin II-infused mice.

Aims: Secondary bleeding and further hematoma expansion (HE) aggravate brain injury after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). The majority of HE results from hypertensive ICH. Previous study reported higher iron content in the brains of hypertensive patients.

Time-Variant Positive Air Pressure in Drainage Stacks as a Pathogen Transmission Pathway of COVID-19.

Time-variant positive air pressure in a drainage stack poses a risk of pathogenic virus transmission into a habitable space, however, the excessive risk and its significance have not yet been sufficiently addressed for drainage system designs. This study proposes a novel measure for the probable pathogenic virus transmission risk of a high-rise drainage stack with the occurrence of positive air pressure. The proposed approach is based on time-variant positive air pressures measured in a 38 m high drainage stack of a full-scale experimental tower under steady flow conditions of flow rate 1-4 Ls discharging at a height between 15 m to 33 m above the stack base.

Effects of extracellular polymeric substances on silver nanoparticle bioaccumulation and toxicity to Triticum aestivum L.

The potential effects of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on the behavior and toxicity of silver nanoparticle (Ag-NPs) and silver sulfide nanoparticle (AgS-NPs) remains ambiguous. The interaction of EPS from Bacillus subtilis with AgS-NPs, metallic Ag-NPs, or ionic Ag, and the associated plant safety had been examined in this study. The biological impacts of Ag-NPs and AgS-NPs were Ag form-dependent and highly influenced by microbial EPS.

The effect of metastasectomy on overall survival in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: Metastasectomy (MTS) is a treatment option for patients diagnosed with metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma (mRCC). Nevertheless, the benefits of MTS as they pertain to survival remain controversial. This systematic review aims to compare the survival outcomes of patients who underwent MTS, as well as discover which clinical factors were related to the results.

COVID-19 illness and autoimmune diseases: recent insights.

Background: The aim of this review is to explore whether patients with autoimmune diseases (AIDs) were at high risk of infection during the COVID-19 epidemic and how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic affected immune system.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed using the foreign databases (NCBI, web of science, EBSCO, ELSEVIER ScienceDirect) and Chinese databases (WanFang, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), VIP, CBM) to locate all relevant publications (up to January 10, 2021). The search strategies used Medical Search Headings (MeSH) headings and keywords for "COVID-19" or "SARS-CoV-2" or "coronavirus" and "autoimmune disease".

[Effects of the Immobilization of Cadmium in Soil Alone or Combined with Foliar Application of Selenium on Cadmium Accumulation in the Plants of Different Genotypes of Tsai-tai].

To explore the safe utilization of technology in mildly and moderately cadmium (Cd)-contaminated farmland and realize the safe production of agricultural products, two different cadmium-accumulating genotypes of Tsai-tai were used as test crops, using the pot experiment method. The same six treatments were set on the soil where the two test crops were planted:control (CK), addition of 3% (mass fraction) biochar (BC), addition of 0.17% calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizers (CMP), foliar application of 3 mg·L NaSeO aqueous solution (Se), BC+Se, and CMP+Se, to study the changes in available cadmium in soil under different treatments and the characteristics of cadmium accumulation in different parts of the plant.

Sirt1 inhibits renal tubular cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition through YY1 deacetylation in diabetic nephropathy.

Silent information regulator 1 (Sirt1) is a deacetylase, which plays an important role in the occurrence and development of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Our previous study shows that Yin yang 1 (YY1), a widely expressed zinc finger DNA/RNA-binding transcription factor, is a novel regulator of renal fibrosis in diabetic nephropathy. Since the activity of YY1 is regulated via acetylation and deacetylation modification, this study aimed to explore whether Sirt1-induced deacetylation of YY1 mediated high glucose (HG)-induced renal tubular epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and renal fibrosis in vivo and in vitro.

Integration of subcellular partitioning and chemical forms to understand silver nanoparticles toxicity to lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) under different exposure pathways.

The current understanding of the biological impacts of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is restricted to the direct interactions of the particles with biota. Very little is known about their intracellular fate and subsequent toxic consequences. In this research we investigated the uptake, internal fate (i,e.

A novel diagnostic method for pituitary adenoma based on magnetic resonance imaging using a convolutional neural network.

Purpose: This study was designed to develop a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) to diagnose patients with pituitary tumors.

Methods: We included adult patients clinically diagnosed with pituitary adenoma (pituitary adenoma group), or adult individuals without pituitary adenoma (control group). After pre-processing, all the MRI data were randomly divided into training or testing datasets in a ratio of 8:2 to create or evaluate the CNN model.

Nicotinamide riboside rescues angiotensin II-induced cerebral small vessel disease in mice.

Aims: Hypertension is a leading cause of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). Currently, treatments for CSVD are limited. Nicotinamide riboside (NR) can protect against vascular injury and cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative diseases.

A novel compound AB38b attenuates oxidative stress and ECM protein accumulation in kidneys of diabetic mice through modulation of Keap1/Nrf2 signaling.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition following reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction has a key role in diabetic nephropathy (DN), thus, antioxidant therapy is considered as a promising strategy for treating DN. Here, we investigated the therapeutic effects of AB38b, a novel synthetic α, β-unsaturated ketone compound, on the oxidative stress (OS) and ECM accumulation in type 2 diabetes mice, and tried to clarify the mechanisms underlying the effects in high glucose (HG, 30 mM)-treated mouse glomerular mesangial cells (GMCs). Type 2 diabetes model was established in mice with high-fat diet feeding combined with streptozocin intraperitoneal administration.

Depth of Response was Associated with Progression-Free Survival in Patients with Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer treated with EGFR-TKI.

: Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) has been widely utilized to evaluate new therapeutic strategies in cancer. However, RECIST fails to assess the heterogeneity of response in highly active therapies. Depth of response (DepOR), defined as the maximum percentage change in tumor size compared with baseline, may provide a new strategy to evaluate disease response.

Inactivation of TSC1 promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition of renal tubular epithelial cells in mouse diabetic nephropathy.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of renal tubular epithelial cells is one of the potential mechanisms of renal fibrosis, which promotes the development of diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the molecular mechanisms of EMT remain largely unknown. Tuberous sclerosis proteins TSC1 and TSC2 are key integrators of growth factor signaling, and the loss of TSC1 or TSC2 function leads to a spectrum of diseases that underlie abnormalities in cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, and migration.