PERK inhibitor (ISRIB) improves depression-like behavior by inhibitions of HPA-axis over-activation in mice exposed to chronic restraint stress.

Stressful life event is closely associated with depression, thus strategies that blunt or prevent the negative effect stress on the brain might benefits for the treatment of depression. Although previous study showed the role of protein kinase R (PKR)-like ER kinase (PERK) in inflammation related depression, its involvement in the neuropathology of chronic stress induced depression is still unknown. We tried to explore whether block the PERK pathway would alleviate the animals' depression-like behavior induced by chronic restraint stress (CRS) and investigate the underlying mechanism.

An enzymatic on/off switch-mediated assay for KRAS hotspot point mutation detection of circulating tumor DNA.

Background: To detect the mutations of KRAS gene in colorectal cancer patients and other cancer patients, it is of value to develop non-invasive, sensitive, specific, easy, and low-cost assays.

Methods: Templates harboring hotspot mutations of the KRAS gene were constructed, and primers were designed for evaluation of the specificity, and sensitivity of detection system consisted of exonuclease polymerase-mediated on/off switch; then, gel electrophoresis and real-time PCR were performed for verification. The assay was verified by testing the DNA pool of normal controls and circulating DNA (ctDNA) samples from 14 tumor patients, as compared to Sanger sequencing.

The role of FTO variants in the susceptibility of polycystic ovary syndrome and in vitro fertilization outcomes in Chinese women.

We investigated the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene (rs9926289 A/G, rs79206939 A/G, rs9930506 A/G, rs8050136 A/C, and rs1588413 C/T) and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), as well as outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF). A case-control study consisting of 147 PCOS patients and 120 healthy controls was conducted. FTO SNPs were genotyped by PCR to determine allelic frequencies, and IVF outcomes were analyzed.

New Insights into mTOR Signal Pathways in Ovarian-Related Diseases: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Ovarian Cancer.

mTOR, the mammalian target of rapamycin, is a conserved serine/threonine kinase which belongs to the phosphatidyl-linositol kinase-related kinase (PIKK) family. It has two complexes called mTORC1 and mTORC2. It is well established that mTOR plays important roles in cell growth, proliferation and differentiation.